icefox: sorry for taking so long to update. I will repent by writing a longer than normal chapter. XD seriously though, it just turned out that way, but it's still nice, right? Normally, chapters are around 10 pages, including author's notes, and this one is 13 pages exactly without the authors notes.

About the heroes of olympus, I just got the blood of olympus this morning for my birthday (it's my birthday, by the way. :D), so no blood of olympus spoilers for... let's say a month, just in case I get busy. It will probably take less than a week to read, but I never know how busy life will keep me... so, yeah, as of right now, on October 15th, 2014, I've only read a few chapters.

Happy Birthday to Reborn (October 13th) and Tsuna (October 14th) from Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Naruto (October 10th) from Naruto, and me. none of those characters have anything to do with this story, but I thought it they should be mentioned anyways, just because.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Maximum Ride. Those honors go to Rick Riordan and James Patterson.

Chapter 8: Minotaurs, Barbeque, and Bath Houses

"So, what's the plan now, Oh Fearless Leader?" Iggy drawls as the flock hovers over an angry bull man. They were successful with moving the Minotaur away from the rest of the creatures, and out of the archers' way, but now they were simply hovering over the monster and dodging his attacks when needed.

"Iggy, Gazzy, do either of you ha- Kai, what are you doing?!" Max starts to say but cuts herself off as the winged mute allows himself to fly low enough for the Minotaur to charge him.

"Kai, you idiot!" Fang shouts as he kicks the Minotaur and gets the creature to focus on him while Max flies Kai to a safe height. While that got Kai out of danger, it only switched him out for Fang. The black haired teen tries to fly up to safety, but the Minotaur's flailing arms made it difficult and he couldn't fly away to get out of range without risk of the monster charging him. Seeing this issue, Nudge flies over to a nearby tree and yanks a pine cone off of one of the branches.

"Over here, you big furry!" Nudge cries as she throws the prickly bundle of bark at the Minotaur to distract him from Fang. The raven winged teen nods in thanks as the enraged bull charges Nudge, allowing Fang to join the rest of the flock. The Minotaur roars in frustration when his attempted charge can't reach his target.

Back with Max and Kai, a certain mute with blue love bird wings is getting a lecture by his peregrine falcon winged leader.

"What on earth were you thinking?! If Fang and I weren't here, you would have been killed!" Max shouts with a glare.

'I wouldn't have died. I had a plan.' Kai signs.

"Not a very good one, if it got you that close to danger."

'It was a good plan. I'll show you if you let me try again.'

"Try again?! If you fail, you die! Do you want that?!"

'It's better than the creature winning and everyone dying.' Kai signs back, stunning Max into shocked silence. Kai smiles at her then and rubs her shoulder in comfort, with the option of hugging her thrown out of the window during flight. 'Relax, I do not plan on dying today. I know what I'm doing, so please, trust me.'

Max stares at her young foster sibling for what seems to be a long moment, before she sighs and gestures towards the angry bull man.

"Alright, I'll trust you with this. Just don't break my trust and get killed."

Kai beams at Max before flying back down to the Minotaur's eye level and flailed his arms to get his attention once more. The Minotaur sees the flash of sea foam green and silver feathers and wastes no time in correctly alining himself before charging. Kai waits for the last possible moment before flipping out of the way, slowly descending as he watches the bull man struggle to free the horn he just impaled in the tree previously behind Kai. It takes a few moments before he frees himself, but not without breaking his horn off and leaving it in the tree. Kai smiles at the broken horn and turns towards his family.

'If possible, I will need you all to distract him while I get the horn out of the tree.' Kai signs to his waiting flock. Max snorts at this and shakes her head.

"If possible? Kai, what do you take us for? Of course we can distract him while you retrieve the broken horn. Right guys?"

"Right!"

"Great. We'll start with attack formation A. Kai, take as much time as you need. Just don't linger when you don't need to, okay?"

Kai nods and waits for the attacks to effectively distract the Minotaur before flying down to the tree and digging the horn out. The plan seemed to be going well, until the Minotaur got annoyed and managed to smack Nudge out of the sky, also taking out Angel when she can't get out of Nudges way in time.

