Chapter One

Chapter One
Aiden
Monsters and Music

“Ugh!” I said, “Jason! You’re gunna get us killed! If you keep blaring that music they like so much were gunna die! Fifth time this week!”
“Sorry! My iTouch does it when it’s on shuffle!” He yelled back, we were standing on the edge of a cliff surrounded by monsters.
“Then look at the song that’s gunna come on next! Godsdamnit! You are such an idiot!” I yelled. Okay, I should probably stop here and explain the cliff, Jason, me, and the monsters. Jason and I were on our way to camp half-blood, being guided by a satyr, Greyson, he was a brave satyr but could be a coward when it came to furies. This was exactly what was chasing us. Me, my name is Aiden, but I have no memory of my life. At all. Jason, well I met him on my way with Greyson to camp. The cliff, we took a wrong turn and ended up in Sea Cliff Village on Long Island.
Back to the story.
“Guys, I’ll hold them off! Run! Tell Maple if I’m not back in an hour!” Greyson started playing a song on his reed pipes. We ran. But two hellhounds came after us. Maple is Greysons’ wood nymph girlfriend.
“Great, just great! Were never gunna make it to camp!” I yelled.
“Stop being so negative! Let’s stop behind these rocks.” He said. We stopped behind the rocks that were to our left. I took out my knife and ripped my skirt, it was the longest thing in the universe, it went down to my ankles and restricted me from running, go figure also. The teacher who thought of the long skirts was a monster.
I cut it short then we started running again. After the longest run ever we finally got to half-blood hill, but waiting there at the bottom was a hydra.
“Remember, if you cut one its heads off, two more grow back,” I said eyeing it cautiously.
“Yes, because that’s so amazingly helpful seeing as I have a bow and arrow,” Jason said.
“Right.”
“So myth wiz, how do we kill it?”
“Fire. We need fire.”
“Great, fire, where the Hades are we gunna get fire?”
“Top of the hill, the dragon.” I said, staring up. “Distract it while I run up there.”
“Um… you sure that’s a good idea?” He seemed worried.
“Yes! It’s fine! Plus, here comes Greyson now.” As soon as the first arrow hit the hydra I darted up the hill. The dragon realized I was a lost demi-god and knew what to do immediately. A burst of fire shot out of the dragons’ mouth towards the hydra and it disappeared into a yellow dust.
“Jason! Your alive!”
“And why do you seem so surprised?”
“Because you almost died last time.”
“Right.”

We got into camp and were greeted by the campers and the centaur, Chiron. He was tall and he looked like relief had washed over him when he saw me. He said, “Oh good, you’re alive, come you need to see Dawn.”
“Wait. Chiron, whose Dawn?” I asked.
“You will know when you see her.”
“Can Jason come? He’s like my brother,” I said. I was starting to worry.
“I’m sorry dear, Jason can got with the rest of the Apollo’s,” Chiron gave me a look of sympathy.
“Okay,” I said reluctantly as I followed beside him, I didn’t really trust his back end.

We walked into a big house, it was four stories tall, it looked like it had a basement. I was right. We walked into the rec room, or at least I think that’s what it was because it had a ping pong table in it. Sitting on the table was a blonde girl with stormy blue eyes. Which told me she might want to kill me.
“Hi cuz,” she smiled slyly, “Haven’t seen you since we were toddlers, ole’ barnacle head took you down into the sea to train you then popped you into some random class room in NY and now you’re here.”
“Hi Dawn, what do want from me anyway?” I was sure she was gunna say something like we had a score to settle or we have a fight we need to finish or I owe her, and I was right.
“We have a score to settle, meet me in the arena in ten minutes. Chiron, tell the whole camp to come, I want them to see that this Seaweed Brain isn’t that smart.” She walked out like she owned the camp.
“Uh… I’m toast aren’t I?” I asked him.
“It seems so,” He said his face was grave, like this determined whether we would be friends or foes.

When I walked into the arena, it was huge and it seemed as though the whole camp was there. I was freaked out because there Dawn was, on the other side of the arena with a three foot long sword and all I had was my knife. It was so small compared to what she had in her hand, I knew I was dead.
Before I knew it, she yelled “For Zeus!” and she came charging at me. I probably looked like a complete idiot just standing there in my makeshift tunic with my knife in my hand trying to not get killed. She knocked me off my feet and I flew back at least ten feet. Well, I thought, her weak spot is probably her shoulder, that’s where mine is, plus, there’s a central nerve there… if only I could get in close enough.
I pulled my self off the ground and waited for her to charge again, it didn’t take long this time though. In the distance of all the cries of excitement I could hear Greyson say, “Don’t you think you should stop them?” and Chiron say, “You’re kidding right? This is the best part!” but I needed to pay attention. I guessed if I won, we were friends, if I didn’t we were foes. She tried to knock me over, her sword was loose in her hand, and I found my chance.
As soon as I got in reach of the hilt, I used my knife and hit the hilt of her sword and it fell to the ground, next thing I knew, my knee was to her chest and my knife to her throat. “Good job cuz, looks like you actually learned something in that whirl pool he calls home,” She said, trying to breath.
“Thanks. I think.” I removed me knee from her chest and left the arena. I could hear whispering behind me. Stuff like, “Was that beginners luck?” or “She beat Dawn! No ones done that!” When I was walking through the courtyard where all the cabins were I past a girl sitting and tending to the fire, I stopped. I sat down next to her, “Hi, what’s your name?” I said.
“My name is Hestia, I am goddess of the Hearth and Home. You are one of the few to actually stop and talk to me.” She said.
“Really? That’s sad.” I guess I had a funny look on my face because she said, “It’s fine. Though no one really remembers me, I am a fading god. There are no great poems written about me.”
“Oh.” I said, I sat there and talked to her the rest of the afternoon until dinner.

