CHAPTER 6

I was in another forest back in my eighteen years old body from past time-line. It was a lush green forest, enriched with plants of all types ranging from common ones to exotic ones, huge trees stood tall, their branches and leaves creating canopy that diffused some light through it so it isn't completely dark under them. Roots withered over forest floor creating turns, loops and knots.

I saw golden eagle sitting on the branch silently staring ahead, An owl sitting on another branch beside the eagle, staring ahead silently with its large eyes.

My eyes fell on the white Pegasus that emerged from the shadows, completely silent. Its eyes were too fixated on something ahead. Two serpents' one black that reminded me of Hades and another green that blended with forest floor, slithering out of the shadows, flicking their tongue silently.

A pack of wolves and vicious dogs emerged, their eyes too stuck on something ahead.

What are they staring at? I wondered.

I looked in that direction where they were all staring, all I saw was never ending forest, nothing unusual.

I looked back, confused.

There was no buzz in the air. Everywhere I looked everything stood still, not moving at all as if time has frozen.

"Hey!" I called, waving my hands. My voice didn't seem to travel. It was like shouting in place with no air for my voice to carry around.

When I decided to walk around, I found my feet weren't making any sound at all. I could feel the pressure of silence in my ear drums. Tranquility had blanketed the forest.

I know my dreams were weird and scary most of the time but this was something else. As far as I could see, nothing was wrong. Everything seemed fresh, vibrant yet…lifeless at the same time. May be it was my breath, even though it appeared to be summer dry morning, came out foggy like it was winter morning but I felt neither warmth of a summer nor cold of a winter morning. I felt nothing.

It was all too weird to pass it for any known immortal visiting me in a dream.

Usually whenever gods and primordial decided to hijack my dreams they didn't wait around the bush in announcing their presence known. Their dreams were always been dramatic or something to get their message across. It was usually something regarding quest. But this was… wrong. It struck all the worst in me that I try very hard to compress.

This was the second time I was scared the most even knowing it was all a dream and it had not even started. I wished that it finish soon and I wake up from this…vision. True it was nothing to be scared of. I had bunch of truly terrifying ones but there's something petrifying about the Calm before the Storm.

It did.

I could feel ancient powers at work. May be it was the coldness in the air, staleness of the air or the thrum that struck the chord of my heart making it race in fear, anticipation and convulsion. I felt lost.

From where I stood, grass started turning brown as if it hadn't took rain for months. Soon it started creeping up on trees making them dry and aged. It was going on like a wave, whatever it touched, it soon started crumbling and crumbling fast. Brown grass, trees, roots, shrubs and flowers whatever the wave touched then started deteriorating into ash at the same rate.

What the heck. I convulsed. I staggered few steps back.

Whole land infront of me had turned into big pile of ash. It was grey morning…or was it evening? I couldn't tell. It was like I was in graveyard except tomb there were ashes everywhere. But it gave same creep of death like that of a graveyard.

Figures started emerging from the ashes. All I could see were their silhouette. Soon large army was raised consisting of giants, dracaenae, bat-like monsters, vicious looking dogs, some too large to be considered dogs.

In front of them were seven hooded human figures standing still. It was like they were born out of darkness. They emitted the kind of aura that wakes the worst in you. My heart rate spiked.

They stood silently. I could feel them scrutinizing me. It was like they were staring into my very soul. I felt vulnerable under their gaze and that was huge accomplishment. I do not get intimidated that easily. More powerful than me tried and failed but something about them was very wrong.

Whole place vibed me wrong but these individual… I still shudder to think about them

Then suddenly I felt tremendous pain in my head, making me scream. It was useless, nobody could hear me. I fell on my knee on forest floor. I held my head in vice grip hoping it could squeeze out the pain. I felt like someone put my head in a blender.

PERSEUS. Voice came out like a gift from the gods, taking away the pain.

I took deep breath; I could still feel it's after effects, small bursts of pain behind my eyes.

YOU ARE IN THE ENDGAME NOW…

It was over powering, magnetic even…

MAKE HASTE, HERO… EVERYTHING'S GOING TO CHANGE.

