"Where the hell are you guys?"

Half an hour. That's how long I'd been sitting in the cold and dark for.

Five minutes was nothing to get frustrated about. Fifteen was 'meh'.

But thirty? I didn't have time for this! Tomorrow was the day for Mister Teit's history test. It wasn't enough that he had the title of the toughest teacher in school to uphold, but he also seemed to have some personal vendetta against me. I could happily and without any hesitation, declare that the feeling of hate was mutual.

"Fucking Prick..." I muttered, rolling a random stone under my foot as I thought of ways I could kiss this bloody school goodbye.

Something rustled in the forest on the far side of the courtyard, but whatever it had been, it was far enough away for the outdoor light to fail to illuminate it. Such a tiny thing and just as useless. Hell, it wasn't even good enough to scare away the racoons, which was supposed to be its primary purpose.

I chalked the noise up to the wind, it was getting noticeably stronger with every minute.

A storm.

A few months ago I would've happily comforted anyone that winds that are capable of twisting trees from the ground without breaking a sweat, and the storms that accompanied them, never reached New York. Up until I had watched it happen with my own eyes.

The amount of force exerted on the tree snapped it in half like a twig before the entire thing went on a merry journey down the street. It was nothing compared to what was shown on TV though. The sea, whipped up into such a frenzy that the waves tickled the very bottom of the sky.

Either way, these past few months had taught me to respect nature.

"Come on..." I muttered, rubbing my hands together. It was way too cold for it to be the middle of June, "Five more minutes and I'm leaving." A hiss, emerging from the treeline, freaked me out way more than it should have. I laughed nervously, "The boogeyman'll get me before Tony does, I swear to god."

Five minutes ticked by, during which I decided I'd never come here at night again. Way too creepy for my liking.

"Fuck this!" I yelled, kicking a stone as far as I could, before taking out a cracked phone from my coat pocket.

It was something that I rarely used, with only two contacts in it. Tony, and the mobile service company... Safe to say I wasn't among the popular kids.

"Meet me in the schoolyard. Nine PM. It's important." Read the message. The first text I had ever gotten.

Shaking my head, I strode down the path as fast as I could walk, not wishing to get caught in the storm.

The first drops of rain spattered against the concrete, and I groaned.

Something rustled behind me, the trees again.

I ignored it, reaching the gate that lead to the rest of the world, as well as to the front of the school. If I tried hard enough, I could kick it open, but I didn't want anyone to know someone had been here. Still, it could be added to the list of useless things this school had.

"Woodfigh High, the jewel of New York!" I muttered to myself, snorting at the thought of it.

Another rustle.

"Probably a deer," I whispered, shaking my head as I got ready to climb over the gate. Out of sheer curiosity, I looked under my arm to see if I could spot anything.

A crack of lightning boomed overhead, lighting up my surroundings and making even the ground shake a bit.

But it also lit up something that shouldn't have been there.

Something massive.

Something... Reptilian.

And something very, very hungry-looking.

"Whatthefuckisthatthing!" I screamed unintelligibly, "No, no, nope. Fuck off!" I grunted, leaping over the fence and scrambling on the floor on all fours to the front door of the school, not even bothering to stand up.

I waited, hoping to everything holy that I had only been hallucinating. A log, yes... Just an innocent log.

A massive snake-like creature slithered through the chain-link fence as if it hadn't even been there, one of the metal poles sparking off of the concrete.

Hissing, it looked around, its eyes locking with mine. I felt my body go rigid as if I was suddenly paralyzed, and all blood drained from my body. My legs wouldn't move for anybody or anything.

Opening its mouth, it lunged forward, my relatively short life flashing before my eyes. A fast death, that much I could be thankful for, I guess.

However, the reptile hadn't taken into consideration that half its body was still curled up behind the school because as it crashed forward, it took a chunk of Woodfigh with it. The brick wall pinned it to the ground, and the eye contact was broken.

