Percy Jackson and the Olympians belong to Rick Riordan. All credit to him.
Running across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the top of New Jersey slaying monsters in back allies and forests without help from Fidi was like a massive training session, working me back into my combat days. It helped me practice using my shield as a decapitating device for Lastrigonians when thrown. The shield made me feel invincible sometimes when I understood how to use it to its best abilities and got comfortable with it.
I didn't use my spear against many monsters in fear of it being damaged when I used it to block if my shield arm was busy. When I did use it the weight of it as a giant tree behind every hit dusted monsters immediately if the three bronze blades didn't poof them before.
I used my sword the most and could only polish up and refresh my memory of my sword lessons with the troops which still felt like only a few days ago. After falling back into my sword play habits fighting monsters became the easiest it ever was when I got my footing and could fight defensively.
Fidi and I were air drying ourselves on the docks in between shiny white boats after an illegal late night swim across the upper bay. Policemen were yelling at us when we leapt from the railings in New Jersey.
"Let's not stick around for them to get their water police friends to detain us," I said to Fidi, wrapping my wet flannel shirt around my head to dry. "Are you rested enough to run us up the rest of the way north?" Fidi rolled his long head on his shoulders and took a glance around for any witnesses so he could grow into a massive bus-long snake.
I hopped on and secured myself on Fidi's back, tapping on his neck to tell him I was as ready as I could be for the wild ride. The whistle of a police officer was like the starting que in a race for Fidi when he took off slithering in hard zig zagging motion through the deck, up the wooden steps, and into a back alley in the darkness of the dead of night and out of view of the open walkways.
Even before the sun peaked, the rough ride carried us to the beginning of the street named Farm Road that would connect us to our destination. When we reached the street, Fidi didn't dip into the thick of the trees like when we did before on any road but instead kept slithering full speed right down the road, not concerned about any mortals possibly appearing.
Two red lights were shining in front of us and Fidi was going so fast that we would have passed the lights, until a furious hurricane kicked up out of the blue and a blinding bolt of lightning stuck down the car. The bolt sent the automobile spiraling on the road.
"Stop, Fidi, let's help them," I said, leaping off the serpent. Covering my eyes from the whipping winds, I dropped the duffle bag. I turned back to Fidi with his head pointed upward and flicking his forked tongue in and out of his mouth tasting the air. Fidi's eyes narrowed into slits and locked eyes with me, danger and worry heavy in his eyes. Fidi shot to my side and bit the flipped vehicle.
"No, don't attack it! There are people in there!" I yelled, trying to pry off the snake until I realized it was tearing off a door for the people to crawl out. Fidi threw the door across the street and turned his back to us, on guard like he always was when a monster was lurking nearby.
"Hurry out of your car quickly, please!" I said, almost yelling for the people so they could get away from the scene and I could fight any monsters that appeared without having to explain what they saw in the mist. "Watch out you two, there is a lot of glass," said a small hairy boy slinking out of the car to other people, but when he got his waist out I recognized what he was from his even hairier goat legs.
"You are a satyr," I said, pleased to see another nature spirit even in our dangerous situation. "What are you doing here?" I asked, grabbing a smaller hand of a boy and helping him out of the damaged car. The boy looked near my age with pitch black hair and stunning sea green eyes even in the dim light of the dying stormy night.
"You are a tree nymph but I don't recognize you. Can you help us get to the hill?" asked the satyr in surprise at my pointy ears.
The human boy's green eyes were anxious as he helped the last lady out of the car who must've been the boy's mother because they looked so similar.
"Of course I could help you, but, uhh," I said, pausing, worrying about them panicking at Fidi behind me, "My dog smells something out here." All three of them looked to the giant serpent behind me with minimal shock in their eyes like they had seen something like it before.
"I think that's what it smelled," the human boy said, pointing to a towering bull-headed man in spangling white underwear standing menacingly down the road, staring right at us.
"I can slow it. You should get those two somewhere safe fast," I said to the satyr, trusting that he knew that monster was after me or him and that the humans might not be able to handle it.
"Come on you two. Let him handle it," said the hairy boy, gripping the two's hands to hurry the family ahead of him in the hills direction.
