Wow. 2 months later, I finally update Gaining Trust. Hopefully that means that my buzz is coming back.
In other news, I have a couple of notices for you guys waiting at the end of this chapter. Please take your time to notice them.
Gaining Trust – Chapter 8:
The Diary
Chiron ordered the Hermes cabin leader to get Jaden an hour before dinner. Griffin Lowe was a tall young man with messy brown hair and blue eyes not to mention the sharp features that all children of Hermes seemed to have. He also had a chain swinging on his belt with a spear head pendant. Jaden took one look at that pendant and decided that he didn't want to know what it could do. He had a feeling that it was like his dog tag.
" So you're our new cabin member." The older boy said, carefully looking Jaden over. The grandson of Hermes was holding his dragon and his dog plushies.
" Uh-huh." Jaden replied quietly.
" Where's your stuff?"
" Right here. This is George and Peter." He was going to add that his father had given them to him when he was still young, but he thought otherwise when he noticed the look Griffin was giving the toys.
" What? You got no clothes?"
" Mr Chiron said that he was going to send them over himself."
" Oh, great." Jaden heard Griffin mumble to himself. " Come on then."
Quietly, Griffin led Jaden out of the Big House and down to the cabins. All around them, kids were doing their own thing. Over by the Apollo cabin, Gary was getting frustrated about something as he played a guitar that was on his lap. A couple of the Ares boys were wrestling each other (Jaden decided to stay as far away from them as possible). But one thing that never changed was that each one of them wore orange shirts.
Before he knew it, Griffin had steered him onto the Hermes Cabin Porch. The old cabin looked like it had under gone a paint job… and a really bad one at that. Aside from the random streaks of dark brown showing under the lighter brown of the 'new' cabin colour, there were also blotches of white, black and more brown all over the place. The only things that weren't covered in paint were the caduceus over the door and the windows (though Jaden figured the windows had been cleaned shortly after the paint attack). But before Jaden could either question or admire the artwork (he wasn't sure what he wanted to do), Griffin had opened the door and shoved him into the cabin, standing in the doorway so that he couldn't run off.
" Okay! Make room!" Griffin roared over the dying noise in the cabin.
" Are you serious?" Someone asked, having spotted Jaden.
" Chiron can't be thinking of training him. He's the son of Kronos!" Another grumbled.
" Silence, you dogs! And for your information, Ben, he's also the son of Luke Castellan. Therefore, he is the grandson of Hermes… and our nephew." Griffin growled.
" I'm guessing that that last fact doesn't apply to those of us who are still unclaimed for some reason." A ten year old girl said from the back of the cabin.
" Obviously. Now move your stuff."
" What?"
" I said, move your stuff. Jaden, here, is taking your bed."
" That's not fair!"
" This is the Hermes Cabin. Nothing in here is completely fair. Besides, your bed once belonged to Luke Castellan. It's only right that his son gets his bed. Now get up and move to the floor with the rest of your lot."
Jaden looked from Griffin to the girl and back again. " I can sleep on the floor. I don't mind."
A half smile spread over Griffin's face. " Can't pull that one on me, little guy. You're one of us. You get the bed."
" What if I didn't want it?"
At that moment, a golden light illuminated the cabin. Slowly, everyone turned to the back of the room where the girl who had been told to move her things was standing with her hands on her hips in defiance against Griffin's words. Above her head was a golden chalice being filled by a golden jug. At one look of what was happening, Jaden backed away from everyone and almost tripped into Griffin. Griffin, on the other hand, was bowing his head to the girl.
" Well, well, well. Looks like we have a daughter of Hebe in our presence. Benjamin, you go tell Chiron. Melissa, you go make sure that Ashley here gets to her true cabin. Ashley, you're going to have to give that bed up anyway. Thanks for staying the night in the Hermes cabin. The next time we see you… we wouldn't want to be you." The cabin leader said, giving off a salute.
" I… I want to go home." Jaden said quietly. He was still scared of everyone and everything at the camp.
Griffin bent down to him. " You are home, Jaden. Even though it's not completely official, this is where you belong."
All Jaden could do was sigh and trudge off to his new bed which had only just been cleared of Ashley's things.
Dinner, though noisy for everyone else, went by quietly for Jaden. If anything, he wanted it to be over and done with as soon as possible. But he had to sit at the table with everyone else and wait. Once dinner was finished, Chiron came over and picked him up in preparation for that night's game of Capture the Flag. He wasn't allowed to play with the others yet for some reason. And, to be honest, he didn't mind not playing.
