Answers to reviews:
thesesignupsneedtodie: I don't know what's going on either, it comes and it goes.
zarmag: He's being paired with Thalia and ONLY Thalia. End of story and discussion. If you don't like it, then tough.
chungorion15: Okay, chill out, he's not gonna be able to take on the Big Three just by awakening his Devil Trigger.
Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry or Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I only own the OC Alexander Redgrave.
Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever Percy went, campers pointed at him and murmured something about toilet water.
Alex and Annabeth showed Percy a few more places: the metal shop, the arts-and-crafts room, and the climbing wall. Finally they returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.
"I've got training to do," Annabeth said. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall." She looked at percy for a moment. "You need to talk to the Oracle."
"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."
Percy stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give him a straight answer for once.
He didn't expect to see two teenage girls sitting cross legged at the base of the pier twenty feet below in the lake. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green t-shirts. Their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out.
They smiled and waved as if Percy was a long-lost friend.
Poor boy didn't know what else to do, so he waved back.
"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."
Alex gave him a look. "So, fighting the bull-man, meeting a god, a centaur, and getting your head dunk into the toilet is one thing, but the moment a couple of pretty girls smile and wave at you, you decide you want to leave?"
Percy's cheeks went red at his friend's words.
"I just don't get you sometimes, man." Alex sighed almost in disappointment.
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?"
"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."
"Half-human and half-what?"
"I think you know."
Percy looked away for a moment, like he didn't want to admit it but knew the truth. "God." He said. "Half-god."
"Correct." Alex patted his shoulder. "We both are. Our parents are one of the Olympians."
"That's ... crazy."
"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"
Alex snorted. "Doubt it."
"But those are just—" Percy almost said myths again but remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, he might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"
"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."
"Still don't like that term." Alex shook his head. It sounded too offensive.
"Then who's your dad?" Percy asked before Annabeth could respond to Alex's words.
Alex tensed and looked over at Annabeth, whose hands tightened around the pier railing. He knew that her father was a bit of a sore 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."
"He's human."
"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"
"Who's your mom, then?"
"Cabin six."
Alex leaned close to Annabeth. "He's still new, remember."
Annabeth's cheeks went red, remembering that Percy was out for the past couple of days while Alex had not.
"Her mom is Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom." Alex said, making Annabeth straighten with pride.
"And my dad? And Alex's mom?"
"That is unknown at the moment, Percy." Alex said, although he had a very sneaking suspicion to who his mother was. Now that he knew he was a demigod, it opened the door for possibilities on who his mother was, knowing she was a goddess. He connected everything about himself to narrow down the list, but there was only one goddess who did archery, which factored in his talent with a bow, his hobby of hunting, the comfort in the moonlight, and the ability to communicate with animals of all types. Only one goddess came to mind when connecting all these clues together.
Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon.
His favourite goddess... who just may be his mother.
'It's impossible, though. I doubt she'd break her oath just for dad.' Alex thought, crossing his arms. He didn't know what to think on this, it was only a theory but the clues speak for themselves. There was a very high possibility that Artemis was his mother, that she had actually fallen in love with his dad, married him and broke her oath. But why? She hated men. Boy, she must've been disappointed to birth a son rather than a daughter.
He shook his head quickly. 'You don't know that for sure.' He scolded himself. He trusted what his dad had said about his mother, and if she was Artemis it was possible she loved him, and loved her son as well.
But again, the whispers of doubt filled the back of his head.
"—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off." Annabeth was saying, bringing Alex out of his thoughts. "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."
"So monsters can't get in here?" Percy asked.
Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."
"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"
"Practice fights. Practical jokes."
"Practical jokes?"
"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?"
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."
"Why did you come so young?"
"That's none of our business, Percy." Alex cut in before Annabeth could snap at his friend.
"Oh." Percy said before causing an uncomfortable silence. "So… I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"
"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…." Annabeth trailed off hesitantly
"Unless what?" Percy asked.
"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ..." Her voice trailed off. And Alex could tell that 'last time' did not go so well.
"Back in the sick room," Percy said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"
"Ambrosia."
"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."
"She interrogated me about the same thing." Alex chuckled.
Annabeth nudged him playfully, her cheeks flushing red. "Shut up. So you do know something?"
"Well... no. Back at my old school, Alex and 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?" Percy questioned.
Annabeth clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."
"You've been to Olympus?" Alex asked curiously. It was possible, then, that she saw Artemis. His... mother.
"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."
"But... how did 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 looked at Percy like she was sure he must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"
"Annabeth, we just found out we were demigods, how are we meant to know where Olympus is when we didn't even know about the gods existence?" Alex pointed out exasperatedly.
