BY fates design

Chariots

Annabeth was waiting outside Cassiopeia's cabin when she got back, leaning against a tree with her arms crossed. Smiling softly, the daughter of Nyx took her hand and led her inside. As soon as the door closed, Annabeth burst into tears, her face lined with rivers of salt water as she found comfort in Cassiopeia's embrace.

For hours they stayed together, comforting each other and reminiscing over memories of the centaur. Athena's daughter left before sunset, not wanting to be caught by the cleaning harpies after lights out. As soon as she was gone, Cassiopeia took her own time to cry, pacing around her room with tears tumbling down her cheeks as she fought to keep the shadows from caving in on her.

Eventually, she calmed herself, sitting down on her bed and forcing herself to take a series of deep breaths, her fingers fiddling with the necklaces that hung around her neck; Poppy's locket, camp beads, snowflake from her mother. Her head was swimming with thoughts. 'What would Poppy and Eddy think now? What would they do? I'm sure they would know how to handle this. I don't know what to do. Chiron trusted me to lead camp but what if I fail? I can't do this.'

"Oh, baby, I don't believe you could ever fail in helping the people you care for." Euphemia said, chestnut eyes clashing against Cassiopeia's own blue ones.

It took what felt like forever for her to finally grasp control over her thoughts again, pushing them back down into the very void of her mind.

Just as she had asked, Jake, Eleana, Kira and Alex met in Cassiopeia's cabin that night after everyone else had gone to their own cabins. They sat together in a circle on the floor, each sitting slightly different to be more comfortable.

"So, how was your journey to camp? besides the bulls that were on the hill top." Cassiopeia was leaning back against her bed, legs curled up beside her.

"It was fine, the twins kept us all entertained." Eleana said, wiggling her toes slightly. She had her knees drawn up to her chest as she was in the middle of painting her toe nails bright pink, the open polish in her hand.

"Yeah," Alex hummed, "I would say, aside from JJ nearly going ballistic over some tin bulls, that this was one of our easier travels to camp." He had his legs crossed and was leaning back on his hands, his dark hair falling away from his face.

Jake whined, slapping him. "It's not my fault I'm scared of bulls. You don't see me making fun of you for being scared of cyclopses." Everyone looked at him strangely.

"Yes we do." They chorused. "By the way, Al, how are you feeling about having Tyson around?" Kira asked, she had one leg stretched out in front of her, the other drawn up to her chest.

"Umm, it could be worse I suppose?" Alex shrugged, "I'm not particularly thrilled about it but he seems like a good kid I guess." His voice was laced with hesitation, face screwed up with uncertainty.

Swiftly, they moved onto lighter conversation, opting to not think about Thalia's tree or Chiron leaving, none of them were particularly in the mood to be crying at that moment.

"Why did they get rid of him?" Evan asked, looking between the demigods and gods.

"Like they need a reason to do anything foolish." Sally laughed, staring pointedly at Poseidon who smiled sheepishly.

The next few days were as torturous as Tantalus had hoped they would be. First, Tyson moved into Cassiopeia's cabin while giggling to himself every fifteen seconds and saying, "Percy is my brother?" like he had just one the lottery. The dark haired girl felt a bit bad for him, she knew Percy wasn't exactly thrilled to have him as a brother. It wasn't that he disliked the giant boy, it was more so that he found it a bit embarrassing to have a monster as a brother.