Don't expect daily updates. I don't even do that for my main story and that's my precious child. But while I have a holiday I will do my best to update semi-regularly.
Chapter 2
Nick
It was quite suddenly the pressure of the hand and spider leg disappeared from Nick, the hooks still grabbed painfully at his skin but he could just about feel them retracting as his arm started going numb. Nick honestly thought he had died. Something poked his side and he cracked open an eye. Jenny was poking him with her boot. A bit further away the other girl was wiping an iron sword against a patch of moss. Experimentally he twitched his limbs, her arm still wouldn't move but the rest of it was fine.
"Is loser child still alive?" the girl with the sword half sneered.
"Mostly." Jenny said crouching down for a closer look. She grimaced a bit at the sight of his arm, ripping his sleeve away to see it properly. "Or not" she mumbled, Nick wondered if she meant for him to hear that. It was not a good thing to hear.
"Is it that bad?" Nick asked trying to look at it. Jenny pushed him down and reached into her bag and took out a ziplock bag of green plant matter. "Is that weed?"
Jenny sighed, as if she could get weed through airport security. It hadn't even been noticed though. She nicked her finger with the misshapen paperclip and picked out a sprig of the green plant and smeared her blood over it.
"Great mother Hecate, bless this Echinacea with your power as it is done," Jenny muttered. The plant flashed and the blood was absorbed. She placed it over Nick's bleeding arm where black fluid, poison from the arachne, started being absorbed. The feeling slowly returned to Nick's arm.
The second blood started being absorbed Jenny pulled the plant of and burnt it with another prayer to Hecate, thanking the goddess. Naturally Nick was confused, he had just been healed by a plant his new friend carried around. The other girl carried a sword. There had been a spider thing trying to kill him.
None of this had ever happened in England.
Eve
It felt good to be holding her sword again. Seeing blood on it from her kill just made her happier. She slid the sword from the arachne's back and watched it crumple, turning into dust as it fell. There was a nice clean patch of moss nearby, as much as she liked seeing evidence of her kill it wasn't good for the sword to be left dirty.
A glance over to the boy got her wondering if he was dead, he hadn't moved. The girl was kicking him a bit to see and eventually declared him alive. She ignored what the girl was doing, instead she finished pulling off bits of spider web from herself.
When she had been trapped in the web she'd tried to pull herself free, the web had been too strong and too sticky, it seemed to be growing to restrain herself more. But then it blood from a cut dribbled onto a tendril of web and it turned black, rapidly decaying until it disintegrated.
Seeing that she had her goal was to get as much of her blood on the web to make more of it fall away. It was a good thing the boy had been there as a distraction. She had finally pulled free, feeling a lot stronger, and drew her sword from the holdall by her feet. Still letting the boy be a distraction, she ran at the arachne and plunged her sword into its back, relishing the way it cut through the monster.
She looked back over to the duo, the boy was sitting up now, his arm was still covered in blood but there was none of the black stuff that had been there. On the forest floor by the boy was her spoil of war, a fragment of the spiders hard shell was all that remained of the arachne. She picked it up, the others accepting that it was hers by right.
"Coming losers?" Eve said, trying to make it sound less like an insult than it was.
Jenny
It felt better walking as part of a trio. The balance felt right. Jenny was glad the girl had joined, Nick didn't seem like much of a fighter and she felt a bit drained after the healing. She hadn't intended on doing that, but she knew poison when she saw it. The black spreading in Nicks veins had made her decision for her.
She wasn't sure why she had called upon Hecate, Apollo was the god of medicine, but she had somehow known she would get the help she needed from Hecate. She pushed it form her mind as they continued their journey. She made it her goal to get to their destination without having to use something for support.
Eve
A rustling up a head made Eve pull her sword from the straps on her bag. She didn't want to be surprised again. She felt hyper alert as the noise got closer. The other two had dropped back a bit, she wasn't sure if that was to give her space or if they just didn't want to be the first target.
A boy stepped towards them, not from where the noise had been coming from and so startling the small group. Eve held her sword up in a starting position. The newcomer wasn't wielding any weapon but an iron sword, similar to Eve's own, was at his hip ready. His dark eyes held no intent to harm. His gaze swept over the group with a knowing look. His eyes stopped at Eve's sword and a flicker of confusion crossed his face.
"Looking for camp?" the guy asked. The girl next to Eve nodded. "I hope you don't expect fanfares or even a vaguely warm welcome."
Well that was at least a nice gesture. Warning them they were unlikely to make friends or be at all liked.
"I'll take you as far as the camp boundaries," the guy offered. Eve looked suspiciously at the guy, he could be leading them into a trap, but something was telling her to trust him and that lovely gut feeling had never failed her yet. "Keep your sword out," he warned.
