As Elaine and Percy made their way through camp, they were greeted by some of their friends.

In the Big House's driveway, Connor and Travis Stoll from the Hermes cabin were hot-wiring the camp's SUV. It was only due to the fact that they were together that she knew who they were. She once asked Percy how to tell the brothers apart, but his guess was as good as hers.

They looked around for Grover, but they didn't see him. Percy, clearly still spooked by whatever happened at the school, decided to go to the arena to let off some steam and promised to meet up with Elaine later.

Finally, she arrived at the Apollo cabin.

On the inside, there were hooks for bows, quivers of arrows, lab coats, and musical instruments. There were sunflowers and hyacinths in vases in the windows. Beds lined the sides of the cabin and cots with medical tables sat in the center. A kitchenette (which was technically against camp rules) was located in the front left corner. The beds had gingham quilts on them and near each occupied bed were pictures, little poems, and other assorted things as mementos.

She's met with strong arms wrapping around her middle and lifting her up. "Finally! I was going to ask Chiron to send a search party to Manhattan." Lee Fletcher said, spinning her around in a circle.

"Lee, I'm early." Elaine laughed.

"Still. I don't know what I'd do without my baby sister this summer. Michael and Austin are already starting to drive me crazy." Lee said.

"I can hear you!" Austin yelled as he clamoured down from his bunk.

His cornrowed hair was longer than Elaine remembered. He gave her a tight squeeze and pulled away. "You've grown." He observed.

Elaine scoffed. "I'd hardly say two inches is "growing." But thank you for noticing."

"Has anyone told you the good news?" Austin asked.

Elaine shook her head. "What good news?"

"Mr. D isn't here." Lee said, a smile taking over his features. "He's gone to visit some old friends to make sure they're on the right side. He'll probably be out all summer."

If Dionysus was gone, that was the best news Elaine heard all day. On the other hand, if Dionysus had taken action and actually started helping the gods recruit against the Titan threat, things must be looking pretty bad.

Elaine wheeled her suitcase to her bunk and unpacked with Lee's help. Her assigned drawers, however, were not entirely empty.

Inside her last available drawer, was a golden glimmering bow and quiver full of arrows. Next to that was a golden dagger and a sheath attached to an adjustable band that could fit around her arm or stretch to fit her waist. A note sat in between the weapons. It was written in Ancient Greek, but Elaine could read it perfectly.

Little Lainie,

I couldn't watch you play with those raggedy toys the camp supplies any longer. My daughter deserves nothing but the very best. Treat these well, I believe you'll find them useful soon.

—— The most awesome dad in all existence, Apollo

"Weapons need names." Lee said, watching his sister delicately examine her gifts.

She held up her bow and admired the way light reflected off the golden material. "Nightshade." She said thoughtfully. Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them away.

"She would be honored." Lee said, placing his hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

She took the dagger into her hands. The blade was approximately seven inches long and its hilt an additional four. As she turned the weapon in her hands, her eyes caught a glance of letters etched on the blade.

"Aktís." She read. "Sunbeam." Lee translated. "Dad gave Michael a pretty sweet quiver of arrows, but I've never seen anything like this." He said longingly.

Guilt started to settle in as Elaine realized that perhaps not all of her siblings had been gifted with special weapons by their father, much less two. She remembered what Apollo had said on her quest last year, "Zeus insists on certain rules. Hands off, when there's a human quest. Even when your favorite daughter is on it."

"You can use it anytime." She promised.

"Nah. Magic items like this will only really work for the person it's intended for. Plus, Beckendorf promised me he's been working on something really cool." He said. She could tell he was still bothered, but he gave her a reassuring smile.

A knock on the door tore them away from their conversation.

Percy sat on top of Chrion's back, which was odd to Elaine because she could count on one hand the amount of times she's seen the centaur give anyone a ride.

He must've just come from teaching archery. He had a quiver and bow slung over his #1 CENTAUR T-shirt. He'd trimmed his curly brown hair and beard for the summer, and his lower half, which was a white stallion, was flecked with mud and grass.

