VintageBeef's POV:

Was I lying when I said I was having a great dream? Yes.

Did I accidentally let it slip and made everyone confused? Yes.

The dream was weird, I was floating in the darkness, surrounding me was some cave walls, there was a pit... no, a void here, a harsh wind was sucking me into the void, I held onto some rocks for dear life

The void seemed to be laughing at me. A harsh voice that sounds as if it has not spoken for over a million years, it said:

"Don't try to avoid fate! Come!"

I tried to speak, as soon as I did, this pressure washed over my head, one of my hands slipped from the rock I was holding onto.

The voice laughed and a billon other voices appear and taunted me:

"Look at this boy!" "Poor unclaimed little thing!" "You're sad. You're lonely." And it went on and on.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to end this terrible dream and the only way I could end it was if I get-go of the rock.

But I didn't. I tighten my grip on the rock and the tough surface of the rock cut through my palm.

It continued for a bit, the taunting getting louder and louder and my grip losing. Then, finally.

The rock broke loose and I fell into the void.

I always thought that voids are supposed to be dark and cold places, but when I fell, it was very bright, so bright it blinded me. the air pressure suddenly changed, and my ears popped.

I was in a white and empty void. I was standing on a symbol that looked like the sun and moon together. I took a step backward then suddenly there was sound.

I span around too fast and fell on my butt. But there was some writing here, it was in Greek, but somehow, I understood it. It wrote:

Find the question of the flames,

Then go and fight the light.

Twenty-four will rise and turn,

The Gates will open, and this chapter begins.

Then I got rudely woke up by Grian's air-horn.

Anyways, skipping forward a bit, the Camp was basically a small buffet at breakfast, there were twenty-two people in total.

Everyone seemed to know each other, and everyone looked so... well normal that I would have never thought they are all children of gods at first sight.

The food was arranged nicely on a table, all the hermits were everywhere talking and eating.

Zed pulled me to the table to stare at the delicious-looking food and Grian and just looked at us enjoying ourselves, Xb was talking to a hermit, one I have never seen.

That hermit was tall, he had well-groomed black hair, and a mustache that looked fake, he wore a three-piece suit and neatly ironed pants, his pockets seemed to have a lot of machine parts in them.

Xb was asking him questions, he asked:

"Wait, you're the Mumbo?"

The hermit whose name is Mumbo answered: "Yep, yep, yep. The others have been talking about some new hermits, I am asking if that's you three?"

He had a bit of a British accent as he talked.

Xb nodded and reached out his hand: "Oh yeah, I'm XbCrafted or just Xb."

Mumbo shook his hand. "Mumbo, but you already know that."

"Grian said that you built the machine in the storage room, is that true?

"Yep, though Impulse helped me with the hopper lines, I just did the technical bits, that machine's speed is bonkers! If you want, I can explain every bit of redstone that goings into that machine!"

"Impulse? And oh, who's your godly parent?"

Mumbo looked disappointed as if he really wanted to explain the machine's redstone bits. He quickly hid the disappointment with a smile, well at least I think, hard to tell with his mustache.

"I and Impulse have the same godly parent. Hephaestus."

"He's the fire god, right? Grian mentioned that demigods often carry a few of their parent's powers so can you-?" his question cut short as Zed ran up to my face and said:

"I just met a zombie, oh my gods."

"What?" I said as put down my plate of food.

"And a slime- water person, and a green dude."

"The zombie is called Cleo, the slime is Jevin and the green dude is Doc," Mumbo said as he took a sip of water.

"You have a zombie as a hermit?" Xb asked.

"She's still a demigod, she's just... a special case."

Then a new voice joined in: "For the last time, I'm a vorvolakas, not a zombie."

Her skin was the first thing I noticed, her skin was a pale shade of aqua mixed with green, at some parts her skin was rotten or just wasn't here, her hair was pale dirty orange and she wore a leaf crown with a bright blue flower blooming near her ear, her clothes were all torn up, a sleeveless sweater torn at the side reviewed her ribs and bones, on one of her sleeves was a small yellow badge that wrote HC. Her shorts were a shade of black and her sock were not of the same height. If she were a human, she would have been beautiful, however, her beauty was hidden with the random swells on her decaying skin.

"Cleo is my name, daughter of Aphrodite... surprisingly," Cleo added.

