PERCY’S POV
Percy was cleaning the stables when I first heard the voices. The stables are disgusting, and cleaning them is the most lowly and disrespectful job there is. Since my father created horses, they though assigning me the job as the stable boy would be naturally perfect. Truthfully, the entire team the horses just make fun of me every day, and snort annoying comment as I clean up their shit. Seriously, it’s as if no one has any respect for the child of Poseidon anymore.“Percy” Grace, a sweet little kid from the Athena cabin, yells running into the stables, “come quick, it’s a new camper, and she’s passed out!” she yells, then runs off, probably to continue spreading the gossip. I grumble to myself while taking off my apron. It had been a while since a new demigod had come to the camp, and from what he knew, the first one since him to have passed out trying to get in. that either meant that the camper has a strong print, and is constantly harassed by monsters, or just not trained well yet.As I make my way towards the big house, I take in the camp as its waking up, the Dionysus kids look like they’re constantly trying to get over a hangover, the Apollo kids are up but seem infuriated by the fact that their father is the sun god and that they have to be up right now, the Athena kid are running around doing every activity possible, and the Aphrodite kids are still sleeping. I see the familiar glint of Annabeth’s blond hair rush out from her cabin. I consider calling her, but she’s out of earshot before I can open my mouth. I’ve got to admit, the girl moves fast.
` When I step into the house, I watch, amazed, as the busy infirmary fills with bustling satyrs and nymphs nursing the new demigod. “Percy, glad you came” Chiron says, patting him on the back. Percy had grown used to the old man’s half horse body. When he was in his natural form, he was a centaur a half horse. Chiron used to train all the greats, Hercules, Achilles, Odysseus, Perseus, you name them. He was the camp director now, and occasionally went out into the world, but when he did he transformed into his wheelchair mode, which is how I met him. He was my ancient history teacher in 8th grade, but that was just an over up to make sure I really was as powerful as Grover thought I was.
“Never could resist something new. What’s so impressive about him?” I ask, moving my head around trying to get a good look at the body in the bed.
“Her” Annabeth scoffs, “not every hero that walks through here has to be a guy” she answers, but gives him a playful smile so I know she’s just kidding.
“Go check her out yourself” Chiron says, jutting his chin out to the bed. I can’t see the figure very clearly, so I move toward her. I’m not sure why my stomach tenses, and my hands start to sweat, but they do, and it bothers me. Demi-gods have built in danger detectors that include accelerated heartbeats and sweaty hands; it gives us a tiny foresight before we get attacked.
On the bed lay a girl. A pretty girl sure, but still just a girl. I didn’t see why she was so special, besides the fact that she was deathly pale and her breathing came in airy. I instantly tense, I don’t know why, but I instantly felt as if the girl’s life was my responsibility now, even though I didn’t know a single thing about her.
“How did she get here?” I ask, grabbing a water bottle and slowly bringing it to her lips. As soon as the liquid trickled down her throat, the color returned to her face, and she sat up, coughing forcefully, her body tensing, and terror shining in her eyes.
“where am I?” she asks, her voice coming out hoarse, her neck tuning her head so quickly and sharply that I was scared she was going to snap it, while throwing her hand to her belt, which probably used to hold her knife, but not anymore, since Chiron most likely took it away. Even frazzled and crappy looking, the girl was astonishingly pretty. More so then most of the daughters of Aphrodite. She looked to be around fourteen, about two years younger than myself. With caramel brown hair that shone in the different lights, that was matted down and stuck off her skull in different directions, and eyes as black as pits, so dark it looked as if they were sucking your soul.
“It’s ok” I say soothingly, holding my hands up, she doesn’t relax, but she takes in her surroundings, she wasn’t very surprised by Chiron or the nymphs, which means she probably knew about the gods. “Were not going to hurt you, my name is Percy Jackson, and this is Chiron and Annabeth” I say motioning to both of them. “You’re at camp half blood, a safe place. Do you know who you're godly parents are?” I ask. She stares at me, and relaxes an inch, but shakes her head.
“no” she says softly, her voice cracking in pain, she clears her throat and continues, “they haven’t claimed me yet” her chin drops and she looks down, as if she was ashamed of it, as if she had done something personally that had kept her from being claimed.
“how do you know of the Greek gods” Chiron asks, stepping forward with a confident fatherly smile and demeanor, his hand twitches, as if he wants to touch the young girl, but he keeps it back, which I think is for the best because I could have seen the girl biting his hand off.
She gulps, but doesn’t answer, refusing to speak out loud. Percy feels an urgent strange overprotectiveness. “It’s ok” he reassures her again, she stares at him again, as if she just noticed he was there. “Were not going to hurt you. You're safe now” he promises.
“Nowhere is safe” she mumbles her voice so sad and hopeless Percy’s heart crumbles.
“It is here” Annabeth say, sting softly at the edge of her bed. She softly lays a hand on the girl’s leg. “What’s your name?” she asks.
“Jade Rhodes” the girl answers, Annabeth stiffens a little, but lets a smile play over her face. Jade wasn’t fooled though.
“Jade” Percy answers softly, “were going to take care of you ok, you just get your rest, and you will come back and take you to dinner” he says. The girl looks up into his face, her eyes still terrified, but something hard behind them, like as she had seen things more horrible then Percy could imagine which was probably true. This poor girl was broken beyond repair, but there was also something else there. Was it possible the girl was feeling the same weird connection to Percy that he was feeling for her, it wasn’t romantic, it was much simpler, much stronger than that.

