It's been a bit longer than expected...sorry about that. And this chapter's a bit on the short side, but the second one will be SUPER long and exciting, I promise. :)

Sigh, Percy's not mine.

Chapter 4: In which a fortuneteller nearly runs me over with her bike.

I slept so soundly, when I woke up, I thought I was in my own bed, back at home for a moment. Then I saw nearly a dozen blue eyes on a tan body staring at me.

I screamed.

The guy recoiled at the sound and was slightly surprised. I gasped for breath and looked around. "Where—where—" was all I could make out. The air was fresh and clean, hinted with the scent of strawberries. A valley stretched into the horizon, full of luscious greens. The sun was shining brightly, as if the storm last night had never come.

I had no idea where I was.

"Dude. Chillax." Came a voice from beside me. I turned and saw Lars the satyr looking at me and grinning, lounging in a wicker chair. "Hey May. What's up?"

"Hi," I managed to breathe, pushing a blanket off me. "Mind telling me where I am and why there's a California surfer with more than two eyes here?"

"Ah, him. That's Argus. He's cool, don't worry. Security guard, keeps us all in check. And you're at Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp Half-Blood," I repeated. The name sounded familiar.

Lars chuckled. "Yeah, congrats. You made it. Half dead, broken arm, poisoned, and a pretty bad concussion, but you made it."

The events of last night came rushing back to me. The drakon, the weird incidence with the strawberry plants, and the glowing sheepskin. I noted with a groan that all my belongings were still in the cab, which was probably miles away. I was never going to get my stuff back.

My arms still ached, and my head was throbbing. I winced in pain. Lars seemed to notice my discomfort and passed me a juice box. "Drink it. It'll help."

I gratefully took a sip from the cold pouch, expecting it to taste like apple juice. It ended up being the farthest thing from it.

A salty taste graced my tongue, which surprised me. The "juice" tasted just like my dad's homemade chicken soup, the kind he made whenever I got sick. I didn't believe soup could actually make you better, but he insisted on making it for me anyways. "A recipe from grandma," he would say, grinning as he added salt. "Don't tell her."

It was warm, soothing, and completely reminiscent of him. Before I knew it, the entire pouch was gone. I felt some sort of energy rise through my body, releasing my aching limbs and taking away my throbbing headache.

I handed the empty pouch back to Lars, who casually took a bite out of the plastic. "Well, that about settles, it," he said, munching on the last bit. "Hey Argus. Mind getting Chiron over here? And get the video tape, that'd be nice too."

The guy with a lot of eyes nodded and left.

I looked at my hands, thinking hard. "I'm going to take a walk." I got up, ignoring the blood that rushed to my head, and started down the porch steps. Lars stood, surprised. "Hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You're still not fully healed yet."

I gave him an offhanded wave. "I'll be fine."

I had no idea why I wanted to leave, but something was pulling me, tugging me to the outskirts of the camp. I passed by a lot of kids with various ages playing games I never thought existed. They were riding horses with wings, being pulled in chariots like the ones I saw in my history books. Some were rowing canoes, shooting at targets, while others were furiously working on things I couldn't understand. A group of scary looking kids were polishing weapons and giving me the evil eye. I got the feeling that they probably did that to everyone.

. Most of the campers were wearing bright orange T-shirts with the words "Camp Half-Blood" written on them. As I walked, some looked at me oddly, but didn't say anything.

I realized I must have looked pretty bad. Torn up sneakers, ripped shirt, a bandaged arm…like I had just survived a surprise attack.

That wasn't entirely false though.

I sighed and kept walking. My wounds weren't so bad anymore. Somehow, I my left arm managed to heal itself over night, and it wasn't broken. My right arm had a faint gash on it, but other than that it was fine. All the scrapes on my legs from falling numerous of times disappeared.

Lost in my thoughts and observations, I didn't notice the bike coming straight toward me. It was almost too late when I saw the girl riding it with her eyes wide open in horror, screaming "Holy Hera, watch out!"

I was going too get run over by a crazy girl and a bicycle. Another injury to add to the list was not what I needed. By sheer luck, I twisted my body in an awkward fashion and avoided her.

She managed to skid to a stop after a few feet, propping the bike up on its stand and walking over, an apologetic look on her face. The girl had red, frizzy hair, and shorts with marker stains all over. She looked like she would be artistic, with her arm full of weaved and beaded bracelets. I decided she was certainly an individual.

She gave me a once over, then stuck out a hand. "I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare," she stated, smiling. "You okay? Sorry I almost ran you over with my bike. Potholes in the road, you know?" She made squinty eyes, putting a finger to her lips. "Don't tell Chiron I was riding. Please?"

