How many of you out there take French as a school subject? Okay, I'm guessing that at least half that number absolutely hate it. I definitely do. It's rather frustrating to be told that I have great grammar in English, but horrible in French. You'd think the two situations would mirror each other, but apparently not.

Oh, well. Enjoy the chapter!

I watched Megan as the two of us strode over to the dining pavilion. There was a slight limp in her step, but she walked determinedly on. The aftereffects of the concussion must have been affecting her, but she wasn't going to let it show if it killed her.

Hopefully, though, it wouldn't come to that.

Megan's eyes widened slightly as she took in the dining pavilion, swollen to twice its normal capacity. The Romans alone had filled the camp to bursting, so I had no idea what we'd do when the Hunters arrived.

"Um…where do I sit?" she asked. "I'm guessing this isn't exactly a high-school clique thing."

"Definitely not," I answered. "You sit at a table according to your godly parent - when the Romans are at camp, they sit at the table of their Greek counterpart parent. Unclaimed demigods, like you, stay at the Hermes cabin."

"Because Hermes is the god of travelers?"

I nodded. "But the Hermes table looks a little full today, so you can come sit with me and Hazel."

As if on cue, my slightly younger sister came bursting out of the crowd. Hazel Levesque beamed and threw her arms around me, nearly knocking me to the stone floor. She may have been small, but all that Legion training had made her pretty solid.

"Hey, Hazel," I grunted. It was sort of hard to talk while her arms were strangling me.

"Hi, Nico!" She pulled back and inspected me, the way my dad sometimes did when I met him in the Underworld. "You're not eating enough."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked her, feeling a smile creep onto my face. Hazel could always cheer me up. "I'm one of the biggest kids in camp."

"Clarisse is bigger than you."

"Clarisse is bigger than everyone." The smile got bigger. Hazel was a great little sister to have.

Then Hazel pulled away and saw who was at my side. "Oh, you must be the new demigod that came last night. Megan Muse?"

"That's me," Megan answered. "And you're Hazel Levesque."

Hazel beamed at Megan. "You must be starving. Come on, before the pavilion gets completely overrun with demigods."

The meal that day was incredible, as usual. Every demigod gorged themselves, but I don't think anyone in camp ate as much as Megan. By the time the meal was over, she'd consumed two steaks, five ribs, and three slices of pizza. Hazel looked over at her, amused. "I would guess you haven't eaten in a while."

"No proper meals in about three weeks," Megan answered. "Oh, wow, that was incredible."

"Good to see you're settling in," said someone. It was Percy, who had appeared suddenly at Megan's shoulder. His fingers were wrapped around Riptide, the way they always were when he got nervous, but there was a big smile on his face. "You came at the best time, I think. Everyone else is probably as confused as you are."

"It's not too bad," Megan said, looking around again. "And as long as the food is always this good, believe me, I'll be happy."

"I said something along the same lines when I first came," Percy said, looking pleased. Then he gestured to her necklace - Levanter - that she still hadn't taken off yet. "So are you any good with that thing?"

Megan cocked her head to the side, considering. "You'd have to be the judge of that. I sort of had to learn on the fly."

"Understandable. Most demigods do. But now that you're here, we'll help you develop your skills." He shrugged modestly. "I'm the counselor in charge of sword dueling, in fact. So you'll be learning from me."

"Cool," Megan said, smiling. "So the bronze weapons…they kill the monsters that they touch?"
"Under most circumstances," I explained. "You have to get in a good stab before they wither and die."

"If you ever need practice, the woods are full of monsters. Although I don't recommend ever going in there alone," Percy added warningly. "If you ever feel the need, take someone with you. Preferably a senior counselor." Then he stopped and closed his eyes, frowning. "Oh, gods. I sound like my mom."

Megan laughed, as Percy had probably intended. He looked pleased.

"Nico, why don't you go show her around a bit more? Maybe a little activity will help heal that ankle."

So we left the pavilion, and for the rest of the day I watched as Megan was introduced to Camp Half-Blood. I showed her the climbing wall, and she helped me save a tiny Athena girl who I remembered had come to camp about a week ago. The girl - Cora - had gotten herself stuck in between two lava rivers on the highest part of the wall, and none of the satyrs could get to her. Megan and I scaled the wall and hovered on either side of Cora, waiting for an opportunity to reach over and grab her.

Megan was tensing her muscles to jump over the lava fall, but I held out my hand to stop her. "Wait. You'll get burned if you move now."

Frustration crossed her face. Despite my warnings, she reached over the burning liquid and held out her hand to Cora.

I fully expected Megan to take a dunk in the lava, but luckily a strong breeze kicked up and she was able to lean over the hot river and pull Cora out of harm's way. We returned her, blushing furiously, to the ground.

"Th-thanks," she stammered, alternating her gaze between us and the ground.

I lightly punched Megan's shoulder as we walked to the amphitheater. "Hey, nice one back there."

She blushed too. "I didn't feel like watching someone burn today. When I do, you'll know."

At the amphitheater, we found Clarisse sparring with Reyna while Leo looked on, smiling slightly. I was about to ask him why he looked so cheerful, when a frustrated scream sounded through the enormous space.

"Oh no," I muttered under my breath.

"Why's the big girl screaming?" Megan asked me, frowning slightly.