But things got interesting after the game. Griffin had split up the cabin and had told his brother Ryan to take the smaller kids back to the cabin for bedtime. That included Jaden. For some reason, though, Jaden was more than happy to be with Ryan than with Griffin. He didn't know what it was, but Ryan just seemed like one of those kinds of boys that Gary would have out with. It may have been that Ryan's features were just that tad bit softer than the rest of the Hermes children, or it may have been the fact that Ryan always seemed tired of life but always welcomed the sight of the younger camp members. There was just no way of knowing.
Ryan was the same age as Griffin, being sixteen, but he was considerably shorter than the rest of the campers his age. He was also missing his left arm and walked as if he had something wrong with his left leg. And the eye patch over his left eye made Jaden feel sorry for the older boy. It was obvious that Ryan hadn't been as luck as some of the other campers in one of the battles that the camp had apparently had in the past. And it was that which initially sparked the seven-year-old's curiosity almost as soon as they had entered the cabin.
" Uncle Ryan?" Jaden called when the girls had gone into the bathroom to change.
" Don't call me uncle." Ryan responded. " What's wrong, Jaden?"
" What happened to your arm?"
" I just got into a fight. I lost my arm, my leg and half my vision. The Hephaestus cabin was able to make me a new leg, though."
" My dad had a scar on his face, didn't he?"
" How do you…?"
" I remember a scar and blue eyes when I think of my dad."
" Yeah, Jaden. Your dad had a scar on his face. I don't remember how he got it, though. So you're going to have to ask someone else about that. Why do you want to know?"
" I never knew my dad."
Ryan's face seemed to soften at those words. " I'll tell you something. I've never met Hermes before. You're lucky. There are a lot of people here who never knew their godly parent. Now enough questions. It's time for bed. Good night."
The next day came around far too quickly. With a yawn, Jaden sat up in his new bed and looked around the cabin. Everyone was still asleep, a couple of them still soundly snoring. The guy on the bunk on top of his was even talking in his sleep. Jaden could make out something about a hydra, but chose to ignore it. He did, however, notice that it was still fairly dark outside. Before he could help it, he managed to climb out of bed and hurried into the bathroom.
When he returned and had climbed back into his bunk, however, he noticed that there was something different about the slats on the bunk above his. To be honest, it looked like there was something in between two of the planks of wood… something green. Curious about what it was, Jaden reached down the side of his own bed to grab hold of the battery operated candle that Chiron had given him before turning it on and shining it at the object.
Sure enough, lodged into the bunk above his was an old green book with a brown spine. As carefully as he could, so that he didn't disturb the boy above him, he managed to ease the book from its hiding place. It looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Scared the book would fade away if he touched it, Jaden carefully opened the book.
Secured in the first page of the book was a name in neat, cramped handwriting – Halcyon Green. Underneath that was another name, this time in hurried writing… a name that Jaden did not expect to find – Luke Castellan. Either this Halcyon Green guy gave the book to his father or his father had stolen it. But Jaden didn't care about that. In his hands was a book that once belonged to his father. Swallowing down the excitement, Jaden started to flick through the books pages, looking for the messy writing that he somehow knew belonged to his father.
'My name is Luke.'
He had found it. The very first story that his father had written in the book. He had found out on the page before it that Halcyon Green had apparently been having a one-sided conversation; something about a guy named Luke (Jaden figured it was talking about his father) taking the diary. Now he couldn't wait to read about his father. Taking a deep breath, he read on.
" A magic goat. Why would you write about a magic goat?" He whispered, trying to keep the laugh out of his voice. He had only read the first few paragraphs.
About an hour later, he had managed to read about seven pages. He was just reading about a magic goat with five flavours plus an ice dispenser when he was forced to stop. A creak from one of the bunks at the front of the room gave away the fact that someone was waking up. As quietly as he could, Jaden tore the corner of his blanket off and carefully placed it into the diary. Then he hurried to place the book under his own mattress for fear of someone else finding it. It was just in time too. Gary's voice rang clear through the entire cabin.
" Rise and shine, it's shower time! That means you, Turbo!"
Okay, how'd you like it? Was it good? Let me know, please. In the meantime, I have a couple of notices for you (as stated above):
1) I'm having a bit of a think about how to continue with this story. Should Jaden go on a quest or should he stay at camp and learn how to fight first?
2) The other day I was reading through the second Great Prophecy when it dawned on me. 'To storm or fire the world must fall' is equal to Leo breaking that fortune cookie which made Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus. And because Percabeth fell into Tartarus, it caused world chaos amongst PJO/HOO fans. Has anyone else wondered if that line meant world chaos amongst fans?