On the Road Again​

"How do you plead?" asked a gnarly old voice.

Flabbergasted, Sam continued to stare at the five men in front of him, all sitting along a curved stone table that seemed to be cut from the Earth itself. Three of the men were Satyrs, supposedly old and wise, who were eating away at their midday meals.

Farthest to the left of the council stood Chiron with a pensive look on his face while far to the right Dionysus sat sipping from a can of CocaCola.

Sam's eyes appeared to openly stare at the ground as he replied, "I-I don't know...What are you even talking about?"

One of the three Satyrs turned his gaze towards the boy before growling out, "We've already explained it to you; you stand accused of letting a monster inside the camp."

The younger Satyr's face went through an entire range of emotions before he thought back to how he first arrived. As soon as Sam was awake in the infirmary he was called forth the Council of Cloven Elders. (1)

Well if me being 'called' is being escorted by armed guards with their swords at my throat as they dragged my furry ass out into the forest. Thought Sam still trying to keep the pressure off his wounded leg.

Chiron looked to be waiting for something to happen as he quietly stood staring off into the distance. The Centaur's eyes were tired, almost ghastly in the way they glanced about bouncing off every person in the clearing before settling down on the Satyr in chains in front of him.

"I...Why would I let a monster in the camp? I'm a protector!" called out the younger Satyr looking appalled at the very thought of him somehow betraying the camp.

The Wine god seemed to find something amusing as he chuckled and sat down his drink. Leaning forward slightly with that same mirth present on his face the god said, "Just say it already! We know you did it; you let the both of them in."

Sam seemed to be even more confused as he wondered Another monster?

The Teacher of Heroes let out a solemn sigh as he gave a guilty look over to the chained boy in front of him. There was nothing he could do other than wait, the gods always had to have someone to blame.

The fattest of the council members, surprisingly not Mr. D, brushed some old crumbs out of his beard before proposing, "I suggest we move on. The council has already proved our burden of guilt; what punishment shall he receive?"

"Y-You can't just do that..." mumbled Sam still confused at the comment about a second monster.

The three elderly satyrs' voices quickly tucked into low whispers as the two outliers on either side said nothing at all. Slowly, one of the three grit out, "Fine!"

Finally, a gnarled set of horns turned back towards the sky as the youngest of the three, the only one with color still in his hair, bellowed: "Silenus says we should take it to a vote; all in favor of execution-"

Sam's eyes went wide in fear; the Satyr looked over in shock as Chiron's mouth began to open.

"Might I suggest a lighter punishment?" interrupted the Centaur while turning towards the three.

The three Satyrs had a skeptical look come over their faces but nonetheless listened. Mr. D looked around bored as Chiron continued on explaining, "We have no real, definitive proof."

The Satyr, Silenus, gave the Activities Director a cold glare as he commented, "What then? We have to do something...need I remind any of you what happened the last time we let something like this pass?"

Almost immediately Chiron flinched at the reminder but steel still kept its place within his eyes. The horseman slowly opened his mouth then proposed, "Exile. We have no need for more deaths this day, let alone of those who may be innocent of their crimes."

Mr. D leaned forward, finally seeing a decision being made, then exclaimed "Finally! Let's take it to a vote then. All in favor raise their hands."

Around the table, each and every person's hand shot towards the sky except for one. Silenus the most ancient of the three Satyrs glanced at Chiron before apologizing, "For what it's worth, I am sorry it had to co-"

Cutting him off Dionysus declared, "Motioned is passed four to one. Sam Greenwood is to be exiled from Camp Half-blood until further notice...meeting adjourned."

Throughout all that time Sam seemed to slowly build up his courage to speak out but in less than a few minutes the boy's fate was decided. A bitter expression washed onto his features as he thought And I didn't have a single say in it...

"Wait a second, you said there was a second monster," commented Sam as parts of the council started to leave with Mr. D being the first to disappear, seemingly fading into a grape-colored mist.

Silenus stood up blubber rubbing against the limestone hewn table before he concurred, "You're correct."

Two guards came in wielding blades as Sam pulled himself to his feet with the chains below him clanking all the while. Curiosity seemed to burn within him as the younger Satyr asked, "What monster was it?"

Silenus pulled back his wood carved chair before explaining, "We think it was some newer born fiend, similar to an Empousa but not close enough to call it one. A body was found this afternoon, drained of all its blood."

