It's been about a week since my big discovery and I'm back to living in the Hermes cabin, with a new coat of course. Everyone was shocked that I managed to bring down the Nemian lion, being so new and all. I assured them it was just a lucky shot, which it was. And the Apollo cabin kept talking about how they couldn't wait for my father's official claim… if only they knew!

As for me, I just went through usual orientation. I met a man named Dionysus, the god of parties and alcohol, went to a few basic classes that helped me to learn some greek and taught me a bit more about certain monsters and the ancient history. After that I went to the coliseum with the rest of my cabin. Today we were grouped with the Athena cabin. I looked around to see if I could find Annabeth, but it was pointless. She was nowhere to be found. I guess she and Grover left with Percy, not that I was surprised by that at all. Honestly I was just happy to end up training with my friend Brian.

Since we were in the coliseum we had to go through weapons training. Having fought monsters twice already with a bow and being the son of Artemis, I had come to learn a valuable lesson; Bows are nice, but eventually you run out of arrows. And if they get to close it's as good as useless. So I decided I needed to learn something else, preferably something completely different than a bow in every way.

That's when I saw it, the perfect thing for me, or rather the most IMPERFECT thing for me. It was sitting in the corner of the armory, untouched and covered in hundreds of cobwebs. It was a beautiful shining silver trident easily taller than me. Its tri-pointed spear head glimmered like starlight and the bottom tip twisted around like a screw. Adorned right where the three rods met was a shining sapphire half the size of my palm. I loved it and thought it was beautiful, I had to have it. Plus there was no way a weapon like that would be natural for a child of Artemis.

I wanted to make it my personal weapon so I picked it up and turned around, meaning to walk over to the counter and permanently register it as mine. But what I thought I would see, and what was actually happening were two very different things. Everyone was staring at me with their mouths open just like at the tournament. Great, here I was trying to be inconspicuous. And I just had to go and mess things up ugh… story of my life.

"How… how are you doing that?" asked one of my cabin members. I think his name was Barney or something. He always wore this green shirt and purple pants so I guess that's where the name comes from.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Picking that up. That trident has a spell on it. Only the person who will die wielding it can pick up the damn thing. What's worse, anyone who has died in the very first fight they used it in. It's been sitting in that same spot of the shed for over a hundred years now. No one's ever been able to lift it up… well until you just now that is."

Oh goodie… I was chosen by a metal stick to die fighting with the metal stick… how wonderful… now I'm going to go unnoticed for sure. To be honest there aren't that many things that bug me… but this did. Predicting the future? What a load of bull. I don't believe in destiny. Never have, never will. Nothing is set in stone, life is what we make it, what we choose and we decide how it will end. And I was going to prove it here and now. "Well, this is certainly very strange, but here in camp half-blood strange is the norm. So rather than gawking, let's get out there and see what everyone can do.

So off we went into the coliseum. We were each given an opponent to spar with except me. Apparently I had proven myself so much already that I was "seeded", or I got less rounds than everybody else since we were fighting tournament style. Anyways, my turn finally came up after Brian (who tripped over a rock) was defeated. My opponent was a girl named Widow, daughter of Arachne the spider god. She wore nothing but black leather held together in different places with lace and string. Her black hair was long and smooth with white dots that looked almost like eyes. She had a scar on her right eye, and her left canine was a long fang instead of a normal tooth, that jutted quite the ways out of her mouth.

"Alright you two, draw your weapons." She responded quickly, pulling out a white whip that looked like it was made of webbing. A wicked grin crossed her face. I guessed she was an accomplished fighter, she certainly looked it. But I wasn't concerned about that. What I wanted to do was disprove "fate". So I did the only natural thing. I drew the trident.

Of course the crowd gasped. Why would I willingly draw the trident when I knew what it would do? Well it doesn't matter to me what they think, I had a point to prove and I was going to. I took the trident and pointed it right at Widow, a big smile on my face. I made it clear I wasn't afraid of her, or of this trident. I think that made her mad, because she didn't even wait for the fight to start.