I went to dinner in the Dining Pavilion in my own line, I felt real alone. I mean there was Jason. But the other Apollo’s will probably suck him into their world. Then I thought about Dawn, she was the only one in her line. And it seemed like it been that way for a while. I looked one line down and there were two kids, both were wearing black and red. Which god did the colors black and red remind me of…?
Hades. That’s who those colors reminded me of. I heard them talking to each other.
“Nina, whose the new girl?” I heard the boy say. So that was the girls name.
“That’s Aiden. Daughter of Poseidon,” She looked at me and gave me the hint that she wanted to talk, “it’s fine Tim.”
“Okay…” he answered warily.
When we got our food we got back up and scraped the best looking bit into the fire, an offering for the gods. After dinner we went to the Amphitheater where the Apollo Cabin led the sing along. The Apollo Cabin. I saw Jason up there with them singing along happily. Nina came to sit next to me.
“Hi. I’m Nina.” She said.
“Aiden.” I said back.
“I heard you beat Dawn,” She looked at me like I was a hero, “No ones done that.”
“So I’ve heard,” I replied, “Who here hates me?”
“Uh, let me think… Oceania and Opal, Marie, and Alison. That’s it, other than that people will pretty much like you, unless you give a reason to not in capture the flag.” She said.
“Wait. Capture the flag?” I asked, I was confused.
“You’ll find out on Friday,” she smiled at me.
Great, I thought, a game where I’m probably gonna get myself killed.

After the sing-along I went to my cabin, it seemed like no one had been there for a few months, there was a thin layer of dust that was on one of the bunks, the rest looked as if they were never used. She decided to take the bunk under the one that looked most recently used, seeming safer. I put my hair clip next to my bed and fell asleep almost immediately. But I had a horrible dream, one of my worst yet.

I was on a beach, I didn’t know where, but I could see two people fighting, I didn’t know who they were but they looked important to me. Both were girls. One was wearing a tunic trimmed with pink flowers and the other was wearing a silver tunic with silver moon shaped lace stuff at the bottom. I realized who they were. The one in pink was Aphrodite and the one in silver was Artemis. They were both fighting with knives, Aphrodite actually was very skillful with a knife surprisingly.
“Stop. Giving. My. Girls. Guys. To. Love!” Artemis looked ready to kill Aphrodite, though if your immortal you can’t really die…
“I don’t care! You shouldn’t keep girls from love! It’s not natural!” Aphrodite sounded incredibly convincing.
“I’m giving them a chance to feel a good about themselves without having a guy telling them what they have to change! They did this so wouldn’t need love!” Artemis looked raged.
“I’m giving them another chance! Maybe they all joined hoping to find love in a hundred years or so! For the goddess of the moon your pretty dim!” Aphrodite retorted.
Then the dream ended. Gone. Complete. I didn’t know what else I was expecting but it was obviously more than that.

First class of the day today. Sword Arena. That’s where I would fight other campers for practice. Okay great. I grabbed my hair clip and walked out of my cabin when I walked in to the arena I guessed it sensed a fight because it fell to the ground and turned into a 20 inch knife. Okay I walked over to the mat a tall girl with brown hair, looked about thirteen.
“Ready to fight? Your gunna be the volunteer for today!” she smiled slyly
“Bring it on,” I said, I didn’t feel as brave as I sounded. I readied my knife, she did the same. She charged. Why does everyone charge? I don’t know, I stood like a statue. She got close I blocked her hit and cut a deep gash into her shoulder.
“What the hell was the for?!” She yelled at me.
“Umm... instinct? Sorry,” I felt really bad about cutting her shoulder but she would’ve stabbed mine.
“This isn’t the end Seaweed Brain,” she limped away sniffling with a guy helping her. Walking her away, he looked nice. But half way across the archers field she fell. Oh shit! I ran over to her, she was breathing, but she had fainted. Shit! Shit! Shit! I thought, she’s gunna hate me so much when she wakes up.
“Take her to the big house, she needs Chiron, if he’s not their, go to the Apollo cabin and ask for Jason, he’ll know what to do, he’s been doing it for me all week.” I told the boy, “By the way, I didn’t catch you name, what is it?”
“I’m Alex, Alex Rochester.”
Archery, great I know I’m gunna fail this. After about 15 minutes we found out archery was defiantly not my thing. I had finally got the arrow where it should’ve been on the bow when it flew out of my hand bounced off the target circled around, flew past my ear. Next thing I knew I could hear crying and there was a knife at my neck.
I turned around and there again was the girl with the knife in her hand, Mouthy Girl, I thought. But she didn’t mouth me. She started sobbing in pain and fear. I was guessing she wanted to murder me.
“Umm… Alex?” I said cautiously.
“Yeah, I know what to do.” He was so nice about it.
I went to the climbing wall next. Nothing bad is gunna happen this time. Nothing. How wrong was I? very. Again, mouthy girl was below me and I was being clumsy. The earthquake mode started and I fell. I was gabbing air, my eyes were closed. Finally I got hold of something it was soft and silky. Fabric. I grabbed her skirt, my weight was to much for it and I fell not that far though. She fell with me. But she landed on top of me. She grabbed the piece of her skirt I ripped off.
“Thanks for cushioning my fall,” she said sarcastically.
“Happy to oblige,” I said.
“I told this wasn’t over, and it isn’t get ready for the biggest wave of monsters yet Hunter, your world might be perfect now, but just you wait. Everything is about to change.” And she walked away.

