My eyes focused on the smiling face of a middle-aged man sitting in a wheelchair.

"So is this place a summer camp of some sorts?" I asked, pointing outside.

"In some ways, yes, but there are many differences when compared to a mortal camp."

He wore a brown suit, underneath which I could see a grey shirt. His face sported a big brown beard, covering most of his features except for his nose and mouth. Every word was nicely articulated, and I got one impression almost immediately. This man was a teacher.

"Chiron..." Sophia said, bowing slightly.

He nodded towards her, acknowledging the grey-eyed girl briefly, before once again turning back to look me in the eyes. It was slightly disconcerting.

There was silence for a while, and I didn't know what to do.

"Most demigods have more questions when they arrive here. Did Sophia talk to you about something?"

"Not really, she told me you'd explain everything."

"And you aren't scared or surprised, or anything?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I was at first-" I agreed, "But not anymore. That dragon, Festus, was pretty terrifying though, not gonna lie."

"So she did talk to you about something." He looked pointedly at her, but she just shrugged. He rubbed his cheek, "Well then, I'm Chiron, as Sophia has probably already mentioned, and I'm the camp director. My first, and probably most important, question is how much do you know about Greek Mythology?"

"A bit. It's interesting, all the gods and whatnot. Sophia mentioned demigods, Athena, drakons and dragons, pegasi and other freaky shit. She also knows way too much info about me. Is this some secret government facility, trying to recreate myths?"

"I haven't heard that one yet." He chuckled, "All of your questions will be answered shortly. Now please, follow me."

I looked at my wound, before looking at Sophia. She had walked up to a closet to get something, and she emerged from its depths with a pair of crutches, throwing them at me from beside my bed. Five or six meters at least, between the two of us.

More than enough time to react to two metal sticks heading for me.

They smacked me in the face before I could even reach forward to catch them.

"Thanks..." I grunted, resting my weight on the crutches, and taking a few steps. It was uncomfortable, but that was the best I could hope for. I could walk, and that was the point.

Slowly, we made our way to the corridor outside this room I had woken up in. A short walk and we were standing in front of a door.

"In here, you'll get to see our orientation film. It'll explain everything to you hopefully, though any questions you'll have after it, I'll happily answer."

"It's PG-thirteen," Sophia told me.

"What are you trying to get at? I'm sixteen," I replied.

"Sure don't act like one..." She muttered.

Chiron elbowed her, as subtly as he could, and she stopped, instead, opening the door for us.

I stepped inside to see an entire home cinema. Sophia followed, but Chiron didn't.

While I selected a seat right in the middle, Sophia chose the one furthest from me and sat down with her arms crossed.

The moment I was comfortable, the movie started. Quiet music played in the background, and a man wearing a leopard-spotted shirt walked onto the white screen. He was tubby and looked pretty tired, looking exactly like some of the homeless men I had seen during my life. An alcoholic.

"Welcome Camper!" He started in a bored voice, "I am Mister D, the camp director here. If you have any problems while you train, please find Chiron, the activities director. Now... It's time to rip off the band-aid. Greek Mythology isn't all that mythical." I frowned, "That's right! It's not just random stories! The Gods are very much real, and they still have children, that's why you're here! You too, are a child of a god, however hard it is for you to believe. Before you kick back and relax, thinking you'll have a great time for the rest of your days, let me pop that bubble real quick. Along with the gods, the monsters you've read about are also real, and they're immortal. Well, sort of..." He looked at something or someone behind the Camera, "Alright, that's enough from me. Jacobs! It's your time, you're better at this anyway."

Mister D conjured a can of diet coke from thin air, before opening it and drinking half the can, walking off-screen as he did so.

A black-haired guy slightly older than me replaced Mister D, his arms showing just how well-muscled he was, and also showing off his tan. If this guy didn't surf on the regular, I'd give up on guessing anything for the rest of my life. Shit was too unpredictable nowadays.

"So as Mister D was saying, monsters are immortal... Well, sort of anyway. You can kill them during a fight, but they will return sooner or later. It can be anything from a week's worth of waiting, to centuries. It varies, though only the kids of Tyche are ever lucky on this front, the rest of us are normally forced to meet them again at the worst possible moment. When killed, they turn to dust, leaving behind bodyparts as trophies for you to keep. They're good to have, remind you of the fight and the memories surrounding it, so I do suggest you keep them, not to mention the fact that you can show off to your friends. Anyway, onto the next topic... Weapons. We use bows, swords, spears and shields. Sometimes a shotgun. It might seem like quite an old and outdated way to fight, well except for the shotgun part, but believe me, it's honestly the easiest. It's harder to craft bullets out of Celestial Bronze than it is to make bronze-age equipment. Oh, that reminds me. Celestial Bronze-"

I was starting to lose track of where we were when the kid was pushed to the side by a blonde girl who would've looked just like Sophia, except for the fact that she was also tanned. Like really, really tanned.

"I'm sorry, Seaweed Brain doesn't know how to speak sometimes." She smiled into the camera.

"It's Percy!" Came the voice of the guy from off-screen.

"Yes, yes. Anyway, he mentioned Celestial Bronze, which is a special type of metal that we use. Mined from Mount Olympus by the Cyclopes, it is tempered in the fires of Mount Etna and cooled in the waters of the River Lethe. It is with this metal that you can kill monsters. Well... That and bits of the actual monster, but the latter is way harder to get, and they are usually harder to use as well, especially compared to a good old sword. As a demigod, it is your job to kill monsters, but most importantly to defend mortals from them. That, as a demigod, is your primary task. Save mortals. Don't hurt them, no matter how annoying some can get, and don't worry if you're tempted to run them through, as Celestial Bronze won't work on them anyway. It'll pass through their body like the blade is made of air. This protection, much to our annoyance, doesn't get carried over to you, to me, to us demigods. This is because your blood contains the blood of an Olympian. Of course, because you are part mortal, normal steel and mortal weapons can hurt you just as much as Celestial Bronze can so take care of yourselves in any situation you find yourself in." She looked at someone behind the camera and beckoned for them.

