Chapter Text
Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.
If you’re reading this because you think you might be one, just stop reading. Believe whatever lies you’ve been told and go live your life. Being a demigod sucks.
I mean sure, you may end up with cool powers and find out you have a way larger family than you thought you did (which may be a bad thing now that I'm thinking about it...) but you’re also constantly chased by monsters, have at least one parent who's a deadbeat, and, oops almost forgot, sometimes even the gods want you dead! That’s just an average Tuesday if I'm being honest.
So, if you happen to just be a normal chill person reading this because you think it's fiction, then keep reading on. I will enjoy my vent time and you can enjoy your 'fantasy soap opera' that has a 'modern take on classic Greek myths!'
However, if you happen to recognize yourself in my writing—if you feel a connection to my words and experiences—just look away. Once you start to realize it will be too late, and you’ll end up either dead or miserable.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
My name’s Percy Jackson.
I’m twelve years old, and I have currently spent just over a year as a demigod. Not that I wasn’t one before, but it’s a bit different once you find out. And I mean it is actually different—you start to see more and you attract more monsters. My friend Grover explained it to me once, but it’s basically like your scent gets stronger? Apparently I smell like flowers... Which is better than smelling gross, so I’ll take it!
Anyway, let me give you a recap on the past year.
My mother, the most amazing woman in the world, was murdered by my stepfather last May. I was brought here by Apollo, the God of the Sun, and swiftly moved into the Big House. Normally kids don’t get moved into the Big House but I was a ‘special case’. (I still don’t know what made me so special, but at least I got a big room with a TV and its own bathroom out of it).
At first, Camp Half-Blood seemed like it was magical. I felt like I had finally found a place to belong—a real safe haven where I could be myself and make friends. I mean sure, I didn’t know who my father was; and sure, I’d still get bullied by a few kids; but overall it was so much better than the outside world that it was like night and day (I’m telling you, there is a TV in my room). The only thing missing was my mom, but since she couldn’t come back that left me to make a new family of sorts.
I was adopted into the Apollo Cabin, and somewhat by Apollo himself too even if it wasn’t official. They had made me one of their own, including me in everything they did. I also gained a sister who taught me how to fight named Clarisse, and an older brother who snuck me candy and soda when I did well in training named Luke.
I made friends, got really proficient with a LOT of weapons, started a myrmeke stampede—you know, usual activities for a demigod.
My closest friend who I didn’t consider a sibling was probably Castor; I surprisingly considered a lot of people here siblings now that I think about it... Huh. Either way, Castor and I bonded a lot over the past year and he makes a killer fruit punch. He’s also just good at getting me out of my comfort zone. It’s always fun with him.
I’d like to say that everything is sunshine and roses now, but it isn’t. You see, this past winter solstice something happened. I’m still not sure what went down really, but all I know is that Zeus got really mad and caused a big storm in Camp. I mean, I’m like 90% sure the storm hit outside of Camp too, but only because I was seeing news about it on TV. Honestly, there have been a lot of weird storms, as well as earthquakes. It’s kind of put a downer on my mood but I’ve tried to stay positive.
The trick is surrounding myself with people who I can have fun with (hence why I’ve been spending more time with Castor). It works wonders and gets me out of my head, even if there are some unpleasant feelings still.
That’s another thing, stuff in my head. Sometimes it feels like my feelings aren’t my own, which is kinda freaky. At first I thought it was residuals from the weird past dreams I have (Oh yeah I have past dreams from the perspective of Apollo’s ex… don’t ask). However, it felt different from those times. These feelings were always anger and annoyance, which I didn’t often feel in my dreams.
When I brought it up with Lee he figured I might be starting to ‘go through some changes’ and mentioned something about hormones and puberty. I kinda tuned him out after he started getting technical. If it was just puberty, why did the feelings not feel like mine? Is this how puberty is? If so, it sucks.
The storms aren’t the only weird thing that's been different since the solstice. Mr. D, aka Dionysus, has also been acting differently—he never seemed to be in a good mood anymore. I mean, he wasn’t ever outright mean to me, but he wasn’t like the god I’d come to know. At least he didn’t call me Persimmon or something.
Apollo’s also been acting strange, and by that I mean that he's been absent. Last year he would try to visit at least once a week to check in. I figured it was probably because he had grown to like me after saving my life, or maybe because he wanted an excuse to see his kids. Regardless, it was weird to not hear from him for over five months now.