I watched as she raised the whip high up into the air and brought it down with a crack. But it didn't just hit the ground, it stuck to it and started to grow, slithering about like a snake. It came at me fast and then the end sprung up into the air trying to take my head off. For a moment I thought I heard a voice say 'dodge left' and I almost did, but I noticed the whip surging that direction and made sure to dodge to the right instead. So that's why this trident kills its hosts in their first fights… they instinctually listen to whatever the voice tells them and get killed because it lies. Well I won't have any part of that! I fight how I like to fight! Not how some dumb stick tells me to.

Having dodged the whip I came rushing towards her trident in hand, when I heard the voice again. Dodge right. No way, I thought and dodged left instead and took a hard blow to the chest. Apparently, it figured out my plan to just do the opposite of whatever it said, so I would have to be careful. I decided from here on I'd completely tune out the voice, relying totally on my own abilities.

I rushed widow a second time and brought the trident over my head out of the corner of my eye though I saw something coming out of the middle of the whip. Apparently it could shoot out smaller whips from the original one from any point on the white rope. Even after dodging the first one I was attacked by five more of the tendrils. I dodged the first two by just jumping backwards and then deflected the next two while dodging the fifth and final one with a small backwards summersault. But now I was all the way on the other side of the ring. If I wasn't careful she could knock me out, and then it would be over. I took the time to watch her whip. Slowly it started to fill back into the original. That's when I found her weakness. I rushed one last time before the whip was fully back together, hoping my plan was right, and it was. When she shot out the other parts of her whip she lost the ability to pull it back quickly. Meaning once I was close, game over. She tried to shoot more webs out of it, but what I lack in physical strength I always made up for in my speed. She could shoot her tendrils all day but she'd never land a blow since I was so good at jumping and summersaults. Thank you mom number eight, for being such a great gymnastics teacher.

The time had come, I whipped the trident over my head and brought it down on her as hard as I could. Unfortunately I got a surprise, apparently that revealing outfit of hers wasn't all for show. From a distance it looked like it was just your average leather outfit, but up close I could see just how wrong I was. It fit too well on her body for that and was hard as steel. It wasn't leather she was wearing, but armor that reminded me of a spider's carapace. With crazy strength she deflected the blow and even sent me flying a few feet. I landed just in time to jump out of the way as she slammed her fist into the ground. She had completely abandoned her whip and was now using two bronze daggers that had been painted black instead. We spent the next ten minutes trading relentless blows with each other, always sending sparks flying our bodies twisting to meet the blow of the other, in the end though she lost as I pelted her daggers away and placed the tip of the trident at her throat.

She had lost, and I was still alive. Arc versus ancient fairy tales, one Arc, fairy tales zero. Of course it didn't matter, I had just beaten a hardened veteran with not only a weapon I had never used before but a cursed one at that. I had just lost all the chances I had at not being famous at camp. The only way something else could possibly outdo my fame today, was if Brian scored all seven's on a slot machine in a casino.

Tired and worn out I decided to go over to the fireplace to relax. I sat down next to Hestia and she started talking to me. She let me know that she could feel me coming home last week, and that she knew the truth of my mother. I almost panicked but she reassured me she wouldn't say anything. Hestia figured that since Artemis was going to come out and say it soon herself anyways, there was no need for her to say anything. So she would keep quiet until then. I thanked her and after I had rested up a bit, told her goodbye and set off to do… whatever.

That's when my day finally got fun. "HEEEEEEEY! ARC!" I turned my head to see Brian running towards me, well more like stumbling towards me. He couldn't take a few steps without tripping over something. He managed to get to me somehow without falling on his face for once.

"Hey Brian what's up?"

"Have you ever gone nymph chasing?"

