SURPRISE! I know where I am going with this now, I know what has to happen so here we are, Part V of Shamrock's story. Its also early, lets think of it as an early birthday present for Arabella.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY ARABELLA!

Secret of the Silver Bow Part V: Dark Side of the Moon

One

Secret of the Silver Bow Fun Fact 7: The name Shamrock was made up off the top of my head in July of Last year while sitting in the car waiting for my sister to get out of her gymnastics class. It was only going to be a temporary name until I found one that worked better but when I finally found a Greek name I liked I couldn't bring myself to change it.

Key – The Wild

The Conscious

The Instinct

Shamrock

Incorrect

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Shamrock

Okay, remember when I said. "I knew that everything would be alright"? I have never been that wrong before! Things couldn't have been worse. Sure they started out okay, but by May I was tired of it and By June I was ready to lose my mind.

Aikatrina, had been dominating the hunt, we didn't travel as much anymore and we had to try to be quite because she slept all the time! I spent a majority of my time in my tent, my Mom spent days with Aikatrina and nights driving the moon, which was getting to be a pain because even immortals need sleep sometimes. During the night Orion watched her which also got to be a pain because he was up all day to.

Aikatrina's crib was in Orion's tent which brings me to another topic. My mom and Orion didn't share a tent. Orion slept in his own tent on the other side of camp. Don't most parents share a room at the very least? Mine didn't even share that. They both seemed perfectly fine with it, Orion was comfortable in his tent my mom in hers. Maybe this isn't weird to most people but it is to me!

Another thing was the PDA. There was none of it; Orion never once kissed my Mom in public, or anywhere that I could think of. I have never seen them so much as hug each other in the last few months, it's just weird. I guess it's nice that the awkwardness of PDA isn't there but it's still so, weird.

I also believe that Orion has never seen anything between my mother's collar bone and the bottom of her knee. Not even once. I honestly believe I have seen my mother where lower cut things then he has, which is weird. I would think that he would have seen the most of my mother, being my father and all. Grace tells me not to worry about it but it's kind of difficult not to think about. I think I've kissed Grace more than my mom has kissed Orion in the last hundred years. Which is to say once!

I also kind of hate my little sister, which both Lilly and Grace claim is not possible, that I have to love her because we're flesh and blood. In my opinion it is completely possible to hate your little sister, I do. She dominates my life. I spend time watching the baby when my mom is bathing or something, and the rest of it in my tent bored to death. We had hunted down everything in the area in two months; my mom has had to use immortal powers twice already to replenish what we've killed.

I know my mom and Orion are worried about Aikatrina what with that whole dying thing going on here but it was becoming too much for me, I had to get away. So I convinced Grace and Lilly to come to Camp Half-Blood with me, well I convinced Grace, Lilly wanted to go.

So we packed our things said good-bye to the hunt and made our way the three hundred miles to Camp. It was nice, just the three of us, our tent and Sirius, who was really Orion's hunting dog but he woke the baby so I had to take care of him.

The solstice rolled around and I thought about going to Olympus to see my mom but, I decided against it though because she would be busy, or at least too busy for me. It was a new moon that night so I convinced Grace to come down to the canoe lake with me. I had spent any time with just her in a long time and star gazing seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

"Shamrock?" She whispered, in the dark her red hair looked much darker than it was, her pale skin seemed to glow and the green in her eyes remained hidden behind a veil of darkness

"Yeah, Grace?" I muttered, turning to look at her, we were lying down on the dock, it was long after curfew but we didn't really care.

"Is it just me or have Percy and Annabeth been gone a while?" She frowned. I had noticed it somewhat to, but I had never really thought of them as missing.

"No they're probably just off on a quest." I said. She nodded. "We should get going, I think I hear the harpy's coming." We stood up and ran silently back to cabin eight. Noiselessly I opened the door. We crawled into our respective beds and in a few minutes I was the last one awake, in Lilly's bunk the one above mine, I could hear my sister muttering in her sleep about something.

I gazed out the window, tomorrow my mother would be back in the sky and I could finally get an Iris message to her. I guess I had a thing for IM-ing various gods at the worst times because all IM's to the Throne room had been cut off. How was I supposed to know Apollo was hitting on a wood nymph when I called? Anyway the point was I could get through to my mom, when the baby wasn't around.