An African-American girl with curly black hair walked onto the screen next, wearing a purple shirt instead of an orange one. What was written on it, I couldn't see.

"Hello! Ever wonder how no mortal has ever reported a monster attack, or a sword-wielding youth wearing ancient armour? This can all be chalked up to the Mist." She cleared her throat, "This isn't the same as what you normally get on an early morning run during spring. It's a mystical and powerful force, separating our world from the fragile minds of mortals. While you might see the Chimera as the beast it actually is, most mortals will see it as a-"

"Chihuahua." The voice of Percy shouted from off-screen.

"Yes, exactly... If you start fighting it, they might freak out, or they might completely ignore you, thinking it's normal. Whatever the case, you can't expect the mortals to see what you're seeing, and react accordingly. If you notice the Minotaur walking down the street, be sure to pull all mortals out of its way because they'll see him as a buff dude named Chad... Or I don't know. It's always different." She took a deep breath, "There are Mortals who can see through the mist though, sometimes clearer than even a demigod. For instance, the Oracle of Delphi, who'll you'll meet soon enough, is a mortal who can do just that. Quite a few mortal parents of demigods are like this too, which is exactly the reason why they caught the eye of the Olympian in most, but not all, cases..."

Chiron wheeled into view as the girl walked away, looking just like he had when I had seen him outside.

"I am Chiron, the activities director. I want to thank Mister D, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase for helping me make this short orientation video, but I also want to give a massive thanks to Praetor Hazel Levesque, who came all the way from Camp Jupiter to help. Nothing more will be mentioned here, the rest of the information you'll get during your stay at Camp Half-Blood. If you do have any questions, and I'm sure you have many, do feel free to ask anyone around camp. I'm always open to answering questions, and I'm certain you'll find others who can also answer them. To end this short orientation film, a few pictures of what it's like to be a demigod will be shown, selected by the campers themselves."

The calming music became louder, and pictures of demigods posing together came up on the screen, changing like a slideshow. In some, they were sparring, while in others they were fighting monsters. Bit of a dangerous situation to be taking pictures in, but I couldn't deny the fact that they looked cool as fuck. Ten minutes passed, and I was outside, Sophia having left some time before that.

"So?" Chiron asked, fidgeting in his seat, which struck me as odd for someone who was probably sitting in said seat for a very specific reason.

"I have a few questions," I said, ignoring what had probably been a trick of the eye.

"Go on."

"What was that Ambrosia thing that Sophia gave me? The film didn't talk about it."

"Ah, yes. The film is lacking in many places, but it serves its purpose well which is why we still use it. Ambrosia is the food of the gods. Any mortal that'd eat it would instantly die a horrible death, their blood would turn to fire, and their bones to sand. Demigods, however, can digest some of it before such a thing happens. It heals injuries, boosts energy, dulls pain and it takes up the taste of your favourite food. You'll know if your eating too much of it because you'll become feverish... It's best you don't get to that point though." He scratched his nose, "And of course, you can't talk about ambrosia, without talking about nectar, which is the drink of the gods. It's the same thing as ambrosia, save for the fact that it's a liquid and it takes up the taste of your favourite drink."

"So you're saying I was given instant death juice and food without anyone knowing if I was a demigod or just an unlucky mortal."

"We were eighty percent certain," Sophia said.

"Great. That's reassuring to know. Thanks." I nodded, looking between the two standing in front of me, "Nevermind, I'm still alive, so I guess... Yay? Next question, on a bit of a different topic. What exactly made this PG-Thirteen?"

"Makes it more interesting for the younger demigods to go inside. Otherwise, nothing. It gets much worse than PG-thirteen in the real world, but I assume you of all people don't need a reminder."

I subconsciously touched my bandaged wound, "And what about that girl, Hazel? She was from Camp Jupiter, had a different shirt and all that shit. What is that place?"

"It's... something that'd confuse you too much right now. When you get used to your current surroundings, I'll tell you." Chiron smiled, looking at his hands for a brief moment.

"Fine... Final question, and I'll shut up." Sophia muttered something under her breath, but I ignored her, "You said you're the camp director, yet that Mister D guy had introduced himself as the camp director and you were the activities director. Why?"

"It's a very old recording. I don't like watching it, because it reminds me of the past." He sighed, "But to answer your question, Mister D was the camp director for close to a hundred years before his punishment ended. After he returned home, I got back my position."

"A hundred years... Punishment?"

"It's something that I'm sure Sophia would be happy to tell you about, it's quite a short story, though right now it isn't important."

As I looked at her, I could see she was staring at the floorboards, and I figured she wasn't too ecstatic about that job. My eyes wandered slowly back to rest on the camp director, and something that had been bothering me in the back of my mind finally surfaced.

"Have I heard the name Chiron anywhere? Is it an Ancient Greek name?"

"You could say so, yes."

"There was this one Chiron... The one who helped get the dead across that river."

"That's Charon." Sophia scoffed.

"Now, now Sophia. It's fine. By now, I'm used to getting mixed up with him."

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to offend," I muttered.

"Offend? You have to try harder for that my dear boy. I'll give you a hint... In the past, I was known as the trainer of heroes."

"Wait... Wait! I think I have it now. The horse dude?"

"Yes."

