Hey guys, Lucius here. So, I did not write this story, but a friend mine does not have a FanFiction account, so I talked her into posting it on here. Hope you all enjoy. So, without further ado, I introduce a story, by Serena S. More chapters will be added soon!
Percy Jackson's day started out normal enough. He woke up, said good morning to Tyson, polished Riptide, his sword, and got dressed. After that, he walked up to the eating pavilion and said hi to the other campers. Everything seemed normal enough.
"Hey Percy," Annabeth Chase called from the Athena table, "How'd ya sleep last night?" She brushed a strand of curly blond hair out of her face, shooting Percy a winning smile.
"Eh, it could have been better," he said to her. Percy gratefully accepted a plate of pancakes from a wind spirit waitress. "How did you sleep?"
"Horribly!" Another one of the Athena campers said. "She snored all night long and talked in her sleep. I would rather stay in the Ares cabin than in the same cabin as Annabeth."
"Shut up," Annabeth giggles, playfully shoving one of her half brothers. He laughed and shoved her back.
"Siblings," she said to Percy. "They annoy the heck out of you, and you still can't help but love 'em."
Percy smiled. "Well," he said, "I can't really relate to that very well since I'm the one annoying the heck out of Tyson, but I get where you're coming from."
He turned and walked over to his table, the Poseidon one, and sat down next to his Cyclops brother, Tyson.
"This food is yummy," Tyson said to Percy.
"It is," Percy agreed, "It's very yummy."
Tyson went silent then, and went back to stuffing his face with muffins. Percy watched him for a moment, marveling at how much the Cyclops boy could eat. It's like his stomach is a bottomless pit, he thought.
Percy took a bite of his own food. "I love it here at Camp Half-Blood," he said unexpectedly. "I can't wait until tonight."
"Why?" Asked Tyson.
Percy laughed. "You seriously don't know? Chiron is hosting a dance party, plus an epic rap battle! We all know that the Apollo cabin is going to win, but it will still be fun."
"Fun," agreed Tyson.
The brothers sat in silence for a few minutes, until Percy's normal morning was turned upside down.
One of the kids from the Hermes cabin suddenly jumped up from the table and exclaimed, "Oh my word! You guys, look down there!"
Everybody turned to see where the girl was pointing. What he saw completely stunned Percy.
Down at the bottom of the hill where the eating pavilion sat, a huge hellhound was playing in the grass. Now, everybody knew that the hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, was part of Camp Half-Blood. She had been here for years, so she wasnt the surprise. It was what she was playing with that was so shocking.
It was a wolf. A huge, silver wolf about as big as mini van, was romping around with Mrs. O'Leary, wagging it's tail and barking playfully.
To matters even more weird, the silver wolf had armor on. There was a shiny metal helmet fit snugly around the wolf's ears and went halfway down its snout; another piece that wrapped around its stomach and back, and extended all the way to the tip of the wolf's tail; and even four smaller pieces of armor that went on the wolf's legs.
Mrs. O'Leary seemed happy enough. Although she was twice the size of the wolf, they were enjoying a high-spirited game of tag. The wolf, despite the fact that it was wearing armor, was faster, but Mrs. O'Leary was stronger, so they were pretty evenly matched.
"What in the name of Hades's coffin is that?" Nico D'Angelo, the only kid at the Hades table, asked.
"I have no idea," answered Chiron, "But I'm fairly certain that it is a wolf."
"Don't forget that it is wearing armor," Annabeth added. She walked over to the edge of the pavilion for a closer look. "Should we go down to it?"
"I don't think that that would be such a good id-" Chiron began, but it was too late. Half of the campers were already half way down the hill.
Percy reached the bottom of it first. He walked slowly over towards the wolf, which ignored him and continued to romp around with Mrs. O'Leary.
"Hey puppy," he said, "What's your name?"
"Uh, Percy," Annabeth said, moving in beside him, "I don't think that it can talk."
"I'm just trying to get it to know that I'm friendly," Percy replied. "Hello, boy," He continued, "How did you get here? Do you have an owner?"
The other campers formed a safe circle around them at a very safe distance. "It looks slightly dangerous!" An Aphrodite kid called out. "Don't risk it, you guys! You have a lot left to live for."
Percy and Annabeth ignored him.
Percy inched in a little closer. "Can I see your collar?" He asked. "Do you even have a collar?"
The wolf continued to play. "I can distract it while you get a closer look," Annabeth volunteered.
