Chapter Text
“Where to?” The taxi driver asks, so casually, though it’s hard to hear him over the extremely loud shrieks of death catching up to them. The golden knight hobbles into the back, the car sagging slightly at the weight of it all. Avery weasels inside as swiftly as he can, looking back anxiously between the knight and the beasts outside. So far, the driver has yet to notice either of them. “Long Island,” the knight says. “Delphi Strawberry Service.”
Avery almost laughs at how crazy it seems that a man in full armor, spear to his side, is asking to go to a strawberry farm. What’s crazier, though, is Avery’s willingness to go along with him.
The sounds of flapping wings get closer to them as the stranger holds out multiple dollar bills. “I’ll pay you extra to speed.”
Finally, finally, the cab looks up into his mirror and notices the peculiar array of things, pauses and squints, before chuckling to himself. “Those strawberries aren’t going anywhere, but sure,” and he puts his foot to the pedal.
Ok, so maybe New York is always this crazy. Maybe it’s normal for metal people to enter your cabs. And maybe this place just has really, really weird bats.
The car ride was spent mostly in silence, besides the few moments of Avery shifting around, opening his mouth to ask a question, and then closing it. He really didn’t know what to ask or how to even bring up the topic of whatever happened at the ice cream place. Instead, Avery watched as the city faded away into little lines in the distance.
“I’ve never been this far before,” Avery mumbled, mostly to himself in order to calm his racing thoughts. “Oh yeah?” The driver suddenly perked up. “I take my kids here all the time on vacation. It’s pretty far from the city and it’s a nice getaway.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled, suddenly noticing how long it took them to get here. Are those guys still following us? “I’d do the same if the city was always this crazy.”
The driver laughed in the front. “You get used to it! Where are you from?”
“Texas. I used to live on a farm. This place is…really different to what I’m used to.” Wait. Should I tell people that? It’s a taxi driver, but what about the dude with the armor? What if he finds where I live?
WAIT A MINUTE. Avery is in a taxi. Avery is in a taxi with a suspicious man. Avery is in a taxi with a suspicious man leading them to the middle of nowhere. OH MY GOD. DOES NEW YORK HAVE SERIAL KILLERS? He really should’ve looked into the situation more, but what else was he supposed to do? He was being hunted down by all sorts of crazy people and he didn’t really think too hard about the logistics.
“Your father needs you, Avery.”
The thought poured over him like cold water as he looked to the armored man next to him. He was staring out the window, presumably keeping watch for any movement, but it was hard to gauge any sort of reaction. Normally, Avery could read body language like a book, but this man was so still. To Avery, he was written in a foreign language. One he couldn’t quite decipher. He refrained from looking at him for too long, almost worried that staring might cause him to become just as cold or turn to stone.
“...strawberry farm?” Huh. “What’dya say?” Avery asked, reeling from his thoughts into the world again. “What are you two doing at a strawberry farm? I’ve never heard of the place before.”
“Thought it’d be fun,” came the echoing voice from beside him. Silence followed afterwards as the driver seemed to have gotten the memo. No more questions.
***
“We’re here,” the driver stopped. The two of them hastily got out, Avery a little more cautiously. “Here’s my number in case I go missing,” Avery whispered as he slipped a piece of paper into the cupholder. “And a tip. Thank you.” A worried glance crossed the driver’s face as he looked between the two of them in uncertainty. “Let’s go,” the knight said as Avery mouthed the words ‘I DON’T KNOW HIM’ as he was dragged away to—
To…
“Where’s the strawberry farm?” Oh my god, is the farm a secret code name for a gang member base? Is my dad a part of the secret New Yorkian Mafia? Does this guy work for him? The figure suddenly stopped, sighed, and turned around.
“Avery Mayo, yes I know your full name. I know you’ve been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. I know your mother sent you to New York for college. I know you’re very confused, so let me spell it out for you,” with every claim this guy made, Avery backed up quicker and quicker until he put his metal gauntlets on his shoulders.
“You’re a demigod.”
