xvi. Summer Revelations

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chapter sixteen
summer revelations


━━━━━ JOSEPHINE, PERCY, ANNABETH, and Grover were the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill after a quest since Luke. Naturally, everyone treated the four questers as if they had won some reality TV contest instead of saving the world. It was odd, to be truthful, as she had become so used to blending into the background. Or if she wasn't blending into the background, she was hiding in Cabin Seven to avoid all the other campers. But now, here, after the quest, she couldn't avoid excited, chattering campers as they all asked what it was like; what leaving Camp Half-Blood, seeing the mortal world, and fighting a bunch of nasty monsters was like.

        She felt as if she had vertigo climbing down Half-Blood Hill into Camp her vision swimming as she looked from camper's face to camper's face, trying to keep her feet steady beneath her as she walked, shoulders bumping with other campers'. Her eyes were darting back and forth, between so many different people's faces, that the features started to blur all together into one confusing assemblage of a half-blood's face.

        As the four questers pooled into Camp Half-Blood, surrounded by beaming, delighted campers, they received garbled information by tens of chattering voices some Camp tradition that even Josephine didn't know about where campers who arrived from successful quests were given laurel wreaths to wear, have a big feast that was prepared in their honor, and then led a procession down to the bonfire where they got the chance to burn a burial shrouds their cabins had made for them while on the quest. She didn't say it aloud, but the burial shrouds made Josephine's stomach squeeze uncomfortably. It was so common for half-bloods to die on quests, their cabin mates prepared in advance to save themselves a bit of time when they received the news their cabin mate died at some monster's hands.

        Instead of saying anything, Josephine smiled as the four were given their individual chances to burn their shrouds. They all stood around the growing fire, watching as they each gathered the materials into their arms. Annabeth's shroud was beautiful in the firelight a grey silk that was carefully embroidered with white owls. It was obvious to see her siblings had put a lot of care into making it for their Head Counselor, and it was no wonder, considering their mother, Athena, was also the Goddess of the Crafts. Many of her children took strongly to weaving, quilting, and embroidering. Josephine could tell Annabeth found it hard to burn her fingers twitched at her sides, as if calculating the amount of stitches it took to complete the edges and assemble the owls.

        Josephine's shroud was a brilliant golden color, decorated with lyres, bows, and small posies (no doubt, Lee's idea and inclusion) in a deeper, dark yellow color. As they watched Annabeth's burn, she tried to figure out who made her burial shroud the posies were certainly Lee's idea, but he had fingers for healing and arrows, not embroidery. Austin had the talent for music and Couplet Curses; Michael was the best in Cabin Seven when it came to arrows. Darcy and Preston, who were still visiting Camp, both had an affliction for poetry. Oftentimes, when still living at Camp, they would be seen by the Canoe Lake, bouncing ideas off one another. She knew it really didn't matter in the end she had survived the quest. Some part of her knew that all of her siblings had taken time to create it, and that brought a bit of comfort to her. Maybe one or the other had made for time stitching the bows, lyres, and posies, but they all had thought of her; she knew Cabin Seven hadn't forgotten about her while she wasn't at Camp.

        She gathered the material into her arms, the silk dropping downwards, as if knowing what was going to happen. The idea of all her siblings working on this one thing made it hard to burn. Despite that feeling, she held her arms as high above the growing fire as she could and dropped the shroud. The yellow fabric instantly blended in with the fire, melting into an ugly clump as everyone watched.

¹POCKET FULL OF POSIES.               p. jacksonWhere stories live. Discover now