Without even thinking, I barged at the school's entrance, my legs once again back under my control. My hope was placed in the hands of Mister Horton, the elderly security guard of the school, he left the entrance open at night way too often. I had no idea why the school still kept him around, but for once, I was thankful they had.

The glass and plastic doors opened without protest, and I slammed them behind myself, for a split second searching for a way to lock it before I caught up with my train of thought and left it as is.

Inside, it was pitch black. There was no time to turn on the lights, I just had to run and hope for the best.

I knew where the classroom doors were because of the light of Thor's Rage that streamed inside through the windows. There was no use trying them to see if they were open. Mister Horton wasn't the one that had to close them, so they were definitely locked.

With an ungodly rumble, the giant snake was through the entrance, and by the sound of it, most of the entrance had followed the reptile into the school.

The beast was much faster than me, I could hear that clearly. The average-sized corridor of Woodfigh High, which was normally packed with students and nearly impossible to traverse, was helping me for a change. I looked over my shoulder. With every move, its enormous body crumpled the aluminium lockers into unrecognizability. Notes and books flew all over the place, just like confetti.

It was definitely not the right time for confetti.

Without warning, the hissing and smashing were overlapped by the roof and multiple stories of classrooms crashing down on the hideous reptile. Dust and debris billowed past me, some hitting my back with a sting, but I didn't stop.

The monster wasn't dead, not by a long shot, only disoriented and angry.

Spotting the toilets, I ran into the closest one, that being the women's bathroom.

In life and death situations, I couldn't care less about doing embarrassing things like this. If I would've done this on any normal school day, I would be even more of a laughing stock than I already was. My eyes darted around the small bathroom, quickly focusing on a cubicle. I jumped inside it, locked the door behind me and sat down in front of the toilet. With my heart beating in my throat and the constant feeling of wanting to vomit just barely restrained, I stared at the flimsy lock. Push hard enough, and it'd open without any real complaints, it'd do jack shit against a snake on steroids.

I guess it at the very least kept the door from swinging open, so I guess that was one of the few positives I could attribute to it.

What the hell even was this thing? I had never even heard of such giant creatures before, much less seen them. Either this was an incredibly realistic dream, or I had managed to become so unlucky that nature literally defied itself just to fuck with me.

The continuous crashing of rubble meant the snake was moving again. That made me clutch my legs even harder.

Minutes passed, then... Silence.

I was about to stand up and run, whatever good that would've done me, when the beast burst through the bathroom wall, sending dust and bits of brick flying through the air. With a crunch, two cubicles that had stood in its way had disappeared, ground to plastic dust.

In its next move, it ripped the remaining cubicles from the very foundation of the school with the same ease as I lifted my spoon during lunch.

The feeling of something punching me in the gut washed over me and was gone in the blink of the eye as I ignored it, protecting my face from shrapnel. I stared at the gigantic teeth of my to-be killer, each one dripping horrible slime onto the floor. I wasn't going to look into its eyes again, that had been too terrifying the last time, not like its gaping maw was a much better sight.

It stopped, looking at me for a moment, before raising its head. It didn't even flinch as it broke through the roof, only continued rising upwards. Rain poured into the broken bathroom, mixing with the water rushing from broken pipes, and drenching me even more.

A twenty-metre Snake towered over me, hissing and baring its razor-sharp teeth.

Nature, you scary son of a bitch.

It struck at me once, as quick as the lightning that was crackling outside, but the wall I had shimmied to the base of while it had been lifting upwards stopped the attack from reaching me... Stopped those sharp teeth from puncturing my soft, squishy body.

Golden blood rained down on me, multiple large teeth clattering down along with it.

It wasn't completely invincible then.

Grabbing the largest one, I promised myself right then and there that I'd not go down without a fight.

The reptile roared, before striking at me again. Holding the jagged object as far from my body as I could, the beast smashed its nose cleanly into its own tooth, causing more blood to drench my clothes as one of my arms bent back the wrong way. Dull pain raced through my arm, mingling with the punch to the gut that I could still somewhat feel, but it was bearable for now. It roared even louder and lifted its head again. Third times the charm, guess that's what the saying meant all along.

