A.N: These following chapters came out a little later than I wished due to the technical difficulites. Sorry about that. On the bright side, it gave me time to reveiw these chapters and improve them. Thank you beloved reviewers for-you know- reviewing. Futures readers, please follow their wonderful example. On with the story!

Percy P.o.V

I never thought that war could ever sound boring. That was until I met Antony Hancock. He's an athletic guy in his early twenties with blond, curly hair, tan skin, and a weird tattoo that looked like a bar code with an owl and a couple of Latin words. He has these startlingly grey eyes that seemed so familiar. He is also really strict and probably never smiled for once in his life. If he catches you dozing off while he's giving lessons, he'll pull out a wooden paddle that he likes to call the "board of education". Not a lot of places would let a teacher do that to a student

I'm at Camp Half-blood which is basically a boot camp for demigods, the children of the Roman gods. It's not that different from a normal camp. For example, the obstacle course has hanging axe pendulums, pits full of crocodiles, flame throwers, and rooms that shoot arrows. Everyone here has to get a tattoo like Antony's and wear camo pants with a white shirt that says "Camp Half-blood", including me. Cadets also practice sword fighting in an arena that's a replica of the Roman Coliseum. Everyone would be paired up and you would keep fighting your partner until one of you cries mercy. Some of these kids are pretty stubborn; you could chop off their arms and they would insist to continue fighting. I think that happened once. Besides that, Camp Half-blood is your typical boot camp. The only reason I am here is because I'm the son of Poseidon.

Right now, I am listening to Antony drone on about battle strategy in a grassy open field with a few other kids around my age. He's the son of Athena, by the way. I had the overwhelming urge to run off and leave Antony in the dust, but that would just give him another excuse to use his stupid paddle on me. I thought I might end up dying from boredom when I saw Tami Yoshida running towards the class. She is a 15 year old Japanese girl with dark brown hair and eyes. She's only 5 foot tall, but she can still manage to look down at you. She's the daughter of Hypnos. If you think a daughter of the god of sleep can't be tough or frightening, you're in for a surprise.

"Salve Antonio, Lupa wants to see Perseus Jackson", Tami said to Antony.

"Very well, you are dismissed, Jackson." Thank the gods.

I happily walked off with Tami, but then I started wondering what Lupa (the alpha wolf of Camp Half-blood) would want with me. Hopefully, she didn't decide to eat me today. We passed through the archery range, the obstacle course, the mess hall, and the Coliseum. Finally, we reached a small grove and there sat a huge grey wolf and a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes who is the same age as Tami. That's Reyna, the daughter of Apollo. When she and Tami found me in San Francisco, they both hated me on sight. Reyna still does, but at least Tami can somewhat tolerate me.

I knelt down in front of Lupa. "Rise. Do you know why I summoned you here, Perseus?"

"No."

"Mercury has just arrived with a message from your father."

"You mean Poseidon"

"We have been through this before. You refer to your father as Neptune", she said sternly. I don't get why Lupa always insists on me calling the gods and monsters by the Roman names. Does it really matter that much? "He has offered you a quest. Do you accept?"

"Aren't you going to tell me what it is first?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so", Lupa replied as if that answered everything. As unfair as this was, my curiosity took over.

"I accept."

"Good. For quests, you are permitted two companions. You already have two volunteers."

"Really, who," I asked. I couldn't think of anyone in camp who would be willing to go on a quest with me. Everyone here thinks that I'm too hard to control and that my rebellious behavior would get me killed someday.

"Us, you idiot", Tami said as if it was so obvious and gestured at herself and Reyna. Reyna just glared at me for a second and didn't say anything.

"Ok," I said and felt shocked. I definitely didn't expect them to want to tag along with me.

"So it is settled. Tami and Reyna, I need you two to prepare for the quest." They bowed and left the grove, leaving me alone with Lupa. "Perseus, the oracle of Delphi has foretold…" and she told me the prophesy. After hearing it, I nearly wanted to take back what I said. The gods couldn't have given me something easier for my first quest like slaying Medusa or stealing the apples of Hesperides?

Reyna P.o.V

"I can't believe you made me go on that quest", I yelled at Tami who was all giddy and excited.

"Well, you have to come with me. Would you really abandon me in my time of need?" I couldn't believe Tami would play the guilt card on me. She's not usually the drama queen.

"Why do you want to go so badly?"

"Are you kidding me? I've been stuck here for 3 years and never left unless it was on a quest. I want to see the world, Reyna. There has to be more to life than just this," Tami replied and pointed at the marble arch in the front of the camp with "Camp Half-blood" painted proudly on it. I will never understand Tami. Why would she want to leave to safety of camp and stop her training to go out into the cruel world where monsters are waiting in ambush? "And Jason must be out there somewhere. If we want to find him, we have to look," Tami added. It felt like Tami slapped me across the face when she said his name. Besides Tami, Jason was my closest friend. He was kind, caring, and brave. I even hoped that we could be more than friends ever since I saw him lead the camp to victory in the Battle of Ortyrs. When I finally got the nerve to tell him that, he disappeared. Tami saw my sad expression and said, "Don't worry we will find him."

"We've been looking for him for months and he's nowhere to be found," I said and kicked a rock.

"If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it is yours," Tami said with a smirk.

"That's the cheesiest saying I've ever heard," I retort and punch her on the arm.

"It's true though. I might always try to leave this camp, but I am always running back." Tami can be pretty eccentric sometimes and she hates being "confined" in camp. She's always getting the fauns to sell her newspapers so she can keep up with current events, Iris-messaging her parents, and sneaking out of camp without Lupa's permission. Still, Tami loves learning to fight and being with people just like her, so I can see why she would say that.

We reached the stables. "I can't believe Lupa is letting us pick our ride for this quest," I said.

"I'm not. Don't you know where we're going?"

"No, do you?"

"I heard Mercury and Lupa talking-"

"You were eavesdropping!"

"That's not the point, ok. Anyways, they were talking about some trouble in Japan and Perseus is supposed to stop it. I read that there were crazy things going on in Japan like earthquakes and tsunamis. All of the airports are down so we can't take a plane there."

"We could've hitched a ride with my dad. His palace is there."

"Really?"

"Yeah, why do you think people call Japan 'the Land of the Rising Sun'?"

We both went into the stables and hauled out a wooden chariot that was big enough for 3 people and was already packed with supplies for this quest. Lupa left us with 20 aureus, $50, a small zip-loc bag full of ambrosia, a vial of nectar, our clothes, a jug of water, a map, and bags of chips. She even packed my lyre, bow, arrows, and Tami's gladius (a double edged sword)Lupa is being unusually generous, so this quest must be unusually hard. I picked a white, sweet-tempered pegasus named Nutberry and Tami picked a wild and rebellious black pegasus named Skullcrusher who she calls "Skullie". Perseus came and suddenly all of the pegasi crowded around him, even Skullie. I felt a little jealous. I've been here for 5 years and the pegasi never treated me that way.

He stroked Skullie and mumbled to her, "You remind me of someone." Now he remembers something about his old life instead of when I was asking him a barrage of questions. Wait-what did he mean that Skullie reminded him of someone?

"Ready, Perseus," Tami asked.

"Call me Percy," he replied.