A Tale of Gods and Magic

Annabeth: The Tortilla Centaur Tells of Magic

Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter sat anxiously at the amphitheater as Chiron slowly munched on a chip.

The crackle of tortilla was the only sound besides the buzzing of cicadas and the rustling of the wind through the trees. The aroma of baking strawberries tickled the campers' noses. To Annabeth, the smell was as familiar as the roiling ocean was to Percy, or a lightning storm to Jason. She'd spent so many hours picking strawberries and running through the berry-filled fields... at this point, the scent smelled of home, laced with memories of laughing under the summer sun with her friends.

Now that the war was over, Annabeth was content to make more memories before the summer ended, and then venture to New Rome with Percy.

She hoped this meeting didn't mess things up.

But, of course, the fates seemed happy to mess everything up for Annabeth.

Finally, Chiron swallowed nervously and wiped some crumbs off of his beard. She could practically hear Katie Gardner rolling her eyes. She had quite the impatience for tortilla chips (Demeter kids were impartial to corn chips, which caused Nico much anguish as he didn't want to be near corn again after being turned into a corn plant. Actually, he didn't like any plants because of his up-close experience as one... twice.)

Chiron had called the impromptu meeting in the middle of Annabeth's favorite class-architecture. On top of that, this was her last class, and she had been excited to finish off the semester. She tapped her fingers against her knee, hoping Chiron would finish in a quick manner.

"Welcome, campers. I know since this is the last full day of camp, many of you are not happy about being roused from your schedule." Annabeth sighed, and got a dark stare from Clarisse. Chiron cleared his throat.

"But, this is more important than classes. Also, thank you to Camp Jupiter for coming to this momentous meeting. Now, I know camp is still recovering from the Second Giant War, but there have been some new developments on Olympus." Annabeth, in the back row of the amphitheater, crinkled her eyebrows, calculating. She could tell that Chiron was nervous, which was unusual for him. The last time he had been so nervous was before the Great Camp Half-Blood Taco-Throwing Contest. The rest went down in history.

Annabeth logically went through all the possibilities. Maybe Camp Jupiter had done something, or Gaea was back or... She clenched her fists. Since the war, she had been getting nervous about every small thing. More specifically, about losing Percy. She woke up every night to nightmares filled with crackling bursts of colored light blinding her eyelids as Percy was pulled away.

She rubbed a strand of hair (that had used to be grey from holding up the sky) between her fingers. It was an invisible link she and Percy shared.

"A certain Poseidon camper requested many years ago that all minor gods and goddesses be recognized at camp and since the request has been rehashed recently, a new factor has come into consideration." Whispers buzzed around, but Chiron silenced them with a clomp of his hoof. "Quiet, everyone. This is important. During a meeting on Olympus, Hecate brought up a point about her.... relations."

Chiron clicked a button on a stick of metal that looked suspiciously like a Wii controller. Leo was written all over it. After Frank had discovered a video game version of Mythomagic and converted Nico and Leo to its addicting hold, Leo's inventions had all seemed quite... Wii-influenced.

"Thank you to Leo Valdez for this hologram equipment," said Chiron. Annabeth smiled.

There was a loud fuzzle of feedback that made a few campers start and then a high-definition picture of Hecate popped into existence above Chiron's head.