4.

Our driver has one-hundred eyes

and the activities director is a half-horse.

What's next?

It was Ash who shook me awake as the plane began its descent towards the runway of JFK Airport.

I blinked the blurriness out of my eyes and began gathering my things; I wouldn't be able to retrieve my sword and rucksack from the overhead compartment until we had stopped completely. After gradually come to a halt, the passengers flocked down the aisle towards the exit. The Danvers woman gave me a comforting smile before heading off with the rest of them.

Ash looked at me. "Do you know each other?"

I shook my head. "No but she spoke to me for a while."

"What about?"

I shrugged, before reaching up at the handle of the compartment and pushing it open. "She wanted to know why two kids were travelling on their own," I told him, sliding the rucksack down and then over my shoulder. Augury, my sword, almost clattered to the floor had I not somehow managed to grab it in time. One passenger looked at it, a look of bemusement crossing their features before they toddled off down the aisle again.

I turned back to Ash. "Are you sure they can't see it?"

"Believe me there would be a whole lot more panic if they could," he responded, his own rucksack slung over his back. "Come on, let's go – he'll be waiting for us in the parking lot."

"Who?" I queried.

He grinned at me from over his shoulder. "You'll just have to wait and find out."

"I hate you."

"Nah," he shook his head, a smirk still stretched across his lips as he led the way through the aisle and towards the impatiently waiting flight attendants by the exit. "You love me really. I'm your only friend; a life without me would be a life without grass."

"I would be fine without grass."

"Okay yeah that was a bad comparison."

It was rather easy to find the man or whatever he was that was picking us up. From afar, the mean leant against the van that was printed with 'Delphi Strawberry Service', looked like your typical muscular blond dude with his arms dropped down by his sides. But then when you got closer – oh boy it is a different story. I had to restrain myself from gasping in surprise at the man's one-hundred freaking blue eyes covering his entire body.

All of them swerved to look at us and I briefly wondered whether he ever got dizzy from moving them altogether like that. "His name is Argus," Ash informed me. "He's the security guard at Camp Half-Blood. I asked Chiron to send him."

"Argus and who?"

"Chiron is a centaur and the activities director of the camp. You'll meet him soon enough," he told me just as we reached were Argus was standing. Argus moved his one-hundred eyes back and forth between me and Ash. The satyr took a step forwards, gesturing towards me. "This is Clara – a demigod I found in California. She needs to go to the camp."

Argus seemed to get the message as he helped pile our bags into the van and then ushered us into our seats and we were off. It took more than an hour of cruising through the New York City traffic until we reached what seemed to be a farm road and then eventually stopping.

Ash was the first to climb out, opening his arms out wide as if embracing the air. "Home sweet home," he said, grinning back at me. Although all I could see was a long fence that had the sign 'Pick Your Own Strawberries Please' attached. "Come on Clara."

I dragged myself out of the van and walked behind Ash as he led the way towards the camp, Argus carrying our belongings with him. I offered to take one of the bags but apparently he seemed adamant that they remained with him. Unconsciously, I found my hand hovering over the handle of Augury where it was tucked against my rucksack. I knew that Argus was unlikely to harm me, but still every time I looked at him I had the sudden urge to reach for the weapon.

It's not as if I can use it anyway, I thought. I was terrible at fight, as I clearly established whilst fighting the Laistrygonian giants.

We continued along until we reached a patch of strawberry fields and a large, sky-blue house came into view. Then my eyes fell on the rest of the camp, I felt my jaw drop open. "It's impressive, isn't it?" Ash smirked when he noticed my expression. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

There was so much to the camp that I didn't know what to focus on. There was a volleyball court, a forge, an armoury and in the distance a climbing wall that looked rather dangerous. "T-This is insane – how has nobody noticed all this?" I asked, as I noted down the beginnings of the sea and the beach upon the distant horizon.

The water looked particularly mesmerising in the morning sun.

"I told you, it's the Mist. A supernatural force that hides our world from mortals," Ash said amusedly, he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, let's go meet Chiron."

So apparently a centaur is a person who is half-man and half-horse (apparently the Greeks loved their hybrids) and the camp's very own said-centaur was standing in front of what Ash called the Big House.

