As if this day couldn't get any weirder, here I was in a car with the God of Wine, headed to a camp for god children. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't at all shocked to hear I was a little different from regular humans. Now that I think about it however, that just goes to show how full of myself I really am. Oh, but none of that was weird. What was weird was that my parents acted like it was no big deal.
Flashback
...
"This is a joke, right" I said looking at both of my parents and the Hawaiian shirt dude. My mom shook her head." A few years ago," she began in an even voice "I was working at an orphanage, when I was asked to check on the babies." My mom wasn't necessarily looking at me when she was talking, more like talking to someone a mile behind me.
After about thirty seconds, she continued. "They had asked me to look after the babies, because I was the only one who knew anything about caring after infants. It was supposed to be a routine check up, but then I saw that you were sweating. When I checked your forehead, I discovered you had a fever. It was only a minor cold, and it only lasted two days, but after that time spent taking care of you, I'd grown attached to you."
"I thought I might have some problems adopting you, because of the fact that I had taken care of you, but I was surprised that they were practically shoving you into my arms."
She looked me in the eyes now. "I didn't even find out that you were a demigod until you were five," She said. "It had all happened when we were divorced for a year." "You being a demigod is the whole reason we put so much pressure on you," my dad said. "In order for any powerful half-blood to survive, they must train up at camp."
The hawain shirt guy put his hand on my shoulder, but removed it just as quickly. "That's odd", the man said. "What?" my dad asked the man. "Well, it would seem your boy here doesn't have an ounce of Greek in his blood", the man said looking at me as if I were unnatural. I would usually be asking a million questions right now, or at least thinking them. My head still hurt from the headache though, and this situation wasn't exactly helping.
"So, what doesn't he have", my mom asked. :Well, for starters he doesn't have ADHD, nor is he Dyslexic:, the man said still looking at me. :Say junior, have you tried to read Greek before?: the man asked me. :No:, I said looking at him with a look that said 'what kind of a question is that'. "It does give me a headache everytime I even glace at Greek writing though."
"That's peculiar", the man said. He looked at my mom and dad before looking back at me. "While I find it doughtful that you're a strong half-blood, you are a half-blood, I am required to offer you a place at camp. The decision is yours whether or not to come to camp, but you will have to make it a fast one as I have other things to do."
I wanted to decline the offer, but I saw the looks in my parents eyes and realized that I was apparently better off there. Still, every fiber of my being told me not too, because I had a crappy life pretty much. I mean it might seem okay from the outside looking in, but from my shoes it didn't hold a candle to paradise. I had fantisised about leaving several times, but it was the easy way out, and I never took the easy way out. But, this felt like if I stayed, then it would be the easy way out.
"Alright", I said to the man. "Well, how exciting", the man said with more than a hint of sarcasm. He then pulled out a paper that looked suspiciously like a contract and set it on the table. He then handed me a tiger patterned pen to write with. I examined the paper, but found nothing that could bind me to and obligation. For some reason I actually believed this was all true. Most likely this was because my parents hardley joked, and when they did it was delivered poorly.
Anyhow, all the paper said was that I represented Olympus, and that everthing I did was in the name of the gods and my god parent, whomever that might be. When I went to write my name I realized that I was hoping their to be something sinister about the contract that might make me back out, but alas nothing. I wrote my name as slowly as possible for some reason, and I guessed hawain shirt guy noticed because he started taping his foot.
"Very well then, you are all done", the man said as he rolled up the paper. "And now I, Dionysus, God of Wine bless this in the name of the gods", the man said sarcasticly. "Wait, Dionysus. As in the wine dude?" I asked the man. He looked angry, but instead heaved a giant sigh. I thought I heard something about the name running in the family.
...
Pretty much that's all the important stuff they had said, but the thing that weirded me out the most was that the God of Wine was a total buzz-kill. I mean it's in his title to be festive and outgoing, but the old fart wouldn't even let me turn on the radio.
"Soo, who was it that called you to pick me up," I asked the Wine Dude, trying to start up a conversation. "It was your friend Darrell. The brat has known that he's a half-blood since the 9th grade. Because we have always known of your existence, and because we knew you two were friends, we asked him to keep tabs on you, and to inform us when you were ready."
See, now that was officially the weirdest thing I've heard all day. There was no way Darrell was a half-blood. The dude was too reserved ,and scrawny (he only weighed 139 Ibs) to be an elite monster killer. I tried picturing him with a shield and sword, but the only image that popped up was of him toppling over from the weight. "We're here." the Wine Dude said with even more contempt then I though was possible.
