The Hardest Labour
By An Inconvenient Arrival
Chapter Two:
Percy P.O.V.
As usual, it was a bright and sunny day at Camp Half-Blood, one of only two safe places for children of the Greek and Roman gods. I had just finished up with training a few of the younger demigods in a bit of swordplay and was on my way to Cabin Three so I could change before meeting Annabeth at the beach for a picnic of sorts. Of course I should have known it would be too much to expect a nice little date on the beach with my girlfriend. As soon as I walked out of my cabin, a fresh Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and pair of jeans on, I knew something had happened. Something different from the past couple of times that something went down. Want to know how I knew? Chiron, Annabeth, Clarisse and Grover were all waiting for me outside of my cabin.
"Uh… hey!" I greeted them, not expecting to see them waiting for me. "What's up?"
By the expression on Chiron's face I knew it wasn't particularly bad, but that didn't mean it was good either.
"Percy, a new camper arrived this morning." He said simply, looking me dead in the eye.
I couldn't believe it. A new camper? After all these months? The last time a new camper had arrived, we were still saying goodbye to the last of our dead from the Giant War. That had been a little over six months ago. Oh, I should mention that the Olympians, under a lot of pressure from Annabeth, Malcolm and Athena, had now ensured the establishment of an education system in Camp Half-Blood, a lot like New Rome really. This pretty much meant that demigods didn't have to leave camp now unless they wanted to see their parents or families for a while, or if there was a quest that needed doing. Either way, it essentially meant that we were protected from most any danger all year round.
"Who is it? What's his or her name?" I asked hurriedly, walking with them to the Big House to meet the new camper.
"He said his name was Caine Gordon. He's probably around our age, maybe a year or two younger." Annabeth answered, walking briskly beside Percy.
When we reached the Big House, I could see a fairly average looking kid standing at the door. He had black hair that was messier than my set of curls and almost just as long, a short, pointed nose; pale skin (but nowhere near as pale as Nico) and very dark blue eyes. Honestly, if it weren't for the children of Athena having grey eyes and Kronos having golden eyes when possessing Luke, I would have been shocked at the colour. They were almost navy in colour and filled with such emotion.
To my surprise, I saw that he held an iPhone with black cable earphones wrapped around it. Usually we weren't allowed phones because they attracted monsters, but the kid had just arrived so he probably didn't know that. I was the first to reach him and I immediately extended my hand for him to shake.
"Hey what's up man? I'm Percy. Percy Jackson."
He shook my hand with a firm grip. I already liked this kid, my mom always told me that a firm handshake is a good sign of what someone is like.
"Caine." He said, his voice surprisingly deep. He also had an accent that I couldn't quite place. "Caine Gordon. And I'm doing alright considering I just outran two demon, vampire lady things."
"Ah, empousai!" I said, recognising the description. "You must either pretty fast to have outrun those things."
Caine smiled for the first time as I said this. Well I say smiled, the corners of his mouth tilted up a fraction.
"I used to do track in secondary school. Wasn't the fastest runner but I was up there at least." He said proudly.
"Secondary school?" I asked quizzically. "Is that like a, and no offence intended here, reform school or something?"
He chuckled at that, leaving me even more confused.
"Nah man, secondary school is what we call high school back home. I'm not an American you see. I hail from 'good aul Ireland'!" He said the last bit with a stereotypical Irish brogue and did a mini-jig of sorts, as if emphasising the stereotype.
We all got a little laugh out of that and I could already tell that this kid would be easy enough to get along with. He could joke around but he wasn't Leo Valdez… I stopped myself there. The thought of Leo just made him sad, as it did everyone else. Initially, Octavian had been honoured as a hero alongside Leo, Jason and Piper, but after about a week people began to realise that Leo was the true hero. Jason and Piper didn't mind this realisation either, in fact they seemed happy to avoid all of the attention. Everyone missed Leo, even Mr. D missed him in his own little way. He would often be seen walking past the Hephaestus Cabin, shaking his head sadly. Everyone missed him dearly, but I couldn't afford to dwell on the little Latino boy for long otherwise I'd start to tear up. Tearing my thoughts from our fallen friend, I began talking to Caine about his past life and why it took him so long to get to Camp Half-Blood.
"Well…" He began, his smile vanishing immediately. "For a couple of years, I lived in Ireland with my Dad, he was a Garda Síochana in Ireland but we moved here when he was offered a job as a Narcotics Lieutenant. Barely a week after getting here, he was shot."
Everyone gasped in shock. Sure parents of demigods died a lot of the time but for one to have been shot was almost unheard of. Annabeth began to tell him that she was sorry for his loss but he cut her off.
"Don't be sorry for me. He was shot while trying to bring down a drug ring that he was explicitly told not to tackle by his superiors. I knew the bastards were in on it, no offense guys but your police system usually has corrupt officials. When I tried to convince everyone of this fact, they just laughed at me and ruffled my hair. I got so fucking angry! I began acting out with my foster parents before I met my mother."
He said the word 'mother' in a harsh tone, not quite bitter but not exactly loving either.
"She came to me one night while my foster parents were out. Said she could give me the means and opportunity to get revenge for my father's death for a small price."
I looked at Chiron and Annabeth with a knowing expression. If we were right, this kid was a child of Nemesis, Goddess of Revenge. He could either be a very valuable ally or a very dangerous enemy.
"What price did she want?" Chiron asked, his deep, soothing voice filled with caution.
