Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson
Chapter 4: The Year of Too Many New Half-Bloods
A year and a half later…
Christina walked past the Big House, her sword out and hanging at her side, instead of in its' bracelet form, as she walked towards the sparing ring to get some last-minute practice in before the Capture the Flag game that night, when Chiron called her name, stopping her.
"Christina!"
She turned around to see her mentor standing on the porch of the Big House, four new half-bloods next to him, two girls and two boys, both pairs very obviously siblings. The two boys were both tall and skinny, with curly brown hair that fell in front of their blue eyes and looked about nine years old. They had both already gotten the camp t-shirt, along with the two girls, and were wearing it untucked from their shorts. She suspected that the two were children of Hermes, due to their elvish looks, crooked smiles, and upturned eyebrows. They also seemed like the prankster types, she had hung out with enough children of Hermes to know, and knew she had to watch out for them. They looked practically identical, but Christina did not know if they were twins, or just full siblings.
The two girls did not look as identical as the two boys, but she still suspected they were full siblings. The taller girl, who was definitively older than her sister, had long, brown hair that was tied in two braids and bright green eyes, as well as a spattering of freckles across her nose. She wore the camp shirt tucked into a long, black skirt and looked about nine years old. The shorter girl also had brown hair, except it was cut into a bob, and the same freckles and green eyes as her sister and looked about seven years old. She wore the camp t-shirt tucked into a pair of jeans. Although she wasn't completely sure, Christina suspected these two were children of Demeter.
"Can you show these four to the Hermes cabin?" Chiron asked her when she came to a stop in front of the porch. "This is Travis and Connor Stoll and Katie and Miranda Gardner. They just arrived at camp a few hours ago with a satyr. This is Christina Keeper," Chiron addressed the new demigods. "She's a daughter of Poseidon and she'll help you get settled."
Christina nodded, it seemed like training would have to wait until later. "Sure Chiron." She turned to the new half-bloods. "Follow me, I'll show you to your cabin and can answer any questions you have."
"Where are we going?" One of the Gardner girls asked politely, although Christina wasn't sure if she was Miranda or Katie.
Christina pointed down the hill towards where the cabins were. "We're going to the Hermes cabin. It's where you'll stay until you get claimed and can move into your parent's cabin. Unless you're actually a child of Hermes, then you would stay there."
"How long does that take?" One of the Stoll brothers asked, skipping ahead.
Christina shrugged. "It depends. Usually, Athena kids are claimed rather quickly, but they also would normally know before they get to camp, since their birth is rather, unconventional."
"How long did it take for you to be claimed?" The other Gardner girl asked.
Christina winced. "I was never really claimed. I've been here since I was a baby, and the note that I was left with said who my father was."
Luckily the four demigods didn't press on the issue, and instead settled for gazing around at the different cabins and the rest of Camp Half-Blood. Arriving outside the beat-up Hermes cabin, Christina turned to them.
"Here we are, the Hermes cabin. I trust your cabin counselor will be able to take it from here." She told them, just as Luke stepped outside.
Luke glanced at her. "Hey Christina, are these new demigods?"
"This is Travis and Connor Stoll and Katie and Miranda Gardner." She told the older boy. "They're unclaimed right now. Can you take it from here?"
Luke nodded at her, and then turned to the four new half-bloods. "I'm Luke Castellan, your head counselor. Welcome to cabin eleven."
Finally, Christina turned towards the sparing ring, to make up for the time she had lost showing the new demigods around. Now don't get her wrong, she had no issue leading them to cabin eleven, and really did think they could be friends, but she really wanted to practice before the Capture the Flag game.
Banishing all thoughts of new half-bloods, Christina swung her sword towards the nearest dummy and sliced its' head clean off.
Four hours later…
As the dinner bell rang, Christina transformed Seastorm into a bracelet, and wiped the sweat off her face. Taking one long drink of the water bottle she had brought, she glanced back at the scores of decapitated dummies, before jogging towards the dining pavilion, feeling rejuvenated thanks to the water.
"I would like to welcome our four newest campers, Travis and Connor Stoll and Miranda and Katie Gardner!" Chiron announced, as Christina dropped into her seat at her empty table.
Just then, four symbols appeared, each over the heads of the four newest demigods. The campers broke out into whispers, shocked at how quickly they had been claimed, as the symbol of Hermes, a caduceus, appeared over Travis and Connor Stoll, and the symbol of Demeter, a sickle with sheaves of wheat, appeared over Miranda and Katie Gardner.
"Hermes," Chiron announced. "Traveler, Inventor, Thief. Hail, Travis and Connor Stoll, Sons of the Messenger God."
Around the pavilion, all the campers, including Christina, began to kneel. Travis and Connor grinned at each other, obviously happy about the attention they were receiving. Next to them, Miranda and Katie also kneeled, although Miranda was still very fascinated with the symbol above her head.
Chiron turned to them next. "Demeter, Harvester, Season Giver, Nourishment Provider. Hail, Miranda and Katie Gardner, Daughters of the Agriculture Goddess."
