LUCKY

The following week had been both wonderful and horrible at the same time for Dexter. He’d been introduced to most of the activities of camp. Archery, Pegasus riding and riding the rapids had been the funniest once Dexter got the hang of it. Lessons in ancient Greek and Greek mythology had been given him by Vixen. Though, they had been more of an hour of questions-and-answers (Dexter still couldn’t believe he was a son of a god). Then they had had duties where the whole cabin worked together. It was when they were chopping wood it all started.

Someone had decided to pull a prank on Dexter. He was their favorite prank-victim, because of his “priceless reactions”. That time someone had attached firecrackers to his shoes and fired them off. Panicking, Dexter had jumped around and shrieked. Eventually stumbling over a pile of chopped woods and dropped his sunglasses. He hadn’t told anyone but Vixen and Terrwyn about his eyes, too scared that people would be scared of him if they knew. So the whole cabin had been curious about what he was hiding behind those shades, resulting in everyone running around and screaming in terror.

The story about the event spread like a disease and soon everyone knew about them. That warm and cozy feeling of belonging at the camp suddenly wasn’t as warm and cozy anymore. Vixen and her friends had tried to cheer him up and kept him company on their free time.

“They’ll get over it” Vixen often told him “Just give them time to get used to it and everything will go back to normal”

But Dexter had doubted her. How could it ever go back to normal when everyday just seemed to get worse than the day before? It hadn’t been enough just by campers avoiding him, they had started to taunt him too! Mainly it was that fighter who had lost a battle during Dexter’s first day at camp, Troy was his name. Every time Dexter ran into the beefy guy, he started smirking and asked him if someone had died of terror yet. Several times Dexter had told him that they were, by his knowledge, not deadly, but the Mohawk never listened. The first time Dexter went red of anger and had to struggle to not give the brunette a straight right. But as the days went on and Troy didn't seem to be able to say anything else, Dexter just grew tired of him and started ignoring him.

“I’m the one getting used to it, not them!” Dexter muttered and splashed with his feet in the water.

“Oh, they will, Dexter” Ban assured him “It’ll get better…sooner or later”

Dexter snorted and skipped a flat rock over the lake. He, Ray, Ban were sitting on the pier out over the canoe lake, enjoying the summer warmth. Ray and Ban had been employed by the camp to serve the camp director. On his second day at camp was the first time Dexter had seen the camp director. Vixen had told that they addressed him by “Mr. D” and Dexter had nearly choked on his steak.

“What, seriously?!” he had laughed so everyone at the pavilion heard him “Whoever who calls himself Mr. D must be really cocky!”

Not a sound could be heard at the pavilion. Every eye was on Dexter. Some demigods looked chocked and terrified, some cried of silent laughter. Then Mr. D stood up so hastily that his chair fell over and crashed onto the floor. Several campers, including Dexter, had jumped by surprise and looked at the camp director in terror. With a face red as a tomato, the god yelled at Dexter, threatening to blast him to pieces. With a little help from Chiron, Dexter slid away by just getting a week of detention.

So Dexter had barely had any free time at all. While everyone else got to enjoy the summer, play and laugh together, he had to do dirty work. Everything from cleaning the toilets with his own toothbrush, and washing the windows of the Big House to doing Mr. D’s filthy laundry. Why the god even needed someone to do his laundry, Dexter wasn’t sure of. Couldn’t he snap his fingers and make clean clothes appear, or did he just want to give Dexter extra dirty job to do?

“Started off my time here damn good,” Dexter muttered bitterly “How lucky I am, huh?”

“But you’ve served your detention, at least!” Ban said, trying to get him on more cheerful thought “Have some more strawberries!”

It was true; Dexter had finally finished the punishments and was enjoying his first free time. He looked at the pile of red berries. Ray and Ban had smuggled some from when they worked at the strawberries fields. Sighing, Dexter took a handful and shoved them in his mouth. The sweet taste in the warm summer sun, Dexter couldn’t but enjoy the moment.

After a while of Ray and Ban telling stupid stories about pranks they may or may not have committed, Dexter had forgotten all about his worries and finally could relax.