"There you are, Elaine. Your presence is required." Chiron said.

"What's going on?" She asked.

She looked to Lee, wondering if he knew what was happening, but he looked just as confused as she felt.

"You'll see." He answered.

He did a weird imitation of a squat and allowed her to join Percy on his back.

"We should get to the woods. Grover will want you there."

"Where?" Percy asked.

"At his formal hearing," Chiron said grimly. "The Council of Cloven Elders is meeting now to decide his fate."

Chiron plunged into the woods. Nymphs peeked out of the trees to watch them pass. Large shapes rustled in the shadows—monsters that were stocked as a challenge to the campers.

Elaine thought she had a general idea of the forest after playing capture the flag, but Chiron took them a way she didn't recognize, through a tunnel of old willow trees, past a little waterfall, and into a glade blanketed with wildflowers.

A group of satyrs were gathered in a circle on the grass. Grover stood in the middle, facing three old, portly satyrs who sat on topiary thrones shaped out of rose bushes. She'd never seen the three old satyrs before, but she figured they must be the Council of Cloven Elders.

Grover seemed to be telling them a story. He twisted the bottom of his T-shirt, shifting nervously on his goat hooves.

He hadn't changed much since last winter. His acne had flared up. His horns had gotten a little bigger so they just stuck out over his curly hair. Elaine realized with a start that she was the same height as him now.

Standing off to one side of the circle were Annabeth, another girl Elaine had never seen before, and Clarisse, who she recognized from last year. Chiron dropped Percy and Elaine next to them.

Clarisse's stringy brown hair was tied back with a camouflage bandanna. She glared at Percy and muttered, "Punk," in greeting. She looked Elaine over and gave her a nod in acknowledgement that Elaine returned with a shy wave.

Annabeth had her arm around the other girl, who looked like she'd been crying. She was thin, with wispy hair the color of amber and had a pretty, elfish face. She wore a green chiton and laced sandals, and she was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. "It's going terribly," she sniffled.

"No, no," Annabeth patted her shoulders. "He'll be fine, Juniper."

Annabeth looked at Elaine and Percy and mouthed the words Grover's girlfriend.

At least that's what she thought she said, but that didn't make any sense. Annabeth made no mention of Grover having a girlfriend in their conversations.

She looked at Juniper closely, and realized the tips of her ears were slightly pointed. Her eyes, instead of being red from crying, were tinged green, the color of chlorophyll. She was a tree nymph—a dryad.

"Master Underwood!" the council member on the right shouted, cutting off whatever Grover was trying to say. "Do you seriously expect us to believe this?"

"B-but Silenus," Grover stammered. "It's the truth!"

The Councilman, Silenus, turned to his colleagues and muttered something. Chiron cantered up to the front and stood next to them. The elders didn't look very impressive to Elaine. She wasn't sure why Grover seemed so nervous.

Silenus tugged his yellow polo shirt over his belly and adjusted himself on his rosebush throne. "Master Underwood, for six months—six months—we have been hearing these scandalous claims that you heard the wild god Pan speak."

"But I did!"

"Impudence!" said the elder on the left.

"Now, Maron," Chiron said. "Patience."

"Patience, indeed!" Maron said. "I've had it up to my horns with this nonsense. As if the wild god would speak to ... to him."

Juniper looked like she wanted to charge the old satyr, but Annabeth and Clarisse held her back. "Wrong fight, girlie," Clarisse muttered. "Wait."

Elaine don't know what surprised her more: a child of Ares holding someone back from a fight, or the fact that she and Annabeth, who she thought despised each other, almost seemed like they were working together ... like they were friends.

"For six months," Silenus continued, "we have indulged you, Master Underwood. We let you travel. We allowed you to keep your searcher's license. We waited for you to bring proof of your preposterous claim. And what have you found in six months of travel?"

"I just need more time," Grover pleaded.

"Nothing!" the elder in the middle chimed in. "You have found nothing."

