Me, Delia, and Calissa were walking back from the bonfire. We were laughing since we had a really good time. People were singing and dancing and laughing, all having fun. We ate lots of s’mores and sang and danced together.
I also saw the people that were in the coral-covered cabin. They didn’t seem to remember me at all after I intruded and gasped at the Cyclops. I didn’t mind because if they did remember me, it would most likely be an embarrassing situation.
As we were walking, I realized Calissa and I had nowhere to sleep that night. I knew Delia had her own cabin so I assumed we would go with her. I thought about it a little more and remembered each cabin was very unique and was for a different god or goddess. You have to sleep in the cabin of your Olympian parent. Another question arose, since I don’t know my parent, where do I go? And where does Calissa go as well?
“Uh, Delia, where are we going to go?” I asked while pointing to Cal and myself. Delia made a face that told us that she had recently remembered something.
“Oh, I almost forgot that! Come on, I’ll bring you to Hermes’ cabin,” she said gleefully. I was confused because I wasn’t Daughter of Hermes, well, at least no one knew if I was. Maybe they did and I just didn’t know because nobody told me.
She led us to the area with all of the cabins. She brought us to a specific one that had lots of people flooding inside of it. I was led to believe that this was the Hermes cabin, god of massagers, traveling, and god of thieves.
“Well, since we don’t know who you’re the children of you have to stay her until you’re claimed,” Delia explained to us. “Hermes let unclaimed children stay in his cabin. He is the god of travelers anyways.” It made sense why he let other people stay there. Not every kid gets claimed right away. Actually, not every kid gets claimed.
I hope I won’t have to be here for the rest of my life. I really hope I get claimed. I told myself. He closer to the cabin and I noticed something right away. Some of the kids looked very similar to each other, with mischievous grins, blue eyes, or curly black (or salt and pepper) hair. Others looked completely different from each other.
I figured out the mischievous looking ones were the children of Hermes, and they were stuck with a large group of strangers. I felt bad for them because they actually belonged there while the others were just taking up space. They should’ve had a special cabin for the other people.
We walked into the building after everyone settled down. When they saw us walk in, almost everyone turned their head. I was surprised because it was so loud and crowded, I didn’t believe anyone would noticed if a giant, green cat with five heads walked in and ate half the people here. Never mind three girls that didn’t belong.
“You guys have two new members! Be nice to them, they never even knew there was a Camp Half-Blood,” she told them. One of the kids with black hair and blue eyes walked up. I assumed he was one of Hermes, since he looked like him, even though I never actually met him before.
“Determined or undetermined?” he asked. Was confused since I didn’t know what he meant by that. Most of the kids looked anxious for Delia to respond, like this was a very important question.
“Undetermined,” she responded. A lot of them looked disappointed, like they wanted her to say ‘determined’.
“Rosie and Cal, you’re going to be sleeping here until you get claimed by your parent. I can’t stay with you because I’m in the Apollo cabin, cabin number 7. You have to do stuff with them, as a group. If you really want to, I can probably sit with you during lunch. I have to go now, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. She hugged us both and left. That was the first time she told me who her parent was, Apollo.
I probably should’ve guessed it. She was blonde with blue eyes, she was always very popular, she is very nice, and she cared a lot about her looks. I learned about him in my Greek class.
“So, now what?” Cal whispered to me. As if he was eavesdropping, someone walked up to us and told us to put our stuff in any empty spot.
“There are some in the corners. I’m assuming you girls want to be next to each other, so I suggest right there in the middle,” he pointed to the very center of the room, which had a space big enough for two sleeping bags.
“I’ll be back with some stuff for you to sleep-“
“Oh we have our own stuff since we were camping, so you don’t need to get anything,” Cal cut him off before he could finish. She must’ve liked her sleeping back a lot because she seemed she didn’t want anything else to sleep on.
“Well, okay, if you guys need anything, uh, come find me,” he finished before he ran off to join some friends.
