A/N: Hiya guys! It's my first ever upload of a story, so I hope you like it! I worked really hard on this, for a project, called NNWM, also known as National Novel Writing Month. I have a couple of chapter for you guys already written, so I hope that'll hold you over till I continue it! I have special extras (drawing of what the OC's look like, some basic info, and other stuff) that you guys can access, if you want to, by PM-ing me. The only catch, is you have to give me a constructive criticism when you ask for these things in your email. Thank you, hope you enjoy! :)
Gods and Goddesses, they're just myths created for people way back when the Greeks needed someway, somehow to explain why the tides move back and forth on the shores of beaches. They're not real, just some made up stories that were told for eons, right? Well some kids, called half-bloods, are the children of these "made up" gods and goddesses; and I'll tell ya it's not easy being the son of a god, especially if you're a child of The Big Three.
There is one particular demigod's story that happened shortly after Percy Jackson arrived at Camp Half-Blood. It was about a month after Percy's first day at camp, when everyone finally got to settle down with the new Sea kid. Compared to the Sea Kid's journey to the hill, her's looked more peaceful. She didn't have to evade a Minotaur and her mom didn't turn into a shower of gold.
A taxi-man had taken her most of the way to Montauk from Smithtown, NY, where she met up with Samson in a rental cabin. The man was furious at her for not paying the correct amount of money that he charged her for, being more than a few dollars short.
The three demigods hardly knew one another, but bonded immediately like cousins. Morning came after a peaceful night of rest and the challenge to climb the Hill became apparent. Ariana and Samson woke up earlier than Irene. They waited outside for Irene, looking out at the waves crashing onto the sand.
Ariana had Irene's bag slung across her shoulder. The cabin was cleaned out, they've must of cleaned it out while she was sound asleep. Irene smiled at Ariana in thanks for taking her bag for her. Irene walked up to the two, squeezed herself in between them, and link arms with the both of them.
They began walking in the direction of a large hill, led by Ariana, hidden by the trees that inhabits it. The hill couldn't be seen by the naked eye, but Ariana had "special eyesight" which allowed her to see beyond the branches of the sturdy trees. As they walked, the water in Samson's metal canteen sloshed around, making a hollow sound.
The hill seemed endlessly covered in flowers and bright green grasses, even though it was rather close to a road which was covered with trash. Ariana gave an irritated goat-like bleat at this, she was always an environmentalist. One time, some jocks at Irene's school had tried to throw away trash from lunch, but missed and Ariana told them to pick it up, even though she was a underclassman and she was a girl. The jocks listened to her and she never saw them miss the again.
Ariana broke away from the link and reached down and picked up the trash, starting to make a basket out of her shirt. Samson rolled his eyes and said "Look, we'll come down later and pick it up. Okay?" Ariana overturned the trash out of her shirt slowly, knowing that he'll keep his word.
After a brief moment, she came skipping awkwardly towards them and linked arms with Samson, with a big smile on her face. They trudged up the steep hill, trying their best not to crush the flowers beneath their feet. After what seemed a short while, they reached the top where a beautiful tree stood proud and tall. The tree looked at least a decade old, it's wide trunk bigger than two of their heads together. Ariana looked up the tree, admiring it's thick branches. "Oh, Thalia." She murmured to herself.
Thalia, isn't that a girl's name? Irene thought as she followed Ariana's gaze up the tree. She wondered why it was called Thalia, as if it were human. Ariana snapped out of her daze and took Irene and Samson's hands. She started running, faster than she would normally walk, dragging them along behind her. They started going downhill, gaining more speed as they ran down the steep hill, which they tried desperately not to fall over. They ended at the bottom, racing each other with the speed they still had left.
As they caught their breath, the first thing you saw was a big house sitting about a mile away. It is painted baby blue and has a porch that seems to wrap completely around the house. Ariana led the two towards the house, which she could now clearly see men sitting at a table. As they stepped foot on the lawn, she could see they were playing a sort of card game. One of the men were wearing a Hawaiian shirt and seemed Vinofile. The other was in a wheelchair and wore a tweed jacket. The man in the Hawaiian shirt looked up from his cards and rolled his eyes at us.
