Lightning and the Beauty

Welcome to Camp Half-Blood!

                                                                                        Piper's POV

AFTER A MORNING OF STORMSPIRIT'S, goat men, and flying friends, Piper should've been losing her mind. Instead, all she felt was dread.It's starting, she thought. Just like the dream said.She stood in back of the chariot with Leo and Jason, while the bald guy, Butch, handled the reins, and the blond girl, Annabeth, adjusted a bronzenavigation device, Pierce by her side. They rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east, icy wind ripping straight through Piper's jacket. Behind them, more storm cloudswere gathering.The chariot lurched and bumped. It had no seat belts and the back was wide open, so Piper wondered if Pierce would catch her again if she fell. Thathad been the most disturbing part of the morning—not that Pierce could fly, but that he'd held her in his arms and yet didn't know who she was. Then to make matters worse, because "He didn't remember anything" and "He was really sorry" Jason broke up with her. All semester she'd worked on a relationship, trying to get Jason to notice her as more than a friend. Finally she'd gotten the big dope to kiss her. Thelast few weeks had been the best of her life. And then, three nights ago, the dream had ruined everything—that horrible voice, giving her horrible news.She hadn't told anyone about it, not even Jason or Pierce, her best friend.Now she didn't even have him. It was like someone had wiped his memory, and she was stuck in the worst "do over" of all time. She wanted toscream. Jason stood right next to her: those sky blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair, that cute little scar on his upper lip. His face was kind and gentle,but always a little sad. And he just stared at the horizon, not even noticing her.Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying, as usual. "This is so cool!" He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. "Where are we going?""A safe place," Annabeth said. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood.""Half-Blood?" Piper was immediately on guard. She hated that word. She'd been called a half-blood too many times—half Cherokee, half white —and it was never a compliment. "Is that some kind of bad joke?""She means we're demigods," Jason said. "Half god, half mortal."Annabeth looked back. "You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris,the rainbow goddess. And Pierce...is a son of the big three. A son of Zeus."Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?""Got a problem with that?" Butch said."No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho.""Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi.""Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered."I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned. "Relax Bush. Travel should be like jazz." Pierce said. "Demigods," Piper said. "You mean you think you're ... you think we're—"Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, "Left wheel's on fire!"Piper stepped back. Sure enough, the wheel was burning, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.The wind roared. Piper glanced behind them and saw dark shapes forming in the clouds, more storm spirits spiraling toward the chariot—exceptthese looked more like horses than angels.She started to say, "Why are they—""Anemoi come in different shapes," Annabeth said. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on. This isgoing to get rough. Pierce can you try to-" "Already on it..." he grumbled. He jumped off and took to the air, trying to get the storm spirits the chariot Butch flicked the reins. The pegasi put on a burst of speed, and the chariot blurred. Piper's stomach crawled into her throat. Her vision went black,and when it came back to normal, they were in a totally different place.A cold gray ocean stretched out to the left. Snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. Directly below them was a green valley, likean island of springtime, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides and water to the north. Piper saw a cluster of buildings like ancient Greek temples, a bigblue mansion, ball courts, a lake, and a climbing wall that seemed to be on fire. But before she could really process all she was seeing, their wheelscame off and the chariot dropped out of the sky.Annabeth and Butch tried to maintain control. The pegasi labored to hold the chariot in a flight pattern, but they seemed exhausted from their burst ofspeed, and bearing the chariot and the weight of five people was just too much."The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!"Piper remembered something her dad had once told her, about hitting water from up high being as bad as hitting cement. And then—BOOM.The biggest shock was the cold. She was underwater, so disoriented that she didn't know which way was up.She just had time to think: This would be a stupid way to die. Then faces appeared in the green murk—girls with long black hair and glowing yellow eyes. They smiled at her, grabbed her shoulders, and hauled her up.They tossed her, gasping and shivering, onto the shore. Nearby, Butch stood in the lake, cutting the wrecked harnesses off the pegasi. Fortunately,the horses looked okay, but they were flapping their wings and splashing water everywhere. Pierce floated down. Jason, Leo, and Annabeth were already on shore,surrounded by kids giving them blankets and asking questions. Somebody took Piper by the arms and helped her stand. Apparently kids fell into the lakea lot, because a detail of campers ran up with big bronze leaf blower–looking things and blasted Piper with hot air; and in about two seconds her clotheswere dry.There were at least twenty campers milling around—the youngest maybe nine, the oldest college age, eighteen or nineteen—and all of them hadorange T-shirts like Annabeth's and the one Pierce had. Piper looked back at the water and saw those strange girls just below the surface, their hair floating in the current. Theywaved like, toodle-oo, and disappeared into the depths. A second later the wreckage of the chariot was tossed from the lake and landed nearby with awet crunch."Annabeth!" A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!""Will, I'm sorry," Annabeth sighed. "I'll get it fixed, I promise."Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they beenclaimed already?""Claimed?" Leo asked.Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, "Any sign of Percy?""No," Annabeth admitted. "but I found Pierce. Take turns hurting him, after we get him settled." "Say what now." Pierce asked, dumbfounded. The campers muttered. Piper had no idea who this guy Percy was, or how important Pierce was here, but their disappearances seemed to be a big deal.Another girl stepped forward—tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup. Somehow she managed to make jeans and anorange T-shirt look glamorous. She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, then curled her lip at Piper as if shewere a week-old burrito that had just been pulled out of a Dumpster. Piper knew this girl's type. She'd dealt with a lot of girls like this at WildernessSchool and every other stupid school her father had sent her to. Piper knew instantly they were going to be enemies."Well," the girl said, "I hope they're worth the trouble."Leo snorted. "Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?""No kidding," Jason said. "How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have tostay?"Piper had the same questions, but a wave of anxiety washed over her. Worth the trouble. If they only knew about her dream. They had no idea..."Jason," Annabeth said, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew"—she  frowned at the glamour girl—"all demigods are worth saving. But I'lladmit, the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped.""Hey," Piper said, "we didn't ask to be brought here."Drew sniffed. "And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?" "Drew... I've only been back for 3 minutes and I already wanna kill you." Pierce growled. Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, "Piper, Pierce, stop."Piper did, Pierce did to, but he scowled at Drew. She wasn't a bit scared of Drew, but Annabeth didn't seem like somebody she wanted for an enemy."We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew. "We'll assign them each a guide, give them atour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed.""Would somebody tell me what claimed means?" Piper asked.Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. At first Piper thought she'd done something wrong. Then she realized their faceswere bathed in a strange red light, as if someone had lit a torch behind her. She turned and almost forgot how to breathe.Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image —a fiery hammer. "That," Annabeth said, "is claiming." "Congrats dude." Pierce clapped him on the back. "What'd I do?" Leo backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped. "Is my hair on fire?" He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbingand weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head."This can't be good," Butch muttered. "The curse—""Butch, shut up," Annabeth said. "Leo, you've just been claimed—""By a god," Jason interrupted. "That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?"All eyes turned to him."Jason," Annabeth said carefully, "how did you know that?""I'm not sure.""Vulcan?" Leo demanded. "I don't even LIKE Star Trek. What are you talking about?" Pierce chuckled at that, but his eyes looked...worried, stressed, emotionless, Piper couldn't tell. But it was nothing like The Wilderness School Pierce. "Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus," Annabeth said, "the god of blacksmiths and fire."The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. "The god of what? Who?"Annabeth turned to the guy with the bow. "Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine.""Sure, Annabeth.""What's Cabin Nine?" Leo asked. "And I'm not a Vulcan!""Come on, Mr. Spock, I'll explain everything." Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason. Usually Piper didn't like it when other girls checked out her boyfriend, but Annabeth didn't seem to carethat he was a good-looking guy. She studied him more like he was a complicated blueprint. Finally she said, "Hold out your arm."Piper saw what she was looking at, and her eyes widened.Jason had taken off his windbreaker after his dip in the lake, leaving his arms bare, and on the inside of his right forearm was a tattoo. How hadPiper never noticed it before? She'd looked at Jason's arms a million times. The tattoo couldn't have just appeared, but it was darkly etched, impossibleto miss: a dozen straight lines like a bar code, and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR."I've never seen marks like this," Annabeth said. "Where did you get them?"Jason shook his head. "I'm getting really tired of saying this, but I don't know."The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at Jason's tattoo. The marks seemed to bother them a lot—almost like a declaration of war."They look burned into your skin," Annabeth noticed."They were," Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching. "I mean ... I think so. I don't remember."No one said anything. It was clear the campers saw Annabeth and Pierce as the leaders. They were waiting for her verdict."He needs to go straight to Chiron," Annabeth decided. "Drew, would you—""Absolutely." Drew laced her arm through Jason's. "This way, sweetie. I'll introduce you to our director. He's ... an interesting guy." She flashed Pipera smug look and led Jason toward the big blue house on the hill.The crowd began to disperse, until only Annabeth and Piper were left."Who's Chiron?" Piper asked. "Is Jason in some kind of trouble?"Annabeth hesitated. "Good question, Piper. Come on, I'll give you a tour. We need to talk. You settle in Pierce." He nodded