"Nudge! Angel!" Max screams as she shoots for the fallen bird kids shaking with fright on the ground. Iggy and Gazzy distract the bull with homemade fire crackers and small explosives while Max picks up Angel and Fang grabs Nudge. Kai sees this and pulls harder, managing to release the horn from the tree's grip in his desperation.

Unfortunately, the momentum also makes him rocket towards the Minotaur.

Using his wings to flip around to face the enemy and aid his collected speed, he pushes the horn in front of him like a two handed sword in time to pierce the chest of it's previous owner. The bullman screams in pain and bursts into gold sand, leaving the horn behind.

The flock doesn't allow themselves a moment to breathe before ascending and helping the campers pick off the remaining monsters. This task is much easier and less time consuming than the first considering how much weaker the rest of the monsters are.

Once the last monster bursts into gold dust, Chiron calls the campers and the flock to gather around him, before speaking.

"Good work, everyone. Nicely done. Thanks to your efforts, Camp Half-Blood is safe. Any injured are to go to the infirmary-" Here, the white centaur stares pointedly at the hovering bird kids "-to seek help from the healers. The uninjured will split into teams to care for the wounded and clean up the mess the monsters made of our front door. Afterward, we will feast in honor of our victory."

The campers have no issues with this, cheering loudly before going about their jobs. As the large crowd disbands, the flock check each other for injuries.

"Angel, Nudge, are you two alright?" Max questions as she mothers the two children.

"I'm okay, I was just a little shocked at the impact is all." Angel answers, voice strong but body still getting over the fear induced shakes.

"My ribs are a little bruised, but nothing a little time won't heal on it's own." Nudge reports as she lifts her shirt slightly to show a large black and purple bruise dominating her torso.

"We'll still have Lee or Will look over it. How about you, Kai? Did you get injured at all when you dodged that thing or stabbed him?" Max questions, to which Kai simply shakes his head. Max breathes a sigh of relief and turns to the rest of her flock. She is a very observant leader and already knew the others were fine, but she asked anyways, just in case.

"We're fine, Max. We didn't get near that thing, so stop worrying so much." Iggy assures with a tease. Max frowns at this and turns away to hide her embarrassment.

"I can't help it. You guys are my family, so of course I worry about you. Now let's go back to the infirmary for a check up."

"Yes ma'am." The flock chimes with a mock salute before following their leader to the Big House. Given their abilities, it takes no time at all to reach the building and land in front of the patiently waiting Will and Lee.

"What happened?" Lee questions as he leads the group inside for examinations.

"Monsters showed up at your front door and tried to get in uninvited." Max explains while herding her flock to the beds before sitting down herself.

"We didn't let them in, of course. They didn't even have an invitation." Nudge scoffs as she falls backwards to lay on the comfortable bed horizontally, wincing as her ribs scream at her in protest.

"So rude." Angel agrees with a nod and crosses arms.

"Were you guys the only ones injured in this unexpected visit." Will inquires around a poorly suppressed laugh.

"Yeah, the campers stayed behind the barrier while we picked the monsters off from the skies." Fang explains, crossing his own arms as he closes his eyes in thought. "A few of us got injured while fighting the Minotaur, but I think that's the only creature that hurt us."

"The other monsters were a piece of cake!" Iggy cheers, his cloudy eyes lighting up at the memory.

"Yeah! Our bombs were awesome!" Gazzy whoops in joy, causing Will and Lee's eyes to widen and their complexion to lighten to a ghostly white.

"Bombs?!"

"Yeah, Gazzy and Iggy are always making them." Nudge says with a dismissive wave of her hand, which didn't help Will and Lee's anxiety at all. They had heard the noise from the weapons and felt the ground shaking, but they never would have guessed the loud bangs and tremors were from homemade explosives. Max sighs at her caramel skinned charge and waves her hands in front of her.

"It's not what you think. The bombs they used were small and only big enough to harm the monsters. You're not gunna go outside and find a ton of craters in the ground or anything."

