"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.
To storm or fire, the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."- Rachel Elizabeth Dare - Current oracle of Phobos Apollo
My name is Matthew Alderbrook, I'm 12 years old, I live in New York and I'm about to have my life changed forever.
I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia from an early age, and that meant that it was hard for me to settle in. I was kicked out of every school I went to, year after year after year, and I was about to get kicked out of another one again. I tried hard to fit in, but it always happened, like that time in Year four, where we were on a field trip and I kind of pressed the wrong button and fed the lions in a different way.
But looking back, that was the least of my worries. As I walked home, I came across an abandoned alleyway I don't remember seeing before. Curious, I walked down it, but it wasn't long at all until I ended up at a dead end with a giant teddy bear-like thing sitting in the corner, looking dead to the world. When I say giant, I mean it. It was almost 7 feet tall, and just as wide. It didn't look like a teddy bear - it looked almost real, alive even, but I knew that was impossible. I was about to turn and walk out when I heard a sound, like a muffled snort from a cow It came from behind me; I whirled around, only to find the teddy bear in its place, looking as dejected as ever. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my head and I doubled over in pain. When it had past, I looked up and saw something that would seem like something out of a fantasy book.
It moved. Ever so slowly, it rose from where it had sat; it glared at the world through hate-filled eyes. Then it turned those eyes on me, and bellowed at me.
He- It- whatever it was, was massive, and could only be described as humanoid because nothing else would fit. Maybe it had once been a Minotaur; whatever it was now, could only be described as hideous. Towering over the tallest human. It took a step towards me and I backed out of the alley slowly, as I hit the sunlight again, it rose a fist, and sent it thundering down towards me.
I dove around the wall as that monster's fist crashed into a lamppost. It grunted and tore through it, tossing it aside as if it weighed nothing. It landed in the middle of the street, sending pedestrians around it screaming in panic. I ran across the street, sure that the police would catch it, whatever it was, and take it down.
"Or maybe this is a dream," I thought to myself, but then shook that away. I was confident that I could tell the difference between dreams and reality. And this was definitely not a dream. I snapped back into focus as the monster's charge tore through a car where I had been about a second ago, sending it flying at me but missing by about 3 meters.
Suddenly there was a huge drop beneath as the floor turned abruptly to stairs, and I realized that I couldn't run down them without the monster catching up to me. Taking a deep breath, I leapt and surprised myself at my ability to do so without serious injuries. Rolling and tumbling, I scrambled to my feet and kept sprinting.
Suddenly I bumped into something that made me stumble backwards. It was a girl, dressed in an orange t-shirt that had a black horse with wings in the middle, probably a Pegasus. She seemed to be able to see the monster, unlike the pedestrians that ran around us, screaming. Before I could yell at her to get away, she raised her hand and a nearby fire hydrant exploded, spraying the bull-man with water. It seemed to stick to him. The thing bellowed at her, unimpressed, and lowered its head as if to charge when suddenly the water started to solidify, turning to ice. It bellowed again and tried to free itself, but all it did was increase the rate of its petrifaction. Horrified yet fascinated, I watched it slowly freeze, until it became a statue, encased in ice.
The girl walked towards the statue. I couldn't believe it. Abilities like hers, the thing she just did... these things could never happen in real life. The girl knocked on the statue once, and it shattered into little pieces. Then she snapped her fingers so loudly it seemed to create a gust of wind, and the citizens, who had gathered around us in a small circle, started to mill around like nothing had ever happened, one or two of them gazing at the little pieces of the now-dead monster with disconnected interest. Then she turned to me and raised her hand, I flinched, wondering if I was going to die like that bull-guy. Instead she brushed aside her hair and grumbled "Damn monsters are really get on my nerves… Di immortals!" But I wasn't really listening; I was too busy staring at her face in astonishment. Although she wasn't that interesting to look at, the face was amazingly familiar, short black hair and green eyes… She looked just like…
"Claud? Is that you?" I asked in bewilderment. She looked at me and grinned. "Well I see you remember me, and about time too. Follow me." I ran to catch up with her, with a million questions on my mind.
"How did you do that? I asked her.
"Do what?" she replied. "That... thing with the bull-guy, you know… Was he a Mino-"
I got no further as she clamped a hand around my mouth and looked around nervously. "Shhh! Names are dangerous you know!" She glared at me until I nodded my head and she removed her hand and kept moving, although her pace had a slight increase in her speed.
