CAMP HALF-BLOOD
BY Allison W. (Published March 2019)
Hestia
I climbed out of bed my eyes felt like bags. My slippers were right under me and I slipped them on. “ Hestia” my father called. I came downstairs and my father's eyes seemed to light up the whole room. His glow seemed to radiate the whole house. A small frame hung above the refrigerator. My mother's eyes seemed to be ablaze, if only I could still see her. She had left when I was 2 years old. I still don’t know why. There was a layer of frost hanging right above the lawn. A car passed our house with blaring music. I ate my breakfast quickly. The bus came to a stop in front of my lawn and I hopped on saying goodbye to my father in the process. Another few months at boarding school even though most of the kids came home for the weekends I stayed for months at a time. My father waved goodbye and I climbed aboard the bus. A few kids laughed at me as I got on because I stumbled up a few of the stairs. I sat in the back of the bus where only a few kids sat. I sighed and laid my head back on the headrest.
I woke up a few hours later with kool-aid all over my shirt and chips in my hair. A few kids were in my face still splashing kool aid on my shirt. They were hysterically laughing when my eyes grew wide. I was so angry, the bus lurched to a stop and I lugged my bag onto the sidewalk. Coke cans covered the ground with even more litter than I remembered. The brick building looked like a prison with it’s graying walls and rotten bars. When you stepped inside it looked like a mansion, with its glass chandeliers and red carpet lining the walls. The outside was very deceiving. I went straight to my dorm where I set down all my luggage and belongings. I decided to get a shower and clean up before dinner that night.
Theo and Anna were waiting at the table for me when I sat down. They were the only people that were nice to me at the boarding school since I had ADHD. Both of them had disorders to dyslexia. We ate our dinner, roast beef and vegetables then went up to bed. Theo went to the boys dormitories and Anna went up with me. We picked the two corner beds farthest away from everyone and drew a curtain between the walls to keep unwanted visitors away. Footsteps came up the stairs and me and Anna stopped talking right away. A few girls were laughing really hard and they were considered the cool girls. “Ooh look” one of them said. “Anna and Hestia have closed the curtains let’s go peek inside.” I exchanged a rugged look with Anna and we dropped onto our pillows pretending to be asleep. The curtain open and shattered to the ground. “Oops,” Vanessa said. She was obviously the leader of the group. The girls started laughing again and ran away. One of the girls looked at me she was probably about my age, 12 and she looked horrified. “Come on little sis” Vanessa said and the little girl scrambled away giving me a longing look.
I shook Anna awake so we could sprint downstairs and take a shower before the mean girls hogged them the whole morning. Anna and me put our robes on and scurried downstairs to get a shower. I got out after a few minutes and put my clothes on in a changing room. It took a few more minutes to dry my hair but we both stepped out of the bathroom as the mean girls were coming in. Just in time. A line was already forming for breakfast at 7:30 A.M. We jumped in line for breakfast right before a group of twenty boys came in. We got breakfast, ate it, and took a hike in the woods. Hestia loved the woods and so did Anna, Anna always brought her bow everywhere. She had set up countless targets in the woods and could hit them from up to a hundred feet away. Today they were going to try and find some metal and craft a new bow. “ Hey guys wait up” Theo said. “There you are.” Anna exclaimed.
Theo
We set to work all looking in different directions to find some sort of metal. It usually took us a while to find metal but they always came across something metal or not. Theo would always find it first somehow though. As the hours ran on Theo brought more and more metal back to the base. We all met in a circle in the middle of the woods. Theo took a large strong stick and they set to work. They only made the arrows for fun just to play around with. Hestia and Anna set into the woods to find dry chunks of wood and they built a fire with the help of Theo. It was smouldering hot within minutes and they stuck the metal into it. Theo used sticks to prod and poke it following Anna’s orders until it had a sharp point, two curved sides, and one straight side. Anna directed many more arrows until they came upon a yellow tinted piece of metal. “ Is that what I think it is” Anna questioned. “No, it’s not gold” I replied but I didn’t quite know how I knew that. Anna sighed but directed theo’s fingers to make a bow and about 20 arrows. The metal seemed to follow his every touch. They finished off the bow with a thick piece of wood that was perfect for a bow. “ Thanks Theo” Anna said. A crack erupted from behind them, all three of them turned their heads. A Chimera stood right in front of them. Hestia thought she was hallucinating but she swore it was right in front of her. Anna notched her bow with the “gold” arrow that Theo had made. The chimera charged. Five more seconds four, three. Anna pulled the arrow back. The dark forest suddenly grew wilder. Two,one. Anna launched the faint gold glowing arrow. BOOM the Chimera exploded into dust. They were all lost for words. “Wow what just happened” Anna said. “ I’m pretty sure you killed a chimera” I said. “Let’s get back to our cabins.” I felt very tired at dinner and I was remarkably hungry. I ate with my bunkmates which weren’t the nicest to me but I think they were better than Anna and Hestia’s bunkmates. Dinner was okay that night. After dinner I went up to bed and thought about the events that just happened that day. Crazy, just crazy.
Anna
I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night and I had thought a lot about the day before. I woke up Hestia and we got a shower and went down to breakfast. The morning seemed eerily quiet and I thought just maybe that I had hallucinated the day before. Theo sat at the table and the mess hall was empty, weird there was always somebody in the mess hall no matter how early they got up. Hestia seemed confused to and Theo was grinning like every day we came down to meet him. I had gotten up at three to see the stars today and usually there were a few other people down here but nope not today just the silence.
We were in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. The stars were beautiful every night and I envisioned different animals prancing through the sky. The images were vivid and I was very good at naming constellations. The wind swirled around me and a breeze seemed to push me farther down the lawn. “Come on guys, this way.” Anna walked to the edge of the cliff peering over the railing. A small cloud of mist spiraled up toward them. “ What is that?” I said. The storm grew stronger and a chariot flew out of the mist dumping a few kids on the lawn next to us. They were around our age, and they looked exhausted. One guy was just starting to get up and brushed the dust off of his clothes. “ Sorry we were late” “Wait, wait, wait, hold on. First of all, who are you? Where did you come from? Why should we trust you and was that magic?” I spoke curiously, not to be mean. The other two girls got up as we were processing what had just happened. “ Glad to meet you to. Our names are Oliver, Eva, and Lauren . The point is we have to get you out of here. The monster is coming soon. Gather up your belongings and meet us here in about thirty minutes. Then we’ll take you to camp” Oliver said. I had no Idea what he meant but I did what he asked and ran inside, my friends trailing behind me.
Theo
I had packed up much quicker than Hestia and Anna so I decided to sit on the lawn and gaze up at the stars. The summer breeze rustled my hair. Oliver sat about 20 feet away from me in his green army jacket. His green eyes glinted in the light of the moon. I could hear a rivers rapids as they stormed by. Anna and Hestia came out of the building sprinting at top speed, their eyes were scared. “What’s wrong?” I asked them. “There was this lion that breathed fire.” They sounded very frightened and they were not scared of much so I decided that this was bad. “ Sooner than I thought.” Oliver muttered to himself. He looked up and realized we were listening. “ Time to go.” He ushered us into the flying chariot along with the other two girls we had seen earlier.
Have you ever imagined flying in a chariot, well don’t. Every bump in the air made my stomach turn over. I felt like throwing up over the railing but I realized somebody in the town below us would probably not appreciate that. “Don’t they see us?” Anna asked. “ The mist only let’s them see what they can process.” Oliver answered. “What’s the mist ?” Hestia asked. “The mist is a force that twists mortals minds so that they can’t see monsters or magic.” “Why can we see through it then” I asked. My brain was whirring trying to understand what was happening. “ We will explain everything back at Camp Half-Blood” Oliver said. “Wha.” I realized I had just said that and closed my mouth immediately. Everybody was quiet for the next 30 minutes and I drifted off to sleep. Lauren woke me up. “ We will be arriving in camp Half-blood soon.” I looked down and saw a small valley with strawberry fields and a thick forest surrounding it. Cabins formed almost a rectangular shape around a field. A chariot racing track was in the middle of the valley and horse stables were centered on the left. A Big House was located behind the chariot racing track. “Wow, is that where we will be staying?” I asked. “In one of those cabins.” “Which one?” “I don’t know.” She didn’t sound like she was lying. Her answer was flat like she wasn’t going to talk anymore. I stared in awe at the camp. The beach was growing closer and closer as we neared the landing spot. The horses whinnied and I felt a jolt as we slipped into the grass.
That night at the dining pavilion we met more and more campers. The place was bigger than I thought and I realized we were half god and half mortal. The dining pavilion was big with wooden picnic tables lining each side. It was very warm even without a coat on because the camp enforced the borders not to let anything in. I understood why my dad was not home when I was little and a lot more things. That night we had burgers with bug juice, which tasted really good. Since we were not assigned to a cabin yet we were assigned to sleeping in the Hermes cabin where apparently all the newcomers slept. After dinner we went to the amphitheater for the sing along. The fire grew taller and taller as we sung. It’s color turning from purple to bright orange. I had never been so happy, not that I liked singing but a feeling of belonging. As we were finishing the sing along a warm orange glow emanated across my face. I didn’t know where it came from but I just thought it was from the fire. A few seconds later some people gasped and turned, pointing at me. That got pretty much everybody's attention but I realized they weren’t just pointing at me they were pointing at Hestia and Anna to. On Hestia’s head was a war helmet and perched on her arm was a screech owl. She looked terrified, almost as if Zeus had decided that she needed a shock. Anna had a Lyre hologram floating above her head with a newly crafted bow and arrow in her arm. “Everyone please calm down.” Chiron, the camp leader, and also a Centaur said. Everybody quieted down but there was still much whispering. “ Eva will escort Hestia to her new cabin, Oliver will escort Theo, and Lauren will escort Anna. Please go back to your cabins.” Chiron’s voice boomed around the amphitheater, everyone left without a word. Oliver walked toward me and nodded. “ I suspected you would be in my cabin.” “ Who’s cabin, and what just happened.” “ You got claimed by Hephaestus. The god of the forge, fire and metalworking.” I smiled awkwardly and we walked out of the amphitheater.
