I was rudely awakened by the sound of elephants crashing through the forest. Well not real elephants but it could have been by the noise they were making. Instantly my senses were on high alert. My eyes were wide capturing every movement. I leapt to my feet and was ready to sprint in any direction but part of me wanted to fight. Some instinct was telling me that these people weren't peace activists.
They appeared suddenly on the other side of the river. There was five of them. Two boys and three girls. They were all well muscled, standing straight, tall and proud. They all wore battle armor, with swords drawn. One with a dagger and another (the one who looked like the leader) had a bow drawn at full length pointed at my heart. Normally this would scare me but oddly I was calm waiting for them to make the first move.
Their leader stared at me with her brown intense eyes. She didn't drop her bow so I held up my hands in surrender which made me feel pretty ridiculous. Once seeing that I was unarmed she lowered her bow. "You are trespassing on our territory." She called. I just gave her a confused look. She sighed annoyed. "Who are you demigod?"
Demigod? Why does that sound so familiar? "Um… who are you? Where am I?"
One of the guys eyed the girl. "I told you Reyna. He's probably just lost."
"Wouldn't have made it through the borders," said another girl who had a mischievous, sneaky look to her eyes. She had sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes that for some reason spooked me more than the person who was aiming an arrow at my chest.
"Yeah well remember that other guy.."
"Hazel! Dakota!" Reyna barked, "Quit it." They shut up. "I'll ask you once more. Who are you?"
"I don't know." I answered truthfully.
Reyna glared at me. She shifted her bow and aimed an arrow right above my head. With deadly accuracy she hit her mark. Which luckily wasn't my head but they tree behind me. Behind the arrow had trailed a thick rope which the other boy had tied to a tree. One by one they used the rope to get themselves across the river. The boy who's name I didn't know came right up in my face. We were pretty dead even in height but this boy was…wide. Honestly at that moment I thought, Oh so this is the elephant. He had pig eyes and dark hair. His broken nose gave the high probability that he got into fights a lot.
"Who are you?" He screamed in my face. Man he needs a breath mint. I thought of asking him if he'd ever heard of a tooth brush but considering he had a huge sword pointed at my throat I decided against it.
"Bobby…" the other girl warned.
"Leave it Gwen." Reyna told her. She looked purely interested in how I would get killed.
"I told you," I said angrily, "I don't know."
"Oh so you're going to play dumb now are you," Bobby said maliciously. "Well we'll see how long you can play this game." He stepped back and readied his sword. Then without any warning he attacked. But I had been expecting that.
Everything slowed down. Bobby was running in slow motion. I jumped to the side easily avoiding his first blow. He struck the tree which lodged his sword into the trunk. He yanked it out and turned to face me. A look of surprise crossed on his face but he recovered quickly and attacked again. Unfortunately I didn't have time to avoid this blow. An idea came to my mind. Then as if I had done it a million times I reached into my back pocket and took out a ballpoint pen. The same pen that I thought I had thrown away the day before. I didn't have time to ponder on it though. I yanked off the cap and a three foot sword of celestial bronze expanded in my hand.
I don't know who was more surprised, me or Bobby. But our swords met and a large clang rang throughout the trees. It became a fierce duel and Bobby was not backing down. He hacked away but I parried every move he threw at me. Figuring out that I could amp this up I started to move faster, going on offense. When you have the shorter blade get in close. Whoever said that had good advice. He couldn't even hit me. His eyes were furrowing in concentration and he put all his effort into it. Oddly enough I was barely breaking a sweat while Bobby could've been a sprinkler system. Finally I saw my chance. I dug my blade into the hilt of his golden sword and twisted. His sword flew from his hand and clattered across the forest floor. The next second I had my sword pointed at his throat.
He gulped but glared evilly and Reyna walked over. "Put down your sword." I lowered it but didn't take my eyes off my enemy. "Who are you?" she must have asked for the tenth time but this time it was more of a question than a demand.
"My name is Percy Jackson," I said. "But that's all I know." Reyna glanced at Dakota.
"Ok," he said, "So he's definitely a demigod. But where did he get his training? This is the only place in the world that trains them. Who taught him?" You could tell he was thinking deeply about it, trying to figure out this new problem. It was as if I had handed a calculus book to a math nerd.
"I don't know." Reyna said. "I thought you would being a child of Minerva." Then she turned to me. "Where did you learn to fight? And what style is that? It is definitely not Roman."
Partly because I didn't know the answer and partly because I had no idea what they were talking about I ignored her questions and asked my own. "First of all your confusing me. Who are you talking about? Minerva? Demigod? Secondly I have no idea. I just woke up on the beach and where are we?"
"Well we are in California, the Bay Area." She took a deep breath. "Have you ever heard about the gods?"
Something clicked in my brain. "You mean Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Poseidon and Artemis? Those guys?"
They all looked confused and Dakota took over. "In a way yes. Those are their Greek forms we mean the Roman gods. Jupiter and such. They are real and we are their children. Demigods half-…"
"Human, half god." I finished for him.
"Yes." He said a little suspicious. "The gods are out there and obviously one of them is your parent. We go to a camp here right by Mt. Othyrs." He pointed to that mountain that I had noticed earlier. "Basically we babysit Atlas." He said it like it was an joke between them. "We train and it will not be easy. There are strict rules, discipline. You have to earn your worth. It's the only safe place in the world for demigods." He finished and looked to Reyna.
She revealed her arm where a tattoo with the letters S. P. Q. R. on top with twelve straight lines underneath. Above that was a sun. "My father is Apollo."
"God of the sun." I said. Then I looked at Dakota who had an owl. "Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle."
"So you do know." Bobby said a lot more comfortable now that he had his sword back.
"Not really I just seem to remember some things," I said. "Let me guess Ares?"
They looked to Dakota again. "Mars actually." Then he turned to Reyna. "Someone's obviously taught him but for some reason about the Greeks."
Reyna then spoke, "The Greeks were soft that's why they fell so easily." Something in me had a strong urge to defend the Greeks but I held my tongue. It took all my will power not to attack her. Then almost as an afterthought she added, "I believe we should allow him to come to camp. I was going to challenge him but it is not in my position to do so."
Dakota added his thoughts, "A peculiar case. Most demigods are dropped off as soon as the parents know. I do not know why he is so old and to survive this long is a miracle. How old did you say you were?"
"I don't believe I did." I said.
"Very odd…" he mused. "I agree Reyna let's take him to camp. Lupa will know what to do. She may even help get his memory back."
"Yeah," Bobby muttered just loud enough for me to hear. "If she doesn't kill him first."
Only Hazel didn't say anything. She was eyeing me as if she'd seen me before but couldn't place where. Her eyes were narrowed glaring at me and that's when they found my necklace.