FYI, most likely it will take about a week for each chapter, because a) I procrastinate, b) I'm too lazy and c) I like to check my work three or four times (although a lot of mistakes still slip through). Although, reviews will help! :D

Another notice….this is after TLH (and the rest of the to-be series)!

And the story DOES have some spoilers for The Lost Hero. Just to let you know.

I suppose I must put a disclaimer. I DO NOT own Camp Half-Blood, Percy Jackson, Jason, Piper, Leo, Annabeth or Chiron. Or any of Rick Riordan's theme's, idea's or character's. I do, however, own the plot, Ella and Tanner.

-Calypso C.

A shadow that occupied the space where that…monster had, a few seconds before, stood, was oddly shaped. The bottom was a horse, but the top part formed a...man? I turned my head to the side. I blinked. Then blinked again.

What I was seeing couldn't have possibly been true. But it was. My social studies teacher was a horse! Of course, being me, I gargled something along the lines of, "But…Mr. Brakken, you're, but…big snake thing…arrow…centaur?" Almost positively making myself look like an idiot.

Then he- or it?- grabbed my hand, and tossed me onto his back. "Hold on!" He told me, and then my teacher started to galloped. At first it was normal, but then his foot falls got faster and faster, until it seemed that we were covering miles and miles with every step. The whole world was a blur.

Finally, we stopped. I peered around. There was a big blue house, and some cabins, all of them different, maybe twenty or so. One looked hotter than the sun, and another was surrounded by barbed wire and had red paint splashed all over the walls. To add to the decor, a boars head was mounted just above the doorway.

I also saw a climbing tower (but with lava, and it looked like it was shaking), a target area (that looked pretty normal), an open pavilion, and an arena. And a few other buildings that looked ancient Greek. I then turned to Mr. Brakken. I had almost forgotten he was half horse. "So, you're a centaur…?"

I know that sounded all, 'yeah, I can roll with the punches' but, inside…let's just say my senses were going overboard. "Yes. I'm Chiron. Sorry for impersonating you're teacher, but we had to…make sure you got to camp." Mr. Brak-, I mean, Chiron, said. He said it like there was something else he wanted to say, but didn't—or couldn't.

I frowned. "Is there something I'm missing? Like, WHY you're a centaur?"

Chiron sighed. Again, it was like he was keeping something a secret. That I wanted to know.

He sighed. Again again. "I'm going to put this bluntly. You're a demigod. This, is Camp Half Blood."

I stood there, stock still. Not daring to move, feeling as if I didn't move, it wouldn't be true. I mean, couldn't be true. It couldn't right? And yet, somehow, I guess I knew. That Chiron was for real, and wasn't playing a huge prank on an unsuspecting child.

"Sooooo, I'm half…god? Really? But how, I mean…" I trailed off. What was the most popular thing that the gods did in the myths? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Chiron nodded as if he understood what was going through my head. Then I thought for a moment. "You're not, THE Chiron, right? I mean, that's impossible, right?"

He shook his head, which looked a bit weird, with him being half horse and all.

"Oh." I decided to ask another question. "So who's my parent?"

"They will claim you. Percy Jackson, a demigod like yourself, made them promise to take better care of their kids and claim them by the time they were thirteen. Your mother should claim you soon." Chiron explained.

"They didn't before?"

"Ah, no. Gods can tend to be a bit, erm, forgetful, I should say. But they have held well to their promise. Now, let's see if Tanner can show you around camp." With that he galloped off and I followed, wondering who this 'Tanner' was.


As we jogged, or as in Chiron's case, trotted, I saw what I guess were the 'campers'. One was shouting at another, except not in English. I think it might have been Greek, or maybe Latin.

A few were shooting bows and arrows, and hitting a bulls eye every time, sometimes with more than one arrow. I thought that was weird, until we passed by the arena. I could make out two figures, a boy and a girl, sword fighting. I peered closer. No, the girl is fighting with a knife. But the boy attacking with a sword. They both seemed pretty darn good, like they had been doing this for years now. And I suspected they had.

Chiron stopped, and I wondered if the boy was Tanner. "Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, this is Ella. Do you happen to know where Tanner is?" A girl and a boy I hadn't noticed before were sitting at the edge of the arena.

The four kids walked up to me. Chiron introduced me. The girl with the knife was Annabeth, and she looked like she was in her early twenties. Her wavy blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her stormy gray eyes scanned me, as if trying to deduce my weaknesses. Which of I had plenty. Apparently, her mom was Athena. It made sense.

