The Third Camp

Chapter twenty: Carrie

How? How is she here? What happened to her? Why does she not remember anything? I punched the wall in my room, but gripped my hand in pain afterwards. I had sent Neptuna off to her cabin.

Before long it was time for breakfast.

"Are you coming?" Grace called.

"Yeah, just give me a minute!" I called back.

"...You alright? You sound mad."

"I'm fine!"

I quickly wrapped my hand in some extra medical wrap that was lying around and ran outside.

"I swear you take longer that me to get ready." Grace rolled her eyes when she saw me.

"Get off of my desk." I sighed, seeing her sitting cross-legged on top of my desk.

She peeled herself off and stood next to me.

"So, are you ready yet?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." I answered.

Together we walked to the Mess Hall, crossing some people that were working. We sat down in the middle seats and started to talk to the instructors and Ernest.

"Hey, where were you yesterday?" I asked Ernest after remembering he wasn't at any meals the previous day.

"Something came up. What happened with you over the school year?"

"I went and got some new recruits." I answered, that was kind of correct but not fully, I had first went off to get recruits.

"Big day, huh?"

"Yeah," I laughed remembering what day it was.

"Can't believe it's already been a year."

"Seems like only yesterday." I agreed.

"Maybe Kronos is just messing with us." Juventas joked.

"Hey, you never know." Borac looked around as if the god of time was standing in a corner watching us.

I glanced down at the tables and sighed.

"What?" Grace nudged me.

I tried not to look at the table that Neptuna now sat at.

"Nothing." I murmured and tried to shake it off.

"Why are you looking at that new trainee?" Ernest questioned.

"I'm not." I snapped at him.

"Yeah man, you are."

"No, I'm not!"

"Fine, if you insist." Ernest sighed.

He glanced suspiciously at Neptuna.

I rose and addressed the crowd. The second I got up the room fell silent.

"Now I hope most—or all—of you know what day it is. Today is the Dog Tag Ceremony! And as most of you know this is the day where most of our new trainees get claimed. After the ceremony we will all meet in the mountains to sort the teams for war!" I stopped because my voice was suddenly overpowered by everyone clapping.

"Let's eat!" I boomed.

I noticed Neptuna frowning at me, not clapping. She looked like she was trying to remember something. I sat down and tried to ignore my inner self screaming "Go talk to her, idiot! She might remember!"

I picked up an bright red apple, cleaned it, then took a bite out of it. Delicious. Neptuna raised an eyebrow at me, then turned to her own plate. There was a stack of pancakes... blue pancakes... What a strange thing to eat. She frowned at the food, but began to eat.

"So what's the plan for today?" Ernest tried to start a conversation with me.

"Well mostly it'll be preparing for the ceremony." I shrugged.

"The ceremony is always so boring!" He groaned.

"But war afterwards is always so much fun to watch." I nodded.

"True, true, but I think this year is going to be extra interesting."

"Why would you say that?"

"Just a guess." He lied.

"What is it?" I pressed on.

"Nothing." He grinned.

I knew I wasn't going to get anything out of him. Though I wanted to know, it would take hours to get the information. Sighing, I went back to my food.

"Hey, the rumors aren't true... Right?" Juventas looked unsure.

"What rumors?" I questioned.

"There's a whole bunch of them, Fred came back to camp and started spreading them."

"What rumors?" I repeated.

"Things all the way from you dishonored the camp to you shot him."

"Well..."

"You didn't do any of those things right? Fred's just making those up, right?"

"Well... I did shoot him but I would never dishonor the camp."

"You did what?" She hissed. "Why'd you shoot him?"

"Nevermind that. Where's Fred now?"

"No one knows, he disappeared a few hours before you came back but right before he left he started saying to anyone that would listen that he's going to try to take away your praetorship!"

"What?"

"You know how praetorships get taken away don't you?"

"Yeah." I murmured.

I suddenly didn't have much of an appetite. Praetorships either get taken away by someone proving that the praetor dishonored the camp, or murder. The only time that someone can lose their praetorship if those things don't happen is if the praetor gives it up or dies in battle.

I had gotten my praetorship when the person before me died in the titan war. He had gone alone against the whole army. He killed at least two thousand monsters before they overpowered him. I had ran out trying to stop him. He fell in front of my eyes. 

Such an amazing son of Mars. I had brought the praetor's cape back into the camp after killing most of the remaining monsters. That was both the worst and best day of my life. A friend, almost family member, had died in front of my eyes. I had also become praetor that day. An anonymous decision. 

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Sorry about such a short chapter, but I hope you guys still liked it.

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I've started an Avengers fan fiction in my spare time and I have no idea if I should post it or not... please tell me what you guys think. It wouldn't interfere with this story, I promise.

Thank you guys for everything!

See you all next time!