"But, Leneus—"

Silenus raised his hand. Chiron leaned in and said something to the satyrs. The satyrs didn't look happy. They muttered and argued among themselves, but Chiron said something else, and Silenus sighed. He nodded reluctantly.

"Master Underwood," Silenus announced, "we will give you one more chance."

Grover brightened. "Thank you!"

"One more week."

"What? But sir, that's impossible!"

"One more week, Master Underwood. And then, if you cannot prove your claims, it will be time for you to pursue another career. Something to suit your dramatic talents. Puppet theater, perhaps. Or tap dancing."

"But sir, I—I can't lose my searcher's license. My whole life—"

"This meeting of the council is adjourned," Silenus said. "And now let us enjoy our noonday meal!"

The old satyr clapped his hands, and a team of nymphs melted out of the trees with platters of vegetables, fruits, tin cans, and other goat delicacies. The circle of satyrs broke and charged toward the food.

Grover walked dejectedly to his friends. His faded blue T-shirt had a picture of a satyr on it. It read, GOT HOOVES?

"Hey guys," he said, so upset he didn't even look up from the ground to greet the new arrivals. "That went well, huh?"

"Those old goats!" Juniper said. "Oh, Grover, they don't know how hard you've tried!"

"Don't listen to them, Grover. They didn't see what we saw in New Mexico." Elaine said comfortingly, though it didn't seem like her words had much impact.

"There is another option," Clarisse said darkly.

"No. No." Juniper shook her head. "Grover, I won't let you."

His face was ashen. "I—I'll have to think about it. But we don't even know where to look."

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked.

In the distance, a conch horn sounded.

Annabeth pursed her lips. "I'll fill you guys in later. We'd better get back to our cabins. Inspection is starting."

***

It didn't seem fair to Elaine that she'd have to do a cabin inspection when she just got to camp, but that's the way it worked. Every afternoon, one of the senior counselors went around with a papyrus scroll checklist. The best ranked cabin got the first shower hour, which meant hot water was guaranteed. The worst cabin got kitchen patrol after dinner.

The problem for Elaine: Apollo cabin was second only to Hermes cabin in its number of occupants.

She marched toward the commons area, where the twelve cabins—one for each Olympian god—made a U around the central green.

The Demeter kids were sweeping out theirs and making fresh flowers grow in their window boxes. Just by snapping their fingers they could make honeysuckle vines bloom over their doorway and daisies cover their roof, which Elaine thought gave them an unfair advantage.

The mass of people in the Hermes cabin were scrambling around in a panic, stashing dirty laundry under their beds and accusing each other of taking stuff. Even Percy was rushing to clean his cabin.

Over at the Aphrodite cabin, Silena Beauregard was just coming out, checking items off the inspection scroll.

Elaine cursed under her breath. Silena was nice, but she was an absolute neat freak, the most critical inspector. She liked things to be pretty. Elaine could do "pretty", but with such short notice, she could almost feel her arms getting heavy from all the dishes she would have to scrub tonight.

She dashed inside her cabin. No longer was it empty.

Apollo children ranging in ages twelve to seventeen raced around making beds, organizing book shelves, and spraying air freshener.

Wordlessly, she checked her bunk. It was still made and her surrounding area was clean due to her earlier arrival, so she began helping unfamiliar people make their beds.

She had a lot more siblings than the three she'd gotten to know last winter. One trend she'd noticed, however, was the disproportionate amount of boys that filled the cabin. There were two other girls, Georgia and Solina, but they were older and didn't seem keen on allowing Elaine in their clique.

"Are you new? I haven't seen you." A blonde boy asked her. His brilliant blue eyes lit up in excitement.

"Not technically. I visited during the winter break." She explained as she tugged his comforter tight over his mattress.

"Elaine?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"I've been waiting for you to get here so Lee will let us start in the infirmary! I'm Will Solace." He introduced.

He reached his hand across his bed for her to shake. How polite, she noticed with a chuckle. She took his hand and gently shook it. It appeared she, Austin, and Will made up the youngest of the Apollo cabin.

Cleaning their living space didn't take nearly as long as Elaine was expecting it to. With over a dozen people working together to tidy up, Elaine found herself relaxing on her bed by the time their inspection began.

