Camp Unspeakable: POISONING OF THE OLYMPIC SHRINES

Chapter 9

"What...it's Hannah?" I murmured, and Chiron remained unmoved.

"Hannah—"

"Swear on River Styx that you will protect us and no one demi-gods will die!" Hannah repeated, and my eyes widened. In Greek mythology, if someone swears on River Styx, then that's a promise they can never break.

"Hannah, I can't promise that. But I can promise I die trying to save every last one of you. I-I-I," he stammered, sighing, "I swear I will try to protect every last one of you. Not that no demi-gods will die, some will be fated to fall."

"I—fine," Hannah scolded, admitting defeat. She finally sat down, angry. I guess she's still sour about Alecia. Hannah must really care about her, they must have a strong relationship.

"Thank you for your time," Eleos chuckled, trying to settle things down.

"Return to your feast, please, and thank you," Chiron mumbled, and he pulled Eleos aside to talk.

"Poor Hannah," Cora sighed, playing with her salad. I nodded, Hannah seems nice but is conflicted about her best friend's death. And she kind of hinted to me that she cares a lot about Alecia. That made me feel guilty for having Alecia's dragger. It was not mine, why should I have it?

"You know, maybe Hannah should get advice," Thomas shrugged, "it always works in the movies. I mean, I dunno,"

"Oh my gods, Thomas, you genius! I nearly forgot to hand in my work!" Elizabeth cried, getting up.

"Okay, you're welcome?"

"I must speak to Chiron, thanks, fire boy!"

"Mind if I get a kis—"

"In your dreams, Thomas," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I called it. But you're missing out, ghost girl," he grumbled, Cora and I laughed. Elizabeth left and soon Cora.

"We better get back to Cabin #11, everyone else is packing up too," he grunted, and I got up, "mind if you grab my crutches for me?"

"Oh, sure," I said, reaching for the crutches that were leaning against the picnic table.

"Wait! Don't press the small button on the side—"

"HOLY CRAP—" I screamed as a blade popped open at the end of the crutch. I dropped it, leaping away.

"Right," Thomas sighed, I panted.

"Oh my gosh, was that a freaking blade installed in the crutches?! That is NOT normal!"

"Well, funny story, I made those blades and installed them. Now pass them to me,"

I carefully picked out the crutches, handing them to Thomas.

"Why do you have blades jabbed in there anyway?"

"So basically," he said casually, leaving his tray, " I can't walk, that's obvious,"

"Well, yeah,"

"But if I can't walk, I need crutches to walk with, so my hands are always occupied. That's a bad thing since a lot of bounty hunters, uhm, want to kill demi-gods. So I made new crutches, my current ones, and made one blade at each crutch. It's not the best weapon, but it's alright,"

"Smart," I replied, nodding.

"That's a first, someone calling me smart," he chuckled, limping. We walked back to Cabin #11 in awkward silence. When we arrived, I turned to Thomas. I made one more question for the night.

"Hey, so why aren't there younger demi-gods? Eleos said to me on the bus I was one of the few who were younger. Even Leah called me an in-betweener. What's the deal about that? Aren't the gods breaking that rule still, so shouldn't there be toddlers or—"