The girl finally shut her eyes a few hours later, when she had her share of ambrosia, and had her wounds bandaged. Annabeth, Percy and Chiron stepped outside.
“That poor girl has been through hades and back” Chiron chatted. Annabeth weaves her fingers through Percy’s hand, noticing his depression, which did calm him a little.
“Did she say nothing about what happened?” Percy asks again.
“You were there since she was conscious Percy” Annabeth reassures him.
“We can always ask her again when she comes to dinner, it might take a while. After what that girl had been through, Im surprised she muttered a word. She seems to be comfortable around you, Percy” Chiron says. Percy looks up, distracted from his thoughts.
“Hmm, oh yea. Weird isn’t it” Percy says.
“It’s perfectly normal, like when a crocodile is born, it will follow around the first thing it lays eyes on, believing its mother” Annabeth says.
“That girl is much more than a newborn” Percy says, a tang of annoyance in his voice. Annabeth looks at him, but swallows.
“I know Percy, and we’ll find out how to help her soon. We need to figure out who her godly parent is, and where she came from” Annabeth answers. All three of them nod in agreement.
“I imagine you guys would want to return to your activities, I can watch her” Chiron says.
“No, I’ll stay, its fine” Percy says. Annabeth looks at him surprised, but doesn’t say anything. She kisses his cheek and walks away, Chiron also leave to perform his businesses.
Percy sighs, how in the world was he going to get this girl to talk. Just from the few hours he spent time with her, he could tell she was guarded, quiet, not very used to being the victim. And it didn’t seem like she was used to being cared for, or being around people who genuinely cared about her. We all might in the camp think we’ve had bad childhoods, but without even hearing her story, I know it must’ve been worse. He just shakes his head, about to turn into the house before he hears a familiar voice behind him. “Miss me cousin?”
Percy turns and is amazed to see Nico Di Angelo, son of hades, standing casually on the porch. The kid was impressive, he moved like smoke. Silent, deadly, and intense. No wonder girls would kill each other for a night with the true “bad boy.” He occasionally popped his head in the camp once in a while, but mostly he wondered around, being the prince of the dead; it was easier for him to be around the dead then the living. Strangely, his solemnly and moodiness made him a hit with the ladies, and he had no problem with taking advantage of that.
“Nico” Percy shouts, and wraps his amrs around him a bear hug. He seemd stronger, healthier then when he last saw him. He wasn’t starving anymore, and his icy white skin had a slight twinge of color in it. But his jet black hair and dark blue eyes were as impressionable and piercing as ever. His mouth was still set in that quick to dismiss smirk, like nothing hurt him. And Percy had to admit, not much did, besides the death of his sister. He still hadn’t gotten over that. It was a long time ago, back on another quest, Percy had failed to save her, or actually, she had sacrificed herself to save annabeth and percy. He still had nightmares about that day.
“You look great” percy said, holding him at arms length. And he did, his arms were muscular, which wasn’t surprising since his super slick black heglyain sword must have been a burden to carry. He had grown a few inches, and his chin had justled out. He still had the long hair that covered his eyes when he looked down, and his shoulders still drooped as if he were carrying the weight of the world. Well, he was proably carrying the weight of the underworld.
“You do too” he said, punching Percy on the shoulder. “Annabeth still making you floss every night?”
“Mornings too” Percy answers with a sigh. Nico smirks, which is the closest he’ll get to a smile or a laugh. It doesn’t happen much.
“Anything new around here?” nico asks, looking around the camp. In the setting light, it looked even more peaceful then ever, Percy couldn’t imagine how nico kept leaving.
“Actually, we just got a new camper” Percy says. Nicos eyebrows rise slowly, as if it didn’t really interst him.
“Mind if I have a look at her?” nico asks, a smirk strating to cross his lips. Percy flares up on the inside, though he doesn’t know why.
“Shes sleeping” he says, his voice cut.
“Even better” he shrugs, Percy tries not to smack him. “Just kidding cous’, jeez she must be really pretty if you're so overprotective of her” nico adds.
“I don’t know what’s up, she’s just different” Percy shrugs.
“Whoa, watch what you say, Annabeth has eyes and ears everywhere” Nico says, faking looking around for a camera. Percy punches him on the shoulder and chuckles; Nico runs a hand through his hair and half smiles. It felt good to have him back. Percy worried about the kid a lot. Alone by himself out there, it was a harsh world, especially for the children of the big three, he would know.
“How are you doing Nico?” he asks. Nico sigh and leans against the pole.
“I didn't come back to get chastised, Percy” he answers.
“Well then why did you come back” Percy says, crossing his arms over his chest. Nico shrugs, looking down.
“Needed human warmth, a few nights will do, make sure there plenty of booze at the bon fire Friday, Aphrodite’s daughters sure love their fruity little drinks” Nico says. Percy just sighs. He knew Nico wasn’t really like this; he just had to act like that because it was his shield. Percy was about to say something when a nymph comes out. She looks Nico up and down, blushes, and bows to him. He doesn’t even loom twice at her, just inspects his nails
“She woke up sir” the nymph says to Percy, “She’s asking for you” she continues. Percy turns to Nico.
“You want to meet her?” he asks.

Notes