(A/N)What can I say, I was feeling rather ambitious today and decided to put up the next chapter. As always I would love any constructive criticism you can throw my way. I hope you guys are liking the story thus far.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the PJO or HoO series

Chapter one

It had been a couple weeks since I left to train with the wolves. I have to say training with wolves was not as fun as it sounds. If you show any weakness they would be willing to kill you instead of train you. The training was brutal, I hate to whine and complain but it was. I missed sleeping in a bed and being clean. I missed laughing and joking and being able to show the occasional weakness. Most importantly I missed my mom. However, on the plus side I wasn't eaten by a bunch of wolves.

Lupa had sent me off on my own once she thought I was ready. She told me to head south and trust my senses. Apparently your wolf trainer can't just tell you where to go. No instead it's more of a you'll know when you get there kind of thing. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to even get there, wherever there is. Thankfully I was given a sword when I was with the wolves because it was the only thing keeping me alive. I had already run into two cyclops, a giant scorpion, and a flock of flesh eating birds today alone and it was only midafternoon.

I felt I was getting close. Close to what I'm not sure but I am sure its where I'm supposed to be. I slowly climbed down a hill and towards a highway that cut into the hill I was previously standing on. As I reached the edge of the road I glanced into the tunnel and gave myself a mental high five. Standing next to a door, that looked suspiciously like a maintenance tunnel, were two kids dressed head to toe in Roman armor. The only thing that would have been more obvious than this would be a giant neon sign that said come in Kairi you found the place.

Suddenly I heard a load roar behind me and I froze in my tracks. I turned around quickly to see a hydra standing up on top of the hill. This hydra only had five heads but it still wasn't something I wanted to tango with. I turned to run towards the tunnel only to come face to face with three lanes of oncoming traffic. Great just great, here I am being chased by a hydra but I have to wait to cross the road. The hydra started barreling down the hill towards me and I had no choice but to run into the traffic. It was a slow process; I would get across a couple lanes before having to back track to avoid getting hit by a car. I couldn't help but think about how much this reminded me of that old frogger game, you know minus the whole hydra part.

I had made it to the two Roman kids before I stopped to catch my breath. The two kids stood up straighter when I showed up. One looked over my shoulder, his eyes widened as he saw the hydra behind me. Well at least I think it was a he, I could only really see his or hers eyes.

"Xavier look" the one kid shouted while pointing over my shoulder at the hydra.

"I can see it River. I would have to be both blind and deaf not to notice that." The first kid, Xavier Retorted. "Get inside the tunnel now." Xavier shouted as he pushed me into the maintenance tunnel and shut the door behind me. From the other side of the door I could hear fighting happening. There was some screeching coming from the monster and some shouting in what sounded like Latin. I tried to open the door to help fight only to find that it was locked from the outside.

"Hey!" I shouted as I pounded on the door. I couldn't stand one of those kids getting hurt because of a monster I led to them. It went silent before the door was thrown open. The two kids slowly removed their helmets as they walked towards me. This was the first time I was able to get a good look at their faces.

The boy, Xavier, had short red hair and hazel eyes. He was tall and skinny but I got the feeling he was hiding a whole lot of muscle under his armor. Surprisingly he walked with ease even though he was buried in imperial gold armor. The girl, River, was quite a bit shorter than Xavier, although I had a feeling everyone was quite a bit shorter than him. She had long dirty blond hair tied up into a ponytail and amber eyes. She walked with greater difficulty, struggling to walk under the weight of her armor. If I had to guess, I would say this girl was rather new.

"Well you made it here alive, I guess you have us to thank for that" Xavier stated. I glared daggers at him.

"I could have helped if you hadn't locked me in this tunnel" I quickly retorted. Xavier just grinned at me like he was used to people getting angry at him.

"Look no offense but you haven't even seen Camp Jupiter yet. You are a complete rookie and probably would have tried to cut the hydras heads off. It's probably better you were locked in this tunnel." Xavier stated calmly. There was something about this guy that annoyed me, maybe it was that he was so full of himself or maybe it was that he thought so poorly of me. I had a feeling this guy had been at camp for a while, at least I hoped he had so he would have an excuse for his attitude.

"Enough Xavier, she made it here did she not?" River scolded. "Sorry about him he is a little full of himself. My name is River daughter of Apollo and you are?" I took her hand that she had extended out to me.

"Kairi Merlot daughter of some sort of God" I stated as I shook her hand. She smiled at me before nudging Xavier and gave him a very pointed look.

"Fine I guess we are doing the whole formal introduction thing. I'm Centurion Xavier Tessier of the Third Cohort son of Mercury" he said as he held his hand out to me. I shook it briefly before I repeated my previous statement.

"Kairi Merlot daughter of some sort of God" Xavier rolled his eyes at me as he took his hand back.

"Come on let me show you to camp" Xavier said as he walked deeper into the tunnel. I glanced at River who gestured me forward into the dark tunnel. The lights had long since died in the tunnel and the only source of light was Rivers hand that she had set aglow. It had shocked me at first to see her hand glowing bright yellow but then I remembered what Lupa had told me about some demigods having powers. As we walked through the darkness I could tell it was getting brighter, pretty soon I was able to see the light at the end. As I walked outside I was blinded by the sun. Purple splotches danced in front of me as my eyes adjusted to the light.

I caught my breath as I looked down at the valley in front of me. Nestled in the middle of a huge river was a city that looked like it had been constructed in the time of ancient Rome. The roofs were domed and gold. White marble columns and statues could be see dotting the city. The place was beautiful. Off to the right was a hill that had some extravagant buildings on them. If I had to guess, I would say they were temples. In front of us was a sort of military encampment and that seemed to be where we were heading. I hadn't noticed I had stopped moving until I looked up and saw Xavier crossing the bridge across the river. Quickly I ran to catch up to him while looking up at the wall we were approaching. Soldiers stood guard on the wall but they quickly lowered the gate when they saw us.

The gate closed behind us as we walked in and we were soon surrounded by other kids and teens. Some were dressed in full armor while others were wearing purple shirts that read SPQR. They all stopped and looked at me like they were expecting me to do a flip or something. I knew I didn't look like much, a small and scrawny twelve year old girl covered in dirt and mud wasn't exactly impressive. I tried to stand up straighter but I knew it didn't make me look any grander.

"New Recruit?" one of the soldiers in full armor asked.

"Yes, This is Kairi Merlot" Xavier introduced me to the armored boy who nodded at me in approval. "Reyna will be wanting to see her. River go back on guard duty Albert will go with you." The two nodded before they headed out back towards the tunnel we had just came from. Xavier started walking off deeper into the encampment and I got the feeling I was supposed to follow.

The camp was beautiful in an impressive and terrifying kind of way. Ghosts walked (floated?) the streets and campers, carrying various forms of weapons, chatted amongst themselves. They all turned their heads to watch us as we passed. We passed by buildings that looked like barracks where banners hung proudly outside the doorways. As we were walking through the encampment I peered into a doorway that contained tons of armor and weapons. This place was a very dangerous summer camp. I could already see how militaristic this place was just by walking around. So far I knew Centurions held higher respect and authority than most people in the legion. I'm guessing that Reyna is some sort of leader for this camp.

"This is it" Xavier said as we stopped in front of a large building. "Reyna will want to talk to you to see if you can join the legion. After that you will most likely be taken to Octavian, our augur, to get your augury. You're on your own for this, good luck" he stated before he turned and walked away. I was left staring at the door knowing that my fate rested with whoever was behind those doors.

(A/N) and that's all for now folks. I will try to get the next chapter up soon. Let me know what you thought of chapter one.