Yeah, another chapter! I know I said I'd update once a week, but I got impatient, so here it is! Oh, and please leave a little review there somewhere, I reply personally to every single review I get, without exceptions, and with anonymous/guest reviews, I reply within the next chapter. Anyway, here's something to read!
CHAPTER 2: I GIVE A DEMONSTRATION
Zachariah woke up with the compelling urge to shoot something. He couldn't quite figure out why at first until he remembered that there was a potential pagan goddess sleeping just a few rooms away from him. Normally he'd never believe a story as ridiculous as that, but his hunter's instinct was telling him that something wasn't right with that girl. That, and the way she decked the Leanan Sidhe was still creeping him out a little bit. If she was actually telling the truth about that, then he already knew what Mom would have done by then, and it wouldn't have been fun for Riley. But that wasn't possible. He'd never run into anybody like that before, and he didn't think he was going to run into anyone like that now. He freshened himself up, put on a fresh pair of pants, and after emptying out the room of all weapons and donning his trench coat, headed to Riley's room. He knocked rapidly on the door. He could hear the sound of water running, and he almost turned around, but it opened almost before he'd even touched it.
"Come in, come in!" Riley bounded out in khaki green camo pants and black combat boots, an orange tank top with a red boar's head emblazoned on it beneath the unzipped green jacket. Give her an assault rifle and she would have looked ready for a war. "So, seeing as you clearly don't believe me, and I'm not sure that I believe you're not a demigod, I'll just have to prove myself to you! Come on!" She leaped inside, Zachariah tossing his hands up in the air in exhaustion before following after her. The bathroom door was open, steam pouring out as water poured out of the shower. The window was wide open, letting in plenty of natural light.
"I hate doing this in bathrooms of all places…. Yo, you got a gold drachma?" Riley asked.
"Like, ancient Greek ones?" He shook his head. Riley rolled her eyes and dug deep into her pockets.
"Great, the only competent guy in the nearest hundred miles and he's totally flat broke."
"Why would I need to be packing archaic coins anyway?"
"I dunno, maybe you can chuck them at a leprechaun to lure them out or something?"
"I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work…." She fished out an old, heavily patterned gold coin from her pocket, and Zachariah could just barely make out a building on one side of it. She tossed it into the steam, the coin mysteriously disappearing mid rotation.
"Iris, O Goddess of the Rainbow." Zachariah had to suppress his laughter, a wise decision as soon as Riley glared at him before continuing. "Accept my offering. Show me Reika of the Hermes cabin!" The fog shimmered and bent to her will, colours and images swirling in it before finally coming to rest on a young girl. She looked like she was in some kind of cabin or cottage, and there was certainly a lot of noise and general distraction behind it. "Reika. Reika!" The girl turned around, then let out a big toothy grin, waving animatedly at them.
"Scrying magic?" Zachariah asked. "Being spoken in English? That's a first for me."
"Hey, Reika," Riley said, ignoring her unwilling companion. "I've finished the job, I need transport out of here."
"No prob, I've already got my guys on the way!" she replied animatedly. Even between their magic screen, the energy leaping off her skin could be felt. It was too hard to make out anything clearly through the screen, but even through it the neon highlights could be seen clearly in her hair. "You're still staying at the same place, right? Of course you are, where else can you afford to crash?"
"Whatever you say, I've still got the room service, and all-I-can-eat breakfast buffets, so ha!"
"'The all you can eat monster table, complete with chocolate cake, ambrosia, and a side serving of demi-god hero!'" She mimicked just about every commercial in existence in that one sentence, then erupted into uncontrollable giggling at her own joke for some reason, and Zachariah was starting to suspect that she hadn't even realised that he was there when she suddenly asked about his presence.
"This here's Zach-"
"My name's Zachariah," he corrected with a grumble, but Riley continued anyway.
"He helped me out with a monster problem on the way here. And Zach, this is Reika."
"Demigod?"
"Could be, but I can't tell which one yet. He had a pretty weird power…."
"I'm not a demigod already! I'm just a hunter!"
"Who can see through the mist, fights monsters, and even summons them? Yeah, I don't think so!"
"Wait, he can summon them? Like, even giant stuff like drakons and stuff? Totally awesome! But I've never heard of a demigod that can do that!"
"Don't talk like I'm not here too! Are you guys even listening to me?"
"I'll see you back at camp," Riley said, clearly confirming Zach's concerns. The connection petered out, leaving them alone in the bathroom. An awkward silence hung in the air once the girl's enthusiasm had left. This was probably the point where normal people were meant to talk about normal things like 'hey, get a good night's sleep?' 'Well geez, it was fantastic, dreaming I got my guts ripped out by a wendigo. Want some breakfast?' But Zach didn't really do that whole normal thing. He didn't even know what teenaged girls liked, super strength or not. Just the thought of being alone in a motel room with one would have been enough to send his brain into overdrive on any other occasion, but his instincts wouldn't let the girl's potentially godlike influence go. This was a creature he needed to hunt. He needed to kill before she would get the chance to hurt anybody else, but he'd seen for himself that she didn't seem too much like the bloodthirsty type. Before he could think another two seconds on it, he was yanked to his feet and basically dragged to the bottom floor and out the motel.
Even in broad daylight, the town still looked like it lacked enthusiasm, and the abnormality of the crowd yesterday clearly stood out. There was no way that place was seeing any business anytime in the next decade. It was like there was a void around it, repelling people from stepping anywhere near it. In some deep corner of his being, he felt kind of bad for the lonely old man inside, trying to bake his way back into business, but the rest of him thought it was his own fault forging a deal with a demon.
"So, what are we waiting for?" he asked.
"Just give it a minute," she replied. "You'll see soon enough." Something told him that he wouldn't see anything. Not if the mist had anything to say about it at least, so he dug into his trench coat and fished out a pair of gold rimmed motorcycle goggles and put them on. "Um, what are you doing?"
"Protection against the mist," he said.
"Protection? Wait, why would you need that? I thought you said you could see through the mist?"
"Only partially. Jedi mind tricks, remember?"
"No, I don't remember, you haven't explained what you meant by that, what mind tricks? Who exactly are you?"
"A question I've been trying to get out of you for a while now." Before the conversation could go anywhere else, he heard a sound like… like horses neighing? And the beating of a very powerful set of wings. It wasn't something he'd encountered, that much was for sure. He turned around to look for the sound, seeing nothing nearby until he looked up. He nearly fell backwards in shock, the sight too hard for him to believe. What looked like two winged white horses came cantering out of the sky, a gleaming gold chariot being pulled behind them. They landed as gently as a gold chariot and two ponies could on the tarmac, slowing to a halt. Riding on the back of the chariot were two people. One was a big bald guy who's face looked like it had seen one too many bar brawls. The other was a blonde girl about a third of his size. Her eyes looked like they were closed, a dazed smile on her face. She might have been sleeping if she hadn't been steering the chariot. Maybe she was sleeping, and they didn't know it. The guy was in an orange vest and faded jeans, while the girl was in a much too baggy shirt with all sorts of psychedelic colours and jeans. All she needed was a flower headband to be a modern day hippie.
"Hey Ash, Butch," Riley said. The girl, probably Ash, held up a peace sign while Butch nodded his head.
"What the hell am I looking at?!" Zach asked incredulously.
"What, the chariot? Yeah, I guess you wouldn't see these every day…."
"No, no, not the chariot, the freaking winged… these are pegasi! Look, I've hunted a lot of things, but pegasi are definitely up there on the 'urban myth' slot right with the tooth fairy and unicorns!"
"Looks like you've got a lot of learning to do," Riley said with a smirk.
"I thought we were just picking you up?" Butch asked. "Who's this guy?"
"Oh yeah, Reika probably hasn't informed you yet. This is a new guy I picked up on the way. He's pretty tough, even though he looks wimpy."
"I will try not to get offended by that…."
"I think he might be a demigod."
"I am not a pagan god's kid, how many times have I got to say it?" Riley held her hand to the side of her face in an exaggerated stage whisper.
"I think he's in denial," she said.
"Just… whatever, I'm guessing you want me to get on that thing huh?"
"You haven't got much of a choice here," Riley said. "It's not safe for a half-blood to wander around on their own."
"Yeah, I've noticed, just last week I nearly got eaten. I think I'm used to it by now." She grabbed his arm, and probably with much more force than she'd intended, yanked him after her towards the chariot. "You're coming with me whether you like it or not. You at least have to stay for dinner. Think of it as payment for your help with the fairy thing." He shrugged his shoulders in resignation. It was pretty clear that he couldn't overpower her even if he tried, so he allowed himself to be lead into the chariot. The horses… pegasi, neighed one more time before starting up, Butch clutching the reigns. From so close, he couldn't help but notice the tattoo of a rainbow on his bicep. A giant man the size of a cyclops with a rainbow on his arm was flying winged ponies… Mom always said that he would go a little nuts in the business, but that was definitely not the way he thought it would start.
The chariot started off into the sky, and Zach found himself clutching the sides until his knuckles had turned white. There was something very very wrong about seeing a town disappear thirty feet below him in a glorified go-kart. Ash turned around from the front of the chariot. Her eyes were still closed but Zach felt sure that her gaze was centred on him.
"So, has Riley explained who we are?" she asked.
"Well, not you guys in particular, but she mentioned a few things. Something about half-bloods and gods and stuff."
"I would have explained it better if you'd just been more cooperative!"
"How about we all get up to speed before we do anything else?" Butch asked. Riley explained the events that had transpired yesterday, how she had caught onto the trail of stolen ambrosia to a restaurant, and how the waitress had actually been an evil spirit. She mentioned how Zach had been able to see through the mist and was already armed, and together they managed to defeat it and get back the ambrosia. Zachariah kind of hoped that she would leave out the part about him summoning a telekhine, but she seemed to focus on that especially.
"There was like this huge flash of blue light, no, red light, filling the whole alley!" With every other word she moved her arms around, the chariot getting dangerously close to capsizing.
"Riley!" Butch roared, though even with his intimidating stature, Zach could hear panic in his voice. She calmed down, though not much.
"Anyway, the next moment there was a telekhine standing next to him, but here's the thing: it wasn't one of the annoying ones creating weapons to try and kill us with, this one was on his side! And it listened to his every command like it was his, tore right into the monster! Obviously it wasn't strong enough to win on its own, but it slowed her down enough for me to dig a knife into her. Man, that really caught me off guard!"
"So that's why she thinks you're a half-blood," Ash said, but her faint eyebrows furrowed in concern, an expression they didn't look used to wearing. "But you don't really feel like a half-blood though. Like… it's like your aura's just not right. It seems… diluted?"
"Then maybe he's the kid of some minor god, I don't know. Anyway, we can't exactly leave him behind!"
"Hey, this isn't fair," Zach spoke up. "You guys are now all up to speed about me and my powers, but I still don't really know who you guys are. Who exactly are you?" Ash shushed him to silence, almost like a mother would to her child, and Zach wasn't entirely sure whether he was being looked down at or there was something very wrong with the woman.
"Rest easy child. I can sense the turmoil within your soul. A warrior thrust deep into the seas of his enemies, lost and confused with no means to attack, you search for your bearings amidst the chaos. But your lighthouse is not in sight, and the blows of your allies turn the tides against you. Don't worry, you'll find your peace when you rest at shore." Zach stared at her for a solid minute, calculating a compelling and reasoned argument before answering.
"What?"
"Don't mind her," Riley said. "She gets like that sometimes. She's really into people's souls and their aura or whatever. Just relax, it will make more sense when you see what we're about. We're just taking you to meet more of us. You know, us half-bloods. Hey look, we're nearly there!" Zach wasn't sure just how far they'd travelled in that short span of time, but when he looked over the chariot he could just make out a collection of small buildings below him. He barely had time to examine it when the chariot zoomed to the ground, snatching the breath from his mouth. It clattered onto a lone road, a large hill to the right of it.
"Where are we?" Zach asked.
"Long Island Sound," Riley replied as they all got off the chariot. Butch led the pegasi with their cargo by their reins. "At the bottom of Half-Blood hill." They climbed to the top of the hill, and the view on the other side into the valley was not what he was expecting.
Sure enough, it looked like a normal summer camp, complete with an arrangement of cabins that were in some kind of horse shoe formation, but he didn't need a gut feeling to tell him that the pitch black cabin with green flames on the sides of the doors was definitely not normal. Or the giant climbing wall he could see further to the back with lava rivulets running down them. For the challenge of course. Lava makes everything that much harder. The pegasi racing in the sky were certainly not something he was used to seeing either. At least the campers looked normal, the younger ones running around between cabins, playing tag and tackling each other to the ground. Although he couldn't quite wrap his head around the ones that had goat legs instead of human ones and small horns out the top of their heads. Or the elf-like, often odd coloured girls hanging around the forest. Why was there a giant forest again?
Zach took off his driving goggles and took another look at it. The camp was gone, replaced by a big barn-like building with a sign saying 'Delphi Strawberry Service' and a few strawberry fields. There was even a farmer in the distance. He put on his goggles again, the camp magically returning to view.
"Dude, the mist is killer around here," he said, to nobody in particular.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," Riley said. "Home for us half-bloods. Make yourself comfy." She stepped forward towards the valley, the others following her. Zach hesitated, reluctant to follow into this obviously hazardous vacation stop, like he'd suddenly reasoned geez, this is kind of dumb, Zachariah, maybe I'll get myself killed next week instead. How about a pizza for now? However, he still needed to see if what Riley was saying was true. He followed them, but as soon as he'd taken a few steps he could feel every nerve in his body jumping inside him, yelling at him to leave. The next moment, a roar. A loud, unbearably loud and threatening roar. For a second, he almost panicked, but he quickly regained control of his nerves, turning to the source of the sound.
Lo and behold, what else could it be but your friendly neighbourhood, thousand kilo komodo dragon? Zach yelped in shock as the reptile leaped for his throat. He just barely dived out of the way, the dragon's claws in the ground where he was stood just moments before. He pulled out two pistols from his cloak, pumping led into the scales of the lizard. Correction, it wasn't a komodo dragon, it was an actual, live, fire breathing dragon, toasting everything around it as it slithered and thrashed about. The bullets didn't look like they were doing anything to it, even as he emptied both magazines into it. It lurched again, pinning him to the ground with a gigantic claw. He was trapped, but there was no way he was letting that be the end of him. He fished into his pockets, grasping one hand around a bottle of holy water, and the other at a sawn-off shotgun, already loaded with buckshot. It was only then, with the dragon's jaws at his throat that the others rushed to his aid, yelling and pulling the dragon off of him.
"Down boy, down!" Riley yelled. "Hey, what's wrong with you today?!"
"Relax Peleus, he's a friend," Ash said, her voice far more soothing than the barely concealed rage in Riley's. The dragon, Peleus, stepped backwards slowly, still growling at him. Zach stood up, still pointing the barrel of his gun at the dragon. "Zach, put down your gun. He won't hurt you."
"Nu – uh, no way," Zach replied. "Regular bullets didn't work, but a dose of holy buckshot will do the trick if it so much as looks at me funny."
"Peleus won't harm you, he must have just been scared because you smelled too mortal."
"Yeah, probably the gunpowder doing it," Riley suggested. "Half – Bloods don't use guns a lot. As long as you put down your weapons, Peleus won't hurt you." Every fibre in his being was telling him not to trust them. But they were also the same people who saved him from being skewered by their unauthorised pet. Reluctantly, he lowered his gun, but in his pocket he still clutched tight to the holy water. Wasn't sure what good it would do him, but he could never be too careful. Peleus seemed to accept this, slinking back to the tree it came from, wrapping itself around it and quietly going to sleep, like nothing happened. He silently picked up his stuff, and walked down the hill, pretending not to hear the whispers Butch and Ash were exchanging.
Now that he was closer and could see everything clearly, he found himself even more worried than when he'd started. They'd gone straight to the centre of camp and found themselves surrounded by a ring of over a dozen cabins, all of them vastly different in design to the last one. One of them had the sound of thunder constantly rumbling inside it and an odd lightning pattern seemingly projected onto the front doors, though the projector's location was anybody's guess. Another had giant seashells and pieces of coral stuck all over it like the whole building had been dipped in the sea for a few decades, without the algae and stench of dying fish. One of them looked like it was practically vandalised, blood red paint randomly slapped in uneven strips over it, with barbed wire on the roof and a very large (and probably very real) boar's head over the door. The constant rock music blaring from inside betrayed some very angry inhabitants. He wasn't even sure if they even were cabins anymore.
They ignored all of those and went straight for the biggest building there, a place Zach later learned had appropriately been named "The Big House". The Big House was a large baby blue two story vacation home, complete with a front porch with deck chairs already pulled out. There were two people on the front porch playing a card game, and from the looks of things it was getting pretty heated. One of them was in a wheelchair, with a beard and colonial looking moustache that looked like too much trouble to take care of, and was dressed in a brown jacket and slacks. Despite his comrades wheelchair, the other looked like he was in less shape than the first, being slightly chubby with a puffy face, curly black hair and a bright red nose. He looked like he either needed a drink, or already had one too many. The second man noticed the troop approaching him.
"Ah, Rooney, what have you brought us this time?" the man asked Riley.
"Yeah, Miley, what exactly have you pushed me into?" Zach added.
"Oh no, don't you both pick on me now!" Riley cried. Zach smirked before he locked eyes with the man.
"Don't want to be here?" he asked.
"Starting to get those vibes," Zach replied.
"Give it a few decades, then you'll be walking in my shoes." The man in the wheelchair had to clear his throat to get their attention.
"I see that you're back from your quest. I apologise for the lack of a good reception, most of the campers are currently occupied with a game of capture the flag."
"Ah what?! It's Friday already?! Ah I totally forgot! I was totally looking forward to stabbing a couple of people!"
"Peace, Riley, there will come other capture the flag games," Ash assured her. Riley mumbled something under her breath, but didn't complain anymore. "Chiron, Mr. D, when we were picking up Riley, she brought him along as well. He helped her to complete her quest, and might have even saved her life. We think he might be a demigod as well." The man in the wheelchair, Chiron from the way she'd directed the name, wheeled himself a little bit closer to Zach, as if to inspect him better.
"Hmm… something about that claim bothers me…."
"Huh? What're you talking about?" Riley asked. "He can see through the mist and everything, he already knew about monsters and he was strong enough to take one down, maybe even on his own. We should at least keep him here to find out."
"Maybe, but he looks pretty ordinary to me," Mr. D said, clearly more focused on his card game than on dealing with the newbie. "I mean, I don't exactly feel any even remotely god-like presence off this guy. Feels more like a slice of week old cheese."
"Excuse me?!"
"Putting it more delicately," Chiron interrupted, before Zach could get any more worked up. "Dionysus has a point. Demigods have a very distinct presence about them. Even their smell is different. And while I can smell many different monsters coming off of you, underlying it all is definitely something more human than most of us."
"But that doesn't make sense! Especially with that trick of his!" Riley screamed. "Come on Zach, do that little trick of yours, come on, come on!"
"I told you, my name is Zachariah, and nobody's seeing any trick of mine unless somebody can explain everything to me, no missing little details here and there." Chiron sighed, as if he could only see things getting more complicated from that point forth. Zach couldn't help but agree with him either.
"Do you know anything about Greek myths?" Was that a serious question? Zach probably knew at least one myth from every nation in the world. Heck, he'd seen a couple of creatures from them. Still, he nodded his head politely.
"Minotaurs and stuff, no problem."
"Well, what if I told you that all of them were real? All the legends you've heard, the Greek gods, the heroes, oracles and evil demons, the whole lot?"
"I would say I already knew. And a lot more things beside that."
"Great! That saves us some time then!" Mr. D exclaimed. "Well, you're in Camp Half-Blood. The only safe haven out there for you half-mortal menaces. Here we basically babysit you and teach you guys everything from how to not die to making your own weapons and ancient lore and customs. We've even got great camp food. Yay." He didn't exactly sound too enthusiastic when he said all of that though.
"Well," Chiron continued. "Our worlds are divided from the mortal one by the mist. I believe you've come across it before?" Zach nodded his head in recognition.
"The mist is like a veil, a thin layer that hides the supernatural from the way-too-natural. If a giant eight headed monster is running around, a regular person's vision would be twisted and they would see something else they could understand easier, like a giant eight vined carnation or something. Only supernatural entities, and a select few mortals can see spirits and demons through the mist.
"Then sometimes, you understand, the Greek gods and goddesses come down from Olympus to observe, or directly intervene in the affairs of mortals. And sometimes, they end up… well, 'siring' a mortal child or two."
"Or ten, depending on their mood…." The glares he received from him silenced Zach, but Dionysus tipped his head, as if grudgingly accepting the comment.
"In any case, the offspring of a godly parent and a mortal one is a demigod, a half-blood, with some of the powers of their immortal parent. They can see past the mist, and are stronger than most mortals. But because of their powers, they attract monsters and all sorts of creatures to them. Most of them die before they turn twelve." Well, that's a cheery thought to be living with. Or not be living with. "So this camp was set up to try and boost those survival chances. This place, Camp Half-Blood, is basically a training ground for these demigods, and one of the only places in America that they can be safe. We prepare them for the world, shape them up, and train them to deal with monsters. It's also quite a lot of fun living here."
"Wait a second, you said that these half – bloods are like, the children of gods, right? And your name," now directing his speech to the guy in the Hawaiian shirt, "Must be Dionysus? As in, the Dionysus? God of wine, madness…."
"Ecstasy, parties, the whole lot," he said, looking slightly more puffed up than usual now somebody had recognised him. For just a second, his eyes flashed a deep purple, like an ethereal flame had lit up behind his skull. Then, the reaction that Riley hadn't expected to see in the presence of Mr. D: Zachariah turned so pale he was practically translucent, stumbling backwards away from him, his whole body trembling with trepidation. Ash was quickly by his side, trying her best to calm him down, but it didn't look like it was working.
"Whoa, I've never seen anybody get scared of the lord of grapevines," Riley commented. Mr. D also looked surprised, as if it were the first time that anybody had actually acknowledged his god-like status.
"I shouldn't be here," Zach said. "This place is dangerous for somebody like me."
"Everywhere's dangerous for a half-blood, it's just one of the perks. This place is just slightly less dangerous."
"No, that's fine for you guys, but as I keep trying to tell you, I'm completely mortal, nothing special about me."
"It's hard to wrap your head around at first," Chiron said. "Normally I would tell you to stay a little bit longer and wait to see if a godly parent claims you, but I'm also getting the feeling that you may be right. And after all, we can't actually hold you here against your will. Tell me, did Peleus, the guard dragon, react with hostility towards you?"
"He tried to rip out my throat. Is that his way of playing fetch or was I genuinely in grave danger?"
"Strange. He dislikes mortals, but he doesn't normally attack them. Just, scare them away. But if you were actually a demigod, and escorted at that, Peleus should have left you alone…."
"What?! There's no way this guy's an ordinary mortal!" Riley yelled. He slapped Zach across the shoulder, the pain shooting up and down his whole arm. "Come on, show them that cool thing you can do! You know, that thing!"
"Okay, okay! You don't have to push me around so much," Zach tried to gather his distracted thoughts. He pulled out what looked like a portable game console from one of his many excessively deep pockets. With his other hand he held out a small journal or notebook. "I'm guessing you want something that's vaguely Greek looking, right?" With his thumb and forefinger, he turned the pages until he stopped on something he obviously liked. He pressed a few buttons on the device, and again he was enveloped in red light, white sparks of lightning leaping forth from his body. His bones were visible through his right arm, blue wire thin sparks running through it, the screen on his device flashing.
"Initiate Summon Sequence," he commanded, his beanie flying off his head from an invisible force, strands of his hair floating up as if from the wind. The buffets and gales of wind were pushing back against everyone gathered around him. Riley was struggling to accept that this was the same person who seemed so weak and helpless just moments before, the intensity in his eyes enough to match the fire of a god's.
"Come on out, Ventus!" he roared. A black and red flash of electricity materialised in front of him, a figure forming in front of them. Riley was tempted to shield her eyes, but she didn't feel like letting Chiron win out in terms of who had stronger nerves as he stared starkly into it. The lightning faded away, leaving a swirling black mist in its place. Or at least it looked like a mist at first. Whatever it was, it was made entirely of black smoke, with a pair of slightly darker smoky wings sticking out of what was probably its back, if a tornado could have a back. There was the semblance of a face near the top of the storm funnel, a pearly white smile and steel grey eyes staring at her.
The spirit, the ventus, stared at Zachariah, as if awaiting orders. "You don't need to fight anything, they just want to get a better look at you." It was hard to describe the movement as a nod of his head, but that's what he did before looking back at the crowd. Butch only seemed to be mildly surprised, and Riley had already seen something like it before, so it wasn't anything new. Chiron's expression, however, had turned to thunder, and even Mr. D looked suitably shocked. Ash was right next to the creature though, pacing around it as she stared in wonder.
"Whoa, you summoned it here," she said in awe. "How did you do that? Can you make it do what you want?"
"Uh, yeah, pretty much," Zach replied. "As long as the monster's strong enough to do it, they will listen. I've got more of them stacked up than just this guy, from loads of different mythologies too. Watch this." That intense glare returned to his eyes as he pressed another button on the device, the pages in his journal flicking to another entry. "Nekomata!" A second flash of lightning materialised next to the ventus, the lightning fading away to reveal what looked like some kind of woman, though it barely took a second to realise she wasn't human. She was covered from head to toe in blue fur and had a large pair of feline ears instead of human ones. She was dressed very lightly, in a yellow tank top and brown shorts, with a tiny cut in them giving room for a swishing blue tail. A golden bell was tied around her neck. She yawned, as if she'd been asleep the whole time, a pair of feline fangs visible in her mouth, then shook her head violently as if trying to wake herself up. She had curly long dark purple hair that moved like waves with her head.
"No fair, why're you summoning me now?" she asked in a whiny voice. "I was just having the best dream…." If she wasn't surprised at her location before, she definitely was once Ash started examining her from close up. For a moment it looked like she was going to reach up and touch one of her furry ears, but she resisted the urge when the nekomata shied away nervously, her face slightly red. What sounded like a deep purring sound filled the air. "You want to check if they're real? You can touch them if you want, but not too much. It feels weird."
"Please don't give her too much attention," Zach said. "She'll never leave you alone if you do."
"But, she's so furry…." For some reason, the ventus looked offended, as if the spotlight had shifted to this smaller, lesser being than him, and quite literally stormed off. Before it could get too far, Zach apologetically recalled him to his device, the spirit disappearing in a blue flash. He pointed it at the nekomata as well, but she didn't seem too bothered, yawning as she disappeared into it. He turned to Chiron and Mr. D, both of them momentarily speechless. Then, Chiron spoke up.
"That is… not supposed to be possible," he said slowly. As laid back as he seemed, he didn't exactly seem to be the type that has no problems of his own, yet here his look made it seem as if he'd lost ten years of his life. After too long a pause, he finally asked to see the device that he was using. He was tempted to flat-out refuse, but Mr. D was glaring at him as if at any moment he might turn into a snake and kill them, so he didn't have much of a choice. It was a bit like a Nintendo DS, able to flip open with two screens. The bottom screen had pictures of the two monsters he had just summoned, along with some information relating to them, but they all disappeared before Chiron could read any of it, leaving the screen blank. He turned it around a bit, examining it from all sides. If he hadn't just seen its power with his own eyes, he would never have believed that the object in his hands was anything other than a game's console. He carefully handed it back, as if it might explode.
"I'm assuming nobody else can use it." He nodded, but it wasn't really a question, more like if anybody else can use it, I'm labelling this a health hazard and destroying it. "Well, if you truly are a demigod, then you'll be claimed by your godly parent soon enough. You're round about the right age, aren't you? Thirteen?"
"I'm fourteen," Zach grumbled.
"Of course. Anyway, it's still true that Camp Half-Blood is a safe haven, even for you. Why don't you get a feel for the place? Riley, why don't you show him around?" Riley nodded her head, although her brow was so deeply furrowed he felt if she frowned any more the wrinkles in her forehead would start hitting bedrock.
"That's okay, I'll get a tour tomorrow," he said. "Right now, I feel like I just need some time to myself. Is there any place I can sleep?" Riley beckoned for him to follow her towards the cabins. She led him to the shabbiest looking cabin of the bunch, the brown paint peeling off the walls, one flake of paint at a time. A symbol like a stick with two snakes twirling around it and a set of wings was set just above the door. They entered the cabin, and despite the climbing wall of death that was just a five minute walk away, this place looked completely and totally normal. Apart from the occasional misplaced weapon.
For a start, it looked like there was a slight space problem. Bunk beds were crammed all around the edges of the room. There was more bed than there was actual wall, and Zach was actually confused that they could fit it all inside. The floor had been taken up by a sea of clothes, and other odds and ends that had no natural place in the cabin.
"This is the Hermes Cabin," she said. "Since Hermes is the god of travellers, his cabin is used for all newcomers who haven't been claimed yet. It's also used for any half-bloods for minor gods that don't yet have cabins, so it's a little bit cramped. Make yourself at home." She closed the door behind her as she left, leaving him in the cabin alone. Zach looked around for a bunk that didn't have clothes all over it, and was thankful when he found a clean bottom bunk somewhere. The top was occupied by somebody who clearly felt no shame in their Rainbow Dash edition My Little Pony bed sheets. There weren't exactly any other free beds, so he collapsed onto it, his backpack slipping off his shoulder. It was still early in the morning, but his mind was whirring inside his head at a thousand miles an hour, and he didn't think that he could function very well to do just about anything. He pulled out his journal and flicked through his pages. There were detailed sketches of all the creatures he'd encountered, including information about them like their habitats and, most important of all, how to kill them. Then he flicked through the other pages. All of the entries that he'd made all about where he was and what was happening. There were still a lot of empty pages, but that was expected. He hadn't been making many pages. Just since his mother went missing. He pulled out a pen, and was tempted to start writing, but he couldn't quite muster the strength to move his hand, and he could feel his eyelids drooping. It wasn't much longer before he collapsed, his world going blank as he passed out on the bed.