Oh no. I knew what that sport was. You couldn't be in camp for ten minutes without knowing what that was. See there are these things called nymphs. They're the living spirits of trees and stuff like that. In camp there's a little "sport" where satyrs (and some campers) try to catch the nymphs. If you catch them there's supposedly a law among the nymphs that's supposed to be some great prize or something. No one knows what the prize is as no one, save for some of the gods and a few of the stronger smarter monsters here and there, have ever done it. Some say it's supposed to be full rights to a certain section of forest or land or something like that. But most of those who participate believe it's something a bit more… lewd. Sad, I know, but who cares. As a result I never cared for it, but it was always fun to watch a satyr or camper slam their face into a tree.

"No but I know all about it. Why do you ask?"

"Well," he said. "There's this Nymph who won't stop messing with me. Whenever she sees me she gets all snippy and won't leave me alone. I'm used to people calling me Bad Luck Brian, but she's just relentless. You're a pretty good fighter and all so I was wondering if you could do something about it?"

That's when I got pissed. I don't like bullies and anybody, I mean ANYBODY, who messes with my friends, is going to pay the price. "Sure bud," I said. "I'll lend you a hand. Show me this Nymph girl."

He took me to the edge of the forest where the more "intense" games were known to be held. Basically here the nymphs were known not just for running away, but kicking your butt all over the marble floors of the camp.

I looked up into the sky, the moon was starting to rise. It wasn't quite night yet, but it was still late enough that the now waning moon was still visible in the sky. At the edge of the forest I could make out three young ladies who looked roughly my age standing around having a chat.

"Is that them?" I asked Brian.

"Yeah boss." I gave Brian a weird look. "What? It felt right." I just shook my head and asked him which one it was. He pointed to the one in the middle. She was tall for a girl but not giant, maybe five foot nine with long red hair and a gray dress. It took her a while but she eventually noticed us, her pompous look turning to a kind of judging sneer.

"Look girls, bad luck brought his unlucky pet. Come to take back what we took from your friend?"

I was stunned. Brian didn't say anything about something being stolen and I decided I'd ask him as much. "Well," he said. "They didn't steal it I just made a bet with them. They said the rookie Arc would never be able to hunt with Artemis for a day and make it back alive. When you didn't show up the next day and the huntresses left, well people kind of assumed… and they did too so they took it from me."

"Is that true?"

"Yeah what of it?"

"You lost the bet. As you can clearly see I went hunting and came back alive or maybe you haven't noticed the impenetrable lion coat I'm wearing."

"Oh I've noticed it. But it doesn't matter. Once something is in the hands of a nymph, it's all hers. You can't catch me I'm the fastest and most cunning of them all. If you want your friends little 'Good luck gift' from his mother, you'll have to come get it!"

That last part really sent me over the edge. Just in case you guys haven't already noticed, I have some mommy issues, and that nymph had just struck my last nerve. "What's your name, spirit?"

"My name? It's Wisteria if you must know. Why?"

"Tch, I just need to know what little rhyme to come up with after I crush you!" And with that I lunged after her trying to catch her. I didn't know what the prize for catching a nymph was and I didn't care. All I knew was that the most disgraceful thing that could happen to her is being caught by a human. If I caught her, I could blackmail her. Give me his stuff and I'll keep it a secret. I know, I shouldn't blackmail people, and neither should you, it's very wrong. But she's the kind of person where nothing else would have worked. At least, nothing else I could see at the time anyways.

I knew how the game worked: You go after the nymph and RIGHT before you catch her, BAM! She's a tree. But I knew that strategy, as well as a counter to it.

