Shane
My mouth hung open in awe as we stopped dead three quarters of the way down the hill, the small crowd in front staring at us. The gods… Greek gods… were real. Surely she's lying. That's what half of me wants to think but the other half can't help thinking it's true. But how could it be? It's not like they would be able to hide their existence from the entire world. But then what were those huge dogs? I could feel my brain try to wrap itself around the idea, almost trying to make me believe it.
The three remaining quadruplets continued down the hill as if this were no big news to them and joined the crowd talking to others. The big guy with the battle-axe came and stood by Clarisse, facing us and Benton seemed to be standing idly by a tree. Nico was still on the hill. I could hear strange conversations from the group along the lines of: whose children we were, if we could take someone in a swordfight and- in a group of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen in my life's case- whether the tall guy was available or not.
"So let me get this straight," Jesse began. "You want us to believe that over two thousand year old myths are real. That these said myths are watching us right now. And what… Those things back there were some ancient monsters that were hunting us because we're children of these myths?"
"That's precisely what we want you to believe." Came a gruff voice from our left.
I whipped to my left to see a small porky guy with a red nose and big watery eyes. He had a short head of tightly curled black hair that I could've sworn was tinted purple. He wore a tiger pattern Hawaiian shirt and navy tracksuit shorts with brown sandals glued to his bright red feet. He looked what I imagined a comic redneck to look like.
"In fact," He continued. "That is what you should believe." He said it with such conviction and authority that I thought he would have me killed if I believed otherwise.
"Oh, Mr D." Clarisse said in evident surprise. "What're you doing here?"
"Obviously I'm having to fill in the blanks for these adolescents Miss La Rue." He replied lazily, swirling a can of coke that seemed to have sprung from thin air.
"What does the D stand for?" Rebecca asked, looking intrigued.
Mr D sighed wearily, not taking his eyes off the drink. "Looks I'm going to have to teach them some manners as well. Ever since that Peter Johnson showed up, all of the kids seemed to have lost all sense of common decency." He began to turn away from the group, talking to no one in particular. "I'll have to go see Chiron about the camp attending a manners course. All these kids never seem to be able to spot an important historic figure when they see one…"
His lecture was ended as he erupted into a ball of purple flames which died almost as quickly as they had been lit. The crowd around us seem to have no interest in the scene at all and acted as though it were a normal occurrence, unfortunately that wasn't the case for our crowd as Rebecca squealed and duck behind Jesse for cover whilst he seemed equally shocked. I guess I wouldn't have looked much better.
"I could've sworn he was relieved as camp director." Said someone in the crowd.
"Well looks like he loves us more than he lets on." Another voice said sarcastically.
"Dionysus." Clarisse sighed.
"What?" I responded.
"Dionysus. He's the camp director. Son of Zeus and god of wine, madness and all things festive." Clarisse told us. "Apparently showing off as well. Although don't let his appearance fool you, he could turn all of us into his favourite grape vines with a flick of his wrist."
The three of us just stood there in stunned silence. Rebecca had her mouth wide open in both awe and surprise. There was no way that was the literal Greek god. This must be some sort of prank they're pulling on us, there was just no way on earth…
"By the looks on your faces I'm assuming you stuck between believing us and making a run for the hill and getting as far away from us as possible." Nico announced, who had just seemed to appear out of nowhere. He looked even paler if that was possible but seemed determined to stay on his feet.
"Well it's not every day you're told something like this." Jesse disclosed, looking exasperated.
"Believe me, we all went through this when we were told." Clarisse smirked.
I found my voice. "Well if that means everyone here is a child of the… you know-"
"The gods." Nico finished.
"Yeah, um, whose children are you guys then?" I asked.
"Well Clarisse here is a daughter of Ares, god of war." Nico began, Clarisse looked proudly at us. That was pretty cool. "And so is Warren here." He indicated the dude with the battle-axe who grinned menacingly at us. "Those three with bows over there are children of Apollo and the group of girls gossiping in the corner," He pointed at the models I saw earlier debating Jesse's relationship status. "Are children of Aphrodite."
"What about you?" Asked Jesse, who had been staring at Nico the entire time.
"Well," Clarisse began after Nico didn't seem to want to say anything. "Nico here is the one and only son of Hades you'll probably ever meet."
"Well there's Hazel." Nico suggested.