Anna
I was a child of Apollo! Yes, I knew I was always good at archery and had a knack with medical equipment but a child of Apollo, who knew! After I got to my cabin I knew it was meant to be. The walls were lined with Bow and Arrows, coming in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. Bows were hung above the beds of different people milling about. A small clock hung straight above the back door of the cabin. It had a sun above it and a moon below it. The moon was lit up so it shone brightly across the room. The cabin was cheery with small stone slabs hanging out of the wall next to different beds, like nightstands. There were normal twin beds lining the walls, 5 on each side of the room. The girls slept on the right well the boys slept on the left. When I entered the room everybody waved and smiled at me. I decided to hang my two bows straight above my head. The one Theo had made me slung on the left side and the one Apollo had given me on the right. I slept next to Lauren in the far side of the room. After I had changed and showered I decided to go check out what was in the back room. I stepped into the sunlight even though it was the evening. The buzzing noises of wildlife were around me. A small archery target was seen in the distance. Lauren stepped in behind me, “ This is secret you know. Nobody can no about it. Promise me you won’t tell.” “ I Promise,” I whispered. She handed me a necklace and a small coin. The coin had a bow on one side and the word Apollo written on the other side. She handed me the necklace and I strung the coin onto it, then hooked it around my neck. I nodded and she smiled to me then we turned around and walked back into our cabin.
Hestia
The god of War and Wisdom, Athena. I thought I would be Apollo, Hmmph. Well that’s that, I guess I am smarter than Anna, (Don’t tell her I said that) I have always been a planner and love strategies. I guess it makes sense but I can hopefully still spend time with my friends. Everybody here is super nice and they all accepted me into their cabin. There is this thing that they call capture the flag and usually the Athena cabin leads it. I was definitely excited about that, since I was a natural born leader. When I stepped into the cabin it was one of the best designs that I have ever seen. The 1st floor had beds lining the walls with spears, daggers, and swords on a pegboard embedded into the wall. There were stairs going up the left side of the building into a living space with couches and tables. On the tables were war maps and different strategies. Little figures of wax were on the maps showing where they would actually be. Textbooks and just normal books were on the shelf teaching you about different things. The cabin even had a domed roof with a small hole where light came through. In the back of the room a chariot stood. It had gold wings painted on the side with intricate ivory designs on the side of it. The main color of the chariot was bright red with an owl carved into the back. It had gold reins and gold lining along the chariot. It could seat 6 people. It was the coolest thing ever but I knew that it was only supposed to be used for special occasions. I went to bed that night thinking that I had found a home.
The snow flurries whirled around me. My feet keep sliding off of the cliff and the howling from the wolves did not help. I couldn’t see more than 3 feet in front of me and could hear nothing due to the wind. Things were swirling around in the sky making a thing so horrible I didn’t even want to describe it. It was so horrifying and scary it’s eyes seemed to glare at me. One of the creatures making the face whooshed past me and sent me tumbling down the cliff. The whole world seemed to be shaking then I realized there was a hand on my shoulder I burst awake gasping. Sweat pinned my head onto my pillow. I had had bad dreams before but not as terrible as this one. “ It’s alright, us demigods have bad dreams a lot.” I looked up and saw Eva’s face smiling down at me and I could see the real empathy in her face, that’s when I relaxed.
After I had showered and aten breakfast I went down to the chariot racing track. The stand included about 100 with Satyrs, Dryads, and demigods all cheering for different cabins. The most menacing of the Chariots was the Hephaestus cabin. It was Bronze with silver doors that, no doubt, held surprises that they were just waiting to release. I saw Theo coming up the bleachers and waved him over to sit with me. I was wondering where Anna was when I saw her In the Chariot smiling. I tapped Theo and pointed at Anna. “ Look,” I exclaimed. “ How did she get to race already?” Theo said, “Maybe the Apollo cabin lets the newcomers race.” “ Makes sense.” Theo nodded his head. The chariot race was about to start and I was excited.
Anna
I was scared. The sun shone bright onto our chariot lighting up our designs. Two horses stood in front of us, both bright white and blue eyes. I saw Theo and Hestia in the crowd smiling and I nervously waved back. I was going to drive the Chariot while Lauren threw weapons and kept off other teams. The clock seemed to be moving very fast. Pelicans grazed the skyline in the distance, then I heard a very loud beep. Our Chariot took off in the back of the pack but Lauren threw some sort of sword and got it stuck in the Ares cabins wheels. This was intense. A small vial of greek fire landed in our boat and Lauren yelled “ make the horses jump.” I wasn’t entirely sure how but I flicked my reins and they jumped. The whole chariot went airborne and the vial of greek fire rolled out the back exploding in mid air. We passed the Ares team but we had to get farther ahead. “ Press the green button.” Lauren yelled over the wind of the chariot. I did what she asked and gold butterflies fluttered out of the chariot going toward the other teams. “ How is that going to help?” “ You’ll see.” The butterflies landed on the horses noses and drove them all off course. The only cabin that managed to stay on course was the Hephaestus cabin and they were at least fifteen meters ahead. I tapped the horses and they gave us a burst of speed but we needed something else. “ Pull the lever,” Lauren shouted. I did what she asked and two wings came out of the side of the chariot. We soared upward and over the Hephaestus chariot then landed on the ground in front of them. They were definitely going to throw a gadget but I just had to hope Lauren could fend it off. “ Left, Right, jump.” I did what she asked but then the horses stopped 5 feet in front of the finish line. The Hephaestus cabin was catching up and I wasn’t sure what to do. Our back wheel wouldn’t work. Lauren pulled a boomerang out of the wheel and it burst into flames in her hand. She yelped but the horses moved across the finish line before the Hephaestus cabin got there. The crowd cheered but I was worried about Lauren. I willed to horses to go to the big house where I could get some ambrosia and nectar. The chariot thundered out of the stadium. Her hand was still burning and it was getting blacker. She was about to pass out. When, I got to the Big house I jumped out and got some ambrosia ( A food that healed you) and shoved it into her mouth then, I brought her back to our cabin and laid her in her bed. She closed her eyes and went into a deep sleep.
I decided I would go outside when the door creaked open. It was Blake from our cabin. “ Is she okay?” “ Should be.” I replied shaken up. The Sun on our clock had lit up and ticked 12 with a small gong. “ You should come eat.” “ Maybe.” I sighed and waved goodbye as he stepped outside and the door creaked close. I realized I was starving so I went outside into the green grass and fresh smelling air. I got some lunch from a buffet and then walked back into our cabin. I slung my bow and quiver over my shoulder and stepped through the back door of our cabin.
Hestia
It was late afternoon when I got to my cabin. Almost everybody was there discussing capture the flag plans for tomorrow. “ There you are Hestia.” Eva said as she pointed down from the top of the stairs. “ You should probably come with me. We need to get you a weapon.”
As we arrived in the weaponry I gaped in awe. There were a million different weapons ranging from bronze to gold to silver. All different shapes and sizes to! But I somehow knew that only one would work for me. I looked around trying different swords, bows, and shields. A few caught my eye but just didn’t fit right. I picked up a celestial bronze kopis and realized that was the one for me. It fit my hand perfectly and was just the right length. It was around 2 feet long and had a leather handgrip. “ I like this one,” I called out. “ Eva came over from behind a armor rack and her face turned from normal to ghostly white. “ Why do you look shocked?” “ I, well, that was Theseus’s kopis.” “ Like the Theseus. The one who killed the minotaur?” “ Yeah, but there’s also something else you should know before using it. The last time somebody used that they almost got killed. The kopis flies back to you after you throw it, or lose it but if it doesn't think you should be it’s carrier, well it comes after you.” “ So I am or I am not it’s carrier.” “ Well you touched it you can only hope now.” It was now my turn for my face to turn ghostly white. “ Just leave it here.” “Okay,” I managed to squeak. We left the armory both very frightened.
That night I barely managed to fall asleep before midnight. I was very tired and I’m not going to admit it but I may have snored. I woke up at three with something hovering over my head. When my eyes cleared I realized it was a knife. I did the only thing reasonable, I screamed. It must have been loud because everybody in my cabin woke up within two seconds. I don’t know how many other cabins I woke up but I didn’t want to think about it. I closed my eyes waiting for the Kopis to cut off my head but it just stayed there. “ Hestia what’s wro-, oh.” Blake said. “ Hestia it’s not killing you, it accepts you as it’s master.” I opened my eyes and slowly moved my hand toward the Kopis. It didn’t destroy me or cut off any part of my body! I hadn’t thought about the leather much but there was a word engraved on it, it said exypnos polemistes. “ what does that mean?” “ It means smart warrior but before it said courageous.” Lauren thought for a moment and then said, “it must change to fit the person.” I nodded, then something weird happened, the Kopis disappeared in my hand. “ What happened?” I asked. “ It’s recharging. Has to get its energy from somewhere but I don’t know,” Blake said quizzically. “ We should probably get some sleep,” I pointed out.
