Yes, I'm alive, but I'm so sorry! I just have a huge writers block and I really don't know where I'm going with this story – it was a spontaneous decision!

Somebody pointed out to me that the gods were in their Greek form when Lupa – a roman- was around. And to be truthful, it totally slipped my mind! Let's just say that since their greek form is dominant, with Percy's personality and the fact that he stayed with greek hunters made the gods stay in their greek forms.

~ Chapter 8 ~

"That would be great, dad." Both Percy and Tartarus grinned at each other.

Percy felt happy after his conversation with his father. Still, there was a new and weird feeling stirring inside him - he felt kind of intimidated by his badass father, but he felt more loved and wanted than ever. Not to mention the new and awesome powers he had. When he got them, he also received the knowledge of what they were and how to use them – How to be a child of Tartarus for Dummies.

Right now, he had powers over shadows, darkness, Tartarus' own super-powerful, violet fire - only found in the pit - and he could command monsters, though wolves, regular wolves, werewolves and shape-shifters like himself - they didn't see themselves as werewolves, since they could change at will - were deathly loyal to him.

To say the least, he was more than ready to test his new abilities. If these powers hadn't impressed and surprised him enough, his father had told him that his powers would both grow and expand over time as he got older and stronger - he could even discover some new powers.

Walking towards the entrance of the garden, Percy kept thinking about everything that had happened recently. He had moved - more like fled - from his home much earlier than he had wished, believed his mother was dead, found a new family - just to lose it not long after. He'd been discovered by the gods, met his long lost father, gained new powers and now he was going to a new home.

"Here we are kiddo." Hermes announced as he and Percy appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, on top of a hill with a Christmas looking pinetree. "I'll introduce you to Chiron and tell him about your situation. Would've loved to show you around, but I've got a tight schedule to keep!"

As Hermes walked briskly down the hill, Percy stood there admiring the place – it was huge! Cabins stood arranged in a U formation, all looking different, with kids overflowing in some and others completely empty. He could see a beautiful lake, a rock-climbing wall, something that looked like an old, Greek fighting arena, and so much more. The sky was cloud free and he felt a comfortable breeze that brought the delicious sent of strawberries. Looking in that direction he saw a huge strawberry field, kids tending to the plants. "Come on kiddo! I don't have all day!" Hermes yelled, shaking the shape-shifter out of his daze. Percy looked to where Hermes was waving at him from the foot of a big, red house. This place was even better than what his mother had described.

Percy felt awkward as Hermes described things to Chiron: how he was supposed to be dead, his parentage and basically the rest of his life. He was the camps activities director and centaur, all around nice guy – according to his mother at least. As the messenger god finally finished, he stood up, grabbed his messenger bag and caduceus, and turned towards Percy. "Chiron will give you the tour and stuff, but you'll be staying in my cabin. Just a word of advice though, keep your personal belongings with you at all times. I am the god of thieves after all." The god smirked and winked at him before the wings on his shoes and helmet fluttered as he vanished in a flash of light.

The centaur was happy to know Lupa had found happiness and established a family, even though it was against her oath. He had known the she-wolf for a long time, and she deserved happiness. He cherished their friendship, even though they hadn't been in contact after Percy's birth – when they went into hiding – but that was understandable. His friend had told him snippets of her lover and her soon to be child. But nothing to put either of them in danger. And now Chiron planned on continuing to raise and train her son into a great man and warrior.

"So Perseus," Chiron began as he turned towards him, but before he could continue Percy interrupted him, "Just Percy." Chiron smiled, "Excuse me, Percy. Come with me and I'll show you around." Percy followed as the centaur led him out on the deck where he found a knee-shaking nervous satyr, sitting next to Dionysus propping his face full of empty Diet Coke cans. "Chiron!" He greeted, stuffing another can in his face, "Is this the new kid? Who is his parent? Why did Hermes escort him? Is it beca-"

"Calm down Grover." The centaur interrupted to Percy's relief. "And yes, this is Percy, the 'new kid'. The matter of his parent will come in time, he will stay in the Hermes cabin until he is claimed. Now I will give him a tour, could you please inform the Stolls of Percy and ask him to set up a bed for him?"

The satyr nodded furiously before he ran towards the arrangement of cabins, his furry, shaking legs carrying him faster than Percy had imagined.

The tour was uneventful, his mother had already described and told Percy everything about camp, and when he told Chiron this, the centaur was pleasantly surprised. So he skipped all the boring information and instead told Percy about the campers, how he and his mother were great friends and what was happening right now – with the prophecy and all.

At the end of the tour, they approached a brown, worn down cabin overflowing with kids laughing and talking together. Above the entrance hung the number 11 and a caduceus, indicating that they had arrived at Percy's new home – the Hermes cabin.

