Chapter 53

[Third Person's PoV]

Lucian walked with his hands in his pockets, and soon the surrounding area started to be covered in a white mist.

"So, you're leaving now?" Hecate said, appearing before Lucian.

Lucian nodded, "Yeah, it's been like 4 months now, and camp is most likely to begin since it's the beginning of summer."

Hecate nodded and sighed, then started to pat and ruffle his hair, "Well, I can't say these 4 months weren't fun."

Lucian rolled his eyes, "It was only fun for you. I wouldn't count my suffering at your hands to be 'Fun'."

"Oh, stop being a baby. It helped you out, didn't it, Lucy~" Hecate said with a smirk and a teasing tone.

Lucian didn't say anything about the name-calling as she earned the right to it after what she had taught him about magic and the like. He just turned his head and grumbled slightly.

Hecate then put two fingers on Lucian's chest, "There, you can now summon those beings of yours again."

Lucian felt his connection with his shadow soldiers and nodded his head. He then bowed his head slightly toward Hecate, "Thank you for everything, even if you almost killed me in the process."

Lucian looked up at her, smiled, lifted his cloth slightly, and winked, "If you get too lonely and need some companionship, you know how to reach me."

Hecate scoffed and playfully slapped him on the head, "Just get out of here, you brat. You're way too young for me."

"Oh? So what about when I'm older?" Lucian teased.

Hecate deadpanned and started withdrawing her mist, sending Lucian away.

Lucian, still smirking, shook his head and sank into his shadow, making his way back towards camp.

…

He reappeared on top of the hill from his shadow and started walking down towards the property line casually.

As he walked down, some campers saw him and rushed towards Chiron to inform him.

When Lucian crossed the property line, he heard Annabeth shouting his name.

"LUCIANNNNNNNNN."

Annabeth ran towards Lucian like an Olympian runner and practically tackled him. He held his ground, laughing and spinning her around.

Annabeth looked up at Lucian in shock, holding his face as she asked, "What happened to you? You're blind!?!?!"

"I'm not. I would be able to see you perfectly fine if I took it off. I'm just using it for some training," Lucian replied with a smile.

Annabeth sighed, "Of course you are, why wouldn't you."

She then looked at Lucian excitedly, "You came at the perfect time."

"I did?"

"Yup, we're going to play capture the flag in a few hours, and if you join, I just know it's going to be a perfect victory."

They both heard the sound of hooves trotting along the ground. When they looked up, Chiron appeared walking side by side with Luke and Thalia.

"So you finally made it back!" Luke said with a smirk and dabbed up Lucian, who reciprocated.

Thalia gave Lucian a hug, "You could have at least sent a letter or an iris message or something to tell us you were alright."

Lucian, returning the hug, gave her an awkward smile, "Sorry, I didn't have a chance. I was too busy surviving."

"It's nice to see you have returned to us alive, Lucian. Although it's unfortunate you have appeared to have lost sight towards your eyes," Chiron said with a nod.

Lucian lifted his black cloth slightly, "I can still see, old man, I'm just using it for training."

"Ah, I see, I apologize for assuming."

Thalia smirked, "Don't think that just 'cause you went off to train somewhere we were just heard twiddling our thumbs. We have been training as well and growing stronger."

Lucian smirked back, "Sure sure, whatever makes you happy and helps you sleep at night."

"I see your trash-talking hasn't been affected in the slightest," Thalia said with a scoff.

"And I see you're still delusional," Lucian replied with a shrug.

Before Thalia had a chance to retort, Lucian started walking away, "I don't know about you guys, but I got a home to decorate, so I'll see you later."

Thalia grumbled to herself as they started following Lucian, and as he walked, the other campers looked at him in shock.

"He's back."

"Well, things are surely going to be interesting."

"I think we might finally have a chance against Thalia now that he's here."

"Oh please, she's the daughter of Zeus, there's no way she's going to lose."

"Oh right, you're new here…"

Lucian, not caring about the whispers, continued walking towards his cabin.

"So what did you do on your journey?" Annabeth asked Lucian while walking next to him.

Lucian let out an exasperated sigh, "I was locked in a cell and thrown to the bottom of an ocean. If I didn't use magic to get out on time, I would drown. I was put inside a maze and had to navigate myself through it using magic… I didn't have food available, and if I didn't find a way out in time, I would have died of hunger.

I was thrown into an illusion where I would be tortured constantly and had to use magic to dispel it if I didn't want my mind to break. I was bombarded with different types of spells to build some type of magic resistance.

I would get curses upon curses placed on me and had to find a way to get rid of them; otherwise, I'd die."

Although the others couldn't see it, Lucian had a dead look in his eyes, but they could hear it in his voice.

Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth looked at Lucian with a horrified expression, "You were only gone for 4 months, just what did you have to go through?" Luke asked, looking at Lucian in surprise.

In the same tone, Lucian continued, "Did I forget to mention that in the maze there were multiple traps and puzzles, even the traps had traps to them?

Some of the traps were so poisonous that I had to make a potion with the things around me while slowly dying and gasping for air."

Thalia sighed and patted his shoulder, "You sure had it rough, buddy."

"What about you guys? Anything interesting happened?" Lucian asked.

"Nope. We all just got claimed, that's all," Thalia said with a smug expression and tone.

"Aww man, I missed that? How did it happen?"

"I got claimed after a strategy I came up with won us the game," Annabeth said, raising her hand slightly.

"I took down everyone from the opposing team and led my team to having a flawless victory, and the way I commanded them" Thalia bragged.

Meanwhile, in a non-caring tone, "I became the camp's best swordsman," Luke said.

When Luke was done sharing, they arrived in front of Lucian's cabin. The black cloth then came off his eyes and started turning into a bird, which landed on his shoulder.

This surprised the others just a bit before they shook their heads and followed Lucian inside.

Lucian looked around and noticed that everything was exactly the same as when he left it. "It's clean? I was expecting it to be dusty or something."

Thalia chuckled hearing that, "That was all Annabeth. She would sometimes come here and clean the place up."

"Thanks," Lucian turned towards Annabeth and smiled, causing her to blush.

"Now then time to decorate the place, *snap*," Lucian said as he snapped his fingers causing everything to turn dark, as if the lights were turned off.

They were at first confused but quickly understood that it was Lucian's doing. The darkness then started retreating back into Lucian, slowly exposing the room.

Everyone was surprised when they saw what Lucian had done; the entire room was decorated with furniture, paintings on the walls, and a chandelier on the ceiling.

"You really like to go all out, don't you?" Luke asked with a grin while looking around.

Lucian just had a smug expression, seeing the impressed expressions everyone had while looking around.