Disclaimer: I only own the mortals and plot. All of the other characters and stories belong to Rick and the CW.
The day after the party, Frank and Hazel decided to stay in New York a little longer that planned. All the demigods were going to go to camp to visit other friends and train a little. Percy wasn't the only demigod that loved Camp Half blood. Most demigods, Greek and Roman, thought of it as a paradise. Between the rolling green strawberry fields, high tech forges and personalized cabins, it was one of the best places for a demigod to be.
The group of demigods arrived at camp at around ten thirty on Saturday morning. When they crossed the border, Peleus let a friendly puff of smoke rise from his nostrils in greeting. The shimmering gold dragon was wrapped around the base of the pine tree that was once Thalia. On the lowest branch there was a glittering gold object that looked a little like a bathmat, the golden fleece. Peleus's head was directly below the fleece in order to protect it to the best of his ability.
Each demigod waved to Peleus as they walked past him and the magical border. The camp looked more beautiful than ever. The canoe lake glittered a deep blue in the sun. The fields were full of ripe strawberries, courtesy of Mr. D and the satyrs. Even the forest looked peaceful. The leaves of the trees swayed in the wind, making gentle music. Everything was perfect.
Percy breathed in the clean, pollution free, air. Grover had used his power as a lord of the wild to purify the camp and, slowly, other areas of the world. "Come on, guys. Let's go tell Chiron we're here," Percy said. They all ran down the hill as fast as they could. Each one of them had a small backpack of clothes and toiletries with them because they planned on staying overnight, but the extra weight did not hinder them.
Instead of being in the Big House, Chiron was giving an archery lesson to some of the year rounders. As the group approached, a Demeter kid shot an arrow into a nearby tree. The nymph soon appeared and began to chase after the young boy. The rest of his peers laughed as the boy ran from the angry nymph, but it appeared that none of them were naturals at archery either.
Annabeth was the first to speak. "Hello, Chiron." She smiled at the old centaur and waved gently at him. Even though she and her father had mended their relationship, she still thought of Chiron as a father figure.
Chiron turned away from the humorous show the boy and nymph were putting on and smiled back at the group of older demigods. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise." He trotted over to the group. "Is there something I can do for all of you?"
Percy shook his head. "No. We're just here for an overnight. It was Hazel's birthday yesterday and we figured that it would be nice to come visit and train this weekend. By the way, are the gods in a super good mood or something 'cause the camp looks really good."
"Yes, the gods have been making the weather very nice the last couple of weeks without really any explanation. I suspect something has just made them all very happy. Even Mr. D hasn't been complaining as much as usual. Instead he has been working a lot in the strawberry fields," answered Chiron.
"Weird," said Thalia. The rest of the group nodded in agreement. They then split up to do their favorite activities and settle into their cabins.
When Thalia arrived at the Artemis Cabin, she threw her backpack down on the nearest bed. Since she was a Hunter of Artemis, Thalia could either stay in cabin eight or cabin one, but she chose number eight because of the lack of a creepy statue of dad staring down at her. She was the only hunter there at that time, so she had the cabin to herself. After getting all of her things sorted out, Thalia left for the archery range.
Annabeth was about to push the door of the Athena cabin, but it opened itself before her had reached the handle. Her half-brother, Malcolm, was the standing on the other side of the door with his head cocked in confusion. Annabeth had been trying to stay at home instead of going to camp year round, so her sudden appearance was a little odd. Annabeth smiled at his expression and pushed her way past her brother without any explanations as to why she was even at camp. She knew Malcolm would figure it out and she was eager to race Percy up the climbing wall. She said and quick hello and goodbye to her brother and then ran out the door of cabin six.
The Ares cabin always intimidated Frank. It was so unlike what a Mars cabin would look like, and the people were so different from him. They always wanted to compete with him and do things like wrestle, but he just wanted to shoot some arrows or throw a spear. He wasn't overly aggressive like a lot of the cabin's occupants. When he arrived, the cabin was thankfully empty. There were two beds that were clearly occupied, but everyone was out at lessons or training. He knew Clarisse stayed year round, but he had no idea who else was staying in the cabin. Frank began thinking through a map of the camp in his head. He had not been there that many times and he still didn't quite know where everything was. He, Hazel, Nico and Will were all going to go to the canoe lake. Hazel and Will had promised to teach him and Nico how to not capsize the canoe. Frank started out the cabin door and began to look for the canoe lake.