In the doorway stood to identic looking kids, lanky with brown curly hair and blue eyes, clad in khaki shorts and orange shirts. They looked about his physical age and they had the same mischievous look and elfish features as Hermes. Taking Hermes' advice into consideration, the put his hands into his pockets and observed them critically.

"Chiron!" The guys greeted them at the same time, smiling widely. "Percy, my man! Come in, come in!" The one on the left said – he noticed now that he was a little bit taller than the other one. "Welcome to our humble abode! I'm Conner and that idiot is my twin Travis." The other one said, receiving an elbow in the ribs from his twin. Percy smiled at the interaction, he missed is family already. Waving goodbye to Chiron he entered the rusty door, looking around, the inside didn't look much better than the outside. Sleeping bags were littered in-between the bunk beds – it was defiantly overflowing.

"Dude, I'm sorry you're undetermined. But don't worry, your parent will claim you soon." The one he thought was Travis – the slightly taller one – said. He sounded a little sympatric and monotonic, like he had said this hundreds of times. Percy didn't correct him and tell them he knew both his parents and that both of them were immortal, Chiron had warned him to wait and see if he was claimed, and if so, by who.

The twins led him to a small opening in the sea of blankets and sleeping bags by a window, looking out towards the forest. It looked like a good spot with a nice view, a little crowded, but he had better room than all the other occupants of the floor.

"Sorry dude, this is the only spot we have. It gets kinda cold right here by the window and the forest is just creepy at night. I would've changed my spot for yours, but I love my bed way too much, and that forest is just plain scary." Conner said, looking a lot less apologetic than he seemed. Percy didn't mind at all, it was perfect. He was used to the cold and the forest was his home.

"Here" Travis said as he handed him a sleeping bag and some toiletries. "It's kinda tradition to steal stuff for the newbies here." He smirked and Percy gave him an uncertain, but grateful smile. "Make yourself at home, wander around, whatever you like! Just be back here in about an hour. We've gotta go as a group for dinner." The demigod smiled at him before he disappeared out the door whispering with his brother.

Most of the time, Percy had wandered around the camp, getting to know the place better. Now that Chiron wasn't by his side, the campers stared at him openly. It made his skin itch and he felt uncomfortable. Awkward. So, to save himself from doing or saying something stupid, he had avoided the more populated areas, like the arena and volleyball court. He had gone to the stables, but the horses and Pegasus' that resided there obviously didn't like him, he had no idea why – was it the wolf part of him? Did he smell that bad?

So unknowingly he had been drawn towards the forest, it wasn't really that surprising. He had lived in one his whole life and he felt at home there – the best part was the smell, earthy, fresh, clean. He placed his hand on a big pine tree as he inhaled deeply, about to continue when a voice stopped him.

"I wouldn't go in there if I was you."

When he turned around, he saw a girl, about his age, with princess like, blond curls and swirling, stormy gray eyes – one of Athena's kids. She wore – like everyone else – an orange shirt with the camps name, jean shorts with and her bead necklace. He noticed that she had a lot more beads than the other kids around here, maybe he would question her about it later.

"There are monsters in there, and I don't think you'll get too far without training or a weapon." She continued. Well, I have a weapon and I've been training my whole life. He thought, even though his whole life wasn't really that long. He didn't bother voicing his thoughts. "Not much of a talker are you?" she smirked, "Huh, well my name is Annabeth, daughter of Athena." She held her hand out and he shook it awkwardly – he wasn't used to that – but if she noticed she was nice enough to not comment.

"Percy, son of unknown." He smirked as she laughed lightly, but she suddenly became serious and informed him about how most of the new campers got claimed within the first or second day, usually in public places. She also told him a little bit about herself, when she got there, the quest she had went on, how her rival turned into her boyfriend, amongst others - babbling and sprouting facts in a typical Athena style. In return, he told her some half-truths about himself – he didn't really trust her yet.

"We should be getting you back to cabin 11, you have to reach the lineup for dinner." She told him as she saw how late it was beginning to get. He nodded at her and helped her up from her sitting position on the ground. Brushing her hands on her jeans, he really looked at her, and noticed how pretty she really was. Sad thing that she had a boyfriend then.

As they walked back, he could feel the eyes of the campers boring into him again. He shifted uncomfortably, Annabeth, noticing this reassured him, "We've never gotten a camper as old as you before, they barely make it here when they're 12." On that happy note, they continued.

Of course, he should've predicted the typical, cliché meeting with the hotshot and the bully of the camp. Walking up towards them was a group of buff and strong looking boys and girls - he assumed – being led by a guy who just oozed arrogance. He was about half a head shorter than Percy was, with strait, too long, dark brown hair that looked like mud and light blue eyes. He strutted towards Percy, idly swinging a celestial bronze sword – the guy next to him backed off slightly, getting out of the hit zone.

