Chapter Three: Claiming Cube

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In archery, I would like to say I did awesome. But that would be a lie. I failed. None of us were very good at it, with the expectation of Nina Thomas, a Asian 8 year old. She hit bullseye after bullseye, while the rest of us hit the edges of the targets and sometimes the trees behind. Our lesson ended early when Grant Norton sunk an arrow into a particular tree who gathered her friends to chase us from the archery range.

After that, I had Ancient Greek with some of the other new campers. Chiron instructed us to write an essay about, well I wasn't really listening. Ancient Greek lasted until lunch.

I met up with my cabin mates at the Hephaestus table in the dinning pavilion. After giving a portion of my food to Hephaestus, I sat at my table next to Shane, the kid I had met earlier.

"Hey, Shane," I greeted, "what were you making in the forges earlier?" Shane turned to me.

"The answer to every new demigods biggest problem," he said, "a automatic claimer," I looked at him.

"What?"

"An automatic claimer," he repeated, "if you need to be claimed, you hold it, and it will project your godly parents symbol!" I felt my stomach drop, "and, you can try it after lunch, since we're going to free time!" I felt like crying. If it worked, it would show Aphrodite and Shane think it didn't work. If it didn't work but showed Hephaestus, Shane would think it worked and kids would be claimed wrong.

"Cool," I managed to tell him. I swallowed my last grape. I got up from the table. Shane got up with me. He ran off to the cabin, and I followed him reluctantly. When we got to the cabin, Shane un-folded his bunk, and entered a second code to his secret storage. He pulled out the golden box.

"Here, here!" He shoved it into my hands, excited to see his invention in action. Th box glowed warm in my hands. My heart thumped in my chest. The butterflies turned to frogs, which turned to stone like they had seen Medusa's glare.

A holographic image of a dove hovered over the box. Shane's shoulders slumped.

"It didn't work," he mumbled, "what did I do wrong?" He was so heart broken, I felt terrible.

"No," I whispered, "it did work." Then it was my turn to look crestfallen.

"What?" Shane was confused. So I spilled. I told him about my real godly parent, my dream message, my second and first claiming, everything.

I was looking at my shoes when I finished. The claiming cube laid forgotten at my feet. A hand fell on my shoulder and I jumped.

"Well," Shane was clearly uncomfortable with comforting a crying girl, "you're one of us now. Hephaestus wanted you. So, you're my," he choked, "little sister?" It sounded like a question, but I knew what he meant. I leaped at him, wrapping my arms around him and burying my head in his shoulder.

Shane was surprised at first, but then hugged me back. I was shaking with tears, and I don't know if they were happy or sad. Maybe both.

"It's ok, Nyssa," Shane said, "I won't tell." We stayed that way for the rest if the afternoon.

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