"But..." the boy started.
"But nothing Percy," said his mother.
The three of them took off half-jogging half-limping down the rest of the street while I sized up the bull man that had started a slowly speeding up sprint to me.
"Get ready for a harsh start back into fighting monsters with me Fidi," I called, spinning out Pistos into a shield and unhooked my shrunken tree from its root wrapping on my belt loop, squatting into a battle ready position. Fidi slithered off into the treeline and vanished from ear shot.
I widened my feet and planted them firmly in the ground. The bull man closed the distance so fast that I felt like its charge would knock me flat so when the man was right on top of me, I side stepped and back handed its head away with my shield.
The bull man went stumbling off behind me and a loud hiss wrong out above me. Fidi leapt from the tree line on the dazed bull and began a grapple with it.
Visible muscles unclothed by its underwear were clearly strong because Fidi could not get a full coil around it to crush it like he had in previous encounters. The bull wrestled Fidi off him but not before Fidi let out a spray of venom into the side of the enemy's neck, shoulder, and chest.
The bull man dropped Fidi and backed away mooing in rage and pain at his wounds he couldn't nurse without burning his hands. It speedily stopped crying over the wound and turned back to Fidi, clapping his maw shut as it was preparing another wave of venom.
The bull stunned Fidi enough to swing him by the head and tried to slam him into me but I jumped over him and thrusted my spear toward it's chest. The monster side stepped on it's hooves and slapped away the spear. Me being so close from my spear thrust the bull was able to grab me and slam me right into the ground rattling my insides and leaving me wanting to have left the fighting to Fidi in my crater of cracked road.
A massive hiss let loose from somewhere near me when Fidi appeared from thin air dropping onto the bull man sinking his fangs into the uningered shoulder of it throwing his weight backward to lead the bull away from my spread eagled body on the ground. I rolled over upright, pain shooting through my back to see the bull getting a running start to slam Fidi into a tree, leaving him limp and still on the ground by the tree. I shot up to my feet dropping Pistos to leap twenty feet in the air to stab down onto the monster in anger of it slamming my friend into a tree and uprooting the tree in the process but was swatted out of the air by it who turned around at the worst time for me. The bull spent no extra time looming over me and turned away.
"No! Get back here you naked, hairy beast!" I cried, angry at the beast running away from me and in the direction the people went but not able to roll over again. "Fidi, get up. We need to stop it from getting those people." I winced on the ground to Fidi who gave nothing in reply but silence.
I began to fade into unconsciousness during the subsiding of the pain until I heard the scream of a woman, so much like the screams of my city. Memories of fire and families fleeing only to get cut down before I could save them startled me back into consciousness and drove me to roll to my knees. I couldn't listen to the screams anymore so I decided to make something out of myself by getting over my pain, scooped up my tree and Pistos, and started running toward the hill. I hoped and trusted Fidi was tougher than he looked to be hurt badly.
After running as hard as I could in my condition, I arrived to walk past the satyr unconscious, the mother nowhere to be seen. More surprisingly, the boy my age stabbed the giant cow man with a broken off horn of its own right in the chest, dusting the monster. The boy dropped to one knee gasping for air but got right back up and sprinted right past me to the satyr.
"Grover, are you okay?" asked the boy, shaking his unconscious friend.
"He's not a bed of daffodils or an olive tree so he's alive. Is your mother okay?" I asked, putting my shield away so I could put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention but not my spear in case the cow had a herd.
"She got turned to dust a lot like how the minotaur did. Is she dead like it is?" the boy asked in a more calm voice than I expected him to be when his mother might be dead, but mortals didn't get dusted like monsters did from when I had seen people pass.
"You'll have to ask your friend when he wakes up but I think she can't be dead if she is in any way as strong a fighter as you. I'm impressed you took the cow man down but I need to go get my friend from the road," I said squeezing his shoulder. "Why don't you get your friend and bring him into wherever this worn path leads to and find help." I said to the boy. HE sat on his knees for a moment longer but soon picked up the satyr.