“Wait, so he went around for three days without noticing?” Dexter asked, crying of laughter.

“Yes, yes!” Ray and Ban laughed, clenching their stomachs.

They laughed until their stomachs ached and tears flooded. Still giggling, they ate some more strawberries. Dexter opened his mouth as if to say something, but then a dark shadow hovered over them. The sun behind them blinded Dexter, preventing him from seeing who it was. Before he could wonder too long, he found out when the shadow roared in anger.

“And what do you think you’re doing, huh?! Stealing strawberries from the fields?!” Mr D’s voice shook the ground and made Dexter shriek in fear.

“It wasn’t me, it was them!” he cried, pointing at Ray and Ban

“No! Him! Him!” Ray and Ban bleated, trying to hide behind Dexter while he tried to push them before him.

The shadow cackled and sat down. Not until then, Dexter could see the person and it was way too small and slim to be Mr. D. Vixen's dear friend Bliss beamed down at them, still snickering. “You guys are far too hilarious!” she cackled and wiped a tear from her eye.

Behind her stood Mary, rolling her eyes and crossed her arms as much she could with that strap of hers.

“I-… I don’t understand” Dexter panted, looking around in search for the god.

“Well, I can tell you that I’m kinda pro at impressions” Bliss stuck out her tongue and made the peace sign with her fingers.

“Was that you?” Ban asked and widened his eyes

“Th-there’s no Mr. D?” Ray stuttered and peeked out from behind his brother.

“No Mr. D for sure!” Bliss assured him, and the three boys relaxed.

“Damn, you scared me!” Dexter clenched his heart and took a deep breather.

“I noticed” Bliss giggled and then she looked at the pile of strawberries “Ah, they look tasty! You don’t mind don’t you?”

Without minding getting an answer, she picked up and munched on a big red berry and smiled widely at the boys.

“We didn’t come here to eat their strawberries, Bliss!” Mary said and rolled her eyes.

“But they taste sooo good!” Bliss said and stove a handful strawberries in her mouth. She chewed for a moment and swallowed before she continued: “Oh well, I was about to ask you if you’d want to join me and practice some archery” She waved her finger for him to come with her.

“Now?” Dexter asked and skipped another stone over the water.

“23” Ray said and pouted “Not as good as last time”

“I’m sitting down!” Dexter snorted before getting up on his feet and looking at Bliss.

“Hmm, you seem like a good thrower, how about we try out some knife-throwing too” she said, pinching her chin and grinned at him.

“I’d prefer just throwing stones, but okay” Dexter mumbled. He said goodbye to Ray and Ban before Bliss grabbed his wrist and dragged him along to the arena.

Bliss helped Dexter out to pick a suiting bow for him from the armory. She herself already had one personal. It was a magical bow that could shrink into a bracelet which Bliss wore on her left arm when she didn’t use it.

“I call her Mary!” Bliss said and held up her golden bow.

“Why?” Dexter asked and nocked an arrow to his own bow.

“Just to mess with the original Mary” Bliss whispered and snickered. “Also, she made it for me!”

“Really?” Dexter looked at the bow. It was pretty with a golden color that glittered in the sunshine and neat patterns carved into the wood. “It’s beautiful!”

“Indeed!” Bliss nodded “Many doubt her skill of crafting because she only has one cooperative hand”

Dexter went silent for a while. Hesitating if he would dare ask or not. He drew his bow and let go of the arrow. It soared through the air and pierced right inside the red dot in the middle of the target.

“Bullseye!” Bliss yelled and grinned “Nice ne there! You are growing fast as an archer!”

Cheeks burning red, Dexter let out a flattered laugh and scratched the back of his head.

“Now, you’ve still got a long way to go until you’re as good as me!” Bliss grinned, stacked a few arrows in her drawing hand and leaped. She ran towards a bench on their left side and jumped high up in the air, shot off three arrows before rolling sideways to dampening the fall and finally shooting another four.

It all happened during just a few seconds and Dexter stared at her, his mouth hanging open in amazement. All arrows hit bulls eye as where first three arrows had been pierced through by another arrow. The last arrow stuck out from between the eyes of a dummy an Ares-kid had been practicing on.

