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we arrived at camp, with percy arriving a little later. we were the first heroes to return alive since luke, so all the campers treated us like royalty.
according to camp tradition, we wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in our honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where we got to burn the burial shrouds our cabins had made for us in our absence.
annabeth's shroud was so gray silk with embroidered owls. it was beautiful.
mine was a shimmery white silk, with pink beads. it wasn't too bright, or bold. just my style. percy told me it was a shame i wasn't buried in it. i punched him and told him to shut up.
being the son of poseidon, percy didn't have any cabin mates, so the ares cabin had volunteered to make his shroud. they'd taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with x'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word 'loser' painted really big in the middle.
it was fun to burn.
as apollo's cabin led the sing-along and passed out s'mores, we were surrounded by the hermes cabin, annabeth's friends from athena, my siblings from aphrodite, and grover's satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand-new searcher's license he'd received from the council of cloven elders.
the council had called grover's performance on the quest "brave to the point of indigestion. horns-and-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past."
the only ones not in a party mood were clarisse and her cabinmates, whose poisonous looks told me they'd never forgive percy for disgracing their dad.
percy seemed okay with that.
dionysus began his welcome-home speech, "yes, yes, so the little brat didn't get himself killed and now he'll have an even bigger head. well, huzzah for that. in other announcements, there will be no canoe races this saturday...."
