Defenders of the Demigods - A Percy Jackson Fanfiction, Book Two

Chapter 3

Camp Half-Blood, Lia's POV

Everyone seems so casual about this. Why would anyone be casual about this? This is a camp where people are born from Olympian gods, there's a centaur next to me, half the people are training with weapons, I'm a child of freaking Apollo apparently, what is normal about this, this is practically fiction?!

"You get used to it after a while." Chiron said, chuckling some at my surprised face. "You were speaking out loud." I covered my mouth, feeling my face turn bright red in embarrassment, looking instead to the huge array of houses we were coming to.

"Here we have the cabins. Everyone is sorted into cabins depending on who their godly parent is. I believe Allan is around here somewhere..." Chiron knocked on the door to a particularly bright and golden one before standing back, the door being thrown open a moment later.

"SAER WE TOLD YOU WE ARE NOT... Oh, hey Chiron." A kid that was maybe two or three years older than me grinned at us awkward, running a hand through his short bleached hair as he looked to me. "And you are?"

"This is your sister, Lia. I already showed her around, so I expect you to introduce her to the rest of the cabin members and prepare her for Capture the Flag." Chiron told him.

"Oh, cool! Well sis, I'm your big bro Allan, welcome to Apollo's awesome cabin!" He grabbed my hand, dragging me inside as the door closed behind us. He began pointing out things around the cabin, rambling out a description that I could barely follow. I looked around, taking in the homely feel of the cabin.

So this is why mom never told me who dad is... I smiled some, turning back to Allan.

"So is there a band or anything here?" I asked.

"Well... Not exactly, no. We do have occasional talent shows, however, and being children of Apollo, some of us know how to use instruments as weapons." He grinned at me "What instrument do you play?"

"Saxophone." I sat down on an empty-looking bed, looking around. "Why do we need to practice fighting all the time here?"

"So we won't get killed by monsters." He jumped on the bed across from me. "Fun part about being a demigod is monsters just love to come after us. Not many really survive their teens, but those that do usually move on to get an education and a family in New Rome. You see, this is the Greek camp, but there's also a Roman camp. About eight or nine years ago, apparently we got into this really big fight with them, but now everything is sorted out and we work together really well! You'll probably be able to visit sometime this summer too!"

"Greeks, Romans, monsters, all sorts of fun stuff huh... What's the big deal about Capture the Flag anyways?"

"Oh, right! So tonight we have Capture the Flag. There's two sides that go against each other, each side is an alliance made by certain cabins. Saer, the counselor of the Ares cabin, wants us to join our team, but we already have a strong alliance with Warren and the Hephaestus cabin..." He grinned shyly, giving me the idea that the alliance was more than just an alliance between cabins. "But anyways, the goal of each team is to capture the other team's flag first. There's usually plenty of fighting and such and our cabin usually has to stay up helping patients afterwards, but it's a lot of fun, just wait!"

I nodded slowly. "Sure. So when does this start?"

"After dinner, so we have..." He glanced outside, where the sun was traveling on it's slow descent to the horizon. "About a half hour. Just enough time to find you a weapon!" He quickly jumped up, grabbing my hand again and dragging me to who knows where. Seeing I had no other choice against his vice grip, I followed.

Soon enough, we ended up at some workshop looking place. He opened the door, motioning for me to head in. "Ladies first." I sighed at him before walking in, looking around. Assorted weapons were scattered around, a few oil covered people working on them.

"Hey, bout time you ended up here!" A hand landed hard on my shoulder, making me wince as I turned to see Leo. "Come to get a weapon?"

"Yeah, any suggestions?" I asked, watching as Allan sneaked off towards some boy working on some weapon.

"Well, Apollo claimed you, right? So you'll probably be best with a bow of some sort." His hand led me towards an assortment of bows and arrows.

Some day, learning how to use this will come in handy, trust me sweetheart. My mother's words resonated in my mind as I looked at the various bows. Short, compound, long... I wandered between each, running my hand along a few. Finally, I picked one up, drawing back the string and testing how it felt in my hand.

"This... Seems like a good one. Do I need to pay or something?" I turned to Leo, who looked at the bow before picking up a quiver of arrows, handing it to me.

"First one's on the house. Seeing as you don't have any drachma, it'd be pretty tricky to buy anything." He grinned. "Just make sure not to get yourself killed, 'kay?"

"She's an Apollo kid, so we'll be fine for sure!" I glanced behind me as Allan wandered over with a wide grin on his face, an arm around an oil covered boy. "Lia, Warren. Warren, Lia, my new little sis."

"Uh, hey, welcome to the Hephaestus cabin." Warren waved at me, making me chuckle.

"Hyello, nice to meet you." I responded, letting some of my accent come through. My stomach grumbled, and I frowned. "Dinner's soon, right?"

"Yeah, should be in about-" A horn went off in the distance, and I heard cheering from all around "Now. Race you there!" Allan took off.

"No fair!" I chased after him, laughing. Maybe this wasn't too bad after all?