Without a weapon, I was completely defenceless now, not like I could've done much anyway. I winced, closing my eyes, hoping it wouldn't be too painful.

Time ticked by, but nothing came. Was it a minute that had passed, or two?

I willed one of my eyelids open, just to a crack. My executioner was staring up at the sky, blood dripping from its mouth and nose while it swayed eerily, hissing.

Birds circled up in the air forming a near-perfect circle, and it was them that the snake was looking at. They were large, weirdly-shaped birds.

As they got closer and closer, the snake went into a frenzy, shaking its head from side to side, golden blood painting the broken tiles of the girls' bathroom.

The birds came into focus as they descended.

I raised my eyebrows in confusion. They were way too big to be birds. Under each one, four legs kicked at the air, like they were galloping. Exactly like horses. I scrunched my eyes a bit before they widened in surprise.

They were horses.

With wings.

At this point, I must've been hallucinating. There was no other explanation. I could see how someone like Miss Riche would do that, swapping the sugar she puts into the tea at dinner to hard drugs, then promptly forgetting to tell everyone to not touch her sugar.

On top of these flying horses, if I chose to believe my eyes over my mind, sat people. I had to believe my eyes, for my brain was in denial by now. Giant snakes? They don't exist.

Yeah, then what the fuck chased me into the shitter?

The lightning reflected off of metal armour and outlined spears, bows and swords, all glowing faintly.

"What?..." I grunted out loud.

The flying horses were now close enough to the snake to start prodding it with spears in dangerous fly-bys. Two of the riders were shooting arrows at the beast, but they just fell onto the bathroom floor without causing any damage to its thick skin. While the riders were too fast for the snake, they didn't seem to be hurting it either.

"KEEP FIRING!" Ordered a feminine voice, "TAKE OUT ITS EYES!"

That made it a certainty. They were people. At least, I hoped they were. Until now I hadn't thought that giant snakes and flying horses existed. I wasn't going to start believing myself now, after all of what I had seen.

Volley after volley of arrows fell harmlessly against the face of the beast, none managing to gouge out its eyes.

"FUCK IT! I'M GOING IN!" Roared a man.

"BRUCE, NO!" The same girl who had ordered to keep firing yelled back.

One arrow finally hit home, striking the monster in its left eye, the largest roar I had heard so far erupting from its mouth.

A war cry echoed from above and my eyes darted to its source. A buff-looking man, wearing a strange helmet, shaped vaguely like an animal, jumped off the flying horse, spear in hand, and faintly illuminated by the glowing breastplate he wore.

The man dropped straight towards the creature's mouth, but the beast was in too much pain to pay any attention to the easy morsel. This crazy man, for I could only think of someone willingly leaping at a twenty-metre snake as not completely right in the head, pierced the lower jaw of the monster with his spear, holding on for dear life.

Before the monster could register the new source of pain, the man grabbed something round from his belt and threw it down the beast's gullet.

He then let go of the spear, falling for a few seconds before his flying horse caught him mid-air.

An explosion seared my skin, splattering me with a wave of golden blood, and a chunk of flesh bounced off the stump of wall beside my head. Many more chunks flew through the air, but all of them quickly turned to dust, leaving random bones, bits of scaly hide and teeth scattered all over the place. Oh, and the golden blood. Couldn't forget that. After all, I was still covered from head to toe in it.

Ropes dropped down next to me, and slowly, my saviours rappelled down them.

"Jesus..." I muttered still looking at the place where a massive snake had stood only moments ago, "The-The F-Fuck?!"

The first person to land next to me was wearing armour that glowed faintly with a bronzish hue. A flashlight clicked on, revealing a girl that was surely the leader. Her helmet had that plume on its top that I knew so well from history books. Romans? Greeks?

Maybe not so well then.

She took off the museum piece, and golden hair unravelled from underneath it, strands sticking out all over the place. A part of it flopped over her face, but she quickly swiped it sideways.