                                                                                        Pierce's POV

PIERCE WAS GLAD TO BE HOME but he still didn't remember his whole past. He only remembered 6 and up...he didn't mind that though. Now that he was back all the stress and anxiety of being their perfect leader came back. He entered Cabin 1 and looked around. Thalia had a small place where she would stay when she stayed and he had his corner. He had a corkboard full of pictures. His "gift" from Beckendorf and Silena...he remembered the whole Titan war. After Luke stabbed him and everything before. Even though he had admitted to forgiving himself, and he knew their deaths weren't his fault, but he really didn't. This was his prophecy.  A Half-Blood of the eldest gods, Shall reach seventeen against all odds And protect his friends, no matter the cost The victim's soul, cursed blade shall reap A single choice shall hurt his core and make him face his past Based on his choice will let the titan rise or fall A half-blood of the eldest gods (him) shall reach seventeen against all odds (been there) and protect his friends no matter the cost (protecting percy from kronos getting his achilles heel) the victims soul (his) cursed blade shall reap (kronos' scythe) a single choice shall his core (his choice to save percy) and make him face his past (saying that he knew it wasn't his fault) based on his choice will let the titan rise or fall (kronos fell hard) He left his cabin and a line had formed, a sign reading PIERCE'S PAYMENT LINE "How many?" I asked Clarisse. "Everyone." She shrugged "Great..." I mumbled. They were nicer, they only punched and kicked, after I went out to help Annie and Piper...Gods Piper was beautiful. Jason didn't deserve her... before he could go Apollo appeared before him. "Lord Apollo?" "Hey kid. Let's make this snappy. Maybe a hai-" "No poetry," I sighed, "what's up?" "You know who's rising right..?" "Yeah... Gaea right" "Right. You must swear on the river styx not to tell your buddies until they figure it out. One of them at least" "Ok..? I swear on the river styx not to tell them." "Also you know the civil war. the demigods fought right?" "Yeah... Chiron only told me that much." "Right. Camp Half Blood didn't split so think about what your buddy Jason has been calling the GREEK gods." "By their Roman names... OH! His dad is a-" "Roman God. And you can't tell him or anyone swear on river styx." "Fine" he grumbled. "I swear on the river styx not to tell Jason or anybody." "Good. Now I gotta go before Zeus zaps me. Bye kid!" He left, and I walked back to my cabin, to confused about everything.