Chapter One: Uncerimoniously Kidnapped
It's amazing how your day can go from being completely crappy to being undeniably impossible.
I was finishing off my shift at the tanning salon when a stunning woman walked through the door. I'd never seen anyone like her before, she seemed to just glow. Confidence radiated off her like Gamma rays from a nuclear bomb crater. "Hi, my name is Kyri, can I help you?" I asked her.
"Oh, ummm, Kyri is it?"
"Yeah,"
"Well, I think I just need a 20 minute bed."
"Ok, that's gonna' be 15 bucks, is there anything else you need? Bronzer? Decal?"
"Nope that should do it." She grabbed some of the goggles and headed towards the back. I, on the other hand, looked at the clock. 3 PM, finally! The girl taking over for me came in and I caught her up with everything. I headed out the front door, bag in hand and cigarette in my mouth....yeah I know, I'll get cancer from those things, but what doesn't give you cancer these days? While I unlocked the doors to my Ford Focus, I noticed a big guy staring me down. The bike he was leaning against looked seriously scary, like made from human skin scary! To make matters worse, I thought I was losing my mind because out of nowhere the damned thing changed! It wasn't a bike anymore, it was a car. My eyes got as big as golf balls and the pretty chick that came in on my shift waltzed out of the building and jumped into the passenger seat. The mean looking guy sat down in the driver's side and gave me a crooked grin. I shook my head like I was trying to get rid of a bad idea and slid into my car.
The bypass is killer around 4, I mean everyone and their brother is out! I had my stereo thumping at one of the red lights, and my hand was hanging out the window gripping my cigarette. We were in the middle of some freak cold spell. It was like 43 degrees in the middle of July, so I had my heater turned on full blast. While I was singing along to some song I heard, "Hey Lady!" I looked at the car next to me.
"Are you talking to me?" I yelled back at the short guy driving the P.O.S. gilaupi on my left.
"Yeah, you! Your gas cap's off!" Great! Somone from New York. I thought saracstically."Shit!" I said to myself, and when we started moving I turned into the Burger King parking lot.
I parked in the back and got out. After I screwed the cap back on I went to get back in the car. Before I could get the door opened something growled at me. I turned around to find myself face to face with a bear! It had to be three times the size of the average grizzly! Its fur glittered gold in the sunlight and its saucer-sized crimson eyes looked directly into my green ones. Talk about scared as shit! I started to back up and it slowly followed me. I grabbed for my keys and then,Fheeeew, something flew by my ear. An arrow with silver feathers hit the beast right between the eyes. Damn good shot! The bear crumbled to the ground and then exploded in a cloud of golden dust.
"Got her!" shouted a small girl running up from behind me.
"I guess she found her, too!" I turned to see the demon car and the guy. The pretty girl hopped out and walked over to me.
"Well, seeings as we all found the same one, I think she's it!" she said.
"That's my guess," the guy who told me my gas cap was off joined the group.
"Well then, I think it's time to get her to camp." said the gorgeous one, running her fingers through my hair. "Oh, split ends! Hold on a sec." My hair glowed and when it dimmed it was as healthy as ever!
"Ok," I said, "Who the hell are you people, and why the fuck are you following me?"
"There's no time for questions, Runt, get in the car!" the scary dude commanded.
"I will not, and I am NOT A RUNT!" I complained as I was uncerimoniously stuft in the back of the mighty morphin' vehicle.
