I woke up to a steady ray of sunlight. I stared at the ceiling. Had all of yesterday really happened...? Maybe, hopefully, it had all been inside my crazy head. Percy, Grover, Annabeth, Chiron, Mr. D, Westnie and Benjamin, did they all exist? I turned over onto my side. This wasn't my soft bed.
Reality finally hit me and I gave a sigh. It was real, everything had been real, which meant I was in a cabin full of demigods, including myself. I could hear the soft breaths of Kaylee in the bunk beneath me. I also heard something else, heavy breathing, and it was coming from her bunk. I leant over.
A brown scaly creature had wrapped itself into a ball, snoozing on Kaylee's stomach. I stared at the creature until its head twitched and snapped to look right at me. If dragons could smile, I'm sure that's what this one would do. I fell of the bed with a scream.
The creature pounced onto me and licked my face with a large scaly-feeling tongue. I grimaced. Kaylee's body shot awake and stared wild eyed at me, the dragon was licking my face just like a dog would. My screams woke everybody up, Westnie rushed to me, but halted in her tracks when she saw the dragon.
"Somebody go get Chiron!" She shrieked but I was way too busy trying to shove the dragon off of me to notice Ben leave the room. For god's sakes, I didn't even see Kaylee trying to get me to calm down, let alone calm the dragon down. I felt the clenching heartbeats of fear burst in my chest; the dragon was still licking my face.
"Get off!" I screamed at the brown reptilian, he flapped his wings, but didn't get off. Maybe it was like a dog, and sensed my fear. Even so, these little dastards can breathe fire! For Pete's sake, I did not want to be burned to a crisp right before my tour of camp half-blood.
Soon enough, Chiron arrived with Grover, Percy and Leo- who all looked extremely sleepy. Leo's brown curls were even more tousled then they usually were and Percy? Well, he just looked like Percy.
"What is the meaning of this?" Chiron demanded, looking at Kaylee concerned. The dragon snapped its jaws tiredly and curled itself onto my shoulder. Kaylee quickly grabbed it.
"There was a freaking Dragon sleeping on Kaylee's stomach when I woke up!" I cried, curling up into a ball. Percy rushed into the cabin with Grover, but Leo just stared at the dragon as it was climbing all over Kaylee like a monkey.
"Festus didn't do anything!" Kaylee said defensively.
"You named him Festus?" Leo asked, his brown eyes widening.
"Yes, yes I did." She nodded and stared at him. Chiron suddenly looked at her, and me, myself and I really could not look away. A fiery red hammer appeared before her head, swinging just like a giant was swinging it around. Chiron smiled, but then concentrated at once. Leo stared.
"Okay, this makes sense now." He grinned, his elfish face lighting up with joy. He walked over, patted her hard on the shoulder and then steered her away from the cabin. "Right this way sis, I'll show around."
I stared, Nico finally showed up after they were gone. He looked at Percy and Chiron, bewilderment in his eyes. He looked awkwardly at everyone.
"I take it I just missed something important?" He asked us, but we all just stared. He took a step backwards, "Was she holding a dragon?" He threw his hand in a gesture backwards. He was greeted with silent stares yet again.
"Yes, she named him Festus, and yes, you missed something important. Kaylee got claimed." I growled, still curled up. I feared fire, so of course I'd get pretty scared of dragons. Percy patted my shoulder and looked up at Nico. I finally stood up, my knees wobbly and weak.
"Who did she get claimed by?" Nico asked me, his eyes staring me down. He looked almost envious at everyone in the room. I wondered what was up with that, but me being me, I didn't say anything.
"Hephaestus." I replied, glaring at the floor. Now I was the only one of us left in the Hermes cabin, which prematurely, SUCKED. Must be nice to have brothers and sisters like Kaylee and Raven, but me? I was probably like one of those unfortunate demi-god kids Annabeth told us about who will never know who their parents are, even since the gods made the pact with Percy. I retreated into a corner and felt a slight chill crawl up my spine. ...Uh? It was summer, why was it so cold?
A question aroused in my mind, how long would it take me to get claimed? I stared at Percy, his sea green eyes looked into my own. I casually tucked a stray strand of my hair behind my ears, then reached over my top bunk and gripped my bag tightly before making my way through them all. Percy was probably about to run after me, but he didn't because I heard Chiron's voice say.
"Let her be." As I began to run as far away from the cabins as possible, out casted, that's what I felt like. My feet ached and I realized that I was not wearing any shoes, or socks for that matter. I was also in my pyjamas. Wow Lyra, you are truly an idiot.
