So...I'm alive! Yay! Even though I haven't posted in like two months...please don't kill me...
I've been on summer break for over a month...you'd think I'd write more, not less. It was mostly a combination of my terribleness with schedules, writers block on every published story of mine, and me being busy watching tv and reading. I think I've read about two dozen books this summer and five or six seasons of tv shows...I'm not very social.
Anyone got any book/tv/movie recommendations? I'm running out of stuff to read/watch...
I'll just get onto the story now...I forgot I left it on a cliffhanger. Oops.
(Please don't kill me!)
—Alex
Review replies:
Ranger(guest): Thank you! I was quite proud of that(literal) cliffhanger. And I do use some of the original wording, because it gives me ideas on where the plot's going. Now, if you left that all to me, the plot would be as jumbled as my thoughts...that is to say, a train wreck. Also, the last source I used for the story wouldn't let me copy, so I had to write it all out. Luckily, I found a new source, and I can copy and paste. This is all written on my phone. I don't even own a computer. Thanks again!
Vice(Guest): Piper=single: I don't care that much. She was never one of my favorite character, and I am basically incapable of writing romance. I don't really care for romantic stuff at all. It must be very shocking to your stereotypical mind. I mean, an eighth grade girl who dislikes romance? Sacrilege! Also, I have a firm belief that Will Treaty is not homophobic(even though that's not a phobia). There is no proof of that ANYWHERE. If you're "homophobic"/hateful, get off my story and account. I also have a firm belief that he wouldn't tell ANYONE to kill them selves, for any reason, even people with underworldly powers. Also, as I believe I've mentioned before, Canp Jupiter does not exist in this story.Also, "that world"? Is this like a Flash reference or something? IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE STORY DO NOT READ IT!
Venom(guest): You again. As I said above: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE STORY DO NOT READ IT! Also, your review made me laugh so hard. I mean, "Donald Trump lover"? Can I use that? Lastly, I count the battle of the labyrinth a war because it was worse than the Gigantomachy(I think I spelled that right), AKA the giant war.
Matt(guest): This also made me smile. And Will has other talents than just shooting a bow...remember?
Guest: In this story I decided to make him about seventeen or close to seventeen so he could have the maximum amount of training with Halt and still be high-school age. I actually debated this quite a bit, trying to choose an age between 16-18. As I decided to make him about seventeen, I gave home a recurve bow, because of his lack of training(compared to how much he was supposed to get). Concerning the plot...well you'll just have to wait and see...*evil author laugh*
Chapter III
WILL
"Leo!" I yelled. "Leo!" I bent over the edge, further than what was probably considered safe. No, no, no! I thought. She can't be dead…There! About five meters down, on a little ledge, was Leo's unconscious body. Is she deado? I wondered. Then I saw her body shudder. Not yet. I thought. But how do I get her up?
An idea popped into my head. A crazy, horrible idea. I ran back to where I dropped my things. Kneeling by my bow and quiver, I rummaged through my
arrows…There! At the bottom of my quiver was a bow stringer. It was a bunch of rope with two sheath-looking things at the end. I took one of my knives and cut the ends off, leaving just the rope. I ran to the rail.
"Will?" Piper called, dazed, from behind me. "What're you doing?"
I didn't answer. I quickly tied the rope to the rail, tugging to ensure it was secure. I threw the rope over the edge, and hopped over to the other side of the rail. Before I could talk myself out of it, I started scaling—descaling?—down the rope.
«—»
After a couple minutes of shimmying down the rope, I reachhed Leo's ledge.
"Leo!" I said, shaking her prone body. Not the best idea, but hey, I was desperate. Leo groaned.
"Oh, thank God!" I muttered.
Leo's eyes opened. "Will?" She murmured drowsily. "What—?"
"You fell off the balcony," I said, giving her a hand up. "I scaled down the cliff."
"You're crazy." She muttered. "How're we gonna get back up? I cannot climb that thing, no matter what you say."
"Nah. It's too hard to do that with someone else on the rope. I'm scaling the cliffs themselves."
"That's even worse! Have you ever even done this before?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, right. You don't know! In the meantime, let's go scale the Grand friggin' Canyon!"
"Just don't let go, and you'll be fine." I shrugged.
"'Just don't let go.' Amazing advice!" She hopped up—but her wrist was limp, maybe broken. She grunted in pain.
"Here." I grabbed her good hand and pulled her up. "Hop on."
"Can you even carry me?" Leo asked. "I'm short, but I'm still taller than you."
"Get on my back, or I'm leaving you down here."
