Terra's POV

Once all tomato sauce was gone, we headed out to find Percy. I thought that we were just meeting him somewhere, which we were… but that somewhere turned out to be the half-blood camp. I almost refused to go there, but then I remembered my dream, with my father telling me to trust Percy. Well, Percy trusted Will, right? Which meant that I could trust him too… so I kept my mouth shut and just nodded when Will told me that we were going there. During most of the long taxi ride, Will and I just sat there in an awkward silence, occasionally glancing each other, and opening our mouths to say something, but then closing them. Finally, Will cleared his throat and said, "Uh… don't you have any questions or something?" He was clearly trying to break the silence. I did, in fact, have a lot of questions, but I was brooding, thinking of my father and mourning his death all over again.

"Yeah," I replied. It was unfair to ignore him just because he was helping me so much. " I am assuming that your father is Hermes." He nodded and smiled mischievously.

"How'd you figure it out?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you steal ALL the time?"

"Good point," he replied. "Next question?"

"How long have you been at the camp?"

"My whole life, actually. My mom died when I was young, so Chiron brought me here."

"Who's Chiron?"

"He's the leader of the camp. He is currently at a meeting at Olympus, though, so you won't get to meet him right away. Also, because the school year just started, there won't be as many people as there would be in the summer. Percy is just visiting for a week."

"Okay." After that, I couldn't think of any other questions, so we sat there quietly.

Soon, we reached Camp Half-Blood. Once we paid the taxi driver and he sped away, Will and I hiked to the top of the hill and I saw the camp for the first time. There were fields of strawberries and a glittering lake. A beach looked over Long Island Sound. I was standing next to a tall, green pine tree that had golden… fur covering it. Will saw me looking and grinned.

"The Golden Fleece," he said.

"The Golden Fleece?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yep. Percy went on a quest a while back to get it so that it could heal that pine tree…" Seeing my confused look, he added, "But there'll be plenty of time to tell that story later- I don't want to overload your brain."

"Yes," I said faintly, still in shock. "I'll hear it later." We walked into the camp, and I gasped. There were so many people, even though Will said that there wouldn't be as many because it was winter. Well, I guess I couldn't say people exactly. A lot of the population seemed to be made up of satyrs and nymphs- though there were an impressive number of campers, too. One of the satyrs noticed us and came trotting over. He was wearing a red floppy hat, and when he took it off, I say the tips of his horns poking up through his curly brown hair.

"Hey, Will!" he said, his cheeks red from the cold. He turned to me. "You must be Terra! I'm Grover. Percy told me about you."

"Hey," I said. Then a pretty, petite girl- no, nymph- came running up. "Grover!" she exclaimed. I've been looking for you! Percy said there was a new camper coming-Oh! You must be her," she said seeming to notice me for the first time. She had long amber hair, and she pushed it back, revealing pointed ears. Her eyes were vibrant green, and she beamed up at me.

"Juniper, this is Terra," Grover said.

"Hi, Terra! I'm Juniper. I live in the juniper bush. Well, you must have figured that put already," Juniper said, and then blushed, her cheeks turning green instead of pink.

"Hi," I replied- I wasn't sure what else to say. There was a brief awkward silence. Oh, I never knew what to say during an awkward silence!

"Well, we should get going," Will said. "We're meeting Percy soon."

"Okay! Nice meeting you, Terra!" Juniper said.

"Bye," Grover called.

As we walked through the camp, many people stopped and stared, or talked to us. They all mentioned Percy, and seemed to have only good things to say about him. Instead of encouraging me, this only made me more suspicious. Wasn't there anyone who disliked him? I soon found my answer.

Will was showing me my way to the Mess Hall, and we were passing the bathrooms when a girl staggered out. She was soaking wet, and was coughing and choking out water. Will hurried over to her. She looked up, and I saw that she had long, brown hair that was sticking to her face with the wetness. Her eyes were a bright blue-green color.

"Heidi!" Will exclaimed. "Clarisse again?" She nodded weakly. "You've got to stand up for yourself, Heidi!" Will said. "Come on, you've been here a week already- she should be done with you!" Before he could go any further, another girl stepped out of the bathrooms. She was tall, with stringy brown hair and a mean smirk. She saw me and smiled even wider.

"New blood!" she exclaimed. "Good. I was starting to get bored with this one." She nodded in Heidi's direction.

"Clarisse!" Will said. "When are you going to stop with your 'initiation' ceremony? It's really stupid!"

"Well, I can't stop now, can I? That would be unfair to this newbie here." Clarisse said. I had had enough by now.

"I would be happy to take part in the initiation ceremony, but unfortunately, toilet stink isn't my favorite smell," I said. Clarisse snarled and started forward, but Will stepped in front of her.

"Terra-" he said, looking back at me.

"Get out of the way, Will!" I said angrily. "You seriously don't think I can take her?" Will stepped back, looking pained. Clarisse smiled and said,

"Nobody's ever beaten me in a fight, girlie. I doubt that you will."

"That's not true, Clarisse," Will said. "Everyone knows that Percy has beaten you."

"Has that little punk been talking again? Those are lies. I definitely beat him." Will looked dubious, but Clarisse started to move forward again. I concentrated, and felt a familiar tug coming from my stomach. The ground rumbled, and leafy green vines shot out from the dirt and latched around both of her wrists and ankles. I flicked my hands back, and the vines shot back, pinning Clarisse to the ground just as a horn blew in the distance. I straightened, brushed off my jeans, and turned to Will and Heidi.

"I'm starving," I said. "Who's ready for dinner?"

Hi, guys! Sorry it took this long to update, I had major writer's block and needed a bit of motivation. PLEASE review! I need to know what you think of it so I can make it better! Thanks! -PJMarvelover2001