After what seemed like forever the car finally stopped moving. About thirty minutes back I had fallen asleep, but the sudden stop woke me....I pretended I was still asleep, hoping I could get back to my dreams. The big guy hauled my lazy, sorry, sleepy ass out of the back and carried me. It took a minute, but he finally dropped me to the ground in front of a house. "Alright, Squirt, I'm not packin' you anymore." I flipped him the finger and looked around. They must have put something in that soda back in Pittsburg, because there were half goat half dude things running around the yard chasing chicks that looked like they were tinged green! "C'mon, Runt." The Big guy said pushing me up the steps and onto a large veranda.I knew I had to be hallucinating because there was a half horse half guy lounging next to a table! What made it a little freakier was that the centaur was playing a game of cards with a large guy in a tiger striped shirt! The guy in the shirt would curse every few seconds or shoot the centaur a dirty look. There was another one of the goat guys sitting behind old tiger shirt munching on what looked like a Mt. Dew can! What the hell! That couldn't have tasted good. The little girl that was with us walked over to the centaur, "Chiron, she's here." The centaur, who I'm guessing was Chiron looked at me. "Green eyes, long hair the color of young strawberries, and shorter than most grown demigods....Yes, I do believe this is her."
"Belive I'm who? And watch the short jokes horse-boy!" I said. To my great surprise I recieved an extremely painful smack to the back of my head. I turned to see the big guy, "Watch what you say, Pipsqueak, we may need you now, but after the deadline I'll be happy to pulverize ya'"
"Ohhhh, look who's bad!" Smack. Damn it that hurt! I rubbed my head and decided it would be best to keep my big mouth shut until, Mr. Scary left. Chiron looked up at me, "Could you please follow me." He stood and walked toward the front door.
"Oh great! I said. "What are you going to do, stuff me in the oven? Am I dinner?" I followed him to the door. As I was passing the big guy in the tiger striipes he grabbed my arm and gave me a stern look, " Little girl! If you make one more snide comment I will make you a permanent fixture in the strawberry fields." Boy, they were really loopy around her, I thought to myself, and as I entered the house I pondered if my marbles were loose or just theirs.
I followed Chiron into the first door off the main hallway. The room was amazing! There was a soft, delicate, white couch and matching love seat. The walls were crisp and white with a deep agean blue greek key border. Alabaster busts in pristine condition were stylishly sprinkled throughout the room, and extravegant arrangements of exotic flowers were placed on the dark cherry tables. The feature that made my heart sing, though, was a pure golden harp sitting in the corner. There was a golden stool beside it with a floral on white patterned upholstry on the seat. I couldn't help it, even though I had no talent whatsoever. I walked to the stool, sat down, and poised my fingers on the strings. "Don't do that." Chiron said, absentmindedly as he retrieved a notebook from a table. Yeah right, I thought, like I'm going to listen to you, I don't even listen to my dad! I started plucking the strings. Talk about chaos! That was the worst noise in the world! There was no harmony, no melody, not even something that sounded remotely like music. It was more like nails being drawn down a blackboard. "No wonder you've never been attacked." Chiron said, "No monster would come within 3500 feet of you for fear of deafness and utter calamity."
"What are you saying, old man? or is it old horse?"
"You need to bite your tongue, disrespecting your elders around here will get you nothing more than a bolt of lightning to your chest."
"Yeah, right. Like a rogue bolt of lightning is actually going to strike me. News flash, weather is sporadic!" Thunder rolled in the distance.
"You think so? You've much to learn, then. Can I please have your name?"
"Why do you want my name?"
"So I can figure out who your immortal parent is."
"Whoa buddy, I know the answer to that! My parents are both accounted for. Dad's at home in Willow Springs, and mom's in the ground at the grave yard."
"No she's not."
"Don't argue with me! I'll pull your horseshoes off! She is in the grave yard, I've been there! Dad has a picture of me at the funeral! She died when I was one!"
"No she didn't. I assure you she is more than alive!"
"Horseshoes!"
"You aren't touching my hooves, and your threats mean nothing here. Now, what's your name?"
"Kyrine Alexi Snipe. And don't mess it up it's pronounced Kye-Rin-Nee not Kye-Ri-Nay. I've put people in the hospital over that."
"No you haven't."
"How do you know?"