I walked up to her and asked, "Will you tell me how you did that freezing thing?" She shook her head and said, "I'll explain later, but right now we need to keep moving." As if to prove her point, two dogs bigger than lions came bursting out of the wall behind us.
"Look out!" Claudia cried and shoved me out of the way and I tumbled over. She drew her knife and held it up high. I didn't know what I could do to help her. She was tough, but I knew those things would tear her to pieces. Suddenly, as if it were someone else's body moving it, I knelt down, put my hand on the floor palm down, took a deep breath, and muttered the words. "Με εξυπηρετήστε! άνοδος από τους νεκρούς!" you serve me, rise from the dead...
The ground ripped open and two skeletal hands shot out, pulling up skeletal bodies, fully equipped with swords. I was terrified by them, but I was even more freaked out by the fact that I was the one who made them. Even Claudia seemed surprised. But I knew the skeletons wouldn't last that long, so I grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. As I pulled her away, I felt there was something around my head. I looked up, but saw nothing, so I figured it must have been my imagination. I was concerned it could have been another monster, so I kept running. As we ran, I was starting to feel a bit sick, like I caught the flu. I tottered and stumbled, but still kept running. Finally we lost the dogs, and Claudia led the rest of the way. She took me to a taxi, but before she had even told the driver where to go, I dozed off.
By the time I woke up, we were already there. I could tell the driver was wondering why anyone in their right mind would go to such a deserted location. Heck, I agreed. There was nothing interesting here, except for a derelict strawberry farm. As the taxi sped away, I took a look at where we were. All I could see were old strawberry beds. In the middle of the field was a giant pine tree, and resting at the bottom of the tree was a dragon. An honest-to-god dragon.
"Claud? There's a…" I stammered.
"Oh, Peleus? He's harmless, c'mon." She gestured towards the farm, but when she saw my expression she sighed and walked calmly towards it.
"See? Totally fine." Cautiously, I walked past the pine tree, always keeping my eye on Peleus in case it tried to attack either of us. When we were clear, I turned around and breathed a sigh of relief. The strawberry farm was still there, but now along with the farm was something else entirely. There were some worn down cabins and, strangely enough, a forest. There were kids around my age, a few around 15 or 16, but I saw that one or two of them were much older. There were adults too, some with almost trotting gaits but all of them strange. When two of the kids broke away from the milling groups, I could see they were friendly but had scars of battle and a presence around them. Both of them were the older kind of kids who looked around 20.
Two of them came up to me and one extended his hand. As I took his hand and shook it, he said "Hey, new to this camp? Welcome, I'm Percy Jackson, and this is…" The girl walked up next to Percy. "I think I can introduce myself, Seaweed-brain." Percy pulled a face, but kept quiet, "I'm Annabeth Chase, welcome to Camp Half-blood, we're the senior councilors of this camp, along with some others of course."
I was too shocked to reply, but I managed to stammer out, "Sorry, but exactly what is this place, what's happened, and what's going on?" I was babbling now, but I didn't care at this point. Claudia held up her hand to stop my flow of words and greeted Percy.
Annabeth pulled me to one side as Percy and Claudia started talking quietly but somewhat urgently. She said, "I suppose that you're diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD?"
I nodded but I couldn't see the relevance. Annabeth nodded slightly and continued. "Your dyslexia means your brain is hard-wired for Greek. And your ADHD is for combat awareness, so that you can-" "Wait, wait, wait. I know I have all these things but what does all that mean?" Annabeth looked at me in an almost sympathetic way, but I had a feeling she did that with all newcomers to this camp.
"This is Camp Half-Blood, and you, Matthew Alderbrook-" I flinched as she said my full name, "are a half blood."
"Wait, if I'm a half-blood, I'm half human and... half what?"
She glanced at me and said, "Half god."
I stared at her. The world seem to swim around me, but I managed to say "You…you're joking rite?" I was desperately hoping that she was lying, but she shook her head and said in a bit of a sad voice "Afraid not, like it or not, you are what you are." It still didn't make sense. But as I was thinking about this, a voice suddenly yelled out.
I jumped and looked around, but there was no one there that could have made the sound. Suddenly, a girl materialized behind Annabeth with a crafty-looking grin. She had brownish hair and black eyes, with a orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, like everyone else in this camp. She was about my age; she also carried a cap in her hand. She would've been an ordinary girl, minus the invisibility. Annabeth didn't look surprised or amused at this at this appearance.
