madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-colour theory: purple: ambition luxury power.-

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The sound of Chiron's hoof knocking against the stone campfire pit rang out through the layers of demigods. He cleared his throat. "In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"

"What about capture the flag?" someone yelled. Teqi didn't recognise her.

Grumbling broke out among Clarisse's cabin mates. In the flickering firelight she could only spot the odd scuffed shoe and shining nose ring. Their boar head flag looked newly painted, - as if their cabin and its members had even the tiniest reason to take pride in themselves.

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" a new kid shouted.

"You've never even killed a monster, tough guy!" Kayla growled, from where she was packing up the rag tag instruments, mainly ukeleles, that she'd been directing in song moments before Chiron arrived with what was sure to be bad news.

Teqi flicked a bug off the log she was sitting on.

Everyone was sitting on logs, surrounding the patchwork fire that glowed and sparked in ever changing colours. They were supposed to be based off of the feelings of the campers around it at that time. A bit like a mood ring. Except sometimes it burnt limbs off when fights started.

"However," he said drily, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report?"

Eyes swept to Cabin Nines corner. There were a lot of bandages between them all. Nyssa stood grudgingly, pushing up the sleeves of her jacket. Her curly hair was pulled back by a red bandana. "We're working on it."

More grumbling from everyone this time. Like thunder in the distance. Like they could fix anything of Beck's that didn't want to be fixed. Movement caught Teqi's attention. Leo peeked out from behind one of his apparent brothers, waving like a goofball. Of course he was a Hephaestus kid. She waved back.

"How, Nyssa?" a Tyche kid demanded.

"Really hard." Nyssa spat. She sat to a lot of yelling and complaining and inappropriate jokes, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones once again—bang, bang, bang—and the campers fell silent.

Cold patches were beginning to form on the shirt Teqi was wearing.

She gathered her wet hair up and wrung it out to the side, water droplets landing between her duct tapes shoes. She caught Ginny's eye, and smiled at her, wiping her hands on her jeans.

Chiron's tail swished. "We will have to be patient. In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced, eyes vague. They were caught on something in the distance. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought... But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis —everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."