With that somewhat happy thought I drifted off to sleep. Only to have the peace interrupted by a dream…

I was back in the cave; the cloaked figure was pacing the room menacingly and glaring down at the boy on the floor. This time though you could see his face. His eyes were a piercing blue, his hair was black, curly and greasy, and he looked as though he'd been doing something for a very long time and it was finally drawing to a close, with a touch of slightly insane somewhere in there.

"My lord, it is the solstice, the plan –"The boy crouched on the floor was cut off by the man.

"I know, it will all fall into place, believe me, she has fallen into our trap. The boy is as good as dead." The man looked at a stalactite like he wanted nothing more than to destroy it.

"What is our trap?" The boy asked hesitantly.

The man smiled demonically. "His greatest weakness." He turned and revealed a cage. A cage holding my mom. She was panting and glaring at the man. It was obvious that she had been in there a while, perhaps she didn't even make it to the solstice council. She stood up, Ichor dripping from a cut on her arm, the Ichor was more a bronze color then a gold color, warning sirens went off in the back of my head but I didn't know why. She looked bad, really bad as though the cage was leeching her power, her eyes were full of hate and if she had been able to I'm sure she would have choked the man to death but she couldn't, her hands were tied behind her back and whatever the cage was made of was immortal proof. She snarled at him and the man raised a leather whip. SNAP! The whip cracked, and my mom dropped to the floor of the cage, ichor dripping from a gash on her leg.

I woke up in a cold sweat, I could hear the shower running behind the bathroom door, and Grace's bed was empty. I scrambled out of my bed and went over to the sink, and threw up. I heard the shower cut off abruptly, and the door opened. Grace was in a fluffy grey bathrobe, she ran over to me. I was breathing hard.

"Shamrock!" She said, turning on the sink to rinse the vomit out. "Are you okay?"

"G-grace, th-they've got my m-mom." I tried to inhale but it was like I couldn't I looked at Grace, she led me over to her bed and I sat down.

"Sham, calm down." She said, calmly. The door banged open and there was my sister.

"I brought – Oh gods, what's wrong with him?" Lilly dropped something but I neither cared nor possessed the ability to turn and look.

"He's having a panic attack, Lilly get me a warm, damp towel. Shamrock," Grace made me look at her. "Calm down." I felt tears rolling down my face, and the panic in my chest was making it hard to breath. Grace wiped my mouth with the damp cloth and Lilly handed me a glass of water, I drank a bit but I couldn't calm down. That freak had my mom and we were all just sitting here. Grace gave me a hug and held me until I could breathe again.

I took a few deep breaths then pulled away and looked at her. "Shamrock." Grace's voice was steady and calm. "Tell us who's got your mam."

"I don't kn-know exactly b-but she's in a cage and everything." I told them about the dream.

"Shamrock, nothing has happened to your mother, you were just up late, and you were tired, she's fine. She and the hunters will be here in three days just enjoy yourself and you'll be alright." Grace's voice was so soothing, that almost all of me believed her. Almost all…

We really ought to check this one out.

In a few days the hunt, my mom and Orion will be here.

Why do you still call him Orion?

Gods ADHD much, seriously I just had a panic attack and you just told me I should check this out and now you ask me why I still call my dad Orion? Really?

Yes really

It's complicated, and you're unusually talkative. It's usually Wild or Conscious.

Now who's being ADHD?

Point made, now answer the question.

Fine, I'm just stressed out!

Why?

Um, you just had a panic attack and your mom could be missing. Duh.

You sound like my sister, and Grace makes a valid point, she's not missing, just give it a few days.

Someone snapped in front of my face and I was jerked out of my thoughts. I looked around, I was still sitting on Grace's bed.

"What?" I asked.

"I said, I'm going to get dressed, are you going to be okay?" She asked. I nodded. "Okay I'll be right back." She was back very quickly too, almost like she was worried I might have another panic attack. She was wearing her silver hunting T-shirt and a pair of jeans, like me she refused to wear the camp clothes, they made me look like a walking piece of Candy. Grace's red hair was braided and she had the pin I'd given her for her birthday on the front of her t-shirt, it was a shamrock pin.

"What now?" I asked.

"Well I dropped our breakfast when I walked into the scene of you hyper ventilating on Grace's bed." She grumbled.

"Someone's grumpy this morning." I said.

"Shut up!" She stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind her. I glanced at Grace.

"What's her problem?" I asked.

"Well you did just have a panic attack, and for most people that's terrifying to see." Grace pointed out.

"Why wasn't it terrifying for you?" I Asked.

