Several things happened at once, which took Oliver a good couple of seconds to process. First, Chiron had started to speak, explaining that the reason their Capture the Flag had gone so badly was because there had been a [i]dragon[/i]. Instantly, Oliver was wondering how on earth he’d even missed seeing that thing. What had he been doing? 

Then, as the dining hall practically exploded into a ruckus of murmuring, with some asking loudly about the council and the oracle, Oliver felt the hairs on the back of his neck start to rise. He frowned, looking around the relatively tiny Hecate table and trying to figure out what was going on as Chiron was answering the questions people were asking him. 

Okay, those shadows were [i]definitely[/i] moving. 

Oliver’s gaze quickly flitted over to the larger Hades table, a purely confused look on his face as he scanned the crowd to see who, exactly, was trying to pull a fast one on him (or at least, he hoped it was a fast one, it was hard to tell with any of the kids from the Big Three). Then, when his attention landed on a girl who looked to be glaring at him, he blinked. 

Oh, so he had been staring at someone on accident, then. Uh, he wasn’t sure if [i]this[/i] was really the appropriate response but he wasn’t about to sit around and get swallowed up by God knows what – especially now of all times! 

“Ex-[i]cuse[/i] me, miss!” He called right over at her, hardly caring if anybody else hear him as he squirmed a bit in his seat, trying to avoid touching the creepy darkness, “Would really appreciate it if you didn’t try to kill me before breakfast!”