I hung out with Nina by the lake after lunch. We talked about camp half-blood and mouthy girl, her name was Marie. And she hated me because I kept getting her in close to death situations. Yay me! No. not really.
“I feel like I don’t really fit in here,” I said.
“No one does when they first get here, they feel as if they should be somewhere else because they cause to much damage. No one should feel safe around them.” Nina said as if reading my thoughts.
“Well, it’s true. I almost killed my best friend when I was in kindergarten. And then in third grade I almost killed my teacher, though my teacher was trying to kill me…”
Nina laughed like she heard stuff like that all the time, “what?”
“Nothing, I just remember what it was like when I was out there fighting monsters a while ago. Oh those were the days.” Nina sighed as if remembering her life before camp.
“What was it like? Was it just you and Tim?” I was full of questions but only asked a few.
“It was me, Tim, Alex, and Dawn. We were out there fighting monsters like there was no tomorrow. Then Greyson found us and brought us here. And then it all stopped. The fun. The friendship. The laughs after we killed the monsters.” She sighed sadly.
“That sucks, it all stopped because you came to camp?” I asked.
“Yes,” she held back a sob, “I’m sorry I’ve got to go.”
“Okay.” I think I hit a nerve that brought back sad memories and stuff she really wanted to do again. Crap, I thought, I do that to everyone! So I just sat on the hill when all of a sudden some one came up behind me and tapped me on my shoulder. I jumped up my knife all ready in my hand.
“Okay, okay! I surrender!” I was looking at Jason.
“Oh, sorry! You just freaked me out.” I said my knife form back into a hair clip.
“I can tell,” he said, “I love it here at camp. Everyone is so nice. Especially the centaur.” Jason said.
“Chiron?” I asked.
“No. Churro.” He looked at me with a very serious look on his face.
“There’s seriously a centaur named Churro?” I was about to laugh.
“Yes!”
“Okay! Okay!” I raised my hands in surrender.
“So whose team are you on for capture the flag? Apollo is always with Hermes and Athena. Always.”
“Well I heard from some of the other campers that a guy named Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon, was always with them so I guess I’ll be with you guys.”
“Cool, well the other Apollo guys want to show me something in the cabin, I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. See you later.” I sighed as I watch Jason meet a bunch of guys at the bottom of the hill. I had only two friends at this camp at the moment. Jason and Nina. The rest of the camp was waiting to see how good I was in capture the flag. Then I heard a scream on the other side of the hill. I ran to the top and saw a girl with blonde hair running up the hill being chased by a hell hound, Greyson on her tail.
My hair clip fell from my hair into my hand, shining in the afternoon sun. I ran down the hill passing the dragon towards the hell hound. This was the most fun I was probably gonna have all day. I shouted, “Hey ugly! Over here!” the hell hound rounded on me. I stood my ground, when he got extremely close I jumped and did a 180 in the air and landed on the hell hounds back.
He was like a bucking bronco but I held on. When he stop trying to get me off because he thought I fell I stabbed him with my knife. He let out a howl and disintegrated into a yellow dust.
“You just saved her!” Greyson was staring at me, “You just killed a hell hound and saved this girl! You’re a hero!”
“You saved my life!” The girl said, she looked horrified and all scratched up.
“Yes, I know. What’s your name?” I asked the girl.
“Paige. Paige Richards.” She responded.
“Greyson, what happened?” I asked the satyr.
“Well I was walking in central park and I saw her she was chained to a rock with celestial bronze bonds, being attacked by the hell hound you just killed. So one of the wood nymphs in the park diverted its attention long enough for me to break the bonds. And we’ve been running since that pasture of cows about two miles back.”
“That explains the smell.” Then there was an explosion, I ran back up the hill and saw the lake hovering in mid-air. “Oh Shit.”