She did exactly what I thought she would, and turned into a wisteria tree. Right as her transformation began, I twisted and headed for her friend. Being as quick as I am made it easy to close the distance. The nymph I didn't go after must have figured she'd be next because she transformed to stay out of the fight completely. The one I was going for then tried to do the same but there wasn't enough time. That's when the bait was hooked, in shock wisteria started to change back in order to help her friend. With amazing agility I turned around and took after her while she was still changing. I made a mistake though, I didn't realize how much less time it took to change to human form than tree form, as I was now I wouldn't make it. She'd just change back into a tree. I couldn't stop now though, if I could just surprise her somehow I could catch her. I willed my feet to move with all speed. I wanted to move so quick that I could chase down a cheetah if I had to. That's when it happened.

"Huh?" Said Wisteria. "What happened? Look guys he's stopped in mid air!"

Sure enough there I was, fully stopped in mid-air without a single movement at all… or so they thought. They watched as what they thought was me fizzled out of existence, while I placed my hand on Wisteria's shoulder. "My brand new special move. Lunalusion. Hehe… you lose Wisteria. I caught you."

Wisteria turned around fast to find me behind her. I'm not quite sure what I did but I guess I moved fast enough to create an illusion of myself. Whatever it was it left me dead tired, I was almost as weak as when I fired that special arrow at the Nemian lion. Whatever I did, it was definitely a one use move until I toughened up here at camp some more. Of course, I forced myself to breathe normally, I didn't want to look like I had gotten so tired just doing something as stupid as catching a nymph.

"All right, Wisteria. Since I win I'll be taking whatever you took from Brian. In return we'll keep this just between-"

"NOOOOOO! This can't be happening!" she screamed loud enough for half the camp to hear. The shriek was deafening.

"Whoa, what's wrong?"

"You! Don't you know what the 'reward' is for catching a nymph?!"

I'll admit I didn't. But then again, nobody did. Nobody had ever done it!

"Ughy… the prize is… my core."

"You're core?"

"It's like this. Nymphs are essentially the same as monsters. If we die, we don't do what humans do and have our souls go to rest in the underworld, as we don't have a soul like a human would. Instead we just get reincarnated. But even among monsters, nymphs are unique. Even though we don't have a soul we do have something like it. It's called a core."

"Normally we nymphs can't move but so far from our tree or pond or whatever it is we're a part of. But if someone else removes our core, we can go wherever they go. It's almost like freedom."

"Wait, if it's like freedom then, what's the problem?"

"The problem is our cores are our lifeforce. If you destroy it you'll kill us… permanently. And since we can't carry it ourselves, we're at the mercy of whoever takes it…"

I gave her a sad look. I had always felt bad for nymphs, they're always tied down in one place, never able to explore the world and find out what it's really like. Now to know that the only way for them to do that is to put their entire lives in someone else's hand on makes me pity them more. It sounds like a pretty unfair existence to me. Maybe that's why they seem so happy all the time, they can't afford to think about their depressing position.

"Well, if it bothers you that much, I just won't take it then."

She looked away with tear filled eyes. Closing them and stifling her soft sob she whispered "I wish…" I opened my mouth to ask her why I couldn't do that but stopped when I began to hear loud cracking and popping noises.

"Wha-" I said.

I looked over at Wisterias tree. The beautiful lush pink and purple leaves began to curl inward and turn a filthy black. The branches began to contract in on themselves, crunching and snapping leaving rips in the wood as it turned the same grotesque shade of black as the leaves. The once beautiful Westeria now withered and dead, began to glow a light pink color at its center. The ball of light grew smaller and more compact. With a small tinkling sound it almost seemed to be plucked off the tree, like a fruit, and began to float slowly towards me, stopping mere inches from my chest, before being absorbed into my body.

I felt a soft warm feeling rush through me. Like I could feel spring itself sliding up and down my spine. But that was soon replaced by a sense of dread and fear of the unknown. This is… this is what Westeria is feeling!

"The process… is automatic. We have no control over it." She said. Just then I heard another loud popping sound come from her tree. I turned my head to look again, only to see the tree slowly but surely, turn into dust and blow away in the wind.

She didn't show it, but I could feel it in her heart. Her sadness… seemed to go on endlessly.