The two guards busied themselves by slowly undoing the chains binding Sam at his hands and feet. A light click echoed out into the field before the iron manacles fell towards the ground. Lightly grasping one of his wrists Sam questioned, "Who was it?"

"A boy, one of Apollo's kindred. Along with what we can assume was one other," answered Silenus as he walked around the council's main table heading straight towards the middle of the clearing.

The older Satyr's eyes seemed to be conflicted; they would switch between some semblance of righteous anger and guilt as he looked at Sam. One of the guards firmly grasped Sam by the shoulder as Silenus continued, "Liam, I believe he was your friend...H-he's the one who went missing."

Sam's eyes widened in shock.

-Outside Camp Half-blood, Long Island-​

Liam gave one last longing glance at the camp before gritting his teeth and facing the other way. Slowly, the vampire readjusted his blue backpack before walking off into the woods. The idea of staying was in the back of his mind, but it was just too risky.

I'm gonna have to make it on my own. Thought Liam as he continued to push through the now snow-covered ground outside the Camp's boundaries.

The sun continued to fall as the boy thought back to his "encounter" with Fletcher.

He lost himself to it, again. The now named, voice of Molag Bal continued to egg him on and drown out everything around him until Liam only saw red. He could remember it even now. The pure look of utter horror given to him by Fletcher.

Liam stumbled a bit as some bile came up from his throat.

Liam smiled when he did it; he smiled while smashing the poor boy to a bloody pulp. He could only remember flashes that were filled with red, blood, and screaming. Then came that damned smell.

A smell of honey-like ichor suffused itself into the air which just perfectly seemed to scratch the itch in the back of Liam's throat. Fletcher's blood called to him, no it sang to him. By the time Liam had realized what was going on he had already ripped out the camper's throat.

The bound mace he conjured was all but gone while fresh warm blood was covering him, seemingly coating his upper body and mouth. The voice was eerily silent as Liam looked down with dread to see Fletcher's pale corpse splattered on the ground. It only took him a few seconds to decide.

Liam had to run. Who knows what a camp filled to the brim with monster hunting demi-gods would do to him.

As quickly as he could the vampire rushed back towards his cabin hoping to any god who would care that he wouldn't be noticed. Luck seemed to be on his side that day as Liam was able to make it back to his cabin with no trouble at all. The only person he saw was at a distance, still working to help clean up the mess outside the camp's Dining Pavillion.

After quickly checking to see if any of his cabin mates were inside, Liam rushed forward sprinting towards his bed. While moving as fast he could possibly go, the vampire pulled up the loose board beneath his bed, grabbing his bag, then ran.

A slight look of regret came onto Liam's face as he thought Ha, you were right. I shouldn't have come to this camp.

The voice that has been in ever-present in Liam's mind didn't give him a response. The almost fickle thing seemed to only care about two things, its own pride and violence.

All around the wind continued to blow as Liam walked throwing around litter and dead plant matter with it. A few solid inches of snow was still on the ground while the biting cold that Liam should have felt wasn't there. Long Island's winter wonderland felt like a cool summer day to the vampire, although the breeze still did feel just a bit uncomfortable.

Slowly as Liam walked, the pine-tree-filled forest surrounding Camp Half-blood fled his view as he came across the road on which he arrived. Out in the distance, the vampire could see the same bus stop just a short distance away.

Subconsciously reaching for his nonexistent wallet Liam thought Looks like I'm gonna have to keep walking...

Sneakers started to impact the poorly made asphalt road as Liam kept up his pace hoping to get far away from the camp before they found Fletcher's body. Absentmindedly, the boy fumbled with his bronze club as he walked, readjusting it at random.

Liam could imagine the looks, the hateful glares thrown his way by Fletcher's friends and family. Looking back on it the vampire didn't really know what to think. There was no real feeling of remorse beyond what the other might think of him, of what they would find out.

"It was him or me; that's the end of it," muttered Liam as the first signs of civilization came up in front of him.

In the distance what looked like a small woodland town came into view filled with, what seemed to Liam, a bunch of tourist traps. There were small mom and pop stores on every corner all advertising their supposedly fresh strawberries. Near the center he could see a small hotel with a sign, blazing its neon lights above.

Liam brought his eyes to the right to see a large billboard.

