The Quest To Nowhere | Completed | PJO HOO TOA

Saying Goodbye

On the last night of summer the beads were handed out at dinner. A purple clay bead with the black silhouette of a girl with green smoke billowing from her face. Caprice becoming the oracle was the most exciting event. When she received her bead I noticed a slight blush in her face. I was proud of her.

I was also glad that our quest wasn't on the bead instead, but there was no way it could have been. We didn't exactly do a lot. And Alister stumbling into the river all busted up? People forgot about that pretty fast too. He was glad that the first bead on his new leather necklace had his friend on it.

"It's like knowing a famous person!" He said excitedly, playing with the new bling around his neck.

So, that bead joined the two others on my own leather necklace. There was the green one, with a demolished Demeter cabin that fell in a mysterious sink hole from last year. (I wonder how that happened. Wink wonk.) And the bright red one with an arm painted on it from my first summer. That was an interesting year.

I had been playing my first game of capture the flag ever and I was a lonely little ten year old. I wandered straight into a trap and my arm got lopped right off. That's how I met Caprice. She found me and took me to the sick room. Don't worry, my arm is back. Everyone decided that was funny and it became the bead on everyone else's necklace.

Then came the last day. I woke up and found a piece of paper on my beside table pretty much telling me to get lost or tell Chiron I would be staying, because if I didn't. . .Let's just say the cleaning harpies had permission to cook me any way they wished.

The camp was pretty isolated. Everyone was either getting their cabins ready for final inspection or packing to leave. I for one didn't try very hard with my cabin. Basically, I made my bed and took out the trash. I was the only kid in the Poseidon cabin and I wasn't too messy.

After deeming my living quarters worthy, I left to go talk to Caprice. The Hecate cabin was a similar situation to the Hephaestus cabin. You really had to be careful. If you knocked one brick from its walls or banged on the door one too many times? You could end up permanently turned into a pig or a beach ball. No thanks! It's a little hard to narrate when you're a beach ball.

When she let me in to chat I also saw her other siblings. Caprice had two half sisters and a half brother. Sometimes I envied her, but that was rare. She got to live with her siblings at least during the summer, where as I rarely saw Tyson.

Her sisters were very witchy and it was seriously cool. Their names were Raven, who was fifteen, and Sabrina, who was seventeen. Then there was Kenny. Kenny wasn't the most wizardy guy I'd ever met. He was about eighteen and he was the sweetest, most uptight nerd I had ever met.

"Can you guys get off that bed? I need to fluff the pillows," He asked shyly.

"You fluffed them already, chubs." Sabrina assured him. "There's no chance we'll have the messiest cabin. We could even have the cleanest. Besides the Aphrodite kids."

Nonetheless we hopped off the bed so that he would stress about the pillows. Caprice and I went to the corner of the cabin while her other siblings did a few last finishing touches and continued to pack their things.

"Promise to iris message me?" I asked.

"Of course I will," Caprice responded with a little smile. "I may even be able to come visit you and your mom. You have to keep up with your meditation, though."