Theo
I woke up at daybreak, the sun shone through the circle window above my bunk. The Hephaestus cabin was amazing in how many gadgets there were. The center of the room dropped down into our cabin leader, Samuel’s, bed. There was a circle window above each bed and tons of tools lined the back wall of the dark oak cabin wall. The whole cabin itself was a semicircle with a straight line running across the back of the cabin. If you pressed certain buttons and had the right combinations the back wall would dislodge and turn ninety degrees to let you walk straight through then, would close the wall behind you. Inside was a million different crafting tools you could use. The room was in use most of the time and people were always making things new. There were blocks of metal in the back of the room you could use to craft new things. We even got to craft some of the armor for camp. I couldn’t tell who it was but there was somebody crafting a new gadget to add to our chariot. It was a little bot that got stuck in other chariots wheels. I myself was making a mini fridge for our cabin. When I came up with that Idea everybody agreed to it. I worked on it a few hours a day. I grabbed a few logs and a lighter and had a fire going within a few minutes. I crafted a chunk of metal for the door handle squeezing it and pulling it I rolled it out and let it dry. Samuel came in and announced “it’s time for capture the flag.”
By the time I got to the pavilion almost everybody was there. I had suited up with armor that fit my broad shoulders. I had gone to the weaponry that changed from a sword to a spear with my will. I wore a red war helmet with the Ares and the Hermes cabin. All the other cabins were on the blue team. “ GO!” Chiron yelled. “ Come on Theo” Samuel said, pulling me along through the hoard of people trying to hide their flag. “This way,” He said. Samuel pulled me into the forest and along a long narrow river for about half a mile. Then, we turned right, even deeper into the forest and came out in a clearing. He perched the flag on top of the rock and told the Hermes cabin to guard it. The Ares cabin and the Hephaestus cabin went into battle. I had no Idea where the other flag was and they had the Athena cabin which, were like the smartest campers at Camp Half-Blood. I saw a few people up ahead and the battle began. Lauren from the Athena cabin sliced through three of the Hephaestus cabin before being taken down by the Ares cabin. By the way this is not killing only injuries. I was pinned down by Felix in the Athena cabin. Mustering all of my strength I managed to push him off but it wasn’t easy. I saw Hestia a few yards whirling through people with a new weapon. I looked ahead and realized I had an opening. I sprinted through the gap with two people following. Just saying, it is not easy to run with fifty pounds of armor on you. It kept weighing me down and I almost tripped twice but I outran them.
I saw the flag, it was right in front of me. I sprinted towards it but somebody jumped down in front of me. “ You thought it was going to be that easy.” It was Ally from the Athena cabin. Her amber eyes shone down on her leather boots. I backed away, while she unsheathed her sword. I pulled out my weapon and turned it into a sword. She didn’t know that it could change into a spear, so that was an advantage, but pretty much everything else was against me. She striked, I parried. I striked, she parried. She was about to parry again when she spun around and slit me on the thigh. She hammered my chest with the handle of her sword and then turned it around and smacked me straight in the face. It stung and I fell to the ground. I felt a small line of blood trickle from my face down to my shirt. I was so dizzy, laying flat on my back I felt my chest heaving. She looked down at me as if to say you poor thing and I struck. My sword turned into a spear and flipped her onto her back. I grabbed the flag and limped through the woods ending up on our side holding the flag in victory. My thigh was still stinging from the cut Ally had given me. Everybody was cheering but I felt dizzy, then, I collapsed.
Anna
“ Hi.” I looked over my shoulder and saw Hestia striding toward me. “ Is Theo okay?” “ Should be, minor injuries,” I replied. The wind from the sky made my hair fly up into my face. I kept pushing it down but it just came right up again, annoying. It was almost after 9, curfew. “ Night Anna.” Hestia smiled and strode back toward her cabin.
I stayed up till nine watching the stars go up from the horizon. The beach glimmered in the moonlight and the water became a deep purple. The cabins lights went off and I jogged back into the Apollo cabin.
The morning light jarred me awake. Everybody from the cabin was gone. I changed, showered, and went to my daily classes. First, I hit the lava rock wall where you had to climb it fast enough without the lava reaching you. I just managed to reach the top without being seared by lava but my shoe had gotten a little charred. I rappelled off of the wall and decided I would go to my Greek class where I learned Greek. Surprisingly it wasn’t hard, the first day I had started I already could read some of it and I got better every lesson. The spring day felt warm against my face. The trees seemed to rustle with joy as they got their flowers back. I heard Chiron galloping toward me and I turned around. “ A prophecy is about to be spoken. Come quickly.” I stood up and followed him into the big house.
Theo and Hestia were already there. “ Anna do you know that Gaia tried to rise and the Romans and the Greeks working together just barely beat her,” “ Well I now believe that Ouranus is trying to rise and this time he has almost all of the Titans on his side,” “ This prophecy is going to send three of you on a quest and I believe it is meant to be you three.” “ Why us, I mean we’re pretty new to this camp and don’t even know much about our powers.” “ True but it said A child of fire a child of light a child of wisdom come to a fight. Two of the group save another with powers so rare.The sun getting smaller and night growing large. without the world would dissolve.”
“ Okay that was kind of freaky,” Theo stated. I was about to say the same thing but Theo said it before me. “ What does that mean?” I asked. “ It means that Theo and Anna have abilities that are very rare. It also means that you will be going to the Roman camp Tomorrow morning.”
I packed a backpack full of clothes and supplies and Lauren gave me a special bag the size of a handkerchief. “ It can carry your bows.” “How?” I asked. “ Magic.” She smiled and winked the walked toward her bunk.
I got up at 3 a.m for no apparent reason at all. I wore sweatpants a workout shirt and the bag Lauren had gave me was clipped to my pocket, hanging out like a little present. I put on my camp Half-Blood hoodie and watched the Athena Parthenos towering over me. Her eyes seemed to glow red. She was forty feet tall and was just discovered by a girl named Annabeth who went on a quest to find her.
At 5 a.m Hestia came up the hill followed by Theo. The sun was starting to come up the hill where I sat. It’s colors mixed together so well. I knew that it was Apollo’s sun chariot rising above the skyline. I was pretty sure he was in a Maserati form today. Lauren came up the hill with a Chariot pulled by 4 pegasus for extra power. She held up a map in her hand and waved for us to come down. We jogged down the hill toward her and the Chariot. “ This is where you will be going.” She pointed at California. “ Once you get there you will hear another prophecy that will tell you where to go next.” “ Why is it in California, like the farthest state away from us?” I asked. “ I don’t know,” she smiled and handed us the map. There was a line traced from camp half-blood to camp Jupiter the Roman camp. I nodded my head, we hugged and said goodbye. Then, we climbed in the chariot and took off at blinding speed.
First of all I am going to name the one on the left Devil because he kept trying to snap up geese for his breakfast. All of the other horses kept their space between them and Devil but then the chariot kept tipping to the right. I didn’t know how to drive a chariot very well but I got better at it. Overtime the horses came accustomed to Devil and they all got along pretty well. After about 6 hours of flying the Pegasus’s wings started drooping so we set down in Tiffin, Ohio. We set down in a small park near downtown. I’m not sure what the mortals saw but the mist obscured their vision well enough that they didn’t bother us. Theo and Hestia went to get some hay for the pegasi and I stayed to protect the Chariot.
Theo and Hestia were not back after an hour and I started to get worried when I heard a rustle in the bush behind me. I thought there you are, turned around and realized that I was wrong. Ten harpies surrounded me, they had the body of a vulture and eyes like daggers. They sneered at me and I could smell a dead carcass probably one that they already ate. I refused to believe that it was Theo or Hestia. At close range a bow would do no good in this situation. I had no other weapon except a small pocket knife and that wouldn't do any good either. I knew that harpies could fly and then an idea struck me. I unclipped the bag that Lauren had given and pulled both of my bows out and set them down on the ground. The harpies laughed and their black feathers flew up into the air releasing the dust and grime into my nose. I coughed and sputtered while they advanced. Two of them flew up into the air while the other three advanced. I had to time this perfectly the wind kept blowing the bag different ways, this was crucial. One of the harpies dived and the other struck, I could only do one at once. I tossed the bag up in the air and the harpy that was diving disappeared into it. One of the harpies had already clawed my leg and it was bleeding pretty badly but I decided not to think about that right now. “ Who wants to go next?” I yelled ferociously. Three foolish harpies stepped up and my bag swallowed them whole. There was only one left, it flew around and pecked me in the back of the leg. I fell to the ground, it thought that was so easy so it tried to peck me again but the wind shifted and I threw the bag into the air, it caught the harpy in mid dive and the bag floated sleepily back to me.
Theo
When we got back to the chariot and Pegasi we found Anna bandaging her leg, she looked exhausted and there were claw marks all over her legs and arms. There was a big gash below the kneecap that was obviously causing her a great deal of pain. She had eaten a little bit of ambrosia and it looked to me that the cuts seemed to be mending themselves. “ What happened?” I asked. She looked up as if she had just noticed us. “ Harpies attacked.” Again she said this as if it was no big deal. “ How about next time we don’t split up.” Hestia suggested. “ Sure.” Anna seemed distracted, I could tell she was trying not to scrunch up her face in pain and her eyes seemed to water. “ You okay.” Hestia said gently. “ Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Anna was wincing the entire time she said that sentence. “ Is there anything on my back?” Anna asked. “ Let me see,” Hestia volunteered. She inspected Anna’s back then gasped. Hestia covered her mouth as if she wished to stuff those sounds back in her mouth. There was a HUGE gash on Anna’s back it trickled so much blood that I wished I hadn’t seen it. Hestia quickly covered it with a cloth. Anna didn’t seem surprised by this news. She instructed Hestia how to help heal her but I knew that we couldn’t wait for Anna to heal. We had to keep going. Anna could rest in the back of the Chariot while me and Hestia took turns driving. Not that I was an expert Chariot driver but if we stayed here for more than two nights just more things would attack. We decided that we stay for the night then leave early in the morning.
