14 Hunters Abound

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For someone who had just finished making their own makeshift blizzard, Chion's hoodie was actually quite warm, as if it had been sitting next to a heater. In no time at all, Annabeth felt nice and toasty down to her bones. She didn't know why she bothered putting it on, but now she had no regrets, even if the hoodie was slightly big on her. As the crowd of onlookers began to break up and head to the Pavilion for lunch, Luke approached her, his sandy blonde hair sticking out from the crowd. Quickly, Annabeth made sure that her hair wasn't out of wack and straightened out the hoodie.

"Annabeth. What happened?" Luke looked a bit concerned, glancing from her to Clarisse, brows narrowed. "What happened to you?"

"That guy is insane, that's what." Clarisse turned around and walked away, heading along with the crowd, wiping the blood that was still trickling from her nose.

Luke looked at her for a second before turning back to Annabeth, a questioning look.

"Clarisse and her goons tried to 'initiate' Chion into the camp by dunking his head into the toilet," She explained simply. "He struck her in the nose, took off, and fought her two friends alone. Obviously, you saw what happened."

"Yeah. Little guy has some power behind him." Luke rubbed the back of his head, looking at the shards of ice covering the field and the dual Aries descendants. "Wonder who his parent is."

"What's the strategy on tonight's game?" Annabeth asked. "Athena and Hermes are on the same squad."

"About that. There won't be any game today." Luke smiled matter-of-factly. "There's been a slight change of plans."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. It was very rare for them not to have Capture The Flag on Fridays, it being a sort of tradition. Even when the camp had barely any members, such as during the autumn months, they did what they could with what they had. There were usually 20 or 30 members who stayed at the camp year round though, so there was always someone to join the game. The fact that Luke was telling her no meant something else, and it was probably exactly what she was thinking.

"The hunters?" Annabeth guessed. They showed up every now and then when they were in the area and they always played a game when they took root in Cabin 8.

"That's right." Luke grinned. "This time, we're gonna win. We'll spend today coming up with a strategy to be ready for when tomorrow comes. Judging by the powers of our new friend here, we have found our trump card for sure."

"Can he even control his powers?"

Luke looked towards Annabeth, tearing his gaze away from the shards of ice. He was quite a bit taller than she was, so he was forced to look downwards. As if for the first time since talking, Luke's eyes fell upon the blue hoodie she was wearing, and the largest grin spread across his face, the mischievous look of someone who had just found something new to mess with.

"That's an interesting looking hoodie you got there," Luke pointed out. "Where'd you get it from?"

"Found it."

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Chion never did manage to find out where he needed to go for a bath, but he did find a change of clothes. Some of the Hermes members showed him in the direction of the camp store, a place where he could freely buy some garments for some standard money or for something called 'drachma'. The amount of money wasn't really an issue since he still had plenty, but the lack of variety to the clothes was a slight annoyance. Everyone seemed to wear the standard Camp HalfBlood shirts, though it could've admittedly looked worse.

After he had shifted into a nice, clean set of clothes, Chion headed into the direction of the Pavilion, the place where they were eating lunch.

Annabeth had told him about it before Clarisse had made her appearance, in extensive detail. She probably didn't want to be embarrassed if he happened to sit at her table.

The pavilion was framed in Greek columns on a hill that overlooked the sea. There were no walls or roofs that covered the mess hall. Torches blazed from the columns, and a central fire burned inside a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each table had a white cloth with purple trim. The tables in the Pavilion were arranged so that there was a table for each god, similar to the cabins. Therefore, children of Hermes sit at the Hermes table, children of Aphrodite at the Aphrodite table, etc. Although children of the Big Three, whatever the heck that meant, would have to sit on their own anyways, it was expressly forbidden to sit at another god's table. There were no exceptions. The Hunters of Artemis sit at the Artemis table when visiting, and the satyrs and nymphs can sit at any table they please, but generally sit at the table that Dionysus sits at, which was table twelve.

It wasn't too complicated to understand, really. All Chion had to do was sit with Luke and the other inhabitants of Cabin 11 and never sit anywhere else until he was 'claimed'.

