At first, he is alone. Cole sat on the roof of the Industrial National Bank Building, hugging his knees, and looking around. Around the building was a dark and horrifying storm. Cole only saw the lightning flash for a fraction of the second before he heard the intense boom of the thunder that followed. He watched as the winds picked up and caught the pouring rain, his eyes widened as he could see the wind push the rain to fall sideway while it swirled around the building.

Cole felt like he was in the center, watching as the chaotic storm formed a massive cyclone around him. He looked up into the sky, there was a near perfect circle above him that provided calm wind in contrast to the violent weather that surrounded him. He didn't know what to make of it but he could guess what would happen next: The feathers would fall all over again and he would move to catch them.

Right on cue, four feathers began to fall into the eye of the storm. The first and second feathers were a shimmering emerald green feather and a brilliant golden feather. They always fell at the same time when Cole had this dream. The third was a strange silver-looking feather that seemed to fall much more heavily that the first two, but it fell, nonetheless. Cole liked that one a lot though he was not sure if the feather would like him. The final feather was an eerie blood red that lacked numerous bars in the vane and so it had an unkempt look. As far as Cole could see, it just might have needed a little love.

The feathers fell right on time and this time around, Cole was familiar enough with this dream to know when and where they would land. He willed himself to his feet and moved to catch the first two feathers. The second took a little extra reach but he still caught it before it touched the ground. The final feather was rather tricky but that did not bother him this time around. He had caught all three before and felt like it was almost impossible to mess this up. With his confidence at a rare high, he reached out and felt the wind give the red feather a slight push to make it fall right into his hand. He grasped the four feathers, feeling like he was on top of the world as the storm raged on.

Suddenly Cole felt the crashing chill as the eye started to close. He felt a growing chill all over his body filled him with discomfort. The thunder from the storm was starting to grumble and make strange sounds, he could hear it sound like numerous different voices of various pitches and tones. He could hear drawers opening and closed and people starting to argue over who had stolen what as well as where toothbrushes were hidden and who wet their sleeping bag. It was too much, and the twelve-year-old boy gave up on his sleep to open his eyes and find a teenage girl looking at him as she shook him awake.

"C'mon Cole, get up. We've got breakfast, you know the drill."

The patient and familiar sound of Brittany Murphy smoothly swam through his ears. It never mattered how bad or silly any task, activity, or prank sounded from anyone else. Brittany could always make just about anything sound like a good idea. She had a knack for that and many kids in the Hermes cabin swore that it was her talent that got her the counselor position for Cabin Eleven.

Cole got out of his sleeping bag and started his usual morning routine. The first the thing he did was stretch and grumble as he was never fond of mornings. The second thing he did was check his sleeping bag, backpack, and sports bag to make sure that everything was in there and placed precisely where he left it. He had been living in the Hermes cabin for two summers already, he knew how things worked: in a cabin filled with the Thief God's children it was only common sense to always check your stuff and trust no one with that trademark smile. Anybody who had been to Camp Half-blood or knew Hermes himself would know just what that smile looked like and they would be right to be suspicious.

Cole would head out to the bathroom with some other cabinmates to brush his teeth, wash his face, use the bathroom, and apply deodorant. The boys' bathroom could get crowded easily but there was a decent unspoken system in place to keep things flowing: get in, do your business within five minutes if you can, get out fast. It worked out well enough and soon Cole would be dressed up in his orange camp t-shirt and navy-blue shorts. His leather bead necklace was around his neck, the two beads sitting there proudly.

For two years, he had attended Camp Half-Blood over the past two summers starting from age eleven. Initially, he was found by a satyr who sniffed him out while working at his school as an assistant teacher. Cole was always skeptical about Mr. Gibson at first as could have sworn that the young man had horns and goat legs. He also could have sworn that he had seen similar strange figures with scales for skin and singular eyes in their faces. Others had forked tongues or were lighting cigarettes with a literal snap of their fingers. These sorts of people were people that Cole's mother told him to steer clear from.

"You can see through their lies," she would tell him, "watch them closely and make sure you stay away from them. Find them before they find you and keep your distance."

His mom was right. Cole could see through their little disguises like they were not there and no matter how hard they searched he always found a way out of their reach. When the time came to start attending camp, his mother, Jillian, simply let out a resigned sigh as she knew the day would come soon enough. She refused to tell him who his father was though as she kept telling him that it was not her place to say and that Cole would know when his father decided that he was ready.

That sounded acceptable back then but it's been two years since he knew he was a demigod. It's been two years since the monsters started to get aggressive after his first summer at camp. They no longer simply searched for him, they were more determined to sniff him out during the school year and there were a few times when he engaged them. Most of time, he'd gotten off relatively easy with maybe a minor injury or two but there were definitely times where he wasn't sure if he'd make it. There were times where he thought that he had reached his end and he would die right there. However, he was still standing and even after the attacks he hadn't seem to have proven himself to be ready to be claimed.