Then I woke up gasping. My eyes were wide in terror going all over the place searching for any kind of danger; my heart rate was going like a million rates per second.

There was nothing precarious about my surrounding. I was sitting in a deck chair on a familiar huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distant. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my back.

I sighed in relief.

When I try to stand up, sudden pain rocketed through my brain, making me fall back on the deck chair. I hissed in pain.

Somebody opened the door to the porch.

"So I take you had a nightmare." Charles said taking in my condition.

"Yeah." I grumbled. "How long I have been knocked out?"

"Only few hours," Charles said. "Don't worry drink this, you'll feel better."

Charles handed me a red drink.

"Red cherry coke?" I asked.

"It's not a regular one you see out there, trust me after this you'll feel energized."

I was in no mood for argument, so I took it and I immediately felt the familiar effect take place. I felt energized quite a bit. I knew he mixed some ambrosia in it.

"You were incredible out there by the way. Defeating Minotaur is no easy task." Charles said, settling on another deck chair facing me.

"It was just a dumb luck…" I said acting embarrassed.

We were silent for few moments. I should be honest, it was kind of awkward. I didn't really know what I should say to him. I mean, I imagined this moment many times and when I got my chance, I got tongue tied.

Thankfully, Charles wasn't feeling the same.

"You ok?" there was genuine look of concern on his face.

"Yeah, it would take some time to settle in." I replied.

"Yeah, I can relate to that." he said.

He got a far look on his face, the look people gets when they remember something.

"H-how did you come here?" I asked.

Charles grimaced as if recalling something horrible.

"I-I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me…"

"No, it's ok," Charles said.

He cleared his throat before continuing.

"My mom and I used to live in a small cottage in New York. One night, I remember very clearly, I was fourteen and we were sleeping when few cyclops came for me. My mom died saving me but I escaped. Luckily a satyr found me and we escaped and came here." His voice broke a bit telling me about his mother's unfortunate death.

"I'm sorry…"

He shooked his head and gave me what he thought was a convincing smile. I could easily recognize the pain in his eyes. It happened with me too just different people.

"Don't worry about that. It's part of the journey in demigod's life. Most of the campers have few tragic experiences like mine." He said.

"That sounds… horrible." I commented.

That got us to chuckle.

We sat there in silence for few minutes, to get my drink to settle and diminish the pain. Charles broke the ice with very thing, I hoped he would ignore.

"If you don't mind my asking what you meant with 'it's nice to meet you, AGAIN." He emphasized on 'again' part.

Luckily, I still got my 'on-spot-making-up-bullshit' thing. I might've travelled back to my ten years old body; I still got my experience that I honed for eight years.

I acted confused and said, "What do you mean?"

"You don't remember?" he said, confused.

"All I remember was running, and then blasting through the car, fighting, voices blasting through my head, the pain, screaming, retching and finally fainting. That's all I remember. Did something happen after that?"

He scrutinized me for few moments. I hoped my expression didn't screw up anything. I really wanted to be best-friends with him.

After few moments, he shook his head and stood up.

"Chiron asked me to bring you to Big House, so we should go."

Soon we were on our way towards the big house. Meanwhile I took a look around the camp. There was usual hustle going on. In distant I could see a circular arena with their white sparkling columns where some campers doing archery, most of them were Apollo cabin, and another few were doing sword fighting. I couldn't wait to get familiar with the sword again; it's been quite some time since I held sword (Even though it was only a week for me). Familiar building in Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion and an amphitheater dotted out in distant.

Dozen campers and satyrs played volleyball in a nearby sandpit. Canoes glided across a small lake. Campers in their bright orange T-shirt were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, some were on Pegasus.

Some campers were strolling, minding their own business. It was quite emotional to see all those that died in war again. Camp was never the same after two wars. I missed them so much. I felt like my heart would burst out any second but I schooled my emotions from outside, I didn't want to come out as weirdo to them.

Few of them smiled when they strolled past us.

