VII

SILENA

First the girl comes in looking for her brother, then her brother and mother come in asking the same thing, and none of them have anything to do with the gods.  What was going on here?  Had Thalia's Pine powers stopped working again?  If so, how and why?  And if not, by the Greek gods, who were these people?

The new arrivals both carried sticks not unlike that of Lily's but they were more worried about their missing family member - at least that's what I thought at first.  The mother marched right up to Chiron and demanded where her son was and what this place was but the answers Chiron gave to her soon got the mother very interested.  Not long after that, my parents and Mr. D joined the conversation and they all started blabbering away again.

The boy though, who looked my age, was still obviously worried about his missing brother and kept shooting me curious looks while I tried listening to his sister's stories. Sure, Lily was interesting and all, as well as her so-called "Wizarding World," and she and her family seemed innocent (or at least not monsters) but something was bothering me. 

Then I realized that Becky wasn't with us anymore.  I looked around the room trying to spot her but I couldn't find her in the large (and rather crowded) room.  My only guess was that she had left the Big House when Lily's mother and brother had come in, because it was too much commotion for her.  I knew she had to be fine since we were at Camp so I tried pushing worrying thoughts to the back to my head, but I just couldn't - something told me she was in danger.  I nudged Luke and tried to make eye contact with him to signal that something was wrong but he was so interested in Lily that I gave up and decided to go and find Rebecca myself.

Just as I reached the bottom-most balcony step, someone called to me: "Wait up!"

I whirled around, not recognizing the voice, only to find Lily's brother.  "What do you want?  Go away, I'm doing something."

The black-haired boy wasn't impressed.  "Well duh you're doing something, but where are you going?  I want to come."

I hesitated.  "What's your name?"

"James Potter.  You?"

"Silena Jackson.  Nice to meet you."  I stiffly held out my hand, and he gingerly shook it.  "I'll only let you follow me if you do exactly as I say and if you don't do anything stupid.  Now come, we might be too late."

James didn't say anything back, noticing how strict I was.

As we walked in the direction of the Lake, I pondered as to where my sister would have gone. 

Not the volley ball courts, not the Mess Hall...

I eliminated all of the possible places where she could have gone until I decided she was either in the Poseidon Cabin or near the woods.  I knew nothing could really happen to her at the cabins so I changed my course to head to the forest instead of the Lake.  I also noticed that it was really dark outside and chilly breezes kept passing, making me shiver.

As we neared the edge of the woods, I knew something was definitely wrong.  Footprints, about the size of my sister's, could be distinguished by the muddy creek, and they continued into the forest until it was too hard to see them.  I followed the footprints, James behind me, and continued going in the direction of where they were leading, to where I deduced Rebecca was going.  Deeper in the woods, I found marks that looked like Becky was tiptoeing back, except they were smudged and tiptoeing back to retrace her steps all of a sudden wouldn't make sense.  It took me a few minutes to realize that she had been running away from something, not tiptoeing.  Although, what?  And the smudges meant she had fallen and been dragged away!

"Merlin's beard, what's happened here?  What do you have in this forest?!" James exclaimed, looking at all of the traces on the dirt ground.

"She's been kidnapped.  Rebecca's been kidnapped at Camp." I said, articulating the words slowly as it dawned upon me that this had truly happened.  I looked strait into James eyes before tearing into the woods in a panic, calling for my sister.

"Are you mad?  They'll get you too if you go running in!" He said as he ran after me.

As I wasn't very athletic, I got tripped by a tree root but before I could fall, he caught up to me and grabbed my arm.

I looked up into his grim but kind face.  "Thanks," I said in a small voice.

"Come on.  It won't help by getting lost in this place.  We should go back and tell your parents.  It'll be ok." James said to me, calming me down.

He helped me back up and out of the gloomy woods.  I was in a state of shock and James started leading me back to the Cabins.  When I realized he didn't know where to go, I had to tell him which way was the Big House.  Then I thought of something.

"What about you?  Don't you have a brother?  Isn't that why you're here - because he's missing?" I asked.

He was obviously bothered. "Yes but it must be related.  We have to find Albus and Rebecca before it's too late, and the kidnappers may be after us too.  But why our siblings?"

"They were the youngest, maybe?  But there are some other Half-Bloods here who are younger.  I don't get it.  The quicker we figure it out, the better."  And with that I ran the rest of the way to the Big House and announced to everyone before crippling to the floor:

"Rebecca's gone."