Chapter 4. I spend a day with demigods
The big house was interesting; it stood out from the rest of the camp. The centaur who introduced himself as Chiron guided me to the large blue house. After I was healed by the magic coke float, I introduced myself as well.
I was walking alongside Chiron as he was starting to describe the camp and the satyr protection program they have. His horse body was intimidating, yet he walked with grace and had a comforting aura. When we actually stepped foot on the deck I realized Timber was missing.
"Wheres Timber, did he make it to the lake?" Or out of the lake I thought.
"Do not worry Adin, your satyr protector Mr. Timber is alright. He did unfortunately obtain more wounds than you did, but was conscious enough to request to be healed by the dryads and other satyrs."
I nodded with relief, Timber had risked his life to make sure I got here safe. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him on my behalf. Chiron on the other hand sounded relieved when he spoke about Timber, like it was something he didn't want to deal with right now.
Chiron walked into the door frame before I did. His back legs slowly became a wheelchair and Chiron looked like a mortal. I'm just now realizing I shouldn't be surprised by anything weird anymore and just accept it. The house was big, it seemed like a house I would want to settle down in one day. The main room had little furniture in it, with the exception being a leopard head moving on the wall. Before today I would have thought that it was an animatronic, but now I'm just going to assume it's real.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Just to the infirmary to get you checked out. I gave you some nectar, it has some healing properties but its best to make sure you fully recover". Now that he mentioned it I did feel pretty sore.
Chiron showed me into the infirmary, it had beds lined up with a couple campers spread throughout the room. There were two other campers attending to the injured, a blonde boy and a matching blonde girl. Chiron decided to get the girl's attention. "Sabrina, can you come here? We have a new camper to examine." The girl looked up and headed our way as Chiron hurried out the room.
She had long blonde hair with bangs that suited her well. She wore the iconic orange half-blood shirt that I saw on the others and wore scrub pants. She was around my age and most importantly she was beautiful. Her smile would make anyone feel warm and comfortable. "Hi I'm Sabrina!" she said with loads of energy despite it being late at night.
"I'm Adin, nice to meet you." I was locked in, staring at her face.
"Well let's get you checked out, come sit here," She motioned to a bed and I followed. She then proceeded to flash a light in my eyes, checked my reflexes on my knees and made me stick out my tongue and say "Ahhhh". The last thing she did was make me lay down and was squeezing my arms and legs. While squeezing my arm I told her where it was sore, and while doing this she started to hum a song.
"Well it seems you're all good, the nectar healed you pretty well. What was the accident on your way in?" She looked me in the eye like she was still examining them. "Fell out of a flying chariot." I stated like it was nothing."Mhhh well most campers who fall out of chariots don't have any long term injuries so you should be fine."
"So how long have you been here for?" She made me feel relaxed, like I could tell her anything.
"Oh I've been here since I was twelve, it will be four years in September." She sat down on the bed across from me.
"What do you think so far of camp"?
"Its beautiful, although all I've seen so far is this big blue house and the bottom of a lake."
She gave out a chuckle. "Well just wait until you see the rest, it's truly something," She looked out the window, still humming a song.
"Umm one more thing". She looked back at me.
"I was told I would be claimed when I get here, when does that happen?"
"When you turn thirteen, Percy Jackson made a deal with the Gods to acknowledge all their children."
"Cool, who's Percy Jackson and what happens if I'm fifteen?" I tried to give an innocent smile, which made her laugh more.
"He's a camper who comes here. He helped save Olympus during the second Titan war so the Gods gave him one wish and he wished for that deal. As for being claimed, you'll probably be claimed tomorrow. For older campers that are new they're claimed at the nightly campfire which is probably ending now."
Chiron re-entered the room and gave us his attention. "Sabrina on your way back can you show Adin to the Hermes cabin, I already told Connor about our new arrival." Sabrina nodded and Chiron exited the infirmary, he sounded stressed about something.
"Hermes cabin?" I asked.
"He's the God of travelers, and you qualify as a traveler! Don't worry once you're claimed you'll move into a new cabin."