"Clarisse lost," I said grimly. "Clarisse never loses - duck!"

At that moment, Clarisse's electric spear - Killer or Hospitalizer or something like that, I couldn't keep track of all the names - came slicing through the air towards us. I grabbed Megan's shoulder and pulled her down beside me.

The spear struck the amphitheater wall with a resounding thud. It stuck there, two feet above our heads, quivering.

I looked at Megan. "You know, this kind of stuff doesn't happen to me when I come here alone. I'm beginning to think you're a bad luck charm."

She stuck her tongue out at me, then glanced at Clarisse and winced. "She doesn't look happy."

I looked over my shoulder. Clarisse was storming over to us, her expression murderous.

"That's not good," I agreed. "We'd better leave before more violence ensues."

"Ensues?" she chortled, but she followed me out of the amphitheater at a run.

At lunch, the dining pavilion was even more chaotic than it had been at breakfast, if that was possible. All the Hypnos and Somnus kids that had been napping during the morning meal were sitting at their table, occasionally dozing off and dunking their faces in their food. Megan and Clarisse met on slightly better terms as they passed each other on the way to the brazier - and by that I mean Clarisse stared stonily and muttered, "New kid."

"Regular ball of sunshine, isn't she?" Megan muttered as she returned to the Hades table. Hazel snorted into her Pepsi.

Afterwards, in the hours leading up to the campfire, the two of us passed the cabin wing several times as I continued showing her our glorious camp. Every time we did, I caught Megan staring around at the different cabins, sizing them up with her eyes. Her gaze passed over Ares, rested briefly on Artemis and Apollo, then went back to roving the omega line.

After dinner, when we went through the wing again on our way to the campfire, nervousness started to pass over her features. She finally said what I was sure had been on her mind since she arrived. "None of these cabins look like they belong to me."

Okay, now I felt a little bad.

I swung a comforting arm around her shoulders, but took it away pretty quickly. "Well, you've got to be somebody's kid. Or else you probably wouldn't be here. And you've got this -" I picked up Levanter from where it was draped across her collarbone, " - to prove it."

That finally wrestled a smile of out of her. "Well, bearded toga dude," she said, looking up towards the sky and squaring her shoulders. "You left my mom and I on our own for fifteen years. You've got a lot of explaining to do."

I hid a smile. Whoever her godly parent was, I had to wonder if they'd waited so long to claim her because they were afraid of the tongue-lashing they might get.

The campfire was the same as always. The flames always reflected the camper's moods, and since there were so many of us tonight, the fire was something like twenty feet high and a bright gold colour. We did all the regular sing-alongs, which Megan joined in, smiling widely. I sang them too, although my voice was substantially deeper than hers was.

Hazel and Frank, along with Annabeth and Percy, were standing on either side of us, and Leo and Reyna joined us a little later. The flames grew almost in feet when Piper and Jason started singing along with "And the Parthenon came tumbling down". I was sure our voices could be heard across Long Island Sound, and everyone was grinning.

Yep, everything was great up until Harley from the Hephaestus cabin came running down from Half-Blood Hill, waving his arms like he was trying to signal a ship. Megan and I stopped singing immediately, but we were among the only people who noticed him. The poor kid almost had to stand in the fire to make everybody hear him.

The flames died a little as campers quieted down to listen.

"The Hunters are here!" Harley panted, still a little out of breath from his run.

The flames shot up again. Jason sprang to his feet, staring in the direction of the Big House. Percy, Grover and Annabeth were right behind him, followed by about twenty campers whose close friends and sisters had sworn loyalty to Artemis. And a few moments later, the group of silver-camo-clad Hunters broke over the ridge of Half-Blood Hill and came streaming into the camp.

Artemis's lieutenant, Thalia Grace, headed the group of thirty or so girls. She raced down the hill and was immediately crushed in a hug by Jason. I ran forward too - Thalia had been one of the first demigods I'd ever met, back when Bianca and I were still in boarding school.

I hugged her, feeling the blessing of Artemis wash over me for a few brief seconds. Her black leather jacket was cold; I guessed that the Hunters had been up North for the past little while. She laughed in my ear. "How're you doing, Nico?"

"Not bad, can't complain." I smiled as she looked me up and down; it was the exact same thing Hazel had done this morning.

Everyone surrounded her, and for a few seconds I couldn't hear a thing for all the chatter. After a couple seconds, Thalia detached herself and gently pushed through the crowd. "Okay, okay, let me see my camp again -"

The crowd of demigods surrounding her moved aside, and I could see Megan staring at Thalia with an odd expression on her face. Thalia's eyes traveled over the fireplace, the heroes sitting around it, and finally they returned Megan's gaze.

She gasped. Audibly.

Quickly, Thalia moved towards Megan, reaching up a hand to touch her shoulder. "Who are you?"

Megan stared back at her. "Who are you?"

"Thalia Grace, but that's not important. I saw you. You were the one I dreamed -"

Thalia broke off midsentence. In fact, pretty much everyone stopped talking. We were all stunned into silence.

Because, at that moment, a sky-blue hologram shot through with streaks of gold in the shape of a lightning bolt formed over Megan's head.

Chiron sank to his knees. All the campers, Greek and Roman alike, followed his example, still looking shocked.

"All hail Megan Muse, daughter of Zeus, Lord of the Universe, god of lightning."