11 Chapter 10

The next day, an orange shirt was neatly folded on top of my bed. Someone had presumably put it there the night before. Probably not one of the Hermes' cabin seeing how nicely it was folded.

The sun had yet to rise so I quickly changed and headed to the big house.

Alex was already there, making batter for pancakes and waffles. He handed me a bowl and without hesitation said, "Make those into pancakes, please."

Anyone else probably would've fumbled, but I heated up the iron skillet on the stove and added some of the butter next to it mere seconds after.

We established a sort of rhythm, with him stirring more and more batter while I flipped pancakes. After awhile of this he only mumbled, "That's enough," and got a waffle maker out from a cupboard near him.

We repeated this process again until there were a ton of waffles and pancakes on a large plate in front of us. He gave me a satisfactory nod. "Good job."

I grinned and nodded back.

After that we fried bacon, although it wasn't nearly as much as the waffles and pancakes. Probably because those were to feed all the staff and campers, while the meats were only for the demigods. The nymphs and dryads probably don't eat meat.

Speaking of which, they started arriving and taking the plates we'd made. After a bit Alex said, "Alright, camp activities start at 9. Those are mandatory. In the meantime if you want to make something for yourself here you can." With those final words he left after the dryads.

Having smelled waffles and pancakes all morning, I wasn't really in the mood for any. I checked the kitchen for ingredients and supplies. Apparently there was a pantry off to the left of the kitchen which was fully stocked.

I decided to go for a traditional english breakfast. I fried an egg, bacon, and sausage. Then served with tomatoes, mushrooms, and toast with jam.

Sometimes when my dad and I got bored with the same routine in the mornings we'd cook something new. This was one of the dishes we'd tried. I liked it a lot, and we'd still have it when we have time to make it.

By the time I was done it was about 8:30, thus I ate quickly. The combination of everything together was nice, and soon enough I was full.

Being energized and ready I jogged outside. I didn't have a schedule yet so I went back to my cabin. Apparently they did inspections in the mornings to make sure everything was clean. I had already made my bed and my bag was neatly packed at the foot of it. My cabin mates were annoyed with me for missing it, but since I cleaned up my space in the mornings and made breakfast they couldn't complain that much.

My schedule was on my bed so I grabbed it. At 9:00 after breakfast it said, "Archery". After that was "Winged Horseback", "Combat", "Lunch", "Monster Assault Techniques", and then "Free Choice", and "Free Time", for the rest of the day until dinner. It seemed very lenient of a schedule, which was nice. I'd probably have to use my "free time" to cook dinner but even then there's still a lot of time left.

The schedule seemed to vary with "Capture the Flag" at the end of the week before dinner.

Even then, the amount of spare time I had was refreshing. I could probably use it to do other things I'm interested in. Perhaps chasing that metal dragon down isn't a bad idea.

Anyways, "Archery" was interesting. The activities director, Chiron was there and said that by the end of the course we'd know how to shoot flaming arrows. Apparently he has this planned. Besides that, learning how to shoot an arrow turned out to be fairly easy. I've always had pretty decent aim so the class wasn't bad.

"Winged Horseback" lessons were exactly as expected. I honestly kind of hated it. Flying never appealed to me. Nonetheless I was able to get through the class almost in one piece. I had a few bruises though.

"Combat" classes were by far the most interesting. We got actual swords from the armory and sparred with partners. At first I was pretty average at it but as time went on I got a bit better. Not that I didn't still want a gun though.

During this I chatted with some new people, which was refreshing. Anyways, "Lunch" and "Monster Assault Techniques" went by in a blur. I mean, the class was informative but it got boring after awhile.

Finally we had "Free choice" and "Free time". I slipped away into the forest during this time. I'll be honest, even though the Hermes' twins had framed it in a suspicious light, I was still interested. Thankfully they weren't around to see me go.

Finding the dragon was rather easy, simply looking for the charred parts of the forest was enough. It seemed some Hephesteus demigods had the same idea I did since they were nearby trying to subdue it. Not to much success, mind you.

Eventually it got to the point where they had to retreat, it seemed like their leader was badly burned, everywhere.

I knew I wouldn't have much of a chance to subdue it, so I attempted to sneak past it. Unfortunately it seemed to have seen me, thus I started running into the forest at a random direction. I was already pretty lost, so trying to find my way back was lower on my priority list than living. "God, these psychopaths," I muttered under my breath. I mean, who lets a giant wingless dragon loose into the forest?

I was able to find a metal door on the ground, some kind of bunker perhaps? It didn't matter. I'd managed to run through the trees at a fast pace while the dragon was slowed down by them. That didn't mean it wasn't far away though, I'd probably have ten seconds at the max before it tried to burn me to a crisp.

The door wouldn't budge when I tried to turn it normally, so I activated my aura and turned it. I mean, I wasn't using all my powers. Besides, I'd die if I didn't get this open.

Finally the door was able to open just as the dragon used it's fire to burn the trees behind me. I rushed in as fast as possible and slammed the door, making sure to turn it again.

I sighed and looked below. My breath caught in my throat and I gaped at the room before me.