Okay, for all you people who don't like when it switches POV's… stop reading! I'll switch between the 6 main characters (Archer, Cooper, Parker, Hunter, Jackie and Brinley) and never in between chapters. Just an FYI.
Cooper:
I hate my life. And those three girls should hate Artemis for revealing herself, because right now this is all her fault. Take offense, go ahead. I've been cursed by you before! It's not that bad!
They were shielded. Artemis revealed herself. I came in. And monsters attacked. And it's HER FAULT! Well, and the monsters too.
God, I hate monsters. They just flip a shit and feel the need to come at you, weapons raised, just for existing. It's like, "GET A LIFE, LOSERS!" I mean, seriously! Don't you have anything better to do than give me yet another scar, you damn hellhound? Leave me alone! Why can't you be like Mrs. O'Leary? Or, better yet, LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!
Come on. They're all just morons. Eat mortals for a change. It's not like they taste all that different, and it might take us longer to send your soul down to Tartarus for who knows how long.
So that's what they did to the hydra. The girl didn't even cut off one head, she just went straight for the heart and stabbed it more than once. I'd say three, maybe four, judging by the different bloodlines on the shaft (well, judging on what the Weapons Master said). And then the curly one, with the moon clip- Hunter, I think. She was shooting down those birds like nobody I've ever seen, with an unlimited supply of arrows- even I haven't got that, mine just reappear. And the plain girl, with the short hair. She was holding a binder and looking through it all the time I watched, and then she just came up with the answer like that. There's no doubt in my mind that they're in the prophecy I caught Dad talking to Mom about.
All I caught was "Moon's bow," "Three's key," "Horse Master" and "The spear, the brain, and the chariot." And then they caught me listening and made me swear on the River Styx I wouldn't tell anyone until they gave the okay or it was crucial that they know.
And that's why I was practicing in the archery range with my birthday gift from two years ago- magic arrows that reappear once I shoot them that can be turned into bangles when I rub the shaft of them. And a really cool black bow that's pretty much indestructible that I can turn into a black bracelet so I can distinguish it. And I grew up using Palirroia, my sword that can be disguised as a Tootsie Pop.
Oh, and the spiral pendant on my camp necklace turns into a shield. So you'd say I'm pretty well equipped for battle at pretty much any time.
Of course, Archer got a Hippocampus he can call whenever he wants for his twelfth birthday, and Luke got some kind of instant armor medallion when he was twelve. Charlie hasn't gotten to be twelve yet, and neither has Olivia, but they've each got a sword disguised as something else and Charlie's got a wristwatch shield that has Dad and Uncle Tyson fighting monsters engraved on it. So our family's pretty stuffed with magical items, especially the Lethe branch that Luke's got dripping away in his room. I went near it when I was four, supposedly, and I don't remember it at all, or anything anyone did that day. I can tell it's missing, but I'm not really able to call it up, if you know what I mean. It's frustrating.
"Coop-" THWACK "-er!" Archer called, stepping in to the range of my arrows. I redirected it at the target next to me. Archer groaned.
"Cooper, it's dinner time. The cabin's waiting for you." I rubbed my arrows, slipping them on my wrist and not bothering to take off my armor.
"Okay, fine. But you're leading the line this time." Archer groaned again. It's not anything new; we have this argument all the time.
"If I start it, totally contradicting the fact that you're the head of the Poseidon Cabin, will you at least take off your armor?" Archer pleaded.
"I'd rather lead than do that," I said thoughtfully. "It's more comfortable this way." It's true. I always feel more like myself with armor on. Plus I only had a green tank top on underneath, so it's better to wear armor than walk around like that.
"Luke leads the Athena Cabin without complaining," Archer grumbled.
"Well I'm not Luke, am I?" I snapped. "Just go get in line, I'll be out in a minute." And by a minute I mean right behind you, but we exaggerate time all the time, notice that? If it takes three minutes, we'll say ten. If it takes ten, we'll say thirty. If it takes thirty we'll say an hour. If it takes an hour, we say two hours. See? Time is messed up. It's all Kronos's fault. It's why Dad kicked his ass back when he was Luke's age. The clocks of the world must have been going crazy.
"Cooper!" Archer called from the doorway. I huffed and followed him out. Stupid boy.
"Okay, I'm following. Happy, Archippos?" I taunted, using his full name. Archer hates his name. It's like Mom just wanted to get him beat up by calling him "Horse Master." Apparently it was Auntie Rachel's idea. That, I can believe. Mom actually has common sense.
"Don't call me that," Archer grumbled, running his hair through his black hair that just doesn't stay flat.
"I'll call you what you were named. You were named Archippos. So I'll call you that." I stepped in front of the line to go to dinner, then stepped out quickly. "Archer, lead. I've got three new campers that have no idea what to do." Archer opened his mouth to complain briefly. "Just lead, okay?" I stalked off, making my way to the Artemis cabin.
"I still don't know why in the world we're sitting in the Artemis Cabin," I heard the short-haired one say to the Hunter one. The girl who killed the hydra bounced around.
"Lemme guess," I said to her. "You're ADD and ADHD." She stopped bouncing. "Maybe just ADD."
"How'd you know?" she asked, sounding interested.
"I've got both, and dyslexia on top of that. It sucks, but I deal. Helps me a lot on the battlefield, and with the Greek I'm supposed to read every day."
"Why are you here?" The Hunter girl asked harshly.
"Rudeness doesn't go well at this camp or with me," I commented. "But I came to tell you that it's dinner, and you'll be sitting with me because the Hunters are here and they don't know about you guys yet… you're only in here because they were out in the woods. But they can't find out about you because they'd probably hack you to pieces. So, like I said, you'll be sitting with me."