I tried to ask Mr. D but he would always avoid the question. So then I tried asking Luke, since Lee and Will seemed to have no idea, but Luke figured that Apollo had gotten bored of me and moved on.
That had left a weird taste in my mouth.
I couldn’t believe it—I refused to. Lee didn’t think that was it either, and I knew Lee wouldn’t lie to me. Even so, as more and more time passed I started to have my doubts. I mean, what if Luke was right? Even if it wasn’t that simple, Apollo could’ve gotten busy and forgotten about me. It wasn’t that far-fetched.
I didn’t want to think like that though so I kept ignoring it.
Other than that the school year had passed by just about as normal as it always did, only this time I didn’t get expelled. Could I even get expelled from here now that I think about it? Eh, hopefully not. Surely Mr. D liked me too much.
I don’t… hate school per se, but I very much dislike it—even when it’s being taught at a cool camp for demigods. Chiron, for all his experience training heroes, wasn’t that great of a teacher. And yes, I do mean the centaur trainer of heroes that was mentioned in a lot of the old stories.
I mean, I suppose he could be worse, and he wasn’t too bad when it was history, but let’s just say he understood modern math and science just about as well as I do—which isn’t a good start. Drew Tanaka and I had taken to begging Annabeth Chase to teach us when his lessons were over.
Annabeth was the smart one, which is what you’d expect from a daughter of Athena. I was definitely not a child of Athena, and Drew was a child of Aphrodite who had more interest in looking at fashion magazines or figuring out underhanded ways to fight than she had in learning math. Together we made an odd trio, but at least none of us failed.
Outside of classes I would usually hang out with Castor if I wanted to chill or do some mischief. Pollux would sometimes hang with us but he often wanted to hang with his other friends too. I didn’t mind that much, and it was always nice to spend time with both of the twins, but I could tell Pollux wanted to branch out. It must be tiring always being mistaken for each other, so I guess I couldn’t really blame him. I'm glad I studied their differences early on. So far I hadn't made a mistake yet and I was determined to keep that streak!
When I wasn't chilling with friends or hanging out, I was training. Usually I trained with either Lee, Luke, Clarisse, or Annabeth, although I'd sometimes mix it up and go up against Drew or Castor for fun. Those fights were always random and kept me on my toes.
For archery, Lee's the best trainer since he's an Apollo kid. I'd say I'm pretty good with a bow now thanks to him (Well, at least when it comes to normal target accuracy—hitting moving targets is entirely different). Luke drills me in swordplay since he's the 'best swordsman in the past 300 years'. It's a high title and he definitely lives up to it, but I'm getting pretty solid at some advanced techniques now myself. I'm nowhere near his skill, but I'd say I'm better than the average demigod.
Clarisse and I go all out in our sparring, typically drawing in a crowd to watch our matches. She had initially started by training me with a spear, but it has now devolved into us choosing random weapons to fight each other with and going to town. I've even grown enough where she lets me try and wrestle her; I've never won since I'm still pretty short but it always gets my adrenaline pumping.
For close range weapons and techniques my go-to partner is Annabeth. We started with daggers, moved onto hunting knives, and now we even practice hand-to-hand. She's been on a martial arts kick so I have a feeling that might be next. Honestly, I might enjoy these spars the most, but only because we think so differently. I always feel like I learn a lot from them. I never really imagined a day where I would be close with Annabeth, and while we still weren’t best friends or anything I would definitely say that we are friends.
Now that you’re up to speed with what’s been going on, I guess I should start with the day that changed my life… for the second time.
I had a weird dream of a giant golden eagle fighting a massive white horse on a beach. This may not seem like a big deal, just another random dream, but trust me, it was a big deal. You see, normally I either wouldn’t dream or I would dream about Apollo’s ex (again, don’t ask) so this one was breaking the formula. Instead of being in the perspective of someone else, I was myself.
It was storming in the dream, much as it had been in real life lately, and these two animals were tearing at each other. It was brutal. I felt the inherent need to make them stop, but no matter what I tried I couldn’t get closer. Even as I was screaming out for them to not fight anymore, it was like they couldn’t hear me. There had been a creepy voice too who had been egging on the duel. It was raspy, almost sounding like sandpaper. Then, when the eagle went for the killing blow, a big pit suddenly opened up in the ground and swallowed me whole.
I woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily.
