It Looks Like a Lie

It's a Twig

My father is shining, no annoying sibling violently dragged me out to bed, and I don't have to work in the infirmary until this afternoon. It's a great morning. The only thing that could make it better is if a certain Son of Hades would show up to breakfast more than once a week, but hey, I'll work with what I got. Of course, with everything being so perfect, it's only a matter of time before a monster or injured camper comes along to ruin it. Until that happens I can enjoy this moment of peace.

"What's that?" A girl from the Hermes table wonders rather loudly. She stands up and points at spot on the horizon.

Well, the calm before the storm sure didn't last long.

The speck grows until it's clears that it's some sort of bird. Normally that wouldn't be weird for a summer camp, but birds aren't all that common here outside of the woods with the protective shield in place and a hungry dragon working as a guard dog. If that isn't odd enough, it seem to be heading straight toward the pavilion. By now, everyone has stopped eating their breakfast to watch as the bird, which can be made out as an owl, seems to be carrying a package in it's talons. It barely reaches the dining pavilion before it almost clips people in the head with a box that's a little to large for a bird of that size. Finally, it all but crash lands in front of me. Cue the whispers as campers turn to their neighbor to discuss what's going on and what all of this means. Despite all the commotion, the small fowl doesn't seemed fazed at all. It rights itself, himself (I'm pretty sure it's a boy), lets out a soft "who", and stares at me with piercing yellow eyes. I can only get it to stop once I shoo it off of the parcel. It must have been the right thing to do, because he steals a piece of bacon off of my plate (much to my annoyance) and flies off.

"That was weird," someone states the obvious. This sets off a chorus people voicing their agreement. Trying to block all this out, I turn my attention to the parcel sitting on the table in front of me.

I grab the package to find that it's wrapped in a thick brown paper. Two creamy coloured letters are attached to the top with a strip of twine. The address is in English, making it hard to read with my dyslexia, but I'm almost positive that's my name. The rest is a smaller print and impossible to decipher by myself. I have to have one of my sisters to help me. Apparently, the upper right corner with the fancy "M" stamp has the words Wizarding Owl Post International underneath it while the left side contains a return address for a Hecate Titan. Everything starts making sense, these must be the supplies Hecate mentioned. Though I don't know how all the stuff I need to blend in at a magic school could fit in a box this size. I yank at the string bow until the letters are dislodged. The bottom one has the same packaging as the first, but it's has Nico's name written on it in a dark green ink. Well, I was looking for an excuse to drag Nico to breakfast, now I have an excuse to take breakfast to him. Most people have left after the excitement died, so no one questions when I start piling pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, fruit, and other random breakfast foods on a plate. I tuck the box and the letters under my arm before heading towards the Hades cabin.

Three things to know about cabin 13, the outside is freezing. It a type of cold that's only possible because the Underworld material it's made out of leeches any warmth out of the air. Even though most campers find this creepy, it's the perfect place to hang out during the dog days of summer if you want a break from the heat.. Despite the temperature outside the building, the inside is like a furnace. It's what I imagine the portals to hell would feel like. The entire thing is an anomaly the Nico either doesn't know the answer to or refuses to explain when I've asked about it. Lastly, the door is almost never locked which makes it easy to get in when he doesn't respond to your knocking. Like for instance, now.

As soon as I walk into the cabin, it's obvious that he hasn't even heard me invite myself in. I can hear the music from his head phones from the door way. "Nico," I try to get his attention at a normal volume before switching to yelling, "Nico!" It seems to work. He at least looks up from the sword he's sharpening.