Hey. I'm Percy Jackson. I'm sure you've all heard of Ancient Greece, am I right? That's where I live. I live in Athens, Greece, really. My family, we are sailors. Well, my Dad is anyway.
My family is my dad, Paul Blofis, my mom, Sally Jackson, me, my brother Tyson, and my sisiter Estelle.
And just in case, my mom got to keep her last name because she was an only child, soooooo... yeah.
I'm sure I don't need to tell you guys my parents' ages, but I'm 16, Tyson is 5, and Estelle is 2.
Anyway, it was a typical day, as usual. I went to school, and learned to trade, although I was already a master at it. I went home, did some homework, then I was ready to go sailing.
"Mom! I'm ready!" I yelled. I started dashing out the door.
"Not so fast Percy, I'm a few days they are pulling out the names of the next kids to train to be gladiators. Luckily, they decided to make it so they don't have to kill each other..."
"YYYEEESSS!!!" I ran around the house yelling like crazy. Since I'm over 13 years old, I can enter. "Come on Mom! I gotta sign up! COME ON!"
"Ok Percy. Just let me get Tyson and Estelle." my Mom said.
"No time. Dad's still here, right? Ok. LETS GO!" I dashed out the door and to the path towards the market.
My Mom came out with Estelle and Tyson (even though we already went over this.) and she brought some food, and water for the 3 day journey.
We walked through the woods towards the town. It was pretty peaceful. We stopped when it turned dawn and made camp.
It was quiet, as forests tend to be around here, but I lay awake on the ground, wondering what it's like being a gladiator. My eyes fluttered, and I woke up.
I don't know when I fell asleep, but it didn't matter. The sooner we left, the faster we get there.
We put our stuff back together, and kept walking. We stopped to refill our water, and I decided it was the perfect time to hunt for some food.
"Lady Artemis, please accept my offering I will give to you at the end of my hunt." I prayed. I hoped Lady Artemis would allow me to hunt.
I sprinted off into the woods, and waited, by arrow locked in, my bow ready. It was still the first few minutes, but soon the leaves on the other side of the clearing started to ruffle.
A deer jumped out, startling me. I accidentally let go of the string, and my arrow flew through the air, barely hitting the deer, the deer fell to the ground, clearly hurt.
Guilt washing over me, I raced to the deer. The arrow wasn't far in. I tried to gently take the arrow out. The deer started crying out. I stopped, and decided to grab some leaves and take some of my extra string.
I calmly walked towards the wounded deer, careful not to startle it. I calmed it down, and very carefully took the arrow out, the deer howling in disapproval.
I quickly, but carefully, bandages up the deer's leg, and helped it sit up. It nuzzled me in gratitude. Then, with my help, the deer got up, and tried to sprint away. But I wouldn't let her.
I walked her around the clearing, to make sure she could survive on her own. When she was able to walk alone, I gave her a quick prayer, to Artemis if course, apologizing.
As if the deer understood my prayers to the hunting goddess, she nodded at me, and raced off, leaving me alone in the forest. I walked back to the path, feeling grateful yet terrified.
What if the hunting goddess didn't approve of my decision. I decided to erase that thought, and rushed back to my mom.