Chapter II: The Traitor

As we walked through the forest, A large wooden gate towered us. Words were inscribed onto the wood: Camp Half-Blood. This time, I could actually read it. As if reading my mind, Percy said, "Your brain is hard-wired for reading Ancient Greek. That's why English words make no sense."

"Oh," I said blankly.

We walked into 'camp'. People in armor and helmets and swords were all over the place. Usually, I blend in with a crowd, but in this case, I stood out. Percy began to give me a tour around camp and told me more about the Greek gods. He said I'd be staying in the Hermes Cabin, because I was 'unclaimed' or whatever... I walked around camp and got used to my surroundings. A few of the campers welcomed me. After my 'tour' and a few introductions, I sat down and watched as people carried out activities. I stood up and decided to check out my cabin. The cabins were aligned in a U-shape pattern. I walked until I reached the Hermes cabin, when I noticed a girl sitting on the porch of the Athena cabin. She had black hair growing down to her hips, steely grey eyes and a light skin tone. She was attractive, but was occupied by something on the laptop on her lap. She constantly wrote something in her a notebook, so I figures she was taking notes. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of her... There was just something about her...

"That's Lynn," a voice said from behind me.

I turned in surprise, not recognizing the speaker.

"Sorry if I surprised you. I'm Nathan Griffon. I see you're new to camp, so if you want to talk to her, I'd suggest otherwise," Nathan said.

"Why?" I asked.

"She's rather aggressive," he said. "She's a daughter of Athena. She's knows everything there is to know about wisdom, warfare, strategy, you name it. She doesn't play well with newbies."

"That's nice to know," I stated flatly, not really listening.

"You should go learn what you're good at today. Go try out archery, swordsmanship, blacksmithing, whatever we got here. Find out what you're good at," he said.

"Okay," I said, "I'll go check out the arena."

"You do that," he said.

I walked over to the sword-play arena and took in the surroundings. I headed toward the weapons rack and picked up a suit of armor and a sword. The armor was a little too big for me, but it didn't really matter. The sword was heavier than I expected so I put it back and looked around for another one. Sadly, they were all the same, so I picked up my old one and headed out. I looked around and saw Lynn again, this time dressed in armor and wielding a sword. It was different from mine, and a little larger. I saw her defeat the people who challenged her. I felt it wasn't wise to challenge her, so i looked for a different person to fight.

"You," a female voice said.

I turned to the source of the sound. I flinched as I found the Lynn was right in front of me.

"You gonna fight me or what?" she asked.

"Um... I'll go with 'or what'..." I responded.

"That's not your decision," she said declared.

She raised her sword and struck. I put up my blade in defense, only to get it knocked out of my hand. I stumbled to the floor.

"Get up," she said. "Get up and fight."

I picked up my sword and stood to my feet. She immediately released a barrage of attacks. I managed to deflect most of them. I realized people started to gather around out battle, observing my foolishness.

"He's pretty good," someone muttered.

"He's only blocking, not attacking," someone else said.

Lynn went for a horizontal swing with her sword. I raised my sword in defense. The force of her attack being blocked shoved her arm in the opposite direction. I noticed this was my golden window of opportunity. I rammed her and she stumbled onto the floor. I pointed my blade at her neck, which meant I cornered her. I'd won.

"Pretty good for a newbie," she said, rather dazzled.

Scattered applause came from the gathered crowd. Nathan came up to me.

"Dude, you just beat one of our best warriors. On your first try," he proclaimed.

Only now noticing that a crowd had gathered, I said, " I did? Oh, I mean y-yeah! I did!"

However, noticing that the blade was getting heavy, I pointed it away from Lynn's neck and dropped it on the floor.

"Got any smaller blades?" I asked, "That swords too heavy."

"Sure," Nathan said, "Let's go asked the blacksmith."

We walked away from the swords arena and walked toward the blacksmith.

"Got any swords?" I asked.

"You gotta make 'em yourself," The blacksmith said.

Nathan and the blacksmith explained to me how to make swords, arrows, spears, and other things. By the time afternoon fell, I'd just about finished my weapon. Or weapons. I started experimenting with the metals and realized that I not only preferred a knife that was around ten inches long, but I seemed to like a sword that was about two feet long. the ones at camp were two-and-a-half feet long. I'd made the blades out of a mixture of obsidian and celestial bronze, which I learned kills monsters almost always on contact. The obsidian gave the blades a nice shade o black. I'd even made sheaths for the weapons. after I equipped my armament, I checked my watch. 6:47 p.m. My phone started to vibrate. That's when I realized that I forgot all about my mom. How would I tell her that I'd be staying at camp for a while learning to kill monsters and stuff? She doesn't even let me cut my own dinner with a knife! I reached for my cell phone and answered the caller. As Percy walked by, he turned toward me and his expression became terrified.

"Don't use the phone!" he yelled. Too late.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Rey Halden, where on Earth are you!" My mother yelled.

"I went to a place called-"

All of a sudden a screeching sound pierced the air. A harpy, different from the one before, but still equally terrifying, plunged from the sky and plucked me from my spot. My phone fell out of my hand and the line went dead. I was carried off into the afternoon sky by a monster who wanted to kill me. Great. Just great.

You have a sword, stupid, the voice rang in my head.

Not knowing where or who the speaker was, I took his advice and drew my sword. I sliced at the harpy's talons, where it grasped me. It roared in rage and grabbed my arm with its hands as I free-fell toward Manhattan. It gave me a nice sock in the face and continued to fly away. I grasped the hilt of my sword as tightly as I could and swung at the demon's head. Immediately on contact, The harpy exploded into golden dust. I started falling to the floor.

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die," I kept saying to myself.

Wrong.

A blur of black caught me midfall and flew toward camp at an amazing speed. I looked up and saw Percy's face.

"Blackjack, take us back to camp," he said. I looked at my vessel. It was a horse. With wings. A Pegasus.

We flew back to camp, landed in front of the dining pavilion. Chiron, as a centaur, trotted toward us.

"How did the harpy find you?" Chiron demanded.

Percy, who picked up my black phone, said, "With this."

"Well, more importantly, how did the harpy manage to get through camp borders?" Chiron asked, more to himself than anyone.

"Anything other than half-bloods can only enter camp if invited," Annabeth, who now walked into the scene, said.

"So you're telling me someone invited the monster in?" Chiron questioned.

"Most likely," Annabeth said grimly. "We may have a traitor in our midst."

I was thinking of jumbling chapter I and II together, but they had different topics. R&R, plz. Rey is claimed next chapter... most of you probably know who his Olympian parent is. I might also change the title from Pitch Black to something else later...