I ran to the canoe lake; anywhere where I would not be found was good enough for me right now. I frowned at the camp as it flew behind me. I wasn't the fastest runner, but I could run when I was being chased or wanted to hide. I finally reached the end of my morning energy, and collapsed by the riverbed, wheezing. I couldn't go on, and if this was a Hollywood movie, I would've said 'go on without me', but then again, I was alone anyway. I always was.
The population of the camp was suddenly waking up from the commotion of the recent scene. A few kisses were shared in the morning mist, which did not make feel very happy. I sighed and hid inside the brush of the bushes near the river. I dipped my toes into the water and stared down into it. A pale, green eyed freak looked back at me. I tore my gaze away before any naiads noticed me. I could try and leave the camp... No, that'd put my friends in danger if they came looking for me. I guess I could hide out in the forest for a bit and try to stay away from monsters, or live in hiding with Safdeisha. No, I couldn't do that either, Safdeisha wouldn't be able to keep a huge secret, as much as I trusted her, never with this. I curled into my famous ball form again.
"Hello?" A voice called out to me, and I flinched in shock, lifting my head up.
A girl around my own age, or older, was standing in the water. She was definitely a Naiad, but she was most definitely one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen in my life. She had long black hair just like mine, but it was straight instead of over-the-top wavy. Her eyes were the colour of healthy grass in the springtime. She tilted her head and stared at me.
"I am Naia, you are...?" She asked me curiously.
"Lyra." I replied, choking back the tears I felt coming to me.
"Lyra." She said to herself with a nod. "I told to come and get you."
Judging by the fact she was struggling to talk in English, must've meant she hardly spoke it. "By whom may I ask?" I asked curiously, breathing deeply.
"I told not to say." She said, frowning. She held out her hand. "Come with me?"
Well, nothing could be gained by sitting around in self pity. I grabbed her hand, but then I realized it was a bad idea. She gripped it tightly and pulled me underwater with such force I didn't have time to react at all. We swam down further and further, and she smiled at me. It must've been her protection that allowed me to breathe underwater, as she was a nature spirit.
My blue pyjamas floated around me stupidly, and I looked back at Naia, she was swimming towards an open crevice on the bottom of the river bed. In between the crevice, was a small glittering in the bottom buried in the sand, I looked at Naia carefully.
She gave me a reassuring smile, and I let go of her hand. I swam down, holding my breath just in case and stuck my hand in the crevice until I felt something, I pulled it up and it revealed itself to be a pretty necklace.
There were several different charms attached, a trident, a spear, a sword, a knife, a bow and a shield. I stared; it was beautiful and really detailed. I reached my hand in again, and realized there was a bracelet like cuff that matched with it. I swam back up with the two items and Naia smiled again, she held my hand and led me up to the surface, it seemed so bright compared to the murkiness beneath.
When we got to the surface, I was thrown onto the river bank by Naia who once again leaned onto the land and stared at me. She studied my face for a moment.
"Why... Why you so sad?" she asked me, plainly sad.
"Well, seeing as you gave me these, and you are a Naiad, I'll tell you." My voice cracked at the end. "I'm feeling only a little down because all four of my friends were claimed... And I wasn't." I pouted at the black haired beauty in front of me. She smiled like a mother would.
"The kidds in the Hermes cabin are your family right now, if you are sure you are not a daughter of Hermes, try and focus on abilities other gods have." She said wisely. I stared at her, that may be true, but I didn't want to get close to anyone really.
"Let me tell you about that necklace, it is called the Ομορφιά του πολέμου, and has not been seen since the ancient times. I was told to hand it to you by my master." I noticed how well her English had gotten.
"Who is your master?" I asked curiously.
"No one of your concern, now go back to the camp." She replied sternly. Just when I was about to retaliate, I heard the sound of a horn, and then shouts and cheers from the camp. When I turned back to the river, Naia was gone, vanished, poofed. In the spur of the moment, I decided to change into something normal-ish, a tee shirt, a pair of jeans with some casual running shoes, I never cared much for appearances anyway.
I caught up with a group of campers, they looked at me funny, probably overheard my freak out over the dragon. Well sorry, not sorry. Jeesh.
"The hunters of Artemis have come!" An Aphrodite girl called out loudly, and sure enough, girls of all ages from 9-18 came hurtling out of the trees, bows hooked over their shoulders. Each one had a silver glow around them, but the one with the largest glow was just a small auburn-haired girl with sliver eyes. My guts told me that she was the goddess, but my sense told me she was not. They were all wearing white shirts, silver jackets, silvery camo pants and black combat boots.
She said some words to her campers and then left towards the big house. None of the guys dared to even look at her. Maybe it was some sort of spell, or something of the like, but then it could've always been fear. When she was gone, I noticed how her hunters didn't make any moves to talk to the other campers. One girl had split off from the group and was making swift conversation with the golden trio. Percy, Grover and Annabeth, I got a little closer and hid behind a tree, listening to their conversation.
