Hey guys, it's me. Reconstruction of the story you all know and love is under way. Hope you all enjoy and *cough* review *cough*. Here's the new and improved chapter one as of 10-11-11. Spoiler alerts, and all rights to Mr. Rick Riordan since I did use a substantial amount of his material in this chapter. I'm trying to intertwine The Son of Neptune with my story. Ergo his time at camp will be a chapter, maybe two, longer. Oh, and chapter 7 is almost complete. Once the other chapters are renovated (this could take up to two weeks at the max) the next one will be up. Cross my heart.
Chapter 1: Nothing to Go On
Five months, twenty-one days, and five hours.
That was how far I was into my new life. I had an old life; I just didn't remember it. All I knew about that old life was that my name was Percy, I was a son of Neptune, and I had no memory of any of this.
Name, dad, and no memory was not a lot to go on, so I had started a new life at what everyone called Camp Jupiter. Everyone being the campers, or children of Roman gods and goddesses. The only safe place for people like us. Here we learn to fight and survive in the mortal world where monsters dog our every move.
I know it sounds insane and everything but it's the truth. I'm a son of Neptune, god of the sea. Everyone here has an immortal parent, but no one was also a kid of Neptune, one of the big three. The others of the big three are Jupiter, king of the gods, and Pluto, god of the Underworld. Neither have any children either. Well, Jupiter had a kid. Had being the key word. His name's Jason Grace and has been missing ever since I came here.
Thinking about the strange circumstances that surrounded my showing up, I got up, dressed, and slipped out the door as quietly as I could. The campers here all slept in bunkers, guys on the right, girls on the left with fifteen or so to each cabin. There were about twenty cabins in total.
These cabins were still strangely familiar to me. But then again, so was most of the camp. I still knew I had never been here before. I couldn't explain it. I couldn't explain a lot, though. As soon as I was a safe distance from the cabins, I broke out into a run. Camp Jupiter was built about a mile from the Pacific Coast, just south of San Francisco, but whenever I needed to think about things, like this morning, I would run from the camp to the coast and the sea where I felt most at home.
Things were simple at the camp, you got up, ate breakfast, trained, ate lunch, trained, ate dinner, trained, and then went to bed, all the while trying not to get involved in the politics that ran it. But there was something more complicated about my being here; I knew I didn't belong. I slowly drifted back to the first day of what I thought of as my new life, the day I fought two griffins.
The first thing I can remember was me lying down on a beach wearing an orange t-shirt, shorts, a leather necklace with a bunch of clay beads, and no shoes. Sitting up, I saw some houses in the distance, but it was mainly sand and ocean. Over to my right there was the golden gate bridge some ways away. Then there was also a mountain. I knew that mountain; I just couldn't remember the name. I couldn't remember anything though; and that's what scared me.
Right when I was starting to really freak out after I had figured out I couldn't remember anything a jogger ran by.
"Hey!" I yelled after her.
She stopped an turned around. I was really hoping that she lived here and could tell me where I was because otherwise ... Well, I didn't have much of an otherwise. "What?" she asked testily.
Okay, maybe I should have asked someone else, but beggars can't be choosers. I put my hand up in front of my face so I could see her better and asked, "What city is this?"
The girl gave me a look. She was my age and looked angry and upset. She was fairly tall and in good shape. Her long black hair was up in a ponytail and her dark, piercing eyes looked distant. "San Francisco. This is Marshall Beach. Why?"
"Ah, momentary lapse of memory?" I said. A really lame excuse that wasn't really an excuse anyway.
The girl walked back up to me, starting to look concerned, and said, "You okay? What's your name?"
"Ah..." How should I answer that question? I actually have no idea who I am, where I am, or how I got here? Maybe I can't remember anything? I think I'm going crazy? "My name is ... Percy. Percy Jackson."
That was a shock. I hadn't known that before I said it; but after I did, I knew it was true. Apparently the shock extended to my face, and the girl had noticed.
"Okay, Percy, how did you get here?" A glare was becoming evident the more she kept talking, and I couldn't shake the feeling that she knew who I was.
"Um..."
"Who are you?"
"Well..."
"Do you know anything about yourself besides that your name is Percy?"
"I didn't even know that until you asked. Weird and insane, I know, but it's true."
She studied me for a moment then opened her mouth, "I'm Reyna. I could help get you to a hotel or something. I don't know. You really don't remember anything about yourself?"
