𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩

Chapter 11

Six - Cyrus
⌑

Sacrificial Lamb–Literally

Cyrus paid no mind to the tour Luna gave him, he was just urging her to take him to his brother as soon as possible. He didn't care about no volleyball, or Cabins with each Olympian god. No, he wanted to know if Percy was okay. He wanted to hear the story about Sally's death from him, not Luna.

  As soon as the rushed tour was over with, Cyrus entered cabin 11 with a poor introduction and dashed towards his brother who sat on the ground, completely ignoring the oldest boy of the group as he tried speaking.

  "Cy!" Percy sighed in relief as he lunged up for a hug. "I–... Mom, she..."

  "I heard. Grover told me about that a while back, but I don't know what happened," Cyrus hummed as he  pulled back, still keeping one hand on his younger brother's shoulder. "You okay?"

  "I'm fine," Percy nodded, though he didn't look all that great for someone who claimed to be fine. "We'll get through it. Together?"

  Percy lifted his fist and Cyrus was quick to fist bump his brother, nodding. "Yeah, together."

  Cyrus and Percy turned to see a blonde haired girl with gray eyes, and a slightly familiar boy with a large Tibetan Mastiff, catching the attention of everyone in the cabin as they stopped on the doorway. Chiron was right behind.

  Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

  "Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, (y/n). I'll see you at dinner."

  He galloped away.

  The boy stood, while the kids inside all sized him up.

  "Well?" The girl demanded."Go on."

  "I– uhm..." he shifted his glance around, as he deeply breathed in. "Uh... h– hi...!" He waved, his fingers twitched.

  The girl announced, "(y/n) de La Cruz, meet cabin eleven."

  "Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

  She said, "Undetermined."

  Everybody groaned.

  A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, (y/n). You can have that spot on the floor, right over there, besides the Jacksons."

  He pointed towards Cyrus and Percy, or, more specifically, the spot right beside them.

  The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

  "This is Luke," the blonde girl said. "He's your counselor for now."

  "For now?" (y/n) frowned.

  "You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

  (y/n) looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given him, before he looked around at the campers.

  "How long will I be here?" (y/n) asked.

  "Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

  "How long does that usually take?"

  The campers all laughed.

  "Come on," Annabeth told (y/n). "I'll show you the volleyball court."

  "I've already seen it."

  "Come on." She grabbed his wrist and dragged him outside. He could probably hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind him.

  Luke turned sending a quick glare towards the kids snickering, shutting most of them up in an instant, the rest of them quickly following behind as they noticed the sudden quietness.

  Cyrus and Percy sat back down, deciding to take a few minutes to sort everything out past the time Luna took Cyrus out, setting their stories out.

❔✾

  "–Now, come on, it's dinnertime."

  The moment Luke said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, Cyrus knew it was a conch shell, even though he'd never heard one before.

  Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"

  The whole cabin, about twenty of them, filed into the commons yard. They lined up in order of seniority, so of course he and Percy were nearly last, spare for the (y/n) kid.

  Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

  They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined them from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods–and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. He saw one girl, about his age, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.

  In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

  At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. Cyrus had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half his butt hanging off.

  Cyrus saw Grover sit at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

   Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

  Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

  Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and, well, barbecue. Cyrus's glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want– nonalcoholic, of course."

  Cyrus said, "Cherry Coke."

  The glass filled with caramel liquid.

  Then both he and his brother had an idea simultaneously. They both leaned in and uttered. "Blue Cherry Coke."

  The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.

  He took a cautious sip. Perfect.

  He drank a toast to his mother.

  She's not gone, he told himself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...