"So my choices are to stay down here, fall off a cliff—again—while you're climbing with me on your back, or cling on to you climbing a cliff. And, you know, not dying. I choose the piggyback ride."
"Good choice."
We started our slow ascent up the Grand Canyon.
«—»
"Leo, for the last time, stop patting a rhythm on my shoulder!" I scolded her. It'd only been five minutes, but there was only a few more hand- and foot-holds left.
"I can't help it!" She said. "I'm ADHD! The H is for Hyperactive!"
"I will drop you," I threatened.
"Then drop me! It'll be quicker than this!"
I groaned. "If you shut up and stop patting my shoulder, I can, you know, climb!"
Leo's voice and hand movements ceased. I continued climbing.
Finally, we made it to the railing. I climbed over, with Leo still on my back, and dropped her on the glass.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead. "Try not to fall off the balcony again, okay? Otherwise, it's just you and my rope."
"You're crazy, Will, you know that?" Piper said, walking over to us. I was digging through my stuff, looking for something to stabilize Leo's wrist.
"You're the second person to say that," I grumbled. "What happened to the coach?" I asked, knowing the answer fully well.
"He went up and never came back down. He saved your life, you know." Piper said.
"He saved your life, too. And Leo's. And I saved Leo, too. Twice."
"What just happened?" Leo groaned from the floor.
"The short version? Those storm-spirit-things tried to kill everyone, and blew Piper over the railing, when she was saved by Coach Hedge. In the meantime, I killed the other two spirits and Dylan took you hostage. Then, Coach Hedge came out of nowhere and saved you. Dylan then tried to kidnap me, but got really mad and let loose a huge wind. The coach got kidnapped. You got blown over the railing, and I tried to save you, but slipped before I could grab your other wrist. I then scaled the cliffs with a rope down to your ledge. And then I scaled the cliffs again—without a rope—with you on my back." I took a deep breath.
"That wasn't very short," Leo mumbled.
"Neither was that," I retorted, waving my hand around the balcony.
"Will, how'd you do that? The bow, climbing the cliffs?" Piper piped up. (This is my favorite pun in this story. Expect this a lot.) "Who even are you, Will?"
"That's what I've trying to tell you," I said, making small, angry gestures with my hands. "I don't know."
The storm had dissipated. The kids, my supposed classmates, were swarmed at the doors, their jaws gaping, while some adults—guards, maybe—tried to open the doors, with no avail.
"Coach Hedge said he had to protect three people." I remembered. "I think he meant us."
"And that thing Dylan turned into…" Piper shuddered. "God, I can't believe it was hitting on me. What'd he call us? Demigods?"
Leo was laying on her back, looking up at the sky. She didn't seem in a hurry to get up. "Don't know what demi means." She said. "But I'm not feeling very godly. You guys feeling godly?"
The balcony creaked. "We need to leave, and soon." I said.
Leo was still laying on the floor. "Ohhhhh boy. Will, look up there and tell me if those are flying horses." For a second, I wondered if Leo had hit her head falling down the canyon. Then I looked up.
Coming from the east, a dark gray shape was descending from the clouds. As it drew closer, I could make out two winged animals—gray horse-like creatures, except with a six-meter wingspan. Trailing behind them was a brightly painted box on wheels—a chariot.
"Reinforcements," I said. "Hedge said an extraction squad was coming for us."
"'Extraction squad'?" Leo struggled to her feet. "Sounds painful."
"And where are they extracting us to?" Piper asked.
I watched as the chariot landed on the far edge of the balcony. The flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they knew it was near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot—a tall blonde girl maybe a bit older than me, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They both wore the pervasive blue pants, an orange shirt with short sleeves, and a shield slung over their backs. The girl leaped off before the chariot even stopped moving. She pulled a knife and ran towards our group while the big dude was reining in the horses.
My hand floated towards my knives on my waist, where I replaced them after our little scuffle.
"Where is he?" The girl demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling.
"Where's who?" I responded.
She frowned like my answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo and Piper. "What about Gleeson? Where's your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"
Leo cleared her throat. "He got taken by some…tornado things."
The blonde girl arched an eyebrow. "You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the correct term. Who are you, and what happened here?"
I did my best to explain, but all these people I didn't know flustered me. About halfway through, the guy from the chariot came over. He stood there, glaring at us, with his arms crossed. He had a drawing of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little strange.
When I finished my story, the girl looked dissatisfied. "No, no, no! She told me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."
"Annabeth," her companion grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at my face.
