SUNSPEAKER, percy jackson.

0𝟐𝟔. battleground

twenty six
battleground

WHEN THEY GOT BACK TO CAMP, everyone was in the clearing, dressed in full battle armor. It was almost like Capture the Flag except it was no game. This was real and lives were at stake.

Their quest group split off. Annabeth went to join her siblings at the command tent they'd set up. Percy, Nico, and Tyson stayed with Chiron and Lennon joined her siblings where Apollo cabin and Hermes cabin were scattered in the woods.

She met Lee at the base of one of the trees. As soon as he'd seen her, he hugged her fiercely.

"You okay?"

Lennon let out a breath. "Yeah, you know. It's a quest, so,"

Lee eyed the raised scar that Kelli had left her with. It seemed like he wanted to say something about it but instead, he said, "You used dad's hymns?"

She nodded. "Well, we can't all be Julian," she says with a small smile.

"What was that?" A voice calls from above. She glanced up to see Julian crouched in the trees, grinning despite the situation. "Sounds like a compliment,"

"Oh hush," she calls back to him, shaking her head with a smile. Then she looks back to Lee. "Where's Will and all the younger kids?"

"All the kids are at the big house. Mr. D grew some type of thorn wall to protect the house. We tried to get Will to stay there but... you know how he is. We settled on having him in Athena cabin's tent. If we need a healer he'll be there,"

Lennon nodded. "I'm sure he wasn't happy about that," Will was still young and they always tried their best to keep him off the front lines. But even they couldn't deny he was one of their cabin's best healers. It didn't help that the young boy had such a strong urge to help people. "Where do you need me?"

Lee pointed up at one of the trees. "Michael's up there. Us and Hermes cabin will be one of our first shields of defense when the monsters come through,"

Lennon nodded. "Got it. I'll see you later,"

"Later Len," he nodded.

Then the two split off. Lennon found herself up in the trees clutching the trunk of the tree.

"Remember that time you fell out of a tree?" Michael asked from beside her.

She glared at her brother. "I seem to remember someone pushing me out the tree,"

He hums as if he has no idea what she's talking about. "Really? Shame we never found out who,"

She scoffed. "No, I think we—" Her voice wavered as the ground beneath them began to tremble.

She and Michael locked eyes, all humor gone from them. A battle was about to begin.

From the clearing, Clarisse yelled, "Lock shields!"

It was like a breath of quiet fell over the camp, then all Hades broke loose. The Titan lord's army exploded from the Labyrinth.

Lennon saw the Laistrygonian giants first. One of them broke through Ares cabin's phalanx easily.

"Fire!" Beckendorf yelled.

Lennon and her siblings shot a volley of arrows at the army. Lennon saw several arrows find the chinks in the giant's armor. Most of her arrows shimmered with light as they melted away armor.

She had no idea how many times she'd fired arrows. It almost seemed like the giants were being overwhelmed. Then even more dracaenae surged out of the maze. It had to be forty, maybe fifty of them. Next to her, Micahel cursed in ancient Greek.