"Pluto, it's a different thing entirely." Clarisse waved away. "Plus she's Roman."
"Not as different as you might think." Nico mumbled although with a small smile on his face.
"Roman?" Rebecca asked looking up from fiddling with her shirt. "You mean like ancient Roman?"
"Yes. There's another camp way out in San Francisco that is dedicated to the children of the Roman gods." Nico answered.
"Wait, so the Roman gods are real as well? I thought they were just the Greek ones but with different names." Jesse questioned.
"Well they are, but different personas of the gods." Nico said. "Don't get me wrong they are one and the same, but it's like they lead a double life in away. So one kid could be born a child of Hermes for example, but another could be a child of Mercury."
"That's so weird." I stated.
"Don't worry," Nico continued. "The gods get headaches over it as well."
A moment of silence.
"Wait, so how did you find out we were… you know…" Jesse started.
"Demigods." Nico supplied. "Well it was mostly coincidence. Annabeth and Percy were taking sort of vacation from our world." He gestured to the camp. "And just happened to the same school as you guys. I think the first indication we got was her grey eyes." He nodded to Rebecca who looked up confused.
"What's wrong with her eyes?" Jesse asked.
"Nothing's wrong with them," Clarisse butted in. "It's just children of Athena tend to have those stormy grey eyes."
"So do all demigods have specific eye colours?" Jesse said.
"Not necessarily," Nico expressed. "Just some more than others; like being a child of Poseidon means that Percy has sea green eyes, a child of Zeus would have electric blue and me being a child of Hades gives me these horrible dark brown eyes."
"I think they're pretty" Said Rebecca, smiling at him.
"Thank you." Nico smiled back but looking genuinely surprised.
I've come to learn that if there's anybody you could want to brighten up your day, it's Rebecca. I remember back when we first moved into our apartment when Jesse turned sixteen, we were supposed to have someone from social security to be checking in on us every now and again but that never happened. Anyway, when we first moved in it was a complete dump, the walls were peeling and the floors were so dirty we wouldn't dare walk on them. But she pretty much found the beauty in it.
After about a month we had the place looking like it didn't belong in the complex. Rebecca had been nagging Jesse to take them shopping to find things for the apartment and he didn't regret ever doing so, she was like a junior architect. Then again she did have Jesse running around the living room for about an hour with a sofa trying to get it into the right position.
A short while passed whilst we took everything in, the crowd had begun to disperse and they all headed in the direction of a cluster of building that formed a sort of circle. The building were all designed differently, some in solid gold and others in grey stone with what looked like seashells in the walls. I wonder if those were the houses for the different demigods. I could see the seashell one was probably fitting for a child of Poseidon, seeing as he was god of the sea.
"We should probably go meet up with Chiron now." Said Clarisse after saying something to Warren.
"Yeah," Nico replied as we began walking across the field to a big three storey house with a pointed roof and decking around the outside of it. I could hear the light chatter of distant people and a small sharp clang, like a sword fight was going on somewhere. "So… any questions?"
"Yeah actually." I said. "Do you know whose children we are and whether we are actually demigods?"
"Well, you wouldn't be inside the camp now if you weren't." Clarisse answered with a stern look. "The camp borders see to that, they're enchanted to keep monsters and mortals away. And in answer to the first question, no we don't."
"I thought you said Rebecca had the eyes of a child of Athena?" Jesse stated bluntly, his own eyes as hard as stone.
"Yes but it doesn't always apply to just them, usually it does but there are odd occurrences now and again." Nico stated.
"So, how are we going to find out?" Rebecca asked, excitedly.
"Well, we'll have to let your parents claim you. We made a pact to make sure the gods claim you by thirteen and by the looks of things they haven't exactly kept their word." Said Nico, looking at Jesse. "How old are you Shane?"
"Fourteen." I retorted.
"Yeah, hopefully it should be soon though." He sighed.
"Why wasn't I told before? I mean I'm pretty sure I'd like to know that I'm the son of a Greek god!" I questioned.
"To keep you safe punk." Clarisse told me. "You'd be much more noticeable by monsters if you knew who you actually were."
I heaved out a breath that had been waiting to be released for too long. It was too much to take in. They were basically telling me that my entire life was a lie, and no small one either. I looked across at Jesse whose face was masked with his usual poker face, not giving away an ounce of expression from his features. Rebecca was looking at the ground thoughtfully as we moved- light brown hair falling around her small face, as if trying to count the blades of grass at her feet.