I put a hand up to my face self-consciously. I hadn't noticed it before—I mean, who would?—but there was a long cut on the left side of my face, stretching from the tip of my eye to the tip of my mouth. It was a fresh wound, probably a rogue piece of debris from the fight. The cut wasn't bleeding, though, and that I was thankful for.
"The guy with the cut," the guy said. "He's the answer."
"No, Butch," the girl—Annabeth—insisted. "He can't be. I was tricked." She glared at the sky as if it'd done something wrong. "What do you want with me?" Annabeth screamed. "What have you done with him?"
The balcony shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.
"Annabeth," the guy, Butch, said, "we gotta leave. Let's get these three back to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."
Annabeth fumed for a moment. "Fine." She fixed me with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later."
She turned on her heel and marched towards the chariot.
Piper shook her head. "What's her deal? What's going on?"
"Seriously," Leo agreed.
"We have to get you out of here," Butch said. "I'll explain on the way."
"I'm not going anywhere with her," Leo gestured towards the fuming blonde. "She looks like she wants to—and will—kill me."
Butch hesitated. "Annabeth's okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She got a vision, telling her to come here, to find the guy with the cut on his face. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem."
"What problem?" I asked.
"She's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days," Butch said. "She's been going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here."
"Who is he?" Piper asked.
"Her boyfriend, this kid named Percy Jackson." Butch said, albeit reluctantly at first.
"He must be a special guy," Leo said.
"You've got no idea," Butch muttered, shaking his head.
We boarded the chariot, with our little trio in back, and Annabeth and Butch in front, navigating and leading, respectively.
We rode over the Canyon and headed east. I pulled my cloak tighter around me to keep out the icy winds.
The chariot bumped and lurched. The back was wide open, and I wondered what would happen if one of us fell through.
"This is so cool!" Leo spit out a horse-feather out of her mouth. "Where are we going?"
"A safe place," Annabeth said. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."
"'Half-Blood'?" I saw Piper tense, immediately putting up a guard. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"
"She means that you're like us," Butch said. "Demigods."
"D-demigods?" Piper said. "Not like the—"
"Greek myths," Annabeth finished. "Exactly like those. My mom's Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."
Leo choked. "Your mom is the rainbow goddess?"
"Got a problem with that?" Butch said, the tone of his voice saying, I will strangle you. That is, if I didn't beat him to it.
"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho." I really wanted to strangle her then.
"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi."
So that's what they're called, I thought.
"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.
"I will toss you off this chariot," Butch warned.
Lightning flashed. Saved by the lightning, I thought. The chariot shuddered, and Leo yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!"
I stepped back. Sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the chariot.
The wind roared. I looked behind us and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling towards the chariot—except these looked more like horses than angels.
I started to say, "Why are they—"
"Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth said. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This is gonna get rough."
Butch flicked the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. My stomach crawled up my throat, and my vision went black.
←—→
When I finally came to, we were in a totally different place. A cold grey ocean spread out to the left. Snow-covered roads, fields, and forests stretched to the left. Breaking up all the snow was a green valley, with snowy hills on three sides, with the ocean on the fourth. I saw a large blue building, a lake, a wall that seemed to actually be on fire, and numerous things my brain couldn't make sense of. Before I could even comprehend what those things were, the chariot shuddered and creaked, almost sounding in agony. Moments later, the wheel made a popping sound, and we started free falling towards the ground. Wind rushed by our faces, and I could pick out two different screams piercing the air—plus my own.
Annabeth and Butch tried to retain control. The pegasi struggled to keep their specific pattern, but seemed exhausted from their burst of speed, and bearing the weight of the chariot and five other people was too much.
"The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!"
And then—BOOM.
The biggest shock was the cold. I was so disoriented I didn't know which way was up. Acting completely on instinct, I swam up—at least, what I thought was up. Fortunately, I was correct.
I hauled myself out of the lake and looked around. Nearby, Butch was cutting the harnesses off of the pegasi. Fortunately, they looked okay, but unfortunately, they were flapping their wings wildly, splashing water everywhere. I wanted to help, but Leo, Annabeth, and Piper were already onshore, surrounded by a mob of other kids handing out blankets and asking questions. Apparently, kids crash-landed in the lake a lot, because a detail came at us with a large bronze mechanism. In a matter of seconds, they blasted me dry and ran off.
"What—?" I called after them, but they were already too far away.
There were at least twenty kids milling around—the youngest about nine, the oldest a little older than me—and all of them with orange shirts like Annabeth's.