"Nothing major. Well, not for anyone else anyways. She said she could get me my revenge for my father if I was willing to give up my current life completely. As in, she would wipe the memories of my existence from the minds of my foster parents and I would have to find my own means of living. Obviously I agreed to the terms. So she handed me this phone and the earphones with them and told me to use them to kill the bastards who I felt were responsible. Obviously I was confused as you all look now, until I did this."
Letting the iPhone drop suddenly, holding on by the buds of the earphones, we all exclaimed in surprise (excluding Chiron) when the cable of the earphones morphed into a silver chain and the phone itself shape-shifted into a very sharp looking blade that was a little bigger than Annabeth's old dagger. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the word kunai surfaced and I recognised the design of the blade.
"You must quite a skilled knife-thrower to wield a kunai with chain m'boy!" Chiron quirked, smiling slightly at the boy.
"He's made a very obvious mistake though." Annabeth chimed in, stepping close to Caine. "He's left himself open to a close quarters attack."
Quick as a flash, Caine flicked his other wrist and thrust it at Annabeth's throat. It was only when she froze and I got a closer look that I realised he had a dagger in his hand. If you have ever seen a typical samurai sword, you'll have a good idea of what this blade was like. Imagine just the blade of a samurai sword, same width and shape and curve, now shrink it to about eleven inches in length and then add a small cross-guard and leather-bound hilt that allowed him to hook his fingers around them for a stealthy yet deadly thrust. The blade was thin enough to slip through the chinks in a lot of the armour that monsters wore but still strong enough to fend off a low to mid-strength sword blow.
'The kid's kitted out like a ninja or something!' I thought to myself in admiration.
Sliding the blade back into his sleeve and patting Annabeth on the shoulder, Caine smirked.
"Rule number seven of survival Blondie. Always have a contingency plan."
Annabeth stepped back to my side ashamed that she had been so cocky and so easily caught out. I gave her a quick one-armed squeeze to let her know it was alright before turning back to Caine. He went on to tell us how, for the past four years of his life, he had been hunting the corrupt officials and the members of the drugs ring. When the last of them was dead at his feet, he told us that his mother instructed him to come here for protection from monsters. Maybe Nemesis wasn't so bad after all. I was impressed by how he'd managed to survive as long as he did out in the real world and pointed it out to him.
"You're full of surprises kid, you know that?"
Caine's expression darkened at my words and he clenched his fists tightly. I saw his left eye twitch and his lips move but no sound came out and just as I was about to ask him what was wrong, he breathed out heavily and smiled again.
"Sorry about that. Bad memories. Please. Don't ask." He said, his shoulders heaving.
Despite his smile, he seemed drained from those few seconds of his change in personality. I silently pondered what had happened but ultimately decided to respect his privacy. Flicking his kunai up towards his wrist, I watched as he pocketed it now that it had reverted to iPhone form. Chiron looked at me and asked Annabeth and I to show him around camp until the time in which he would be claimed that night.
It took longer than we expected to show Caine around but still didn't take up too much of our time. He was abrupt in his questions and sentences but not cocky. He knew what he wanted to ask and often asked it but showed respect and manners at the same time. I felt like I could easily share a blueberry smoothie with the kid. He asked a lot of questions about the other campers and Gods. We in turn found out a little bit more about him. He liked to run track, he enjoyed the movies, his favourite food was a ham and lettuce roll (that one really surprised us) and his dream was to become a police detective, kind of like his father.
What confused me was the reason Nemesis (if she was Caine's mother) had chosen Caine's father. It wasn't that he was a bad man. If anything he sounded like an excellent father to Caine. Nemesis was the Goddess of Revenge however and a nice, kind man like Caine's father shouldn't have attracted him like that. Unless of course it was to do with her whole belief that no one should have too much of a good or a bad thing and he just balanced out a particularly bad part of her existence at the time or vice-versa. Regardless, I shrugged it off. She might not even be his son. With his self-acclaimed accuracy with the kunai, he could easily be a son of Artemis.
'No Percy.' I chided myself for my stupidity. 'Artemis is a maiden. She's not going to sleep with any male.'
Shaking my head at my own stupidity and shrugging off an inquisitive look from Annabeth, I continued on my tour of the camp with Caine and Annabeth. For the first time in a long time however, I was really looking forward to that night's bonfire.
Ok… longer chapter but not much in it, so I kind of apologise for that. We've met Caine at least and as much as I've had Percy believe it may not be so, I know you all are smart enough to realise that Nemesis is indeed the mother of Caine. On that note, I noticed as I was writing the scene where Caine shows off his tanto blade (the one he holds to Annabeth's neck) that his actions could be misconstrued as an odd form of flirtation. Caine and Annabeth will NOT be getting even minutely flirty or close in that manner. Percy and Annabeth have gone through too much in my opinion to have either one betray the other like that so I just thought I'd clear that up.
Also, the little scene where Percy contemplates Artemis being a mother does not hint at a future scene where Artemis gives birth. She's staying a maiden but she might make an appearance, I don't know.
I'd like to thank Seven Benevolent Elephants (who I'm going to assume is male but apologise if this is not the case) for his OC, who will hopefully be introduced in the next chapter. I can only hope that I do this fine creation justice by not making her a Mary Sue or a Damsel in Distress.
Thanks again for reading guys and just because SBE got there with his OC first doesn't mean you guys can't suggest your own. They may or may not be included but if I think they're good enough, badass enough or just fit in well, you are all more than welcome to submit OC's. Same list basically as in the last chapter but it doesn't have to be female, a demigod or even a benevolent character. It's all down to the imagination of you guys! I hope to see you all soon!