ã€ŠDual Nature - A Harry Potter/Percy Jackson crossoverã€‹


 Chapter 1

    Notes:

    This is an alternate universe that has both the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter worlds in it. I don¡¯t own either of these franchises.

    It is set to be during our modern time, not during the time periods of the original books for either one.

    This story goes through frequent rewrites. Things that you read now, might be changed in later. Sorry in advance.

    Only somewhat canon. Some things will change, while others stay the same. It¡¯ll probably snowball into other changes throughout the books.

    Please feel free to comment with grammatical or spelling errors. Also if you wish to write something for me to add to my story, feel free to do so, and I will put it in, if I like it.

    Chapter 1

    Since I can remember, I¡¯ve always been living in foster care. Life was difficult. I learned early on the adults weren¡¯t reliable, whether it was a caretaker that took me in for the money, or a kind couple that just never listened or believed in me. Sometimes, it was worse¡ªfar worse, but we don¡¯t need to go down that rabbit hole.

    I knew I was a tough child to handle. The doctors said I had conditions that needed to be handled with ¡°special education¡± and medications. I learned early on that no one was going to help with it. They were all talk and no action. It was always, ¡°the state doesn¡¯t have enough money¡±, ¡°I don¡¯t know how to help you¡±, or ¡°we just don¡¯t have that kind of time to help you out individually¡±. I understood early on that I could only rely on myself. I was shuffled to at least one foster home every year, so nothing was ever permanent either.

    So here I was, on the way to the library after the last day of school. What? I had no friends, and nothing better to do. Making friends was just too hard for someone like me. I was a foster kid, overweight, and on top of my¡­conditions¡­well, making friends at school would be like winning the lottery. I had both ADHD and dyslexia. What was the odds of that happening? Apparently, high enough that it¡¯s not considered unusual. Lots of kids have been reported to have both conditions. I find that to be comforting and strangely disturbing at the same time. Maybe it¡¯s something genetic? Or maybe it¡¯s something in the water. Who knows?

    Anyways, I was lonely, and I had struck up a tentative friendship with the local librarian. She never said it explicitly, but I could tell she was just as alone as I was. I wanted to get better at reading because it has always been a struggle for me, so I asked her to find me some good books to practice on so that the other kids wouldn¡¯t make fun of me anymore. Ever since then, she has been helping me out by choosing appropriate books, finding me some old workbooks, and answering my questions, all so I could get better. I¡¯ve been improving ever since. Even though I stumble now and again, I¡¯m not too much worse than anyone else. It was leaps and bounds better than before. I wish my other teachers and schools would have taken the time to help me, but what can you do.

    My life this year was the most permanency I have ever had. Even with the large age gap, hanging out with her was a lot better than being alone. My life was getting better, so maybe, just maybe, they would let me stay where I was. I haven¡¯t caused any major problems. I¡¯m not failing any classes. Maybe this time, things would finally go my way. Maybe this time¡ª

    ¡°Well, well, well. Look at what we have here. It¡¯s our local terrorist.¡±

    Damn. It was Brent and his cronies, the local bullies. For a short moment, I had forgotten about them. I went to a school that was kindergarten through the 12<sup>th</sup> grade, and these guys were in the 12<sup>th</sup> grade. They looked like your typical jocks, but you would be very wrong if you thought that. Saying that they were just jocks would be a disservice to all jocks out there. There are a lot of really nice jocks out there. Those guys just love the sport they play, and put all of their energy into it. They don¡¯t pick on other people just because they can. I admire that kind of person. They have their own goal and work hard towards it. No, these guys were sadistic, and in my personal opinion, deserved to go to hell.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a terrorist. I¡¯m not even Muslim. Don¡¯t you guys have anything better to do?¡± It was frustrating to deal with this crap every day.

    ¡°I¡¯m never too busy to put the freak in his place,¡± Brent grinned maliciously. ¡°Come on guys, you know the drill.¡±

    For some reason, they disliked me a lot. I don¡¯t even know what it was. Sometimes I wonder, do bullies really even need a reason? I guess they just like the power trip that they get from doing it.

    They surrounded me before I had the chance to run, and even if I did run, what was the likelihood of actually escaping? None. I wasn¡¯t even close to being fit enough to take on the local jocks. One of them pushed me down, and the others all started punching and kicking on me. I was literally their punching bag.

    People around us noticed what was happening, but they did nothing but look on uneasily and then walk away. Before, I originally used to think that a passerby would help me out by breaking it up or calling the cops, but it never happened.

    My current foster family just didn¡¯t care as long as I was alive and not causing them problems. I wished they would have done something, but they didn¡¯t really care about me beyond food, shelter, and not causing any problems.

    The school chose not to intervene as well. Who were they going to choose, the high achieving jocks that were up for sports scholarships and made the school look good, or the overweight, ADHD, Dyslexic child that¡¯s barely passing school? The school swept it under the rug without batting an eye. Hell, the school even tried to charge me with property damage because the bullies tore apart some of the borrowed school books. I put my foot down there, stating that I didn¡¯t mind the police getting involved. Those guys would definitely lose any chances of sports scholarships with pending investigations of assault and property damage. I even casually mentioned that it would probably even show up on the local news. The school backed off right away to keep their reputation clean and even replaced everything to keep me quiet. After that, those bullies never destroyed any of my stuff again. I bet someone in the administration talked to them.

    Of course, the attacks started escalating after that event. In the beginning, they would just push me around. It started getting worse once they noticed that no one would stand up for me. I was just wondering how long it would take before something more serious occurred and the police would finally be forced to intervene.

    ¡°Everyone back off! I want to show this fucker what happens when you mess with us!¡± Brent had this crazy look in his eye.

    Everyone backed off. Brent grinned viciously.

    ¡°You know, it¡¯s interesting how nobody even tries to stop us. It seems people feel like we¡¯re doing a public service. Everyone wants you to go back to your own country. Go blow up stuff there. But you know, you got us in a lot of trouble with the school when you threatened to call the cops on us. I¡¯m the mother-fuckin top dog of this school, and no one tells me what to do. I¡¯m going to show everyone what happens to a terrorist, when they come into my town.¡±

    He stomped hard on my arm. There was a loud crack and I cried out in pain. He broke my arm.

    ¡°There¡¯s more where that came from! What? You think someone is going to come and help you? Look around! Not a single person around is doing anything! No one cares about you! I can do whatever I want to you, and nothing is going to happen to any of us!¡±

    ¡°MY ARM!¡± I was crying at this point. ¡°YOU! You¡¯re going to be in so much trouble! How the hell do you think you¡¯re going to get away with this?¡± I spat out as I gritted through the pain lancing through my arm.

    ¡°I bet you didn¡¯t know my dad¡¯s a cop!¡± He grinned like crazy when he saw that I was shocked. ¡°Don¡¯t you know? Couple other kids here also have parents that are cops. Who are they going to believe, the son of a cop, or a troubled foster kid?¡±

    Shit. He was right. An ¡°investigation¡± would occur, but my history would make it so any case against them would be dismissed. When I younger, random things would just happen sometimes around me. There was one time when a microphone exploded when I didn¡¯t want to go up on stage to recite a poem in the 2<sup>nd</sup> grade. There was another time that someone made fun of my hair, and they came bald to school the next day. There were other events like that, but no one every believed me, and somehow, in my file, I was listed as being a liar, even though there was no proof of any wrongdoing.

    ¡°I bet you feel so proud of yourself.¡± Brent just shrugged and grinned. ¡°I bet you think you¡¯re so awesome. I bet you think it¡¯s so cool to beat on a 10 year old with ten of your buddies and break his arm. Wow, you all are so cool¡­¡± I mocked them. The rest of them seemed to show a little bit of shame, but Brent¡¯s face contorted in anger.

    ¡°SHUT THE FUCK UP!¡± He stomped on one of my legs and another long crack was heard. Obviously, I cried out in pain again.

    Simultaneously, nobody noticed that the grass was growing taller all around us.

    ¡°You think I give a shit that your 10 years old and I¡¯m 18? I don¡¯t give a crap! I¡¯m going to break you, you little terrorist bitch!¡±

    One of the guys decided that he had enough. ¡°Brent, let¡¯s stop now and get the hell out of here. It looks like those people are calling the cops! I think some of them are videoing us!¡±

    It looks like getting your arm and leg broken does meet the requirements for bystanders to call the cops. Go figure.

    ¡°Fuck! This isn¡¯t over freak!¡± God, I can¡¯t believe Brent said something so clich¨¦.

    I just laughed at him. ¡°Video evidence. Your dad won¡¯t be able to save you from that, will he?¡±

    All of a sudden, he started grinning like a maniac again. ¡°Maybe, I should just finish the job then.¡±

    ¡°What are you¡ª¡±

    I didn¡¯t even get to finish my sentence before he kicked me in the head. Pain just exploded everywhere and I started seeing stars. When my vision cleared up half a minute later, I saw the rest of his friends trying to hold him back.

    ¡°How¡¯d you like that you little shit!¡± He screamed at me.

    At this point, I was finally scared for my life. Then it got worse.

    I heard cackling in the background and what I turned to was something completely insane. There was a pair of these¡­creatures. They were small, black and hairy, with burning red eyes, with donkeys'' ears, monkeys'' arms, tongues that hang out and had a long black tail. The only way I could describe them was as ugly little black devil.

    ¡°I thought I smelled the scent of a half blood. It¡¯s really weak. Looks like he just manifested the scent too. Such a fatty one too! It¡¯s our lucky day boys! Looks like we¡¯re gon¡¯ta have a feast tonight!¡±

    ¡°What the fuck is that thing?¡± Brent stared at it.

    I was still in shock. What the heck? I don¡¯t even have any words. What is that thing? It can talk? That thing isn¡¯t human! WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????

    ¡°Hey, ugly! Yeah, I¡¯m talkin¡¯ to you!¡± Brent was taunting it. ¡°What the fuck are you??¡±

    The creature lifted an oversized axe behind them and said, ¡°I¡¯m hungry. You all look delicious. Thanks for being the meal.¡± It gave him a large, sharp toothy smile and started running towards us with a few others.

    ¡°Oh shit, let¡¯s get out of here guys!¡± Brent and his friends ditched me here and ran away. I mean, I didn¡¯t expect them to help me or anything, but still.

    Turns out, the rest of the crowd ran away too leaving me behind. I was still panicking because I had a broken arm and leg, and I wasn¡¯t able to run or even remotely able to defend myself. It wasn¡¯t until they were swinging their axes that I finally snapped out of it. I was able to roll out of the way in the nick of time, but it caused lancing pain through my arm, leg, and head.

    ¡°Hold still! Dinner isn¡¯t supposed ta fight back!¡± Yeah, that¡¯s going to happen¡­

    ¡°How about you give me that axe, and hold still? I think that¡¯s a much better arrangement. Yeah. We should definitely do that. HEY, WHAT¡¯S THAT?¡± I pointed behind them, and they fell for it hook, line, and sinker! Wow, I honestly did not expect that to work.

    ¡°What¡¯s back there? I don¡¯t see anything¡­¡± He turned back at me crawling away. ¡°Wait a second¡­you tricked us! KILL HIM!¡±

    AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Crazy murdering creature trying to eat me!!!!! Someone save me!!!

    That ugly demon caught up to me easily and swung his axe. At that moment, I had accepted death and made peace with it. I know you hear people say that their life flashes before their eyes before dying, but that didn¡¯t happen to me. I didn¡¯t see anything. I only felt regret. The only thing I regretted was not knowing my parents. I admit, I guess I also regretted not finding a way to ruin Brent¡¯s life for putting me in this predicament. The axe was were almost upon me when all of a sudden there was a jarring sound of the axe being block by another blade.

    ¡°Looks like you¡¯re in a bit of a pickle, kid! How about I give you a hand?¡±

    All of a sudden, a short guy carrying a huge sword came out of nowhere and cleaved one of the two monsters in half with one swing. I was just left there gaping at the scene. He cut it in half. Who does that? Even weirder, the monster just turned into dust afterwards. It was just so unexpected for something so dangerous to turn into dust.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°How dare you disturb us while we are in middle of a meal?! Leave before I feast upon your soul as well!¡± I could tell the monster was bluffing and was scared out of his mind. Whoever this dude was, it was someone that monster couldn¡¯t afford to mess with.

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do that. The kid is one of my allies. Return from whence you came!¡±

    ¡°Damnit! If I go down, you¡¯re coming with me!¡±

    ¡°Return to dust!¡± Faster than you could blink, the chopped that monster in half.

    ¡°Dammit! I¡¯ll remember this! My name is Kenny and I will get my revenge! Remember it, because I¡¯ll be the one to kill you in the future!¡± He exploded into dust, and disappeared. Kenny the demon? Pick a better name! You¡¯re ruining your image as a bloodthirsty monster!

    With casual waves of his sword, and he cut the rest of those things in half. All of the monsters he killed just exploded into dust. Shit, I¡¯m not next, am I? No, he said I was an ally. I¡¯ve never met him before though¡­why did he lie to that thing? This dude is suspicious!

    ¡°Hey kid! Are you hurt?¡±

    I rolled my eyes at him, while cradling my arm. ¡°What do you think?¡±

    He started rummaging through his pack. ¡°Hold on, I have just the thing to help with your injuries.¡±

    I gave him my ¡°you are so stupid¡± look. ¡°I think my arm and leg are broken. And my head hurts a lot too! I don¡¯t think a Band-Aid is going to cut it. Call 911!¡±

    He gave me a funny look. ¡°You should know that people like us can¡¯t use phones. Never mind, I should have some ambrosia and nectar here somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Ambro-what? What¡¯s going on? What the hell were those things?¡± Things are so weird today. Maybe I should go to home and go to sleep, and pretend that nothing happened. Yes, that¡¯s a good idea. Let¡¯s just pretend that none of this happened. This is all some messed up dream that I won¡¯t even remember.

    He ignored me. ¡°Ah-ha! Here it is! I found it! I knew I had it! Here, take a bite of this. It should make you feel a little better.¡± He handed me some cube shaped food. Yeah, this was started to sound more like one of those stories about taking candy from strangers¡­

    ¡°No thank you. I think it would be better if you called the cops for me. Or left. You leaving is good too.¡± I was starting to breathe funny and my chest was starting to hurt a lot too. I think I was hurt a lot more than I thought.

    ¡°Dammit, you¡¯re getting worse! There¡¯s no time to explain!¡± He took the cube from me and shoved it down my mouth. I was going to resist, but I was too hurt and weak.

    I tasted like, I can¡¯t even describe it to you properly. It tastes like the most delicious milk chocolate that you¡¯ve ever tried in your entire life times a thousand. I could feel it running down my body to the places it hurt a lot and making them feel better. I wonder what kind of drugs he gave me.

    ¡°Dammit, it wasn¡¯t enough.¡± He tsked. ¡°Those monsters did a number on you.¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t those monsters. It was a bunch of bullies from school.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± He was shocked. ¡°That¡¯s insane! Once we¡¯re done here, I¡¯m going to get the authorities involved with this.¡±

    ¡°Good luck with that. I doubt the authorities would do anything without proof. Without the videos people were taking around us, we don¡¯t really have anything. Forget that, what kind of drugs did you give me, you creep!¡±

    ¡°How don¡¯t you know what Ambrosia is? Never mind about that. I¡¯m going to give you some medicine to drink. It¡¯ll make you feel better, but it¡¯ll knock you out.¡±

    ¡°What? No way! Stay away from me your pedophile!¡± It probably not my smartest move, insulting the man that just took down all the monsters that almost killed me, but well, foster care drills fears into you. It never happened to me, but I knew a girl, and it broke her.

    ¡°Look kid, if I was going to do something to you, do you think you could really stop me? We¡¯re here together alone since I defeated those monsters. You¡¯re injured, weak and defenseless. If I wanted to do something, I¡¯d just do it.¡±

    He had a point. I resigned myself to do as he said. ¡°Alright, give it to me.¡±

    ¡°What I gave you before was Ambrosia. Taken in small amounts, it can help heal your body, but in larger doses, it can kill you. I can¡¯t give you any more of that. I¡¯m going to feed you some nectar which should help a lot with your injuries.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how drinking some of this nectar will help at all with broken bones, but I¡¯ll drink it if you really want me to.¡± I couldn¡¯t help giving him another sarcastic remark before taking a sip of the nectar.

    It was another explosion of deliciousness! This time is was like drinking the most delicious mango lassi in the world. Mango lassi is an Indian drink I got to try once when I was 4 or 5 years old when one of my neighbors at that time had a birthday party at their home and my foster family was invited. It was amazing. I felt like I was drinking a version that was a thousand time better than that one.

    I could feel that the nectar was stronger and I felt the energy pulsing towards all of the injured areas and making it feel better. On the other hand, I was feeling uncomfortable and my body was starting to heat up.

    ¡°Dammit, you¡¯re starting to get feverish. Listen to me! Just focus on getting better and staying together!¡±

    I was starting to get sleepy, and fighting it wasn¡¯t working. ¡°Sorry¡­I don¡¯t think I can stay awake enough for this¡­¡±

    The guy was shouting at me, but I knocked out like a light.

    I woke up sweating and screaming. I had a nightmare where I was rejected by everyone. My parents were telling me that they could never love a problem child like me. Brent and his crew were hurting me over and over again, telling me that even my parents were okay with breaking me. My foster family and school just watched on as I was being broken over and over again. It was a very intense dream.

    ¡°Feeling better?¡±

    I finally noticed the guy that saved me in front of me. I examined myself, and found that I wasn¡¯t feeling any pain. I tried standing up and I could! My arm and leg weren¡¯t broken anymore. They seemed to be as good as new! My head didn¡¯t hurt as much either!

    ¡°No way! You fixed everything! That¡¯s so cool!¡±

    He looked satisfied. ¡°It was touch and go there for a while. You almost didn¡¯t make it. Nectar is some dangerous stuff.¡±

    ¡°Dangerous? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°If you drink too much, it can cause a little bit of¡­spontaneous combustion.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s spontaneous combustion? Is it like diarrhea?¡±

    ¡°It when you explode.¡± I feel like he took intense pleasure in saying that.

    ¡°WHAT? That chocolatey stuff could have killed me? No way!¡± Don¡¯t talk bad about the delicious!

    ¡°You know how you were feeling really hot before you passed out?¡± I nodded. ¡°That was the power of nectar building up. If you had any more, instead of fixing you, you would have blown up into pieces so small, no one would ever have found you.¡±

    I could feel sweat started to drip down my back. ¡°You could have killed me?¡±

    He looked me straight in the eye. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°You should have just taken me to the hospital!¡± I could have died!

    ¡°You never would have survived a trip to the hospital.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about? That doesn¡¯t make any sense! It was a few broken bones! I¡¯ve seen people handle worse!¡± One of my foster dads was put into a body cast from all the broken bones he got from defaulting to his bookie.

    The man sighed at me. ¡°Look kid, you¡¯re not in Kansas anymore. Everything you know means nothing in this world.¡± He got this serious look on his face like he was contemplating something.

    I looked around me. We seemed to be in a forest of some kind. ¡°Where are we? Are you kidnapping me?¡±

    He rolled his eyes. ¡°Sure kid, whatever floats your boat. We¡¯re in Central Park by some trees a few miles away from where we were. We¡¯ll be safe here temporarily.¡±

    I needed answers and the best way to start was always to introduce yourself. It shows respect and people respond in kind. ¡°My name is Krishna Khanna. Thank you for saving my safe and fixing me up.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes. Where are my manners? The name¡¯s Quinn Gallagher O¡¯Riley, at your service! Nice to meet you and your very welcome. You¡¯re really lucky you had me around. You had trouble with a kallikantzaros, which is pretty low on the list of baddies out there.¡±

    ¡°Kallikantzaros? Is that the thing that was chasing me?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right! You can think of it as a goblin or like a small minor devil. They like to eat people like you. By the sound of it, you¡¯re recently manifested, meaning you¡¯ve never been to the camp, nor have you ever gotten any kind of survival training from anyone.¡±

    ¡°Awakening? Survival training? What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Hasn¡¯t your parent told you anything? I suppose they might not have believed. Many times, the parent chooses not to believe. We always know where that leads¡­I guess it¡¯s hard for normal humans to grasp these things¡­¡±

    ¡°I never had parents, so they haven¡¯t ever had the chance to tell me anything. Tell me what? Is there something I should know?¡±

    ¡°Ohhhh. You don¡¯t know. Oh wow, it¡¯s been a really long time since I¡¯ve done this. Not since I¡¯ve become a Searcher¡­damn. There isn¡¯t any easy way to say this, so I¡¯ll just rip off the Band-Aid. You, my little friend, are a demigod.¡±

    ¡°A what? A demigod? You mean half-man, half god?¡±

    ¡°That is correct kid. You have the blood of a god flowing through you.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    We stare at each other for a short while. Clearly this person has some mental issues.

    ¡°Uh huh¡­Yeah¡­sure, I totally believe you. Of course I am. So what, am I like Jesus? Can I walk on water? Or turn it into wine? I am the great son of God, and I shall smite thee if you disobey me!¡± I snickered. ¡°Dude, I think you need to go to a hospital and have your head checked out.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so quick to dismiss what I speak of. You don¡¯t have any parents around to deny what I¡¯m saying, so you best listen, as it has to do with your survival. Let me ask you a few questions. Do you find yourself seeing things that aren¡¯t there? You¡¯ve never seen anything else before that was unusual?¡±

    I hesitated to give a response. I had in fact seen things before. When I was little I saw ghosts. I would point them out, and everyone would just shake their heads at me and tell each other that I was just imagining things. I kept insisting that there was something there and shortly, I was moved to a different, less tolerant family. That was the last time I bought up the ghosts. Another time, I could have sworn I saw a tall guy with only one eye in the center of its head. I read a story about it, and it turns out it was called a cyclops. After the episodes with the ghosts, I had learn not to bring up seeing anything unusual ever again. I¡¯ve always seen random things like that, but I choose to ignore and forget them after a while. I was already an outcast and a troublemaker. Why would I make it worse on myself? It was easier to believe that none of it was real, and that I might be crazy.

    ¡°I can see it in your eyes. I know you¡¯ve seen things that you can¡¯t explain, and then ignored them, because what else could you do? Another piece of proof is the ambrosia and nectar.¡±

    ¡°What about them?¡± I want more of the delicious¡­

    ¡°If you were a normal human, you¡¯d never be able to consume them. Even the tiniest drop would make a normal person explode. Only demigods can have a little, gods withstanding of course.¡±

    ¡°What? That doesn¡¯t prove anything. You could point at anything and say normal people can¡¯t eat that but I can, because ¡°I¡¯m a Demigod¡±, and I wouldn¡¯t know if your lying.¡±

    ¡°Fine, here¡¯s another question for you. Have you ever had trouble reading or writing? Or problems concentrating on the tasks at hand?¡±

    ¡°Well, yeah I¡¯ve always had problems reading and writing. It¡¯s because I have dyslexia and ADHD. If anything, that should disqualify me from being a demigod in the first place. Demigods should probably be superior to normal humans. A son of god that finds reading and writing hard, isn¡¯t that like a bad joke? Shouldn¡¯t I have super powers or something?¡± I looked at him suspiciously.

    Has this guy been watching me? How long has this been going on for? I thought he was a good guy for saving me from those creatures, but maybe he¡¯s also a stalker! The facts that I have dyslexia and ADHD are known by the state. Who knows if he was able to get my records somehow? Maybe he found out from the school, or the librarian.

    ¡°It¡¯s always the same thing with you kids. No, I have not been watching you or following you around. Not only do I have better things to do with my life, I have my own job. The reason I know that is because all demigods have the exact same problems! What you consider a lack of an attention span is actually your battle instinct. It¡¯s being hyper aware¡ªyou react to all the changes in your environment in case of attacks. It¡¯s what keeps you demigods alive. As for your reading and writing problems, here, try reading this.¡±

    He passed me a book, and the words were definitely not English. I can tell that much even with my dyslexia. Dyslexics can tell the difference between languages, in case you people thought we were really dumb.

    ¡°I can¡¯t read this. It¡¯s not English.¡± I tried passing him back the book, but he refused.