Suddenly, the wreckage of the chariot was thrown from the lake and landed with a wet crunch.
"Annabeth!" A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"
"Will, I'm sorry," Annabeth sighed.
Huh, I thought, another archer named Will.
The other Will scowled at the broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and I. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"
"Claimed?" Leo asked.
Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, "Any sign of Percy?"
"No," Annabeth admitted.
The kids started muttering. I had no idea who this Percy kid was, but his disappearance seemed like a big deal.
Another girl stepped forward—tall, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and the same kind of colors slathered in her face. She glanced over Leo, scowled at Piper, and fixed her eyes on me like I might be worthy of her attention.
"Well," she said, "I hope they're worth the trouble."
Leo snorted. "Gee, thanks. What're we, your new pets?"
"No kidding," I said.
"How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, and how long do we have to stay?"
"Leo," Annabeth said, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew"—she frowned at the girl who spoke—"all demigods are worth saving. But I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped."
"Hey," Piper said, "we didn't ask to be brought here."
Drew sniffed. "And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?"
Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, "Piper, stop."
Piper stopped, looking to none too happy about it.
Drew smirked, another snide comment at the ready. "Who's the British kid?" She said, looking pointedly in my direction.
I was tempted to look around to see who she was talking about, but I had a sinking feeling it was me. But I had no clue what "British" meant or why I qualified for that category.
"He's our friend, mine and Piper's," Leo came to my defense.
Before there could be any more snide remarks, Annabeth cut in. "We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," she said, with another pointed look at Drew. "We'll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed."
"Would somebody tell me what claimed means?" I asked.
Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. At first I thought I'd said something wrong. Then I realized their faces were bathed in a strange red light, as if someone had lit a torch next to me. I turned and almost forgot how to breathe.
Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image —a fiery hammer.
"That," Annabeth said, "is claiming."
"What'd I do?" Leo backed toward the lake. Then she glanced up and yelped. "Is my hair on fire?" She ducked, but the symbol followed her, bobbing and weaving so it looked like she was trying to write something in flames with his head.
"This can't be good," Butch muttered. "The curse—"
"Butch, shut up," Annabeth said. "Leo, you've just been claimed by a god."
"Which one?" She yelped, still trying to swat the mystical fire off her head.
"Hephaestus," Annabeth said, "the god of blacksmiths and fire."
The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like she was afraid it was following her. "The god of what? Who?"
Annabeth turned to Butch. "Butch, would you take Leo, give her a tour? Introduce her to her bunk-mates in Cabin Nine."
"Sure, Annabeth." He didn't look very happy about it, probably due to Leo's comments about rainbows and ponies, but Butch didn't seem like the type not to follow orders.
"What's Cabin Nine?" Leo asked.
"Come on, I'll explain everything." Butch put a hand on her shoulder and steered her off towards the cabins.
Annabeth turned her attention back to me. She studied me like an annoying problem she couldn't figure out. Finally she asked, "what's on your neck?"
I put a hand to my neck, and pulled off a bronze pendant on a chain. The pendant was a bronze oak leaf. I didn't know what it was or why I had it, but I knew it was important. Reluctantly, I gave the pendant and chain to Annabeth.
"I think—no, I know—I've seen something like this somewhere." Annabeth said. "Where did you get it?"
I shook my head. "I'm getting really tired of saying this, but I don't know."
"Can I keep it?" She blurted. "I mean, for research purposes?"
"No," I said quickly. Her face fell, and she gave me the chain back. I guess the prospect of learning about my pendant fascinated her. "I-I'm sorry, it's just I feel like it's important to me, somehow."
"It's all right." She murmured. "But, if I may, what are you wearing?"
I looked down at my clothes, suddenly self-conscious. But all I did was raise an eyebrow at her. "I—"
"You don't know. Right." She turned to the other archer Will. "Do you want to take him for a tour? Show the camp, all that jazz?"
"Sure, Annabeth," the boy grinned sunnily. "Come on, Will!"
With a quick look back at Annabeth, I followed Will up to where the cabins sat.
3,308. Not my best for this story, but good nonetheless. If the end just feels rushed or plain bad, it's cuz I was kinda losing inspiration for the chapter, which usually ends in me rambling and terrible writing. Nothing I can do about that but get better, right?
And about reviews: this story (I think) has gotten the most reviews—advice and questions are my favorites—and over a third have been just straight up insults, two by the same person. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE STORY, DO NOT READ THE STORY! JEESH! I have feelings, y'know. already proved I'm not a robot. So please, don't flame or insult.
—Alex