"Oh. Well, as long as they didn't hurt anybody with them or destroy anything, I guess it's alright." Lee says in response, which Iggy and Gazzy take offense to.

"Of course we didn't hurt anyone! What do you take us for?!" Iggy snarls at the son of Apollo.

"We're not Erasers or anything!" Gazzy retaliates as well. Fang mirrors his leader's sigh of exasperation and smashes the heads of the enraged bird kids together.

"Knock it off, you two. They weren't trying to insult you, they were just worried about their home is all."

"You can't blame them for the way they reacted. Bombs are usually pretty destructive and hurt anyone around them when they go off." Angel reasons. Max nods at the voices of reason.

"Fang and Angel are right. Iggy, Gazzy, I want you two to apologize for the way you reacted."

"That's not fair Max!" Iggy shouts in anger as he rubs the sore side of his head. Max glares at the insubordination.

"You heard someone get worried over something you did and assumed the worst, so you blew up on them. Those types of actions warrant an apology. Cool your head and tell him you are sorry for the way you treated him, especially after all he has done and is still doing for us."

Iggy continues to glare at Max for a few seconds before scoffing and turning his head away.

"Alright, fine! I'm sorry for what I said."

"I'm sorry too." Gazzy apologizes with a bowed head. Lee smiles and dismisses the apologies with a wave of his hand.

"Don't worry about it. I should be the one apologizing. I heard 'bomb' and immediately focused on worry for my friends and my home. It wasn't my intention to make you think I thought badly of you."

"Well, now that that's settled, shall we get back to work?" Will questions while tossing a roll of bandages in the air in boredom.

"Yes, we shall. Who is injured the most?"

"Probably Nudge. She got a direct hit by the Minotaur, then crashed into Angel on her way to the ground." Max explains. Lee nods and requests Nudge to show him where she is hurt. The talkative mutant lifts her shirt to show off her bruise while chatting about the previous fight. Lee studies the bruise before turning to Will.

"No broken or cracked bones, but she does have a rather nasty bruise, so bring some salve over here."

"Sure."

Once Will hands the healing salve to his older brother, Lee begins Nudge's healing process by spreading a generous amount over her swelling abdomen. After wards, he has the still talking mutant sit up so that the two healers can wrap the bruise. Will is tolerant of the chatterbox, simply rolling his eyes at some of her words and shaking his head, while Lee listens attentively with a patient smile on his face and even engages in the conversation. This makes the flock drop their jaws in shocked amazement. While all of them loved the winged girl to bits, none of them are that patient with her. Lee must have the patients of a saint.

"You will be pretty sore for the next week or two, so try not to move around too much, or you'll make it worse. Your bones are bruised as well as your skin, and those types of injuries always take longer to heal. Come back tomorrow so that I can change your bandages.

"Kay!" Nudge says with a raised hand, then winces as the action puts stress on her bruised bones. "Right. Taking it easy."

Lee smiles at the remark and turns to the youngest flock member. "Next."

The examination process continues this way until everyone has been checked. Angel comes away from it with mild bruises and a few scrapes from cushioning Nudge's impact with the ground while Kai only had some torn skin on his fingers from hastily digging the monster horn out of the tree. Once everyone has been examined for injures, Max turns to the brothers and nods her head in gratitude.

"Thank you for your help, Lee. Will." Max says in a show of gratitude for her flock's treatment.

"It was my pleasure." Lee replies with a small bow. Will rolls his eyes and slings an arm over his half sibling's shoulders.

"Come on, guys. With all of the help they had cleaning up, the campers should be getting ready for the feast by now."

"Was our achievement really so great to warrant a feast?" Max questions as the group makes their way out of the infirmary.

"Our dinners are always grand enough to call a feast, so it's not really that big. It's the accompanying party that is the big deal. We have one whenever we have any new campers or someone comes back safely from a quest. The new camper as well as our victory will make for quite the party." Lee explains with a wink aimed at Kai, who blushes in embarrassment.

"We've never had to deal with an attack like that. I wonder what drew the monsters here in the first place." Will ponders as he glances up at the darkening celestial blanket above them.