It wasn't the most iconic part of her though. It was the stormy grey colour of her eyes. She looked like she could take on another snake all by herself, and still come out victorious, her confidence surrounding her like some invisible aura. I thought she was going to strangle me or something, but instead, she smiled, and I felt my heart beat even faster if that was even possible at this point.

Meanwhile, I was sitting in a puddle of toilet water, rain and snake blood. Very dignified

I couldn't decide if the feeling in my stomach was because this was the first girl I had interacted with since... well, forever, or if it was the adrenaline wearing off.

That fluttering sensation in my stomach turned to pain, and my good hand darted to my side, only to hit something that shouldn't have been there. Pain raced through my entire body, and I threw up into my lap, colouring the golden colour of my clothes a gross shade of green.

"What the-"

"It-" I started before another wave of pain silenced me. Lifting my hand into the torchlight, it was a deep red, "That's not good..." I whispered, looking down at my side.

A shard of plastic, around the size of my arm. That's what was sticking out of my body.

"Fucking gods of Olympus!" The Girl cursed, looking up at the other people descending down the rope. "JOHN HURRY UP! HE'S WOUNDED!" She yelled.

The last moments before I passed out, I saw a guy jump down beside the blonde chick, and sprint towards me.

Then it was darkness, the pain too much to bear.

My eyes slowly opened, only for me to close them when an incredibly bright light shone straight into them.

"What the-" I started.

"Oh, you're-" Said the voice of a girl I vaguely recognized.

I jumped, not expecting someone to be in here... wherever the hell I was.

With that sudden movement, a sharp pain stabbed into my stomach.

"ARGH! SHIT!" I screamed, falling out of bed, causing yet another wave of pain to wash over me.

"Don't move!" The girl yelled, jumping up from her chair. I couldn't move even if I wanted to, and if I wouldn't have been in immense pain, I would've said something snarky back. Instead, I just clenched my teeth together, hoping it'd end.

Hands lifted me back onto the bed by grabbing me under the armpits, making the pain even worse, and I let out a small groan. Without even asking, she pulled up my shirt. Or rather, an orange shirt that I had never before seen in my life. It was comfortable though, so I wasn't going to complain about losing that ratty thing I had had before.

"What are you-" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Shut up." She replied.

I felt her tighten something around my abdomen, probably bandages, before tying a new layer of the fabric around the area.

"Now sit still and listen. Eat this."

She handed me a tiny breadcrumb on her palm.

"Thanks. I was starting to get peckish." I muttered, holding my side.

She rolled her eyes, grabbed my jaw and threw it into my mouth. It tasted like home-baked cookies, and I swallowed happily.

"What was that?!" I asked, looking around for more. The pain wasn't gone, but it was bearable, and a warm feeling spread through my body.

"Ambrosia."

"So drugs," I said, sighing before lying back down, "Am I gonna be seeing snakes again?"

"What? No-" She sighed irritably, "It's complicated."

It finally came to me where I had seen her, it was from that dream-like memory of me sitting in a toilet cubicle. The fact that it had been raining, that I had been in a state of delirium and that the only source of light had been from lightning bolts, a flashlight and that weird glowing armour all played a part to make it hard for me to recognize her. At that time, she had also been wearing armour, but whether that had been real or not, she was now clothed in the same jeans and orange shirt as I was.

Above a winged horse, in black letters, two words were written.

Camp Half-Blood

Around her neck was a necklace, tiny beads decorated it, the detail of each one's design surprisingly high in quality. Ten of them, all in all.

Literally, nothing implied that this was the same girl who had saved me.

Except for those eyes... They were hard to forget. The hair as well.

"I know you."

"Of course you do! We saved you yesterday..." A look of concern ran over her face, "Do you remember?"

I ignored her.

"Where-"

"You're somewhere safe. A safe haven for all of us." The girl said before I could finish my sentence.