    ¡°Try again. No need to rush.¡±

    I looked at the book again and just stared at it. There¡¯s no way I can read this. That would be crazy. This guy is out of his mind¡ª

    All of a sudden, the words started shifting, and I could read the title.

    ¡°Survival Lore for the Aspiring Traveler¡­how can I read this book?¡± It¡¯s official. I¡¯m nuts. I think now the time to just walk away, and pretend that none of this is real. I want to, but I know I can¡¯t do that. He might know who I am¡ªwhere I come from. This guy is the closest I¡¯ve ever been to getting some answers. I can¡¯t just walk away. This might be my only chance. Maybe¡­just maybe, he might be able to point me in the direction of my birth parents¡­

    ¡°Demigods like yourself are hard wired to read in Greek. That¡¯s probably the most effective way to prove whether you¡¯re a demigod in the field. It doesn¡¯t get more obvious, since you¡¯ve probably never studied ancient Greek before. So do you believe me now kid?¡±

    ¡°How do I know it isn¡¯t some sort of trick?¡±

    ¡°Why would I trick you? What would I gain?¡± He was pretty offended, but I have to make sure.

    ¡°What if you¡¯re some kind of deranged lunatic? I don¡¯t know!¡± If there¡¯s one thing I¡¯ve learned, it¡¯s that there is no limit to how weird or crazy people can be.

    ¡°Stop being annoying. Deep down, you know that everything I¡¯ve said is the truth and makes some sort of weird sense. Stop fighting me, because we have more important things to talk about.¡±

    ¡°More important? What can be more important the talking about the fact that I¡¯m half god? What could possibly be so pressing that we can¡¯t talk about this more?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re demigod powers are beginning to manifest, which means you¡¯re releasing a scent that all monsters will hone in on.¡±

    ¡°But you just destroyed the monsters!¡± This is giving me a really bad feeling¡­

    ¡°Yes, I did, but those were just some weak monsters that stumbled upon you! You scent will start attracting every monster in the vicinity! That¡¯s why I couldn¡¯t take you to the hospital. You never would have made it there, unless you were lucky. Even if you were lucky enough to make it there, you never would have made it out.¡±

    I imagined more of those monsters and I started shaking in fear. ¡°No way¡­¡± I whispered. ¡°There can¡¯t be that many monster in the area, can there?¡±

    ¡°Kid, you have no idea how many monsters live in this world hidden by the Mist¡­ at this rate, you¡¯re going to die so listen up if you want to live!¡± This is sounding more and more worse the longer I listen. ¡°There is only one place that¡¯s safe for demigods like you! That¡¯s Camp Half-Blood! You have a choice ahead of you. Either you stay here and take your chances on your own against the hordes of monsters, or you come with me right now to Camp Half-Blood.¡±

    ¡°But¡­I can¡¯t just leave! What about my life here? Won¡¯t people be looking for me? Won¡¯t I cause problems by leaving?¡±

    ¡°The camp will probably take care of the details, but seriously, let¡¯s be honest, do you really have anything to lose? Your aura gives off a feeling that you¡¯re a loner. I bet you don¡¯t have anyone to leave behind.¡± I didn¡¯t have anyone, but he didn¡¯t have to point it out. ¡°The question that you have to answer is this: Is your life here more important than your life itself? You need to give me an answer fast. Time is of the essence.¡±

    Damn! I need more time! How do I know anything is true? Damn it! If everything he says is the truth, then I don¡¯t really have a choice, do I? If I don¡¯t want to die, I have to go. I guess I can trust him. If he wanted me dead, he could have just let me die. As the guy that saved me, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. What¡¯s the point of going home to a place that¡¯s just going to ostracize and hurt me anyways? In my heart, I knew I wanted to be with other people like me. Where I wasn¡¯t crazy for seeing things, because they actually did exist. I wanted to be some place I might actually be able to fit in.

    Fine. I¡¯ll just take a leap of faith here. I¡¯m feeling really tired all of a sudden and better to process in safety than in danger. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go. Where¡¯s this camp?¡±

    ¡°Lucky for you, it¡¯s only two hours away on Montauk, on the end of Long Island. Good thing that you live in New York City. If you lived somewhere else, it would have been a pain to get you here. I remember doing some cross country travelling with demigods, back when I was on the circuit. Those were some exciting days¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s on Long Island? Wouldn¡¯t everyone know where it is then?¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s hidden by the gods. No mortal would be able to find it or set their foot upon that land.¡±

    ¡°Cool¡­¡± There a moment of silence, and then I suddenly remembered to say something important. ¡°Thanks Mr. O¡¯Riley. For everything.¡± What? I¡¯m not a savage! I know how to be grateful! Jeez.

    ¡°Call me Quinn. And you¡¯re welcome. Let¡¯s go!¡±

 Chapter 2

    Chapter 2

    To go to Long Island, we had to take the subway from the city. We didn¡¯t have a lot of money to be able to rent our own car or anything. At this hour, the subway was considered a safe place. Quinn said we wouldn¡¯t be attacked on the subway at the time because it was rush hour, and there would be too many witnesses. We had to walk from the station though. We couldn¡¯t afford a taxi between the two of us. Quinn didn¡¯t have any money because he had been searching a long time for Pan, and I was 11 years old. What? Did you think I¡¯d have lots of money on me as a kid in foster care? If you did, maybe you¡¯re not as smart as you think you are.

    The walk to the camp was way longer than two hours. ¡°It¡¯ll only take two hours,¡± he said. ¡°The walk over will be fun,¡± he said. Maybe an adventurer of the wilds like Quinn was cool walking everywhere, but I was a city boy. I really don¡¯t like walking through¡­*shudders*¡­nature¡­

    ¡°Why were you here anyways?¡± It was a little suspicious that this guy just happened to be in the area to save me.

    ¡°I was on my search for our great and merciful Pan! I thought I got a whiff of a strong nature scent where you were at, but it ended up being a dead end. It was probably the Kallikantzaros.¡±

    ¡°Those things smell like nature?¡± I was pretty skeptical that something that ugly could smell like a god.

    ¡°It¡¯s not them that smells like nature, but rather the World Tree. Every year they try to chop it down, only for them to get distracted, and the tree ends of up healing. Then they start all over. The powerful nature scent came from the World Tree. Misled again.¡± Quinn sighed.

    ¡°Damn, that sucks. For you, I mean. For me, it was amazingly convenient. Anyways, who is Pan?¡±

    ¡°Who is Pan? WHO IS PAN??? How could you not know who Pan is??¡± I thought he was really offended before, but I guess I was wrong. Before, it was like he was mildly miffed at my accusations, but this time, he was looking at me like I had insulted his manhood, family, friends, and beliefs all in one breath. He started ranting incomprehensible words, which could probably be summed up as ¡°that stupid kid¡±.

    He eventually calmed down. ¡°Well¡­never mind¡­most humans have forgotten who Pan is. He¡¯s only the greatest guy ever! Pan is the god of the wild. He used to protect all of us, but one day, he just disappeared. He shouted out some emo crap like ¡°The Great Pan is dead!¡± and then ran away somewhere. I plan on finding him, and giving him a good thrashing. Acting like a little emo bitch¡­¡± Woah, you¡¯re going to beat up a god? Yeah right, like that would happen. Anyways, I feel like your personality changed when you started talking about Pan¡­

    ¡°Humans have been recklessly destroying nature for their own benefit and profit, and thus have forgotten the mighty Pan quickly over the years. But we satyrs have always remembered him, and we will continue our search until he found! Only that stupid Pansy can rally us all forth so we can protect nature!¡± Wait, do you respect him or not? Choose one damn it! Wait a second, did l hear that correctly?

    ¡°I hope you guys find him, but I thought I heard something weird. Did you just say Satyr? It¡¯s like you¡¯re implying that you aren¡¯t human¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not human. Haven¡¯t you noticed yet?¡± Now he was looking at me weirdly, like I was being purposefully stupid.

    That¡¯s when I truly took in his appearance for the first time. At that moment, I felt like a small part of my world just shifted, and I saw clearly for the first time. Quinn only had the upper body of a man. I didn¡¯t notice before, but there was a huge amount of hair sticking out from the bottom of his pants, and, were those horse feet? His face was somewhat normal, but he had a pair of tiny horns sticking out of his hair. I wouldn¡¯t have ever noticed either. His ears pointed too, more than you would expect from a normal person for sure. I guess I had been more focused on the sword, and I was probably distracted by the imminent picture of doom. Jeez, I thought I was better than that.

    ¡°Um¡­you have horse feet. That¡¯s different.¡± That response sounded lame even to myself.

    ¡°Technically, its Goat feet,¡± He said dryly. ¡°Satyrs appear to be a mix between humans and goats. The term for my ¡°feet¡± are hooves. I do have great hooves, if I say so myself.¡±

    ¡°Uh huh¡­sure.¡± My mind just blanked from the shock.

    ¡°Normally, Satyrs wear some fake feet and hats as keepers, but I¡¯m a searcher now, so I don¡¯t generally carry those around anymore because I never need to go to civilization to search for Pan. I used the mist to obscure my body. The Mist hides our features and you¡¯re mind fills in the gaps with whatever you want to believe. That¡¯s why you didn¡¯t notice before. Your demigod powers are kicking in though, and now you can see through my disguise. I guess you really didn¡¯t want to believe in the existence of another world hidden in the mortal world. That¡¯s why you were actively ignoring it until I pointed it out. The mind and Mist is a fearsome thing indeed¡­¡±

    ¡°Uh huh...¡± I guess that makes sense, but the change that just happened and my brain hurts now.

    ¡°Normally, satyrs work as keepers to locate and escort demigods back to the camp. It¡¯s unlikely that a demigod would ever find it easily on their own the first time, and the borders of the camp tend to be crawling with monsters because they can smell the demigods inside. They lay in wait for the chance to eat up a demigod that goes too stray from the borders.¡±

    ¡°Uh huh¡­¡± It¡¯s gotten to the point where I don¡¯t even know how to respond to the things he says. I need time to process. ¡°So are you guys like that Goblin thing?¡±

    ¡°NO! Satyrs are nothing like them! We are nature spirits, and do not promote destruction. Those things are monsters from Tartarus. They will attempt to kill any demigod that they see or smell. Run or kill on sight.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, right. Got it.¡± Too many things to know and remember.

    We made it to the camp with a fairly low number of incidents. Mr. O¡¯Riley was a veteran, so we were able to sneak across the island without alerting monsters. I don¡¯t know how he did it, but somehow, he was able to determine their position without seeing them and take us on a detour to avoid them. When I asked him about it, he told me it was a combination of nature magic along, experiences, with his other senses. I decided to pretend like I knew what he was talking about.

    We descended into a valley where we could see a farmhouse in the distance. We walked on over. There was only one way to describe this place. It was beautiful. Even though I prefer the city, it had a peaceful feel, like all your worries would be washed away, just living here. It seemed¡­happy. Strange, I haven¡¯t ever been anywhere that actually exuded a safe and happy feeling. I¡¯m not sure I really even belong in a place like this.

    ¡°Let me go meet up with Chiron. He needs to register you as a new camper.¡± Quinn walked off and left me alone. ¡°Wait here.¡±

    I only waited a few minutes, before Quinn came back with a guy in a wheelchair.

    ¡°You know, you didn¡¯t have to bring him over here. I could have walked over there. Making someone in a wheelchair come all the way out here is pretty rude you know.¡± Some people just don¡¯t have any common curtesy.

    ¡°Ha-ha! Did you hear that Chiron! He thinks your disabled! Ain¡¯t that the joke of the century?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. This is just a disguise I¡¯ll be using to infiltrate another area with a demigod. Hold on one minute.¡±

    His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn¡¯t move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. He kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man. It was the front of an animal¡ªa horse to be exact, with large muscles greatly defined under coarse white fur. It turned out that the wheelchair wasn¡¯t exactly a wheelchair. It was more like an enormous box on wheels. Somehow it held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof, and then the rest of him followed.

    ¡°Holy crap! You¡¯re a¡­what¡¯s it called¡­I know this¡­centaur! You¡¯re a centaur!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Chiron, he has a tendency to point out the obvious.¡±

    ¡°Screw you Quinn! This is unreal!¡±

    ¡°Hello, my name is Chiron. I am the activities director at Camp Half-Blood. It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± He had a kind smile, and I instinctively felt like he was someone I could trust.

    ¡°Hi, my name is Krishna Khanna. Nice to meet you too.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you have questions.¡± Yes, Chiron. Of course I have questions!

    ¡°You have no idea,¡± I said laughing. ¡°But I don¡¯t think we have the time to go through all of them, so I¡¯ll ask you the most important one. It¡¯s probably the only one that really matters.¡±

    ¡°Go ahead¡±, he said kindly.

    ¡°Do you know who my parents are?¡±

    There was silence after I asked that question, and some pity in his eyes. In that instant, I knew that he didn¡¯t have a clue.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Krishna. I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t have the answer to that. However, what you said concerns me. Do you not know your mortal parent?¡±

    ¡°No, I have no idea. According to my social worker, I was found abandoned as a newborn baby. Whoever my parents were, neither of my parents wanted me enough to keep me or find me.¡± Yes, I am bitter about that. So sue me. You would be too. ¡°The only reason why they even knew my name was because of this bracelet I wear that had my name on it. At least, they all assumed that it was my name. It was suspected that it might be my father¡¯s name, but no one with that name was found in the area.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry to hear that Krishna. How about you give me a general idea of what your life has been like.¡±

    ¡°Nothing much to tell really. I was raised in foster care all my life. No one ever wanted to adopt a kid with both ADHD and dyslexia like me. The doctors had also diagnosed me with possibly having Schizo-something because I would talk about seeing things that weren¡¯t there.¡±

    Chiron looked startled. ¡°Schizophrenia? How old were you when that happened?¡±

    ¡°I dunno, like four or five years old? The social workers recorded it in my file, and since then I was unadoptable.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s surprising to hear young man. I¡¯ll have to get someone to look into your files if that is true. It possible that you might have started manifesting your powers very early on in life. Your scent was probably masked by moving place to place. Did you ever do anything that hinted at the fact that you might have demigod abilities?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, I don¡¯t know. Apparently, weird things would happen around me when I was little. I don¡¯t really remember because I was too young, but apparently, there have been strange incidents where things would randomly change colors, or objects would float. As a little kid, I figured out eventually that these things that happened freaked out all of the adults. Those people would look at me like I was a monster, but they would forget everything shortly like it never happened. It was weird.¡±

    Chiron hesitated but then spoke. ¡°I haven¡¯t really seen any demigod that has been able to do all the things you say, especially at such a young age. I¡¯m getting more and more curious. Perhaps the Mist was protecting you by making people forget. Perhaps, you were being protected by being shuffled through homes¡­¡±

    I snorted. ¡°I doubt that. How could leaving me in the foster system be good for me? Let¡¯s pretend that maybe it was done to protect me. That was a really dumb way to protect me. Instead of ditching me there, why not leave me at this camp? I definitely would have been safer here if I could have been raised here.¡±

    ¡°That¡­I don¡¯t know.¡± Chiron was crestfallen at the knowledge that I had given him.

    ¡°At least you¡¯re admitting it Chiron. In your heart, you probably already understand. Neither of my parents really cared about me. Not even enough to put me somewhere safe! I was left on a street corner!¡±

    No one had anything to say to me. There was nothing to say. I was abandoned as a newborn baby. No one ever could change what has already happened in my life.

    ¡°I learned to take care of myself and taught myself how to read, even when people told me I wouldn¡¯t be able to do it. I learned to keep myself out of trouble the best I could. Weird things would still happen around me, but I would play dumb, and people would quickly forget that it happened. Even with that weirdness in my life, today was just a completely new level of weird. Gods and monsters? It¡¯s like I¡¯ve entered a whole new world that¡¯s completely different from my own.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s probably best if you think of it that way. This world you¡¯ve entered has some of the beautiful and most terrible existences that you will ever hear about. They aren¡¯t mutually exclusive either, as you will find out.¡± Chiron said to me softly.

    I was silent for a moment. ¡°Do you know anyone who might be able to tell me? Even if you don¡¯t know the answer, I¡¯m sure someone would know, wouldn¡¯t they?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid not. The Gods have more children with humans than you would expect. Sometimes, they even forget who their children are because there have so many. Generally, the camp has to find the demigods on our own through our own network that we have built up over the years. The Gods rarely help identify their children and work with a hands-off approach a majority of the time.¡±

    Of course the gods would have a hands-off policy in regards to their children. I guess I shouldn¡¯t have expected the Gods to be better than humans. Actually, from the sound of it, their parenting behavior is probably just like living in foster care. At the end of the day, I have to depend on myself. Well, I guess at least there¡¯s nothing new there that I¡¯ll have to get used to.

    ¡°We should go meet the camp director. He is¡­eccentric. Be very polite. If something happens to you because you aren¡¯t¡­well¡­let¡¯s just say that you should be as polite as physically possible, not matter how he might act...¡±

    Oh jeez, it¡¯s one of those kind of people isn¡¯t it? The kind that expect respect without giving it in return? That¡¯s such a freaking pain.

    ¡°Got it. I know how to act. Just keep my head down and everything will be fine, right?¡±

    ¡°¡­Probably? He hasn¡¯t been in a good mood in a while, so don¡¯t say anything stupid. Just behave and it¡¯ll be fine.¡± Wow, way to inspire confidence Chiron.

    We went to a house with a nice porch. There was someone just chilling there, waiting for us. He was small, but porky, and wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly purplish-black hair. He looked like a cherub. You know, exactly like those baby angels that you would see in paintings. Except he looked like a cherub who¡¯d grown up, turned into middle-aged man, lost his job and turned to alcohol to forget his worries. I¡¯d also been in enough homes to know that this guy was going through some serious withdrawal. This was not going to be pretty.

    ¡°This is our camp director, Mr. D. You should introduce yourself.¡±

    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Krishna Khanna. It¡¯s nice to meet you.¡± Once again, being polite never hurt anybody.

    Chiron offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. ¡°Oh, I guess I have to say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Happy Chiron?¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    ¡°Umm¡­thanks?¡± I¡¯m not sure if I didn¡¯t something to make him irritated, or if that¡¯s just his normal attitude. ¡°So, it¡¯s Mr. D. Does that stand for something?¡±

    Everyone around me, with the exception of Mr. D, flinched. I guess small talk was a bad idea.

    ¡°Young man, names are powerful things. You don¡¯t just go around using them for no reason.¡± Mr. D looked at me like I was someone especially stupid.

    ¡°Oh. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m kind of new to all of this.¡±

    ¡°You meant to say, ¡®I¡¯m sorry, sir¡¯.¡± Oh jeez, this guy was going to be a bit of a hard-ass. Well, it could be worse. Well, I guess it¡¯s not really a big deal to call him sir. Since he is the head of this camp¡ªa camp that will effectively be keeping me alive¡ªshowing some respect is the least I could do.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir.¡±

    Mr. D turned to Quinn. ¡°This is the first time you¡¯ve brought us another demigod in a long time. Did you change your mind?¡±

    ¡°No sir. It¡¯s just the first time I¡¯ve encountered a new demigod while I¡¯ve been on my search. Seeing demigods in the wild is rare after all.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right¡­how goes your search?¡±

    ¡°If I was allowed to search outside of the United States, I¡¯m sure I would have more luck¡­¡± Quinn looked really frustrated. Why couldn¡¯t he search outside of the United States? ¡°Speaking of which, I found Krishna in the presence of a pair of kallikantzaros.¡±

    ¡°What? That can¡¯t be right. Kallikantzaros only appear on the surface for about 2 weeks after Christmas, and then they have to go back. You must have seen wrong.¡± Mr. D was dismissive.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir, but they were definitely kallikantzaros. You know as well as I do that they have a very distinctive appearance. There¡¯s no way I was mistaken.¡±

    ¡°Sir, one of them said their name was Kenny¡±, I added helpfully. I decided to put in my random two cents. Maybe it would be useful. Then again, he just told me that names have power, so maybe he wouldn¡¯t appreciate that.

    ¡°I see¡­¡± He gave me a look. Yep, he¡¯s annoyed with me. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s because I interrupted, or because of the name thing. It¡¯s probably both. I can be pretty annoying when I put my mind to it.

    ¡°You know I wouldn¡¯t have said anything at all if I wasn¡¯t sure.¡± Quinn looked serious and Mr. D just sighed.

    ¡°Yes, I suppose I know you well enough¡­¡±

    Chiron looked worried. ¡°The only way the kallikantzaros could reach the surface when it¡¯s outside of that time is if they had some help. This isn¡¯t the first time something strange like this has happened recently¡°

    ¡°Just the latest in a bunch of incidents. I suppose you want me to mention this upstairs?¡±

    ¡°I am just reporting it to you, sir. Whatever you think is best.¡± Quinn shrugged. ¡°Once I¡¯ve reported this, it¡¯s not really my problem. I already reduced the ones I found to dust.¡±

    ¡°Always more work¡­¡± Mr. D grumbled. ¡°I¡¯ll let them know, but it won¡¯t change anything.¡±

    He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, completely out of nowhere. The goblet filled itself with red wine. It was the coolest thing I¡¯ve ever seen. I¡¯m sure my jaw dropped, but Chiron and Quinn hardly looked up.

    ¡°Mr. D,¡± he warned, ¡°your restrictions.¡±

    Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

    Mr. D Sighed. He looked at the sky and yelled, ¡°Old habits! Sorry!¡± Who the heck is he talking to?

    Thunder rumbled in the sky, and I could have sworn I saw some lightning flash in the sky, even though there wasn¡¯t a single cloud in the sky. Did¡­did someone just answer him back??? Did that just really happen?

    Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He just gazed at it unhappily. Why are you so unhappy? You can make stuff magically appear whenever you want!

    Chiron winked at me. ¡°Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± I repeated.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Mr. D confessed irritably. ¡°Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Worst ten years of my life! The second time¡ªwell, she really was pretty, and I couldn¡¯t stay away. He sent me here, as punishment to Half-Blood Hill, a summer camp for brats like you for a hundred years. ¡®Be a better influence,¡¯ he told me. ¡®Work with youths rather than tearing them down.¡¯ Ha! Waste of time I say.¡±

    Mr. D sounded about six years old, pouting like a little kid.

    Wait, Prohibition? What was that?¡± So many questions and things I don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s like I showed up to a conversation a few hours after it started, and so I have no idea what they are talking about.

    ¡°Prohibition was the nationwide ban of the sale of alcohol that lasted from 1920 to 1933 in the United States. I was an interesting time¡­¡± Chiron reminisced.

    ¡°Okay¡­so you¡¯re telling me that his father caused the country to stop selling booze just because you went after a girl. Like a long time ago. Was he like president or something?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly¡­Krishna, how much do you know about Greek Gods?¡± Chiron asked carefully.

    ¡°Not much. It¡¯s hard to know stuff when you spend more time learning to read than actually learning. But I guess I¡¯ve heard of a couple.¡± I sighed at the obvious route this conversation was going. I just going to rip off the Band-Aid. ¡°Alright I see where this is going. Which god is your dad?¡± I was already resigned to something like this. I¡¯m not stupid. If I¡¯m a demigod, other people can be demigods too, especially in a camp that was made for demigods. Clearly I was going to meet many others here.

    ¡°My father is Zeus, King of the Gods, of course.¡± Mr. D said. ¡°I thought everyone knew the basics.¡±

    ¡°That must be cool. Your dad being the king of gods and all.¡±

    ¡°It has its moments.¡± Mr. D smirked.

    ¡°So you chased the same person twice? Was it worth it?¡±

    It got still and silent again. I really should learn to keep my curiosity in check.

    Mr. D thought for a moment and for the first time, I saw a small genuine smile. ¡°Yes, I believe it was.¡±

    I smiled back. ¡°That¡¯s good because you¡¯re stuck with me now. I hope I don¡¯t cause you too much trouble.¡±

    He just scoffed. ¡°I just know you¡¯re going to cause me a lot of trouble. All demigods do nothing but cause trouble. Anyways, let¡¯s play a game. Do you know how to play pinochle?¡±

    ¡°No sir, I don¡¯t.¡± What the heck is pinochle?

    ¡°Well, it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules.¡± I wanted to roll my eyes at Mr. D, but that seemed really disrespectful. Pac-Man? Really? Maybe someone needs to look into upgrading their gaming consoles.

