Dinner was wonderful. I made sure to remember my offering to the gods. According to my dream I'd had the other night, it seems that the Architect created the ancestors of the gods like she'd created Denizens and the gods were worshipped rather than the Architect herself.
So I made sure to give them something good.
After dinner, we all started to head back to our cabins when I heard something with my heightened, Denizen-like senses.
"What's that?" I asked, making Connor Stoll stop for a moment.
"Uh," he said, "what's what?"
I paused for a moment. I could hear something going on on the other side of the hill by the huge pine tree.
I ran over toward the hill.
"Arthur!" Connor chased after me. I still out-ran him.
When I got to the pine tree, I noticed what all the commotion was. There was someone fighting a creature over the border to the camp. I squinted my eyes but, in the evening light, it was difficult to see exactly what it was from this distance.
Then, I did something risky; I stepped over the boundary. Immediately, the large creature that was fighting the smaller figure turned its head so that its full attention was on me.
"I'll distract him!" I called to the mortal, smaller figure.
Jumping up and down and waving my arms up in the air, I decided to use the Fourth Key.
As I was pulling it out, the monster of sorts turned its full body toward me. I pointed the baton at it and yelled, "Light!"
I blinding white light came from the end of the Fourth Key that was facing the creature. While it was momentarily blinded, so was I.
"Fourth Key! Call off the light!" I said, a bit softer than my fist call.
The light shut off and I stumbled backwards, into the pine tree.
That's when the smaller figure jumped on top of the larger creature and stabbed down. The monster gasped and turned into a cloud of dust, much like an amateur Nithling. The smaller figure was left standing in the moonlight. Indeed, it was a kid about my age who looked very scared. He broke into a sprint and ran all of the way across the border. I ran after him.
As soon as the kid got over, he ran right up past Connor and collapsed.
"Arthur!" Conner yelled, "Get over here!"
I ran back over the border, feeling some unease as I crossed the boundary line. Finally reaching the two others, I bent down to examine the kid's condition. He had sweated up a storm fighting the monster and seemed to be all right--just tired.
Next thing I knew, the rest of the cabins' kids were up and around us, looking at the newcomer. Eventually, Connor and Travis carried the kid down to the Big House.
I was being patted on the shoulders again and being told that I did a good job, even though Connor was the only one who'd actually seen anything. It reminded me of right after capture the flag. I was just ready to get back to the Hermes cabin.
I heard a loud whump!-like noise behind the group of us. I turned around with the rest of the campers. There was a huge dog behind us. It was over the border, at least, but it was terrifying.
Somebody yelled, "Hellhound!" and a bunch of Apollo cabin's archers sprung forward, bows at the ready.
The thing growled and stalked back and forth in front of the border. That scared me. But what really was frightening about it was that the thing seemed to be looking for something...or someone.
Finally, it laid its eyes on something that absorbed its attention. It was looking at me...or rather, me and Percy who had somehow managed to get next to me.
"Great gods," Percy muttered.
"You got that right," I muttered back.
Then, the hellhound growled and jumped over the boundary. Despite the arrows and such flying at it and hitting it, it landed with a heavy paw on my chest and the other on Percy, who stabbed it, making it jump off of us. I had just enough time to jump up before it came crashing back down, swatting at Percy. I got an idea, then. The Fourth Key turned into a saber in my hand and I ran, dangerously, under the body of the hellhound. Before it could notice anything other than Percy, I jumped up (higher than a kid my height should have been able to) and stabbed between its ribs. It took a moment for the hellhound to process the damage and look to see who had stabbed it.
Right before it turned to dust it swiped a paw at me, promptly knocking me to the ground.
Its dusty remains scattered with a wind as Percy, injured himself, ran over to see if I was all right. Of course, however, being me, I wasn't. I looked down at my wound, suddenly worried that he may ask questions if my blood had already turned blue (the color of a denizen's blood). I saw my red blood splattered across my chest and arms, and lay back my head in relief and in pain.
"Arthur?" Percy waved his hand over my face.
"Yeah," I replied, "I'm conscious."
He opened his mouth to say more.
"And, no, I don't think I'm quite okay."
I looked up at him and laughed a little bit.
"Honestly, you aren't much better than I am, though."
"We need to get you some help." Percy looked at a nearby Apollo cabin kid. Percy mouthed get Chiron and examined my wounds a bit more.
"You think you can walk?" he asked.
"I can sure try, but I doubt it."
He grimaced and helped me to my feet whereupon Chiron entered the area where we were standing.
It turned out that I could walk...a little bit. Percy had to support me, but at least I had control of my legs.
That's when I got an idea.
I reached for the Fourth Key and clutched it (it had become a baton again, so it was much easier to do so).
"Heal," I muttered, and immediately I felt the pain of my wounds knitting themselves back together, my broken bones moving back into place.
I screamed, and dropped to my knees, hugging myself in desperate attempt to douse the pain. My vision was blurring and blackening. I slipped in and out of consciousness, though all I could hear was people's worried and panicked voices and Percy yelling to Chiron. Finally, the pain subsided slightly and I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the ground with an Apollo camper next to me as well as Annabeth, the girl who'd showed me around camp earlier.
"Arthur?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
She sighed a quick sigh of relief. The Apollo camper quickly introduced himself as Michael Yew. I realized that he was the one who must have been behind my easing pain.
"You healed yourself, you know," he pointed out.
"Yeah," I said, "I know."
"But," Annabeth jumped in, "you healed yourself exceptionally well." She pointed at what used to be the gash over my chest. It was smooth, just as if nothing had happened. Even I was surprised by that.
"Where's Percy?" I asked, trying to figure out what was going on.
"He's getting his wounds fixed up," replied Annabeth. "He left right after we were sure you were being taken care of."
I thought for a moment, then asked, "How long has it been since I..."
"About fifteen minutes, not long at all." Michael butted in before Annabeth could say any more.
I was astonished. Then, I remembered something.
I lifted my hand up so that I could see it. I turned the ring once...twice...three times...four times. I didn't want to have to keep looking, but I did. The gold sections of the alligator ring had only grown by a smidge. I let my hand drop back down to my side. Annabeth looked down and examined the ring.
"Where'd you get that?" she asked.
"Er, a friend." I said, which wasn't exactly a lie.
Annabeth nodded her head. I started to sit up, slowly of course, and immediately collapsed back onto the grass with a groan.
Michael looked at me sympathetically.
"You want to move somewhere else?" he asked.
"Sort of, yeah."
"Do you think you could try and get your legs working again? And maybe try to walk?"
I nodded, even though I had just wiped myself out trying to sit up. eventually, though, I got to my feet and was moving my legs. I was only supporting about a third of my own weight, though. Michael and Annabeth were a huge help, practically holding me up themselves. We eventually managed to lug me over to the Big House where I was put in a reclining chair. After a little while, I fell asleep to the sound of loud talking, laughter, and Mr. D shuffling cards in the other room.
I was actually happy. I even smiled a bit before everyone went into the next room to play pinochle.
It was turning out to be real nice in Camp Half-Blood.
