AN: I know this starts off all stupid and Mary Sue but I'm not good at beginnings so bear with me for a little. And the standard disclaimer (I don't own the series or the character; Rick Riordan does, etc.) applies. All right, enough crap from me, on with the story.
See, being a half-blood is not big on my to-do list. I didn't want it. Didn't need it. But you gotta admit, some of it's kinda cool. Like the staying-at-a-summer-camp-all-year-and-not-going-to-school thing. But the rest sucks. The fighting to the death, the watching friends die, the not knowing if you'll die too, and the worrying about stupid, cryptic prophecies is not fun.
I started off as Hermione (Nia) DeVere, a normal girl with a slightly eccentric (crazy) single father who also happened to be an author. Then when I was nine we went to New York City. I got lost in the Natural History Museum and got separated from my dad. I was attacked by a sphinx who disguised herself as a tour guide. When I told my dad, he told me that I had to go to a special camp and took me to Camp Half-Blood. On our way there, he explained everything. I always liked mythology so that really helped. Unfortunately, he disappeared on his way back to D.C., where we lived. Some Ares kids thought they'd tease me, but gods, were they wrong! That was when Athena claimed me. So I moved to her cabin, Cabin Six.
The interesting bits start happening when I was eleven. And yes, it does get interesting. It was a "normal" day at Camp Half-Blood in early May. I was on guard duty, watching for new campers at Thalia's Pine on Half-Blood Hill when I saw something... unusual. Even for camp. It was a horde of what looked like every dracaenae in the world that survived the battle for Olympus eleven years ago, and even a few that didn't. Anyway, it was the most monsters I'd ever seen in my two years of hero training and even before, when I lived at their mercy in the mortal world. They were chasing, and attacking, five very tired, very battered demigods. I was on patrol with my best friend Sandhya, daughter of Morpheus (and a Hindu dream teller; her name is "twilight" in Sanskrit) and Devin, son of Ares. Devin, of course, had no regard for, like, personal safety, and blindly rushed into battle, screaming alternate curses in English and Ancient Greek, and prayers to Ares, Sandhya close behind. I drew my knife and had just wiped out a row of the snake-women when I heard a high, blood-curdling scream; a shriek of agony.
I quickly saw the source, even through the mess of fighting dracaenae. It came from a boy, not much older than I was. He had a spear sprouting from his thigh and an arrow pinning down his right arm. From the odd angle of his left, I assumed it was broken. I mean, it looked like mine did when it was broken and how many things can really look like a broken arm? A dracaenae leaned over him, ready for the death blow. Up until a knife appeared between her ribs and she disintegrated, that is. The kid passed out, leaving it to me to protect him and kill as many dracaenae as possible. Then Chiron, our centaur activities director, came to the rescue. With him was most of the rest of the campers, brandishing assorted weapons. The remaining dracaenae, those not killed by the three of us, either fled or disintegrated from the might of the half-bloods!
Yeah, right. It was still a bloody hard-fought battle. Luckily, no casualties. And, yes, that is a big thing for us. One of the new girls shouted something, and four dracaenae exploded in puffs of sparks. Another girl grabbed the spear from a fallen snake woman and used it to fend off the others. A boy and a girl who looked like twins were both fighting with kitchen knives and a quiver of forks, but when he stabbed at his opponent, she disappeared in black fire. Eventually we fought them off.
"Hermione, are you okay?" came Chiron's frantic voice.
"I'm fine, but the new kids are hurt."
He stood and bellowed orders. "Apollo, tend to the injured. Ares, Hephaestus, take stock of damaged weapons and repair what can be repaired. Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysus help Apollo. Everyone else, back to wherever you were. Head counselors, meet in the rec room in an hour. You, come with me." The last sentence was directed at me. Uh oh. Chiron was practically my father since Dad went missing, and he rarely ever used his serious, I'm-the-teacher-listen-to-me-and-don't-goof-off voice. When he did, I knew he meant business. Especially when he insisted that we go into the Big House.
"Ms. Shakespeare, listen to me. I'm proud of what you did, but you could have gotten killed for five strangers."
"Yeah, except those strangers are five very powerful half-bloods. One of Athena's kids doesn't matter as much." He was shocked. So was I, actually, but what I said was true. One kid didn't matter as much as five, especially possible kids of the Big Three.
"I know why you did it. I'm just asking you to think before charging into battle with a dracaenae army. To teach you to be more responsible, you, Devin, and Sanhya can help the new ones settle in."
"Um, sir, Devin's already on constant kitchen duty for torching the Demeter cabin." And besides, punishment with him would be punishment. Please, I thought, If Zeus really is the merciful lord he's supposed to be, let Chiron assign someone else to punishment with me.
Maybe Zeus was feeling merciful today, or maybe Athena intervened for me, but Chiron thought a little and said, "Very well. But we'll postpone Sandhya's punishment as well so that you won't be socializing. Perhaps Cathy of Athena and Brian of Hephaestus can help you." I was content with that. Cathy was the fifteen-year-old acting head counselor while the real one was at college and Brian was a cool, slightly intimidating size-wise, but cool thirteen-year-old.
After the meeting, the one that I was not invited to and couldn't find a way to sneak in, they dragged me out of my bunk and book where I was trying to hide. No one hides from Brian and Cathy. Together, I swear, they could sniff out the most difficult fugitive to find from wherever he was hiding. They tugged me out into the afternoon sun with gleeful cries of "Let's help some new campers!"
