Nikolai understood what the girl was saying, she was one of those people. He figured she was one of the peace loving tree hugger types he'd heard about. He watched the pretty girl get up and saw the horse man Chiron, he could never get over the anatomical issues for a man such as him. His mind just surfed with possibilities and questions. He crossed his arms and heard the horse man speak. After he had finished a collective sigh rained throughout the mess hall. After that a bunch of murmuring about people being confined to their cabins, he figured this wasn't a good thing. Where he was from this typically meant something big was happening, an inspection, or something very bad had happened or was going to happen. He grimaced and walked back to the Hermes cabin, he noticed one of the younger kids looked nervous. Nikolai stood at the entrance watching his relatives go inside. He didn't like this, he went inside and over to his bunk and reached into his pack, he felt the familiar grip of his axe inside. He clasped his hand around the woven leather handle, the tip of his thumb could feel the cold steel just above the handle. It reassured him, he remembered what Chiron had said when Nikolai had first shown up with his axe fastened to his belt,
"That axe will do you no good," He had said, "Give me four days time and I will fit that axe with what you will need to do any good against the monsters you may encounter."
Within days Chiron had returned his axe and it's blade and back blade glistened in bronze. Nikolai felt stronger when he held it. He snapped back to reality as he heard chatter inside the Hermes Cabin. Kids were saying someone lit the stables on fire, some kids were going on about how there was a nymph or two with a screw loose, one kid even said there was some kind of flying giant in the camp. Nikolai couldn't help but laugh at all these theories, none of these would have matched how serious the horse man was in the mess hall.