It was Friday afternoon, Percy, Grover and I were chilling by the lakeshore. This would have looked normal any normal person walking by, had they not noticed the fact that Grover lower body was half goat and me and Percy's shirts were riddled with burnt holes, some of them still smoking.
Grover had introduced us to the rock climbing wall the camp had, with a couple of added features you wouldn't find at your normal public gym. Mainly lava, booby traps, falling rocks and iron balls the size of watermelons, and sometime the whole thing would shake and shudder as though there was an earthquake. Grover, being half goat had its perks, easily scampered up the wall while Percy and I nearly burned to death by lava.
The three of us sat on the wooden pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving. Percy decided to say what was on everyone's mind.
"How did your conversation with Mr. D go?" he asked our best friend who had suddenly turned a sickly green.
"Fine," Grover said quickly. "Just great."
I shook my head. "Okay, remind me later to get you some acting lessons. 'Cause you are a really bad liar Grover." I said truthfully.
Grover suddenly seemed interested in the wood pattern of the pier. "Is your career still on track at least?" I asked with concern for my friend.
Grover looked at us sharply in surprise and nervousness. "C-Chiron t-told you two that I want a searcher's license?"
"Nope, you just did." I wondered briefly what a searcher's license was, but judging the look on Grover's face, who looking really upset, I decided not to ask just yet. "You did bring us to camp, surely Mr. D had to cut you some slack, right?"
Grover merely continued to look at the wooden pattern, a shaky finger trailing the pattern. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you two yet, so our fates are still tied together. If one of you get a quest and I went along to protect you and we both come back alive, then maybe he'll consider the job complete."
I grinned. "Well that's not so bad, lets just get a quest!" I said enthusiastically and wondered the possibilities of the quest, maybe it was something like the old heroes did? Or maybe as times changed so did the quests, my heart sunk when I started to wonder if I had a gotten a quest only to find out I had to get a god's dry cleaning, man that would suck.
Grover snorted, "getting a quest is not easy, not anymore. The chances of you two getting a quest, especially since you're the new blood... and even if one of you did get a quest, why would even want me to tag along?"
"Grover," I said angrily. "Of course you would come with us. You're our best friend! You've helped us, and if having a quest will help you get this license, we'll be glad to bring you along!"
Grover looked glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving… must be nice to have a useful skill."
"Hey come on! You have lots of awesome skills! I've never seen anyone play such a great Baby Come Back on the flutes!" I encouraged him while Percy was quick to join me in cheering up our friend.
"Yeah, not to mention how fast you fan run. I've never seen any man, woman, or other being run as fast as you can when the school cafeteria had enchiladas." Percy added in.
"Stop it guys," Grover protested but anyone could tell that he was feeling better.
I grinned and slapped Grover on the shoulder. It was nice being able to hang out with just Percy and Grover, kinda felt like old times. Even with all the crazy things that had happened to us, it was still nice to have something familiar.
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That night after dinner, there was much more excitement among the campers than usual. The reason that would make a whole bunch of ADHD demigods even more hyper and jumpy?
Tonight was Capture the Flag.
The second the last piece of brisket was consumed and everyone had drunk enough sugary sodas that would give a bull elephant a heart attack and kidney failure, the nature spirits carried away the plates as conch horns sounded and everyone stood up around their tables.
Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. The symbols of Athena, goddess of Wisdom.
From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but a gaudy red that looked to much like blood in my opinion, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head. The symbols of Ares, god of War.
Percy turned towards Luke. "Those are the flags?" he asked over the roar of the crowed.
"Yeah."
"Do Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" I asked, more liked yelled, to the son of Hermes.
"Not always," Luke admitted. "But often."
"So what happens when someone gets the flag?" I asked. "Do we paint it or something?"
Luke gave us a sly grin, as if he knew something we didn't and found it amusing. The scar made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a truce with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from the Ares cabin. And you two are going to help."
Why do I have such a bad feeling about this? I wondered, not really liking Luke's tone. He knew something we didn't and he didn't seem inclined to tell us.
The teams were soon announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins in the camp. According to Luke, privileges had been traded- shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities- in order to win their support.
