Stories of the Stars

10.

I woke when the conch horn blew.

"What's going on?" I mumbled, rolling over in my sleeping bag. "Why...?"

There was a lot of noise everywhere, people rushing around, and the horn blew again. I groaned and covered my head with my (slightly ripped) pillow. I did not want to wake up just now. Sleep was a wonderful oblivion.

But then I heard someone yelling and it woke me up faster than my mom saying "breakfast burrito with extra bacon." I pushed the pillow off my head and sat up ramrod straight. 

"What did you say?" I yelled, trying to be heard amidst the chaos of other campers running around me. 

"Wolf guy!" someone shouted back. "Outside the camp border!"

I felt chills running down my spine. Wolf guy. I knew, suddenly, what was going on. There was another werewolf here for me. He had found me somehow, and he was going to take me away from my new family. He was going to take me away from Vasa and Percy and Esme and everyone. 

Heck, I thought, am I really getting worried about leaving Esme? I'm not even that close to her...

Focus.

There's another werewolf here and you have to go talk to him.

I stood up in a hurry and rushed out of the cabin after my half-siblings. My heart squeezed, telling me that this was scary, this was uncharted territory, and everything inside me rebelled against my running feet. I sprinted towards the pine tree anyway, and somehow I outpaced all the other, older campers around me.

I stopped on top of the hill. Chiron was already there, of course, his bow in hand. It was half-drawn with an arrow already nocked, but the werewolf outside the border didn't look unfriendly. He was tall, with brown hair and startling blue eyes behind square-rimmed glasses, and his hands were shoved into the pockets of his loose jeans. Stubble on his chin, a flannel shirt. He looked like a dad waiting for his kids to get done playing on the swings.

"Chiron," someone from behind me asked, "who is he?"

Chiron opened his mouth, but the man outside the barrier shook his head. "I'll speak for myself," he said. "I'm Luke Garroway," he said louder. "I'm a werewolf. And I'm looking for the one of my kind that you have here."

I wanted to shrink back into the crowd, pretend I wasn't there, but everyone looked right at me. Thanks guys. I had no choice but to raise one hand and wave half-heartedly at Luke. "Hi," I said. "Um, I'm Jimlin Hopkins." Why are you this nervous? I asked myself. Stop being so nervous. "Son of Hermes. And, uh, Camp Half-Blood's resident werewolf, I guess." I glanced around for support. There was a reason I'd never been good at talking in front of people. 

My eyes fell on Esme, her midnight-blue hair tied back into a half-ponytail. She looked away.

I flushed a little and turned back to Chiron and Luke. "So... how did you find me?"

"Somebody heard you howling. They reported it, and their pack leader called me. She asked if I could look into you for her." Luke smiled. "So I did."

"Why? Why look for me? What exactly is happening here?" I was more than a little worried about this, to be entirely honest. 

Luke looked at Chiron. For some reason, I realized, he seemed entirely – or almost entirely –  unfazed that the guy he was talking to was half horse. "We need to talk," he said. "About... a lot of things."

Chiron nodded. "Then I, Chiron, give you permission to enter Camp Half-Blood."

Luke looked perplexed, but he stepped towards Chiron and through the barrier. It shimmered as he crossed it. He looked around with mild surprise. "You have good strong glamours," he said.