Dorian~~

There was something moving through the woods--Dorian could feel the vibrations of the ground through their feet, and they could see birds flying away. Something told them this was not the Hunters, but rather, something much larger and much more dangerous.

Nathan Lee stood next to Dorian, and it seemed Nathan had noticed it too, as his sword was drawn. Dorian drew their sword as well and the two began to move forwards, silently.

The vibrations in the ground stopped, and Dorian was able to make out the figure of the beast through the trees. It was massive, with large horns sticking out from its head that were covered in tooth-like nobs. Nathan mouthed the word 'Aeternae'.

Dorian vaguely remembered hearing about Aeternae once. They knew they were mentioned being found in India in original Greek mythology, though like everything else, it was bound to show up in America. Dorian wondered how it got in the forest, though. He figured something this large would have been spotted a long time ago. 

The aeternae seemed to be searching for something, and Dorian could see it pause every so often. They assumed the creature was sniffing, or something like that. 

The beast suddenly focused on Dorian, and let out a roar--though Dorian couldn't hear the roar, they could feel it. 

Dorian didn't need Nathan to tell them to run.

~~~ 

Ion~

I run through the undergrowth, listening for any sign of the Hunters nearby. There had been some shouting earlier, but when I'd passed Kaya she told me it was an illusion.

Through a gap in the trees, I see the silver gleam of the Hunters' flag. Crouching behind a bush, I readjust my grip on my bow. I've been itching to see the Hunters beaten for years. Last time they visited Camp, I didn't get a chance to play. One of the Apollo healer kids are always on medical duty, and it had been my turn.

Reaching behind me, I pull out an arrow- nothing lethal, of course. This one would burst and release a fog, obscuring their vision. As I nock it to the string, however, a lavender mist settles over the clearing. The Hunters immediately pass out. I grin. There must be a Hecate kid somewhere nearby.

From my vantage point, I watch as someone runs into the clearing, steals a silver jacket and the flag, then returns the jacket to where the flag had been. Overall, it's a pretty devious move.

I stand and run in the direction of the flag thief, hoping to provide some backup as they head back to our side. I soon happen across a group of battling campers, who look like they're losing.

I draw my dagger and join the fray. After battling a few Hunters, I hear someone behind me and whirl around, deflecting a blade in midair. It's Lore, the lieutenant of Artemis. Her twin daggers flash back towards me, and I duck. One of them glances off my armor.

"Long time no see," I say casually, parrying another stroke.

"I know. It's been since, what, the last time we beat you?" Lore responds.

I'm about to reply with something witty, but there's a loud howl, then a yell. Everyone stops, looking around.

"It came from that way!" someone shouts, and I start running. Lore's right behind me, along with some other campers.

We burst into a clearing to find someone on the ground, bleeding, and a very large horned beast standing over him. Quickly, I fire an arrow at it, hoping to the gods it flies true. Sure enough, it hits the beast in the eye.

It roars and charges forward. I dodge out of the way and sprint towards the figure on the ground. I rack by brain for his name. Leigh.

"What... is... that thing?" he gasps.

"An Aeternae, I think," I say, pulling an ambrosia square from my pocket. "Eat this, then we'll get you to the infirmary."

There's another roar from the monster, and I turn to see how the fight is going. 

Maylin

~~

Maylin could hear the roar echoing through the forest. She shivered, not from the cold, but from the fear that rippled through her. She tried to bring to mind creatures that she knew of that could make such a sound, but her mind drew a blank. She wasn't very good with that sort of thing, anyways.

Maylin drew her sword and advanced towards the noise. Soon a large monster came patially into view, most of its body obscured by the foliage. It seemed to be staring at something - or someone - in front of it. She had little time to feel relieved that that someone wasn't her before the creature took off. Maylin clenched her sword and followed. Capture the flag could wait.

Kaya~

Kaya fought off the being as she created a plan in her head. This was NOT a Hunter. Zeus' Foot was nearby...she needed the higher ground. She ran over to the rocks and climbed up. she could nearly see camp-she really hoped they were winning. She jumped high and lunged. Hitting the beast in it's neck, it ran. "What was that?" She asked herself. Running back torwards camp, she found complete chaos...and the beast was causing it. Someone screamed "Aternae!" So that's what it was. This was just another monster, she told herself. She took a deep breath, grabbed a sword, and ran into battle.

Kai~

