You get the drill. Read, review, don't flame (please D: ), and know that I don't own Percy :) Bye bye *poof*

A Strange Happening

I love camp. You can just sit there all day, get pummeled by weirdo teenager girls that hate your guts, almost get hit in the head with an arrow courtesy of Percy Jackson, avoid getting your insides spewed and skewered, and even eat some disgusting food in the dining pavilion. Lovely, isn't it?

Not.

I was hanging out with Lola and Barry in the forest, telling them about my dreams. I'd learned the past, and discovered that an evil titan was after a special girl. With my luck, it'd be, oh, I don't know, me. But with any better luck, Rosa would be done with thanks to Kronos.

"Hm… that's a little creepy." Barry commented. "Are you sure he wasn't talking about another Crooked One?" To Lola, that note was convincing. But I saw through it.

"No. It was Kronos, Barry. Do you want me to call you Mule Freak? Or will you cooperate with me?"

He shut up at that.

"Well, 'E', I hate to say this, but if he's really this titan man, and he's after a girl, it sounds like he wants you. Hate to break that to you, bud, but it's dangerously possible." Lola said somewhat warmly. I was going to kill her, unless she was the one they wanted and got to her before I did. Oh well. I'd talk to a Hermes kid, smuggle in some whipped cream. It was going straight to her pillow.

"Thanks, Lola, for making me feel so… special. I think I'm gonna go back to Cabin 11 and mope now." I said, giving her my death glare. I decided to take some pity on the satyr, though, so I just gave him a small warning look and took off. I felt really, really weird. Like I was being followed. And believe me, honey, I've been stalked by monsters plenty of times. I whirred around, to find absolutely nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a girl─ about 17, maybe 16 was at my shoulders. She had honey blonde hair, that was in vague curls. She was holding a Yankees cap, though she didn't look like too much of a sports lover. Her stormy gray eyes seemed to hold you, like she could seriously hurt you. Child of Athena, alert. I repeat, Child of Athena, alert, alert.

"Wha- who are you? How did you do that?" I asked in a shocked tone. Don't look at me like you wouldn't be startled by a girl appearing from nowhere, because I tell you, it was pretty freaky.

"Annabeth Chase"

"Daughter of Athena." I finished for her. "I figured that one out on my own."

Annabeth smirked at me, but she stuffed the hat in her pocket and let it go. "I can help." she offered, even though I had absolutely no clue what the heck she was talking about. I gave her a look, warning that I didn't understand, and she continued, saying, "The dreams? I can help explain them a little more. You do want to know more about it all, right?"

I nodded earnestly, and she explained to me that Kronos was always after something or someone. I didn't look like a child of the 'Big Three' to her, so she told me that I probably wouldn't be a big prophecy child. I'd be safe. That made me feel absolutely fuzzy. Though I'll admit, I did feel a bit safer.

Then I thought about something for the first time: how did she know about the dream? I had barely come back from telling Barry and Lola, and now suddenly this random girl found out. What in the world?

I got the sudden feeling that I had a stalker.

Annabeth and I decided to go to the fighting arena, and take a seat. For one, there was entertainment down there. Another, it was pretty quiet. No one would hear us.

Oh, and by the way, I have an irrational fear of dogs, so you'll understand why I reacted the way I did to what happened next.

Imagine Clifford the Big Red Dog. Picture him + half of him. You get a hellhound. So, basically, I saw a giant mongrel thing even bigger than the childhood classic right in front of me. I screamed my lungs off, and almost fainted. Annabeth let out a half-hearted laugh, and helped me up, because I had fallen over with fear. "There's nothing wrong. That's just Mrs. O'Leary." she explained.

"Yeah. Just. That's like saying, 'Oh! We're just the offspring of all-powerful immortal beings! No worries!', you weirdo. WE HAVE A GIANT HELLHOUND RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES, AND YOU DON'T EXPECT ME TO SCREAM!"

With that, Mrs. O'Leary pouted sadly. It seemed I had displeased her. I furrowed my brow, and slowly and cautiously pat her nose. It was way bigger than my palm, I noted.

