LUCKY

Dexter stood silent and let the water shower over him. Staring at the tiled wall in front of him, he tried to work things through in his mind. He couldn’t quite believe it; he a demigod? Half a god? He? It had been hard enough to believe that gods existed, but he being a child of a god just sounded too ridiculous. If he was a demigod, why wouldn’t he be treated like a prince? Or a god? Or at least not like an out trash, walking the dirty streets and have to steal cloth to have something to put on him. And why did everyone freak out when meeting his eyes?

With a handful of shampoo, Dexter started to work it in his hair. White foam quickly turned dark gray and Dexter had to wash it out and redo the process three times before he felt clean enough. He sighed and turned off the water. Grabbing the towel he’d been given he started to dry himself. After Chiron had told him the golden truth, Dexter being a demigod, Dexter had almost fainted. And then he had panicked. When Chiron had finally managed calmed Dexter down, he had sent him away to get a shower before it was time for “Campfire singalong”. Promising him to let barbecue some sausages for him and then Chiron had send a girl to escort Dexter to “Cabin number eleven”. The girl was not stalkative and was really shy. Her name was Terrwyn and a “Daughter of Hermes” and that’s about everything Dexter knew about her.

Wrapping the towel around his waist, he turned towards the mirror. The face looking back at him felt like a stranger. So that was him? A boy with a long face and high cheekbones, thin lips and arched eyebrows. The now clean hair was blonde, floating around in the air and pointing in every direction. Dexter met his own eyes, the ones people had bowed down in fear as soon as they met them. They had a droopy and hooded shape, giving him a sad look. The iris was icy blue with a dark outline and a small pupil in the middle, like a husky’s. Their cold stare send chills down Dexter’s spine and gave him goose bumps, but he didn’t feel like freaking out. Maybe they didn’t affect him or maybe it had to be directly eye contact and not a mirror’s image.

Dexter picked up his sunglasses and hid his eyes before turning towards a pile of clean and hole-free clothes. It was an orange camp shirt, like the ones everyone else wore, and a pair of light blue jeans along with some underwear and socks. The shirt was too short for Dexter, exposing his stomach as he moved his arms, but the rest fit him well. He grabbed his leather jacket. Feeling sad for it looking so dirty and worn out he tried to wipe it clean as much as he could afford, but it didn’t do much. He put it on and viewed himself in the mirror. There was something that was missing.

Dexter searched around in the bathroom shelves and found what he wanted. ”I’m just borrowing some” he mumbled as he put hair gel in his hair and stroke it backwards. When Dexter was happy about the look, he washed his hands and took a step backwards, viewing himself in the mirror. He twisted and turned around in front of it; just in case something looked terribly wrong. ”Looking good!” he said as he smiled wryly and gave himself thumbs up.

Exiting the bathroom, Dexter came back out to the cabin number eleven that Chiron had sent him to. There was stuff everywhere. Clothes, sleeping bags, mattresses and candy wrappers were scattered all over the floor. Even though the mess, the cabin felt kind of cozy. The walls were painted in a warm red tone and had small windows with blue curtains and several pictures saying “home sweet home” placed here and there.

There was no one else in the cabin, except for that Terrwyn. She sat on one of the beds in the corner of the cabin, biting on her nails. A thick red bang covered her eyes, making it hard for Dexter to decide her expression. She wore the same orange camp shirt as him and a pair of beige hiking pants. She seemed deep in thought and didn’t notice Dexter trying to get her attention until he waved with his hands right in front of her nose. ”Eehm, hi!” he said and cleared his throat.

Winching the girl was brought back to the reality. She looked up on the tall boy and Dexter wondered what she was thinking about him. He twisted and looked down on his shoes; once-upon-a-time white converse repaired with loads of duct tape.

”Hi” the girl answered at last. Her voice was vague and hard to hear that Dexter almost thought it was his mind fooling him.

”So… Terrwyn, huh?” Dexter asked and scratched the back of his head “That’s a kind of weird name.”

Terrwyn showed him no expression. She sat quiet for a long time before mumbling out: “So is Dexter”

”Well, it sounds cool at least!” Dexter pouted and crossed his arms.

”A murderer’s name”

”What?!”

”Nothing…” Terrwyn mumbled and turned her face towards the window.

Dexter stood silent and waited, for what was unclear. He wanted her to do something else than staring out a window. At least she could say something, answer his question and introduce him to the rest of the campers. Wasn’t that what Chiron had told her to do?

”Eehm, Chiron told that you would show me around camp” Dexter said and bit his lips. He felt too shaken up to just stand awkwardly in a cabin and staring out of a window. Too many questions swirled around in his head and he had to know more about the camp, the people there and maybe, just maybe, he could find clues of who he was. ”Uh, you’ll do that, right?”

