Chapter 8: Campfires, Revelations and A Pretty Neat Trick.

Pip sat on the barracks of the Big House. Within the Old Victorian-style brick house that inhuman demigod chatted away with Dionysus, the Camp Director. Pip was not feeling well. She had been through too much on that damned walk. She had started to regret her decision. What the hell was she thinking? That guy is way too much trouble! He being in Camp is going to be really bad for the campers!

'But if you'd let him loose, he'd just endanger everyone else including the campers, wouldn't he?', a pesky little voice in Pip's brain said.

She was going to tell it to zip it when suddenly someone walked up to her.

Ah, it was her favorite demigod.

Penelope sat next to her. She fumbled a little before asking,

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?", That caught her off guard.

"Um. You looked kinda sad and deep in thought."

"We're you just staring at me this whole time?"

"Uh. Yeah. I just couldn't find a way to approach you. I mean, you looked so sad.", She then looked at her nervously, "I mean, there's nothing wrong with being sad or anything, uh, it's just that I'm not really good at consoling sad people. Uh! Not that you looked too sad or anything! You just looked deep in thought and stuff so didn't really know how to-uh, why are you laughing?"

Pip couldn't help but chuckle at this display.

"Nah, it's nothing. I'm fine."

Penelope raised an eyebrow.

"Okay I'm not that fine right now. It's just…It's too much to talk about."

"Ah. I see."

Penelope went silent for a moment before saying,

"So how did your retrieval mission go?"

"Huh?"

"You had to fetch that demigod, right."
"Ah.", she clenched the edge of the wooden floor, "That."

Penelope then realized that that was probably what was causing her distress.

"Uh, sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Listen, stay away from that demigod. Whatever you do, don't come in contact with him. If he tries to talk to you, don't respond. Just stay away from him."

"Uh-"

But before she could say anything, the door to the big house opened and Eric stepped out.

Pip glared at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hmm. Well, I don't know myself. If you're asking what I'm doing here at Camp, I'm just hanging out. If you're asking me why I'm not going to the campfire. Well…"

He put his hand on his neck.

"They're calling you inside. I don't know what they want to talk about, but the Camp Director seemed very pissed.", He said sneering before noticing Penelope.

"Oh hello there!", He held out a hand to Penelope, "Name's Eric, what's yours?"

Penelope, startled, looked at him and stared into his eyes before Pip came in between them.

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare go near her."

Eric paused for a moment.

"Huh, it seems you've got a bodyguard, fellow camper. Neat."

Pip stared at him for a moment before going inside and closing the door. The original Camp Director, Dionysus, looked like he was in a bad mood. She could tell since Seymour, his pet stuffed leopard head was growling at her.

Dionysus spoke with repressed anger.

"Now. Tell me exactly why I shouldn't turn you into Maenad-food this instant."

"Mr.D!"

"What? She brought that thing here! She better have a damn good explanation or I swear to Olympus, I am going to put her head on a mantelpiece."

Pip, being thoroughly intimidated, told the events of the day. And as she did, the wound that was her regret opened up. She had no idea on whether she had done the right thing. And from Dionysus' increasingly frustrated look, she was not doing well. She finished her story and felt sad over the fact that she wasn't able to give her friend a proper goodbye.

"Ah, this is a proper mess for fuck's sake. I know this is going to be another person's mess but damnit, now I can't sleep. Why did you have to make the best possible choice? I can't even kill you now."

Pip was startled.

"What? But I've endangered the rest of the campers!"

"Pip.", Chiron said, "You couldn't do anything in that situation. Killing him would be nigh impossible and letting him go would be wrong. By bringing him here, you've made sure we can keep an eye on him. It may be hard to accept, but that was the best possible choice."

'Huh.', Pip thought. 'I didn't do the wrong thing. I still hate everything about it but at least it was the best possible choice.'

'Well, course it was! That's what I've been trying to say this whole time, you dummy.', the pesky voice said once again.

"Shut up.", she muttered underneath her breath.

"Ah! It appears that you are telling your pesky little brain voice to shut up! I should know since this happened to me multiple times!", someone shouted in her ear.

"Gah!"

Pip stepped back at saw that Apollo had materialized right next to her.

Apollo was about to say something before he noticed everyone staring at him.