"I just do." He started thumbing through the pages in the notebook. The pages were worn like the thing had been opened at least thirty times a day for the past 5 years. I would later find out it was six years, but who's counting, really? "Ahhh. Here you are," He announced, "Kyrine, Daughter of.....I should've guessed, you act just like her. Look like her, too."
"Like who?"
"You could be her twin."
"Who's twin?"
"Well, this may be a challenge."
"Challenge?"
"You look like your mother, you act like her, too."
"MY MOM'S DEAD! D-E-A-D!"
"No she isn't! Your mother is the Goddess Eris, my niece, and quite the little brat."
"Ok, now I know they snuck something in my drink." I stomped out of the room and back out on the porch, the mean guy, goat-boy, and the man in the tiger shirt were still there, but everyone else had left. "What did you put in my soda?!" I yelled at Captain Fear.
"Nothing."
"Well, you must've done something because the horse in there is tellin g my my mom is someone named Eris, when I know my mom's name was Elle!"
"You owe me ten drachma, Dionysus." The big guy looked down at the tiger stripes. "I told ya' she was Eris', no one, not even mine, act like that."
"Act like what? I think I'm acting pretty damn good for being kidnapped and drugged!"
"You weren't drugged, and your acting like a foul mouthed little brat."
"She is definately acting like her mom, Ares." Dionysus said.
"Now, all that's left is being a daddy's girl or a mommy's girl....then we won't be able to tell the difference."
"Alright Ares, Dionysus, I'm walking off this porch and I'm leaving this place." I started down the stairs, but something crawled up my leg. I looked down. Grape vines, with big purple-ish black fruit and tender green leaves coiled around me, stopping all movement.
"What the hell!?"
"You don't ever call us by our names without permission, girl." Dionysus glared at me under a dark scowl and curled lip. "You call me Mr. D. He is Lord Ares, don't ever let me hear it phrased any other way. Now you can leave."
"No she can't." Goatboy finally speaks! "We need her Mr. D. Without her he'll never...."
"Shut up, Grover. We can find another."
"Wait, there's a guy involved? Count me in!"
"Do you even know what you're signing up for?" A girl walked up on the porch. Her hair was stringy and colored like mud and red clay. She was big, I'm talking at least 6 inches taller than me, and I'm 5'2", so you can imagine. I started looking between her and Ares. She must've been his daughter.
"I don't care, so long as I can get these damned vines off my legs and cause some trouble."
"Let me guess, Chold of Her-"
"Eris." Mr. D said, "What are you doing up here Clarisse."
"I'm the welcoming commitee."
"You have no one to welcome, because she'll be leaving soon." Ares sounded quite sure of that. "Take her to the oracle, so she knows what to do." The brutish chick grabbed me by the arm as soon as the vine receided, and dragged me into the house. We went up a set of stairs and turned into a color splashed room with paint dripping from the ceiling.
"Rachel, she's here." The girl called, and then she looked at me, "I don't do this often so I'll try my best to be nice. My name's Clarisse, despite what your dad told you, your mom's a goddess, and there is a very important quest that the gods need you for. The chick we are getting ready to see is Rachel. She's the Oracle of Delphi and she's a little strange. Be nice, because Mr. D down there will turn you into a shrub for a week, I've been there before and it's not fun. If you tell anyone I helped you, I will kill you." She shut up as soon as the other girl walked into the room. I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing, it was the funniset thing I had seen in a while. This girl had frizzy red hair pulled up in a ponytail. Her jeans were covered in different shades of paint, and her shirt was so baggy that it hung down to her knees. Every piece of visible skin was covered in spots of paint. She had a big purple dot right on her nose and lime green streaks on her forehead. She was a walking canvas for nerd art! "Hi," she said, "oh, no!" She started wigging out. Her eyes rolled back and turned electric green. Her skin went paler than it had been and to top it off she started to talk in a creepy voice.
"the air turns cold, the earth is restless
the hearth coals glow as the theif lies breathless
the emerald eyed shall seek the answer
aided by those of heartly matter
the life of the Wayfinder, saved."