    He quickly explained the rules to me, but I didn¡¯t really understand everything. Oh well, I guess I¡¯ll learn by playing? Mr. D dealt cards out to all four of us.

    ¡°So, Prohibition happened like almost a century ago. Do all demigods live as long as you?¡± I think it¡¯d be cool to be able to live forever. I bet I¡¯d have the best ¡°back in my day¡± jokes.

    ¡°Krishna¡­Mr. D isn¡¯t a demigod¡±, Chiron stated slowly. ¡°Mr. D is a god.¡±

    Oh crap. I looked at Quinn and nodded back to me in confirmation. I looked at Mr. D too and he just sighed and nodded in irritation too.

    It was all too much. I did what any normal person would do. I passed out.

    I woke up a minute later to Chiron splashing water in my face.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never had anyone faint on me before like that after discovering my status. That was both irritating and refreshing at the same time.¡± Mr. D sounded smugger than I would have thought he could.

    ¡°The kid has had a lot of shocks today. I was wondering if he would break.¡± Dude, not cool Quinn!

    ¡°Well, that was embarrassing. A heads up would have been nice, Chiron!¡± Chiron just laughed at me. ¡°So, you are a god huh¡­okay, cool. I can go with that.¡±

    ¡°Hmph. That was fast, especially for a fainter. What made you believe so quickly?¡±

    ¡°Chiron and Quinn both said so, plus that thing with the wine and coke. You have got to teach me that trick!¡± Magic! I wanna do magic! Then, the next time I get chased my monsters or bullies, I can be all like ¡°bring it on!¡± and throw lots of large destructive fireballs at them. Bow down to my might peons! MY TERROR SHALL REIGN FOREVER!!! MWHAHAHAHAHA!

    As I was enjoying my own crazy delusions, Chiron decided to burst my bubble. ¡°Depending on your talent, you will have a certain degree of control over the Mist. Mr. D¡¯s¡­¡±trick¡±, on the other hand, cannot be performed by a normal mortal. Very few people are capable of doing magic like that.¡±

    ¡°Chiron, don¡¯t crush all my hopes and dreams! It¡¯s all I ever wanted!¡±

    ¡°Well, I suppose we all need impossible dreams to aspire to.¡± E¡¯tu Mr. D?

    ¡°Hey! That¡¯s mean!¡± Mr. D just smirked at me. ¡°Wait! Hold up! This doesn¡¯t make any sense! So, if you¡¯re also a god, how come your dad gets to punish you? Aren¡¯t you too old to be punished by your dad?¡±

    ¡°He is the King of the Gods, and one of his titles is the God of Justice,¡± Chiron explained. ¡°It is one of the privileges he has over the other Gods.¡±

    ¡°Enough of this. No amount of discussion over this will change my punishment. Chiron, perhaps you need to start teaching this child some tact before he gets blasted into smithereens.¡±

    ¡°Then perhaps we should have Krishna settle in. Shall we?¡± Good call, Chiron. Let¡¯s totally get away from this place. Of course, when I say this place, I really mean we should get away from that guy, but I¡¯ll just keep all of these thoughts to myself. No need to outright alienate a god. Only a total idiot would do such a thing.

    ¡°Cabin Eleven, Chiron. Place him with the others.¡± Cabin Eleven? Why that one? Why not any of the other cabin? Why¡¯d you have to say it so ominously? Place him with the others. Who are the others? Not cool, Mr. D, not cool at all.

    We walked away from the house, which I just learned was called the Big House. It was kind of big and easy to spot. Really though, I assume it¡¯s called the Big House because Mr. D stays there. We were walking around and I noticed a lot of satyrs wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, but no pants. Just their bare shaggy hindquarters. It¡¯s super awkward.

    We walked past a volleyball pit where other campers were playing and saw a farmhouse. That farmhouse was really creepy. It had a haunted house sort of vibe. Yup, it¡¯s decided. I¡¯m never going in there. I¡¯ve seen a bunch of slasher movies. I know it never turns out well for the foreign-looking guy.

    ¡°What¡¯s up with the super creepy place in middle of this camp?¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Please Chiron, you know exactly what I¡¯m talking about.

    ¡°I mean that huge, super creepy looking house right there. Right in front of us. There. You can¡¯t miss it.¡± I make a huge show of pointing at it.

    He looks at me weird. ¡°There¡¯s nothing there but open space, Krishna¡­are you okay?¡±

    My eyes bugged out. There was a house that only I could see? Ohmygodohmygod, I¡¯m going to die! This is the beginning of a supernatural horror movie! Oh crap, I AM SO DEAD!!

    After a couple of moments into my internal freak out, Chiron started laughing. ¡°I¡¯m just messing with you. You should see your face. That was priceless. I wish I had a camera.¡±

    ¡°Not cool, Chiron. Not cool.¡± I was embarrassed to have fallen for something like that so easily. I¡¯m also sure that the relief showed on my face.

    ¡°You are safe here, Krishna. I know it will take some time with your background, but you are as safe as you can possibly be as a demigod here. Just relax. Try to wind down. You¡¯re too tense and it feels like you¡¯re always about to bolt.¡±

    Maybe that was true. So what? I trust my instincts. If they tell me to run at any point, I know what I¡¯ll be doing.

    ¡°So about that house?¡± I think focusing the conversation in a more productive manner is important.

    Chiron understood that I didn¡¯t want to talk about it and decided to answer. ¡°We keep a bunch of random weapons and artifacts in there. Some are more valuable than others. Also¡­that is where the Oracle of Delphi stays.¡±

    ¡°Who is that?¡± I know that there¡¯s a lot that I don¡¯t know, but it¡¯s annoying to discover that there is also more to learn and more to know. Who knows, maybe it¡¯ll never stop happening to me.

    ¡°Someone who is able to give us a prophecy of the future. It¡¯s usually happens during times of turmoil or great danger.¡± Chiron sighed. ¡°Krishna, I¡¯m asking you to never go into that building unless told to. It¡¯s dangerous, and well, some things are best left alone.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I think I can respect that,¡± I said dryly. So you¡¯re telling me not to go into a big creepy house that holds some dangerous woman in it. Yeah, I¡¯m totally going to need more convincing to stay away. Not. With my luck, it¡¯s probably someone that would end up eating me.

    We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking the berries while a satyr played a tune on his reed pipe. Chiron told me the camp grew them to sell to New York City restaurants and Mount Olympus. ¡°It pays our expenses,¡± he explained. ¡°And the strawberries barely take any effort.¡±

    He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants. They just went crazy when he was around. Apparently, it worked even better with wine grapes, but Mr. D wasn¡¯t allowed to grow those because of his punishment, so they grew strawberries instead.

    I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction. I just stared at the marvelous little scene. I didn¡¯t know they even would do a satyr¡¯s bidding. I bet they all have their own bug minions. Note to self: Don¡¯t get on the bad side of any of those satyrs. I wouldn¡¯t want to wake up one day covered in all kinds of creepy crawlies. I bet it would take forever to get rid of all those bugs too. If I stay on their good side, maybe they would teach me how to do that too.

    We passed a huge forest on our way to our destination. ¡°This is where we play capture the flag every Friday. Do you have your own sword and shield?¡±

    I gave him an ¡°Are you an idiot?¡± look.

    ¡°¡­Ahem, yes I suppose you don¡¯t have any. Hmm, you look to be a size 8. You should visit the armory later. Also, you need to lose some serious weight Krishna. You should be about a size 3 to be normal. I guess it¡¯s a good thing that you¡¯re here now.¡±

    Okay, so I¡¯m a bit porky. So sue me. The foster care diet doesn¡¯t exactly tend to provide for top notch healthy gourmet food.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t just a safe haven Krishna. We teach demigods how to survive here. Part of surviving is being healthy and fit. Thankfully, you shouldn¡¯t have any problems losing that weight. You are a demigod after all. If you put in even a little bit of effort, the pounds should just melt off.¡±

    ¡°That sounds¡­amazing.¡± I guess there are some perks to being a demigod. I was beginning to think it was all just going to be bad news. I guess no more ¡°hey fatty¡± comments for me. I definitely won¡¯t miss that. ¡°Wait¡­why would I need a sword and shield for capture the flag?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s to defend yourself, of course. You can¡¯t expect yourself to go in to battle without some sort of protection.¡± Chiron explained this to me like this should be completely obvious.

    ¡°Since when does capture the flag involve weapons? Or battle?¡± I may not have had the opportunity to play it much in the past (because I didn¡¯t have any friends, thanks for reminding me again btw), but I know it wasn¡¯t played with swords. Even though it sounded cool. Dangerous, but super cool.

    ¡°This is capture the flag, demigod edition.¡± Chiron grinned. ¡°Much more useful to train all you demigods.¡±

    ¡°That sounds super cool, and yet terrifying at the same time.¡± I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to like this game.

    ¡°That¡¯s the point.¡± Chiron smiled. He was way too happy about this dangerous game he cooked up, where he gives little kids lots of pointy and sharp weapons and then releases us and is all like ¡°have fun! Try not to maim each other to death too badly!¡±

    We saw the archery range, a lake where people were canoeing, stables, stables, a javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, the arena where Chiron said they held fights between campers, and the ¡°Mess Hall.¡± Why didn¡¯t they call it the cafeteria, eating space, picnic area, or just about anything else. Mess Hall just sounds so¡­dumb. Yes, I¡¯m being whiny. It¡¯s been a really long day.

    Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, settled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U-formation, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. There was only one way to describe all of these buildings¡ªstrange. Don¡¯t get me wrong, each of the buildings on its own wasn¡¯t weird. In fact they were beautiful, or at least downright interesting. No, the strangeness came from having them all next to each other. It just gives that feeling of ¡°what the heck¡± the first time you see them. It was like being in Las Vegas that one time with one of my foster families and walking down that strip with all the different casinos. That foster mom had a bit of gambling problem, and lost all her money there. As a result, I was moved to another foster home. I was really sad about that at the time. Except for her gambling problem, she was a great mom. She used to go out of her way to make us delicious little desserts and made me feel safe.

    None of the buildings looked anything like the others. Each had a large brass number above their doors, with odd-numbered buildings on the left, and even-numbered buildings on the right. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. 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 center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

    I decided that I would check out the rest of the cabins tomorrow in more detail. It was getting late, and I was tired.

    ¡°Cabin eleven,¡± Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. ¡°Make yourself at home.¡±

    Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin. It looked really old, but let¡¯s be honest, I¡¯ve lived in worse. The entrance was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor¡¯s symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. I heard later that it is called a caduceus.

    Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

    Chiron didn¡¯t go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

    ¡°Well, then,¡± Chiron said. ¡°Good luck, Krishna. I¡¯ll see you at dinner.¡± He galloped away toward the archery range.

    I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren¡¯t bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I¡¯d gone through it at enough schools and homes.

    ¡°Hey, my name is Krishna Khanna. So¡­what now?¡±

    ¡°Regular or undetermined?¡± somebody asked.

    I didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°I have no idea what that means.¡±

    ¡°Undetermined then.¡± Someone randomly piped up.

    Everybody groaned.

    A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. ¡°You¡¯re undetermined. The camp leaders don¡¯t know what cabin to put you in, so you¡¯re here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers and all visitors. Naturally, it¡¯s because Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers. Since you¡¯re undetermined, you get to stay here until you are claimed.¡±

    ¡°How long will I be here?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Good question. Until you¡¯re determined.¡±

    ¡°How long will that take?¡±

    The campers all laughed. It was a hollow laugh though. The kind where you were helpless and they only thing you could do was laugh. I didn¡¯t like that sound at all.

    Oh my god, it can¡¯t be true. Could it be that all of these kids were unclaimed like me? What are our parents doing? Don¡¯t they care about us at all? We are right here, together in one place, in a camp made for people like us. We even have a god taking care of us. I don¡¯t understand why gods would be like this. Or maybe I do. I was abandoned by my own parents. Why should I expect the other gods to be any different? I guess the only thing that truly separates them from mortals is their godly powers.

    ¡°Now, now, everyone. He¡¯s new, and we have to show him the ropes. That¡¯s what we¡¯re here for. Welcome to cabin eleven, Krishna. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there. My name is Luke and I¡¯m the leader of this cabin.¡±

    The guy was about eighteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing that messed up his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw. Huh, I wonder what caused that.

    ¡°Hey Luke, why did everyone just laugh when I asked when I¡¯d be claimed.¡± I needed to know.

    ¡°¡­Look Krishna, you look like a good kid, so I don¡¯t want to hurt you when I tell you this¡­¡± Luke looked away.

    ¡°Just tell me.¡±

    ¡°Look, the gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don¡¯t always...well, sometimes they don¡¯t care about us. They ignore us. In rare cases, sometimes they don¡¯t even love their own children.¡±

    I was aghast. Was that going to happen to me?

    Luke continued. ¡°Some of those kids have been waiting for years to be claimed. Being unclaimed is the same as your parent saying that they don¡¯t care about you. Actually, it¡¯s worse than that. Their parents are actively denying their existence. The worst part is that none of us can do anything about it. Anyways, enough of this depressing stuff. Why don¡¯t you take a chance to settle in, and then I¡¯ll show you some of the ropes.

    I looked at the tiny section of floor they¡¯d given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own. I heard that Hermes was also the god of thieves. Joke¡¯s on them though. I don¡¯t have anything to steal. Ditched it all on the way here. My life was more important than some school books.

    I looked around at the campers¡¯ faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, and some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets. Oh yeah, this cabin was going to be so great. *sigh* Welcome to Camp Half-Blood indeed.

 Chapter 3

    Chapter 3

    Orientation Video by SilverMoonGrimm. Go read the original version when you have the time!

    -----------------------------------------------------

    --oOo¡ª

    WELCOME TO CAMP HALF-BLOOD

    A BRIEF ORIENTATION VIDEO

    Produced by the Hermes cabin

    --oOo¡ª

    THIS MOTION PICTURE HAS BEEN RATED PG-13

    PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED

    --oOo¡ª

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Hello kids!

    *Three 80''s cartoon kids pop up on screen: one white boy with brown hair and a ball cap, a girl wearing a vest, and a black boy with glasses*

    KIDS: Hello!

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Now, as you all have started to grow up, you may have noticed that certain things come more natural to you than other kids.

    *kids look thoughtful*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Perhaps you''ve discovered you have a green thumb-

    *cut to scene of cartoon girl gardening*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Maybe you uncovered your knack for mechanics-

    *cut to cartoon black boy restarting his car by kicking it*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Possibly even picked up a new hobby or two-

    *cut to cartoon ball cap boy shooting baskets

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: But these ordinary activities may not be as ordinary as you might think!

    *Gardening girl turns away from garden, just missing the tomato plant rapidly growing behind her. The inside of black boy''s car is highlighted, showing the gears lurching into movement. A basketball casually tossed over shoulder somehow makes it into the basket*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Noticing these changes, you might begin to feel scared, but not to worry! You aren''t in this alone!

    *Another cartoon, a short boy with the beginnings of a goatee, walks up to kids*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Chances are, you have been brought to this camp by your friendly neighborhood satyr! Your satyr only wants the best for you, so he will go out of his way to help you make it to Camp Half-Blood!

    *the cartoon kids high-five cartoon satyr, then follow him off-screen*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: By now, you must be wondering what Camp Half-Blood is for. Simply put, we train you so that you won''t end up like this-!

    *Real-life shot of a teenager being pulled apart. limb-by-limb, his agonizing screams toned down to a volume that won''t break a child''s eardrums*

    *Another real-life shot, of a giant mouth full of sharp teeth, chewing on something looking suspiciously like flesh*

    *Man, with face blurred out, spontaneously combusts*

    *Woman screams bloody murder for what appears like no reason, until fire ants begin to pour out of her body*

    BALL CAP DUDE: *suddenly pops up, frowning at camera* Hey! I don''t want that to happen to me!

    *other kids nod in agreement*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Don''t worry! Here at camp, we have state-of-the-art training equipment-

    *campers manually operate a device that swing spiked clubs at a person at various heights*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Friendly and supportive counselors-

    *an old man with curly black hair and a leopard print shirt is seen screaming at campers*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: And a totally rad gift shop!

    *camera pans around a small room, whose walls are covered in ''Camp Half-Blood'' tie-dye shirts, racks of deodorant, and bell-bottom jeans with orange side-panels*

    *a guy wearing an orange T-shirt gives the camera a thumbs-up, grinning*

    BOY WITH THE GLASSES: *pops up next ball cap guy* But, wait?! Why are these monsters trying to kill us in the first place?

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Good question! You see, a long time ago, the world was ruled by hundreds of gods, commonly referred to as the Gods of Olympus. These deities all took control of certain parts of the world. For example, Zeus *cartoon old man in toga walks out* controlled the sky and weather. He was ruler of the gods, famous for his powerful lightning bolt

    *Zeus smites tiny people with lightning*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: They were worshipped by the ancient Greeks. Nowadays, people think they are just myths

    *a crowd of average cartoon people walk out, talking on phones and playing with each other*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: They are wrong.

    *Zeus begins zapping the civilians, one by one, leaving a cartoon pile of scribbles and a pair of eyeballs behind each time while the people run screaming*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: They are very real. In fact, they really aren''t so different from you and me. They fight-

    *cartoon Zeus and Poseidon fight, creating gigantic storms in the process*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: They play-

    *cartoon gods enjoy a fun round of Pankration (a type of to-the-death wrestling match)*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: And they, er, *coughs* love to love!

    *cute cartoon couples snuggle together for a few moments, before beginning to make out passionately*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Being alive for thousands of years can become pretty boring. Sometimes, they meet some nice mortals (that means humans) and just can''t keep it in their pants anymore.

    *A ''Hey! This is for kids'' is heard in the background*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: *huffs* Many times, this results in a baby!

    *cartoon infant appears*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: These demigods- half god and half mortal- are raised on Earth without any knowledge of their celestial heritage. But not only gods are real- monsters are too!

    *live-action footage of Minotaurs, drakons, and dracaena play*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: And monsters really don''t like demigods. At all. So they try and kill us. Well, here at Camp Half-Blood, we do our best to stop that from happening!

    CARTOON GIRL: Whoa! So this means I''m a half-blood too?

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Yes!

    CARTOON GIRL: And now I get to learn how to stab stuff?

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Yep!

    CARTOON GIRL: Wicked!

    *the three children high five*

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE: Now that we''ve covered the bases, you are ready to learn all about being a demigod from your peers and camp counselors!

    *cartoon kids turn to camera*

    THE THREE KIDS WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONES LEARNING BUT NOW SOMEHOW BECAME KNOW-IT-ALLS: And remember to always listen to your cabin counselor!

    *camera zooms in to a close-up of an exasperated live-action cabin counselor, rubbing his head and watching some children running circles around a pair of bleeding campers*

    THE THREE KIDS WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONES LEARNING BUT NOW SOMEHOW BECAME KNOW-IT-ALLS: Otherwise, who knows what can happen?

    QUIET OMNIPOTENT VOICE: *speaking quickly* Video production sponsored by the Camp Half-Blood Gift Shop, there for all your essential demigod needs.

    --oOo--

    WELCOME TO CAMP HALF-BLOOD

    HOPE YOU ALL SURVIVE

    LOUD OMNIPOTENT VOICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dick Razer

    BOY WITH BALL CAP (voice of) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mr. H. Aught

    GIRL (voice of) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ima Mazing

    BOY WITH GLASSES (voice of) . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack B. Nimble

    HEAD-SCRATCHING COUNSELOR . . . . . the awesome Tony

    Bartman (please don''t kill us)

    GRIZZLY DEATHS (by order of appearance)

    . . . . . . Mike Fells

    . . . . . . . Winnifer O''Henry

    . . . . . . . . . Aaron Johnson

    . . . . . . . . . . . Jamila Parker

    RIP

    (and thanks for the footage!)

    SCREAMING COUNSELOR . . . . . . Dionysus (aka Wine Dude)

    GIFT SHOP GUY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mr. Sir

    -oOo-Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ANIMATIONS PROVIDED BY

    THE APOLLO CABIN

    WITH HELP FROM

    THE HEPHAESTUS CABIN

    -oOo-

    CAMERAS PROVIDED BY

    THE HEPHAESTUS CABIN

    -oOo-

    PERMISSION PROVIDED BY

    CHIRON

    (supposedly)

    (Davie was supposed to be getting permission)

    (but he hasn''t returned yet)

    (we think he may have died)

    (possibly)

    (probably)

    (Dionysus probably did it)

    (Dionysus killed Davie!)

    (Who did Dionysus kill?)

    (Davie''s dead!)

    (Fuck!)

    (We must seek revenge for our lost cabin mate!)

    (Arm yourself, Hermites!)

    (Prepare for battle!)

    (Now we sound the drums of war!)

    (Hey guys, what''s up?)

    (Not now, Davie; we''re plotting revenge)

    (Oh fuck wait)

    (Davie''s A-LIVE!)

    (Uh, Chiron said sure)

    (Great! And, um, we certainly weren''t about to storm the Big House, seeking revenge on Dionysus for murdering you)

    (Certainly)

    (AN-Y-WAYS)

    -oOo-

    VIDEO SPONSORED BY

    CAMP HALF-BLOOD GIFT STORE

    FOR ALL YOUR ESSENTIAL DEMIGOD NEEDS

    -oOo-

    That video¡­was just¡­*sigh* I thought this video was supposed to teach us about Camp Half-Blood and make us feel better. I. DO. NOT. FEEL. BETTER!!! They just showed us clips of demigods being torn apart, with all of the blood and flesh. If you were going to do that, at least make it into a cartoon! Now I feel like I¡¯m going to be sick.

    I came out of the room at the big house where Luke was waiting for me, grinning like a madman. ¡°You have a sick sense of humor.¡±

    He kept grinning at me. ¡°I can¡¯t have any new campers missing out on our orientation video, can I?¡±

    ¡°You know I¡¯m eventually going to get back at you for this, right?¡± This means war.

    ¡°Oh, you want to start a prank war with one of the Sons of Hermes? You¡¯ve got guts.¡± He looked at me pretty impressed. Maybe this was a bad idea after all.

    I just grumbled.

    I had been really tired when I came in, so I basically took a nap straight on the floor. When I woke up a few hours later, I was really uncomfortable since I didn¡¯t have a sleeping bag. There are a lot of people in the cabin, so sleep was fleeting as well.

    A horn was blowing in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell. Must be a demigod thing. I thought we might be under attack from some monsters or something, but it turns out, it was just the sound signaling time for dinner.

    I was hungry so I followed Luke and the others to the dining pavilion to get a bite. That name sounds way better than ¡°mess hall,¡± so I gave it a mental thumbs up. On the way, I got to see the other cabins in a lot more detail, and they were amazing. Luke gave me a rundown of all the different cabins, especially cabins one and two. Apparently, a kid of the God of Thieves can get into anywhere without being noticed. Man, Luke is so cool.

    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 no matter what angle you looked at it from, lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. I was told that the cabin inside has a fluctuating mosaic ceiling and several bronze braziers, along with a statue of Zeus in traditional Greek clothes in the center of the room. Supposedly, demigods of Zeus don¡¯t feel comfortable sleeping there because that giant statue creeps them out. Go figure. Zeus is the God of the sky, weather, air, lightning, honor, and justice. I thought he just used lightning. You learn new things every day.

    Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks. Apparently Hera also has a giant statue of herself in there as well. I guess couples do begin to think alike after a while. I¡¯m told that there isn¡¯t any furniture in there because she is the goddess of marriage and she doesn¡¯t cheat. Well, if you don¡¯t have any demigod kids, why do you need a cabin? Did you get jealous of all the other kids (gods) with their toys and want one too? It just seemed like a waste of space since it¡¯ll never be used.

    ¡°What about the other cabins?¡±

    ¡°Nope. Not telling. That would be spoilers, you know.¡± Luke seemed happy to keep me in the dark.

    ¡°Seriously?¡±

    ¡°Half the fun of Camp Half-Blood is exploring everything. I only told you about those two cabins because no one is allowed to go inside. Well, you can if you¡¯re invited, but that¡¯s highly unlikely since there aren¡¯t any demigods from those two gods at this moment.¡±

    ¡°You went into those cabins and saw everything,¡± I said dryly.