I surveyed the group in front of me on the porch of the Big House. None of them looked happy to be there. Actually, that's the understatement of the decade. The dark-haired girl had her Ipod on. Her brother had his eyes closed and was leaning against the railing. The injured boy winced as he moved, jostling his wounds, and another girl muttered something under her breath, causing a subtle shift in the air next to her. The Native-ish looking girl was the most active of the five, eyes darting around, fidgeting restlessly. Cathy sighed, "Let's get started on this lot."
She cleared her throat. "Hey, I'm Cathy. This is Brian and Hermione- Nia. Um, who are you?"
The shimmer in the air solidified into a magical shield and a holographic image appeared, spinning above her. It was a very evil-looking spirit-thing that I recognized from one of the darker cabins, the cabin of Hecate. Great. There goes my peaceful summers. Stupid witchcraft!
"Besides a daughter of Hecate," added Brian needlessly. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Everyone looked confused except the girl in question and Native-ish. "So, will you tell us your names?"
They looked to Hecate's daughter, but said nothing. "Why don't you trust us?" cried Cathy, getting desperate.
"Why should I? I've never been able to trust anyone before," she answered.
"Because that's what you gotta do to survive, and if you don't, you'll end up impaled on an enemy's weapon." There's Cathy with her logic when ya need her.
She hesitated. "Okay, fine. I'm Isis. The emo twins over there are Abigail and Scott, the surfer chick is Maria, and that pile of blood and bandages is Julian."
"Why we here?" asked Abigail.
"Well, did you not see that army that was after you?" snapped Cathy, exasperated. Brian, as always, tried to cool things off.
"Because we're not..." And that was as far as he got because just then, Nico di Angelo, king of ghosts, appeared in the shadow next to me.
"Nico! By the gods! Stop appearing like that. You have no idea how freaking annoying that is."
Cathy and Brian respectfully bowed their heads, saying "Welcome, sir" and "Master di Angelo".
"Human is the word you're looking for. Hey, guys. I'm Nico, for those you who don't know me. All of you have one parent who is mortal, and one who is a Greek god." Nico looked the same as always, tall college student with really pale skin and shaggy black hair. Still wearing faded black clothed and that Strigian iron blade. He was cheerful, which was normal, except when he was angry, in which case he looked a lot like his father, Lord Hades. "I've been sent to take Hades's two newest kids to his palace. I'm assuming it's Abigail and Scott."
"Wait, I can't go anywhere with you. I have to find out what's really going on. We have to stay together," argued Abigail.
He sighed. "Fine. I knew Father never had the most tact. And he will never listen to me. 'Useless half-blood. Bianca would see the sense in my idea.'" He shadow-traveled inside to talk to Chiron.
"Show-off," I muttered. "Why can't he just use the door, for Athena's sake?"
Cathy cleared her throat nervously. "On with the tour?"
That pretty much set the stage for the rest of the afternoon, except for one instance. We were trying to separate them into their respective cabins, but they refused. "We stay together," insisted Isis. And they wouldn't go, no matter how much reason and persuasion we used. Cathy's temper started to fray, and she suggested the use of force. The sun was dipping below the trees and we wanted to be on time for dinner. But when Brian started herding the twins over to the Hades cabin, Isis led an attack.
Apparently Devin missed a few of their weapons when he confiscated the knives, because everyone was armed. We were at the edge of the woods, by the stream, and Maria tried a fairly basic move, the stab-and-run-away. Well, I say try because when she stabbed Brian, her collapsible spear snapped and splintered into a billion pieces. She got the running part right, though. Cathy was busy with Isis, dodging tendrils of magic, trying the get close enough to knock her out. Brian was holding two struggling twins in the air like they do in old movies. Everyone was at dinner, so no one was there to help. I sprinted after Maria, throwing my knife just as her foot left the ground so that as she stepped down with her other foot, my knife would catch the cuff of her camo pants, sending her sprawling on her face. It kinda worked, but she fell in the water, and that was disastrous.
The water returned her strength and she got up quickly, completely unharmed, which was odd, because that knife trick had been known to knock out those hard-headed Ares campers, and people with helmets, from the force with which their head hit ground. But there she was, standing and ready to fight. We circled each other like wolves, waiting. She moved first, lunging at my heart with what was certainly a stolen sword. I blocked it easily, then feinted at her neck before thrusting at her sword arm. She dodged it, and renewed her attack. I parried every blow on my knife. She was good, I gave her that, but nothing I hadn't seen before. The odds were slightly in her favor, because she was taller, more muscular, had a longer weapon, and seemed energized from her dip in the stream. But she was unexperienced to years of training, and I was smarter, more conservative, trickier. I ducked in low and disarmed her, flipping the sword in the air.
Brian came through the undergrowth, having left Cathy to deal with Isis. "You look tired. You'd better escort Julian to the Hermes cabin. I'll take care of her." Sounded like a good plan, right? Wrong. You know how I mentioned that I was a smarter fighter than her? Well, she was still smart, and Brian, as talented as he is, was not a good swordsman. He sucked. She had pulled a knife out of her pocket and beat him up. I heard Cathy scream, and came running. Turns out, she wasn't screaming because of Brian, it was because of the holographic trident above Maria's head.