It was during my state of unconsciousness, that I had the first of many dreams to come. At first there was nothing abnormal about the dream at all. Bad timing, but relatively normal. I was just standing in the middle of a clearing in the woods. Beside me there was a still, reflective pool of water surrounded on all sides by a beautiful white flower. I'm not a florist, so I couldn't tell you what kind it was.

There wasn't a sound to be heard, no birds chirping, not even a gentle breeze to stir the leaves of the surrounding trees. On an impulse I walked over to the pool and gazed into its depths. I stared into the eyes of my reflection for a moment, before I noticed there was another reflection in the pool next to mine. That of young guy who couldn't be much older than I am. I looked up and around but there was no one to be found in the clearing, so I looked into the pool again.

The boy was still there looking up at me with bored eyes. I waved to him, and he returned the gesture. His hair seemed to wave with an unfelt wind, and I could just make out the reflection of birds that were not on my side of the reflection. He looked as though he was wanting to tell me something but could not speak. I stared at him for a moment before he gestured towards the other side of the water.

I followed his point to out of the pool, into the clearing, and to the edge of the wood. There I witnessed a sheep walk timidly out of the tree into the open. Only, it wasn't quite the typical sheep one might stumble upon. It seemed considerably bigger than any sheep I'd ever seen before. It was eating its green vegetables, that's for sure. But that wasn't the most interesting part. Its coat seemed to be made of gold and sparkled in the sun light.

At first I could look upon it with no problem, but it seemed to be growing ever brighter, and I had to shield my eyes. When the burn set in I looked away in fear, thinking about jumping into the pool to save myself. Right before I plunged myself into the waters, I glanced at the boy in the pool who seemed to be waving goodbye. I stared at him in confusion for a moment, before the light became to bright to even see. I closed my eyes and was overwhelmed by the blinding white light.

When I had the courage to open my eyes again, I was back in the school gymnasium. It took me a moment to get a bearing on my surroundings. I blinked a couple of times to clear my vision. I couldn't remember what was happening. Something about ping-pong and water fowl? I had a massive head-ache and there was this burning sensation in my back.

I was in a room made entirely of concrete, and the door was a solid slab of metal, but it had an enormous dent in it and hung loosely on its hinges. Beyond the door was a spectacle that took me a moment to decipher. I couldn't quite make out exactly what everyone was saying because there was so much commotion. My memories began to slowly ebb back when I saw that Otus and Chia were still in the room, only they seemed to have gotten even bigger and uglier than normal, if that was possible. The harder I looked, the clearer the scenario became.

What I at first glance took to be football gear was slowly turning into what appeared some ancient armor. After a couple of seconds, Otus and Chia were covered in head to toe in the stuff and were wielding spears of some sort. They seemed to be growing a foot a minute. I was really confused now and was getting worried that I hit my head a lot harder than I thought.

But that wasn't even the weirdest part. The two giants were attacking my friends, and in any other circumstance, they would have been creamed, but oddly enough, my friends were fighting back. Not just with anything that was laying around though. Claire had pulled a bow seemingly out of no where and was firing volley after volley into the Neanderthals, which seemed rather medieval to me but whatever works. Brian was dancing around like he had to go to the bathroom playing this little flute as plants erupted from the tile flooring and tried constricting the giants to no avail.

I looked around for Collin too, expecting him to have whipped a sword out of his back pocket, but he was no where to be found. I should have figured as much, he always was a bit of a coward, but, hey, who could blame him?

I couldn't quite believe what was going on before me, but I had to try to do something. Claire's arrows were doing practically nothing, and Brian couldn't hold them forever. It wasn't until then that I really took a moment to look around and discover that I was in the old boiler room. The rest of the school was heated by electric or natural gas, but the gym was so old it wasn't worth the money to replace it. Honestly, I'd forgotten it was here. And once I put two and two together, I realized why my back was burning so badly.

Now that my senses were returning to me, the pain became even more severe, and I quickly pushed myself off the ground, which turned out to be a bad idea. The sudden movement made my head swirl and ache.

