This is my second fanfiction! So please excuse it if it seams kind of slow in the beginning. Anyway, a lot of the characters are originally made by me, such as Shiloh, Harley, and Levi. Please let me know what you think of the story. It's the first one in a series, so if you get my drift, the next story will be the Sea of Monsters from Shiloh's POV. You can also find additional information about this series at the bottom of my profile page.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Chapter One- Unwanted
My father is a lawyer who has no time for his family. My mother is an Olympian goddess who doesn't feel the necessity to claim her daughter. Where does that leave me? Stuck in the Hermes cabin at Camp Half-Blood feeling lonely and unwanted. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my father, and my mother… well I don't hate her. I just feel a little sad when I think about the fact that she doesn't want me. Now, if you look at some of the other unclaimed demigods in this cramped cabin, they are the ones with the major resentment and hate. Like my best friend Ethan Nakamura, he, well, is not happy with his position at all. When I first came to this camp at ten years old, we had an instant connection that led up to our friendship. It's like he's one of the people I can trust not to lie to me or to leave me if that's what everyone else is doing… Oh, my name, I totally forgot to mention it! I'm Shiloh Lawson, which I think is kind of funny 'cause my dad is a lawyer… anyway, I'm ADHD, but not dyslexic like most demigods. I'm thirteen, so I've been at this camp for three years now. I guess you could say I'm on good standings with my mother, whoever she is, or at least I was, until that Percy guy got claimed a week ago… I'll start at the beginning of two weeks ago, two days before he showed up.
"Annabeth seems to be acting really anxious this week, like she can tell something is going to happen." I said to Ethan as we sat on the deck of the lake, watching campers do various activities.
"Who cares about her?" He said as he threw a rock harshly into the lake. "She's a stuck-up, stupid, know-it-all, claimed daughter of Athena. I try my best not to pay any attention to her."
"C'mon Ethan, don't be mean… she's just lucky."
"Yeah, whatever. But she does think she's sooo awesome and a perfect demigod just because she's been here longer than just about anybody. And it's not like I'm gonna look up to her, she's two years younger than me and a year younger than you! She doesn't deserve our respect." He scowled.
I decided this was a bad subject to keep going on about with Ethan, so I racked my brain for something to change the subject to. "Um, so…" I looked at him, but he was still staring at the water. Then I looked at the cloudy grey sky and I thought, what the Hades, when you don't know what to talk about, bring up the weather! "It looks like the weather has been bad for days; it's usually sunny this time of year." I smiled at him.
He was quiet for a few moments, and then concluded "It has been ever since the winter solstice… it leads me to wonder if something is up with the Olympians—"
"And why we haven't been told yet." I finished. We just sat there in silence thinking to ourselves until the conch horn blew for dinner.
After a meal of Greek olive pizza, I started down the path to the camp fire when I saw a familiar horse-man. "Chiron!" I shouted and ran toward him. He had been gone for the past year on some field problems that must've been really important—important enough for Chiron to leave. I gave him a hug and he looked down at me.
"How have you been, Shiloh? Has camp been running smooth without me?"
"I guess so, but you should probably go talk to Mr. D about—"
"What did he do?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Um, well, er… he kind of turned Bobby into a squirrel… again. And that's just one thing he did."
"Ah, so I've heard. I will go talk some things out with the director after the campfire tonight." He chuckled. "Well, I am going to go greet other campers." He said as he started to trot away.
A lump formed in my throat. "Chiron," I called after him. He turned around and I walked towards him.
"Yes child?" he said.
"Well, there's something that's worrying me…" I glanced up at the sky.
"Something will always worry every person, even when there isn't a care in our minds." He said, but I could tell something that was worth worrying about was on his mind too. The way his tail flicked about nervously made me worry even more.
"Well, the sky hasn't cleared up since the winter solstice and Annabeth has been acting weird lately and I just don't know what's going on and Ethan and I are getting suspicious that something might be wrong up in Olympus and we just don't like not knowing anything." I said all with one breathe and pleading eyes, hoping that Chiron would give me a hint of anything.
But he just sighed and said "Ethan is a troubled child, Shiloh, and both of you are unclaimed… that of course would give you questions about where you belong. What I'm trying to say is that because you two have questions on what you're parentage is, it would be natural that you both are more prone to wonder about certain things and have more questions than others." He sounded sincere, but I could tell that he was trying not to answer my other questions.
I turned away trying to hold back a mix of emotion. Anger, fear, sadness… I know he didn't mean to make me remember that I have no clue as to who my mother is, which makes me different. Unclaimed. Unwanted. I brushed the spiked bangs of my short bobbed black hair out of my eyes. I need answers, I thought. I will ask him what's going on, and I will not back down.
"Chiron, I need to know—" I started as I turned around, but Chiron was gone. These problems must be bigger than I thought… so big, Chiron's not aloud speak of them.
The next day was nearly the same as every day. I got up to find silly string and gum—not new gum, but chewed gum—completely tangled in my hair. Then, of course, I went and attempted to beat up the Stoll brothers. Ugh, I really hate those two. After my little dispute, Luke helped me get the stuff out of my hair. There's something about him… I'm not sure. Maybe a dark side? But it confuses me: he's been claimed, yet he has so much hate for his father and I don't know why. I would be so thankful if my mother claimed me… I guess we just have different perspectives.
After breakfast, the Hermes cabin headed down to the arena for sword fighting practice. I took out my beautiful double-edged celestial bronze sword, Isorropías, which means balance. I'm not sure why I picked the blade, but I felt like it was calling to me when I saw it. Anyway, when I was teamed up to fight Connor Stoll, oh, I went to town. I may not be very good with my fists, but with my sword, I'm descent, small to say the least.
