stollen things || c. stoll

5.1 ~ Charlie Beckendorf

August 9th
6:14 a.m.

I was standing on the Demeter cabin porch, leaning against the wall. I was up early on purpose. Training started early this time of year. The war was on, and fast approaching. We had no time to waste. It was training all day long, from close combat to long distance to hand to hand. We had to be ready to fight monsters of all sizes. We specialized in training our powers a lot as well, more than usual. My siblings and I spent much of our time trying to cover and block a fake gate made of rocks.

My friends, Silena Beauregard and Charlie Beckendorf, had finally gotten together this summer. It only took them a year of convincing. Silena was the happiest I'd seen her in a long time, and Charlie was bright as the sun whenever he was with her.

That afternoon was when the Princess Andromeda, Kronos' cruise ship, was in the prime spot for us to attack. Beckendorf was supposed to go fetch Percy Jackson from Manhattan and fly out to the ship and get rid of it.

Silena and I helped Beckendorf into his armor, each of us giving him a hug for good luck. Silena gave him a kiss. I did not. We assured him that he'd make it back to camp in mere hours and we'd be around the campfire waiting for him.

He mounted the pegasus Blackjack and took off into the skies. Silena was doing well to keep it together, considering the chances of her boyfriend coming back alive. Speaking of, my own boyfriend was waiting for me by the pegasus stables. When Charlie had disappeared into the clouds, I hurried over to where Connor Stoll was waiting in the shadows.

I jumped into his arms and landed a kiss on his cheek. We tried to get as many of these moments as we could while preparing for the war. It was hard staying positive in such a situation, but our late night escapades made it bearable. The strawberry fields, the hayloft, you name it. There was just not enough time for each other during the day, and there wasn't much talking to be done in the night.

"Come on," Connor boosted me up to get me started on climbing up to the stable roof. He also had this thing about climbing buildings. I was convinced he was Spider-man or something.

We sat there for a lot of the afternoon, talking. And I mean actually talking this time, I promise. We had to part a bit into the afternoon for Connor to take the lookout by the beach, so I went to the arena to get some hand-to-hand training in. I beat some other campers by a lot, but there was still Clarisse who could beat my ass any day.

I only got a few minutes of training before the conch horn blew. The beach. I grabbed my sword from the ground hurried to the beach to get Connor. That horn could only mean a few things. Most likely, there was an invasion and Connor was injured. When I came over the hill to the beach, Connor was standing stiff in front of Percy, who had come back from the mission.

Just Percy. No Beckendorf. I stopped in my tracks and waited for them to come up to us. Everyone was already standing nearby, smiling at Percy before anyone realized what was wrong.

When they reached us, I took Connors hand in mine silently. I couldn't even imagine Silena's reaction.

Chiron came through the crowd, followed by Annabeth. "Percy! Thank the gods! But where..." He trailed off. He had noticed too. Annabeth grabbed Percy's arm. We were waiting on those two, as well.

"The ship blew up," Percy said. "Luke wasn't destroyed. I don't know where—"

Silena burst through the group, looking frazzled. "Where's Charlie?" She demanded. No one said anything. I couldn't even bring myself to go up to her. I was still in shock myself.

"Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at the Big House." Chiron reached out to her shoulder to guide her away but she shoved it away.

"No. No, no." She crumbled, beginning to cry. Clarisse came up to comfort her. They had been close friends ever since Silena had given Clarisse boyfriend advice last summer.