Poseidon Is My Daddy (Book #1 of the Daughters of Olympus Series)

War Announcement

  I had to see Chiron right away. 'Chiron, we have a problem. Octavian has the sword of Julius Ceasar and I have a feeling, he's not going to need many people to wipe us out.' He just sat in his wheelchair and listened. 'That sword has magic that can wipe out 20 men in one blow. And that's the main reason we need you. You're the only one who can stop him.' 'But how Chiron? What am I supposed to do?' 'You'll know when the time comes. In the meantime, we need to prepare the camp and alert Reyna of the situation.' 'Who's Reyna?' 'The praetor of New Rome. You need to speak with her.' Chiron grabbed a drachma and recited this incantation: O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. The air shimmered and a girl with dark hair appeared with a tall, bulky dude. They were both in purple capes. Their backs were turned to me and Chiron. Chiron cleared his throat and they both whipped around revealing golden armor. 'Oh, hello Chiron.' said the girl that must have been Reyna. 'Who's your friend?' 'I'm Julie Anderson and there's a problem. I'm assuming you're familiar with the name 'Octavian'' Both praetors scoffed, 'Boy are we familiar with him.' 'He's coming to destroy the camp,' I said. 'WHAT?!' they yelled in unison. 'He has Crocea Mors and-' 'What? That's impossible,' said the boy, 'Crocea Mors is in the Via Principia. He couldn't have-' 'Frank, let her speak.' Reyna's voice cut through Frank's like a knife. I swallowed, 'He's coming to destroy us and from what I understand, we're supposed to be allies.' 'We are. Here's what, we'll gather up everyone that's not going with Octavian and we'll fight with you.' 'Excellent. He leaves in a week, you'll want to be quick.' 'We will be. Thank you.' said Reyna. She slashed her hand through the air and they were gone. And in a second, so was I.

At dinner that night, I ate what Percy probably would have picked. Which was anything that could fit onto the plate. 'Hey Julie, when you get to the white part, thats the plate.' 'Hardy har har. I'm sorry, but I haven't had an actual meal in like half a week.' Percy relented and went back to his own food. I tried not to inhale my food this time. At the campfire that night, I tried to enjoy the sing-along as much as possible. When we were finished, Chiron stomped his hoof 3 times to get everyone's attention. When everyone was quiet, Chiron called me to his side. 'Not her again.' said Alani. I'd had just about enough of her, I didn't need this, especially with what I was about to say; I calmly strolled up to her and told her off. 'Listen Pipi Longstocking, I've been putting up with your crap since 3rd grade and frankly, I'm sick of it. So be a good dog, sit, stay and listen up!' She stared at me with her mouth hanging open. I walked back to Chiron's side, 'Does anyone else have anything they'd like to say?' Nothing. I cleared my throat. 'Octavian is coming after us in a week with a magic sword that could kill us all, we need to be prepared.'

There was deathly silence, then someone from the Ares cabin pounced on me and started to choke me. I managed to get her off, but then everyone else came at me and started beating me up. Nico, Jason, Percy, Leo, Will, Annabeth and Chiron tried to fight them off, but they were overwhelmed. 'THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!' 'YOU DID THIS!' Eventually it was Leo who squirmed under everyone's feet and saved me. He grabbed my wrist and started to take me to the Big House and we would have been safe if Annabeth, Percy, Will, Nico, Jason and Chiron had waited a little longer to come after us. They came and the campers followed. Somehow we all got into the Big House and kept everyone else out. They were pounding on the door and screaming bloody murder. I sat down on a couch and the pain set in. I hated to admit it, but those guys beat me up really bad. I was pretty sure I had a black eye, a busted lip, a couple of broken ribs and bruises everywhere. Will knelt down in front of me and examined me. When he touched my side, I winced and exclaimed 'OW!' 'Sorry' he muttered before he continued. He motioned for me to lay down when he was finished, which really hurt. 'Okay, so you've got a black eye, a busted lip, 3 broken ribs and bruises everywhere.' Figures.