As we take on the steps, the card game seemed to be less more and more less interesting to the man in the wheelchair. The man waved to us, as he set down his cards. "Ah, Ariana. It was a safe trip, I presume?" He asked.
"Yes, sir. No Kindly Ones bothered us."
"Good, good. Now, you've brought an extra one with you this time. Who's this young lad?" He asked.
"Oh, uh, this is Samson. I found him as I was heading up to Montauk with Irene. He caused some trouble with the Chimera though." Ariana said with a monotone voice.
The man raised his eyebrows but dismissed the topic. "I'm Chiron, if Ariana hadn't already told you. I'm the activities director for this camp." He stated holding out his hands for the two to shake.
Irene shook his hand carefully whereas Samson shook it firmly. "Take a seat, if you will."
Obliged, they took a seat upon a plastic lawn chair. "This is Mr.D, our camp director." Chiron said as Mr.D lazily spun his hand in the air and a Cherry Diet Coke appeared out of thin air. He popped the tab and brought the Coke to his lips, keeping his eyes on Chiron's cards and his own.
"Mmm, right. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He said mildly. Chiron gave a brief disappointed look at Mr. D and brought his attention back onto the three in front of him. "Since you had came half an hour before supper, we'll give you a tour of the place tomorrow and explain the situation to you. For now, Ariana will show you to your cabin and you'll head with them to dinner."
Ariana nodded and stood up from the table. "Come on, better get you guys situated sooner than later." She said with an urgent tone in her voice like she wanted to leave ASAP.
"Thank you, Mr. D and Chiron." She added before walking down the porch steps, the two following behind her. The house seemed to look bigger and bigger as they moved away from it, revealing it was actually four stories. As the three walked through the strawberries fields, a kid with shaggy legs played a tune on a reed pipe. Small horns seemed to be growing on the top of his head.
"A-ariana?! Why does h-he have-" Irene asked, pointing her shaky finger at the goat-boy
"Oh, he's a Satyr."
"Like, in the myths?"
"Blaa-ha-ha! A myth?! You think I'm a myth?!" Ariana said sharply.
"You're a Satyr?"
"Satyress; and yes, we're real."
"Oh. That explains a lot…" Irene muttered to herself.
"Come on. We've got a bit to go before we head to the cabins." Ariana said leading the way through the field. A Satyr wolf whistled her on his reed pipes as she walked past him. A furious blush immediately spread across her cheeks as she moved faster, pulling Samson and Irene along behind her by the wrists.
Irene and Samson didn't dare say a word about this incident to Ariana, knowing it would not end pretty. Along their way to the cabins, they passed a stable full of horse which seemed to have wings, an Armory where burly looking kids were making swords, and an arena where a guy with blond hair and a double bladed sword was tearing a dummy up.
As we got to the cabins, a bathhouse made out of cinder blocks gushed something out of it's toilets.
"What was that?" Irene asked.
"It's probably Percy, practicing his skills or something…" Ariana answered.
"Who's Percy?" Irene and Samson asked at the same time.
"Oh, you'll know him soon enough…" She said.
Samson looked at Irene and shrugged.
A cabin with a caduceus over its doorway stood before them.
"Cabin eleven. This will be your home, for now. Go on in and say 'Hi'" Ariana said to them.
She stepped aside so they could walk in. On the inside, boys and girls were tightly packed in the room. Sleeping bags outnumbered the amount of bunk beds there were, and not a lot of space was offered to the two. Neither of them would talk till Ariana prompted them with her fingers.
"Uh, I'm Samson." He said. He nudged Irene in her side gently with his elbow.
"Oh, um, hi. I'm Irene." She said looking up from her shoes. The faces of cabin eleven looked real smug. Most of them had mischievous smiles on their face.
One of the boys asked "Undetermined or regular?" Eager eyes looked at us, well, they might not of been eager to have us in their cabin.
"Undetermined." Ariana answered for them. A lot had groaned whereas some frowned at us. Ariana gently shoved us forwards saying "Alright. I'm sure that spot over there isn't taken. I'll see you guys at dinner. Bye!"