"I'll help, too," Nico said. He came up to them. "I can shadow travel quickly, so if anything goes wrong, I'll be safe."
Percy hesitated, but knew that it was a good idea. "OK," he said, "Annabeth and Nico, you guys distract it."
The two of them inched closer to the wolf and started to talk loudly to it as Percy ducked under Mrs. O'Leary.
The wolf cocked its head, staring at this strange boy and girl. It did not even notice the other boy, the one that was now right next to it.
Percy found a collar, and scanned it as best as he could. It did not help that the wolf kept on moving around.
He only caught a few words at a time, but finally, he read the whole sentence on the collar's nametag. Then he re-read it. "Holy Zeus's thunderbolt!" Percy whispered in amazement. He backed away and signaled to Nico and Annabeth that they could stop now.
They all walked back to the other campers, who were almost dying from the suspense. Annabeth wanted to know, too.
"Well," she demanded, "What did it say, Percy?"
But Percy's head was still spinning from the discovery that he had just made, so he couldn't speak.
Clarisse LaRue, Ares cabin, marched forwards and grabbed the front of Percy's shirt. "Spill it, fish boy!" She told him.
Percy jerked back, but for once, he was too shocked by what he had just seen to be mad. "Give me a break, Clarisse," he snapped, "I'm just trying to get my thoughts together."
"Well you had better get them together, if you know what's healthy for you!"
Chiron stepped in between them. "Now you two," he said sternly, "No arguing. Percy, would you mind telling us what the collar said? Maybe right now; that would be nice."
"Fine," Percy said. He took a deep breath. Everyone waited in anticipation for him to speak.
"The words were kind of hard to make out, so I could be wrong. But if I'm right, then they said, 'Nightshade, Cabin Four, Property of Camp Asgard. Warrior Wolf Number 9. If misbehaving, please speak to the current leader of Cabin Four.'"
There was a long silence.
Nobody spoke. This was big; bigger than discovering Camp Jupiter. If there was another camp, with different gods, than that could mean many things. Some good, some bad.
Finally, Clarisse broke the quiet. "What is an Asgard?" She asked.
Annabeth, jumped, startled out of her thoughts. "Uh, it's kind of like Mount Olympus, except it's for the Norse gods," she said. "It could mean that there is a Norse camp somewhere out there."
"Are-are they bad?" Asked a quiet seven-year-old from the Demeter cabin.
"I don't know, my dear," Chiron said somberly. "From what I have heard about the Norse gods, they were actually quite friendly. But we should still be on our guard." He turned to some of the other campers. "Go and Iris-message Camp Jupiter and ask them if they know anything about this. Percy, I need you to check our weapon inventory. If, indeed, this Camp Asgard is an enemy to us, we should be ready for a battle."
"What about the wolf?" Percy asked.
Chiron scrutinized it. "It seems gentle enough," he said, "And Mrs. O'Leary is here, and so I don't think that it could do us any harm."
Everybody set off to do their assigned tasks, the excitement over the wolf slowly vanishing as the urgency of their situation set in. But before anybody had taken two steps, they all heard a strange sound coming from the West Forest, a forest that was just out of the camp's borderline.
It was a whistle. Two whistles, actually, but they were both blowing the exact same notes. One long note, two short ones, then one lone note again.
"What the" Percy muttered.
The wolf stopped playing, sniffing the air and pricking its ears towards the sound. It barked, then, as the whistles still continued, sat back and tilted its head towards the sky. The wolf howled; a deep, loud howl that seemed to come from a much bigger wolf.
The campers winced and covered their ears as the howl split the air.
"What is it doing?" Percy yelled to Annabeth.
"I don't know!" She hollered back over the noise. "What do I look like? Some kind of animal behavioral scientist? How should I know?"
Just as suddenly as it had started, however, the wolf stopped howling and listened. The campers uncovered their ears.
The whistles had also gone silent, then they were being blown again, except in a different pattern. This time it was one short, one long, one short, one long, one short, one long, and so on.
"It's signaling somebody," Annabeth breathed. "This isn't good."
Then there was a horrible shrieking, hissing noise, and everybody jumped in fear at the sound of it. The whistles stopped for a minute, and then continued again. However, this time they could only hear one whistle.
It was faster and more urgent, and it kept on stopping. It sounded jerky, as if whoever was blowing it was running out of breath.
The wolf whimpered. It barked again and again, until Percy was afraid its vocal cords would snap. It tilted its ears towards the whistling.
