Summary: Nico wondered how he got stuck with this quest—if you could even call it that—but he supposed it's better than being turned into a dandelion in front of your father.

A/N: I'm not sure how long this is going to be yet; hopefully not pathetically short or unbearably long. It'll focus on Katie and Travis, with Nico and more characters, set after TLO but before TLH. Reviews would be appreciated!

CHAPTER ONE

For the first time in her life, Katie was jealous of Cabin Eleven.

She never thought she would look at the Hermes (and unclaimed) kids and want what they had. Cramped space, constant noise, worrying about the Stoll brothers filling your sleeping bag with whipped cream; that did not appeal to Katie, and she was sure she wasn't the only one.

But then after Percy made a deal with the gods to claim their demigod children by the time they were thirteen, Cabin Eleven changed. Over half of its occupants went to go live in their real cabin, and the Stoll brothers took it upon themselves to throw everyone who left a small going away party. The cabin now had much more space and wasn't obnoxiously loud, and Connor and Travis both had decided it was too soon to begin their pranks again.

On the last day of summer, Katie entered Cabin Four. It was usually custom for her to yell at Travis to quiet down along the way, but he'd actually been helping someone, and it wasn't to assist with a prank. Katie had been shocked to see her arch-nemesis carrying a young boy's bag as he walked over to his godly parent's cabin.

"Hey, Katie," Miranda greeted. She was zipping up a large duffel bag.

"You're going home?" Katie said in reply. Miranda was usually a year-round camper, like Katie herself.

Miranda nodded. "The battle made me think," she explained. "My stupid little problems with my stepmom aren't that bad. I'll go home to Georgia. I'll visit over Thanksgiving break, I promise." She gave Katie a quick hug before running out of the cabin, not wanting to be caught by the harpies.

Katie sighed and sat on her twin-size bed. She absentmindedly stroked the small cactus plant on her bedside table when she realized that she was currently the only member of Cabin Four; all of her siblings were going home for the fall.

Outside her cabin, Katie saw through the window the Hermes kids, led by Travis and Connor, skipping and running toward the fields, jokingly pushing each other around, shouting something about canoe races. For a fleeting moment, she wished she could be there with them, but then she remembered that Travis was there. Her arch-nemesis was someone she would never willingly go hang out with.

She gazed sadly at her cactus, and then at the other plant life scattered around the room. "Looks like it's just you and me, plants," she said. Then she shook her head. How pathetic was she?

Ω

"Good evening, campers," Chiron rumbled. Travis noticed that the old centaur seemed to be in a surprisingly good mood; probably no one had gotten chased by the cleaning harpies. "Well, our numbers have certainly decreased today, but I'm happy to announce that we have five new cabins! You all should be extremely proud of yourselves. That's quite an accomplishment in such little time."

A few campers clapped, but most just smiled sadly and silently. It was a good thing that they were now rebuilding and enlarging the camp, but no one could quite forget the friends that they had lost.

"Now, I know the battle in Manhattan was just two weeks ago," Chiron continued, "but you all heard Rachel's prophecy. It could happen anytime from next year to the next century, but we need to be prepared. Before he left, Grover Underwood told me that his number of satyrs decreased—"

"That's an understatement!" a tree nymph called out from where she was serving food. "Over eighty percent of the satyrs he had died!"

"Seventy-six percent, actually," Nico di Angelo corrected quietly. Travis was surprised that Nico had actually stuck around; he figured the thirteen-year-old would have gone back to the Underworld with Hades, but he was even rebuilding his own cabin.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Yes. It's tragic, I know. But satyrs are usually the ones who protect and lead half-bloods back here so they can properly train. With the numbers down, no one can do that." He then began to explain that since many demigods had died or were seriously injured, they needed more campers, and fast. Before Travis knew it, Chiron was offering a quest for three campers to go across the country and recruit half-bloods.

Everyone shifted. No one exactly wanted to jump back into the mortal world and walk around with untrained half-bloods. Even though many monsters had been sent back to Tartarus, that didn't mean they were all gone.

"Cabins One, Two, and Three are currently unoccupied," Chiron mused, studying the tables. "Cabin Four…oh, Katie! You're the only camper here for year-round?"

Travis looked up. His sworn enemy and favorite person to prank was sitting alone at Demeter's table, looking rather small since she was by herself. He snickered. Katie sent a glare this way and looked up at Chiron. "Sure," she said confidently, "I'll go."

Chiron smiled, although it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Wonderful," he said, looking at the next table. "Cabin Five. Clarisse, do any of you—"

"No." The daughter of Ares viciously stabbed a piece of ham on her plate. "Not another one of my brothers or sisters is going into a quest or battle unless they're following me." She glanced at her siblings, who looked slightly embarrassed. Travis figured Clarisse was still mad that they had followed Silena against the drakon.

"Well, I think it would—"

"Shut up, Sherman," Clarisse snapped. She looked at Chiron, who didn't look too surprised by her answer. "Sorry, Chiron. Ares is sitting this one out."

"Just like you sat the Battle of Manhattan out?" Travis called. He couldn't help it. Clarisse annoyed him to no end, even more than Katie. At least Katie was fun to tease and looked cute.

Wait. Katie Gardner was not fun at all and she definitely wasn't cute. Travis shook his head. Maybe I ate too many Skittles, he thought. I'm going delusional.

Clarisse glared at Travis and muttered something under her breath about maiming him. Connor whispered to his brother, "I have a prank planned for Ares. I'll put it into motion to avenge your death after Clarisse kills you."

"Cabin Six?" Chiron called.

Malcolm looked uncertainly at his siblings. "Um, before Annabeth left to go to her new school, she kind of…threatened me not to let anyone leave Camp," he explained slowly. Chiron looked slightly disappointed. If anyone could get this job done, it would be Athena kids.

"Cabin Seven?" Chiron called louder. A few campers had gotten bored and struck up conversations.

Will shook his head. "I'm sorry, Chiron," he said. Travis rolled his eyes. Will sounded like his dog had just died. "I would really love to help, but my siblings and I spend all day treating the sick and the campers who have recovering injuries. I'd be happy to help with whatever I can, though."

Chiron sighed, and Travis almost felt bad for the guy. Almost. He didn't feel so bad that he was going to cancel a prank. "Jake," the centaur asked, "do any of you—"

"Sorry," Jake replied, shaking his head. "Literally all of our weapons got destroyed in the battle. The camp has no stock. We've been working overtime trying to get our numbers back to what they used to be." Everyone was silent; no one mentioned the Curse of Cabin Nine, as Connor had dubbed it. Ever since the battle and Beckendorf's death, the Hephaestus kids just hadn't been as good as they once were.

Chiron looked at the Hermes kids. "Do any of you deem yourself responsible enough—"

"Hey!" Drew shrieked. Some campers winced at her voice. "You didn't even ask any of us if we wanted to go."

"My apologies, Drew," Chiron said, not sounding very apologetic. "Would any of you want to go?"

Drew scoffed. "No way! None of us would ever volunteer for some made-up quest, except Si—"

"Ah-hem," Chiron interrupted. Many campers looked uncomfortable, but most were glaring at Drew's back. Travis was one of those campers. "Cabin Eleven, do any of you want to go on this quest?"

"Sorry, Chiron, I can't really hear you," Connor said, nudging his brother.

Travis caught on immediately. "Yeah," he agreed. "Could you step a little closer to our table?"

Chiron sighed and slowly made his way toward their table. When he neared it, Connor pulled on a string behind him, and a bucket of water emptied down on Chiron.

Travis and Connor high-fived. Their first prank since the battle was a success. Around them, their siblings were laughing, along with most of the other campers. Travis noticed that Katie was sitting stoically, and he made a mental note to ask her what was wrong, but then he shook his head. He couldn't let her ruin his fun; even Chiron was chuckling. How often did that happen?

"Travis, since you find this so funny," Chiron said, his laughter fading, "I presume you would like to take this quest as well."

"Wait, what?" Travis immediately stopped laughing. He didn't want to go on a quest. He had just been in a freaking battle two weeks ago.

Chiron nodded. "And we need a third person. W—"

"Connor's the one who set up the bucket!" Travis interrupted. He glanced at Katie, who looked livid. "And look how mad Katherine looks. We'll kill each other!"

"Katie," Katie grumbled. "I hate Katherine."

Chiron shrugged. "Connor's better at being on-time to classes. Someone will have to lead the cabin while you're on the quest."

"I never agreed to this!"

"Pollux," Chiron continued, ignoring Travis. "Would you—"

"No," Mr. D interrupted. "Pollux is not going on this little merry hunt for more brats."

Pollux looked up. "Dad?"

Chiron looked at the new tables that had been added during the past two weeks. "Does anyone want to join? We'll figure out the numbers for the cabins soon."

Travis didn't listen to whoever answered. He was mad. Beside him, Connor was still laughing at his misfortune. He knew that Travis couldn't stand Katie, and she couldn't stand him either.

He hadn't even been on a real quest since he was thirteen. His first one had been when he was eleven; that had gone smoothly enough. With Connor and Beckendorf by his side, it had been like nothing could go wrong. When he was thirteen, he went on a quest with Silena and Lee. That hadn't been too bad, either. It was weird, now that he thought about it, that almost all of his quest partners were dead now.

So he figured that he could honor them by at least sucking it up and going on this quest. All they had to do was find some more demigods and get them to Camp, right?

After dinner, Chiron announced that because the Apollo kids needed to head back to the infirmary, there would be no campfire singing. No one looked too disappointed; Will had the tendency to play only Neil Diamond songs.

"Katie, Travis, and Nico, stay behind," Chiron called.

Travis numbly walked over to the centaur with the other two. Nico di Angelo and Katie Gardner? These were his quest partners? With his luck, if he didn't strangle Katie by the end of the quest, both of them would be dead because Nico would send them straight to Hades.

"You leave tomorrow morning," Chiron told them. "I suggest you start on the West coast and work your way back here." He trotted away with Mr. D following him, saying something about owing him drachmas for a game of poker.

"Okay," Katie said. She didn't look too thrilled about this quest. "What time do you want to meet tomorrow?" Travis was about to answer when he realized that she was speaking to Nico and not him.

"Um, let's say seven o'clock at Thalia's tree," Nico answered. "Pack light."

"No problem," Travis said, grinning. "We can just pickpocket mortals for stuff we need along the way."

Nico looked at him quizzically before walking away. Katie rolled her eyes at him, muttered something about dealing with an idiot for six years, and stomped off. Tough crowd, Travis thought. This was going to be a long quest.

Ω

A/N: Sorry it's not too exciting yet! The quest will start in the next chapter.