In my sleep I had gotten tangled up in my blankets and somehow ended up trapped. It took me a solid minute to untangle myself and stand up, but at least having that to focus on got me to momentarily forget about my creepy dream. Apollo had mentioned that demigods have weird dreams but I had figured that he was just trying to make me feel better. Now though, I had to wonder. Had the eagle and the horse been Poseidon and Zeus? Was that why all these storms were happening? What were they fighting over?
I took my time getting ready for the day, deep in thought about what my dream could mean. It was only once I reached the dining pavilion that I remembered that today was the first Capture the Flag game of the summer. Everyone was excitedly chatting about it at their tables as I made my way over to my usual spot by Mr. D.
Honestly, I was sure today was going to be a totally unremarkable day, just like the past year had been. I would do some training, hang with some friends, win Capture the Flag, and then go to bed.
Sure enough, it was a pretty typical day. I finished up breakfast, tried to conquer the lava wall (Castor laughed at me when my shirt caught on fire), sparred with a few people to prepare for the game—ya know, all the usual stuff. Even dinner was normal. I did my typical offering to Apollo, tried to pray to my dad (whoever he was), and after everyone ate Chiron announced the teams.
The problem started there. Well not at the announcement, but at the game itself. This Capture the Flag Game turned out to be anything but normal.
I was allied with the Athena, Apollo, and Hermes cabins. Normally I’d side with Ares, but this time Clarisse and I had wanted to go against each other. I readily agreed to the alliance when Annabeth asked and that was that.
We were up against Ares, Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. It was kind of exciting. Usually when I fought on Annabeth’s team she placed me either in the trees with the Apollo campers since I was a decent archer, or on the defense squad since Clarisse usually led the charge.
This time was a bit different. Annabeth just told me to follow her and began leading me away from my usual groups. When I asked her what the plan was, she seemed a bit hesitant for some reason. It was unlike her. I went to ask if she was okay, but she quickly made up her mind about something and started to fill me in.
“So, there’s been a slight change of plans from our usual formation. You have your knives, right?” At my nod, she continued, “Good. I’m going to have you up front this time—not on offense but as the first defensive line. We’re going to funnel Clarisse’s group to a choke point and right to you, so be prepared.”
I blinked at her a moment, furrowing my brows.
“Is it just me that’ll be guarding the choke point? I mean, I’m not scared of Clarisse but I don’t think I’ll be able to hold off her entire group. Doesn’t that seem a bit impractical?”
Annabeth merely rolled her eyes. Yep, there’s the Annabeth I know.
“Listen Jackson, I’m not asking you to hold them back, just delay them as long as possible. You’re the first defensive line, yeah? We’ll have more people behind you. I know you and Clarisse have been wanting to duel today so I figured I’d play on her desires and send her off course a bit. Don’t worry, Athena always has a plan.”
And with that she put on her Yankees cap and disappeared. Welp, I guess I couldn’t argue if she was gone.
I immediately became aware that while I was near the creek which marked the border between sides, I was quite far from the center of the playing field and a lot deeper in the woods than I was used to. It made me a bit wary since the last time I’d been alone in the woods I’d run into giant ant creatures. I took my sword off my hip, scanning my surroundings. It’s better to be prepared, isn’t it?
Honestly I had expected to be paired with the archers again today, so I hadn’t thought to bring a spear. I really should've known better. All I had was an unbalanced sword, some hunting knives, and a shield that I wasn’t very fond of using. I’m glad I had at least brought it as an afterthought since I’d be fighting in close range.
The conch horn sounded out before I could think on it anymore. The game had begun.
I’m not going to lie, I got bored quickly. I’m not used to being alone for these things, as I mentioned. Even if I have to be quiet and stealthy, it’s easier to do when I’m with other people. I was really questioning Annabeth’s decision here. I mean, so many things could go wrong. Also, even if I was able to stop Clarisse, who was going to prevent the others like Mark and Eli from using the opportunity to rush past and towards the flag? I may be good at fighting, but I don’t know if I’m that good.
Suddenly I heard a growl from behind me that made my heart stop. When I spun around though, shield and sword at the ready, there was nothing there. I narrowed my eyes, walking in the direction I thought I heard it from. Maybe it was just a little animal? Or if it was a monster, I could probably get the jump on it. I've trained a lot since the myrmeke incident. I could for sure take out a monster on my own now.
Before I could find out if there was a monster though, I heard the distinct sound of multiple people running. When I turned I found Clarisse rushing me with a manic smile on her face, causing a matching one to appear on my own.
Game time.
