Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Heroes

Chapter Six-A Quest... Yaaaaaaaay...

From Cabin Fifteen Annabeth, Alex, and Jason went to dinner, but Alex didn't pay much attention to that. She still ate, but her mind was focused on a thousand other things. Before she knew it, it was time for the campfire.

It. Was. Terrifying.

It was a camp sing-along with funny motions that the majority of the fifty or sixty campers did along with the kids in front of them. All of the kids we filled under various banners.

Alex and Jason sat in the front with Annabeth in between them. Alex spotted Piper with Rachel and Leo sitting under a gray banner emblazoned with a hammer with a bunch of strong looking campers. As the campers' energy got higher, the flames did too. They went from red to orange to gold.

Finally, the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. Chiron trotted up in front of the kids.

"Very nice!! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"

"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled. Grumbling broke out among some kids in armor, sitting under a red banner with the emblem of a boar's head, if Alex had to guess, she would think that was the Ares cabin.

"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" one of them shouted.

"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"

He turned to Leo's group. Alex saw Leo wink at Piper and shot her with a finger gun. The girl next to him stood uncomfortably. She wore an army jacket a lot like Leo's, with her hair covered in a red bandanna. "We're working on it."

More grumbling.

"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.

"Really hard," the girl said.

Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones—bang, bang, bang—and the campers fell silent.

"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, but Alex didn't need the mood flames to sense the crowd's anxiety.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth. She took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis —everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."

"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" a girl called out. Everyone turned. The voice had come from a group in back, sitting under a rose-colored banner with a dove emblem. They'd been chatting among themselves and not paying much attention until their leader stood up: Drew. Alex's blood boiled at the sight of her, but she remained seated, if she lashed out now everyone would be watching.

Everyone else looked surprised. Apparently Drew didn't address the crowd very often.

"Drew?" Annabeth said. "What do you mean?"

"Well, come on." Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. "Olympus is closed. Percy's disappeared. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with four new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?"