Dinner was fantastic. Even the cruelest critic couldn't say anything bad about the food.

After I was done stuffing myself, and the rest of the Hermes cabin was heading back to their cabin. I stood there debating whether to follow them or look for Eli. Fortunately, she came up behind me and tapped my shoulder. I whirled around, almost smacking Elk in the face with my arm.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't know it was you."

Eli grinned. "Its cool. I've got quick reflexes. And, I'm used to almost hitting hit with things, thanks to my siblings." Her joke had an undertone to it, like her experiences with the Ares kids were all bitter.

I hesitated, not knowing what to say. I wasn't really a touchy feely person.

"So," Eli said, diffusing the awkward moment, "you ready for sword fighting?"

I felt my back, making sure Gemini was still slung around my shoulders. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"I'll take that as a yes!"

We started walking in the direction of the cabins, like we were heading back to the Big House.

Instead, we turned right, and in front of us looked like a big arena with straw dummies in the middle. It looked like the cabin Eli was with at lunch, the Ares cabin, was already there.

Eli's siblings looked twice as big as me, and much more muscular. They were all polishing wickedly sharp swords, like mine. A few even had spears.

Eli grinned. This was most definitely her element. "So, I'm going to teach you a few things in the side, then you'll practice on those dummies. At the very end, you'll duel me in a few matches."

Inside, I was freaking out slightly. We were training in with pointy swords that could take of someone's head! Outside, however, I remained cool and composed. The last thing I wanted to do was seem weak in front of the war god's children. I unsheathed Gemini, and walked over to an empty spot. Eli followed me, her and eyes gleaming with an almost hungry light.

Looking back in my first lesson, I couldn't tell you what happened at all. It was like my ADHD brain took the entire thing and crammed it into one second. One moment I was learning how to block, the next Eli was guiding me over to the dummies.

"Just slash and hack until they're just straw again." Eli said. She stepped in front of her own dummy and immediately sliced it's head off.

"Overkill much?" I said, teasingly.

Eli gave me one of her special glares. "It won't be overkill when it's on you."

I laughed. "Wow, nice comeback! Very smooth."

Flipping her hair dramatically, Eli stabbed her dummy. "You know me Tayen, I'm all about style."

I snorted, and burst out laughing, having to use my dummy as support so I wouldn't fall over.

The rest of the night went pretty well, and of course Eli crushed me in the duel. I didn't really try after being disarmed over and over again.

Eli showed me to the Hermes cabin, and someone gave me a sleeping bag and a pillow. Some of the campers slept in bunks, but I had to sleep on the floor. The cabin seemed pretty packed. As each camper climbed into bed, I tried to guess if they were a Hermes kid or just undetermined like me. Eventually, I fell asleep to the sound of many people snoring.

After I had woken up and eaten breakfast, Chiron himself came to escort me to the Big House. He seemed agitated, which worried me. The centaur led me back into the old farmhouse without a word. We entered a room with a ping pong table right in the center of the room. No one else was there, making me uneasy. Why a room with lots of chairs and a big table if only two people are there?

I sat down, and of course Chiron stayed standing. It was still a little bit difficult to remember that he was a horse from the waist down.

"You want to know about what happened in the forest?"I said, startling Chiron.

"Yes," he said, obviously surprised I had started the conversation, " I would like you to tell me."

"Well, I'm not really sure what happened either." I replied truthfully. Chiron motioned for me to continue, so I told him everything that happened that night. With every sentence he looked more and more troubled.

"So I blacked out and woke up in that room," I finished. Chiron looked as someone had handed him an unsolvable puzzle, or he was trying to push a door that says push.

"So you heard the Laelaps speak in your mind?" Chiron asked. I nodded.

He said nothing, but I was sure that he was thinking something. You can't just tell that story to a person and not have them have any ideas. Especially a thousands of years old centaur that has seen almost everything in Greek mythology.

"Thank you Tayen. I'm glad you told me this." The centaur opened the door.

"Wait," I said quickly, "I just told you all of that and went through it and you're not even going to tell me anything? I know you know something and I can handle it so just tell me!" I hadn't even realized that I had been shouting until I heard the echos of my voice. Tell me, the walls seemed to say, tell me.

Chiron just shook his head. "It's for your own saf-"

"Don't even tell me it's for my own safety!" I yelled, "You give us swords to play with and you talk about safety! This whole place has way too many secrets. I just want to know what is going on and for everyone to stop hiding things from me!"

Chiron looked pained. "There are worse things than blades and weapons."