I had to pull out a few items out of my bag before I reached my sleeping bag. I laid it out on the ground, but it was scrunched up. I didn’t know why, but I had some trouble setting up my sleeping spot. Cal easily convinced some guys to set everything up for her. It was all perfect and neat, and she didn’t do anything.
She actually does stuff like that a lot. If she doesn’t want to do something, she can convince anyone to do anything for her. One time, she convinced all of her teachers to raise her grades up to A’s and B’s instead of C’s.
They eventually realized she didn’t deserve the grades and they were confused on how she got them. They must’ve forgotten how she convinced them because she got in a lot of trouble, so she never did it again. It’s like a skill Cal has. The skill of persuading and convincing.
After we were all settled, someone called ‘lights out’ and we all had to go to sleep. That night, I had the very same dream I kept on having. The deer the wolf, the forest, and the stars. It even had the lightning and the thunder added to it at the end like my most recent dream.
But, something different happened. The remaining deer turned to me, like I was actually there. ‘Ambrosia, it’s time,’ it said to me. Everything shook a few times and stopped. ‘Come on! Everyone’s leaving!’ I said again. The scene shook one more time, and then I immediately woke up.
“Oh good, you’re up!” a voice said. I was tired so my eyesight was blurry.
I couldn’t make out the figure in front of me. I instinctually blinked and helped clear everything up. I realized Cal was talking, and she was trying to wake me up. I looked at her and noticed an orange shirt on her body. Cal never wears orange shirts because they ‘make her look fat’ which doesn’t make sense because that’s wake horizontal stripes do… I think.
Cal was obsessed with was she looked like and the latest fashion. But I was completely different. I had absolutely no interest in my looks. I mean, I wont wake up, put on some rags, and walk out without doing anything. I’ll fix my hair and put on decent clothes, but nothing to serious.
“Orange?” Was the first thing I asked. I was still too tired to ask an entire question. She looked down at her shirt and frowned.
I looked at it closer and noticed writing on it. It took a while but I eventually made out what it said. It read; Camp Half-Blood. I was the same shirt that Delia was wearing. I remembered that everyone I saw was wearing the same t-shirt.
“Ugh, ya. That horse guy told me I have to wear it. I’m going to ask him later id he was another color. Oh, and you get one too!” She handed me a shirt exactly like the one she was wearing.
I looked around the room and noticed me were the only ones in it. They must’ve left while Cal stayed behind to wait for me. She told me to put the shirt on so I quickly did.
“So, where did everyone go?” I asked after I finished getting dressed. She pulled my arm and led me outside.
“They said something about making swords with hepha… aphi… hephist-“
“Hephaestus,” She was obviously having trouble pronouncing his name so I helped her out.
“Yeah thanks! We are making swords with the Hephaestus cabin,” She smiled as if accomplished something. We started walking towards the building Cal said was called the forge. She seemed like she already knew a lot about Camp Half-Blood.
“How do you know this much about this place?” I asked her. Her face grew bright and she smiled.
“Well, there was this group of boys that started talking to me, so I um, started asking them questions. They were really nice, and kind of cute,” she whispered the last part so no one could hear, even though there weren’t many people around. I rolled my eyes because that was typical of Cal. She is always flirting with boys, no matter the circumstance.
We walked for a few minutes and reached a building. I recognized a few people from the cabin. One of them was sneaking behind someone. He reached into their back pocket and took out a few golden coins of some sort. The kid he was stealing from immediately turned around and swiped the coins back. A few coins were laughing but they stopped after they received some dirty looks. A guy then came out of the crowd and spoke to everyone.
“Everyone, you remember the rules when making swords. No breaking other peoples work. No stabbing or piercing, and no pouring molten metal on anyone. Now, who’s ready to make some weapons?” The members of our cabin cheered and shouted.
