Hi, I'm Magnolia and I play a not-as-legal-as-you'd-think downloaded version of Age of Mythology to psych myself up for writing Percy Jackson fanfiction. Enjoy!
As we walked through the clusters of buildings in the valley, Kaia explained what each one of them was. I'd never wondered what a summer camp for children of monsters from Greek mythology would be like, and it turns out, I didn't really have to; it was a lot like a regular summer camp. Along with the normal camp stuff like an arts and crafts house, basketball court, and archery range, Kaia talked about how there was a forge for making weapons, and pointed out the man-eating horse stables to me as we passed them.
Another thing I learned was that, apparently, Kaia was well-known around camp. Random kids kept coming up and speaking in what was probably Latin to her. She would laugh with them and then introduce me. I wasn't usually shy, but a lot of the kids were bigger than me. I mean, I was used to being the short one, but these kids all looked tough and solid, and some even had various weapons hanging at their sides. That part was actually pretty cool, but I have to admit that the idea of them being half-monster intimidated me; that is, until I remembered that I was supposed to be one of them.
By sunset, names and faces were flying around my head. I could barely keep them all straight. Everyone I met looked seemingly normal—apart from the occasional patch of scales or feathers—but I could tell something about them was slightly different compared to an average middle school kid; whether it was the mischievous look in their eyes, or the clubs and swords in their hands, I didn't know. Kaia sometimes mentioned their monster parent, and with each new monster she named, I asked myself, Whose child am I? Who's my monster parent?
I was feeling particularly dizzy after a large group of giggling girls walked passed us, and Kaia had insisted on them telling me all of their names. Of course, I didn't remember a single one of them afterward. It didn't help that my bad arm itched really bad, and my head was starting to hurt again. I considered asking Kaia if we could take a break from walking, but then she mentioned that it was about time to go to dinner, and my stomach grumbled.
Kaia steered me towards the Mess Hall. I was so occupied trying to blink the black spots out of my eyes that I didn't notice when I almost ran into another kid. But when I saw him, I couldn't even sure if he was a kid, honestly. He was huge; tall with muscles, dark skin, and curly brown hair.
"Oh, hi, Theodore," Kaia greeted him.
I took a step back to look up at him.
"Hi," he said timidly. "Who... are you?" he asked me quietly, stepping back a bit too, as if he was afraid of me or something. Except, he was built like an ox! I didn't think someone like him could even be capable of being scared of anything. Him being well over six feet tall made my five-foot frame look miniscule.
Before I could answer his question for myself, Kaia said, "Theo, this is Ariadne. Sshe's the one who's been in the Ssick Bay for the passt couple of days."
"Nice to meet you," I said for what seemed like the millionth time that evening.
"Uh... you... too," he said shyly.
"Ari, Theo is a sson of the Minotaur," Kaia told me.
"Oh," I said. "That explains it."
"What... does it explain?" Theo said slowly, like he was thinking over exactly how to ask the simple question.
"Nothing," I replied, taking one last glance at the mace strapped to his hip. "But, the Minotaur, huh? That's pretty cool."
"Yeah... uh... who's your... parent?" he inquired.
"You mean my mom?" I asked, assuming that he meant my monster parent. "I don't know yet."
"Oh... undetermined..."
"Anyway," Kaia said. "It's almost time for dinner. We were just headed to the Mess Hall, Theo. Ooo! I know, we can walk together!"
"Uh..." Theo's eyes flitted around, probably looking for an excuse to not go with us. Apparently he didn't find one, because he nodded his head.
We started walking in silence, the sun slowly setting in the distance. I wondered what that meant; is our side of the earth turning away from the sun, or are Apollo and the sun chariot just flying away?
"What's wrong with your arm?" Theo questioned me, finally speaking above the tone of a mumble.
I looked down and remembered my bandage. "Oh. I was bit."
"By what?"
"Kaia."
Theo grinned, his shyness fading slowly.
"Hey! I ssaid ssorry like a billion times for that!" Kaia snapped playfully. "But it was kind of your fault for sscaring me, too."
"Yeah, yeah. I know. We really should stop playing pranks on each other."
"Oh, come on, Ari. You and I both know that'ss not really going to happen."
"True."
"Does that mean you were poisoned, too?" Theo asked.
"Yeah. And, apparently I've been out for a couple of days."
