Chapter 3 I play a kids game (but with swords)

Percy POV

"My dad's the god of death?" I asked to the surprise of Chiron, Grover and Annabeth.

"Not many demigods know about Thanatos," Chiron said. "He's not a major god, or quite frankly the most popular, even in the old days," he said in a tone as if trying not to offend me. "But you're right. I haven't heard of Thanatos ever having a demigod child." He looked to Annabeth, "Dear would you give Percy a tour?" He asked her, "I'm sure he will still have questions." While Annabeth didn't look overly thrilled at the prospect of giving me a tour her striking gray eyes seemed to sparkle when Chiron mentioned answering my questions.

"Alright," she said walking away from the railing she had still been leaning on.

"Thank you," Chiron said to her, "I'll get cabin eleven to prepare another bunk for Percy." Before I could ask what cabin eleven was Annabeth had begun walking away from the farmhouse.

"Are you coming or not?" She called without even turning to look at me. I hastily began to follow her, grabbing the shoebox containing the minotaur horn off of the table. I struggled to catch up with her initially due to my extensively bruised legs.

We walked past the volleyball court causing most of the kids to stop playing and look at me following behind Annabeth, a few of them started to mutter between themselves but I was too far away to hear what they were saying. I'm not normally shy but the way they were all looking at me made me uncomfortable. I turned away and looked back at the farmhouse. It was much bigger than I had initially thought, about four stories tall, it was sky blue with white trim. Surrounding the farm house were strawberry fields that even from a distance looked more red than green -which surprised me as I thought it was too late in the year for the strawberries to be ripe. Annabeth seemed to notice where I was looking.

"It pays for the camp's expenses," she explained. "It's also a good cover for having this much prime real estate."

"Prime?" I asked, looking around the landscape I couldn't see a single regular modern building (apart from the farmhouse). It can't be that prime, I thought to myself.

"Long Island is expensive." Was all Annabeth said to my surprise. How could I forget I was on Long Island?

"Why are the strawberries so ripe though?" I asked the blonde as we neared a dense area of forest.

"Mr D has that effect on them," She said. "They go wild around him. Plus the Demeter kids help." I just nodded remembering what Demeter was the goddess of. "This is the forest."

"I'd noticed…" I said sarcastically. When I was offered a tour of a camp for children of gods I was expecting a little more than 'here's a patch of trees'.

"Be careful in there," Annabeth continued, ignoring my sarcastic remark, "And don't go in there unarmed." Okay… that's a bit more like I was expecting. The woods were dense, like really dense yet despite the thick canopy blocking nearly all the bright sunlight passing through I could see deep into the trees -even with my sunglasses on.

"Why are they so bright?" I asked Annabeth, as I spoke I could have sworn I saw something move deep in the trees.

"You know not everything you say has to be sarcastic," Annabeth said sounding a tad annoyed.

"I wasn't being sarcastic," I said genuinely prompting a strange look from the blonde who just started walking again.

"Anyway, come on!"

Once again I followed the girl as she marched off along a gravel path towards the rest of the camp.

"So is everyone here a demigod?" I asked when I'd once again caught up with her, Annabeth nodded.

"Either a demigod, satyr or other nature spirit." Again despite not being able to remember ever hearing about satyrs I knew what they were.

"So who's your parent?" I asked.

"Athena, goddess of wisdom, battle strategy and crafts," Annabeth answered proudly. "This is the arena," she told me going back to the tour. "We do sword/spear fights and training here as well as cabin challenges."

"You do actual fights with swords?"

"Yeah, they're not usually lethal though," she said casually. "Do you have your own sword?" She asked before looking at the box I was still carrying. "No, of course you don't," she said more to herself than to me. "No problem, the Hephestus kids will sort you out with one."

We continued the tour, occasionally stopping for Annabeth to say hi to some of the other kids -most were slightly older than Annabeth and I but all of them were in their teens. We stopped briefly at most of the key features in the camp; the archery range, canoe lake, stables, a separate javelin range, forge, the open air dining pavilion and a giant climbing wall with actual lava running down the side. We finished at the cabins, 12 assorted vaguely Greek buildings arranged in a U shape. Each building had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right) and had Greek inspiration in the architecture; however that was all the buildings had in common. Number nine looked like a small factory with smoke stacks puffing out of the roof, number four had vines growing up the wall and a roof made of grass and number seven looked like it was made of gold, it shone so brightly in the sunlight that it was hard to look at, even with my shades on. Each of the cabins faced onto an area the size of a soccer field that was littered with statues, flower beds, fountains and basketball hoops.