Later in the day during free time I was walking along with Ethan and our other friends, Harley and Levi, twin unclaimed campers. They both have freckled faces, super curly ginger hair, and they're both the same height. If they were the same gender, the only thing that would set them apart would be their eyes. Harley has pretty blue ribbon colored eyes and Levi's are deep forest green. Their personalities are pretty much the same, and they're main goal is to win at everything. But then again, that's easy for them—they're pretty much all-arounds—they're good at everything. The only thing that really sets them back is being unclaimed. It's a serious drag for them, so all of us unclaimed are real tightly knit with each other.
I guess you could say the unclaimed are just like any other cabin, except we share one with the Hermes kids. We act as one family, we stick together, and it seems as if we all share the same parent… the Unknown.
Anyway, we were walking past Zeus's, Hera's, and Poseidon's cabins. We stopped and stared in reverential awe. Although we never paid much attention to them, we all had one thing on our minds: trouble at Olympus. We all thought these cabins might hold some answers—perhaps superstition—we sure why, but we did.
"Should we, er, approach?" Levi asked Ethan.
"I'm not sure. These are sacred cabins; we could be burned to ash just by stepping into them." He responded.
"You've got to be kidding me." Harley looked at him. "You believe that old legend?" she chuckled.
Ethan gave her a solemn look and turned back to the cabins. "I'm not sure, but our very existence should be a legend if it was up to the mortals."
We all nodded agreement. In our little group of four Ethan is the leader. He's the oldest, but only by a year. I'm the youngest, but only by a few months behind the twins. We all treat each other equally, but we think of Ethan as the one who binds us together. He doesn't want to believe that and he claims if even one of us were claimed our group could fall apart; it's because we share being unclaimed that makes us strong. Sometimes though, I try to ignore his annoying philosophical answers.
We were just staring at the three majestic cabins when we heard someone behind us say "What do you guys think you're doing?"
It took me off guard a little and my natural instinct was to whirl around and punch, but my fist was caught in a skilled hand. I was face to face with Annabeth, who had mud smeared on her face.
"Oh, Annabeth, I didn't realize it was you." I breathed relieved.
"What do you think you're doing? Are you spying on us? You don't have to butt into everyone's business like this all the time!" Ethan lashed out. "And let go of Shiloh's wrist! What were you planning on doing, throwing her on the ground and beating her up?"
This took Annabeth back a little and she let go of my fist.
"Ethan, it's okay, just calm down." I said, but he was still in a defensive position.
"Um, Chiron sent me to find you guys because you weren't at archery. I didn't mean intrude on anything you guys were planning." She said in a meek, yet defensive voice.
"Yeah right," Ethan retorted. "And you jump to conclusions that we're planning something devious, like we're the bad kids from broken families and you're the perfect angel from the perfect people!"
That moment Ethan crossed the line. Harley and Levi mumble "Uh oh," and you could just see the steam building.
Annabeth got right in front of Ethan, got on her tip toes, pointed her finger at him, opened her mouth and—nothing came out. Then she did the last thing I expected. She straightened, took a step back, and calmly said "You do not know what kind of family I come from. I know you have resentment for claimed campers, but you need to suck it up and get to archery. Chiron is waiting." And with that, she jogged away with her blonde ponytail bouncing on her shoulders.
"Way to go, Ethan." Levi said after Annabeth was out of sight.
"Good riddance." Was all Ethan had to say as we headed for the archery range.
Ethan didn't talk much and we didn't talk much to him for the rest of the day. Right before curfew, Annabeth was called to the Big House because Chiron needed to talk to her. Harley wanted to eavesdrop and find out what they were talking about, but Levi and I decided it wasn't a good idea. And besides our mishap with Annabeth, the day went smoothly, until that night.
Now, I know that demigods are supposed to have weird dreams relating to mythological stuff, but the last one I had was before I left home and ran away to camp. In that dream I swear I saw my mother. I have a faint memory of what she looked like, beautiful yet deadly, like a viper. Nowadays the only weird dreams I have are tacos dancing with satyrs and dryads, or weird stuff like that. But this dream terrified me.
"Come, little unclaimed hero," I heard a cold voice say. I was standing at the edge of a pit and a giant hand made out of shadow emerged. I couldn't walk, run, scream—nothing. All I could do was watch as the hand came near me. It laughed coldly and seemed to tear my heart right out of my chest.
"Remorse, hatred, betrayal—I see none of it in you." The evil voice echoed.
"That's because I don't feel any of that." I tried to say bravely, but it just came out in shaky gasps.
"You will soon," It laughed again. "You have no friends, no one you can trust; only lying, thieving traitors that will try to destroy you! You are not accepted, come to me and you will be made loved. You will have a real family."
"No, I have friends, people do accept me—"
"No!" It yelled in a brain rattling voice. Then it seemed to take on a slyer, softer voice. "Not even your own mother wants you. Face it, Shiloh Lawson, you are unwanted. The gods are not you're advocates; they do not care about your worthless soul. Come to me, and I will make you worth something."
"No, I will never come. You're a monster! I don't know who you are, but I will not come!" I yelled.
I heard him roar in anger and then there was an ear shattering clap of thunder and a bright bolt of lightning. I shot up in my cot on the cabin floor in a cold sweat. I looked outside and the thunder and lightning seemed to be right over head, but there was no rain thanks to the camp's magical boundaries.
"Just a dream, just a dream." I told myself quietly. I lied back down and closed my eyes, but I couldn't get one phrase the voice in the pit said out of my head:
"You are unwanted."
A/N: Thanks for reading, and reviews are greatly appreciated!