Hey, everyone!! I have been formulating this story for a really REEEAAAALLLLYYY long time, so I hope you like it!! And now, with the disclaimer stuff, it's... Percy!!
Percy: Uh, okay... LoD owns nothing, except for his own characters. Everything else in here belongs to Rick Riordan.
Me: Hey!! That's not true!! I own soooo much more than just my characters!! I own a pair of fuzzy slippers(^^), a computer, an iPod Nano, a...
Percy: (gets fed up with my ranting, and washes me off screen with a huge tidal wave) Enough already!!
Me: Ow... T_T Here's the story...
"James! Wake up!! I'm not going to call you again!" my mom shouted.
"Ugh... Yeah, right..." I mumbled, rolling out of bed. I got dressed, and went downstairs to have breakfast...again. Everything was the same in life, day after day, same old, same old.
If only I knew. I wish I'd known that today, my life would change. Drastically.
*knock, knock* "I'll get it," I called, getting up to answer the door.
"Hi, James!" In bounded my best friend, Soleau. His mom was kind of weird, so her son had a weird name, too. We had gone through pretty much our whole lives together. Well, except for each summer, when he had to go to a camp that I was always told nothing about. Whenever I asked what it was like, he always said, "Eh, kinda boring," and that was that. His mom didn't like to talk about his dad; she said it brought back painful memories. He must have done something bad to her. I was always sure to be careful about that subject with her around. Soleau himself didn't remember anything about him.
"Hey, man," I greeted him, just barely stifling a yawn. "God, how do you have so much energy in the mornings?"
"Gods," he corrected me. "There's more than just one, you know."
"Yeah, okay," I replied, rolling my eyes. "You're avoiding the question again."
"So?"
I groaned. He was always like this. How did he have so much energy, anyway? 'Maybe it's just me?' I wondered. 'Nah.'
"Anyways, come on! We're going to be late for school!!"
"Yeah, whoo-hoo. Another day of seventh-grade, dragging by again. Another day of boring crap in Kansas. Go life," I said sarcastically.
"Why are you always so emo?" Soleau asked.
"Who says I'm emo?"
"I do, now get your butt in gear, or I'm leaving without you!!" He wouldn't.
Later that morning, at school...
"Hey, punk, hand it over."
"*sigh* What do you want now, Fred?"
"Your lunch money, mouthy brat!"
I should have known better, but I was sick of this guy. He was a good head taller than me, maybe two, and ripped. Like, scary ripped. Not too bright, though, which was nice. Those two usually don't go together in people. "Why don't you go play in a space station? Maybe they can put you someplace where no one will have to see your face again. Like the Sun."
"You're gonna get it now, rat!" he shouted, aiming a punch.
"Frederick! James! What, may I ask, is going on here?" The teacher.
"What's always going on here in the morning before school?" I asked sardonically, raising an eyebrow. Foolishly, too, I'll add.
"Detention! Two weeks! Both of you," he added, narrowing his eyes. He walked away after that.
Fred didn't take it very well. He slammed me into the wall in order to relieve some of his anger. "Good going, loser! Now, I'll miss something important! I'm seriously ticked off now!"
"Oh, no. Whatever shall I do? The bull is mad!" I remarked derisively.
"We will finish this. After school, in the back parking lot." He throttled me once more, then stomped off, taking some nerd's calculator and breaking it.
I ran over to the boy whose calculator had been mutilated, and pulled mine out. "Take mine," I told him, then took off for my locker.
The rest of the day was, well... boring. As usual. Finally, the end of the day found me in the back parking lot, with Fred. No one else was there.
"So, the sleepy little mouse decided to show itself, did it?"
I yawned. "Let's get this over with, Fred."
"You're gonna be sorry you ever even came to this school."
"Dude, I feel sorry I came here every time I have to see your face."
He exploded. Both literally, and figuratively. He lost his temper, and went kaboom. But, not completely. In his place was some sort of a human-bull hybrid. I recognized it immediately from my English class, as we'd been studying Greek myths lately. "A minotaur," I gasped.
"Freeze, creature!" Soleau burst out of the second story window behind Fred, along with four others. There was a boy with black hair, and sea green eyes. I could see them from where I stood. There was another boy, also with black hair, and brown eyes, and a slightly 'dead' aura. It intrigued me a little bit. There was a girl, with dark blonde hair, grey eyes, and a baseball cap. There was writing on it, but I couldn't read it, due to reasons I would find out later. Lastly, there was another boy, who had brown hair. He was almost normal, except for the fact that the entire lower half of his body was... goat. A satyr? Yeah, that's the one.