“Hey!” the kid called at her

“Just finish him off for you!” Bliss said, winked and gave the kid thumbs up. She turned towards Dexter and laughed at his amazed expression.

“That was… Awesome!” Dexter wheezed when he finally could find any words to say. “You-… you’re…WOW! I’m speechless!”

“Thanks, Dex!” Bliss grinned and ruffled his hair “I’ve had many years of practice. I’m sure you’ll also find your talents and amaze others with it!”

“Well, what that now could be…” He looked at the target and the arrow he had shot himself, feeling stupid how proud he had been only to hit bulls eye. Never that he’d be able to get that good.

“Hey, how about we try out some knife-throwing, huh?” Bliss fist bumped Dexter’s shoulder and she trotted off towards the armory in change of weapons.

Throwing knives was something Dexter really felt that he was good at. Even though he had to warm up and try it out, he quickly learned the techniques and soon the knives hit everywhere he aimed.

Either Bliss had no skill in knife-throwing or she learned her lesson and missed on purpose to not make Dexter feel bad, but he didn’t mind. They had really fun and soon they moved over to dummies and Bliss showed Dexter where to aim if he wanted to hurt, but not kill.

“Not that we fight much with other people” Bliss said “But I guess it’s a good start. Next time I’ll make sure to get some dummies of some monsters” She nodded towards Mary “She’s a great dummy maker!”

Dexter smiled. “That sounds great!”

“Let’s call it for today, then!” Bliss said and stretched to her full length

“This sure was awesome!” Dexter said cheerfully “Thanks!”

Bliss blushed. “No problem, Dex!” She stuck out her tongue and flicked Dexter’s nose “I’ll make sure to teach you everything I know!”

“That wouldn’t take too long then”

Mary walked up to them, looked at Bliss and held up her wrist, showing a watch that wasn’t there. “Time to go, you’ve had your fun time now!” she said impatiently “Could you help me now?”

“Oh, I didn’t hear that word” Bliss said and made an exaggerated wondering face.

“What word?” Mary snarled and glared at the blue-blonde.

“That word starting with ‘p’ and ending with ‘lease’”

Mary rolled her eyes and primed her lips. When Bliss leaned forward and cupped her hand behind her ear, Mary sighed at last. “Okay, okay! Plea-“

She didn't get to finish due to a loud BANG followed by a whooshing sound. Dexter screamed by surprise and looked around for the source of the noise. The whooshing sound grew louder and louder and soon he had to cover his ears. Mary pointed up at the sky, but it was completely unnecessary since they could clearly see what was going on.

The whole sky had turned bright orange and shifted over to intense red as a big and bright glowing globe soared downwards. The globe disappeared behind the trees in the horizon and they could hear another ‘bang’ before the sky went black and the noise disappeared.

Dexter, Bliss and Mary stared up at the sky in shock. None of them spoke for several minutes and the silence were almost worse for Dexter’s ears than the noise.

“W-was that…?” Dexter finally said and swallowed

“The sun!” Mary wheezed, wide eyes still at the sky “The sun! It went down!”

“Daddy!” Bliss cried and took a few stapling steps backwards. “No! Dad! What’s happened?”

“We gotta find Chiron!” Mary said and looked at Bliss.

Bliss shot off without a word. She ran out of the arena and towards the big house.

“Come on!” Mary said and ran off after Bliss.

Dexter followed. Feeling shaken up, even though he didn’t really know what had just happened. He saw other that was running toward the destination. Most of them looked terrified and shocked, but a few looked as confused as Dexter.

They found Chiron outside the big house, already surrounded by panicking and terrified demigods.

“To the amphitheater! To the amphitheater!” Chiron called over the chaos and gestured towards the said place.

“You heard Chiron!” Mary yelled at a pair of demigods that was still screaming out questions for Chiron. “To the amphitheater!”

Dexter followed them and found Terrwyn, Vixen and the rest for cabin number eleven in a clung down at the bottom.