    ¡°True, but I didn¡¯t get caught. I doubt you could do the same thing. Cabin Eleven kids are built to do these kinds of things. Who knows though? Maybe you¡¯re actually a kid of Hermes too.¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡± I was doubtful. All of the Cabin Eleven kids had similar characteristics. They all had elvish features and this mischievous smirk, like they were about to pull off a crazy prank. I don¡¯t think I fit the list. It would have been nice being a part of their cabin though. They seem close.

    ¡°Wait until you see Mount Olympus. This place will feel like a total dump then.¡± Luke had a faraway look in his eyes.

    ¡°Wait, Mount Olympus is real? Are they going to take us to Greece then someday?¡± That would be so cool!

    ¡°Of course it¡¯s real! But it¡¯s not in Greece anymore. It¡¯s in America right now. It¡¯s strange that they don¡¯t live on Olympus anymore right?¡±

    ¡°Not really.¡± I responded. If I can move somewhere, why can¡¯t they?

    ¡°Come on! You should be more shocked¡± Luke whined. ¡°Gods don¡¯t change that much so it is strange that move around. Chiron explained it us before. They say that the gods follow the Heart of the West, which basically means they go wherever the center of all culture and spirit exist in the world. It started in Greece. From there, it was carried by Zephyros, the Western wind, to Rome, and then traveled across Europe, stopping in Germany, France, Spain, and eventually stayed in Great Britain for a while. After that, it went to America around 1860, and has been in New York City since.¡±

    ¡°Mount Olympus is in New York City? No way! There aren¡¯t any mountains here!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not located on a mountain anymore. Right now it¡¯s located on the 600<sup>th</sup> floor of the empire state building.¡± I just knew Luke was enjoying that look on my face. I bet he set up that whine earlier just for this moment.

    ¡°Wait a second¡­I¡¯m pretty sure that the Empire State Building doesn¡¯t have that many floors!¡±

    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t really have 600 floors, but rather, that you take an elevator there to the ¡°600<sup>th</sup> floor¡± to reach the entrance to Olympus. It¡¯s like another metaphysical plane of existence that is hidden from the rest of the world, and exists in another dimension.¡± He noticed that he was kind of losing me. ¡°Just think of it as a magical place in the sky that requires you to use a magical elevator, which no one can get to other than people like us.¡±

    ¡°Ok, that makes a lot more sense.¡± I nodded in understanding. ¡°Man, just hearing about it all makes you feel like everything is just nuts.¡±

    ¡°True.¡± Luke said smiling. ¡°But on the other hand, Camp Half-Blood is like a place we can relax and enjoy ourselves, while learning to survive. While we do a lot of demigod stuff, there¡¯s a lot of normal camp things you can do here as well. Just take a look.¡±

    So I did. The camp truly was beautiful. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

    The valley extended all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture, with an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, and a circular arena. The only difference was that they all looked brand new, with their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. We passed a nearby sandpit, where a dozen high school¨Cage kids and satyrs played volleyball earlier. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts 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. Some of their horses had wings, which wasn¡¯t as weird as I would have expected. Somehow, I¡¯m already beginning to adapt to this place. Must be another demigod thing.

    The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the Mess Hall. We lined up in order of seniority, so I ended up being last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for cabins one, two, and cabin eight, since none of them had demigods. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake and Dryads came out from the woods. Yes, I had to ask what they all were. They were spirits of nature that were basically beautiful maidens inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations that are associated with a certain aspect of nature. Crazy stuff.

    In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a few dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

    At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze stove the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Artemis) were empty, but cabin eleven¡¯s was way too overcrowded. I had to squeeze onto the edge of a bench and I barely had any room for food. Why can¡¯t they make a bigger table for cabin eleven or give us a second table? Why don¡¯t the unclaimed have their own cabin? This is stupid.

    Chiron stood to one side at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. He was standing at the table because it was too small for a centaur.

    Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. ¡°To the gods!¡±

    Everybody else raised their glasses. ¡°To the gods!¡±

    Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, ¡°Speak to it. Whatever you want¡ªnonalcoholic, of course.¡±

    ¡°Speak to the glass?¡± I was skeptical. I¡¯ve been here less than a day, and I already heard about the cabin eleven kids and their pranks. I¡¯ve seen those dirty looks directed towards those guys from some other campers.

    Clearly Luke noticed. ¡°Yes. Here, watch me. Give me a root beer float!¡± His glass filled up with a delicious looking root beer float.

    I decided to follow suit and said, ¡°Milk¡±, and the glass filled up with it. I would have gotten Coke or something, but I was just told to lose weight, so yeah.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to get something like juice for your health here.¡± Damn Luke, how do you know about that? ¡°Don¡¯t give me that shocked look. You make it sound like you¡¯re the only fat demigod to ever grace these halls. Regardless of what you know from the mortal world, every drink that comes here is super healthy. That¡¯s one of the perks of living in Camp Half-Blood. Everything that goes into our bodies is so healthy, you¡¯ll lose weight even if you don¡¯t exercise. Working out makes you lose weight twice as fast.¡±

    Holy crap, this is a gold mine! I could make so much money if we could market this to the public somehow.

    ¡°No, it can¡¯t be marketed.¡±

    ¡°Damnit Luke! Stop reading my mind!¡± Stupid magical Greek world with everyone being able to read your mind!

    Luke just laughed. ¡°Hermes is the god of merchants. I saw that look of a money making scheme in your eye. The Hermes cabin has long tried to think up of a way to market this weight loss food to mortals, with no success. Anything we would do could cause people finding out about all of this.¡±

    ¡°Damn, that sucks.¡±

    ¡°Keep thinking though. You never know if you¡¯ll be the one to figure it out!¡±

    Yeah, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll figure it out if none of the kids of the god of merchants could figure it out.

    After I filled up my plate with lots of different foods, I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. What¡¯s the deal?

    ¡°Come on,¡± Luke gestured at me to follow.

    As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire. It would be the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, or the warmest, most delicious piece of bread. What are you all doing? Stop wasting food!

    Luke whispered, ¡°Burnt offerings to the gods. They like the smell.¡±

    ¡°Are you for real?¡±

    His look warned me not to take this lightly. So an all-powerful god wants my burnt food? I can¡¯t even begin to understand why that would be the case.

    Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of delicious looking red strawberries. ¡°Hermes.¡±

    I was next.

    I wished I knew what god¡¯s name to say. Or even the gender of the God. Or anything really.

    Finally, I decided to just to think ¡°Hi, I exist, whoever you are.¡± What do you want from me? Clearly, whoever my parent is doesn¡¯t want anything to do with me. I¡¯m not going to beg someone who abandoned me.

    I dropped a piece of chicken into the flames.

    When I caught a whiff of the smoke, it wasn¡¯t cough inducing like I imagined it would be.

    In fact, it smelled nothing like burning food. It was the exact opposite. It smelled of freshly made pizza and burgers on a grill, fresh baked cookies and brownies, and a hundred other good things that shouldn¡¯t have gone well together, but somehow did. No wonder they want this. I bet it¡¯s like crack for gods. Apparently we do this every night.

    When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

    Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. ¡°Yes, I suppose I¡¯d better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Personally, I couldn¡¯t care less, but Chiron will nag me about it incessantly if I didn¡¯t remind you all now. I don¡¯t know why I have to bother. It¡¯s every Friday, but Chiron insists. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today, Krishna Khanna. That¡¯s right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along and do your silly little things. Go on.¡±

    Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo¡¯s cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s¡¯mores and joked around. It felt so surreal. I haven¡¯t done fun stuff like that in a while. The best part was that everyone around me was just like me. I didn¡¯t have to explain about any of my weirdness because everyone here was just as weird as me. It is wonderful and for the first time, in a very long while, I feel safe. I wonder if this is what home is supposed to feel like.

    The conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn¡¯t realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag. I think I went to sleep with a smile on my face. I bet this will be the best summer ever.

 Chapter 4

    Chapter 4

    This Friday morning, I am going to be joining the Hermes cabin to help capture the flag. Hermes¡¯ Cabin was siding with Athena¡¯s Cabin this time during the game. I decided to take everyone¡¯s very strong advice that I should go to the armory and suit up. Actually, rather than saying it was advice, it was more like saying that everyone gave me the ¡°are you stupid¡± and ¡°do you have a death wish¡± looks when they heard I didn¡¯t have any weapons or armor. Luke decided that I needed help (or considered me too dumb to live) and came with me.

    It turns out that the armory is just a big metal shed that¡¯s located on the side of the Athena cabin. When I went inside, there was this girl going through the weapons, like a professional. She had long, curly blond hair and was pretty. The only thing that threw it off was her stormy gray eyes. I have no idea why, but I thought the word ¡°stormy¡±, but it just fit. Maybe it¡¯s a demigod thing.

    It might be weird of me to think this, but when she looked at me, it was like she was analyzing me and storing away all that information for later in case she needed it. She looked at me, and then dismissed me as a non-threat, just like that. I didn¡¯t like that. If you want to think that, at least wait a few minutes to figure out how pathetic I am, just like everyone else, thank you very much. Damn demigods and their toned abs¡­

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t look like big three material.¡± The girl talked straight to Luke. ¡°I guess he isn¡¯t the one either¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be rude Annabeth. Krishna, this is Annabeth. She¡¯s a daughter of Athena. Annabeth, meet Krishna.¡±

    ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± It really wasn¡¯t nice to meet her, but I was being polite. Yeah, I¡¯m holding a grudge because she looked at me like that. So sue me.

    ¡°Likewise. Hey Luke! Make sure everyone brings their A-game to capture the flag!¡± She gave Luke a smile. Then she turned to me. ¡°I know you¡¯ve only been here for a day, but I hope you do your best too. Not that I¡¯m expecting anything, of course. I heard through the grapevine that you have zero training. At this point, you¡¯re more likely to hurt yourself with a weapon than hurt one of us. Capture the flag is every week. No point in getting injured for something without real stakes.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said dryly. ¡°I¡¯ll probably just try to keep out of the way.¡±

    She just nodded to me. ¡°Well, if you need help picking your weapon, let me know. I¡¯ll give you any advice I can.¡±

    Luke also assented. ¡°Annabeth definitely knows her stuff, so don¡¯t worry about anything.¡±

    I started looking through all of the different weapons and armors on the shelves, but I had no idea where to start. I think my head was going to burst going through the armory.

    ¡°So¡­I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m doing¡­so do it for me?¡± I pleaded the two them for help.

    ¡°Let¡¯s start with your armor. Annabeth, help me out.¡± Luke took charge.

    Annabeth looked at me a bit critically, then started rummaging around. She pulled out a bunch of different pieces of armor.

    ¡°Here, try out this breastplate and helmet.¡± She handed them over and I put them on. I didn¡¯t realize how heavy all of this stuff was. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to move fast¡­scratch that, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to move at all. It¡¯s so freaking heavy!

    ¡°Well, it fits¡­¡± Annabeth sighed while Luke just snickered. I guess it was obvious how difficult this was for me.

    ¡°This is going to be a long day, isn¡¯t it?¡± Luke just nodded in affirmation while enjoying my plight.

    ¡°Yes, well, some training will make it easier. Now to the fun part. It¡¯s time to pick your weapon!¡± Annabeth was really excited. ¡°We have an assortment of just about any weapon you can think of in here, with the exceptions of guns and their sort. They waste too much materials, and we can¡¯t cover the entire cost. Even bow and arrows are really costly. Anyone who wants to wield those weapons has to be really good at it, and has to recover those celestial bronze tipped arrows.¡±

    ¡°Celestial Bronze?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a metal mined from Olympus. Weapons made by normal people can¡¯t harm monsters. The monster would easily recover from all damage, if they happened to do any in the first place. The only weapons that work on monsters are weapons made of celestial bronze. They are far stronger, and prevent monsters from healing their wounds immediately.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­actually something really important to know. Why didn¡¯t they put that in the orientation video?¡± No wonder Quinn didn¡¯t expect me to help out with fighting monsters. I just wouldn¡¯t have been able to hurt them in the first place.

    ¡°Who knows? Don¡¯t ask me what the Hermes Cabin was thinking.¡± Annabeth just shrugged.

    Luke sighed. ¡°That was made way before I came to camp. Don¡¯t ask me what past Hermes cabin was thinking.¡±

    We didn¡¯t really see any weapons that I was particularly suited to, so in the end, we randomly picked up a short sword and shield. It wasn¡¯t like I was going to be able to effectively use them anyways. As we were walking out with the equipment, I decided to ask her about something she mentioned earlier.

    ¡°Hey Annabeth, what did you mean when you said ¡°big three material¡±?¡±

    ¡°I meant that you didn¡¯t seem like the child of one of the three most powerful gods, Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades.¡±

    Luke snorted. ¡°What the likelihood that any demigod of the big three will show up? They all swore to the River Styx that they wouldn¡¯t have any more demigod children.¡±

    ¡°That didn¡¯t stop Thalia from happening,¡± Annabeth said quietly.

    A flash of pain went through Luke¡¯s eyes. I wonder who that is. I¡¯m not going to ask. I feel like that¡¯s a can of worms I don¡¯t want to open at the moment.

    ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯m going to head back to the cabin. I got some Head counselor stuff to do. See you back at the cabin later.¡± Luke flashed a grin and headed out.

    There was a nice awkward silence.

    ¡°Sorry, stuff happened, don¡¯t want to talk about it.¡± Annabeth looked away.

    ¡°I get it.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t. Not yet. But you will. We are children of the Greek Gods. Lots of stuff happens to each and every single one of us. Everyone here has a tragic back story of some kind. You will too, if you don¡¯t have one already. We were born to be Greek heroes, so we usually have tragic ends as well.¡±

    I just shrugged. I was abandoned at birth. I¡¯ve lived through some of the worst foster care has to offer. As a demigod, I am cursed to have monsters chasing us for the rest of our lives. I¡¯m not sure how my life can get worse. Oh crap. I just thought the unforgivable, didn¡¯t I?

    Annabeth and I went our separate ways, because, well, she totally made things awkward. What? Don¡¯t look at me like that! Here we were, checking out some cool weapons, and then Annabeth totally kills the mood with Luke and me. I¡¯m guessing all children of Athena are party-poopers.

    Suffice it to say, capture the flag was a bust. I¡¯d like to say I was super awesome and went to take down all of my enemies, and brought the flag back home, but that would be a lie. Somehow, I can¡¯t even tell you, I was knocked out in less than 2 minutes into the game. It¡¯s like one moment I was ¡°running¡± through the forest with my super heavy sword, shield and armor, and then next thing I know, I¡¯m waking up on the ground. Like what the heck happened? I¡¯m guessing ninjas were on the other side. Super stealthy demigod ninjas with awesome knockout techniques.

    ¡°I heard you got knocked out by the Aries cabin in less than two minutes. Apparently, you didn¡¯t even see or hear them coming.¡± Luke was grinning at me as he pulled me off the ground. ¡°Dude, you suck so bad at fighting it hurts.¡±

    ¡°Thanks Luke. I totally appreciate the snark.¡± I just sighed at him. ¡°Are you guys sure I¡¯m a demigod? It feels like everyone else is good at something, except for me. I just suck at everything.¡±

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t be able to step onto Camp Half-Blood territory if you weren¡¯t a demigod. Don¡¯t worry about it. You¡¯re new. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find your own talents sooner or later. For now, you need to exercise and join combat training, tubby. Apparently, just walking with the armor and weapons was enough to tire you out really fast. You¡¯ll need to be physically fit if you want to fight, and you need to learn how to fight if you want to stay alive. Even Aphrodite¡¯s kids can protect themselves if they need to.¡±

    ¡°Yeah okay, I guess.¡± I grumbled back. ¡°Losing weight and looking like one of you guys seems highly unlikely.¡±

    ¡°I know it¡¯ll happen in no time at all. With all of the combat training, our amazingly healthy food, and your divine genes, you¡¯re going to go from that tub of lard¡ª¡°

    ¡°HEY!¡±

    ¡°¡ªto the peak of physical fitness, if you work hard. Don¡¯t worry, everyone will help. No one holds out on training here. We¡¯re stuck here in the camp, unable to leave, even if we want to. Nobody has anything better to do anyways once chores are done.¡±

    ¡°I swear I¡¯m not that fat! I mean, if you put me in comparison to all of you abnormal freaks, then yes, but still!¡±

    Luke looked at me like I was delusional. ¡°Knocked out in 2 minutes, Krishna! 2 minutes! Even if nobody knocked you out, you would have given up on the game at 3 minutes. Just accept that you¡¯re morbidly obese and work on it.¡±

    ¡°Whatever¡­¡± I grumbled. Then something he said caught my attention. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. ¡°What do you mean, there¡¯s nothing better to do? Don¡¯t you guys have TV or internet?¡±

    Luke looks at me with pity. ¡°Sorry Krishna. Cell phones and the internet are like flare telling all monsters our locations. Once a demigod starts to release that scent, you never really get a chance to use those things again, unless you want to die a painful death.¡±

    ¡°NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY? WHY HAS GOD FORSAKEN MEEEEEEEEEEEE?¡± The horror! THE HORROR!!! I should have just let Kenny eat me!A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°You¡¯re so over dramatic! It¡¯s not a big deal. While we don¡¯t have the internet, we do have other fun things like a normal camp would, plus a lot of cool demigod stuff. You¡¯ll always be busy here, and once you find your niche, you¡¯ll always be having fun.¡± Luke was pretty confident. I¡¯m sure you can say stuff like that, if you¡¯re a sword wielding badass. I¡¯m just a fat¡ªahem, I mean big boned kid.

    ¡°That sounds like information that should also be in the orientation video.¡± Really? Did no one check that video before making it official?

    ¡°Probably.¡± Luke laughed. ¡°By the way, I have something that¡¯ll probably cheer you up a lot.¡±

    He handed me a newspaper. The headline was ¡°Foster Kid Missing after Brutal Attack by Local High School Football Team¡°. I read on.

    ¡°The Dales East High School football team was caught on video attacking 10 year old Krishna Khanna on his way to the library on the last day of school. According to bystanders and video evidence (posted on our site), Krishna was beaten to an inch of his life by the ringleader, Brent Cammings, and fellow football team members after they claimed the victim was a terrorist. The hate crime victim is known to have sustained at least multiple broken bones and suspected fractured skull. Video footage ends here. The football team and all bystanders state that they ran when large bears came on the scene in a frenzy. When people returned, nothing was there except bloodstains.

    I looked further into the story and discovered from sources at the school that Krishna has been a victim of bullying at the school for the entire year. It seems there are numerous cases when the school has purposely covered up incidents because athletes receiving college sports scholarships. It also appears that these cases may have been simultaneously covered up by the police. It turns out, some of the people on the team, such as Brent Cammings, are children of current police officers. These officers are currently now under investigation from Internal Affairs for possible tampering. I have been also assured that school faculty and administration will be investigated and charged by the authorities in the future. Making sure our children are safe in schools is extremely important.

    At this time, the culprits are being charged with assault, attempted murder, hate crimes, and if Krishna isn¡¯t found, possible manslaughter. No matter how the cards fall, none of them will be receiving any sort of college scholarship, and have already been denied entry to numerous colleges across the country.

    The search for young Krishna Khanna continues, but as each hour passes, hope grows dimmer. If anyone has any information, please contact the authorities immediately.¡±

    I didn¡¯t know what to think, except all of those people deserve what¡¯s coming to them. ¡°Bears? Where did they get bears from?¡±

    ¡°The mist is a powerful thing.¡± Lake was solemn. ¡°People can¡¯t accept what they see of our world, so they think of other things that might be true, and the mist fills in the dots. Eventually, what they are saying becomes the truth.¡±

    ¡°Huh. Cool.¡± I was feeling pretty good. ¡°I hope they all suffer for the rest of their lives. But wait, what about me? I¡¯m okay. Shouldn¡¯t we tell people?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. The mist will make it so everyone knows you¡¯re okay, and not declared dead.¡± Luke seemed pretty confident. I guess they¡¯ve been through this before.

    ¡°That¡¯s great. I wouldn¡¯t want to be dead to the world.¡± I don¡¯t know how I¡¯d fix everything if I was declared dead.

    We went back to grab lunch. The food here always improves my mood. It¡¯s just tastes so good and clean. Apparently, eating food that has not gone through all of that processing makes it better. Add in the fact that divine intervention helped grow and raise everything, the food could only be described as heavenly. I think I would be a demigod just for the food here. Seriously. I¡¯m ok with living with the threat of monsters over my head if I get to eat like this all the time. Well, if we¡¯re being real, my time in the camp is heaven compared to before. Even the crowded cabin eleven doesn¡¯t feel so bad.

    As the days passed along, I learned new things about the camp every day. I thought that we wouldn¡¯t have school, but it turns out we do. It¡¯s just considered homeschooling. We take a couple of hours each day to learn material to prep for our high school diplomas. Other time was spent on combat training, daily chores to keep the camp running, and free time. I got to do all sorts of things, like combat training to swimming peacefully in the lake. I was having some good times. Sure, some of the chores sucked, like cleaning up the camp, or mucking the stables. It was better to do that though, than to tick off the various camp inhabitants. Also, I couldn¡¯t really be trusted to do anything, because, although I didn¡¯t completely suck at all things demigod, it was pretty close. They could only put me down for some manual labor jobs that didn¡¯t require any special talents.

    Today, I saw that my task for the day was to work in the strawberry fields. Apparently, they decided that I needed to be in a nice and beautiful environment. Also, protecting the camp borders from monsters was not going to be my thing anytime soon. Oh no, I don¡¯t get to keep lookout at the border with other warriors in camp. What will I ever do? I guess I¡¯ll just have to live with picking and eating delicious strawberries. Poor me. I rolled my eyes.

    While I was in the grove, I was surprised to see that there were quite a few people who were assigned to the area. Turns out, there¡¯s a lot of work that goes on in the background of the camp. We are fairly self-sufficient in terms of food and water, but we still have to pay the government taxes on property and other random things that we buy from outside. Apparently, even the gods have to pay taxes to keep up appearances. It wouldn¡¯t do for people to actually come here and check out the place, not that they would be able to find it. Still, we wouldn¡¯t want all of the surrounding land we own to be bought out, and then people wondering why there¡¯s a region that exists that no one can enter. That would be really awkward.

    Anyways, it turns out that I wasn¡¯t going to be picking strawberries like I thought. It¡¯s mainly Demeter¡¯s and Dionysus¡¯s kids who do that. I guess kids of the Goddess of Agriculture would know the perfect time to pick berries for maximal profits. It turns out, the fields need to have fresh fertilizer placed every other day throughout the fields. The strawberries grow back really fast after we pick them, and they require plenty of nutrients. Guess where I get the fertilizer from? It¡¯s the Pegasus herd pens. Great. I guess now I know why people like guard duty.

    Although the pegasi are fun to watch, I have to shovel and wheel over all of the manure to the fields where others will take over. I think the Demeter kids can even make that process spreading manure go way faster with their demigod powers. I don¡¯t know whether I should feel impressed or not. On one hand, you have powers, but on the other hand, its farming powers. Part of which might allow you to use poop faster¡­I just don¡¯t know.

    On the bright side, the satyrs promised to teach me how to play their magic music after I finish today. That seems useful to get rid of the bugs. What? We live outdoors, in a camp. There are a lot of bugs. After I finished my chore for the day, I went to find the satyrs, who pointed me to a guy named Jonny.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re wasting my time! I know you won¡¯t be able to learn how to do this. Humans aren¡¯t in tune with nature.¡± Jonny, my temporary satyr teacher, was pretty condescending.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt to try.¡± I tried to persuade him politely. ¡°You never know.¡±

    ¡°Of course, I know! All Satyrs know! You humans are always cutting down forests and polluting nature. You don¡¯t even deserve to learn how to do this! I¡¯m just doing this because I lost a bet. I lost the insect repelling competition today, so I have to be the one to teach you!¡± Yes Jonny, I get it, you are a jerk. I know. Clearly, we all know why you¡¯re stuck in a random corner of the strawberry fields, instead of doing anything that requires human interaction.

    ¡°What, am I supposed to apologize for all of humanity?¡± If he¡¯s going to be difficult, I¡¯m going to be difficult right back.

