FLICKER [PJO]

4 • Welcome To Camp Half-Blood! Where Danger Is Encouraged!

That's all I'm thinking about
All I keep thinking about.
Everything else just fades away.
/
Now you wanna make some rules,
Now cool then we'll watch them break tonight.
Little White Lies • One Direction

🌸🌸🌸

On our journey to find Chiron, I followed Austin and Ashby through Camp Half-Blood. If I was looking for heaven for my restlessness and excessive amounts of energy, I had found the sanctuary.

Although I had fallen behind the boys, it gave me the chance to take in the vastness of the camp (and to think I had thought it was just a strawberry farm!).

On the way down the hill passed an enormous statue of the goddess of wisdom, Athena, called the Parthenos and descended to the heart of the camp. As I looked around, I first noticed the beauty and solemnity of the camp, but also the lack of campers, and I had made the point of saying so. The boys didn't seem to mind explaining.

"There's always a lull in the Spring," Ashby explained. "Summer is the main event when most of the half-bloods are out of school and on vacation."

"Even then, there are probably around 150 campers in the summer, which is incredibly low for Camp Half-Blood," Austin said. "If you ask the children of Athena, they'd know the exact statistics, and the amount of boys and girls, and the ages, and the amount of children that are housed by the cabins. If a crazy kid comes up to you and asks you a billion questions, it's not their fault. They're impulsive and extremely curious, but harmless... unless they've got a sword," he explained.
His cheerful voice made me smile and woke me up like the sun was rising through the daybreak. He was also speaking about the Athena kids as if he were warning me about his own traumatic experiences.

"Back in the day, there used to be hundreds of campers, but now, numbers are scarce," Ashby said with his head hung down low.
For once, I kept quiet. I wasn't the kind of person to immediately comfort someone and know what to say. When the situation was with Willow, I had comforted myself and Ashby to make us both feel better, but now that I was new to a problem, the situation and his emotions towards it confused me.

Luckily, Austin put his arm over the satyr's shoulders and whispered something to Ashby that made him cackle. He was howling with laughter and trying not to fall over.

I didn't mind feeling left out, but I did yearn to feel left out with Willow beside me. Maybe we could have been skipping in the sun, holding hands, singing a One Direction song at the top of our lungs. That could have been nice, but I didn't have her nearby. She was a tree at the top of Half-Blood Hill where we almost died hardly an hour ago.

"So," I said trying to break the ice between me and the boys. "How old are you, exactly?" I asked Ashby.

"29," he said without hesitation, then returned to Austin. 

They were both laughing and tripping over their feet/hooves and I was left alone to tour the camp behind them.
I watched in the backseat and not only noticed an enormous amphitheatre to our right but also the adoring pathways and pristine tenderness the camp held. It was warm and comforting, and well taken care of. It made you feel welcome, maybe that's why campers came back in the summer because it felt like home.

"Ah!" Austin exclaimed and clapped so loudly, that I almost threw a stick at him. My heart was pounding, and I hated the way he jumped on my brain so suddenly.

"Now, you see, Flick," he said. "This is not only where we have our bonfires, but also where we sing and dance!"

I almost vomited.

"Why?" I asked disgustedly.

When Austin turned around to face me, his jaw almost dropped. He looked disappointed in a way, but then he grinned as if to say, no hard feelings.