Tales From The Camp Half-Blood Infirmary

Three Crazy Skaters

I was brewing witch's brew (haha, medicine) when Dakota, Liberty, and Walt rolled into the infirmary.

Yes, I said rolled. All three of them wore skates and identical grins on their faces. And several cuts and bruises everywhere I looked.

I sighed, folded my arms, and waited for an explanation.

They just stood there and grinned at me.

After three minutes, the silence was getting awkward, so I dropped the bomb. "Why were you skating in the woods again?"

All three of them dropped their grins and sighed in relief.

"Ah, that's better," Walt said, massaging his cheeks. "My face was hurting."

"That's not a proper answer!" I yelled.

"Hey, we narrowly escaped the Maenads," Liberty said, Dakota's little sister and daughter of Dionysus. "You could be kinder."

"Apparently, their madness is contagious," I snapped. "Dakota, as an older sister, I would never have expected this of you! Hephaestus is about fixing and not breaking!"

"Technically, I'm also a younger sister," she said with a shrug. "And as Justice is a daughter of Hermes, she actually never cared about what I did unless I died."

I massaged my temples and turned to Walt. "As a son of Demeter - "

"I don't like wheat," he interrupted. "I'm gluten intolerant. And nor do I like peace."

"He's my type of person," peeped Liberty.

I sighed again and pulled a jar of ointment off a shelf. "Well, let me - "

"Thanks!" Dakota grabbed the jar and grinned. "We'll manage."

She skated off, with Walt and Liberty in tow. I heard them cackling in the distance before sitting down on an empty bed and bursting into sobs, my head in my hands.

"Are you okay?" Nico asked, startling me as he appeared at my side, his arms full of bandages.

I lifted my head and looked at him.

Then I started to laugh, tears dripping down my face, shoulders shaking and gasping for air. I buried my face in my hands again. "Oh, no. I've gone mad. Mad, d'you hear? These kids have taken my mind and my sanity along with my ointment. I'm retiring, d'you understand? I'm moving to the mountains without any medicine and putting up barriers around my cave so nobody can bother me! Now begone!" I clawed wildly at the air between us.

He stared at me for a long moment, then scurried away.

"What happened?" I heard my sister Kayla ask.

"He's gone mad, apparently," Nico replied, and I could hear his eyes rolling.