★ LOVE AND DEATH ARE ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME
BOTH END IN UNFORTUNATE TRAGEDY
She was a creepy, schizophrenic, boyfriend stealing witch, who wouldn't leave her alone. Piper hated her.
Or
In which Ryo...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
◦•●◉✿✿◉●•◦
THE CAMPFIRE WAS DEFINITELY MORE EVENTFUL THAN RYOKO THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. First off, it was even more terrifying than when Piper fell off the edge of the Grand Canyon. And that was really horrifying for Ryoko, she couldn't possibly imagine a life without Piper.
There was a sing-along. The amphitheater steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lined fire pit. Fitty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners.
Piper spotted Jason in the froat next to Annabeth. Leo was nearby, sitting with a buch of burly-looking campers under a steel gray banner emblazoned with a hammer. Ryoko sat in a group across from her, next to two boys who looked to be brothers. Her light skin glimmered in the candlelight, which was a contrast to the reflection of the campfire in her dark eyes.
She's beautiful. Piper thought. No, gods, what am I thinking. She's insane. She thinks she can speak to the dead.
After learning that her whole relationship with Jason wasn't real. Which also means Ryoko kissing him wasn't real. Her whole world shifted. Was she even into Jason anymore? Why did she still feel a sense of hate towards Ryoko, when she did nothing wrong.
Pipers head ached and the singing didn't help.
Standing in frout of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, old-fashioned barps-lyres?—were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor, something about how their grandma got dressed for war.
Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. It was quite possibly the weirdest thing Piper had ever seen. One of those campfire songs that would've been completely embarrassing in daylight; but in the dark, with everybody participating, it was kind of comy and fun. As the energy level got higher, the flames did too, turming from red to orange to gold.
Finally the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. A guy on a horse trotted up. At least in the flickering light, Piper thought it was a guy on a horse.
Then she realized it was a centaur-his bottom half a white stallion, his top half a middle-aged guy with curly hair and a trimmed beard. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. "Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a momeat, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"
"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled. Grumbling broke out among some kids in armor, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar's head.
"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to retum to the woods for our regular ganes."
