Wild ― Piper McLean

―iv. verona doesn't like metaphors

"Won't he suffocate?" Jason asked.

"He'll be fine," Annabeth said. "But I'm beginning to think you two are in serious trouble."

🌿

Verona wasn't sure how she felt about campfire sing-a-longs.

She supposed, on the surface, they were all fine and dandy—when the threat of the world ending and your memory being lost forever wasn't looming over you.

The other campers seemed to be having a good time, at least.

The sing-a-long was held in an amphitheater, the steps carved into the side of a hill around a stone-lined fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners.

Verona and Jason sat with Annabeth toward the front, so Verona was almost sweating from the campfire's warmth, though she welcomed it all the same. She still hadn't shaken the cold from earlier, and even now she could feel it in her bones, making her want to bundle up under three blankets and never poke her head out.

She spotted Leo sitting with a bunch of burly-looking campers under a steel gray banner emblazoned with a hammer—his half-siblings, other children of Vulcan. Or, Hephaestus, Verona supposed.

Piper had missed dinner, but Verona saw her sit down with Rachel. She looked wary, but otherwise okay—a vast improvement from her comatose state the last time Verona had seen her.

Across the fire pit, half a dozen campers with guitars and lyres were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armor—something about how their grandma got dressed for war (Verona figured Grandma should've been eligible for retirement, but what did she know?). Everyone was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armor and joking around. It was all totally corny and should have been embarrassing, but no one seemed to have any shame in the dark like this. As the energy grew, the flames did, too, turning from red to orange to gold.

The song ended to a round of cheers and raucous applause. Chiron trotted up and smiled. "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.

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

"And kill people!" one of the campers underneath a red banner decorated with the silhouette of a boar's head shouted.

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

One of the girls under the same banner as Leo stood up, visible uncomfortable as the majority of the campers turned their attention toward her. "We're working on it."

"How, Nyssa?" someone demanded.

"Really hard," Nyssa muttered. She sat down to a chorus of angry complaints.

Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones, silencing the disgruntled campers. "We will have to be patient," he said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."

"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed even further, reflecting the crowd's anxiety.

Chiron gestured to Annabeth, who took a deep breath and stood.

"I didn't find Percy," she announced, her voice catching a little as 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."