"Did I interrupt something?"

Chiron sighed and told him what had happened. Apollo now had a serious expression on his face.
"Ah, I see. This is a pretty big mess, isn't it?"

"But there's another issue, isn't there?"

Apollo stayed silent.

"That Protector brought two incredibly suspicious demigods who are also conveniently fifteen years old. We're just waiting for you to say it now, aren't we?"

Apollo sighed.

"Look. I don't like this any more than you do. And I know that this prophecy is going to be really bad. But I can't say it myself. I need the Oracle of Delphi."

"Hmph. I don't care. It's your problem now."

Dionysus got up and was about to leave when Apollo stopped him.

"Wait! Won't you come to the campfire at least? You've never attended any of my campfire concerts before!"

"…You're not going to let me leave before I do this, right?"

"Yes."

"Ugh. Fine."

"Then onward we go!"

They went outside. Penelope was staying as far away from Eric as possible, which brought joy and relief to Pip's heart. As they headed to the campfire, Pip leaned towards Penelope.

"Did he say anything to you?"

"What?"

"Did Eric say anything to you?"

"I didn't really engage in conversation with him. We had some small talk and then he just sat around doing nothing. I think he was bored or something."

"Huh. Odd."

"Although he did look at my pendant a lot."

"What?"

"Yeah. It was weird. It looked like he was trying to remember something."

"Really?"

"Yup."

That definitely was weird. Did Eric have some sort of connection to that pendant or something? Pip did not want to think about that. He may have the same level of mystery Penelope did, but she definitely wasn't willing to investigate it.

They reached the campfire and Eric was introduced to the crowd. But then, he was claimed. And everything made a lot more sense.

Something began falling from the sky. It was shiny and golden so everyone noticed. Eric looked up and saw it coming towards him. He caught it in his hand and examined it. It was a golden apple, adorned with serpents, African Blackwoods and a dagger. Eric admired the craftsmanship before biting into it. The other campers watched dumbfounded as he swallowed the piece before looking to the sky.

"Delicious. Thanks for the apple, Ma!"

And suddenly a pit formed in Pip's stomach. Apollo and Dionysus looked at each other nervously and Chiron did his best to hide his surprise and dread.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Son of Eris."

Now that Eric was officially the son of the Goddess of Discord, he no longer went for his 'goofy and clumsy' persona and instead went for a 'mischevious and slightly sinister' one, effectively making everyone extremely wary. Even Connor Stoll, who could recognize a fellow prankster when he saw one, was distancing himself from him.

Apollo, Dionysus and Chiron were nervously muttering amongst themselves. Pip could definitely understand their concerns.

Eris was the Goddess of Discord and Strife, feared and revered by the Olympians. She could strike discord into the hearts of their enemies, but who her enemies were wasn't clear half the time. She was the reason why the Trojan War happened. She would cause many wars in the mortal world simply to satisfy her amusement. She was cold and apathetic, but it was said that when she sees people caught up in the chaos she creates, she can't help but feel giddy.

And now her son had come to Camp Half-Blood.

That was one hell of a bad omen.

Aside from that, Pip had brought two mysterious demigods whose godly parents were ones that rarely ever sired children.

Yeah, it's official, there's a big prophecy and she's part of it.

This was giving Pip extreme anxiety. Prophecies were rarely ever good. The two Great Prophecies had resulted in drastic changes in the world, and a lot of casualties as well. The whole Trirumvirate shebang had started because of a mad scramble for the Oracles. Pip was in Protector training at the time but even she heard of the horrifying events that occurred in Southern California. That 'Burning Maze' shit left her unable to sleep for days.

What if this one is exactly like the Great Prophecies?

What if things become as bad as the 'Burning Maze' situation?

Pip was silently cursing Oizys, the goddess of anxiety, when Penelope came up to her and sat near her.

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"You seemed really worried. What's wrong?"

"Nothing much. Just the whole 'Eric's a son of Eris' thing."

"Eris… Wasn't she the one who started the Trojan War by starting a beauty contest?"

"That's…strangely accurate, actually."

"Huh. That's a bad omen."

"Yup."

"Mom always told me that there's no such thing as a bad omen. What we call a bad omen is merely a sign of change. And change itself isn't good or bad."

"…That's pretty deep."

