The Shadow Archer Twins

As we pulled into Camp, I felt like my life wasn’t worth living anymore. I tried as hard as I could, but I couldn’t get the image of Jake hanging like a ragdoll from the safehouse wall out of my mind. It had seared into my memory, irreversible and painful. Argus opened the doors for us, and I looked down onto a familiar sight. The valley of Camp Half-Blood stretched in front of me, with the strawberry fields and the Big House, and everything that I had come to know and love over the years. Of course, now, there was the huge roman camp to the East, only a quarter mile down the road. It was positioned in a way to let people in to the Camp, but to not them out into Manhattan, which puzzled me, because Argus had shown up on time to pick us up. They must not have blocked him. I can’t blame the Romans for that. If you ever have the displeasure of having to look Argus in his eyes when he is staring at you, his body a sea of glowing blue pupils, you’ll do what he wants.

Anyway, the Roman camp looked like one of those portable circuses that had merged with a with a war convoy. Two massive tents were surrounded by about 200 individual tents, making it look like a sea of canvas had just appeared on the side of the Long Island turnpike. It was organized, though, not some blob of arranged tents. Every soldier had his specific tent, almost laid out with its own address. I guess the two massive tents were for the praetor, Reyna, and the war council, respectively. In a way, the portable camp made sense. Why they had decided to attack us, however, that was still a mystery to me.

“Please tell me you’re from the camp with the strawberry fields, and not the one with the war tents,” Tox said nervously, “Because I couldn’t take it if I had to be crammed into one of those every night.”

“Don’t worry,” I assured him, “I’m from Camp Half-Blood, and, gods willing, you’ll be able to say the same thing.”

Still nervous, he asked, “Why gods willing?”

“Because if your parent appeared to your mother in his roman form, you’ll be going to Camp War Tent.”

“Those are the Romans?” Katie asked, shocked, “I thought you said they had their camp in California!”

“Yeah, I did say that. But I also told you guys that they decided to attack our camp, which is why they’re here now.”

We crossed the magical border, signified by Thalia’s Pine, and Katie and Tox stepped away as quick as humanly possible when I went up to greet the guard dragon, Peleus. He was full size now, twice as thick as the tree, with the Golden Fleece hanging in the lowest branch. There had been talk of removing the Fleece to protect it from the Romans, but after Peleus had gotten really upset when some campers tried to move it, we decided to leave the Fleece where it was.
Carrying the three archery cases, I led the two of them to the Big House, where Chiron greeted us.

“Hello, child,” Chiron said amiably. He had a twinkle of sympathy in his eyes, and was trying to be comforting, but it was no use. I still felt horrible. I felt alone, scared, and as if a part of me had gone missing to a place where it could never return. I missed Jake.

“I heard about your friend, Mr. Campbell. I trust that he is making Elysium, or applying for rebirth. He was always ambitious, you know.”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice cracking under the pain, “He was, wasn’t he?”

Katie and Tox were standing at a respectful distance, looking at Chiron, who was in his full centaur form, in awe. Eager to change subject, Chiron said,

“Please, Malcolm, introduce me to your two recruits, children of—?”

As if on cue, two glowing symbols appeared over Tox and Katie’s heads. The symbols were identical, white instruments, crosses between a harp and a violin. They were lyres, which could only mean one god.

“Cabin 7. Apollo,” Chiron concluded. “Powerful ones you’ve brought in, Malcolm, I must congratulate you. It is always good to see one of the twin children of Leto and Zeus having twins of their own. It provides a sense of continuity.”

Still bitter, though not at Chiron, I spat, “Well, thanks for the praise, but I’m not in the mood for congratulations right now.” I took a breath to calm my anger, and said, “Fortunately, my theory has been proved. I had an idea that they were Apollo’s kids after Katie displayed incredible skill at healing after Tox was bitten by the Chimera. She was almost as good as you.”

I looked to my left and saw Katie blushing, and she started to say,

“It was nothi—”

I cut her off by saying, “But, the kicker was when she had her vision on the plane. With demigods and dreams having the relationship that they do, I thought that this was just a run of the mill dream from Gaea. But, when the plane crashed like she’d predicted, and Apollo being the God of the Oracle, it made sense for her to be one of his kids.”

“Smart thinking,” Chiron said, and I could feel the conversation coming to a close. I needed a break from leading these kids around. I knew that it was kind of rude to just dump both Tox and Katie with the centaur, but I needed some time to think. I hadn’t seen my girlfriend in over a week, and I missed her.

“Well, I have to attend to duties in my Cabin. If you could be so kind as to show them the orientation video yourself, that would be most appreciated. I’m sorry, Chiron, it’s just that today’s been kind of hard.”