    ¡°Maybe you should try to recycle for a change! I can tell you don¡¯t! It¡¯s written all up in your aura. I can¡¯t believe I have to spend my time teaching an unrepentant nature wreaker!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t take it personally Krishna. He hates all humans.¡± One of the passing satyrs decided to explain ¡°helpfully¡± as the group watched us from afar giggling. Clearly, they felt watching this would lead to some entertainment.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t recycle. We don¡¯t have that where I live.¡± Let¡¯s get this thing moving. I don¡¯t want to be preached to all day.

    He rolled his eyes and huffed at me. ¡°Whatever, I don¡¯t have all day for this. Watch my fingers and play this tune.¡± As I listened, I got annoyed really fast.

    ¡°That¡¯s Mary had a little lamb! Teach me something cooler! I heard you playing the imperial march from star wars earlier! Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t see you!¡±

    ¡°Shut up!!! This isn¡¯t a musical lesson! Go learn how to play instruments from someone else! This is an easy tune, so you can focus more on the magic. Even if in the unlikely scenario you have some talent performing magic, that isn¡¯t enough for you to learn nature magic. Not only do you have to be able to use magic, but you have to commune with nature! Hmph! Even experienced satyrs have problems doing this and we¡¯re already in tune with nature! You don¡¯t look like you have talent, and you¡¯re definitely not in tune with nature.¡± He sighed. ¡°Just be quiet, and do what I say. Play that song 10 times in a row, or until you know you won¡¯t mess up.¡±

    I spent the next 20 minutes playing the tune over and over again. I really was not good at this, but I managed to get a hang of things. I¡¯m glad that he didn¡¯t actually teach me the imperial march now. I might take a few weeks before I could get that song down.

    ¡°Good. Now concentrate on the music, and nothing but the music. Then, as you play, slowly but gradually shift your concentration from the music to placing a message into the music. Ask the ants to gather. Ask, don¡¯t command. Make sure your emotions are completely clear. There can be no intent to harm in your message. I don¡¯t expect you to succeed, but I hope you will try your hardest.¡±

    I did try hard. I played the song quietly on my recorder over and over again, focusing on the song, and then trying to send a message. I don¡¯t know how many times I failed. I think Jonny tried to stop me a couple of times, but I refused and kept going. This was about learning some magic. I was going to try until I couldn¡¯t do it anymore. I took some short rests in between, and kept playing. It wasn¡¯t working.

    Maybe I was missing something. Maybe it wasn¡¯t just enough to think about the message, but I had to send it into the music too. I started thinking about sending out the message into the magic, and something just clicked. I kept playing until someone shook me.

    Jonny had an amazed look on his face. ¡°Look!¡±

    In front of me was a small swarm of ants, lined up in rows like a mini army. There weren¡¯t that many, but there were a couple hundred ants! I did it!

    ¡°You¡¯re doing it! Oh my god, you are doing it! This is flippin¡¯ unbelievable! Everyone! He¡¯s doing it!¡± He turned to me. ¡°Quick! Keep playing before the epiphany leaves you! Now is the best time to learn!¡± Jonny urged me on excitedly. ¡°Dear Pan! I¡¯ve taught a human nature magic!¡±

    So I sat back down and I play some more, and soon I felt like a dam broke open. All of a sudden, it was like I could suddenly see and hear more around me. As I played my music, I could feel myself slowly becoming more in tune with nature. The chirping of the birds, rustle of the leaves, earthworms in the dirt. I could feel everything around me. It was amazing! My entire perception of nature had completely changed, and with it, the song I was playing changed. I allowed the feelings to move my fingers however they wanted to go. I felt free.

    As I sat there, I sensed it. I don¡¯t know how to describe it, but you could say it was like the heartbeat of nature. I slowly but surely felt my own heart beat in tune with it, and it was amazing. I felt like my soul had been purified. All of my worries just melted away. The song I was playing changed once again. I felt like I could do anything¡ªeven talk to the trees. I called some birds, squirrels, ducks, and even a few deer over to play for a little while. I tried to talk to some trees, but they were busy in their own meetings. Something about some wood nymph playing some practical joke that hurt another one¡¯s feelings. Anyways, it felt like I should stop. I probably made those poor satyrs sit and watch me for hours!

    I came out of my trance to see the entire camp surrounding me from a distance. What the heck was everyone doing here? There was a large group of satyrs keeping them at a distance. I was surrounded by a bunch of nymphs I had never seen before in camp. Where the heck did they all come from? Apparently all of the campers were here too. Many of them had happy and content looks on their faces, like they had experienced one of the happiest moments of their lives. On the other hand, many of the satyrs were crying.

    ¡°Uhhh¡­Jonny, what¡¯s going on? Why is everyone here? Why are you crying?¡±

    Jonny looked at me with surprise. He had tear streaks running down his face clearly been crying for a while. ¡°You don¡¯t know what happened? You don¡¯t know what you did?¡±

    ¡°What did I do? Oh crap! Did I accidentally summon an army of animals that ended up destroying the camp? No, they wouldn¡¯t have those goofy looks on their faces then. But the satyrs are crying and all of these nymphs are here¡­NO! Oh no! Did I destroy the forest? I swear I was just summoning some ants¡­well, some birds too¡­and squirrels¡­and rabbits¡­and other stuff. I thought they just played around me a little and then left.¡±

    ¡°No Krishna, nothing was destroyed. It was they song you started playing. It drew everyone over and made us remember what true peace was again. The only way you could do that is if you¡­you ¡­you comprehended the heart of nature!¡±

    ¡°¡­.Yeah¡­so?¡± That was anticlimactic. I felt like he was going to say something shocking. Clearly, I felt the heartbeat. So what? Isn¡¯t that what he was trying to teach me?

    Jonny looked like he was going to explode. He pointed his shaking finger at me. ¡°You! You¡­you¡­imbecile! This is why I can¡¯t stand humans!¡± He ended up storming off. I heard him yelling things like ¡°Heart of nature¡±, ¡°why him¡±, ¡°stupid humans¡±, ¡°doesn¡¯t know anything¡±, and ¡°he¡¯s going to give me a stroke¡±. If I wasn¡¯t surround by the entire camp, I would have broken down laughing. Instead, I¡¯m just really confused.

    Chiron cantered over and looked at me strangely. ¡°How did you comprehend the heart of nature?¡±

    ¡°I just did what Jonny told me to do. Why is that such a big deal?¡±

    Chiron just rolled his eyes. ¡°Of course is it. Even feeling the heart of nature is rare for a satyr, forget a demigod. You went a step further. You matched your heartbeat to nature! That happens only once every few centuries to a satyr. Never to a demigod¡­or at least, it has only ever happened to Demigods of Pan, the god of the wild, back in the day.¡±

    I felt a bit of shock. ¡°Are you saying my Godly parent is Pan? That sounds kind of cool. Yeah! I can live with that!¡± Thank god I¡¯m not a demigod of Hades or Aphrodite or something. That would suck.

    ¡°No Krishna, you aren¡¯t his son. Pan is also the god of satyrs. If you were his son, every satyr in the world would have found you much earlier, because you would smell like nature. Your scent would have drawn the searchers like a ship to a lighthouse. No, I¡¯m afraid your godly parent is someone else¡­someone like¡ª¡°

    Suddenly, they was a bright light that appeared over my head. There were a pair of torches surrounded by a silver glow.

    ¡°All hail Krishna Khanna, Son of Hecate, Goddess of Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, the Mist,and Crossroads.¡± Chiron intoned.

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5

    ¡°Hecate?¡± Who¡¯s Hecate? I don¡¯t feel like I¡¯ve heard of this God before.

    ¡°Goddess of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, crossroads, trivial knowledge, necromancy, and ghosts among other things,¡± Chiron helpfully supplied.

    ¡°My mom is my godly parent?¡± Well, I guess that¡¯s one mystery solved. Damn, I can already feel myself getting pissed. Calm down, Krishna, calm down. One day, I will track her down, and I will get answers. Then I¡¯m going to track down my deadbeat dad and punch him in the face. Obviously I can¡¯t punch a god in the face, so my dad is going to have to take most of the punishment.

    The uproar slowly calmed down, and people started congratulating me from all over the place. Apparently, being claimed is a bigger deal than I thought.

    Once everything settled down, I had a new question for Chiron.

    ¡°So, now that I¡¯ve been claimed¡­where do I live? I notice a distinct lack of a Hecate Cabin...¡±

    ¡°No worries there. Except for the 12 Olympians, all of the other god¡¯s children stay in the Hermes Cabin.¡±

    ¡°What? Why? Why don¡¯t we have our own cabin? Or a cabin for all of the other claimed and unclaimed children that aren¡¯t children of the 12 Olympians? Hove you noticed how crowded it is in that cabin? We literally have a bunch of empty cabins. The Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon cabins are empty. I hear Artemis uses her cabin sometimes, so I guess that¡¯s still somewhat alright. Yet we are all shoved into that little area? I swear there isn¡¯t even enough room for everyone¡¯s stuff!¡±

    Chiron just sighed. ¡°Yes, everyone who has ever gone through this camp has noticed that, Krishna. The Hera Cabin has always been empty, but Zeus and Poseidon used to have many more children. They just don¡¯t anymore. But, the gods¡­well¡­they are busy with other pursuits, and much of the time¡­well, they just don¡¯t care about the other gods they rule over.¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t we just, you know, build another cabin ourselves? Compared to the other ones here, we could easily build a simple cabin to fit the rest of us. It¡¯s not like the gods will help make them anyways.¡±

    Thunder rumbled in the sky. Weird. Yes, I am ignoring you, father of Mr. D.

    ¡°The Olympians don¡¯t feel the other gods deserve their own cabins.¡± Chiron looked like this conversation was making him age. ¡°Also, the gods like to feel superior to others, even other gods. Although humans may have learned democracy from the gods, they don¡¯t always practice what they preach.¡±

    Great. Just¡­great. I have to deal with this crap now. Apparently all people aren¡¯t equal. So much for Greek democracy. Turns out it was just bullshit. ¡°Do as I say, not as I do?¡± I didn¡¯t realize that this was just one of many hypocritical things that the gods did.

    I went back to the Hermes Cabin, and I didn¡¯t realize what was brewing until I got there. Many of the kids were staring at me, looking sullen. It was strange.

    ¡°I bet you think you¡¯re better than us now, don¡¯t you, Krishna?¡± one of the campers, Tori, sneered at me.

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± It was at this moment that I realized that none of the campers in front of me had congratulated me at the strawberry fields.

    ¡°It must be so nice to have parents that want you. You haven¡¯t even been here for that long, and your godly parent has claimed you.¡±

    ¡°Why would that matter? It¡¯s not like anything has changed¡­¡±

    She didn¡¯t even listen as she ranted at me. ¡°Some of have been living in this cabin for years, just waiting to be claimed. I bet you¡¯re looking down on us just like the rest of the other campers.¡± She walked up to me and poked me on the chest. ¡°What makes you so special that your mom claimed you? Dammit! Why haven¡¯t our parents claimed us? Why don¡¯t they want us? If they didn¡¯t want us, why did they have us?¡±

    None of the others in the room said anything out loud, but their accusing glares said it all. I had nothing to say. They knew I didn¡¯t do anything wrong, but they needed to vent all of their frustrations. I understood. I didn¡¯t like it, but I understood. After all, for all I knew, my mom could have had other kids right in this room, and I wouldn¡¯t even know.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why my mom claimed me. I¡¯ll tell you what is suspicious though. She didn¡¯t claim me until after I comprehended the heart of the forest. Not before. Who knows what that means?¡±

    ¡°So you saying we should figure out a way to do something as flashy or impressive as you so our parents will claim us?¡± Tori seemed to perk up along with a lot of the other campers.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. It couldn¡¯t hurt. Maybe if you do something you¡¯re good at really well, your parent will claim you. I just want to say something though. If you have to accomplish something big just for your parent to notice you, do you even want them in your life at all?¡±

    ¡°What? Why would you say that?¡± Tori was stunned.

    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know why your parents haven¡¯t claimed you. Maybe they have a reason, or maybe they¡¯re just douchebags. From what I¡¯ve learned about the gods so far, it¡¯s probably ¡®douchebag¡¯. You aren¡¯t mad at me. You¡¯re mad at your parents. You¡¯re wondering why your mom or dad hasn¡¯t claimed you. Let¡¯s look from another perspective. I¡¯ve been claimed. So what? Did my mom come to see me? No. Nothing has changed except I know now that I¡¯m probably good at magic, if my performance earlier wasn¡¯t obvious enough. So really, nothing has changed at all.¡± Some of the kids snickered at that.

    All of the kids were thinking about what I said and many of them looked like I kicked their puppy. ¡°But wanting to be claimed is all we have left. What do we do, if we don¡¯t wait for our parents anymore?¡± Tori looked like she had lost everything.

    ¡°Live for your family here at the camp. Live for yourselves. This is our home. That isn¡¯t going to change even if you¡¯re claimed. The gods care about us in general, which is why there is a camp at all¡ªjust not enough to spend time with us or take care of us. Become strong. Take care of your brothers and sisters. Compared to the dangers we face, the gods don¡¯t do much to protect us. We have to protect ourselves. If the unclaimed know anything, it¡¯s that the gods aren¡¯t that reliable. We have to protect ourselves. We¡¯re not just some random kids. Our story is just beginning.¡±

    I could see that I was getting to some of them, and that others were listening to me, but didn¡¯t want to change their beliefs. It was time to throw in a little bit of incentive. ¡°Have any of you tried to figure out who your godly parents are your own?¡±

    ¡°Of course we have.¡± Another one of the campers snorted. ¡°We can¡¯t figure it out ourselves. We tried asking Chiron and he didn¡¯t know either. We would ask Mr. D, but¡­well, you know. He¡¯s more likely to turn us into grapes, than actually help.¡±

    I rolled my eyes at them. ¡°Of course they aren¡¯t going to tell you anything! The gods aren¡¯t going to rat on other gods! We were all born out of random affairs the gods had! You think they¡¯re just going to come out and say, ¡°Hey everyone, I cheated on my eternal husband or wife with some random human and had a kid¡±? Get real! You¡¯re not going to get squat from them.

    You¡¯re going have to do things the old fashioned way, with good old detective work. For example, do what I did, and try different things. Learn new skills and find out what you guys are talented at. I went through swordplay, archery, basket weaving, cooking, horseback riding, lock-picking, swimming, canoeing, and all sorts of other stuff before I found out I was good at magic. Are you guys telling me that you can¡¯t narrow down a list who your parents are based on building up some evidence and process of elimination? Are you guys seriously telling me that there aren¡¯t books in camp detailing the powers of each type of demigod throughout history? Try everything out and build a list of who your god could be. Eventually, you will get the chance to find out. Even if it take years, it¡¯ll come out.¡±

    Everyone¡¯s eye slowly brightened. Hook, line and sinker. I knew this cabin would go crazy for a while, and then they would slowly settle down and feel better.

    ¡°Heck, I bet the Athena Cabin would love to help you guys do stuff like that in their free time. They always look bored. No doubt, if you get them on board, they¡¯d probably look up a bunch of stuff, and create a process to test out what you¡¯re good at and narrow things down for you guys.¡± I decided to throw the Athena Cabin under the bus. Better them than me doing all of this work. Plus, they would probably be good at it.

    For the first time since I¡¯d been in this cabin, I felt like there was some good positive energy flowing. I didn¡¯t notice it before, but it was stale in here before. Like, it was nice to be around other people like me and I felt like I belonged, but since things were so new for me, I didn¡¯t notice it before. The guests of Cabin Eleven were kind of dead on the inside. They were always pitied and looked down upon by others.

    The difference between before and now was shocking. It was like everyone had a reason to get up in the morning. I helped put life back into Cabin Eleven.

    Luke approached me smiling. ¡°You did well Krishna. You did really well. Normally the unclaimed just go from one day to another like zombie, stuck in their anger and hate. You showed them hope. Hope that I could never give them. And I¡¯m ashamed to say that I never thought to do those things. No, that¡¯s not true. The idea always comes up between us every once in a while. We all thought about maybe doing something along those lines for the other kids, but it never happened. Something would always come up.¡±

    He looked around at the excited kids in the cabin and sighed. ¡°You haven¡¯t been around for long Krishna, but living here isn¡¯t that peaceful. We have to fight and work just to stay alive almost every day of our lives. It gets too exhausting for older campers like me to take care of everything. If you haven¡¯t noticed, there aren¡¯t many actual adults here, other than Chiron. If you somehow can¡¯t tell, Mr. D doesn¡¯t really want to be here, and doesn¡¯t really care about us, or what we do beyond following the rules. The satyrs and nymphs also aren¡¯t exactly greatly reliable. Sure, they help with a bunch of different camp functions, but they aren¡¯t exactly qualified to raise demigods. As for us, well, eventually we all grow up and leave camp sooner or later, otherwise we slowly go crazy. We should have done what you thought of years ago. If the unclaimed want something, they need to put in the work themselves.¡±

    Luke seemed to reminisce about something and then his eyes hardened. ¡°Sometimes, I forget that every single one of us is a demigod. There¡¯s no such thing as a demigod with an easy life. In the end, we can only count on ourselves to make it through. Thank you, Krishna, for reminding me that kids can do things, too. I had forgotten that after I threw myself into my training. I¡¯ll go talk to the Athena Cabin, and we can get things rolling.¡±

    As Luke walked away, he did say one more thing. ¡°There is one thing that you got wrong.¡±

    I was a bit shocked by his impromptu admissions that I almost didn¡¯t register what he said. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Being claimed by your godly parent does mean something. It means that your godly parent considers you as family. They might not help with anything and sometimes even ruin your life, but they¡¯re still your mom or dad.¡± That last part sounded bitter to me, but maybe I was just imagining things.

    Annabeth found me later for a talk. Needless to say, it was depressing.

    ¡°Look Krishna, I know you¡¯re probably feeling really good about being claimed, and trying to help the unclaimed figure out their parents. I¡¯m sorry to have to be the one to do this but I¡¯m going to have to burst your bubble.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Is she always a Debbie Downer?

    ¡°Look, what your asking is really difficult. Just randomly testing out everyone isn¡¯t going to tell us who their father is.¡±

    ¡°I know that it¡¯s possible that it won¡¯t lead them anywhere, but isn¡¯t it better than doing nothing?¡±

    Annabeth hesitated. ¡°Look, you¡¯re new so you don¡¯t really know things around here. Luke should have told you, because he knows the real reason why we don¡¯t usually try too hard to figure out their parents. He just decided to ignore it because the unclaimed stay in his cabin, and can¡¯t take their attitudes anymore. I don¡¯t want to be the one to fill you in, but I¡¯m one of the senior campers here so I¡¯m going to do it.¡±

    ¡°Alright.¡± Their attitudes?

    ¡°You know how if they were a child of one of the Olympians, they would have been claimed fairly fast?¡±

    ¡°You mean one of the Twelve Gods?¡± I had been learning a lot of stuff over the last month. The twelve Olympians consist of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus.

    ¡°Exactly. Since they weren¡¯t claimed, they¡¯re more likely to be child of a minor god. You have to remember, gods aren¡¯t like us. They don¡¯t really get ashamed of their affairs. They might have fights about them with their spouse, but they don¡¯t feel ashamed. So if a minor god doesn¡¯t claim their child soon, it¡¯s probably because they don¡¯t care about them.

    As a result, when one of those demigods do get claimed, it¡¯s usually for one reason. It¡¯s because they need something. They need us to perform a quest or help them with something in their domain that they can¡¯t handle themselves. It¡¯s usually ends up tragic because these demigods, our family, don¡¯t usually survive their so called quests. None of us really said anything out loud, but we all just decided on our own unanimously to protect them from their parents. To us, it is better that they never know who their parent is, than have our family die attempting to please them and earn their love.¡± Annabeth patiently explained it all to me.

    We were silent for a while. I thought hard about what I wanted to say.

    ¡°That¡¯s bullshit.¡±

    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Annabeth was surprised at my response.

    ¡°You heard me.¡± I sneered at her. ¡°You don¡¯t really get how it feels to be ignored. Sure, you and me don¡¯t really meet our parents, but that¡¯s where the similarity ends.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°You know exactly what I¡¯m talking about, Annabeth, Daughter of the goddess of Wisdom. You should know exactly what I¡¯m talking about.¡±

    ¡°Enlighten me.¡± Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest.

    ¡°¡­I see. Seems like you¡¯ve avoided the truth. Look at the camp. What do you see?¡±

    ¡°I see the camp. Duh.¡± She rolled her eyes.

    ¡°No, what you see are the homes of the twelve Olympians and the campers that live in each of the cabins. What you all have seem to have forgotten about is the rest of us.

    ¡°What are you talking about? We always remember you guys!¡± Annabeth denied.

    ¡°Yeah, you always remember us when it¡¯s time to play capture the flag or do chores. I haven¡¯t seen it happening at other times. Forget it. That¡¯s not the point I¡¯m trying to get across.

    We are children borne from the minor gods. Most of us are unclaimed. You don¡¯t what it¡¯s like. As a demigod, we are forced to come here because we have no choice otherwise we¡¯ll be eaten by monsters. That¡¯s everybody. I get it. You get it. Everybody here gets that. Then we get shoved into Cabin eleven. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve been there. The thing is, you go to leave. You live in your nice cabin and have your own fancy area and space, knowing that your parent, even if they don¡¯t ever come see you, still know that you exist and accept you. You guys are so lucky. You all avoid thinking about one major thing. The unclaimed don¡¯t ever get to leave. No one has their own space. They¡¯re all crammed in there sharing the space to the point where no one actually has space. Not only are we stuck in this little camp bubble, but we are stuck in that place with no space or privacy. We can¡¯t even consider it home! We are the guests of Cabin Eleven. We weren¡¯t even given the courtesy of having our own place in this camp! On top of it all, their parents don¡¯t even want to accept responsibility for them. But for you guys, it¡¯s out of sight, out of mind.

    Hell, even if we do get claimed, we don¡¯t get to leave. Look at me! My mom claimed me! I still have to stay in cabin eleven! We don¡¯t ever get to leave and have our own place in camp. We live like second class citizens in this camp! So don¡¯t talk to me like you know what it¡¯s like here for us. You don¡¯t know anything!¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Annabeth stared at me impassively.

    I felt a little bad yelling at her, but she needed stop pretending like everything was okay the way it was. This was our lives they were messing with. It¡¯s one thing if the gods disregard us, but when our fellow campers ignore the difficulties we are going through, that¡¯s unacceptable. They should know what it¡¯s like to be ignored, and how bad that feels.

    ¡°I still think it is better to try our hardest than live like they are, hopeless and in despair. You can warn them about pattern of behavior that you¡¯ve noticed about their possible parents. If they don¡¯t believe you, let them discover the truth on their own. Eventually, everyone will know. You won¡¯t have to say anything.

    At the end of the day, even though they might hate their divine parent, at least they will know. They need a reason to live rather than wallow in anger, hatred, and despair. I reminded them that regardless of who their parent is, the camp is their family, and we need to stick together and protect each other no matter what. If they break because of this, then they break. There¡¯s nothing we can to but give them hope and try.¡±

    Annabeth sighed. ¡°Alright, fine. Have it your way, but don¡¯t say I didn¡¯t warn you.¡±

    ¡°Please. We both know why you really told me that.¡± Does she think I¡¯m an Idiot?

    ¡°Oh really?¡± Annabeth was surprised. ¡°And what might that be.¡±

    ¡°My mom is one of the minor gods, who just happened to claim me recently. You¡¯re worried about what she might want me to do.¡±

    ¡°Your mom just ¡°happened¡± to claim you right after you were able to connect to the Heart of Nature. That doesn¡¯t seem like a coincidence to you?¡±

    ¡°Of course it does Annabeth. But I can¡¯t stop living my life. My mom hasn¡¯t asked me to do anything yet, so maybe it¡¯s fine. Or maybe she¡¯ll ask me to do a quest for her later. Who knows? Just because she asks me to jump off a cliff, doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯ll do it. After all, they did abandon me. I don¡¯t owe either of my parents anything.¡±

    Annabeth just stared at me impassively. ¡°Who knows? Gods are strange. What you think to be the truth might be completely different. Or it could be exactly like you thought. Regardless, just be careful.¡±

    ¡°Will do.¡± I nodded. Annabeth might be terribly depressing at times, but she cared for everyone at camp. Her warning was also well intentioned. I guess a lot of the older kids also knew about that, but didn¡¯t say anything. I guess they felt they didn¡¯t have the right to crush people¡¯s hopes.