"Really, I guess I have amnesia or something. I dunno. But I would really appreciate you taking me to a hotel. The thing is I have no money either.
"No memory or money. Man, you're screwed," she shrugged and smiled as though this pleased her.
"Yeah," I said absently. My attention kept turning to the mountain. I knew that place, and it didn't bring any good, warm, fuzzy feelings up.
Reyna noticed my interest in the mountain and didn't seem to happy about it. "You know that place?" she asked casually.
"Ah, I'm not sure. I think I do. Ugh, who knows?"
"That's Mt. Tamalpais, more commonly known as Mt. Tam," she said slowly.
"The name sounded familiar, but it wasn't the name I associated with it," I commented.
"Maybe you know it by Othrys?" she asked, deadly serious.
That was it. That was how I knew it. "Othrys," I said slowly, chewing over each syllable.
"You know it by that name." Reyna explained. "Percy, you're a- a ... "
"I'm a what?" I asked, totally confused.
"Well, I can't tell you right now, but you're coming with me. I'm not sure what's going on, but it's better to check it out anyway. I know you're a- but I should still- never mind."
I knew going with some random girl who seemed to know me ... or at least know who I was probably wasn't the smartest idea, but in lou of any other options ... Besides there was nothing I was scheduled for that day, that I remembered anyway. "Fine," I said, suspiciously.
"Look, I'm trying to help you," she explained, but I could've sworn that she muttered after, "Not that you deserve it."
I know, crazy. I seemed to have lost any sense I had along with my memory, so I followed her back to the city. She kept looking around and her eyes darted every which way. "What's got you so freaked out?" I asked.
"Ah, nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
"Wait," I told her, grabbing her arm so she'd stop walking, "I don't know who you are or anything about you either except your name, Reyna. I'd love some answers."
Reyna looked agitated, but started talking. "I can't tell you much, right now, not until we get to Camp Jupiter. That's a camp of sorts where people like us train."
"What's Camp Jupiter? Train for what?" I cut in.
"That's not something I can't tell you yet. Normally it's much harder to find people
like us, and I never expected, but stranger things have happened."
"People like us?" I questioned.
"Another thing that will have to wait," she said apologetically.
"Great," I grumbled. Here I was going willingly with some girl who only talked in riddles. Unfortunately I didn't have another plan.
"Sorry, but-" Her eyes darted upward again and locked on two birds, or at least they looked like two birds. "Run," she hissed, pulling me along.
As the birds got closer I could tell they weren't really birds at all. They had wings, and their foreparts were eagle like, but otherwise they were all lion. "What are those things?" I called to Reyna as we darted into an alley.
"Griffins!" she yelled back.
"Griffins!" I shouted at her. "Like half eagle-lion things from mythology?"
"You're right about the half thing. Just not the fact that they're myths!" she exclaimed, clutching her side as she ran down the beach.
We kept running down streets and into alleys trying to evade the griffins; they seemed to be tracking us. Right as we thought we were home free, Reyna grabbed my wrist and pulled me into another side-street.
"I think we lost them," she panted. At the exact moment she finished speaking, an eagle's head turned the corner.
"I really wish you hadn't said that," I groaned, scared to see we where at a dead end, with a building to block off any escape.
"Me too," she moane.
The other griffin had appeared too, and they were slowly backing Reyna and I up to the wall. When I looked back over at her she was holding two gold daggers and poised to attack. "What the?"
"No time to explain," she said moving toward the first griffin.
It rose on its hind legs and shrieked. Both monster and girl began hacking away at each other, all I saw clearly was Reyna getting a pretty nasty cut on the cheek when the second griffin decided it was hungry too.
My hand went to my pocket automatically and pulled out a pen. I knew I had done this several times before and made the next movement without even thinking. I uncapped it. A three foot long celestial bronze blade appeared. The griffin seemed a little more wary about trying to eat me now. I slashed and hacked at the monster until I got in a lucky swipe and took off its head. Griffin number two exploded into dust.
Reyna was still fighting her own griffin when I came over and took care of that one also. She looked bewildered and stared at me for a long time. "I thought you didn't know ..." she trailed off.
"Didn't know what?" I asked, handing her one of the daggers that had dropped on the ground.
"You are a half-blood!" she hissed, accusingly.
"A half-what?"
"Half-blood, you know, a demigod?"
That's when things began to click. Demigod, sword, griffins. "What do you mean by demigod?" I asked slowly.
