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Elaine found that with being a child of Apollo, it was nearly impossible to sleep past the break of dawn.
Her brothers, who'd been at the camp longer than her, had already mastered the art of ignoring the call of sunlight.
Elaine, however felt compelled, every morning, to rise when the sun did.
That is how she ended up at the dining pavilion at seven-thirty in the morning. She brought with her a bow and quiver of arrows, knowing she was ready to start her day after her meal. It wasn't against the rules, and often times she'd run into an Ares kid looking for a "midnight" snack.
As she ate quietly, she'd noticed someone outside, crouching to the floor behind a white Greek column, like he was hiding from someone. She slung her quiver over her shoulder to wear it across her body like her brothers had shown her, and began to approach the boy. As she got closer, she recognized the boy was Nico di Angelo.
However, before she could get to him, someone pressed their hand against her mouth, and wrapped an arm around her waist. "It's me. Don't make a sound." Percy said.
She pushed herself from him, but when she turned around, he was gone. "Where are you?" She whispered. Percy suddenly materialized in front of her, holding a Yankees baseball cap in his hand.
He put a finger to his lips, urging her to be quiet. He put the cap back on, and any evidence that he was standing in front of her vanished. She felt him grab her wrist and lead her to a column next to Nico so that she too, could eavesdrop.
There were voices—two girls. At this ungodly hour of the morning? Well, unless you're a daughter of Apollo, Elaine guessed.
Elaine couldn't see the girls very well in the dusk, but she knew their voices: Zoe and Bianca. It sounded like they were arguing.
"It cannot be cured," Zoe was saying. "Not quickly, at any rate."
"But how did it happen?" Bianca asked.
"A foolish prank," Zoe growled. "Those Stoll boys from the Hermes cabin. Centaur blood is like acid. Everyone knows that. They sprayed the inside of those Artemis Hunting Tour t-shirts with it."
"That's terrible!"
"They will live," Zoe said. "But they'll be bedridden for weeks with horrible hives. There is no way they can go. It's up to me ... and thee."
"But the prophecy," Bianca said. "If Phoebe and Maya can't go, we only have four. We'll have to pick two more."
"There is no time," Zoe said. "We must leave at first light. That's immediately. Besides, the prophecy said we would lose someone."
"In the land without rain," Bianca said, "but that can't be here. And we lost two people."
"It might be," Zoe said, though she didn't sound convinced. "The camp has magic borders. Nothing, not even weather, is allowed in without permission. It could be a land without rain."