Annabeth led me over to the most regular looking cabin which wouldn't have looked that out of place in a regular summer camp and had a large 11 over the door. She opened the door and I looked at the mess inside. There were bunks lining the wall and mattresses with sleeping bags filled most of the floor space. Backpacks, clothes and weapons were strewn all over the place.

"Welcome to cabin eleven," Annabeth said, "Home of Hermes's kids, unclaimed and children of minor gods, like you." A few of the kids inside looked up when they heard Annabeth. Great, this place looks… cozy? Sure, let's go with that. A guy a bit older than most of the others walked over to us -maybe about nineteen. He was tall and muscular with sandy blonde hair cropped short. Like most of the others he had an orange top only his was a tank, he had shorts and sandals on and a leather necklace with five different color beads on it. He would have looked like your average camp counselor or guy going on spring break if it weren't for the large white scar that ran from his right eye down to his jaw.

"This is Luke," Annabeth introduced us, her voice sounded slightly different and after a quick glance it looked like she was blushing. "Luke, meet Percy Jackson."

"Nice to meet you man," Luke extended out his hand.

"You too," I said, shaking it, Luke had an extremely strong grip.

"Determined or undetermined?" Luke asked Annabeth after he had stopped squeezing my hand.

"Son of Thanatos," Annabeth answered, seeming to shock Luke (and some of the eavesdropping kids around us).

"Damn, that's a first for me," Luke said. "Anyway, welcome to your new home." He gestured around the cabin.

"I've got advanced history in a minute, can I leave him with you?" Annabeth asked Luke. I slightly resented being talked about like I was a toddler who needed constant supervision but at the same time this world was all new to me.

"Sure, we're family now after all," Luke said with a smile.

The next few hours passed with Luke answering more of my questions and introducing me to some of the cabins other inhabitants such as the twins Connor and Travis, they were completely identical down to the mischievous grin they most had, I made a mental note to keep track of all my belongings (not that I had many at the moment) as I remembered -from somewhere deep in my memory- that Hermes was also the god of thieves. Eventually Luke stood up from the bunk he was sitting on and turned to the rest of the cabin.

"Dinner time! Fall in guys!" he shouted over the noise of thirty odd kids all having their own conversations/arguments. Luke led us to the dining pavilion, the torches mounted on the marble pillars blazed and there was a large brazier roaring in the center. In total there were maybe a hundred campers as well as a few dozen satyrs and nymphs. I saw Grover in the crowd and to my surprise he wasn't wearing pants but thankfully he had the shaggy bottom half of a goat. Large picnic benches filled the bulk of the space and each cabin went to the same one as their cabin mates (or siblings I suppose), I was left to squeeze on the end of the Hermes table which was easily the most populated.

Once we were all seated I heard a loud clicking sound, like a horse on tarmac. I followed everyone's gaze and to my surprise I saw Chiron sitting on a horse. No not on a horse, from the waist down the guy who looked like any old middle school teacher had the body of a horse. I guess I wasn't hallucinating then. I thought as Chiron stamped his hoof again causing everyone to fall silent.

"To the gods!" He shouted as he raised his glass.

"To the gods!" Each of the campers echoed his toast.

"Speak to it," Luke told me from across the table, seeing me look at my empty glass. "Whatever you want, non-alcoholic of course."

"Lemonade," I said feeling self conscious talking to a glass but sure enough it was now filled with cloudy lemonade.

"The plates work the same way," Connor said from beside me. Soon everybody had their plates stacked high with food. I went for a classic bacon cheeseburger and fries, I was about to take a bite but I noticed everybody getting up and tipping a portion into the central brazier.

"Offerings for the gods," Luke explained as I followed everybody else's lead. "Hermes," he muttered quietly, tipping a slice of brisket into the fire.

"Thanatos," I said before tipping some fries into the fire. I had no idea if the god of death likes french fries but hey, eat enough and you'll have a heart attack so maybe he does.

The rest of the meal passed in a blur of great food and loud chatter. Once everybody was finished Chiron once again stamped on the floor of the pavilion.

"This is a reminder that capture the flag will be held again this Friday. Cabin five currently hold the laurels," he said to loud cheers from the mentioned table. Cabin five was a large cabin filled with large kids. Each of them looked like their IQ matched their age. "Now, everybody to the campfire!"