Anyways, Soleau and his friends I had never heard about proceeded to take on the minotaur before me. The blonde girl tried to use her knife to stun it, but got knocked into a tree by a blow to the midsection. I knew that those hurt, from personal experience. The tree cracked a little bit, and I ran over to drag her out of the way.
"Ungh... Let go of me!" she cried when I tried to move her.
"You're welcome," I replied quietly. The ungrateful girl ran back into the fray.
Meanwhile, the dead kid ran up the minotaur's back and kicked its face into the ground.
"James, right?" the satyr asked me.
"Um... Sure?" I said uncertainly, as the scene unfolding before me kind of shocked me.
"We'll need your help here pretty soon, so get ready to jump on its back!"
"Wait, what?!"
"Take off your backpack, it'll only slow you down!" Soleau called from the minotaur's leg. He was latched onto it, hoping to drag it down.
I took it off, and laid it down beside a tree. "Okay, now what?" I called to the boy with the green eyes. He looked like the leader, so I thought it would be best to ask him.
"Go! Now!" he yelled.
I jumped on the minotaur's back, and held on for dear life. "What do I do now?!"
"Grab its horns! That'll let us see what- oof!" The dead kid tried to reply, but got knocked into the blonde girl by the minotaur's kick, which also dislodged Soleau. All three lay in a heap next to the tree with my backpack.
I climbed up the beast's back, and seized its horns. The beast started to sway, and I felt my tiredness drain out of me. "Hah!" I cried, jumping off its head, driving it into the ground face-first. I snatched the green-eyed boy's sword before he could protest, and drove it deep into the creature's skull. Seconds later, it disintegrated.
"I'll take that back, thank you very much!" the green-eyed boy said angrily, taking his sword back. He pulled out a pen cap from his pocket, and capped his sword. Now, there's something you don't see everyday! "Annabeth, are you okay?" he asked the blonde.
"Yes, I'm fine," she replied, untangling herself from Soleau and the dead kid.
Minutes later...
"So, you're Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Grover," I settled, making sure the introductions stuck.
"Yes, now come with us! We need to move before more monsters show up!" Percy said impatiently.
"Whoa, hold up!! Give me one good reason why I should come with you! Why should I even trust you?" I shot back.
"You trusted us during the fight," Nico reminded me.
"So? I only did that to survive!"
"Well, if you want to survive now, you'll come with us," Annabeth pointed out.
"Hmm..." I mulled it over. Things were pretty strange now. I didn't know what to think anymore. Who should I trust? "Where will we go?" I finally asked.
"Camp Half-Blood. That's where I go every summer," Soleau said.
"Fine. Explain the rest to me on the way," I amended.
"Okay, let's go!" Percy said, and began running.
"Percy, that's west. Camp is in New York, you know, northeast from here," Grover reminded.
"Oh. I knew that," Percy replied, slightly disgruntled.
"Sure you did," I said quietly. Luckily, he didn't hear me.
On the way there, Soleau began explaining the rest to me. "Okay, Camp Half-Blood is a place for demigods, like me, Percy, Annabeth, and Nico. You, too, apparently. We all have one immortal parent, and one human parent. My mom's mortal. My dad, however, is Aeolus, god of winds. That's why my mom named me what she did. My name has all the letters of my dad's, just mixed up a little. Percy-"
"My dad's Poseidon," he shot over his shoulder. He obviously didn't want to talk about it. That, or he just didn't like me. Probably the second one.
"Yeah, so..." Soleau struggled to fill the awkward silence. "Annabeth is the daughter of Athena. Nico is Hades' son."
"Uh-huh... Whose child am I?"
"We'll find out when we get to Camp," Annabeth told me.
"Do we have to walk all the way there?" I complained.
"No, we're going to find some horses," Percy said.
"Why? ...Oh, that's right!" I remembered. "Poseidon is also the god of horses! That makes sense..."
"Yep. Once we find horses, we'll head for the sea. Once we're there, hopefully Percy's dad will hook us up with some hippocampi, and soon after that, we'll be home-away-from-home, sweet home!" Soleau cheered happily.