Sabrina took me straight to the cabin area, and it was amazing. The layout had two larger cabins toward the top with other cabinets lined up to their sides, and more cabins lined up toward the bottom like a weird square. The cabins themselves were beautiful with some of them having certain decorations or themes to match the Gods. "Just so you know," Sabrina started to say. "The top two are Zeus and Hera, the left side has all male Gods, and the right side is all Goddesses. Except for Mr. D's cabin which is on the right side."
"Mr.D?" I said, confused. I've heard of fancy names before but never Mr. D.
"Dionysus, he's the camp director". She didn't sound very enthusiastic anymore.
"He was punished by Zeus to be the camp director for a hundred years, you'll meet him eventually" She opened her mouth again but stopped. I thought about it for a second. This camp must be pretty bad for it to be a punishment. Then I thought about it longer and remembered these are Gods, they probably don't care a whole lot about humans, or demigods.
"So who's your godly parent?" I asked.
"Apollo" she said back to her cheerfully voice while pointing to a plain looking cabin further down.
"But here is the Hermes cabin, Connor!" She yelled knocking on the door. A young adult man with blue eyes and brown hair swung the door open. I glanced behind him, the cabin seemed cramped with campers running around throwing pillows and other chaos happening.
"Hey you must be Adin, Chiron told me about you. Come on in, don't be shy." He motioned to come inside. I looked back at Sabrina and she began to say something. "I'll see you later and be careful to-" she was cut off by Connor closing the door. Connor placed his hand on my back and showed me around the cabin. There were kids from ages 8 to early twenties, all from different backgrounds.
"And this will be where you're staying for the night." He showed me an unmade bottom bunk bed. "You're lucky too, usually we don't have an extra bed for new campers". I sat down on the bed, everyone didn't seem to pay attention to me. It was nice not having anyone pay attention to me especially since my glow up made everyone in my school stare at me.
My "glow up" I only had it for the past two days, yesterday and today. Everyone here honestly looked beautiful too. Yet it made everyone in my school want to look at me, I wonder if it had anything to do with being a half-blood. My train of thought was interrupted by Connor yelling trying to get everyone's attention. "Lights out!" he yelled before shutting off the lights.
I was still in my clothes which dried off pretty well but I still felt dirty. I brushed myself off before getting comfortable in my bed. I reached for my pocket, I didn't bring anything with me except my wallet. In it I had a picture of my mom and dad from a few years ago. It was a picture of us on vacation at a water park and I had just gone down the biggest slide. My mom had wanted to take a picture to celebrate, "It was the small victories" she had told me.
I also had a picture of Sydney and I at the carnival which is the picture I really wanted to see. That was the day I realized I had more intense feelings for her. We had done everything, going on the Twister, playing carnival games and eating the unhealthy deep fried food too. After I reached into my pocket I couldn't feel my wallet anywhere, it had been lost.
When I finally fell asleep, It felt like I was falling. Except I wasn't falling in my dream toward the ground. It felt more like I was being pulled toward something. I couldn't see much, just random images. Chains wrapping around a figure, night and day going by within seconds, I saw both my mom and dad talking to one another. I wanted to say something to them but nothing came out of my mouth. Even if I was able to speak I doubt they could hear me. Lastly I was standing before a throne and around eleven others, I had no idea where I was.
Luckily I was awoken by Connor waking up the cabin, light hit my eyes and I saw a fresh change of clothes there too. Connor came over to the foot of the bed with something in his hand. "I think this is yours, I found it on the ground last night". He grinned and plopped down my wallet on my bed. I scrambled to grab it and looked inside. The few dollars in cash and gift cards I had were gone. Thankfully the carnival and family pictures were still in it.
"That girls cute, is she your girlfriend?" Connor asked with a sly grin.
"No, just a friend." I replied coldly, the word girlfriend reminded me of how badly I treated her before she left. Also how distant she had been afterward, both literally and metaphorically. She was even further away now that I'm here at Camp Half-blood and she's in California. I wonder what she would have thought if she found out I was a demigod. Probably something like Oh that's pretty cool! Whats Hercules like! Or if it was toward the end of our friendship, Whatever.
"Breakfast time, let's go Hermes cabin." Connor announced to everyone who quickly lined up out the door. I followed suit and was the last one out of the cabin.