From the waist up, Chiron appeared to be a middle-aged man with long thinning brown hair, bushy eyebrows and brown eyes accompanied with a scruffy beard. If you kept your focus on his top half, with his formal clothing, you would think he was a regular human and then you look down and then oh wait – there's the torso of a white stallion where his legs should be.

He had his arms crossed, his face lost in a thoughtful expression until he noticed us arriving. "Ash, my dear satyr," he called out, walking out to meet us, his hooves making a continuous clip-clop clip-clop sound until he stopped. "You're back and I see you've acquired a demigod."

Ash straightened his back proudly. "My first one."

"Indeed," a small smile formed across the centaur's face, and then he turned towards me. "And what might your name be?"

"Clara Gilley."

He furrowed his eyebrows briefly as if the name sounded familiar but it was gone as soon as it appeared. Chiron nodded. "And your parentage?"

"She doesn't know yet," Ash answered for me. "But it's her mom that's the god –"

Chiron held up a hand. "I believe Clara can speak for herself."

I watched with vague amusement as Ash's face flushed an embarrassed crimson, he pulled the beanie off of his head and ran a hand through the messy blond locks. "Sorry sir," he mumbled, looking awkwardly at his feet until Chiron spoke again.

"It's quite alright Ash – how about you return to the other satyrs and announce your return while I walk Clara around the camp," Ash meekly nodded, before taking his bag from Argus and trotting further into the camp.

The one-hundred-eyed man then wandered towards the Big House and once the door clicked shut, the camp activities director looked back at me with a smile. "So Clara, I take it Ash has fully welcomed you to the camp?" he gestured for them to start walking.

I nodded my head. "He was very enthusiastic about it."

"Ah yes, Ash is a very enthusiastic satyr and will do about anything in his attempt to impress both me and his peers. Sending him to California was his first search mission, you see, a chance to prove himself," Chiron exhaled. "I suppose you were living with your father all this time, did he already know?"

Yes he did, I thought irritably but he didn't speak out loud. Instead I said, "My dad died when I was two in a car accident. I was adopted by my mom, she said she was a demigod too – a child of Apollo."

"Felicity Gilley?" he asked.

"How did you know –"

"Your surname rang a bell, but I wasn't quite sure until you mentioned Apollo. Felicity came here as a child and left as a young adult," he mused. "I had no idea she had adopted. She rarely contacts us now; the last I heard from her was when she first moved all the way to California. How is she?"

"She's fine," I assured him. "She saved me from two giants that attacked our home yesterday but she didn't want to come to Camp Half-Blood with me."

We halted our walk once we'd reached a large circle of cabins that appeared to each have uniquely themed architectures. Kids of all shapes and sizes walked and ran around us; most of them wearing bright orange shirts scrawled with the words 'Camp Half-Blood' on top of what appeared to be the image of a flying horse.

When I looked back at Chiron, his face was lined with concern and I sensed a new aura of melancholy surrounding him. "It may very well be because there are not a lot of positive memories she can attribute to this place," he said. "I remember when her friend Billy died...it was like she was transformed into an almost completely different person. Until you came along it seems."

"I didn't want to leave her but she made me."

"It was what was needed to be done Clara. Camp Half-Blood can keep you safe, it can train you to survive the outside world on your own," he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Your godly parent shall claim you soon enough – probably around tonight's campfire – and you'll be able to be moved to your designated cabin. But for now you'll be temporarily staying in the Hermes Cabin."

He walked me over to the eleventh cabin, a worn-looking brown structure. I stared at the odd shape that was hung over the door. Chiron pointed to it. "That is the Caduceus, the symbol of the Greek god Hermes as well as his staff that he carries."

The name Hermes briefly rung a bell – he had something to do with messages and thieves that I was sure of. Chiron opened the door to the cabin and more children dressed in the same Camp Half-Blood shirts were gathered around doing their own thing.

"Connor," Chiron called out, still standing at the doorstep and a tall, skinny boy with a mop of curly brown hair hanging over his blue eyes looked upwards from where he sat on one of the bunks. Upon realising he was needed, he got to his feet and walked over and now that he was up close, I took note of his elfish features and upturned eyebrows. "This is Clara Gilley; she needs a place to stay until she's claimed – perhaps one of the bunks at the back?"

Connor nodded, a smirk curling upon his lips. "Right this way," he gestured behind him and somehow I knew that I should be wary of him and his siblings.