She turned around and said, "Nicole, please stop doing that to the newcomers! It's not funny!" Nicole turned towards Annabeth with a disappointed expression and I noticed that she was levitating because of shoes that seem to sprout wings. "Aw, c'mon Miss Chase, loosen up a little." I noticed that Annabeth twitched slightly at being called 'Miss' by someone not much younger than her. "Fine, just don't do it so often," she sighed. Nicole pouted and said "Okay fine," but she added to herself, "He did a little squeal!" and laughed. She put on her cap on and vanished. I must have blushed then. "Did not!" I protested to the suddenly empty air. Percy and Claudia came back, and looked at us.
"Well I guess introductions are over." Said Percy with a grin, and looked at Annabeth. "Let's go."
I followed the two of them to the camp, suddenly the camp had a huge rectangle with multiple cabins, some looked ancient, others, like the one at the front, were more majestic.
Annabeth went to one side of the rectangle, which I figured was girl's part of the camp, while Claudia sped off to another cabin, which left Percy and me to the other side. As we walked towards the cabin, Percy looked at me and asked, "So you summoned skeletons?"
I twitched, but stopped, turned and looked him in the eye. "Yes, but, what does it mean?" Percy turned away and kept walking. I had to jog to catch up to him, "It means you're going to be in Cabin ..." he said with a little smile, I didn't quite catch the cabin number, and I still didn't understand, "But what is the difference?" Percy didn't answer, but he stopped at a big black cabin. Creepy was a serious understatement for this thing. "Go on in, I'll see you at dinner." He jogged off, leaving me alone. Maybe I'll just take a peek inside I thought, I opened the door slowly and quietly, but what I saw was not what I expected.
It was a dark and eerie room, yet somehow warm and relaxing it felt like… home. It was a weird feeling, and I shook it off as I scanned the room. In the corner was a kid, maybe 15 or 16, with shaggy black hair, standing in the corner. At first I thought he was just standing around until he shifted slightly and I saw shimmering form. It was in the form of a girl, younger then he was, but the look in her eyes suggested she was older than she looked. She reached out to try and touch his face, but as she got close her hand changed to mist, and she drew back and waved goodbye.
The kid stood there, his shoulders slightly slumped, but suddenly he looked up and surprised me by saying, "So, you're here." I opened the door and stepped in, closing the door behind me. "How did you know I was there?" I asked. He turned around so I could see his face clearly. He was olive skinned and wore an aviator's jacket, a shirt with a picture of skeletons dancing around, baggy jeans and had a black ring on his finger. His features were similar to mine – we had the same dark hair and dark eyes.
"Your breathing is quite loud," he said, a rather macabre way to start a conversation. "Anyways what do you want?" he asked me. I looked at him, confused "Percy said that I was meant to be in this Cabin. What's with all the skull décor here?" The kid looked at me and rubbed his ring a little nervously.
"Percy didn't tell you?" he asked.
"No, can you?" The kid sighed and sat down on his bunk. "Ok, at least I hope Annabeth told you about the half-blood thing." he stated. I nodded and he continued, "Well we are half human half god, Greek gods to be exact."
He stopped and looked at me. "So… guys like Zeus and Poseidon?" I asked. He nodded and continued, "So we are their offspring from their… uh… affairs, and this means we have special powers, like how Percy has powers over water, being a son of Poseidon, and Zeus' children will have powers over thunder and air. You still following?" I nodded. "Then... which god is our father?"
There was a long silence. thought I might have accidentally insulted him, but before I could apologize, he stood up and came up to me, patted me on the back, and gestured for me to sit. As I sat down, he asked, "So did Percy ask you about anything you did?" I was slightly startled by this question but I said, "He asked if it was true that I summoned skeletons." I looked at him quizzically. "But what does that have to do with anything?" The kid stuck his hand into his pocket and brought out a figurine. I almost laughed at it, but I held my tongue as he showed it to me.
"Do you know who this is?" he asked me. I thought about it. I used to read many books about Greek gods, but since I had dyslexia, it was hard for me to read English easily. "Sorry, I don't know." He sighed again and put the figurine back into his pocket, then he turned to face me. I waited.
"My name is Nico Di Angelo, and we are," he paused,
"Sons of Hades, the God of the Underworld."
End