Annabeth blushed again, remembering that both are still new to this world.
"Right after we visited," She continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. 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 two came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."
"I was wondering why the weather was so... off." Alex nodded. "Turns out the gods are having a spat. Maybe someone pissed off Zeus."
The sky rumbled with thunder, though it oddly seemed to be done in a way of saying 'you have no idea'.
Annabeth glanced at the sky nervously. "Maybe." She muttered, then spoke up. "I've got to get a quest. I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem..."
Alex's nose wrinkled as a smell invaded his nostrils, and he sniffed the air a couple of times before humming. "I smell food." On cue, Percy's stomach rumbled which made the Demon Hunter chuckle while Percy was embarrassed as Annabeth stared at him. "C'mon, dinner's coming soon."
"You two go on. I'll catch up with you later." Annabeth said, looking distracted as Alex led Percy onward.
The rest of the day went pretty quickly and smoothly as the two boys spent most of the day in the Hermes cabin talking and Alex introduced Percy to Connor and Travis Stoll. who seemed to like Percy at first glance although Alex jokingly told Percy to be extra cautious as the Stolls were quite the thieves.
Said boys tried to give him 'innocent' looks, but Alex just deadpanned at them.
Soon enough, dinner time had arrived.
All the other campers came out from the other cabins, except for one, two and three. The same is said about the Artemis cabin, which now started glowing silver as the sun went down, making it look very striking to Alex.
Everyone then marched up the hill to the Dining Pavilion.
Satyrs joined them from the meadow, naiads emerged from the Canoe Lake and wood nymphs came out of the forest, as in literally coming out of the trees.
This meant there were a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.
Upon arriving at the pavilion, torches blazed between the marble columns and the central fire burned in the brazier.
Everyone filled the tables except for four of them and cabin eleven's table was the most overcrowded. So much so that Percy had to squeeze next to Alex on the edge of a bench with half his butt hanging off.
Alex looked and saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D along with a few satyrs and Mr. D's two sons, who were plump blondes. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being too small for centaurs.
Annabeth sat at table six with her half-siblings, who were all serious looking with athletic builds.
Clarisse sat behind Alex and Percy at Ares' table, clearly gotten over what happened in the bathroom as she laughed and belched with her siblings.
Finally, Chiron pounded one of his hooves against the marble floor and everyone fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"
Everybody raised their glasses. "To the gods!" Percy did so weakly.
Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, bread, and barbecue. Seeing Percy looking at his empty glass, Alex said. "Just say what you want and the glass will fill. Like this." He looked at his own empty class. "Coca Cola."
The glass filled with the fizzy drink and Alex smirked at the gobsmacked Percy before taking a sip of his drink.
"Cherry Coke." Percy said and his glass filled with the sparkling caramel liquid.
"Blue Cherry Coke." He then said, and the drink turned into a violent shade of cobalt.
"You and your obsession with blue food." Alex rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Shut up." Percy nudged him playfully and the two chuckled.
Percy was about to dig in, but Luke said, "Come on!" Confused, Percy followed him and Alex to the bathtub fire and saw people throwing in a good portion of their food in it.
"Now this I always wondered... why?" Alex shook his head. Why throw away some good food?
Luke chuckled at his expression before explaining to Percy. "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."
"Weird, isn't it?" Alex added with a sigh. The poor food.
Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."
Alex groaned and reluctantly tossed a piece of cheese pizza into the fire, mentally saying. 'Mom, if you can hear me, that's for you. I hope you Claim me soon, and if you are who I think you are... I'm gonna need an explanation.'
When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for their attention. Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activity director, Chiron, says that capture the flag is this Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."
A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.
"Personally," Mr. D muttered. "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that you that we have a new camper today, joining Alan Ronald, Peter Johnson!"
Alex rolled his eyes at Mr. D mucking up his name. Again. He was so doing it on purpose, the dick.
Everybody cheered. They all headed down to the amphitheatre, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. They sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked. Alex and Percy shared a look and grinned, before fist bumping each other. Alex was happy to see his friend was becoming comfortable with this place and accepting it, because he already had.
Felt like home away from home.
And scene! That brings this chapter to a close.
I don't know what's been going on with this site in recent days. Reviews are not showing at times, or they say "No reviews", even though there clearly is. And then yesterday or the day before, the notifications weren't popping up on gmail.
I heard someone mention that it had something to do with the wildfire spread that happened in California.
Also, I would like to inform everyone that I have this story completed, well every chapter right to the end ready for publishing, so expect a daily update each day until it's completed... provided the site doesn't act weird again.