"Oh, my."

Silena Beauregard stood in the doorway with her inspection scroll. She stepped into the cabin, did a quick twirl, then raised her eyebrows. "Well, I had my doubts, considering the sheer amount of you. But you clean up nicely, cabin seven."

She winked and left the room.

***

After lunch, Elaine and Will spent the afternoon learning about one another while helping Lee shelve the nectar and ambrosia as he showed them the layout of the infirmary. By three, they were dismissed with the promise to come back at the same time tomorrow.

Afterwards, Elaine met up with Annabeth and Percy at the canoe lake were she was introduced to Tyson, Percy's half-brother.

She was taken aback, at first, having not realized how serious Annabeth was all the times she called him a "big guy," and thought her friend could've stand to mention a few things prior to Elaine meeting him for the first time (namely, his singular brown eye).

He blinked at her bashfully before calling her a "pretty girl". With careful instruction, he engulfed her in a hug after Percy warned to him be gentle with his new friend. He put her down, grinning like crazy, his single calf-brown eye full of excitement. His teeth were yellow and crooked, and his hair was a rat's nest. He wore ragged XXXL jeans and a tattered flannel shirt over his tall frame.

Annabeth was really glad to see Tyson, having met him the summer before, but Elaine could sense she was being distant.

She kept looking over at the forest, like she was thinking about Grover's problem with the council.

Elaine couldn't blame her. Grover was nowhere to be seen, and she felt really sorry for him. Annabeth once told her that finding the lost god Pan had been his lifelong goal. His father and his uncle had both disappeared following the same dream.

Last winter, Grover had heard a voice in his head: I await you—a voice he was sure belonged to Pan—but apparently his search had led nowhere. If the council took away his searcher's license now, it would devastate him.

"What's this 'other way'?" Percy asked Annabeth. "The thing Clarisse mentioned?" He sounded like he wanted to ask more, like, since when were you and Clarisse friends? but he kept that to himself.

Annabeth picked up a stone and skillfully skipped it across the lake. "Something Clarisse scouted out. I helped her a little this spring. But it would be dangerous. Especially for Grover."

"Goat boy scares me," Tyson murmured.

Elaine stared at him. Tyson looked like he could send Grover flying if he didn't watch how hard he high-fived him. "Why are you scared of Grover?"

"Hooves and horns," Tyson muttered nervously. "And goat fur makes my nose itchy."

And that pretty much ended their Grover conversation.

***

Before dinner, Elaine, Tyson, and Percy went down to the sword arena.

Percy introduced Elaine and Tyson to Quintus, the new sword fighting teacher.

Quintus was an aged, graying man with a burn mark in an unrecognizable shape pressed into the nape of his neck.

As Elaine shook his hand, she couldn't help the shudder that passed through her. There was something ... off about the man. He looked normal, she supposed. But there was a feeling lingering on her skin that didn't feel right—a warning.

When she asked about the wooden crates she'd noticed marked TRIPLE G RANCH—FRAGILE, THIS END UP, he refused to tell her what was inside.

She looked to Percy for help to convince the man, but he gave her a shrug instead. "I already tried, he won't tell me."

While he and Percy went back and forth with their swords, Elaine found herself slashing and hacking at one of the rubber humanoid dummies set up in the arena.

She wasn't that bad with a sword, though against an unmoving target she supposed anyone could be good at sword fighting. She was grateful for the inanimate partner, as she often times found herself distracted by Tyson playing with Mrs. O'Leary.

When she'd first made the hellhound's acquaintance, she reached for the dagger around her waist. She knew Tyson had the same idea, because he began charging the monster with two raised fists yelling, "Bad dog!"

He was intercepted by Quintus who had to explain that the beast was tamed.

Tyson took an immediate liking to the hellhound after the clarification. He played with Mrs. O'Leary, who he called the "little doggie."

Elaine was feeling good. This was the long awaited day at camp she'd been dreaming of.

Then dinner came, and all the campers lined up by cabin