I jogged back to the car accident to check on Fidi. Finding him still unconscious and lying still at the uprooted tree made me anxious. He was a tough animal from how he bounced back from whenever he got roughed up by all other monsters we fought if they ever managed to even hurt him. I saw a portion of his body moving up and down steadily like that was where his lungs were located and felt a wave of relief at him being alive.
I threw the duffle bag over my shoulder again and shrunk down my tree to only a spear head and a few inches of wood and had it grow some roots curl around my belt loop to hang there so I could use both my hands to carry Fidi back through the gate. I gingerly took Fidi by the head and hung him over shoulder and dragged the rest of him behind me to walk back to the hill gate.
The boy was not at the top of the hill and neither was his friend Grover. He was rather limping down toward a big home in the dark with only some light on the porch by the door, lighting up it's front silhouette.
When I tried to step through the gate to the camp it was like I was water passing through a fishnet but Fidi was a large catch of big boned fish unable to slip through any crack. I backed up not wanting to push on the unconscious snake anymore and looked for a barrier I must have missed but saw none.
Movement further down the hill caught my attention. It was the Percy boy collapsing with Grover still in his arms at the base of the house. More movement of people running up to them and others running back up the hill to me in the dark looked like the grass was moving.
I was met by people in bronze armor mixed with bright drawn animals on their pants or soft flannel shirt sleeves poking from their breastplates, but spears and swords still pointing at me.
"Put the monster down!" yelled a girl who pushed through the shield wall and got in front of my face only glancing at Fidi. She was quite a bit taller than everyone except one black boy, even without the red plumage of her helmet. She didn't carry a shield but she had a dagger on her belt wrapped around her pajama shorts but what caught my attention was her massive spear buzzing with a static energy.
"He is a friend of mind. He won't hurt anyone," I told them. I saw the whites of the big girl's eyes narrow in the helmet and put one foot forward gripping her spear with both hands.
"I said put it down and get inside. You don't know what you are doing. All monsters are dangerous," she growled.
I cradled Fidi's limp head in one arm and reached for Fanos in my pocket with the other ready to fight for him.
"Clarisse. What is going on here?" a man's voice asked, growing in volume as it got closer. The voice belonged to a centaur trotting up to the side of the formation.
"This new camper wants to bring a baby drakon into the camp," she answered.
"I don't know what a drakon or what a lot of stuff is either but I know he is not one of those," I said, taking my hand out of my pocket and seeing the centaurs sensible look across his face.
"My dear boy why are you carrying a monster on your back?"
"He was a gift and is a friend. I was told to come here by three Olympians and plan to keep him with me. He is hurt though from fighting that bull man with me and I want to get some help for him," I explained to the centaur, glancing at the Clarisse girl and her spear.
"You say you were sent by three Olympions?" asked the centaur with anything but shock on his face. It was more like consideration. "Please, do come in. Both you and your friend." I took a step forward and there was no net or barrier holding Fidi back.
The spears that were raised at me dropping made me comfortable but not as much as the stuffed leather chair I was invited to sit in by Chiron that raised my feet when I pushed back into it. After Chiron introduced himself to me I was glad to meet the son of Kronos I heard about. The big house had many comfy and different looking rooms and luxuries like this chair that I learned was called a Lazy boy but for what reason the chair had a gender I had no idea.
"So now that you are comfortable and know that your monster friend is being tended to, I must insist you tell me what you know about some of the things you have seen during your trip here from wherever you came from," he said, stroking his beard. He stopped clicking his hooves against the dark wooden floors to listen closely.
Another man entered the room but I wasn't sure what to think of him. "Yes, I would like to know why you claim three of my fellow Olymians sent you to this camp personally," said the large bellied man with an irritated voice like he had too much wine the previous night and didn't want to deal with voices or lights.
"I mean, no offense, but I have to say you don't look like a Zues, Poseidon, Hephestus, Apollo, or even a Hermes and I have met Ares so I am pleased to be before you, Lord Dionysus," I greeted, wondering if I was too honest for this god who didn't look pleased even before I spoke.
