I didn't dream again. At least, not the way that I dreamt previously. At this rate, I was going to be the most rested half-blood at camp. Every time I use any of my powers, I pass out. I really had to get that taken care of. As I slept, I kept playing back in my head what I had just done. It was a little bit fuzzy, but that was partially why I was replaying it. Every time…My emotion would get high. I got angry. I got embarrassed. I got stressed. I would do something…demigod-y. I didn't know that I could harness a tornado before, but as long as I wasn't setting myself on fire anymore, it wasn't so bad.
I could feel the power, like a stone in the pit of my stomach. I could feel myself drawing in power and as I did, I couldn't control it. I wasn't even sure I could control myself. I could feel everything around me and I could feel the wind like it was an extension of my body. I felt powerful. I imagined myself flying high in the sky over the highway and picking up the cars then launching them off the highway. I imagined myself being unstoppable. The idea scared me. My mom had taught me at a young age that the only people who deserve to be hurt are the ones who hurt first. It was a lesson that I had taken to heart, but I was feeling these impulses. These waves of anger. I could feel myself getting warmer and I was worried that I was going to burst into flames again when I felt something cold on my forehead.
I started to wake up a little and I felt it move from my forehead to my cheek. I was still a little dazed, but eyes blinked open a little bit.
"He's waking up! Freddy, he's awake!" After a second, I realized that was Lindsey talking and after another second I realized that I had my head in her lap and she was wiping my face with a cold towel. "Peter, are you okay? Oh my gods, we were so worried…"
With a bit of a groan, I sat up and swung my legs off the seat. "How long was I out?" I said, my voice raspy.
"30 or 45 minutes. I was a little too shocked to think of looking at the time." Freddy said from the driver's seat. I looked around and realized that we were stopped at a gas station and Freddy was refueling. "We're about an hour away from camp."
"I've got a splitting headache…" I said, putting my face in my hands. I ran my hand through my hair and turned to Lindsey. "Hey, how did you…" I pointed to my cheek and she opened her mouth to speak, but blushed instead.
"I'm pretty sure she's a child of Apollo." Freddy explained after a moment. "Which would make sense with the…musical ability and the whole healing thing."
"And the blonde hair and the perfectly tanned skin." I said without thinking. I stared at the ground a second and then looked over to see Lindsey blushing even harder.
"That doesn't explain you, though, Peter. I mean, you-" CLUNK! The pump shut off and Freddy got out and finished up a moment before getting in and turning back to Peter. "So far, I've seen you burn someone's hand, melt the leg off a desk, spontaneously combust, and now you control a tornado."
"There isn't a god of…completely random…shit?" I asked with a little bit of a nervous laugh.
"Not one that could have knocked up your mom." Freddy said before turning back around and starting the car again. The car grew quiet again and it left me to stew in my thoughts. I was worried. Freddy seemed to know everything about the gods and Camp Half-Blood. If he didn't know who my parent was, then that was a bit of a problem.
"Why couldn't they have knocked up my mom?" I finally asked. Freddy looked at me in the rearview mirror and studied me for a moment.
"Because it's not a god." He said with a shrug. "It would be a goddess. The goddess of magic. Hecate. She could probably handle this…crazy elemental stuff that you have going on, but I've never seen it to this extent before and it still wouldn't make sense since you already have a mom. So unless you're adopted or something, it's not her and we need another explanation."
"I'm not adopted. My mom had pictures taken. Not of—gross—There are pictures of her during her pregnancy and after and her right after I'm born with me."
"Well, then we'll just have to find out at camp, right? The gods have to claim you once you're at camp, so you'll find out then." Lindsey said, putting a hand on my shoulder. It was odd to be so friendly with her. We had been okay friends in elementary school then at some point in middle school, she decided to become the girl that all the girls wanted to be, the guys wanted to be with, and parents wanted to be the source of. It was a little odd seeing her living in such a low quality house though.
"Yeah…I guess, you're right." I said quietly, looking over at her. She looked back at me for a long moment and then offered a smile before turning to look out the window. I did the same. After a few moments, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I had to tell this to someone. "So, is this all some big secret or something? I mean, if I were to tell someone, would that be bad?" I asked a little absently toward the front as I logged into Mythomagic Online through my phone.
"Well, don't tell everyone. If you're concerned that someone will get hurt because of it then warn them. We don't really have a rule for that kind of thing." Freddy explained. I only half-listened because I was busy moving Petrocles into the market. I get a small alert telling me that Agatha had come online and I smiled a little.
"What was that?" Lindsey asked, looking over. "Oh, are you playing a game on your phone?"
"Yeah. Sorry. My nerd is showing." I say as I start a message to Hayden. You'll never believe me, but I think Bradley was right. There was a satyr at my school! He—I was interrupted by another bleep and saw that I received a message from Hayden.
"Is that phone?" Freddy asked a little urgently.
"Yeah. He's playing a game." Lindsey said a little absently.
"Well, I'm just talking to a friend of mine, just a quick—" I said, but the look on Freddy's face was a little scary.
"You gotta get off it, man." Freddy said quickly. I looked down at my phone and saw that the message was from an hour earlier and I noticed that Agatha wasn't logged on anymore which would make it perfect timing for a log out due to inactivity.
"Hold on. I'll get off in a second." I opened the message and started reading. Peter. I think Bradley was right. I'm freaking out. Some monster just came at me! Respond ASAP! I furrowed my eyebrows and started to respond when the ground rumbled a little bit. I assumed it was a truck passing or something.
