A/N: The main character Zoie, her name is a real spelling of Zoe and Zoey. Please read A/N at the end. – Daina Solo
Griffins
"Zoie. Zoie, can you please tell us the answer?" Zoie Kianna Csepel's head snapped up. She had fallen asleep, probably wondering for the millionth time that hour what was the point of keeping kids with dyslexia and ADHD in school? Zoie was surprised she had fallen asleep at all. She could hear everything going on in the class, Mark behind her was blowing his nose twenty-four seven because of 'allergy season'. A few rows ahead, Sandra was whispering into her sleeve, hiding her phone. Frank a few rows right of her was coughing up loogies into Hannah's hair and pulling on her long braids.
"Zoie! In this century please?" Miss Granger asked again. Zoie focused on the whiteboard. It was blank, and then she looked around. Everyone had out their Social studies books. Through her dyslexia Zoie could half-way tell they were learning of gods and goddess but she couldn't tell which.
"Can you please repeat the question?" She asked, Miss Granger sighed and said,
"Could you please name all twelve Olympian gods and goddesses? And their godly parents as well and one myth they are known for." Zoie started to sweat. She didn't know much about the gods but she tried all she could.
"Zeus, mother was Ra and father was Kronos. He often would turn into animals to hide the fact that he was cheating on his wife… uh… Persephone? Then Apollo and Artemis, godly twins. Apollo killed the python at age three and their mother was Leto goddess of being unseen and father was… um… Zeus. Hera… Hera was Zeus's sister, her father and mother same as Zeus and she was the goddess of marriage. She was married to… Hades. Demeter was Zeus's sister as well and was goddess of…. Spring. Her daughter was captured by Poseidon which caused winter to happen? I'm sorry Miss Granger, I can't remember anymore myths. " Miss Granger sighed,
"Well you got the twins down. Zeus's mother was Rhea. He was married to his sister, Hera. Demeter was the goddess of Harvest her daughter Persephone was goddess of spring and Hades captured her. Okay everyone because Zoie proved this class never pays attention you all have to do page forty-four till page fifty-six tonight in essay form." Zoie groaned she had seen it coming. Being a child with both ADHD and dyslexia she couldn't retain anything from class because everyone was else was all she heard. She couldn't read at all and everything was blurry. Her father had wanted her to get glasses but the doctor said not to because Zoie could see crystal clear just not words or anything having to do with reading. The bell rang and as they left the class chatted on and on waiting for the bus. Zoie sighed as she grabbed her backpack. The bus didn't go to her area because she lived so far out in the country areas of Uwharrie.
"Get a life, their ain't no more Bambi's in your area." One kid yelled at her, Zoie just kept walking. A tall tenth grader pushed his way through the crowd. He was tall and lean and looked like a bean pole.
"You aren't gonna ask why?" a smile spread on her face,
"No because I got way more important things than you trying to tell me you can shot a bow and arrow better than me or my daddy. Heck, you guys are so full of yourselves you'll be saying you can hunt better than Artemis one day." Zoie scoffed; proud she retained some knowledge from class. Bean pole dude laughed,
"You think you're so big with words-"
"Its different man-eater I know I'm big with words 'cause you're a tiny mushroom bug." Zoie laughed and started to walk home. She was at least part way home or so she thought when the sound of tin cans rattling passed by her ears. Alarmed Zoie turned around.
"Don't kill me! My names Demitri, I moved in the hotel down the corner from you." A short curly blond haired boy said. He had big brown eyes with flashes of blue. As Zoie started walking again she noticed that Demitri limped a little.
"I'm Zoie. I live in the forest green house over there. My father's a zoologist and currently he's searching for the super old myth called the Silver Doe."Demitri laughed,
"Okay then. I moved in with a foster family." Zoie made a 'oh' of surprise. They walking in silence until Zoie came to the fork that would either lead her home around a bend of houses and hotels that were broken and filled with cockroaches or lead her down the way into ' weeping willow creek' which is an nickname for where some old lady died walking her dog one day someone murdered her.
