Luke helps her pick out a blade, but it's heavy and awkward in her hands. An ill fit, he calls it, and despite not knowing anything about swords, she has to agree. It just feels wrong.

But as other campers, all from Cabin Eleven, file in, she stands to one side and watches as Luke demonstrates a few moves before directing them all to practice together. Then he turns to her. "Let's see what you're made of hmm? Any Ares blood in there?" Then his sword is inches from her face as he suddenly lunges towards her, her own blade barely coming up in time to deflect it.

He quirks an eyebrow, a smirk creeping up his face. "You've got instincts. Good." And then he falls silent as he rains blow after blow down on her. She desperately fends them off, somehow managing to escape without being hit.

She lasts maybe all of 30 seconds before he changes the game, sweeping a leg under her and knocking her off her feet. By the time she realizes she's on the ground, he's got the point of his sword under her chin, resting lightly against her throat.

A strange feeling takes over her as she looks up his blade to his handsome face. There's a kind light in his blue eyes, but she blinks and it's replaced by one unseeing eye of a similar shade.

The face of the cabby driver stares down at her, accusing her. Blood trickling from the large gash across his forehead.

She flinches back as his hand comes close to her face, squeezing her eyes tight and waiting for the blow to come.

"Percy?"

A hand is shaking her. "Percy?"

She peaks one eye open, and Luke is crouched before her, sword tucked behind him, blue eyes staring into her own. "Hey, you're ok, you're safe here, we'll look after you."

She nods softly, terror had frozen her body, and she takes the offered hand as he helps her stiffly to her feet.

He gives her one last reassuring glance, before calling the other campers around in a circle. "Cabin Eleven, this here is our new member, Percy, I want you all to make sure she feels welcome, got it?" He sounds like a stern older brother.

"Now, I've got a new move to show you all, who's willing to demonstrate?"

"Dude, fresh bait demonstrates, you know that," someone calls out from the back of the group. "Yeah, but normally fresh bait would've had a bit longer than a couple of hours before their first lesson." Luke argues back. The other campers don't look convinced, and a chant starts up from within, "fresh bait. Fresh bait. Fresh bait."

Luke looks at her apologetically, but she nods determinedly, the group cheers loudly, and the chant changes to one of support.

A gesture from Luke has them quiet, and they all move back, creating a ring around the two. Percy picks up her sword from where she had dropped it, and Luke twirls his in his hand as he turns to the group.

"Now, firstly, we'll take this slowly, Percy stand here and put your sword arm up like you're about to go for my head, that's it good," he praises as she does what he says. "Now, I'm going to duck under her arm, grab her wrist and pull her around, while this leg that stepped forward sweeps back, knocking her feet, and there -" She tumbles to the ground again and he steps back, allowing her to get up on her own as the group claps and cheers.

"We'll go again, a little faster this time." And she's on the floor again. This time, he allows her a moment before he steps in and pulls her to her feet.

"You good for round two?" he asks softly in her ear. She nods back. He raises his eyebrows slightly, but shrugs and steps away.

"Now, putting it into practice, afterall, it's no good knowing how to do a step if you can't use it in a fight. We'll go a bit easy on Percy here, seeing as it's her first day, but keep an eye out, I want you to spot the opening before I grab her." He tells the group at large before turning back to her and, a bit softer "if you feel up to it, you can try that move if you want too ok?" She nods again.

He falls into a ready stance that she tries to copy, but a couple of sniggers tells her she's woefully incorrect. The blade is certainly not helping matters. It's so cumbersome and heavy. While she was distracted mentally complaining about her sword, Luke had started to move, the light glinting off his blade catching her eye and forcing her to jump out of the way as it swings down where she had been standing mere moments before.

It's a repeat of what had happened before. Luke pummels away with all the grace of years of experience, while she struggles to block and dodge, barely preventing herself from being knicked by the blade.

And then, her mind seems to open, he doesn't move any slower, but it's like something has flicked in her brain, and suddenly she can move faster than before, ducking under his arms and dancing around his sword. Her own sword is useless in her hands, and she's about to discard it, when he steps forwards in the way he had when demonstrating.

The thing that's keeping her moving instinctively tenses, throwing her weight to the other side as he attempts to force her to turn, and in his shock, he allows his body to go with her as her other hand comes up to knock his blade to the side. She drops her own, and pulls him swiftly to the side, turning them together and finishing facing each other. Breaths softly panting into the other's face as he stares down at her and she looks up at him. They're standing almost chest to chest, breaths mingling in the air between them.

Something flickers in his eyes, and he takes a step back.

There's silence for a moment as they stare at each other, and then the surrounding campers break out of their shock, hollering and cheering as they swarm the two. Hands clap Percy on the back, voices congratulate her, someone tells her that she's just beat the best swordsman in a thousand years, but it's all a background haze as they stare at each other.

Someone steps in front of her, blocking Luke, and she snaps her eyes up to theirs, its two boys, almost identical, with a matching look of mischief floating on the corners of their shared smirk.

"Well well well newbie, guess who's just jumped to the top of the board. Luke's never been beat before, how'd you do it?" And all the campers crowding around quiet as they wait to hear her answer.

"I don't know?" she questions, "I've never held a sword a day in my life before, maybe it was beginners luck?" The boy on her left bursts out laughing as the other clutches his brother's shoulder, "Yeah no, it takes more than luck to hold against Luke as long as you did, and then to disarm him, there's no way that was anything other than skills."

"Conner, Travis," Luke's voice cuts through the crowd, and relief fills her as his gaze meets hers once more. He's not mad, there's a softness in his eyes as he sees her tense form surrounded. "She says she doesn't know how she did it, so she doesn't know, ok? Quit hounding her."