"Oh, look, there they are!" Grover spotted them.
Percy took out some money and paid for the horses, and the rest of us mounted the creatures.
"Um... Hi," I said nervously to the horse.
It whinnied, reared back, and shot off. I held on for dear life...again. "AAAAAAAAAUUUUGGHHH!!!!" I screamed. "STOP, HORSE!!! STOP!!!!" I was panicking.
In an instant, Soleau was running alongside the horse, calming it down. "Ssshhh... Ssh... It's okay, don't worry, everything's fine," he said, patting its head. The horse eventually slowed down enough for Soleau to help me off. When I say 'help,' I really mean 'help me fall.' It wasn't his fault, though.
"Stupid horse..." I muttered as I stood up again. "Guys, I really don't feel comfortable riding by myself. Would it be alright if I rode second with one of you?" I asked apologetically.
"Sure," replied Nico. "Hop on."
I mounted the horse behind Nico, and we set off. On the way to the Atlantic, I fell asleep. Go figure.
In the dream...
I found myself standing in the middle of a large room, with twelve thrones surrounding me. 'I know this place,' I soon realized. 'I've never been here before in my life, but... it seems familiar somehow,' I thought. Lost in my thoughts, I didn't hear someone approach me from behind. It wasn't until I heard the final 'tak' of his shoes against the floor, that I realized he was there.
"Finally decided to come, huh?" the figure said. I began to turn around, when the figure objected. "Don't turn around. Don't look at me. You mustn't. Not yet, at least."
"Why? Why not?" I was filled with questions.
"Hush, all will be revealed in time," the figure said, then I felt his hands brush my temples, and I lost consciousness in the dream.
I awoke at the shore of the Atlantic, in North Carolina. "Wow, we got here fast," I remarked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I did a quick head count, just to be sure I was with the right people. "Where's Nico?" I asked Soleau, as soon as I realized he was missing.
"You drooled in your sleep, and he's washing it off."
My face felt hot. Extremely so. "Oops," I replied sheepishly as Nico returned.
"Don't mention it," he responded drily.
"Okay, I've got the hippocampi, and it looks like we're all ready to go!" Percy seemed a lot... happier now, than he did back in Kansas.
"I know, Percy seems more upbeat," Annabeth said, coming up behind me, startling me in the process. "It's because we're close to the ocean."
"Let's go," I amended shakily, still scared from my last horse experience. "Before I come to my senses and realize that this is stupid."
"That's the spirit!" Soleau commented sarcastically.
3 hours later...
"Yes!" Grover cried, upon hitting the shores of the Camp. "We made it, and we only had to fight one monster!"
"Knock on wood," I followed up, rapping my knuckles on the nearest tree to emphasize my point.
"Right," Soleau finished.
"Whoa!! Is that a dragon up there, curled around the tree?!" I asked in astonishment.
"Yes. His name is Peleus. He protects that tree that he's wrapped around, because it sustains the barrier," Soleau answered.
"Ah! Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Grover, Soleau, good to see you've all returned! And with a new demi-god, too! Excellent!" I turned away from the dragon to see who (or what) was coming.
"Hey, Travis, Connor," Soleau greeted them. The others said their greetings, then left to go do... something. I don't know what, though, honestly. "James, this is Travis and Connor Stoll. They're the heads of the Hermes cabin."
"Wait a sec. Isn't Hermes the god of thieves, too?" I realized, stifling a grin. I'm sorry, but seriously, 'Stoll'? That's just too good!
"Yeah, yeah, we know," one of them stated. "Anyways, you should probably go see Chiron, or Mr. D. We'd recommend Chiron, 'cuz Mr. D is kinda... well, you'll find out soon enough."
"Okay, then. Soleau, will you come with me? I just know I'm gonna get lost on my own," I asked, embarrassed.
"Sure, let's go."
Later, at the Big House...
"Sorry. I should have tried harder to get Chiron to see you. Of all the rotten luck," Soleau apologized gloomily.
"You must really not like this guy, 'cuz I've never seen you this down in the dumps before," I remarked.
The two of us were sitting outside his office, waiting for our 'appointment.' We were waiting for him to get done with another group of campers, who had apparently made him angry in one way or another. 'Mr. D must be the head of this place,' I thought, bored.