"How-"

"All new kids ask the same questions. The only difference is that not everyone has to be saved from a Drakon."

"New Kids? Dragons? What the fuck is going on?" I asked, laughing awkwardly, hoping that at any second I'd be told this was just a prank, and I was in a psychiatric ward after I suffered a fit from a wild racoon jumping me in the school's courtyard.

"There's much to explain to you, but I've been told not to do it by Chiron. I'm not good with breaking the news."

I didn't understand who that was, and what news had to be broken to me.

"Can we start from the beginning? I'm-"

"Daniel James Greenfield, sixteen-year-old demigod, escaped from four orphanages, lives in his fifth one, Yorkton Orphanage, with Miss Veronica Riche as its headmistress. You've got pretty good grades, don't have too many friends and you're a good target for bullies, don't have dyslexia or ADHD. Overall, a pretty solid dude."

I stared at her for what must've been an awkward amount of time because her eyes suddenly searched for something other than mine, "Are- Are you with the CIA, or what the flying fuck?" I asked, trying to sit up. She held me down.

"I've got my connections." She smiled, "I'm Sophia Whitefield, daughter of Athena."

"Heh, we're both fields."

"What?" She asked, confused.

"Greenfield, Whitefield... Is there a Redfield and a Bluefield here too? Maybe a Yellowfield?"

She rolled her eyes, while I felt pride at getting my first joke of the day into my schedule, no matter how stupid it was. For a few moments, there was silence.

Then I realized what she had said.

"Wait, you said I'm a sixteen-year-old demigod? What? What demigod?"

"It's... complicated. As I said, Chiron will tell you everything."

"And you mentioned being the daughter of Athena. The goddess Athena? Either you're missing a screw or two, or I'm dreaming."

She said nothing, only looked through the balcony door window. A balcony in a hospital ward?

Where the hell was I?

"If you're real, that means the snake was real too, and so were the flying horses."

"Pegasi."

"Bless you," I said.

"No!" She turned around suddenly, the flicker of annoyance passing over her face again, "I mean those flying horses were Pegasi. The plural of Pegasus."

"The winged horse who's friends with Hercules?"

"Bellerophon. Heracles never had a winged horse."

Those bastards at Disney had lied to me.

Next thing you know, Hercules wasn't actually trained by a half-goat called Phil. What were those creatures called...

"And the snake? You mentioned a dragon but no snake."

I could see I was getting on her nerves, but I couldn't care less.

"Drakon, with a K instead of a G. Dangerous things, you're lucky you survived."

"Riiight," I muttered, turning my head to look at the table beside me. This was boring, "Can I stand up?" I asked after five minutes.

"You'll rip open your wound again. I can't give you any more Ambrosia, or you might combust."

"As in poof?" I said, imitating an explosion with my hands.

"Yes, poof." She nodded.

"Ouch... Still, I can't lay like this all day now, can I? I want to look around your so-called safe haven."

"Can you not stay still for two seconds? I've met many campers that have been less problematic than you and that's saying a lot right now."

"Ah, don't say that. You'll get used to it soon enough, but by then I'll be number one on that list of problematic folk." I said, "But please stop calling me a demigod, I'm no son of Zeus. He's not even real for starters, but if he would be he'd be the best bet to give me demigod status, no? Guy went through entire cities worth of women in the time it takes others to brush their teeth."

Sophia looked up at the sky, frowning.

"Names have power. Use them wisely."

I shrugged, "So let's say I believe you that this is the truth and I haven't gone mad. Who is my father then?"

"Or mother," Sophia said.

"She can't be Immortal."

"You knew her?"

"Yeah..." I frowned, feeling my shield of happiness break a bit. I saw Sophia notice we had arrived at a touchy subject, and she quickly hurried along with the conversation while slightly wincing.

"Your father, he can be any of the gods. Most demigods get claimed after a few days of being here at the camp, though we can deduce who he is by what skills you have."

"Like?"

