𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐈𝐋¹ || 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐉𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍

𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈

✦ 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑 ✦

THE QUARTET WERE THE FIRST HEROES TO RETURN ALIVE TO HALF-BLOOD HILL SINCE LUKE, so of course everybody treated them as if they'd won some reality TV contest.

According to Camp tradition, they wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in their honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where they got to burn the burial shrouds their cabins had made for them in their absence.

Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful – grey silk with embroidered owls – Percy told her it seemed a shame not to bury her in it. She punched him and told him to shut up.

Aurora's shroud was just as beautiful and just as bright as her, according to Percy. It was made of gold silk embroidered with the emblem of the sun all over— her shroud seemed to gleam when the sun hit it just like it did with the Apollo Cabin.

Being the son of Poseidon, Percy didn't have any cabin mates, so the Ares Cabin had volunteered to make his shroud. They'd taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word LOSER was painted really big in the middle.

It was fun to burn.

As Apollo's Cabin led the sing-along and passed out toasted marshmallows, Percy was surrounded by his old Hermes Cabin mates, Aurora's half-siblings from Apollo, Annabeth's half-siblings from Athena, and Grover's satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand new Searcher's Licence he'd received from the Council of Cloven Elders.

The council had called Grover's performance on the quest "Brave to the point of indigestion. Hornsand-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past."

The only ones not in a party mood were Clarisse and her cabin mates, whose poisonous looks told Percy they'd never forgive him for disgracing their dad. That was okay with him. Even Dionysus' welcome-home speech wasn't enough to dampen his spirits.

"Yes, yes, so the little brat didn't get himself killed and now he'll have an even bigger head. Well, huzzah for that. In other announcements, there will be no canoe races this Saturday..."

Percy moved back into Cabin Three, but it didn't feel so lonely anymore. He had his friends to train with during the day. At night, Percy would lay awake and listen to the sea, knowing his father was out there. Maybe he wasn't quite sure about Percy yet, maybe he hadn't even wanted him born, but he was watching. And so far, he was proud of what Percy had done.

As for his mother, she had a chance at a new life. Her letter arrived a week after he got back to Camp. She told Percy that Gabe had left mysteriously – disappeared off the face of the planet, in fact. She'd reported him missing to the police, but she had a funny feeling they would never find him.

On a completely unrelated subject, she'd sold her first life-size concrete sculpture, entitled The Poker Player, to a collector, through an art gallery in Soho. She'd got so much money for it, that she'd put a deposit down on a new apartment and made a payment on her first term's tuition at NYU. The Soho gallery was clamoring for more of her work, which they called "a huge step forward in super-ugly neorealism."