stollen things || c. stoll

2.3 ~ Demon Pigeons Attack

At dinner, Tantalus was very excited.
"We are reinstituting the chariot races!"

Everyone's jaws dropped. Whatever he was getting at, it wasn't good. The chariot races were discontinued because of all the injuries and deaths from previous years. Many murmurs went through the pavilion before Tantalus clapped his hands to get our attention back.

"I know you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition," A few people cleared their throats awkwardly. "Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning. The first race will be in three days. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses."

I raised my hand to object. We couldn't just abandon the border patrol and camp guarding. Tantalus wasn't finished.

"Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"

This changed everyone's minds pretty quickly. Except Clarisse.
"What about patrol duty?" She was wringing her hands. "If we drop everything to ready our chariots—"

Tantalus practically laughed in her face. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

Clarisse started to object again, but one of her siblings pulled her down to her seat.

I ignored the rest of what Tantalus was talking about. He pulled up the Cyclops from earlier and made some very not-good comments and jokes. Meanwhile, I was already designing my chariot.

"Hey," I leaned over the table to talk to my siblings. "Who wants to si—"

"Is there something so important that you must interrupt all the fun we are having, girl?"

I slowly turned back to Tantalus. Everyone was looking at me. This was my chance to object about the whole drop everything and play deadly games situation, but I just gulped and stood up.
"No... sir." I added that last word with distaste. "I was just asking my cabinmates about building a chariot for your oh-so-important war games."

Tantalus apparently liked to laugh at teenagers, because he did so again. This time, more people were reluctant to laugh at me along with him. "Not like a Demeter child to want to do anything, is it?"

"Watch your mouth, oldie. She's listening." I clenched my fists.

"Oldie?" He narrowed his eyes. No one was laughing anymore. "I'm going to ignore that, but watch your tongue from now on."

"Oh, go chase a hamburger." I growled as I sat down. That one hit, apparently, because more laughs rang out than the ones directed at me. The Hermes kids especially appreciated that one, and Connor winked at me. Nice one, he mouthed at me silently.

Mr. D wasn't too happy with that one. "Mindy," He warned. "Tantalus is here on request, and you will treat him the same way you treated Chiron. That goes for all of you!"

Everyone went silent. Sure, Dionysus was always grumpy. But he never yelled, especially not at a group of this size.

"Now," Tantalus suddenly forgot about everything that had just happened and was back to his grossly cheery self. "Let's get back to where we'll put this thing!" He pointed to the Cyclops. The enthusiasm wasn't as high as it had been before I'd been singled out.

Apparently we didn't need to worry about where 'we'd put this thing,' because a brilliant green and blue trident shimmered over the Cyclops' head.

Poseidon had claimed him as his son.

•

I scraped half of my breakfast into the brazier and prayed to Demeter asking her to kick Tantalus' sorry ass back to Tartarus. She didn't like to dabble in the underworld — for obvious reasons — so I doubted that she'd answer.