"Die half-blood scum," screamed Otus as he hurled his spear towards Claire, who screamed in fear and ducked quickly. Her reflexes were incredible! It was too bad that mine weren't as good because the spear soared straight through the boiler room door and into me. Luckily, I had the sense to try and move out of the way so it only grazed my shoulder. Well, I say it grazed it, but, in actuality, it almost took it off. I could feel a warm liquid running down my arm, but I was too afraid to look at it. No one else noticed as they all had enough to worry about.

That's when the horrible realization sunk in. We were going to die in a smelly room in the back of a gym. Not exactly how I was expecting to go out. I figured it would be out of old age or as a war hero, but not by a couple of toothless football players. There was no way that Brian and Claire could hold them off much longer, so I had to act fast or we'd all be toast. If arrows to the heart weren't doing it, then we'd have to take a more modern approach. I scoured the room for anything sharp or a potential weapon. All that I could find was a red tipped spear, which made me sick to look at, and I eliminated it as a weapon.

After a final desperate search, I found that the real weapon was hidden in plain sight. I turned to the boiler and an evil grin spread across my face. I quickly found all of the valves that control the pressure in the steamer and tightened them all of the way, removing any safety that they provided. In a few minutes, this thing was going to blow. After I finished modifying the boiler, it hit me that the boiler wasn't just going to kill the brutes. We were all going to die.

In hindsight, this probably made the list of my top five bad ideas of all time. But hey, what choice did I have?

It was about this time that things went from bad to worse for me. I looked up from the safety valves only to find another spear rocketing my way. Luckily I'd learned my lesson and was much more prepared to dodge this one. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of my troubles. Eager to retrieve their spears, Otus and Chia lowered their shoulders line-backer style and charged towards the boiler room. Claire and Brian ducked out of the way, barely avoiding being smashed to pudding, but left the path to me wide open.

I had to think fast. They were on a direct course to collide with the boiler and any more pressure on the shell was bound to make it pop. I quickly assessed my odds of surviving, which I calculated to be zero. But I could still help Brian and Claire.

Boiler rooms were designed to withstand this kind of explosion! Three feet of concrete in the walls and a 4 inches of reinforced steel for the door. I not-so-nimbly darted out of the door way, and just as the two giants lumbered in I slammed the door behind them, locking all three of us in. I strained to keep the door close as the large dent made it bulge out, and the two impacted the boiler with staggering force. The searing metal scorched their skin, and the hiss of escaping gases was lost in their cries of agony. This was it. This is where I died.

"Oh, you're in for it now, half-blood," Otus growled, sneering his face that was only made uglier by a horrible burn that now ran across his face.

"Yeah!" chimed Chia, who was considerably more disfigured from the heat.

"That's what you think, you big idiots!" I countered proudly. "If I'm going down your going with me!" That last bit was a bit muffled as Chia lifted me by the throat and slammed me into the door, effectively knocking the dent back in the process.

Otus opened his mouth to speak, but I'm afraid he never got a word out. Just as Chia pulled back his fist and prepared to clobber me, things heated up a bit. Again, I was slammed against the door, and again, things went a little fuzzy (I really hope I don't make a habit of this). The boiler exploded with tremendous force knocking all three of us into the wall, only I was crushed underneath the weight of linebackers from hell and could feel the pressure on my bones mounting. Shrapnel cut through the air in all directions, and another pair of explosions lit the room with a bright flame. After this, the weight lifted and all was still.

A golden light and dust filled the air, and I would have sworn that I died and went to heaven. Little did I know that we were dealing with different gods entirely. Thankfully, I managed to stay conscious for this next bit, but my head ached from the encounter with the metal, and my skin burned from the heat of the explosion. I laid crumpled against the door until someone pushed it gently aside, and a familiar head popped into the room. Never in my life have I been so happy to see those shining blue eyes.

The angel that floated in only confirmed my assumption of death, but I'd happily fly away with her. My heart swooned as she lifted me to my feet and held me in her arms. I prepared for our ascent into the skies before our beautiful moment was rudely interrupted by my third and final encounter with that stupid door.

"Logan!" Brian bleated as he ran threw the door open, slamming it into us. My legs buckled, but Claire wouldn't let me fall. Man, that girl is strong. Brian muscled in on the hug to and was on the verge of tears. "I'm so sorry, Logan! I thought I'd lost you! I thought I'd failed! I was so close and I almost failed my first mission! Are you okay? Can I get you anything? A glass of -"

"Can it, Brian," I interrupted for the sake of my aching head and stood on my own. I wiggled my way out of their embrace and limped out of the boiler room. They tried to help me, but I pushed them away and gently sat down in a chair. I took a few seconds to regain my composure, the two of them staring at me the entire time, before I found the energy to speak again.