The next day we harnessed the horses and fed them enough to keep them going for up to 8 hours. We also had some more in the Chariot for our next stop. Anna was still sleeping so I set down some hay in the back of the Chariot and set Anna down on the hay. We set off at the brink of dawn and soared over the horizon with no turbulence at all.
At half past noon we landed to get a snack. We had landed right in front of somewhere called Elise’s grill and decided to take a look. I realized that this was a steakhouse. It had stone arches in the center of the room going down to the center where a giant glass chandelier hang. It was packed with people all crowding together at different tables. A waitress came up to us and asked us how many. She had a sweet smile but it hid something else, mischief, I wasn’t sure that we should trust her. I smiled and fingered three, then she led us to a table.
There were three men next to us dressed in leather, black coats. They were whispering about something and kept glancing over at us. I already knew that this wasn’t good but I decided not to tell Anna or Hestia. Speaking of Anna, she looked better but I’m not sure that she felt better. Her eyes were distant as if looking into another world. The cuts and scrapes that she had were looking much better and I kind of felt guilty that we left her all alone. She fended the harpies off all by herself which, I was guessing, was very hard to do. “ Hey, Hestia,” I whispered. She looked over at me, “ what?” She asked. “ I don’t know if I trust those guys over there.” I nodded my head their way. “ Yeah me too,” “ Should we get out of here?” I whispered. “ Not until we have a real reason to,” She said. The waitress brought us our food and we ate until we had our fill, then, we had a real reason to leave. The men next to us started bubbling and I decided that that was not a good sign. We burst out of the building running at top speed with something chasing us, though I was not sure what I knew that it was not good. Anna was still weak so she held onto our shoulders and ran. This gave us a boost of speed but it was still gaining on us. I reached the chariot and started hitching up the horses but we wouldn’t have enough time. Anna pulled out her bow and vaporized it. Wow, could it really have been that simple. Nope, the figure came out 3 seconds later but Anna kept shooting arrows and it kept vaporizing. This was going to buy us just enough time. We took off just before the thing grabbed onto the chariot.
Hestia
Anna fell asleep once we were in the air and I took over the chariot. My eyes felt heavy but Theo had flown it here last time and we had been making steady progress. We landed after about 55 minutes just to regenerate the horses energy. We slept there through night and then started our journey again. The horses seemed rested so we flew for a while this time. The horses picked up speed and we flew very fast this time, landing in Colorado. The mountains stretched all around us staring into the vast horizon. When we had landed we had flown for almost 12 hours and Anna had just woken up. She seemed much better after so much sleep but I was not. Theo had slept as well and looked rested. I decided we would just get take out because of our last restaurant experience. We got food then took off.
I woke up at 5 in the afternoon to screeching. Theo was frantically trying to wake me up and he had just succeeded. “ Hestia, Hestia,” he kept shaking me. I blinked and looked around. There were wind spirits all around us driving the horses mad. They kept ignoring Theo’s shake of the reins and plummeting downward only to go up again. I was dizzy from all of the up and down but rested fine. The chariot shook again and I stood up almost tumbling over the edge from the violent shaking. Anna had turned green and was in the means of plummeting something into the city below us. I felt the same way. “ Hestia, you Kopis.” Theo howled through the deafening wind. “ Right,” I said but only loud enough so that I could hear myself. I slipped it out my pocket. Another bump shook the chariot and I plummeted over the side. I was falling for less than a second when I jabbed my Kopis into the chariot’s wood, even though it was strong wood it still creaked under my weight. I grabbed my swiss army knife out of my pocket and also jabbed that into the wood. I jerked my Kopis out and planted it just a few inches higher, just enough for me to reach the side of the chariot. I pulled myself up along with my weapons. “ Oh god Hestia, I thought you were dead.” “ I was only down there for a minute.” I told him. He gave me a stern look then went back to fighting the wind spirits. I jabbed one with my Kopis and it evaporated but they moved quickly and were hard to catch. Another time I jabbed one and thought for sure I had got one but it had moved and I almost tumbled over the side again. I hit the last wind spirit by almost jumping over the side of the chariot but my kopis had tumbled out of my hand, I knew it would come back when I called it.
The Night came quickly and I woke up to the beat of Pegasus wings. Theo was about to nod off so I took the reins and let him sleep. It was a nice night to be out, not a cloudy one, and the beat of the Pegasi wings was very calming. I thought about what we were about to get into. I had thought a lot about the prophecy and I realized it was Ouranos rising. The day was growing very short even though it was becoming springtime. Ouranos was rising.
Over the next few days we landed in different towns including Salt Lake city and Carson city in Nevada. Finally at about 3 in the afternoon we landed in Yosemite National Park, California. The day was cloudy but still around 75 degrees. We had landed on top of a hill that went down the side of the highway into a small tunnel guarded by two teenagers. Nobody seemed to notice the teenagers as their cars were passing by them and disappeared into a tunnel under the highway that we stood on now. We left the pegasi to graze as we made our way down the hill. We brought our weapons down the hill, all knowing that this could be the last time I would see my friends. The sun was already going down and it was becoming severely breezy. My hair whipped around in the wind smacking me in the face every so often. We were almost to the tunnel entrance when the teenagers saw us walking towards them. They were whispering and their eyes were wild with fear. I could hear the loud echoing of a battle inside the tunnel. This soon, no it couldn’t be but yet it was. Chiron had told us it would begin in 2 weeks and we had gotten there within one. “ What is your business here,” One scrawny looking boy said. His voice surprised me because it was so rough and grueling. “ Camp-Half blood” I said with a disheartening tone. “ Chiron sent us.” “ Your names?” the boy asked. “ Theo,” I said pointing at him, “ Anna,” I pointed at her. “ And that is Hestia.” Anna said pointing at me, sparing me the embarrassment of having to point at myself. I nodded thankfully in her direction but she wasn’t looking. The two guards nodded and showed us with open hands a clear passage into the mist beyond.
They led us down the passage, trembling with fear, I followed. I could already hear the screams and roars coming from ahead and I wasn’t so sure if this was a good idea after all. I stuttered for a moment but the guards pushed me along. It felt like we were prisoners for a moment but then a calming voice soothed me. “ You sure you want to do this, I mean it’s practically Hades in there.” Theo stiffened up and kept walking at a brisk pace. Okay, so that was a yes.
When we reached the battle zone I turned back around and tried to sprint back out but there was a wall and I ran into it. Anna had tried to do the same thing and now, also had a bump on her nose. Theo had stayed put his eyes wide in shock. Let me explain this casually, otherwise you may faint. There were around two hundred roman warriors all in the middle of the battle. I could tell the battle had only begun an hour ago because everybody was fighting with renewed strength. There were weapons of all sort flying around. Ballistae cannons were lined up against the camps boundaries shooting every few seconds, turning the monsters to dust. The sky seemed to be blood red and the grass had turned gray with specks of blood here and there. “ Well what are we waiting for,” Theo said, as he forged straight into the battle. I wasn’t sure that I was ready for this but I had to try.
Anna
I was so immersed in battle I was barely thinking. Though I was in a safer place than Theo or Hestia I didn’t feel very safe. Once Theo had taken off into battle I had taken off up into the hillside so I could get good aim. I realized quickly that I would need more arrows as there were hundreds of monsters, Dracanae, Chimera’s, Nemean Lions, and even a Hydra that towered over everyone. The not smart people that cut off the Hydra’s heads celebrated, only to realize that 2 heads grew back in their place. I could see Hestia amidst the monsters twirling around and cutting monsters. She even managed to jab a Nemean Lion in the mouth, which roared but didn’t attack as it was to busy nursing the roof of it’s mouth. Theo had cut down plenty of monsters with his sword/spear but there were still more. I could already tell that the Romans were getting tired and even Hestia and Theo were slowing down. I knocked a few well placed arrows and hit seven monsters but there were still at least six hundred more. I wondered how Ouranos had gotten such a big group of monsters.
One more hour passed, then another. The soldiers could barely stand and Theo was hobbling along on a cut he had on his leg. Then, disaster struck. A huge cyclopes came into the field braking through walls of stone. He sent a fist down on Hestia. She dodged it, but barely and started running. But the Cyclopes was at least 20 feet tall and didn’t even have to take a step before he grabbed Hestia. He started squeezing her tighter and tighter. Hestia was screaming but her face was turning whiter by the second. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to breathe. I could tell her ribs were not doing so well and her face was turning purple now. Her limbs were becoming limp and I was sure we only had seconds. I was so angry. “ NOBODY HURTS MY FRIEND.” I bellowed but it wasn’t just my voice it was combined with something much stronger, Theo. We both let out bursts of light that we didn’t even know that we possessed. My let was bright yellow, the sun and Theo’s light was orange, fire. When they were combined they turned boiling red and shot straight at the Cyclopes. His eyes turned in horror for just a second at us then he turned to dust and was wisped away in the wind. Hestia fell from his fist and in one last burst of energy I lowered to the ground with my light. Then, classic, I collapsed.
Theo
I woke up at Camp Half-Blood a week later. I had collapsed to and lying next to me in another twin bed was Anna. She was just waking and looked over at me. I felt fully rested and could hear Roman soldiers outside the infirmary. There were a few Roman soldiers in other beds. They were just leaving and a few of them even sprang out of bed like they were taking a nap. “How did we do that,” I asked. Anna shrugged and drank some nectar from the bedside table. “ I don’t know. Maybe when we’re angry or scared, or even when someone’s in danger we react together.” I nodded.
Me and Anna went to go see the stars and sat down next to Hestia in the strawberry fields. “ You okay.” I only asked because she was clutching her ribs. “ Fine, thanks for saving me.” “ No problem.” Anna swished her hair back playfully and we all laughed together. It was at that moment that I realized I had found a family. We laughed just like old times and layed back to watch the stars shooting past.
