Wildflowers, Percy Jackson ₁

034, the backrooms... the backrooms...

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

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. Sylvie was so exhausted she slept through the noise. 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 Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the fissures 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."

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 their attendance was down. They only had about eighty campers. Five years ago, when Sylvie had started, 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.

Sylvie and her siblings took their plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of their food into the flames. She hoped the gods liked her raisin toast and granola.

"Demeter," Sylvie said. Then she whispered, "Help me with Eurydice, my powers, this war, and maybe grant me luck with... you know who..."

And help my dad, she prayed silently the same way she did every night. Please.

There was so much to worry about Sylvie could've stood there all morning, but she headed back to her table.

Once everyone was eating, Sylvie realized that all her siblings evidently woke up in energetic moods. She hadn't seen this happen in a while, especially in such a large quantity. Katie was here, her ankle basically all healed. She was eating a Pop-Tart, but Florian, on the other side of the table, wanted it for himself. He was trying to snatch it, swatting and slapping hands with Katie, whilst simultaneously singing the song stuck in his mind today (the fifteen minute prologue for Into the Woods). Miranda was decorating her plate by growing flowers out of thin air. Her laughter kept being heard over Florian's singing, because Cedar was recalling the first fun dream he'd had... ever, really. Something about jelly donuts and the opera? Sylvie didn't really know.