"That's cool that you're his namesake."

"Namesake?" He asked, surprised, his lower body moving slightly again. It was definitely not a trick of the light or anything else for that matter.

"Umm-"

Like startled worms, the legs retracted into the wheelchair, leaving only Chiron's top half visible. With a creak, the metal frame behind where his legs had been dangling a moment ago fell forwards, stopping with a clang against the floor.

The torso of Chiron rose higher and higher, a blanket tied around his lower body, which had previously been inside the secret compartment.

Looking closer, my eyes widened. It wasn't a blanket.

The body of a horse, which shouldn't have been able to fit inside the compartment it had risen from, was revealing itself to me.

The glorious moment came to an abrupt end as Chiron smacked his against a low-hanging wooden beam.

"Gods of Olympus! I keep forgetting just how low the roof is up here."

"You're- You're..."

"A centaur, yes. Or as you said, a horse dude."

"Let's just say you're The Chiron, and that The Chiron had existed from the myths. You'd be nearly three thousand years old!"

"About right, though you stop counting after the first two thousand. It's pretty boring, and frankly quite hard on my lungs when it comes to blowing out candles." He chuckled.

"How the hell can you be three thousand years old, this doesn't make sense!"

"He's literally half-horse, half-human! Out of everything, that fact should be the least surprising." Sophia asked.

"So you're saying you met Achilles, Hercules and all those folks?" I said, ignoring the girl.

He winced a bit, "Well, Achilles yes. Heracles not so much."

"So this entire thing isn't a massive joke then." I whispered, looking around the place, "Gods really do exist!"

Sophia looked at me, exasperated.

"Literally the-" She started, but Chiron cut her off.

"Yes! They do!"

"Brilliant! Fantastic!" I exclaimed, feeling myself get irritated, "And what am I to do with this information? Do I have to fight monsters? Save the world? Do I look like a fighter?!" I questioned, looking over myself from head to toe. I could feel my breathing quicken as panic spread over me.

"That's why you're here... We'll train you to be a warrior. Before you know it, you'll be doing all those things you mentioned and much more, all without breaking too much of a sweat." The horse-man hybrid held up a calming hand.

"And what if I say no? Say that I don't want anything to do with this and that I want to go back to my old, less-weird life? Where my biggest problem was a fucking history test with a teacher that hates me and who I equally hate."

"You can. No one's stopping you, but you can't deny the truth. You're a part of this world, whether you like it or not. Monsters will hunt you even more frequently the older you get, though you must be the child of some minor god if you've gone this long without getting attacked... Then why was it a drakon that went after you?" She mused to herself, before shaking the thought away, "Here, you're safe. The magical border defends Camp Half-Blood from everything that could kill you."

"It's either death or camp, huh?"

"I'm afraid it is. Having a demigod that is this old and still unclaimed is rare, as Sophia said that points towards you being a minor god's son. But then the Drakon is a different question. They don't live in New York, we make sure of knowing about any that do, meaning one tracked you down from quite some distance. That goes against the minor god theory quite blatantly..."

There was silence as both of them delved deep into thought.

"Does this mean that I'm special or am I basically a nobody?"

"A nobody? Don't think so little of yourself, child. No matter who your godly parent turns out to be, you are still a demigod... Anyway, as I can see, you're wound hasn't fully healed-"

"About that, shouldn't it already be completely fine thanks to this Ambrosia stuff?"

"The combination of John's expertise and the godly food fixed your broken arm just fine, but the other wound was a deep one, and it was also tainted with drakon poison."

"Wait, what?" I raised my eyebrows.

"It's nothing really. The blood of the drakon mixed with its saliva, the saliva being a potent poison. While it didn't actually bite you, your open wound was drenched in the mixture, meaning it got into your wound. The ambrosia helped fight off the poison from reaching your heart and killing you, but it'll take a lot longer to heal, and once it does you'll have a nice scar to remind you of the encounter."

"Brilliant. What do I do now?"

"Oh yeah, you interrupted me. So your wound isn't healed, meaning I'd rather not send you along with Sophia today to show you around the Camp."

"What?" She exclaimed, looking at Chiron.

"Yes, Sophia, it'll be your job."

She wanted to say more but realized there was nothing she could do, so instead, she crossed her arms and looked at me all the more angrily.

"I suggest you stay in your room for the rest of the day. We'll have dinner at six, which if you are feeling well enough, you can join."

"But what'll I do until then?"

"Sophia will take in some books for you to read if you're interested. I believe some of your fellow campers will be excited to meet you too. It's not every day a drakon attacks someone. Anyway, expect visitors."

"What time even is it?"

"Two in the afternoon."

I groaned.

"Sophia, please lead him back to his room," Chiron told the daughter of Athena, who looked at the Centaur with her stormy grey eyes, and I could feel the silent battle being fought in front of me. Sophia lost, and she stomped down the corridor, me following her slowly.

The moment I entered the room, she closed the door behind me, leaving me alone in the room. Instead of sitting down, I rested my ear against the door to hear what they were saying.

"Chiron, why is it me who gets assigned to him?" She yelled.

"Quieten down, Sophia."

I heard her heed his advice, and her voice was much quieter this time, "I've got other things to do than to babysit someone who can't take anything seriously."

"As a leader, this is also your job. Are you really going to discriminate against him just because he isn't how you pictured him? Drakon attack, older than most other new arrivals... Prime material for filling the role of a new hero. But he isn't how you pictured him, so now you don't want to even be near him." There was silence for a bit, "Sophia... You can't expect everyone to be just like how you first imagined them. Other than what you've heard from Tony, you don't know anything about him, about his past. He uses the same technique that I've seen many times before, hiding behind jokes and sarcasm to hide that he's terrified of this new reality, to hide that he can't control his life the same way he could before the attack yesterday. It's a coping mechanism, and one of the better ones at that. You must remember what it was like for you to come here. What feelings you-"

"I do remember, I don't need reminding... He's no Samuel though, no Nico or Rebecca, or... or Marcus." There was a flutter in her voice as she sucked in air, "For all we know, he was just unlucky enough to meet a Drakon."