Terrwyn looked up at him, again with an unreadable face. Dexter could almost feel her nervousness and unease, was she scared? Terrwyn bit her lip and stood up, looked at him and then she nodded. She didn’t seem very confident, but Dexter ignored it. He just wanted to know more about himself and how she felt wasn’t important. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her outside the cabin.

“So where to go?” Dexter asked excitedly.

Terrwyn twisted out of Dexter’s grip and massaged her wrist. She made a small gesture towards a circular building a few hundred meters away. They walked in silence. Questions flew out of Dexter’s mouth, but when he only got short whispers as answers, Dexter sighed and gave up. The circular building looked like an old type of arena, which turned out to be exactly what it was. What looked like the whole camp had gathered there, standing and sitting on benches along the walls. All were watching something in the center. There were three campers wearing warrior helmets and chest plates, wielding weapons against each other.

“What the-…?” Dexter stared at them with his mouth wide open. The campers fought like real warriors in a move. Two of them silently decided to side with each other and attacked the third. The third could hold the two others off for a long while, his feet moving quickly to dodge and counter attack, managing to knock one of the two out, leaving only him and the other left.

Terrwyn pulled in Dexter’s jacket, gestured to him to follow her and she disappeared in the crowd. Dexter followed her while he tried to watch the fight go on. Not seeing where he was going, Dexter stumbled into a stand of spears and fell with a loud CRASH.

Dexter groaned. A camper asked him if he was okay, but before Dexter could answer the crowd broke out into a roar of applause. Slowly, Dexter removed the pile of spears from on top of him and sat up. The fight had ended, the third fighter had been knocked over and the other one stood over him, pointing the tip of their blade towards him. Someone spoke in a megaphone, introducing two new fighters to a new battle. Some campers nearest to Dexter helped him up and put back the spears on the stand.

“Thanks!” Dexter croaked.

A sudden roar behind Dexter mad him turn around, facing a far shorter boy with a face all red of anger storming towards him. “You!” the boy yelled and pointed at him “You’re so gonna pay for that!” The boy grabbed Dexter by his t-shirt and pulled him down so their heads were on the same height.

“Hey hey, I’m sorry!” Dexter said and held up his hands “I don’t think any of the spears broke, at least!”

The boy snorted and pushed Dexter backwards, making him stumble into the spears again. “Not the spears!” the boy yelled “You ruined my fight! Distracted me, you piece of shit!”

“You shouldn’t let something like that distract you, Troy” a voice behind the angry boy spoke “Basic rule. Maybe you should go the newbie-class again”

A girl, a few years older than Dexter, walked up to them. It was the other fighter, the one that had won over the boy whose name must be Troy. She had dark skin, fluffy fire red hair and dark eyes. Standing with her helmet under her arm she sneered at the boy.

“Shut up, Meg!” Troy growled “We can take a rematch and see who has to go back to newbie-class!”

Meg laughed “We don’t need a rematch to know that” she turned and walked away.

Troy glared after her before turning to Dexter, grabbing his shirt again and lifting him up “It’s all your fault!” Troy growled and clenched his fist

“Hey, dude!” Dexter said and tried to slither out from Troy’s grip “I didn’t mean that to happen. It was an accident!”

“Like I care!” Troy yelled, pulled back his arm to punch Dexter, but again someone disrupted.

This time it was three older campers along with Terrwyn peeking out from behind one of them. A girl stepped forward. She looked like being right under the age of twenty, had a slim body and a brown braid reaching down to her elbows. Laying a hand on Troy’s fist, she forced him to lower it.

“What’s happening here?” she asked and looked between Dexter and Troy “Connell, are you fighting with newcomers again?”

Troy snorted “Don’t interfere!”

Another of the older campers laughed loudly. “Interfering is our job!” she leaned forward and grinned sarcastically towards Troy “Newcomers are our responsibility and you are messing with one of them right now!”

Troy glanced at each one of them before snorting and pushing Dexter backwards, sending him to stumble and fall over the spears again. Before the elders could do anything, Troy turned on his heels and paced away

“Thanks!” Dexter said as the braided girl helped him up on his feet.

“Sorry for that” she said “Ares’ children have their bad sides”

“Bad sides seems to be the only side they’ve got” the other girl mumbled and put her hands behind her head and started whistling on a random melody. She had a blonde sidecut with tips in a clear blue color.

“Though, they’re really good fighters” the third one said. She was broader and shorter than the other two. Brown skin and chocolate hair held back with a red bandana. Her right arm was strapped tight to her body, as if it wasn't a part of her but a dangerous threath. A detail Dexter hadn’t noticed before was all three had three yellow beads each somewhere in their hair. The first had it woven in her braid. The other one had saved a strand of hair in front of her ear she had thread in the beads. And the last one had a beaded lock hanging over the bandana, reminding Dexter of captain Jack Sparrow.

