Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

Interlude: Change Is Constant

One of my newest siblings in the Ares Cabin, a thirteen year old girl by the name of Clove Vasquez, definitely took after me in a way, and I couldn't help but somehow rapidly become one of her favorite older siblings. She was a bit shorter than me at five foot three inches tall, with dark hair that was usually either in a ponytail or a braid, dark eyes, and some freckles.

The unusual thing about Clove was that as her preferred choice of weapon, she used a different ranged type of weapon that wasn't a Greek weapon. Whereas I was using guns, she used knives, particularly very sharp throwing knives. She was accurate and lethal with them, making me wonder when exactly she had started learning to throw them.

If Clove was small and vicious, with looks that were both beautiful and could also make you shit your pants if she got angry, then her best friend was the big, up close and personal brute counterpart that could make you run screaming for your life. I am not exaggerating on this one.

Cato Richards was a son of Kratos, the Greek god of strength, and believe me, he fit the definition of a demigod son of Kratos to a T. He was just above my height, at 6 feet tall at only fifteen years of age. But this dude was packing muscle, with a robust stature and very powerful, well-muscled arms. With short-cropped dirty blonde hair and ice blue eyes, the dude looked like an absolute tank. Plus, he had been training with a sword, his preferred weapon of choice, so much he was already one of the best swordsmen - right up there approaching Luke by the time he had arrived at camp.

Kayla's cabin also got a new sibling as well, and before I mention some of the other new campers that got on my radar, I'll describe the new Apollo camper here. Whereas Cato and Clove were both strong - in their own separate ways and absolutely scary, A.J. Hood was scrawny, un-athletic and yet still beautiful in her own way. With blonde hair, glasses, and a mostly skinny frame, at fifteen years old.. she had nearly died to an Aethopian Drakon near the border of camp that me and the guys (and yes, a large group of male campers from camp including me) collectively managed to kill in a team effort with zero casualties, thus saving her life. Needless to say, she was rather grateful for the intervention. Aruna, Aurora, Kayla, Victoria, and Alice all have really taken a liking to her.

Some of the other campers were rather interesting for known reasons and some for reasons that didn't seem to jump out at me, yet still left me convinced that they would be interesting to observe at least.

Alec Thompson was one of those who was of the first category, being interesting since when he was claimed roughly 8 hours after arriving at camp, it was by the Titan Hyperion. So, in addition to having a great hero in Percy, the astronomically powerful duo of me and Kayla, the Ghost King in Nico Di Angelo, and a few other dudes (Luke, Ethan, Annabeth, Chris) that had been claimed and blessed by more than just their original godly parent, we also now had a Demi-Titan in our ranks at Camp Half Blood. Needless to say, it was a weird thing to adjust to.

Rose Louloudi was of the second category, being a rather pretty daughter of Demeter that showed up at camp three days after the end of the Battle Of Manhattan. She didn't have much on the outside that made her interesting, yet I had a gut feeling that there was more to her than met the eye. So, I just observed her from a distance for now. Belle just adores Rose, to be honest. She practically dotes on her a lot of the time.

Another redheaded beauty showed up a day later and if a Demi-Titan was weird, then having basically a Demi-primordial in our ranks just added more confusion to the mix. Adriana Senderia was a daughter of Gaea that definitely made more than a few heads turn at camp, with her beautiful appearance and flowing red hair, that's for sure. I probably would have too, if I wasn't you know.. already dating an even more beautiful redhead that meant the world to me at that time.