Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends. Welcome to the second chapter The God Hunter.
Hope you'll enjoy it and now on to the reviews.
Necros The Saiyan knight: I'm not really fond of Bianca, but maybe my mind will change overtime.
Lucius Walker: Give it one more chapter. Only some? I'm really improving! (English isn't my mother language I'm afraid).
13244231: Where my head is currently at, it's either Annabeth or Thalia.
Lupus: That's one of the pairings I'm debating over.
Now story time.
The door of the RV opens again as Matt, whistling to the tune of 'All-Star', steps out now wearing his more casual outfit with his white sneakers and completely washed of toilet water. Leaning against the RV was Percy and Annabeth waiting for him.
Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever Matt went, campers pointed at him and murmured something about him beating up Clarrise before being dosed in toilet water.
Annabeth showed Matt and Percy a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.
Finally they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.
"I've got training to do." Annabeth said flatly, "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."
"Sure thing." Matt said, hands in his pockets as he looked at the lake, when he noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if they were seeing a long-lost friend.
Matt flashed them a smile as he waved back at them.
"Don't encourage them." Annabeth warned, "Naiads are terrible flirts."
"Naiads..." Percy repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed, "That's it. I want to go home now."
Annabeth frowned, "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."
"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" Percy said.
"I mean not human." Annabeth said, "Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."
"And half-god." Matt said.
"Exactly." Annabeth said with a nod, "Think about it, what's the most common thing gods did in the old stories?"
"Random sex with humans and creating bastard children?" Matt said, earning himself a glare from Annabeth, "It's true though."
"Not how I would have put it, but yes." she said slightly annoyed, "Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"
"But those are just..." Percy said, "But if all the kids here are half-gods..."
"Demigods." Annabeth said, "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."
"Then who's your dad?" Percy said.
Her hands tightened around the pier railing. Seemed like it was a sensitive subject.
"My dad is a professor at West Point." she said, "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."
"So your mom is the god then, or goddess or whatever they call it." Matt said, hands in his jean pockets, "Who is she?"
"Cabin six." Annabeth said.
"Not any god I ever heard of." Matt said much to her annoyance, "Is she from some make believe country like The Netherlands?"
Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."
"Really?" Matt said, "That's cool."
"And my dad?" Percy said.
"Undetermined." Annabeth said, "Nobody knows."
"Except my mother." Percy said, "She knew."
"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities." Annabeth said, "Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."
"What do you mean?" Matt said.
Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Matt. They ignore us."
Matt's thoughts went to some of the kids in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. Gods should behave better.
"So I'm stuck here." Percy said suddenly, "That's it? For the rest of my life?"
"It depends." Annabeth said, "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble, about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."
"Does that mean monsters can't get in here?" Matt said.
Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."
"And why would they do that?" Matt said.
"Practice fights. Practical jokes." Annabeth said, "The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."
"So... you're a year-rounder?" Percy said.
Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.
"I've been here since I was seven." she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."
She twisted the ring on her necklace. "If you wanted, you could walk out of here. It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless... You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time..."
Her voice trailed off. Matt could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.
"Back in the sick room." Percy said, "When you were feeding me that stuff. You asked me something about the summer solstice."
Annabeth's shoulders tensed, "So you do know something?"
"Well... no." Percy said, "Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"
She clenched her fists, "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me." she said, "Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."
"You've been to Olympus?"
"Some of us year-rounders, Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others, we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."
"Okay, I'm curious." Matt said, "How do you get there?"
"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." she said, she looked at them like she was sure they must know this already, "You are a New Yorker, right?"
"...Actually I'm just a kid from Queens." Matt said as he exchanged a quick glance with Percy, "So what happened on Olympus last time?"
"Right after we visited, the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting." Annabeth continued, "A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping... I mean... Athena can get along with just about anybody."
"Except for Ares. And Poseidon." Matt recounted, "Let's not forget that whole thing with Medusa, or the one with Arachne..."
"Aside from that!" Annabeth interrupted him, "I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."
But neither Matt nor Percy could tell her anything.
"I've got to get a quest." Annabeth muttered to herself, "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem..."
The smell barbecue smoke came to them from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard Percy's stomach growl. She told them to go on, she'd catch up later. The two left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.
On their way back to the cabins, nobody paid much attention to them.
"So aside from the toilet incident." Matt said rather casually, "Rough first day?"
"I don't belong here." Percy said, "I don't even believe in gods."
"Me neither." Matt said.
"The don't belong here." Percy said, "Or you don't believe in gods?"