The leader smirked and winked at Annabeth, who in turn blushed beside him. "Why are you hanging out with the looser, Babe?" he asked as he glanced spitefully at him, but he looked at Annabeth in confusion: 'Was this her boyfriend?'

"I was just showing him around Eric. He's really nice, so there's no need for you to push him around." The way she said it confirmed his thoughts, but at the same time, he was flattered that she stood up for him, so he smiled at her.

"Sorry, babe. It's tradition." He smirked at Percy, before glancing at his minions, "Let's get him!"

All at once they came rushing towards him, his first instinct was to push Annabeth out of the way – he doubted they would hurt her since she was the leaders girlfriend, but better safe than sorry – so he did just that and she squeaked as he pushed her.

He was conflicted, fight or flight? He didn't want to reveal his powers or his identity, but he would defend himself if necessary. But the option was easy - he would fight. All of his instincts – both human and wolf – were in full gear as he got into the fighting position his mother had taught him. Defense was his best shot for now, these kids probably had better training and more experience than he did.

However, he had a scare tactic that was 99% sure to get them off his back – shifting to his wolf form. No, he dismissed immediately, I'm not supposed to do that. But as he thought it, he knew he wouldn't have a chance otherwise. He would use it as a last resort if things got out of control.

All was silent – the silence before the storm. The minions had gathered around him, waiting for Eric's final command. Other campers had also gathered around, the Stolls going around collecting what Percy remembered were golden drachmas – were they placing bets? Wasn't Chiron, or even Dionysus, going to interfere and stop this?

Reaching into his pocket, he brought out his pen, an action that got the laughter going around him. "Seriously? I'll almost feel bad when I crush your face in." Eric continued laughing, an evil glint in his eyes as he soaked up the approval from his peers. However, that laughter stopped as soon as Percy uncapped his pen, turning it into a beautiful celestial bronze sword, seeming to glow with the quickly fading sun – Riptide.

"Lets just get this over with, Eric." He tried pouring as much confidence and a pinch of arrogance into his voice, it seemed to work as Eric stood there, seemingly dumbstruck. Obviously, he didn't receive resistance when preforming his little 'initiation'.

But Eric wasn't going to be intimidated by some newbie – weakling – with a sword. He probably stole it from someone anyway, not having a clue on how to use it. They surrounded the new kid and could've easily overpowered him by their numbers, but he wanted to show them how great he was, how he was worthy of being the prophecy child – which he of course was.

"Oh, I'll show you, newbie." He glared at Percy, "Guys, back off. He's mine." His glare intensified, but Percy glared right back – his wolf glare. Percy observed the way his jaw clenched and feet shifted before Eric charged him. He had anticipated the move and sidestepped him, meeting his sword and pushing it out of his grasp before tripping him – making the boy fall flat on his face. Laughter erupted behind Percy, he felt somewhat bad, but Eric totally deserved it. He even saw Annabeth red faced trying not to laugh.

Percy put out his hand, offering to help Eric up, but he just glared hatefully at the hand before angrily pushing himself up. "Cheater!" He yelled, "Rematch!" trying to get minions and peers on his side – but they were too busy laughing. Percy even had to smile at the desperate tone in his voice.

"Lets just call it a draw? No hard feelings." Percy smiled slightly trying to ease the growing rage building in Eric.

"No! I call for a rematch, now! He tricked you all!" He persisted as he picked up his sword and slashed it towards Percy, who barely managed to dodge. He thought the guy had more respect for the match. Obviously not.

"Hey!" Annabeth called as she stepped in-between the boys, her back facing Percy. "It's just a game, you know the rules, he won. Let it go." She held her hands up in an attempt to calm down Eric – something that wasn't working at all.

Soon his sneer turned towards her, "Just a game? I will not let this cheater walk away! He cannot defeat me in a fair match." His sword was now pointing at her also, and Percy didn't like where this was going. Not at all.

"He tricked you all! Or were you too stupid to see? If only you were even half as smart as you are hot!" Oh no, explosion in 3-2-…

"How dare you-you bastard!"Annabeth screamed as she slapped him. "This is over, right now! I don't even know was I saw in you! You're just a self-observed, sick…"

Things seemed to slow down for Percy, the adrenaline in his system peaked as he saw Erics sword coming up, to slash Annabeth across the face. His eyes flashed violet and he couldn't control himself or the immense anger he held for the arrogant child of Poseidon. Power and adrenaline flowed through his system as he pushed his newly found friend out of the way. He felt the familiar, tingling feeling of his body shifting – changing him into a wolf.

And in the blink of an eye, he stood there, taller and more powerful than ever, roaring and snarling down into the frightened face of Eric.

'Well,' he thought, 'this wasn't supposed to happen…'

Whoop, whoop!

Please leave both criticism and praise, and I'll be more than happy for ideas - I NEED them!

~ Emma