“Calm down, everybody. Calm down!” Vixen said to her siblings in a calm voice and gestured them to sit down on the benches. “We’ll soon hear what happened and what we’ll do. Hello Dexter, have a seat! Alex, if you wanna help then you’ll have to stop screaming and let go of Kai, you’re suffocating him! ”

Dexter sat down next to Terrwyn, who sat silently and expressionless at one on the benches. The fire flickered in all different colors and the flames went from three meters high to as small as candlelight; reflecting the chaos around the demigods. Dexter dropped his head into his palms, covering out the flickering light from the fire. It did nothing than just worsening the panic with its seizure-like flashing.

It was hard for Dexter to keep track of the time, but it took a long time before the whole camp sat quiet. Chiron stood in the bottom and looked up at the half-bloods. The fire had faded into a faint glow, casting spooky shadows in his pale face. They were all waiting. Waiting for the god and camp director to come back. He had gone to ‘Olympus’ –where or what that was, Dexter had no idea– to find out what was going on. If what was feared had happened really was true or not.

Dexter felt more confused than terrified at that moment. Maybe that was good, since most of the campers were pale as ghosts, especially cabin number seven. They looked worst of all and many of them were even crying. Maybe Dexter didn’t want to know what was going on, for his own best.

The silence was disrupted by a loud crack that made several campers jump in their seats and Dexter, along with some others, shrieked. Mr. D appeared in front of them, next to the bonfire. He looked with a deadly serious expression around and the campers before he spoke:

“Apollo is gone”

Panic broke out again. Campers shouted several questions at ones and others cried out in despair. The god held up one hand and everyone went silent, listening carefully to what he had to say.

“All gods were there except for him” Mr. D continued “Artemis has sent out her hunters and they are now searching the world for him”

As the camp director spoke, a short girl with a red Devilock and punk-styled clothes ran down to the bottom of the amphiteatre. Chiron bent down as the girl whispered something in his ear. He nodded grimly and then clopped forward. Mr. D quieted and looked at the centaur.

“I want all counselors gathered in the big house” he said calmly, but his face had a grim expression.

The counselors of every cabin got up on their feet and made their way towards the big house through the darkness. Several campers complained and wanted to know what was going on, but Chiron ignored them and called Vixen over.

They couldn’t hear anything of the few words Chiron told Vixen, but all campers of cabin number eleven leaned forward and tried to caatch anything they said. Vixen nodded back, but her face wore a doubting expression. She turned around and walked back to her siblings and the unclaimed. Laying a hand on Dexter’s shoulder, Vixen leaned forward and told him in a low voice to come along.

“Why?” Dexter asked her, but she shook her head

“You’ll soon get to know why” she told him and pulled him up on his feet.

With a last glance back at the demigods of Herme’s cabin, Dexter followed Vixen to the big house.











“Why’d you bring him?” Meg asked, and glared at Vixen.

Vixen had lead Dexter into a pretty big room on the bottom floor of the sky blue house. From the darkness outside, the light from the lamps stung in Dexter’s eyes and he had to squint. The counselors gathered around a ping-pong table and sat down in chairs around it. Meg scowled from Dexter to Vixen and then to Chiron who just entered the room.

“Why’s the dumbass here?” Meg repeated, but again she got no answer except for Vixen shooting her an angry look.

Vixen showed Dexter down in a chair at the end of the ping-pong table. Chiron, who had sunken down in his wheelchair, parked himself next to him.

Meg snorted, put her feet up on the table and started picking her nails with a big battle knife. Bliss lead by Mary sad down next to Vixen. Bliss looked pale and her eyes were glassy by tears, but she tried to act unbothered. Now and then Dexter could hear a muted sob or see the movement of her wiping off tears from her cheeks.

“We’ve received a prophecy.” Chiron said.

The counselors looked intensely at Chiron. Dexter, whoever, gave him a confused look. What was this ‘prophecy’ he was talking about? What had it to be with him, Dexter?

The Punk Rocker cleared her throat. When not being outside in the dim light of the faint bonfire, Dexter could properly see more of her. She was extremely short, at least compared to Dexter, and didn’t look too old with that round face and big green eyes.