The first one hold out her hand to Dexter “I’m Vixen Home, counselor of cabin number eleven” she introduced “This is Bliss Gaye and Mary Kidd. And you’ve already met Terrwyn, I see” She gestured towards first the blue-blond and then captain Jack Sparrow.

“Dexter” he took her hand and shook it and nodded to Bliss and Mary in a greeting maneuver.

“Come on, Dexter” Vixen said and laid a hand on his shoulder “No one has showed you around camp yet, have they?”




The tour had been great! First they had gone back to the cabins and dropped off Bliss and Mary. Vixen had explained that each cabin represented a god each and their children we’re to live in their specified cabin. Even though some gods were sworn to never have demigods, they still got a cabin for honorable purposes. She had told Dexter about “claiming”, how it was a ritual where the gods send a sign to tell that one was their child. Dexter had noticed Vixen’s eyes had glanced at the empty air above Dexter’s head, like she’d expected something to turn up. Then she had shaken her head and continued the tour. They had gone down to the lake, waving to water nymphs and then she showed him the big climbing wall which was said to spit out lava and throw down rocks on the one’s climbing it.

“Isn’t that dangerous?!” Dexter had burst out, but the daughter of Hermes giggled.

“That’s the point!” Vixen had laughed and clapped him on the shoulder and walked on.

They did just leave the stables when they went back towards the circle of cabins and the bonfire burning in the center. Dexter had been shocked over that the horses actually had wings, and they’d seem annoyed over that Dexter asked several times if they really could fly.

Terrwyn had followed them during the whole tour. She hadn’t said anything, but Dexter could sense a faint smile on her lips and could even hear her giggle now and then. Back by the cabins, they sat down on logs around the fire. Cabin number seven the children of Apollo, got of music, were leading the singalong, comping with various instruments.

As promised, Chiron had let barbequed sausages for Dexter, whose stomach was roaring of hunger by that time. The campfire grew larger the higher the campers sang and shifted in color now and then. Dexter loved the atmosphere. Campers sang, laughed and barbecued marshmallows, filling Dexter with cozy warmth, making him feel like he belonged. He’d found himself a new home, till he found his old one. This camp wasn’t bad. There he maybe could get some of his many questions answered and eventually find some clues of who he really was!

Vixen excused herself and went off. Dexter nodded, swept off sweat from his nose bridge and pushed up his ray-bans. Hmm, ray-bans?

“Hey, what happened to Ray and Ban?” Dexter asked Terrwyn sitting next to him who looked up at him.

“Ray-bans?” she asked

“My friends, the satans”

“Satyrs?”

“Yeah, where’d they go?”

Terrwyn faced the giant fire and went silent for a while “Council of cloven elders, probably” she said at last

“What?”

“The council of cloven elders” Terrwyn repeated “In the forest. Saw Chiron lead them there”

Dexter flew up on his feet and stared down on Terrwyn “W-what did he lead them in the forest for?” he burst out loudly and some of the campers stopped singing and looked at him.

Terrwyn pulled in Dexter’s jacket, making him sit down again “To meet the council of cloven elders” she said with a low voice

“What is that even?” Dexter lowered his voice too

“The elder satyrs” Terrwyn answered

“What’d the gramps do to them?” Dexter swallowed

Terrwyn paused, then she whispered: “Killed them”

“WHAT?!” Dexter yelled and jumped up on his feet again “WHY?!”

Everyone went quiet and stared at him. Terrwyn dropped her face in her open hand. Again she grabbed his jacked and forced him to sit down.

“Are you serious?!” Dexter grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

“No!” Terrwyn squeaked and covered her face with her hands.

Dexter blinked. “What?”

Terrwyn remained silent until the other campers lost their interest in them and started singing again.

“They’re fine” she mumbled into her hands

“You were just joking?” Dexter panted. He felt hos his heart pounded hard inside his chest.

“Yes”

“That wasn’t nice!” Dexter whined “Not nice at all!”

“S-sorry” Terrwyn looked down on her shoes, her cheeks burning red like a tomato.

An awkward silence between the two followed. Dexter didn’t know what to think about Terrwyn, how could someone joke about someone’s death? He shook his head and looked back at the shy girl.

“So, where are they now?” he asked

Terrwyn shook her head “I don’t know” she said silently

“But you know that they’re fine?”

“Saw them at the strawberry field” she stared at the bonfire

Dexter sighed of relief. At least they were okay. He decided that he would seek them up next day, just to make sure.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Vixen suddenly appeared on the log next to Dexter, making him jump by surprise.

“Uuh, just good” Dexter panted

“It’s closing in to bedtime” she said “I’ve fixed a sleeping bag and a toothbrush for you. I’ll show you when it’s time”

As if on cue, Chiron trotted forward, calling out that it was time for bed. Many campers whined, but most of them gasped tiredly and they started to scatter and go back to their cabins.

Vixen smiled widely and patted on his shoulder. “Well, come on then”

Notes