"Yes." Matt said, "Look, Percy. If you feel lonely, you can always come visit me in the RV."
"So it's yours." Percy said, "How did you get it here?"
"It's my dad's actually." Matt said as they were close to the cabins, "And good question."
"Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material." Percy said, "What was that all about?"
"Don't look at me, I am just as confused and new to this as you are." Matt said as they reached the RV, "Well, see you at dinner."
Once a horn blew, the whole cabin, about twenty, filed into the commons yard. They lined up in order of seniority, so of course Matt and Percy were dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.
They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods, as in straight out of the woods. One girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.
In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.
At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded.
At table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D., Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.
Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.
Clarisse sat behind at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being beaten and hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.
Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass, "To the gods!"
Everybody else raised their glasses, "To the gods!"
Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! While their glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."
"Damn, I was going for a beer... Just give me a coke." Matt muttered, the glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid, "Okay, that is pretty cool."
Matt loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when he noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.
"Come on." Luke told.
Everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.
"Burnt offerings for the gods." Luke murmured in Matt's ear, "They like the smell."
"Okay, never do that again." Matt said.
Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."
Matt was next, though he didn't what god's name to say. So instead he just scrapped big slice of chicken into the flames.
When he caught a whiff of the smoke, it smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did.
When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.
Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."
A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.
"Personally. I couldn't care less, but congratulations." Mr. D continued, "Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson and Mads Mikkelsen."
Chiron murmured something.
"Er, Percy Jackson and Matt Hauer." Mr. D corrected, "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."
Everybody cheered. They all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. They sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around.
Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and they all filed back to our cabins, except for Matt who went back to the RV.
When Matt dropped into his bed, he fell asleep instantly.
That was the first day at Camp Half-Blood.
The next few days Matt settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that he was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur. Each morning he took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and they talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird.
Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for him to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, he could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache. The rest of the day, he'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something he was good at. Chiron teached him archery, something he turned out to be pretty good at.
Foot racing? Pretty good as well. Though he didn't out run the wood-nymph instructors, it was a pretty close race. Maybe it had something to do with their centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.
And wrestling? Well...
"There's more where that came from, punk." Clarisse mumble in his ear as he was pinned down.
"I'm not sure how I feel about this..." Matt muttered, before preforming a reverse and pinned her down.
The senior campers and counselors were watching him, trying to decide who his parent could be, but they weren't having an easy time of it. Matt was a bit stronger than the Ares kids, a bit better at archery than the Apollo kids. Though he wasn't as good with metalwork as the kids from Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or with Dionysus's way with vine plants.
During dinner one evening, Luke said he might be a child of Hermes, a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But he really didn't know what to make of him either.
Matt turned out to actually like camp. He got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. He would spend a lot of time with Percy, he would eat dinner with the rest of cabin eleven, scrape part of the meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to whomever his parent is.
But nothing came.
Laying awake in his bed one night, he began to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes.
Even if gods had important things to do, would it be so difficult to send a greeting once every so often?
Thursday afternoon, three days after the arrival at Camp Half-Blood, Matt had his first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be the instructor.
They started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. Matt was doing great, thanks to his reflexes. Each blade he picked up wasn't too heavy or too light, or too long.
They just seemed to work for him.
They moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would partner with Matt and Percy, since this was their first time.
"Good luck." one of the campers said, "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."
"Maybe he'll go easy." Percy said.
The camper snorted.
By the time he called a break, most of them were soaked in sweat. Except Matt, which had been a bit of concern ever since he was little. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which Percy imitated.
"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered, "If Matt doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."
The Hermes guys gathered around with suppressing smiles. Something told him they'd been in his shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used him for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.
"This is difficult, I've had it used against me." he stressed, "No laughing at Matt, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."
He demonstrated the move on Matt in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of his hand.
"Now in real time." he said, after Matt retrieved his weapon, "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Matt?"
"Bring it." Matt said, and Luke came after him.
Matt's senses opened up, he saw the attacks coming. Matt countered, before he stepped forward and tried a thrust of his own. Luke deflected it easily, but Matt saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press with more force.
It was something Matt met with more force of his own, his blade hit the blade of Luke's with a loud clang.
Half of Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of Matt's blade was an inch from his undefended chest.
The other campers were silent.
"That's game." Matt said with a smug grin as he lowered his sword.
"You can say that again!" His scarred face broke into a grin, "You only went and broke it! Am I a great teacher or what?"
And there you go, another chapter, hope you enjoyed.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story.
Hope you enjoyed and see you people next time.