Exposed Secrets

A warm summer breeze drifted along the shore of Long Island, making all the leaves of the strawberry plants in the fields of Camp Half-Blood rustle. Satyrs sat among the plants, playing music on their reed pipes to help the plants grow.

The breeze continued through the rows of cabins, carrying their various scents as it weaved through their open windows. Everyone at the camp was happy and relaxed, enjoying another peaceful summer day.

Down by the beach, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase were sitting on a blanket, having a picnic and enjoying the summer in their favorite way; being together. They held hands and looked out over the ocean. The breeze reached them and carried the scents of camp with it.

"Smells like barbeque," Percy noted as he smelled the breeze.

"Really? All I smell is the Aphrodite cabin's perfume." Annabeth waved a hand in front of her nose.

Percy laughed. He was glad that their quest was finally over and he and Annabeth could just spend some time together.

Last summer, Percy, Annabeth, and five other demigods had traveled halfway around the world to Greece to prevent Gaea, the Earth goddess, from waking up and destroying mankind. Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus and barely survived the experience. They wouldn't have survived without each other to lean on.

Percy was thinking back on their quest when the ground shook. It shook again, and again, rhythmically, like a drum.

Percy jumped to his feet and uncapped Riptide. Annabeth also jumped up and unsheathed her drakon-bone sword and looked around. All of the other campers noticed the disturbance and tried to locate where it was coming from.

Percy and Annabeth ran from the beach until they were in the commons area. Chiron trotted past them.

"Chiron, what's happening?" Annabeth yelled over the pounding. It was getting louder and speeding up, as though it were the feet of a giant racing toward them.

"I don't know, but it's coming this way!" Chiron replied.

Demigods all over the camp raced to their swords and got their armor on. Only a few minutes later, over one hundred and fifty demigods were in full armor in the commons. The thumping was so loud that all conversations were completely stopped.

Then they saw it. A twenty-foot-tall bronze and gold dragon loomed right outside the camp's borders. It sniffed the air, and then it fixed its glowing yellow eyes on Percy and Annabeth. Percy got a chill down his spine. The dragon looked mechanical, but its eyes weren't. They looked like the eyes of a flesh-and-blood dragon, shining and brimming with intelligence.

Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason, and Leo all ran up to Percy and Annabeth to fight alongside them. Frank had a bow and a quiver of arrows, Hazel and Jason had swords, Piper had a knife, and Leo held a ball of fire in his hand.

The dragon examined the seven of them individually. It didn't examine any other campers, which struck Percy as creepy.

The dragon turned to face the camp, then reared up and smashed its front claws into the invisible boundaries. The demigods all froze, surprised by the dragon's strength. In less than a minute, the dragon slid through the barrier as though it were made of jelly.

Everyone tensed, waiting to see what the dragon would do. No monster, no matter how powerful, had ever broken the camp barriers before. The dragon opened its mouth, and all of the demigods raised their shields defensively.

Instead of fire or poisonous gas coming out of the dragon's mouth, it was words.

"Hello, Camp Half-Blood. I come in peace. I have no wish to harm anyone. My name is Kaida." The voice was clearly female, and she sounded like a regular woman speaking into a microphone. Percy thought about how wrong that seemed. He had heard bronze statues speak before, but they all sounded like metal. The dragon sounded too…human.

"Kaida? I don't remember any stories about a dragon named Kaida," Annabeth mumbled next to Percy.

Kaida's head whipped to face Annabeth. She had been examining Chiron, but the moment Annabeth spoke, Kaida seemed to hear her. "And you won't, Annabeth Chase. I was never in any stories. And you may also be wondering how I heard your comment across the fields. I have been blessed with the keenest sight and hearing the world has ever known."

Kaida swept her eyes over the rest of the camp, like she was searching for someone. "Where are the other two?"

The question was obviously directed at Percy. He swallowed his fear and stepped forward. In a voice that was hopefully more confident than he felt, he asked, "What others?"

Her glowing yellow eyes bored into him. "There are supposed to be nine of you. I see seven."