"That is also a probability, but I've lived for long enough to expect the unexpected. Never mind who he is, that will reveal itself soon enough." He cleared his throat, "But you have to understand, most campers look to you as much as they do to me or Samuel, but you're still very much a child, albeit one who's been here longer than almost everyone. It's a massive weight that's resting on your shoulders, though you make it so much harder than it should be. It's in your nature as a child of Athena to be a leader, so it's not your fault entirely... You want to find someone who you can share with, share more than you'd dare to share with all the other campers. Marcus had fulfilled that role, but he's not here, so you hope to the Gods that every new kid you meet will do what Marcus did, and fill that role of hero that you can look up to. Once you realize he won't be like how you pictured him, you let go of those hopes and build resentment towards him. Give this boy a chance... He might just surprise all of us."

The conversation ended, and after two minutes of silence, I heard the clip-clop of hooves on wood as Chiron walked away.

I was starting to feel bad for Sophia... There was clearly something going on with her, even if it was a dick move to judge someone without properly knowing them.

Making my way to the bed, I leaned my crutches against the nightstand and sat down. Already my stomach was hurting from the strain of walking, but I wasn't ready to eat any more of that ambrosia. Not after what I had learned about it.

So I just sat there, thinking about my situation. My entire life had changed, and I wasn't sure how to react. What I had overheard Chiron say about me, no matter how much I tried to forget about why I did what I did, I knew he was right. Ever since I had escaped my first orphanage, my life had been under my control almost always. I had lived on the streets for months at a time, before the homeless folk took pity on me, and called the police, who took me to a new hell hole. I still went to school, no matter where I lived, because I knew I could only do something with my life if I had an education... That's where I met Tony, so I guess I can thank Woodfigh High School for actually doing something for me.

It all started when I was six, on one fateful night. I doubted my mind for years to come, thinking that what my eyes had seen as a child was nothing more than me being too young to understand or remember clearly what had happened. But knowing what I now knew, I could finally agree with my six-year-old brain.

Shaking my head, I slammed my fist against my thigh. I couldn't think about it, or my problems would return.

Thankfully, my train of thought was interrupted by Sophia, who slowly opened the door. Her eyes were tinted slightly red, but the hard look in her eyes told me enough to know to leave her alone.

"I brought some books." She muttered, placing them on the bed beside me, "They'll explain much more than an orientation film could ever explain. You don't have dyslexia either, so you can count yourself lucky on that front too."

"Thanks..." I said, looking at her. She had strode back to the door and had stopped just before closing it.

"I'm sorry about-" She started, before shaking her head and closing the door behind her, leaving her sentence unfinished.

I sighed, and lifted my legs onto the bed, lying against the wall with the pillow behind my head.

Grabbing the first book from the pile, I brought it before me and read the title.

Hesiod: Theogony, An Expanded Edition

The last part was scribbled onto it in pen, the second line underneath it too.

AKA: A fresh demigod's guide to the Olympian family.

It seemed interesting, and I opened it on page one.

Lines written with a typewriter were quickly swapped to hand-written notes, explaining and expanding on the original text. At times, pages of notes were written about a few lines of texts. There were family trees, stories and everything that even remotely had anything to do with the god mentioned.

I didn't even realize how long I had been reading until I was interrupted on page two hundred and five by a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" I asked, a bit annoyed at the disturbance. I had just gotten to the Titanomakhia, and it was an interesting part of the book. The door opened and four kids walked inside, smiling in my direction.

"Hi." Said the oldest boy who had been the first to enter the room, "It's nice to see you alive and well after what happened yesterday."

He was about my age, with blond hair and light blue eyes that stood out on his face. His arms were way more muscled and much more tanned, than mine ever would be, something which his Camp Half-Blood T-shirt showed off perfectly thanks to the tank-top modification it had. As he talked, I saw a perfect set of white teeth, and I felt a tad bit jealous. Definitely a hit with the ladies.

"Yeah, I'm happy I'm alive and well too. Thanks are in order for you guys, for helping me not die and stuff like that." The blond boy smirked, "I'm Daniel Greenfield."

He shook my hand, "John Solace, Son of Apollo."

"Ah, so you're the John that helped me get better so quickly."

"The one and only!"

"I can't thank you enough for that," I smiled while clutching the hand of the next kid. He was a bit younger thirteen, maybe fourteen, his dark hair and sea-green eyes very familiar, yet it alluded me from where I recognized him.

"Hi, Nicholas Jackson, but people just call me Nico. This over here is my little sis, Jenny." I was taken aback by the girl he pointed to, a year or two younger than her brother, and an exact replica of Sophia. Blonde hair, stormy grey eyes, the whole deal... Though her hair was on the frizzier side of things and she was missing the killer stare that my book supplier had.

That Jackson surname rang a bell too, I just couldn't put my finger on where I had heard it, and it was pissing me off.

"Nice to meet you guys too... Your surnames are awfully familiar, but where could I have heard it?"

"Probably from the orientation film. Percy Jackson was Jenny's great-great-great-grandfather."

"Really? Is that film that old?!" I shook my head to clear my thoughts, looking back at my guests, "What about you?"

"I'm the Son of Poseidon, but I'm not a true Jackson... It might be complicated."