She returned to normal, but I continued to stare at her like she had grown a second head. "What the hell was that? What the hell does that mean?!" I asked.
"It means," Clarisse said, "That you have a quest. You need to leave now, before it's too late."
"Before what's to late?"
"You'll see."
I was about halfway down the hall before Clarisse caught up with me. "Hey, you can't do this alone you know."
"Who says I can't?"
"I do." Chiron was back and in a mechanical wheelchair.
"Well, then, who goes with me?" I gave a bit of attitude.
"You can take three other campers, and I'll send a protector."
"Three people and a what?"
"A protector," Clarisse answered, a satyr."
"What the hell's a satyr?"
"The half man half goats that you saw outside."
"Oh, well, who goes with me?"
"You get to choose that." Chiron said.
"How about you choose for me." More attitude.
"Fine, Clarisse go pack your things and tell Nico and Jason to do the same." Clarisse ran out of the house. Chiron directed me around the place and after a while sent me to go eat.
My table was lonely, not a single person there other than myself. I did what Chiron had told me to do, sacrificing and all that Jazz and ate my meal in peace....it disgusted me. There were some mashed potatoes on my plate that were just calling my name, this place needed a good time,anyway. I pushed my spoon into the potatoes and started flinging them. They smacked a pretty girl dressed in pink right in the back of her blonde head. I threw a few more smacking her neighbors in the same way. They jumped around shaking their hands like they were covered in the most vile substance on the planet, and then they turned on me. All at once they marched in my direction and I pointed towards a group of kids sitting at a table with arrow quivers strapped to their backs. The girls stomped over there and the girl I'd hit first grabbed one of them up by the ear. "Psssst." A guy at the table next to mine was trying to get my attention. I looked over at him and he said "Nice one! I bet I could hit more people!" He looked like the kid sitting next to him. They both had mischievious looks and turned up eyebrows. I remembeed Chiron saying his name was Travis and his brother was Connor. "You're on!" I said and we started flinging potatoes all over the pavilion. In no time, people were fighting and slinging food all over the place. There was no order, and that's just the way I liked it. Eventually Travis and Connor came to sit at my table, where we picked prime targets and let our food fly. Unfortunately Connor picked the wrong target. His smooshed peas knocked Mr. D right in the middle of his pudgy forehead. "Oh shit!" We said and ducked, but we were too late.
Mr. D walked through the sea of dschord making everyone go back to their seats. He reached us with minimal effort and pulled Connor up by the back of his shirt collar. " Mr. Stoll! What is this on my head?!"
"Uhm....it's peas." Connor replied.
"I should let the harpies eat you, but then I'd have to listen to your-....nevermind. For now, you are going to be dinner decoration." Mr. D carried Connor over to the fire and made him sit. The next thing I knew, there was a shrub in the exact spot Connor had been sitting. "The other Mr. Stoll, stay away from the new girl...I don't want anymore trouble tonight. If I see anything, the whole camp will be made into that grape vineyard I've been wanting." He strolled back to his table and after a whispered "See ya' later." Travis went back to join his siblings. I sighed and sat through the rest of dinner and the bon fire. After the food fight Chiron had announced that whatever game it was that everyone liked, Capture the Flag or something, was cancelled for the night. One table at a time everyone drifted back to their cabin.I went over and stared at the Connor bush. I noticed a little girl sitting by the flames, and I waved to her. It was my solemn oath to be nice to little kids, after all one of them might follow in my footsteps one day.
I decided sleep would be a better choice than pissing Mr. D off again, because I supposedly had a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I walked into my cabin: a small cottage with walls covered in a collage of different magazine clippings and a large golden apple tree sitting in the middle. The bunks were strewn in every direction in no order whatsoever. I changed into a camp t-shirt and cotton shorts that somone had left for me and crawled into the bed closest to the glimmering tree. My head hit the pillow and for the first time in ages, I fell asleep instantly.
