𝗚𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘! 𝙥. 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 ¹

Lydia and Percy Sitting in a Tree

CHAPTER FOUR: LYDIA

The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast. Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. Lydia wasn't there for that (and she was kinda glad she wasn't). She slept through the whole commotion.

The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in their defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit.

After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned them during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. Its eyes—" He shuddered.

"You did well, Lee." Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

Now, who the hell was this dude? Lydia thought.

The campers murmured among themselves. Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers.

Three years ago, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared...

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Yes . . ." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods!"

They all raised their glasses and repeated the blessing. Lydia and her siblings took their plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of their food into the flames. She dumped a strawberry and half a granola bar, and hoped her mom liked her leftovers.

"Demeter," she said. Then she whispered, "Help me find Nico and save Grover's license . . . please."

Lydia headed to her table. The pb&j sandwich was halfway to her mouth when a dark shadow was cast over their table. Lydia turned her torso around comically slow, her mouth still hung open.

"Come on," Annabeth said, dragging her up from where she was sitting.

Lydia looked to her siblings for help but nobody spared them a glance. She grabbed her plate as Annabeth pulled her off the bench.

"Ow, ow!" Lydia moaned, when Annabeth crashed her into the corner of a picnic table. "Will you slow down?!"

She was dragged over to Percy's table. Lydia sat and put her plate down, waiting for Annabeth to speak expectantly.

"This better be important." Lydia said, eyeing all the campers looking at them and whispering. "We're breaking the rules here."

Campers weren't allowed to switch tables. Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. Lydia didn't even know what the punishment was for switching tables, because no one ever did it.

They were about to find out. Woohoo.

Annabeth said. "The Labyrinth."

Lydia put down her sandwich and nodded. Okay, this was important.

"You're not supposed to be here," Percy said.

"We need to talk," Annabeth insisted.

"But. . ."