I stormed out of the room and through the porch door. Eli was waiting outside. "How did it go?" she asked. I just pushed her out of the way. "I bet you're keeping secrets for him too."

I didn't even care. I was pretty sure I had some anger issues, but I wasn't thinking straight at the time. I was thinking more diagonal, or swerving."

Eli didn't say anything or come after me. I figured I had made her mad and she was going to report to Chiron about my every move or something like that.

Instead of going back to my cabin, which didn't even really feel like home, I headed in the direction of the forest. I wanted to check out the statue of the Laelaps.

A little voice in the back of my head whispered, "That's probably not a good idea…." I ignored it and kept walking, giving glares to everyone that looked at me. Besides, when I get angry, reason goes out the window. Who cares if it wasn't safe? If Chiron wasn't going to tell me anything for my "safety," I would just have to show him it's not safe anyways.

There might even be clues in the forest, maybe who my godly parent is…

I reached the edge of the forest, and started to doubt my decision a little bit. Again, I ignored the smart part of my brain and kept walking.

The trees quickly thickened, cutting out all the sunlight and warmth. I found the clearing with the stone thrones again, and headed off in the direction I knew was the statue.

Eventually I spotted stone through the trees and saw the giant figure of the Laelaps. It was still snarling, with stone drool frozen as it dripped off of the hound's ugly face. I shuddered as I remembered it attacking me and threatening me telepathically. You don't hear that every day.

I circled the stone beast, trying to find anything abnormal about the Laelaps, other than it existing and turning into stone.

I looked up at a tiny patch of sky. Did Zeus do this? Was Zeus my father?

My thoughts were interrupted by a tiny crack behind me. I whirled around, somehow unsheathing Gemini from the X sheath around my back. I had managed to pull both blades out smoothly and not fall on my face as I turned to see what it was.

An inch away from the sharp tips of Gemini was the one and only Percy Jackson. He looked slightly shocked and was focused on my daggers.

I glared at him, keeping my blades close to his chest. Now that we were just standing on land, it made me see how tall he was compared to me. I wasn't even to his shoulders. That made me even angrier.

"I'm going to suppress the huge urge I have to skewer you with these daggers." I said, forcing all of my anger to bubble up. I really wanted to get mad and yell at this guy.

Percy raised his hands slowly in the air. "I surrender."

I lowered Gemini, and sheathed them. "What are you doing here?" I snarled, making sure he knew that I was serious.

Despite my efforts, Percy still had that smirk on his face that made me want to slap him. Actually, that seemed like a good idea.

I raised my and punched him in the gut as hard as I could. It wasn't the face, but it would do.

Percy doubled over, groaning. The pain on his face was clear, and I was glad that even the strongest hero couldn't stop a punch from hurting.

I leaned over so he could hear what I was saying perfectly. "Go away, and don't ever come near me again."

I walked back under to the cover of the trees, and shimmed up one. I seemed pretty good at climbing them, so I decided to follow Percy whenever he was going through the treetops.

The canopy was pretty thick, so I just jumped from branch to branch, making sure to stay covered by the leaves. I was right behind Percy, who seemed to have recovered. He was walking back towards the clearing with the thrones.

I followed him all the way there, where I saw him meet up with a blonde girl that looked vaguely familiar. They seemed to be talking, but I wasn't within earshot. Making sure to not ruffle the leaves, I climbed around till I was almost above them.

"-don't know what I did to make her mad!" Percy said. I figured her was me.

The blonde frowned. "You did trap Tayen in a bubble after attacking her with a sword, then not even make sure she was behind you while you were in a monster infested forest?"

Wow. I really liked this blonde. Even I could take sass lessons from her.

Percy frowned. "It wasn't like that!" he pouted.

I heard a conch shell sound in the distance, and I knew it was lunchtime already. Percy and the blonde just stayed there standing, not even talking. I decided to make my move.

I jumped out of the tree, startling both the blonde and Percy, and started walking towards the edge of the forest.

"If you all are done talking about me, then you should come eat lunch with everyone dining pavilion is this way," I called behind me. I didn't even look behind me as I left the forest with my stomach growling.

Sorry for not updating for more than a week. My goal was to update yesterday, but that didn't happen. Then I wanted to update today, so I met that goal by less than 30 minutes. I was helping out at a camp for kids with special needs, so I didn't have lots of time to write. The writing might be patchy from stopping multiple times, but I tried. So, can anyone guess what Tayen's godly parent is? It's kinda hard I guess, and there is one super hard clue to figure out, but if you do, it gives away everything. Have I already said that? I think so...

Welp. I'm losing my memory.