It's amazing how your day can go from being completely crappy to being undeniably impossible.
I was finishing off my shift at the tanning salon when a stunning woman walked through the door. I'd never seen anyone like her before, she seemed to just glow. Confidence radiated off her like Gamma rays from a nuclear bomb crater. "Hi, my name is Kyri, can I help you?" I asked her.
"Oh, ummm, Kyri is it?"
"Yeah,"
"Well, I think I just need a 20 minute bed."
"Ok, that's gonna' be 15 bucks, is there anything else you need? Bronzer? Decal?"
"Nope that should do it." She grabbed some of the goggles and headed towards the back. I, on the other hand, looked at the clock. 3 PM, finally! The girl taking over for me came in and I caught her up with everything. I headed out the front door, bag in hand and cigarette in my mouth....yeah I know, I'll get cancer from those things, but what doesn't give you cancer these days? While I unlocked the doors to my Ford Focus, I noticed a big guy staring me down. The bike he was leaning against looked seriously scary, like made from human skin scary! To make matters worse, I thought I was losing my mind because out of nowhere the damned thing changed! It wasn't a bike anymore, it was a car. My eyes got as big as golf balls and the pretty chick that came in on my shift waltzed out of the building and jumped into the passenger seat. The mean looking guy sat down in the driver's side and gave me a crooked grin. I shook my head like I was trying to get rid of a bad idea and slid into my car.
The bypass is killer around 4, I mean everyone and their brother is out! I had my stereo thumping at one of the red lights, and my hand was hanging out the window gripping my cigarette. We were in the middle of some freak cold spell. It was like 43 degrees in the middle of July, so I had my heater turned on full blast. While I was singing along to some song I heard, "Hey Lady!" I looked at the car next to me.
"Are you talking to me?" I yelled back at the short guy driving the P.O.S. gilaupi on my left.
"Yeah, you! Your gas cap's off!" Great! Somone from New York. I thought saracstically."Shit!" I said to myself, and when we started moving I turned into the Burger King parking lot.
I parked in the back and got out. After I screwed the cap back on I went to get back in the car. Before I could get the door opened something growled at me. I turned around to find myself face to face with a bear! It had to be three times the size of the average grizzly! Its fur glittered gold in the sunlight and its saucer-sized crimson eyes looked directly into my green ones. Talk about scared as shit! I started to back up and it slowly followed me. I grabbed for my keys and then,Fheeeew, something flew by my ear. An arrow with silver feathers hit the beast right between the eyes. Damn good shot! The bear crumbled to the ground and then exploded in a cloud of golden dust.
"Got her!" shouted a small girl running up from behind me.
"I guess she found her, too!" I turned to see the demon car and the guy. The pretty girl hopped out and walked over to me.
"Well, seeings as we all found the same one, I think she's it!" she said.
"That's my guess," the guy who told me my gas cap was off joined the group.
"Well then, I think it's time to get her to camp." said the gorgeous one, running her fingers through my hair. "Oh, split ends! Hold on a sec." My hair glowed and when it dimmed it was as healthy as ever!
"Ok," I said, "Who the hell are you people, and why the fuck are you following me?"
"There's no time for questions, Runt, get in the car!" the scary dude commanded.
"I will not, and I am NOT A RUNT!" I complained as I was uncerimoniously stuft in the back of the mighty morphin' vehicle.