"That's a good question. The barrier is usually pretty good at masking our scents. Maybe something malfunctioned?"

"Whatever it was, we can worry about it later, right? Because I'm really hungry." Nudge whines. Lee and Will laugh at that and nod their heads.

"You don't have to worry about that. We can talk with Chiron and Mr. D about it. You just worry about getting some food and healing. Everything is healthy, but you can't tell with the way the wood nymphs prepare the food."

"I have no objections with that. What about the rest of you?" Max agrees and glances around at her starving family.

"No objections!" They chime.

"Great. So, anything we should know before we start to eat?"

"Well, after you get your plate, you have to go to the bonfire before you sit down. You pick the best food on your plate, like a particularly juicy looking steak or your biggest and reddest strawberry, and toss it into the fire as a tribute to the gods. Normally, campers give tribute to their godly parent, but if that parent is unknown, they can pay tribute to Hermes for sheltering them in his cabin or give a nameless tribute to their parent in hopes that they will reveal themselves eventually. Since you guys don't have godly parents, you can give tribute to all of the gods in general with your offering or choose one that you relate to and want to give thanks to."

"What god could we possibly give thanks to with the lives we have?" Iggy scoffs as he angrily shoves his hands in his pockets. "Where were they when we were taken by the School and experimented on for most of our lives? Where were they when we were starving or hurt? If gods truly do exist, then why did they ignore us when we were suffering?"

"Iggy, I know you're upset, but you're taking your anger out on the wrong people." Max lectures with a stern look and tone at the rebellious blind teen. "Lee and Will have been nothing but kind to us and the people of this camp are helping Kai find his parents. They're good people. And you know from our religion studies with Jeb that gods don't interfere directly with the lives of mortals because that would defeat the purpose of us having free will. They can protect us from otherworldly things, but they can't protect us from ourselves."

"As for what gods to offer tribute to, there are many possibilities." Lee informs as they approach the dining pavilion. "You can give offerings to the God of the Skies for keeping the skies clear while you fly, Hermes for giving you calm winds to fly on or for save passage while traveling, Demeter: Goddess of Harvest for the food you eat, Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt for any meat you eat, ect. If you can think of any big aspect of your life that you are thankful for, thank the god or goddess that presides over it. If you fail to find something like this, you can always send up a message asking Kai's father to come forward and claim him as his son, though he might be busy given the current situation and probably won't respond."

The flock stare at each other for a moment, before seeming to agree on something and turn back to the cabin mates.

"Can you give offerings to more than one god?" Fang questions before anyone else ask their real questions. While Fang is gathering information, Max subtly gets Angel's attention. When the blond stares at her mother figure curiously, Max taps her own head. Angel nods in understanding and mentally pokes at the brown and white winged leader.

'Scan the minds of the others and if anyone wants to ask about why Kai's father would be busy, tell them to keep the questions to themselves. We'll have a meeting tonight and trade stories. Fang and I have an idea what might be going on with Fang's father.'

'What if they don't want to? I'm sure Gazzy and Nudge won't have any issues, but you know how Iggy's been lately.'

'I know, Ange, but he knows how important subtlety can be. I'm sure he'll cooperate. If not, let me know and I'll talk to him.'

'Okay, I'll try.'

'Thanks, sweetie.'

'You're welcome, Max.'

As Max and Angel come out of their mental conversation, Will is finishing up the explanation of how the offerings work. Max smiles with obvious gratitude towards the two cabin mates for their helpful instructions and voices her thanks.

"I think we get it now. Thank you for the help."

"No problem." Lee and Will answer in tandem as they stop at the back of the line for the buffet. The hungry mutants shift their weight around impatiently as the mouthwatering smell of the food make their grumbling stomachs protest loudly.

When it is finally the flock's turn to fill up their plates, Max and Fang make sure they remember to keep a particularly good piece of food in mind for the offering and to think of a god they can pray to. As guests that will be eating a lot of food and taking up a lot of sleeping space, they felt it was only right that they abide by their customs, as much as their stomachs protested at letting any food go to waste in a fire.

