Bdubs was not lonely.
Sure, Scar had run off and died, and Ren had run off and gotten turned into a guinea pig, and Gem had run off and gotten kidnapped by pirates, and Grian had run off to gods knew where, and Annabeth had run off and gotten captured, and Zedaph and Percy and Thalia had run off to save her, and now Tango had run off to start a war, but that didnt mean Bdubs was alone.
Apparently his ability to not use run-on sentences had run off too.
Along with his hope for a good night's sleep.
But Bdubs was not lonely, definitely not. He had the whole Hermes cabin, although none of which he was really close friends with. But it was impossible to be lonely when surrounded by people... right?
Right?
The rest of his cabin was getting ready for a chariot race. Bdubs just wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option, because he knew he would wake up more tired than he fell asleep.
No, he wasn't having trouble sleeping! He was just still having dreams.
Take the night before today, for example. The night before the questers left.
He had fleeting glimpses of different scenes, which wasn't out of the ordinary. That happened often. Usually, it was random things and people he didn't recognize. Bdubs guessed that he was experiencing the dreams of other people, from the fact that they never seemed to notice him.
Some of the dreams people had were weird.
Anyway.
One of the dreams he had last night, however, was abnormally long.
And of an abnormally familiar mustached man.
Bdubs started the dream facing a wall with a painting of an island somewhere. Bdubs figured that wasn't important and turned around.
The bedroom was probably a different one from the one he, Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and Grian had stayed in, but it looked very similar. It was easily recognizable as a suite on Luke's monster cruise ship.
And Mumbo was in that room.
"MUMBO!" Bdubs yelled when he saw him.
Mumbo didn't look at him. He probably didn't even hear. The people in dreams never did, unless they were gods.
What was he doing in there? How had he gotten captured by Luke, and why was Mumbo, a mortal, useful to Kronos?
Mumbo was chattering about some redstone project, as always. There was a dracaena next to him, looking confused but intrigued, but he didn't seem to see that she was a monster.
Bdubs' heart sank further and further the longer Mumbo talked. The demigods already knew that Luke knew about Minecraft. By now, he probably knew how to get in as well. And now Mumbo was showing a monster the blueprints of a TNT cannon.
When Bdubs woke, he sat up and rested his head in his hands.
What could he do?
Nothing, really.
Who could he tell?
Tango, and Zedaph, and Ren if the guinea pig left his cabin today. Or he could try to Iris-Message the Hermits to see if it was true.
It occured to him that nobody had tried to Iris-Message Grian or Gem.
Maybe he could do that soon. Just to make sure they were alive.
Bdubs dug through his things to find a piece of paper. Finding nothing, he stepped outside to get one from Arts and Crafts.
It was still dark outside, so technically he wasn't supposed to be out here. But he was tired. He didn't feel like going through technicalities.
He saw a glimmer of silver and heard voices up at the dining pavilion, but decided not to investigate. He had a more important mission at hand. He passed it off as a couple of Hunters who wanted fresh air.
He arrived at the Arts and Crafts building and slipped inside. Nobody bothered to lock anything up at night. The Hermes kids usually returned what they stole within a couple days, and no mortals could get into camp at all.
The shelves and tables looked ominous in the darkness. An abandoned attempt at a sculpture in the corner loomed over the room.
Bdubs wished he had brought a flashlight.
He headed to the shelf where he knew the paper was and grabbed a piece, not knowing or caring whether it was paper or cardstock, colored or patterned or white. He had paper, and that was what he needed, so he left. The sculpture's eyes seemed to follow him. Bdubs made the decision never to go to Arts and Crafts at night again.
Having got what he wanted, Bdubs left Arts and Crafts and got back to his cabin without incident.
That had gone surprisingly well. Bdubs picked his way over the sleeping bags and people on the ground. He found his flashlight in his bag. Tango had made it out of a small redstone lamp and an old mortal flashlight a while back. Bdubs turned it on and aimed it at his paper.
He realized he didn't have a pencil.
He found a marker on a nightstand that he used, because he didn't want to go back to Arts and Crafts. He made a list of the Hermits he needed to contact.
Mumbo
Xisuma
Grian
Gem
He'd talk to Zedaph, Tango, and Ren in the morning. Bdubs folded the paper - with slightly more difficulty than he had anticipated, considering it was cardstock - and slid it into his bag. He set the marker back where he found it.
He got back in his sleeping bag and stared at the ceiling. He wanted sleep without dreams. Was that too much to ask?
Apparently.
The gods were mocking him.
Bdubs turned in his sleeping bag and closed his eyes.
The next morning, after Zedaph was gone and Tango had started a prank war, Bdubs asked the Ares cabin if he could see Ren.
He didn't have drachmas. He could probably pay a Hermes kid to go steal some later. But for now, he just had the Hermits who were at camp. And Tango was busy setting up some sort of mechanism in front of the Artemis cabin with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers.
The grumpy-looking Ares kid who answered the door brought out an equally grumpy-looking Ren the guinea pig and placed him in Bdubs' hands.
Bdubs returned to the Hermes cabin and sat down on the porch, cupping Ren in his hands. He still wasn't sure how to hold a guinea pig.
Ren squeaked curiously.
"They have Mumbo," Bdubs said finally. "Kronos and Luke. I don't know when they captured him."
Ren was silent. His tiny rodent eyes widened.
He squeaked again.
"I know," Bdubs said, even though he actually had no idea. "He isn't supposed to be on that ship. And for some reason, he was showing a monster the blueprints for one of Etho's TNT cannons. We're all going to die."
Ren squeaked in agreement.
"Maybe Grian was captured when he disappeared," Bdubs theorized. "And Mumbo found out somehow and tried to rescue him."
Ren did the guinea pig equivalent of a shrug and squeaked.
This was a very one-sided conversation.
"I'm gonna try to Iris-Message him later," Bdubs continued. "Just to make sure it's a demigod dream and not a normal dream."
Ren nodded, and Bdubs took him back to his cabin.
Bdubs spent the rest of the day with the pegasi. A couple of Aphrodite girls were there, talking crap about the Hunters, but they left when Bdubs came in.
He couldn't help but be mad at Zedaph and Percy for leaving. Usually, Percy was the one he went pegasus riding with.
He began to feel homesick. Tonight, he'd ask around for a few drachmas to Iris-Message Xisuma back at Hermitcraft, but it would be official business, not a catch-up between friends.
No! He wasn't lonely. He just missed his builds. Yes, that was it.
He most certainly was not lonely.
~~~
I wrote the majority of this at 5AM because I woke up early guys I'm so tired
-Indigo