A/N: Another chapter! This one is a bit longer, and feature some of our favorites. I've always struggled with characterization but I think I did fairly well on this chapter, I hope you find them all in character, if not I'd LOVE some pointers. If you haven't read the changes I've made to the first chapter yet, please do! I'll try to have the third chapter up next weekend.
Chapter 2: One Big Happy Family
I wake the next morning half expecting for it all to vanish with the light of dawn. Keeping my eyes shut, I roll over and feel the edge of the bunk I crawled into late last night. Opening my eyes, I'm greeted by the sight of the rising sun filtering in through the large glass window in the eastern wall of the Eos Cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Smiling, I roll out of bed and force my feet into a pair of sneakers, making my way over to the mirror. Glancing at my reflection, I make a half-hearted attempt to straighten my black curls, wiping away mascara smudged under my eyes.
Jason and I arrived late the previous night. I hadn't gotten a good look at the camp that night; he just led me straight up to a big house at the top of a hill. Chiron, the camps centaur training-master was awake and waiting for us, along with a red-headed girl called Rachel. I still can't wrap my brain around the idea that he's a centaur. Chiron said that Rachel had warned him we would be arriving, how she knew I'm still not sure, Jason showed me to the Eos cabin and then went off to find his own cabin, promising to show me around in the morning.
There are two other campers in my cabin, they were still asleep when I came in, but one stirs now. Turning around, I watch as a boy, looking to be about 16 or 17 wakes, stretching and blinks at me. He yells a warning to the younger girl, looking to be about 11, in the bunk above him and within seconds they're awake, knives drawn.
"Um, good morning." I greet them hesitantly, unsure of how to explain my situation to them.
"Who're you?" The boy asks, still wary.
"Melanie Graham, They brought me here last night. I'm a daughter of Eos." I explain, wishing I had something to defend myself with, just in case they don't believe me.
He sighs, "Of course, of course. A monster couldn't get past the wards." He smiles warmly, tossing his knife back onto the bed and coming forward to greet me, shaking my hand, "I'm Stefan, son of Eos, this is Elizabeth." He hooks his thumb over his shoulder to the girl, who glares at me before turning to crawl back up on top of her bunk. "Have you been claimed yet?" He asks, opening the door as he talks to let the light in before straightening his bunk and throwing my back pack from where I dropped it on the floor last night into a trunk at the foot of the bunk I slept in.
"Claimed? Um, no, I don't think so. I mean, my Dad just told Jason who my mom was. Does that count?" I ask, hesitant.
"Naw, not really. The gods are supposed to officially claim you after you arrive at camp, Mom's usually pretty quick about it, so it'll probably happen at Dinner tonight. Just to be official, ya know?" He explains, glancing under his bed and pulling out a pair of socks. "I could show you around if you wanted?" He offers, turning the covers up on his bed before turning to do the same to mine.
"No thanks, the guy that brought me here, Jason, said he would." I hurry forward to help him, tucking the sheets in beneath my pillow and opening a window.
"Allright then, be back here around eleven will ya? That's when we practice with swords today, and we should get you all set up." He instructs, pulling on a pair of sneakers.
"Swords?" I ask in a small voice.
Elizabeth sits up in her bunk, her straight black hair tangled around her face, "Who're we with today?"
"The Big Three." Stefan replies, and Elizabeth groans.
"The Big Three?" I ask, Jason mentioned them last night.
"Yeah, the kids of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. They're technically in three different cabins, but they practice together most of the time. They usually practice with Athena, so it must be our lucky day."
Elizabeth groans again, and Stefan smiles at her, "Liz is just mad because we're going to get our butts kicked, she's not a big fan of loosing."
I can sympathize with the kid, "How do you know you'll lose?"
Stefan shoots me a broad smile, "Oh, you'll see."
I frown at him, but our conversation is cut off by a rap at the door, I open it to reveal Jason. He bows and steps aside, waving me out, "Ready for your tour my lady? Your kingdom awaits."
I snort at his dramatic greeting, lace up my sneakers, and follow him outside. The camp looks much different in the light than it did late at night. There aren't many campers awake yet, the rising sun glinting off of the cabins. It all seems so peaceful, I'm awestruck as Jason leads me up the hill near the big house, turning, I realize we can see the whole of the camp layout from our vantage point.
"This is the big house behind us, Chiron, Mr.D and Rachel stay there." He jerks his thumb towards the house.
"Mr. D?" I ask, wondering who else works at the camp.
"Yeah, the god Dionysus, he's the camp director. God of wine and madness, he was cursed by Zeus to be camp director for going after an off-limits nymph."