"Wait, what? Did Aphrodite fall into love with a zombie? Wait, do zombies even feel human emotion? How did it... never mind." Zed nervously shifted the weight on his feet.

Mumbo choked on his water and started laughing while Cleo dismissed that idea. "Good heavens no! How I came to be undead is a weird story."

"She died the second she was born, Aphrodite and her father were not happy with that, stormed their way to the underworld and got an undead child back. When she first entered the camp, the other hermits went bonkers." Mumbo quickly summed up.

Cleo nodded: "Yeah, everyone was a bit confused, the biggest problem was how to feed me."

Mumbo laughed and said: "Cleo eats everything, she liked decaying food the most, her stomach was like an endless void. Though, she... uh technically don't have one."

Cleo shrugged as if she could sense the question that was in my throat, "I don't know how it works."

Zed rubbed his chin: "I thought zombies ate brains or something."

Cleo shook her head: "In terms of human flesh, I prefer the liver, because you can grow it back slowly."

Mumbo halfheartedly joked: "All the hermits basically share one brain cell, so I don't think that will work."

The familiar flapping of wings reached our ears. Grian stood behind Mumbo and walking behind was another tall male, his skin a healthy golden beige color, and messy hair of cocoa brown color, resting in front of his violet-blue eyes was a pair of glasses, he wore a short-sleeved dirty aqua blue shirt with the @ symbol resting in the middle, his blue pants and a pair of grey sneakers makes it whole.

"Woah, G-man, you are quite short compared to them." Xb tensed

Indeed, Grian looked like a small child compared to the two taller hermits. He straighten up a bit to seem a bit taller: "Yes, yes I know. But I can fly remember?" Grian stretched his translucent wings to show off.

Mumbo narrowed his eyes a bit at Grian's remark "Yeah, you can fly, if only that don't draw the attention of every single monster in a five-foot radius."

The other hermit stared blankly at Mumbo and Grian bickering and said: "Grian, you brought me here because?"

Grian rubbed his hands together "Oh yeah, sorry Joe, I completely forgot. Xb had a bad dream about something that may happen."

"Big surprise there, as if demigods don't get that often enough." Cleo's tone was flat with sarcasm.

Xb spilled everything about his dream to Joe, I silently compared my dream to Xb's:

"Weird, my dream was different." I accidentally bluffed out.

You know that moment when you want to ask a teacher if you can go to the bathroom, and everybody stares at you because you went several times already. Yeah, that feeling hit me like a truck.

At a moment's notice, every one of the hermit present's eyes was on me. (Through a few of the hermits only had one eye but whatever.)

"I'm interested," Joe said, letting me stand and silently regret that life choice.

When I was finished when my dream speech, the hermit just give each other an uneasy look.

"Do you understand what the dream may mean?" Stress asked.

Joe shook his head in disappointment.

Even more uneasy muttering run across the camp. "I think I have an idea." Then a girl stood up, a pair of goggles resting on her blond long hair, she had ocean blue eyes. She wore a jacket that was dirty olive green in color, under the jacket was a white and red striped shirt, she had a pair of leather gloves and leather colored shorts, add a pair of hiking boots.

Grian leaned close to me and whispered: "That's FalseSymmetry, or just False, she's a child of Athena, so her ideas are always great."

False continued "A child of Hypnos may know something about dreams, seeing that their father is the god of sleep, and the dream both have a poem but the poems are different but the same, Joe does the poems ring a bell?"

"Not yet, but I read something that sounds similar," Joe said to no one.

"Waking the Hypnos children may be a pain," Mumbo said.

"Children?" Zed noted.

"Yeah, we have two of them. Bdubs and well Hypno." Xisuma stepped in.

"Hypnos had a child named... Hypno?" Zed slowly said.

Mumbo shrugged. Zed nodded slowly.

Xb turned to Grian, "Hey, do you still have that airhorn?"

Grian's eyes sparked a chaotic gleam. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Mumbo's face paled a bit as he mutters "Not again."

"Xb and I got a plan, who wants to come with us?" Grian smirked bringing out his airhorn.

Zed raised his hand, I tried to put it down then got caught by Zed's other hand and he helped me raise my hand. The rest of the hermit seemed to know Grian's plan already and stayed far away.

So, just like that, I let myself be dragged to the Hypnos Cabin.

