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STRENGTH ✷ act two, chapter thirteen, ━━━━━ celebrations with chariot races. PUBLISHED. . . June 6th, 2024 EDITED . . . To Be Determined REPUBLISHED . . . October 11th, 2025
THEY ARRIVED AT LONG ISLAND IN A PRETTY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME, though now night, courtesy of the centaurs' travel powers. Earlier, they had stopped at a trailer park to heal up. Chiron had bandaged Nabi's wound on her hand, and fed her ambrosia as she tried her best to forget about the Princess Andromeda. Luke, Chris... She pushed it all to the back of her head. Right now, she needed a break.
Nabi had rode on a centaur called Jeremy, who was most definitely high as fuck—he'd asked a question when they were fleeing from Luke and his warriors.
"You ever rode a centaur before?" Jeremy asked.
Nabi shook her head, furiously. "No, but we should hurry up, or I'm probably not gonna get the chance to ride one ever again!"
He snorted, with half lidded eyes. "Dude, you're kinda like... so real."
That was pretty much proof. Definitely high.
When they made it to camp, it was only a short while after Clarisse had. Nabi jumped off the centaur to run over to her, almost tripping in her haste to do so.
"You completed the quest!" Nabi exclaimed, ecstatic as she bounced up and down.
Clarisse shook her head, a grin of her own plastered on her face. She lifted Nabi up and spun her around with one arm, like the princesses got to experience in movies—it made Nabi's head spin too, in a completely different way. It was also pretty impressive with how heavy the Fleece must've been in the other arm.
"We completed it."
The centaurs were pretty anxious to meet Dionysus. They'd heard he threw some really wild parties, but sadly, Mr. D wasn't in the mood to celebrate as the whole camp gathered at the top of Half-Blood Hill.
The camp had been through a rough two weeks. Apparently, the arts and crafts cabin had burned to the ground from an attack by a Draco Aionius—a big lizard monster that could blow stuff up just by breathing—which didn't help with the Big House already overflowing with wounded campers. The kids in the Apollo cabin, who were the best healers, had been working their butts off performing first aid.
Everybody looked weary and battered as they crowded around Thalia's tree.
"Please," Chiron announced, "Clarisse la Rue, do the honours."
The moment that Clarisse draped the Golden Fleece over the lowest bough, the moonlight seemed to brighten, the dull grey hues transforming into a liquid silver. A cool breeze rustled in the branches and rippled through the grass, all the way into the valley.