"But you survived." Theo looked at me in awe. "I don't know anyone who's ever done that."
"Really?" I don't know why, I guess, but I thought it must've been a common thing among monster children to survive poisonings.
"Lamia ssays sshe ssuspectss Ariadne has a natural immunity to venom, like children of ssnakelike monssters," Kaia explained.
"Useful if I have a best friend who's half snake," I said.
"That'ss right!" Kaia chimed.
Together we made our way towards the Mess Hall, and on the way we passed a beautiful but odd-looking stone fountain with a marble bench circling it. It had a sculpture of a gigantic lion, some kind of goat-snake-lion hybrid, and a multi-headed dinosaur holding up a plate that dribbled water out into the base of the fountain, where I could see little gold and silver coins shimmering at the bottom.
"The children of Typhon and Echidna," Theo said when he saw me staring at the sculpture.
"The Nemean Lion, the Chimera, and the Hydra?" I guessed.
"You got it," Kaia answered me. "We've got thiss fountain because they're ssome of the only monssters that aren't at leasst part human; they don't have kidss. But it'ss supposed to repressent dual-bloodss as a sspecies, and kids throw coins in for their parents."
"Is that the rule for dual-bloods? That the monster parent has to be at least part human?" I inquired. "Because I sure hope the Clazmonian Sow doesn't have any kids. If it does, I already feel real sorry for them."
Kaia cracked up with laughter and Theo kind of chuckled.
"Yeah," Kaia said. "At leasst part human. That makess the Minotaur children, Harpy children, and the Sphinx children ssome of the mosst actual monsster-like of the dual-bloodss."
Theo bit his lip and nodded earnestly. I wondered if the fact that he's one quarter cow is a sensitive topic for him.
I took a last look at the intriguing fountain, admiring the softness in the sculpted monsters' eyes, despite, you know, them being monsters. I bet they're just like that in real life, too, I thought. As long as you're not a demigod trying to stab them with a sword, they're probably not as mean as the stories make them out to be.
Kaia, Theo, and I started walking again.
"So... how do you... know so much about Greek mythology?" Theo asked me.
"Oh, I've always loved the Greek myths." I put my hands in my pocket, only to remember that one of them was still burning beneath its bandage, and took that one out again. "I have a huge book about them at home. It's pretty much the only book I've ever enjoyed reading."
"It'ss true," Kaia stated. "Sshe hatess bookss."
"How do you know the myths?" I asked Theo.
Theo shrugged, and I could almost see him sinking back into his shyness. "I... well... learned about my... uh... parentage... when I was pretty young. I... kind of grew up here, so I knew all along... about them being... real. They... well... they were never just myths to me."
"Oh," I said. I didn't want to question him further, because it seemed like a conversation he didn't feel like having, for some reason. Instead I asked him, "So, who's your favorite hero?"
Next to me, Kaia flinched a little and scowled.
"I've never really... thought about it," Theo replied, honestly. "I've... always been so focused on the monsters. What about you?"
"Oh, I've always liked Theseus. Except for the whole abandoning my namesake, the princess Ariadne, on some island. And... being forgetful and making his dad jump off a palace roof... and also killing your dad that one time. Sorry about that; no offense. I guess Theseus was a little stupid, too."
"That's alright." Theo grinned. "All the heroes... are at least little stupid."
"A little?" Kaia scoffed. "More like a lot sstupid."
"You must really hate these demigods," I told her.
Kaia gave me a look. "They were literally created to kill me. Of coursse I hate them."
I put my hands up. "I can't argue with that."
We turned down the path that ran next to the basketball court. A few teenagers were dribbling a ball around each other at lightning-fast speeds. They must've been brothers and sisters, because they all had the same silver-blond hair and pale skin. They were flying around the court faster than I could keep track of them, and I don't even mean that figuratively. Some of the teenagers were literally flying.
"Venti kids," Theo whispered to me. "Children of storm spirits."
"That's crazy," I muttered back. "But at least I can cross one name off my list of possible monsters mamas. I think I would know if I could fly."
"Just a few of them can do that," Theo explained to me. "Some are more powerful than others."
Just then, a boy with long black hair ran up to the basketball players. I could see him shout something at them frantically, and the game stopped for a minute, some of the teenagers hovering in mid air with mist swirling around their feet. The dark-haired boy asked them something and they all shrugged and went back to their game. He started jogging towards us.