She shrugged. "Shamrock I grew up with thirteen brothers and sisters, we had the occasional panic attack, it was usually Erin, she got scared really easily, and America was a big new place, she had an attack at least once a month. Never on that scale though."

"You were so calm though, and Lilly she freaked out." She sat down next to me and I noticed I was still sitting on her bed.

"Well I've been through a lot and though that was just about the worst panic Attack I've ever witnessed that wasn't the worst thing I've ever witnessed." She looked at her feet and I got the feeling that she wasn't talking about anything to do with her family, or me, that it was something much deeper, much more monstrous then that, so I decided to leave it alone for now. Besides, it was capture the flag night.

Since there weren't enough Hunters to go Hunters verses Campers they spilt me and the girls up. Grace and Lilly were with, Hermes' Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Dionysus, while I was tossed in with Apollo, Ares, Athena and the others. First though we had to make it through the rest of the day. Our first activity was archery which I decided to ditch. I didn't need the practice, so instead I spent the first hour in the forest hunting and talking Oak, the little wood nymph and I had become good friends.

Apparently Oak was the youngest wood nymph so we had a chaperone fallowing her everywhere I guess she was maybe nine but she said in fact she was fifty human years old which made her about as mature as a nine year old. The conch horn sounded signaling the end of the first class.

I actually decided to go to Sword fighting; I noticed it was a blonde Hermes boy teaching instead of Percy. I grabbed my sword and strode over to him, he looked so familiar, one long scar running from under his eye to his chin.

"Luke?" I Asked.

"Hello Shamrock, I didn't know the hunt was here." His eyes darted around looking for someone.

"They're not; it's just me, Lilly and Grace. Why are you here? You're dead." I frowned.

HE chuckled. "That's sensitive. I'm just the temp, they couldn't get someone else to do it Clarisse and the Ares cabin are all on strike for some reason, Chiron's got archery and I was the last person left."

"Where's Percy?" I raised my eyebrows.

"I don't know they never told me." He said. "Now go get in line."

Remind me never to choose Grace as my partner; she flattened me in a second, probably because I was afraid of hurting her. After Sword fighting was lunch, which meant I had too much time to think.

I ate a sandwich then slunk back to my cabin, Grace was sitting on her bed reading her book. She smiled up at me. I gave her a weak smile back.

"Are you okay?" She asked. I didn't say anything at first, I admit it, and I was reluctant to tell her what the problem was. She sat up and patted the spot next to her. "Come here." I sat next to her. "Now what's wrong, you've been off all day."

"I'm worried about my mom. What if I lose her, Grace, I can't lose her, I've only just gotten her back." I muttered.

"Shamrock, look at me." She made me look her in the eye. "You are going to be fine, in a few days she'll be here, with your dad and your sister." I know she was talking to me like a little kid but I was okay with that, mostly because Apollo never did anything, and because her tone of voice was comforting. Lilly walked in, Nico trailing somewhat behind her and stopping in the doorway.

"Are you alright?" Lilly asked. I nodded, I know she didn't believe me but, I think my panic attack earlier had really freaked her out so she just believed me.

"Nico," I said, trying to make polite conversation. "Are you going to play capture the flag?"

"If any team will take me." His answer was brief and very Nico.

"We'll take you." Lilly piped up.

"We will?" Grace raised her eyebrows; she didn't really like Nico for some reason. I wasn't his biggest fan either but I could put up with him.

"We will." Lilly said. "You can come in Nico." Nico stepped in, his black skinny jeans were ripped, chains hanging from them, his shirt was faded but it said something about a band that Thalia liked, Green Day, and his aviator jacket, which seemed like it was getting too tight for him, but he seemed to be attached to it.

"Hey Sham, I heard about your panic attack." He said.

"Yeah." I glowered at him.

"Are you okay?" He sneered.

"Fine." I sneered back.

"Hey," Lilly said like we were bad dogs. "Be good."

Grace giggled. "Aw, look at you two, getting all territorial"

"I'm not territorial." I snapped.

"Really then what if I did this?" Grace picked up the pillow from my bed and handed it to Nico. I growled. "See, someone's getting territorial."

"Fine, maybe just a little bit, but I don't want him near me, he smells like death." I grumped.

"Hey!" Nico yelled. "At least I don't fall in love with that!" He gestured towards Grace and I had it, I lunged at him.

Grace

Grace saw him begin to changed midair and reached for his collar, she grabbed on to the collar and he hit the ground and yelped. Lilly stood up and stood between the two boys.