"Peter, shut it off! Cell phone signals alert monsters!" Freddy said, reaching back and trying to grab it.
"Dude, calm down. Fine. Fine. I'll shut it off." I logged off and then put it back in my pocket.
"No, no. All the way off. Lindsey, you too. Any signal can—" there was a loud bark and then another followed by more and more loud barks. Suddenly cars started honking and we could hear swerving and collisions and Freddy turned ghostly pale. "I hate hellhounds. Sunroof, Peter. And Lindsey hold on." Freddy slammed his foot on the gas and we started pushing our way through the cars, shooting down the highway. I grabbed the slingshot and then stood up out of the sun roof again. I turned around and saw several large black dogs weaving through. They would have been kind of cute except for the swirling aura of darkness around them, the large teeth, the foaming mouths, and the overall evilness.
I fired a marble at the hell hound and none of them stopped coming. We were going to need something bigger than a marble to take these down. We needed something fast.
"We need something fast! These marbles are pretty much useless." I said, looking for some other weapon.
"Field hockey stick." Freddy said, holding it out to me.
"Need something long distance. Because I would prefer to not die." I said, taking the hockey stick anyway. I tucked it under my arm and then stood back up just as a hellhound jumped onto the back of the hummer. I panicked a little and slammed the hockey stick down on its head. It fell off and rolled under another car.
"Here." Lindsey stood up next to me and handed me a can of red bull.
"I'm supposed to shoot this. At a hellhound." I shrugged and took it then loaded it onto the slingshot. I pulled back and launched it. It smacked into the hellhound, making it swerve and crash into another. "Nice."
"We're almost there!" Freddy said as he exited off the highway. A hellhound burst over the barricade and landed on the Hummer. Lindsey ducked down and I tried to hit it with the field hockey stick. It caught it in its mouth. I didn't realize that I should let go until it jerked its head and yanked me out of the hummer.
"Peter!" I landed hard and stumbled along the ground, rolling into some grass near a house. I rolled onto my back just as it pounced onto me. I put the field hockey stick into its mouth to stop its jaws and managed to push him off me. I could feel my skin heating up and I stood up, running after the Hummer as it turned around. I felt a big paw, hitting me in the back. And I fell again. I managed to stand up again and I kept running toward the hummer just as I saw one of the hellhounds bash into the hummer, tipping it onto its side. I could hear screaming from inside and I could see Freddy trying to roll up the sunroof. I couldn't imagine what would happen if one of them got hurt. Especially if it was my fault. I got knocked down again and I looked down just as one of the hellhounds bit my shoe and started dragging me away. I punched at its face and then finally slipped out of my shoe just as a black bubble formed around it and it vanished, taking my shoe with it.
"What the…" I mumbled as I backed away from it. I finally stood up and started running toward the Hummer again and watched as a hellhound broke through the sunroof and started trying to climb inside. I ran at it and, for some reason, punched its back. It yelped like I actually hurt it and then turned to me. It snapped at me and I dodged, taking two handfuls of its fur and then spinning, tossing it away from hummer. It stood back up and started running at me. I faced it like a matador to a raging bull and at the right moment dodged out of the way. It smacked into the Hummer, denting the roof, but tipping it back over. I quickly climbed and told Freddy to floor it. I'd never seen anyone floor an automobile so hard. We screeched on our tires and took off down the road before turning around and plowing into the hellhound as it recovered from its skull to car collision.
"Almost there!" Freddy shouted as we turned onto a narrow road. "Just hold on!" I looked out the back and saw that the hellhounds were still chasing us, snarling and chomping beasts hoping still for an afternoon snack. He turned again and we started driving offroad and up a hill where a large pine tree stood, a small yellow piece of fabric hanging from one of the branches. "Peter, stand up out of the sunroof and yell 'Peleus.'"
"Peleus? Who's Peleus?" I asked as I started to stand.
"Just do it, Peter!" Lindsey said shoving me toward the sunroof.
I took a deep breath. "Peleus!" I shouted and next to the tree I saw some movement. A moment later a large beast shot over the Hummer and landed right into the crowd of Hellhounds.
"Meet Peleus. Camp guardian." Freddy said with a bit of a smile as he finally drove over the hill.
"You have a dragon!" I asked as I turned around and watched as Peleus singlehandedly destroyed the hellhounds. The Hummer died and we stopped on the top of the hill next to the tree.
"What's with the golden towel?" Lindsey asked. I looked over and saw a shining piece of wool, flapping lightly in the breeze.
"Oh, that's just—"
"Is that the Golden Fleece? As in THE Golden Fleece?" I said as I climbed out of the top of the Hummer and ran to get a closer look.
"Yeah. It provides our protection." Freddy said, leaning on the tree. I looked over and saw Peleus, the large dragon, lumbering toward us up the hill. It yawned a little and burped up a Hellhound tooth at my feet. I picked up it up and turned it over in my hand.
"This is cool…" I said with a smile before the sound of crunching metal. Peleus gripped the Hummer door in his teeth and yanked it off its hinges. My jaw dropped as Peleus started to tear my mom's car apart, ripping the seats out with his powerful jaws. It climbed in and curled up again, closing its eyes.
"Here's your bag." Lindsey said, shoving it into my chest, laughing a little bit. I grabbed it and then turned toward her and my jaw dropped further. We had made it. Freddy put his arm up in presentation of the view.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."