I stepped into the cabin, turning around when Chiron spoke again. "Make sure she get's herself to the Dining Pavilion and the campfire tonight when it's time," he reminded Connor as he began his steady trot away from the cabin. "It's likely that she'll be claimed then."

"So," spoke the boy once the centaur had disappeared. "Clara Gilley, eh?"

"Yes," I replied. "That's what he said."

Connor held up his hands in a brief gesture of surrender. "I'm not going to do anything or play any tricks on you – don't worry, that's my siblings job now," he led me down through the bunks towards an empty one at the end. Then he stopped and held out his hand. "My name is Connor Stoll; I'm the head counsellor of this cabin, at least until if my brother comes back, that is."

I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "A child of the god of thieves isn't going to try anything?"

"Nah," he waved my question off dismissively. "I would've a little while ago but now I'm a lot more chilled. Sort of. It's Cecil, Julia and Alice you've really got to look out for."

"Alright then," I placed my rucksack on the unclaimed bed, my weapon rattling against it.

The son of Hermes whistled in approval. "Nice sword. Got a name?"

"Augury."

He pulled a face. "Sounds like an old lady's name. No offence."

"No it doesn't," I don't know why I was so defensive of the sword I had only used once and had no idea how to properly handle. It did, admittedly, sound like the name of an old-age pensioner. I guess it's because it had been owned by my mom previously to me that had made me so fond over it. "It's a nice name – I think it has something to do with omens."

Connor shrugged. "Well anyway..." he looked at his wristwatch. "You can stay here until dinner if you want; I think there are a few books on the myths you can read up on the shelf over there."

"What else would I do?"

"Touché."

*~PJ~*

I had really wanted to go and see Ash again but I wasn't sure where he would actually be, so for the time remaining of the day leading up to dinner, I remained in the Hermes Cabin.

I used the time to inspect Augury in more detail, and noticed the engraved initials of B.R.H carved at the bottom. I wasn't sure what it meant though. It certainly didn't symbolise Mom's name or the swords name for that matter so it must've been done by one of its other owners. My thoughts also wondered whether it might've belonged to the Billy that Mom and Chiron mentioned. I didn't know his surname to come to that conclusion completely but it seemed reasonable nonetheless.

When it was time to head to the Dining Pavilion, our group, led by Connor and followed by the three other children of Hermes whose names I could recall as Cecil Markowitz, Julia Feingold and Alice Miyazawa. All of those kids looked a whole lot more mischievous than Connor did, so I chose to stick close to the latter. The Dining Pavilion looked as impressive from afar as it did up close – there were no roof or walls, just a row of Greek columns sat on a hill that overlooked the sea.

From each of the tall pillars torches blazed brightly, the flickering flames brightening the hill. However, the main source of light would be the central fire burning in the middle of the room; each of the several tables had a pristine white cloth with a purple trim.

An uncountable amount of campers had huddled around every table, occasionally walking up to the fire with their plates and scooping the rest of their meal into the flames.

Connor led me to a specific table, already lined ready with goblets and plates. I stared at my empty one and then back up at Connor. He smirked at me and then gestured to his own plate and goblet which had somehow become miraculously full of cheese and tomato pizza with coke.

He took one of the pieces of the cheesy pizza and took a chunk out of the tip. "All you gotta do is say what you want and it will appear," he told me eventually after a minute of tortuously watching him eat. "It's not that difficult, you know."

"You could've told me that when we got here!"

"And miss watching you gawp at me in jealousy? No way," Connor grinned and I was half tempted to shove the rest of the pizza down his throat. "Well, go on then."

I took a breath to calm myself.

I had hardly been here for a whole day and already I wanted to choke someone – that was by no means a good start. I stared back downwards at my plate and muttered one of my favourite dishes under my breath. Soon and to my surprise, the plate was full with tomato pasta accompanied with orange juice that tasted exactly the way Mom made it.

Halfway through our meal, Ash arrived. "Missed me?" he smirked from where he snuck up behind me; I choked on my orange juice. "Whoa there, try not to drown yourself," he said whilst patting my back which did little help.

"You idiot," I hissed, wiping my face with a nearby napkin. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"I didn't sneak up on you," he insisted, attempting miserably to keep a straight face. "I just walked up to you and said hi."

