Damien

The adventure begins! Oh wait, it doesn't.

"It's forty two. That's the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything."

Seemingly unaware of pop literature, my older brother James asked, "What are you talking about? What is the question? What is seven times seven?"

"Seven times seven is 49, and I don't know. I haven't read the second book yet," I say.

"Well when you do finish it," he says, "tell me what the question is."

"Will do bub. I won't forget. Remind me to stop by the lilbrary later and I'll pick up a copy."

If Jimmy wasn't such a tactical master, I think the general consensus around camp would be that he was claimed by the wrong parent. I don't think he's ever read a book that's past a third grade level and he doesn't even go to school. He's not book smart, but he's smart nonetheless. Despite being my inverse, he's funny and has a big heart.

I get out of bed and walk out of the door of Athena's cabin. I haven't been living here long, but everyone has already welcomed me with open arms.

I look around. The sun is already out, but it's just slightly past dawn. Four or five Demeter kids are gardening, as are the four and a half children of Dionysus, The Apollo cabin is devoid of life, and the Hermes cabin has an excess of it. The sound of metal clashing is ever present and is jumbled up by shouting and the roar of the river. I think of what I'm supposed to do today. Even though we are the children of gods, we still have activities and responsibilities, and I'm not going to get fed to a harpy simply because I forgot to show up for arts and crafts.

I gather my thoughts and walk to the rock wall. My bad, I meant the molten rock wall. Yeah, they make us dodge literal lava for sport. I don't think there are safety regulations at camps for half-gods.

When I get there, a dozen kids are sitting by watching an Aphrodite boy trying and failing to make his way to the top. I've seen this boy around. He's pretty popular with the girls, but I've never had an actual conversation with the guy.

Doing tactile things like the rock wall are very easy for me. My ability makes it so. Most demigods that have powers have to activate them, but mine is sort of always on. I'm able to learn new things very quickly. This includes the complete schematic of footholds in our very own rock wall. The Aphrodite boy doesn't seem to have researched the plot of the wall very well.

The line had dwindled down to a few people. Since my name was first in alphabetical order, I was last on the climbing wall. I shake off my nerves and get up on it. A whistle sounds behind me and I start ascending with absolute proficiency. I'm not very physically active, but my body doesn't seem to notice. I glide from foothold to handhold with precision and steadiness. I welcome the heat though, since it has been consistently freezing for the past nine days.

I make it to the top in thirty seconds. That's nowhere near a camp record, but it's a personal record for the bookworm boy who can't lift a sword. Don't take this accomplishment away from me.

Anyway, I got some credit at the camp store for getting the top score of the hour. I've been saving up for a bow from the armory despite being absolutely incapable of aiming it. Maybe it'll come in handy for something else, but for now I only want it for aesthetics. Seeing as I have a while before I have to go to sword fighting in the arena, I decide to go check out that bow as soon as possible. I start making my way towards the armory. Along the way I wave to someone every minute or so. During the winter months most people at camp know each other.

When I get to the armory, the weapons master (nobody calls her that) Carly sits by making origami flowers. The nymph has to keep restarting because her hands turn to water and it ruins the paper.

"Don't judge me," she says. "That's a very common problem for nymphs."

"Really? I don't remember seeing many girls accidentally become trees. I wonder why."

"Because no girls want to be around you of course," she says quickly.

I say, "You got me. How did your tongue get so sharp? Did you use a whetstone?"

She holds up her soaked origami sword and says, "Did you come here to look for weapons or did you come to look at my pretty face?"

"I can't do both? Well then, I guess I'll have to choose the prior."

"Ah, boo. You want the bow right? The one with the poison arrows?"

"Yup," I say, "and I can pay for it solely with store credit."

"You do know purchases made with store credit don't go towards my paycheck right?"

"Yeah, but what do you need money for? You don't eat, you don't sleep, you don't need toilet paper, and you're literally made of water," I say.

"I like feeling independent."

She hands me a small plastic bag with a toothpick in it. Along with that she gives me a receipt, a quiver with twenty arrows, and a pen to sign my name. I scrawl my signature quickly and say goodbye. She waves her hand and waves her paper sword in the other. I jokingly blow her a kiss as I walk out the small building.

Where to next? Oh yeah, the arena. Before that I need to check out this bow. I'm not really sure how to get a bow from a toothpick, but I'll try anyway. After fiddling with it for a while the toothpick grew and bent and a golden strand appeared and strung itself in the bow. Along the body was a spattering of runes in a language I don't know. I put one of the arrows in and it starts shimerring in a greenish color. I play with it for a while and eventually close it by pushing the string in towards the bow. I put the arrow back in the quiver and continue on to the arena.

When I finally get there the rest of the Athena cabin and a few from the Hermes cabin are gathered around. Nobody is fighting yet, so we must not have started yet. The 20-year-old son of Hephaestus who is directing the activity shows up and starts pairing us off. Since only five of the fifteen Hermes kids are present, we outnumber them by two. Since me and Jimmy are the only ones who haven't chosen partners, we're put together. I don't hide my groan at the news. The whole point of sparring with kids from the other cabin is so they aren't aware of your weak points. Unfortunately, Jimmy knows mine: my hands don't always work.

Sometimes they'll just freeze up and not work. I'm not sure if this a disease or whatever, but it can get very tedious. It only ever happens when I don't want it to and lasts about fifteen second. I wouldn't say it's necessarily paralysis. More like the joints just don't work. It doesn't always happen, like on the rock wall, but I never know when it will.

That, plus the fact that Jimmy is a great tactician, makes this fight a decisive loss for me. Deciding to face the inevitable, I go up there and Jimmy is grinning.

I try my best to get started, but I can't even hold the sword long enough before it falls out of my hands. Given my sudden loss of dactyl functioning, I have no way to fight back.

I'm backed up into a corner and his hulking six feet and four inches is standing over me. "Sorry bub, but I can't fail again this year," he says.

First I see a wood pommel coming towards my face, then I see nothing at all.

Well there you guys go. That was the first chapter and an introduction to my OC Damien. I'm still accepting submissions, so get on it. More information to come soon.

Also, please excuse any spelling or grammar errors. English is my first language, but I'm just not very intelligent.