"We've got time," I said, giving him a grin.

He beamed, "Where should I start? My mom was visited by Poseidon one night, and-"

"Not so detailed... Please." John told Nico.

"Right... yes, so anyway, before I was born, Mom married Jenny's dad. Two years after, Athena visited my stepfather to spite Poseidon, and yeah..."

"Pretty crazy."

"It is. Even though Poseidon and Athena are technically rivals, me and Jenny don't have too many fights, and the few we have, I always win." Nico smiled.

Jenny was nodding her head through the entire thing, and it took her a few seconds to realize what her brother had said at the end. She whipped her head towards him and frowned. Now she looked exactly like Sophia.

The final person to introduce themselves was another member of the rescue team that had come for me yesterday, Desdemona Whilkinson... Des for short, according to her. She was about my age too, maybe a bit younger. Her black hair had strands sticking out in every direction, like she had recently been struck by lightning, or had touched an outlet with wet hands.

What was weird was that I was starting to pick up on the fact that nobody had normal-looking eye colours. All of them looked just a bit too different from what counted as ordinary.

Des' were the weirdest. They were green, though I couldn't quite describe the hue of it, they were eerie looking.

I was about to strike up a new conversation when a tall man strode inside. Two meters tall, arms left uncovered to show his scarred biceps the size of my thighs. He was absolutely jacked, and also tanned. Was everyone tanned here?

Whatever the case, Hercules would've been put to shame next to him. He was wearing a bronze breastplate and slung across his back was a bronze-tipped spear. His face was covered by a well-trimmed brown beard, his eyes similarly coloured. A sneer was on his face the moment he entered, which made him all the more intimidating.

If I wouldn't have had this wound impeding me, I would've sprinted out of the room right then and there. I could try it now too, but then I'd rip open my wound, and this dude would have to race with Sophia on who would kill me first.

He stretched out a hand towards me, and I grasped it. His hand was easily big enough to envelop mine, and if he so wished, his upper body strength would be enough to crush my hand like a week-old banana.

To my surprise, his sneer turned into a tiny smile, and I realized that I might've misjudged him a lot.

"Bruce, Son of Ares." He introduced himself.

"Daniel. You're the craz-" I cleared my throat, "The dude who jumped at the drakon."

He let go of my hand, and I let out a small puff of air I hadn't even realized I had been holding in.

"That's the one." He smirked, "Gotta be honest, I'm surprised you survived that long, and gave the bastard a wound while you were at it."

I didn't know what to say, "Thanks?"

He didn't seem to hear the question in it, and continued, "If anyone can go toe-to-toe with a drakon without any training and come out largely unscathed, they have my respect. Me? I needed that good old rush of adrenaline to do what I did, but I know well enough how to behave normally, something which my siblings can't really brag about... That reminds me, watch out for my sister, Liz. She has an interesting and unpleasant way of greeting new campers." He stared blankly into thin air for a bit, before turning back to look into my eyes, "Anyway, it's good to see you awake and well, I'm off to go back to training. Get well dude."

Without waiting any longer, he walked outside.

"Does he really need any more training?" I asked, looking at everyone else. John snorted.

"He's a pretty cool dude for a child of Ares, what he said was true enough. Don't get me wrong, you don't want to meet Bruce as an enemy during capture the flag, but his mind works a bit differently compared to the rest of his brothers and sisters."

"Ah, how exactly?"

"More strategic in a way, and believes less in the spartan method of tough love, and actually talks with people."

Sophia walked into the room, only to come to a complete stop as she noticed I had visitors. Her sudden pause nearly made the stack of books topple onto the floor, but the tower was well-constructed, and they held firm.

"Hi guys," She muttered, before dropping the books onto the floor beside my bed and walking outside.

"So I guess Chiron had a talk with her again?" Desdemona asked, looking at me.

I didn't want to admit I had listened in to the conversation, but still, I nodded.

"Yeah, don't worry about her." John told me, "She's a good friend, and once you two are on friendlier terms, some of that coldness she seems to hold will disappear. It was brilliant to see her laugh for the first time." He smiled, before the look in his eyes turned a bit sad, "She puts too much energy into upholding her image as a leader. She's been at the camp longer than Bruce has, and he's twenty-three compared to her sixteen. What she needs is someone she can lean on, but that would require said person to be someone close to her age and position in life."

"But there's no-one like that, and every time some new possibility comes along, she gets her hopes up, only to get let down... Don't take this in a bad way, mind you." Des continued.

I chuckled sadly, "Can I do something to help her?"

"Unless you turn out to be the next person to fulfil a role in the great prophecy, something which we'll never find out most probably, then you can't do more than be the best friend you can be. You have to see her problem. The only people that can come up are Chiron or Bruce, but neither are really what she's looking for, Bruce especially, is quite blunt when it comes to these sorts of things. Then there's Samuel, but he's not exactly good with talking either. A guy called Marcus was her crush for quite a long time, he was one of the few people she really looked up to, but he just suddenly disappeared one day, some six years ago now."

"And since then, I'm the cabin counsellor," Nico piped in.

"Summing up, she feels pretty lonely, even though everyone looks up to her and she has tons of friends." Des finished.

"What happens if you try to talk to her about it?"

"She'll either close herself off from the conversation, get angry, or just change the topic. Believe me, we've all tried once or twice, before realising she can be too stubborn for her own good." I looked at the big stack of books and sighed. The Son of Apollo gave a small smile, "She's not really letting you rest, is she? Those books are good though, they help a lot. I highly recommend you read The Demigod's Guide to Monsters and Mythology, that was my favourite one and it gives you a lot of useful information."