“Well, at the precise moment you could hear that first bang…” the girl said and looked around at the others “I got a prophecy”

“Well, yes we figured” Meg snorted

Vixen shot her another angry look and then she looked at the girl again. “Let’s hear the prophecy” she said with a calm voice.

The Punk Rocker nodded and closed her eyes. “The lonely twin is the only one, to trace the prison of the sun” she said “With children of boar and snake allied, the cursed eyes them will guide. A choice between future and past, and the twin will die at last”

Dexter didn’t know what that riddle was about, but it sent chills down his spine.

“We must answer to it” Mary said and looked at Chiron. He nodded in agreement.

“A choice between future and past, and the missing twin will die at last” another counselor said “Is it worth it? The missing twin will die at last, doesn’t that mean he’s going to die anyways?”

Bliss flew up from her chair, looking like she was about to shout at them, but Chiron spoke before she could open her mouth

“We can’t ignore the call of a god in need,” Chiron said “The world needs the sun. Besides, some wouldn’t appreciate the fact that you’re asking if it’s ‘even worth it’” Chiron glanced upwards.

The counselors silenced, Bliss and the other demigod sat down.

“Aah, the gods!” Dexter thought out loud. Everyone looked at him. “The gods wouldn’t appreciate it if we didn’t help that guy, right?”

Meg snorted. “Why’d you bring that dumbass anyways?” she asked Chiron and Dexter’s question was already forgotten.

Everyone looked at Chiron, even Dexter. He too wanted to know what he was doing there.

“With boar and snake by his side, the cursed eyes them will guide” Chiron recited of the prophecy “I believe Dexter here shall lead the quest”

Quest? What quest? And why should he lead it?

“You can’t be serious!” Meg took down her feet from the table and leaned forward. “We can’t let a dummy out on a quest!”

“For once, I actually agree with Meg!” Mary said glancing at Dexter then at Chiron. “I mean, he’s barely been here a week and has a lot more to learn…”

“But the prophecy was indeed talking about ‘cursed eyes’” Vixen objected, looking around at the other counselors “Dexter is the only one I know with a pair”

Meg snorted and glared at Dexter, as if it was his fault he had cursed eyes.

“Look, I don’t what you’re talking about” Dexter spoke up “But I think I rather stay…here”

He swallowed and looked at the others.

“See?!” Meg leaned over the table, pointing at Dexter while staring at Chiron “We can’t send that guy!”

A moment of silent followed. Dexter could sense how everyone was thinking their brains out.

“The prophecy does only mention him as a guide,” Mary thought out loud “Maybe we could send three others and he just guides them?”

“Three is the magical number, we should stick to that rule,” a tall guy with a tiara in his afro hair said “More demigods will attract more monsters.”

“Then, we could send two more experienced demigods with him?” another camper said. The others nodded in agreement.

“Someone who can fight!” Meg said and stabbed the table with her knife “An Ares’ camper would be the best”

“You guys aren’t the only ones ‘who can fight’” Mary snorted and rolled her eyes.

Meg shot Mary a death stare, grabbing her knife again. The two girls stared at each other, looking like they could start fighting in any second.

“With boar and snake by his side,” Vixen interrupted. “Would that mean Ares and Hermes?”

They looked at her.

“Maybe.” Mary said.

Dexter swallowed. He didn’t dare to disrupt their discussion, but he really didn’t want to go on the quest. It sounded too serious and dangerous, why would he have to do such a thing? Why not someone more experienced with the whole demigod-world?

“Do I really have to do it?” he asked, but the counselors didn’t hear him.

A hand was gently placed on his shoulder and almost made Dexter shriek of surprise. Chiron attempted to give him a warm, comforting smile, but Dexter could sense some sort of sadness in his eyes.

“I do believe you have to.” Chiron said with a serious voice

“But that’s not fair, I don’t-…”

“Life as a demigod is rarely fair” Chiron looked at the others around the table “But we will do what we can to help you out”

The counselors nodded in agreement.

“We’ve come to a solution,” Vixen said and folded her hands “We believe Dexter is meant for the quest.”

Notes