We had to walk over people and their sleeping bags to get to the empty space. We both sat down, crossed legged, and looked at the other campers.
"So…" Samson said. "What should we do before dinner?"
The kids thought about it before grinning mischievously at one another. "Volleyball." The oldest guy said from a corner of the cabin. "Let's do volleyball." Samson nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, alright." Everyone except the two immediately stood up, wicked grins plastered across their face. "Let's go!" They shouted as they pushed their way through the door. Samson stood up and offered his hand to Irene. Irene took his hand and got up with his help.
They followed after cabin eleven, Satyrs pausing their game to see where all the whooping and hollering is coming from. When they got to the sand court, the Satyrs stayed where they were at but some eleven kids moved over to their side. The sides looked even now, making it a fair game.
Irene looked back at all the kids who had their game face on, then looked back up at the Satyrs who were stretching their legs, twisting their ankle around in a circle. Somebody blew a whistle and a spiker jumped up and hit the ball hard. It flew across the court, going past someone who dived for it.
The campers who couldn't (or didn't want to) play stood in the sidelines, ooo-ing when the ball whizzed past. They gave a nice clapping which the spiker grinned cocksure. The other team retrieved the ball quickly and whizzed it right past his head, his grin faded.
The game continued, till a conch horn shell blew. The oldest guy, a tall sandy cropped hair body builder, yelled "Eleven, line up!".
Other cabins lined up outside as well, except for cabins three, two, and one. To get to the mess hall, they had to walk over the hill. Ariana joined with Samson and Irene from what seemed to be a meadow.
"So, how was your volleyball game?" She asked them.
"Oh, our cabin won." Irene replied.
"I had to stand on the sidelines. How'd you know we played volleyball?" Samson asked suspiciously.
"The Satyrs who were playing with you told me, silly." Ariana replied with a giggle.
The hall actually turned out to be a pavilion, with torches around its marble columns. The line of cabin eleven lead to a table that looked too small for that many people. Samson and Irene were left on the ends of the benches, trying to stay on them.
A centaur, who looked like the tweed jacket man earlier, pounded his hoof on the floor and raised a glass. "To the gods!"
Everybody else did the same as he. Nymphs that seemed to have wood for skin carried platters of food. The platters were passed around, and Irene loaded her plate with strawberries, cheese, bread, and briskets. She began to wonder what to fill her drinking glass with when the guy in front of her said "Tell it whatever you want. Go ahead, try."
She asked it curiously "Grape Fanta?" The glass began filling itself with dark purple liquid. She smiled excitedly as she nudged Samson to try as well. His glass filled with a clear liquid, with tiny bubbles in it.
"Sparkling water?" She asked him.
"No, Sprite. Ever had it?" He said. She shook her head no.
"Here, you can have the first sip, if you'd like." He said holding the glass out to her. She took the glass into her hands and took a tiny sip. She began snorting and coughing carbonation out of her nose shortly after it went down.
"Didn't like it much?" He asked.
"It's fine, but I just wasn't prepared for that." She said after gaining control of herself. They both chuckled and looked up to see the campers getting up and walking over toward a fire in the middle of the pavilion, plates in hand.
They followed after them, noticing how they scraped in portions of their meal into the fire. "Oh, it must be offerings." She said.
"To whom?" He asked.
She shrugged her shoulders. They both dumped in their rolls, not really knowing who to send their offerings to. As they returned to their seats, expectant eyes followed them. After swallowing, the oldest guy cleared his throat and said "We know your names, but you don't know ours. So, we'll go around the table. Say you're name, how or when you got here, and something about yourself." He pointed to the boy the right of him. "You, go."
Most of the campers stories were varied; they all weren't around the same age, they had gotten here in slightly similar ways, and they favored the God Hermes. When it was Irene's turn, she wasn't really sure what to say.
"Well, I'm Irene. Hmm, how I got here…." She thought of what to say, maybe giving the whole story instead of bits and pieces.
A/N: Sorry that this is so long, but I really couldn't cut it any other way! I had written this all ahead of time, without dividing it into chapters. If I had thought about that ahead of time, it may be shorter. Again, gomen! ๑•́ㅿ•̀๑) ᔆᵒʳʳᵞ