Curse of the Triblood

Chapter 37

Percy POV

I ran as fast as I could with Silena in my hands. Aperio and Aioniotita caught up with me rather quickly and roared every so often, basically warning all monsters to stay the heck away from the raging father, i.e., me.

Once I got to the camp border, I could see the new over twelve-foot-long dragon protecting the fleece and the great Thalia Pine Tree. Peleus, the dragon, seemed calm like nothing was happening at camp. But I could tell something was different. It was summer, and two cabins were filled with year-rounders who fought as much as their parents were all in attendance, but there were no arguing signs.

The seas were calm, and the waters are flowing regularly. The skies were as clear as it was during the times of no sky gods, before the birth of Zeus and after the death of Ouranos. Something was wrong, or at least the fact that nothing was wrong. Poseidon and Zeus, cabins should be at each other's throats without Thalia or me to hold the leash of the two crazy, wild animal-like cabins.

I forced that out of my mind when I rushed to the infirmary. People saw me, and Silena in my grasps. They looked scared and wanted answers; the children of Aphrodite looked like they were going through a crisis. Would it count as a mid-life crisis since Greek demigods don't live past thirty, most of whom are around fourteen?

I found Will there working with a daughter of Apollo, Kore. The girl that I knew was being crushed on by a son of Hermes, Jack, who was stealing things for her that he knew she liked. When Will saw Silena and me, he rushed to action. I have never seen a demigod child of Apollo as gifted in healing as Will in all my years and lives. He was trying to work on her since she lost a lot of blood. Eventually, he kicked me out, saying that while he understands that I'm worried it wouldn't help him. He told me that she would be fine, but he needed to work on her and focus on healing her up rather than hearing a worried father, not that he knew I was her actual dad, information on the godly side of the war about me being a continuous reincarnation was spreading really-really slowly.

When I left the infirmary, I noticed how much the atmosphere has changed since last summer. It was like the entire camp was holding their breath. I knew this feeling well and judging by the look on the kids of Ares, they could feel it as well. War was coming. They had an unnatural connection to the tides of war; it makes sense because their dad being the god of war and everything. They could tell when it was time to prepare. I had been a part of so many wars that I had the same sense. Due to Kronos's armies advancing and the number of monsters increasing, war was coming, but we could not tell how soon.

I looked to see some Ares and Athena cabin members arguing. Athena cabin began drawing plans, but with no accurate intel on the enemy, the plans were generic and about surrounding defensives from all fronts. I could see one of the smarter kids of Ares saying that by reinforcing all defenses as a whole, we can't make them strong since our resources would be too spread out. One added that we should attack so that we don't waste too many resources. A daughter of Athena called her a... less than a polite way of saying idiot in Greek. She said, "How can we attack when we don't know where to attack." The groups continued to argue.

The Hephaestus cabin was making weapons. Apollo cabin was practicing archery. Everyone was doing something related to training for a coming war that we could not predict when it would start. And I began hearing things about a trial near the forest or something like that. Some sorry satyr was going on trial by order of the Cloven Elders.

Aperio and Aioniotita stood tall behind me. Proud and robust as if knowing that they needed to show the camp that they would be there to fight on their side through whatever war. With all that, it was almost impossible to tell that Poseidon cabin and Zeus cabin didn't make an appearance.