I was violently shaken awake.

"Come on, Nora. We need you!" Lee cried, going to shake Kayla awake.

"Armour on! Let's go! This is not a drill people!" Lee cried. I saw Will rubbing his eyes.

"What time is it?"

"2am. LETS GO PEOPLE! CAMP IS UNDER ATTACK!"

I threw my blankets aside and grabbed my sneakers, shoving my feet into them, and a chest plate, I jammed my helmet on I was buckling my belt and knives around my waist, with my quiver clamped in my teeth trying to follow Lee out the door and still wake up at the same time. Once the belt was buckled I threw the quiver into my back.

"What's going on?" I called, racing beside Lee, Michael,  and Kayla.

"Boarder patrols caught sight of a monster. Need our sharp eyes now. Let's move." His usual laid back manor had hardened into a general.

"Who else was on patrol with you?" Michael asked.

"Raph, Conor, Beckendorf and Malcolm."

"Got it."

We raced through the strawberry Fields and up the hill to Thalia's tree. Peleus was pacing back and forth, smoke billowing out of his nose in great huffs.

The huge Hephaestus Councilor turned as we approached, I recognized him as the guy Selina was chatting with before capture the flag.

"Guys." He nodded, his face pulled into a worried and serious expression.

"Has it attacked?" Lee asked.

"Not yet." A deep voice said, and a huge musclar body appeared out of the shadow, Raph looked angry- but then he was either sporting a very angry I hate you all look or he had an arragant smug smirk. No inbetween. His eyes snapped to me and a lopsided smirk appeared.

"Nice jammies, Sunshine."

"Shut up or I'll pin you to the tree again."

"So the drakon hasn't attacked?" Lee cut in.

"Not yet." A tall kid with grey eyes said with a shack if his head. I recognized him as an Athena kid. His grey eyes gave it away. They all had the same colour eyes. "it's an Aethiopian drakon, this one the Aerhiopian Drakon are a race of sub-Saharan Drakons native to Africa, what it's doing here, I don't know!"

Definitely an Athena kid.

"The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but I followed in the shadows, it's prowling the hills, looking for weak spots in our defenses."

"Alright. Cabin 7, let's go." Lee said and he turned and sprung light as a deer and took off running. The rest of us on his heels. I yanked my bow off and it was ready to shoot. The rest of my siblings all had their bows ready. Austin and Will had said at supper they weren't as good a shot as the other three, but they still knew how to use a bow better then most campers. Austin was a musical genius, he could pick up any instrument and he was proficient in it, Will was the healer, he could spew any medical and biology facts. He said he wasn't a very good fighter- but watching something move and fight he could figure out the fastest way to kill it.

We ran in silence, across the ridge of the hill. I could sense something close by.

"Lee! On our right!"

Something dove at us. We all screamed and dove in different directions. A few dove to the side, Lee dove forward. I however, for some stupid reason, dove to the right, towards it. The huge creature slammed into something solid.

"Oh Styx!"

I forgot about the enchants and magical barrier that kept the camp safe. The Drakon slammed into the wall, like it was a real brick wall. I however was now on the other side. I had to roll a few times so I wouldn't get squished by the body. This thing was huge. At least thirty or fourth feet. It slithered like a snack, but had huge legs. Even in the dark if the night it was a bright poisonous green.

"Nora!" Lee screamed.

"I'm fine!" I yelled back from the other side of the thing. Which wasn't smart. Now I had it's attention.

"Oh Styx!" I cursed again.

The huge head whipped in my direction and roared. It's breath smelt disgusting, like full on morning breath.

"Will? Got any breath mints?" I yelled as I ducked, the Deakins long tail lashed out.

"No!" He yelled back. "Left them in the cabin!"

"Just my luck." I grumbled.

I had to dive out of the way of the tail again. It was swinging it back and forth like a whip. I rolled and as I rolled up onto my knee, I let my arrow go, it sliced through the air and pierced into the scally hide.

Lee, Kayla and Michael let their arrows go, I heard them scream through the air. Their arrows sunk deep into the hide. I pushed off the ground and dove under the body of the monster. I almost got to the board when the Drakon twisted incredibly fast and the tail slammed into my chest. Sending me back, flying through the air with a scream. I landed hard on the ground with another scream. Knocking all the wind out of me and feeling a sudden sharp pain shooting through my side. I lay around for a second, trying to get my diaphragm and lungs to work together. But the pain spread from my side, made breathing and gasping incredibly painful.