"And what's Rachel's claim to fame?"
"She's the Oracle of Delphi. See's the future, makes prophecies for anyone wanting to go on a quest."
I nod, glad I paid attention when we did the mythology unit in history class, I recognize most of the names.
"Over that way is the stables and the combat practice arena, straight west is the ocean and if you walk to your left you'll find the woods. We'll play capture the flag there tonight, I'm sure your brother will get you armor and a sword before then?"
"For capture the flag? Why would I need armor?" I ask, thinking of the game we used to play in PE class.
"You haven't played it the way we play it, Rachel's picking teams tonight, so you never know what crazy combination she'll come up with. Last week it was the goddess cabins versus the god cabins, the last game of last summer the hunters were visiting, so she had Thalia and the hunters with Hades and half the cabins against Poseidon, Athena and the remaining cabins." He smiles at the memory.
I open my moth to respond, but nothing comes out, my stomach does a nervous flop and I decide not to dwell too much on the idea of capture-the-flag.
"This," Jason continues, gesturing to the half circle of cabins sprawled below us, "Is camp half-blood. The inner circle there are the big twelve, well, thirteen now that Hades has a cabin. Those were the original cabins for the original twelve Olympians. Last summer Percy requested that the children of the minor gods be recognized too, so the outer circle of cabins is for the minor gods, there's a lot of them, so many cabins are still under construction."
"What did he do to get that kind of wish?"
"Last summer we were attacked by the titan Kronos, there was a prophecy that one of the children of the big three would turn 16, and make some huge choice to save mount Olympus from destruction. Percy made the right choice and saved the world, so the gods gave him a wish. This is it."
His face is closed, serious, while he explains this, so I figure it's still a touchy subject and don't push further. "Where did the children of the minor gods go before?"
"Some didn't even come to camp half-blood, they never knew that they were demigods. Those that did wound up in the Hermes cabin. Dad's the god of travelers, so unclaimed demigods wind up there. There aren't many that go unclaimed these days though, so our numbers have decreased a bit."
He starts down the hill again, towards the inner ring of cabins. In the center is a large fire pit, we pass that to stand before four cabins standing at the far north, side by side. "This is the Poseidon cabin," Jason's voice is lower now, I can tell he doesn't want to wake sleeping campers in the cabins, "That's Zeus's cabin, next is Hera's cabin. She doesn't have any demigod children, being the goddess of marriage she wouldn't cheat on her husband, it's sort of an honorary thing. Next is Hades, that one's newer." The cabin he refers to is low and stout, like an army bunker, made of shining black stone. The symbol of a skull hangs over the door, and I notice that there aren't any windows. The whole thing looks really creepy.
Turning, he points to the other cabins, "That's Ares, Apollo, Hephaestus and Hermes, the major goddess cabin's are here on the other side, Demeter, Athena, Artemis and Aphrodite. And of course Dionysus on the end." I turn, surveying the thirteen main cabins, "Artemis took a vow to remain a virgin," He gestured to the gleaming silver cabin, "So no kids there. The Hunters stay there when Thalia brings them by, although that doesn't happen often. Last time she and Percy got in a fight, so she might not be around this summer."
"What happened?" I can't help but be curious, "And who are Percy and Thalia?"
"Thalia, daughter of Zeus who now serves as the lieutenant for the immortal hunters of Artemis. Percy is the son of Poseidon, he's saved the world once and the camp quite a few times. You'll meet him later. They argued, she electrocuted him, he doused her in water and Chiron decided they should give each other some breathing room."
"Does that happen often? The kids of the big three getting in fights I mean."
"Percy and Thalia don't fight often, but when they do watch out. Nico and Percy never fight, but Nico and Thalia are always arguing, over the littlest things. Amelia, that's Zeus's youngest daughter, doesn't fight with Percy or Nico, she follows them around like a shadow. And she avoids Thalia like the plague, so no arguments there. If you're looking for arguments it's the Ares cabin you have to watch out for. This way, I'll show you the cabins for the minor gods." He leads me to the second ring of cabins, gesturing as we walk along. "This is Aeolus, the god of the winds, Deimos, the god of terror, Hebe, goddess of youth, Hecate, goddess of magic, Hestia, goddess of hearth and home. She's an eternal virgin also, so no kids there, but Percy wanted her to have an honorary cabin and Annabeth, Olympus's architect and daughter of Athena, is always happy to design another cabin. That's the Iris cabin, Janus the god of doorways, Morpheus god of dreams, Melione the goddess of ghosts, Nemesis the goddess of balance and revenge and Phobos, the god of fear. And of course, the Eos cabin. Eos used to have a brother and a sister, Selene and Helius, the goddess of the moon and the god of the sun, but somehow they faded away and Apollo and Artemis got their jobs."
