Percy Jackson: Daughter of Shadows

2. I interrupt a claiming and reluctantly join a quest

If I had known that the Hermes cabin would be so annoying, I would have never joined the Athena team. Also, it was ridiculous how many undetermined kids were in the Hermes cabin. I could tell who half of their parents are. Most of the kids were children of the minor gods, but I went to Chiron to tell him that there were two "undetermined" Aphrodite kids, three Demeter kids, and five Athena kids. For those ones, I called them over to the Big House and gave them 3000 Jenga blocks and told them to make the Empire State building out of them. Five minutes later, one perfectly constructed Empire State building Jenga tower was complete, with window details of hot glue and Olympus dangling above it made out of some tin cans a satyr left on the porch. The Aphrodite kids were easy. Give them a makeup kit and they could make anyone look even more beautiful in three minutes. Demeter was just dumb. All I had to do was give them a dying flower and they revived it in three seconds. By the time the horn blew for dinner, I had placed ten kids in their respective cabins. "When did demigods lose their minds?" I asked Viktor as we headed down to the dining pavilion. "How so?" "I just put five Athena kids in Cabin Six, and get this, they were undetermined! I mean, how??????" "Well, you are the only demigod in history to not have dyslexia, so..." I shook my head. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But still, it makes no sense. Either Chiron's losing his edge, or Dionysus doesn't give a flying fuck" "Language, there are seven-year-olds here" "Hmphh" We entered the dining pavilion. All of the cabins were already seated and waiting for Chiron. A new table had appeared for me and Viktor. We sat down and looked around. The campers with Dionysus earlier were already seated. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, one undetermined and a daughter of Athena. Not bad.

 Chiron hammered his hoof on the ground. "To the Gods!" "To the Gods!" said the campers, raising their glasses. I picked up my glass and said, "Triple shot espresso with a hefty amount of milk, please" The glass instantly filled with a caramel brown liquid. Viktor meanwhile was gulping down a glass of Lemon Coke. "How do you like that stuff?" "How do you like triple shot espresso with milk?" "Easy. Capture-The-Flag is tonight, and I have no interest in dealing with both the Hermes and Apollo cabins without coffee" "Please tell me that you told Chiron that I don't want to play Capture-The-Flag" "Nope. Come on, Viktor. You're going to be one of the only people on that team that I won't want to skewer with a spear" "Who are the other people you don't wish to skewer?" "Annabeth Chase, that daughter of Athena from earlier, and Percy Jackson. He's got enough sense and sarcasm for me to not hate him" "Ahhh, well then, we better get out offerings into the hearth now, for luck with the rest" "Yeah. Hope they like turkey fat" "Lilly!" "What?  Prometheus tricked Zeus with it once, why can't I do it? I hate him anyways" "Do you want the camp to get blown to cinders?" "No..." "Then at least give them a quarter of your burger. Or just toss in a bushel of grapes, it doesn't matter" I sighed and tossed a bushel of grapes into the fire. "Which ever god is listening, just take the damn grapes" I headed back to mine and Viktor's table, satisfied. "Please tell me you didn't say something stupid" "Nope, just told them to take the damn grapes" "Lillllllllly..." "What? You didn't tell me I had to be respectful" "You could try" "Sure, sure. Remind me how that worked out with all those other Greek heroes? Oh right, they either got killed by Hera or impregnated by Zeus, if they were female. Callisto, anyone?" "Alright, you've made your point. Just try not to kill anyone tonight, okay?" "Why are you telling me that?" "Cause it's time for Capture-The-Flag" 