"Hey, boys, stop that!" She said firmly. Shamrock morphed back and Nico sneered, Shamrock looked at her his silver eyes pleading with her.

"Nice try Shamrock, but I have taken care of small children I do not give into the puppy eyes. Sit." She said, he sat.

Shamrock

"Nico lets get a few things strait, A)Grace is not a that she is a girl B) We are not in love C) If you ever come in here again I will sink my teeth into your neck." I growled.

"No, Shamrock you won't." Grace's voice was firm, her accent seemed to thicken when she was aggravated. It was kind of cute. Wait, cute? When was anything about Grace cute? Well there was her nose, and how she got more freckles when she was angry, and then there was the way she laughed,

Stop it! We can't afford to think about that kind of thing!

Hey we've been over this there is no-

We, yeah, yeah I know there is me and there is a you, there is no we.

Hey, you're getting pretty good at this whole snarky thing.

Well duh, we share a body. Remember.

Okay that's enough.

"Okay Nico, why don't you leave, before Shamrock gets angry again, Shamrock why don't you take a nap?" Lilly said.

"Why do I need a nap?" I challenged.

"You are tired; I know you didn't sleep well last night." She said.

"How do you know that?" I snapped.

"Yeah, Shamrock you need a nap, you are just as fussy as Aikatrina, when you're tired don't deny it." Grace said.

"But, I don't want to sleep." I said.

"Shamrock, I'll stay here, you won't have another nightmare. Just sleep." Grace said, I sighed, got up and crawled into my own bed. Grace was right I didn't have a nightmare; I did have a dream though.

"Apollo?" A small seven year old me said. My eyes were still that greenish color, my auburn hair badly needed to be cut and I wasn't much taller then a four year old.

"Yeah kiddo?" Apollo turned around on the couch.

"Can't sleep." Seven year old me muttered.

"Come here." Apollo motioned for me to come over to where he was. His blonde hair was perfectly trimmed and his blue eyes told the seven year old me that I wasn't to get out of bed again.

"Story?" I Asked.

"Okay fine, which one?" He sighed.

I had a glint in my eyes, that even then I could clearly tell was somewhat evil. "Orion."

Apollo sighed and began the story, when he finished I looked up at him innocently. "What?"

"Why did you kill him?" I wondered.

"Because, no one hurts my sister." He said.

"Orion didn't hurt your sister." I pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah I know but he would have." Apollo picked me up and carried me up the stairs. My bed was small and the blankets looked like and animal had recently slept there, a comfortable little den made of them.

"Apollo." I muttered, it was clear seven year old me was starting to fall asleep.

"Yeah?" Apollo lay me down in the middle of the den, and I wiggled down into it.

"Santa Claus is evil." I was asleep now.

"Sure he is kid, your mom thought the same thing." Apollo ruffled my hair and left.

I yawned and stretched. Grace looked up from her book. "Oh good your awake, it's almost time for capture the flag.

"Grace!" I was shocked she'd let me sleep that long. "You let me sleep for four hours?"

"Yes I did, did you know you talk in your sleep? You were muttering something about an evil Santa Claus." Grace stood up.

"Evil Santa Claus?" I rolled out of bed, and began to make the bed.

"Yeah, I don't blame you, my sister, Erin, thought so too. In fact, Santa Claus was something that used to give her a panic attack." Grace nodded matter-of-factly

"I didn't know the story of Santa Claus was around then." I frowned.

"It was somewhat. It was really just more of a story to tell around Christmas time. Erin didn't like the thought of someone in our house." Grace said.

"Erin? That's not and Irish name, your Enye, your brother is Sean, and you have another brother named Dickon but Erin. You hear that name all the time." I said.

She sighed. "Leave it to you to latch on to the fact that I had a sister named Erin. Well actually in Gaelic it means Ireland. It really depends on how you spell it though E-r-i-n like my sister, that means Ireland but another much less common spelling is A-r-e-n which means eagle, it's also usually a boy's name and then A-a-r-o-n is Hebrew for mountain, also a boy's name most of the time. The most common spelling for a girl is E-r-i-n."

"How do you know so much about names?" I blinked at her, honestly it was a little freaky, I had never meant anyone who knew this much their own name much less other people's names.

"Shamrock in nearly a hundred and twenty years you learn things. A lot of things, even ones as random as the name meanings of your family members and their spelling variants." She pointed out. "Now make your bed it's time to go."

We walked out of the cabin at around four fifteen, the sun was high in the sky and naturally I scowled at it. Grace nudged me.