The campers stayed kneeling, although the Demeter cabin seemed excited about the prospect of their two newest sisters. As everyone began to stand up and go back to their tables, Katie and Miranda grabbed their food, hurrying over to cabin four's table, as cabin eleven's table adjusted themselves, seemingly grateful for the extra room.
Christina smiled to herself as she turned back to her food. It seemed her intuition about their parents was correct, although it did seem odd that they were claimed so quickly. Shaking it off, she took a bite of her barbeque.
Two weeks later…
Walking back from a swim in the lake, already dry due to her powers, Christina almost walked, literally, into the two newest half-bloods and their satyr guide.
"Woah!" She said, stumbling backwards. "I'm sorry about that."
The satyr with them, one of Grover's friends that she had met a few times named Woodrow, bleated at her. "Baaaa! Watch where you're going." He warned her good naturedly.
"Are these the new demigods?" She asked curiously.
Woodrow nodded. "Would you show them to the Hermes cabin? I have something I promised my sister I would do."
"Sure." She said, shrugging. "I don't have anything else I was doing this afternoon."
Woodrow flashed her a thumbs up, before trotting off in the direction of the woods, no doubt to go find his sister. Christina headed towards the cabins, the two demigods trailing behind her.
"So, what are your names?" She asked as they walked.
The girl was slim with long, black hair and blue eyes. She wore the Camp Half-Blood t-shirt tucked into a pair of purple skinny jeans and short brown boots and was very beautiful. She looked about ten years old, although Christina was not sure who her godly parent was. The boy was tall, with dark skin, calloused hands, and short brown hair. He looked about eleven years old, and Christina suspected he was a son of Hephaestus.
"I'm Silena." The girl introduced herself. "And I don't know who my parent is, before you ask."
The boy grunted. "I'm Charlie, but everyone calls me Beckendorf."
"Well, you'll stay in cabin eleven for now, until you are claimed." Christina told them as they approached the cabins.
Silena smiled softly. "How long do you think that will take?"
"No clue." Christina said, shrugging. "It could take a few days or a few years, although recently people have been getting claimed rather quickly, but no one knows why."
As they walked towards cabin eleven, Christina had to jump aside quickly to avoid being run over by the Stoll brothers, who raced towards Canoe Lake, Miranda and Katie running after them.
In the few weeks since those four demigods had arrived at Camp Half-Blood, Travis and Connor had made it their mission to prank the Demeter cabin, especially Katie and Miranda, truly living up to their name as Hermes kids.
It had started with them decorating the roof of the Demeter cabin with chocolate Easter bunnies, even though it was nowhere near Easter, making where they had gotten the bunnies a mystery, and had only gotten more intense since.
Just that morning they had decided to fork the strawberry fields, placing plastic forks all the way around the fields and ten feet deep. Now that may not seem too bad at first glance, except they had covered all the handles with Vaseline, making it near impossible to pull the forks out of the ground. Christina suspected that the current chase was Miranda and Katie's attempt to get back at the brothers.
"That's Connor and Travis Stoll," Christina explained to Silena and Beckendorf. "Sons of Hermes, and your new cabin mates. They're always like that. The two girls are Katie and Miranda, daughters of Demeter."
As they approached the porch of cabin eleven, Luke, who Christina hadn't spotted earlier, stood up from his chair where he had been watching the Stolls.
"Are these new campers?" He asked her.
She nodded. "This is Silena and Beckendorf, they arrived earlier with Woodrow and are unclaimed."
"Hopefully, they'll be claimed as soon as the Stolls and Katie and Miranda were." Luke said, chuckling. He glanced back inside the cabin. "I'll show you two where you can claim a bunk."
Leaving the two newest half-bloods in the capable hands of Luke, she walked towards Canoe Lake, coming to a stop next to Annabeth and Grover, who were watching as the Stolls were thrown screaming into the lake by two pairs of vines, controlled by Katie and Miranda.
"I suppose that's what they get for pranking the Demeter cabin." Annabeth commented.
Christina chuckled. "Come on, I'll race you two to the top of the climbing wall."
Both Grover and Annabeth grinned. "Oh, you are so on."
Two days later…
Christina glanced around the dining pavilion, as she took a seat at her table, spotting Silena and Beckendorf still at the overcrowded Hermes table.
"I would have thought Beckendorf at least would have been claimed." She mused to herself. "He's quite obviously a Hephaestus kid."
Shrugging, she turned back to her food. Just because the last four demigods were claimed so quickly, does not mean other would be. It's not like the gods always cared about claiming their children, unless they exhibited something that made them obviously their child. It was much more common for the half-bloods to go unclaimed for a while.
A shout from the Hermes table startled her out of her musings. Above Beckendorf, the symbol of a fiery red hammer hovered, while Silena's clothes transformed into a long, white gown with gold sandals, gold bracelets, and a gold necklace, while her hair curled. The Hephaestus and Aphrodite cabins broke out into a cheer but quieted down when they saw Chiron stand up.
"Hephaestus, Forger, Sculptor, Inventor. Hail, Charlie Beckendorf, son of the Blacksmith God." Chiron announced, before turning to Silena. "Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty, Passion, Fertility. Hail, Silena Beauregard, daughter of the Love Goddess."