The boy who was good with the sword, was Percy Jackson, the one Chiron had told me about. He was fairly tall, with messy black hair and sea green eyes, but they were always changing like the sea. He too looked to be in his early twenties. His dad was Poseidon, not much surprise there.

The boy on the sidelines was Jason. He was strongly built, had fair hair in a buzz, and look to be maybe eighteen or nineteen. Oddly enough, he was introduced as a son of Jupiter, the roman name for Zeus. I made a mental note to ask Chiron about that later.

The last girl's name was Piper, and she was really pretty. Her mother was Aphrodite, but she looked pretty in a natural way. No make-up, hair in a hastily made ponytail, comfy old jeans and a tee, but it all worked for her. Like she wasn't trying, but she was still beautiful. She too was eighteen or nineteen. I hoped there were campers MY age.

After all the name and background information was given, Percy said Tanner had gone looking for Leo (another person I didn't know) in the bunker nine. He pointed the forest when he said that. Chiron thanked them and we headed off into the forest.

"So, Percy Jackson, he saved the world from the titan's? And Jason from Gaea?" I asked curiously.

"Not without help. Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Percy, Jason, Reyna, and Dakota helped defeat the giants. And the titan's all of the Greek and Roman demigods helped, even if they didn't know it."

"Wait? Roman and Greek?"

Chiron explained patiently. "The gods have different forms, one Greek, one Roman. Sometimes the mortals that fall in love with them fall in love with the Greek, not the Roman. And vice-versa. For the longest times the two sides fought, but a few years back, Hero or Juno, made a switch. She wiped Jason's and Percy's memories, and placed them at the opposite camp. To make peace. It was a risky plan, but it worked. They could only defeat Gaea if they worked together. Now the campers are mixed, some from both forms in each camp, otherwise another civil war might break out."

"So am I Greek or Roman?" I asked, as we passed into a denser part of the forest. The trees were growing so close together now, that sunlight couldn't pass through.

"We won't know until you're claimed." Chiron suddenly pulled out a bow and raised it. Before I could register what was happening, he let the arrow fly and a giant boar- like, the size of a car giant- melted into dust.

That brought me to another question. "Why do monsters turn into dust?"

"They don't have souls like demigods. Their 'essence' goes back to Tartarus and eventually reforms. So the same monsters keep coming back, and we need new half-bloods to fight them. "

"One last question for now." I told him, figuring I had asked enough to give him a headache.

"Shoot."

"Where are we going?"

Chiron stopped in front of a cliff, rock for mile high, and I don't know how many miles wide. "Here." When he knocked on the cliff face, I was beginning to think that he was going crazy, but then when the wall turned red. It creaked open to reveal a tall Latino demigod with unruly black hair. He grinned then extinguished the fire in his hands. Yeah, that's right. I said fire.

The shocked mush have showed on my face, because the kid said, "Hi. Name's Leo. Son of Hephaestus, can work fire. That pretty much covers it!" Leo had a grin on his face and seemed liked he liked a good laugh I just hoped it didn't involve pranking ME. He was around Jason's and Piper's age.

I shook his hand, which felt warm, and walked, in the bunker.

I think 'cavern' would be a better word. It was enormous. The ceiling was so high; I could barely make it out. Other tunnels and passageways lined the walls. Everywhere there were scattered pieces of projects, none of them looking finished. I turned around so as to take in it all, seeing what looked like plans for a war cloud, a prototype of some kind of robot thing, and a half-finished fryer. I tuned back in just in time to hear Chiron say, "—where he is?"

Leo replied, "Yeah, he's in tunnel B, section 436, looking at the new magical masts Nyssa drew designs for." Just as he finished, a boy, whom I assumed was Tanner, walked out of one of the tunnels and caught me looking bewildered and probably deranged. Great.

"Hey. Who's this?" Tanner asked Chiron. His voice had a soothing sound to it, yet also powerful and wild. A bit like the sea, I guess. I also noticed that he didn't ask ME, 'oh hi, my name's Tanner, what's yours?' Apparently, I wasn't good enough to tell him my OWN name.

Chiron's answer, which I liked, by the way, was, "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

Tanner shrugged, as if he didn't really care. "Okay." He turned to me. When he did, I saw that he had Percy Jackson's eyes. Startling sea green. Maybe they were brothers. "What's your name?"