Now, Camp Half-Blood had grown to become a place where demigods would try not to discriminate against one another especially based on their godly parents. Being claimed can be a bit of a sensitive topic especially for the younger campers as they were nearing the age of thirteen. Of course, the gods were held to their word after the Styx Oath they made back when the Titan War ended in Manhattan and Mount Orthys but not every undetermined demigod had to wait until they were thirteen. Some were claimed at ten or eleven or twelve while others were claimed on their thirteenth birthday. People tried not to get too vocal about it and were usually supportive but there were still a few that would make snide remarks about some of the kids being "unwanted."

That was also way something Cole was sensitive about. He accepted that he was not going to have his father in his life and he had his Uncle Trevor to step up as a father figure for him. However, he was more worried about it now that he knew that his father was some strange powerful being who live high above the Empire State building. He never felt like he should have waited as long as he had so far. He felt like he did not deserve to wait, he felt like he has been ready since those first couple narrow escapes from Death. It was nothing against the Hermes cabin, they were cool people that occasionally had sticky fingers. It is just that… being in there reminded him that he had not found his real place yet because he knew fully well that he was not Hermes' son. These were the sort of thoughts that ran through his head in the mornings while he lined up with his cabinmates and filed out to breakfast.

Once breakfast was over, the Hermes cabin filed out to head to their first activity: archery practice. Today they would be on the field and be supervised by Chiron himself. Chiron chose to opt out of his magical wheelchair and stood at his full height with his well groomed equine lower half showing. As the day was a bit too warm for his usual tweed jacket, he chose to wear a simple button up shirt and tie with his sleeves rolled up. According to Brittany, that was about as casual as Chiron was willing to get while at work.

"Ah! The Hermes Cabin. Let's begin, shall we?" Chiron asked as the Hermes Cabin finally arrives. "Cabin Eleven, as I have told Cabin Seventeen, you will be joined by Ms. Barret today as she had been looking to get some extra shooting in." I'm sure you won't mind sharing some extra space.

He gestured toward a Black girl about Cole's age who stood to be only a little bit shorter than Cole. She had a rather dark skin tone, relatively large dark brown eyes, and her kinky hair was up in a neat halo braid.

"Not at all Chiron," said Brittany over the muffled groans of her cabin, "we'll set up real quick." She then led them over to the bow racks where they would pick out their bows, quivers, and arrows. "Guys relax" She said softly to them as they were getting their gear, "the Nike kids aren't bad they just like to make things interesting. Just don't… bait them." Her cabinmates heeded her words though Cole himself was among the more eager to work with them.

One thing about the Nike kids is that they can bring their own special energy to any activity. They were often seen as intense and even exhausting to deal with as they were both driven as much as they were physically talented. However, they also tended to make everything a competition even when it was unwarranted. Despite that, they have proven time and time again to have become a staple in the camp's competitive atmosphere. It was never enough for them thought even if every contest the camp has had since the completion of Cabin Seventeen was won by at least one Nike kid. It also was not enough that the Nike cabin had to be split up during Capture the Flag to prevent one team from completely dominating the other.

He sets up by one of the Nike kids, Dante Green, a tall kid who was about the same age as him and had golden brown skin. He is still a growing boy, being only thirteen, but he is on the verge of looking like athletic perfection. Cole and Dante had met two years ago in the Hermes Cabin but Dante was claimed early on after beating some older campers in a basketball game of 1v3. After that game, Cole silently envied the guy's talent and skill even if he was not too shabby of an athlete himself.

"Wassup, Cole." Dante nods his head as Cole strings his bow, "how you been?"

"Hey Dante," Cole replies with a nod as the two of them start to nock their arrows "I'm doing alright." You?"

"I'm chillin'. You seen Tyler? He's over there tryin' to let Brittany win their little archery contest so she'd go out with him. I dunno if that was his idea or hers."

"Can he do that? Like, as a counselor for the Nike Cabin?"

"Doubt it, but we'll have to see. It's gonna look bad if he throws a match but I don't think he'd get fired or anything. I'm pretty sure that he'd just get challenged for the position every day instead of every other day."

Cole smirked as he aimed his arrow towards his target. He always liked archery; he was one of the better shots since he was better at determining the path of the arrows better than most. He could not explain why, he could just tell how it would fly based on how the air felt around it. He released his bowstring and watched the arrow fly through the air and lodge itself into the target, it wasn't a bullseye but it was good first shot.

"That the best you got?" Dante asked in a teasing tone before shooting an arrow into his target and nearly getting a bullseye. "C'mon Man, don't try to touch my score. Please don't try it, it's too early for me to whoop yo ass."

"I dunno what you mean," Cole said as he tried to hold in his snickering, "I'm just chillin like you are, Dude."

It didn't take long before the both of them gave in to the temptation and started shooting arrows to see whom would get the higher score. Dante may be a Nike kid but that didn't make him unbeatable, just a really tough opponent in… just about anything.

A few minutes later, while the boys were starting to run out of arrows, there was a sudden loud noise coming from near the woods. Chiron perked up, his brow furrowed. The demigods stopped what they were doing as they heard the sound and looked over in the direction where it came from. Cole and Dante were among those who perked up and would see a satyr standing on one of the hills blowing the war horn.

"Heroes to arms!" Chiron suddenly exclaimed as he galloped to retrieve more arrows. "Counselors rally your siblings! Prepare for battle!"