After an evening of toasted marshmallows, songs and tales I was back at the Hermes cabin trying to sleep, emphasis on trying. It wasn't that my mattress on the floor was uncomfortable, I just wasn't tired, if anything I felt more awake than I had done all day. I tossed and turned in my sleeping bag endlessly. I wanted to get up, go for a walk or just to move but I had been told that harpies patrol the campgrounds at night and will eat any campers they find. While I didn't believe that I'd be eaten I still didn't think it would be a good idea to get in trouble on my first day. After another hour of restlessness I couldn't take it anymore. Fuck it. I thought, I can deal with the consequences if I get caught. I highly doubted in this camp for teens that I'd be the first guy caught wandering around at night. I wiggled out of my sleeping bag and despite there being no lights in the cabin managed to sneak my way out without waking anyone up.

I don't know if I had finally recovered from the minotaur or if it was something else but I felt the best I could remember feeling as I strolled around the empty camp. It was a warm clear night with the moon and stars shining extremely brightly in the sky above. Looking up at them I felt comforted, like I was being watched over, protected. I don't know why but sitting on the edge of a fountain in the middle of the cabins I felt peaceful, almost like I was at home. I don't know how long I sat there looking up at the sky but suddenly I felt like someone was coming up behind me. I quickly made my way to the nearest cabin, a large silver building that glowed slightly in the moonlight. Hiding in the shadow I peaked out just in time to see a winged, clawed woman pass by the fountain I had been sitting on. I guess that's a harpy, I thought, unsure as to how I knew they'd be passing by. I was tempted to stay up and continue my little night adventure but thought that I shouldn't push my luck so I made my way back to the Hermes cabin.

The next few days passed by quickly with me trying out various activities. Ancient Greek lessons from Annabeth, wrestling from a large daughter of Ares called Clarrise who every time she pinned me would say "More where that's from, punk." and archery taught by Chiron to name a few. The one I was best at was the ancient Greek, I wasn't nearly as knowledgeable as the daughter of Athena but apparently I had at least as much knowledge as a camper who'd already been here for a couple years not days. Like the first night I was unable to go to sleep at the same time as the other campers and continued to sneak out just to spend some time under the night sky, I was only getting a few hours sleep each night but I didn't feel tired (that didn't mean I was eager to get up in the mornings, I'm still a teenager after all).

It was the morning of my third day and I was excited. Today was my first lesson in sword fighting. I -along with the rest of cabin eleven- stood in the arena while Luke prepared everything for the class. We started with basic thrusts and slashes on straw practice dummies which was easy enough, my only problem was that none of the practice swords seemed right for me, they were either too heavy or too light, too long or too short and Luke agreed, saying that he'd get me sorted with my own blade after the class. Soon Luke paired us up to practice dual, he announced that he'd be my partner as it was my first class.

"Good luck," Connor said, standing next to his partner who was unsurprisingly his brother. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last few hundred years."

"Surely he'll go easy on me," I said. The twins just snorted and turned to face each other, raising their swords.

Luke showed me a few more moves before we began to spar. Despite the blade feeling unbalanced in my hands I managed to keep up with Luke. Every thrust I was able to side step, every slash I blocked, I even managed to attempt a few attacks of my own between Lukes flurry of strikes, they were all blocked but at least I tried. Connor was right, Luke was an excellent swordsman and I got the feeling he wasn't holding back, sweat dripped from both our brows as we panted between engagements. After blocking a couple more slashes and my own attack to Luke's ribs he lunged at me. Instinctively I pushed his sword to the side before flicking my wrist and hooking the tip of my sword around the hilt of Luke's, flicking the blade out of his hand and leaving the tip of my sword up against his sternum. Both of us stopped seeming equally stunned -I realized that we weren't the only ones- as the rest of the clanging around us stopped as everyone was looking shocked at Luke's empty hands and my sword at his chest.

"Sorry," I apologized, feeling awkward with everybody looking at us in silence.

"Sorry?" Luke repeated before grinning at me. "What are you sorry for? That was absolutely brilliant!" He threw an arm over my shoulder and guided me over to the water cooler in the corner. "That's all for class!" He shouted to the rest of the cabin who followed us to the cooler. "Are you sure you've never fought with a sword before?" He asked me before taking a long drink. "That disarm was textbook."

"I don't think I have," I answered after taking a drink myself, "I don't remember ever even holding a sword." While I had no memory of ever using a sword I couldn't deny that it felt familiar, very familiar like I'd drilled it over hours on end.

"Strange," Luke said filling up his cup again. "You're better than any other beginner I've taught."

"Thanks," I smiled at the complement. "Thanatos is the god of death so maybe I'm good at killing things?"

"Maybe," Luke said but didn't sound entirely convinced. "Anyway I can't wait to see what you're like with a balanced blade and a bit of practice."

