After dinner, Terra told me she'd show me to the barracks.
"By the way, you've taken this whole thing very calmly," she told me.
"Well, freaking out isn't going to help me get my memory back," I told her. She laughed.
"I mean the gods existing," she replied.
"Oh," I replied. I wasn't sure of how I should respond. I kept having the feeling I already knew all this, but I was pretty sure I'd seem even weirder if I said that, especially seeing as most of the members of the camp already disliked me.
"Anyway, here's where you'll be staying," she declared, gesturing to a barrack. "Mercury's barrack, home for people of undetermined heritage. Though I don't know why you wouldn't have been claimed yet…" I swore I'd been through this before.
"So who's your parent?" I asked instead, dreading going into the barrack. She waved her hand, and the grass suddenly grew about a foot. "Demeter." She raised her eyebrow.
"Ceres," she corrected. "Well, I'm in her cabin anyway."
"But you control plants, you've got to be child of De…Ceres," I assured her.
"I know," Terra replied. "It's just that I never seem to have anything in common with my siblings."
"At least you have siblings," I blurted. Terra looked over at me.
"Just because you haven't been claimed doesn't mean…"
"That's not what I meant. I have the feeling I don't have siblings," I said. Terra looked at me uncertainly.
"TERRA ARE YOU OUT THERE?" demanded a voice. Immediately Terra jumped to her feet.
"Who's that?"
"Hazel, she's in the first legion, head of my barrack…" Terra trailed off. "I'll see you tomorrow!" I watched her sprint off before steeling myself and walking into my own barrack. I was met by a dozen or so burly kids. The biggest of them smiled at me slightly.
"Hey newbie," he said. I smiled back, hoping that they weren't planning to attack me. "You get over there." I looked over at my own little patch of floor, equipped with a blanket and all. I felt a sense of déjà vu.
"Looks pretty good," I said, smiling as I walked over. For some unknown reason, I was extremely tired. The guys looked at me in confusion, apparently not understanding my sarcasm.
"Did you really take on Gwendolyn and Dom?" asked one of them, walking over and plopping down on the nearby bunk.
"Yeah," I replied.
"How?" demanded another. I looked around at their faces. I appeared to have the undivided attention of the children of Mercury for the minute.
"Well, Dom attacked first, then I pushed him back long enough to kick Gwendolyn out of the way," I started to explain. They continued to stare at me.
"But they're first legion!" exclaimed a girl.
"How do the legions work anyway?" I asked, and my new barrack mates began to explain.
-)(-
The next day was training. I'd thought it would be horrible, but I kept having these impressions that I'd done everything before. A few of my trainers got angry with me for doing things "wrong." I'm not sure what their problem was, I was just doing what came naturally. They always seemed to look at Lupa when I did anything well. I had the feeling they knew something, or at least suspected it. After lunch, as we prepared for archery, I managed to talk to Terra.
"Hey, do you think there's something going on with the trainers and Lupa?" I asked. Terra looked at me.
"What do you mean?"
"Whenever I do something well, they give each other this weird look," I explained.
"You do things strangely Percy," Terra admitted. "You have been trained before this, I'm not sure how, but you have been." I nodded.
"I remember things," I agreed. "I don't remember much, but I've got these…instincts for fighting." She nodded. One of my barrack mates nudged me, and we all quit talking before out instructor came over. She was around our age, unlike the other trainers, who were mainly adults. She quickly instructed us to pick up our bows and start shooting. I quickly discovered one thing: I was horrible at archery.
Fortunately, I was in legion twelve, the legion of the new and the horrible fighters. So honestly, I wasn't that much worse than the rest. However, I'd barely shot five arrows when the instructor was at my ear.
"What is that, boy?" she snarled. I rolled my eyes, smiling slightly.
"You know we're about the same age, right?" She looked at me as though I was speaking another language.
"Such shooting will not be tolerated. Keep your elbow straighter and your legs even," she ordered.
"Yes ma'am," I said, proceeding to fire off a worse shot than my last five. She glowered at me.
"Are you being insolent?" she snarled. "Do you know who I am?"
"Well, I don't know who I am, so how would I…" The rest of the legion looked at me as though I had sprouted another head. I guess they didn't have much of a sense of humor.
"I am Reyna, daughter of Apollo, and you do not want to cross me," she snarled.
"I'm not trying to cross you…" I tried to explain. Reyna didn't seem to accept that.
"You will run around the field for the rest of the hour," she told me.
"Okay," I said, turning and running away. Hey, anything beats archery.
