Cupid's Arrows Ch. 9

Annabeth trekked angrily back towards the woods. Her legs complained with every step, and her head listed forward as if she were about to fall over. It wouldn't surprise her if she did. There were plenty of campers still healthy enough to go back into the woods in search of the last few kids, but nobody had volunteered to help. Let's just sit around and act like we're injured, let Annabeth go back into the woods and look by herself. Weren't they supposed to be heroes? What kind of hero sat around on their butt and let a poor, exhausted girl suffering from the loss of her boyfriend wander into a monster infested wood all alone?
She heard footsteps behind her and turned to find Leo Valdez, Nico di Angelo, Katie Gardner and a couple of her sisters, and about five kids from the Hermes cabin behind her, offering help. She was too tired to show any gratitude, but she was pretty sure they understood. Besides, it wasn't like the Hermes kids had really come from the kindness of their hearts: she'd known this group since they'd arrived at camp. The only reason they were coming out was to look for any abandoned equipment to steal.
They split into smaller groups when they reached the woods, and suddenly she found herself alone with Nico and Katie Gardner. After initial disappointment, she was happy for Katie's company. She wasn't sure what was getting her so mixed up about Nico, but having Katie around would definitely keep her from doing something stupid, she hoped.

There was an acidic tinge of bitterness in the air of the Aphrodite cabin. Piper sat curled up on her bed, re-wrapping her leg in better bandages. The boys sat silently on their side of the cabin, too afraid to say anything as the girls well enough to return to their cabin glared resentfully at their head counsellor. Drew tried to act naturally in the corner, all the while feeling smug as the cat who'd finally gotten the canary. At this rate, she would probably end up as cabin head once again, no matter if she completed a quest or not. The girls hated Piper so much, they probably would never listen to her again!
She leaned back on her bed, content, reaching under her pillow for where she'd stashed the bow and arrow. She still had one more day to sculpt this camp to her liking with them, too. What would she do tomorrow...? She froze. Her fingers could only find the hard wood of the bow under her pillow. Forcing herself to remain calm, she lifted the pillow, but her eyes just confirmed what her fingers had already told her: the quiver was not there.
She glanced around the cabin: nobody was looking. Obviously she'd left it in the woods. She'd just have to slip out and go find it. Carefully, she climbed out of her bed and pulled on her shoes, sliding silently towards the door...
"Where are you going?" Piper's voice was thick and angry. She'd finished wrapping her leg and was standing with her hands on her hips, avoiding putting weight on it. It did not affect the fierceness in her face though, and Drew had no doubt who would win in a fight between them, even with Piper's bum leg. She'd already beaten her once.
"Um... I heard Jason didn't answer role call. There's a group out looking for him, so I thought I'd help-"
Jason had not been a good topic to bring up. Piper's kaleidoscope eyes seemed to turn a dangerous red in the dim light, "Oh, you're going to find Jason, are you? Gonna go make out in the woods with him? Why don't you just wait until tomorrow, I'm sure he'll come crawling here so you can charmspeak him some more!" her voice rose with every word, and by the end even the girls who were supposed to be furious with her were cowering on the other side of the cabin.
Drew opened her mouth, trying to think of a good retort, but all that she could manage was a nervous laugh. Then she bolted out the door. It was a surprisingly good move: Piper couldn't follow her on her bad leg, and was forced to return to her bed in frustration. Not before she checked under Drew's pillow herself, of course, to see what she'd been looking at. Even though the bow sat on the bed still, she saw nothing.

Katie was glad to be away from the camp for a while, with sensible, battle-minded people like Annabeth and Nico. Usually she preferred to hang out with the kids who still acted a bit like regular teenagers, but there were times when they could get pretty annoying. Especially with all this craziness about Piper and the guys going around. She'd been incredibly happy to get away from the angry girls and lovesick boys tonight, even though Annabeth and Nico didn't seem very inclined to talk. There was an awkward silence hanging heavily between them, and Annabeth seemed a little out of her element tonight for some reason. But she wasn't going to ask: things were getting pretty heated up lately, and with Percy gone it must be hard for her to deal with it all.
Suddenly all three of them froze. A strange growling noise was coming from somewhere nearby. It was hard to place, but Nico soon found it. He crept up to a pile of leaves which was moving slightly. Her immediate assumption was that the nymphs were just playing tricks on them - they'd seemed very wound up tonight - but it was always good to be cautious. They stepped towards it warily, and Nico quickly swiped his hand at it, brushing away some of the leaves. A pale half-blood lay underneath, snoring away.
"Clovis!" Annabeth snapped harshly, "What are you doing?"
"Huh? Wha?" the son of Hypnos shook himself awake, blinking the sleep from his eyes, "Oh, Annabeth, hello." he frowned, "Where am I?"
Annabeth shook her head, "You fell asleep while we were playing capture the flag," she explained, "Head back to camp, and don't fall asleep again!"
"I could take him back." Katie offered, knowing full well that there was no way Clovis could stay awake that long.
Nico and Annabeth both looked alarmed by this, "No!" they chorused, then looked at each other in surprise.
Katie swallowed back her own surprise, "Alright then," she said contritely, "Let's keep looking for the other two."
They walked away quickly, but not before they began to hear Clovis's snoring again. Neither of the others said a word, so Katie followed behind silently.