"I mean a child of a mortal and, uh, god," she muttered sheepishly.
I looked back down at the sword. No way, well, yes way. It could make sense in a really weird, twisted way. "A god, as in Greek mythology?"
"Well, Roman, but yeah, basically."
"What's Camp Jupiter Reyna?"
"It's a camp where demigods train so that when monsters come to call we're not totally helpless."
"So monsters are here and gods?" It seemed so strange when I said, but it was true. I could feel it. It was almost like I had heard all of this before.
"Yeah, that makes you just randomly showing up on the beach where I normally run more likely."
"What?" I asked, because it didn't seen likely to me.
"You probably just got banged over the head while you were fighting some monster and now have amnesia."
"Fantastic," I muttered.
"The only thing is," she started, "that I've never seen you at Camp Jupiter, so you've had to have been on your own. How did you get the sword? And is that celestial bronze? Oh, yeah, sorry, you wouldn't know. Wow, you've got to be pretty good to last this long on your own. I mean what are you, seventeen?"
"Sixteen," I said. I wasn't sure how I knew that either, but the age sixteen was important for some reason. Well, that was another thing I knew now.
"Sixteen? You sure? Well, come on," Reyna said as though making mental calculation as though to check what I was saying was true while walking back into the streets.
"Where are we going?"
"Camp Jupiter, but first you need to see Lupa."
"Who's Lupa?"
"She's the ... camp director."
"Where is Lupa, exactly?"
"Sonoma."
We managed to get to Sonoma without many more incidents (in other words, no other human flesh-craving monsters attacked). Lupa turned out to be this wolf goddess who you really shouldn't mess around with. I had barely gotten through the door when she tested me. In other words she attacked me without warning in some weird house that wasn't connected to the camp and apparently was miles and miles away from it, in Sonoma.
My sword was out of my pocket from her first growl. I passed, meaning I didn't get killed; but I did destroy a couple of pieces of old furniture in the process. Lupa kept eyeing the sword then looking at me after my test. She seemed to believe the whole I'm an amnesiac thing, though. After I explained (well, tried to explain) what had happened and her attack she deemed me suitable for training. Reyna took me to the actual camp after that. It was called Camp Jupiter or something. We arrived a little after midnight.
To get in the actual camp we had to pass through what first appeared to be a maintenance tunnel on the side of a hill, across the bay from San Francisco. Two guards/demigods stood at the entrance. When they saw Reyna and me they did some sort of weird salute, which I attempted to copy and butchered.
"Praetor," they said, bowing their heads as a sign of respect. Reyna just nodded and passed them. I quickly followed.
The tunnel finally ended, and we came upon a dimly lit valley. Torches glinted in the distance, giving off just enough light for me to see the buildings and different places. The moon was also bright, allowing me better vision, too, reflecting off the body's of water nearby.
Spread out at my feet was a bowl-shaped valley several miles wide. The basin floor was rumpled with smaller hills, plaines, and what I thought were forested areas. A small river cut a winding course from a decent sized lake in the center and around the perimeter, like a capital G.
The geography couldn't have been anything in northern California- different types of trees, hills, and a clear sky. The big inland mountain- what was it called, Mount Diablo? - rose in the distance, right where it should have been.
But I felt like I had stepped into a secret world. In the center of the valley, nestled by the lake, was a small city of white marble buildings with tiled roofs. Some had domes and columned porticoes, like national monuments. Others looked like palaces, with large doors and gardens. I could see an open, albeit empty with exception of the occasional night walker, plaza with freestanding columns, fountains, and statues. A, what had to be, five-story-tall Roman coliseum gleamed in the moonlight, next to a long oval arena like a racetrack.
Across the lake to the south, another hill was dotted with even more impressive buildings- temples, I guessed, not entirely sure where the guess had come from. Several bridges, maybe stone, crossed the rivers as it wound through the valley, and in the north, a long line of possibly brickwork arches stretched form the hills into the town. My first thought was that it was an elevated train track, but after reassessing the situation I came to the conclusion that it was more likely to be one of those Roman aqueduct.