-)(-
"Remind me what we're doing?" I asked for what must have been the twentieth time. Terra turned to me, rolling her eyes.
"Tace!" she snapped. I recognized the Latin, having heard it all week, but I still wasn't exactly sure what it meant. "I mean shut up."
"Seriously, why are we marching through the woods?" I complained. It's not that I really minded, but everything we were doing at this camp just seemed wrong. It was all just way to serious. What's wrong with a little fun?
"Lupa told us to," Terra replied. I'm pretty sure she was the only one at this camp who could stand me, at least openly. My barrack mates were pretty friendly in the barrack.
"Well why…"
"Will you just shut up?"
"Sorry." I frowned and continued to trudge after Terra. After a few minutes, she stopped and looked around, as though worried someone was following us.
"Listen, Percy," she whispered. "You're about to be tested. If you pass, you can stay at camp, but if not…"
"I'm guessing they'll kill me." Terra nodded grimly.
"You don't have to do this, you could just get out of here," she suggested. I shook my head. I had to do this. I wasn't sure why, but something told me that I was here for a reason. And I don't think I backed down from fights. "Well, be careful."
"I will," I replied. She smiled tensely, and led me out of the woods. In front of us was a large house, battle scarred. But something was wrong. One of Lupa's guards was lying on the ground in front of the house, bleeding, and yelping noises were coming from inside. "Is this the test?"
"No," Terra said, running to the fallen guard with me. She bent down and summoned some plants, wrapping them around the injured leg. I glanced down at her, and she nodded, so I kept running into the house. There was Lupa, standing across from a wolf-man. The wolf-man was accompanied by twenty or so large wolves, some of which were fighting Lupa's remaining guards, while most were surrounding Lupa.
"Stay back, hero," Lupa's voice growled in my head. "You cannot let them touch you." Just then, one of the wolves lunged at Lupa from behind. Lupa fought back, but another wolf lunged at her while she was occupied. So I uncapped my pen and threw my sword through its head. I don't think I'd ever been any good at following orders.
This served to get their attention, though failed to do much to them. Apparently, my sword didn't work on these guys.
"So you were testing one of your 'heroes'," the wolf-guy scoffed. "Perhaps you'd like our help." Two wolves lunged at me. My brain shut off. I ducked under one, grabbing the other's snout and throwing it aside. The first scratched at my arm, but I didn't feel anything, and turned and bashed its skull as hard as I could. Then a third wolf tackled me from behind, and I rolled through the courtyard. The wolf opened its mouth, apparently intending to bite my head off. I got a sudden sense of déjà vu and images flashed through my mind. Hellhound, stream, trident over my head, pretty blond girl…
Then the wolf was seized by vines, and thrown backwards off me. The wolf melted into a puddle of shadow as I scrambled to my feet. Terra ran out from behind it, tossing me a silver dinner knife. I didn't have time to ask questions, since another wolf lunged. I rolled, stabbing its neck with my new weapon. It melted into shadow.
Kitchen knives: 2, swords: 0. The wolves were slightly more hesitant in their attacks now, but I kept up, swirling and ducking and diving. Finally one managed to get through and knocked me backwards, making me drop my knife. As I fell, I noticed a pool of water. I wasn't sure why, but the sight made me relax a little. I just thought that I needed to get the wolf off me, and there was a tug in my gut, and a wave splashed over the wolf, sending it flying backwards.
"How?" wolf-man asked, now standing behind severally diminished ranks, looking around wearily. Then his expression became angry. "You'll pay for this." He started forward, but a knife sprung from his left shoulder. He clutched his wound and fell backwards. His wolves caught him and ran away.
I got to my feet. I was tired, but there wasn't a scratch on me. I picked up my knife and walked over to where Terra was tending another of the guards.
"Leave them," Lupa commanded. "If they were wounded by the wolves, they are already lost."
"Not if I treated them with the right herbs fast enough," Terra replied, finishing wrapping the guard's leg in leaves.
"You have become quite the healer," Lupa noted.
"Yes," Terra replied, not looking up at her. Lupa turned to me.
"A son of Neptune? Who are you, pup?" she demanded. I hoped her use of pup was a good thing.
"Perseus Jackson," I replied, not sure of how I recovered the memory. Lupa nodded and led us back out of the woods. There were the rest of the campers. My barrack mates gave me a small thumbs up like "good job surviving!" Pretty much everyone else seemed indifferent, except for Dom who was scowling and Reyna who looked surprised.
"Hail Perseus Jackson, son of Neptune," Lupa declared. Déjà vu gripped me again as the campers gave me a respectful bow.