It had old peeling paint but from what the vampire could see the thing had some kind of old cartoon strawberry painted on it. The mascot had a large smile and over-exaggerated features that ended up looking like something straight out of fallout.

A speech box was up to the right reading, "Best Strawberries North of the Border!"

In the small town, Liam could see lights in some of the buildings while a majority of the tourist attractions seemed to be closed down for the year. Not thinking much of it Liam started to approach before something came into his vision.

Liam's eyes trailed down to his torso still covered with slowly drying blood. Slowly the boy ground out a curse saying, "Shit. How did I forget about that?"

Well if he couldn't go into town what could he do?

The vampire's eyes edged the sparse forests surrounding the town as a plan came to his mind. Liam started to walk towards the rather empty looking woods while thinking There has to be some kind of creak or stream around here.

Just as he entered into the forest's darkly lit canopy Liam continued on thinking Either that or I'll use somebody's hose and hope it's not frozen.

Underneath him, the white blanket of snow began to be ruined as Liam kept on with his search for some source of water. One of the boy's ears perked up as he thought he heard the sound of what he was looking for.

In the distance Liam heard the sound of slight trickling, almost like some small creek was nearby. Continuing to listen to the faint noise, he approached heading right towards it.

Up in front of Liam, the wooded area opened up a bit to reveal what appeared to be the remains of some old and forgotten creek, slowly leaking through moss-covered rocks heading towards the ocean. Looking at it he could see the water looked fairly clear and only a few inches deep.

Slowly, the boy approached keeping an eye out for any unwelcome visitors. After a few seconds of birds chirping and silence Liam pulled the bag off his back before taking off his shirt. It came off fairly easily with the red-orange hue standing out from his pale skin.

Looking it over Liam noticed something.

Just below his right armpit, there was a large hole, sliced into the orange fabric. Liam's eyes brought themselves down to his side as he raised his arm up to get a better look at the damage.

"I never heal that fast..." quietly commented Liam as he gawked at the woundless flesh.

It seemed that drinking blood had more benefits than Liam originally thought.

Shrugging it off the vampire cupped two of his hands into the stream before bringing it up to his face. For most the water would be bone-chilling however for Liam, the cold came across lightly almost as if it came straight from a tap.

Slowly, the boy began to scrub at his face with small flakes of brown falling into the stream below. As the dried blood met the frigid water it started to gradually melt away staining the creek red. Still staying on his knees Liam began to wash off his orange Camp Half-blood t-shirt.

With little trouble, he got most of the red-orange stains off of his clothing washing it into the river below. Downriver a small girlish giggle rang out as Liam stopped what he was doing. Slowly the boy's eyes turned downstream to see the source of the noise.

Just a few feet away sitting within the water was what Liam could only assume to be a Naiad. Water-stricken black hair flowed over her shoulders as she continued to walk upstream, her beautiful features barely visible beneath her hair. Liam took in a gulp of air as he noticed what looked like a scowl on her face.

"I, uh...I didn't know this was your creek." began Liam quickly pulling his shirt back over his chest as the girl kept creeping ever closer.

Slowly the vampire latched his bag back into place before continuing on with, "So um...I'm sorry for ah. Getting a bit of blood in it."

The Naiad once again didn't respond as she pushed forward with the water below her seeming to part slightly as she walked. Slowly she reached just a few feet away from the boy as she gave out another girlish giggle. One of her soaked hands slowly pulled itself upwards.

"So can I just take that as an apology accepted? I-I'll just be going now..." spluttered Liam as he tried to back away from the body of water.

The Naiad's hand shot closed and with it, Liam felt something grip his leg; the water itself was wrapped around his foot with two large winding tendrils keeping him still. Liam could feel a cold sweat build upon his neck as he tried to reason with her once more.

"I-I said I was sorry." pled the vampire staring at the girl with a nervous look on his face.

Again the Naiad didn't say a single word as she slowly tilted her head to one side; another girlish giggle came from her throat as she yanked the hand backward. Instantly, Liam could feel the tentacle of water come with it as he was thrown into the creek with a splash.

Falling face-first into the bone-chilling liquid, Liam quickly stuck his hands out to break his fall, hoping not to be totally soaked. Underneath him, he could feel mossy stones that slipped between his fingers as the frigid water wrapped around him in a chilling hug.

Oh, come on! growled Liam in his mind still trying to hold himself still.