THE END
BY Allison W. (Published March 2019)
Hestia
I climbed out of bed my eyes felt like bags. My slippers were right under me and I slipped them on. “ Hestia” my father called. I came downstairs and my father's eyes seemed to light up the whole room. His glow seemed to radiate the whole house. A small frame hung above the refrigerator. My mother's eyes seemed to be ablaze, if only I could still see her. She had left when I was 2 years old. I still don’t know why. There was a layer of frost hanging right above the lawn. A car passed our house with blaring music. I ate my breakfast quickly. The bus came to a stop in front of my lawn and I hopped on saying goodbye to my father in the process. Another few months at boarding school even though most of the kids came home for the weekends I stayed for months at a time. My father waved goodbye and I climbed aboard the bus. A few kids laughed at me as I got on because I stumbled up a few of the stairs. I sat in the back of the bus where only a few kids sat. I sighed and laid my head back on the headrest.
I woke up a few hours later with kool-aid all over my shirt and chips in my hair. A few kids were in my face still splashing kool aid on my shirt. They were hysterically laughing when my eyes grew wide. I was so angry, the bus lurched to a stop and I lugged my bag onto the sidewalk. Coke cans covered the ground with even more litter than I remembered. The brick building looked like a prison with it’s graying walls and rotten bars. When you stepped inside it looked like a mansion, with its glass chandeliers and red carpet lining the walls. The outside was very deceiving. I went straight to my dorm where I set down all my luggage and belongings. I decided to get a shower and clean up before dinner that night.
Theo and Anna were waiting at the table for me when I sat down. They were the only people that were nice to me at the boarding school since I had ADHD. Both of them had disorders to dyslexia. We ate our dinner, roast beef and vegetables then went up to bed. Theo went to the boys dormitories and Anna went up with me. We picked the two corner beds farthest away from everyone and drew a curtain between the walls to keep unwanted visitors away. Footsteps came up the stairs and me and Anna stopped talking right away. A few girls were laughing really hard and they were considered the cool girls. “Ooh look” one of them said. “Anna and Hestia have closed the curtains let’s go peek inside.” I exchanged a rugged look with Anna and we dropped onto our pillows pretending to be asleep. The curtain open and shattered to the ground. “Oops,” Vanessa said. She was obviously the leader of the group. The girls started laughing again and ran away. One of the girls looked at me she was probably about my age, 12 and she looked horrified. “Come on little sis” Vanessa said and the little girl scrambled away giving me a longing look.
I shook Anna awake so we could sprint downstairs and take a shower before the mean girls hogged them the whole morning. Anna and me put our robes on and scurried downstairs to get a shower. I got out after a few minutes and put my clothes on in a changing room. It took a few more minutes to dry my hair but we both stepped out of the bathroom as the mean girls were coming in. Just in time. A line was already forming for breakfast at 7:30 A.M. We jumped in line for breakfast right before a group of twenty boys came in. We got breakfast, ate it, and took a hike in the woods. Hestia loved the woods and so did Anna, Anna always brought her bow everywhere. She had set up countless targets in the woods and could hit them from up to a hundred feet away. Today they were going to try and find some metal and craft a new bow. “ Hey guys wait up” Theo said. “There you are.” Anna exclaimed.
Theo
We set to work all looking in different directions to find some sort of metal. It usually took us a while to find metal but they always came across something metal or not. Theo would always find it first somehow though. As the hours ran on Theo brought more and more metal back to the base. We all met in a circle in the middle of the woods. Theo took a large strong stick and they set to work. They only made the arrows for fun just to play around with. Hestia and Anna set into the woods to find dry chunks of wood and they built a fire with the help of Theo. It was smouldering hot within minutes and they stuck the metal into it. Theo used sticks to prod and poke it following Anna’s orders until it had a sharp point, two curved sides, and one straight side. Anna directed many more arrows until they came upon a yellow tinted piece of metal. “ Is that what I think it is” Anna questioned. “No, it’s not gold” I replied but I didn’t quite know how I knew that. Anna sighed but directed theo’s fingers to make a bow and about 20 arrows. The metal seemed to follow his every touch. They finished off the bow with a thick piece of wood that was perfect for a bow. “ Thanks Theo” Anna said. A crack erupted from behind them, all three of them turned their heads. A Chimera stood right in front of them. Hestia thought she was hallucinating but she swore it was right in front of her. Anna notched her bow with the “gold” arrow that Theo had made. The chimera charged. Five more seconds four, three. Anna pulled the arrow back. The dark forest suddenly grew wilder. Two,one. Anna launched the faint gold glowing arrow. BOOM the Chimera exploded into dust. They were all lost for words. “Wow what just happened” Anna said. “ I’m pretty sure you killed a chimera” I said. “Let’s get back to our cabins.” I felt very tired at dinner and I was remarkably hungry. I ate with my bunkmates which weren’t the nicest to me but I think they were better than Anna and Hestia’s bunkmates. Dinner was okay that night. After dinner I went up to bed and thought about the events that just happened that day. Crazy, just crazy.
Anna
I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night and I had thought a lot about the day before. I woke up Hestia and we got a shower and went down to breakfast. The morning seemed eerily quiet and I thought just maybe that I had hallucinated the day before. Theo sat at the table and the mess hall was empty, weird there was always somebody in the mess hall no matter how early they got up. Hestia seemed confused to and Theo was grinning like every day we came down to meet him. I had gotten up at three to see the stars today and usually there were a few other people down here but nope not today just the silence.
We were in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. The stars were beautiful every night and I envisioned different animals prancing through the sky. The images were vivid and I was very good at naming constellations. The wind swirled around me and a breeze seemed to push me farther down the lawn. “Come on guys, this way.” Anna walked to the edge of the cliff peering over the railing. A small cloud of mist spiraled up toward them. “ What is that?” I said. The storm grew stronger and a chariot flew out of the mist dumping a few kids on the lawn next to us. They were around our age, and they looked exhausted. One guy was just starting to get up and brushed the dust off of his clothes. “ Sorry we were late” “Wait, wait, wait, hold on. First of all, who are you? Where did you come from? Why should we trust you and was that magic?” I spoke curiously, not to be mean. The other two girls got up as we were processing what had just happened. “ Glad to meet you to. Our names are Oliver, Eva, and Lauren . The point is we have to get you out of here. The monster is coming soon. Gather up your belongings and meet us here in about thirty minutes. Then we’ll take you to camp” Oliver said. I had no Idea what he meant but I did what he asked and ran inside, my friends trailing behind me.
Theo
I had packed up much quicker than Hestia and Anna so I decided to sit on the lawn and gaze up at the stars. The summer breeze rustled my hair. Oliver sat about 20 feet away from me in his green army jacket. His green eyes glinted in the light of the moon. I could hear a rivers rapids as they stormed by. Anna and Hestia came out of the building sprinting at top speed, their eyes were scared. “What’s wrong?” I asked them. “There was this lion that breathed fire.” They sounded very frightened and they were not scared of much so I decided that this was bad. “ Sooner than I thought.” Oliver muttered to himself. He looked up and realized we were listening. “ Time to go.” He ushered us into the flying chariot along with the other two girls we had seen earlier.
Have you ever imagined flying in a chariot, well don’t. Every bump in the air made my stomach turn over. I felt like throwing up over the railing but I realized somebody in the town below us would probably not appreciate that. “Don’t they see us?” Anna asked. “ The mist only let’s them see what they can process.” Oliver answered. “What’s the mist ?” Hestia asked. “The mist is a force that twists mortals minds so that they can’t see monsters or magic.” “Why can we see through it then” I asked. My brain was whirring trying to understand what was happening. “ We will explain everything back at Camp Half-Blood” Oliver said. “Wha.” I realized I had just said that and closed my mouth immediately. Everybody was quiet for the next 30 minutes and I drifted off to sleep. Lauren woke me up. “ We will be arriving in camp Half-blood soon.” I looked down and saw a small valley with strawberry fields and a thick forest surrounding it. Cabins formed almost a rectangular shape around a field. A chariot racing track was in the middle of the valley and horse stables were centered on the left. A Big House was located behind the chariot racing track. “Wow, is that where we will be staying?” I asked. “In one of those cabins.” “Which one?” “I don’t know.” She didn’t sound like she was lying. Her answer was flat like she wasn’t going to talk anymore. I stared in awe at the camp. The beach was growing closer and closer as we neared the landing spot. The horses whinnied and I felt a jolt as we slipped into the grass.
That night at the dining pavilion we met more and more campers. The place was bigger than I thought and I realized we were half god and half mortal. The dining pavilion was big with wooden picnic tables lining each side. It was very warm even without a coat on because the camp enforced the borders not to let anything in. I understood why my dad was not home when I was little and a lot more things. That night we had burgers with bug juice, which tasted really good. Since we were not assigned to a cabin yet we were assigned to sleeping in the Hermes cabin where apparently all the newcomers slept. After dinner we went to the amphitheater for the sing along. The fire grew taller and taller as we sung. It’s color turning from purple to bright orange. I had never been so happy, not that I liked singing but a feeling of belonging. As we were finishing the sing along a warm orange glow emanated across my face. I didn’t know where it came from but I just thought it was from the fire. A few seconds later some people gasped and turned, pointing at me. That got pretty much everybody's attention but I realized they weren’t just pointing at me they were pointing at Hestia and Anna to. On Hestia’s head was a war helmet and perched on her arm was a screech owl. She looked terrified, almost as if Zeus had decided that she needed a shock. Anna had a Lyre hologram floating above her head with a newly crafted bow and arrow in her arm. “Everyone please calm down.” Chiron, the camp leader, and also a Centaur said. Everybody quieted down but there was still much whispering. “ Eva will escort Hestia to her new cabin, Oliver will escort Theo, and Lauren will escort Anna. Please go back to your cabins.” Chiron’s voice boomed around the amphitheater, everyone left without a word. Oliver walked toward me and nodded. “ I suspected you would be in my cabin.” “ Who’s cabin, and what just happened.” “ You got claimed by Hephaestus. The god of the forge, fire and metalworking.” I smiled awkwardly and we walked out of the amphitheater.
