Chapter 11:

AN:/ The long awaited trip to Camp Half-Blood. Sorry it took so long to get here.

The next few days passed quickly. As for as the upcoming trip, Sadie and Carter practiced new spells every night with the help of Bast. Sadie even watched AJ and CJ spar, which was probably one of the coolest things she'd ever seen.

When Friday finally arrived Carter and Sadie were stoked. They weren't going to go to school that day; instead they were going to get a fresh start to the day. Bast had rented a van, using some of the money AJ's aunt gave them (they made sure to get it insured).

They had agreed to meet at school and would go to Camp Half-Blood from there. Bast drove up to the school; outside CJ, AJ, and Nico were waiting with their bags. They had agreed to pack some clothes just in case.

"Load the van up!" Bast said as she popped the trunk. The three of them put their bags in the back before entering the van. AJ joined Sadie in the very back. Nico and CJ sat in the middle and Carter sat next to Bast in the passenger's seat.

Nico had gotten directions from someone at camp. It was about a two hour drive to the camp.

Luckily for Sadie's sanity, instead of having to listen to CJ and Carter discussing politics, she and AJ were playing on his Nintendo DSi. He only had racing games, but they were fun. They both tried beating each other's record.

After being on the road for two hours they arrived at a small grassy meadow that was next to a lake. It didn't look like anyone lived near there, much less a whole camp. But Nico said that the camp was hidden from others due to the Mist.

Bast decided to stay in cat form to not arise too much attention.

Sadie stretched and walked shakily on her legs, she didn't like sitting for so long in a cramped space. Luckily most of the journey had been monster free.

"That was so boring," Nico said yawning as he stretched his arms. Nico had absolutely nothing to do during the trip, he was stuck listening to CJ and Carter talking about Ancient Mediterranean politics and Sadie and AJ screaming at each other as they played some video games.

"You should've joined the racing fun," Sadie said to him grinning as she walked behind him up the small grassy hill "I beat AJ 20 times!"

"Psh, no you didn't. The last 10 times you cheated," AJ said giving her a mock glare. Sadie playfully swatted his arm and stuck her tongue out at him.

"I didn't cheat, you just suck."

Nico groaned, he had spent 2 hours listening them flirt and argue with each other. Although he and Sadie were on comfortable terms he still felt jealous every time he looked at them together. He knew nothing would come out of being angry though as he tried to contain his fatal flaw. But at the same time he wasn't going to give up on Sadie. He could tell that she liked him.

Sadie grew nervous as they approached the top of the hill. She still wasn't completely sure if the camp would be welcoming to them, but she trusted Nico not to lead them to their deaths.

"So where is it?" CJ said as they all looked around.

"You mean you still don't see it?" Nico said.

Sadie looked around to try and see what he was talking about, "Nope, anything particular we should be seeing?"
Nico pointed to the very top of the hill, "There's an arch there that says Camp Half-Blood, and there's a dragon."

That trust Sadie had talked about earlier was starting to dissipate, "A dragon? A fire breathing dragon?"

Nico nodded, "It's okay. It won't hurt you guys, it's just a baby."

When they reached the top of the hill Sadie looked down to see an endless meadow that led into a forest. She saw Nico stop and then mutter something under his breath. Sadie blinked and when she opened her eyes the landscape changed. She could see cabins in the distant, groups of people in orange t-shirts, and a baby dragon glaring at them.

Nico rushed over to the dragon and held the chain that was around its neck, "If you don't want to get eaten, go now."

They all ran past the dragon further down the hill, Nico dropped the chain and ran after them when they were far enough away from it. Then Nico led them through the camp.

Sadie saw people giving them weird looks but for the most part everyone just looked tired and battered. Along the way there were lots of cabins set up with a different theme. The ones in the center were big and beautiful, one had a trident and lots of sea decorations on it, another was painted blood red, and there was one that glinted gold in the sunlight. Sadie saw a dark black cabin in the back; she thought it would fit Nico perfectly.

Nico led them inside a big blue house. There was a pretty Asian girl sitting on a bench with her arm in a sling, she didn't notice them enter the house. Nico gave her an uneasy look and motioned for them to quicken their pace. Sadie didn't know why he wanted to avoid her, but she didn't feel like finding out.

However their luck was bad that day, "Nico, who are those people with you?" The girl said accusingly. Her eyes narrowed on them and Sadie had a bad feeling about her.