A chocolate-brown eye quickly scanned the creek for where the Naiad went to no avail; it seemed that as quickly as the girl appeared she was gone. Moving as fast as he could Liam stood himself back up, feeling water start to drip from his soaking wet clothes.

"You happy now, ya cunt?" growled Liam as he trudged through the water and to the creek's side.

As soon as the words left his mouth another splash of cold water shot up out of the stream and onto the back of his head. Following the blast was another girlish giggle as the water began to drip down towards the ground soaking him again. Liam gave another quick look around hoping to spot her, but the Naiad was nowhere to be seen.

Liam's eyes turned up towards the quickly setting sun as he thought Just let it go. Chiron did say they were playful...I gotta get somewhere to sleep tonight.

The vampire's eyes trailed about giving a glance towards the nearby road before he started his walk. He'd have to try the town. If not Liam would have to sleep outside, and with his newly discovered reasons to fear the dark, he'd rather not.

Doing his best to keep a lookout Liam started to walk back toward the road, slowly trudging away. Just before he could reach it, however, something stood out in the corner of his eye.

A short distance away from the creek there was what looked to be some kind of large mound. Unlike the flat terrain surrounding it, Liam could see the obtuse looking structure was something not natural. Piling over whatever it was were what looked like leaves and dirt. Even to the boy's untrained eye, the mound looked man-made.

A hunting blind? But who would go hunting around here? Liam questioned within his mind.

Slowly but surely, he started to approach the object trying to figure out just what it was. As he got even closer Liam said, "There's no way in hell...The thing's way too big."

The mound looked to be the size of a fairly small shack just stuck into the ground. Being closer to it Liam could see there was some kind of mesh underneath the dirt and leaves; it almost looked like a tarp to keep out the rain.

Now within just a few feet of it, he started circling it looking for some kind of entrance.

Indented between the dirt was what seemed to be a small outline just large enough for someone to fit through. With the last few beams of sunlight peeking through the canopy, Liam caught a small gleam of metal near the bottom of the seam.

It was a small zipper.

Maybe I've got a place to stay tonight... thought Liam as he leaned down tightly gripping the metal object with two of his fingers.

Metal teeth unsheathed from each other as he began to pull the zipper towards the sky. Following the outlined seam, Liam unzipped the mound's entrance to reveal its insides.

The inside of the hidden tent looked well worn and old. As Liam's eyes adjusted to the darkness inside he could see three child-sized sleeping bags, a small box of what looked like candy in the corner, and what to Liam appeared to be some girl's diary. (2)

The little book had a small pen and a black skull on its front with a heart-shaped lock holding it closed. The toy-like diary resembled something you would get for a young child looking to "document" their own lives, not that a kid would really ever use the thing for its intended purpose.

Giving a quick glance to the now almost completely darkened outside Liam decided this was going to be it for the night. The covered tent would keep him out of the cold at least, just because the wind didn't hurt him didn't mean that it was comfortable.

What to do now? Pondered Liam as he pulled off his partially wet backpack.

Taking a few moments to decide the vampire began to strip, taking off his wet clothes before hanging them onto a nearby tree hoping to dry them off a bit. Just outside Liam's tent, he hung up his orange t-shirt and pants leaving him in nothing but his tighty whiteys in the dark.

Feeling the cool breeze Liam commented, "Eh, who cares...no one's here to see."

Bringing his blue backpack inside, Liam zipped the tent shut to keep out the wind. As soon as he entered the boy threw down the bag near the middle of his tent before grabbing the two other small items in the room. Following that the boy sat down his club and shield next to him with the bronze-leaden shield resting off the tent's wall.

Doing his best to use his colorblind night vision Liam brought the candy in front of his face, hoping to make out what was on the label.

Liam's eyes widened a bit as he barely made out the label through the different darkened grays within his tent. The candy seemed to be a small thing of old ambrosia, with Apollo's face plastered on the side.

Similar to the nectar back at camp the container had a large smiling image of the sun god on it with the words "Performance Enhancing!" on the side. Flipping it around Liam could see a large paragraph of lengthy legal crap on the back spouting something along the lines of how Apollo nor any of Sunny D Industries is liable for possible spontaneous combustion. Near the very bottom of the word littered backside, it said: "Discontinued in 2008."

"Could be helpful..." whispered Liam before putting it inside his pack.

Slowly, the vampire fumbled with the small diary and began to read its front. On the front of it in big letters was the name "Thalia Grace" and the words, "Luke stay out!" just below it.