"...And we picked up some extra baggage along the way." I heard shuffles and then a twig snap. I turned my head a little so I could see the conversation too, rather than just hearing it.
"Brother!" I heard a voice shout, and then Percy groaned. My eyes took in a sight, there was two boys, one that must've been just under two meters tall, had messy brown hair and... And one very large warm brown eye, I knew straight away what he was- a Cyclopes.
The other was also quite tall, but had blonde hair with blue eyes, not one eye. "Hey, Percy! Thalia decided to take a trip to camp Jupiter so that me and Frank could visit!" He said with a laugh. Percy though, was still getting bear hugged by the Cyclopes. I knew that the Cyclopes couldn't be called Frank, because that was way too ordinary. I looked around for someone who could be called Frank, but the only other thing inside was an eagle that continuously flew in circles around the group.
"No Hazel?" Percy asked and his eyebrows rose. The eagle screeched angrily, and swooped over his head. I stopped myself from laughing.
"Nope, no Hazel I'm afraid, she was busy with some problems that arose at Camp Jupiter." Jason said, frowning.
"What problems?" Annabeth asked iniquitously.
"Nothing we can't handle." Said Jason shrugging it off like nothing was wrong.
"Gosh you guys are serious." Leo grinned, walking towards them with Kaylee and pedo-dragon on her shoulder. I moved back behind the tree, there was nothing Kaylee would not see, I still watched as I decided to hide in a large bush.
"Yep, what's up with you- Oh, hi, I'm Kaylee!" She said with an identical grin.
"Jason." Jason said with a nod.
"JASON!" Somebody squeals, all of a sudden a dark-skinned, chocolate haired girl pounced onto him in a tackling hug. He groaned as she squeezed. "It's so good to see you finally!" She laughed.
"Uh, can't quite breathe..." Jason choked through the squeezing hug.
Kaylee saw me within moments, of course. I gave my head a shake and she gave a nod, a full conversation by head nods. The tackle-hug girl apologized to Jason and grinned, turning to face Kaylee.
"So, you're the new Hephaestus camper?" The girl asked her.
"Uh, yea... Who're you?" She said awkwardly, "Word travels fast I see." She noted more to herself than asking a question to others.
"She'll be our pride and joy soon enough!" Leo laughed, causing Kaylee to let burst a bright smile. I looked at the group, I saw the Cyclopes staring at Kaylee; at least she fitted in.
"I'm Piper, the Aphrodite cabin counsellor." She said over Leo's happy rant.
Safdeisha arrived with Raven and Annabeth quickly rushed over to them. Part of me felt undeserving of being their friend, I guess this was called jealousy.
I slapped the bronze cuff onto my wrist and sunk into the bush, disappointed with myself. I let out a short but audible sigh, and Grover turned his head around suspiciously. Ah, I forgot satyrs had good hearing.
"So how'd the recent hunt go?" Leo inquired, giving his oil smeared hand a rub into his hair.
"Fine, more monsters than usual though, Artemis said something funny is going on and as we were on our way here, some sphinx was clawing her way up the hill towards camp, she almost killed Bella here-" Thalia pointed to at a younger girl who had dark brown hair. She glared at the boys and gave a little 'harrumph' sound before turning and walking away. Thalia grinned awkwardly.
"Well..." She laughed lightly, "Gotta go get ready for our 57th win at capture the flag." She ran off, which was all well and good apart from she was running my way.
"We'll see about that!" Percy called after her.
I lay down, as flat as a manta ray (Or smiling pancake, which ever you prefer). Thalia hurtled through the bushes, leaping straight over me with a grin on her face. She didn't see me. I decided it was about time to head towards the big house, where Artemis probably was.
I did an army crawl to get out of view before getting out of the comforting bushes. I thought I was fine until I ran right into Grover. He dropped his can and I groaned, perfect- just perfect. He bent down to pick up the can, but I kicked it out of the way, in a spurt of anger, I said something I knew I'd regret saying.
"Go fetch goat boy." I walked away, hoisting my pack onto my shoulder for better grip. It would only take a few more minutes to get to the big house, well, a little more. Guilt, jealousy and disappointed feelings seemed to tear at me. How much worse could things get?
I kicked the occasional stone, but then my mind came back to what I did to Grover just minutes ago. I sighed, yawned, and then sped up my pace. Soon enough I guess, I arrived at the big old farmhouse. I sighed again, happiness drained out of me- if there was any left. Full of dread, I stepped onto the deck it creaked underneath me. My hand reached out and gripped the door handle, I held it down and entered the building, waiting for a scream, a shout or even Chiron, but there was nothing but faint whispering from one of the rooms.