Ares had allied themselves with everybody else. Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I had seen, Dionysus's kids were surprisingly very good athletes (not like their father, who was a bit of a slob), but luckily there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff. Luke had been adamant on insisting that I also had that edge, apparently word spread like wild fire about my nature class. Luckily the Demeter kids weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughter I was not worried about at all. They were the kids that didn't do any classes and instead opted to sit in their own little clichés by the lakeshore and gossip. The children of Hephaestus weren't the most handsome and beautiful of the bunch, but they were big and burly from working in the forge the entire day. Those were the kids I was worried about. Then, of course, there was the Ares cabin. A dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, I'd even bet my money that they were the worst on the whole planet.
Chiron stamped his hoof on the marble, gaining everybody's attention. "Heroes!" the centaur cried. "You all know the rules. The creek acts as the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed for all to see and there can only be two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but they are not to be killed nor maimed, I doubt that Mr. D will be happy about having to file out the paperwork if a camper was killed."
Mr. D glared at the campers broodily as he sipped his Diet Coke. Everyone edged away from the god of wine, nobody wanted to get turn into grape juice.
"I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" Chiron announced and with a wave of his hand the tables were covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords and daggers, spears, ox hide shields coated in metal.
"Woah," Percy said in shock. "We're really supposed to use those?"
"Awesome!" I said happily. "I love summer camp!". I gotta feel bad for normal people, this is so cooler than normal capture the flag… unless I get stabbed, okay note to self, don't get stabbed. I thought.
"Percy, unless you would like to become the stabbing bag to Clarisse and her buddies, I suggest arming yourselves." Luke stated as he grabbed two shields and walked back over to us.
"Here, Chiron thought that these may fit you two." He handed us each a shield and it took all my strength to not have the shield crush my foot. The whole thing was made of tanned ox hide and gleaming bronze, which made it good for protection but I felt like I was carrying a million pounds. We were also given bronze helmets with blue plumes on the top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.
"You two will be on border patrol." Luke advised us.
"Blue team, forward!" Annabeth yelled.
The blue team cheered as we followed the daughter of Athena down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts and jeers at us as they headed off toward the north.
I nudged Percy in the shoulder and pointed at Annabeth who had been trailing in front of us. We quickly walked up to her.
"Hey, Annabeth!" I greeted with a small wave, careful not to whack Percy in the head with my shield.
Annabeth smiled slightly as she saw us. "Hey Jordan, hey Percy." She continued to march towards our territory.
"So what's the plan?" Percy asked, "got any magic items you can loan me?"
I mentally faced palmed at the question as Annabeth's hand drifted towards her pocket as though she was afraid Percy had gone all Hermes cabin and stolen something.
"Don't mind him, he's horribly tactless." I explained patiently, "probably dropped on his head as a child." I dodged Percy's elbow with a grin.
"Watch out for Clarisse's spear," Annabeth warned us. "You do not want that thing to touch you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your jobs?"
"Yeah, something about border patrol."
"It's easy, stand by the creek. Keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan." Annabeth told us before marching away from us.
"Still trying to figure out if she likes us, or she's annoyed of us. Oh who am I kidding, I think she's more annoyed about you Perce, she loves me." I muttered to the undetermined with a grin.
Percy glared at me before cracking a small grin, "come on. Don't want to mess up Athena's plan."
I have to admit standing there alone in the woods at night with nobody other than Percy, with my feathered helm and my giant bronze shield, I felt like a complete idiot as did Percy.
I glanced around trying to see through the darkness, the only light source was the moon and the winking fireflies that seemed to float everywhere. We were stationed at a small creek that gurgled as it headed in the direction of the lake.
"You don't think we're going to get attack, right?" Percy suddenly asked. "I mean, Olympus must have liability issues, right?"
"How am I supposed to know? I'm not an immortal lawyer." I replied with a shrug.
"Like, do you think it's frowned upon if you beat up and nearly murder the new kids on their first game of Capture the Flag?" Percy pressed on.
"Percy," I sighed as I looked at the dark-haired boy, "you are really, really, really, not helping my nerves right now… just thought I'd let you know."
The conch horn blew, whoops and yells echoed in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past us like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.
Suddenly I stiffened as the hairs on the back of my neck rose as I heard a low growl coming somewhere behind us. Percy raised his shield instinctively while I glanced behind us, looking for any danger.
"You think there are any bears in these woods?" Percy asked me warily.
"That didn't sound like a bear, it sounded like some sort of dog. A really big dog."
The growling had stopped by then and I somehow knew that whatever was watching us was gone, but I wasn't sure if the thing was gone for good.
"Uh, do you remember Chiron saying that there were monsters in these woods?" I asked.