And like a dam bust open, questions started pouring out. “What’s happening? Why am I here? Are you working for my dad? Who is my dad? Why did you get to know him before me? Where are we? How did you know that? Are you a stalker? How do you know my name? Wait—I guess that’s the same as asking if you’re a stalker because if you’re a stalker, then you would know my name, my dad, where I live, my birthday actually do you know my birthday? What about zodiac I bet you don't know what my zodiac is because you never thought to look into that because my dad hired you from a third party group—”
He felt the touch be removed from his shoulders as a hand covered his mouth instead. “Stop— stop talking, Gods,” the man leaned over and clutched his head. “One— one question. The most important one.” The hand was removed from his mouth.
“What’s your name?”
A sharp inhale was heard from the helmet. Avery tried to picture what his face would look like under it. “Your dad is— wait, what?”
“Wait, what was the bit about my dad? Can I go back and change my question? Well, you can answer it first, I mean, I feel like it’s pretty rude not to know. I’ve kinda just been calling you ‘weird dude with a spear’ in my head so…” he gestured vaguely at his appearance.
He paused for a moment. Then that moment stretched into two. Then three. Then—
“...Derleth. It’s Derleth Lorde.”
“Like an actual lord? Woah, that's pretty cool. Are you a serial killer? What’s a demigod?”
“Pause, pause. I’m not a lord or serial killer, I— What do you know about the Greek gods?”
Gods, plural? “My history class mentioned it. What does that have to do with— oh my God, is my dad a cult leader?!”
“One question!” Another sigh. “Do me a favor and don’t interrupt me while I try to explain this. Walk with me.”
And Avery, too enthralled by the mystery, began to climb the hill towards a forest.
“The Greek gods are real— I said no interrupting.” Avery closed his mouth while Derleth continued. “The Greek gods, the one from mythology, all of it is real. So is every other mythology in fact— which has some… unsuspecting consequences. These gods have children known as demigods or half-bloods. You—” Derleth turned around and jabbed a finger at his chest. “—are a demigod. Your dad is a god.
“We’re going to a place called Camp Half-Blood. It’s for people like us. Half-bloods attract the scent of monsters, and Camp Half-Blood is the only place where He— where monsters can’t get us.”
It seemed Derleth sensed Avery’s apprehension because he followed up with a “you may speak now” and braced for the potential onslaught of noise.
“Derry. Can I call you Derry? Actually, that sounds like dairy and that makes me think of gelato, nevermind. I’ll just call you Der. No offense. How do I know you’re not lying?”
Avery imagined Der’s eyebrow raising in a quizzical fashion. That or furrowing in annoyance.
“Feel free to call that cab again. You already gave him your number, but last I checked, I saved your life. That’s trustworthy enough.”
“Or you could wait for the monsters to find you and then let me know if they’re real enough to your liking,” Der continued onward, metal armor clanking behind him. Avery waited, thinking about his options before running to catch up. “Wait up!”
They made it to a pine tree—the tallest one Avery could see. “This tree?” Der knocked on the wood. “It’s Thalia’s tree. She was a child of Zeus, the Greek god of lightning. She died while trying to get to camp, so her father turned her dead body into a tree. It serves as a kind of force field to keep the monsters out.”
“You’re just making that up.”
The leaves rustled. “You’re pissing her off.” Avery imagined a smug grin radiating from the helmet. “C’mon. I’ll introduce you to Chiron. I’m sure once you watch the orientation film, everything will make sense.”
Avery highly doubted that. “I hope my dad isn’t like that…”
“He’s not. Zeus, the King of the Gods; Posieden, the god of the sea; and Hades, the god of the Underworld, are known as the Big Three. They’re not supposed to have children.”
“So Thalia was the only one then?”
Der simply hummed in reply.
***
It’s impolite to stare. Avery told himself in his head. But God— or gods, sorry—DAMN, that guy is an ass.
“Horse,” Der remarked, almost like he was reading his thoughts. “Chiron is a centaur, which means he’s part horse. He’s the guy who runs the camp. He is renowned for having mentored many great heroes in the past. I’m sure you’ve heard of Achilles before.”
