The Runner

The camp was in chaos and we could barely stand on the deck of the boat, clutching the rails as Aeolus' frightful winds tore at our hair and turned our clothing into unwilling sails.

"Nearing the shore, now!" Poseidon laughed boyishly and turned to us with a huge grin on his face. "Don't you just love the wind?"

All seven of us shook our heads.

We pulled into the shore without a hassle, Poseidon's boat seeming to defy logic by easily going against the wind and depositing us onto the pier.

He waved to us as the boat drove itself back out to sea. "Goodbye! Good luck! Don't die!" He called to us in a jolly tone, disappearing onto the horizon and leaving us clutching at boards and poles just so we wouldn't become human kites.

We struggled our way through the small sandstorm that had replaced the beach and dunes and then we saw the camp.

Cabins were being torn from the ground piece by piece. Barbed wire was ripped from the Ares cabin, plants were stripped from the Demeter cabin and the Hermes cabin was nothing but a few bolted-down bunk beds - all the worn planks pulled apart in the storm. Rubble was flying through the air and I saw a few legs and arms sticking out from larger piles that showed that campers had been caught in the storm.

I looked at the others and saw fear mirroring my own in their eyes. "Let's go." I told them.

Notes