I smiled in thanks and saw Des looking at the door. She turned back around and addressed the room, "Guys, I gotta go. It was nice speaking with you Dan, hope you get better soon. I think I may have left something running that I shouldn't have." And like that she was darting out of the room.

The Jackson kids looked at the closing door too and seemed to remember something as well. They too said their goodbyes, leaving only John and me in the room.

"Umm... How will I know when dinner will be?"

John leaned against the wardrobe, "There'll be a horn, though don't worry about it. Sophia'll probably come to get you." John said, "Now, I don't want to trouble you any longer either. Happy reading!"

Once the door closed, I continued where I had left off, though I took the time to briefly smile about this encounter. Apart from Tony, I never really had any friends in school, or elsewhere for that matter, and it felt good that these folk had been so kind. As for the book, there was one interesting thing that it made me discover about myself. Most of the important words were written in greek, something which I couldn't read, unsurprisingly. Thankfully the person I could thank for adding all of these extra notes had thought ahead and had drawn a Greek to Latin alphabet chart in the very back. Once I had the word or words deciphered to sounds, the meaning came to my head, as if there was a translator stuck in the back of my mind. I didn't know how, or why, but I was sure it was correct.

Each new thing I learned about myself weirded me out even more.

It was strange that most of this information was actually staying with me. Unlike school, reading this was interesting.

Algebra? Calculus? Trigonometry?

I fell asleep just by thinking of them.

But reading about how Kronos cut off his father's dick with a scythe was the opposite of boring. It made it all the more exciting that I knew these weren't useless fairy tales anymore. Kronos had really been that big of a prick, and such a thing really had happened.

Hours passed, and my reading was only interrupted by Sophia opening the door to dump more books beside me. I wasn't sure if she wanted to help me expand my knowledge, or if she wanted to build a book wall around my bed. She was succeeding in doing both tasks at the same time.

Once I had finished with Hesiod, I opened up the book Des had recommended me. Each page had a monster on it, and there were easily four hundred pages. After looking at some of the stuff more relevant to me I set it aside to read something else instead. I realised just how lucky I had been with what Drakon I had gotten. Most spat poison and some breathed fire... Very lucky. Mine had done neither.

To check if I had misunderstood Sophia talking about Tony, I searched for satyrs. I found the page associated with them, though I still wasn't one hundred percent sure about which version she had been talking about. The mythical one, or the modern-day version.

After skimming through a few more books, the horn rang, and I placed Sword Combat: Theory and Execution on my nightstand.

As I did so, my eyes looked over those I had already flipped through. Hesiod's Expanded Theogeny was there, but there were others that had stuck with me.

Camp Half-Blood, A Tale of Heroes: Chiron

The Roman Legion: Frank Zhang, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, Hazel Levesque and Jason Grace

Life of Heracles: Heracles

The Demigod Files: Perseus Jackson

Those were some that had been especially enjoyable. It was incredibly interesting to read about Hercules'- No... Heracles' life, written in the format of an autobiography. After finishing it, I had thought it was just a bit of satire, having the name of the author be Heracles himself and whatnot, but Sophia was quick to confirm with a thumbs up that it was actually written by the real Heracles. While I spluttered in surprise, she had left the room, leaving my questions unanswered.

Getting up, I lightly kicked aside the books in my way, and with the help of my crutches, I lifted myself off of the bed. The feeling wasn't too comfortable, but it wasn't painful either. I wanted to stretch, but I didn't trust my wound to hold up.

Sophia opened the door and saw I was already standing.

"Good. Let's go."

We walked past the orientation film room and some other doors, finally going down some stairs. Even though I now knew that Chiron wasn't actually wheelchair-bound, it still seemed like a lot of hassle to come up these stairs, only to keep my worldview intact for a few more minutes.

A roar startled me so hard, that I smashed a crutch into Sophia's ankle.

She looked at me, annoyed, before pointing to a stuffed leopard head hanging on a wall. Smiling, I realized what the prank had been, a Bluetooth speaker shoved into the mouth of the dead animal.

Its eyes darted to me, and the entire head rotated slightly, roaring again.

"The fuck!" I yelled, jumping back.

Sophia didn't even so much as raise an eyebrow at the disembodied head roaring at us, and she continued walking, with me limping after her, not taking my eyes off the live leopard head.

It didn't stop roaring, and I could see the daughter of Athena's hands clenching into a fist every few seconds, before she stopped at the door, sighing.

"You just had to set Seymour off, didn't you?" She muttered, striding back to a small cupboard, and taking out a pack of Snausage dog treats.

"I-I didn't-"

"Just let it go..." She told me, opening the pack and throwing it at the leopard. Gnawing on it with relish, its pupils widened, and looked at Sophia, begging for another treat.

"No fucking way." I laughed, as two more snausages went down its gullet.

"Now go, or he'll continue roaring until he has no voice."

I nodded, walking out of the door.

"Where to?" I asked.

"Dining pavilion's that one, where the fires are being lit."

"Why are they lighting them? The sun will be up for a few more hours at least. It's the Twentieth of June." I told her, but she simply ignored me.

It took a good ten minutes, but we reached the dining area.

And by God was it brilliantly built.

Each table seemed to have cliques of people sitting around them, all dressed and looking fairly similar in some way or another.

A long table was on the far end of the dining pavilion, where I noticed Chiron sitting, or rather standing in horse form, surrounded by people I didn't recognize. A man with black hair and a heavily-scarred face sat beside the centaur, and I swear I could see his sky-blue eyes all the way from here. Some of the others sitting along that table had pointy ears on the top of their head, but I dismissed it fairly quickly as some strange demigod tradition. A girl who was a bit older than me sat next to the scarred dude, her hair auburn, and she seemed uninterested in the food in front of her.

