ichor - jason grace

IIII

Nell always loved the campfire. Seeing everyone coming together and singing songs always made her feel warm and fuzzy, even if she was having an awful day. The amphitheatre was a grand building. The steps carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lines fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners.

Nell sat with the rest of her cabin, under a beautiful banner of gold decorated with a lyre. She was sitting next to Will watching some of her other siblings at the front of the fire pit. Their song choice tonight was a particularly dancy song about pieces of armour. The actual name of the song escaped her, but it didn't stop her from enjoying the atmosphere the song brought, between the dancing and everyone else singing along. Nell always loved seeing the fire change with the energy. As the energy got higher, so did the flames, turning from red to orange to gold.

Finally, the song ended with a lot of loud applause, and her siblings came to sit back under the banner. Chiron trotted up to the front. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you've all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment I promise we'll get to the s'mores but first -"

"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled from the Ares cabin. Grumbles broke out amongst the cabin members.

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" one of them shouted, which made Nell roll her eyes.

She heard a grunt coming from the boy who shouted, and the voice of her friend Katy piped up, making Nell grin. "Shut up, you dolt."

"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"

He turned to the Hephaestus cabin. Nell noticed Leo wink at Piper and shoot her with a finger gun. Nyssa stood up next to Leo, looking mightly uncomfortable. She had on an army jacket, similar to Leo's, with her hair covered in a red bandanna. "We're working on it." More grumbling

"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.

"Really hard," she said. She sat back down to a lot of yelling and complaining, causing the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones - bang, bang bang - and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, Nell didn't need to look at the flames to sense the crowd's mood.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the grand canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis - everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."

"It's the great prophecy, isn't it?" a girl called out.

Everyone turned. The voice had come from a group in the back, sitting under a rose coloured banner with a dove emblem. They'd been chatting amongst themselves and not paying very much attention till Drew stood up. Nell raised her eyebrows, she couldn't remember a single time Drew took this much of an interest in anything other than her hair. 

"Drew?" Annabeth said. "What do you mean?"

"Well, come on." Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. "Olympus is closed. Percy's disappeared. Hera sends you a vision, and you come back with three new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The great prophecy has started, right?"