Yeah, I was Home.

"What do you guys do here all summer?"

"We train for survival." He replied.

"That sounds…pessimistic."

He laughed, shaking his head he said,"Yeah, that is life of demigod. If you don't know how to survive out-there then you're a toast to them. You can't live here all the time. Sometimes you'll be forced to fight."

"You're afraid someone...more powerful is gonna rise and threaten the world, like Kronos."

Charles choked on that.

"Yeah, you could say that and you shouldn't blurt out names like that. Names have powers."

"Oh, right, sorry."

"Anyways what is your case?" He asked as we strolled towards the big house onto the other side of the lake.

I sighed.

"Um, I guess my mom is the normal one here. So, that makes my dad, a god. My mom told me that before I was even born; my dad was lost in the seas. He was with my mother for only a summer. That resulted in me. My mom then married my horrible step-father, who's a drunkard and a gambler. He was abusive too."

Charles raised his right eyebrow at that. He gestured me to continue.

"I knew I was somewhat different. I never really fit in with everybody. I sometimes saw things that nobody believed. I am dyslexic and have ADHD-"

"Don't worry everyone's got that. It's default demigod setting. ADHD helps in fight and Dyslexic is default system for us to read Latin than any other language."

"Yeah, that explains why I didn't have problem reading Latin."

Then I saw two familiar figures coming our way.

The one to the right had a straight brunette hair with flawless tanned skin and baby blue eyes. She wore orange camp shirt and jeans. She was in her fifteens. She seemed to be laughing at something which made her angelic face glow more. There was a reason she was my first crush and first real friend after Grover when I first came here.

To her right was dirty blond haired girl with tanned skin but not as flawless as Selena. She had big brown eyes that danced with mirth as she said something to Selena that got her laugh. She looked to be a year or two older than me. Both of their shirts were covered in dirt.

I realized I never got to be close to Katie in my previous time-line, so, I decided to change that.

When they saw us approaching, they waved and we came to stop near the lake.

"Hey Charlie." Selena said with her usual enthusiasm, "And you must be Percy I'm hearing about for past few hours."

My burrows furrowed, confused.

"Hearing about?"

"Charlie didn't tell you? You defeating that Minotaur got attention of the campers. It was unheard that, don't take it as offence, someone as your age defeated Minotaur."

"None taken." I said.

Katie elbowed Selena in her ribs.

"Oh, right. Percy this is Katie, Katie Percy" She said gesturing towards her then me.

I shooked her hand and said, "It's nice to meet you."

She gave me a full blown smile, "Don't mind her," she said gesturing towards Selena "She is an idiot."

"Hey!" Selena swatted her friend in the arm. Katie just rolled her eyes back in response.

"You coming from the strawberry field?" Charlie guessed.

"Yep, I was just helping her." She said gesturing towards Katie.

"Welcome to the camp, I guess. If you need to ask anything, you can come to me." Katie said to me.

"Anything?" Selena teased taking up the opportunity, wiggling her eyebrows at both of us.

I felt myself blushing, Katie was already tomato red. She swatted Selena on her arms and said, "Shut up".Then she groaned, covering her face with the palm of her hand. I couldn't even look at Katie,Selena or Charlie.

When it came to girls, I still was a mess.

Selena and Charles laughed at our embarrassment.

"Anyways, we are need of a long shower to get this dust off us. It was nice to meet you, Percy. We'll meet again in few hours I guess." Selena said before dragging Katie with her.

I could hear Katie berating Selena for the stunt she just pulled. Charles was still chuckling at my still blushing face.

"That's daughter of love goddess to you." He shrugged.

We continued our way towards the Big House.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across each other at a card table. The familiar blond-haired girl was leaning on the porch rail next to them.

Dionysus or Mr. D, as we call him looked the same- small but porky with red nose, big watery eyes and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He wore a tiger-patterned Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except he would completely out-gamble my step-father.

"That is Mr. D," Charles murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And the guy in the chair is Chiron, our camp instructor, I told you about, the centaur."

He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.

I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.

