Cassie Evans and the Deities
Book one
The Quest
By Dragonluver22
©2008
ONE
A new victim comes to camp
Camp Half-Blood is not a normal summer camp. I guess you could say it's… a "special" camp. If you are 100 mortal and are able to believe that lie your Librarian told you about this book, and why it's fiction, good for you. I covet you for being able to believe that. If you are not mortal, if you recognize yourself anywhere in these pages, stop reading then and there. The more you know, the bigger you are on their radar. Stay under it. Try as hard as you can to lead a normal life. I read the other books, and ignored the warning in the front in those ones. Oops. I didn't try to lead a normal life, though I recognized myself many times, and ended up here. At Camp Half-Blood in cabin Apollo.
I am Cassandra Evans, and I have no ever been "normal." I had been at Camp Half-Blood for three years now, but the day things went on a hairpin turn was when that new camper came in. Percy.
"I have been informed by Luke that-"
"Jeez, we already know. You don't have to brag about it to the whole cabin. Besides, we all knew you'd win," I interrupted.
"This isn't about my winning the lyre contest. Though, I did win by a long shot against all the others, and-,"
"GET TO THE POINT!!" we all chanted at her.
"We have a new camper. He defeated the Min-" Leah prevented herself from saying 'Minotaur', "the bull man with his bare hands."
For the first time since I was claimed, the entire Apollo cabin fell silent. Now, I wasn't usually some one to grab attention, but I felt like saying something at the time. On first impulse, I said "Who? What's his name?"
"We don't know. Mr. D and Chiron are going to tell everyone at dinner tonight. We know it's a boy, though."
Somebody knocked on the door of the cabin. I went to answer it, and found myself staring at the doorknob for a few seconds. My thoughts were racing around my head and bumping into the sides of my skull. Who is the new camper? Who's at the door? How could a half-blood with no training defeat the Minotaur with his bare hands? Will the person at the door have his name? What's his name anyways? Who? Who? How? Ooh… "How" and "who" have the same letters…I JUST REALIZED THAT! WHO?
Before I could even think about the answers to my thoughts, I turned the doorknob and found Annabeth's stormy eyes staring through my face.
Annabeth was a girl from the Athena cabin, with blond hair and gray eyes. She was tan, and looked like the average person's stereotypical idea of a California girl. I mean, besides the gray eyes. They ruined the picture.
She had been at camp longer than anyone, with six beads on her necklace (I had only survived three summers so far, not including this year). She had run away from home with Thalia and Luke, two other campers. Thalia had sacrificed herself to get the others to safety. Right before she would be killed, her father, Zeus, turned her into the pine tree that stands at the camp's borderline. Annabeth has been at camp year-round since.
"Hi, Annabeth. What's up?"
Annabeth replied, "You already know. Leah told you there was a new camper, didn't she?"
"Umm… yeah, she told the whole cabin. Leah said that Luke told her," I said. Annabeth blushed a little at the mention of Luke's name. I was the only girl at camp that didn't, including the Dryads. "Do you know the name of the new camper?"
"Yeah. Percy Jackson. Do you think that he could be theone?" she inquired.
"Depending on what you mean by 'the one', yes and definitely. If by 'the one' you mean the one who will finally get you out of Camp Half-Blood so you can go on a quest, probably. If by 'the one' you mean one of the Big Three, I think so. I was about to bet Leah five drachmas he is. But who knows? He could be just another camper. Defeating the bull-man with his bare hands… now that's pretty amazing! I think he's Big Three. In fact, he could be better than Luke. " Annabeth and I laughed to ourselves. 'Better than Luke'. Ha! Annabeth didn't believe in such a thing. But what if… what if…
"Well, I better get back to lead Percy to the Hermes cabin. See you later," pardoned Annabeth.
"Good luck. Try not to-"
I heard the sound of a closing door, and knew that I should stop talking.
I started a conversation with Leah, "Bet you five drachmas he's big three material, that new camper."
"Bet you five drachmas he's just another one," Leah snapped back. Little did I know, by the end of the month, I would be five drachmas richer.
The conch horn sounded for dinner and the Apollo cabin lined up for dinner. The Nymphs and Dryads came forth with plates of grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread and barbecue. I stood up and followed the rest of the cabin to scrape the best piece of food into the brazier. I scraped off the three biggest, ripest strawberries, and dedicated it to Apollo, my father. I also prayed a little silently, and please explain to me who this new camper is. Who? Is he what Annabeth has been waiting for? The burning strawberry's smell turned to the smell of feasts for the gods, Ambrosia and Nectar, fresh bread and aged wine, on a special ceremony for the Muses. Muses concert food. It was a sweet, savory aroma. It was the smell of home, for I and the other children of Apollo.
The new kid, Percy, looked confused when Luke told him to scrape off a piece of food into the sacrificial fire, and say which god you are scraping off the food to. Percy scraped off a bit of his barbecue and just dedicated it to anyone. I was starting to realize that this Percy kid was kind of like me, when I first came to camp. I was starting to warm up to this guy.
Chiron stamped his hoof on the ground to get everyone's attention. There was an announcement to make.
Chiron is the Camp Half-Blood activities director. He's a centaur, but when the ceilings are too low he compacts his lower half, a white stallion, into a magic wheelchair. That way, from the waist down you can't see his horse half. At the pavilion, however, he prefers to hang out in full, party pony centaur stallion form. Chiron trained Hercules, Jason, and every single half-blood at, well, Camp Half-Blood. For, you know, half-bloods.
As I was saying, Chiron stamped his hoof on the ground like there was an announcement to make. Mr.D sighed as he rose from his seat. "Yes, I suppose I better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."
The Ares table cheered for themselves.
"Personally," Mr.D complained on, " I couldn't care less, but, congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."
Chiron whispered into Mr.D's ear.
"Er, Percy Jackson. That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."
We did, erm, 'run along to our silly campfire', as Mr.D said. You see, the campfire is magical, and changes heat, color, and height according to the mood of the crowd. On a good night, you'd see it bright purple, 25 feet high, and so hot that the entire front rows marshmallows, and their sticks, would burst into flames. On a poor night, which I'd only seen once in my three years at camp, the flames would be a sickening gray, barely warm enough to be a fire, and only 4 or 5 feet high.
Tonight there was a great fire. Bright purple, about 20 feet high, and the front rows marshmallows melted so much, it looked like they were trying to get off the stick and into the flames. With our marshmallows committing suicide, and no one getting to eat them, my cabin led a sing-a-long to cheer everybody up. We did the classics: Down by the Aegean, I am my very own Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa, This land is Minos's land, and all the other standards. Percy looked like he was having a great time. Too bad he won't be enjoying this place for long.
When it was finally time for bed, we walked beck to our cabin and took turns changing into pajamas in the cabin bathroom. The entire cabin filed into bed, and we turned on our stereo. Leah set it to auto-turn off in 30 minutes. I listened to the sweet sound of lyres and thought about the new camper. I thought about today, and what tomorrow would be like. I wondered what this all feels like from Percy's point of view. Eventually, I slipped into the depths of sleep.