"Hey, Daniel!" John exclaimed from a table surrounded by his clones. All six of them had blue eyes and blond hair, which was a massive mindfuck for me to see. The same could be said for the table surrounded by Sophia copies, though they were more numerous. Those were probably the children of Athena. Jenny was in there somewhere, but I couldn't see her amidst the others.

Taking a step towards John, I was pulled back roughly by Sophia.

"You can't sit at any table you want. Unclaimed kids sit there." She pointed at an empty table, "But because I'm here to help you, I'll also be sitting there." She said, "Much to my delight," She added under her breath.

As we made our way there, I saw Bruce heartily laughing along with his tablemates, slapping their backs much to their discomfort. One of the girls was looking at me, frowning, and I quickly averted my gaze. Des' table was surrounded by black haired and eerie-green coloured eyes, while Nico sat on his own, the sight quite depressing, even if the kid was smiling right at me. I smiled back, with a small wave to accompany it.

One table was surrounded by easily a hundred kids, they were the only ones that had all manner of folk amongst themselves.

A massive brazier burned in the middle of the pavilion, the smoke rising from it filled with the hints of tasty smells.

The moment I sat down, Chiron stood up and clinked his fork against the goblet in his left hand, multiple times, like he was going to say a toast.

Near-instantaneously, the pavilion fell silent.

"Thank you campers! I'm sorry to interrupt dinner so soon, but there is something important I wish to say. As you might've seen and heard, a new demigod has arrived at our camp. Please give a warm welcome to Daniel James Greenfield!"

As the claps started, I smiled awkwardly, waving and bowing my head, until Sophia pulled me up, and muttered into my ear to say something.

"Ah. Sorry, I'm not quite used to this new world I've been dropped into." A few snorts rang out, and I continued, "Thank you for welcoming me. I can say for certain I've not experienced such a warm welcome since... Well, since never. I do want to give a special thanks to those demigods that saved my life yesterday."

My face was turning a bit red since I wasn't exactly good at talking in front of a crowd. Around two hundred odd kids were sitting around a plethora of different tables. Some of those tables were completely empty yet they still added to the feeling of there being too many people for comfort.

As I sat down, the clapping started again, lasting for a few seconds before everything returned back to normal.

A woman popped out of seemingly thin air next to me, wearing a white dress with brown strips here and there.

She put a plate of BBQ ribs and ripe vegetables in front of me along with an empty goblet. Then I noticed her arm.

It was green. Looking closer, her face was also very much the same colour.

My mouth opened like a fish's does out of water.

Before I could ask anything, she was off. Just Like the Flash.

"Who was that?" I asked Sophia.

"Birch."

"Sorry?" I asked, looking at her.

She sighed exasperatedly, "Why does your mind interpret everything in a bad way? Birch with an R, not a T. She's a Dryad. A tree nymph"

"Ah, let me guess, her home tree is a Birch."

She nodded, not really paying attention to me, while I smiled. I had cracked their code. But what if there were multiple birch trees in the forest?

In the blink of an eye, the girl was back, giving the same stuff to Sophia as well.

"Bon appetit," I muttered, grabbing my fork and knife. The daughter of Athena elbowed my side, and I grunted in pain, "What?!" I exclaimed, a bit too loudly. Some heads turned towards us.

"Come," Was all she said, standing up with her plate. I followed though I didn't know what she wanted. It was quite hard walking with crutches while carrying a plate, but I surprised myself by managing to do it without dropping my food.

The target was the brazier, which I nearly toppled into as I stopped.

"Throw the best parts of your food into this."

I looked at her, puzzled.

"Why?"

"The gods, they like the smell. We sacrifice our food to them, normally to our godly parents."

"Ah, I see. And how do I do that?"

"Think of their name, or just the notion of them, and scrape in the best bits."

I nodded and closed my eyes. Slowly, I pushed what I deemed the best bits into the flames, opening my eyes as I did so.

Nothing happened.

Then the flame started changing colour. Changing to black.

It was over before it had even started, gone in the blink of an eye. Only a select few had seen it, those that had been looking this way at that exact moment. They were staring at me wide-eyed, whispering to their tablemates. I was unsure if it had even happened, or if it was just a trick of my eye.

I really didn't need that extra spotlight though. Brilliant.

"What did you do?" Sophia asked, staring into my eyes, all of her annoyed facial features gone, replaced by excitement and confusion.

"Fuck if I know," I muttered, turning around and sitting back down in my seat a moment later.

Tucking into my food, I calmed down a bit and tried to forget about what the fire had been. Sophia looked at me from time to time, along with half the dining pavilion, but I tried ignoring them. The daughter of Athena didn't try bringing it up again, yet from the corner of my eye, I could see she was deep in thought.

Halfway through my meal, someone sat down opposite me, and I looked up to see a familiar face.

Tony Pines, my best, and only, friend and recently revealed to be a satyr. He hadn't changed one bit. The cavalier beard made him look much older than he actually was, and he was wearing that damn Redsox cap, one of the many baseball caps he owned. No matter how many times it got him into trouble at school from the rival Yankees fans, it only seemed to make him like the hat more. I had called him an idiot for putting it on a second time, after the seventh I had learned to just accept him the way he was.

"Hey, dude." He said, looking at me.

"Hi."

"So I'm guessing you know a lot more about... all this stuff." He waved his hands about.

"Yeah... I've also heard quite a few things about you too."

He raised an eyebrow and looked at Sophia.

"Sophia tell you something?" He asked.

"Yeah, and I'm hoping that you're a satyr from mythology and not the modern-day interpretation of the word."