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Grover, he and Annabeth had turned into my two best friends at camp. After a few attempts at the climbing wall we were sitting in the strawberry fields by the big house, I was nursing a burn on my arm from the lava. We were just hanging out, chatting and finding out a bit more about each other. It turns out that despite looking my age he was nearly twice as old as I am -something about satyrs aging slower than humans. Grover quickly glanced around to see if there were any Demeter kids about before picking a strawberry and eating it in one, green bit and all.

"So what's your mom like?" he asked me just making casual conversation.

"Really nice I guess," I answered before copying him and grabbing a strawberry.

"What's her name?"

"Su- No Sally," I replied having to correct myself which Grover noticed and raised an eyebrow at me. It was one of the many times over the past few days that I'd gotten mixed up with my past. I felt like I could remember everything in my past but any time somebody asked me a question about a detail whether it was where I went to school, if I had much mortal family or any hobbies I had I struggled to come up with a definite reply to questions that should be easy to answer. I knew things I shouldn't do and didn't know things I should. Honestly it was starting to worry me a little, not enough to tell anyone as they'd probably think I was crazy but worry me nonetheless.

The rest of the evening was uneventful -thankfully I didn't forget anything else about my past- and I was once again lying in my sleeping bag in the Hermes cabin. I hadn't even gotten changed for bed as I was already planning on continuing my rapidly developing habit of night time strolls. Once I felt sure that all the other occupants of the cabin were asleep -which took an agonizingly long time- I crept along the paths between mattresses making my way to the door. Before stepping outside I did a quick check to make sure that there were no harpies in view before stepping out into the cool night air.

I ended up at the canoe lake and lay back in the sand looking up at the stars. I thought about all that had happened in the past few days, everything that I'd found out and everything that still didn't make sense to me. I'd found out that I was a demigod and my dad was Thanatos god of death yet that didn't explain certain things I'd noticed about myself. Number 1 being that I felt way better at night, every night on my walks I felt like I could've ran a marathon, I had none of the aches and pains that I had during the day from various activities (I'm looking at you climbing wall). Number 2 was that I seemed to be able to see in the dark, I first noticed it during my tour when Annabeth showed me the woods but on my walks and creeping through the Hermes cabin at night I could see as clearly as I could during the day -maybe even better- which doesn't make sense. The third thing was that unless I wore my sunglasses I'd get a splitting headache in sunlight. I'd spoken with Annabeth about what abilities I might have gotten from my dad -she was only able to speculate as there was no record of him having other children- but nothing she said would have seemed to explain what I was experiencing, and that wasn't even considering whatever was going on with my memory.

I stayed laying in the sand thinking until the sky showed signs of the sun coming up. This was the latest I'd stayed out but I was only just beginning to feel tired. I hope no one has woken up early, I thought standing up and brushing the sand off myself before starting to walk back to my cabin.

The next evening there was a buzz in the air as everyone filed out of the dining pavilion, it was Friday which meant capture the flag. The Athena and Hermes cabins had teamed up against the Ares and Apollo cabins with the smaller cabins split between the two teams. We were being led by Annabeth while the Ares team was led by Clarrise, there was something about that girl that rubbed me the wrong way so I was looking forward to seeing her face after we won.

Soon I was kitted out in a set of armor that was only a couple sizes too big and a helmet with a blue plume on top that fell over my eyes if I shook my head too quickly. I held an old bronze sword and a heavy shield that had more craters in it than the moon. I was standing in a sea of fellow blue helmed demigods opposite an equally large group of red plumed kids. Annabeth stood at the front holding a large gray banner with an owl on it.

"Heroes!" Chiron shouted over the noise of a hundred excited demigods who quickly quietened. He was standing in the middle of the two groups holding a bow with a quiver of arrows hung around his waist. "You know the rules, the entire forest is fair game. The flags must be clearly displayed with no more than two guards. All magical items are allowed. Most importantly NO killing or maiming. I will be serving as referee and medic." Once he had finished his speech Annabeth stepped forwards.

"Blue team forward!" She shouted eliciting a cheer from my team as we all rushed into the woods. She had told me before the game that I was on boundary duty, which basically meant standing at the side and letting all the more experienced half-bloods fight it out. Our flag was on top of Zeus's fist, a cluster of boulders that were supposed to look like a fist from a certain angle.

I was supposed to guard the creek that marked the edge of the field of play but I was leant up against a tree further into the forest. I could still see the creek but I'd decided to play to my advantage, I could see in the dark for some reason so I figured I'd have a better chance slightly deeper in the forest where it was darker as opposed to by the creek where more sunlight was able to get through. Plus the shade helped keep my headache at bay as I wasn't able to wear my sunglasses with my helmet and while the headache hurt I'd rather have a headache than no head at all. I'd dropped my shield as it was heavy and in my limited training I'd quickly discovered that I felt much more comfortable fighting with a sword alone.