Suddenly, the wolf started to trot in the direction of the noise.
Annabeth, Percy, and Nico exchanged glances. "Let's follow it," they said at the same time. Chiron looked like he about to object, but Clarisse and Will Solace from the Hermes cabin came up, holding their weapons.
"You'll need some help," Clarisse said. "And a medic, just in case," Will added.
Chiron sighed. "What can I say," he said, "You're all growing up so fast. Very well, you had better start following it."
"Thanks," said Percy, "Come on you guys; we have a wolf to catch up with."
--
The wolf (Also known as Nightshade, if Percy had read everything correctly) didn't seem to mind the extra company at its heels; indeed, it almost seemed to be glad that it had some help. Nightshade picked up his pace a little bit once they all reached the camp's borderline.
The whistling was much fainter now.
"Looks like somebody is running out of oxygen," Clarisse grunted.
Will looked worried. "I wonder what happened to the other whistle," he said.
Percy felt sick inside. He wished that he had just stayed in bed this morning.
Nightshade didn't hesitate to walk into the forest. He looked back over his shoulder at the others, almost as if he was asking them to keep up.
They followed him, keeping on the lookout for monsters.
Percy, who was right behind the giant wolf, pushed back branches and jumped over rocks. The trail was steep and difficult to navigate through. Nevertheless, he bravely pressed on. If Annabeth wasn't complaining, neither would he.
Soon, though, the shaky whistling stopped. Nightshade halted too, and everybody tripped all over themselves trying not to crash into him.
Clarisse cursed. "What just happened?" She demanded to know.
"We sorta stopped," Nico told her.
"I know that you idiot, but why did we stop is what I am trying to say!"
"Shh," said Will, holding his hand in the air for silence. "Listen."
Everybody listened, and of course, they heard nothing
"What are we listening for?" Annabeth whispered.
"I don't know, a moan of pain or a scream. If we argue, than we might miss- oh, wait, he's moving again."
Nightshade has his nose pressed to the ground as he hurried on forwards. Everybody groaned, but they walked right behind him.
The wolf sniffed the forest floor, searching for a scent that could lead him to whatever he was searching for.
Every once in a while, he would stop and lift his head to sniff the air. It was slow going, with the wolf stopping all the time, but finally, he barked excitedly and took off running.
"YES!" Annabeth exclaimed. Now they were actually getting somewhere.
About ten minutes later, they arrived upon a horrible sight.
In a small clearing filled with boulders, the half-eaten carcass of a hellhound was twisted around a fallen tree. There was blood everywhere, and not all of it was from the hellhound.
There was a sickening scent in the air, the scent of rotting things and death. A mangled sword and shield, covered in bright red blood, lay on the ground next to figure, which wasnt moving.
Percy gasped, shocked by the carnage. Then he took a closer look at the figure and stepped back, stunned.
It's a person!" He said. "Good grief, it's a person!"
"Oh-no!" Will said in horror. He leapt over the fallen tree and slid next to the body.
Annabeth and Nico followed him.
Will rolled the person over on his back, and noticed that it was a boy about their age, sixteen. He had dark hair and a blood stained black T-shirt and jeans. But the thing that Will noticed the most was the horrific slash across the boy's chest.
It was deep and went all the way from his right shoulder to right below his ribs. Even worse, the boy, who was unconscious, was hardly breathing.
His face was flushed and he was shivering badly. Will was an expert medic, and he knew the signs. He wished that he were wrong.
"Poison," he said gravely, "Whatever attacked him was poisonous. If we get him back to camp right now, and I mean right this very instant sort of now, I think that we can save him."
He gave Nico a meaningful look.
"I guess I could shadow travel him back," Nico said, "But you're going to have to come with me. You're the only one who would know what to do."
Will nodded and moved so that his shadow was in the right spot. Before anyone could go, however, Annabeth said, "Wait!"
"What is it?" Percy asked, looking around warily for any sign of monsters.
Annabeth gestured towards Nightshade, who was whimpering and sniffing around the campsite. "The wolf is still searching. And don't forget, Seaweed Brain, that there were two whistles. We found one" Here she pointed to the shiny golden whistle that was hanging around the boy's neck. "So where is the other one? Also, there's a shield and sword lying beside the dead hellhound. If they belong to that guy, why does he already have a sword and shield next to him?"
She looked around at everybody. "You guys," she said, "There was somebody with him. Where did they go?"