    The next day, Athena¡¯s kids approached us all with a gleam in their eyes. I¡¯m just going to say it right now. I don¡¯t like those mad scientist crazy eyes. Apparently my idea was more popular than I realized. I gave a bunch of brainy people the ultimate puzzle. It was like giving crack to an addict. Pretty darn stupid. They got Chiron to cancel the non-essential activities for the day, so they could test everyone in camp. Apparently, they needed a control group from the currently claimed demigods for their experiments to build profiles, and then they would go from there.

    The testing lasted for about a month. Needless to say, I sucked at everything except for magic. Archery, canoeing, swordplay, spear work, blacksmithing, sensing emotions, prophecy, farming, elemental powers, and others were all a bust on my end. For others, it was enlightening. Apparently, even among demigods with the same parent, there were some differences in abilities. It was a bit more difficult to characterize groups because of this. On the other hand, many of the unclaimed kids had a better idea of what they were good at, and narrowed down their list a little of who their godly parent could be.

    At the end of the testing, the Athena kids promised that they would analyze the data, and look into more tests that they could perform to narrow things down further. They scurried off to go research all of the different gods and demigods and create a comprehensive flow chart to figure out the identities of the godly parents. All of the unclaimed went as well, as it was their request, and they needed to put in a lot of the work. The Athena Cabin could only help out, as they had their own responsibilities as well.

    One day, I woke up to a surprise visitor waiting for me outside. Luke quickly woke me up and took me outside to meet the visitor. It was a middle-aged African American woman with a square-jawed face, and buzz-cut gray hair that shimmered like frost. She was muscular with broad shoulders and dark, well-sculpted arms. I¡¯d never seen this person around camp before. I wondered what she wanted.

    ¡°Hey there! How are you doing?¡± She greeted me pretty enthusiastically. ¡°I¡¯m Josephine! Nice to meet you!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Krishna. Nice to meet you too!¡± Ugh. Morning people.

    ¡°I bet your wondering who I am! I¡¯m your half-sister! Surprise!¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°What?¡± Half-sister? What rock did she crawl out from?

    ¡°Yup! I currently am at the Waystation in Indianapolis! If you¡¯re ever there, stop by!¡±

    ¡°No! No no no no no! Let go back to where you¡¯re my half-sister! Which parent? Are we talking magic goddess or dad?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Hecate of course! I¡¯d never have been able to find this place if we had the same dad! I¡¯d be mortal then! I mean, unless your dad hooked up with more than one goddess, but that¡¯s super unlikely. Even gods don¡¯t go there. Probably. There¡¯s no absolutes with the gods.¡± She seemed really nice and happy. I wonder if all children of Hecate are like that. I think I would like to have siblings like that.

    ¡°There¡¯s a couple of us all over the world. We can usually survive outside of camp because of our magic, unlike many of the other demigods. If you¡¯re lucky, maybe you¡¯ll run into some of the others! We¡¯re¡­an interesting bunch. Let¡¯s leave it at that. Mother sent me because I¡¯m the most normal of the rest of us.¡±

    ¡°Hecate sent you?¡± What? Don¡¯t expect me to call her mom. She¡¯s got a lot of explaining and making up to do before that happens.

    Josephine looked at me reprovingly. I could tell she knew exactly what was going on in my mind. ¡°Mother sent me here to go over some very important business with you. What we talk about will change your life permanently. I hope you¡¯re ready.¡±

    That got my attention. Man, she¡¯s just gonna lay it on me there, huh? ¡°What business does Hecate have with me?¡±

    She frowned. ¡°Address mother appropriately. You are being extremely rude. Mother deserves your respect. She hasn¡¯t done anything wrong.¡±

    I scoffed at her. ¡°She hasn¡¯t done anything wrong? Where has she been my entire life? Why didn¡¯t she come herself, instead of going through you? I don¡¯t know what your life was like when you were younger, but my life hasn¡¯t been all rainbows and unicorns. If mother really cared, she would have been there for us¡ª¡°

    It was at that point that Josephine slapped me hard in the face. To say I was stunned would be understating the matter.

    ¡°You stupid little brat! Stop being so spoiled! Everyone here has had a shitty life before they came here! You think my life was great? I was born before the Great Depression! You think life was easy being black? We were treated less than dirt! Don¡¯t talk to me about having a tough life! You don¡¯t know what it truly means to live a hard life!¡± The Great Depression? I didn¡¯t even know what or when that was. How old is she?

    ¡°You can¡¯t be that old!¡± I pretended to know what she was talking about. No need of a history lecture. She didn¡¯t buy it and rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Nice try. Great Depression was back in the 1930¡¯s. Look it up later. And, yes, you can live to be that old if you¡¯re a hunter of Artemis.¡± She looked at me proudly. Stop looking at me like I¡¯m supposed to know what that is.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± There was no getting around it, so I asked. Plus, knowing a place where I could live a longer life couldn¡¯t hurt.

    ¡°Artemis, Goddess of the Moon and Hunt, looks for girls to join her entourage. We gain limited immortality when we become hunters, in exchange for following her and hunting some of the worst monsters out there. We learn some crazy combat skills over time. It¡¯s pretty awesome!¡± Darn, she only takes girls? That sucks!

    ¡°Why¡¯d you leave?¡±

    ¡°Found myself a great girl, and we wanted to start a family. We left the mistress on good terms and are going to live the rest of our lives out as mortals.¡± She¡¯s gay? I have a gay half-sister. That¡¯s new.

    ¡°How does your family work? Is your wife a demigod too? Can two demigod women have a child? Is that some sort of magic demigod thing?¡±

    She looked at me like I was crazy. ¡°Errr¡­I¡¯m really not ready to go over the whole ¡®birds and the bees¡¯ thing with you.¡±

    ¡°Learned it already.¡± I corrected her.

    ¡°Thank god¡­¡± She looked extremely relieved. ¡°Oh no. We are going to adopt when we are ready. Hemithea is a former princess turned minor goddess turned hunter of Artemis. Basically, she¡¯s way older than me. She¡¯s the best¡ªHey! I was busy yelling at you! You sidetracked this conversation, you sneaky little brat!¡±

    Aww busted.

    ¡°Look. Mother is a god. You can¡¯t treat her like she is a human. Gods don¡¯t take care of their demigod kids. It just doesn¡¯t happen. If they did, they would slowly go insane. We die. If they love us too much, they¡¯d try everything they can to make us immortal or gods.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound so bad to me.¡± I¡¯d be a god!

    ¡°Yeah, until you remember that our parents wouldn¡¯t stop having children with humans in the future. There would be more and more people who don¡¯t die. On top of that, all of us would have children too, and then we would want them to live forever, too. Basically, that cycle would go on and on. It was decided very early that mortals stay with mortals, otherwise it would lead to strife.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°I guess that¡¯s true. As if this world needs more and more gods, especially if it means becoming like them. But that doesn¡¯t excuse Hecate for never being there for me.¡±

    She looked at me strangely, and then grinned. ¡°I won¡¯t pretend that all gods take care of their children, but do you really think that mother hasn¡¯t been watching out for you?¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Do you think you would have survived out there if mother wasn¡¯t watching over you? Who do you think was moving you house to house?¡±

    ¡°That was her? Why would she do that? Most of those places sucked!¡±

    ¡°She had to keep moving you because of your use of magic. Apparently you would use it all the time. And then you finally started manifesting as a demigod and were releasing your scent to monsters during that incident with the football players. You had to extracted and brought to camp.¡±

    ¡°But did they have to be all of those places? All of my foster parents¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, the worse those humans were, the more they could cover up your scent, if necessary. Mother has been watching out for you since you were born. When those monsters finally caught up to you, who do you think sent O¡¯Riley to you? It was mother! Otherwise, how could a satyr find you so easily in the city? You made grass grow nearby and mother attracted him over with some fake scent of Pan.¡±

    She¡¯s¡­been watching out for me? That¡­that can¡¯t be right. Everyone here said that the gods don¡¯t really care about us. It¡¯s so unexpected after everything. I don¡¯t know what to think. Who should I believe?

    ¡°I know it¡¯s hard to believe, but it¡¯s true. Mother cares about all of us, and does as much as she is able to without breaking the rules. She has claimed most of her children in the past that have made it to the camp and discovered their heritage. She claimed me and others that I have seen. If you¡¯re mad that you¡¯ve never seen her, join the club. Most demigods rarely see their parents and talk to them. I¡¯m much older than you and I¡¯ve seen her like ten times, and eight of those times I was with the Hunters and mother came to see Artemis. She talked to me a little as an afterthought those times.¡±

    I hesitated. ¡°But if¡­mom¡­ needs to talk to me about something, why didn¡¯t she come personally? Why did she ask you?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good question.¡±

    HOLY CRAP! That startled me. A woman dressed in white robes with lavish silver designs that looked like weird symbols walked out of some mist. Her dark hair barely came down to her shoulders and there was agreen shimmerthatsurrounded her like an aura. She was also holding two torches that she slowly let go and they floated around her. They looked just like the symbol that was over my head earlier this week¡­could it be?

    ¡°Hello, mother.¡± Josephine smiled. ¡°Planning on taking over, now that Krishna has accepted you as his mother?¡±

    Hecate looked somehow both exasperated and lovingly at Josephine as the same time. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll take it from here, dear. Feel free to go back to your¡­machines.¡±

    ¡°Machines? But isn¡¯t she a¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes dear, she is my daughter, but with the way she acts, you¡¯d think she was one of Hephaestus¡¯s kids. She¡¯s pretty good at building things with her magic, so if you ever need help learning that, she¡¯d be a great teacher.¡±

    Josephine nodded her head. ¡°I may not be that good at magic, but when it comes building stuff with it, I¡¯m pretty good. Anyways, I¡¯m going to take a walk. You guys talk. I¡¯ll come back once you guys are done. Call me if you need any help!¡± She hugged us and left. For that 20 minute talk, she travelled all the way over here from Indianapolis. I have a great sister. I¡¯m not sure I would have done that for her. I owe her big time. She set me straight big time. If she didn¡¯t tell me the truth, I might have always thought no one cared about me.

    I was alone with Hecate now. The irony was that I literally gave a speech about how it didn¡¯t matter whether your godly parent actually claimed you. I had said nothing changed because I¡¯d never met her- and now she literally appeared a few weeks later.

    ¡°You created a bit of a fuss back home you were staying at when you left,¡± she laughed.

    ¡°Should I call them or send them a letter saying I¡¯m okay?¡± I just realized that life was still going on outside of this place and I never checked if everything was considered resolved with my situation.

    ¡°No need. I took care of it. I do that for every demigod that makes it here. They think you were rescued by someone and brought to a special home to accommodate your needs, which is true, just not what they believe.¡± Hecate chuckled to herself. ¡°Also, don¡¯t worry. All those people are going to get exactly what they deserve.¡± Wow, that sound a little dark when she said that. I wonder what she¡¯s planning for all of them.

    Then she got serious, looked at me solemnly and started talking. ¡°Let me start from the beginning. I am the goddess of magic, the mist, sorcery, witchcraft, crossroads, trivial knowledge, necromancy, and ghosts. I also represent the dark side of the moon, or the Harvest Moon. I am also associated with childbirth, nurturing the young, gates, walls, doorways, and sometimes even change. I am one of the few beings that can stay on the sky, earth or sea.

    Krishna, I¡¯ve come to you today because you have some choices to make. The decisions you make today will directly impact your fate. I cannot choose for you, even though I¡¯m your mother. I am the Goddess of Crossroads and I can¡¯t work against my nature. It is in my nature to make everyone make their own choices, no matter where it may lead. I¡¯m sorry, Krishna.¡±

    I made a face. ¡°Any hints?¡±

    ¡°Depends on what it is.¡± She smiled.

    ¡°So what I am making a decision on?¡± Just give it to me straight.

    ¡°You, Krishna, are very special. You know how you had strange things happening around you since you were born? That wasn¡¯t from your demigod abilities. Demigod abilities manifest later in life, around the time you hit puberty. Sometimes it happens even earlier if you¡¯re a very powerful demigod, like a child of Lords of the Sky, Sea, or Earth, or if something traumatic happened, like with your recent event. Those strange events occurred because you¡¯re a wizard Krishna. Your father is a wizard, too.¡±

    ¡°A wizard? Um¡­ok.¡± Her reveal was anticlimactic.

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Hecate was surprised.

    ¡°Well, I guess, I just don¡¯t know how being a demigod of the goddess of magic is different from being a wizard that can use magic. I mean, I can already do magic¡­so¡­yeah¡­¡± I shrugged.

    ¡°I see. Of course. As one of my children, you can manipulate the mist and learn divine magic. As a wizard, you can learn mortal magic. They have all sorts of interesting and convenient magic that you can learn and use. Some of the magic they do, we can¡¯t, and vice versa. They have their own fascinating world.¡±

    ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying is more magic?¡±

    Hecate sighed. ¡°Yes, it means more magic.¡±

    ¡°Cool. So do I get that from you or my dad?¡±

    ¡°From your father.¡±

    ¡°I see. So¡­who¡¯s my father? Can you tell me about him?¡± Tell me woman!

    Hecate just looked at me and sighed. ¡°One thing you have to understand, Krishna, is that my job is really stressful. I take care of many different functions for both the gods and mortals. I control the mist which separates the divine and mortal worlds. I also watch over the boundary between the living and the dead. Those are just two of my bigger jobs. I also perform other crucial tasks for the other gods. After all of that hard work, sometimes I need to blow off some steam and I go partying hard at some clubs. I was attracted to your father on one of those nights and we had a great time.

    I know you demigods believe that gods will have kids with just about anyone, but that isn¡¯t true. Having kids with humans is a part of our natures. We don¡¯t have children with just anyone. It can only be with someone that resonates very strongly with our domains. We don¡¯t get attracted to any random person. Your father was decisive and knew a lot of trivial knowledge so we were attracted like magnets.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you the goddess of magic? So you didn¡¯t hang out with him because of his magic?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s rare for a wizard to resonate with my domain. Although they have magic, it¡¯s different from my godly magic. I am not the god of their magic. Wizard magic actually somewhat repels me, strangely enough, instead of attracting me. Because I am a goddess of magic, I can feel all of the magic that they cast, and I know what¡¯s going on there, but that is the extent of my reach there. If not for the simple fact that they use magic, I wouldn¡¯t be able to even see what they are doing. The other gods can¡¯t even take a look. That¡¯s why you¡¯re special, Krishna. I¡¯ve only had a child with a wizard twice in my entire existence. Even with all of the other gods combined, there have not been many demigod wizards.¡±

    I remained quiet.

    She continued. ¡°Anyways, after that night, I had you nine months later and left you with him. He was unable to accept that he was your father and left you on that street corner. Your father¡­well¡­he was young when we had you, and there are things about him you don¡¯t know. Don¡¯t blame him too much.¡±

    I didn¡¯t realize it until I felt the pain, but my fists were so tight that I cut my palms with my nails. I was just the product of a one night stand. My parents didn¡¯t love each other at all. Hecate casually healed my hands.

    She looked at me lovingly. ¡°Although I didn¡¯t intend to have you, it doesn¡¯t mean that I don¡¯t love you.¡±

    I felt the tears threatening to come out. ¡°But he didn¡¯t want me.¡±

    She opened her arms to me. ¡°Just let it all out dear.¡±

    I¡¯m not ashamed to say I went into her arms and cried like a baby. In my heart, I was hoping for a different reason. Like maybe he lost me, or I was kidnapped, or maybe he was dead. I wished he was actually dead so I wouldn¡¯t feel like this. I knew I should be happy that he exists, but I wasn¡¯t. I wished he wasn¡¯t out there. I wished he was gone. I hoped he hurt as bad as I hurt now. Hecate just kept holding me and trying to comfort me, even though I was ruining her dress. Eventually I was able to stop sobbing and calm down.

    She looked at me and tenderly asked, ¡°Are you feeling better?¡±

    I nodded. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m sorry for ruining your dress though. You came to talk, and you got me crying instead. Boys aren¡¯t supposed to cry.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the dress, dear. I¡¯d be a poor goddess of magic if I couldn¡¯t fix that in a split second.¡± The dress became clean with the bat of an eye. ¡°Sometimes, you just have to let it out, even if you¡¯re a boy. Otherwise it leads to unresolved issues, and you¡¯ll get enough of those as it is. No need for anger over daddy issues as well. I want you to move on with your life. You¡¯ll be happier for it.¡±

    I didn¡¯t know if I¡¯d actually move on, but now that I knew the truth, I wouldn¡¯t dwell on him as much.

    ¡°So if I¡¯m a wizard, now what?¡±

    ¡°Now you make your first decision, Krishna. You have to decide whether you want to be a wizard or not.¡±

    ¡°I can choose?¡± I didn¡¯t realize that was an option.

    ¡°You can choose, only because you are a demigod. Normal wizards don¡¯t have a choice. It¡¯s in their genes. You, however, are also a demigod.¡± Hecate snapped and a glowing blue potion appeared out of nowhere. ¡°This potion will allow your demigod genes to ¡°consume¡± your wizard genes. You can become 100% demigod if you want.¡±

    ¡°Why would I want to do that?¡± What¡¯s the point?

    ¡°Other than my selfish desire for you to only be my son? If you take the potion, your demigod power will become stronger. If you were another god¡¯s son, it would just slightly strengthen their corresponding abilities. You, though, are my son, and that makes all the difference. Putting it simply, your wizarding blood will ¡°eaten¡± by your demigod blood and your magic abilities will become more powerful. Your magic abilities will make you into an overnight celebrity in the camp and by all kinds of people in our world. You can stay in the camp all year around, and learn from the best instructors I can send to you. Perhaps, if you ever reach a high enough level, I might even teach you myself. Another advantage would be that you won¡¯t have to worry about the wizarding world, either. The mist will completely protect you from them, and vice versa. Your life will also be less complicated and I think you¡¯ll be happier for it.¡±

    ¡°Sounds great. What¡¯s the down side?¡± There¡¯s always a downside.

    ¡°You¡¯ll always feel that a part of you is missing. You¡¯ll never get to see the wonders of the wizarding world. You will be fully tied to our world.¡± She looked at me and sighed. ¡°You¡¯ll also never have a chance to meet and speak to your father.¡±

    ¡°My father?¡± My eyes widened.

    ¡°Yes, your father. Like I said, the mist helps to perfectly separate these worlds. If you drink this potion, you will never be able to step foot into the wizarding world and you will never meet your father, or any other wizard for that matter. I know you care about that a lot.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­No¡­That¡¯s¡­I¡­¡± I blindly tried to deny it, but I couldn¡¯t. Why was this affecting me so much? He abandoned me!

    ¡°I know, Krishna, I know. I¡¯ve watched you throughout your entire life. You think I don¡¯t understand how you feel?¡± She looked at me sadly.

    ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t¡­I wouldn¡¯t¡­¡± I whispered to myself, as if saying it made it true.

    I could¡­never meet my father if I took that potion? I thought I was okay with never meeting him after finding out that he clearly abandoned me on that corner. I thought that I wouldn¡¯t feel anything for him anymore. That I would be free of my feelings for him. I¡¯m such an idiot. Hecate easily tore my belief down with a few worlds. If mom didn¡¯t specifically mention that I¡¯d never get to meet that man, I¡¯d go on believing that I was in the process of moving on.

    What is wrong with me? I just¡­hate myself right now. I hate myself so much. I hate myself for wanting to meet him. I hate myself for wanting to talk to him. I hate myself for wanting to have a relationship with him. Most of all, I hate myself because, in a corner of my heart, I thought it would all come true¡ªthat I would have a happy ending. I keep forgetting what everyone keeps trying to tell me. Demigods don¡¯t have happy endings.

    Hecate just watched me impassively as I struggled with my thoughts and feelings.

    ¡°Yes, if you accept this chance, you will become a very powerful demigod, your life will be less complicated, and your life will probably be happier overall, but you will always be filled with regret. Regret that you didn¡¯t meet your father, and never told him how you feel. Regret that you didn¡¯t get to experience the wizarding world and all of its marvels. Finally, you will feel regret that you didn¡¯t have the courage to leave camp and spread your wings. You will always wonder, ¡®what if¡ª'' for the rest of your life.¡±

    ¡°Why am I like this mom? What is wrong with me?¡± Tears started rolling down my eyes.

    She just hugged me. ¡°He¡¯s your father, dear. Everyone wants to know their parents. It¡¯s not something you can help.¡±

    We just sat there in silence until I was able to continue.

    ¡°Are there any other reasons why I shouldn¡¯t take the potion?¡± I have to know. I can¡¯t hide from this forever.

    ¡°Other than possibly meeting your father, there are some important advantages and disadvantages. If you decide to remain a wizard, the most important rule is that they can never know about our world. Just like wizards hide their world from mortals, we hide our world from both mortals and wizards. They don¡¯t know about our world, and they never can. Keeping the truth from them usually requires actively lying about it and that can be draining. The mist takes care of demigod related problems with mortals and wizards, but you may have to watch out for the occasional person. They have Seers too and they might be able to see the truth about you¡ªno, you don¡¯t have the gift. Don¡¯t bother trying to learn it in the future. Anyways, you¡¯ll have to be careful.¡±

    I could understand that. I don¡¯t really want to be known as the only demigod among wizards anyways.

    ¡°What¡¯s the downside?¡± Like I said before, there¡¯s always a downside. ¡°Keeping secrets can¡¯t be the only downside.¡±

    ¡°One of downsides is that I won¡¯t be able to help with the wizarding aspect of your life as much as I would like. At most, I can give you some resources. You will have to do most of the learning yourself or through other means and will probably have to learn the practical side of wizard magic from them. You¡¯re also a demigod, so I¡¯m not sure whether you¡¯ll be able to easily overcome your dyslexia.¡±

    Oh crap. I didn¡¯t even think about that. Will I really be okay?

    ¡°On top of all of that, there is a much bigger problem. You have wizard blood and are capable of wizarding magic. You are extremely dangerous because wizarding magic can harm us.¡±

    ¡°So what? You guys are gods! That shouldn¡¯t be a problem. It¡¯s not like you guys will die from it¡­¡± I don¡¯t understand why this was a problem. A god should be able to survive anything thrown at them. That what makes them gods.

    ¡°You¡¯re dangerous because you can harm us, and we can¡¯t harm you directly with our godly powers. Your wizarding blood protects you from direct punishments from us.¡±

    ¡°What? How is that bad? That sounds like a great deal to me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s bad because Zeus thinks you¡¯re dangerous. And because of that, he wants you dead, and doesn¡¯t mind raising a horde of monsters to make that happen. The only reason he hasn¡¯t done it yet is because I told him if he does that, I will retaliate and make it so the mist believes that every child of Zeus is a mass murderer. I¡¯ll make it so they have no place in the world they can live outside of the camp. He won¡¯t be able to stop me either, as he is the God of Honor and Justice. The Fates will demand a price for acting against an innocent. In this case, all demigods of Zeus will be known as criminals for the unknown future.¡±

    ¡°That seems a bit harsh¡­¡± I know the guy wants to kill me, but all of his kids taking the punishment that should belong to him seems both unfair and extreme.

    ¡°He is our king and must lead by example. Should he betray his domain, the price exacted is numerous times more than normal. Just as I will suffer if he ends your existence, he must he suffer for ruining all of the lives of his children.¡±

    That is really unfair to them. I¡¯d just rather Zeus suffer if he kills me unjustly.

    ¡°This problem is the reason why my other demigod child that was also a wizard chose to drink the potion without hesitation. Why choose a life where the king of gods wishes to kill you? Instead, she chose to be a powerful sorceress respected by all, with numerous resources at her disposal. At her peak, she easily rivaled demigods of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Why bother with a world she might never truly fit in with?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I can understand that.¡±

    ¡°On the bright side, you will be a part of a third world. You¡¯ll be able to learn both divine magic and wizarding magic. You can learn to use magic in a different way from what we do here, and do different things. Your demigod abilities might make learning wizard magic easier, but that¡¯s unknown at this time, as my domain does not cover their magic. I¡¯m not sure how your abilities will develop, but I¡¯m sure it will be interesting and powerful in its own way.