I looked up at his eyes once more and saw the sympathy that was held there, like a father’s arms, stretched out and ready to embrace you after you’ve fallen. I realized I needed a hug. But, I let that wish pass, and dropped the cases with the bows and arrows off at the archery range on my way back to Cabin 6.

I tried to pick up my head as I thought about seeing my girlfriend again. Her name is Isabel Paxton, but everyone just calls her Izzy. She is a daughter of Hermes, with long brown hair, and a cute elfish face that made her look somewhat similar to her siblings in Cabin 11. But, what I liked most about her was her brown eyes, the same color as chocolate. They were warm, and welcoming, and they made me feel at home whenever I was with her. Having Jake at my side at camp also made me feel at home, and with him gone, her eyes were two of the only homes I had left.

Completely exhausted, and probably looking like someone who had just spent 48 hours watching a horrible TV show, I knocked on the door to the Hermes Cabin. To my surprise, no booby traps or pranked doorknobs did anything as the door opened, revealing the face of Travis Stoll, who, for once in his life, didn’t look in the mood to prank anyone.

Also tired, he asked, “Looking for Izzy?”

I replied, “Yep. Do you know where she—”

“Stables,” He replied, “Taking care of the pegasi for Percy.”

“Perfect,” I said. I could surprise her there. I smiled just thinking of how happy she’d be to see me. “Alright then. Thanks, Travis.”

“No problem,” He replied, “I’m going to sleep.”

“Yeah,” I said, “You look completely beat.”

“Spent the whole night laying little booby traps for the Romans. About a hundred of them are going to wake up with cheese-wiz in their sleeping bags.”

“Nice job,” I chuckled, “Well. I gotta go see my girl, see you around.”

I turned my back to walk out of the door, and felt a slight touch on the back of my pants, like a ghost had just touched my belt. Without emotion or sign of recognition, I said,

“You must be really tired, Travis, because I noticed it that time. Wallet, please.”

Travis cursed in Ancient Greek as he returned my wallet to me, actually going back to sleep this time. I closed the door behind me and headed for the stables. When I got there, I recognized Izzy by her mane of long brown hair, and my heart did a gymnastics routine in my chest. It felt so good to see her again. Originally, I had thought that I was going to surprise her, shout her name from behind her to scare her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Not after what I had gone through today. So, I decided to just walk up to the stable door and open it, saying,

“Hey, Izzy, I’m bac—.”

I didn’t even finish the sentence. She whipped around to see me, and her face lit up with a huge grin, putting a sparkle in her brown eyes. She screamed in delight and jumped up, tackling me to the ground. We both laughed as we fell in the hay, startling the pegasus that she had been grooming.

For a moment, I was on the ground, and she was on top of me, and I took a moment, one precious moment, to look into her eyes. Instantly I relaxed, and she seemed to as well, as she leaned in and we kissed. We had been together for almost ten months, and this was probably the best kiss we had shared. Finally, even though I didn’t want her to, she pulled away, and with her face only an inch away from mine, she said, in a soft voice,

“I missed you. Gone for a week and then we get an Iris-Message from New Orleans saying you’ve found two recruits being chased by a manticore. Then, another IM saying your plane crashed, another IM saying one of your recruits almost died fighting a Chimera? Of course you saved the day.”

I smirked at that, but she just kept on going.

“And finally, you get to the safehouse, and…”

Her voice trailed off, and I could tell she and I both were grieving over Jake. The glimmer in her eyes dimmed, and she looked tired, like everyone else, not vibrant like she had been 30 seconds ago.

“I’m worried sick, dizzy with anxiety, and then, and then, you show up! You survived! I’m so glad you’re back, I don’t know what I would have done if you had, had…”

Her voice died again, and I could see she was fighting to force the thought of losing me out of her head. Unfortunately, it looked like she had thought about that before.

“But anyway, you’re back!”

“Yes, I am,” I replied, real smart, “And, I don’t have a thing to do, and I think you might wanna be the same way pretty soon.”

She smiled at me, “An Athena kid with nothing to do. Now that’s dangerous.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” I said, “But what I do know, is that you are coming with me on a picnic to the canoe lake. We need to catch up.”

She smiled at me, and said, “Sounds like a date, but we both need to get the hay off of us. Meet at the docks in 25?”

“Deal,” I said. It was perfect. I was back in my old life. I didn’t want to move, but, being full of energy, Izzy pulled me up from the ground and went back to the Hermes Cabin. All of a sudden, I heard sniffling. I had no idea where it was coming from, so I did a quick search around the stables, and when I found nobody, I started back towards the Athena cabin to get cleaned up. The last thing I saw before walking through the door was Katie, running across the courtyard between the cabins, wiping her right eye furiously.

“Uh oh,” I said to myself, “This can’t be good.”

Notes

Sorry, this chapter is a bit long, but I hope you enjoy! Chapters 8 and 9 should be out by the end of the week!