I saw Sophia blush a bit beside me, and Tony snorted.

Lifting one of his legs, he took his shoe off and showed his foot to me. Or rather, his hoof.

"Mother of fuck... So that's why you never joined us during PE, you son of a bitch, you know how many push-ups you missed out on?!"

"Quite a bit, if I think about it... Is that all?"

"That all? I guess so, I mean after everything else today, my friend revealing that he's needed horseshoes his entire life, rather than regular shoes... No big deal."

He chuckled, "Look man, all I'm saying is that most other new kids like to freak out the moment they see one of us walking around."

"Us? You mean there's more of you?"

"Yeah." He turned towards the long table of the Camp Half-Blood leaders, "Those two over there, they're both satyrs. Pinus and Drassilus. Members of the Council of Cloven Elders, and two of the biggest assholes you could ever have the chance to meet."

"Tony..." Sophia muttered, before looking at her goblet, "Coke." She said, and it filled up with black liquid. That was unbelievably cool, yet Tony hadn't even batted an eye.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Can't talk about them that way, blah, blah, blah. I still have an opinion about them, not like so many of my fellow satyrs who look for their approval and nothing more. Grover did much more as a leader than these two ever could."

"But Grover's gone, and he's been like that for the past-"

"Ten years. Today is the anniversary."

"So that's why hardly any of the satyrs are here today." Sophia wondered aloud, impaling a small tomato with her knife, "Why are you still wearing your mortal clothes?" She asked, looking Tony over from top to bottom.

"I like them and I've gotten used to them, but if you insist."

He slowly reached up to his hat and took it off. Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I was going to see him without a hat.

"Holy-" I muttered as the removal of his hat revealed the biggest part of his secret.

Two bumps were growing from his head, and looking at the satyrs sitting at the table, I realised the protrusions on the top of their heads were horns.

Tony was confused about why I was looking at him wide-eyed, and his eyes darted around to see what I was commenting on before they locked onto his hat that was still in his hand.

"So Sophia didn't explain everything to you then?"

"Gotta have some secrets." She said with her mouth full.

"So do you know my real age or no?"

"Well, you were held back a bit, so maybe eighteen, nineteen?"

"Thirty-Eight." He smirked.

I laughed, and Tony was smiling along with me.

"You're pulling my leg, aren't you?" I asked, looking between Sophia and the satyr, "You must be."

"Nah, I try not to lie if possible." He shrugged.

"You can't be thirty-eight! How?!"

"Satyrs age at half the pace mortals do, making them good for acting as satyr guides for demigods that are in school. A thirty-year-old can easily pass off as a fifteen-year-old mortal teen." Sophia explained as she nommed on a slice of cucumber.

"That's really weird."

"Tell me about it," Tony said.

I looked at my cup and thought about what I wanted to drink.

"Lemonade?" I asked, and the goblet filled with yellow liquid.

"You're getting the hang of it all pretty fast," Tony said, slapping the table.

"How come you can sit at this table, but I can't sit anywhere?"

"We're not demigods. My papa was a satyr, like me, and my mom was a dryad."

"What?!" I exclaimed, "You're the son of a tree?"

"Tony stop before you break him," Sophia muttered, handing him an entire carrot from her plate.

"Ah, thanks." He said, taking it and biting it in half, "Don't worry Dan, soon enough, these things won't freak you out too badly. Also, a dryad isn't just a tree... There are many different types, even if my mama was just that. The dryad of a pine tree."

"This is all pretty freaky for me. You... This place, this new world. Everything."

"Don't worry about it. Everyone goes through this. You look calm compared to most newcomers, then again, most new campers don't get to fight a drakon before they're brought here. That's probably helping you right now."

"Ha, fucking ha," I said sarcastically, taking a long sip of lemonade, "It's everybody's dream to run screaming through their school's dark corridor from an oversized reptile."

Our conversation took a turn in a different direction, where we started telling stories to Sophia about our past experiences. The time we had thrown a firecracker down the school toilet out of boredom and consequently had blown up the plumbing, even made Sophia crack up, which was a massive milestone in my books.

"Tony, I thought your job there was to observe demigods... Covertly," She told him, "Keyword is covertly here."

"Ah come on Sophia, liven up a little. It was good fun at the time, and how many times do you get to do such things anyway?" He scratched his nose, "I was curious what would happen."

"Well, curiosity killed the cat, or so they say."

"Thank the gods that I'm half-goat then," Tony replied without hesitation, and both Sophia and I both snorted at the joke.

Halfway through a different story, a girl dressed in green, but with dark red hair appeared beside us, kissed Tony on the cheek and sat down beside him.

"Tony?" I asked, looking between them.

"Oh, I've told you about how I have a girlfriend, no?"

"Yeah, Rose."

"Here she is."

"Hi." She said, waving.

"I thought she was just a part of your cover-up story too," I said.

"Nah, I was quite truthful for a guide. Didn't lie about Rose once... Except that she wasn't human, but you didn't exactly ask, did you?"

He had me there, and I smirked, introducing myself to the girl. Dinner ended a quarter of an hour later, and I slowly stood up.

John stepped close to us, with Des and Nico in tow, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Dan, you should come with us to today's campfire. Apollo cabin always does one at nine, though since it's a Friday, not many people will take part. It'll be fun, I promise." John smiled.

"I mean, sure. If it doesn't involve dancing, I'm fine with it." I replied.

Tony slapped my shoulder heartily.

"It's good that you're here dude." He said.

I was surprised when I replied.

"Me too."

It was genuine, one of the most genuine things I had ever. Things were strange, weird and had started out rockily, but it was better than most places I had visited. It had been a long time ago that I had felt wanted.

It was good to be here.