Mrs. O'Leary went into puppy mode, which I was kinda surprised about. Here she was, a giant hellhound, and she was acting like a Jack Russell Terrier. She yapped at me, and wagged her tail expectantly. I looked to my new friend, and she pulled out a big, rubber, red ball that read Waterland Denver, Co. and threw it across the arena. Soon, the ball was in pieces at our feet. I was disgusted by the drool, but I picked up what was most of it, and tossed it. Mrs. O'Leary retrieved it, and put it in my lap. I would need a change in clothes later, considering I had a bunch of monster drool on my jeans. I decided to get a bone from Annabeth's backpack that she carried around, and give it to her. Mrs. O'Leary's tail thumped happily against the seats as she chewed on her new reward. I picked up the torn up ball from off my lap, and I gave it to Annabeth, who didn't look too pleased with me. Too bad, O Smart One. You get to keep the yucky ball.

She continued to tell me things, our little hellhound interruption behind us.

I couldn't pay all my attention to her. ADHD brain, remember? Sometimes I listened to what she had to say, sometimes I was watching Mrs. O'Leary, from time to time I'd watch the sword fighters. But most of my attention was on the birds that had hurt Jet's wings with stones. They were up in the sky, occasionally doing to other campers what they'd done to me. Eve Benson was no happy girl.

Finally, Athena's daughter finished up talking about Rosa, and that she definitely was quite a pain. But with reason. This was where I was truly interested in what she was saying.

"When Rosa got to camp, she warned us of tragedy, and that there was a, quote, 'giant maniac man-killing Cyclops on the loose', unquote. The first few weeks, she was fidgety. Very fidgety. It took a while for her to warm up to us. She was horribly upset from the death of her best friend, Simon Albuquerque. He was a son of Athena. Rosa fed us the whole story. She" Annabeth was cut off by Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes. "Oh, hello Chris." she said, the slightest hint of distaste in her voice. I knew that he was cool with a lot of people, including Annabeth, so she was probably just annoyed that she'd been interrupted.

"Time for rock-wall climbing, Annabeth." he said, smiling. She did not look very happy with that, but she reluctantly got up, took her things, and left me with only a child of the god of thieves. I wasn't too thrilled about that.

Chris Rodriguez was a Hispanic dude who was dating Clarisse La Rue, from Ares. He had been through the Labyrinth, and came out with no hint of sanity. It took him a while to heal up from his shock. He had once been on Kronos' side, I'd heard, so I decided to be wary. Just in case.

But, luckily, that wasn't needed. Chris was a real nice guy, and we talked for a little bit. But then he had Greek lessons, so he had to leave.

I was alone, sitting in the arena with only a hellhound for company. And the thing is, I was horrified of her. I knew she was the world's only friendly hellhound, but that didn't make me feel any nicer.

I decided the thing I couldn't do: sit here all day.

So I walked down to the main part of the arena and looked around in the sword section. They were all celestial bronze blades, some with designs on the grips. I picked one up. Heavy, I thought. Putting it back, I picked up another. Much too long. I put that back, too. It took me a while before I found a balanced sword. The grip was sort of soft, and it was jet black. There was an intricate golden design on it, though it took me a while to realize that it was only Ancient Greek. It read, 'Pain', but I couldn't really see what the Greek looked like, truly.

I tested my new sword out on a practicing dummy. One thrash, and Mrs. O'Leary had a new head-shaped chew toy.

I found the weapon's scabbard, and sheathed it. No one was here to help me practice, anyway.

That was, until Greg Willins walked into the arena.

"Hey, Kyle's looking for you." he told me. "He wanted to know if you wanted to go do some foot-races with him. He needs a partner, apparently, and I guess he likes you."

I told him that I didn't really want to, but that Lola would love to help out. That would put a twist in her toga. Maybe I didn't have to find whipped cream after all…? Nah, I'd still get my laugh.

Whipped cream: Check

Foot-ache: Check

Operation Annoy Lola was now a go.

Greg took off without another word, to tell Kyle. I was left alone in the arena, again, and if Greg told Lola that it was my idea, I'd get another days worth of poking. I still question why she does that to me out of boredom and/or sudden want.

Wonder what I did next? I probably did some heroic thing, like stop Mrs. O'Leary from choking on her bone, right? Wrong. I just sat there. Yup. Nothing better to do, at all. I just waited, hoping that maybe my friend would come back.

To my happiness, Greg did come back. Though he did fill me in that Lola was fuming mad, and planned on giving me a beating later. Wonderful. Kyle was a little upset, but he settled for my angry friend.

I pulled my new sword out. "I need some help practicing. Mind?" I asked, because I seriously sucked. Sure, I cut a dummy's head off. Your point?

No, seriously. I don't see you with a point.

