Taz' pov
The next day, Percy dropped Ari and Taz off at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill. A heartfelt goodbye later they turned to see the top of the hill where their home will be for the foreseeable future. Taz will miss Percy. Even though he isn't his brother, it felt like he was. Taz was tempted to ask him if he could come along with Percy but he knew it was too dangerous and if he went with him there was no way Ari would not demand to come with them as well. Besides, he didn't think Percy would've agreed anyway.
"Taz, what are you waiting for?" Ari called out to him from ten feet ahead. He shook the thoughts out of his head and started running towards her. When he got close to her, she announced," Race you to the top!" and proceeded to run up the hill and he followed her with newfound determination.
By the time they reached the top, they were both panting. Ari took some deep breaths and stated, "I win!"
"Only because of the head start you had," Taz argued.
"Yeah, but you were just standing there looking sad. I had to do something. Besides, I don't like to lose," she argued back.
Taz just stared at her in disbelief. Only then did he notice a dragon laying under a pine tree. He stood there shell-shocked. When Ari noticed her friend's face, she turned to see what he was staring at. "Is that a... a DRAGON?!" she shrieked.
"Why, yes, it is. His name is Peleus," a voice said from behind them. They whipped their heads towards the voice. It was a man in a wheelchair. He had wrinkles on his face as if from facing many stressful dilemmas but his eyes carried wisdom but they were cautious. Ari squirmed uncomfortably beside Taz and said," Is this, uh, Camp Half-Blood?"
The man's posture slightly relaxed which he hadn't even noticed were stiff. "Did someone bring you here?" he asked.
"We, uh, umm" Ari stuttered. "We were brought here by our guardian," Taz answered smoothly and Ari nodded frantically. It wasn't a complete lie. "He said that we are demigods and this will be a safe place for us," he finished.
The man heaved a sigh of relief and noticeably relaxed. "Well then, I would like to welcome you to Camp Half-blood. Let me introduce you to some of the campers so that they can show you around." He wheeled himself down the other side of the hill trusting that they would follow and they did.
There was a crowd gathered there. Murmurs and whispers of the two children who ran up the hill without a guide were spreading around. As soon as they saw the man in the wheelchair coming down with the two children following, it seems like they deemed that Taz and Ari were not a kind of threat and the majority dispersed leaving behind a few curious campers.
Taz came to the conclusion that the man in the wheelchair might be a leader of the camp. But he wondered what he could do in that wheelchair, (no offense to the disabled, I am sure you are wonderful people only put in bad situations) that they depended on him.
The man cleared his throat effectively gaining their attention. "Children, these are new demigod campers. They were brought here by their guardian." He motioned in Taz and Ari's direction.
The others seemingly accepted this vague explanation and introduce themselves. The boy with the golden hair and an air of cheerfulness held out a hand and introduced himself, "Hey, I am Will Solace. Son of Apollo and Head counsellor of cabin 7." Taz shook his hand which had a surprisingly gentle yet firm grip. "My name is Tazrin Bishop but you can call me Taz and apparently I'm a demigod." Will slightly chuckled at that. "I am Arya Chanda but call me Ari," Ari introduced herself.
The boy dark-haired small boy next to him said shortly," I am Nico Di Angelo." The girl next to him with long curly hair shot them an apologetic smile and shyly said, "My name is Hazel Levesque, I'm Nico's half-sister."
Taz decided that Hazel and Nico weren't very alike. While Nico carried an air of darkness and suspiciousness, Hazel seemed kinder and more trusting. The wheelchair man then spoke up," And I am Chiron, the activities director at Camp Half-Blood."
Ari looked as confused as Taz felt. "Aren't you supposed to be a centaur, then?" Percy had told them of the camp activities director who was the famous trainer of heroes in ancient times. This man definitely did not have the bottom body of a horse unless he was blind.
Chiron looked shocked for a moment before he stood up from his wheelchair. Taz watched in amazement as the man grew a whole body of a horse in front of him. He was speechless. Looking at Ari, she was just as shocked but then regained her composure and shrieked, "That's the COOLEST magic wheelchair EVER!"
That made him come out of his shock. He chuckled quietly at his friend's antics. All the other campers were staring at them in amusement. A girl his age ran up to the centaur panting heavily, she whispered something in his ear which was quite difficult since he was much taller than her and had to lean down a considerable amount.
Chiron solemnly nodded and gestured for the girl to wait when she turned to walk away. "Diana, these two are new campers. Please show them around and take them to the unclaimed cabin to settle until they are claimed." He motioned towards them.
Diana nodded and said, "Of course." Chiron then galloped towards a big house on the corner. Diana then turned towards them and smiled. "I am Diana Sington, daughter of Hecate. At your service." She takes a mock bow when she said that. "My name is Ari and this is Taz," Ari introduced.
"Come on, let me show you around." Diana started with the cabins. She explained how each cabin was for a god or goddess. The unclaimed cabin was only recently made so that the Hermes cabin isn't as filled since Hermes has a lot of kids too. She showed them the Big House and told them about Mr. D and how he is a god. When they got around to the end of the cabins, Taz saw two girls shouting at each other in front of a blue cabin. One had blonde hair and the other chocolate brown hair.
He caught some of what they were saying. "... think about it. Those aren't your thoughts, Annabeth. He wasn't going to hurt any of us. You know that."
The other girl, Annabeth the brown-haired girl who had called her yelled in desperation, "Piper, it is all me. He has gotten too strong. You didn't see him down there. It was horrible. This is what's good for us all." She sounded as if she trying to convince herself as well as the other girl.
Piper only shook her head in disappointment and started towards the first cabin while Annabeth, set out in the opposite direction.
Taz looked to Diana who was looking at them sadly. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong with them but Ari beat him to it, "What happened to them? They seem like they lost someone." To tell the truth, he felt like there was some underlying sadness in the entire camp. Yet they were all acting otherwise.
Diana stared sadly at the blue cabin and started," They were-are best friends. See, Annabeth and Piper, along with five others are the heroes of Olympus. They went on dangerous quests many times to save the world. One of the seven- Percy Jackson," she lowered her voice to a whisper as she said his name. "The gods said that he became too powerful and someone had given them proof that he was betraying Olympus. So, they banished him. Some campers even said that he sabotaged their things. Some of his friends believe he is innocent though and that has caused a rift between their friendship."
So, Percy had very conveniently forgotten to mention that the reason that he couldn't come to camp was that he was banished. Of course, he knew that Percy was powerful but he didn't think he was that powerful to seem like a threat to gods. Even so, he did not believe that Percy was going to betray anyone. It seems like this was his family and he didn't think Percy would do anything to endanger them.
Ari also had a confused look on her face. After all, her own brother had not informed them that he was going to drop them off at camp from which he was banished and accused of things he did not do.
Diana shook her head and headed towards a place that had a lot of bronze weapons. "This is the weaponry. I can get one of the Hephaestus or Athena kids to get you a suitable weapon." Just as he was about to tell her that they already have weapons, a curly-haired, Latino elf-boy stuck his head out of a close rack. Diana looked surprised to see him there. "Leo, what are you doing here?"
H sheepishly scratched his hair. "I just came here to give some the swords I built in my spare time."
Diana nodded in understanding and then smiled widely as if struck with an idea. "Leo, could you pair up the newbies with some shiny toys? I don't know much about 'the perfect weapon'. "
Leo shrugged. "Sure." He turned to them. "Do you have any preferences?"
They used this opportunity to transform their rings and bracelet into sharp weapons. Taz smirked at Leo and Diana's gaping faces.
"Yes, we do."