She puffed out some air, thinking, "Well Apollo has master archers, doctors and musicians. Hephaestus kids are amazing smiths and Ares kids are some of the best fighters you'll ever meet. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, their kids are strong, with a multitude of powers, though they are quite rare these days. The list goes on and on, but you'll know about all this soon enough. Just. Wait." She told me.

"Until Chiron arrives," I said monotonically.

"Until Chiron arrives," Sophia repeated, smirking.

I tapped my thigh with my fingers.

"Have you ever had to fight one of these... Drakons before?" I asked.

"Only trained to fight one, learning its weaknesses and whatnot. It's impossible to train for the real thing, but it's better to train yourself in the theoretics than to have no training at all. Your scent must be incredibly strong to attract a monster of this calibre." I smelled my armpit and shrugged. She shook her head, holding her forehead, "It's a magical scent that varies in strength the stronger your godly parent is. If it's strong enough, it'll scare off the weaker monsters, but stronger ones will appear instead. They're way rarer but all the more dangerous."

"So I can't mask this with deodorant?"

"Nope. Believe me, there have been many attempts with many different techniques. All of them have failed, some pretty miserably."

"But if I wouldn't have been there, waiting for Tony, I wouldn't have gotten into trouble, no?" I asked, before remembering Sophia wouldn't know about Tony.

"Tony was trying to save you. He sensed a monster was hunting you and asked us to come to your rescue before it was too late. Just out of interest, how did you get the message to wait there? Letter, or in a conversation?"

"On my phone. Why?" I replied, slightly shocked.

"Typical satyr..." She muttered to herself, and I looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Ummm... I don't know that side of him, and didn't want to, to be fair." I said, blushing a bit. What relationship did she have with my best friend?

"It was his job to hide it from you, but that'll be changing soon, you'll be meeting him in the next few hours hopefully." She stood up and started pacing to and fro in front of me, kicking my bedside table once by accident.

"I don't think I want to after getting to know this bit of information."

"What?" She asked, looking at me whilst frowning and stopping in her tracks.

"Next topic!" I muttered, clapping my hands together.

She groaned, probably wishing for me to shut up, "I'll just take you over to the balcony, how about that?"

"Fantastic!"

"No sudden movements and no questions. If you tear open your wounds any more than you already have, I'll strangle you with your own bandages."

"Understood, Ma'am." I smiled, and she rolled her eyes once more.

Helping me up, she led me over to the balcony doors, opening them with a light kick. I was surprised at how much upper body strength she had to support so much of my dead weight.

A number of unwanted pictures came into my mind, and I shooed them away. The last thing I wanted was an imprinted picture in my mind of Tony the satyr and Miss Grey-eyes. The smell from outside reached my nostrils and my train of thoughts jumped off the rails, crashed and exploded. What the hell? I was not expecting to smell such an amazing combination of smells today.

To be fair I wasn't expecting a lot of things that had happened today, so there was no surprise there.

A sweet mixture of cut grass and strawberries, along with wood smoke and maybe even a hint of burning marshmallows. The only thing that tainted this was the acrid smell of coal smoke and dung, but these could only be smelled if you really concentrated on the details.

Before I could reach the railing, a roar echoed through the air and I recoiled from the side of the balcony as if it carried the plague.

"What was that?" I asked, scared.

I saw Sophia smirk beside me, "Festus."

"That sound does not give me a festive mood."

"You know Latin?"

"Not enough to have a chat with any ancient roman, but it kinda helps that some words sound similar in English."

"Could've guessed... Don't worry, he's a real cutie once you meet him."

"Sure..."

I took two steps forward, the sight of this so-called safe haven taking my breath away as it came into view.

It was a massive field of grass, dotted with buildings. To the left, in the distance, was an enormous forest, while to the right there was a nearly unblocked view of the endless Atlantic Ocean. Nearly, because an incredibly Greek looking temple-esque building stood just a few hundred meters from the beach. A paved area was surrounded by tens of greek columns, though it had no roof or even walls, which allowed me to see through to the other side without problem. What was in there, I couldn't even begin to fathom, it was too far away to properly see.

