¹𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀. percy jackson

XXI.

ｔｈｅ ｂａｔｔｌｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｌａｂｙｒｉｎｔｈ

THE NEXT MORNING THERE WAS A LOT OF EXCITEMENT AT BREAKFAST. Lucia However felt no excitement at all, she felt completely exhausted from running around at three in the morning after the Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. The disruption of her sleep had her cranky and desperate for some coffee. And she would go sleep longer, but being a child of Apollo forced you to be a morning person even if you desperately weren't.

The magical boundaries had kept the monster out last night, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in their defenses. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, and a blast of burning light hit him it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned them during announcements.

"Twenty arrows in its hide, And a burn wound but we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. Its eyes—" he shuddered.

Lucia felt queasy just remembering the sight

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder.

"Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, Percy mentioned, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

"This is a good reason for new war games, "Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

We all raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.

Lucia took her plate to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of her food into the flames. She hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Froot Loops. "Apollo," she said. Then she whispered, "Help me with Nico, and the camp, and Grover's problem... and with my powers please, I still don't know what I'm doing..."

There was so much to worry about she could've stood there all morning, but she headed back to the table. And grabbed her chalice

"Cafe negro." the cup filled to the brim with a rich dark liquid

"What's that?" Will asked from beside her

"Black coffee." Lucia responded, "You wanna try?"

"He's eleven" Lee scolded

Lucia shrugged "I've been drinking coffee since I came out— wait no—came out of the light?"

"Yeah, that's why you're short." Austin snorted

"That's a myth!" Lucia threw a froot loop at him "and why are you talking you're shorter than me!"

Austin gave her an innocent grin "But I'm eleven. I'll grow. you're stuck like that."

Lucia scoffed, Her siblings all burst into harmonious laughter. A ghost of a smile fell on her lips, after the night they had she didn't mind being the butt of the joke.