At mention of dinner, Joanne’s stomach growled loudly to remind her that she had not eaten anything since she had left home.

“Yeah, dinner sounds good right about now,” Joanne said with a bit of a smile. “Let’s go.”

Joanne followed Syrus out of the cabin to find Smoke waiting for them on porch. The big gray wolf growled at Syrus, her hackles up. Though relieved that nothing had happened while Joanne was inside, Smoke was still not happy with Syrus. 

Joanne immediately went to Smoke and knelt down beside her, stroking the wolf’s back. “It’s ok, Smoke…he’s friendly. He’s not going to hurt me.” Reassured a bit by her mistress, Smoke stopped growling, but still eyed Syrus warily. 

“I’m sorry Syrus. Believe it or not, Smoke is usually very friendly,” Joanne apologized as she looked up to the other demigod. “But things have been crazy today, and she wants to protect me. I’m sure she’ll adjust, it will just take a little time for her to relax.”

Joanne switched to scratching behind Smoke’s ears and the wolf’s eyes half-closed in obvious pleasure.

“Hey girl, you want some dinner?” Joanne asked after a moment. Smoke’s eyes popped open at the mention of dinner and she whined a little, obviously hungry too.

“Well, come on then,” Joanne said. She got up and the three headed off to dinner.

While following Syrus to the dining pavilion Joanne could feel herself relax, and start to feel more comfortable with the camp. That was, until she reached the pavilion.

“Wow…” Joanne said in wonder. She had no idea there were so many other kids at the camp, even though it had been explained to her before. And it was clear they all came from all over the place. Of course, anything would be considered ‘all over the place’ to Joanne, since she had lived all her life in Alaska.

One of the servers came over to the three, and looked down at Smoke, who was sniffing and almost straining to go in.

“I’m terribly sorry, but we can’t allow your, er…pet in here,” she said apologetically. 

Joanne’s eyes briefly bugged out, for the server had green hair and pointy ears.

“You’re a…” Joanne started to say.

“A dryad” the server said, finishing the sentence. “Yes…surprised?”

“A little,” Joanne admitted. “I’ve never met a dryad before.”

The wood nymph giggled before continuing. “Well, Daughter of Artemis, don’t worry, you will see plenty of us here, as we are the food servers. Anyway, my name is Ash.” She curtseyed a bit, and then pointed to a table where the two Hunters who had brought Joanne to camp were sitting. “And your friends are over there.” Seeing Joanne hesitate, Ash continued, “don’t worry, I’ll take good care of…?”

“Smoke,” Joanne said in response to the unasked question. Joanne knelt down and spoke quietly to Smoke for a second. The wolf’s tail stopped wagging and drooped in obvious disappointment, but it was clear she understood. Joanne got back up and nodded to Ash.

“Ok, Smoke,” Ash said. “Come with me and we can get you some food, ok?” The nymph departed with Smoke following her close behind.

@RumikoOhara @soren @jrvader