I still didn't know who Chiron was, but I nodded anyway and shook her hand. "I'm May Wang. Sorry for not noticing your bike…I wasn't really paying attention."

Rachel scoffed, and brushed off her shorts. "Oh I do it all the time." Then she looked at me even more suspiciously. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?"

"Yeah."

"Cool beans."

It looked as if she was going to say something else, then her eyes got cloudy, like she was seeing something that I couldn't. She quickly snapped out of it, and seemed to think hard for a moment, debating something internally. She ended up making a choice, whatever it was, and grabbed my hand. "I have something to tell you." She started dragging me down the road, back the way I had come.

"Um, okay?" She didn't really give me a choice as she kept pulling me along. I wasn't too keen on following her, but I got a tingling feeling in my legs that this was important.

"So you've seen, Chiron, right? Know who you are and why and stuff?" Rachel noted distractedly as we skirted around other campers.

"Uh…"

"Great. That's awesome. Determined or Underdermined?"

"What?"

"You know who your mom or dad is? Got picked up yet? Swirly magical thing happen to you?" She gave me a look of pure bewilderment. "And how old are you?"

"Fifteen, and about my mom…" I thought back to the plant incident, but I was pretty sure that wasn't what she meant. "Uh, no?"

"I see," she said, eyes narrowing in thought. "That's odd, Percy made them promise…they are so going to get pounded." She finally stopped in a secluded area of the camp. "Ok, looks like we'll be safe here." Rachel let go of my arm, shuddering. "I seriously hate this sometimes," she confessed.

Fear was at my throat. What was I getting myself into? "Wait, what do you mean?"

I didn't get an answer. Without warning, Rachel suddenly stood stock still, her eyes glowing bright green.

Well, that was unexpected. I gave out a jittery laugh. "I'm going to go now, I've got some, uh, pies to eat. Nice to meet you Rachel!" I willed myself to take a few steps forward, but I couldn't. Rachel's eyes were like bright green searchlights, and they were so unnatural I had to fight the will to scream bloody murder. When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice was amplified, echoing off the trees and ringing in my ears. She looked like she was in a trance, that she wasn't herself anymore.

I was spooked out. Cindy was already on the top, but this totally just knocked her off her high horse. Seeing someone like this was really freaky. I started taking a few steps back, but Rachel's voice seemed to take hold of me, flowing through my ears and embedding the message in my memory.

"The final three shall take a stand

Over heaven and under to heal the land

But beware one's fatal flaw to protect the foe

The weapon's prey will stop time's flow."

After the phrase was finished, Rachel casually blinked twice, clearing the green from her eyes. "Wow. That was a weird one. Did you get it all?" Her voice sounded normal.

"…I'm really confused."

It was the truth. Over the last two days, so many odd things had happened to me that I was no longer sure of my sanity.

Rachel smiled. "You get used to it. But you're special, for sure. Better get you decided soon, you're a bit too old to still be unclaimed. Maybe we'll talk to Percy when he gets back."

With that final note, she laughed, and took my arm again. I relunctantly followed, still not too sure of what had just happened. "Come on, let's get going. I have a feeling someone's not too happy with your disappearance."

Lars was not chill.

"Do you know how worried I was?" he bleated, chomping on a tin can. "I'm your Keeper! I'm supposed to look out for you and all at this camp! And you decide, in your state of health, to take a walk, and suddenly disappear? If it wasn't for Rachel finding you, you could have been lost forever!"

I decided not to mention that Rachel was the one who dragged me over to a secret place and told me something weird in a creeper voice. The last sentence of her speech kept ringing in my head. Weapon's prey stops time's flow. That sounded pretty ominous, to say the least, and I didn't really want to decipher what it meant.

When Lars was done ranting, he took a breath and sighed. "Well, what's done is done. Better get you met up with Chiron. Let's go to the Big House, shall we?"

Since I had already angered him once, which seemed pretty hard to do, I followed Lars to the farmhouse I had seen from the night before. It was well built, around 4 stories high with a nice coat of white paint. I tilted my head up, and saw a golden weathervane twisting and turning with the wind. And there on the front porch steps, sat a portly man with dark hair and a can of Diet Coke. Next to him was a middle aged guy with thinning hair and a kind smile sitting in a wheelchair. I was instantly reminded of Auntie Phan.

"Hello May," said the man in the wheelchair, rolling himself over to face me, "We've been waiting for you."

Like I said, the next chapter is sure to be awesome. R&R! Keep the expectations high.