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the sun was setting behind the dining pavilion as the campers came up from their cabins. the four stood in the shadow of a marble column and watched others file in. annabeth was still pretty shaken up, but she promised she'd talk to them later. then she went off to join her siblings from the athena cabin - a dozen boys and girls with blond hair and gray eyes like hers. annabeth wasn't the oldest, but she'd been at camp more summers than just about anybody. one could tell that by looking at her camp necklace - one bead for every summer, and annabeth had six. no one questioned her right to lead the line. even if someone did, they'd get quickly silenced by her witty comments.
next came clarisse, leading the ares cabin. she had one arm in a sling, a nasty-looking gash on her cheek, and her leg was bandaged, but otherwise, her encounter with the bronze bulls didn't seem to have fazed her. someone had taped a piece of paper to her back that said, you moo, girl! but nobody in her cabin was bothering to tell her about it.
marcel had quite the idea who was the culprit. or, well, culprits.
after the ares kids came the hephaestus cabin - six guys led by charles beckendorf. marcel's face brightened ever so slightly. he didn't send as many letters to the teen as he sent to his other friends, but he knew beck wasn't fazed by it. the big guy was introverted and liked keeping to himself. marcel spoke with him on his first day back in the forges. there, he noticed a new wound on his calloused hand. now, it was only a pale scar over his dark skin.
the other cabins filed in: demeter, apollo, aphrodite, dionysus. naiads came up from the canoe lake. dryads melted out of the trees, and from the meadow came a dozen satyrs.
they reminded him of grover, who last summer set out to look for the god of the wilderness, pan. ever since he started his journey, no one had heard from him. marcel wondered where was he and how his search was going.
after the satyrs filed into dinner, the hermes cabin brought up the rear. the number of demigods was as big as ever. nothing ever changed about that. he had been stuck there for four years now so he he had quite the idea of what the average number of campers was.
ever since luke had betrayed them, his cabin had been led by travis and connor stoll. travis was the older brother, but they looked so much alike they were often mistaken for being twins. they were both tall and skinny, with mops of brown hair that hung in their eyes. they wore orange camp half-blood t-shirts untucked over baggy shorts, and they had those elfish features all hermes's kids had: upturned eyebrows, sarcastic smiles, a mischievous gleam in their eyes - like they were about to scatter a tickling powder into someone's sleeping bag. been there, done that.
marcel knew he had to go to his table soon, so he turned to percy.
"wait for me a little after dinner," he stated with a tone that said he wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. "i'll take you to lee."
he was about to go, but percy called after him quietly, "marcel?"