"I think that you two owe me an explanation."

"Of course," Claire reassured me. "But first we have to get out! They know that we're here now. It's far too dangerous to stay. We have to get to Camp Half-Blood now!"

"Half-blood," I said, rolling the words off my tongue. Something magical seemed to resonate with it. "That's what Otus and Chia called you. 'Half-blood scum.' What is that?"

"We don't have time for this, Logan," Brian squeaked. "We have to find Collin and leave pronto!"

"I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers!" I yelled as I rose to my feet. This turned out to be number five on my list of bad ideas of all time because the world began spinning, and I immediately collapsed. Claire tried to help, but I refused. I got back in the seat and wait for the world to settle.

"Look, Logan," Claire began. "I know that you're confused, but we're your friends, and we need you to trust us. Chiron will explain everything once we get to camp, but for now we really have to go. Butch is waiting outside with the pegasi. Collin should already be out there waiting to go. Please, Logan."

Gah… She always did have a way of getting into my head. There was no way that I could say no to her. Without a word, I rose once more with both of their help, and we made our way out the door. "Don't think that this means you win…" I muttered under my breath. Claire only smiled.

Needless to say, I was very confused at this point. I'd survived a battle with two of the ugliest humans I'd ever met, survived a fiery explosion in the boiler room, and was now on my way to hitch a ride on some pegasi. My life was getting weirder and weirder. Could have been worse though! Best friend on one arm, the girl of my dreams on the other. It's not a bad life.

Walking proved to be quite the ordeal for me, and I was becoming ever more aware of the searing pain in my shoulder. Claire was constantly peeking around corners or shifting her eyes from side to side on the look out for something. The light from the outside hurt my eyes as we walked into the fresh air. I opened them to find a stocky, bald kid with a rainbow tattooed on his bicep tending to a few winged horses that were harnessed to a chariot that looked like it belonged in the coliseum. Collin stood off to the side nervously, but he shouted when he saw us come out the door.

"Hey! They didn't cream you guys too badly did they? Oh gosh, Logan, you don't look so hot. Man, they got us good. We should have known better than to accept that ping-pong challenge…"

Clearly Collin was still a bit oblivious that something more was going on here. Not me though. No way they could pull the wool over my eyes now. No sense in upsetting Collin any more than he already was though.

"I'm fine," I assured him with a nod. "Just lost my title as ping pong champion, I guess. Those guys were pretty good."

"Pretty good?" he exclaimed. "More like fan-freaking-tastic. No offense, but you guys never stood a chance." He continued rambling on about practicing more while we were at camp. The rest of us just kind of nodded occasionally and tuned him out. There were more important matters at hand.

"Claire!" the bald dude shouted, finally noticing us. "What happened? You should have called me to help! I felt a tremor, like an explosion or something. Is everyone alright?"

"We're going to be fine," Claire replied, "We just have to get these two out of here."

"Wait, this is our ride?" Collin asked. "Kind of lame, don't you think. I mean, I appreciate the ode to the 1850's, but we're never going to get anywhere on this old wagon." I may not have been completely up to date, on everything, but even I could tell this was no ordinary chariot. We were riding in style if those wings weren't for show. Maybe Collin couldn't see this either. It was all rather difficult to take in.

"I should probably call my mom to let her know that I'm leaving now," I said longingly. Something told me that I wasn't going to see my mother for a very long time.

"No!" Claire said immediately, fear running across her face. "We don't have time. Everyone needs to get on the chariot now."

"And, it's all good, Logan," Collin added. "I called all both of our parents while you guys were out to let them know that we were leaving early. Your mom was a bit upset, but it's nothing to worry about. She sends her love."

"You did what?" Claire asked in astonishment. "How?"

"Cell phone? Duh."

"Oh, this is not good. This is not good at all. I was so close!" Brian cried again as he began to look around frantically. "It's all over." Clair looked around in the same panicked manner and seemed to freeze when she saw three birds in the distance.

"Everyone into the chariot! Now!"