"What's the point in offering food? They don't even eat this stuff, do they?" Nudge questions as she stares forlornly at a slice of ham she will be offering.

"From what I remember of Greek Mythology, they eat Ambrosia and drink Nectar. They don't eat any of the food offered to them, they just like the smoke from the burning food." Max informs, also staring at her tribute, a couple of large strawberries and piece of freshly baked bread.

"That's even worse. Why give them precious food if they aren't even going to eat it?" Iggy scoffs as he glares down at his own plate.

"Probably because it smells incredible." Fang comments, eyes closed in pleasure and he catches a whiff of the smoke coming from his burning apple.

"Really?!" The flock chime in unison.

"Yeah. I could probably live off of this smell alone if I had to." Fang affirms with a grin.

"That's probably stretching it, but the smell is quite good." Max agrees with a grin as she takes in the smell of her bread and strawberries burning in the bonfire. While she thought the bread would smell decent at first, she didn't think burning strawberries would smell good at all, especially mixed in with the scents of the previous tributes, but the smoke really did smell heavenly.

The flock leader and her wing man stand off to the side of the line while waiting for the younger group members to give their offerings and make their prayers before walking as a group towards the tables.

"Where do you think we should sit? It looks like the tables are assigned." Fang observes as he takes in the tables and how similar the people of each table looked. A moderately tall blond (in comparison to the flock) at an over crowded table sees the group hovering around the bonfire and waves them over.

"Hey new kids, you're over here." the teen says while pointing to the table when the bird kids come within hearing range. "There's a strict rule about campers eating with their cabins, so since you guys haven't been acknowledged by your godly parent's, you're sitting with us."

"What if you don't have a godly parent?" Max questions.

"What, like the satyrs and nymphs? Then you can sit wherever you want, but the unclaimed demigods have to sit at the Hermes table." the unnamed boy reveals as he scratches his head and crosses his arms.

"Well, Kai is the only one that has a godly parent, as you put it, but we're a family and we're not going to leave him to eat alone with strangers. No offense." Fang informs as he tries to figure out a solution to their problem. Kai can only sit at the Hermes table and they can sit wherever they want, but the Hermes table is too full and won't fit the entire flock. The blue eyed blond sees the problem and smiles.

"None taken. Family is important, even if you aren't blood related. How about I go talk to Mr. D and see if he'll give permission for you to choose your own table until a better solution can be found? Simple math shows that not everyone will fit here and he's not so cruel as to force family to be apart. Otherwise, he would be sitting on his own instead of with Castor and Pollux."

"Do you think so? He didn't seem that nice when we met him." Nudge replies doubtfully.

"Yeah, he acted like a grumpy drunk." Gazzy adds.

"That's just how he is. I'll go talk to him, so just wait here. It'll only take a minute."

"Okay, thank you." Fang thanks.

"Sure. I'm Luke Castellen, by the way. Nice to meet you guys."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Fang, and this is Max, Iggy, Kai, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel."

"Those are some interesting names. I like them." Luke says with a grin of amusement before running off to table 12. He starts an animated argument with the god, moving his arms around energetically while seemingly convincing him why he should allow all of the flock to sit where ever they want. Mr. D did not look amused, getting a more visibly annoyed look on his face the longer the conversation stretched out. Castor and Pollux, the god of wine's twin children, grin from their seats on each side of their father while moving their gaze back and forth between the verbal tennis game. Mr. D finally sighs as he scoffs out his final answer and waves the child of Hermes away. The blond says goodbye with a triumphant smile and walks back over to the waiting bird mutants.

"I got you the okay to sit where you want. Just try to stay away from the empty tables. It may upset a few people upstairs, if you know what I mean." Luke says with a thumb jabbing up towards the glittering indigo sky.

"We know what you mean. Thank you for your help, Luke."

"Yeah, thanks man." Fang says in agreement with his leader.

"No problem. Chiron or Mr. D will give his welcoming speech for -Kai, was it?- soon, so I'd find a seat." Luke finalizes as he shoos the group away from the overcrowded table. Before the group can look around and decide on a table, Lee waves them over to the Apollo table.