"We're going to see Chiron, Drew, and it's none of your business," Nico said firmly to the girl.

The girl rolled her eyes, "It is my business sweetie."

Sadie noticed Nico fall into a trance as he repeated, "Yeah, it is your business."

The girl got up from her chair and walked over to Nico and looked him right in the eyes, Sadie almost got caught up in the trance too. Her eyes were hypnotizing.

"Now sweetheart, tell me what you are up to," Drew said to Nico in a disturbingly sweet tone.

Nico was about to answer when two boys came charging out of a room knocking Drew to the floor.

"Travis! Connor! You're going to pay for that!" Drew screamed at the two boys as she sat pouting on the ground.

Then a man in a wheelchair came out of the room the two guys had just barged out of. The man looked like a stereotypical English teacher. He had dark brown hair and a beard.

Nico walked up to him angrily, "Chiron, Drew is doing that charmspeak thing again!" He said yelling at the man in the wheelchair.

"Drew, you do realize it's not polite to use charmspeak. Remember the talk we had before?" Chiron said scolding Drew who was still on the floor scowling at Nico.

"I was just asking him who these people are! I think I have the right to know for my own safety. You can never trust a kid of Hades," Drew said in a matter-of-fact tone. Sadie really didn't like her, she was too snotty.

Chiron looked at them and frowned at us, "Drew you can go now, you're healed. The rest of you can join me in the rec room."

Drew reluctantly got up from the ground and as she was leaving she purposefully bumped into AJ and winked at him flirtatiously before strutting out the door. If AJ hadn't grabbed Sadie's arm to stop her she would've punched her.

Sadie turned around still peeved and followed the others into the room. The rec room was pretty big, it had a ping pong table and arcade machines. They all took a seat around the ping pong table.

"What brings you children of Egypt here?" Chiron said getting straight to the point.

Carter spoke up, "We're here for a few reasons. The first is that we are looking for a girl. Our friend, her name is Zia. She wrote me a letter saying she was going to seek the help of the Greek gods. Nico told us you might be able to help us."

Chiron looked at Nico questioningly before addressing Carter. "The other thing?" he asked.

"I'm not sure if you know but Egypt is in serious trouble," Carter began. Chiron nodded and Carter continued, "We've also heard that you guys have also been having trouble with monsters. Although the House of Life doesn't want to work together with the Greek gods we do. We have over 40 recruits who would be willing to help. We know about Gaia and we think maybe Apophis and her are using the fact that Greeks and Egyptians aren't getting along to their benefit."

Chiron paused a moment before speaking, absorbing everything Carter had just said. "I believe you may be right. Although I'm not sure the gods will be happy about this, we do need as much help as we can get to help fight. Our weapons aren't as useful against the Egyptian monsters, and we simply don't know how to fight them. Our fighting styles are different."

"And Zia?" Sadie added, speaking for the first time since entering the room.

"You're in luck; the gods did mention to me that they were approached by a magician. I believe she was in the Roman camp for a while. However, she left for some reason unknown to me to go to the Land of the Dead."

Sadie saw Carter's face fall at the news. She knew he had been hoping she was in the camp. Now they'd have to make a trip to the Land of the Dead to find out where she was. But that was tricky considering they just had promised to help the Greeks fight Egyptian monsters.

As if he were reading her mind AJ spoke up, "Carter, can't you guys call your recruits here to help the camp and we go to the Land of the Dead to find Zia?"

Sadie looked at Carter to see if he agreed. Carter seemed pleased with the idea.

"Either you or Sadie is going to have to stay behind to help the recruits organize," CJ said.

Sadie knew CJ was right, but that would mean her and Carter would have to split. Although they may not have grown up together, they had never split up for more than a day the past 2 years. There was no knowing when either would return.

"I'll go," Carter said, "AJ you can stay here with Sadie. You can come me if you want CJ, if you don't I understand."

"I'll go with you, it's dangerous going alone," CJ said.

"How soon do you think you can get the others here?" Chiron asked them.

Carter groaned, "It'll take a while. At least a few days." Carter was anxious to get started with finding Zia.

"You can go Carter. Me and AJ can gather everyone," Sadie said to her brother, sympathetic of his situation.

"Great, when do you want to leave CJ?" Carter asked; he was ready to go right then.