Annabeth stepped forward. "There have always been seven of us. Who are the other two?"

Kaida snorted in disgust. "So you will discredit your friends Nico di Angelo and Reyna? How very rude of you! Simply because they weren't a part of your precious prophecy, suddenly they don't count? It's amazing they decided to help you at all with an attitude like that."

Annabeth looked like she had been punched in the stomach.

"But…" Percy wanted to say that Nico and Reyna hadn't been that important on that quest, but he knew it was a lie. If it hadn't been for Reyna, they would've had a war on their hands. And if it hadn't been for Nico, they would never have survived their first few moments in Greece. Percy desperately wanted to say something to defend Annabeth, but he couldn't. Kaida had a very strong point that he couldn't argue with.

"I wish to speak to the nine of you together. Will you please summon them, Perseus Jackson?"

Percy tightened his grip on Riptide. "No. They aren't coming."

Right behind him, a voice spoke. "Speak for yourself, Percy. I don't want to miss this."

Percy jumped. He turned around to see none other than Nico di Angelo in the shadows of Cabin Eight, only a few feet away.

"N-Nico?" Jason stammered. Percy wasn't sure why Nico's appearance shocked Jason so much, but he looked like he had seen a ghost. Percy felt like he was seeing a ghost too. Nico hadn't been in touch with them for months. Plus, he spent a lot of his time with ghosts, so he was bound to pick up some of their spooky aura.

Instead of responding, Nico waded through the crowd of armored demigods. They made way for him as though he were on fire. Kaida lowered her head to the grass and lay down on the ground, causing a small earthquake. Nico walked straight up to her snout. He drew his completely black sword and pointed it at her face.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

Kaida blinked. Her eyes dimmed. She stopped moving. She sat there, motionless, for a long time. Percy started to think that Nico had accidentally killed her. For the first time, Percy got a good look at the dragon.

She had bronze scales, most likely Celestial Bronze; enormous wings on her back; talons the size of scythes; a tail sharpened into a double-sided blade and a spear tip; and her fangs, which were visible even with her mouth closed, looked like swords that had been drilled into her mouth.

Her mouth opened abruptly, startling Nico so badly he jumped back, and something wriggled out from between her teeth. Nico pointed his sword at it, but even from a distance, Percy could tell that Nico was shaking a little bit. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting the dragon to do that.

The small creature that crawled out stood up and looked at Nico. It was about four feet tall, and it was an exact replica of Kaida.

"Please remove your sword from my face, Mr. di Angelo," the small dragon requested in Kaida's voice. Nico didn't move. "I am still me, you know. I am just a smaller version of myself."

Nico smirked. "I know. That's why I'm still pointing my sword at you."

Kaida sighed. "I only want an audience with the nine of you. Can we please go, perhaps, into the forest right over there? It seems quiet."

"But you said you wanted to talk with the nine of us, and there are only eight still," Annabeth said.

Kaida laughed. It was an almost too natural sound. She sounded just like a normal woman, even while laughing in her smaller body. "My dear, I believe Reyna has arrived."

Percy heard a pegasus land behind him. He turned just in time to see Reyna dismounting her pegasus. As a matter of fact, everyone heard her land, and they all turned to stare at her. Reyna suddenly looked nervous. "What?"

"We, uh, weren't expecting you," Percy tried to explain.

"Reyna! You have to get out of here!" Annabeth warned. "That dragon over there…I think she came here to kill all nine of us!"

Reyna straightened. "Kaida did not come here to kill us."

Everyone stared at her some more.

"How do you know?" Percy had been so distracted by everything, he had forgotten that Piper and the others were right next to him. "How do you know that for certain, Reyna?" Piper asked again.

"She…She told me telepathically," Reyna said. Hazel turned around to see Nico.

"Did she call you too?" she asked.

Nico nodded. "She said that I needed to get to Camp Half-Blood right away. So I did."

"Now, if you don't mind," Kaida cut in, "Could we please go someplace quiet where I don't have one hundred and fifty swords and spears pointed at me?"