"Names have power, little boy, so please do refer to me as Mr. D for the time until I wish to plague your mind with a fit of madness for your blunt comment," said the god, beaming at me past his red nose with his sharp purple eyes. "Explain how you know so much about us Greeks and the world mortals can't see into." The god turned from me to reach into a standing metal box with a light inside and pulled out a red can that read "Cola" to crack it open with a loud spit that made me jump in the Lazy Boy. "Forgive me or don't, I don't care, but did you just jump from me opening a soda?" asked the god in a mock tone.
"Yes, lord. I have never seen a goblet hiss like that," I said, leaning back into the Lazy Boy, seeing he was not concerned with the drink. "I am a half nature spirit demigod from a city your fellow gods say is now nameless and one of the earliest recordings of Greek civilization many centuries ago. We praised the Olymians and even some of the elders in my city said they had been to battle sites from where the titans fought. Demeter, Hera, and Ares freed me from my petrification from the night my city fell to monsters to restore me and send me here for what Hera said to be something big. They equipped me with supplies and my serpentine friend to accompany me across the United States from the state of Nevada to here," I explained, keeping my eyes on the red can in case it transfigured into a snake and lunged at the wine god's big nose.
I looked away from the can to the two almost-men's faces and saw them having an unspoken conversation with their eyes. The silent conversation went on for almost five minutes before Dionysus rolled his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh and Chiron had a small grin shift his beard and turned to me. "Well, Mr, we are pleased to inform you that you have reached your destination safely at this camp. We will discuss this further tomorrow morning after you have had a good night's rest in a cabin with some other campers," said Chiron, walking to me and helping out of the Lazy boy that was swallowing me.
"I'm sorry I never told you my name. I am Datanus." I was still holding Chiron's hand and shaking it vigorously up and down like I learned people often did nowadays when greeting each other. We started walking back to the front of the house.
"Nice meeting you, Datanus. I had sent word for the leader of the Hermes cabin to come and meet outside of the big house so we could get you sorted into their cabin for the night until you are claimed by your godly parent sometime. Soon hopefully," said Chiron.
We stepped out of the big house and I saw a tall sandy haired boy turn to me and Chiron with a tired grin and long scar running down the right of his face to his lip. I was young for this day's idea of a man but this boy must've been one because he was tall and had a look of maturity in his eyes that you could only get from experience or trauma and I had to guess he must've seen both. "Hey Chiron. This is one of the new campers that arrived tonight?" greeted the boy, reaching out a hand to me before I could think to shake first.
"Ah, yes. Luke, this is Datanus. Datanus, this is the counselor of the Hermes cabin, Luke."
I shook his hand vigorously up and down before me put his other on mine to slow me down so he could stop getting jerked around. "Strong grip for a kid. You do football or something?" he asked with a chuckle but looked to Chiron for confirmation of something. I wanted to know who he was calling a kid.
"No," I said, letting go and backing back to Chiron's side. "I only have some super strength from being some apparently odd combination of nature being and demigod, but I'm no kid either. I'm a couple c—"
Chiron interrupted me, "Ah, yes. You are quite a strong young man for how you fought tonight." I closed my mouth instead of trying to go on about how old I was or where I was from originally. "I think you have a possible great trainey for your sword fighting classes, Luke. How about you get him to the Hermes cabin and see if you can't find him a bunk, aye, Luke?" Chiron patted me along before I stopped myself from following the charismatic blonde boy.
"But Chiron," I started. "Demeter is my godly parent." I wanted to go on about how I met her and she even called me her child but stopped not knowing what I should disclose in front of Luke.
"How do you know who your godly parent is. Have you been claimed?" Luke asked with a more serious tone like he was jealous.
"I say this because my dog told me," I spat out, making up something I thought sounded sensible.
"Your dog?" Luke shook his head in confusion at Chiron mouthing a "what?" to him.
"Yes. It's not one now but it is the giant 40 foot long snake that was dragged into the camp by the shield wall of people in their sleep clothes," I explained.
"You might be one of the craziest arrivals we have had here in a long time," Luke laughed, slapping his knee with a brief cool chuckle.
"Alright then, Luke, you may go back to your cabin, but please send for Katie since Datanus here thinks he may be a child of Demeter." Chiron grinned, sending Luke off with a wave before turning to me.
