JB
As I let loose another arrow and watched it fly through the air, I couldn't help my thoughts wandering to the mission that was so close at hand; the quest we were being trained for. Now, I knew about as much as the next guy regarding what the actual quest was for , which pretty much translates to "I have no freakin idea what I'm actually training for." To be real, it was kind of annoying to be training so hard and not even knowing why, but I had to believe it was something pretty huge; I mean, why else would they drag Percy back into the game, especially when everyone knows that he retired from the whole "quests and prophecies and monsters" thing half a decade ago. His decision took almost everyone by complete surprise; everyone but Chiron. People say that he seemed to be completely unfazed by Percy and Annabeth's decision to move to New Rome and go to college. I can't say personally if any of that is true or not; I got to camp literally the year he left. Some people were telling me I "just missed him at the door", and that I "probably drove by him and didn't even notice." Regardless, my entire tenure here at camp I've heard nothing but epic stories about the great Percy Jackson. He has fought darn near every monster known to demigods, and walked out of it all with his head high. The guy is a living legend; the Michael Jordan of Demigods. So when rumor started spreading that Percy was going to chose and train a group of us to take his place... being a part of that team was a pipe dream. I honestly thought for sure I had his selection nailed; then he flips my entire idea on its head, picking Damien and I. All these thoughts were racing through my head while I was slinging arrow after arrow into the target. Archery has always come extremely easy to me; from the moment I picked up a bow, I felt as though I had been practicing my whole life. The motions, the aiming; it all kind of just... happened. I found that the more I practiced, the faster I could fire, and the closer I got to the absolute center of the target. One of the many, many disadvantages of being a child of a minor God is that you never really know what your "best skill" will be. I mean, take a child of Hephaestus for example. Grease in their hair, and all over their hands, calloused palms, and a knack for inventing or fixing are some of the traits literally almost all of them share. Aphrodites are almost always clean cut, wearing the latest styles, and are some of the most beautiful half-humans to grace the face of the planet.
What I'm trying to say is that most demigod children can get a good idea of their strengths and weaknesses from the parent. Apollo has Archery. Athena has strategy and leadership. What does Boreas have? The unanimous consensus from Chiron was... no freakin idea. At first, he was all juiced up, thinking that I would be able to control the winds and whip up a freakin tornado with the snap of my fingers. Reality: I can barely summon a breeze if I try. It took me about a month of feeling like the world's biggest loser of a demigod before I even attempted to pick up a bow and arrow. But from that moment on, I can truly say I've found my skill; heck, I whoop the Apollo kids all over the range, which is a large part of the reason I'm kind of hated by them. Still, my point stands; most campers think it's hard to be a normal demigod, but I would argue that the absolute horror of demigodism is being a child of a minor god. Unless of course your name is Damien Verglas. He's only been at camp since the beginning of summer, but has already made a huge splash with practically everyone here. From the literal moment he sprinted across the boarder, shooting beams of ice at a hungry looking chimera, he has had quite the reputation of a powerhouse. A couple of the older campers have tried to compare his power to Percy's when he was 13, but most people kind of write that off. I've seen his powers in action, and I have to say... I'm kind of a believer. Don't get me wrong, one on one right now, Percy would absolutely mop the floor with Damien all day without breaking a sweat. But there's something about the look in Percy's eyes every time he sees Frosty freeze something, or get the glowing blue glare in his eyes. It's like Percy feels some kind of connection between them; like maybe Damien really does have the potential to be the next him. But me? All I've got is archery skills and movie quotes, neither of which is very powerful or even very rare. Like I said, you can go find about a dozen other Apollo kids who can sling arrows with almost the exact sam precision as I can, which meant one thing; I was expendable. If things didn't pan out with me, it's no sweat off of anyone's back; just go pull some Apollo kid and shove him into my place. And yes, I know that Percy told us that he picked each of us because of our personal beliefs and moral compass not based on what we can do, but that didn't really encourage me much when I realized that there about a dozen Apollo kids with the same exact skills and moral code as me, so I was right back at square one; expendable. That left me with only one option, and that was busting my hump training. If I wanted to go from expendable to slightly less expendable, I had to make sure that I honed my archery skills to the point where there was no one who could out-shoot me. I had to make sure that I was the absolute, indisputable champion of Camp Half Blood Archery. I guess I was kind of in the zone, because the next thing I know, the entire group is walking down from the Cabin... everyone but Damien. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Dame probably had another meltdown. Lately, he's been acting really weird, even for him. During the day, it isn't so bad; it's when he's sleeping that things start getting weird, even on the demigod scale. One minute he'll be out cold, the next he's thrashing all around like he's having a seizure. But as soon as I wake him up, it's like nothing ever happened; he can't remember a single part of any of his dreams. Look, I know having nightmares is a part of a demigod's life, but there have been many times where I wish I could forget my dreams... but now I'm not so sure. I can't figure out if it's worse or better to forget your dreams, because Damien will wake up in the middle of the night like there's some huge war going on in his head, and then genuinely just blank out on any of the details. I can't decide if I should be afraid for him or jealous. I shot another arrow into He center of the target, and was about to string up another when I felt a hand on my shoulder, whipping around to see Percy standing behind me, watching carefully.
"Sorry, JB; didn't mean to scare you." He chuckled halfheartedly; something big had definitely gone down, I could tell by the look in his eyes. The rest of our little posse was standing there behind him, all looking equally as shaken up as he was.
"Ooook... look guys, whatever broke, it wasn't me. And even if the guy may have looked like me, I swear it was an imposter." I promised. That actually made a few of them smile a little bit, all but Loralai, who looked like she had just been forced to kick someone's puppy. Just as quickly as they came, the smiles vanished as Percy cleared his throat, obviously not here to deliver any stellar news.
"Damien... he may not be staying on the team for much longer." Percy started. I'll be honest; telling me that we potentially lost our heaviest hitter kind of scared me. Like, a lot. Enough that I was glad I decided to use the bathroom before I started practicing.
"We're kicking him out?! What did he do?" I asked, but Percy shook his head.
"I would never kick anyone out; it seems like he wants to leave, and I'm not going to stop him. Being a part of this team... it takes dedication, not force. Saving the world is about putting your heart and soul into doing what is best for everyone except yourself, and if he doesn't have that kind of want to... I can't force him to stay." He explained. In a way, I understood what Percy was saying; you can't force someone to be a hero, it had to be a choice. It was also the first time I realized that any one of us could just leave if we really wanted to. No one had to be here; it was a personal choice. At the same time, I just couldn't believe that Damien was going to just... walk out on us like that. I mean, sure the guy is about as Frosty as a penguins in the Antarctic, but he's never backed down from a fight or from a challenge. My feet were already carrying me towards the cabin as I glanced back at the rest of the group.
"Look, I'm just gonna go talk to him; maybe he'll tell me what's really goin on with him!" I called. Before Percy or any of the others could even try to diehard me, I had already made my way into the cabin, walking over to the boy's room door. I was just about to push it open, when I heard him; Damien seemed to be talking in his sleep. I don't know what possessed me to stay put, but I'm sure glad that I did.
"No... leave me alone... get out of my head." He mumbled. I felt like my heart was river-dancing across molten glass as I peeked in between the crack of the door. Damien was rolling all around, obviously in distress as he flailed about. A thin sheet of ice was creeping up the wall behind him, inching it's way across the ceiling.
"K...Kronos. Kronos." He whispered, literally making me stagger back away from the door. Kronos... I knew that name. I mean, if you know anything about the great Percy Jackson, then you know about Kronos. His very first mission was to destroy Kronos and save the world. Rumor was that Kronos was using another camper as a vessel, and that Percy was forced to kill him to save the world. If Damien was having dreams about this guy... if he were somehow returning from the grave... that about as far as my train of thought went before I felt an I should cold hand on my shoulder. Before I even turned around, I knew that it wasn't really Damien. The air around us felt a more... harsh cold than Damien normally put off; like the cold was somehow tinged by something more sinister. I slowly turned to face not-Damien, a twisted smile on his face as he glared at me with shining, piercing golden eyes. I felt my entire body shaking as not-Damien rolled his neck around, as though he were stiff from a long time sleeping.
"Hello, Johnathan." He spoke, his voice reverberating through the cabin. It sounded like Damien and another deeper, colder voice we're speaking at the same time, giving not-Damien an even more petrifying vibe.
"You-You're... you're him. K-k-Kronos." I stuttered, both from the cold and fear. Kronos-Damien simply smirked, nodding his head.
"I am. And I'm sure that you'd love nothing more than to run to that... pathetic hero of yours Percy Jackson and tell him all about my new living accommodations." He said, gesturing to Damien's body.
"But before you try and scurry off, have a seat." He lightly pushed me, but it felt like getting hit by a freight train as I flung into the couch. I tried to wiggle free, but it was pointless; I could move an inch. Kronos-Damien's eyes glowed a bit brighter as he stared me down.
"We need to talk."