We reached the light blue painted house and climbed onto the wooden decking which creaked slightly as we stepped onto it. Clarisse took a peak through the door and shook her head, Nico had sat himself down on a lawn chair and lay back with his eyes closed. He looked immensely grateful for the seat. Warren was leaning on the support of the decking's roof. He smoothed down his black hair although considering he had a buzz cut, it didn't look particularly effective.
"I don't think he's here." Clarisse said.
"Chiron?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah." Clarisse replied.
Over on the other side of the porch was a half-finished game of pinochle. Beyond that in the distance I saw the sun hanging just above the treeline, illuminating the camp and partially blinding me as well. I could see a volleyball court's sand glinting at me and a streak of white as the ball flew in each direction. The kids there didn't seem that old.
"There he is." Warren stated gruffly.
I took my eyes off of the view and trained my eyes to where Warren was gesturing, and I could see some sort of horse moving towards us. But, with the upper body of a man. You know like those things in myths… what're they called?
"A centaur!" Rebecca exclaimed excitedly.
Yeah. Those.
As the centaur approached us I could make out his thinning long brown hair and bushy eye brows set just above his intense brown eyes. He looked middle aged but had the look of someone who had been around much longer than his apparent age. I couldn't quite keep my eyes from widening with shock, it was so strange. Seeing a half man half horse. Although I doubt you would believe me if I told you, it's just something you have to see.
"Ah, these must be the new arrivals." He said with a broad smile, standing in front of the decking. I noticed a few fading scars on his arms like was he in a battle or something recently. "Welcome to camp half-blood. Safest place for demigods, satyrs and nymphs alike; if you'll excuse our Roman counterpart of course. My name is Chiron."
"Wait," Jesse started. "The Chiron. As in Hercules' trainer?"
"Yes," Chiron replied with a sigh, as if being reminded of a bad memory. "The very same."
"But doesn't that make you like two thousand years old?" I asked.
"Again, yes. Although living hundreds centuries isn't always a good thing." He said with underlying experience backing his words. He stared right through me with his piercing brown eyes. "Now, I understand you three have not yet been claimed by your parents and I believe Clarisse and Nico here have told you about the reality of things here."
"Yeah," Jesse replied. "But it's just really hard to believe that our entire lives were a complete lie."
"Not entirely, I take it you three have dyslexia and ADHD?" Chiron enquired with a raised eyebrow as if already knowing the answer.
I gave a furtive look at Jesse and Rebecca, it was something we all knew we had but it was something we never really talked about. I usually used it as an excuse on teachers but Jesse didn't act like he had either most of the time, then again I don't spend a lot of time around him. Rebecca definitely had ADHD, but it wasn't like she was dyslexic, or least as far as I knew.
Chiron took our silence as a yes. "Well those coincide with your Greek side. Dyslexia- your brain is innately programmed for interpreting ancient Greek, not our modern day languages. ADHD- you are always fidgeting because of your battle instincts. Your reflexes can save your life in dire situations make no mistake."
"Oh, that really explains everything." I said sarcastically. I wish I hadn't.
"Well, let me prove it to you then." Clarisse said with a glare. She pulled a knife that was attached to her leg and threw it at me. Yeah, that's right. She threw a knife at me. Not hard but still enough to scare the hell out of me!
I felt like it was coming toward me much slower than it should though and I quickly jumped to the right. Yelling curses I regained my balance and stared in exasperation at her.
"Told you." She said pointedly. Her smug look quickly vanished though, and turned into a look of pure surprise. Although she wasn't looking at me, she was looking just above my head. So was everyone in fact. I looked up.
Floating above my head was a shining yellow pair of sandals.
With wings on.
Well how boring was that chapter? I swear nothing happened at all, oh well. It's all going down soon. Oh yeah, sorry I haven't updated in a long time- although I'm probably going to end up saying this every chapter now- please accept my sincerest apologies.
'hermeschildawesomness' glad you're still enjoying this :) and don't worry I can relate with being inactive. 'Jimsdale' Me neither, it's just a bit difficult to find time to write now :L 'Guest' Thank you! Hope you enjoy this one as well.
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