After what seemed like forever the car finally stopped moving. About thirty minutes back I had fallen asleep, but the sudden stop woke me....I pretended I was still asleep, hoping I could get back to my dreams. The big guy hauled my lazy, sorry, sleepy ass out of the back and carried me. It took a minute, but he finally dropped me to the ground in front of a house. "Alright, Squirt, I'm not packin' you anymore." I flipped him the finger and looked around. They must have put something in that soda back in Pittsburg, because there were half goat half dude things running around the yard chasing chicks that looked like they were tinged green! "C'mon, Runt." The Big guy said pushing me up the steps and onto a large veranda.I knew I had to be hallucinating because there was a half horse half guy lounging next to a table! What made it a little freakier was that the centaur was playing a game of cards with a large guy in a tiger striped shirt! The guy in the shirt would curse every few seconds or shoot the centaur a dirty look. There was another one of the goat guys sitting behind old tiger shirt munching on what looked like a Mt. Dew can! What the hell! That couldn't have tasted good. The little girl that was with us walked over to the centaur, "Chiron, she's here." The centaur, who I'm guessing was Chiron looked at me. "Green eyes, long hair the color of young strawberries, and shorter than most grown demigods....Yes, I do believe this is her."
"Belive I'm who? And watch the short jokes horse-boy!" I said. To my great surprise I recieved an extremely painful smack to the back of my head. I turned to see the big guy, "Watch what you say, Pipsqueak, we may need you now, but after the deadline I'll be happy to pulverize ya'"
"Ohhhh, look who's bad!" Smack. Damn it that hurt! I rubbed my head and decided it would be best to keep my big mouth shut until, Mr. Scary left. Chiron looked up at me, "Could you please follow me." He stood and walked toward the front door.
"Oh great! I said. "What are you going to do, stuff me in the oven? Am I dinner?" I followed him to the door. As I was passing the big guy in the tiger striipes he grabbed my arm and gave me a stern look, " Little girl! If you make one more snide comment I will make you a permanent fixture in the strawberry fields." Boy, they were really loopy around her, I thought to myself, and as I entered the house I pondered if my marbles were loose or just theirs.
I followed Chiron into the first door off the main hallway. The room was amazing! There was a soft, delicate, white couch and matching love seat. The walls were crisp and white with a deep agean blue greek key border. Alabaster busts in pristine condition were stylishly sprinkled throughout the room, and extravegant arrangements of exotic flowers were placed on the dark cherry tables. The feature that made my heart sing, though, was a pure golden harp sitting in the corner. There was a golden stool beside it with a floral on white patterned upholstry on the seat. I couldn't help it, even though I had no talent whatsoever. I walked to the stool, sat down, and poised my fingers on the strings. "Don't do that." Chiron said, absentmindedly as he retrieved a notebook from a table. Yeah right, I thought, like I'm going to listen to you, I don't even listen to my dad! I started plucking the strings. Talk about chaos! That was the worst noise in the world! There was no harmony, no melody, not even something that sounded remotely like music. It was more like nails being drawn down a blackboard. "No wonder you've never been attacked." Chiron said, "No monster would come within 3500 feet of you for fear of deafness and utter calamity."
"What are you saying, old man? or is it old horse?"
"You need to bite your tongue, disrespecting your elders around here will get you nothing more than a bolt of lightning to your chest."
"Yeah, right. Like a rogue bolt of lightning is actually going to strike me. News flash, weather is sporadic!" Thunder rolled in the distance.
"You think so? You've much to learn, then. Can I please have your name?"
"Why do you want my name?"
"So I can figure out who your immortal parent is."
"Whoa buddy, I know the answer to that! My parents are both accounted for. Dad's at home in Willow Springs, and mom's in the ground at the grave yard."
"No she's not."
"Don't argue with me! I'll pull your horseshoes off! She is in the grave yard, I've been there! Dad has a picture of me at the funeral! She died when I was one!"
"No she didn't. I assure you she is more than alive!"
"Horseshoes!"
"You aren't touching my hooves, and your threats mean nothing here. Now, what's your name?"
"Kyrine Alexi Snipe. And don't mess it up it's pronounced Kye-Rin-Nee not Kye-Ri-Nay. I've put people in the hospital over that."
"No you haven't."
"How do you know?"
"I just do." He started thumbing through the pages in the notebook. The pages were worn like the thing had been opened at least thirty times a day for the past 5 years. I would later find out it was six years, but who's counting, really? "Ahhh. Here you are," He announced, "Kyrine, Daughter of.....I should've guessed, you act just like her. Look like her, too."