"Now's good," CJ said. If she was at all nervous at all about going to the Land of the Dead, Sadie couldn't tell. Sadie, while at first, didn't really like CJ. But over the past few days she'd grown to respect her more. She was very level headed, both her and AJ were.

Chiron dismissed himself from the room taking Nico with him as they began to organize. Bast transformed herself back into her human form. Sadie insisted that Bast go with Carter instead of staying at the camp, Sadie knew him and CJ were probably going to need a lot more help than her and AJ.

Bast used the computer in the rec room to book the three of them flights to New Orleans. They would leave the camp at 8 pm to catch the 11pm flight. That left them 8 hours of exploring camp Half-Blood. AJ and Sadie were going to stay at camp where they would set up a signal alerting all of the recruits.

After they were all well organized they decided to venture out into the camp. Bast returned to her cat form and they exited the barn house. Nico was sitting on the front steps of the porch waiting for them. He looked up at them and Sadie could tell he was nervous about something.

"I tried to stop them from finding out that you guys are Egyptian magicians, but Drew made me with her charmspeak. She can influence just about anyone with it." NIco said panicked, "And, now they all want to play a game of capture the flag against you."

Sadie looked behind him to see the girl she had recognized from the day they were in the Empire State Building. She was just as buff and huge as Sadie remembered.

"Nico, tell them they have an hour to prepare," the girl said before turning around and stomping off.

"That's Clarisse, daughter of Ares. She likes to fight, and she's really good at it," said Nico.

"They want us to play capture the flag?" CJ said in a bored tone, "Isn't that a little childish?"

"Well it's more physical, we're not allowed to maim but we're allowed to punch and we have jails," Nico explained, "We have other games, but those are a lot more dangerous. Like Chariot races, a lot of campers apparently died from that."

Sadie groaned, she didn't like randomly fighting. She wasn't really good at it; she was mostly just good at spells.

"Can we use magic?" AJ asked.

"I guess," Nico said shrugging, "I think the kids of Hectate use magic too, so it's fair."

"I hate fighting for nothing," Sadie said, "Can I sit this one out?"

"Of course, none of you have to fight. Though I'm pretty sure the others will try on their own terms. A lot of the other campers just want to size you guys up. Some of them *cough Clarisse cough* are a bit offended that they need outside help."

"So we're going to fight the whole camp? That doesn't seem very fair," Carter said frowning at the idea of facing against so many people. His magic and combat skills had improved but even he understood that was asking too much.

"No, it'll be even. I think it's going to be me, Clarisse, and Will. Travis will have to sit out."

Nico showed them around the camp while Bast went off in cat form to stalk some mice and bunnies. They visited the stables, the climbing wall, and the armory. A lot of the campers ignored them, only a few casually said hello. Most just seemed to be afraid of Nico.

As they were sitting around in the dining pavilion they heard the speaker calling for everyone to gather near the forest.

It seemed like all the campers had turned out to watch the battle. Sadie noted that the bigger and buffer campers were sending her pretty nasty looks, which she happily returned back to them.

Chiron motioned for everyone to pay attention to him, "As you probably know we have some visitors to our camp. Thus we are going to have a special Capture the Flag match. The team that manages to bring their opponent's flag across the border wins. Remember no maiming or killing, or you'll lose your dessert privileges." Chiron said to the two teams.

Sadie cringed at the maiming or killing part, she was especially glad she decided to sit this one out.

Nico joined his other two team members as CJ, AJ and Carter with Sadie listening set up a strategy.

AJ happened to be a great battle strategist. Because the game was already flawed, due to them being in unfamiliar surroundings, they decided on CJ and AJ attacking the other team members with Carter standing guard around the flag.

"You better not get hurt too badly out there," Sadie said to AJ.

AJ grinned, "I won't, I promise." He gave Sadie a kiss on the cheek.

Sadie sat back amongst the others as the teams set off into the forest.

"So he's your boyfriend?" someone said to Sadie as she was sitting in the grass. Sadie turned around to see Drew staring at her with a fake smile on her face. Sadie could tell Drew really didn't like her and as far as Sadie was concerned, the feeling was mutual.

Sadie smiled back at her in the same fake way, "Yeah, he's my boyfriend so you can stay away from him. Okay?" She turned around away from Drew.