After Chiron approved it, the other campers reluctantly went back to their regular schedules, and the remaining nine had to follow Kaida into the forest. Chiron had refused to follow, saying that he had some important business and that he had complete faith that Percy and the others could handle talking to a dragon. He said it with cheerfulness, but no one was fooled. Chiron was scared, and Chiron was never scared.

The demigods followed Kaida deep into the forest. When they finally stopped, they had walked into a clearing. At its center, there were three shrubs that were in the shape of chairs. The chairs were wilting, their leaves dry and crinkled.

Annabeth and Percy stopped. "The Council of Cloven Elders," Percy said.

Kaida hopped onto the center chair. It made cracking noises like dry wood, but it stayed in one piece. She nipped one of the dry leaves and the whole chair disintegrated. Kaida proceeded to do the same things to the other two chairs. She held the three leaves in her mouth that she had plucked. She burrowed three holes in the ground, each one where a chair used to be.

Kaida planted a leaf in each one, buried it, and a new sprout formed. The whole group gasped except Nico. He just folded his arms and sighed.

"Can we just get on with it? Why is it so important to talk to us?" Nico asked impatiently.

Kaida sat in front of the middle sprout and watched them. "Well, why don't I start with telling you who I am?" She gestured with a claw, and nine new chair-shaped shrubs sprung out of the ground under their feet.

"I am not in any stories, as young Miss Chase pointed out. There's a reason for that.

"I was created by Hephaestus when he was very young. When he was first thrown off the edge of Mount Olympus, he was furious. He may have been young, but he still was a genius. He created me out of metal that he found. I was his very first creation. I was also his most unsuccessful.

"He created me to represent each of the gods. I have many of their powers. I was designed to be the perfect guardian, that way the gods didn't have to be directly involved."

"That's…lazy," Percy said.

Kaida seemed to smile, but it was hard to tell with her dragon face. "I agree. I refused to be their slave, and Hephaestus banished me. He told me that I would wait an eternity for the hero."

"What hero?" Annabeth asked.

Kaida's eyes looked sad. "I didn't know. I did not know for many years. I sat by, watching what is now called history unfold. I heard more things than you can imagine. I believe I mentioned my hearing.

"Due to my, ah, talents, I have gained much wisdom. I will not claim to be as intelligent as Athena, but I am closer than most."

Annabeth snorted.

Kaida glared at her. "Do you not think that a dragon can be wise? I find that rather…discriminatory."

Annabeth looked uncomfortable, and Kaida continued her story. "I heard stories of a hero named Hercules, but somehow I knew he was not the hero I was waiting for. I waited longer and longer, starting to lose hope that I would ever find him or her.

"Then, a few years ago, I heard a rumor about a young hero journeying to the Underworld to retrieve the master bolt for Zeus. I was impressed by that feat, so I listened for any other news of him." She studied Percy, waiting for him to react, but he didn't. He sat on his chair-shrub with no expression on his face. Until he knew if Kaida was friend or foe, Percy didn't want her to know what he reacted to and what he didn't.

"I watched over you, Percy, for a few years," Kaida told him.

Annabeth reached out and held his hand. "So, you stalked him?"

"Call it what you will. However, I prefer 'studying'. I needed to make sure he was the one. I knew he wasn't just any demigod.

"I studied him for a long while. And after your feat last summer, Percy, I knew that you were, in fact, one of the heroes I have been waiting for. However, my father didn't mention that there were nine heroes to look for. I know now that all of you are the heroes I have awaited."

"So? What are we supposed to do?" Nico asked. It was obvious that he was becoming more and more agitated the longer they spoke to the dragon. "And did you only follow Percy?" he added in a much quieter voice.

Kaida looked at him and made that weird dragon smile again. "No, I followed all of you once I realized that I needed all of you. I tracked you all over. Rome, Italy, Greece, Croatia."

Nico flinched when she listed the last country. Percy remembered that Nico and Jason had recovered a scepter in Croatia, but he didn't know if anything happened to Nico there.

Percy looked at Jason, and he seemed paler than usual. He glanced nervously at Nico, then noticed Percy staring and fixed his gaze on Kaida.