"But yeah, this is totally a bad omen."

"Yeah."

A harpy then descended and gave her dinner. Which for some reason had canned beans.

"Oh, cool!"

"Canned beans?"

"Yeah. Brings back memories. There was this one time we went hiking in the mountains. I wanted to have some cake once we reached the top of the mountain but I'd only packed baked beans, so we just had to eat canned beans as we saw the sunset. It was pretty cool."

She said, closing her eyes.

"Huh. Who did you go with?"

"Oh, it was me and…"

She froze for a minute before closing her eyes. It looked like she was trying to remember something, but couldn't seem to remember.

"No one else.", She said, finally.

"Mom was never too big on hiking so she didn't really accompany me. I think there was like a tour guide or something but he wasn't really important."

"Then why'd you say 'we'?"

"Did I say we? Must have been a mistake. I meant 'I'."

"…Uh huh."

"No really! I must have meant that."

"Okay."

Another mystery. Pip was starting to get concerned for her. There's a limit to how mysterious a person can get.

Then the hellhound emerged.

Looking back on it, She had no idea how it got there. Maybe there was just a temporary breach in the borders, maybe the maenads just found the thing and adopted it, maybe it was Eric. But no matter how it got there, there was no denying that it was there and it was scaring the living crap out of the new campers.

The Hellhound growled and lunged at the younger demigods. But unfortunately for it, smaller means faster. The younger demigods ran away while the older tried to kill it. But the hellhound was fast.

Chiron and Apollo began to mobilize when Pip saw that Penelope had that look on her face. The same look she had when had approached those monsters all the way back when they first arrived here.

"Penelope."

"Don't worry, Pip. It'll be pretty cool."

"Penelope Hayes, I swear to Pan do not-"

But it was too late. Penelope rushed towards the hellhound, telling everyone to back off 'cuz I'm gonna do something cool'.

The hellhound growled and lunged but Penelope raised her hand. Mist spontaneously materialized and expanded, creating a barrier that then pulsed, knocking the hellhound away. The hellhound attacked again but once again it was sent back.

Then Pip saw that Penelope was staring directly at it.

It is said that in the animal kingdom, staring directly at someone is usually known as a way to challenge someone. Pip knew this since she once met this cat that always thought that everyone was challenging her since her definition of staring basically boiled down to 'looking at her for half a second or more.' Dogs are not exempt to this rule and so are hellhounds.

The hellhound backed away before dashing at her. Pip suddenly felt a disturbance coming from Penelope before the hellhound leaped.

And then Penelope said a word. It was one word, a word said in an ancient language. A language Pip couldn't understand. But that word was important. For just as she said it, the hellhound sabotaged its leap so that it landed just in front of her. He looked at her with expectant eyes and the silver key pendant pulsed, a burst of energy.

If she had been anywhere near her, the pendant would have knocked her out. Everyone seemed to have felt it but Pip was feeling it most. It was drilling into her skull, the sound coursing through her body.

She began to croon in that strange language and the hellhound got sleepier and sleepier.

A strange mist began form around her. But it wasn't The Mist, though it looked like it. It was darker and almost distorted.

Thin, pale hands reached for her out of the Distorted Mist, but the pendant began to pulse harder, dispelling the hands. The Distorted Mist then shifted towards the hellhound and the hands grabbed it.

As the hellhound slept peacefully, the hands slowly dragged it into the earth, dragging it to somewhere deep, deep below them. Pip knew not of where it went, but it sure as hell wasn't the underworld.

Penelope turned around and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Whew! That was tough!"

She then saw the crowd staring at her with shock and fear.

"Uh…"

She began to look nervous.

Chiron trotted up to her.

"Big House, now.", He said in an urgent tone.

Chiron, Apollo and Dionysus herded her away from the crowd. Pip ran up to them and joined the party. As they went to the Big House, she heard Eric comment,

"Huh. She just dragged a Hellhound down to Chaos. You don't see that every day."

Pip was sitting next to Penelope, who was sweating bullets. Across from her, the Big Three of the camp, Chiron, Apollo and Dionysus, were looking at her, working out something to say.

Apollo was the one to break the silence.

"So. You just did that."

"Did what? Magic? I've been able to do it for a long time. Pretty impressive right?"

