ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

5

AFTER BASICALLY GETTING run over by her siblings when she got back and during dinner ( thankfully Annabeth saved her, only she demanded answers from her that she didn't have, so maybe it wasn't a save after all ), Kat sat with them for the campfire because she was forced to.

Not that she minded her siblings; right now, she was happy they were all there, and they'd gotten some more siblings while she was at the Wilderness Camp. Pretty soon, though, she'd probably get annoyed at all of them for existing. But for now she was smiling, cracking jokes and planning pranks that they could do now that she was back — mostly because of her money.

Kat couldn't stop her eyes from wandering, though. Leo was nearby, sitting with the Hephaestus cabin — a cabin of burly, standoffish mechanics, and he only fit one of those bills. Jason sat in the front next to Annabeth. Near them, Piper sat with Rachel, and when they made eye contact Kat smirked at Piper before turning back to Julia who was nudging her, rolling her eyes.

Standing in front of the fire, half of the Apollo cabin with guitars and lyres were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. Kat was embarrassed that she was related to them; she could do way better with her guitar, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turning from red to orange to gold.

Finally the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. Chiron trotted up to the fire, brandishing a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"

"What about capture the flag?" Mark yelled. Grumbling broke out among the Ares cabin.

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

"And kill people!" Sherman Yang shouted.

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

He turned to Leo's group. After winking at Piper, Leo looked at Kat and smirked at her. The girl next to him — Nyssa something or other — stood uncomfortably. She wore an army jacket a lot like Leo's, with her hair covered in a red bandanna. "We're working on it."

More grumbling.

"How, Nyssa?" demanded Sherman.

"Really hard," she said.

Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones — bang, bang, bang — and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," said Chiron. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, but Kat didn't need the mood flames to sense the crowd's anxiety.

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

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "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."

"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" a girl called out.

Everyone turned. The voice had come from a group in back, sitting under the Aphrodite banner. They'd been chatting among themselves and not paying much attention until their leader stood up: Drew.