"Yeah right," I scowled.

I swerved around to face him – taking note of his change of clothes. Instead of his long baggy jeans, fake shoes and blue shirt, he had on a simple orange Camp Half-Blood shirt with his goat legs on full display. I could now see the horns poking up out of his long blond hair. My form of greeting consisted of swatting him. "Where were you?" I demanded.

He pouted, rubbing his arm. "I had to talk to the Council of Cloven Elders about my mission. Sheesh, I wasn't gone that long."

"You left me alone. You're the only one in this camp that I actually know."

Ash gestured behind me to Connor, who was midway through taking his plate to the pavilion fire. "You've met Connor, he's a good guy and it seems as if you've survived so far," he wiggled his eyebrows as if suggesting something that I hoped for this sake he wasn't actually suggesting. "Looks like you get on well. Who knows –"

"Finish that sentence and this plate of pasta will find itself in your hair," I interrupted sternly.

The blond satyr made a tsk tsk sound, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Now now Clara, the gods won't take too well for you throwing away their offerings, now will they?" he pointed at the fire. "They go in the flames, not on the poor, innocent satyr's head."

"Innocent?" I scoffed. "Yeah right. And I'm a gorilla."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Well – with the way you eat, you're not wrong."

"I swear to the gods –" I went to swipe at him again only for him to laugh and sidestep out of the way. He leant up nonchalantly against one of the pillars.

"Go on Clara, the gods can't be kept waiting."

I felt my teeth grind together. "I'm going to get you back, you know," I informed him, lifting up my plate of the remaining pasta and heading over to the pavilion fire. "And you'll never see it coming."

"Oooo I'm trembling with so much fear – whatever should I do?"

I hadn't exactly come up with anything for the revenge yet, but I was determined and so I ignored the jibe and scraped the rest of the pasta into the flames. And then I paused, was I supposed to say something as well?

I wasn't completely sure how this stuff worked. Uh well thanks, I said and when nothing happened I assumed it was the right thing. Then a thought occurred to me. And um mother (wait was that too formal?) Mom? (ah that was better) if you could tell me who you are soon that would be great...okay, thanks again I guess.

*~PJ~*

The entirety of the campers met up at the campfire just as it was nearing nine pm. By the time we all got there, the fire was at a height of at least twelve feet and shone a brilliant gold.

I sat myself down next to Ash, Connor and the other three Hermes kids near the back of the group – watching as some of the Apollo kids prepare to start off the singing. I couldn't help but notice that some of them shared a few physical appearances to Mom, which just made me miss her even more.

Chiron was walking around the edges of the fire, occasionally talking to one of the campers. He told me that this is around the time that any undetermined demigods were claimed by their parents. A knot of nerves had begun to form in my stomach at the thought – what if my godly parent didn't want to even claim me? What if they were ashamed?

Ash told me that all gods had sworn on the River Styx to claim their children at the age of thirteen and my birthday wasn't until a few months away. Would I have to wait that long? I hoped not, I did consider myself a patient person but I wasn't by any means that patient. I stared at all the campers sat along the campfire, chatting to their friends until one of them in particular, caught my eye.

A girl, probably a few years older than me, was sat beside Cecil Markowitz from the Hermes Cabin just a few metres away from where I was. She had dark brown hair but that wasn't what stopped me, it was the familiar green eyes that did.

My hands reached up to my own – I recognised those eyes because they were the exact same shade as mine.

I must've been staring rather intently at this girl because eventually she turned to face me and then her eyes slid upwards above my head, a look of surprise crossing her features. The campers' chatter had suddenly drifted into silence, I looked around in confusion but they were all staring at me. Even Ash was looking above my head, so naturally I found myself following his line of sight.

At first I couldn't exactly make out what it was that was seemingly floating above me. It seemed like some kind of symbol, which glowed a bright sapphire with sparks that hissed and crackled outwards. I tilted my head to get a better look – it appeared to be a pair of large torches crisscrossing each other with flickering deep blue flames. Was this it? Was I being claimed?

Chiron's voice rang out through the silence, making me jump from the sudden noise and answering that question for me. "Hail Clara Gilley, daughter of Hecate."

As I watched the symbol slowly fade out of existence, I could only thing of one thing.

Who the heck was Hecate?