~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Cabin One

{Kiara}

Kiara woke, but she was shocked about what she'd seen—or more like heard—in her dream that she didn't take in her surroundings until she heard an owl hoot right above her, on a branch.

   She jumped to her feet at the sudden sound, high alert, and realized it was only an owl.

   She stalked for a while, looking around. In the dark of the night she hadn't been able to see, but the woods were quite beautiful in the daylight. Tones of green dominated the forest, but there were splotches of brown, purple, pink, red and blue were visible as well. It had a magical aura, which Kiara wasn't surprised of.

   Tearing her eyes away from the beauty of the forest, Kiara chose a random worn, dirt path and started walking that way, hoping to get back to camp.

   She was walking peacefully when a girl stepped out of a maple tree, making Kiara freeze in her tracks.

   The girl was really pretty. She had hair made of fire-red leaves, a skin toned greenish yellow, and a dress of greens, oranges and browns. Her eyes shone ember. Her lips were a darker shade of her skin, and her lashes were dark green, like the tree leaves she'd gazed at last night.

   "Hello," she said. "I haven't seen you before. Are you new?"

   Kiara hesitated. She had a feeling she wasn't new at being a demigod, but she was new at Camp Half-Blood. "Uh, yeah. Can you show me the way back to camp? I think I'm lost."

   "Of course!" the girl said. Kiara had already assumed the girl was a dryad—a tree spirit—though she had no idea how she knew that. "Follow me."

   The dryad signaled for Kiara to follow her, so the dark haired girl did so. Soon enough, Kiara learned that the dryad loved to talk. How did Kiara get to that conclusion? The dryad—whose name was Mable—wouldn't shut up. Though Kiara wasn't complaining.

   "You know, you remind me of a demigod that comes to camp now and then," she was saying. "I think his name is Nico. You have the same aura; the aura of death."

   "Well, I am a daughter of Pluto," Kiara replied, but she dreaded the thought of it for reasons unknown to her. "It's probably normal that I have the aura of death. Tell me more about this Nico."

   "He's short—about your height or so—with black hair and pale skin just like yours," Mable started saying. "He really likes McDonald's and he comes into the woods often whenever he's at camp, though we don't talk much. He likes his solitude more than dryads, apparently."

   "He's the son of Hades?" Kiara asked, not quite paying attention. She felt as if she was babysitting an eleven-year-old: she didn't hate it, but didn't adore it either. Most of Mable's words came in from one ear and out from the other.

   "Oh, yes," Mable said. "Most of the time, he has the hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, with him. She's a nice dog, but she drools a lot." Mable shuddered. "She drooled on me once, I couldn't get the smell off for days."

   They arrived at the sparser part of the woods. "Well, this is it," Mable said. They were a few yards away from the cabins, and the place seemed deserted.

   "Thank you, Mable," Kiara said. "I don't know what I would've done without you."

   The dryad flashed her a smile, and went back into the forest, skipping and humming a song.

   Kiara waited until Mable was out of sight and scanned the camp grounds. She couldn't see anyone. She thanked the gods for that and made her way to the biggest cabin—Zeus's cabin. She was hoping to talk to Jason about her dream. She would've talked to Piper, but she felt closer to Jason in an unexplainable way.