The guys and Kayla shot a few volleys of arrows, but seemed reluctant to leave the safety of the boarders. I tried getting to my feet, but I was still gasping for air. And any movement sent a shockwave of pain through my body. The Drakon turned and started to slither and storm towards me.

A loud battle cry caught the monsters attention. Lee and Raph came sprinting towards me. Raph had a long Spatha ended with a huge Kopis and a big shield. There was a huge carved Drakon with its mouth wide open, showing all the sharp teeth, ironically, on the bronze shield.

Raph yelled at the monster, challenging it.
His face was twisted into such a battle rage it was quite scary. His dark eyes were a lit with the battle lust I'd expect from an son of Ares, but seeing it in person was terrifying. Every vein was popping from his tensed tattooed muscles in his bare arms as he screamed at the monster and thrust his spear at the monsters face. Raph stood in between me and the monster.

"Get her out of here!" He screamed as Lee skidded to a halt beside me.

"Can't...breath!" I gasped. "Broke something."

Lee grabbed my arms and yanked me as gently as possible, up to my feet, which made me yelp in pain. Now that I was up, I definitely knew something was broken. But couldn't deal with that right now. Had to keep moving. Move or die.

Clamping my jaw tight, and blinking the sudden rush of tears from the pain, I shrugged Lee off. Holding my side, I swiped my bow off the ground. Letting my throbbing side go and pulling the string back through a hiss of pain, another arrow having reappeared, I let the arrow fly. It hit the Drakon side. Just as Lee released two arrows at once and another volley of arrows from behind the boarder sunk into its hide. The monster reared back and screamed and leapt over us and ran down the hill, away from camp. The thudding of the creatures huge scally and clawed feet left huge gouges in the earth. The night was quite once again. The night noises came back like a giant huge monster wasn't just attacking.

With a groan I sunk back down to the grass, holding my side.

"Nora!" Lee cried crouching down.

"Did it get her?"

Trying to breath was becoming harder and harder. My breathing was short and ragged.

"Broken ribs." I managed to whimper.

"Oh gods."

I looked up, Raph's angry twisted battle lust melted into a surprisingly soft and concerned look.

"Come on sunshine, let's get you to Will."

For a guy with tones of hard muscle he was quite gentle in picking me up, and carrying me back up the hill.

"Will! Big House! We need the infirmary!" Lee cried.

Raph carried me back down the hill towards the house, Lee had run to wake Chiron and Will took off to prep the infirmary. I clamped my jaw tight trying not to make a noise but a few whimpers escaped. Raph nudged the door open and Will pointed to a bed.

"Armour off." He demanded.

Raph had my armour undone and laying on the flood beside me so fast it must have been a Areas thing. Will lifted my shirt to see my ribs, which were already brushing and swelling.

"Here." He handed me what looked like a juice box, with a straw already sticking out of it and a cookie.

"What?"

"Nectar and Ambrosia." Will said as he fussed with something else. "Now eat. Drink!" He tossed a juice box to Raph and told him to drink as well.

"Don't argue with a doctor." Raph said taking a sip. Will wrapped my ribs with an ice pack. While I ate the Ambrosia cookie that tasted like nachos and pancakes and drank the nectar that tasted like something almost like honey.

Chiron, Quintus and Lee came in.

"Lee told us what happened. Why did no one wake us?" Quintes asked.

"Sorry sir." Raph scrambled to his feet, placing his fist over his hart and bowing slightly. "Lee and and I saw it. I followed, and Lee went for reinforcements."

"No no. You did well, son. Quick thinking. Smart to not confront it until reinforcements. Now, what happened to our newest member?"

"Tail sent her twenty feet into the air and broke two ribs." Will said, finally thing off the bandage that held the ice in place. "Doctor's orders one day rest. Off duty tomorrow."

"Very well, no other injuries?" Chiron asked.

"No sir." Raph answered.

"No, we didn't kill the thing either. It took about three dozen arrows and then fled. It's still out there." Lee said.

"Very well. Quintes and I will join the watch. You must rest. We'll announce it at breakfast." Chiron said and then left, his hooves clip clipped in the hard wood.

It was a restless rest of the night. Sleeping was difficult. But I managed, which at that point was probably just another two hours.

My eyes snapped open and I yelped in alarm. I was still in the Big House infirmary, Will sat slumped in a chair beside my bed. I clamped my hands over my ears. The loudest electric guitar solo was blasting from somewhere, jolting me from sleep. Twisting my head around I saw Will was the same, except he didn't look alarmed.

"Apollo is starting the engine of the sun car. His loud music is at such a frequency that only his kids can hear, he likes to have the audience."

"I need sleep!" I whinned.