"Having problems finding a place to eat?"

"Kind of. Kai was confined to the Hermes table, but we didn't want to leave him alone, so Luke talked to Mr. D and convinced him to let us sit where we want." Max explains, smacking Gazzy's hands away from his plate before he can start eating while standing, causing the younger bird kid to pout at his leader.

"Sounds like Luke, always looking out for others. If you can sit where you want, why don't you sit with us? You already know Will and I and the rest of our cabin is really nice."

"Sounds like a plan. Very well then, we will take you up on your offer. Sit down, everyone." Max thanks as she herds her charges onto the benches around the table.

"No problem." Lee responds with a smile, frowning slightly as he sees a few kids picking up food or eating utensils. "Hey, no eating yet. Wait for the speech."

"Luke mentioned a speech as well. What's it about?" Angel questions as Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy stare forlornly at their plates. Kai shakes his head at the trio for their impatience and stares curiously at his glowing goblet. Lee sees the look and gestures for Will to do the explaining while he shows the young bird kid how to fill the enchanted goblet with any drink he wanted.

"Yes. As our activities director, and because Mr. D doesn't like to socialize with us, Chiron usually gives most of the speeches, so we'll be hearing from him about today's events and any announcements that need to be heard. Mr. D will also talk for a bit to welcome you guys to camp, unless he's feeling particularly sour." Will explains for his cabin leader.

"He's going to be visibly upset about it though and he's going to get everyone's names wrong." a short boy with raven hair and oak brown eyes scoffs as his narrowed eyes looks down his pointed nose at the god in question. Lee shakes his head and turns back to the curiously staring flock.

"Don't mind him. He has a lot of attitude, but you couldn't ask for a better friend."

"You make it sound like I'm grumpy for the sake of being grumpy." the young man grumbles. Will's eyes widen in fake innocence.

"You mean you aren't?"

This causes the table to erupt in peals of laughter. The short boy tries and fails to hide his blush by glaring at his half siblings and verbally lashing out at them, only for the campers to laugh even more and tease him affectionately. While the Apollo siblings are calming the firecracker down, Lee decides to make an introduction for the occupied demigod.

"The shorty with the prickly attitude is Micheal Yew. He's a good kid, but he's got quite the mouth on him. Try not to take his words to harshly, he doesn't mean any harm with them."

"Noted." Max says, leaning in to whisper her own warning. "Iggy is going through some sort of rebellious phase as well, so try not to take him seriously when he's angry either. He's just lashing out because he's frustrated or something."

"Noted." Lee parrots with a smile. Max mirrors the smile and blinks in surprise when Chiron's booming voice calls for order. Lee calmly calls for silence at table seven while Max shushes her own winged charges. Once the dining pavilion is quiet, Chiron begins the speech.

"Firstly, Mr. D and I would like to welcome our new camper, Perseus Jackson, and his family. They are unsure how long they would like to stay here, but be friendly and patient with them regardless of their decisions, okay?"

As the campers clap their acceptance of the centaur's words, Chiron looks off to table 12 and raises his eyebrows in question. Mr. D gives a a short shake of his head, having welcomed them before and seeing no need for him to be the one to congratulate the half blood on his victory that day, so Chiron shakes his head and continues.

"We must also give a cheer for Percy and his family, for without their help, we may not have been able to get rid of that horde of monsters before the barrier fell. Cheers to Percy for defeating the Minotaur and cheers to his family for risking their lives to fight the monsters beyond the border of Camp Half-Blood."

"Cheers!" The camp yells while thrusting their goblets into the air.

"And cheers to all of you for keeping our home safe and intact."

"Cheers!" This time, the yell was louder and more boisterous, having the flock chime in as well.

"So, without further ado, enjoy your meal."

With that, the campers dove into their food. Dinner went well, with the flock dividing to make friends with the children of Apollo while wolfing down their fruits, veggies, bread, cheese, and wood nymph made barbeque. Iggy found entertainment with bickering with Micheal while Gazzy made friends with a young boy named Austin. Nudge and Angel chat with a sweet young girl named Kayla and Max, Fang, and Kai talk with Lee and Will for most of the meal.