Nick
Nick had no idea why they were actually following this guy. Both girls had agreed and he didn't want to be left behind. He ran a hand through hair, trying to keep his nerves down. His arm felt weird still, Jenny had said it would take a while to fully recover. He could feel the tiny scabs from the hooks, it looked like someone had thrown a metal chestnut at him.
To try to distract himself he studies the guy they were apparently trusting. He looked the same age as the rest of the group, so barely a teenager. His hair was black and messy and his pale skin held a hint of olive. His clothes seemed to be decades out of fashion.
Had this been any other situation Nick would have wondered why a kid that young was wandering around a forest with at least one homicidal creature roaming it. But considering he was with two girls of the same age and half the group had swords it was not as bad. As he looked, his vision went fuzzy again, Jenny was back in her Greek style armour, matching what the other girls overlay seemed to be. The new guy just had a black aura. Through the trees was a bright glow, almost blinding. He wondered if that was the destination. He shook his head to clear out the fuzz, it would give him a headache if it stayed on too long and the glow was hurting his eyes.
It wasn't long before the guy they were following stopped. Nick was grateful, he just wanted to find a place to nap and for a while just pretend nothing weird had happened.
"This is where I leave you. Chiron will find you soon enough." With that said the boy melted into the shadows. Nick was sure the kid had actually disappeared, not just hidden in the plentiful shadows.
In a rare moment of impulsivity Nick marched through the two girls and into the camp. The world shifted before his eyes and a camp appeared before his eyes. Wooden cabin were in a cluster to one side at the bottom of the small valley, what looked like a training area was just opposite, and in the middle was a larger cabin with a fire nearby.
Eve
"I was expecting tents and stuff, like proper camp, not this pansy stuff. This is a summer holiday place, not camp." Eve grumbled as they trekked down the hill towards the fire, there were people around it so that was probably the best place to head.
"You'd think with that monster out there they would have someone guarding this place" the boy mused to her side.
"Maybe its magical dumbass." Eve countered. The boy looked like he was about to respond but stopped, probably remembering how he had been healed.
Nick
Up ahead a figure left the fire and approached them. Nick figured he must be hallucinating when he saw four horse legs. He mentally scolded himself, after the day's events he should approach things with an open mind.
"I am Chiron, you must be new campers. Welcome, join us by the fire." The three children followed him. At the fire they had everyone's attention. "We have three new demigods to welcome to camp. Until they are claimed they will be staying in the blank cabin with the others, please make them feel welcome." Chiron turned to them, "I believe introductions should be made?"
"I am Eve Knight," sword girl declared, stepping forward. Immediatly the campers started murmuring. Nick could pick out a few words. One stuck out clear as day. 'Limey'. This didn't seem to sit well with sword girl Eve and the camper who had said it found himself with her sword at his throat. Another set of muttering spread through the campers, 'Ares' getting mentioned a lot.
"Please remove your sword, campers aren't allowed weapons outside the training area or quests." Chiron informed her, pushing the sword away from the camper. Nick groaned, weapons meant training with them, and that meant effort and dedication and less sleeping.
"Please teach your campers better manners," Eve muttered. Nick wondered what the reception would be like for the rest of them. It seemed he would find out when Chiron motioned to him.
"Nick Hurst." He hoped because he wasn't saying much his accent would be less noticeable. No such luck. These kids love to talk among themselves. They couldn't even wait until they had finished introducing themselves.
Jenny
After observing the other two introduce themselves Jenny realised the guy in the forest had known what he was talking about. On the upside she was used to being the weird one.
"I'm Jenny Lancaster." She said, nervously pushing her glasses back up her nose from where they had slipped. The feeling of eyes on her was not new, especially one that thought she was a freak. At least the others she was with were likely to be seen as the same. She felt bad about liking the fact she wasn't alone in her outcast status.
The trio sat by the fire, slightly separate from the others, not feeling too comfortable with the others. The whole experience was unpleasant for the kids. It was such a relief when Chiron suggested everyone head to bed. Nick had practically cheered.
They had followed a ten year old girl, introduced to them as Jess, to a plain cabin. There were already people inside, all of them were young not even teenagers. They Jenny and Eve were shown to the girls dormitory while Nick was shown to the boys.
"I know you probably feel, at the very least, contempt for me," Jenny started as she and Eve dumped their stuff on beds at the end of the dorm. "But for the moment can we be friends? Until we find our feet here at least." She almost regretted asking when Eve seemed to ignore her.
"I guess." Eve grumbled, Jenny wondered if she felt like an outsider as much as she and probably Nick did. From the fact Eve had refused to give up sword, much to Chiron's displeasure, she got the idea they would be stuck as weird to the rest of the camp.
"Uh, cool." Jenny smiled at Eve. She hoped this friendship would last.
End Chapter 2
Their godly parents will be introduced next chapter, unless you've guessed them already.
Limey is a term, sometimes meant offensively, for British people.