The strangest part of this valley, however, was right under my nose. About two hundred yards away, just across the river, was some sort of military encampment. About a quarter mile square, with earthen ramparts on all four sides, the tops lined with sharpened spikes, along with the dancing shadows and flickering flames caused by the torches gave it a most sinister aura. Outside the walls ran a dry moat, also studded with spikes. Wooden watchtowers rose at each corner, manned by sentries with clearly oversized, mounted crossbows. Banners hung form the towers. A wide gateway opened on the far side of the camp, leading toward the city. A narrower gate stood closed on the riverbank side. Inside, fortress seemed bustling with activity, even at this late hour. Dozens of kids were moving about, all armed heavily.
Something about this place seemed very familiar, yet not quite right.
Forging onward, Reyna was sloshing her way through the river, motioning me to follow. I did so reluctantly. For some reason I really didn't want to. Then I really didn't want to when a voice that appeared to come from the river itself spoke.
"Graecus," it called from watery depths. I turned in Reyna's direction, but she was already sloshing through, probably unable to hear the voice.
"Uh, yeah?" I questioned not sure what else to do or what else I could do.
"You face a crossroads. You can choose to pass, get the chance to save and go back to your old life but at the price of terrible suffering and misery, or turn around, never look back, and live happily next to the sea. The choice is yours, but know this, young demigod. If you do pass, the curse of Achilles will be repealed. It is a Greek blessing after all, not a Roman one."
It said that last sentence almost with a chuckle.
"Cause that makes sense," I mumbled under my breath.
"What?" Reyna asked, turning back around, almost halfway through the river.
"Did you hear something?"
"No, just you. Why, what did you hear?"
"Ah nothing, must just be the river," I reassured myself more than her.
With a look Reyna turned back around and finished crossing the river. I did not want to follow. Pain and misery did not seem like the happy alternative to an easy life by the sea. Plus, something told me to never trust voices whose bodies you couldn't see, and even then, choose what you believe wisely.
But I couldn't turn my back on the chance to figure out who I was or what, I guess, I was. So, being the stupid idiot I was, followed Reyna across the river.
I immediately felt power resurge within me. By the time we had crossed what Reyna told me was called the Little Tiber; I felt fully recharged.
Moving quickly, Reyna led me through many gates on winding paths. Along the way I had had multiple mini heart attacks having seen shadows move of their own accord and whispers carried on the spoken by people who didn't appear to be there. Reyna called them Lares, House Gods. I had no idea what that meant, and I didn't ask. The burst of energy I had felt after crossing the river was quickly dissipating. Needless to say I was very happy when she finally stopped in front of the barracks he had seen from the top of the valley.
Reyna knocked on a door of the barrack that was the very last and farthest back you could get.. A guy she called Bobby opened the door. Reyna told him all about me that was currently known: my name was Percy, I was sixteen, and a half-blood. Bobby didn't look like he was taking any of this in as he lead me inside, pointed to an empty bed, and threw me some clothes he had gotten from a trunk, then he landed face first on his own bed.
The next morning I woke up irritatingly early, like still pitch black out early. Finally giving up on the notion of going back to sleep after tossing and turning for almost and hour, I got up, dressed (jeans and the purple t-shirt Bobby had given me last night) and decided a walk would help my head clear.
By the time I got outside, the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon, giving the camp a whole new look to it. The banners from the night before were a deep, rich purple. Everything seemed bigger than the day before, too. Also, I could fully see what Reyna had called Lares the night before- ghosts. One ran in front of me chasing what I took to be a ghost dog. The others I saw, however, looked more hostile than anything else, which did not put me at ease. One even called me Graecus again, but it sounded more like greggus coming from the old man who probably would have spat in my face had he been living, but the sound of the word might have had something to do with the missing teeth.
"They're sort of our mascots," called a voice from behind me as I stared intently where the two Lares had evaporated.
"What?" I asked, turning to meet whoever had spoken.
It was a guy that way maybe my age, perhaps a little younger. He was chinese, with a stocky, muscular build. A bow and quiver was slung over his shoulder and he stuck out a meaty hand for me to shake.
"Frank Zhang," he said. Frank had a baby face that didn't go at all with the rest of his body, his eyes were a little to close together, and he had a haircut military style. Basically, he looked like a toddler who'd taken steroids and joined the Marines.
"Anyway, like a said, their kind of like mascots. Mostly they're harmless, but I've never seen them agitated."
"They're staring at me," I said, almost pouting. "That one dead dude called me Greggus. My name isn't Greg."
"Graecus," Frank corrected, making the word sound more like the voice I had heard the night before. It's Latin, means Greek."
"Is that bad?" I asked.