 Campers cheered as Annabeth and the rest of Athena cabin ran across the pavilion with a gray flag with the symbol of an owl on it. On the other side, a daughter of Ares ran across with her siblings with a blood red flag with the symbol of a boar and a bloody spear. Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magical items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" Viktor and I stood up.  Viktor clicked his cane and slid the newly formed sword into its scabbard. Here's how the enchantment works. As long as Viktor has his cane in sword form, and he has it on him, he can run and walk normally. If it's in cane form or away from him, he has a limp and can't run. I pulled my swords off my back. We caught up with Annabeth, who was already busy talking to Jackson. "Hey, boss. What's the plan?" I asked. She stopped and sized up me and Viktor. "You could ummm... help Percy with border patrol?" "Great, thanks" I said, running towards the woods. Finally, the conch horn blew, and the Apollo, Hermes, and Athena cabins ran into the woods towards the Ares side, leaving me, Viktor, and Jackson by the creek. A low growling noise came from the woods and then disappeared. Suddenly, five Ares campers came out of the underbrush, yelling and screaming. "Cream the punk!" yelled the Ares girl in the front, raising her spear. They charged at Jackson. "Come on!" I yelled to Viktor, leaping towards one of them. "Jackson! Disarm her! Now!" I yelled to Jackson, sending an Ares kids sword flying through the air. "Working on it!" Jackson yelled, sending another Ares kid into the creek. The Ares girl thrusted her spear at him, and he caught its shaft and split it in half. "Ah! You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" The Ares girl yelled, but Jackson smashed her between the eyes with his sword and sent her stumbling out of the creek. Elated yells came from the woods. I turned around and saw Luke Castellan running out from the woods, carrying the Ares flag "A trick! It was a trick" the Ares girl shouted. The banner changed from red to silver with a caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. The rest of the campers lifted Luke onto their shoulders. Annabeth was engaged in conversation with Jackson when the growing sound came again. Chiron shouted in Ancient Greek. "Stand ready! My bow!" A hellhound came lunging out of the woods. "Di immortales!" A hoard of arrows entered the hellhounds side as Chiron shot it just before it tore Jackson to pieces. Annabeth watched as the hellhound dissolved into the ground. She turned to Jakson. "You're hurt. Step into the water, Percy" Jackson stepped into the water, and all of the campers gasped. A glowing green trident was floating above his head. "It is decided" Chiron said. "My father?" Jackson asked, bewildered. I interrupted. "Chiron, cut it with official stuff. Everyone, Percy Jackson. Son of Poseidon, Sea God, Father of Horses, Earthshaker, and a huge pain in my ass"

Three days later

  Well, I had had a terrible week. I called Chris after Percy got claimed. He was in a right state, Eliza had been out a couple of nights ago and had gotten attacked by dracnae. She was still in bed resting. "This has never happened before. Somethings wrong. Ask Chiron about what your dreams mean. Somethings up, and based on what you've just told me, you and the rest of the demigods there and around the world may be totally screwed. A son of Poseidon, this is bad, this is really bad" I had never heard him that worried before, although I wasn't surprised. Eliza getting attacked would scare anyone back at Haven. Demigods there weren't normally attacked, powerful or not. I mean, I'd basically lived there for five years, and I could summon fire, water, air, earth, shadow travel, build a robot out of scrap metal cans, and bring people back from the dead, and I was rarely attacked unless if I was on a quest. So, something was definitely wrong. Things didn't ger better when Chiron summoned me to the Big House along with Viktor. He was in wheelchair form, with his equine half boxed up in the wheelchair. Percy and a satyr were sitting at the table across from him looking grim. "What is it, Chiron?" I asked, sitting next to the satyr. "Not anything good, child. Percy has been given a prophecy, and its, not good, I'm afraid" "How so? What's the prophecy?" Percy sighed and said, " You shall go west and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end." 

   I turned to Chiron. "Well, you're right. That doesn't sound good. If anything, it means that Percy might fail to save his mother. Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt" "How?" Percy asked, hopeful. "She died of leukemia, and I couldn't bring her back. Not the greatest thing for me" Percy looked down at his shoes. "Sorry" "Don't worry about it. After all, she's the one who told me I'm a half-blood, so that was nice" He smiled a bit. Viktor turned to Chiron. "What did you summon us here for, Chiron?" Chiron sighed and stared off towards the strawberry fields. "I summoned you here to ask if you will join Percy in his quest" I choked. "What?" "The two of you have experience in these matters, and Percy will need all the help he can get" "What about the campers? Why can't they help him?" "Annabeth Chase and Grover here have already volunteered to go with, but I'm willing to risk adding you two to the quest because you have experience and have more power than either of them. Plus, you seem to know your way around the country" "True, but that doesn't mean we need to go on this quest. I got a message from Chris a couple nights ago, and its mayhem out there. His fiancée, a daughter of Iris, a minor god, got attacked by dracnae, and she's 21! I'm sorry, but that's too much" Chiron stared at me, tilting his head. "What have you been dreaming about, Lilly?" I sighed. "I saw... Poseidon and Zeus fighting, a voice from below telling me that the time was almost right, that I needed to head to the... the Underworld" Grover choked on his can. "The Underworld?!" "Yes, I think Hades might be involved somehow. And let's just say that if Percy is meant to go there, then he is fucked. Hades won't be too pleased to find the son of Poseidon in his realm" Chiron nodded. "I feared this. You both must go with him. You know Thanatos and Charon, and I'm assuming have been in the Underworld before" "Yes, but that doesn't mean that we're buddy-buddy with Hades. He hates demigods" "True, but you have the upper hand. So, will you go?" Viktor turned to me. "We get to be back in the chaos again..." I sighed. "Fine. But someone better pack me a gallon of coffee, cause it's going to be a long ten days."