"Nah, come on, come watch the sunrise with me." Will insisted. He helped me up and together we sat on the big porch steps of the Big House. I didn't want to admit it, but it was beautiful. The sun rising, throwing all kinds of brilliant pinks and oranges and yellows into the skin. It made the water from the lake shimmer and glisten.

"Fine. It's pretty." I huffed and rolled my eyes.

"See?" Will grinned, "and nothing like sunshine and victim D to make you feel better."

It was true. The sun really did help my mood and energy level. Being injured at night sucked, I didn't have the sun's rays to help heal me.

"I guess...I really am the daughter of a god." I finally sighed.

"You weren't sure?"

"I was maybe...hoping... part of me had made this all up? Like some wild nightmare." I admitted.

"Ah. It all takes a while. But...this is a place where you're not a nobody anymore. Your not different or a loser or whatever else people told you. You belong." Will said.

I just nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder. We were quite for a bit.

"So tell me about this conversation you had with Aphrodite. You never did tell us."

I sighed and picked my head up. I told him everything I could remember the goddess saying.

"So it wasn't about your personal love life?" He asked.

"I don't think so. She seemed more...intense, more like a warning about something bigger." I smacked his arm after I saw his eyebrows shoot up. "I have no love life Will! And it's definitely something that's NOT interesting."

He just hummed. We spent the next hour talking over what she meant in her explanation of love and anger before he switched to the prophecy.

"The Daughter of the Light, The Healer and son of War. Must journey deep through twist and turn. To find the sputtering flame who has fallen asleep. Awake the blaze within before the earth is dead and cold." I repeated.

"Well the first one is obviously you. The orival wouldn't give you the prophecy if it was ment for someone else. But who are the other two ment to quest with you?" He asked, running a hand through his beach blond waves.

"I think the second one is you. The Healer? Aren't you the only Camp healer?"

"Well if you want to get technical. But all Apollo children can heal. I'm just...more gifted in that area. Like Kayla could do emergency first aid, but her skills are more archery based. Athena kids are also pretty good doctors."

"Well I still think it's ment to be you." I said with a shrug.

"We need to meet with Chiron and the other counselors, but usually the way it works with quests, is whoever was given the quest is the one who leads point and they get to ultimately pick the two who go with."

I just nodded. I turned the prophecy over in my mind until the conch horn sounded for breakfast. Will helped me up and he walked with me slowly up the hill to the pavilion. I waved to Percy and Tyson. Tyson smiled and waved back. Percy looked awful, like he hadn't slept much. I promised myself to go talk to Percy sometime this morning. Breakfast couldn't finish fast enough.

Before we were dismissed Chiron stood up and stomped his foot on the marble calling for attention.

"Good morning Campers. Before we diapers into our scheduled activities, Lee has an announcement."

Lee got up from our table and walked to the middle of the pavilion. "During the watch, Raph and I spotted Aethiopian drakon."

There was an instant uproar. Chiron stomped his back hoof again. Lee went on to explain what happened and how it all went down. "...twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It’s eyes-" he shuddered. "It tried taking out Nora, but Raph distracted it while Cabin 7 put more arrows in it and it fled. It's not gone...it's still out there. But...ya."

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently. This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We’ll see how you all do with that tonight."

The campers murmured among themselves.

"That's reassuring." I mumbled to Will who nodded solumly.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of them expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when.

"Everyone is nervous. It didn’t help that our attendance was down. We only have about eighty campers now three years ago, when Percy first showed up, and all this kinda started to go sideways, there were more than a hundred. Some have died, unfortunately. Some joined Luke. Some had just disappeared..." He said quietly.

"That is definitely not reassuring."

I caught sight of Percy getting up. I got up and winced, holding my throbbing side, I called out to Percy who stopped and turned. His exhausted eyes looked me over and then he seemed to exhale in relief.

"Still in one piece after a Drakon, good, won't have to ship you back to Paul in pieces." He grinned.

"Dude, you fought a Minotaur. Alone your first day! How'd you survive?"

"Well not everyone is as awesome as me."

"Ha ha. I broke two ribs and fractured a third, but I'll live. But not want I wanted to talk to you about. Why do you look dead on your feet?"

He sighed. "Walk with me."

🔆

🔆 Spatha: was a type of straight and long sword, and was used in war and in gladiatorial fights.

🔆 Kopis: describe a heavy knife with a forward-curving blade, primarily used as a tool for cutting meat, for ritual slaughter and animal sacrifice,[citation needed] or refer to a single edged cutting or "cut and thrust" sword with a similarly shaped blade.