Death and Madness|| Nico di Angelo

Welcome to Camp Halfblood

It turned out that the spider didn't lead us to Daedalus or Hephaestus.. and not even Triple G Ranch. Instead, Annabeth recognised the tunnel we emerged from. 

Sunlight hit my face and I immediately closed my eyes. After being in the dark for so long, the light was unsettling. Annabeth crawled through the opening and helped me up too. 

I wasn't sure where we were exactly. There was a huge pile of rocks and a bunch of trees, other than that there was nothing worth mentioning. 

"Welcome to Camp Halfblood, Violet" Annabeth said. 

---

The Camp wasn't like anything I had ever imagined. 

We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Annabeth's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.

Annabeth led me to what she called the "Big house". Well it certainly was very big. And it was a house. So I suppose the name made sense. 

There was a man on the deck, talking with a girl about a year or so older than me. She was certainly built like a warrior and she was scowling, but also crying. 

The closer I got, the more things became weird. The man, wasn't standing on a stool like I had previously thought. Instead he had the lower body of a horse. I thought nothing would surprise me since Triple G Ranch, but ofcourse I had been wrong. 

"Chiron!" Annabeth called. The centaur turned toward us, slightly frowning in my direction but giving Annabeth a warm smile. 

"Annabeth" He greeted. 

The girl whom I had seen talking with Chiron frowned at me too and then disappeared inside. Why the hell was everyone frowning at me?

"And this is?" Chiron asked gesturing towards me. 

"Violet Keen" I extended my hand, which he shook. 

"I am Chiron, the activities director here at Camp Half blood." 

"Wait, Chiron as in- Achilles' and Jason's teacher- Chiron?" He nodded. "Whoa"

Annabeth smiled at my enthusiasm. 

"Where's Percy?" Chiron asked. And Annabeth and I went into a detailed recount of our adventures. This time I started from the beginning. I told them about Luke trying to recruit me, and Nico shadow travelling us both. Then I didn't say much about the Underworld, just that I had been there. Then of course, the Triple G Ranch. 

Chiron was quiet throughout the story, and only showed excitement during the parts I talked about my powers. 

"Well Miss Keen, I believe you don't need to be claimed. From your powers it is clear who your godly parent is" He said. 

I nodded. "Dionysus, the god of wine"

"Wait a minute, does that mean everyone here at camp is related?" I pulled a face. 

"Yes, but Gods don't have dna. So technically as long as you're not children of the same god, we don't think of us as related" Annabeth explained. 

"Very well Violet" Chiron said. "Annabeth, show her around camp will you?"

--

Annabeth told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," she explained. "And as you know- the strawberries take almost no effort."

I grinned and popped a strawberry in my mouth. She was right. With my powers I could grow berries, grapes, and many fruit bearing plants within seconds. I was really loving this place. 

She said Mr. D- that's what everyone called my dad- had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

I watched a satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I twirled my finger and suddenly all the unripe strawberries turned a bright red colour. The scent filled the field and the satyr turned to me. He waved with a wide grin, which I reciprocated. 

"Come, Violet. Let's see the woods.". . ..

As we got closer, I realised how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Annabeth said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?"

"Monsters" She said. "Not too dangerous of course. They just make Capture the flag way more interesting"

We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables, the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Annabeth said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" I asked. "No daggers?"

"I suppose you could use daggers" She said. "But no powers Cabin challenges and all that," she explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

Annabeth pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.

"The camp borders usually keep out rain" She explained. 

Finally, she showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

In the centre of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smouldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.

"Correct," Annabeth said.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Zeus only has one daughter. And she joined the hunters of Artemis last year." Annabeth explained. "And Hera has no children. Then of course there is the Artemis cabin, the hunters usually stay in it when they visit"

"Awesome" 

Then Annabeth led me to cabin 12. It was beautiful, atleast I thought it was. There was just so many shades of purple and violet, and the outsides were covered in grape vines. Inside there were two boys, both about seventeen and splitting images of each other. 

As soon as we entered, they froze. Both had four bottles of various juices and energy drinks in their hands, which I guessed they weren't supposed to have. But I was too busy admiring everything. 

The walls were again a calming shade of purple, the bunk beds were made of vines, with violet sheets. And the best part was the ceiling. It was decked in multi coloured lights and a disco ball. I guess this was where most of the parties happened.