Percy paled as he understood what I meant.
On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded as five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming war cries out of the darkness of the trees.
"Cream those punks!" Clarisse screamed as she pointed at our frozen forms. Her eyes glared at us through the slits of her helmet ,which glowed eerily in the moonlight.
Clarisse was brandishing a five-foot long spear, barbed metal tip flickered with red light. Her siblings only had the standard issue bronze swords, but that didn't exactly reassure me.
As soon as they appeared I was quick to realize they had completely surrounded us. I was back to back with Percy, my sword feeling heavy and off balanced as I tried to think a way out of this without Percy and I either dying or being maimed.
One of the siblings swung their sword at me, my instincts screamed at me to move and I managed to duck under the deadly blade, I quickly swung my sword at the child of Ares but he managed to block it off with ease, all the while chuckling grimly as though he thought that we had no chance.
We don't have a chance. That little voice in the back of my head whispered. That's half the Ares cabin, they've been fighting for years, their dad is the god of war and battles itself.
Shut up brain. I thought to myself.
Behind me I heard Percy gasped in pain. Like a idiot I looked behind me to make sure my best friend was still alive, which of course let the other Ares kids disarm me and kick me to the ground, before I knew it my face was being shoved into the dirt with the Ares kids meaty hands holding me down.
"Electric…" I heard Percy mutter besides me as the other Ares kids held him down. "Her spear is electric."
"Watch out for Clarisse's spear," Annabeth had warned us. "You do not want that thing to touch you."
She couldn't have mentioned that Clarisse's spear had a little kick to it? I groaned out as I felt my ribs ready to implode due to having the heavy Ares kids holding me down. Honestly we could've known that earlier.
The only good thing about the situation was that Clarisse and the others hadn't tried to kill us or continue to beat us up, and only because they were to busy laughing their asses off.
"Hey, Clarisse," one of the sons of Ares said to his half-sister. "Why don't we give these dweebs a haircut?" he asked with a wide grin.
Clarisse smirked. "Great idea, Jimmy." She turned to her other half-siblings. "Well? You heard him? Lets give these losers a haircut!"
The Ares kids roared and hooted in approval. I tried to rip my way out of their iron tight grasp, but man were those kids strong. My hand trailed up to my neck, I could feel my pipes underneath my shirt… if I could just get it to my lips…
Percy seemed to have the same idea as me, though he was instead reaching for his unbalanced sword. But Clarisse whacked him in the arm with her spear, sparks flew violently, and Percy's arm fell to his side as limp as the other one.
"Oh wow, I'm sooo scared of this guy." Clarisse smirked as she looked at Percy. "So scary."
"Stop it!" I yelled angrily at the daughter of Ares, "leave him alone! The flag is that way!" I gestured my hand in the direction where the blue flag rested.
"We know that, new blood." One of her siblings sneered at me. "You see, we don't care about the flag. We care about the two new guys who our whole cabin look stupid."
"You do that without our help!" Percy told them.
I groaned, "Percy, not helping the situation."
Two of the attackers came at Percy, who managed to back into the creek and raised his shield, but Clarisse was too fast and her spear went straight into his ribs. Had Percy not been wearing the thick armored chest plate I would have just seen my best friend turn into a roasted human sheesh-kebab.
To make things worse, one of her siblings came forward and slashed his sword at Percy. I saw the cut, while not life threatening it was still a large cut, blood started to ooze out of it.
I saw red, I could faintly feel myself trembling in rage. No one seemed to notice that the wind had suddenly started to pick up, or how the grass seemed to tremble and the trees started to shake.
"No maiming," Percy protested as he started to turn green at the sight of his blood.
"Oops," the guy who had cut him said. "Guess I just lost my dessert privilege." The boy then kicked Percy into the creek with a splash. All the attackers howled in laughter as they watched Percy flounder a bit in the rushing water. For one wild second I thought I saw Percy looked energized, but I wasn't paying attention.
Something overcame me as my rage took hold. With a roar of my own I managed to rip my way out the grips of the person holding me back, who was too surprised to do anything.
The power flowing through me was not like anything I had felt before, it was like when I had channeled nature through me, but this time it was calmer, more controlled.
One of the kids, Jimmy I remembered faintly, stepped in front of my way. I shoved him and he fell to the ground and slid back several feet through the creek before hitting his head on a rock and passing out.