"Chiron!" Charles called. "Mr. D"

Chiron turned around and smiled at us. His eyes had that same mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B in my past time-line.

"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."

He offered me seat next to Mr. D, whole looked up at me with his red blood-shot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I must say it. Welcome to the camp Half-Blood. There. Now don't expect me to be glad to see you."

I nodded. I realized I missed him and his grumbling. He can be pain in the ass but him being the director of the camp was… familiarity I missed dearly. He was lifted off from his restrictions and punishments after second Titan's war, things changed just after a month of the war. As you may recall, Jason and me were brainwashed and were again used as a mean to end another war.

"Annabeth." Chiron called her.

She came forward and he introduced us or in my case re-introduced us. "This young lady had nursed you back to health after your unfortunate journey here. Annabeth, my dear why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."

She stared at me with her wide gray eyes. She was a pretty girl, even at the age of eleven. With her deep tan and curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought was California girl would look like, except her grey eyes ruined that image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty but intimidating as if she were mapping out my defenses and best way to bring me down in a fight. Knowing her, it was definitely that case.

This time-travel opened old wound that I definitely didn't want to open and start causing problems now. It would totally ruin everything.

"You drool in your sleep." Was all she said, before sprinting away towards the cabin, probably to inform Luke about new bunk-mate.

I was hit with the sense of Déjà-vu. She said the same thing last time we were introduced.

"How you holding up, Percy?" Chiron asked.

"Yeah… I'm doing better. It's not every day you get someone tells you that you're a demigod and attacked by the monsters and forest the same day." I said, giving him the convincing smiled I honed but obviously my face twitched. This face was not trained for that smile I honed over years to fool immortals.

Another thing to hone again, I guess. I thought, putting it on my to-do list mentally.

"You'll get use to it. Did Charles explain the necessary on the way here?"

"That Greek pantheons are real, that I'm a son of one of them and that this place is safe house for people like us? Yeah, he did."

He nodded.

"They did good job then and good-job with Minotaur. It's no easy task to defeat beast like him." Chiron said.

I blushed faintly. I still get embarrassed getting compliments after all these years.

He continued.

"They were correct, Percy. Greek gods are very much real and you are son of one of them. By what Grover told me about you, you're son of one of the Olympians." He pretty much said what Grover told me on the way here.

"Like Zeus. Apollo. Poseidon. You mean them. "

And there was distant thunder on cloudless day as I expected. I was tempted to give them The Finger but I refrained.

Not now, I promised myself. I will have my time.

I did and they were powerless to do anything but I'll come back to that later.

"Young man" said Dionysus, "I would really be less casual about throwing these names around, if I were you."

Oh, you poor drunk. If you were me, you won't be able to handle my awesomeness. I mentally berated him.

"And how come Grover can tell that- ok, I get it because of his senses, right?"

"Yes, Satyrs have sensitive nose regarding sensing demigods, danger etc." Dionysus interrupted again, "You know how to play pinochle?"

I knew how to play the game but I couldn't for now and besides he would cheat.

He eyed me suspiciously. I knew what he was up to. I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction and I couldn't blow my cover either.

"I'm afraid not, sir." I said

"Well," He told me, "It is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac Man, one of the greatest game ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."

"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.

Dionysus shook his head in annoyance.

"Charleston, you playing?" Mr. D called out to Charles.

The person mentioned who was leaning by the porch, cleared his throat awkwardly and said, "Yeah, Mr. D."

He sat across from me, beside Dionysus.

"So, you know who my father is?" I asked Chiron, changing the subject.

"Unfortunately… no. I don't know who you're other parent is. They will have to claim you for that." Chiron said.

"Claim me?"

"Yes, claim you. You'll know when that happens. We have orientation film that will satisfy most of your curiosity."

I nodded.

"What about my mom, she must be worried sick-"

"Don't worry about that Percy, we contacted her and let her know your predicament and that you are here in the camp."

She must've been heart-broken. My father already informed her about the camp but she wanted me near that was why she refrained from sending me as much as possible.