We made our way to a pavilion with tables filled with campers arranged similar to the cabins and a fire pit in the center. I sat down and some ladies with wood and grass for hair who smelled like fresh pine cones sat down a plate. In front of me was an amazing breakfast spread of pancakes, bacon and eggs. I hadn't eaten anything since the airplane peanuts yesterday so I dug right. It was the best food I had ever eaten. The syrup on the pancakes didnt soak right in and the bacon was just the right crispiness.
I reached for the cup that the wood lady placed down for me but nothing was inside. "Um where can I get something to drink?" I asked the Hermes camper next to me. The camper was younger than me, probably below the age of thirteen and had his mouth full. " Urmf Just say whatever drink you want." He looked annoyed that I interrupted his meal. "Chocolate milk" I said out loud, nothing happened. "No you have to 'speak' into it". A Hermes girl said across from me. I repeated the words into the cup this time and chocolate milk
I and everyone else was almost done with our food when some of the campers got up to go to the center fire. "What are those campers doing?" I asked the friendlier Hermes girl since the kid next to me seemed annoyed. "Offerings," She said. " The gods like the smell and taste of the burnt offerings. Usually the campers will make offerings at night but some do it in the morning, like a good luck ritual or something". I looked down into my plate and still had some scrambled eggs left.
I got up to go to the center fire pit. Across from the fire was standing a tall and muscular camper. He seemed intimidating, like one of those old school bullies you would see on tv. He even had a leather jacket that made him stand out. I looked down to my plate and thought about the offering. "Um, please accept these offering dad, or mom." I scooped the eggs into the fire pit and they evaporated. The smell however didn't.
"Ew whats that smell?" the guy in the leather jacket said before looking at me. "Did you just put eggs in the fire, haven't you smelled burning eggs before idiot!" He started to walk around the pit and stood right in front of me. "Sorry I didn't think it would smell like that." I looked away from him, everyone was staring at us. I glanced around real quick trying to look for Chiron but he wasn't around. The only adult was sitting alone drinking a diet coke, Mr. D I assumed.
"I was standing right there, could you have waited for me to finish!" he yelled and I stumbled back he had to have been a foot taller than me. Luckily before he took a step forward a familiar blonde got in my way. "Leave him alone Glen, he's new!" Sabrina had come to my rescue. He looked at her and hesitated saying something "Screw this," he said and went back to his table. "Come on Adin, breakfast is over. Hey Connor is it ok if I take him for a moment?" Connor gave a thumbs up and Sabrina escorted me out.
"What was his problem?" I asked Sabrina once we were far from the pavilion.
"Glen Waren, son of Ares. He's just so annoying, he thinks he needs to go out of his way to bully and harass others and-!" She stopped and her iconic smile from yesterday was gone when she talked about him, some real distaste. "Yea well I would too if my name was 'Glen'". She laughed and her smile came back. "Where are we going now?" I added on.
" Now we have class!" She said enthusiastically.
The first was the worst, standard introduction video. I had been around enough schools to know what's in it, even if I didn't pay attention to them. This one was kinda cool, it was really old like from the seventies. It had a counselor talking about the camp with some action going on in the background. From the video I learned that during the school year there's not as many campers compared to the summer. It was the beginning of April so I'll expect more campers in a couple of months. Also during the school year there will be the generic classes that students learn along with other classes like archery, sword combat and monster handling.
After the video Sabrina took me to pegasus training. I was hesitant at first, yesterday I had just fallen out of a chariot pulled by one. Luckily I was just given some beginner lessons, none of which involved leaving the ground. After that was a history class which was about Greek history which turned myth into reality. Lastly we finished with a quick math class mixed in with some archery. It was kind of cool, we had to shoot at certain numbers on the target to make equations. I was unable to make any equations and failed. Sabrina however passed with flying colors and the dryad giving the lesson applauded her. She shrugged and looked at me, "Dads the God of archery."
The rest of the day we were given free time before dinner and Sabrina was still showing me around camp. We had made our way back to the Big House and Sabrina had brought a muffin from the kitchen with her. "Wait right here." She said before going in and a minute later she returned, no muffin in hand. "What were you doing,"I asked. I looked at her and in the daytime you could tell she was a daughter of Apollo. Her skin shined in the sunlight and her blue eyes had a shine in them that resembled the sun.