"I'm going this way. I guess I will see you tomorrow." Demitri nodded,
"Yea, I just visited today tomorrows my first day." Zoie smiled and left her way and Demitri left his. As Zoie reached the green painted house, something didn't feel right. The sky got suddenly darker and the wind picked up. A loud screech sounded above Zoie as her father ran out of the house. He wore a cameo vest, brown shirt brown pants and had a picture frame in his hand. The frame was silver with a name carved into it.
"Zoie, run!" He shouted gripping the frame. Zoie looked up as a golden blob came flying at her. Claws came slashing at her and the mad beating of brown and gold tipped wings deafening her. Looking at her father Zoie ran. Zoie's father ran inside the house and came out with a bow and arrow with the tips painted silver and gold. The thing screeched him and came crashing down on him.
"Zoie, go find the new kid down the street. Demitri!" he wheezed out, the thing was clawing at his neck and Zoie watched as it cut into his veins,
"I'm sorry. Arty…" Zoie picked up a bit of her father's last words and watched in frozen stillness as the thing crushed her father's prized bow and arrow. It turned and screeched at her when Zoie realized, the thing was what looked to be a griffin. She set off and started to run to the hotel two blocks away, pausing briefly to see a picture in the silver frame smashed. A young girl about twenty smiling with her father, she had milky forest colored eyes just like Zoie's eyes. Tears leaked down Zoie's face as she realized her father had been lying to her about never having any pictures or anything of her mother. That girl was her mother and Zoie could tell. Zoie picked up speed and raced far down the street but Demitri was already running to her.
"Zoie, where's your father?" he asked, Zoie sighed,
"He's dead!" she screamed of the Griffin's loud wing beats. The winded picked up even more and lightning flashed against the gray sky. Demitri kicked off his shoes, and Zoie saw hooves.
"Please, those are fake are they not?" Demitri laughed,
"Nope. Welcome to the real world Zoe!" Rain started to pour and the Griffin cried out. Zoie picked up a rock and threw it at the thing. It shrieked in pain and flew off. Demitri started to cough,
"Zoie, we need to leave." Zoie raised an eyebrow,
"Oh, yah like I didn't know that." In a few minutes Zoie and Demitri were cold wet and walking into town. They had started to talk,
"Zoie, I have goat legs too. I'm a satyr. These are real hooves. That was a griffin that attacked and killed your father and you a demi-god." Zoie raised her hands,
"Whoa, wait I understand the satyr thing, I guess. But now, demi-god? As in?" Demitri sat on a cold bench and motioned for Zoie to. Zoie sat down and sighed,
"Zoie, your part god. Your blood is part godly. As in the Greek gods." Zoie straightened up alarmed,
"You mean as in, Zeus, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Mercury and Venus and them?" Demitri nodded,
"Mercury and Venus are Roman for Hermes and Aphrodite but yes." Zoie shrugged,
"I was never good at school." Demitri nodded,
"You have ADHD and Dyslexia?" Zoie nodded,
"Yup, what does that have to do with anything though? I mean other than the fact I'm so stupid my IQ of a peanut wonders off a million times per day." Demitri smiled,
"All demi-gods have it. ADHD helps you in battle and you're not able to read any other language other than Greek." Zoie clicked the piece together,
"Oh, so whose my-"Demitri sighed,
'We don't know. You're going to go with me to a camp in New York. Camp Half-blood. It's a camp where demi-gods live or just stay the summer. You will be an all-timer unless family can take you in." Zoie got up,
"No family loves me. I have no clue about my mother's family. Of course probably that is my godly part. My mother must be a goddess." Demitri looked alarmed,
"Okay, Zoie. Let's not make assumptions because, well when you know your parent monsters find you like they find a cell phone call. Come on," He grabbed her hand and they ran near town. Zoie asking,
"What does this have to do with cell phone calls?"
As they reached town and neared a taxicab that read,
'The grey sisters' cab' Demitri reached into his back-pack that Zoie found was filled with tin cans and apples and a square of something that was gold. He grabbed out a few coins that looked like gold Girl Scout cookies and had a god on the side.
