The Third Camp Trilogy: The Chaotic End

Chapter eight: Neptuna

After I had come back from the Underworld, I began pacing in my office at Camp Half Blood (a spare room in the Big House), my cape blowing behind me. There was going to be a meeting in a few minutes, about some strange happenings in the woods. Dirt shifting, strange shapes in the ground.

Since there was some time before the meeting began, I decided on taking a stroll through Camp.

I strode down the steps, head held high and cape billowing. I walked past the volleyball pit, where a few campers paused their game to nod to me. There was someone on their way to the forge that saluted me. A new camper, I guessed, that didn't know that I prefered a nod to a salute.

I made my way to the beach and stood at the water's edge, staring out over the waves under the cover of grey clouds. I knelt down and rinsed my hands in the water, then stood and glanced back at camp.

The meeting could wait. Just a quick swim, to clear my mind.

I dove in and spun around endless times, glad to be in the ocean again. I spotted a beautiful shell below me and dove to grab it. It was a sparkling blue conch, a small one. I checked to make sure there wasn't a crab inside, and decided to make a necklace out of it later. I put it into my pocket and swam back to the surface.

I floated there for a bit, looking up at the clouds, then I went back to shore and headed up to the meeting.

I walked into the meeting room and saw that Chiron, Annabeth, Percy, and the other cabin leaders were there.

The Stoll twins were trying to make Cheez-whiz shoot out of each other's noses, Percy was messing with the ping-pong table's wobbly leg, Clarisse was trying to throw her knives into a target, Nico and Will (who were now a couple, bonded over being my ex's, and realized they were both actually gay and the whole "me" phase was because of the annoying gods) were bickering, and Chiron was trying to call them to order unsuccessfully.

I couldn't help but think about how different all of the camps were, Camp Ops with their order, Camp Jupiter with their ranks, and Camp Half-Blood with their chaos and how loud they all were.