“Well well, if it isn’t Pipsqueak! What are you doing all on your lonesome over here?”
I kept an eye out behind her, counting four more people stepping out into the open—Mark, Eli, Jon, and the new Ares kid named Sherman Yang. He was as old as I was, but a whole lot bigger. It was a pretty intimidating squad to be honest, but I set my focus back on Clarisse, baring my teeth in a sharp grin.
“I thought I could use the chance to stretch my legs. It isn’t often I explore the woods, ya know?”
Right as I finished speaking I thrusted out my sword. Clarisse blocked it with a laugh and I had to spin out of the way before she knocked it out of my hands. We continued in that manner—ducking and dodging, swinging and stabbing—until I noticed her teammates trying to make their way around.
I rolled under the swing of Clarisse’s spear and barreled into Mark, ramming him with my shield and knocking him off his feet. I may be small, but I’m quick. Sherman went to run at me with a yell, but he was way too inexperienced. I rammed my shield into his sword hand, making him drop his weapon, then hit the pommel of my sword into his head. Sorry Sherman, but I need to even out the playing field a little.
I felt the air shift behind me and dodged just before Clarisse’s spear would’ve hit my blind spot. I took a few steps back to get a sense of my surroundings. Mark was slowly making his way back to his feet, Sherman was out cold, Clarisse was in front of me—Eli… Crap, where was Eli? Or Jon for that matter? Oh gods, I’d let Jon get away.
I groaned internally as I realized I had let their fastest runner get by me. Hopefully they’d be stalled at other defense points like Annabeth said, but I didn’t have time to think about where Jon and Eli may or may not be before Clarisse was thrusting out her spear again. This time it met my shield since I wasn’t able to move in time. Rookie mistake.
I felt my left arm go numb as electricity shot through it. We had agreed before the game that she could test out the weapon she’d gotten from her dad in its first proper battle—it was an electric spear named ‘Maimer’. Honestly, it was a pretty cool spear. It literally glowed red and sparked off shocks of red electricity. However, unfortunately for me, I was going up against it.
Once I felt my arm go numb I decided to abandon the shield. At this point it was weighing me down and would do more harm than good. I had to keep my balance and adapt. I shifted on my feet, changing to a more offensive stance, before rushing back towards Clarisse. If I could just keep her away from the flag that’d be perfect. She was one of their strongest fighters.
We traded blows back and forth as I continued to barely dodge the electric point of her spear and she parried the swings of my sword. If only I had a balanced blade, then I could probably win—
No. I needed to focus. Even without the balanced blade she was breaking a sweat. We seemed to be on even footing still. It was fine, I just needed to keep her here.
Sadly, this is when my plan began to fall apart. You remember Mark? The guy I had specifically noted was getting up? Yeah, he decided to make a reappearance. I had just stepped in for an attack when I felt something come up beside me. I was able to dodge his spear thankfully, but it still caused me to lose my footing which I’m pretty sure he was going for.
I hit the ground hard, the air getting knocked out of me. In my fall I had loosened my grip on my sword, which became obvious when I had to dodge and ended up rolling further away from it. Well, maybe Annabeth was right about needing my knives after all. Hunting knives against a spear isn’t great odds, but I could make do.
I had just grabbed onto them and sprung back up to my feet when I realized that Mark had said something to Clarisse. They both turned around and started running in the direction of the flag.
“Sorry Pipsqueak! We gotta win! Good fighting though!” She yelled over her shoulder.
No no no no, I couldn’t let her get away! Before I could even think about it I had tugged my bow charm. The golden bow Apollo had gifted me for my twelfth birthday appeared in my hand, and the endless quiver Lee had helped make appeared on my back. I nocked an arrow, took a breath, and fired.
Now, let me be real with you here. I may be really good at hitting targets at this point, but I was not good at hitting moving targets. So, I was kind of surprised when my arrow did what I wanted it to. Maybe Apollo was watching over just for this moment? Who’s to say really. All I know is that when I let my arrow fly it hit Mark right in the knee, causing him to go down and take Clarisse with him. It gave me enough time to grab my sword back off the ground and catch up with them. I may have had a big smile on my face when I did.
“What were you saying Clarisse? Don’t leave so soon, we’re just getting started!”
She huffed out a laugh as Mark groaned from underneath her. Ooh, maybe I should’ve used dull arrows. Oops.
I let her get back up again—not to make it easy for her, but because I wanted a fair fight. We always sparred with each other, but out in the woods it felt more real.
