"Big ornate room," Dawn replied. "Massive brazier in the center, twelve figures standing around it." She rolled her eyes. "Is Olympus really that gaudy?"

"Yes. It is. It's also incredibly pretentious." Nika lost some of her good humor, frowning. "It's an interesting place, to say the least."

"Interesting in a 'let's poke around' way or interesting in a 'I hope I don't die' way?" Dawn asked. "I'm kind of wondering why I saw it... It must be in the near future somewhere."

"Both. Always both. Never take anything for granted with them." Nika sighed and sank further into the water.

"I'm still kind of curious to find out why I saw it, but I guess we'll find out eventually," Dawn said. She stayed in the hot spring, rather than getting up. "May as well make them come find us, instead of heading back ourselves."

"Eh, I doubt they'll come get us right now. It's not their style. They'll come "invite" us tomorrow in the middle of the day with lots of pomp and circumstance and crap." Nika rolled her eyes.

"Why would they leave the comfort of Olympus when they can just send a note 'inviting' us?" Dawn pointed out. "Minimal effort for the same result."

"Well, they might not do it, but they do have messengers. Same concept." Nika shrugged.

"We'll see what happens," Dawn replied. She relaxed back against the edge of the pool. "For now, I'm relaxing."

"Very good idea." Nika relaxed as well, leaning back against the dirt wall behind her.

"Now if we could just spend the rest of the summer relaxing and doing normal demigod things, life would be good," Dawn sighed. "Come September, I have to go back to my life on the outside."

"Yeah, I'll be lucky if I get another week off." Nika sighed. "Oh well. We'll see how long I get."

"We'll see," Dawn agreed.

---

The next day, Dawn was up with her brothers at the literal crack of dawn. By the time the camp was properly awake for the morning, Cabin Seven was already out at the archery range. It felt good to be able to shoot something again and know the arrow would hit the target. Dawn and Jason were both keeping an eye on the younger boys, since Aaron had already left to go back home.

Nika was up early as well, but not as early as the others. She managed to get over to talk to one of the Hephaestus kids, asking him for a special, super-fast deilvery, and then went to go watch the archery practice.

Dawn knew Nika was there, and whacked one of her younger brothers with her bow when they let themselves get distracted by the Ares girl arriving.

"Focus," she said. "You don't get to be ADHD in battle. You get to be focused, or you get to be dead."

Nika grinned when she saw that one get whacked. There was only one way she could be more evil... Well, it was hot enough today. It was humid and very warm.

She'd gone without her armor, and she pulled off her overshirt, leaving her in a tank top and jeans.

Immediately, six pairs of male eyes jumped to Nika, and immediately, all six of the boys got whacked again. The only ones who didn't seem to care were Jake and Kevin, but they were still young. Then Dawn turned to her friend.

"You, go away," she said. "Before I have to give them all concussions."

Nika grinned. "Aww, but I was having fun." She obediently backed off, though, going to go find someone to whack into shape.

"Go pick on Demeter cabin or something," Dawn said. "My brothers need to focus," she directed the word towards her brothers, who all obediently turned back towards their proper targets. Jason's gaze lingered on Nika for a moment, however, before he turned around.

Nika smirked at Jason, clearly flirting, before she sauntered off to go see if her order was ready yet.

Dawn noticed her brother staring and hit him with her bow again.

"You, enough," she said. "Back to work. You don't get to slack off because we just got back from a quest."

"Slave driver," Jason replied, readying another arrow.

"Whine to someone who cares," Dawn replied.

"I cares," Jason pointed out.

"I don't."

"Bitch."

Nika went to go find other things to do until they were summoned.

The "invitation" came in the form of a dryad carrying a message and handing it off to Nika as soon as she could before retreating again.

"Oi, Dawn, time to go," Nika called, reading the ancient Greek writing easily.

Dawn looked over.

"Just you and me, or all of us?" she called back, knowing that Nika would interpret 'all of us' as Jason and Seth going too.

"Doesn't say," Nika said with a shrug. "Just says to get our asses up there. In more polite terms."

Seth blinked. "Olympus?" he guessed.

"Yup."

"Alright," Dawn said. She jabbed Jason with her bow to get his attention, and gestured for him to follow Nika and Seth. Then she turned to the rest of her brothers. "Boys! Back to the cabin! You're done for the day, until capture the flag this afternoon! Steve and Ben are in charge!" Once her brothers started to file back to the cabin, she turned and went over to Nika and Seth, checking her arrows and dagger as she went. "Alright, let's go."