I would contact her and Rachel later. I made note mentally.

"Can I contact her later?" I asked.

Chiron nodded and said, "Yeah, Charles could help you with that."

"You're taking this remarkably well for someone you're age whom just learned about his real heritage… or is there something you would like to tell us?" Mr. D said, looking up from his cards, scrutinizing me with his blood-shot gaze.

He was correct on some level. I was taking this entire well for someone whose life had turned drastically over-night.

I already knew he would ask that, so I came prepared with my answers.

"I've always known that I was… unique in some way. I saw things that nobody did; I experienced things that others thought were my doings. I started connecting dots when I realized most of the things I saw were in history books. At first I thought I was hallucinating but Grover came as a confirmation." I explained.

He went back to playing cards but I knew he wasn't really focusing on it. I had his attention. That meant it was going as planned.

"You had a incident in the grooves, yesterday," Chiron said, "Charles tells me that you were hearing voices, can you tell me about it."

I nodded.

"The fall of the ancient one. An Oath to the broken one. The final verse." I decided to not tell about the last part. It was really to my benefit, if I was going to somehow betray them which were not possible. I later learnt the hard way again that prophesy have their ways to fold situation to get what it wants.

Chiron was silent for few moments.

Mr. D's eyes flickered to me every second. Charles was almost jumping from curiosity.

"That's all?" Chiron asked.

"Yes." I nodded.

Chiron's hand curled into his lap blanket. The bottom of it rose higher above his red sequined pumps. He looked above as worried as it is possible for a man to look while wearing fishnet stocking.

"We'll have to warn the campers to stay away from the forest," he decided. "We must consult the oracle regarding this."

Chiron turned towards Charles and said, "Inform the councilors to meet me tonight in amphitheater."

Charles nodded and went away to carry off the message.

Damn, I really didn't think of its implication. I thought.

"Is it bad?" I asked, acting a little scared.

Dionysus heaved a sigh of annoyance, "You haven't been to camp properly and you are already causing nuisance." He grumbled.

Then I heard footsteps from my right. When I looked up, I saw Katie coming towards us with new pair of camp shirt and jeans. She looked freshly showered.

Chiron nodded at that.

"Mr. D," She said as soon as she came near. "Chiron. Oh, hey Percy." She waved at me. "Annabeth asked me to come here since she's caught up in some work."

"I see you're already introduced. Good then," Chiron said. "Katie why don't you take Percy to amphitheater and show him the orientation film."

"Ok, "she agreed, "Come on."

Soon I was on my way towards the amphitheater quite satisfied and unaware of the conversation happening behind me.

"Are you feeling the same thing regarding that boy?" Dionysus said looking towards Chiron with rare seriousness as soon as Percy was out of hearing range.

"That he could be the child of prophecy?" Chiron said.

"Yes…no, ok there are chances he's either my father's son or my uncles." Dionysus said. "But I'm not talking about that."

Chiron's forehead furrowed, in confusion. He asked, "What feeling?"

"Like… he's earlier than he was supposed to."

Every interaction Percy makes here with someone and in future chapters would have some impact on their character. Whomever I put into these scenes would have their fair share of impact in the story. I didn't just put them here for no apparent reasons. I thought I should make it clear on that.

Second thing, I inform you that I am not basing this story on 'champion of hope' by moonhorse. It's totally different story with whole another plot-line with no crossovers. I already have ending to this saga in my mind and it's going to blow your mind away, I can guarantee you that.

There are just two more chapters to cover one and a half year. After that the plot would speed up.

Anyways, what do you think of the chapter?

Please share your opinion on the chapter. It's your reviews that helps writer like us to bring you a good story. So don't forget to do that, it would only take few seconds, guys.

If you like where this story is going, so please share it with your peers.

Next update will be next weekend.

kyuubidude294- Well, we'll see which one would be Percy's pet but I can only tell you a Hellhound is going to be one of the few monsters that Percy's gonna tame.

guest- Thanks. Sorry, no comments on drakon. You'll have to follow this story to know.

until then, cheers!