The car ride to my mom's old house right outside of Phoenix was just as awkward as expected. I had to punch Hedge on the arm multiple times to stop him from eating the leather seats and my mom tried to talk about Camp Half-Blood. Talking with her in person was worse than the occasional Iris-Message I would send her. After my answers only being stiff and one-worded, she stopped and focused on the road as if she didn't have a half-donkey half-human man eating her car seats and a demigod armed with a collapsible electric spear, a sword, and a knife in the back. Typical.
As the city scenery passed by the window, I remembered growing up in this city. Back then, it was just me and my mother. The insane woman and her bold, rude child. We had been a pair until she couldn't handle me anymore and sent me to Camp Half-Blood and now she wanted me again. Only so I could get rid of another demigod who was bothering her. I didn't know what I hated more: this feeling or Annabeth.
"Clarisse." I turned my stare from the window to my mom's face that was looking back at me. "Are you hungry? We could get some food." She asked. I looked at Coach Hedge, hoping that he could answer so I wouldn't have to have a conversation with my mom. He was asleep. I scowled at his snoring form. Stupid satyr. In front of me, my mom cleared her voice.
"No. Let's go home so I can find this 'insane demigod'." I responded gruffly. Insane demigods, please. All demigods were insane. The one at the top of my list was a certain annoying son of Poseidon.
Except for Coach's snoring, the engine, and my impatient tapping, the car was silent for the rest of the journey. It lasted for 5 hours. By the time we arrived at my old house, I was so ready to get out of that car and its less-than-comfortable atmosphere that I practically leaped through the door. My mom lived at the edge of the city, practically in the desert so the house wasn't anything fancy. It was a simple one-story prairie house with a wooden porch. There was no real back or front yard. When I had wanted to play, the desert as far as the eye could see had been my playground. It looked the same as it had 5 years ago. Everything looked the same. My house, Phoenix, even my mom was the same, but I had changed.
"Hey, cupcake!" I was dragged out of my revelry when I heard Coach's voice. He had the weird habit of calling demigods cupcakes because that was what we smelled like to him. I asked him once why he didn't call us kids. Those were adorable baby goats. I was not a kid.
"C'mon. We'll find the guy," he said softly as he came up to my side. He must have thought that was why I was staring into the desert. It wasn't but I had no desire to tell him that. I had a reputation to uphold. So instead I gave a low grunt and headed inside the house.
The only difference was that it felt less lived in. Despite attracting the attention of the chaotic god of war and having a less-than-neat daughter, Bethany La Rue was an ordered woman. Her home (without a reckless daughter) mirrored that. The kitchen and the living room were both sleek and modern looking; a fact that surprised everyone considering the exterior of the house, and were easily the largest rooms in the house.
My mom took our bags and headed down the single hallway to place them in the rooms that we will be staying in. She told us to get some food from the kitchen. Hedge was extremely pleased when he discovered that my mom had laid out some cutlery for him to eat, yet I found no gift for me. She couldn't even be bothered to put out some fruit. I wasn't a picky eater. I told myself that I didn't care though I found myself eyeing Coach as he began eating.
"All mortal parents need to do this." He decided as he bit into a knife. "I must bring it to the attention of the Cloven Elders." The fact that I owed the old warlike goat my life and that I had a minor soft spot for him were the only reasons that he wasn't at the receiving end of my sneer. I suppressed a shudder as I thought about the demonic eyes of the monsters that I had charged with no training. I would have died a thousand times over without Hedge. Getting to Camp Half-Blood was not as easy as I had made it seem.
"Hurry up and finish eating so we can find that half-blood." I snapped, standing up from my seat on the couch and walking towards the door.
"No." My mom said, announcing her presence. "It's 5 pm, Clarisse. It will get dark soon. I doubt you'll remember but the nights in Arizona are freezing. You should wait until morning. Help me-"
"No." I interrupted her. "We can go out tonight and search." There was no way that I was going to help her cook dinner. That would require talking to her for more than a minute. My mom gave me a heavy stare.
"Clarisse.."
"Mom," I countered. "If the nights are so cold, are you going to let a demigod stay out there for another night?" She didn't respond. For a few long seconds, we just glared at each other. I think we both knew that this had nothing to do with the half-blood wandering in the desert.
Coach Hedge had stopped eating the forks and was now watching us uncomfortably. He cleared his throat. The sound broke the spell that seemed to have fallen on the house.
"Go." My mother said shortly. "I'll start dinner." With that, she turned her back on me and headed into the kitchen. I glared at her back and rushed to my room to grab two coats. She hadn't been wrong when she said that nights in Arizona were cold. Without looking at him, I tossed a coat to Hedge.
"Let's go." He caught it easily and shrugged it on. It clashed hideously with his polo shirt and sports shoes. I didn't even bother concealing a mocking smirk. Coach didn't seem to notice or care. Together we walked out into the desert.