The horse-man turned his body as he spotted them. “Ah! Derleth,” he smiled at the knight. He was a warm man who looked well-kept and a little older. Despite that, his eyes kept some ancient spark to them that just couldn’t seem to go out. “You must be Mr. Avery Mayo. I, ah, can see how this all can feel a little confusing. I trust you’ve caught him up with the details, Mr. Lorde?”
“As much as I could. He’s a little slow in terms of catching on.”
The centaur chuckled and tapped his hooves on the ground. “Well, not even your siblings could rival a mind like yours, but please be mindful.”
“Hard not to be.”
“I have horses at home,” Avery suddenly blurted out before covering his mouth. “Sorry, is that rude? I don’t really know what to—”
“Gods, another hopeless dimwit.” Avery was interrupted by foul cursing and grumbling complaints of another older man in an oddly colorful shirt, similar to his own, holding a soda. “I’m surprised he even made it this far. Shouldn’t the monsters have picked you off already?”
“Dionysus, the god of wine. One of the main twelve gods who has been sent to camp for rehabilitation,” Der helpfully supplied. “He’s always this cranky.”
“Please, Mr. D,” Chiron said. “Though I am also curious. Usually, in your younger years, monsters can easily track your scent.”
“It’s the farm,” Der looked at him. “You were surrounded by animals which is why they couldn’t find you. Your mother was smart. She wanted to confuse their sense of smell.”
“Eugh,” came the unenthusiastic response of Mr. D. “Alright, yip yap, you’re part god blah, blah, can we get back to our game now?”
“In a moment,” Chiron trotted over to the pair. “I’ll show Mr. Mayo here his way to the Hermes cabin—”
“Apollo,” Der cut him off. Chiron blinked and flicked his tail. “Are you sure?” He asked, frowning.
“...Yes. I’ll show him to his cabin.”
Chiron spared a second glance before looking back to Mr. D and sighing. “I don’t mean to doubt your judgement, Mr. Lorde,” he turned to Avery. “If you need any accommodations feel free to ask me. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood.”
***
“I don’t like your cabin,” Der says to him as Avery attempts to shield his eyes from the gleaming gold emitting from the building. “It’s like looking at the sun. Too much gold.” Avery turned to him with a skeptic look across his face, eyeing his armor up and down.
“Look, it’s grown on me, alright.”
He opened the door to see bunk beds lined all across the cabin with a couple of people inside talking. They both wore orange shirts and had matching beaded necklaces, one of them holding a helmet similar to Der’s own on top of his head. They paused their conversation briefly at the sudden intrusion, however. “This is where you’ll be staying. It’s not summer yet so we don’t have as many people. Feel free to pick any bed you want,”
Avery began to set his things down before Der put a hand in front of his chest. “Except for that one. And that one. And that one. Definitely not that one,” he began to point at almost every virtual bed there was, minus the one in the back corner. “Here’s fine. First order of business: I did you a favor and brought your essentials from your apartment.”
On top of the sheets was Avery’s suitcase. True to his word, his clothes, toothbrush, soaps and such were all there. Even the photo of him and his mom. Not creepy at all. “Wait,” Avery paused. “How did you get into my apartment?”
“I guessed the roomcode.”
“Without the key card?”
“...I guessed with my fists.”
He shook his head and closed the suitcase in disbelief. In the corner, the other campers resumed their gossip, though it seemed it was quieter tones instead. “Second order of business: I need your phone,” Der requested. Okay… “What for?” He frowned as he fished it from his pocket.
Derleth took out a hammer from gods know where and smashed the screen. Once, twice for good measure. A third probably to see Avery’s life drain from his eyes. Der attempted to cover his mouth again to silence the building temper about to shoot from Avery’s mouth, but he beat him to it. “What— What the hell was that for?! You can’t just— where did you even get a hammer from?!”
“Monsters are drawn to the energy produced by technology. Enjoy your new life as a caveman,” Der turned to depart, leaving Avery alone to mourn his precious source of dopamine.
“Oh, and Avery?” He doubled back. “6767 is a terrible password.”