{Kiara}
Kiara woke, but she was shocked about what she'd seen—or more like heard—in her dream that she didn't take in her surroundings until she heard an owl hoot right above her, on a branch.
She jumped to her feet at the sudden sound, high alert, and realized it was only an owl.
She stalked for a while, looking around. In the dark of the night she hadn't been able to see, but the woods were quite beautiful in the daylight. Tones of green dominated the forest, but there were splotches of brown, purple, pink, red and blue were visible as well. It had a magical aura, which Kiara wasn't surprised of.
Tearing her eyes away from the beauty of the forest, Kiara chose a random worn, dirt path and started walking that way, hoping to get back to camp.
She was walking peacefully when a girl stepped out of a maple tree, making Kiara freeze in her tracks.
The girl was really pretty. She had hair made of fire-red leaves, a skin toned greenish yellow, and a dress of greens, oranges and browns. Her eyes shone ember. Her lips were a darker shade of her skin, and her lashes were dark green, like the tree leaves she'd gazed at last night.
"Hello," she said. "I haven't seen you before. Are you new?"
Kiara hesitated. She had a feeling she wasn't new at being a demigod, but she was new at Camp Half-Blood. "Uh, yeah. Can you show me the way back to camp? I think I'm lost."
"Of course!" the girl said. Kiara had already assumed the girl was a dryad—a tree spirit—though she had no idea how she knew that. "Follow me."
The dryad signaled for Kiara to follow her, so the dark haired girl did so. Soon enough, Kiara learned that the dryad loved to talk. How did Kiara get to that conclusion? The dryad—whose name was Mable—wouldn't shut up. Though Kiara wasn't complaining.
"You know, you remind me of a demigod that comes to camp now and then," she was saying. "I think his name is Nico. You have the same aura; the aura of death."
"Well, I am a daughter of Pluto," Kiara replied, but she dreaded the thought of it for reasons unknown to her. "It's probably normal that I have the aura of death. Tell me more about this Nico."
"He's short—about your height or so—with black hair and pale skin just like yours," Mable started saying. "He really likes McDonald's and he comes into the woods often whenever he's at camp, though we don't talk much. He likes his solitude more than dryads, apparently."
"He's the son of Hades?" Kiara asked, not quite paying attention. She felt as if she was babysitting an eleven-year-old: she didn't hate it, but didn't adore it either. Most of Mable's words came in from one ear and out from the other.
"Oh, yes," Mable said. "Most of the time, he has the hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, with him. She's a nice dog, but she drools a lot." Mable shuddered. "She drooled on me once, I couldn't get the smell off for days."
They arrived at the sparser part of the woods. "Well, this is it," Mable said. They were a few yards away from the cabins, and the place seemed deserted.
"Thank you, Mable," Kiara said. "I don't know what I would've done without you."
The dryad flashed her a smile, and went back into the forest, skipping and humming a song.
Kiara waited until Mable was out of sight and scanned the camp grounds. She couldn't see anyone. She thanked the gods for that and made her way to the biggest cabin—Zeus's cabin. She was hoping to talk to Jason about her dream. She would've talked to Piper, but she felt closer to Jason in an unexplainable way.
Luckily for her, everyone seemed to either be in their cabins, or training at the arena, so the place was deserted. She made her way to the porch of Cabin One, but stopped when she heard two people talking. One was definitely Jason, and the other sounded like Annabeth.
"Kiara has them too, right?" Jason was saying. "But hers was a bit different than mine."
Kiara stiffened. She didn't like it when people talked about her, no matter what they said. She approached the door and listened carefully, not making a single sound that would give her away. She didn't want to be caught eavesdropping and lose everyone's trust.
"She has the symbol of Pluto on her arm, along with the motto of the Romans," Annabeth's voice said.
"Do you know where she is?" Jason asked. "I was hoping maybe she could come with us. After all, the prophecy mentioned her."
"I don't know, Jason," Annabeth said. "It's dangerous to bring more than 3 people on a quest. But I guess if you talk with Chiron..."
"Okay." Jason paused. "I, um... had a weird dream last night."
"Happens all the time to demigods," Annabeth said. "What did you see?"
That was when Kiara quietly went back down the steps of the marble porch of Cabin One. She knew they weren't talking bad things behind her back, and that was all she needed to know. She didn't want to eavesdrop on their whole conversation. That would be rude.
She walked around the cabin, passing behind it, and sat on the ground, leaning against the cool marble. Her thoughts immediately went to the dream she had had that night.
She had seen her mother and father. Her last name was Morrigan, which was the name of a Celtic goddess. She didn't know how she knew who Morrigan was, but she did. Her mother had promised to keep her safe, but Kiara didn't know if she had been able to keep her promise. She had also learned that she was born in the 1930s: But if so, how was she still 15? Was she 15? She couldn't remember.
And what about the quest? Could she go? Would Chiron allow it? It was no secret bad things had started to unravel. Was she supposed to go on the quest to try to make things go back to normal? Well, as normal as things could be when you were a demigod. Especially when you were a daughter of Pluto and born in the 1930s yet still 15 years old in the 21st century. This was a hell lot confusing.
Maybe she should tell Chiron about the dream and how she'd seen Pluto. Wait. Pluto was a Roman god. She had the letters SPQR—the Roman motto—burnt onto her forearm. She was in a Greek demigod camp. No wonder she felt as if she were in enemy territory. She was in enemy territory. She was a Roman demigod.