We all scrambled to hop on the chariot, and Butch took the reins. Claire fumbled nervously with her hair pin and looked very tense. Something told me this wasn't over yet. The next thing I knew, we took to the skies, as Butch urged the pegasi into the air. Collin freaked out when we left the ground as he became suddenly aware of the wings attached to the horses up front. His face filled with a look of sheer terror, which I thought was a bit of an overreaction, but boy was I wrong.

It was at that instant that something slammed into the chariot and knocked Collin off his feet. He hit his head against the metal siding and slid to the back as Butch tried to stabilize the ride. Luckily, the rest of had a fair grip and were relatively unshaken. I mustered the courage to look over the edge to see an enormous bird circling beneath us. I The other two were quickly approaching from the right.

Once again, Claire seemed to have pulled a bow out of no where and was firing volley after volley towards the monster below. "Get down, Logan!" she shouted. I figured that I'd already slain my monster quota for the day, so I did.

I could feel the chariot rock as Butch struggled to maintain control of the pegasi who did not look pleased in the slightest to be sharing their air space. They veered sharply to the left as a bird attacked from the right and Collin almost spilled out of the chariot. Things weren't looking good, but they looked even worse when one of the birds came in for a close-up. In fact, it wasn't a bird at all! Well, it was. Half bird. Half woman. A harpy, if my mythological memory served me correctly. It let out a terrible screech as it reared back it's horrible talons, but exploded in a puff of golden dust as an arrow pierced its heart. We left the dust floating in the wind, but two more screeches followed us.

I decided that I had seen enough, so I grabbed a hold of Collin's leg just in case, and I closed my eyes for the next few moments. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but there were several more screeches, an explosion of feathers, and a lot more gold dust before things finally settled down.

I slowly opened my eyes when I deemed it was safe and chanced a glance over the edge. Now, if you think the window seat of an airplane is the way to go, you've got to try flying over the state of New York in a chariot sometime. It was absolutely beautiful. Trees as far as the eye could see and glistening pools of water dotted the landscape. We all lost track of our time staring off into the distance, until we began our peaceful decent. I looked down to see the most incredible sight of all.

It was like a return to ancient Greece with huge buildings with marble columns dominating the area. Strawberry patches stretched far and wide, and in the middle of it all was a big blue mansion. I could feel the atmosphere change as we passed over head. I was not longer afraid. I felt safe. I felt at home.

We gently pulled into a stable and were swarmed by a bunch of blonde haired blue eyed kids who scarily resembled Claire. Yet another reinforcement I was in heaven, but I remained skeptical. The room buzzed with voices asking how it went or if we were alright, and welcoming Claire back. I was lost in all of the confusion, and just let myself move with the crowd. I could finally feel the blood loss from the spear setting in and I was feeling pretty woozy.

I stumbled, but thankfully Brian grabbed me, "I gotcha buddy. You're safe now." I couldn't help but smile. It had been a long day, so I decided it might be a good time for a nap. Unfortunately, I was a lot bigger than Brian, so when I collapsed I took him down with me. A bunch of those blonde kids helped grab me and Collin, and then I blacked out. Again.

I had several weird dreams like the one from before, so I can't say that I slept well exactly. I tossed and turned for who knows how long, before I finally woke up in a strange bed in an ever stranger room. A girl with light brown hair walked in about that time and looked ecstatic to see me awake. I wasn't too upset to see a friendly place myself. "Where am I?" I managed to grumble out as I sat up in bed.

"Eat," she ordered, handing me a bowl of golden pudding and a glass of cool liquid. "I've left you clean clothes hear. Chiron will want to speak with you when you are dressed." And with that, she left me to my breakfast. Or lunch. I could really tell what time of day it was.

I ate a spoonful of the pudding, expecting tapioca, but was pleasantly surprised by the taste of warm blackberry cobbler and ice cream like my mother used to make. The drink was no less enjoyable. It was a dark blue, but tasted of sweet, ice cold lemonade like I used to sell in the summer. The meal was simple, but it was the best I'd had in a long time, and I could feel it in my bones. I sat and digested for a moment before I mustered the energy to climb out of bed.

I put on the cargo shorts and the bright orange tee-shirt with a pegasi that reaad Camp Half-Blood that the girl had given me. There the word was again. Half-blood. It was time for answers.