Anyways, Greg agreed to do some sparring. He quickly ran over to his cabin, grabbed his sword, then returned. He taught me how to reflect, defend, jab, stab, and a whole bunch of other things that I'd prefer not list.

My luck was actually kind of… good. I accidentally scratched Greg's arm, and it was seriously bleeding. I called out loudly for an Apollo camper (I honestly didn't care who), and Owen Salvatore was to the rescue. Though sadly, I recognized him as one of the people who had sided with Rosa VanCleaven in our little food fight. I was hoping, maybe, the incident had gone past everyone, but he told me that I had 'bad aim'. Now another person was going to have whipped cream in their pillow when they woke up.

After my friend was proven okay, Owen gave me a small pep talk about hurting people. I waved him off, and he left. Good riddance.

What was I saying about good luck? Forget it. I was nearly killed. It was like reliving the Rosa-Run-In, almost. At least that time, Lola and Kyle had saved my sorry butt. I wasn't even scratched. But here, oh boy, was I scratched. I felt like I was about to erupt into flames and go to Hades.

Speaking of Hades, I'll move on. Capture The Flag was the following day, and everyone was excited. Except me, who kept getting smacked upside the head by Lola when she figured out that Chris and I had found a way to dump all that whipped cream into her sleeping bag. She was not a happy girl, and because of that, neither was I. Being whacked isn't fun. But anyhow, we were all getting ready for the 'big night'. I didn't see why everyone was so happy about the game. You run, you grab a flag, you run, you win. What was the big deal?

My question never got answered by the camper I was talking to. Chiron announced that today, the two leading teams were Demeter (cue the applause from Cabin 4, and Demeter fans) and Janus (mostly boo's, a few cheers from Janus' kids). Demeter got Athena, Ares, Poseidon, Hecate, Hermes, Hades, Apollo, and Dionysus. Janus got everyone else (which was a dang lot, including all those minor gods). Because they got so much, I almost envied that cabin's counselor, Vicki Osborne, who cheered the loudest of all.

Aphrodite's cabin never played. They just sat by the lake, admiring themselves. I was extremely pleased when an annoyed camper pushed Rosa in. Sure, I was the annoyed camper who pushed her in, I don't care. I learned that if you don't get caught, you can get away with a lot of things at Camp Half-Blood.

Anyways. Moving on. Changing subject. Our team captain, Katie Gardner, got our group to form a large circle of heads. We talked strategy for about four minutes, then we split up. Sadly, I was on flag duty with some moody kid from Hades named Nico di Angelo. We had the flag at Zeus' Fist (aka The Poop Pile. Don't ask), so we got to protect a flag that was in the middle of a huge rock mound. Whoop-de-doo.

There was a lot of action going on around me that I couldn't quite figure. I was too tired, or whatever excuse I had thought of at the time.

Nico didn't really try to make conversation. He just stood there and looked as bored as I think I've ever seen a person.

Some big, ugly lug from the Morpheus cabin was messing around with my Lola. Nobody does. Er, nobody nobody, not Nobody. Long story.

Anyways, they were sword fighting, when the guy purposely tripped her and she fell into the lake. I commanded Nico to take good guard watch, while I confronted the jerk who was messing with my friend. I didn't care if I had been smacked silly by Lola, this guy would get it.

We were shouting at each other, and it became a fight. My gal was still in the river with all the naiads and fishes, but that would wait. The only thing processing through my mind was the word: KILL.

I had finally made the Morpheus dude go away (the power of force is a wonderful thing, no?), when I saw a glowing sensation behind me. I turned, and saw a huge, lit-up symbol above Lola's head. It looked like a skull, I'd guess, and Nico didn't look thrilled.

Chiron walked over, armor and all, and announced, "Heroes, bow, as we have found a new child of Hades. The god of death, metals, dirt, and the Underworld. All, hail, Lola Ruman."

Everyone seemed to be bowing (even Rosa, which seriously shocked me), so I went down and did it. Although, I admit, bowing to your best friend is a little awkward.

Like it? My longest chapter so far, so... let's see how it goes with my viewers :D

Oh, and since Lola's been claimed, you clearly can't guess her anymore xD Just try out Eve. Goddess Of Discord And Cookies *cue applause* has guessed her already, so she gets cookies :) You'll probably get them if you're good and/or guess her parent, too, so try it out if you want to have a say in what happens next or get a lifetime supply of magical cookies o: