There's a warm yellow light shining in her eyes, pulling her out of the dark, and she's not happy about it. Her dreams had been stranger than normal, a weird goat/donkey boy, and a man with a bull's head, who she killed, and a massive dog made of fire and shadows. That she also killed.

Why was she killing everything?

A particularly incessant chirping forces her to peel open her eyes, the light blinding her for a few moments before they adjust.

She's sitting on a porch, tucked away into a corner, looking out over a bunch of fields. There's a van parked next to them, with Delphi's Strawberries emblazoned across the sides. And down in amongst the plants, there's a whole bunch of shirtless teenagers, all playing music which drifts softly up to her ears.

"You're awake."

She startles at the voice.

It's the goat boy from her dream.

"No." She shakes her head. "No you're not awake?" He asks, confused. "No, I'm awake, but you're not supposed to be here, you're supposed to stay in people's dreams, not pop out of them!" Her voice cracks.

"Yeah no, that wasn't a dream last night, that was all real." He placates.

"You mean to tell me that I was almost killed twice last night? And that I killed both the bull man and the fire dog from hell?" She yells at him. No no no no no, it can't be real, Larissa is going to walk around the corner and say surprise! And there's going to be a clown and a bunch of cake, cause her birthday is coming up… next month. But it's all just going to be one big practical joke. Cause it needs to be.

Because if it's not, if it was all real, then she killed someone last night. And she watched a man get eaten.

Does it count as cannibalism if the guy doing the eating is part cow?

"Wait, bull man?" Groven sounds surprised.

"You killed the Minotaur?" Why is his voice shaky?

"If that's what beef head's name is, then yeah, I killed him, got a horn in the process." Speaking of the horn, where is it? She casts around for it, and finds a small table beside her, with both her horn and a glass of what looks like juice sitting on it. Her arms feel dead, but she reaches for the horn anyways. Growman grabs the glass and presents it to her halfway.

Despite it not being what she wanted, her throat is feeling parched so she doesn't complain. When he lets go of the glass, she almost drops it and he quickly supports the bottom and helps her bring it up to her mouth.

It's not juice. She's not sure what it is. Because it looked like juice, but it tastes like a weird combination of her favorite tea, mixed with warm cookies, and roast lamb on the side. Weird. But it works somehow.

She can feel a flush of energy flow through her as she finishes the drink, and when she puts the empty glass back on the table, she does it without Gromet's help.

She picks up the horn and brings it close to her. It's dark at the base where she'd snapped it, and the color bleeds out as it goes higher up the sides of the horn, leading to a pale, almost white tip.

She thought there'd be blood or something on the tip, some sort of sign that it'd been stabbed into two different bodies. But there's nothing. The tip is clean.

"That's from the Minotaur?" His voice is awed, like it's some massive achievement, and not the desperate actions of a mud-caked kid.

"I killed something! He ate the driver! And I don't know where Larissa went," She despairs, throwing her arms over her head and covering her eyes.

"Don't worry about your guardian child," a new voice joins them, "we sent a team out last night to retrieve her, she's perfectly safe, and we've dealt with the police as well." It's the man in the wheelchair. Wasn't he a horse?

"Weren't you a horse?" Why does her mouth just do whatever it wants? Seriously, no regard for tact.

Luckily, she doesn't seem to have offended him, as he chuckles before starting to rise out of his seat. "Yes, however I thought that, given your reaction last night, it might be easier to first meet me sitting down." He's like a history professor. She's not sure why he's like a history professor, she's never met any, but he gives her that vibe.

"So who are you? If you lot found Larissa, where is she? Why am I still here? Where is here?" She demands, her voice surprisingly harsher than she'd meant, but she doesn't take it back.

"This, dear child, is Camp Half-blood. Also known to the rest of the world as Delphi's Strawberry Farms. Your guardian is quite safe, she gave her permission for you to stay here for the school break when she realized we run a summer camp for kids. Our driver took her back to the city and she'll be back to pick you up before your flight home."

Oh.

She's been left here. With complete strangers. After she'd just killed a man. She's been left alone in a new country, in the middle of nowhere, and Larissa hadn't even bothered to stick around long enough to tell her herself. And what about Disneyland?

Well that makes her feel great.

Her eyes start to prickle, but she forces the feeling down, taking a deep breath and holding it in her mouth as the tears threaten to start gushing.

"As for who we are, well you've already met Grover," He gestures to Goat-boy, Grover, not Gromet, or Growman, or Groven, Grover. "And my name is Chiron."

"Chiron, like the dude from the myths? Wasn't he a centaur too?" She asks curiously.

"Yes exactly, although I must say, those myths aren't always right. I never had a wife nor child, but the myths would tell you I had three! I have enough trouble looking after all you lot, I don't need three foals running around to add to the chaos!"

"So you're actually the Chiron? Really? How are you still alive?" Surely if he was actually the dude from the myths, he would be dead by now, never mind that he was alive in the first place, because that's a whole different kettle of worms she doesn't want to open.

"Well, for my services to their children, the gods made me immortal, to train the future generations of demigods and heroes."

Nevermind, kettle? Open. Worms? Worming.

"Gods? You're telling me the Gods are real?" Can her face look any more disbelieving? Wait, raise that eyebrow a little higher, there we go.

"Yes my dear, and this camp is the only safe-haven for demigods like yourself. For not only do the Gods of myth exist, but so do their monsters. And they have a particular taste for demigods." Oh joy, more people that want to eat her.

"Wait, like me? You think I'm a demigod?" She's incredulous.

These people are crazy, living myths, gods, monsters. Demigods.

It's all insane.

But the guy is part horse.

And Grover's legs aren't getting any less fluffy.

Ok then, screw her sideways and call her a cupcake, the myths are true. How many of them, who knows! Certainly not her!

"Do you know both of your birth parents?" The old centaur asks her. "Nope! They died and then my Aunt and Uncle chucked me into the system." She says it cheerfully, despite the drop in her stomach at the reminder that her only living family were so eager to get rid of her. "They'd barely had me a day before they kicked me out!"

The approaching blonde wore a mask of indifference, but when Percy met her eyes, the girl nodded in solidarity. "You'll find that a lot of us here will have a similar story," she greets. "I'm Annabeth, and you drool in your sleep."

"Um thank you? For telling me?" Percy is confused but the girl nods as if she'd done her a favor by saying something.

"Annabeth here will take you on a quick tour of the camp before showing you to your new cabin." Chiron tells her, offering a hand and pulling her to her feet.

"Come on, I have archery practice soon." Percy follows Annabeth down towards the strawberry fields, and she sees that the shirtless teenagers are actually more goat-men, the music is louder now and it makes her want to dance, a light jaunty feeling filling her bones.

"The music helps the strawberries grow, nature magic of some kind, they're a bit secretive about how it all works, but other than that Satyrs are generally quite friendly, and it's not often that they're attacked by monsters, so they're sent out to find demigods and bring them back safely. It's a difficult job, especially because by the time a Satyr is experienced enough to actually be sent out as a protector, they typically look like teenagers, and the older a demigod is, the stronger the smell, which makes it more dangerous."

"Smell? What? We stink something particularly amazing and all the monsters in a five mile radius can smell a yummy dinner?" Percy asks sarcastically, but when Annabeth merely nods solemnly, she blinks, shocked. "Wait really?"

"Yeah, mythical creatures have an amazing sense of smell, and we demigods have a particular scent that draws them to us. The stronger the demigod, the more powerful the scent. The satyrs have to try and get the demigod here without them knowing too, because as soon as we know, our scent is amplified, sending out a beacon."

"Oh." Percy falls silent as they pass the archery range, an arts and crafts workshop, and a forge, where a burly boy with soot-covered hands waves at them pleasantly from behind a large anvil, "That's Beckendorf, he's a son of Hephaestus and the cabin nine counselor, all of them are great at building things, but he's the best they've had in a couple of centuries."

They wave back and move on.

Annabeth gestures vaguely towards the stables, telling her about the pegasi, and Percy swears there's more voices than there are riders down there, but they don't get very close as they appear to be starting a lesson.

They then move on to the climbing wall, where Annabeth explains that if you don't get to the top within a certain time, which sounds insane by the way, the entire wall starts to shake and then it spews lava! More insanity! Wonderful.

They stay just long for Annabeth's claim to be proven true as a boy only a few years older than them is thrown from halfway up, landing painfully on the grass, but quickly bouncing back up, his golden hair flopping over his eyes. "That's Fletcher, he's a son of Apollo, Cabin Seven."

She leads Percy away, and, passing by the dining pavilion, which has no roof (what do they do when it rains?), they head to what Annabeth calls the arena.

It's a massive building, but when they go inside, Percy sees that it too, has no roof, leaving it open to the elements. One of the walls is lined with weapons of all shapes and sizes, another with different pieces of battered armor, and the last wall has rows of practice dummies lined up against it, each at a different level of destruction.

There's another class being held here, led by a tall brown-haired girl who looks like she could crush Percy's head in her fist. "That's Clarisse, she's a daughter of Ares, God of War, and counselor for Cabin Five."

"What's the different Cabins mean?" Percy asks as they leave the arena, feeling dark eyes on her back.

"Well, each Cabin represents our Godly parent, I'm in Cabin 6, Athena." They stand by a fire in the middle of a half-circle of cabins, and Percy waves at the little girl tending the flames on the other side.

Annabeth points at each cabin as she names them, males on the left, females on the right. At the head of the circle, there's two large white cabins made of marble, and looking more like temples than where someone would live. "Those belong to Hera and Zeus. Hera's is more honorary, cause she'd never cheat on her husband, and Zeus' hasn't been used since the big three swore an oath not to have any children."

"Why?"

"You know World War 2? That was the children of Hades against the Children of Poseidon and Zeus. They're too powerful, and after that, the three eldest gods swore not to have any more children. Zeus broke the oath a couple of years ago, but she died just before reaching camp. The cabin hasn't been used since." Annabeth looks towards the pine tree, standing alone at the top of the hill, longing hidden in her voice.

"Anyways! Moving on!" She quickly carries on like nothing had happened, and Percy is inclined to let her, there's clearly a story there, but having just met the girl, it's not really her place to ask.

Annabeth names each of the cabins, Poseidon's looking like a pirate ship taken straight out of a children's book and dumped on dry land, mast and sails and all.

Ares' was painted blood red, and had a boar's head hanging over the door, with stacks of spears leaned up against the wall and a barbed wire fence surrounding it. "They have landmines in there as well." Annabeth tells her carelessly.

Apollo's is pretty obvious, a shining white stone that seems to reflect golden in the rays of the sun, making it difficult to look at for very long.

Hephaestus' is made completely out of metal, really embracing the steampunk look, with thick smoke coming out a chimney, and the sound of hammering echoing out to where the girls stand.

Hermes' looks like parts of it may fall apart at any second, while others could survive a category 5 hurricane, there's a caduceus above the doorway, and some of the windows are currently being replaced. There's also, looking extremely out of place, a large pink sparkly couch on the sloped roof.

Annabeth sighs, "this is the fifth time this week! They need to stop stealing that bloody thing from cabin ten!"

They then move onto the lady's on the other side.

After Hera, is Demeter, which looks like a miniaturized farmhouse, with a thatch roof and a garden growing out the front filled with colorful flowers. There's vines and ivy growing up the side of the walls and plants in pots on the windowsills.

Athena's cabin is shaped like a large stack of books, with windows cut into the pages. There's a large owl painted onto the door, and Percy swears that it's glaring at her.

Cabin Eight, Artemis, another honorary cabin Annabeth explains, looks like any plain cabin that you'd find in the woods, but apparently when it gets dark it glows similar to how Apollo's is currently blinding, but just, not as bad.

Cabin Ten looks like a doll's house. The walls are painted hot pink, there's white trim lacing, and soft pink rose bushes on either side of the door. That's Aphrodite. And it's quite clear that the couch on the roof of Cabin Eleven belongs with them.

The last cabin is a soft faded purple, with grape vines climbing the roof, and large barrels stacked up outside. There's a fountain of something red that Percy can see just inside the doorway, and even as she watches, a blond boy dips a cup and takes a long drink, staining his mouth pink. Dionysus.

The tour being over, Annabeth won't show her the woods, apparently they're too dangerous and she'll see on Friday, they head over to Cabin Eleven, where a tall boy with dirty blond hair and a large scar crossing his eye leans against the doorframe, watching them.

"Percy, this is Luke, son of Hermes and Counselor for Cabin Eleven. He'll be looking after you now. You need anything, you go to him. Luke, this is Percy." She introduces them. "Claimed?" he asks, looking at Annabeth, who shakes her head in the negative. He sighs tiredly, "well kid, welcome to your new home," then a strange glint appears in his eyes as he jokes "we take in all the strays," but it disappears when he shakes his head and points to a back corner "there should be a spot over there, but a word of warning, sometimes the bathroom floods."

Percy picks her way through the sleeping bags lining the floor, and, sure enough, the floor is wet. She thinks about setting down her horn, which is still clutched to her chest, but a vague memory of Hermes being the god of thieves stops her, and she merely nods, before returning to where Luke stands watching her from the doorway.

Annabeth has disappeared.

"We'll get you a sleeping bag and some stuff before tonight, but for now, why don't we head over to the arena, you can have your first lesson in one of the most important skills you will learn here; Sword fighting."