Drew sighed and sat down next to Sadie "I wonder why he's going out with a girl like you," she said as if she were really interested in knowing the answer.

Sadie wanted to punch her so hard in her pretty little face, but she practiced self-restraint.

A guy that Sadie recognized as the elf dude from the Empire State building approached them and sat down in front of Sadie. He had light curly brown hair, dark blue eyes, and upturned eyebrows which made him look like he was forever up to something.

"Hello, I'm Travis," Travis said to Sadie shaking her hand. Then he looked at Drew and frowned, "Is that really the way to treat our guest?"

Drew glared at him but didn't say anything.

"So how do you like Camp Half-Blood? It's too bad you couldn't come before the monsters were invading, it's normally a lot more cheery," Travis said to Sadie.

Sadie thought the camp looked fun, but it was still pretty foreign to her. "It's okay, I'm not much of a fighter though so I doubt I'd fit in here. I prefer spells."

Travis's eyes twinkled and he revealed her wand to her, "You do magic with this? What kind of magic can you do? Bring back people from the dead? Do you know how to mummify a body, could you teach me?" He started waving it around and started chanting jibberish.

Sadie was in shock that he had her ivory wand in his hand, "Woah! How did you get that? When did you get that?"

Travis grinned, "I am the son of Hermes. I snatched it while you looked at the field."

Sadie checked her purse. Along with her missing wand was the $40 her brother had given her. She held out her hand and glared at him, he sighed and gave her back the $40 but remained holding onto the wand.

She tried to figure out in her head who Hermes was before a realization, "The god of thieves!"

"Yup," Travis said proudly.

Sadie glared at him, "I don't know how Thoth got mixed up with your dad then."

Travis looked at her confused, "Whose Thoth? And he got mixed up with my dad?"

"Thoth is the Egyptian god of wisdom, writing, and the crescent moon. Nothing at all like the god of thievery," Sadie said to Travis..

"He sounds more like a mixture of Athena, Apollo, and Artemis."

Sadie shrugged, she didn't know off the top of her head what they were the Greek gods of. "Thoth said back in ancient times him and your dad were confused a lot. The Egyptians even named a city after your dad in mistake, they thought he was Thoth," Sadie explained to him.

Travis smiled, "Well our dad is pretty awesome. It probably wasn't a mistake."

Sadie frowned at him and stuck her hand out again motioning for her wand.

"Aww, do some magic," Travis gave a fake pout as he held her wand behind his back.

"I will if you give me back my wand," Sadie answered.

Travis eyed her suspiciously but gave her back her wand. Sadie took it and stuck it back in her bag and sat on it.

Travis scowled at her, "You lied!"

"I don't have any cool spells to show you. I can't bring people back from the dead, I can't mummify anyone and I certainly can't bring people back from the dead. Though I guess you could ask my dad, he's hosting Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld"

"You're a demigod?" Travis asked forgetting her refusal to do magic.

"No, it's kind of a long story. But basically my dad died while hosting Osiris and is now living, erm residing, in the underworld," Sadie explained. She guessed the story did sound a bit odd. "I don't think we have demigods in Egypt, we just have hosts and then children of the hosts… It's a bit hard to explain."

Travis didn't look like he understood anything but he smiled and nodded dumbly.

Sadie returned to watching the match. It didn't look like much was happening; she guessed they were all deep within the forest. She hoped all of them would be okay, it didn't seem like a lack of dessert privileges was really going to help limit the maiming and killing.

After an hour had passed all the campers were visibly antsy. According to Travis most matches, especially ones this small, didn't take this long to end.

Suddenly a flash appeared, and AJ, CJ and Clarisse all became visible. It was AJ and CJ against Clarisse who had their flag. Clarisse didn't seem bothered at all at having a two against one match. She just glared wickedly at them. The border was only a mile away in front of Clarisse.

Sadie saw AJ motion towards CJ and CJ backed off. Leaving it a one-on-one battle, AJ versus Clarisse.

AN:/ Once again thanks to everyone who is reviewing/favoriting/alerting. This story gets an average of +120 views each chapter. That's really exciting and I hope to keep it around that level.

At ILuvZarter: Lol, I wish my teachers would lay back on the tests. I think I have a geology exam next week :( It's like they're trying to make me not finish this story before May. Sadly after this chapter it'll be a while before I update. Expect an update on Friday. Sorry!