Sometimes Kiara wished she wasn't so smart.
She got to her feet and started running. She was going to the Big House. Maybe she could find some clues in her backpack; not that there was much in it.
Thankfully, the Big House was deserted. Kiara wondered where everyone was as she rushed to the extra bedroom she had been given.
Her gray backpack was waiting on her bed. She picked it up and turned it upside down, emptying its contents onto the bed—one extra pair of jeans, two t-shirts and a pen.
She grabbed one of the shirts and held it in front of her. How come she hadn't noticed the designs before? The designs were gold-yellow. The four letters of the Roman motto were printinted in the middle of the purple shirt with a gold laurel wreath surrounding it. Above the laurel, two words were printed: CAMP JUPITER.
Images flooded her mind. She saw marble buildings and columns, a huge Roman circus much like the Coliseum, a forum, and a glittering blue river. She saw colorful temples and shrines for different Roman gods and goddesses. She saw teens—demigods—dressed in armor over their purple shirts, holding golden swords, spears or knives.
Kiara dropped the shirt and the images immediately faded.
There was a knock on her door, and she spun around to see a grim looking Chiron. "What did you see?"
Kiara was reluctant to answer at first, but she spoke. "Temples, buildings and some demigods."
"Did any of the demigods look familiar?" The look behind his eyes was fright and hope. Kiara didn't know if the centaur hoped that she would say no, or if he hoped that she would say yes.
She shook her. "No. None of them looked familiar."
They heard shouts and yells from outside. Kiara approached the window and looked out. She saw a bronze dragon and half the camp crowded where the cabins were, right next to the hearth.
"You should join your friends. They were quite worried about you the last time I saw them."
Kiara was about to argue that she didn't have any friends, but she held herself and simply nodded, stuffing her belongings into her backpack and flinging it over her shoulder. She exited her room without saying a word and went out the Big House, heading towards the cabins. She wondered what the dragon was about and quickened her pace.
When she reached the cabins, she pushed her way through the crowd of demigods who were holding weapons aimed at the dragon in the middle of the place. Some satyrs were shifting their feet uncomfortably. She finally reached the edge of the crowd.
The dragon twitched and shuddered and flapped his wings. "That's a yes, bro!" Leo said. "Now, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the—um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."
Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just—"
"Go," Annabeth was saying. Out of all the demigods there, she was the only one who didn't look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, like this reminded her of better times. "Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"
Jason nodded. Then he smiled at Piper. "You ready, partner?"
Piper looked at the bronze dragon wings shining against the sky, and those talons that could've shredded her to pieces. "What about Kiara? Wasn't she coming with us?"
Kiara smiled. She was glad Piper hadn't forgotten about her. Maybe she did have friends, even if their friendship was only a Mist memory created by Juno/Hera in Piper's mind. For some reason she didn't dislike Juno like the others did. After all, if the queen of the gods hadn't created those fake memories, Kiara and Piper would never have been friends.
Annabeth put a hand on Piper's shoulder. "I'm sure we'll find her. I promise you that, Piper."
"If she's not coming, then neither am I," Piper said, crossing her arms over her chest. "We need her. I can feel it."
"Piper—" Jason started to say, but he was cut short by Kiara.
"It's fine, Piper, I'm here. I'll come, but I heard I needed Chiron's permission for a fourth person going on the quest," Kiara said, stepping forward and advancing towards Piper and the others. She was grinning. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was happy to see Piper. And it looked like Piper was happy to see her because she flung herself into Kiara's arms.
Kiara's body stiffened at this unexpected action, but she hugged back a moment later. She realized that Piper's smell had changed. She smelled of perfume and coffee. Although Kiara hadn't known Piper for long, she knew Piper detested makeup and perfumes and everything that looked too girly.
"I was so worried about you," Piper mumbled into her ear.
"Well I'm fine," Kiara assured. She was sure her face was tomato red. "So—Are we going on this quest or what?"
Flying on the dragon was the most uncomfortable thing Kiara had ever experienced since the Grand Canyon. The feeling of danger wouldn't leave her alone.
Up high, the air was freezing cold; but the dragon's metal hide generated so much heat, it was like they were flying in a protective bubble. Talk about seat warmers! And the grooves in the dragon's back were designed like high-tech saddles, so they weren't uncomfortable at all. Leo showed them how to hook their feet in the chinks of the armor, like in stirrups, and use the leather safety harnesses cleverly concealed under the exterior plating. They sat single file: Leo in front, then Kiara, then Piper, then Jason, and Kiara was very aware of Piper behind her. She wished she would hug her or something, which was a weird thought because Kiara didn't like physical attention.
Leo used the reins to steer the dragon into the sky like he'd been doing it all his life. The metal wings worked perfectly, and soon the coast of Long Island was just a hazy line behind them. They shot over Connecticut and climbed into the gray winter clouds.
Leo grinned back at them. "Cool, right?"
Kiara wanted to shout No, not cool! I wanna get down!, but she kept quiet.
"What if we get spotted?" Piper asked.
"The Mist," Jason said. "It keeps mortals from seeing magic things. If they spot us, they'll probably mistake us for a small plane or something."
Piper glanced over her shoulder. "You sure about that?"
"No," he admitted. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "We're making good time. Probably get there by tonight."
"Where are we heading?" Piper asked.
"To find the god of the North Wind," Jason said. "And chase some storm spirits."