"Like who?"
"You could be her twin."
"Who's twin?"
"Well, this may be a challenge."
"Challenge?"
"You look like your mother, you act like her, too."
"MY MOM'S DEAD! D-E-A-D!"
"No she isn't! Your mother is the Goddess Eris, my niece, and quite the little brat."
"Ok, now I know they snuck something in my drink." I stomped out of the room and back out on the porch, the mean guy, goat-boy, and the man in the tiger shirt were still there, but everyone else had left. "What did you put in my soda?!" I yelled at Captain Fear.
"Nothing."
"Well, you must've done something because the horse in there is tellin g my my mom is someone named Eris, when I know my mom's name was Elle!"
"You owe me ten drachma, Dionysus." The big guy looked down at the tiger stripes. "I told ya' she was Eris', no one, not even mine, act like that."
"Act like what? I think I'm acting pretty damn good for being kidnapped and drugged!"
"You weren't drugged, and your acting like a foul mouthed little brat."
"She is definately acting like her mom, Ares." Dionysus said.
"Now, all that's left is being a daddy's girl or a mommy's girl....then we won't be able to tell the difference."
"Alright Ares, Dionysus, I'm walking off this porch and I'm leaving this place." I started down the stairs, but something crawled up my leg. I looked down. Grape vines, with big purple-ish black fruit and tender green leaves coiled around me, stopping all movement.
"What the hell!?"
"You don't ever call us by our names without permission, girl." Dionysus glared at me under a dark scowl and curled lip. "You call me Mr. D. He is Lord Ares, don't ever let me hear it phrased any other way. Now you can leave."
"No she can't." Goatboy finally speaks! "We need her Mr. D. Without her he'll never...."
"Shut up, Grover. We can find another."
"Wait, there's a guy involved? Count me in!"
"Do you even know what you're signing up for?" A girl walked up on the porch. Her hair was stringy and colored like mud and red clay. She was big, I'm talking at least 6 inches taller than me, and I'm 5'2", so you can imagine. I started looking between her and Ares. She must've been his daughter.
"I don't care, so long as I can get these damned vines off my legs and cause some trouble."
"Let me guess, Chold of Her-"
"Eris." Mr. D said, "What are you doing up here Clarisse."
"I'm the welcoming commitee."
"You have no one to welcome, because she'll be leaving soon." Ares sounded quite sure of that. "Take her to the oracle, so she knows what to do." The brutish chick grabbed me by the arm as soon as the vine receided, and dragged me into the house. We went up a set of stairs and turned into a color splashed room with paint dripping from the ceiling.
"Rachel, she's here." The girl called, and then she looked at me, "I don't do this often so I'll try my best to be nice. My name's Clarisse, despite what your dad told you, your mom's a goddess, and there is a very important quest that the gods need you for. The chick we are getting ready to see is Rachel. She's the Oracle of Delphi and she's a little strange. Be nice, because Mr. D down there will turn you into a shrub for a week, I've been there before and it's not fun. If you tell anyone I helped you, I will kill you." She shut up as soon as the other girl walked into the room. I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing, it was the funniset thing I had seen in a while. This girl had frizzy red hair pulled up in a ponytail. Her jeans were covered in different shades of paint, and her shirt was so baggy that it hung down to her knees. Every piece of visible skin was covered in spots of paint. She had a big purple dot right on her nose and lime green streaks on her forehead. She was a walking canvas for nerd art! "Hi," she said, "oh, no!" She started wigging out. Her eyes rolled back and turned electric green. Her skin went paler than it had been and to top it off she started to talk in a creepy voice.
"the air turns cold, the earth is restless
the hearth coals glow as the theif lies breathless
the emerald eyed shall seek the answer
aided by those of heartly matter
the life of the Wayfinder, saved."