    You will see things that you would have never suspected, just like in our world. You can gain precious resources to things we don¡¯t have here. The wizards are quite ingenious in their own way as you will learn.¡±

    I sat there thinking about what I should do.

    ¡°Have you made a decision? There¡¯s no other advice I can give you. I can¡¯t tell you more about the wizarding world either because it might influence your decision in a particular direction and to prevent any leaks about the wizarding world to the demigods at your camp. Sometimes you kids do stupid things and I bet someone will just try to seek out wizards just to see if they can. Of course, I¡¯m always the one doing the clean up after these major headache-inducing incidents.¡±

    In my heart, I already knew what I was going to choose. Taking the potion was tempting. Very tempting. I think it was made to be that way. In exchange for all of my dreams coming true, like being powerful and respected, all I would have to do is give up my wizarding half. Too bad, it isn¡¯t enough. I don¡¯t want to live with any regrets. A big part of me wants to meet my father, and another significant part of me wanted to learn another kind of magic and see more of this world. I could learn two different kinds of magic simultaneously, and maybe in the future, I would be able to truly protect myself from monsters and the gods.

    I took a deep breath before I relied to make it official. ¡°I don¡¯t want to drink that potion. I want to be a wizard.¡±

    Mother looked at me impassively. ¡°Are you sure? There is no going back. Once you are exposed to wizard magic that isn¡¯t your own, the potion will no longer work. You won¡¯t have a choice at that point.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m sure.¡± I was certain of my choice.

    She looked at me with both sadness and a hint of pride. ¡°I knew that you would choose that. You can¡¯t help it. You are too much like me. Although I know you want to meet your father, if that was the only reason, you would never have chosen it. The prospect of learning new unfamiliar magic excites you to your core. You also have your father¡¯s decisiveness. You have the ability to make a quick judgement and stick to it.¡±

    I was happy to be like my mother, but I had mixed feelings about being compared to my father. On one hand, it was a compliment, but on the other, she said I was like my father. It¡¯s like a backhanded compliment¡ªnice, but not really.

    ¡°Since you decided to remain a wizard, you don¡¯t need to hide it among campers. I¡¯ll just make the mist protections even tighter, so that that worlds don¡¯t meet.¡±

    I was glad. If I had to hide the wizarding world from demigods, and the divine world from the wizards, I think I would have gone crazy quickly.

    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve made your first choice, it is time for you to make another choice. Had you drank that potion, you wouldn¡¯t have to make another life altering decision, but since you didn¡¯t, here we are. Thankfully, this one should be much simpler.

    For your information, most wizards don¡¯t know how to control their magic, and have random bouts of accidental magic, just like you did as a child, when they get emotional. As a result, they have to go through an official school to learn how to use their magic and get certified. Wizards mainly learn magic in different boarding schools around the world if they want the best education.

    You have the choice of going to two different schools. The first one is Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on Mount Greylock in Massachusetts. You are an American, so you are already scheduled to join this school at the beginning of the next school year. It starts within a few weeks. It is a fine institution to learn wizard magic and all that it entails. Your other choice is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It¡¯s located somewhere in Scotland, Great Britain, on the other side of the Atlantic.¡±

    ¡°What? Why is that one of my choices?¡± It seems kind of random.

    My mother looked at me expressionlessly. ¡°Your father is from the Isles.¡±

    Ah. That would explain it.

    ¡°If you go to Hogwarts, you have a chance of meeting your father. If you don¡¯t, it doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t meet him, but your chances will be lower. Don¡¯t forget, even though we keep talking about your life in terms of a wizard, you are also a demigod. You will naturally be busy. On top of which, international travel is dangerous for a demigod. The skies are Zeus¡¯s domain, and he isn¡¯t above shooting a plane out of the sky, just to kill you. And sea travel¡­even if Poseidon is ambivalent about your existence, your scent will attract countless monsters from the sea. Travelling will just be too difficult.¡±

    ¡°Can I get a pros and cons list for these please?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, dear. No hints or explanations this time. This choice is tied deeply to your fate as well. I can¡¯t tell you anything else or the Fates will have my head. I was able to explain more for the first choice as it pertained to the effect you would have on the Greek world. The things I told you are general knowledge. As a wizard, you can learn wizard magic. If you drink the potion, you¡¯ll be a powerful demigod. The only truly extra info I gave you is that Zeus wants to kill you for being a wizard and you could meet your father, neither of which is really breaking the rules.¡±

    That was true in its own strange way.

    ¡°There¡¯s no need to do that here. Either you go to Ilvermorny, and have a minimal chance of meeting your father in the future, or you go to Hogwarts and have a much greater chance to meet your father. This choice was left to you, in case you wanted to be a wizard, but did not want to meet your father.¡±

    AHHHHH!! Why does he have to live so far away? This already sounds like a huge pain.

    ¡°If I decide to go to school at Hogwarts, how will I get there? You just said that Zeus will shoot me out of the sky, and sea monster will eat me. How am I going to get to school without dying a horrific death?¡±

    Hecate looked at me smugly. ¡°I have a simple plan for that, so there should be no worries. Now, what do you say?¡±

    I rolled my eyes at her. ¡°If you know it¡¯s going to be Hogwarts, why would you even ask?¡±

    She looked at me with the most serious look I¡¯ve ever seen on her so far and said, ¡°The choices you make are important. Everyone deserves to know their options and make a choice, no matter how obvious it might be. No matter what anyone says, your destiny is based on all of the choices you make, not something that is predestined. Even the Fates acknowledge this.¡±

    I¡¯ve only talked my mom for like an hour throughout my entire lifetime, and she¡¯s already lecturing me. Jeez.

    ¡°Alright, alright. I choose Hogwarts. Is that good enough?¡±

    My mother just grinned at me. ¡°Yes, sounds good to me.¡±

 Chapter 6

    Chapter 1 has been revised to sound a little better. I¡¯ve noticed that a lot of people just read my first chapter before quitting the story. Yeah, I know my writing is bad, and I apologize for that. Chapters 2-5 have also been polished some more. Not too many changes. Some random stuff has been added in.

    Also, please let me know if I¡¯m going into too much detail on things in this chapter. I wrote this a little while back and I reread it, and it feels like I should cut down on some text. This chapter will definitely be rewritten because it just feels poor. Probably some stuff will be moved to chapter 7.

    To that guest who left me the following review: ¡°If his mom is a greek goddess and his dad is british why the hell is his name indian¡±

    Please learn about a country before you sound ignorant. British is a nationality, not a race. England has a huge Indian population, more than 1.4 Million people.

    Thank you everyone for reading!

    Chapter 6

    ¡°Now, some final things that we need to go over. Let me summon your sister over first. She is carrying some of the things I was planning on giving you. I wasn¡¯t originally going to do the talk myself, but I couldn¡¯t help it when I heard you call me mom.¡±

    I felt kind of warm when I heard that.

    Hecate snapped her fingers and Josephine reappeared.

    ¡°Ah, you guys are done with your talk then?¡± Josephine smiled. She was someone who could make the room happier just with her sheer existence. I wonder if she is using magic on me. ¡°How¡¯d the talk go then?¡±

    ¡°Pretty good. Mom just needs some stuff from you before we continue. She also wants you to be involved in the conversation somewhat.¡±

    ¡°Oh, so you decided to be a wizard then? How interesting! I¡¯m very happy for you!¡± Oh, she just hugged me. Wow, yes, you are happy.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± I¡¯m not sure about whether I like the fact that Josephine knows everything about me.

    ¡°Moving along, Josephine, give me the letters.¡± Josephine handed Hecate two different letters.

    ¡°You won¡¯t be needing this one.¡± She took the letter that had Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry printed on the top, and magically burned it to a crisp. ¡°You made your choice. No going back now.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kinds of adventures I would have gone on if I went to school in America. I know I might always have that question in the back of my mind, but there¡¯s nothing I can do about it. Some things are just too important.

    She handed me the yellowish envelope, and I saw my name written on the top with beautiful emerald green calligraphy. I opened it and pulled out the letter. It read:

    HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

    Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

    (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)

    Dear Mr. Khanna,

    We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

    Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

    Yours sincerely,

    Minerva McGonagall,

    Deputy Headmistress

    ¡°They await my owl? What? Wait, isn¡¯t July 31<sup>st</sup> tomorrow?¡± I think we are cutting it a bit close there.

    ¡°Wizards send mail with owls. It¡¯s similar to how people could send messages with pigeons, but the owls are smarter and magical. They are usually able to deliver mail to any address once you give them the package. Not internationally, of course, but that is still extremely impressive nonetheless.¡±

    A piece of paper appeared in front of Hecate and she handed me a pen. She told me what to write down and told me to print and sign my letter. Then she placed it into an envelope, snapped her fingers, and the letter was gone.

    ¡°There, it¡¯s been sent to a Wizarding post office who will mail it to McGonagall on our behalf and be on her desk later today.¡± Wow, mom is efficient. ¡°Now, what were you saying about deadlines?¡± Hecate arched a brow at me. Wow, mom also holds grudges. Like mother, like son, I suppose.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah alright. You¡¯re the man¡ªwoman¡ªgoddess, whatever. That¡¯s one problem down. What about this list? Where do I get all of this stuff?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a place in London where magical people go shopping. I would take you to the place in the States, but they won¡¯t have the right uniforms or books in stock. I don¡¯t have time for multiple trips. Also, I can only take you up to a certain point, and you will have to handle the rest. The magic there repels me.¡± Hecate was disappointed and I understood. I want to explore magical things too. ¡°On the other hand, it also repels monsters, so the wizarding world is actually safer for you.¡±

    Nice! No monsters for a little while! That is always a plus in my books.

    Hecate looked at her watch. ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t have much more time. I have to return to work. I can already feel the border between life and death becoming restless. We are going to have to have to leave for London now, so go back to the camp and get all of your stuff. Say your goodbyes to everyone, and let them know that you¡¯ll be coming back next summer. I will let Dionysus know that you won¡¯t be here until next summer.¡±

    What? We have to leave right now? I wasn¡¯t prepared for this! I said goodbye to Josephine really quickly, and ran towards the camp. I knew she wouldn¡¯t mind because she had been getting ready to leave as mom and I were talking.

    I stopped off at the cabin and gathered all of my stuff really quick. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t have much. As I was heading out, I ran into Luke.

    Luke looked surprised. ¡°Why are you taking all of your stuff? Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°Hey Luke, turns out my mom is sending me to school on the other side of the world to learn magic.¡± I decided I was going to surprise everyone next summer with my wizarding abilities.

    He looked concerned. ¡°You met your mom? How did that turn out?¡±

    ¡°It definitely could have gone worse. All things considered, it went really well. Turns out, my mom has been protecting me all this time.¡±

    ¡°She was?¡± Luke was truly shocked this time.

    ¡°Yeah, I was surprised too. I did not see that happening.¡± I understand how he feels. I¡¯ve been here for like a week, and I already feel like the gods are super unreliable.

    ¡°At least one of the gods stepped up for a change.¡± I heard Luke mutter that to himself. ¡°It is because she¡¯s originally a titan? Are they really more trustworthy?¡±

    ¡°Um, Luke, are you alright? What are you talking about?¡± I was getting a bit concerned about his behavior and the things he just said. Titans? Where did titans come from?

    ¡°Forget it Krishna, it¡¯s nothing important. Are you sure you want to do this? You just got to the camp, and I don¡¯t feel like you are ready to leave. You only lasted 2 minutes a few weeks ago, Krishna, do you remember?¡±

    I shrugged again. I had unsurprisingly been losing a decent amount of weight since I¡¯ve been here. Regardless of what Luke was saying, I was getting better. ¡°Hecate said that it¡¯ll be relatively safe for me. If I can¡¯t believe her, who can I believe?¡±

    I meant it as a rhetorical question, but Luke surprising answered me. ¡°No one, especially not the Gods. Krishna, the things we have to worry about are different from what the gods have to worry about. Even if they are trying to help, they tend to overlook things that can easily get us killed. If we survive, they call it a ¡°learning experience¡±. If we die, they call us ¡°stupid¡± or ¡°weak¡±, and then forget about us.¡±

    I was stunned. Was it really like that? I don¡¯t feel like my mom is like that with any of her children, but I¡¯m not so sure about how other gods would treat me.

    ¡°Why? Aren¡¯t we all family?¡±

    Luke sighed. ¡°Maybe your godly parent might care for you a little bit, but any god that isn¡¯t your parent won¡¯t hesitate to throw you under a bus. So it¡¯s best to be careful.¡±

    ¡°Great¡­so are you saying that it might not be any safer in here than out there?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s definitely safer in here¡± Luke confirmed. ¡°But only if you don¡¯t do anything stupid and follow the rules. Otherwise, then you are facing the gods instead of monsters.¡±

    That¡¯s just peachy. ¡°What do you think I should do?¡± If the other Gods would go after me, I definitely prefer to go to Hogwarts than stay here. Monster and god free? That¡¯s so worth it!

    ¡°Stay at camp,¡± Luke suggested promptly.

    ¡°Can¡¯t. It¡¯s a magic school for mortals, for a rare kind of magic I wouldn¡¯t normally be able to learn otherwise. My mom says I have to go to this school if I ever want to find my dad. I can¡¯t give that up.¡±

    Luke looked into my eyes and saw something. Maybe he saw determination, or maybe he saw desperation. I don¡¯t know, but I saw him struggle with something in his mind before he nodded in acceptance.

    ¡°Okay. I get it. I¡¯d give anything to talk to my mom too. Damn, I hate feeling like I¡¯m sending you to your doom. Here, take this knife. It¡¯s made of celestial bronze, so it might be able to save you in a pinch. Just remember that it can¡¯t do anything against mortals!¡±

    He handed me a knife, and a strap. It was simple, but beautiful, and most importantly, sturdy.

    ¡°I went to the Hephaestus Cabin and asked them to help me make it. I want you to keep it on you at all times, under your clothes, strapped to your back, so that you have a final layer of protection. Magic may be awesome, but a hidden knife can save your life.¡±

    I was touched. I couldn¡¯t believe that he gave me something he made and cherished to me so easily. ¡°Thanks a lot Luke. I really appreciate it.¡±

    ¡°No problem. Demigods stick together. Remember, everyone at camp has your back. Try to keep in contact if you can.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try! Tell everyone else in cabin that I¡¯ll see them next summer. See you around Luke!¡± He waved goodbye as I rushed back to my mom.

    ¡°Ready to go? You won¡¯t be able to come back until next summer.¡±

    ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. I got everything I need. It¡¯s not much, but I manage.¡± I never had a lot of belongings. It¡¯s too hard to move them from place to place.

    She looked at my stuff, and just snorted. Clearly she wasn¡¯t impressed. Probably because it was just normal mortal things.

    She took my hand, and smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll be there in a blink.¡±

    Then, one second we were in camp, and the next we were in a sketchy alley. We definitely weren¡¯t in camp anymore. We were in the city.

    ¡°Look across the street over there. Do you see that place? It¡¯s called the Leaky Cauldron.¡± She pointed to an old broken-down old shop that appeared to be a pub. People passed by it without even noticing it was there.

    Hecate saw the look on my face and explained. ¡°Don¡¯t judge a book by its cover. It only looks bad on the outside, but it¡¯s nicer on the inside. It¡¯s disguised both in a magical and non-magical way. It¡¯s magically warded against normal people from noticing it. Should that somehow fail, its shabby looking appearance makes sure no one wants to go in either.¡±

    I nodded with understanding. ¡°Let¡¯s go in.¡±

    Hecate shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Krishna, this is as far as I go. You¡¯re going to have to do the rest on your own.¡±

    My eyes must have popped out of my face. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Remember, wizard magic won¡¯t allow me to get close, otherwise I would have directly transported us to in front of the shops.¡±

    Oh yeah, that¡¯s right. Damn. It just hit me that I¡¯m in a foreign country, without any sort of identification, and the only person I know is about to leave me. Or I¡¯m about to leave her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous,¡± Hecate soothed me. ¡°Everything is going to be fine. I wouldn¡¯t make you go if I didn¡¯t think it would be fine. When you go in, tell them that you received your Hogwarts letter, and you need help getting into the alley. Someone will let you in. Also, school doesn¡¯t start for a month, so you also need to ask for a room at the Leaky Cauldron until you have to go to school. The owner is kind, so he will help you out.¡±

    ¡°How do I pay for everything? I don¡¯t have any money.¡±

    ¡°I was about to get to that. I have some things I want to give you.¡± Hecate pulled out some papers and cards. ¡°The first thing I was to give you is some identification. I already sent a document to the British Ministry of Magic, and had you registered as a student at Hogwarts that is going to be studying abroad for your education. I already handled all the costs for your schooling until you finish, so you don¡¯t have to worry about that. I¡¯m just giving you a copy of everything in case it is required, since you technically aren¡¯t a British Citizen yet.¡±

    ¡°What is the Ministry of Magic?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the wizarding government. They make laws that the rest of the wizards have to follow and enforce them. Most territories have them.¡±

    I relaxed a little. At least I wouldn¡¯t be treated as some sort of strange American spy if I had all the legal paper work done. Yes, that has happened to me before. Don¡¯t ask. Just know that sometimes, paperwork gets ¡°lost¡± (AKA they forgot to do it), and then chaotic things can occur.

    Next, Hecate pulled out a pouch. ¡°The second thing is a magical pouch filled with money. It has 40,000 galleons in it.¡±

    ¡°Galleons? What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°Galleons are one of three magical currency that Wizards use. Galleons are the gold coins, Sickles are the silver coins, and Knuts are the bronze coins. They don¡¯t use paper money or credit cards. 29 Knuts make up one Sickle, and there are 17 Sickles in a Galleon.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s really annoying. Why would they do that? It¡¯s like they are trying to be difficult. Why can¡¯t they just use pounds like everyone else in London?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t judge dear. You don¡¯t know anything about wizards yet. There is a law called the International Statute of Secrecy, which basically separates magical and mundane worlds completely. It¡¯s the responsibility of each nation¡¯s Ministry of Magic to keep the magical community hidden, whether it is controlling magical beasts, stopping underage or unlicensed use of magic, or hiding large wizarding events.¡±

    ¡°Wizards have governments and laws?¡± That idea seemed so foreign to me for some odd reason.

    ¡°Yes dear, they aren¡¯t savages.¡± Hecate rolled her eyes at me. ¡°Even Olympus has laws that everyone is supposed to follow.¡± I suppose that¡¯s true. ¡°One of the things they did to keep the wizarding and non-magical worlds completely separate, was to create their own currency. That way, magical people can¡¯t influence the regular world markets and expose themselves.¡±

    I just nodded. Hecate seemed to have noticed that I didn¡¯t really understand.

    ¡°Have you ever watched any cop shows on television? To make it a little simpler, there isn¡¯t a money trail that can lead to wizards because of this.¡±

    Okay, I understood that a lot better.

    ¡°Of course, there is the exchange, where you can trade galleons for other currencies, but that rarely happens, as that costs a significant amount of money too. If I were you, I would never use that place, unless I had no choice.¡±

    I indicated that I understood. I doubted I¡¯d ever use that place. If I got caught using money in the regular world, I¡¯m not sure how I would explain where I got it. I can¡¯t say my legally non-existent mother gave me a bunch of money to spend. It would definitely be suspicious. Actually, it¡¯s more suspicious that my mom has any wizarding money to begin with.

    ¡°Mom? Where did you get all that money?¡± I wonder if she robbed people.

    ¡°Wizards sometimes accidently drop some coins here or there over their history when they leave magical areas across the world. I pick them up at these places. A lot of it was also picked up from sunken wizard ships. It was just a hobby, but it surprisingly came in use today.¡± I feel kind of bad for those people who lost their money, but on the other hand, now I have money to spend, so I don¡¯t really feel that bad about it.

    ¡°Originally, I was only going to give you 20,000 galleons, but your birthday is coming up in a few days. Consider the fortune I¡¯m going to give you the birthday present for the rest of your life. It¡¯s only money anyways, and even though I can use it, there isn¡¯t anything that I really want. Even their books are useless because I can¡¯t do magic the way they do and I can easily do everything they can.

    I want you to go on a shopping spree and get all the things you both need and want. You are going to need a new wardrobe too. You can¡¯t wear camp clothes to this school anyways. I am giving you more than enough money to keep you through your seven years at Hogwarts and beyond. Have some fun. Of course, that¡¯s no reason to spend like an idiot either. After all, I¡¯m giving you a fortune, and you¡¯ll have to work hard in the future to keep it going.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± I agreed readily. I wasn¡¯t really going to waste money anyways.

    ¡°You have a month here. Make sure you open up an account at the bank once you¡¯re done shopping and deposit the leftover money. If you can, have them invest some of it for you, so that you can earn some money. Oh, I almost forgot to also mention that the first thing you should buy is a trunk. There¡¯s a shop in Carkitt Market that sells them. Get a really good one. It¡¯ll save you some time when you go shopping, so you don¡¯t have to carry your purchases along with you everywhere, or keep having to drop off stuff to your room. Trust me when I say things get heavy fast. Plus, it will be worth it in other ways as well. You¡¯ll see and you¡¯re going to thank me for it.¡±

    I¡¯m not sure what all the hype is about a suitcase, but sure, okay, why not.

    ¡°I also took the liberty of placing ten drachmas into that bag as well. Give the camp a call if you can. You won¡¯t be able to do it inside of the school, but outside, if you ever have some time where you are alone, give them a call if you want.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    ¡°Drachmas?¡± Another new thing. Today is exhausting.

    ¡°Drachmas are the currency that we use back home among ourselves back in Olympus. You can use it to buy things from the gods. You¡¯ll have to figure out a way to earn some when you get back home. You can call the camp by throwing one of these coins into some mist or a rainbow, and ask Iris politely to connect you to the camp. It¡¯s like video calling, and it only lasts 10 minutes per drachma.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­different.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have any other options. You can¡¯t use a cell phone or the internet.¡±

    ¡°I hope wizards don¡¯t use cell phones or the internet or I¡¯m toast.¡±

    ¡°No, fortunately for you, they do not. Too big of a risk for hacking. Can¡¯t risk the International Statute of Secrecy over some online shopping.¡± Hecate smiled at me. Sweet! One less thing to worry about!

    Hecate pulled a third bundle. She held this one far more carefully and tenderly.

    ¡°This last package is the most important. Something I prepared, just in case.¡±

    She opened the bundle and showed me what was inside. There was a long thick tree branch about two feet long, and some string.

    ¡°A stick and some string ¡­wow¡­that¡¯s so amazing¡­¡± I didn¡¯t see what was so special, so I just stared at her.

    ¡°It is amazing. You just don¡¯t know what you are looking at,¡± she said dryly. ¡°That tree branch came from a Greek Golden Pine that is taken care of by an Orieades dryad. There aren¡¯t that many of them like that. Only the best trees that are related to your heritage would work for this. I had to convince a bowtruckle to help me find the best kind of branch. There are literally only a few branches in the whole world that have been approved by both and dryad and a bowtruckle. Out of those, this was the one that I approved of for you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty cool, but what is the branch for?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s for your wand of course! Why else would I need a bowtruckle? Those little creatures are the best at figuring out what branches can be used for wands. I probably could have figured it out myself, but if you can get professional help, and have it done better and faster, why bother? Anyways, wizard magic isn¡¯t my expertise, so I got help to find what you might need. I¡¯m glad I did too. I definitely wouldn¡¯t have found one as good for you alone.¡±

    ¡°My wand?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re going to be compatible with normal wands, so I giving you the parts, just in case. If you don¡¯t have to use them, that¡¯s even better. The less you stand out, the better. The wood is good, and shouldn¡¯t raise any eyebrows. The core, on the other hand¡­¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the core?¡± I took a look at the core my mom prepared for me. It was just some string. I took a closer look at it and I was surprised. It was four interwoven metal strings that seemed to be fused to each other. The glowed different colors: bronze, golden, dark purple, and bright sliver.