Frank cleared his throat and played with the end of his bow. "Maybe not. You've got that type of complexion, the dark hair and all. Maybe they think you're actually Greek. Is your family from there?"
"Don't know. Turns out I'm an amnesiac."
"Really?" Frank asked interested.
"Yep, got picked up and taken to that she-wolf, Lupa, yesterday. Can't remember a thing beyond that."
"Oh, bummer."
"Yeah," I agreed, letting out a rather loud breath.
"Or maybe . . ." Frank hesitated.
"What?" I asked, not sure what he meant or what he was talking about.
"About the graecus thing. It's probably nothing, but Romans and Greeks have an old rivalry. Sometimes Romans use graecus as an insult for someone you's an outsider- an enemy. But like I said, it's probably nothing. I wouldn't worry about it."
He sounded pretty worried.
We started walking together, all the way back to the river, then we made our way back. This time I could really see were I was going and took in all the details the night and early morning ours had taken. We kept going until we reached the center of the camp were two wide, stone-paved roads met at a T.
A street sign labeled the road to the main gates as VIA PRAETORIA. The other road, cutting across the middle of camp, was labeled VIA PRINCIPALIS. Under those markers were hand-painted signs like BERKELEY 5 MILES; NEW ROME I MILE; OLD ROME 7280 MILES; HADES 2310 MILES (pointing straight down); RENO 208 MILES, AND CERTAIN DEATH: YOU ARE HERE.
For certain death, the place looked pretty clean and orderly. The buildings were freshly whitewashed, laid out in neat grids like the camp had been designed by a fussy math teacher. The barracks had shady porches were campers were just beginning to come out on, enjoying the morning sun. Each dorm had a different collection of banners out front displaying Roman numerals and various animals- eagle, bear, wolf, horse, and something that I could have sworn looked like a hamster.
Along the Via Praetoria, rows of shops advertised food, armor, weapons, coffee, gladiator equipment, and toga rentals. A chariot dealership had a big advertisement out front: CAESAR XLS W/ANTILOCK BRAKES, NO DENARII DOWN!
At one corner of the crossroads stood the most impressive building- a two-story wedge of white marble with a columned portico like an old-fashioned bank. ROman guards stood out front. OVer the doorway hung a big purple banner with the gold letters SPQR embroidered inside a laurel wreath.
"Your headquarters?" I asked.
"It's called the principia," said a very familiar voice. Turning around I came face to face with Reyna, looking quite different from the previous day. She wore a regal purple cloak over her armor. Her chest was decorated with medals. It was so obvious she was a leader here. Everybody was giving her space and nodded her direction before passing, but most prodded slowly along, probably to see what was going to happen and who was the new kid.
"So," Reyna began. "Good, I was just going to send for you," she said. It was polite in sound, by her face made him think she wanted to run him through with one of those daggers. "Everyone back to your duties. The new recruit and I need to talk. There will be an update on events at evening muster." With that, she turned and started walking towards the building, expecting me to follow her.
"Bye," Frank whispered before hurrying off to do whatever.
Others muttered not so nice comments before dispersing.
Things like "He's dead." and "Hope he goes into the Fifth Cohort. Greeks and Geeks forever." reverberated in my head.
Several kids laughed at the last one before a scowl from Reyna headed them off.
"Do I know you?" I asked, finally voicing the feeling I had had on and off while talking to her. "Like, besides yesterday and stuff. Thanks by the way."
She gave me a look when I said thank you and hesitated. "I am Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion. And no . . . I don't know you beyond the events of yesterday."
That last part was a lie. I could see it in her eyes. But I also got that if I tried to argue with her in public, in front of her people, well, the look that she wanted to shish-ka-bob me wouldn't be a look much longer.
"After I'm done questioning you we'll send you to Octavian. The auguries must be consulted before you are dealt with.
"What do you mean 'dealt with'?" I asked, not liking the sound of that at all.
Reyna's hand tightened on one of her daggers. Obviously she was not used to having her orders questioned. "Before we officially accept anyone into the camp, we must interrogate them and read the auguries."
We had reached the entrance into the principia and before going in, Reyna turned to me and said, "Now Percy Jackson, let's see if we can improve upon that memory of yours."
So is it good, bad, or ugly? Do you want more of the original SON? Or should I stick to the original stuff. Keep in mind once he leaves camp it's pretty much all original. Revised and edited chapter 2 coming soon to a computer near you!