Instead of splitting up, Nico and Will first went to the Apollo cabin. Even though there was no one else in the cabin, Nico was still allowed in because he was the same gender as Will. Being gay had it perks for the couple that made others a little jealous. Will put his backpack his usual bed and took a quick inventory of who was a camp. He was surprised to see that three of his siblings had stayed year round this year. He had left a little earlier than usual last summer, so he wasn't there to see who stayed on the last day of camp. The two of them then went to drop Nico's stuff off at the Hades cabin. Hazel was also putting her things away when the couple arrived. Unlike the rest of the demigods, Hazel was folding and putting away each item from her bag. When Nico saw this, he could not resist laughing at his sister. In response, she threw her toothpaste at him. After Hazel and Nico finished their little sibling spat, the three of them left for the canoe lake to join Frank.
Everyone had thoroughly exhausted themselves by the time dinner rolled around. The demigods had learned a way around the table rule a long time ago. They simply shouted what they wanted to say across the pavilion. This annoyed Chiron and Mr. D very much, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
Dinner was about halfway done when a group of satyrs ran up to Chiron. They whispered hurriedly to him in a distressed manner. Chiron's eyebrows furrowed in concern when he heard what the satyrs had found in the woods. He whispered something back to the group and they ran off and into the woods.
As soon as the satyrs left, campers started to shout things like, "What is it?" "What's going on?" and "Is there a monster?" Chiron held up his hand to signal silence, but everyone kept talking. Because his preferred method of requesting silence was not working, Chiron stomped one of his hooves on the ground. At this sound, the campers ceased to speak and waited for Chiron to say something.
Once he was sure of silence, Chiron began to speak. "Do not panic when I tell you this." The demigods all looked to one another in concern. What was going on? After a brief pause, Chiron continued. "There has been a body found in the woods and the satyrs are going to bring it to the big house so that the cabin counselors, myself and Mr. D may examine it. The satyrs asked the nymphs about the body and they said it had been there for a while, but they didn't see the need to tell anyone about it. The surrounding woods have been checked and there are no signs of any monsters." The silence that had been held during Chiron's explanation broke. Everyone wanted to discuss this macabre discovery and speculate about how the body got there. Chiron held up his hand once again. "Can I have the head counselors of each cabin that are currently at camp meet me in the big house as well as Thalia, Ms. Levesque and Mr. Zhang. The rest of you finish your dinner and then go to the campfire as usual."
Everyone was lost in thought on the way to the Big House. The body was on the ping-pong table when they walked in. There was a collective gasp at the sight of the body. It was a man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had dark hair that was perfectly styled, and his open eyes were a dark brown. His face was wise and regal. Instead of casual clothes, he was wearing a perfectly pressed dark suit with a bright white shirt that was perfectly clean except for a dark red stain down the middle. At the origin of the stain, there was a jeweled dagger. It was embedded in the heart of the corpse, but the most disturbing part of the image was the skin of the body. It was light grey with dark grey veins all over it.
"What the Hell?!" ejaculated Clarisse. "Why is it grey? Was he attacked by some sort of monster?"
Chiron stroked his chin. "I don't think so. This doesn't look like the work of any monster I've ever seen."
"Then why is his skin grey?" asked Frank.
Chiron shook his head. "I don't know. Hazel, Nico, do you feel anything odd from him?"
Hazel shook her head, but Nico nodded. "He doesn't feel alive, but he doesn't feel dead either. He just feels like . . . he's in between." Hazel's senses were not as sensitive to death as Nico's because her powers more focused on the mist and riches. She could only feel the deaths of the people she knew very well.
"Maybe the dagger is the reason his skin is grey," suggested Annabeth. "The dagger seems to be the cause of death, but according to Nico he isn't really dead, so something must be up with the dagger."