"Drachmas." He said knocking on the door. Three old ladies sat up front and were gray and just old and leathery. What scared Zoie was the one in the driver's seat had a wet gooey and wiggling eyeball in her hand. The other two were sightless with no eyes. Zoie tapped Demitri's shoulder,
"I'm not so sure about-" Demitri cut her off,
"Trust me, Camp half-blood. The grey sisters are the Fates." Zoie glared at Demitri,
"Oh so as a new half-blood I must allow three old ladies driving with one eye and driving a car made of smoke to a camp in New York? Are you crazy?" The lady or the fate in the driver's seat said,
"Just get in the car, now." Demitri nodded,
"You heard her. Get in now. Or I'll let that Griffin come back once it stops raining and kill you as well." Zoie glared at him and got in. It was a rather slow car ride until the sun let up and the golden blob dived down again. As they reached The New York border, Demitri jumped out and screamed,
"Griffin!" Zoie followed him, and realized she had no weapon; it would be safer in the car. She started to get back in when Demitri screamed at her,
"What in Hades are you doing Zoie; get out here and over the hill! Get over the hill! Run!" Demitri was holding a pair of reed pipes and trying to use them. Zoie scrambled out of the car and to the hill and the screamed at Demitri as the cab left,
"Your are crazy. Reed pipes! Demitri, dang-nabit, please tell me that is a sword in disguise!" Demitri turned and smiled at her,
"Nope." He said cheerfully as if he had you know killed millions of griffins. Zoie turned and started to run back up the hill. She could see three other kids at the fence at the top near a tree. The griffin screeched and Zoie turned, only to see Demitri on the ground lying there. Zoie didn't have time to go down and check but she was fairly certain he had died. In a flash of dust Demitri was gone Zoie could half-way see a small shrub at the spot he died. Zoie started to run again but this time the monster was in front of her. Zoie couldn't move. Her eyes flicked around there were no rocks in sight to throw at the beast and she didn't have anything to kill it. The griffin screeched and raised a claw to attack her, Zoie dodged. The beast did it over and over all missing. Zoie reached into her pockets to find anything. All she found was a paperclip that was sharp and bent. Zoie looked up to see the griffin's claws extended and coming down. Zoie dodged but it was too late. As she moved the claws struck her cheek. Three long gashes oozed out blood. Zoie heard the campers up on the other side talking,
"Ailis, go get a bow. Chester watch her, I'm telling Chiron." The griffin screeched and Zoie ran as fast as she could to the fence, before she got there the griffin picked her up.
"Help! Don't stand there!" Zoie yelled at the campers. A girl about the same age as her with dirty blond hair and blue gray eyes came rushing up near the boy who had black hair. The girl, Ailis held a bow and arrow in her hands and readied it. The griffin squeezed its claws around Zoie tight wanting to squeeze her to death. Zoie heard the sound of an arrow flay past her at hit the griffin right in its heart. But two more just in case flew at Zoie. Zoie swerved as much as she could and the griffin released its hold on her. Zoie went flying to the ground and landed with a loud Smack on the hard ground. The sky had become ominously dark again and lightning flashed. Chester, Zoie guessed, came running down the hill after the griffin had been decapitated to dust by the arrows.
"Whoa there, you all right?" he asked Zoie. Zoie blinked, his eyes were dark blue with flashes of light blue making lightning bolts it was as if his eyes reflected the sky.
"I guess." Ailis run down and numbly touched Zoie's cheek. A stinging sensation erupted in the wounds and Zoie smacked her hand away.
"What the-" She was cut off,
"What's your name?" She asked. Zoie gritted her teeth,
"Zoie. What's yours?" Chester grimaced,
"Well, Zoie, I'm Chester this is Ailis. Do you know where we are?" Zoie sighed,
"Camp half-blood. Demitri the satyr you know him? Well he died. He told me all." Ailis smiled,
"Then can you get up?" Zoie sighed again,
"Let me try." Zoie tried and was a little shaky but Chester and Ailis told her it was from blood loss. They walked up the rest of the hill and saw another kid coming. He was older than them. He was about nineteen and had black hair and sea green eyes. He wore an orange camp half-blood tee-shirt.
