Then he saw my expression, and his smile melted. "Oh, no. Poor Silena. Holy

Zeus, when she finds out . . ."

 

Together we climbed the sand dunes. A few hundred yards away, people were

already streaming toward us, smiling and excited. Percy's back, they were

probably thinking. He's saved the day! Maybe he brought souvenirs!

 

I stopped at the dining pavilion and waited for them. No sense rushing down

there to tell them what a loser I was.

 

I gazed across the valley and tried to remember how Camp Half-Blood looked the

first time I ever saw it. That seemed like a bajillion years ago.

 

From the dining pavilion, you could see pretty much everything. Hills ringed the

valley. On the tallest, Half-Blood Hill, Thalia's pine tree stood with the

Golden Fleece hanging from its branches, magically protecting the camp from its

enemies. The guard dragon Peleus was so big now I could see him from here —

curled around the tree trunk, lending up smoke signals as he snored.

 

To my right spread the woods. To my left, the canoe lake glittered and the

climbing wall glowed from the lava pouring down its side. Twelve cabins — one

for each Olympian god — made a horseshoe pattern around the commons area.

Farther south were the strawberry fields, the armory, and the four-story Big

House with its sky blue paint job and its bronze eagle weathervane.