Both of us turned when we heard his door open. The other two campers walked out, and I heard a voice (who I presumed to be Mr. D) call, "Next!"
We went inside, and I was astonished at what I saw. The man had bloodshot eyes, so he'd obviously been hitting the "happy juice." He was...um... rather large around the middle, which kind of shocked me. I had figured out that "Mr. D" was a pseudonym, and he was a god, but this guy looked really... ungodlike. I didn't say it out loud, of course! That's the kind of thing that would get me blasted into a bazillion pieces.
"So, who's our new friend, Soleau?" He pronounced it "Sow-lau." I knew, however that it was pronounced "Sew-low," instead.
"It's 'Soleau,' sir. And, this is James. He's undetermined, as of yet, but... Isn't your birthday coming up soon?" he asked me.
"Um, yeah... I'm turning thirteen," I responded in a haze. "You're... Dion-" I didn't get to finish.
Soleau clamped a hand over my mouth, whispering, "Don't use his name. Names have power. Just call him 'Mr. D.' You're right about who he is, though."
"Just in time, then. Welcome to Camp blah blah blah, and you know the rest," Mr. D said uninterested. 'Is he like this to everyone? Or is it just me?' I wondered.
"Thank you, sir. Come on, let's go find Chiron," Soleau told me, then dragged me by my arm out of the office.
"You must really hate that guy, huh?"
"More than anything in the world," he confessed, as soon we were out of his earshot. "Hi, Chiron!" he cried cheerfully, trying to get the centaur's attention. No, it didn't freak me out. After what's happened recently, it's kind of hard to freak me out.
"Hello, Soleau!" he greeted, pronouncing the name correctly. "This must be James, if I'm not mistaken?"
I tried to get something out of my mouth. All that came out was, "Um, I... guess?"
"He's in a little bit of shock, sir. This has all come on a little quick, hasn't it?" Soleau asked me.
"Uh... yeah. I mean, yes, it has," I stuttered, getting a grip on myself.
"He should be claimed soon, shouldn't he? Is his 13th birthday not coming up?" Chiron asked Soleau.
"Yes, sir. Oh! I know! James, grab my forearms. Contact with other demigods might trigger a reaction."
"Firmly grasp it in your hand," I muttered to myself, grabbing hold of Soleau's forearms.
"Hmm... Wha-?! Ohh..." Soleau trailed off, as he collapsed on the ground. Surprised, I released him.
"So, that's it, hm? That's who's claiming him?" Percy came walking up behind me, looking at the space above my head. "Chiron, who's the god of smiles?"
I looked above my head to see what was there. There was only a small curved line, glowing purple and black.
"That's not a smile, Percy. It's an eye, it's just closed," Chiron responded, hauling Soleau up from the ground.
I immediately began racking my brain for whose symbol the closed eye was. Then, it hit me. I'd been claimed by...
"Morpheus. I'm the son of Morpheus. God of dreams, and, by extension, sleep," I gasped, as this news hit me. "Chiron, sir, Soleau, he... he'll be alright, won't he?" I asked, worried.
"Yes, he's fine. You didn't do any real damage to him, and, besides, he's needed a good night's sleep, what with worrying about you and all." I felt guilty right away. My best friend's health had deteriorated, and it was all my fault.
"Don't worry about him," Annabeth assured me, coming to back me up, just when I needed it. "Soleau's been through much worse." (A.N. I'll probably make a prequel to this at some point, describing Soleau's adventures, so... stay tuned!)
"But..." I stammered. "What if he's dead? You know, sleep that knows no dreams?"
"Oh, you mean your great-uncle. Thanatos. God of death," Annabeth explained.
"No, that's Hades," Percy objected.
"No, Hades is lord of the dead, not death itself."
"It's the same thing, though, isn't it?"
"No, it isn't!"
"Yes, it is!"
They both turned away from each other, with the "I'm-never-talking-to-you-again" looks on their faces. Great. So, I'd caused even more trouble at Camp Half-Blood.
I didn't know what to do next, so I did the logical thing, that anyone would do: banging my head against the nearest solid wall.
'Oh, gods,' I thought. 'What's next for me?'
Okay the last line was not supposed to be a prayer, it just turned out that way *shrugs* Anyway, I'll keep working on this, so, if you'd like to make a suggestion, feel free to review or pm me! Please R&R!!
LoD is out!! PEACE!!!