Half-Blood Means Two Things || Marauders Era | Percy Jackson ||

|| 7 - I Hate Demigod Dreams ||

It didn't take long for people to find me.

McGonagall had barely disappeared before I was surrounded by demigods.

"Oh, my gods!" Ayla shrieked, shoving past Mason. "I thought you were dead!" She tackled me in a hug and I fell back a few steps in surprise. She squeezed me tightly as more people gathered.

"Ayla..." I trailed off, feeling horrible for running away. But I'd hurt her. How could she hug me knowing I'd literally blasted her a dozen feet?

She released me from the hug and stared at me with so much concern and fury in her blue eyes that it surprised me. Ayla didn't get angry-angry often. She got annoyed, sure, but right now, she was fuming and I was the sole focus of it.

"I'm sorry -- "

"You disappeared!" She smacked me across the head. "I thought you died!" She punched me in the arm. "We couldn't contact you with Iris Messages -- " She kicked my shin.

"Ow!" I tripped over my feet trying to get away from her. "I've only been gone a day -- "

"Yeah -- only a day -- a day after the gods released, like, all of Tartarus!" She screamed, smacking me again.

That's when we realized we'd gathered an audience. A half a dozen campers all crowded around us, but the only one I cared much about was Mason.

"Mason," I said, pulling away from Ayla who glared at me like I might disappear again. "Is-is Sawyer -- "

"She's fine," he said tightly. For once, he wasn't being rude or arrogant. He stared at me with a look in his eye I couldn't decipher. "She's in the infirmary with a few burns and a concussion -- nothing she's not used to."

I couldn't hold back the sigh of relief that slipped from my lips. "Thank the gods,"

"Chiron'll want to see you," Ayla said, tearing my gaze away from Mason.

I nodded. I expected that. I also expected to be sentenced to kitchen duty for the rest of my life.

Then Ayla noticed all my packages and my owl. "Um -- where did you get all of this?"

Crap.

McGonagall's words played in my head. 'I would not deem it wise to let your friends here at Camp know about your mother... or her world.'

"Um, long story," I said, hoping it would buy me some time to think up a convincing lie.

Ayla pursed her lips like she intended to ask questions, but I stopped her before she could.

"Will I be able to fit everything into the cabin?" I asked Ayla knowing the Hermes cabin was already overbooked with unclaimed demigods.

Ayla rolled her eyes. "Obviously -- you'll have the whole cabin to yourself."

"I -- what? Why?" I wondered aloud, speaking before thinking.

Ayla gave me a look like she wasn't sure how I could be so stupid. "Cabin 1? Zeus's cabin? As far as we know, you don't have any more siblings. So, yeah, empty."

I stood there for a moment, confused. How had I not thought about that? Obviously I would be moved to Zeus's cabin. He was my dad, so I couldn't stay in Hermes's cabin. But, for some reason, I'd been sure that I would stay in the Hermes cabin where you were in constant danger of being pranked and it was so crowded that you couldn't turn to violently or else you might backhand someone. But it just hadn't registered that I'd have to leave my home -- the bed I'd slept in for my entire life for the vacant, terrifying cabin that belonged to Zeus.