Icy Heart: An Alex Greyson Story

I whipped around quickly to see Jake standing behind me in all his satyr glory. Instead of his usual sweat pants and a hoodie, he was letting out his goat legs. He had poncho made of palm fronds and a belts made from tree vines that held a sack of change, his slingshot, and a water pouch. He smiled at me and the Hermes campers. “Your fighting skills saved my life out there. Without you and your crazy power, I would be dead. I always wondered why you never wear a winter coat...”
I gave him the best high five of my life. I was incredibly grateful to find that my best friend was well. “I’m so glad to see you man,” I said, “I should probably get a real weapon though... and armor... and combat training.”
My hopes dwindled as a talked. How could I possibly play any war games with trained demigods? My father wouldn’t even recognize me as his son. “You’ll be fine bro,” said Jake, “The Hermes cabin knows how to take care of its own.”
I followed Connor and Travis to dinner and took a seat at the long table for the Hermes campers. I elbowed the black haired girl sitting on my left. “Umm, where is the food for dinner?”I whispered
“You’re funny new guy. Just think of whatever you want to eat and drink and it will magically appear on your plate. Oh! Don’t forget to put some part of your dinner in a sacrifice to the gods in those little fires over there.”
I couldn’t help but think of my mom’s most delicious beef stew. Bad plan. Chunks of beef and potato and onion and carrot and hot broth appeared on my plate and overflowed all over the table. “Dammit”
“You’ll figure it out pretty quickly” the girl said.
I scooped the beef chunks into my mouth and began eating what was left of my stew. I was beginning to wonder what she meant about the fires when I saw several other campers get up and offer a portion of their meal into the fire as they mumbled a prayer. As I was about to get up and sacrifice my stew tidbits, Chiron strode into the center of the dining area and slammed his hoof on the ground several times. “Attention! Attention! Everybody listen up. I have several announcements to make. They’re short so don’t worry. First could whoever is feeding Seymour all the deep-fried Oreos please stop. You all known he’s allergic to gluten. It isn’t funny anymore.”Travis and Conner snickered across the table. “Secondly, I would like to extend a formal welcome to Alex Greyson, our newest camper.” All eyes turned to me “Please do your best to make him feel welcome. Thirdly, would everyone please give a round of applause to our most recent winner of the Camper of the Week award, Jeremy Clark of the Demeter Cabin?”
All around me a chorus of cheers arose. Travis started pounding his fists on the table rhythmically while chanting “Cow, cow, cow, cow” Soon others joined in including myself. Now the entire camp was chanting “Cow” in unison. I’m a little ashamed to admit I didn’t figure out the acronym until later that night. Chiron stamped his hoof on the ground once more. “That’s enough everyone. You all have a free block until campfire starts at 8:00.”
My first four days at camp were really great, well my first four days conscious anyway. I really got to know all of my fellow campers in Hermes and we started becoming friends. They all shared what had happened at Camp Half Blood since Percy showed up so I got mostly filled in but there were a few aspects everyone was reluctant to tell about. Hermes cabin was pretty great, they even invited me to go pranking with them one night, but I couldn’t help but wish that my real dad, whoever he was, would claim me as his son. I felt nearly as out of place here as I did at my old school.
Our everyday classes were totally cool. I found that I was pretty good at sword fighting although every celestial bronze blade I tried felt like a pound of lead in my hand. “Monsters 101” was a breeze because I knew most of them anyways but I could never outthink the Athena kids. They’re too darn smart. And I figured out I’m one of the few demigods without dyslexia. Unfortunately, the flip side is that I’m not very good in Ancient Greek. Thank gods I was taking the introductory class. In general I had a lot of goods and bads. Archery- D+ Metalcraft- A Monsters 101-A Swordplay- B+ Assorted Athletics- C- Ancient Greek Diction- F Natural Healing- C. Gods, Natural Healing was a boring class but Jake was a counselor’s assistant so we got to hang out every day. Surprisingly the goat feet thing wasn’t difficult to get used to; the ability to control plants was. He wasn’t awesome at it but he could whistle a tune and have the green stuff growing where he wanted it to grow. It was surprising but Jake and I got even closer at Camp Half Blood even in just the first few days. He told me, “Bro, this your home now, and know you’ll love it here always.”
Soon Friday rolled around and the upcoming capture the flag game was all anyone would talk about at lunch. “What are the teams going to be?” Who will pick Hermes this time?” “Do you think Clarisse knows we painted her spear pink?”I stared at my plate with a steaming Chicago dog and salted fries. I couldn’t help but think that I really didn’t want to hurt any of my fellow campers. Of course it was non lethal combat and I didn’t even know if I would be any good fighting against them. From a time practicing perspective, literally everyone else was better than I. I got twitchy like I do whenever I’m nervous. My foot wouldn’t stop tapping. My fingers rolled anxiously on the tabletop. “Hey Alex, have you seen anything?”
“Huh?” I turned quickly to my left to see Hernando, one of my cabin mates talking to me.
“Yeah,” he said, “I was just telling Casper and Agatha about my dream of us winning the laurels tomorrow. I was just wondering if anyone else had dreamed something similar.”
“Oh, I don’t remember my dreams.” I said curtly.
Everyone at the table stared at me in silence. As expected I was incredibly confused. “What’s the matter?”
A chorus of responses replied. “Alex, all demigods dream dreams”
“Often they reflect the past, present and future.”
“We are protected from the worst nightmares in camp but everyone still has vivid realistic dreams.”
“Ok everybody.” I said, “That might be true but I don’t remember any of them. I never have.”

Notes