"What'ss up, Flint?" Kaia greeted him.
"Oh, thank the gods," he said. "Look, Kaia. Another man-eating horse got out of the stables. I need your help, right now!"
"Okay, okay, calm down." Kaia turned to me and Theo. "I gotta go take care of thiss. Theo, make ssure Ari doessn't get into trouble while I'm gone," she told him, grinning.
"Um... alright... what?"
"Good!" she announced, slithering after Flint, her two snake legs like sandpaper against the dirt. "Ariadne, I'll come find you after dinner. Ssee you!"
She and Flint raced down another path, shouting after a man-eating horse named Gumdrop.
"See you later!" I called after her. "Hey, isn't a man-eating horse on the loose kinda dangerous?" I asked Theo.
"Don't worry. They don't eat dual-bloods... They like demigods, though."
"Well, that's handy."
"We should probably... go in," he said, gesturing to the big building next to us.
The dining hall was a long, brick structure. There were tall stained glass windows lining the walls, a ways up on the building. From the inside, I could hear chatting and talking and even some clattering that sounded suspiciously like breaking glass.
I nodded to Theo and he pushed open the big double-doors to the Mess Hall. Light from huge chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling of the building washed over us.
In two neat rows on either side of the long room were rectangular tables, like in the cafeteria at my school, except instead of hard benches, there were a variety of different mismatched chairs positioned randomly around the tables. Some of them were made of lighter or darker wood, some had cushions, and some were even missing legs and wobbled back and forth. The tables left a walkway down the center to a kind of raised platform at the far end of the building, like a stage.
On the inside, the stained glass windows were even more beautiful. Just like the fountain outside, they depicted the monsters from Greek mythology. I spotted one window portraying beautiful women singing on an island to brain-washed sailors. The Sirens. Another showed a group of strange-looking vampire women. They appeared to have mismatched legs; one looked almost bronze, the other was hooved, like a donkey's.
There were more, too, but I could barely soak it all in before Theo said, "I... uh... usually just sit with my siblings."
"Alright," I replied. "Lead the way."
He made his way through the tables, weaving around noisy campers that seemed to be trying to eat, talk, and laugh all at the same time.
One boy with a grin plastered on his face, slitted green eyes, and scales covering half his face tried to trip Theo with his foot, but he just skipped over the boy's leg, telling me, "Watch your step."
I followed Theo soundlessly to a table with more huge kids that all looked startlingly like him. I had no doubt that they were his brothers and sisters. They all had the same round eyes and square shoulders, but let me tell you this: Theo was small compared to these kids.
While Theo was shy and slight, his siblings were more of what I thought a stereotypical child-of-the-Minotaur would act like. They were loud and big and looked like they would bash their heads together in their spare time. They spoke mostly in grunts to each other as they shoveled food into their mouths.
Theo and I sat on the far side of the long table, near the wall. I looked up at the stained glass above us. The picture in the glass pieces was a scene of a boy in a white tunic. At his feet lay a dead bull. Or a man. I really couldn't tell, until I realized it must be the Minotaur. That meant the hero in white must be Theseus.
In the background, a girl with long black hair stood holding a spool of red yarn. Ariadne.
Theo saw me staring. "I suppose being named after one helps, too."
"Helps what?" I asked.
"To enjoy the Greek myths."
"Oh, yeah. I guess so," I agreed. "I think the princess Ariadne in the myths was really clever. She figured out the maze, and helped Theseus figure it out, too. Without her, he never would've been a hero in the first place. I've always liked being named after her."
"And she was mortal," Theo added. "She wasn't even supposed to... be special or anything... but she helped Theseus anyway... despite being a stupid demigod." He gave me a shy smile.
Another Minotaur kid, one of Theo's brothers, turned to us. "Hey little bro, who's the girl?"
"Ariadne," Theo replied simply, like he wanted to spend the least amount of time possible talking to his brother. "Undetermined."
"Hey, no way!" the other Minotaur kid responded, his mouth full of food. "You're the one they had holed up in the Sick Bay for days from that scythian dracaena venom." He leaned over the table and held out his hand.
"That's me," I remarked, shaking his hand, which almost engulfed all of mine due to how big it was.
He swallowed his food. "Call me Linus," he said. "Welcome to Camp."
"Thanks."