"Well, yes. It is impressive but I'm talking about the whole 'dragging a hellhound into Chaos' thing."

"Umm. Isn't that supposed to be one of my super awesome, exclusive to really powerful children of Hypnos power?"

"No!", He said incredulously, "That kind of power is reserved for gods! It is not a 'super awesome, exclusive to really powerful children of Hypnos power.'"

"Wh-what?"

"Yes! How are you able to do this?!"

"I-I don't know! I just am!"

Apollo then put his hand on his chin and did his best impression of the Thinker. Then Chiron spoke.

"Penelope, what you did was something most gods can't do. Unless your godly parent is a Protogenoi or something, there is no way you could have done something like this."

"Like I said, I don't know. I was aware of this power a long time back but I only began using it after I got this pendant."

"Hmm. Could the pendant be the source of your power?"

"Uh sir?", Pip said, "If I may throw my take on this, I think that pendant is more of an external buff more than anything. The 'putting it to sleep and summoning that distorted mist' was her but 'the deflecting of the mist onto the hellhound' was the pendant."

"Hmm. That is a good guess, but that doesn't explain how she's able to summon the Distorted Mist in the first place."

They sat in contemplation when suddenly Apollo spoke.

"I got it! It's-"

"The Pull.", Dionysus

Everyone looked at him.

"Goodness me, I didn't even think of that! But are you sure?"

"What's 'The Pull?'"

"It adds up. The hands were trying to grab her first, weren't they?

"Yes, but you're sure it's The Pull? Most demigods afflicted by it don't really-"

"Umm. What exactly are you talking about?", Penelope asked.

Chiron and Dionysus stopped talking. Chiron spoke first.

"The Pull is an affliction that demigods who are descendants of Chaos have. It is not found in those born of the Olympians, or the Titan-born deities but it is found in those born of the gods of the Mansion of Night. These gods include Oizys, Thanatos, Eris and Hypnos."

Dionysus spoke next.

"What it does is that it makes the demigod afflicted close to Chaos. Chaos haunts them in their dreams and if one was to use their inherited powers, they would be dragged all the way down to Chaos.

"It is a terrible curse and one of the reasons why those gods don't really mingle with mortals. It either kills you quick or drives you insane and then kills you, usually the latter."

"Most afflicted don't live past ten. Most don't live past five."

"But I've managed to live for a long time."

"Yes. Now how might that be?"

Penelope then looked at her pendant.

"Maybe…Maybe this was the reason."

"The Key?", Apollo said. "Well, it did seem to repel those hands."

"I've always had a really weird dream. A dream where I get dragged to this place that feels like it should give me a headache, but it doesn't."

"That seals it. You have The Pull and that charm is somehow able to weaponize it."

Penelope stayed silent for a moment.

"Mom never told me about that."

"Well, I don't think telling your kid that their superpower comes from what amounts to a Godly STD is a good thing." Pip said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right on that one."

Chiron then spoke to her,

"You said your mother had made the pendant, right?"

"Yes."

"That makes even less sense!", Apollo exclaimed, "If her mother is powerful enough to make something that powerful, then we should have heard about her!"

Mysteries on top of mysteries. Pip's brain was starting to hurt now. Something major about her had been revealed but now she had become even more mysterious.

Chiron decided that now was the time to stop.

"Penelope, I would like you to not talk about this. It may be your choice to tell but something tells me that things would get a lot more hectic for you if you tell them about this."

"No duh."

"Also, would you like a gumball? I've heard that gumballs and other sweets can help you process big things."

"Nah, I'm cool."

Penelope didn't look too cool, but Pip knew that this wasn't an easy thing to accept so she stayed quiet.

They were going to depart when suddenly the door opened.

The dark haired boy, Nico di Angelo, walked in while a shaggy blonde haired boy with blue eyes followed, looking nervous.

"Dad, I tried to stop him but he wouldn't-"

"Apollo." Nico said in a gravelly voice and pointed at Penelope.

"I would to interrogate this girl."

Hey, Albus here. I an here to announce that I will be going on hiatus due to exams. I know this is a pretty bad place to leave it but I will be back. I would also like to say that the Prologue is almost done so yeah.

Please do leave reviews and check out Mika1303, she's got some got stuff going on.

See ya- AlbusTheMage