I gaze around at the cabins, all so diverse. From the Hecate cabin, shimmering and inscribed with symbols, to the Melione cabin, half a pale white and half a deep black. The Aeolus cabin, hung with wind chimes and Hestia's cabin, looking like a warm, cozy, family home.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes for just a moment, enjoying the sounds of the silent camp. When I open my eyes again, I half expect to be back in my room at home. Instead, it's just Jason and I, back in front of the door to the Eos cabin, he's staring at me like I've lost my marbles.
"That's everything, it's about breakfast time so you'd better check in with your cabin mates." He rocks back on his heels, glancing towards the Hermes cabin in time to witness and explosion, smoke billowing out the windows.
There's a scream of "JASON!" from within the cabin, and other campers begin to poke their heads out of their cabins. Jason bows in my direction and takes off at a run towards the smoking Hermes cabin. I smile at the sight, and head back inside the cabin. I could get used to this place.
Inside, Stefan is trying to convince Elizabeth to get out of bed. For a daughter of the goddess of dawn, she doesn't seem to get up very early.
"Ready for breakfast?" Stefan asks, dragging Elizabeth out of bed by her ankles. She groans, twisting over and standing up, shoving her feet in a pair of ballet flats.
"Yes." We answer at the same time, she glowers at me.
As we make our way up to the large open sided plaza where meals are served, Stefan leans over to whisper, "She'll be much more cheerful this afternoon." Somehow I doubt that.
Around us, campers are slowly trickling out of their cabins, Out of the minor gods cabin's in two's and three's but there seem to be a dozen campers in each of the major cabins. We pass the four head cabins and are joined by a tall, dark haired, green eyed boy from the Poseidon cabin, a redhead from Zeus's cabin looking to be about seven or eight, and a boy from Hades cabin wearing an Aviator's jacket a few sizes too big and a grumpy look on his face.
"Morning," The guy from Poseidon, who must be Percy, greets us. The little girl from Zeus's cabin grabs his hand and peers around him, eyeing me suspiciously. "I'm Percy, this is Amelia and Nico"
"Morning" My breath catches in my throat, after all Jason's told me, I'm a little star struck by the older guy. He looks too normal to have saved the world several times. I smooth my hair behind my ears, hoping no one notices. We make our way up to the dining hall, which is more like an open air pavilion. Everyone splits up into tables, most to the ten tables in the middle, Percy, Amelia and Nico go to their tables and the children of the minor gods scatter to their tables. I glance around, noting that while there are ten, sometimes eleven kids at the ten tables in the center, there's only two or three at each of the minor god's tables, sometimes none at all.
Stefan follows my glance. "Oh, the ten in the middle represent the cabins Jason showed ya this morning, they have more kids because the kids of the major gods are powerful and need to come to camp half blood. Some of the children of the minor gods might not even know who they are yet, so they can live safely in the mortal realm. And then of course there's the big three, they just dissolved their pact last summer, so they haven't exactly had time to have a bunch a kids. Well, except Zeus, who had Amelia and then hid her away from the war until it was safe to help her to camp half-blood."
I turn my gaze to the little girl, amazed that someone so small can be the offspring of a god so powerful. Her eyes are a stormy blue, her hair brilliant red, curling chaoticly around her head. She looks lonely at the big table, occasionally shooting a glance at either Percy or Nico.
Our plates fill with waffles and eggs, I move to dig in but Elizabeth narrows her eyes. "Oh, do we say grace or something?" I whisper to Stefan.
He just snorts and rises, leading the way to a fire in the center of the pavilion, tended by a little girl in a brown dress. The other campers scrape off the best bit of their meal into the flames, offering it to whichever god their parent is. I frown, it seems silly to me to burn the best bit of your meal, you'd think all burning food would smell the same, but I flick the crispiest waffle into the fire anyways. "For Eos." I mutter under my breath, following Stefan and Elizabeth back to my table.
That afternoon we had combat practice with Percy, Amelia and Nico. Stefan and Percy grab swords, Stefan from a sheath at his side, Percy clicks a pen and it elongates in his hand. Elizabeth scowls at Nico, who returns the favor and they head off to spar with their own swords, a little too enthusiastically. A part of my ADHD brain wonders what happened between them, but most of me is focusing on Amelia in front of me, turning a little bronze knife over in her hand, smiling at me.
"Have you ever fought with a weapon before?"
"Um…no?" I respond, a bit offended, should I have?