We all stayed in the Big House that night because we were all pretty sure the others were willing to come after us in our sleep. I slept on the couch with an ice pack on my head because Will said that more ambrosia would be too risky. I my dream that night, there were 3 black minivans passing Aunt Carla's apartment and Reyna was at the wheel of the one in the middle. And then I woke up. Dang, they're fast, I thought. I looked and saw that everyone else was awake and eating fruit. 'Hey,' said Percy right before he shoved an apple slice into his mouth. He picked up a plate of peaches and everyone came and sat closer to me. 'I see there's no blood and we're all alive, so last night must have went smoothly. Also, Reyna and everyone else should be here by midday the latest.' Percy choked on his apple slice and Nico snatched the plate of peaches. 'Reyna's coming?' he asked. 'Yeah. I was going to say something last night, but then I got beat up.' 'Why would they do that? This isn't even your fault.' said Will. 'Yeah,' said Nico, 'Octavian's just a psychopath. You should eat something Jules.' Nico handed me the peaches and sitting up to eat them really hurt because of all the bruises. When I finally finished eating the peaches, I asked, 'What time is it?' 'About 7:00 a.m, so everyone should be heading to breakfast right about now.' says Annabeth. 'So what time did you guys all get up?' I asked. '5:30' says everyone in unison. 'We have to talk to them,' said Leo. 'Yeah,' I agreed, 'Let's tell them at breakfast.'

When we all showered and changed, we went to breakfast and everyone had just finished eating. I tried to keep my head down and hide in between Percy and Nico, but someone spotted me and yelled, 'GET HER!' Just as I was about to run away from these newly terrifying kids, a wall of fire was surrounding us. Leo. Of course, he's a child of Hepheastus. When everyone had sat back down, Leo put out the fire. Chiron cleared his throat and began to speak. 'I should place you all under punishment for assaulting Julie, but I will not because of the circumstances. As you know, we are going to war and the Romans are coming to fight with us. You will all be in training every waking moment of the day. In fact, this intense training will commence today after breakfast. Do NOT go after Julie or any of these campers with weapons of any kind or you go to the harpies. You are dismissed. Oh and... train with your armor ON.' When the campers dispersed, Chiron addressed the 7 of us. 'You 7 are excused from regular training, because you will be helping Julie to master her new powers. I'll have to find Piper too and maybe Frank would help you when the Romans get here.' As soon as Chiron said that, the Roman army marched towards us. There were a lot of them not going with Octavian.

A girl with dark skin like mine gave Nico a big hug and I was considering decking her right there and then. 'I missed you so much, Hazel.' he said to her. Reyna and Frank were at the head of the group. 'Julie.' said Reyna holding out her hand for a handshake. I shook it and winced. 'Oh, wow. You're really beat up. What happened?' 'I made the announcement and everyone beat me down.' I recalled the incident with a shudder. 'That must've sucked. I'm Frank.' he shook my hand and his grip was a lot looser than Reyna's and the handshake was slower which made it a lot easier for my arm. Nico and Hazel walked over and Nico introduced her. She had startling gold eyes that I found super cool. 'Hi,' she greeted, smiling. Her smile was replace with a look of concern when she noticed the bruises. 'What happened? Are you okay?' 'Oh, definitely not,' I answered, 'I got beat up after I made the "war announcement". But at least I don't have to see them in training. We've all been excused so I can master these.' I showed everyone the emblems on my abdomen. 'Whoa.' said Frank, 'You're a rock.' 'Yes Frank, that's what we should focus on. That rock hard 6-pack that makes me jealous, not the emblems of the gods embedded in her body.' said Nico sarcastically slipping an arm around my waist. It really hurt, but I didn't really care as long as I was with Nico. 'I'll help too. You might have Roman powers too.' said Hazel. 'Yeah,' exclaimed Frank, then he remembered he was praetor and said, 'I can help you with shape shifting.' 'That would be great.' I said smiling. 'The others are training, we can start now!' 'Let's go down to the beach. Follow me.' said Percy said.