The people flooded into the building that I believed was the forge. Me and Cal had to push and shove our way through so we wouldn’t be very last, which I was used to anyways. Once we got inside, it was very hot. I imagined that this would what it would feel like on the sun. I looked around and saw a few people trying to get everyone organized.
“Eww gross! I’m starting to sweat and my hair is going to get frizzy! Ugh, this is totally awful,” Cal complained. She was using her hand as a fan and trying to cool herself off. I knew it wouldn’t work, they only way to cool off in here would be to swim in a pool of ice. I felt a bead of sweat slowly drip down my face.
I saw a boy that was unfamiliar. He was shaggy brown hair that was very messy. It was probably from working in here all the time. His eyes were a deep brown and his skin had a golden tan. Compared to the other kids around him that were working on swords and armor and such, I would say he was the best looking. Not that it mattered to me.
He looked at me and smiled. He tilted his head, gesturing for me to come over. I hesitated and looked around, making sure he meant me. No one else seemed to pay attention so I walked over.
“I never saw you around here before, you must be new here. What’s you’re story?” he asked me. I didn’t want to tell him because I still got weak when I remembered that monster. I just shook my head and looked down.
“Oh, I understand. Lot’s of people have sad or disturbing stories. Well, what’s you’re name? I’m Aaron, son of Hephaestus,” he just came right out and introduced himself. I recalled the story of Hephaestus and remembered that he wasn’t supposed to look so attractive since he got thrown from Mount Olympus. He looked okay to be the descendant of an ‘ugly’ person. No offense.
Aaron seemed to scan be over and then stopped to think. He held up his pointer finger signaling for me to wait. He left and then came back a few minutes later. He had an object in his hands that seemed to shine.
“I don’t strike you has a sword person. Here, I found this for you,” he said. “And don’t tell anyone else I gave this to you okay? It’s our little secret,” I nodded and agreed to not tell anyone. He held out a bronze object and a pack with some small bronze things in it. I gasped when I realized what it actually was and snatched it out of his hands to observe it closer.
The bigger item was a large bow. It was made out of what I though was bronze. It looked very high quality, and better than any bow I have ever used before. Instead of the main part being like a crescent, it had an indent in the middle, which made it stronger, and sturdier.
I looked at the bag and realized it was a quiver full of arrows. Each arrow looked to be handcrafted and the tips were also made of bronze. These were items that I would’ve never though of owning. I love to shoot arrows and I think I’m pretty good at it, but to own a professional bow and arrow never crossed my mind. I ran my finger over the bow and felt each individual piece of metal that was used to make it. It was beautiful.
“I made it myself. You should have it, I don’t know anyone that would want it. Well, it’s not like it’s that good-“
“It’s wonderful,” I cut him off. I spoke the truth because it truly was a wonderful set. I put the quiver old my shoulder and had the boy go the opposite direction. It was a comfortable fit.
“If you want, you can test it outside. I’m sure there ill be a few suitable targets. I don’t think anyone would notice you left,” he told me. I didn’t know what to say because I was beaming with joy.
“Thank you so much!” I told him and ran outside. I didn’t make it too far before someone called my name. I turned around to see a horse. I realized it wasn’t a horse, but it was a man. My mind was confused until I remembered he was the centaur that I met yesterday.
“I’m glad I found you! I need to speak with you. Your friend is back at the Big House as well. Oh, I see you found a suitable weapon. I like your taste,” he spoke. I noticed for the first time he had a bow and arrow as well. It looked very nice, but I thought mine was better.
He led me to the big blue house that I saw when I first arrived at the camp. The same chipping paint and old-looking wood. On the porch, I saw Cal sitting at the small table, waiting for us. She turned her head towards our direction and stood up as soon as she saw us.
“Rosie! You left we in the middle of that hot and stuffy room all alone! Ugh, my hair is all puffy now,” she would’ve went on and on about her hair and makeup if Chiron didn’t stop her.
“Well, we have some things to discuss, come inside,” He said. I wasn’t sure to expect, but I knew it was important.