Chiron nodded at Annabeth with a little bit of pride. "I believe you are correct. We should remove the dagger, so that it can be examined. However, it would not be smart to get fingerprints on it. Hazel, would you mind?" Hazel nodded to show she understood what Chiron was asking. She tried to sense any precious metals in the area, and to her surprise found that the dagger was made of silver. She lifted the dagger out of the body and laid it on the table.
For the next ten minutes everyone was much too absorbed with the dagger to look at anything else. It wasn't until an unfamiliar voice said, "Hello," that they noticed that the man had woken up. Every single person in the room except for the now living corpse had a mini heart attack at the revelation.
The man sat up and spoke once again. "Where am I, and who are you?" His skin was still grey but the hole in his chest that the dagger had left was now healed.
Chiron was the first of the group to regain his composure. "You are at Camp Half Blood, and my name is Chiron. Who are you?"
"Chiron? Your name is Chiron?" asked the stranger in disbelief. He knew that Chiron was a centaur in Greek myths, but he had never heard the name used anywhere else.
Chiron raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Yes, It is."
"I don't mean to be rude, but that is quite the unique name."
"Oh, don't worry. I know my name is a little, odd to say the least."
"My apologies, but I have one more rude question. Are you a . . . centaur?"
The demigods and Chiron all looked at one another in shock. This man could see through the mist? Chiron turned back to the stranger. "Yes, I am."
"Does that make you the Chiron, the trainer of heroes from Greek myths?" asked the stranger his tone filled with even more disbelief than before. "Who are you, then?"
"They are my students," answered Chiron. He had a proud smile upon his face.
The man smiled at Chiron. "That would make all of you . . . demigods, correct? My name is Elijah. Were you the ones who removed the dagger from my chest?"
"Yes we are demigods, and yeah, we did take the dagger out," answered Thalia. "How did you wake up? You were dead." She didn't care how blunt her statement was. She just wanted to figure out what the heck was going on.
"I don't know. All I know is that someone stabbed me with a dagger and now I am here. Thank you, by the way, for pulling the dagger out." Elijah shifted his posture. Something was obviously bothering him. He had been for a couple months, and he was starving. If he any other vampire, everyone in the room would already be dead and drained, but he prided himself on his self control.
"Did the dagger make your skin grey, too?" asked Hazel. Elijah shrugged, and a couple red veins appeared under his eyes for less than a second before he regained control. Hazel noticed this and looked at him with concern. "Are you okay?" Elijah nodded once again in response.
"Who stabbed you?" asked Clarisse. Her brown eyes were narrowed at the visitor. She didn't trust him.
"I don't know who they were. I had never met them before. The whole scene was all very odd," he responded.
Percy looked at him with confusion in his eyes. "Wait, how did you know that we're demigods?" His companions nodded. It was odd that Elijah had figured it out so quickly.
"Chiron said that I was correct and he was the trainer of heroes and that you were his students; therefore, you are demigods," replied Elijah.
"Oh," Percy, Thalia and Will all said in unison.
Will examined at the Elijah curiously. "When do you think your skin will turn back to normal?"
Elijah chuckled a little at the young doctor's question. "My guess is that it will take time. Maybe the dagger being gone will make it my skin turn back, but my body needs to put it's self back to rights before it does anything else." He had decided not to tell the group of demigods that he was a vampire or that he knew what the dagger did because heroes tend to have trouble with the idea of morally ambiguous, and information is power.
"Do you mind if I do a quick medical examination of you in the infirmary while you wait?" asked Will. He was eager to examine this medical mystery as well as make sure the man was okay.
"I don't mind at all. I did just get stabbed by some sort of mystical dagger after all. I appreciate your concern," responded Elijah. He, Nico and Will all went to the infirmary while the others stayed in the Big House with the dagger.
I found the dagger! It was in Elijah's chest! Thank you all for reading. Also heads up, I will be traveling next Tuesday, so the next chapter may be a little late. Thank you toRonlol2 and Rhysrhi for reviewing. As always constructive criticism is loved and appreciated, so please review.