I faintly noticed Percy had gotten up and was easily taken care of two Ares kids, it was as though a switch had gone off in both of us, we were suddenly the ones with the power.
Another goon rushed towards me, his sword ready to hack me to pieces, but I managed to duck and grabbed his elbow, I then pulled down as I turned my back to my opponent, using both my strength and my enemies weight I flipped the boy over my shoulder and slammed him into the ground. The boy groaned in pain as he laid there motionless.
I rushed towards Clarisse, who was smart enough to not rush in like her less intelligent siblings, she thrust her spear forward in hopes of electrocuting me, but I was smart enough to jump out of the way.
I could easily hear the spear crackle with electricity as it came near an inch or so by my ear. The power that was giving me the strength and speed seemed to keep coming, I felt something tug my stomach, my skin itched as though a bunch of ants were crawling up my skin.
I smacked the middle of the spear that wasn't full of crackling electricity.
SNAP!
Both Clarisse and I were shocked to see her spear cut cleanly in half. Clarisse's face turned a murderous red, "You! You idiot, you corpse-breath worm!" she cried as she swung the blunt piece of the rod in an attempt to murder me with a blunt object.
I swung my fist at her chest, hoping to knock her back like she had done to Percy, surprisingly it worked. Clarisse fell to the ground, well more like into the creek. As she struggled to get up I noticed something that made my mouth dry.
On her chest armor, there was no normal flattened bronze armor, it looked as though some rabid animal had slashed at her with razor sharp claws.
I noticed in the corner of my eye that Percy had finished taking out the other children of Ares who were currently in a pile unconscious. Then I heard yelling, elated screams of triumph, and then I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high in the air. He was being flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollo kids right behind them, who were currently fighting of the Hephaestus kids.
Clarisse realized what was happening and struggled to get up, "a trick…" she muttered still dazed. "It was a trick!"
She tried to stagger after Luke but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of Cabin Eleven.
Everybody on the blue team swarmed Luke and gave the son of Hermes claps on the back before lifting him on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn, signaling that Capture the Flag was over.
The game was over. We won.
I was ready to either sink to my knees and take a well deserved nap or join in on the celebration. Before I could decide I heard Annabeth's voice right next to me and Percy. "Not bad, heroes."
I looked around and saw that she was nowhere to be seen. "Annabeth, I swear to all that is holy that if you were a ghost this entire time I'm afraid we may have to reevaluate our relationship." I told her, wherever she was.
Suddenly the air shimmered, and Annabeth seemingly materialized out of thin air. She was holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she had just taken it off of her head.
She shot me an annoyed look before turning towards Percy. "Is he always like this?" she questioned the boy.
Percy grinned. "Oh, you have no idea."
"Well," I sniffed in mock hurt, "why are you guys saying bad things behind my back. Wow, and here I was thinking we were all friends. Mnm mnm, no more! This guy is riding solo!" I declared.
"What about Grover?" Percy asked amused.
I huffed, "fine, I'm riding solo plus one Grover. Happy?"
Annabeth and Percy burst into laughter at my expression. I smirked internally, oh yeah I can so see those two getting together in the future. Time to play a little match maker. I thought deviously.
Percy suddenly gasped and clutched his arm in pain, I remembered his bad cut. "How did you get that?" Annabeth asked.
"Sword cut," Percy said through gritted teeth. "What did you think it was?"
"No," I said as I looked at the wound in disbelief. "It was a sword cut." I pointed at his arm, "look at it."
The blood was gone, where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and then it disappeared.
"I-I don't get it," Percy stuttered out as he stared at his arm as though it was some sort of alien appendage.
Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see those gears turning in her head, she looked down at Percy's feet, who, I was quick to realize, was still in the creek.
"Step out of the water, Percy." Annabeth said as she looked at the boy with a calculating stare.
"What-"
Percy looked at me as though for advice. I nodded, "come on man, just listen to her." I encouraged him.
Percy took a tentative step out of the water and nearly collapsed had I not caught him in time and helped him to his feet.
"Oh Styx," I heard Annabeth curse. "This is not good. I didn't want… I assumed it would be Zeus…"
Before anyone could asked her exactly what she meant, I heard the canine growl again but much, much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.
The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood it perfectly. "Stand ready! My bow!"
Annabeth drew her sword, I quickly grabbed mine from the forest floor.
There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.
It was looking right at Percy.
"Percy, run!" Annabeth yelled.