"Ailis, Chester. You killed the griffin?" He asked, they nodded,
"This is Zoie. Zoie this is Percy. Here he is a legend you'll hear his story a quite a bit here." Zoie muttered to herself,
"Oh, joy, a legend. And what do you know, it a boy. Do girl campers have respect here?" Percy smiled,
"Ah, Zoie. Nice to meet you Chiron is waiting." Chester and Ailis walked Zoie to what they called 'the Big House' Zoie got a feeling Chiron wasn't nice. Ailis knocked on the door,
"Chiron, come on. We got the new camper!" The door opened and Zoie couldn't believe it but then she had to remember there was a lot about the last two days that she could believe either. Chiron was a big white stallion, with the torso and head of a human man.
"Ah, come in. Hello, I'm Chiron." He said as they walked into the 'Big House'. Ailis stepped forward,
"Chiron, this is Zoie. Percy told you there was a griffin attacking the new camper. Well it was attacking her." Chiron nodded,
"Ah, yes. Zoie welcome to camp half-blood." Zoie nodded,
"Nice to meet you. So this is all true right? That was a griffin?" A man in a leopard skin jogging suit with curly black hair and a ruddy complexion came over; he had been looking through the fridge.
"Yes, yes, yes. All true you're a demi-god. Your half-god this is a training camp. There are cabins for all gods and goddesses, even the major minor ones as well. Heck, even Artemis has a cabin. Only for when her little brats come over." He said, Zoie shuffled back a bit,
"Watch who you're calling brats Mr. D-" Percy said from the doorway. Mr. D sighed,
"Oh yah I wouldn't want Thalia to electrify me with her lightning and kill me with arrows. Percy I'm immortal!" Chester laughed,
"Back to the point, Zoie. One day you're going to be claimed by a god or goddess. How old are you?" He asked, Zoie shrugged,
"I'm twelve but on January second I'll be thirteen."Ailis blew out her breath like she was holding it in,
"Then you're going to be claimed real soon. Percy made all the gods make an oath to claim kids on the thirteenth birth day or when they are thirteen." Chiron smiled,
"Ailis go take her to your cabin. Chester, Percy thank you." Zoie turned to Ailis,
"What cabin are you in?" she asked as they walked out into the camp. Zoie looked up and found that camp was as dry as a desert but still cool. It was perfect no rain or clouds.
"Unknown. I'm not claimed yet. Everyone says I'll be a Hermes kid but, I don't know." As they passed a training session Zoie stopped,
"Two things, one why is it sunny and outside its stormy and two has anyone died from a training incident?"Ailis laughed,
"Well, Camp half-blood is kinda blessed you would say. It is always the same weather. No monsters can get inside borders unless someone lets them in, like Chiron for training. Or capture the flag. And for number two nope. We wear armor and no one tries to kill you. Well maybe the Ares kids if they have it out for you." Zoie gulped and they started walking over to the cabins. The cabins were new looking. There was a brown gold one that looked overfilled. Ailis and Zoie looked into it as they passed the windows, Zoie could tell there wasn't enough bunks.
"Is that the unclaimed cabin?" she asked. Ailis shook her head,
"Nope. Hermes cabin. Hermes, Apollo and Aphrodite are the most filled cabins here. Artemis is empty, and it will be for a long time. The hunters don't visit has only Percy. Percy had his half-brother Tyson in there but Tyson works with his father now. Athena is rather full. It has about eleven to fifteen kids. Zeus only has one as well, Chester. Hades has two, Nico and someone else. Demeter has-" Zoie cut her off,
"Thanks, for telling me but no one here has the intention span to listen forever sorry." They walked around and then Ailis stopped in front of a big white cabin. In Greek it said,
"Unclaimed Cabin." Zoie gasped as she read it,
"Whoa, I can read now." Ailis smiled,
"It's in Greek that's why." She opened the door. There was a few other kids in there. A boy with brown hair and green eyes on his bunk. His bunk was covered in plants. There was a girl putting on lipstick looking at a carry mirror and a few others here and there. Ailis sat on a bunk that Zoie guessed was hers and said,
"Take a bunk. On the whiteboard put your name. It's not very crowed nowadays in here, but Mr. D and Chiron want us to." Zoie walked over to one of the empty bunks and sat on it. It was a nice bunk near the window. No one was next to her and Zoie didn't mind. She looked around. There was a rack of swords and weapons on the far wall near the door. There was two bathrooms one for boys and one for girls.
"So what's your name?" Zoie looked up, it was plant boy. Zoie grabbed the white board and wrote her name on it. It was rather scribble-like but Zoie didn't care,
"Zoie Kianna Csepel." She said, he smiled,
"I'm Carter. Nice to meet you. So did any monsters attack you on the way up?" Zoie nodded,
"Griffin." Carter nodded,
"Did you kill it?" he asked like a five year old wanted another story before bed.
"I did." Ailis said from her bunk where she was writing something on a scroll. Zoie glared at her,
"Show off." Ailis stuck her tongue out.
"Baby." Zoie's fists clenched, she got up and tackled Ailis, just for fun not meaning any real injury. The loud rap on the door broke the two apart. Percy came in,
"Time for dinner. Zoie, you're going to be introduced. Did Chester or Ailis take you to the infirmary for your cuts?" Ailis gasped,
"Uh, no." Zoie growled out. Percy nodded,
"I'll take you everyone else, dinner now." As they walked over Zoie asked Percy,
"So, glory boy, what did you do?" Percy turned his head around,
"Nothing much. I found a missing lightning bolt. Saved a camper that had been trapped in the form of a tree for about five years. Killed a Cyclops, saved the goddess of the moon and hunt along with my best friend Annabeth, from holding up the sky on their shoulders because Atlas had escaped. Found Daedalus and a clear sighted moral who is now the oracle and then helped the gods kill Typhon and kill Kronos for the seconded time and save an old friend Luke. Nothing much like I said." Zoie rolled her eyes,
"Great so what I did Is nothing." Percy cocked an eyebrow,
"Sorry, to hurt your feelings Zoie you did do nothing. Ailis killed the griffin." Zoie groaned,
"Rhetorical question. I think anyway. So this is it?" She said pointing to the medical cabin. Percy nodded,
"There's an Apollo camper in there, I'll see at dinner. Well from a distance at least." Zoie knocked on the door and a boy of about nineteen as well opened the door. He had light brown hair and amber eyes.
"Hey, you're a new camper right?" Zoie shrugged,
"That's me, new Zoie." The guy smiled and led her in,
"All new campers are the same, I'm Kyle. I'm an Apollo camper. Now let's see. Ah, griffin attack huh." Zoie sat on one of the beds and let Kyle do his thing; he pushed a square of something into Zoie's hands.
"Ambrosia. Food of the gods can help heal wounds. Too much can make a demi-god burn up. Literally." Zoie glared at the piece of food like it was a demon,
"Um, okay." Kyle dipped his head,
"Go on, eat it." Zoie bit into the square as the warm taste of pizza filled her body.
"That better?" Kyle asked, Zoie nodded,
"Yah." Zoie got up and they hiked to the dining area. Zoie found the unclaimed table sat next to Ailis.
"Campers, Campers! Come one be quiet. Ah, now we have a new camper. Her name is Zoie. Zoie are you here?" Zoie got up and walked to Chiron. Zoie looked off at the sky. It was a full moon that night and the stars shone.
"Welcome!" Most of the campers cheered with a few satyrs as well. Zoie walked back to the table and looked off at the tables. She wondered just who her mother was.
A/N: hey guys did you enjoy that? Chapter 1.
A few things though:
1; this is after TLO
2: Zoie is a real spelling of Zoe and Zoey.
3: I chose the griffin because I didn't see any other FF stories that had the griffin in it and it is in fact Greek. Percy didn't fight one and he fought almost all monsters from Greek mythology but the griffin.
4: Demitri means: Of Demeter so thought it fit a Satyr well.
5: I was going to have Zoie run to CHB but she lives in North Carolina.
6: I have messages planned for you Flamers. Please say something nice or tell me the mistakes as nice as you can because you guys already canceled two of my other fics. (One changed areas) You won't take this one.
7: Chapter 2 soon.