Wonder who Thalia is... thought Liam as he began to pull on the lock.

Trying not to actually wrip the book itself, Liam started to apply more and more pressure to the dollar store lock. Beneath the boy's fingers, the metal thing began to groan as it bent. Biting his lip, Liam pulled harder, and the lock finally seemed to have enough.

The metallic groaning ceased as a small "Chink!" came from between Liam's fingers. Looking down, he could see the lock had snapped with the metal tube going into either side of the heart-like lock being broken in two.

Not thinking much of it the boy opened the book and began to read, well that which was actually readable to him at least.

The blackened diary opened up to show what, to Liam, looked like the English alphabet but much more curvy. With a scowl, he growled, "The damn thing's in a different language!"

The only thing in the book that Liam could even begin to make out was some crappy drawings spread throughout with words he couldn't read. Giving out another curse in his head, Liam tossed the journal into his backpack with his other two tomes.

It's only what...six or seven I guess I can try and practice some. Thought Liam as he pulled his bag closer to him.

Slowly Liam's hand drifted down into his bag to pull out the purple tome that he took it upon himself to master. Noticing it was a little damp he made a note to be a bit gentle with it as he flipped it open to the page in which he left off a night before.

Both of Liam's already enlarged pupils began to adjust even farther as his eyes zeroed in on the darker black that was the runes printed onto his purple book. Looking down the boy began to read.

I've already covered a basic introduction to summoning, giving you a basic understanding of my school. If you haven't already, at least, covered channeling please go back to that chapter as it is going to be used constantly moving on.

You may be asking yourself what the next step in our little "journey" will be. To put it simply this chapter will be a crossroad of sorts; this is where you will choose what you want to learn as a conjurer.

Do you want to summon fiendish beasts to rip your enemies asunder or to do your bidding whatever it may be?

Do you want to use the energies of Oblivion to make your foes work for you, to raise the dead as your unholy servants?

Do you wish to burn your adversaries into ash as you use the very waters of Oblivion to coat you in armor so thick nothing short of a dragon can tear through it?

With each of the written questions, Liam's mind bounced around trying to imagine himself doing each thing described. If he was being perfectly honest Liam couldn't see himself as a necromancer, it just didn't fit with him no matter how cool it sounded. The dead should stay dead...despite how ironic that may be.

Hurriedly the boy brought his eyes back towards the page and continued to read.

All of these different paths are open to you if you desire them. The first I described was that of a traditional summoner whose power lies within their summons, using their will power to enslave the beings of Oblivion to their own mind.

The second is a road less traveled but still walked upon all the same. It is that of a necromancer, of those who use the decaying entropy of Oblivion to raise the dead or to even make those around you fall to that same energy.

The last is one most unlike what you would expect for a mage, but one that I've seen every few years taken on by one of my students. They are colloquially referred to as an offset of spells-swords. Currently, it doesn't have enough users to gain its own designation within the guild, but it's there all the same. These mages summon lesser Daedra into weapons and armor bringing with them the very element from where they came.

The semantics are hotly debated but, in general, if you summon a lesser Daedra from a plane the element they use will closely match the plain from which they came. Although only a few have reached far enough along to reach the point in which they can apply an element at all.

Now having read this introduction, you need to choose a path in which to begin. (3)

Looking down Liam could see that each corresponding path had it's own chapter following soon after. Leaving the page open the vampire began to debate on which path would really be right for him.

Necromancy was already ruled out to a fault. The only thing that came to mind when Liam thought of the stuff was that the dead should be left well enough alone. Well, that and he didn't really think anybody would take too kindly to him toting around walking corpses.

Nasty stuff.

To the boy, being a summoner sounded like something he could do, hell he'd already taken the first step...kind of. Summoning a bound weapon was technically a summon, but considering the fact that it didn't resist much, Liam couldn't really say. Well there was also the fact the Hidja described it like Liam would be summoning some type of demon.

With a bit of a scowl, Liam thought I'd rather not do that, thanks. Those things can stay where they belong.

Making his choice Liam flipped the tome's pages until he reached the chapter titled "So you want to be a Spells-sword, eh?"

Liam's tried his best to drown out the creature's hooting and making noises in the night as he bent down to start practicing. Too bad there was something out there in the night besides owls and other woodland creatures. A better term for her would be a monster.