    ¡°The core is this fused divine metal string I made just for you. You should be able to recognize celestial bronze as one of the metals. The other metals are far less common to see, but just as important. There is also Imperial Gold, Stygian Iron, and Elysian Silver. Imperial gold is similar to celestial bronze, except that it¡¯s less stable. Stygian Iron is extremely rare, and is found only in the underworld. It¡¯s special because it¡¯s a metal that works on both mortals and the divine.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± I was surprised. I didn¡¯t think there were any weapons that worked on both. ¡°Why don¡¯t they give us weapons made with that iron instead?¡±

    ¡°Because there isn¡¯t any reason for demigods to go around killing mortal like some crazy mass murderers.¡± Hecate just rolled her eyes at me. ¡°Also, it¡¯s hard to forge and the underworld has the monopoly. Lucky for you, your mom works in the underworld and has access to some. Otherwise you¡¯d have a wand that doesn¡¯t work on mortals, and that would be way too strange, even for the magical world.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that would stand out. I wonder what would happen¡­¡± I mused.

    ¡°Nothing good I bet. Lastly, and most importantly, Elysian Silver is the only divinely magical metal. It¡¯s so rare, there¡¯s barely any in existence.¡±

    ¡°Barely any exists? Where does it come from?¡±

    ¡°Elysian Silver is mined from the Elysian Fields. It¡¯s basically like where good people go when they die. In the Elysian Fields, there¡¯s an island known as the Isle of the Blest. Those are where people who have lived heroic live, three times in a row. Very few people live there because that is really hard to do. The isle slowly generates bits of it over time. I think all the Elysian silver in existence is maybe quadruple the size of your fist.¡±

    ¡°Wow! Seriously?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Fortunately for you, Elysian Silver isn¡¯t ever used because of its weak nature, so I was able to get some. To be precise, while it¡¯s good at storing and conducting magic, it¡¯s too fragile to be used for anything important. As a result, it is an inferior metal overall. Hephaestus finds it to be fascinating, but he doesn¡¯t use it at all because he finds it to be too delicate and there isn¡¯t even enough for one creation.¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s so weak, why did you make it into a part of the core?¡± It feels like that silver is dragging down all of the good stuff.

    ¡°I added it because it is magical, of course. The other metals are ¡°divine¡±, but not ¡°magical¡±. Technically speaking, they are different. All of the metals that make up the core are necessary and do something special. The Elysian Silver is the magical part of the core. The Stygian Iron is necessary so that your wand works on everyone like non-magical people, wizards, monsters, and even Gods. The Imperial gold adds some raw power to the mix. Finally, the celestial bronze stabilizes everything. They all have other things that they do, but not as important as these functions. I weaved them together to make a greater whole. Your core is pretty amazing.¡±

    ¡°Wow! I bet I¡¯ll hae the strongest wand ever!¡±

    ¡°No Krishna, never make that mistake. Magic comes from the wizard. The wand is just a medium to make it easier. If I have to guess, your wand will be about the same as everything else. Just because the metals are rare, doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s more powerful. These parts are just extremely suitable for you. Of course, other demigod wizards with different godly parents are still able to match with normal wand cores, so it is more than likely you will also match with one of their wands. I just wanted to make some preparations. At best, I can take them back if you don¡¯t need them, and at worst, even those won¡¯t be useful for making your wand.¡±

    I felt really warm on the inside. My mom took the time to do all of this just for me. She put in so much effort in making sure that I would be ok when I go to school. If I thought that she didn¡¯t love me before, that thought was completely gone now. I know she explained all of this to me because she wants me to know how she feels about me. My mom loves me. I guess Luke was right. Having a parent that accepts you makes a huge difference. I really hope the others can feel this too.

    ¡°Thanks, mom. Thanks for everything. For all of this. Thanks for giving me the choice to be a wizard. Thanks for letting me go to this school to see my dad one day. Thanks for setting everything up here for me. I swear, I¡¯ll make you proud.¡±

    ¡°I know you will dear.¡±

    We stood in together in a peaceful and happy silence for a moment. Then it was broken.

    Hecate heaved a sigh. ¡°It¡¯s time for me to go now Krishna.¡±

    ¡°Will I see you again anytime soon?¡± I was dreading this moment. I had heard about how the gods rarely see their children.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know Krishna. Maintaining both the mist and the boundary between life and death are basically two full time jobs for gods. I might not see you for decades, forget years. I wish I received help from Olympus, but they are indifferent to the people they rule over. That¡¯s why I set you up for the next 7 years of your life in the wizarding world. I gave you a fortune in wizarding money, just in case I wouldn¡¯t see you again for a long time. I don¡¯t know if I will be able to meet you anytime soon in the future.¡±

    I just looked down at my feet.

    ¡°Write me a letter if you ever feel like you want to talk to me. Just draw one of my circles on the envelope and send it by owl. The letter will find me. Also, I¡­I¡¯ll try to pick you up when school ends, but I can¡¯t make any promises. Just know that if I can¡¯t make it, someone will definitely come to pick you up and take you back to camp.¡±

    ¡°Okay! Sounds good!¡± I smiled. Hope is better than no hope at all. Even if she can¡¯t pick me up, I¡¯ll know that she tried.

    ¡°Goodbye Krishna! Try to stay out of trouble!¡±

    ¡°Bye mom!¡± Hecate waved to me, and disappeared in a blink of an eye. ¡°I¡¯ll miss you¡­¡±

    I was alone again. I took a deep breath and then left the alley. I crossed the street to head towards the Leaky Cauldron. It was nested between a normal bookshop and a record store. I quickly, and somewhat ¡°covertly¡±, walked up to the door. In retrospect, I was probably pulling attention to myself, but I was nervous.

    I went inside and closed the door behind me. Inside the pub, it was dark and shabby, with a bar and a number of tables in the shadows of the corners. The place had people dressed in strange and colorful robes and old fashioned hats. I saw an old looking bald man with a little bit of a hunchback standing behind a bar chatting with a few people. I summoned up my courage to talk to the Quasimodo look-alike and went on over.

    ¡°Hello sir, my name is Krishna, and I just received my Hogwarts letter. I was wondering who I would have to ask to book a room here for the month.¡±

    ¡°An American? That¡¯s strange. Can¡¯t say I¡¯ve heard of an American ever attending Hogwarts. Where are your parents?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never had parents. Father was some English wizard who left us a long time back, and my mother, well, she had a lot of issues so she wasn¡¯t able to raise me. I came here alone.¡± I recited the back story my mom gave me. It was best to establish that right away. I didn¡¯t want people asking to see my mom for a parent-teacher conference. That just wouldn¡¯t happen. Could you imagine Hecate talking to my teachers about anything? Yeah right.

    Tom frowned when heard that last part. ¡°I see. You¡¯re speaking to the right person. Call me Tom, everyone else does. So you want a room for a month?¡±

    ¡°Yes sir. And if you could give me one of the least expensive rooms, I¡¯d be grateful.¡± I don¡¯t want to waste any money.

    He eyed me closely and then smiled. ¡°You know what? I¡¯ll give you one of our smallest rooms. It¡¯s the cheapest, but it¡¯s comfortable. I¡¯ll even throw in a Hogwarts discount.¡± He must have noticed the state of my clothes.

    ¡°That¡¯s okay, I can pay the full price for the room. I have enough money.¡± My mom gave me money and I didn¡¯t want any charity. God knows Tom will probably find out about how much I¡¯m spending sooner or later.

    ¡°Nonsense!¡± Tom appraised my determined and confident look. ¡°I¡¯m sure you do have enough money, but I still want you to consider it to be a welcoming present to England. No one can ever say that I didn¡¯t know how to treat a guest! Especially a child from America that came all the way here alone to go to Hogwarts! Anyways, barely anyone ever rents out this room because it¡¯s so small, so don¡¯t worry about it. Let me show you to your room!¡±

    The room I was given was really small. In fact, it only fit in a single sized bed, and there was a small bathroom attached to the room. There was nothing else. On the other hand, I didn¡¯t actually need anything else. It was also more space than I got when I lived in cabin 13, so it wasn¡¯t a big deal. Anyways, there was far more to do than just sit in the inn this month. I needed to start gathering different things for school. I decided I would go get a trunk. That way I could store all of my stuff in there. Actually, I¡¯m ok with just tossing all my stuff in the room and dealing with it later, but mom told me to get a trunk first, so that¡¯s what I¡¯m going to do.

    So¡­where do I go to actually buy this stuff? I figured it would be best if I went down and asked Tom. People in the service industry always know things like that.

    ¡°Hey Tom, where can I go to get all these things for school?¡± I showed him my list.

    ¡°You need to go to Diagon Alley! That¡¯s the place to go for all magic goods.¡±

    ¡°How do I get there?¡±

    ¡°Oh! I forgot you were new to the area! Follow me!¡±

    Tom led me through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.

    ¡°Watch me. It¡¯s three up and two across.¡± He tapped the wall three times with the point of his wand.

    The brick he had touched wriggled until in the middle, a small hole appeared. It grew wider and wider until a huge an archway onto a cobbled street appeared. The road twisted and turned out of sight. It was amazing.

    ¡°Welcome to Diagon Alley.¡± said Tom cordially. ¡°Have fun shopping! You¡¯ll have lots of fun looking at all of the different things, especially since it sounds like you¡¯ve been raised by muggles.¡±

    I nodded in affirmation. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that I was a wizard until I got my letter. From what I was able to dig up from people, my mom was an American witch, and my father was supposedly a wizard from Europe.¡±

    He looked at me and shrugged. ¡°Regardless of whether you are pureblood wizard or a Muggleborn doesn¡¯t matter to me.¡±

    ¡°Muggleborn? What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°Muggle is our word for non-magical folk. Muggleborn means that you are a wizard who was born from two non-magical parents. There¡¯s somewhat of a stigma against Muggleborns in high society, but most people just don¡¯t care.¡±

    Great¡­somehow, that doesn¡¯t sound pleasant. Is that considered racist? ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡±

    ¡°Whatever you say. Just keep out of trouble and have fun. Feel free to explore anywhere except for Knockturn Alley. That place is filled with the sketchy sort of people. Forget about the worst, the nicest people there are criminals. Even worse, people are known to go in, and not come back out. Don¡¯t ever go to that place. Anyways, come back to the inn whenever you feel like it!¡± Tom waved and went back inside. The archway shrunk instantly back into solid wall.

    Note to self, avoid Knockturn Alley like the plague.

    When I turned the corner, an amazing sight greeted my eyes. It was amazing. There were people everywhere shopping for the strangest things. The shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping, it was all incredible. I saw a shop selling cauldrons and another selling potion ingredients. There was a store that apparently exclusively sold broomsticks, but I¡¯m not sure why. Unless they are like the broomsticks that witches fly on Halloween, I don¡¯t see the point. I decided to come back later and check everything out in detail. First, I was going to buy that trunk.

    While I looked at all of the shops and people, I finally found a side street leading to Carkitt Market. There was a blacksmith, clockmaker shop, musical instrument shop, and even a fireworks place here. I finally found a place that seemed like it might be what I needed. It was called Stowe & Packers Magical Bags. I stepped inside, and I was greeted by the attendant right away.

    ¡°Welcome to Stowe & Packers Magical Bags for all of your traveling and storage needs. How may I help you today?¡±

    ¡°Hi, I would like to buy a trunk.¡±

    ¡°What kind of trunk would you like to buy?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I was raised by¡­Muggles, so I don¡¯t know what is available. What kind of trunks do you have?¡±

    ¡°Ah I see. Well, let me do a full explanation then. Let¡¯s start with the standard four compartment trunk. These are different from the Muggle trucks you¡¯ve probably experienced before. Each compartment is fitted with an Undetectable extension charm. That means that the space inside is greater than it looks. These basic compartments can all each hold about one room worth of stuff.¡±

    ¡°What about the other trunks?¡±

    ¡°Well you can make it so you can enter the trunks like a mobile home. It can have far more rooms for storage, or even have specialized rooms. You can also have it customized to a sturdier, longer lasting wood and leather. That¡¯s basically the extent of it.¡±

    A trunk that can function as a home? That¡¯s my kind of trunk. I wasn¡¯t interested originally, but now, it¡¯s different. These trunks have a lot of potential. I want a trunk with a bedroom. This way, I won¡¯t have to sleep in a cramped place like cabin 13 anymore. Mom definitely had the right idea.

    ¡°I kind of have an idea of what I want.¡±

    ¡°Oh, do you want one of the standard trunks? There¡¯s a before school sale going on for them right now! Only 50 galleons! They¡¯ll last you a lifetime!¡±

    ¡°No, I want a custom trunk.¡±

    He looked at clothes, and for a moment, I saw a hint of pity. ¡°Are you sure? I don¡¯t wish to be rude, but I don¡¯t believe that it will be in your price range.¡±

    I really need to get new clothes fast. ¡°Let¡¯s just see how much it costs before I decide. At worst, I won¡¯t be able to buy it. At the least, I can afford the trunks you have on sale.¡±

    The shopkeeper nodded. ¡°Alright then. What do you want in your custom trunk?¡±

    ¡°I want the kind of trunk that can work as a home as well as a trunk.¡±

    ¡°I see. A trunk like that comes standard with a small bedroom and closet. It also comes with a small functioning bathroom and kitchen with freezer.¡± The shop attendant began to write things down.

    ¡°Can I have a large bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen?¡± I don¡¯t want it to be too small.

    ¡°Of course, But it costs a bit extra.¡±

    ¡°I figured that was the case. Make the bathroom and kitchen spacious and fancy.¡± If I have the money, I plan on using it to enjoy myself.

    ¡°No problem.¡±

    ¡°Can I have more rooms?¡±

    ¡°Indeed you may, young man. What would you like?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s see, I would like a room to hang out in when I just want to relax.¡±

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll add large recreation room to the list. Anything else?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­I saw that we are going to have a class on Herbology and Potions, so I would like a room to do potions and another one to grow plants.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll add a potions room, and a garden to the list. Understood. What else?¡± The shopkeeper¡¯s expression became a bit strange.

    ¡°I plan on buy a lot of magic books and stuff, so maybe a big room for each?¡±

    ¡°You want a library and magical article room?¡±

    ¡°That sounds right.¡± I nodded. ¡°Can you make the library really big? I plan on getting a lot of books.¡±

    The shopkeeper smiled. ¡°Looks like we have a budding Ravenclaw in our midst.¡±

    ¡°Ravenclaw? What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know? Ah, I see. You are an American. You will learn all about the different houses when you go to Hogwarts. Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯ll be better as a surprise.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± What else was there to say? If it was something bad, I¡¯m sure he would have told me.

    ¡°Anyways, I got it. Extra-large library. Anything else?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm¡­we are going to be using a lot of magic in school and other places. Can you make a room that can be used for practice of magic and other kinds of combat?¡±

    ¡°Other kinds of combat?¡± He raised an eyebrow at me.

    ¡°I plan on learning some combat with things like magical swords or other weapons. I want the room to be self-repairing if possible.¡±

    His expression seemed to bug out. ¡°Why in the world would you want to do that? You¡¯re a wizard!¡±

    I just sighed. ¡°I know, but it¡¯s a family thing. Back home, my family makes sure that everyone can defend themselves without a wand if necessary. I¡¯m a hundred percent sure I won¡¯t be able to get out of it when I return home for the summer.¡±

    He looked at me with understanding. ¡°That¡¯s strange, but I¡¯ve heard of worse. Some of the families rooted in the dark arts do twisted things. Learning muggle combat is harmless in comparison.¡±

    Look buddy, if you want to think that demigod combat is harmless, I am not going to disillusion you. That, and I¡¯m not actually allowed to tell you about demigods, but still. ¡°That¡¯s true.¡±

    ¡°You want one large, I assume, self-repairing magical combat room. Got it. Anything else?¡±

    I thought for a while about things that I saw in Diagon Alley. I remembered that people could have all sorts of pets and creatures. I guess I could always get one too. ¡°Can I get a room for random animals or pets?¡±

    He looked at me with some hesitation. ¡°What kinds of animals do you plan on getting?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Could be anything.¡± I shrugged.

    He sighed. ¡°This sounds like a bad idea, but I¡¯ll add an extra-large nature room. It looks and sounds like you don¡¯t know whether you are even small or large animals. Don¡¯t do anything too dangerous.¡± His expression continued to change. I guess he didn¡¯t really believe that I would have many requests.

    ¡°Is there anything else? Maybe a Quidditch stadium while you¡¯re at it?¡± He said in a voice that was clearly laced with sarcasm. Too bad for you, I choose to ignore that.

    ¡°What¡¯s Quidditch?¡±

    He looked at me like I had grown a third eye, and then he remembered that I was raised by muggles. ¡°It¡¯s basically the only sport that wizards play. I don¡¯t want to explain all of the details to you right now. I¡¯m sure if you go to one of the broom shops, they can explain it to you in full. Regardless, I can¡¯t actually make a Quidditch stadium.¡±

    ¡°Oh. No, I don¡¯t think that I want anything else.¡±

    ¡°Give me a moment.¡± He walked behind the counter and grabbed a number of different forms from different piles.

    He came back and handed me all of the papers. ¡°Fill all of these forms out.¡±

    ¡°What are they?¡± I hate paperwork after my time at social services.

    ¡°Customizations for each of the rooms you mentioned and a bit more.¡± It sounds fun yet horrible at the same time.

    I went through the sheets. The first one was about the kinds of wood and leather, and other protections on the case. I hadn¡¯t thought about that yet, so I looked over the choices. There was an option for a magical thousand year ironwood tree that was nearly indestructible by normal means. I also choose the Swedish Short-Snout dragon hide and scales as the protective covering. Apparently, all dragon hide works about the same to repel magic, so I chose the one I liked. The Silvery blue color was nice.

    There were a number of other choices I had to make and I went through the entire list. I asked the attendant a lot of questions throughout the entire thing, and he was very knowledgeable about everything. I gave a description of each of the things I wanted, so they could find appropriate matches and tally up a total. Selected the best of everything, because I wanted to see what the price would turn out to be.

    The attendant tallied up the total on all of the forms. ¡°With tax, your total comes out to be ten thousand galleons¡­I think you need to rethink a lot of your choices. Maybe you should take out the rooms like nature room or the magic article room. Also, if you remove a lot of those premium options, the price should drop substantially.¡±

    Damn. 10,000 galleons is a lot of money. I can technically afford it, but that¡¯s just stupid to spend a fourth of all my money here on a single purchase. Even though this trunk can act as a home, it doesn¡¯t mean that it will actually replace a home, so I should tone it down a little. Maybe I should follow some of his advice.

    The attendant saw me wavering. ¡°You know, you can always modify the trunk when you get older and learn more magic. You don¡¯t need to get everything right now.¡±

    ¡°I can?¡±

    ¡°Of course. You¡¯ll already own the trunk at the time, so it won¡¯t matter. Although the Ministry of Magic regulates these trunks, once you have one, whether it has one extendable room or a hundred extendable rooms, it doesn¡¯t make a difference. Once it¡¯s discovered by muggles, it¡¯ll break the statute of secrecy.¡±

    It was strange that the attendant was actually trying to convince me to get something cheaper, but I guess he was just nice. Knowing I could modify it later is what really got me moving. I think I¡¯ll just take off the nature room and see how much the price drops by. Regardless, even if I get a bunch of pets, I won¡¯t have the money to feed them all forever.

    I took it off the list and asked him to update me. It went down to 5000 galleons. Taking it off made the price of the trunk drop by half. Apparently, the nature room as was expensive as hell. It had a lot of different options that required a lot of different charms and wards that created different environments like a forest, jungle, plains, desert, and winter land with a central lake and mimicked all of their weather patterns. The room was also abnormally large to suit large magical creatures. Most importantly, it was meant to keep everything alive for a very long time. Actually, according to the attendant, 5000 galleons for a nature room was already as cheap as they could go, with a very minimal profit. He also went on to tell me that most people, such as magizoologists, who studied animals, made their own nature room. Obviously, I couldn¡¯t do that yet, but one day, I would.

    I decided to keep the magic article room because I was also a demigod. I knew that there was going to be random stuff that I would accumulate on both sides of my heritage. I toned down the size of the bedroom to a nice medium, and kept all of the luxuries. Same thing with the bathroom. It had everything, just not for ten people. That dropped the price substantially again to 4200 galleons.

    I also reduced the size of the potions room to a comfortable medium size, and took off some of the more advanced equipment. That dropped the price again to 3800 galleons, which entered the affordable range. Everything else I wanted and kept the same. At the end of the day, I can always modify the trunk after I purchase it, according to the attendant. I can even resize the rooms later if I learn how to use the proper charms proficiently. It¡¯s just that most people don¡¯t learn how to do it, and they buy it from this shop instead. 3800 galleons is also extremely good for what basically amounts to a mobile home that handles all of my magical needs.

    ¡°Are you sure that you don¡¯t want to remove some more rooms and options? It¡¯s not really necessary to get all of that stuff for a Hogwarts trunk, you know.¡±

    ¡°I know, but it will be more useful when I go home for the summer back to America to have my own space.¡± Space is truly a precious commodity back at camp for demigods that weren¡¯t one of the children of the privileged 12 Olympians.

    ¡°Alright I guess. It¡¯s your money. Speaking of money¡­do you actually have enough?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Do I pay now or later?¡±

    ¡°You can pay half now, and half when you pick it up tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be ready tomorrow?¡± That was surprising.

    ¡°Yes, I have a trunk that already has a number of things that you want. The rest of it should be done by tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°How do I pay for it? In cash? Or we go to the bank?¡± I was curious. 3800 galleons would end up being a small mountain on the ground.

    ¡°Gringotts handles the transactions. Since trunks are regulated, they have to be properly documented with the ministry, and Gringotts has to prepare a copy of the transaction so I can submit it to the correct department later. If you pay by cash, we may be suspected of illegal selling of these trunks in the future, so we don¡¯t do that. Also, if there are any problems with the trunk that was not some sort of accidental or deliberate damage, we will be obligated by contract to fix it for free.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have a Gringotts account yet,¡± I admitted. ¡°Can I pay you in full tomorrow at Gringotts?¡±

    ¡°Are you sure you have the money? Making this trunk requires a lot of money, and requires a deposit.¡±

    I decided actions were better than words. I took the pouch and poured out some money from it, and then put it back. The spectacle was enough. ¡°Yes, I have enough.¡±

    The attendant hesitated and then nodded. ¡°Yes, I suppose that is fine. You seem like the trustable sort, and since you spent the entire day picking out your trunk, I suppose you won¡¯t renege on it. At worst, I¡¯ll just be making an excellent trunk I can display to higher end customers.¡±

    All day? I looked outside and turns out, it was evening. I literally spent the entire day here. Filling out forms and talking to the attendant about random things. I feel bad that I made the attendant stay with me the entire day. On the other hand, this store is about to make 3800 galleons off of me, so I guess I really should not. Now that I think about it, I also kind of hungry, since I haven¡¯t eaten all day. I better wrap this up fast. ¡°When do we meet tomorrow?¡±

    ¡°Is noon okay? I¡¯ll set up an appointment with my account manager, and he will contact whoever they assign as your account manager so we can get it done quickly tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Sounds good.¡± I said goodbye to the attendant and headed back to the inn. I got some food, and promptly went to bed. The excitement of the day had gotten to me. From the conversations with my mom, to coming to England, and then working on customizing my entire trunk/mobile home. If today was this exciting, I wonder what tomorrow will be like. Truly satisfied, I fell into a deep, comfortable sleep.

 Question

    So, I was just thinking, I feel like he got way too much from Hecate, which doesn''t really suit how the Gods do things in the Percy Jackson series.

    I wanted to originally make it so that Krishna didnt have to worry about money while he was in the Wizarding world, but I read through it again, and it feels overboard...His Godly parent basically gave him everything on a platter.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I was thinking about taking all of that money away, except for some money for basic expenses. I don''t know, but I''m leaning towards this.

    What are your guys opinion on this?

    P.S. - this post will be deleted once I post the next chapter sometime in the future.

 Another Question

    Thanks for giving me your opinon on the last question. I''ll let him keep everything he got. I have a new one.

    I am going to change the first two chapters, because apparently they just suck. Should I come up with something completely new? Or is there something specific that is just bad in those two chapters??This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    I was thinking to just have him just start out in camp, and have flashbacks instead. The only annoying part would be that I might have to go back and change stuff in some other chapters.

    Also, next chapter is done, but going through an editor at the moment. When they are done, I''ll post it up.

    This post and the previous one will go down once the new chapter is up.