"Hack us to pieces?" Short Hair asked, swallowing.
"They're usually friendly, just not to… people who mess with Artemis. Or their offspring."
"Oh." Short Hair stood up. "I guess let's go."
"I'm sorry, I can't keep calling you Short Hair and Spear Girl and Curly Moon-Bow," I said quickly.
"I'm Jackie, Short Hair is Parker, and Curly Moon-Bow is Hunter," Spear Girl said. "I'm hungry."
"Well we're late, so the No-Flames Ambrosia's gonna be gone," I said wistfully. You're only allowed to have one square a day if you don't want to get side affects, but it's the best stuff on earth. At least it doesn't burn you up unless you're injured like regular ambrosia.
"You coming?" I asked the girls, popping up and walking out the door. "If we hurry, we might catch the Sushi they put out on Wednesdays."
"I have a paper due tomorrow," Parker said suddenly, following me.
"Not anymore," I said patiently. I hate it when they do this. "You're here now. We don't have papers."
"But I worked really hard on it. It's about Chiron, the mythical teacher," Parker added, like that was going to make me bring her all the way back to Wisconsin so she could turn in her paper.
"I'm sure Chiron would like to see it then," I said, stepping neatly over the crack in the floor. Uncle Nico says he did it when he banished skeletons to the Underworld and saved Dad, but it's supposed to be a ghost story.
"Chiron's here?" Parker asked excitedly. "Can I interview him? For my paper?"
"Oh my God, Parker, no one cares about the damn paper! I didn't even write mine!" Hunter burst out. Apparently she was done pouting.
"I can see we'll get along fine," I told Hunter. She scowled at me. "All right then. I sit over there, by the messy haired kid in the blue shirt. Just find a spot at that table. But before you do, scrape off some of your food into the fire for the Gods. It's mandatory."
"Why should I do that if I'm hating the Gods right now?" Hunter asked sullenly.
"Then scrape in the food you hate most. I've done that plenty of times." Hunter frowned deeper. "Oh, just do it!" I said impatiently.
I grabbed the last tray of sushi right before Mackenzie Stoll grabbed it. She sighed. "Sorry Kenz," I said, not sounding sorry at all. She's over in the Hermes Cabin and all she does is footraces, so I don't talk to her much. But we're on first name terms.
I'm on good terms with everybody, really. It helps to be the daughter of Annabeth and Percy Jackson, two of the greatest heroes of the time. And I make it a point to be nice to everyone so they don't hate me. Well, except some of the assholes over in Ares. They need to get it together. But I try to act civil. Archer is kind of quiet, but he's really friendly. Everyone likes him. And Luke is- well, pretty scary, to be honest.
He's got Dad's black hair, like Archer, and these weird shiny black eyes that can be found nowhere else in my family. He rarely smiles, but if you're a girl, you're bound to like the bad-boy look, and Luke is the poster boy. Charlie and Olivia aren't over in camp yet, they're still waiting until they turn eight so they can come and not be pulverized. Only one more year, though.
"Purple root beer," I told my cup, watching it fill up with dark violet liquid. "Light purple," I corrected. "Not that light. Good." I took a sip of it and nibbled on a California Roll. Jackie made her way over to me, holding a piece of toast covered in slices of banana and cucumber. I wrinkled my nose.
"Yeah, I have weird eating habits," she concluded. Archer looked at me, raising his eyebrows, as Hunter walked over to the table, still pouting.
"Guys, this is Jackie, this is Hunter and that over there is Parker," I said, gesturing to where Parker was, by the looks of it, doing "eenie meenie miney moe" to decide which kind of fruit to get.
"We haven't had a ginger at this table in a long time," Kevin said bluntly, staring at Jackie.
"That is Kevin," I told them. "He's a little blunt."
"Really blunt," Archer said, tapping my foot under the table. I stood up.
"I need to go take care of something," I told Jackie, the only civil one out of the three. Archer followed as I lead him to the Hunters table. I tapped Brinley on the shoulder as I passed. Brinley's a quick thinker, I know she'll get out of whatever conversation she's having to talk to me.
"Who are those three?" Archer asked me as soon as we were out of the mess hall.
"We're waiting for Brinley," I told him firmly.
"I'm here. Who are they and why are they sitting with you?" Brinley asked.
"They're new recruits I found while I was going to talk to one of the erratic Satyrs up in Milwaukee. The ginger one fought off a hydra with a spear. Killed it in less than ten minutes." Brinley's mouth fell open.
"Any chance she wants to become a Hunter?" she asked hopefully.
"Not her. The curly haired one might go for it, though. She's just being angry right now, but she fought off an entire flock of Stymphalian Birds with some kind of moon-clip she has."
"Moon clip?" Brinley asked. "But- Artemis has one of those. In battle, it morphs into he weapons."
"They've each got one," I said. "Jackie has a spear, Hunter has a bow and arrows and I haven't seen Parker's yet but she wears it in her hair." Brinley's hand went unconsciously to her light brown hair, fingering the simple silver circlet that marked her second in command of the Hunters.
"This can't be good," Archer said. Just then, a scream echoed around the camp. I drew Palirroia, narrowing my eyes and sprinting after the sound.
Archer was right. This can't be good.
A/N: Okay. Longest chapter I've ever written. I feel proud.
Descriptions: Cooper is blonde (like Annabeth, only lighter) with green eyes (Percy). Archer and Luke are in there. Jackie is a ginger, Parker has short cut brown hair and Hunter has dark curly hair. They all have brown eyes. Brinley has light brown hair with blue eyes. Just making that clear.
Hope you enjoyed it! :)
~Emullz
