The 12 Days of Christmas - The Great Holiday Mystery

The Eighth Day of Christmas

~Hades Cabin~

'Nico!' Hazel called, towelling her hair off from her morning shower.

The daughter of Hades had decided to spend a few days in her brothers cabin, rather than with the Romans. She had to admit, even thought the atmosphere was dark and gloomy, it was nice to get to know Nico better.

She placed her damp towel on her bunk and glanced around the room, 'Nico, if you're trying to scare me, it won't work.'

The room stayed silent and she concluded that her brother had headed down to the arena to train. He often did that when he felt particularly stressed.

Then she noticed Nico stygian iron sword, resting on his bed with the chain wrapped neatly around the hilt. It was placed tidily, as if he'd just taken it off.

Hazel sighed and ran outside. She knew Annabeth would be in Percy's cabin, trying to wake him up, and Leo would be leading the Hephaestus cabin, since he was head councillor. She also knew that Percy took forever to wake up, so she ran after Leo first.

She caught up to him just as he was leaving his cabin, the rest of the Hephaestus in tow.

'Leo!' she shouted. 'You need to come with me!'

He met her eyes and immediately understood the situation. He yelled to his cabin mates, 'Nyssa, you're in charge. Go down to breakfast. Dismissed!'

He grinned at Hazel as his siblings marched off to breakfast, 'I've always wanted to say that.'

'Come on,' she grabbed hold of the back of his shirt and started to pull him towards the Poseidon cabin.

'Ah,' he stumbled over himself as he tried to keep up with Hazel's fast pace. 'Where are we going?'

'Percy and Annabeth,' Hazel replied bluntly. 'Nico's gone.'

Leo knew better than to say anything. He just kept walking until Hazel let go of his shirt and they ran for the Poseidon cabin. Together, they burst in and glanced around.

They were met with the sight of Annabeth trying to shake Percy awake, but the stubborn son of Poseidon would not budge.

'He wont get up,' Annabeth complained when she saw them. 'I've tried everything.'

'I doubt you've tried this,' Leo said slyly as he pulled a few things from his tool belt.

In a few seconds, he had constructed a bullhorn with a few special properties. He got right up close newt not Percy and yelled, 'WAKE UP!'. Ut the voice came out sounding like Percy's mother.

'Coming Mom!' Percy yelped suddenly, jerking upright and scrambling out of bed. 'I'm up!'

He suddenly noticed the two girls lying on the ground in fits i laughter and Leo calmly strapping his little toy to his belt.

Percy ran his hands through his hair, 'I will get you, Valdez.'

'But for now, I will enjoy the moment,' Leo smirked.

Percy rubbed his face tiredly. 'So, whats the news?'

'Nico disappeared last night,' Hazel said, ripping through the playful atmosphere as easily as one might rip paper.

Annebeth's face fell and Percy's eyes locked onto something behind them.

'Look,' he muttered. 'Another note.'

The others watched as he picked up the note and read it out loud, '"on the eighth day if Christmas my true love fave to me, eight snowy messes, seven dancing canes, six Christmas goblets, five wooden sleighs, for working craftsmen, three volar reindeer, two wrapped up presents, and mistletoe up a pine tree."'

Annabeth frowned as he finished reading, 'I'm sure that wasn't there before.'

'Which means,' Hazel said, 'that either Annabeth missed it, or someone's put it there since.'

'But no ones been in here,' Annabeth protested. 'So how?'

'Magic,'Percy suggested. 'Wind?'

'Flying contraption?' Leo shrugged.

Annabeth stamped her foot in frustration, 'It just doesn't make any sense! How did the note get there? How did they steal away the other demigods?'

'How did they get into Bunker 9?' Leo added. 'Who are they?!'

'We don't know,' Hazel said gently. 'But now that there aren't many of us left, it's more important than ever that we stick together and solve these clues.'

'And I think I know where to start,' Percy grinned.

~The Mess Hall~

'Eight snowy messes,' Percy said again. 'Mess hall. It fits!'

'It fits,' Annabeth agreed. 'But we still don't know what we're looking for.'

'Sure we do,' Leo said lightly. 'Snowy. Come on, Annabeth. I thought you would've figured it out by now. This is an easy one! If Percy and I can figure it out, you should be able to.'

Percy nodded to show his support of the statement. Slowly, the truth began to dawn on her and she sighed exasperatedly.

'I get,' she shook her head. 'Simple, but I get it.'

'Well, I don't,' Hazel squeezed in. 'Can someone tell me what it is we're looking for?'

'Snowmen,' Percy cried happily. 'Eight, to be exact.'

'Excuse me, Sir,' a 10 year old Aphrodite girl tugged on Leo jacket sleeve. 'My friends and I found these.'

Her and two other girls held up eight plastic snowmen, dressed from the tip of their bowler hats, right down to their little black buttons. They gave all eight to Leo and skipped off.

Leo blinked in surprise and held them out for Annabeth who took them and put them away in her pouch.

'That was strange,' the daughter of Athena admitted uneasily, slipping the pouch beneath her shirt. 'Almost too easy.'

'Honestly,' Leo smirked, 'I like too easy. Now, who wants too eat breakfast. The way things are going, one of us won't have another.'

The other three rolled their eyes as they scattered, headed towards their own tables where one of them would be eating the last Camp Half-Blood breakfast for a while.