Chapter 3

Damien

Damien fell to his knees as he slammed into the unforgiving ground beneath him. He blinked his eyes a few times to readjust to the light as he struggled to his feet. "Ow! What the hell, man? Shouldn't the god of travel be able to land us a little more softly?" Damien rubbed his eyes a couple more times and looked down at the most amazing place he had ever seen in his life. He was looking at what appeared to be an entire Greek themed campground in the center of a large valley. "Whoa."

"Damien," said Mr. Brunner, who Damien had all but forgotten about, "welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

Damien was in awe at the wondrous sight before him. At the front of the campsite, was a massive house that was painted the same color as the sky, to the right of which was what appeared to be an entire acre of strawberry fields. There were stables next to the fields, where Damien saw a beautiful girl with a brunette ponytail and an orange shirt come surging out, riding a shimmering white horse and almost fell over again when he saw that it had wings.

"Was that a…?" Damien stammered, trying to get the word out of his mouth.

"A pegasus? Yes indeed. However, that wasn't the Pegasus. No no, I believe that was Quicksilver."

Damien raised his eyebrow at his history teacher. "Its name is Quicksilver?"

"His. And yes it is." Mr. Brunner shrugged and gave a nonchalant smile.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"That's not even the best part Damien, take a look over there a ways," said Mr. Brunner as he pointed to the center of the camp.

"No way." Damien followed Mr. Brunner's finger and saw dozens of Greek styled cabins. One looked like the walls were made completely of obsidian with lanterns hanging along the edge of the roof, burning with green flames. Another looked as if the roof was made of lush grass and it had a lawn of beautiful blooming flowers. For so many cabins however, there seemed to be too few campers in orange shirts walking around, but that didn't stop Damien from admiring the camp. "Okay, this is seriously cool."

"Trust me Damien, you're going to love it here. Now we better get down to the big house for your orientation before Peleus gets too excited."

"Who?" Damien barley had time to ask before he heard a terrible roar that could shake the earth beneath his feet. Damien caught his balance and steadied himself as the roar died down. "Let me guess…?"

"Yes, that's Peleus. Anyhow, now that we're here, I think I'll stretch my legs."

"Um but Mr. Brunner," Damien said pointing at Mr. Brunner's wheelchair, "aren't you…?" He didn't want to seem insensitive, but the question of how his teacher could stretch his legs hung in the air.

"Relax dear boy and watch." Mr. Brunner removed the blanket covering his legs and began to sit up, but something was wrong; his legs weren't moving. Mr. Brunner kept rising until he was several feet taller than Damien and was supported by four horse legs, complete with tail.

"Aw, much better. Oh and Damien, call me Chiron."

Damien tried to get the fact that his former teacher was now standing (and as a half-horse to top it off). "You're a centaur?! Wait, did you just say that you're Chiron?! Like the Chiron?! Like the trainer of Achilles and Jason, Chiron?!"

Chiron chuckled and stroked his beard while he watched Damien almost fall over himself. "It does my heart good to know that you paid so much attention in my class."

Damien ran his hand through his hair as he tried to process the information that he had received in the past half hour. Apparently, there were dwarf monkey men running around in the world, pegasi were real, and his supposedly handicapped history teacher was really a centaur trainer of heroes.

"Damien, you should really come with me to the big house. I assure you that things will become quite clear once you've sat down and saw the presentation."

"Wow, a presentation," Damien said with obvious mirth. "Will there be a powerpoint and some snacks afterwards?"

"Maybe, if you survive," said Chiron as he started trotting to the large blue house.

"Ha ha, if I survive," Damien chuckled as he watched Chiron get ever closer to the blue house. Damien's chuckling ended as he noticed that Chiron hadn't turned around. "Okay now I'm worried that you're not joking."

"It'll be fine Damien," Chiron yelled over his shoulder.

Damien ran to catch up with Chiron at the door, which Damien was stunned to see, was actually large enough for Chiron to walk through. Inside the house was a large ping-pong table littered with maps, a small platter of brownies, and what looked like a sword made from a large bone.

"Well Damien, until Annabeth and Percy get here, why don't I get us started? You are a child of the gods. And by gods I mean either Greek or Roman. Your mother must have at one point had a relationship with one of them and here you are." Chiron said this so casually that it took Damien a moment to actually understand what he was saying.

"I'm the child… of one of the gods…" Damien said as he nodded. He took some time to look at Chiron and the rest of the room before turning back towards the front door of the big house muttering to himself, "I hit my head this morning on my way to school didn't I? See that would explain everything. The monkey dwarf things, the reason why those brownies look like they're glowing, the fact that my history teacher is half horse and just told me that my parents are gods."

"Actually, it's 'parent.' Just one. Damien, please sit down," Chiron said as he gestured towards one of the chairs along the ping-pong table.

Damien faced his former teacher with a slightly manic smile on his face. "Look Mr. Brunner or Chiron or whatever the heck you want me to call you, I can accept that you're a centaur and that there are pegasi and that some mailman managed to send us here in less time than it took for me to get out a sentence, but my dad, a god? There's just no way you can prove that."

"Actually we can," said a voice coming from the front door. Damien jumped two feet in the air and turned to see the girl from earlier that was riding the pegasus. Her hair was down now and she had a water bottle in her hand that she was using to cool her forehead. The girl laughed when Damien managed to regain his balance by slamming his hand in the middle of the platter of brownies. "Smooth."

"Um, hi." Damien waved with his now brownie stained fingers and then wiped them on his jeans. "I saw you earlier. Riding um…"

"Quicksilver."

"Right. I'm Damien Connors by the way," he said as he extended his recently cleaned hand.

The girl smiled, shook Damien's hand, and said, "Kate Williams."

Damien looked at Kate's eyes and was blown away by them. They were a deep forest green ringed with an edge of blue the color of sapphires. "Wow."

"What?"

"Oh, no, nothing," Damien stammered, taking back his hand which he noticed had gotten clammy. He mentally kicked himself and tried to salvage what was left of his dignity. "Sorry, it was nothing."

Kate smiled again and sipped her water. She looked Damien up down while she drank and furrowed her brow slightly.

Damien could feel blood creep up to his cheeks as he watched Kate look him over. "Something you're looking for?"

Kate bobbled her water bottle and blushed slightly when Damien laughed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare, it's just that I can't place who your parent is and I'm usually pretty good at that sort of thing."

"She's a physicist in San Francisco."

"She means your godly parentage, Damien," said yet another voice that Damien didn't no that came from behind his back.

Damien turned back towards the ping-pong table, and standing next to Chiron was a girl with blonde hair and eyes that were grey like storm clouds and a young man with black hair, eyes the color of the sea, and a pen spinning between his fingers.