"Now, as to what you have been called here for, it's simple. I was not waiting for the heroes to help me. I was sent to help them." Kaida looked at each demigod individually. Her eyes seemed to linger on Percy, Jason, and Nico.

"Help us?" Hazel asked. "We already finished our quest. I think you're a little late."

"Yeah," Leo added. "And I'd be happy staying out of quests and stuff for now."

Kaida looked at Leo. "What about Festus? Don't you think that would upset him? He was raised to travel. If you take that away, what will the dragon have left?"

Leo fidgeted even more than usual under Kaida's gaze. "Well, he could always go adventuring with other demigods."

"But you are the only one that can operate that boat," Kaida reminded him. "Either way, whether you want to be a part of things or not, demigods are always involved.

"Now, you asked how I was supposed to help. I know from experience that peace like this doesn't last long, as I am sure all of you aware as well. I am here to make sure that you know each other well enough to work as a unit."

"Work as a unit?" Frank asked.

"Yes. You work well together now, but inevitably, you will go on another adventure together. I cannot tell you when. I simply know that you will. If you hide things from each other, you will only grow apart. That's dangerous for a team to not know each other." Kaida looked at Nico, then Leo, then to Jason. Percy didn't know why she looked at those three in particular, but that made him more suspicious.

It seemed so unreal. A dragon that had nothing to do with any sort of Greek mythology even Annabeth had heard of, claiming to know more about the individuals in the group than their friends. Percy knew enough about monsters to be ready for action any time now. He didn't get any kind of hint that Kaida was evil. On the contrary, she seemed exceedingly kind. She had never lied to them that Percy could tell. She seemed to honestly want to help them work better together. After talking to Kaida for some time, Percy was finding it harder and harder to be suspicious of her. She seemed so truthful and trustworthy.

After a short Q & A, they learned even more about Kaida. She asked for no information about their lives in return. They sat on their shrub-chairs for well over an hour, asking question after question.

Once they had no more questions to ask, Kaida asked, "Are you all ready, then?"

"Ready for what?" Jason asked.

"To learn more about each other, of course. The best way to do that is to put you through a series of trials."

"What kind of trials?" Piper asked suspiciously.

Kaida ignored the question and looked at Hazel. "Well? Are you all ready?"

Hazel looked like she wanted to run away. "Um, I guess so."

"Then I am terribly sorry."

Hazel looked like she might be sick. "Sorry for what?"

"For what I am about to do to your brother."

Faster than the eye could see, Kaida lunged. Nico had no time to protect himself, but it turns out he didn't need to. Kaida went for Percy, not Nico. She plucked him from his chair with her claws and flew up into the forest canopy. Annabeth screamed. Percy reached for his sword, put Kaida was quick. She snatched it from his hand with her tail. She levitated about thirty feet off the ground. Jason flew up toward her with his sword in his hands.

Kaida easily outmaneuvered Jason in flight. She had been flying for thousands of years and Jason couldn't hope to keep up. They soared over the clearing, flying in circles, doing aerial flips and twists to avoid each other. Percy started to notice a pattern. No matter what Jason did, he couldn't hope to make a scratch on Kaida. Kaida was also on the defensive. She never attempted to fight back, only dodge.

Finally, after a few minutes of Jason attacking and Kaida dodging, Kaida made an attack at last. With one swift blow, Kaida knocked Jason out of the air with her tail. Riptide flew from her grasp when she struck Jason. Percy knew that it was only a matter of time until the sword reappeared in pen form in his pocket.

Jason fell to the ground with a thump. Piper ran to make sure he was okay. Kaida flew up until she was about thirty-five feet above the group of demigods.

"I am taking Percy for now. Nico di Angelo knows how to get there, but only Leo knows what the destination is. I will wait for you there." Kaida looked Leo in the eyes. "She will be waiting for you too."

With those parting words, Kaida flew straight toward a large tree. A few feet before she hit the trunk, the shadows seemed to bend around her and in a blink of an eye she was gone.