The cabin looked the same as the Hermes Cabin but the symbol on the wall was poppy and the moon.

When we opened the door, the smell of warm milk and cookies greeted my nose, a gentle song was being played on a music box, the inside was dark, even though it was morning, there were two king-sized beds against the door, and on the bed was two hermits, sleeping soundly in their comfortable looking beds. We stepped inside, the soft carpet greeting my shoes.

My eyes felt heavy, I want cull up in a ball and fall asleep on the carpet. My conscience snapped back to me when Xb waved his hand under my nose.

"Be careful, the Hypnos Cabin can make you fall asleep for a very long time," Grian warned.

Zed went ahead and started poking the two hermits fast asleep, "Geez, they must be fast asleep."

One had black hair and wore a white shirt, the other had messy brown hair, he wore a grey jacket and a black undershirt, he had a golden chain necklace.

Grian looked out of the door, a few hermits surround the area, but they were far enough to not hear the airhorn. Xisuma gives a weak thumbs up.

I was shaking like a bamboo in the wind, recalling my rude experience of the deadly airhorn. Then Grian pressed it.

All hell broke loose, the blown hair hermit woke up with a jolt, I was screaming at Grian to stop, Xb laughed like a manic, pressing his hands in his ears, Zed don't seem too affected by the airhorn, he was just giggling under his breath watching the chaos unfold. But the other hermit stayed asleep.

"What the- Grian! You know there was a way to wake us up properly!" The blown hair hermit ruffed his hair sitting on his king-sized bed.

"Sorry Hypno," Grian smirked without a trace of empathy.

Hypno took something from his dresser near the bed, he put a black bandana on his head and let out a huge yawn.

"Is the bandana for something?" Zed asked still poking at the other hermit.

"It was designed in a way that won't allow the Hypnos kids to just fall asleep all day." Grian stared at the airhorn, wondering if he could ever use it again. (Please gods no)

"It's a bit too small for my head so whatever I use it, it gives me a headache that keeps me awake." Hypno smiled weakly as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Bdubs is still asleep though," Zed said.

"Use the red headband in the drawer, there is no other way of waking up my half-brother." Hypno pointed at the dresser near Bdubs' bed.

Zed dig at the drawer, he kept getting distracted at Bdubs' items. (Bdubs had a lot of stuff in that small dresser, I don't show half the stuff even fitted in there.)

Finally, he found a red headband. Zed brought it out of the drawer and dumbfoundedly asked, "Now what?"

"You... put it on his head and fasten it... how did you not know this?" Hypno seemed dumbfounded by Zed's cluelessness then looked at Grian for an answer.

Grian stretches the back of his head: "They are new to camp."

"New Hermits... I see." Hypno said

A sudden movement from the bed. "Hey! I think it worked!" Zed claimed.

Bdubs yawned: "What do you want?"

"Weird dreams from Xb and Beef," Grian said, Xisuma walked in and gave the short version of the dreams.

"I see..." Bdubs said.

Joe then walked into the Cabin, making it a bit crowded. (I was a bit nervous in a small space)

"Xisuma, it is a 'Cancelled' poem but two of the lines add to each other," Joe said.

"As I suspected, find the question of the flames, find the answer of the sea, they add to each other," Bdubs said.

"All the other lines cancel each other out," Hypno said.

"Then what is the question of the literal fire? Am I lit?" Zed smirked and waited for someone to get the pun.

After a bit of unimpressed staring, Zed backed into a corner of shame and stayed silent.

"Flames? Hestia? Hephaestus? They are both related to fire." Xb listed.

"No, no, think of it from a broader point of view. That's how metaphors work." Joe pushed his glasses up to his eyes.

"Ah, passion? Victory? Madness? That's the most metaphorical thing related to fire." Zed caught on.

Xisuma adjusted his helmet "Beef and his friends need to choose a weapon for self-defense first; everyone is going to renew theirs right about now."

Grian put his hands into his pocket. "I remember when I got my first weapon. A dagger, oh boy I need to polish that breast of a dagger."

Zed pecked up and ran to the door, "Come on! I can't wait!"

And just like that, I was dragged along and Xb just follows, why did I let myself be controlled by this adult with the mind of a child. Oh well.

The weapon claiming went well, who know that I already had mine.