I was getting really bored just standing among the trees listening to the occasional distant sound of metal on metal and was considering walking further up the creek when I caught a glimpse of movement ahead of me. I stalked forwards as quietly as I could and was able to see five red team members walking through the forest. I recognised the one in front as Clarisse, the two meter barbed spear she held was rather unique after all. While Luke said I showed promise as a swordsman I doubted I could take on five Ares kids at once which left me with two choices, I could stay hidden and let them past which would probably lead to them winning or I could try to hold them off and probably get the shit beaten out of me in the process. Making up my mind I flattened by back up against a large nearby tree and waited for the campers to pass me. I held my breath as I heard them approach, one thing was for sure, Ares kids were not quiet. The five demigods stomped past me, so close that I had no idea how they didn't see me hiding in the shadow of the tree but I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and took my chance. I lurched forwards and slammed the pommel of my sword into the back of the nearest kids head as hard as I could, dropping him to the floor in one hit.

"Where the Hades did he come from?!" Clarisse yelled in shock. "Don't just stand there, get the punk!" She cried out, breaking her siblings from their shock.

I didn't wait for them to get their wits together any more and swung the flat of my blade at the next guy's head who managed to raise his shield just in time. Now I'd lost the element of surprise it was four against one but I was in too deep to back out. The guy who I'd just tried to knock out launched an attack of his own but I jumped back causing the guy to take a chunk out of a tree. Clarisse lunged at me with her spear and would've turned me into a demigod shish-kebab if it weren't for my armored breastplate, despite the armor pain coursed through my body and caused my teeth to chatter. Her spear is fucking electric?! Now it was ugly number 3's turn, he stepped forward and I could tell he was going to try stab me so I stepped forwards to meet him and performed the same disarming technique that I had done on Luke. Before the boy's sword had even hit the ground I punched him square between the eyes with my left hand -something I immediately regretted as pain shot up my forearm from striking the bronze helm's cheek guards. Thankfully the pain was worth it as the boy fell backwards onto his ass as blood leaked from his nose. Two down, three to go.

"I thought five kids of the big bad war god would be able to deal with one new demigod," I taunted hopping out the way of Clarisse's spear -I really didn't want to get hit with that thing again. Shit talking might not have been the smartest idea as it was still 3v1 but I couldn't help myself.

"Shut up Prissy!" Clarisse growled thrusting her spear at me again.

"It's Percy," I said once again jumping to the side. "But then again gods know how many knocks to the head you've had so you've probably lost more than a few brain cells." I slashed high towards the kid who'd taken a slice out the tree causing him to raise his shield, expecting this I didn't follow through and changed my swing, this time aiming at the boy's knee. The flat of my blade connected just above the top of the boy's greave causing his leg to crumple from underneath him. Three down, two to go. Now I was just left with Clarisse and a girl who I assumed was her sister.

Clarisse lunged towards me again. Her attacks are so predictable. I thought as I used my sword to push the tip of her spear towards the ground, I might as well be fighting the minotaur again. The end of the electric spear was now buried in the ground by my feet. I jumped in the air and landed both feet on the shaft of the spear, there was a loud crack as the wood splintered and broke in two under the weight of me and my heavy bronze armor.

"Ah!" Clarisse screamed. "You idiotic dung breathed worm! You-" she probably would've continued cursing me out but I smacked her in the forehead with the pommel of my sword, unlike her brother she remained conscious but stumbled backwards into her sister sending them both to the floor.

Then I heard yelling, screaming and cheering. I turned and deep in the trees I saw Luke sprinting towards Zeus's fist with his sword in one hand and a red banner in the other. As he got to the clearing that housed the mound of boulders (and our flag) the red banner shimmered before turning gray, matching the one that was still sat atop the boulders. Luke was immediately picked up into the air by the Stoll brothers amid cheers from the other blue team campers.

"Not bad newbie," I heard Annabeth say from my right but when I looked she wasn't there. "I know Luke said you were good with a sword but wow," the air around where her voice was coming from shimmered and Annabeth seemed to materialize holding a Yankees baseball cap in one hand and a bronze dagger in the other. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"N-No idea, it was just instinct," I stammered out trying to get over the fact that she could turn invisible.

"Well-" Annabeth's sentence was cut short by a loud growl coming from behind me. "Shit! Percy look out!"

I turned around and standing on top of a boulder was a matted black wolf the size of a rhino with glowing red eyes staring straight at me and red stained fangs easily the size of Annabeth's dagger.

Well I wasn't expecting you, spawn of night. I heard in a deep growl. It'll be a pleasure to kill you.