She bounces over to the wall behind me, grabbing a little knife off of the wall and handing it to me. "I'll show you how to use this, you should probably learn to fight with a sword, but I'm to little to use one of those."
I mentally resolve to go easy on the kid, but it's not necessary. She bests me twice, the third time letting me win out of pity. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Stefan get his sword thrown clear across the arena by Percy, who insists that Stefan really is very good with a sword, their hardly a fair match. Stefan still seems a bit put out, and goes to retrieve his blade. Elizabeth, on the other hand, seems to be well matched with Nico. They fight fiercely, neither gaining the upper hand.
The first day was fun, everything new and exciting, the first week was torture. Everywhere I turned was something I couldn't do, I stunk at fighting, arts and crafts, and struggled through learning Greek. The blond from Athena cabin, Annabeth, insisted I was doing well whenever I argued though.
Over time, however I fell into an easy rythym. It was only two weeks later when I realized that I wasn't a total oaf with a knife, that I hit most every time I shot in Archery, bested only by the kids from Apollo. Camp almost felt like home. I warmed at the thought, and fell asleep smiling.
That night was capture the flag, Poseidon, Zeus, Athena, Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite and half the minor god's cabins, including Eos and Hecate against Hades, Apollo, Hephaestus, Demeter, Dionysus and the other half of the minor god's cabins. Percy and his girlfriend, Annabeth, were captains of our team. Gathering us around, Annabeth laid out the plan. I was an archer, stationed up a tree as close to their camp as I could get.
"We're counting on you as an archer Melanie, you're the best one we've got and they've got the entire Apollo cabin." I feel a little burst of pride in my chest, and shoulder my bow. Another minute later, we disperse, Jason trailing after Percy as a part of the party armed with swords, Annabeth called them the frontal attack. She, armed with a knife, led the attack around the backside that would aim for the flag, a party that included Amelia, who hugged Percy and waved at me as if we'd been friends forever. I couldn't help but smile back; I could tell the rest of the camp liked her as well.
Followed by the rest of the archers, I slink along, trying to hide in the shadows and ignoring the fact that it's pitch dark, as close to their camp as I can get. Along the way, members of our group drop off to shimmy up tree's and take their positions. After a while, I travel alone, deeper into the woods until I can hear the shout of their side arguing, I poke my head around the tree to see them dispersing, their forces reading for whatever attack strategy they dreamed up. I duck behind a tree to avoid being seen and shimmy up its trunk, taking my position among the branches. My arrows, rather than actual tipped arrows, are blunt and colored with dye, so that whoever I hit will be marked as dead. I remember Annabeth's instructions not to begin shooting right away, or they'll bring me down from my post too quickly for me to do any real damage. I wait, impatient until the sound of Percy's group rings through the air. Annabeth was right, the majority of them move off to defend the camp, and I, along with the rest of the archers, pick off the stragglers.
I duck an arrow from one of the other teams archers, swearing, and press myself against the tree trunk, waiting for Annabeth's little group to arrive. Other than the archers in the tree's the red team is mostly gone from the base, the gaurds they left their sitting on the ground, marked as 'dead' by arrows and scowling unhappily. My legs cramp and I slowly readjust my position. The night gets darker until I can hardly see anything through the trees. Annabeth's group should have been here by now. Finally, Percy and his team fight their way through the group of red's to grab the flag. Percy glances around at the tree's and whistles, loudly to be heard over the cheering of the blue team. I reckognize the cue and shimmy down my tree, landing on the ground and dashing over to his side.
"Where are they?" He asks, and I can see concern in his green eyes.
I shake my head, "Never showed. Maybe this was her plan?"
He frowns, "She would have told me." He shoves the flag at the nearest blue team mate and beckons to Nico. Removing his red helmet, Nico's face changes from sulky to concern in an instant. "It's Annabeth, her group never showed." Percy informs Nico, clicking his sword-pen. They move off in the direction that Annabeth's group should have come from, Jason and I follow.
We move through the tree's silent as mice, trying to make out various shapes in the dark forest. Ahead, there are shouts, and Percy breaks into a sprint, the rest of us follow. The aftermath of a quick, silent, fierce battle lies scattered on the forest floor. Annabeth, her shoulder twisted at an unnatural angle, kneels over one of her fallen half siblings, another girl, built like a tank, the head of the Ares cabin, emerges from the trees.
"I can't find them." She informs Annabeth, and then meets Percy's gaze with an angry one of her own.
Annabeth stands, moving to Percy, her face pale with pain as she tries not to jostle her shoulder. "They took Amelia."