We didn't have a destination in mind or a plan. Unspokenly we had both agreed to stay within the light of my mom's house so that we would be able to find our way back. Though I wasn't opposed to camping out in the desert instead of staying in the house, we hadn't brought any gear with us except our weapons. The first half-hour passed uneventfully. The evening was mostly silent except for the wind, the bugs, and the satyr's and my occasional playful banter. I had known Coach Gleeson Hedge for about 5 years now. Ever since he knocked down my door and I punched him straight in the jaw. Instant friendship.
I glanced at the satyr now. Hedge was bouncing his club on his hand, clearly excited at the idea that he might have to fight some monsters. Inwardly I smiled. If Hedge hadn't told me that his father was satyr, I would have believed he was a son of Ares. Outwardly, I let out an impatient groan.
"You smell anything? Demigod or monster?" In response, he snorted.
"I can hardly catch your scent with this amount of wind and sand." Growling in frustration, I kicked a rock and watched it skeet across the ground. I couldn't find a demigod even with a satyr's help.
"Great, just great."
We continued walking and searching for another 30 minutes. By then the sun was practically gone and I could feel the night chill even through my coat. By the way, Coach shivered, I could tell that he felt it as well though we would never admit it to each other.
"Clarisse, neither one of us brought a flashlight. If we don't start heading back now, we'll probably get lost." He told me. I grit my teeth in annoyance.
"We can keep looking for 5 more minutes," I said. I wasn't going to go home empty-handed and prove my mother right. Hedge grunted but didn't argue. He was probably reading my emotions and knew just how determined I was.
Five minutes later and we still had found nothing.
"Hey. We still have tomorrow morning. We'll fi-" I turned to give him a confused look when he stopped talking abruptly but the satyr wasn't looking at me. He was sniffing the air and looking around.
"Hedge. What-" He waved a hand in front of my face impatiently.
"Shush. You hear that?" At first, I thought that Coach Hedge had finally lost his mind but then I heard it. Soft wailing and mumbling. I took off in a sprint towards the sound with Coach right on my heels.
By now it was almost completely dark but usually, I trained without one of my senses. Not being able to see wasn't any problem.
"There!" Hedge pointed at a little rift in the sand, a part of land lower than the surrounding areas. In it, a body was lying. A male in full body armor. Just like my mom had said. He was completely still except for some trembling and shivering. I gave Hedge an uncertain look. I had never paid much attention to the first aid classes. I was a fighter, not a healer. He moved past me to the demigod sleeping on the sand. All was silent for a few seconds as he tried to see what was wrong with whoever that was. He seemed vaguely familiar to me.
"Clarisse, help me carry this guy back to your mom's house." He called. As I came closer to the demigod, he became more and more familiar and a sense of dread, similar to the one that I felt when I was about to become monster-chow, filled me. Then I saw his face and froze. Instantly I remembered the first time I saw that face. And the last.
I had been training with some other children of Ares. Luke, the vlacas, had brought some new campers to watch us, wanting to show them how sparring would look. I had just lost to one of my brothers and some punk had scoffed, saying that this was why swords and boys were better. I gave him a black eye. The incident however inspired people to call my spear, Lamer behind my back ever since.
The last time I saw him had been almost two years ago. He was sitting at our usual spot in the forest but instead of his face having his annoying smirk or grin, it was completely blank.
"My dad still hasn't claimed me, Clary. Will he ever?" I remember that I stopped breathing for a hot second. I didn't know how to deal with these kinds of things.
"Don't get soft on me, punk." was all I said. I expected him to let it go and return to his normal joking annoying self. Instead, he turned and gave me the angriest, hurt, and cold glare that I had ever received, which was saying a lot. He walked away without a word. The next day, I heard word that he was gone from camp. He had joined the enemy.
"Chris Rodriguez." I breathed softly. The only boy who could call me Clary and not get a broken nose, the only boy who could make me blush, an enemy, someone who deflected and joined Kronos. I saw red. Without even thinking, I lunged towards him with the intent to tear him to shreds. I would have too if Coach hadn't me back.
"What are you doing! Are you having a desert mirage? Do you need a roundhouse kick to the brain to set you straight?" I snarled at him.
"He joined Kronos! He's the enemy!" The old satyr paused at that and gave me a long look. He was definitely reading my emotions. That made me angrier.
"We'll take him to your mom's house and tie him up and call Chiron who, I doubt, will be happy if you kill him." I glared at him then at Chris. The traitor was shivering and trembling on the ground from the cold and something else. Fear? He was mumbling something incoherent and didn't seem to realize that we were here.
Something inside me stirred at the pitiful sight.
"Fine," I growled. "But I'm finding chains to tie him up."