"I'm sorry for cutting you off Datanus but I think it is unwise to share your mysterious background with just anyone until we can get a story down straight for you and figure out why you are here with us other than you being a demigod of sorts. Am I understood?" Chiron asked with a serious tone, leveling his intense glare at me only to be broken by him looking up and grinning. "Ah Katie, yes. We have a new camper here that believes he is a child of Demeter." I turned to see a girl shorter than me but with some similar features. She had wavy, almost curly long hair like when I had seen mother, the same nose as me and mother, but brown colored eyes with a look of kindness unlike my look of obliviousness of the world and the fast that I was staring when she stopped in front of us.
"Hi, Chiron. Is there any reason he thinks he is in the Demeter cabin?" she asked in a polite voice.
"Well, now, seeing you two side by side it is quite similar in many features," the horse man observed, rubbing his chin and squinting at us facing him.
I speak up. "I can do this if there is any help in me being a Demeter child," I said, reaching into my right pocket to grab Fanos and elongating it into its four foot version and muttered its name under my breath to ignite it. I slowly wave it in front of me shining light on the grass that I was having grown knee high and then brading itself into individual letters to lay out and spell Demeter.
"I was gonna say the looks were proof enough to me but that show right there makes it concrete," said Katie with approving eyes and hands on her hips. "Welcome to the family, brother." She turned to me and hugged me. I had forgotten what a hug felt like. That and the news that I would have a human family with all the siblings I could ask for I had nothing else to do but to drop the sword to hug back and let loose a few tears.
"Thank you, sister," I said, almost having a crack in my voice.
"I'm happy to see family moments and a young hero be claimed," said Chiron when I stepped back from Katie and looked up to see the golden symbol of Demeter, a sickle and bale of grain crossed.
"Hey, it's official! Why don't we get you a bed and settle you into your new home?" Katie said, tapping my shoulder and nodding her head off deeper into camp.
"Yes, that would be great Katie. Have a good night, the both of you." Chiron waved with a grin. I waved back and took up my sword and followed Katie in deeper to the camp.
The walk was nice in the cool night air even if it was in the dark since all I had to do was follow Katie since she seemed to know the exact path like she was used to walking it. I didn't try speaking to Katie again when I heard her yawn for the fourth time during our walk but instead tried to spot any buildings in the distance until we came upon twelve unique ones bending in a u formation.
The cabins all had different features so distinct I could tell them all apart perfectly even in the dark but one was hard to look away from because I figured it was going to be the one I was going to live in. Katie grinned a tired grin and pushed open the door of the light brown cabin with a grassy patch for a roof and the top of a tree sticking out for me to walk through.
The cabin smelled of wet grass after a rainstorm and pure dirt. In the dark I could make out sets of hallowed spaces in dirt walls as bunk beds to the sides, individual trees sprouting out of the floor and their branches twisting to frames of more bunks, and one tree trunk in the middle of the room with supports beams seemingly growing out of it to press against the ceiling. It was perfect in every way and even better with beds and covers that looked like they could rival the ground itself for a good night's rest.
"Take your pick of any open one and set your stuff near it. We'll get everything else left established in the morning. Good night," Katie whispered speed walking around the cabin to hand me some pairs of blankets and a pillow from a trunk in the corner then whisking off to her bed somewhere deeper into the cabin.
I tiptoed to the center of the room and quietly placed my duffel bag and covers onto the top of a bunk a few feet away from the support oak tree and stripped into a pair of white shorts and a grey tank top I pulled from the bag and hopped onto the top bunk sure to not wake anyone. I was giddy with excitement under my new clean covers, in my own bed, in a building built for me and my own new siblings but then my excitement was halted by a wave of concern for Fidi.
"Would he be okay? He got slammed real hard by that Minotaur. The Minotaur was probably the strongest monster we fought together," I thought to myself now a little anxious if he was okay and if he was getting treated the best he could by the other demigods who probably never have taken care of a monster or don't want to try their best because he is one. I took a deep breath of the already homie smelling air of the cabin and relaxed, thinking he was tougher than any cow man who thought it would be okay to show up and kill some people in their underwear. The raw cotton smelling mattress invited me to a deeper sleep than I could ever ask for and I took the invitation happily, anticipating a great day tomorrow.