"I was checking on Chiron and my brother Will, he works in the infirmary with me." she paused for a moment and sighed. "Chiron has been busy too, he won't say what's going on but somethings up". It took me a second to find something to say. "I'm sure everything's fine, I don't know him to well but he would tell the camp if something was serious right".
She nodded "Yea your right, come on lets go to dinner."
Dinner was just as amazing as breakfast with the exception of it being barbecue and side dishes. Campers went to the firepit to make offerings like in the morning and I followed. The Hermes cabin then started chatting with each other and one got up. He walked past a table going to the fire, while walking past the table he slipped his hand down a camper's pocket and grabbed a coin. Earlier in the day during Greek history I learned more about the Gods, Hermes I learned was also the God of thieves.
Everyone was chatting, I myself was chatting with the Hermes girl from this morning whose name I learned was Audrey. The mood changed as Chiron entered and everyone went quiet. "Attention everyone," he said galloping around. " Today capture the flag will be cut short as Mr.D and I have a meeting and cannot referee". A few people sighed in disappointment and others protested.
"Relax its just one day and cut short, if you want we can cancel the game all together. Mr. D said before going back to drinking his cola. That shut everyone up. Chiron exited the pavilion and everything went back to normal. "Come on Hermes cabin, let's get ready." Connor Stoll said.
The uniform was interesting, a bronze helmet with a blue brush on the top with leather armor. I was given a bronze sword too that I was told was just 'lying around'. It was too heavy and big for me to carry one handed so I had to sacrifice my shield hand to wield it. The cabin had just gotten ready and made it to the battlefield just in time. The other cabins that we were teamed up with was going over plans. I saw Sabrina was on our side with other Apollo kids, although I couldn't recognize who the other cabins were. The plan was simple, have the cabins split up on both sides for a pinch maneuver. The Apollo kids were to stay back for a last line of defense. I was told by Connor to stay back since I had zero sword experience.
The other Apollo kids were pretty cool, most of them were cheerful like Sabrina, while others were more serious, keeping an eye out. I was chatting with Sabrina and the other campers when we heard rustling from my left. "Whos there," Sabrina said. I raised my sword trying to look intimidating while scanning for anymore movement.
Unfortunately that was a distraction as behind me I heard metal starting to clank behind me. We were stationed on a rocky hill with the flag on top. I was at the bottom but I saw the Apollo kids swinging their bows at the invaders. They were too close to try and draw any arrows from their quivers but seemed to be holding their own.
I started to race up the hill while everyone was occupied with fighting the enemy. I didn't see anyone at first but an enemy camper appeared out of nowhere right in front of me. I bumped into them and tried to grab my sword, unfortunately they placed their sword on my hand. They had me in checkmate. I looked in their eyes, It was noone I had met, yet they had the same expression Glen had earlier today.
Thankfully Sabrina's dad was the God of archery and had my back. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her shoot an arrow right at the guys face. Luckily it was a boxing glove arrow, like one you would see Green Arrow use. I took the opportunity and ran up the hill, everyone was occupied with one another except one person, Glen.
I reached the top dodging between fighting campers just in time as Glen grabbed the flag and so did I. He looked at me before pushing me down with his free hand. Surprisingly or not surprisingly he put the flag back down and reached for his spear. It was golden with no design, yet it had a moving ripple that would go from the shaft to the tip of the spear."Come one newbie," Glen said. "Don't be the hero." He finished saying before he started to stab at me.
I was trying to get back on my feet but having a spear being jabbed at me made it a little difficult. I finally had enough distance to stand back up. Glen looked at me and I could see crazy in his eyes. He got faster at his stabbing and all I could do was just stumble and dodge backward. I was near the edge of the hill and I would take a pretty hard tumble backward if I were to dodge again.
"Got you now" Glen said. He stabbed at me and in a split second decision, I let him stab me. I leaned in and moved slightly to the right so the tip would hit my shoulder. It hurt alright but at the same time I grabbed the shaft of the spear, and it melted. It melted like it was liquid gold and just layed on the ground. Glen starred at it with eyes wide open. "AAAGGHHHHHH" Glen cried. "You are so annoying!" He finished screaming before lunging at me.