Kai had been having a bad day even before the Aternae destroyed half of Cabin 11.

While most of the other campers were running around in the forest playing capture the flag, Kai had been given stable duty. Apparently nearly decaptitating her blacksmithing instructor the day prior was cause to keep her away from sharp objects. In her defense, she hadn't expected him to tap her on the shoulder in the middle of forging weapons, and she was still a little twitchy after the diner escapade. Thankfully everyone at camp took near death experiences in stride, though he had commented he'd never been so passionately karate chopped with tongs before.

So she'd just got to her sleeping bag in the corner of cabin 11, utterly exhausted and coated with she-didn't-even-want-to-know, when the Aternae slammed through the wall with a deafening crash and came to a careening stop at her feet. It lay, stunned, half-buried in the resulting dust and debri of the wall. Total silence fell.

"... Did we kill it?" Someone said from outside of the cabin. Kai was vaguely aware of a huge croud of campers and hunters gathered outside. Mainly she was aware of the Aternae's huge head residing right where her sleeping bag used to be. The Aternae's bulging eyes swivelled up to meet hers.

Kai stared at it for a moment.

It stared back.

Very slowly and methodically, she leaned down, pulled her bag of extra clothing out from under the Aternae's head, picked out her dad's jacket, and put it on.

~~

Sorry it took so long for me to join in, I kept on finding the perfect place to nudge in my charrie and then leaving the computer for the whole day, somehow not realizing that things change in 24 hours XP. Also I know this didn't add much to the battle, but I was thinking the Aternae was accidentally driven into the cabin area? Probably through a very chaotic series of events that took place while Kai was still shoveling poop =P

Nathan--

As we begin to run, more campers/Hunters come. They include Ion, Shane, Lore, and maybe a few others.  I turn to see that someone is hurt, on the ground. I think maybe Leigh but I could be wrong.

There's yelling about getting ambrosia, and Ion fires an arrow at it, the arrow strikes the Aeternae in the eye. It runs away, and Ion sprints up to Leigh to give them some ambrosia. 

There's another roar from farther away. An idea comes into my mind. I climb the tree nearest to me, and look into the forest. There's three Aeternae total. One is the one we saw, with an arrow in its eye. There's another over by Zeus's Fist, which a couple campers are fighting. And the third is being attacked by several Hunters. I relay this info to Dorian, because I know they can come up with a plan.

As soon as I make it back onto the ground, everyone asks me about the situation.

"Don't worry," I reply. "Dorian will figurd something out. 

Dorian taps my shoulder, then grabs a stick and starts to make a drawing on the ground. I get everyone to pay attention. 

Once the drawing is done, Dorian begins to simultaneously talk and sign. "There's three in total. One by Zeus's Fist, one dangerously close to the cabins, and one over by the Hunter's Flag. We're going to need to split up to deal with them. I'll stay behind to get Leigh to a medic. 

"Ion and Nathan, you two will deal with the one over by Zeus's Fist. Maylin, you'll tell the Hunters about the plan, but I have a different task for you. Lore and Shane, you can deal with the one in the Cabins."

"What?!? Why do I get paired with Shane!?" Lore snaps.

"Because you two are currently our most experienced monster hunters," Dorian replied. "Now, for the second part of the plan, we'll need everyone to bring the Aeternae back here. Get all the camper and Hunters you can find to come with you. Maylin, once I get back from taking care of Leigh and you get back from the Hunters, you and I will go to forge and grab as many chains as possible, and the strongest we can find. 

We'll wrap the chain around the trees, trapping the Aeternae. Then, we'll climb into the trees, and finish the Aeternae off from above."

Everyone seems on-board with the plan.

"Okay," Lore says. " Let's get going. We've got no time to lose. "

Lore ~ 

I watch Ion pull back their golden bow carefully, letting it go with an audible snap. The arrow flies straight and true, sinking right into the eye of the Aeternae. Ion is a good shot, admittedly better than me. Apollo kids are the only ones that can compete with my hunters. I've tried to recruit them to join the hunt several times, to no avail. 

The arrow must have been a normal one because the monster didn't vaporize instantly. Instead, it reeled up and charged toward an unsuspecting Hephaestus kid. A couple of the campers ran away understandably. Aeternae are ugly as Tartarus. 

I'm calculating a hunting plan in my head, but before I can speak, a girl pipes up. "Let's surround it and hit it from a distance from behind the trees. That way it'll get confused and won't charge at one person!" I smile. She must be an Athena child. 

I duck behind a tree and nitch a silver arrow in my bow. I release it with a satisfying snap. It hits the Aeternae square in the back, but bounces off its tough hide. The Aeternae rears up and turns in my direction. Luckily, a golden arrow hits the left side of his neck. Nice shot Ion! We all work in unison, firing off shots one at a time. 

"We need to take this thing down soon, I'm gonna go in!" Shane whispers to me.  

"Shut up LaBelle. That's not the plan!" It's too late. That guy already dashed in, sword brandished. 

"Come on guys!" Shane was clearly piopular with the campers. The other kids ran in, weapons brandished. The Hephaestus girl wielded an epic steampunk style laser axe. 

Predictably, LaBelle's plan sucked. The Aeternae dashed out of our circle and ran towards the cabin. Shane's hoard ran after it. They screamed and waved their weapons in a very unsafe manor. The Aeternae sped up and charged away from them. Unfortunetely, "away from them" was right into the wall of Cabin 11. It knocked out with a deafening crash.

"Is it dead?" A camper asked.  

"Yeah! We did it!" Shane whooped and gave out high fives to the other campers. 

"Don't look so disgusted Lore. Your face is looking a bit Aeternae-esque." Ion come up behind me and wraps their arms around my neck. 

"I can't help it. He's so obnoxious! The Aeternae killed itself, he didn't do anything!" 

"Hmm yeah. But he's pretty and pretty nice."

I scoff at that. "It's just the Aphrodite aura. You have to look past it and see LaBelle for who he is."

"He's looking at you." Sure enough, Shane waves at me with a jovial grin and walks over. 

"Hey Lory! We didn't finish our PvP!" Shane says, like his existense doesn't bother me to the core. 

I role my eyes. "First of all, you may call me Lietenant Lee, never Lory. Second, PvP?! This is not Minecraft and you are not 9 years old." 

"Those are the words of a coward," Shane snaps back casually. "We'll settle it soon."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Nothing makes me happier than when one of me and Sybill's charries are best frenemies. 

<3 Fidelity 

Maylin

~~

Maylin sprinted as fast as she could towards the hunters. One Aeternae was bad enough, but three? At least they had the Hunters with them, alone with a lot of skilled demigods at the camp.

The Hunters were fairly easy to find. They all had been alerted to the monsters and imediatly sprun into action. Some were in groups while others were more spread out. Maylin approached as many as she could, reciting to them Dorian's plan and telling them to explain it too the others. Talking to poeple, especially poeple she didn't know, wasn't really her thing, but she spoke to the Hunters nonetheless.

Rushing back, Maylin scanned the area for Dorian. She quickly spotted them. "Is Leigh all right?" She asked, signing alone with her words.

"He should be fine," Dorian replied.

Maylin nodded, as they headed towards the forge, attempting to dodge other campers in the misted of fighting or fleeing the Aeternae.

Once they reached the doors, she flung them open as fast as she could and ran inside, he foot steps echoed loudly against the hard floor.

She grabbed the strongest chains she could see. "There should be more in the Hephaestus cabin," she offered, "I can grab some of those if we need them."

Kai~

Kai, in a very careful and controlled manner, shoved the nearest camper against the remnants of Cabin 11's wall and asked who was responsible for the whole monster situation. "It was Shane's idea! He's uh, over there." The camper waved over in the general direction of a handsome, dark-haired boy talking to a tall hunter. Kai made a beeline for him, shoving joyous campers out of the way. The boy exuded an aura of confidence and beauty. As Kai got closer she saw that he and the hunter of artemis seemed to be in the middle of a sniping match. The words "We'll settle this soon." drifted over to her. Kai did not care. She'd just spent four hours shoveling poop and needed someone to be passive-aggressive to.

She walked up to him, greeting him with a slightly forced smile (He was a son of Aphrodite after all, it's hard to not have a genuine smile around those guys) and interrupted whatever the hunter had been about to say next.

"Hi. Shane, was it? So. It was you who thought up the bright idea of driving a monster into the side of my cabin?"

He took a step back. He looked a little embarrassed - though not embarrassed enough. The hunter next to him smirked. Shane shot a glare at her before turning back to Kai and flashing a little grin, saying "Oh, yeah, sorry about that -"

"Do you know what I would be, had I been standing a foot closer to the wall?"

Kai's smile was more of a rictus now. Shane could feel his own wilting in response.

"A pancake. I would be," She said, taking a deep breath and leaning into Shane's face, "a demigod. Pancake." 

She might have lectured further had not the hunter smoothly intervened. 

"Exactly. What you did was not according to plan and someone almost died because of you wanting to show off." 

~~~

Kai would usually be a lot more understanding if she wasn't covered in poop XP Hopefully I didn't control Shane and Lore too much? I just feel like Lore would want to impress upon Shane as much as possibly how risky his 'plan' was. Also for person satisfaction probably XD I really like the relationship between those two.

Shane~~

He sighed. "Listen, sweetheart--maybe what I did was a little...reckless. But sometimes, life's like that. And especially during battles. What matters is, you're alive, and the Aeternae is dead. A little bit of property damage isn't unfixable."

"You were still showing off," Lore deadpanned.

"Maybe," Shane said, a glint in his eye, "But what fun is anything without a little flair?"

Kai still looked angry, but she didn't say anything else. Maybe it was because she realized Shane was too apathetic about the situation to have an actual arguement. Or maybe it was because she agreed with him. It was probably the first one, though. 

Lore sighed, and rolle her eyes. "Whatever. We need to get back. Dorian still needs our help. Well, everyone's help except Shane's."

"Actually, I--"

"Oh, hush," Kai said, interrupting Shane. 

~ 

Crystal~

Cyrstal had seen a lot of things during games of capture-the-flag, but none of them involveed getting chased by a fanged moose.  She was supposed to lead the Aeternae to where Dorian and Maylin were waiting, but the monster kept trying to chase after other campers. "Over here, you demented deer!" she shouted.  She was so close... 

Then she tripped on a discarded sword.  Her first thought was that who the heck would leave a sword lying around?  Her second thought was that the Aeternae was now leering over her, its red eyes gleaming.  She was about to skewer it with an ice spike when a baseball bat clonked the monster in the head.  It startled and ran straight for the chains, where it was promptly trapped.  She heard cheers erupt from the campers and Hunters hidden in the trees.  Crystal grinned and stood back up, dusting the dirt from her shorts.  A girl with long black hair and a red bomber jacket looked back at her.  "Kai, right?" Crystal said. "Thanks for that."

"No problem.  You almost had it," Kai responded, looking slightly grumpy. "Shane kinda wrecked our cabin, though."

Crystal surveyed the cabins and saw a giant hole in the side of Cabin 11.  She grimaced. "Wow.  For a son of the goddess of beauty, he sure can make a mess"

Kai laughed. "That's what I was thinking!" Over at the Aeternae trap, a Hunter hit the moster with an arrow and it dissolved into dust.

"One down, two to go!" Crystal commented. 

Yeah.  Let's go help Shane and Lore.  I left them to help you, but they appear to need some... peacemaking." The two in question were still standing by Cabin 11, appearing to be in a feirce debate.

Crystal nodded. "Agreed." She and Kai ran off towards them.

~ ~ ~

Chinchilla, I hope I didn't control Kai too much, but could we possibly ship her and Crystal?  I was thinking it'd be interesting to have that sort of relationship between the daughter of a fire goddess and the daughter of a snow goddess.

Sorry it took me so long to join!

Nadia

Joey and I crash through the forest. I barely have time to feel guilty about leaving Leigh behind with that...thing before Joey throws her arm out in front of me. I skid to a stop.

"What was that fo--oh." We're standing at the edge of an enormous cavern in the ground. I kneel and peer into its depths. It seems to go down for miles. 

I pick up a stone from the ground and throw it into the hole. After a few moments of silence, I hear a tiny sound like a rock hitting metal. I look up at Joey, who shrugs.

"Listen, do you think we should go back and help Leigh? It sounds pretty chaotic over there," she says. Only now do I register the screams that seem to be coming from Camp Halfblood. I groan. "Not another monster attack!"

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like Capture the Flag," Joey agrees. 

"Alright," I sigh, standing up.  "Let's go help them."

By the time we reach the camp, however, there's an enormous dead monster collapsed into the Hestia cabin. Half the camp is dancing around in celebration, while a few people seem to be in fierce arguments. Just another day at Camp Halfblood.

"Aw," Joey says disappointedly. "We didn't get to do anything."

"Fine with me," I yawn. "It's been a long day. Glad it wasn't my cabin." I head towards the Hecate cabin and collapse on my bed.

Oliver

I cover my ears and try to ignore the screams of terror coming from camp. It's fine, they're going to be fine! my brain tries to tell me. I can't help feeling like I should go help them, though. No, my brain insists. You came out here to escape the chaos, not to dive back into it. I squeeze my eyes shut, open them, and take a deep breath.

I'm sitting in one of my favorite spots in the forest around Camp Half Blood. There's a little stream that leads into a small crystalline pool in a flowery clearing, and I love to come here whenever I want to escape the chaos of everyday camp life. The trees here are tall and strong, but they let plenty of sunshine into the clearing that help the bluebells and dandelions grow on the carpet of grass. But it's not just the beauty of this place that I love about it: it's the fact that no one else can come here. I've never seen another camper come close to my special place--even when they get close to it, they seem to just walk away, as if they can't see it or something is pushing them away. At first this made me a little suspicious, but by now I've grown used to it and am thankful for this place's special power. Even though sometimes I wish I had friends--any friends--to share it with. It's only my second year at camp, but I haven't made any friends yet. Sometimes I hate myself for being shy.

The screaming from camp has transitioned into yells of triumph. It's not necessarily safe to come back yet, though. Happy demigods can be even more insane than frightened ones. I turn back towards the clearing just as something emerges from the beautiful pool.

-Moxi-

Moxi had wandered off during Capture the Flag. She didn't want to actually do anything.

She sat down on a log, with her guitar, and strummed a chord. It echoed through the cool night air, and faded out of focus. Screams drifted from camp.

Moxi shrugged, and strummed a few more chords, the running water and wind whistling through her ears. Just as Moxi began to sing, a harsh grinding sound cut over the burbling of water.

Her guitar playing abruptly stopped, and Moxi stood up. An oddly shaped rock that looked like an abstract statue, a bit away from her, was shifting. As Moxi watched, a  thick slab of stone shifted to the side, and the rock revealed a dark hole, leading into the ground.

Moxi carefully tiptoed forward, looking at the slab of stone and the hole in a ground. There seemed to be a ladder, going down into the deep darkness.

Hm. I'll just look around a bit. If there's too much walking involved, I'm going back. 

As she flicked on her flashlight and prepared to descend into the ground, Moxi noticed a delta sign on the slab of stone.

---

it's ... the labrynith! dun dun dun!!