The boys nod, and they all fall back as he approaches. Coming to a stop directly in front of her.

"You mind showing me what you did? If you can?" She shrugs, but when they try to replicate it, he sends her tumbling to the floor every time. Whatever door had opened in her mind had clearly closed, and she's just as useless as before.

She can see that Luke is equally frustrated, but he tries not to show it as he dismisses them all to get cleaned up before dinner.

When she goes to follow the others out, he calls her back, and she turns, watching him pack up the swords, mopping his face with a towel.

"So how'd you enjoy your first lesson?"

"It was good," she tells him honestly, "but I feel a bit useless, I can't even hold the sword up properly! How am I supposed to defend myself if I can't even hold my sword?"

"Don't worry kid, maybe swords aren't your thing, you might be better suited to knives or something, but I doubt it. The way you managed to hold your own, despite having an ill-matched sword, and having never held one before, I think you'll be catching up to the others in no time. We might just have to do a bit of hunting to find the right blade for you." He pats her on the back and scruffles her hair as they leave the arena and head back to the cabin.

She can see some of the other campers already lounging around on the bunks or on the grass outside, sharpening weapons and chatting as they wait for dinner.

Luke hands her a fresh t-shirt, one of his own he tells her, before shoo-ing her into the bathroom. When she comes out, feeling a bit fresher, he ducks inside for a few minutes, coming out just as a sound she somehow knows to be a conch horn signals for dinner.

"Cabin Eleven fall in," Luke yells out as he leads the way outside. The campers all surround them, forming into some semblance of a line as they make their way up to the dining pavilion. Percy sticks close by Luke as the other cabins also enter in single file. They join the massive line forming by the food, and Luke hands her a plate when they get close enough.

She takes a helping of everything he points out to be good, and follows when he leads her over to a large brazier, but she hesitates when he pushes a portion of his food into the fire, muttering a few words.

Seeing her hesitation, he mumbles to her "it's an offering to the gods, they like the smell." She's still hesitant, because seriously? An all powerful omnipotent being likes the smell of burnt food? But she does as demonstrated and pushes a couple of roast potatoes into the flames, and when she gets a waft of smoke in her face, it surprisingly actually smells pretty good. "Please, whoever you are, let me know, please," she mutters quietly under her breath.

Then Luke takes her gently by the elbow and steers them towards a bench, where several faces that are starting to become familiar are seated. Their bench is the only one that's so overcrowded, with people hanging off the edge, some even sitting on the ground, leaning up against the legs of their siblings.

"Why are there so many people at this table?" she whispers to Luke, who turns to her and says softly in her ear "we have to sit with our cabins, and even though Hermes doesn't have many children himself, we have all the unclaimed demigods, as well as all the kids of the minor gods. Hermes is the God of Travellers, so we take them all."

"But wouldn't it be easier for them to have their own cabins?" She asks, he frowns, "yeah, but the Gods wouldn't allow it."

"Why?"

"Sometimes kiddo, it's best not to ask so many questions, especially of beings who have so much power. It's an easy way to get yourself killed." His warning is clear, and she goes quiet as it sinks in.

After dinner, they all head down to the beach, and hidden just within the treeline is a clearing with a large pit that springs to life with a glowing fire as they all find seats.

Someone brings out a guitar, and people chat and sing as they watch the flames.

It's dark by now, and just as Percy starts yawning, Chiron steps up out of the darkness and the campers settle down.

"Well, here's to another day," the demigods cheer at his words. "And for those of you who haven't heard, we have a new camper with us, Percy, if you would stand please," Luke gestures for her to get up, so she does, waving slightly as everyone's faces turn to look at her.

"She been claimed yet?" someone yells out from where the Ares cabin is grouped. They're quite easy to pick out from the rest of the campers.

"No, she has not, so she'll be staying with the Hermes cabin for now, but might I remind you that she may become your sister, so be nice," his last words are clearly meant as a warning for the Ares campers, but from the menacing glints in their eyes, she gets the feeling they'll be ignoring it.

"Capture the Flag will be held on Friday, and currently the flags are held by Athena and Ares, make your alliances quickly, and decide your strategies."

People start shuffling and muttering to each other, but a few stamps of a hoof draws their attention back to Chiron. "In other news, Mr D has been recalled to Olympus for a few days, and I will ask that Cabin Eleven please return Cabin Ten's couch? I don't believe your roof will be able to hold the weight for very much longer, and we would all prefer to not need to fix yet another part of the cabin?"

Her new cabinmates all grumble around her, but a sharp look from Luke has them all mumbling their agreement and nodding in submission.

"Well that's all for tonight then, don't stay up too late, and I will remind you that the harpies will be coming around at 10.30pm to check for curfew. They have clearance to eat anyone they find, so I would recommend being inside your cabins. Goodnight." They all echo his words back to him as she turns to Luke, "they won't actually eat us will they?"

"Maybe, stay out after curfew if you want to find out," and then she can see the mischievous glint in his eyes that makes him look just like his brothers, and in the firelight, as she gazes around at everyone, she suddenly sees a startling number of similarities in the campers surrounding her. Sharp angles in the cheeks, a sly tilt to the eyes, and ears that come to a slight point. They look like the descendants of the fae she used to be told stories about.

Naughty pixies that sneak into homes in the dead of night and steal children.

Wild revelries that go all night, dancing until the sun comes up.

Dark Kings and Queens, stealing names and memories.

And she wonders if any of those stories had featured children of the messenger god. How many of the old stories were myths in their own right, and how many were just bad retellings of the exploits of one of the demigods?