SoftWare: Hey, everybody! New story, new jokes.

Apollo: Can I dance in this one?

Artemis and SoftWare: NO!

Apollo: Aw, man.

The Shawn Hodgson Chronicles

Book Two

The Mark of the Hunt

Chapter One

I Win the Gold (Not in the Olympics)

It's been a while since my last letter. Anyway, this time, it's for the Children of Artemis who haven't come to camp yet.

It had been three weeks after we had established the new uniforms, which were black, had tiny circular pins (one for a

regular Hunter, two for a Lieutenant, three for a Child of Artemis, or Commander, and four for the Head Counselor, or

Captain), and, for the girls, had skirts with leggings, since I didn't want guys looking at them inappropriately. For the

Sons of Artemis, we had pants. Anyways, back to the story, today was the day of the Obstacle Tower that had been

installed recently at Camp Half-Blood. All the Head Counselors from all the Cabins had to participate, so that included

me. I was planning on going up there last, considering everyone else was getting knocked off, when a familiar face,

much to my own disappointment, approached me. "Hey, nice to see you come to see me win." I sighed. "Everything

they say about you is wrong, Solace." Will Solace, Head Counselor for the Apollo Cabin (yes, brothers and sisters, he's

our cousin), looked at me. "You actually do have a sense of humor." With that, we jumped to the tower. I backflipped

onto the second level, while he fell behind at the first. I started climbing the poles to the top, since Solace and I were

the only ones left. He tried to jump ahead of me, but tripped on a pole on the way up, and fell down to the third level. I

was on the fifth, so he had a lot of catching up to do. Hey, he's the Son of Apollo. They always screw things up. I kept

climbing. I reached the platform just below the top level, and somehow, Solace caught up with me. "Ready to dance?" I

raised an eyebrow. "Ready to sneeze?" Okay, to explain why I asked that: I like to confuse people when I'm either

competing against them, or fighting them. It catches them off-guard, giving me an advantage. Naturally, since it was

Will Solace, he got confused. I took my oppurtunity, and kicked at him. He jumped back, but I had wanted him to do

that, since by doing so, he fell off the platform and therefore off the tower. I climbed the rest of the way up, and picked

up the medallion at the top, ending the game. "And Shawn Hodgson, Son of Artemis, wins the game!" I used a rope to

come down, then approached Chiron. "Well done, my friend." I raised an eyebrow. "I'm your student. That's not the

same as being your friend." Chiron chuckled. "In my eyes, that is the same thing." I decided to drop the subject. Just

then, we heard a girl crying for help. I ran to see what the problem was, and saw an Asian girl running towards the

camp borders, being chased by a pack of hellhounds (big dumb dogs). I drew Moonbeam, and lunged for them. They

saw me coming, but that was natural (why do you think I hate them?), since I had crossed paths with others of their

kind. I sliced three with Moonbeam, then drew a dagger from a holster attached to my belt behind me. I have two

daggers, and I have developed a pretty decent throwing arm. Since it wasn't night yet, there was no moonlight, but I

had other abilities I had mastered. For example, I can speak to woodland life, and I decided to make use of it. I called a

pack of wolves to the fight, and they had a LOT of fun chomping the hellhounds up. It was fun to watch. The Asian girl

faced me. "Wh-who are you?" I looked at her. "Shawn Hodgson, Son of Artemis." She seemed to calm down. "My name

is Ruka." That's a Japanese name, in case you were wondering. So, I did something they do in Japan. I bowed. She

bowed back, probably confused. "How do you know of that custom?" "I like the Japanese culture, particularly Nintendo

and Konami." (I'm a nut for Zelda and Yu-Gi-Oh.) She smiled. "I am honored."

A/N

Thalia: You've got a girlfriend!

SoftWare: No, not her.

Ruka: I am his-.

SoftWare: Don't spoil it. It will be revealed in the next chapter.

Ruka: Yes, nii-chan.

Artemis: Please leave reviews.