I don't know what I expected, Glen took a full force swing at me in the face and knocked me down. My face felt like it was swelling, I definitely was going to have a black eye. I slowly started to get back up while Glen grabbed at the liquid gold. The gold was starting to form back into a solid shape. I took the opportunity to lunge at Glen myself, I was able to grab his leg and pulled him to the ground. I then had him pinned and started to wail on him. Left hook, right hook, left hook, right hook. All meanwhile I heard the other campers stop fighting and could tell they were staring.
Glen had his face covered and I tried to pull them back. Anger was flowing through me and I wanted to give him a matching black eye. Just as I was about to have a clear hit I was lifted up. Below me was the shadow of a half horse half human shadow was casted on the ground. Chiron turned me around and spoke, "Adin I know you are new here but we do not beat up those who are defenseless!" Chiron sounded stern.
"I'm sorry.. I-" Before I was finished speaking Chiron cut me off.
"Red team wins due to technicality." He announced. All the members of the red team cheered and Glen made a face toward me and made some weird gesture which really set me off.
I was still lifted off the ground by Chiron and started to swing my arms and legs. "COME ON, I'M NOT FINISHED I DIDN'T HEAR NO BELL". I yelled at them as Glen and his team started to walk away. "AND JUST SO YOU KNOW THAT LEATHER JACKET YOU WEAR DOESN'T MAKE YOU LOOK COOL AND SCARY. IT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE YOU WANT YOUR DADS ATTENTION". For a second I thought I got to him as he turned around halfway before running off.
The infirmary was packed with campers from both sides, luckily nothing seemed too serious. Will Solace, Sabrina's brother was running around with Sabrina by her side. I layed down in one of the beds waiting for one of them to check my eye. After awhile Sabrina came up to my bed with an unusual frown on her face.
"Seriously, Rocky? 'I didn't hear no bell?". She sounded disappointed and it made me feel bad.
"What can I say? I like movies."
"And how was I supposed to know I couldn't hit him while he's on the ground, we use actual swords."
"Well if you listened to Chiron explain the rules at the beginning…".
"I was fixing my armor straps!" I exclaimed to her. She didn't seem too mad and started to touch around my eye and her smile returned.
"That was funny what you said about Glens leather jacket. You really put him in his place for a second."
"You think"? She nodded.
"You're not mad about me making the team lose are you?" she shook her head no.
"Me? No, there will be other games to win. The other campers however might be a little salty for a while."
"Great."
"And where did that attitude come from, if thats what your really like that then you might be claimed by Ares and be Glens half-brother." She gave me a small grin to show she was joking and I just shrugged. "I don't know, let's hope I don't have to sleep with one eye open in the Ares cabin tonight". I hadn't thought about being claimed since breakfast, but if I'm claimed by Ares then that's the worst case possible.
Sabrina looked at her brother across the room, "Hey Will are you good if I go to the Bonfire?" He nodded which made his hair bounce up and down. "Come on, this is my favorite part of the day". We then left the Big House and made our way to the campfire.
I understood why Sabrina said it was her favorite part of the day. She and the rest of the Apollo cabin were singing their hearts out. I tried to single out Sabrinas voice but the whole cabin sang in perfect harmony that it was hard. I was with the Hermes kids who paid me no attention due to my accident earlier. There was a different feeling I got sitting around the fire with everyone. It was a good-relaxing feeling which calmed me down.
I was only at the bonfire for a few minutes and I started to stare into the fire. The fire seemed to dance along and change with the mood of the other campers. I was entranced, it was beautiful. I glanced at Sabrina for a moment and the way the light of the fire shone on her was similar to the sun. It made her smile seem even brighter and her eyes almost glowing.
Sabrina found my gaze and stopped singing, she then got her siblings attention. Soon all the Apollo kids stopped singing and then the whole camp stared at me. I looked around nervously, it felt like I was back at school and I had my glow up. I could feel I was starting to sweat from the attention and looked down.
I started to glow a pink aura which slowly got brighter. When it peaked my clothes changed. I was wearing a green shirt with a black blazer and black jeans. I could feel my hair start to change like I was getting a haircut that made it stand up a little. Chiron, who had been standing to the side of the sitting area, came forward. He looked at me for a moment and spoke. "Behold Adin Peterson, Son of Aphrodite."