After dinner, Chiron trots over to check on the flock.

"What do you think of camp so far?"

"This place is wonderful. Except for the attack earlier, it almost seems like a paradise." Max praises, hiding her slight unease with a smile. Considering the struggles her dysfunctional family has gone through, it's no wonder that the falcon winged leader is tensed and ready for everything to hit the metaphorical fan. If Chiron sees her nervousness, he makes no outward suggestion that he did.

"Wonderful. The campers are splitting up to attend their last class of the day before an hour of sing alongs with the Apollo cabin and bed time. You are welcome to sit in on any classes if the instructor doesn't mind and are encouraged to go to the sing along, but if you wish to retire for the evening, that is fine as well."

"The sing alongs and classes sound great, but a lot has happened today, so we should talk as a family about everything that's happened and get to bed early." Max declines with a regretful smile.

"Understandable." Chiron acquiesces with a nod of his head. "No worries. The offer still stands for tomorrow, if you are still interested. You will be sleeping in the infirmary while staying here, since we have no guest quarters at the moment. Would you like to be escorted back to the Big House?"

"No, we'll be fine. Thank you for the offer though."

"Very well. The door in the back of the infirmary leads to a bath for long term patient use and there are clothes and towels in the drawers on each side. Feel free to use both, and don't worry about damaging the clothes. If you need to cut holes in the shirts for your wings, that's fine. We have plenty of clothes to replace them with."

"We will. Goodnight." Max says.

"Goodnight!" The flock parrots.

"Goodnight." Chiron says with a smile and nod, before galloping off to teach his last class for the day.

"Do we really have to turn in so early?" Iggy complains once the group of seven are out of hearing range of the campers and mythological creatures working around them. "I mean, the sun just recently set, and don't tell me it didn't. I could feel the drop in temperature."

"I wasn't going to say that." Max says tiredly. "We don't have to go to sleep right away, but we do have to talk and wash up before going to bed. We have the rare chance to wash in warm water. Let's not waste it."

"Oh, a nice hot bath sounds amazing right now!" Nudge exclaims, almost levitating with how much she was squirming around in excitement. Fang smiles at this and glances at his leader.

"Hey boss, how about a race back to the Big House?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

Before anyone could say 'last one to the house has to stay in a room with a gassy Gazzy for five minutes', Max and Fang rocket into the air with the five remaining flock members close behind them. This is, until Max get's a sudden burst in speed and is tumbling to the ground in front of the Big House before she could even blink.

"Max! Are you okay?" Fang questions worriedly as he lands in front of her a few minutes later. The flock is visible behind him, touching down seconds after he kneels in front of his fallen friend.

"I think so. I just tumbled a bit when I landed because I was surprised. What exactly happened?"

"You suddenly flew so fast you disappeared. I've never seen you fly so fast before." Angel marvels.

"That's because I've never flown that fast. I didn't even mean to fly that fast just now." Max admits.

"I wonder how you were able to fly that fast?" Nudge wonders.

'Maybe it was your avian DNA?' Kai suggests.

"My avian DNA? Do you know what bird I'm fused with, Kai?" Max questions curiously.

'Maybe. I got curious one day a few years ago and decided to research various types of birds, and one of the ones that had wings like yours was a peregrine falcon. They are one of the fastest creatures in the world, being able to fly 250-300 miles an hour. That super sonic speed you just achieved confirmed it.'

"Huh. Interesting." Max murmurs. "I'll have to research tomorrow. For now, let's shower. I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to change out of these filthy clothes. I've been wearing them since I left Dr. Martinez's place."

"Agreement!" Nudge cheers as she hurries into the large baby blue and white house they stood in front of. The rest of the flock smile and run after the chatterbox.

"Who get's to use the shower first?" Angel questions as the children reach the infirmary.

"Let's see what the set up is first, then decide." Max says after a ponderous pause. Fang nods at this and strides to the other side of the room, disappearing for a few minutes before coming back smiling as he glances through the newly opened doorway.