Just as we were about to clash again, the conch horn sounded off. Wow, that was fast.
I turned back to the creek to see if I could make out who won. In the distance I could see a group of people cheering as Luke proudly brandished the Athena symbol on the flag. I turned back to Clarisse with a smug grin. She let out a snort at that and ruffled my hair.
Clarisse helped Mark up and he put his arm over her shoulder while he limped along. I felt kind of bad. Hopefully I didn’t hit anything important. Both Clarisse and I had gotten a bit banged up, but we were fine enough to walk. Feeling had also come back into my left arm now which was nice. Overall, I was pretty proud of myself.
We began to chat as we made our way over to everyone.
“Well played Pipsqueak, well played. Did Annabeth set you up for that?”
“Yeah,” I laughed a bit, “I wasn’t really convinced at first but somehow it ended up working. I don’t know how Jon and Eli didn’t make it to the flag though. We’ll have to ask what happened when we meet up.”
Clarisse was just about to speak again when we heard that same growl I had heard earlier, only this time it sounded a lot closer. When I turned I spotted it: a massive black dog the size of a car with glowing red eyes and teeth as sharp as my knives. I could barely process what I was seeing until it was charging at us. No, not at us—it was charging straight at me.
I stumbled backwards, trying to run away, but I don’t think it helped much in the end. I heard Clarisse yell for help but couldn’t quite process anything else before the hound was slamming into me. I think I flew back ten or twenty feet before it landed on top of me. I could feel its claws slicing through my armor and briefly wondered if this is how I’d die. The thought didn’t scare me as much as it should’ve. Dying would mean getting to see my mom again.
The next few minutes were kind of blurry. I know there was a lot of screaming (had I been screaming? I’m not too sure). I also know the hellhound, because that was what the big dog was called now that I think about it, died pretty quickly. It had been filled with arrows and disappeared into gold dust. Unfortunately, that did not solve my ‘torn into shreds’ issue.
I could feel that my chest was warm and wet, my breaths coming out in uneven rasps. Between one blink and the next I saw Will’s face over me, then on the next blink Lee and Mr. D were suddenly there too. When did that happen?
Will looked like he was crying, but I could feel his magic healing rushing through me. I think I felt Lee’s too, but it was fainter. I’m pretty sure I was fading in and out from the blood loss. When I finally got more of my bearings I found myself wrapped up like a mummy almost, but I think I had a sufficient amount of blood now if sound was starting to come back in.
“—ercy? Percy, can you hear me?” Oh, that was Lee! I should probably say something.
“Yeah,” I wheezed out, throat dry and raspy. I suppose a dry throat was better than choking on my own blood.
I watched as Lee seemed to relax a bit at my response, a small comforting grin appearing on his face. I could make out Will being comforted by Lindsay out of the corner of my eye. Good, he didn’t need to see me like this anymore. Especially if I wasn’t on the verge of death any longer.
“You think you could try standing up Percy? You’re starting to regain your color, but I’d love it if we could get you to the infirmary. If you can’t stand we can carry you there, but I know you probably wouldn’t want to be carried if you could help it.” Curse Lee and his understanding personality.
I wasn’t looking forward to standing up, but I nodded anyway.
It took some steadying from both Lee and Clarisse to finally get me into a sitting position. After I blinked away some wooziness and the urge to throw up, I nodded again and they helped me to my feet. I hadn’t realized before then, but we were quite close to the creek. That hellhound had knocked me further than I thought.
Of course, me being the clumsy guy suffering from blood loss, I just had to slip. Lee caught me before I could fully go down, but just about my entire left side had gotten wet. Strangely enough, the water didn’t feel too bad. I almost felt more awake and alert after touching it. I guess cold water really did work wonders for waking up, huh.
Gasps suddenly began to ring out from around me. When I looked to see what was going on, I found everyone staring at me with wide eyes—some were even starting to kneel to the ground. Even Chiron looked surprised.
Wait, was something glowing?
I glanced up and could only make out some faint traces of a glowing green something. Had I just been claimed?! Who did it? Why had I missed my own claiming after so long trying to find out who my dad was?!
I heard someone clear their throat and turned my head back over to find Chiron looking pale and uncomfortable. Even so, he began to speak as if he was some sports announcer.
“Percy Jackson has been claimed!”
Okay yeah. Well done Captain Obvious.
“Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon.”
Wait.
Son of Who?!