Silena and Beckendorf both stood up from the Hermes table, sending a quick glance at each other before shuffling off to their own tables. Christina watched as Silena was quickly pulled into a conversation with her siblings, a soft smile grazing her face.
But as she turned back to her food, Christina began to worry. It was extremely unusual for any demigod to be claimed this soon, and six had been claimed almost immediately within the last few weeks. Whatever it meant, it was not good, and she was not looking forward to sticking around and finding out what it was.
One month later…
Christina and Annabeth were pulled out of their sparing session by shouts coming from the camp border. Luke, who was leading the combined Athena and Poseidon cabin sparing lesson, which was just the Athena cabin plus Christina, pulled his sword out.
"Let's go see what the commotion is, and then we can come back to our sparring session." He told them, before leading the two cabins up towards Half-Blood Hill.
Christina glanced at her best friend as they all broke out into a run. "What do you think is happening?"
"With this camp, it could be anything." Annabeth said, shrugging. "I just hope it isn't like when I arrived."
Christina went silent, her mind flashing back to that day and the sacrifice that the cousin she had never met had made to protect Luke, Annabeth, and Grover. "Yeah, I hope not."
When they reached the top of the hill, both Annabeth and Christina craned their necks to see around the much taller campers. Grabbing her best friend by the wrist, Christina shoved her way through the crowd, desperately trying to ignore the connections her ADHD brain was making between this day and the one when Annabeth arrived.
"What's going on?" She asked, finally shoving her way to the front of the crowd, and turning to the nearest demigod that she personally knew, Pollux, one of Mr. D's twins.
Pollux pointed towards two figures on the hill that Chiron was galloping out to meet. "Gleeson Hedge just arrived back with that demigod he had gone out to find. You should have seen them, they were surrounded by an entire pack of hellhounds, and the two of them cut through the monsters like they were butter. I bet the girl is a daughter of Ares."
The girl in question was standing facing the crowd of demigods, completely at ease even though she had just fought a pack of hellhounds. She was a larger girl with pale, stringy brown hair, and dark eyes, with a sneer across her face, and looked to be about nine years old. She wore a dark black shirt, with a camo vest, brown pants, and brown boots. Next to her stood Gleeson Hedge, an older satyr who liked to carry around a tree trunk like a baseball bat.
"You can all go back to your activities." Chiron told the demigods, but was completely ignored as everyone stared in shock at the symbol of a bloodstained shield and spear floating above the girl's head. Chiron turned to see what everyone was looking at, and seemed to do a double take, but regained his composure so fast that Christina thought she might have imagined it. "Ares, War Bringer, Rage Inducer, Taunter. Hail, Clarisse La Rue, daughter of the War God."
The campers were all too shocked to speak, even the Ares cabin, and simply stared at Chiron. Chiron leaned over to the new demigod, whispering quietly to her, before heading towards the Big House, Clarisse and Hedge following behind him.
"Let's get back to the sparing arena." Luke called, in a half-hearted attempt to get the campers moving again.
Christina leaned over to her best friend. "Come on, let's go finish our spar, which I am totally going to win. We can worry about the new half-blood later."
"In your dreams." Annabeth joked, lightly shoving Christina. "I'm going to beat you."
Laughing, the two girls followed the Athena cabin and Luke back down the hill towards the sparing arena.
Here's my present, a super long chapter, to make up for the extremely short chapters prior. And, side character introduction time! Don't worry, I have more side characters coming.
So, I know that Katie and Miranda aren't canonically full siblings, but I didn't realize that they weren't until I was doing some research for this chapter. I always assumed they were, since they have the same last name, not realizing that it is spelled differently, so I'm keeping that they're full siblings since I have had that planned out.
I also discovered that neither of them have actual descriptions, so everything is my headcanons for them, although the Stoll twins have canonical descriptions.
Also, please no hate to Luke until we get closer to the main Lightning Thief timeline. I hate him as much as the next person, but right now he doesn't hate Hermes any more than any other demigod hates their godly parent. He hasn't gone on his quest and hasn't even thought of joining Kronos yet. I'll accept all the Luke hate when we get to that point, but right now there is no reason to hate him.
I know in the PJO books, Percy and sort of Tyson are the only ones who get fancy claiming scenes, so I decided to give almost everyone a claiming scene, because they all deserve that.
Woodrow isn't a random OC I made up. He's a character is Camp Half-Blood Confidential if you haven't read that.
I haven't mentioned this before, but Christina's last name, Keeper, is a reference to a lighthouse keeper, so it continues the theme of the gods have children with last names similar to what they are the gods of, like Travis and Connor's last name being Stoll, or Katie and Miranda's being Gardner.
Fun fact, the prank that Connor and Travis pull on the Demeter cabin with the forks is based off a prank that my coworkers and I played on each other this summer. The majority of their pranks, except for the ones that are actually mentioned in canon are going to be based off things my friends, coworkers, and I have done to each other.
So I guess this fic is just going to have really long authors notes now.
Please review. I love reviews.