Linus went back to eating his food, and I turned back to Theo, who was looking at the stained glass again. Theseus seemed to be staring down at us, even though the piece that was supposed to be his face was a solid, featureless fragment of glass.
"How about you?" I questioned Theo, who seemed much more lost in the glass scene than I was.
"Sorry," he muttered. "What?"
"Have you ever met your dad?"
He paused for a moment and then shook his head. "No... a lot of kids here haven't."
"Wow, really? I bet demigods get to meet their parents. Being gods and all, you'd think they'd have all the time in the world to visit them."
"I bet..."
"So, where are all the demigods, anyway?"
"They... have some camp somewhere. Just like ours."
"Do you hate the demigods, like Kaia?" I asked.
Theo looked back down at his plate, which, like mine, had magically filled up with pizza the moment we sat down.
He leaned towards me a little and mumbled, "Honestly?"
"Yeah, duh," I whispered back.
"I... don't really know." He lifted one shoulder in an indifferent shrug. "Everyone here hates them, some even more than Kaia."
I, personally, found that particular statement hard to believe at the time.
"It's a natural grudge, I guess," Theo continued. "Killing our monster parents and all."
"I'd say that's a pretty good reason to hate someone," I replied.
"Yeah... except..." Theo trailed off.
"What?" I asked.
"It's nothing. Forget I said... anything."
"Um... alright."
Theo took a bite of his pizza as if to stop himself from saying anything else.
Meanwhile, I was too nervous to eat. I started drumming my fingers on the table.
Today had brought a lot to take in. I tried to go through everything new I'd learned about the world I thought I knew—but obviously didn't—in my head. My best friend was part snake and could poison people by biting them. I'd experienced that first hand. The Greek gods from the stories were real, and even though I had no genuine proof of that, something deep down inside me kind of wanted it to be true. I was currently at a summer camp for the children of Greek monsters. If that wasn't just about the coolest thing that had ever happened to me, I didn't know what was. I mean, I was sitting across from a son of the freaking Minotaur!
"Um... Ariadne..."
I snapped my head back up when I realized I'd been spacing out. My finger-tapping had turned into hand-drumming on the tabletop, making the silverware bounce.
"Oh... sorry," I said. "Apparently I haven't had my Adderall in more than a couple of days; I get kind of jumpy if my dad doesn't remind me to..."
Wait...
I almost cursed out loud.
"What?" Theo asked.
"My dad!" I nearly shouted.
A wave of something that I will only admit here was guilt washed over me. I had been so freaking caught up in all this new Greek-gods-are-real stuff that I had forgotten all about my mortal parent.
"Oh man," I gulped, putting my head in my hands and twisting my fingers through my hair. "He doesn't even know where I am! I wonder if he thinks I was kidnapped or something. I mean, I kind of was... Oh gods, I bet he thinks I ran away."
"Ariad—"
"And I was supposed to be grounded when Kaia came and got me from my house! I am literally the worst daughter ever." I put my forehead on the table. "This whole thing is a chaotic disaster."
"Ariadne... I... uh..." Theo stammered uncertainly, as if he wasn't quite sure how to go about comforting me. "Try to... calm down. We'll get everything... sorted out with your dad."
I lifted my head up, and found Theo with his eyebrows knitted together and his big eyes filled with worry.
"Okay," I trembled. "But, do you think maybe I could just call him or something? And explain everything? You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone, would you?"
"I... um..." Theo shook his head. "Sorry."
"That's okay."
"I'll... help you find one, though," he reassured. "As soon as possible. After..."
Theo trailed off, his eyes sliding over to the front of the room, where the raised stage-like area was. I realized the room had gotten a lot quieter. What were they anticipating?
"Good evening, camperss!" a thundering voice addressed us.
The hissing speaker was met with cheers and shouts and fists banging on tables.
"Who is that?" I questioned.
"It's Lamia... She's the... camp director."
"Oh." I strained my neck to see over kids' heads to get a glimpse of her.
"As for announcementss for tonight," Lamia continued. "Firsst, paintball is sstill on for thiss Ssaturday night—"
Before she could continue, cheers erupted from the campers.
"And, like usual, the teamss will be Bulls versuss Ssnakes."
That comment brought up jeers and taunts from each side of the room, especially from the bigger, rowdier Minotaur kids, and those derisions brought equally heavy responses from the other side of the room. I didn't know people could get so worked up about paintball.