Stepping out of the car, the first thing I see on top of a hill was a dragon. "Whoa, you guys got a dragon guarding the entrance!" I said excitedly. "You can see that it's a dragon," he said looking at me. "Of course" I said. "Anyone can tell that it's a dragon, so why do you have it out in the open."
"It's because of the mi- oh never mind," he said with exhaustion. Wow, this dude was lazy. "You are a peculiar case," he said as he started up the hill. "A half-blood that doesn't have ADHD, gets headaches from reading Greek, and now isn't even affected by the Mist." I had no idea what he was saying, and frankly Wine Dude annoyed me too much to even ask.
When we got to the entrance, I sped past the dragon. I had been around enough guard dogs to know not to get too close to one. "I understand where you're coming from, dragons are not my forte either," he said walking past the dragon. The dragon made something of a grunt, which I'm sure was something along the lines of get bent in dragon talk.
Once inside the camp, I was amazed at all the different looking exercises. I saw a couple of satyrs playing their reed the meadows. There were people who were dressed in burnt armor coming out of the forest. Something inside me stirred with anticipation to fight my first monster, for what reasons I don't know why. I saw Darrell come out of a cabin with seven other kids. One of the kids (couldn't have been more than 11) whispered something in Darrell's ear. Darrell looked up at me and nodded his head."Hey!" the boy said to me "Is your last name really Y'barbo." I felt confused, but nodded my head none the less. "Cool," he said.
They all went into the forest, as if to vanquish the mighty beast that had defeated those other kids. "Well, guide number one is out," he said. "I suppose it is within my abilities to give you a tour personally." "NO!" I said quickly. "What I mean is," I continued "There's got to be someone else capable of giving me a tour. I mean your a God. You've got important business to attend to." I was laying it on pretty strong, especially considering the feeling I got was he didn't do anything more than sit down and watch T.V all day.
However, I didn't want captain bore to make my first impressions of this place seem as boring as he was.
I was afraid he hadn't believed me, because he just stared off into space, and I wasn't exactly a good suck-up. But he looked at me and said "You are absolutely correctThe dude was too lazy to even realize anything suspicious. A girl walked out of an amphitheater, yelling something back at another girl. When Wine Dude saw here walk past, he immediately ran up to her and asked her something. Wine Dude was in the way, but I could feel her eyes looking at me. She said something and he said "Good good. Well, I'm off he said."
When he walked away, it was the first look I got at this girl. She was 5'8, white, with dark tanned skin. She wore alot of makeup, but put it on expertly enough so it looked like she only had a little on. Her long black hair was tied up in a pony-tail, and when I saw her face I lost all comprehension of words. In all sense of the word 'knockout'. When she walked up to me I barely uttered a "Hi." "Mr. D says your new to all of this," she said looking me up and down. I was muscular, but even I knew I didn't exactly look like a person who'd fought monsters all their life.
"So, what's your name," she said still looking at me skeptically. I was seriously feeling sized up right now, and it didn't help that my vocabulary was reduced to uhhhh. Somehow I found a way to tell here my name. When she heard my last name her entire head perked up. Frankly, it looked painful. "And yours" I asked looking at the satyrs. It helped when I did that. "Silena Beauregard" she said snapping out of her trance.
...
We spent 30 minutes looking at all the cabins. She asked me if any of them 'spoke' to me. None did, however. "It's okay" she said "A lot of half-bloods don't fell anything from the cabins. Do you have any idea who it might be" she asked. I shook my head. "All I know is that it's a Goddess." "Well, of course," she said, walking past me. "Why does everybody act like they know my last name," I asked as I caught back up to her.
"It's because your father's a legendary demigod," she said as if it were nothing. I, on the other hand, was confused. First I find out I'm a demigod, next I find out it runs in the family. "So, what does that make me, a second gen demigod," I asked. "More like third," she said. "Your grandma was the daughter of Dionysus. Usually, that makes you just strong enough for monsters to catch your scent, but too weak to actually fight. Not her, though. She plowed through monster after monster, and was even a prophesy child" she said.
The prophesy child thing confused me, and she must have sensed it, because she followed up with "A demigod who's the main character in a Great Prophesy." The feeling I was getting was a messiah of sorts. "Anyways," she continued "your father had great expectations" she said looking into my eyes. "He was the son of Ares, but he didn't get any of the cool stuff his mom got, not even a prophesy, but he still carved the biggest legend since Heracles", she said.
There was so many things I wanted to ask, but the question that came out was "Isn't their a law against Gods having relations with demigods". She thought it over, like she was choosing her words carefully. After about 45 seconds she spoke "Yes, but it has been broken a couple of times in the past. Actually, it should be no surprise that your dad was so powerful, considering that the child of a god and demigod always comes out powerful she said."