Annabeth and I immediately tried to step in front of him, but the hound was too fast. It leapt over us and headed towards Percy who was lucky enough to have stumbled backwards and thus avoided being turned into kibble. I winced as my ears heard the sound of screeching metal being ripped apart by razor sharp teeth.
Then there was the twang of a bow, and multiple arrows found its way into the hounds neck, it dropped to the ground dead.
By some miracle Percy wasn't dead but I couldn't help but feel woozy when I saw the blood coming out of his chest thanks to the hounds sharp claws. Chiron trotted up to us with a bow in hand and his face grim.
"Di immortales!" Annabeth exclaimed. "That's a hellhound from the fields of Punishment. The don't… they're not supposed to…"
"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."
Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.
Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy and Jordan's fault! They summoned it!"
"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.
All the campers watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it was no more.
"Percy, you're wounded." Annabeth said as she looked at the wound on Percy's chest. "Quick, get in the water."
"I'm okay," Percy argued.
"Dude you nearly got into dog kibble by a beast of hell, you are not okay!" I said to my friend in concern. "Did that hellhound hit your head or something?"
"Chiron, watch this." Annabeth said.
Percy looked too tired to argue and instead stepped back into the water, his healing wounds were suddenly exhilarated by ten, soon enough he was completely fine. But then a light flickered above his head, everyone gasped.
I could make out what appeared to be a green trident glowing above Percy's head. Wait, trident…. No way… I thought in disbelief as I realized who Percy's dad was.
Percy didn't seem to understand why people were staring at him, he hadn't seen the symbol yet. He started to apologize.
"Dude, look up." I told him.
Percy glanced up and only had about a second to make out the shape before the light disappeared.
"You're father," Annabeth muttered. "This is really not good."
"It is determined," Chiron announced.
All around, campers started to kneel to Percy, even the Ares kids (thought they didn't look to happy about it) I followed the crowd and kneeled as well.
"My father?" Percy asked bewildered.
"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God!"
Percy gapped at the centaur in disbelief. "M-My dad is…" he trailed off.
Suddenly I felt something buzzing in my ear. A light was glowing above me. Everyone had looked at me in surprise as they saw a light slowly flicker above my head, too blurry to make out an image.
"Another determination!" One of the Hermes kids exclaimed.
Everyone looked at me, eager to find out who my godly parent was. I didn't look up, scared and nervous on this new information, not sure if I was ready to finally find out who my dad was.
Suddenly everyone's faces turned shocked and pale, if they had been shocked when Percy had been determined they were a thousand times more surprised now.
Suddenly nature spirits and satyrs appeared out of the woods, looks of awe and pure shock etched into their faces. Some of them looked ready to faint, I noticed Grover among them. He was staring at me wide-eyed with awe, as though I was some sort of savior.
"I-Impossible!" Chiron exclaimed as he looked at the image above my head with shock, his face pale. "It can't be!"
Mr. D popped into existence besides the old centaur, a look of disbelief written all over his face. He even dropped his Diet Coke in surprise.
I finally glanced up and saw the symbol.
It was a shepherd's crook glowing in a dark green light. The smell of spring and the forest seemed to overwhelm the clearing as the wind blew gently.
"How is this possible!" Chiron exclaimed. "The stories, the rumors, it was all a lie?" he trailed off.
Even Annabeth looked stunned. "How? He can't be his, it's just not possible. He's supposed to be dead! He was said to be dead thousands of years ago!"
"It seems we were wrong." Mr. D said, "this energy… It's his. I know it." He declared as he popped open another Diet Coke and took a hearty swig from it, though judging by his expression he deeply wished it contained alcohol.
I quickly tried to remember what the shepherds crook stood for, or more importantly, who it stood for. When it clicked I felt like I had been hit by a train. My dad… he was…
Chiron bowed again, all around him campers, satyrs, and nature spirits alike bowed deeply to me.
"Pan." Chiron announced, shock still evident. "The Lost God. God of the Wild, Shepherds, and all living wild creatures. Hail, Jordan Hunter. Son of the Wild!"
Hope you liked this chapter. Yep Jordan is the Son of Pan, probably made it very obvious but still hope you like it. Truth is I have never seen any child of Pan stories (trust me I've looked) and so I decided to write my own.
Hope my reactions were good, I may rewrite that later on. And for those wondering about the marks on Clarisse's armor, did you really think that I would not give Jordan a power? It won't be revealed for awhile but it will be worth the wait.