When the white-haired youth eventually got to the Pavilion, everyone was already seated and grabbing themselves some food. Annabeth, Luke, Clarisse, Chiron (of whom now somehow had the bottom of a horse?), and Mister D.

That was another thing. Based on Annabeth's explanation about the Pavilion, it seemed that Mister D was actually a god. It made sense if you truly looked at him and acknowledged what he was capable of. It still was hard to digest, though, even if one applied logic and common sense to the subject. The idea of a god running a summer camp seemed a tad.....underwhelming, especially since there were probably a million better things to do. He didn't know what the camp director was a god of, but he wasn't going to walk up and ask right that moment.

He was hungry.

Luckily, the youth wasn't expecting a five star meal going in. Annabeth had kindly explained to him what to expect shortly after he had tossed her a Snickers Bar.

The pavilion's goblets were apparently enchanted with a type of magic and, on voice command, would be filled with whatever drink one desired (non-alcoholic though with even Mr. D being forced to drink Diet Coke). Another quality of the goblets were that they never emptied, like a free refill until the owner was satisified. The type of food in the Pavilion included BBQ, grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, and fresh bread, bread that the dryads served...whatever the heck dryads were. All in all, it was definitely a step up from his tuna, mayo, hot sauce cracker combo.

Though it was a step down from his oreos.

"Chion. Over here." Luke waved from the table he was at, the one that, of course, was the most packed. "Saved you a seat."

Apparently the white-haired had shown up a tad late because everyone was already in the middle of chowing down and goofing off. Luckily, Luke had managed to snag him some food before all the good bits were gone, it was enough to make him cry. Almost. Thanking the man for his kindness, Chion took his seat and began to scarf down his plate. The food was almost heavenly, a huge increase in quality to what Chion had eaten in the past few days. It definitely gave him some rejuvenation.

"I didn't fill your goblet for you." Luke nudged the golden cup sitting beside the white-haired youth. "I didn't know what you liked.

Chion swallowed his food. "That's okay. I don't know either."

Luke let out a chuckle as he grabbed the cup. "Here. Coke."

Just as Annabeth had described, the cup immediately filled with liquid, a bubbling brown almost black drink that looked cool to the touch. Unsure of what it was, Chion took a quick sip.

"It's good!!" He was quite surprised and went in for another sip.

"It's called Coca-Cola and it's arguably one of the best drinks ever invented." Luke grinned. "Coke over Pepsi."

"What's Pepsi?"

"It's like Coke but inferior."

Chion nodded, taking note of it. He started picking apart the grapes, the sweet flavors exploding over the inside of his mouth.

"That was some impressive magic you used today," Luke said, taking a sip of his drink. "Poor guys didn't even stand a chance."

"Mmm." Chion simply nodded, unable to speak with a full mouth.

"How'd you do it?"

Chion carefully chewed his food and swallowed. "I showed them my emotions. At the moment, it's not really the most proficient way to project my powers, but it gets the job done. After a bit of expirementation and some calculations based on the quantity produced, amount of force, temperature emitted, and so on, I think I'll have a decent grasp on it. I previously thought that the type of magic exuded was linked to my thoughts on emotions but that's out the window. Seems I can only use ice and snow based magic at the moment."

As Chion rambled on, Luke just sat there smiling, a hand touching his chin. It was unclear what was going through the man's head but the white-haired youth didn't really mind since it seemed like he was actively listening. After a minute of sharing his thoughts and findings, the youth went back to eating. When the individual fell silent, Luke took that moment to speak up.

"When you're done eating, come with me for a bit." Luke took one more gulp from his goblet and stood up from the table.

"Where?" Chion was expressly confused about the sudden turn of events.

Luke briefly explained the newest development, about how some people called the Hunters were coming in tomorrow and would most likely play Capture The Flag with them. Apparently, they had an enormous winning streak that Camp HalfBlood had yet to break. But, now, with the added addition of Chion, they might stand a chance.

"You want me to participate?" The youth asked.

"Yep." Luke gave a thumbs up. "Not only that but you're gonna help me and the Athena Cabin strategize."

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