Anna
I was a child of Apollo! Yes, I knew I was always good at archery and had a knack with medical equipment but a child of Apollo, who knew! After I got to my cabin I knew it was meant to be. The walls were lined with Bow and Arrows, coming in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. Bows were hung above the beds of different people milling about. A small clock hung straight above the back door of the cabin. It had a sun above it and a moon below it. The moon was lit up so it shone brightly across the room. The cabin was cheery with small stone slabs hanging out of the wall next to different beds, like nightstands. There were normal twin beds lining the walls, 5 on each side of the room. The girls slept on the right well the boys slept on the left. When I entered the room everybody waved and smiled at me. I decided to hang my two bows straight above my head. The one Theo had made me slung on the left side and the one Apollo had given me on the right. I slept next to Lauren in the far side of the room. After I had changed and showered I decided to go check out what was in the back room. I stepped into the sunlight even though it was the evening. The buzzing noises of wildlife were around me. A small archery target was seen in the distance. Lauren stepped in behind me, “ This is secret you know. Nobody can no about it. Promise me you won’t tell.” “ I Promise,” I whispered. She handed me a necklace and a small coin. The coin had a bow on one side and the word Apollo written on the other side. She handed me the necklace and I strung the coin onto it, then hooked it around my neck. I nodded and she smiled to me then we turned around and walked back into our cabin.
Hestia
The god of War and Wisdom, Athena. I thought I would be Apollo, Hmmph. Well that’s that, I guess I am smarter than Anna, (Don’t tell her I said that) I have always been a planner and love strategies. I guess it makes sense but I can hopefully still spend time with my friends. Everybody here is super nice and they all accepted me into their cabin. There is this thing that they call capture the flag and usually the Athena cabin leads it. I was definitely excited about that, since I was a natural born leader. When I stepped into the cabin it was one of the best designs that I have ever seen. The 1st floor had beds lining the walls with spears, daggers, and swords on a pegboard embedded into the wall. There were stairs going up the left side of the building into a living space with couches and tables. On the tables were war maps and different strategies. Little figures of wax were on the maps showing where they would actually be. Textbooks and just normal books were on the shelf teaching you about different things. The cabin even had a domed roof with a small hole where light came through. In the back of the room a chariot stood. It had gold wings painted on the side with intricate ivory designs on the side of it. The main color of the chariot was bright red with an owl carved into the back. It had gold reins and gold lining along the chariot. It could seat 6 people. It was the coolest thing ever but I knew that it was only supposed to be used for special occasions. I went to bed that night thinking that I had found a home.
The snow flurries whirled around me. My feet keep sliding off of the cliff and the howling from the wolves did not help. I couldn’t see more than 3 feet in front of me and could hear nothing due to the wind. Things were swirling around in the sky making a thing so horrible I didn’t even want to describe it. It was so horrifying and scary it’s eyes seemed to glare at me. One of the creatures making the face whooshed past me and sent me tumbling down the cliff. The whole world seemed to be shaking then I realized there was a hand on my shoulder I burst awake gasping. Sweat pinned my head onto my pillow. I had had bad dreams before but not as terrible as this one. “ It’s alright, us demigods have bad dreams a lot.” I looked up and saw Eva’s face smiling down at me and I could see the real empathy in her face, that’s when I relaxed.
After I had showered and aten breakfast I went down to the chariot racing track. The stand included about 100 with Satyrs, Dryads, and demigods all cheering for different cabins. The most menacing of the Chariots was the Hephaestus cabin. It was Bronze with silver doors that, no doubt, held surprises that they were just waiting to release. I saw Theo coming up the bleachers and waved him over to sit with me. I was wondering where Anna was when I saw her In the Chariot smiling. I tapped Theo and pointed at Anna. “ Look,” I exclaimed. “ How did she get to race already?” Theo said, “Maybe the Apollo cabin lets the newcomers race.” “ Makes sense.” Theo nodded his head. The chariot race was about to start and I was excited.
Anna
I was scared. The sun shone bright onto our chariot lighting up our designs. Two horses stood in front of us, both bright white and blue eyes. I saw Theo and Hestia in the crowd smiling and I nervously waved back. I was going to drive the Chariot while Lauren threw weapons and kept off other teams. The clock seemed to be moving very fast. Pelicans grazed the skyline in the distance, then I heard a very loud beep. Our Chariot took off in the back of the pack but Lauren threw some sort of sword and got it stuck in the Ares cabins wheels. This was intense. A small vial of greek fire landed in our boat and Lauren yelled “ make the horses jump.” I wasn’t entirely sure how but I flicked my reins and they jumped. The whole chariot went airborne and the vial of greek fire rolled out the back exploding in mid air. We passed the Ares team but we had to get farther ahead. “ Press the green button.” Lauren yelled over the wind of the chariot. I did what she asked and gold butterflies fluttered out of the chariot going toward the other teams. “ How is that going to help?” “ You’ll see.” The butterflies landed on the horses noses and drove them all off course. The only cabin that managed to stay on course was the Hephaestus cabin and they were at least fifteen meters ahead. I tapped the horses and they gave us a burst of speed but we needed something else. “ Pull the lever,” Lauren shouted. I did what she asked and two wings came out of the side of the chariot. We soared upward and over the Hephaestus chariot then landed on the ground in front of them. They were definitely going to throw a gadget but I just had to hope Lauren could fend it off. “ Left, Right, jump.” I did what she asked but then the horses stopped 5 feet in front of the finish line. The Hephaestus cabin was catching up and I wasn’t sure what to do. Our back wheel wouldn’t work. Lauren pulled a boomerang out of the wheel and it burst into flames in her hand. She yelped but the horses moved across the finish line before the Hephaestus cabin got there. The crowd cheered but I was worried about Lauren. I willed to horses to go to the big house where I could get some ambrosia and nectar. The chariot thundered out of the stadium. Her hand was still burning and it was getting blacker. She was about to pass out. When, I got to the Big house I jumped out and got some ambrosia ( A food that healed you) and shoved it into her mouth then, I brought her back to our cabin and laid her in her bed. She closed her eyes and went into a deep sleep.
I decided I would go outside when the door creaked open. It was Blake from our cabin. “ Is she okay?” “ Should be.” I replied shaken up. The Sun on our clock had lit up and ticked 12 with a small gong. “ You should come eat.” “ Maybe.” I sighed and waved goodbye as he stepped outside and the door creaked close. I realized I was starving so I went outside into the green grass and fresh smelling air. I got some lunch from a buffet and then walked back into our cabin. I slung my bow and quiver over my shoulder and stepped through the back door of our cabin.
Hestia
It was late afternoon when I got to my cabin. Almost everybody was there discussing capture the flag plans for tomorrow. “ There you are Hestia.” Eva said as she pointed down from the top of the stairs. “ You should probably come with me. We need to get you a weapon.”
As we arrived in the weaponry I gaped in awe. There were a million different weapons ranging from bronze to gold to silver. All different shapes and sizes to! But I somehow knew that only one would work for me. I looked around trying different swords, bows, and shields. A few caught my eye but just didn’t fit right. I picked up a celestial bronze kopis and realized that was the one for me. It fit my hand perfectly and was just the right length. It was around 2 feet long and had a leather handgrip. “ I like this one,” I called out. “ Eva came over from behind a armor rack and her face turned from normal to ghostly white. “ Why do you look shocked?” “ I, well, that was Theseus’s kopis.” “ Like the Theseus. The one who killed the minotaur?” “ Yeah, but there’s also something else you should know before using it. The last time somebody used that they almost got killed. The kopis flies back to you after you throw it, or lose it but if it doesn't think you should be it’s carrier, well it comes after you.” “ So I am or I am not it’s carrier.” “ Well you touched it you can only hope now.” It was now my turn for my face to turn ghostly white. “ Just leave it here.” “Okay,” I managed to squeak. We left the armory both very frightened.
That night I barely managed to fall asleep before midnight. I was very tired and I’m not going to admit it but I may have snored. I woke up at three with something hovering over my head. When my eyes cleared I realized it was a knife. I did the only thing reasonable, I screamed. It must have been loud because everybody in my cabin woke up within two seconds. I don’t know how many other cabins I woke up but I didn’t want to think about it. I closed my eyes waiting for the Kopis to cut off my head but it just stayed there. “ Hestia what’s wro-, oh.” Blake said. “ Hestia it’s not killing you, it accepts you as it’s master.” I opened my eyes and slowly moved my hand toward the Kopis. It didn’t destroy me or cut off any part of my body! I hadn’t thought about the leather much but there was a word engraved on it, it said exypnos polemistes. “ what does that mean?” “ It means smart warrior but before it said courageous.” Lauren thought for a moment and then said, “it must change to fit the person.” I nodded, then something weird happened, the Kopis disappeared in my hand. “ What happened?” I asked. “ It’s recharging. Has to get its energy from somewhere but I don’t know,” Blake said quizzically. “ We should probably get some sleep,” I pointed out.