I smirked. "What's yours?" I know I already knew his name, but two can play at that game. Two can play at the game, indeed.

Then he smirked, but it looked all smug, and superior, not like which mine, which was a 'oh yeah?' kind of smirk. "Alright then. My name is Tanner. Son of Poseidon, half brother of Percy Jackson, on the godly side of course." The last part came out bitter, as if people were always comparing him to Percy. I guess it can't be easy have a brother that helped save the world—twice.

I held out my hand, "I'm Ella Read." I didn't offer another explanation. I was going to make his ask for it. He shook my hand. His hand felt callused, like he gripped a sword a lot. I also felt warm, and slightly sweaty. I grinned an evil grin. I'm pretty sure he knew what I was smiling at, because a blush rose on his cheeks. "Nice to meet you." He muttered.

I turned away, ignoring him, on purpose of course, and questioned, "So, Chiron, what now?"

"I have to go teach an archer's class, so Tanner will take you from here. Oh and Leo, Jason and Piper are in the arena with Annabeth and Percy, if you want to join them." Then he trotted off.


Tanner and I walked out of the woods and into the sunlight, squinting. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I finally got a good look at Tanner.

He had dark brown hair that was messily arrange over his head. His eyes—like I said before—were sea green, a startling sea green. He was a few inches taller than me, and wasn't skinny, but definitely wasn't fat. In fact, it looked like he worked out a lot. Not that I would ever tell him.

Even on just the walk back, he acted like such a know-it-all. And, I had to ask some questions, I had a never ending supply of them. Oh, and I was right, he didn't like living in his brother's shadow.

I had asked him, "So Percy is your brother?"

He kicked the dirt with his foot and muttered darkly. "Yeah. He saved the world twice, has a great girlfriend, is amazing at sword fighting and can control water just fine. And everybody else expects me to be just like him, and are always comparing me to him. I hate it." I was surprised though, that he would tell me all that. Although, after that, all his answers were one worded. But the point was, I was right.

Anyways.

Tanner showed me the armory, where several big, buff kids were, well, forging armor. Then the lake, where some dryads waved at us, and the arts and craft's cabin, where a few pretty and prissy kids were cutting out decorations.

Finally, he started to talk again. "This is the weapon cabin. Come on inside, you'll need some armor and a weapon if you want to survive."

I hoped he was joking.

When we walked inside, I saw dozens of swords, daggers, guns and about any other instrument of death you could imagine. They were all normal except for one thing, they were all bronze. "Why are they all bronze?" I asked innocently.

An eye roll. "That's what kills monsters, mortal metal or steel won't hurt them. And celestial bronze won't hurt mortals. Half-bloods, however, can be harmed by both." Tanner stated dryly.

"Lucky us!" I joked. He cracked a smile. Tanner had a nice smile, lopsided, but cheerful; it made me want to smile too.

"Yeah, were so special, we get to be killed by monsters AND mortals! Yi-pee!" Tanner grinned. Then he pulled out a knife. "Hmmm, no. You're not really and knife person. Maybe…" He kept on musing to himself, trying to find me a weapon. "What about a dagger? No, that's shorter than a knife…hmmmm, a gun could work, but no….a sword?" He handed me one, and it felt okay, but not like I could, you know, defend myself with it. Tanner shook his head, and his brown hair literally went, swish. He took the sword back, and went back to muttering to himself. "Maybe a bow and arrow? No, no! That can't be right…what about—no that's stupid…maybe…" He trailed off. Again. Finally he handed be two blades, light but sharp. I liked the feel of them. Tanner said they were duel swords; you used both together, more as one blade then two. (Avatar lovers, that was to you! If you like Avatar, you'll know what I'm talking about!)

Tanner was looking at me strangely when I said, "I feel as if I could, you know, actually use them to defend myself with these."

I was just about to ask what was wrong when he commanded, "Put them flat together."

To my surprise, they fused together until they were—wait for it— a piece of duck tape. I know, weird, but let me explain. The piece of duck tape, bright blue by the way, had a piece of Velcro on it, so I could turn it into a bracelet. I put it on, then took it off, and it changed back into the duel swords.

Tanner grimaced. "My brother Percy has a sword like that, except it's a balled point pen."

Curious, I asked, "What weapon do you use?"

Tanner smiled again. His moods were like a tornado, I swear. "Come on, I'll show you."