𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 || 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

mourning and mcdonald's raid

Night fell over the sky, but it would not feel like a new day. How could it? Too many wrongs had happened the last few hours. Too much horrible permanence. The weary faces of campers shone in the surrounding torchlights.

Lee Fletcher was dead.

He had been downed by a giant's club while trying to lead his younger, more defenseless siblings, to a safer position. He had succeeded. But it had cost him his life.

His body was wrapped in a golden shroud. No decorations. No designs. Because how could the Apollo cabin have adequately prepared for this? They couldn't have.

Maisie stood with Connor and Travis, listening to Lee's siblings recount his bravery. She felt dreadful. How many times had Lee healed her in the infirmary after she had hurt herself? Whether it was after partaking in something dumb, like spraining her ankle when her and Percy bet who could jump from a higher point off the rock-wall, or tending to the lava burns that she had acquired recently from the volcano. How had she ever repaid him for any of that?

While fighting the Titan Army, she was supposed to go where help was most needed. But she had not joined the Apollo cabin at any point in the battle. Perhaps she could have made a difference.

Castor Angevin, son of Dionysus, was dead. His shroud was a deep purple color, embroidered with grapevines and berries. He had been only 17 years old. Maisie had not known him well, but that only made her feel ashamed. Dionysus was still not back. He would miss his own son's funeral.

Others were dead. Maisie did not even know the names of most. Many were kids who were new to camp, who had been sought out and recruited for this war. She wondered if these demigods would have still left their old lives behind if they truly grasped the dangers their new future would entail.

Castor's twin brother, Pollux, tried to say a few words, but he choked up and just took the torch. He lit the funeral pyre in the middle of the amphitheater, and within seconds the row of shrouds was engulfed in fire, sending smoke and sparks up to the stars.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───

The next day was spent treating the wounded, which was almost everybody. The satyrs and dryads worked to repair the damage to the woods.

At noon, the Council of Cloven Elders held an emergency meeting in their sacred grove. The three senior satyrs were there, along with Chiron, who was in wheelchair form. His broken horse leg was still mending, so he would be confined to the chair for a few months, until the leg was strong enough to take his weight. The grove was filled with satyrs and dryads and naiads up from the water—hundreds of them, anxious to hear what would happen. Juniper, Annabeth, Maisie and Percy stood by Grover's side.

Silenus wanted to exile Grover immediately, but Chiron persuaded him to at least hear evidence first, so they told everyone what had happened in the crystal cavern, and what Pan had said. Then several eyewitnesses from the battle described the weird sound Grover had made, which drove the Titan's army back underground.