Theo
I woke up at daybreak, the sun shone through the circle window above my bunk. The Hephaestus cabin was amazing in how many gadgets there were. The center of the room dropped down into our cabin leader, Samuel’s, bed. There was a circle window above each bed and tons of tools lined the back wall of the dark oak cabin wall. The whole cabin itself was a semicircle with a straight line running across the back of the cabin. If you pressed certain buttons and had the right combinations the back wall would dislodge and turn ninety degrees to let you walk straight through then, would close the wall behind you. Inside was a million different crafting tools you could use. The room was in use most of the time and people were always making things new. There were blocks of metal in the back of the room you could use to craft new things. We even got to craft some of the armor for camp. I couldn’t tell who it was but there was somebody crafting a new gadget to add to our chariot. It was a little bot that got stuck in other chariots wheels. I myself was making a mini fridge for our cabin. When I came up with that Idea everybody agreed to it. I worked on it a few hours a day. I grabbed a few logs and a lighter and had a fire going within a few minutes. I crafted a chunk of metal for the door handle squeezing it and pulling it I rolled it out and let it dry. Samuel came in and announced “it’s time for capture the flag.”
By the time I got to the pavilion almost everybody was there. I had suited up with armor that fit my broad shoulders. I had gone to the weaponry that changed from a sword to a spear with my will. I wore a red war helmet with the Ares and the Hermes cabin. All the other cabins were on the blue team. “ GO!” Chiron yelled. “ Come on Theo” Samuel said, pulling me along through the hoard of people trying to hide their flag. “This way,” He said. Samuel pulled me into the forest and along a long narrow river for about half a mile. Then, we turned right, even deeper into the forest and came out in a clearing. He perched the flag on top of the rock and told the Hermes cabin to guard it. The Ares cabin and the Hephaestus cabin went into battle. I had no Idea where the other flag was and they had the Athena cabin which, were like the smartest campers at Camp Half-Blood. I saw a few people up ahead and the battle began. Lauren from the Athena cabin sliced through three of the Hephaestus cabin before being taken down by the Ares cabin. By the way this is not killing only injuries. I was pinned down by Felix in the Athena cabin. Mustering all of my strength I managed to push him off but it wasn’t easy. I saw Hestia a few yards whirling through people with a new weapon. I looked ahead and realized I had an opening. I sprinted through the gap with two people following. Just saying, it is not easy to run with fifty pounds of armor on you. It kept weighing me down and I almost tripped twice but I outran them.
I saw the flag, it was right in front of me. I sprinted towards it but somebody jumped down in front of me. “ You thought it was going to be that easy.” It was Ally from the Athena cabin. Her amber eyes shone down on her leather boots. I backed away, while she unsheathed her sword. I pulled out my weapon and turned it into a sword. She didn’t know that it could change into a spear, so that was an advantage, but pretty much everything else was against me. She striked, I parried. I striked, she parried. She was about to parry again when she spun around and slit me on the thigh. She hammered my chest with the handle of her sword and then turned it around and smacked me straight in the face. It stung and I fell to the ground. I felt a small line of blood trickle from my face down to my shirt. I was so dizzy, laying flat on my back I felt my chest heaving. She looked down at me as if to say you poor thing and I struck. My sword turned into a spear and flipped her onto her back. I grabbed the flag and limped through the woods ending up on our side holding the flag in victory. My thigh was still stinging from the cut Ally had given me. Everybody was cheering but I felt dizzy, then, I collapsed.
Anna
“ Hi.” I looked over my shoulder and saw Hestia striding toward me. “ Is Theo okay?” “ Should be, minor injuries,” I replied. The wind from the sky made my hair fly up into my face. I kept pushing it down but it just came right up again, annoying. It was almost after 9, curfew. “ Night Anna.” Hestia smiled and strode back toward her cabin.
I stayed up till nine watching the stars go up from the horizon. The beach glimmered in the moonlight and the water became a deep purple. The cabins lights went off and I jogged back into the Apollo cabin.
The morning light jarred me awake. Everybody from the cabin was gone. I changed, showered, and went to my daily classes. First, I hit the lava rock wall where you had to climb it fast enough without the lava reaching you. I just managed to reach the top without being seared by lava but my shoe had gotten a little charred. I rappelled off of the wall and decided I would go to my Greek class where I learned Greek. Surprisingly it wasn’t hard, the first day I had started I already could read some of it and I got better every lesson. The spring day felt warm against my face. The trees seemed to rustle with joy as they got their flowers back. I heard Chiron galloping toward me and I turned around. “ A prophecy is about to be spoken. Come quickly.” I stood up and followed him into the big house.
Theo and Hestia were already there. “ Anna do you know that Gaia tried to rise and the Romans and the Greeks working together just barely beat her,” “ Well I now believe that Ouranus is trying to rise and this time he has almost all of the Titans on his side,” “ This prophecy is going to send three of you on a quest and I believe it is meant to be you three.” “ Why us, I mean we’re pretty new to this camp and don’t even know much about our powers.” “ True but it said A child of fire a child of light a child of wisdom come to a fight. Two of the group save another with powers so rare.The sun getting smaller and night growing large. without the world would dissolve.”
“ Okay that was kind of freaky,” Theo stated. I was about to say the same thing but Theo said it before me. “ What does that mean?” I asked. “ It means that Theo and Anna have abilities that are very rare. It also means that you will be going to the Roman camp Tomorrow morning.”
I packed a backpack full of clothes and supplies and Lauren gave me a special bag the size of a handkerchief. “ It can carry your bows.” “How?” I asked. “ Magic.” She smiled and winked the walked toward her bunk.
I got up at 3 a.m for no apparent reason at all. I wore sweatpants a workout shirt and the bag Lauren had gave me was clipped to my pocket, hanging out like a little present. I put on my camp Half-Blood hoodie and watched the Athena Parthenos towering over me. Her eyes seemed to glow red. She was forty feet tall and was just discovered by a girl named Annabeth who went on a quest to find her.
At 5 a.m Hestia came up the hill followed by Theo. The sun was starting to come up the hill where I sat. It’s colors mixed together so well. I knew that it was Apollo’s sun chariot rising above the skyline. I was pretty sure he was in a Maserati form today. Lauren came up the hill with a Chariot pulled by 4 pegasus for extra power. She held up a map in her hand and waved for us to come down. We jogged down the hill toward her and the Chariot. “ This is where you will be going.” She pointed at California. “ Once you get there you will hear another prophecy that will tell you where to go next.” “ Why is it in California, like the farthest state away from us?” I asked. “ I don’t know,” she smiled and handed us the map. There was a line traced from camp half-blood to camp Jupiter the Roman camp. I nodded my head, we hugged and said goodbye. Then, we climbed in the chariot and took off at blinding speed.
First of all I am going to name the one on the left Devil because he kept trying to snap up geese for his breakfast. All of the other horses kept their space between them and Devil but then the chariot kept tipping to the right. I didn’t know how to drive a chariot very well but I got better at it. Overtime the horses came accustomed to Devil and they all got along pretty well. After about 6 hours of flying the Pegasus’s wings started drooping so we set down in Tiffin, Ohio. We set down in a small park near downtown. I’m not sure what the mortals saw but the mist obscured their vision well enough that they didn’t bother us. Theo and Hestia went to get some hay for the pegasi and I stayed to protect the Chariot.
Theo and Hestia were not back after an hour and I started to get worried when I heard a rustle in the bush behind me. I thought there you are, turned around and realized that I was wrong. Ten harpies surrounded me, they had the body of a vulture and eyes like daggers. They sneered at me and I could smell a dead carcass probably one that they already ate. I refused to believe that it was Theo or Hestia. At close range a bow would do no good in this situation. I had no other weapon except a small pocket knife and that wouldn't do any good either. I knew that harpies could fly and then an idea struck me. I unclipped the bag that Lauren had given and pulled both of my bows out and set them down on the ground. The harpies laughed and their black feathers flew up into the air releasing the dust and grime into my nose. I coughed and sputtered while they advanced. Two of them flew up into the air while the other three advanced. I had to time this perfectly the wind kept blowing the bag different ways, this was crucial. One of the harpies dived and the other struck, I could only do one at once. I tossed the bag up in the air and the harpy that was diving disappeared into it. One of the harpies had already clawed my leg and it was bleeding pretty badly but I decided not to think about that right now. “ Who wants to go next?” I yelled ferociously. Three foolish harpies stepped up and my bag swallowed them whole. There was only one left, it flew around and pecked me in the back of the leg. I fell to the ground, it thought that was so easy so it tried to peck me again but the wind shifted and I threw the bag into the air, it caught the harpy in mid dive and the bag floated sleepily back to me.
Theo
When we got back to the chariot and Pegasi we found Anna bandaging her leg, she looked exhausted and there were claw marks all over her legs and arms. There was a big gash below the kneecap that was obviously causing her a great deal of pain. She had eaten a little bit of ambrosia and it looked to me that the cuts seemed to be mending themselves. “ What happened?” I asked. She looked up as if she had just noticed us. “ Harpies attacked.” Again she said this as if it was no big deal. “ How about next time we don’t split up.” Hestia suggested. “ Sure.” Anna seemed distracted, I could tell she was trying not to scrunch up her face in pain and her eyes seemed to water. “ You okay.” Hestia said gently. “ Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Anna was wincing the entire time she said that sentence. “ Is there anything on my back?” Anna asked. “ Let me see,” Hestia volunteered. She inspected Anna’s back then gasped. Hestia covered her mouth as if she wished to stuff those sounds back in her mouth. There was a HUGE gash on Anna’s back it trickled so much blood that I wished I hadn’t seen it. Hestia quickly covered it with a cloth. Anna didn’t seem surprised by this news. She instructed Hestia how to help heal her but I knew that we couldn’t wait for Anna to heal. We had to keep going. Anna could rest in the back of the Chariot while me and Hestia took turns driving. Not that I was an expert Chariot driver but if we stayed here for more than two nights just more things would attack. We decided that we stay for the night then leave early in the morning.