Jason and Grover were lying on the ground, weapons strewn about them wherever they'd landed. Both combatants were gasping for air, having reached a truce out of exhaustion. Of course, in their heads they kept telling themselves they'd get up soon and strike their opponent where they lay, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen any time soon.
The Hermes kids came upon them at some point, to find them both with eyes closed, completely still. After checking the demigod's breathing and deciding that the satyr was probably alive, since he wasn't a flower, they assessed their equipment as Annabeth had known they would. A wooden cudgel obviously held no interest for them, but Jason's Roman sword was fascinating. One reached out to grab it, and a bright spark of electricity flicked up to greet their questing fingers. They all jumped back with strangled yelps, and Jason Grace opened one sky blue eye to glare at them. They raced of rather quickly, although the son of Jupiter had no idea what they'd been doing there, and quickly fell back asleep.
A faint chuckle echoed through the woods: a man's, with lovely elegance matched by none, and a shifting face full of beauty watched the Hermes kids retreat. Demigods, he'd always known, were excellent entertainment, but he'd never realized the nature spirits could put on such a show as well. But things were starting to calm down. He'd have to fix that.

Annabeth kept glancing at him. It was starting to freak him out, because he really had no idea why. She'd been acting weird around him all night, and he was sure it was only him. Had he done something wrong? He couldn't recall anything he'd done that was incredibly bad, unless she had figured out about him helping the Stoll brothers with rigging that trap for one of the really annoying Hunter girls... But it wasn't like that kind of stuff didn't happen every time the Hunters came around. They really asked for it.
"Hey, what's this thing?" Katie called from behind them, leaning down to look at something in the hollow of a tree.
He and Annabeth turned around, but they couldn't see anything. The blond jogged over to her, frowning.
"There's nothing there, Katie," she said slowly.
"Yes there is! I think it's a quiver," she frowned, leaning down to point at the invisible quiver. Suddenly she jumped with a yelp, "Ouch!"
Nico stepped forward, still keeping his distance from Annabeth, "What happened?" he asked her.
Katie turned to him, eyes wide for a second, then suddenly her entire face relaxed, eyes turning dreamy and strange, "Oh, nothing," she said with a sigh.
Annabeth's eyes suddenly turned to dangerous slits, and Nico had a strong urge to run for his life. But he kept himself in check. Drew had said she'd made a deal with Eros. This quiver Katie was talking about could be the god's.
"Where is the quiver, Katie?" he asked, looking closely at the base of the tree. He still couldn't see anything.
"What quiver?" she asked, still staring at him mindlessly.
"You just said there was a quiver there!" he said irritably.
Katie giggled, "You're so cute when you're angry."
Nico stared at her blankly for a few minutes. "Are you drunk?" he asked finally.
The daughter of Demeter smiled, standing up slowly, and getting a little too close for comfort, "Maybe," she said softly, and Nico supposed that he should be getting another meaning from that statement. But he didn't get any time to think about it as Annabeth stepped in between them. There wasn't a lot of space for her to step into, and he was sent tumbling into the base of a tree by the daughter of Athena's rear end.
He looked up at the girls in confusion. Annabeth had her hands on her hips, and although he couldn't see her face, he was certain he was giving Katie one deadly stare. But Katie was holding her ground surprisingly well.
"Back off!" Annabeth snapped fiercely.  
Katie sniffed, her usually pleasant demeanor completely gone, "You back off! It's not like you don't have Percy-"
Annabeth sneered, "Who cares about Percy?"
And that's when Nico stopped listening. Either this wasn't really Annabeth, or she was under some kind of spell. He snuck quietly back to the base of the tree where Katie had supposedly seen the quiver, feeling around it carefully. He definitely didn't want to accidentally touch an arrow, as Katie had apparently done, but he needed to find it before someone else did. But there was nothing there.
        He turned to look back at the girls. Katie had summoned vines to wrap around Annabeth's legs as the daughter of Athena slashed wildly at her with her knife. Gods, this was going to be a long night.