"Come on, that'ss enough," Lamia called, her voice bouncing around the room. It only took those few words from her to quiet everyone down. I could see just enough in between the heads of campers to recognize that she gave us a knowing grin, and then continued cheerfully, "Let'ss ssave the fighting for Ssaturday. As I was ssaying, there is another big announcement for tonight."
Campers all around whispered to each other. Some pointed my way.
"Yes, I'm ssure you've heard. We have a new camper with uss! Sshe's actually been in the Ssick Bay for a few days; we can thank Kaia for that."
Everybody laughed.
"Come on up, Ariadne," Lamia said, welcomingly.
For a second or two, I was frozen in place. I wasn't expecting her to call me up to introduce myself.
"Ariadne," Theo whispered.
Forcing my legs to get me on my feet, I soundlessly moved to the front of the room. I subconsciously tucked my hair behind my ear and straightened my shirt. It was absolutely silent and, even without looking, I knew that all eyes were on me.
When I finally reached the front and climbed the steps to the stage, I got my first good look at Lamia. She was obviously a snake woman, like Kaia, but instead of having two snake bodies for legs, she only had one, with a neon green T-shirt with the words "Camp Echidna" on it on her upper half. Lamia appeared younger than I imagined her to be, maybe in her thirties. Something told me she was actually much older than that, though. Her eyes gave it away, I think. I guessed she must be several thousand years old. Maybe she's even been killed before, and has reformed, just like Kaia had explained, I thought. How many lifetimes has this snake lady lived?
Despite the fangs, Lamia had a kind smile. It gave me the courage to climb the steps to the stage. I looked out on all the other campers and scanned the crowd finding a few familiar faces, but noticing that Kaia still wasn't back yet.
"How about you tell your name to everyone?" she requested simply.
Her voice made me feel like she was speaking just to me, without the extra crowd sitting and watching us. It made me feel less nervous.
"I'm Ariadne Weaver."
Polite clapping sounded from the campers. Were these really the same people who had been shouting insults at each other just a minute ago?
"Regular or undetermined?" someone called from the crowd.
Lamia answered for me. "Undetermined."
A few campers groaned, but most just nodded with approval.
Lamia clapped her hands together twice, snapping everyone back to attention. "Okay then, you all know the way thingss work from here on out. But for Ariadne'ss ssake, and for anyone who hass had trouble remembering the rules in the past, I'll explain again." She eyed a few mischievous-looking campers in the audience and cleared her throat. "To follow our Latin rootss, we do thingss Roman-sstyle here. Because Ariadne is sstill undetermined, sshe will be probatio until sshe proves herself to the camp or is claimed by her monster parent. Until then, ssomeone must repressent Ariadne.
"As Ariadne'ss repressentative, you will be responssible for her. Anything sshe does wrong, you will also be punished for. If sshe is chosen to lead a quest, you musst go with her. Anyone can volunteer; a camper, a dracaena, anybody. Sso, with that, who wishes to repressent Ariadne Weaver?"
Silence. No one. Not a single freaking person stood up to represent me.
Do I really look that much like a trouble maker? Do people not trust me? I asked myself. Wow, Ariadne. You need to work on a more outgoing image for yourself and be nicer when your half-snake best friend is introducing you to fellow campers.
I wished Kaia were there. She would've volunteered to represent me.
My stomach lurched as I scanned the crowd; everybody just looked at me. I spotted Theo at his table, but I knew he wouldn't stand up. He was fidgeting in his seat, his brothers and sisters eyeing him worriedly. I don't really know why, but the entire pathetic scene made me laugh. Well, it was more of a half lopsided grin than an actual smile due to me trying to hide it up on stage. Then I remembered my predicament. Just as I was about to run off the stage screaming, someone stood up.
"I, Chaos Avers, volunteer to represent Ariadne Weaver."
It was the tall boy that wrapped up my arm and came to get me from the Sick Bay; Chaos, with his hood still up and his sunglasses still on, standing up a little less than straight among similarly slouching hoodie-clad friends that I assumed were his brothers and sisters.
"Wonderful," Lamia exclaimed, clapping her hands together again. Everyone else started clapping too.
I nodded at Chaos but his face remained void of expression. He sat down again, some of his friends smiling at him and clapping him on the back.
Lamia wrapped up her announcements with a simple, "Welcome to Camp, Ariadne."
This is a haiku
About what a lil' cutie
Theo Kamos is