The next day we harnessed the horses and fed them enough to keep them going for up to 8 hours. We also had some more in the Chariot for our next stop. Anna was still sleeping so I set down some hay in the back of the Chariot and set Anna down on the hay. We set off at the brink of dawn and soared over the horizon with no turbulence at all.
At half past noon we landed to get a snack. We had landed right in front of somewhere called Elise’s grill and decided to take a look. I realized that this was a steakhouse. It had stone arches in the center of the room going down to the center where a giant glass chandelier hang. It was packed with people all crowding together at different tables. A waitress came up to us and asked us how many. She had a sweet smile but it hid something else, mischief, I wasn’t sure that we should trust her. I smiled and fingered three, then she led us to a table.
There were three men next to us dressed in leather, black coats. They were whispering about something and kept glancing over at us. I already knew that this wasn’t good but I decided not to tell Anna or Hestia. Speaking of Anna, she looked better but I’m not sure that she felt better. Her eyes were distant as if looking into another world. The cuts and scrapes that she had were looking much better and I kind of felt guilty that we left her all alone. She fended the harpies off all by herself which, I was guessing, was very hard to do. “ Hey, Hestia,” I whispered. She looked over at me, “ what?” She asked. “ I don’t know if I trust those guys over there.” I nodded my head their way. “ Yeah me too,” “ Should we get out of here?” I whispered. “ Not until we have a real reason to,” She said. The waitress brought us our food and we ate until we had our fill, then, we had a real reason to leave. The men next to us started bubbling and I decided that that was not a good sign. We burst out of the building running at top speed with something chasing us, though I was not sure what I knew that it was not good. Anna was still weak so she held onto our shoulders and ran. This gave us a boost of speed but it was still gaining on us. I reached the chariot and started hitching up the horses but we wouldn’t have enough time. Anna pulled out her bow and vaporized it. Wow, could it really have been that simple. Nope, the figure came out 3 seconds later but Anna kept shooting arrows and it kept vaporizing. This was going to buy us just enough time. We took off just before the thing grabbed onto the chariot.
Hestia
Anna fell asleep once we were in the air and I took over the chariot. My eyes felt heavy but Theo had flown it here last time and we had been making steady progress. We landed after about 55 minutes just to regenerate the horses energy. We slept there through night and then started our journey again. The horses seemed rested so we flew for a while this time. The horses picked up speed and we flew very fast this time, landing in Colorado. The mountains stretched all around us staring into the vast horizon. When we had landed we had flown for almost 12 hours and Anna had just woken up. She seemed much better after so much sleep but I was not. Theo had slept as well and looked rested. I decided we would just get take out because of our last restaurant experience. We got food then took off.
I woke up at 5 in the afternoon to screeching. Theo was frantically trying to wake me up and he had just succeeded. “ Hestia, Hestia,” he kept shaking me. I blinked and looked around. There were wind spirits all around us driving the horses mad. They kept ignoring Theo’s shake of the reins and plummeting downward only to go up again. I was dizzy from all of the up and down but rested fine. The chariot shook again and I stood up almost tumbling over the edge from the violent shaking. Anna had turned green and was in the means of plummeting something into the city below us. I felt the same way. “ Hestia, you Kopis.” Theo howled through the deafening wind. “ Right,” I said but only loud enough so that I could hear myself. I slipped it out my pocket. Another bump shook the chariot and I plummeted over the side. I was falling for less than a second when I jabbed my Kopis into the chariot’s wood, even though it was strong wood it still creaked under my weight. I grabbed my swiss army knife out of my pocket and also jabbed that into the wood. I jerked my Kopis out and planted it just a few inches higher, just enough for me to reach the side of the chariot. I pulled myself up along with my weapons. “ Oh god Hestia, I thought you were dead.” “ I was only down there for a minute.” I told him. He gave me a stern look then went back to fighting the wind spirits. I jabbed one with my Kopis and it evaporated but they moved quickly and were hard to catch. Another time I jabbed one and thought for sure I had got one but it had moved and I almost tumbled over the side again. I hit the last wind spirit by almost jumping over the side of the chariot but my kopis had tumbled out of my hand, I knew it would come back when I called it.
The Night came quickly and I woke up to the beat of Pegasus wings. Theo was about to nod off so I took the reins and let him sleep. It was a nice night to be out, not a cloudy one, and the beat of the Pegasi wings was very calming. I thought about what we were about to get into. I had thought a lot about the prophecy and I realized it was Ouranos rising. The day was growing very short even though it was becoming springtime. Ouranos was rising.
Over the next few days we landed in different towns including Salt Lake city and Carson city in Nevada. Finally at about 3 in the afternoon we landed in Yosemite National Park, California. The day was cloudy but still around 75 degrees. We had landed on top of a hill that went down the side of the highway into a small tunnel guarded by two teenagers. Nobody seemed to notice the teenagers as their cars were passing by them and disappeared into a tunnel under the highway that we stood on now. We left the pegasi to graze as we made our way down the hill. We brought our weapons down the hill, all knowing that this could be the last time I would see my friends. The sun was already going down and it was becoming severely breezy. My hair whipped around in the wind smacking me in the face every so often. We were almost to the tunnel entrance when the teenagers saw us walking towards them. They were whispering and their eyes were wild with fear. I could hear the loud echoing of a battle inside the tunnel. This soon, no it couldn’t be but yet it was. Chiron had told us it would begin in 2 weeks and we had gotten there within one. “ What is your business here,” One scrawny looking boy said. His voice surprised me because it was so rough and grueling. “ Camp-Half blood” I said with a disheartening tone. “ Chiron sent us.” “ Your names?” the boy asked. “ Theo,” I said pointing at him, “ Anna,” I pointed at her. “ And that is Hestia.” Anna said pointing at me, sparing me the embarrassment of having to point at myself. I nodded thankfully in her direction but she wasn’t looking. The two guards nodded and showed us with open hands a clear passage into the mist beyond.
They led us down the passage, trembling with fear, I followed. I could already hear the screams and roars coming from ahead and I wasn’t so sure if this was a good idea after all. I stuttered for a moment but the guards pushed me along. It felt like we were prisoners for a moment but then a calming voice soothed me. “ You sure you want to do this, I mean it’s practically Hades in there.” Theo stiffened up and kept walking at a brisk pace. Okay, so that was a yes.
When we reached the battle zone I turned back around and tried to sprint back out but there was a wall and I ran into it. Anna had tried to do the same thing and now, also had a bump on her nose. Theo had stayed put his eyes wide in shock. Let me explain this casually, otherwise you may faint. There were around two hundred roman warriors all in the middle of the battle. I could tell the battle had only begun an hour ago because everybody was fighting with renewed strength. There were weapons of all sort flying around. Ballistae cannons were lined up against the camps boundaries shooting every few seconds, turning the monsters to dust. The sky seemed to be blood red and the grass had turned gray with specks of blood here and there. “ Well what are we waiting for,” Theo said, as he forged straight into the battle. I wasn’t sure that I was ready for this but I had to try.
Anna
I was so immersed in battle I was barely thinking. Though I was in a safer place than Theo or Hestia I didn’t feel very safe. Once Theo had taken off into battle I had taken off up into the hillside so I could get good aim. I realized quickly that I would need more arrows as there were hundreds of monsters, Dracanae, Chimera’s, Nemean Lions, and even a Hydra that towered over everyone. The not smart people that cut off the Hydra’s heads celebrated, only to realize that 2 heads grew back in their place. I could see Hestia amidst the monsters twirling around and cutting monsters. She even managed to jab a Nemean Lion in the mouth, which roared but didn’t attack as it was to busy nursing the roof of it’s mouth. Theo had cut down plenty of monsters with his sword/spear but there were still more. I could already tell that the Romans were getting tired and even Hestia and Theo were slowing down. I knocked a few well placed arrows and hit seven monsters but there were still at least six hundred more. I wondered how Ouranos had gotten such a big group of monsters.
One more hour passed, then another. The soldiers could barely stand and Theo was hobbling along on a cut he had on his leg. Then, disaster struck. A huge cyclopes came into the field braking through walls of stone. He sent a fist down on Hestia. She dodged it, but barely and started running. But the Cyclopes was at least 20 feet tall and didn’t even have to take a step before he grabbed Hestia. He started squeezing her tighter and tighter. Hestia was screaming but her face was turning whiter by the second. Soon, she wouldn’t be able to breathe. I could tell her ribs were not doing so well and her face was turning purple now. Her limbs were becoming limp and I was sure we only had seconds. I was so angry. “ NOBODY HURTS MY FRIEND.” I bellowed but it wasn’t just my voice it was combined with something much stronger, Theo. We both let out bursts of light that we didn’t even know that we possessed. My let was bright yellow, the sun and Theo’s light was orange, fire. When they were combined they turned boiling red and shot straight at the Cyclopes. His eyes turned in horror for just a second at us then he turned to dust and was wisped away in the wind. Hestia fell from his fist and in one last burst of energy I lowered to the ground with my light. Then, classic, I collapsed.
Theo
I woke up at Camp Half-Blood a week later. I had collapsed to and lying next to me in another twin bed was Anna. She was just waking and looked over at me. I felt fully rested and could hear Roman soldiers outside the infirmary. There were a few Roman soldiers in other beds. They were just leaving and a few of them even sprang out of bed like they were taking a nap. “How did we do that,” I asked. Anna shrugged and drank some nectar from the bedside table. “ I don’t know. Maybe when we’re angry or scared, or even when someone’s in danger we react together.” I nodded.
Me and Anna went to go see the stars and sat down next to Hestia in the strawberry fields. “ You okay.” I only asked because she was clutching her ribs. “ Fine, thanks for saving me.” “ No problem.” Anna swished her hair back playfully and we all laughed together. It was at that moment that I realized I had found a family. We laughed just like old times and layed back to watch the stars shooting past.
THE END