"At least try not to look so scowly all the time." She said.

"Scowly? Is that even a word?" I asked skeptically.

"I don't know if it is or if it isn't but at least try to look not so sullen all the time." She said.

"I don't look sullen; this is how I always look." I muttered.

"I know and that's exactly my problem. Couldn't you smile, just once for me?" She begged. This only made me scowl more. "Okay, so that's a no."

"Well I'm sorry someone woke me up." I said.

"Gods, you slept for four hours, how little did you sleep last night?" She rolled her eyes.

I crossed my arms. "Three hours."

"See," Grace said. "Together you've now slept seven!"

"Oh, sue me for being tired!" I snapped, as we approached the dining hall. Clarisse grabbed my arm.

"Quit bickering with each other, Shamrock we need to get a move on." Clarisse said.

"Bye, Sham." Grace walked over to join Lilly at the Athena table.

"Okay," Clarisse bent over a war map. "Sham, you are on offence with CH-"

"We're going to lose." I said calmly.

Clarisse's head snapped up. "Why do you think that?"

"Simple, they'll expect me to be on offence, which is all the more reason to have me guard the flag with defense." I shrugged. "Also, since they have Lilly and Grace they are more likely to win, so we need to give them as many surprises as possible right?"

The whole table was silent for a minute; Clarisse brushed a piece of her stringing brown hair out of her face. "Okay Mr. Hunter-of-Artemis, what do you suggest we do?"

"Well since the most they know about me in this field is that I am a hunter of Artemis, and since they typically lose to the Hunters of Artemis they will focus on me, most likely using Grace and my sister against me, because well they know me best and can match my skill, then the others will go around and get the flag, assuming I am on offence, they will put Grace and Lilly on defense, when they find out I'm on offence they are going to try and change this but by then it will be too late because Clarisse, your half-sister, that one there," I pointed to the girl behind Clarisse.

"Josie." She supplied.

I nodded. "Josie will have taken the Ares campers that way." I point around the left side of the map. "and then Annabeth-"

"Annabeth isn't here right now, Sky, is filling in for her." Clarisse said.

"Okay, then Sky will take the Athena Cabin around to the right and then Will, you will take the Apollo campers and the other cabins forward, but make sure you all spread out so you can cover as much ground as possible. Clarisse, you, That blonde one, um…" I trailed off.

"Ila." She said.

"You, Ila, and I will be guarding the flag." I said.

"I don't see how that's all going to work. We can't hold off that many people." Clarisse shook her head.

"It will, because they'll have a bigger defense because they have Aphrodite, and you know how they play, so they're offence won't be very large." I said.

"Okay, you make a point, on that note, but that still leaves, Hermes, Hephaestus, and Dionysus." Clarisse said.

"Yes but there are nine Hephaestus kids, two Dionysus and about a dozen or so Hermes, that's relatively twenty five. You're right, okay so I want all the children of minor gods with us." I said. About another half dozen kids nodded in agreement. "Happy?"

Clarisse nodded. "Remind me to ask for you to be on my team again."

"Thank you, now why don't we suit up?" I smiled. Just a little bit demonically. I went over to the where the armor was and I noticed Grace strapping hers on. I went over and stood next to her, she looked up and jumped when she saw me.

"Gods Shamrock, do you have to do that?" She asked.

"Yes. I do." I chuckled strapping on my own armor.

"No, you don't. You are way to quiet some times." She chided.

"Yeah, well one of my pet peeves is loud noises." I told her.

She sighed exasperatedly. "Really Sham? Another one, I swear you have so many pet peeves I'm starting to lose count."

"Is it a crime to hate loud, annoying things?" I Asked.

"No, but you would have hated my family." She laughed.

"Why?" I wondered.

"Well with fourteen kids under one roof you can imagine how loud it gets. The quietest time was easily midnight, right, then every three hours or so you would wake up to one of the little ones having had a nightmare, or the baby needing to be fed." She explained.

I grimaced. "That would have been terrible. I need my sleep, how did you do it?"

She shrugged. "Well it was my life, I didn't really notice."

"I would notice, now I believe this is where we are expected to say good bye, and good luck." I said.

"Yeah, have fun Sham!" She waved and walked back over to stand next to my sister. Her tone of voice had made it clear. It. Was. On.

Well there you have it Chapter one of Part V. Lets see how Shamrock handle's this hm? Well the next update will be on the 12th, which I believe is a Wednesday, so I hope I can keep your attention that long.