She returned to normal, but I continued to stare at her like she had grown a second head. "What the hell was that? What the hell does that mean?!" I asked.
"It means," Clarisse said, "That you have a quest. You need to leave now, before it's too late."
"Before what's to late?"
"You'll see."
I was about halfway down the hall before Clarisse caught up with me. "Hey, you can't do this alone you know."
"Who says I can't?"
"I do." Chiron was back and in a mechanical wheelchair.
"Well, then, who goes with me?" I gave a bit of attitude.
"You can take three other campers, and I'll send a protector."
"Three people and a what?"
"A protector," Clarisse answered, a satyr."
"What the hell's a satyr?"
"The half man half goats that you saw outside."
"Oh, well, who goes with me?"
"You get to choose that." Chiron said.
"How about you choose for me." More attitude.
"Fine, Clarisse go pack your things and tell Nico and Jason to do the same." Clarisse ran out of the house. Chiron directed me around the place and after a while sent me to go eat.
My table was lonely, not a single person there other than myself. I did what Chiron had told me to do, sacrificing and all that Jazz and ate my meal in peace....it disgusted me. There were some mashed potatoes on my plate that were just calling my name, this place needed a good time,anyway. I pushed my spoon into the potatoes and started flinging them. They smacked a pretty girl dressed in pink right in the back of her blonde head. I threw a few more smacking her neighbors in the same way. They jumped around shaking their hands like they were covered in the most vile substance on the planet, and then they turned on me. All at once they marched in my direction and I pointed towards a group of kids sitting at a table with arrow quivers strapped to their backs. The girls stomped over there and the girl I'd hit first grabbed one of them up by the ear. "Psssst." A guy at the table next to mine was trying to get my attention. I looked over at him and he said "Nice one! I bet I could hit more people!" He looked like the kid sitting next to him. They both had mischievious looks and turned up eyebrows. I remembeed Chiron saying his name was Travis and his brother was Connor. "You're on!" I said and we started flinging potatoes all over the pavilion. In no time, people were fighting and slinging food all over the place. There was no order, and that's just the way I liked it. Eventually Travis and Connor came to sit at my table, where we picked prime targets and let our food fly. Unfortunately Connor picked the wrong target. His smooshed peas knocked Mr. D right in the middle of his pudgy forehead. "Oh shit!" We said and ducked, but we were too late.
Mr. D walked through the sea of dschord making everyone go back to their seats. He reached us with minimal effort and pulled Connor up by the back of his shirt collar. " Mr. Stoll! What is this on my head?!"
"Uhm....it's peas." Connor replied.
"I should let the harpies eat you, but then I'd have to listen to your-....nevermind. For now, you are going to be dinner decoration." Mr. D carried Connor over to the fire and made him sit. The next thing I knew, there was a shrub in the exact spot Connor had been sitting. "The other Mr. Stoll, stay away from the new girl...I don't want anymore trouble tonight. If I see anything, the whole camp will be made into that grape vineyard I've been wanting." He strolled back to his table and after a whispered "See ya' later." Travis went back to join his siblings. I sighed and sat through the rest of dinner and the bon fire. After the food fight Chiron had announced that whatever game it was that everyone liked, Capture the Flag or something, was cancelled for the night. One table at a time everyone drifted back to their cabin.I went over and stared at the Connor bush. I noticed a little girl sitting by the flames, and I waved to her. It was my solemn oath to be nice to little kids, after all one of them might follow in my footsteps one day.
I decided sleep would be a better choice than pissing Mr. D off again, because I supposedly had a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I walked into my cabin: a small cottage with walls covered in a collage of different magazine clippings and a large golden apple tree sitting in the middle. The bunks were strewn in every direction in no order whatsoever. I changed into a camp t-shirt and cotton shorts that somone had left for me and crawled into the bed closest to the glimmering tree. My head hit the pillow and for the first time in ages, I fell asleep instantly.