"We can all take a bath at the same time, there is one bath separated by a single wall in the middle big enough for all of us."

"Seriously?!" The flock exclaim in unison. Fang smirks at the reaction and points his thumb over his shoulder at the unseen bath.

"Come look for yourselves. We'll have to split into two groups because it's not a unisex bath, but it's definitely big enough for all of us."

The flock follow Fang and Max while they go down curving hallways with creative murals (painted by the Apollo cabin, most likely) to walk into mirroring sides of a bath.

Fang was right. The bath was a much smaller and simpler version of the grand bath houses most thought of when the words came to mind, but it was still impressive. The room was a square, like most rooms, but a few meters from each wall is a line of Greek columns even spaced with wide arches connecting them to each other and the ceiling. In the middle of these arches is the bath, separated down the middle by a short but effective wall, allowing the opposite sexes their privacy and still giving them the chances to communicate and enjoy the skylight directly above the bath. The walls were decorated by more murals of various topics and skills, presumably by the Apollo cabin, being the ones that maintain the infirmary and whose father is god of the arts.

"Wow, this place is incredible!" Nudge squeals, already racing over to the cupboards to find a change of clothes and a towel.

"Yeah! The paintings and skylight are awesome!" Gazzy agrees from the men's side as he follows Nudges example.

"If this is what their infirmary bath looks like, I can't wait to see their regular bath house." Angel adds.

"Do they have a bath house?" Iggy questions doubtfully, a little put off by the fact that he can't see what everyone is so amazed about. "I don't remember Grover mentioning one when he gave us a tour earlier."

Kai taps Iggy on his arm, getting enough of his attention to hold out his hand. The mute boy carefully traces words onto the strawberry blond boy's palm while Iggy repeats his words aloud to make sure Kai is not misunderstood.

"'While it's possible that each cabin has their own baths, I highly doubt that is the case because of the sheer amount of kids that have to fit in those cabins. Our tour was interrupted by those Ares girls and the monster attack, so we probably just never made it to the bath house or whatever they use.' Oh yeah, we were interrupted. We'll have to ask about the bathing system tomorrow, I guess."

"Just get in the bath already! It feels amazing!" Nudge shouts from the women's side, her movements careful to avoid soaking her bandages. Angel, who had hopped in soon after the caramel skinned preteen, cheers in agreement.

"It does feel really good. I think this comes from a hot spring."

"Really?" Max questions, striding over to the side of the bath and sticking her hand in the water. "I think you're right. It feels almost like a hot tub, but the chemical scent is more of an earth smell than chlorine. Why didn't I notice until now."

"You were probably just too distracted by other things." Fang suggests from the other side as he strips out of his dirty clothes. "This is the perfect opportunity for you to unwind, O Fearless Leader."

Max hums in agreement at this, slipping into the water after she makes sure everyone else is enjoying themselves. They take their time with the bath, knowing that they will have to get serious again once they are done. Max can't help but stay tense at first, but after a while of scrubbing herself and the other girls clean and taking turns preening their wings, the vigilant leader allows herself to relax against the side of the bath and admire the full moon in the open air hot spring.

She is still admiring the moon a few minutes later when a shooting star streaks above the glowing moon. As it disappears, Max finds herself closing her eyes and making a wish, a wish that her flock will always stay this safe and happy. It was a foolish, unrealistic wish, but her family's happiness and safety is what she wanted more than anything in the world, and if wishing upon a falling star will help her case, well, she'll need all the help she can get so she might as well try.

End Chapter 8

Songs

I Don't Care, I Ship It by notliterally (also an amazing AMV by Vivifx)

Adiemus by Adiemus

Earth Song by Frank Tichelli

Hikari no Senritsu by Kalafina (Sound of the Sky)

I See Fire by Ed Sheeran

Shadows by Red

Håll Om Mig (Hold Me Now) by Nanne Grӧnvall (also a great Princess Tutu AMV)

Explosive by Bond

Understanding by Yoshihisa Hirano (Hunter x Hunter 2011)

Welcome to Night Vale (podcast by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor)