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"I've been throwing stones, waiting by the river/ I've been on my own, praying like a river
You've been gone too long, I'm waiting out the winter/ and I've been on my knees praying like, praying like a sinner"
- Sinner, Andy Grammer

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THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW

ARYA WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE on border patrol today. But when she saw that Clarisse was leading a battle of ten campers against two, elephant-sized, mechanical bulls she wasn't just going to walk away.

Instead, she did the thing demigods were known for and made an impulsive decision by summoning her magic spear, then running into the battle with no armor on.

It briefly occurred to her she might get in trouble later, but she wasn't going to dwell on that.

The bulls were massive things made of metal. The pieces overlapped each other making it near impossible to penetrate them. Not to mention the steam coming off from them from there inner workings were enough to make anyone's eyes water.  The campers were struggling to take them down, most of them had never faced a threat of this size before. Clarisse was leading them, doing the best she could, but between the bull's size, make, and their add-on ability to breath fire. It wasn't an easy task. Most of the fighters couldn't get within ten feet of the creatures.

Even Arya, who was the best fighter at camp, struggled to get a hit on the things. Every time she got close, fire would come out of their mouths and Arya would have to duck away. From her distance, she tried to throw her spear to fatally penetrate the bulls, but she was unaware of their weak spots, which resulted in Arya hitting random spots on the bull with no results other than a few small tears in the armor. They were wearing down the group of demigods fast.

Clarisse eventually noticed Arya and called out to the girl.

"Tuna-Head!? Wanna use your water powers on the fire breathing bulls?"

"Don't you think I would if I could!?" Arya called back as she rolled out of the way of a fireball. "I used it all up a few days ago when the Chimera attacked!"

Arya ran up, blocked, and forced the rhino to change directions before it could impale her with its horn.

"No! We filled it up this morning!" Another voice called out to her causing Arya to turn her head towards it. She realized it was Silena  Beauregard of the Aphrodite cabin who was preparing her shield for a fire attack.

"Great! Now use it!" Clarisse called, to which Arya saluted back ready to take Clarisse orders.

Arya ran as close as she could to Thalia's tree, while still keeping a close eye on the bulls. Once she was within range of the large barrel that sat at the base of the dying pine tree, she leaned over the edge to see that Silena was right, the water in it had been replenished for her to fight with.

With a double hit of her gauntlets, she got rid of her spear, ignoring her temporary defenselessness and vulnerability. She pulled out a large bundle of water from the bucket, making a ball in her hand that was also as wide as her wingspan.

Arya turned to see that Bull Number One was about to blow fire upon three campers who had their backs turned. Arya thrusted out her arms, causing the water to go flying away from her, meeting with the fireball in mid-air and extinguishing it before it could hit the demigods. There was a small explosion as the water hit the fire, followed by a loud sizzling noise as the water engulfed the fire and dropped to the ground, soaking into the grass.

She turned back to the bucket and pulled out a long string of water and with a plan in her head, she ran towards Clarisse, who was attempting to form the campers in a phalanx.

Arya ran in front of the attempted formation, and tried to move the water so fast that it would be able to act as a blade and cut off the leg of Bull Number Two. She knew it was a risky attempt, as she had only done it a few times successfully, and so when the water hit the bull's leg and did nothing more than make a cut she cursed herself for even trying it.

As the bull readied to shoot fire at her, Arya acted quickly and pulled back her water, forming it into a ball, and forced the water inside the bulls mouth before the fireball could actually be formed.

Her attack seemed to do the trick and the bull seemed unable to shoot fire any longer. Arya didnt know how long this effect would last, but she did know that it made the bull very mad and before she realized it, Bull Number Two was charging her, and by association the phalanx.

But before Arya could formulate another plan she became startled at a voice yelling from far down the hill.

"Behind you! Look Behind you!"

Aryas focus was pulled from the fight for a brief second as she attempted to figure out who called, but it was enough time for the bull to ram into her and send her flying backwards, landing on her side and rolling over herself with the leftover momentum.

She knew there was no way she wasn't injured from that landing. It was a fact she was going to choose to ignore though because of the adrenaline running through her system. Arya forced herself up, grunting through the pain and pulling more water from the bucket and putting it all over herself to heal her from her hit. While she was healing Arya watched as Clarisse blocked the bull and some of the campers were stabbing their weapons into it, weakening it.

Then she looked at the other bull who was chasing after a boy who she also noticed wasn't in battle armor. Her eyes caught his jet back hair and bright green eyes as he turned around swinging his sword in a confident manor and cutting off a piece of the bulls face.

It was Percy.

She watched for the next few seconds as Percy rolled his ankle on Thalia's tree root and fell to his back, where he was pinned by the bull and its menacing fire-breath.

Arya acted quickly and pulled out all the water from the bucket she was able too, she maneuvered it over the bull and expanded it into a big ball, that she then shot forward to encompass the bull and lift it off the ground. Any ounce of fire that was within the creature seemed to extinguish as Aryas water flooded into its system. She watched as the bull tried to kick and fight its way out of the water and back on the ground by Arya was refusing to let it go.

She worked hard to keep her focus on keeping the bull trapped while she waited for Percy to take action. But to the girls suprise, a cyclops came out of nowhere and smashed his fists into the side of the bull and threw it sideways. The daughter of Poseidon was so thrown off that she forgot to salvage the water and instead let it sink into the burnt grass.

Arya looked around to see where the Cyclopes came from but all she could figure was that the Cyclops had somehow come with Percy and Annabeth, who was currently across the clearing feeding Clarisse ambrosia from a vial to heal her from her fall.

As much as Arya wanted to rush up to Percy, to talk with him, she knew she had to prioritize and take care of the bulls first. So while the Cyclopes, Percy, and some others took care of Bull Number One. Arya took the little bit of water left in the barrel and took off toward Bull Number Two.

"Clarisse! I'll hold it off, get everyone you can! Cut off the legs!" She called the daughter of Ares. Who gave Arya a slight head nod back to show she had heard.

"Campers! To me!" Clarisse yelled as Arya put a ring of water around the Bull that reminded her of a lasso. Confused, the bull tried both running in circles and running out of the circle that encompassed it, but Aryas concentration was firm and she refused to let the ring break, no matter how forcefully the bull hit it.

"Ready! Now!" Clarisse ordered, and the campers attacked the legs of the bull, eventually cutting them off and leaving the bull as just a torso. Now, with the bull unable to move, Arya dropped the water ring and summoned her spear.

She ran towards the bull as it shot fire at her. She dropped to her knees and slid under the fireball before quickly standing back up and swinging her spear and digging it into the neck of the creature, continuing to force it down its neck to decapitate the monster and kill it off, sending it's spirit back to the underworld.

Arya took a minute to catch her breath, dropping her spear and putting her hands on her knees. She really wasn't a fan of the constant monster attacks. They really took a lot of energy out of her.

After a look around, she realized Percy and his crew seemed to be successful in decapitating their bull, and now things were quiet. The only thing they had left to worry about were the injured campers.

Clarisse seemed to forget this aspect though, as she angrily stormed up to Percy.

"Don't ever, EVER, try and save me again!"

Arya let out a groan at the girl, wanting things to just be calm for a second. But as the reality, that calm wasn't an option, sunk in. Arya was quick to run up behind Clarisse to save Percy from her wrath.

"Clarisse! You have wounded campers"

The daughter of Ares grumbled and then walked away to attend to those injured. Arya decided she needed to do the same, she didn't exactly want to see Percy right now.

Things were going to be awkward between them. She started to ignore his letters a few weeks ago, right after Thalia's tree got poisoned. Chiron and her solemnly decided it was probably best if Percy didn't come back to camp. To make Chiron decision easier on her, she stopped communicating with him. Knowing that when they did see each other next, she could just blame it on her overloaded schedule. Now that he was here though, she realized how wrong she was.

Ever since the last day of summer nine months ago, things at camp tried their hardest to go back to normal but with a presence as strong as Luke's, now missing. Nothing could really go back to normal.

Arya more than anything.

When Thalia's tree got poised, Arya was out of tears to cry. Instead, her feelings were disgust and grief towards the situation because she looked at Thalia's tree as a person, a sense of comfort, and suddenly that was being taken from her too.

But rather than be sitting ducks and accepting the failing borders Arya, Chiron and a few of the councilors got together to make a plan for the changing camp. They all worked together to put together a schedule for watches and charges and how camp should be rebuilt.

Her year since Luke left her was beyond busy. But she would much prefer a busy schedule where she felt like she was useful, rather than having nothing to do and be left alone with her thoughts. Aryas mind was a rather dark place anymore, and she was convinced the only reason she hadn't sunk under, was because she was constantly moving.

Arya took a quick glance at Percy, and noticed how much he had grown since she had seen him last. He was starting to look more like a teenager, he was still shorter than her, but not by much. His black hair had grown slightly longer and now made him look older. He still had some baby fat but it was starting to leave him.

After she was done looking at Percy she turned to Sydney, of the Hermes cabin, who had a broken leg and Arya started to splint it up as fast as she could. It helped that Sydney didn't seem like she was in that much pain. As Arya worked on her splint she overheard Annabeth and Percys conversation about the Cyclops named Tyson, and how Percy seemingly didn't realize he was a Cyclops. A classic Percy move. Annabeth informed him all about Cyclops' but seemed to avoid the fact that they were almost all children of Poseidon.

Arya could tell Annabeth was uncomfortable around cyclops and Arya knew why. Luke had told her the story about how a Cyclops was technically responsible for Thalia's deaths, and with Annabeth only being eight at the time, it had a lasting psychological impact on the curly blonde and now she hates them all.

A few minutes later, Clarisse came back up to Percy and told him that if his leg was okay to help take the wounded to the infirmary, while she went up to Tantalus to tell him what happened. Then she turned to Arya, who stood up and wiped off her pants, and faced the girl.

"Next time you want to join the fight, put on armor first." Clarisse scolded.

"Sorry that I didn't take the time to dress up while the people I cared about were in trouble" Arya seethed back.

"I know, but we would have been fine for five minutes. I'm not going to have the reason you die because you make stupid decisions" Clarisse said.

"And I wasn going to have someone else die because I was too worried about myself!"

"I don't want to argue Arya... So next time just be smarter. But thanks for your help" Clarisse nodded before walking off.

    That's usually how these thins went anymore. Clarisse and Arya were the definition of frenemies. They worked together when needed but any other time, could stick the two of them in the same room together.

"Who's Tantalus?" Percy asked. "Chiron is the activities director, and where's Argus? Shouldn't he be here"

Arya turned to face Percy, making eye contact with him for the first time. "You guys have been gone a while. A lot of things have changed. Argus has been fired, Chiron too. I'm sorry you had to find out this way" She spoke to them.

Both Percy and Annabeth seemed almost relieved to see Arya as it had been almost a year since they said goodbye. There hopeful faces didn't last long those as the news Arya had informed them about settled in. 

"But Chiron... He's trained kids to fight for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone! What happened?" Percy exclaimed trying to figure out answers, he trusted that Arya would be the way to get them.

Aryas head dropped at the question. She had a lot of feelings towards the Chiron subject, and practically begged Dionysus not to fire him when the time came. But it was useless and the centaur was told to leave camp and replaced by Tantalus who Arya greatly disliked.

Chiron had been in and out of camp for weeks to clean out his stuff, but while he was on the premise he had no control over anything and he seemed to be a shell of the director that he used to be.

Camp had taken a dark turn in the last few months and while it wasn't unexpected, it doesn't mean Arya didn't hate everything about it.

"That happened" Arya eventually spoke pointing towards Thalia's tree which was now slowly dying because someone had poisoned it with something no one had seen before.

The wound in the tree was seeping ooze, and it looked like an infected cut. It almost hurt Arya to think about. No one knew who did it but everyone had their theories. Or theory.

Luke Castellan.

Arya struggled to believe that he could ever do such a thing. Thalia was one of the most important people to Luke, even after she died. Arya couldn't imagine he would ever hurt her tree.

But nine months ago he left Arya, something she never thought he would do either, and she was shattered over it.

    She was still shattered over it.

Her thinking had changed about the boy she loved within the time he had been gone, and she wasn't sure what he would be willing to do anymore.

Arya's life was nothing but one conflicting thought after another anymore, but for the first time in months Arya felt a little bit of hope inside of her now that her brother was back. She missed Percy and the company he gave her. Now, on top of just Percy, she might be getting a second sibling too. Tyson, the Cyclopes. Who might be fun to have around.

She just hoped Percy would forgive her for everything she did this summer, or more accurately everything she didn't do. But maybe if she sat down and explained things to him he would be more understanding. Maybe they could get back their sibling relationship they had built up all throughout last summer.

She didn't know what her summer would be like now that Percy and Annabeth were here, but she could bet things would get more interesting than they already were.