What shocked me next were the strawberries. A sea of them, right beside this house I was in. A literal shitton. I saw people walking down small pathways that split the vast field of plants into multiple areas, but those people were once again too far away for me to pick up individual details other than the fact that they wore orange shirts like me. As I watched, the rows of fruit plants seemed to dance, which I would've chalked up to the wind moving them, however, there was one problem with that. There was no wind. The weather was calm, and hardly a cloud was in sight. I still remembered the beginning of the storm that I had witnessed and found it strange that it was so calm now.

Movement caught my eye, and I whipped my head over to see what it was. An enormous winged beast charged out of the dense part of the woods, chasing a deer way smaller than itself. The wild animal didn't seem to like the extra company and tried picking up speed to escape.

If I'd have to pinpoint what a dragon looked like, that'd be my best guess. Its scales reflected the rays of the sun, giving me the impression that it wore armour. On second thought, it probably did. With a roar that I recognized, it quickly caught up to the deer, knocking it over with a headbutt. Sniffing its body for a few minutes, it then turned around, wading back into the forest to pester other creatures. I saw the tiny dot that was the deer get up, probably say thanks to its lucky stars, then gallop off.

Festus, the Dragon.

Scary and brilliant, yet, by the looks of it, not all that intelligent.

Continuing my visual tour around this haven, the next thing that piqued my interest were the buildings right in front of me, each a different colour and looking like they were built from different materials too. The biggest was easily four times the size of the average building, and I guessed that it could easily fit a hundred people. They were built around a tiny courtyard, with benches, fountains and trees.

Three brick buildings stood close to these cabins, and I knew from just the look of them that they were the toilets.

In front of the forest was a great big wooden building, the use of it unknown to me until I saw the winged horses, or Pegasi, as Sophia had called them, lifting off and landing in a constant stream in front of it. They were the stables.

Just amazing. Flying was something I didn't quite fancy. Normal heights like the one I stood at weren't a problem. Up there? I'd rather die than try out parachuting or hang gliding, the same applied for flying horses.

Finishing my tour, I concluded that this was as close to a summer camp as it could get. Canoe lake, volleyball court, those were normal. There was a weird building decorated with statues and another that spewed smoke from multiple chimneys. That was probably the source of the smell of acrid smoke. Both of those were interesting, and definitely not everyday buildings of a camp, but neither were they all that freaky. On the other hand, the sandpit? Now that was something that I did not like the concept of. It reminded me too much of those gladiatorial pits which I had seen in movies.

It couldn't be that bad right? Some of them were practising archery, while others were playing basketball on a paved court.

But were those kids... Sparring?

My eyes were playing tricks on me. They couldn't be sparring, could they? It must violate some health and safety code. It was probably just my eyes playing tricks on me. Rubbing them, they rested on a building built into a hillside. A perfect replica of all the amphitheatres I had seen in my history book.

"Fucking hell," I muttered, "You guys take larping to another level."

Sophia stopped supporting me, letting me rest my weight on the railings. She did the same and sighed contentedly. Ignoring my larping comment, she began talking once more.

"Out of all the things here, the smell is something that'll never get old. That, and the view." She smiled, her face completely losing the frown for a second.

"It's weird," I said, staring at the woods where I had seen the dragon.

"For you, maybe, but I can assure you, this will be your favourite place soon enough." She said, looking at me, her smile wavering a bit, "No monsters, and everyone understands what you've gone through."

"Really? Everyone? Everyone's been running from orphanage to orphanage? Everyone's lost their-"

"Okay, not everyone... Still, more than even you'd realize." She interrupted, looking at her hands, her mouth curving downwards.

There was silence for quite a few minutes.

"So, when is this Chiron coming?" I asked, changing up the topic a bit.

"I don't know." She looked at her watch, "To be fair, he's late."

"Well, that's-"

"Welcome, to Camp Half-Blood!" Came the voice of a man from behind me.

I turned around.