Child of the Moon: Chapter 2

Child of the Moon
_{~A Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fanfiction~}


Chapter Two:
I go to summer camp – In April

Ok, so the first thing I did once I saw this huge fire-breathing reptile was run, right?  Wrong.  I did the only thing that I could do at the moment – stare at the thing, with my mouth open.
"Luna!" I heard Samuel's voice from across the hall, snapping me out of my daydreaming. "Don't just stand there like an idiot!"
"What is that thing!?" I screamed at Samuel, trying to make sense of this… It obviously wasn't real; I was dreaming, or hallucinating… or going crazy.
"That "thing" is a growing Aethiopian drakon… only about one-hundred seventy-five years old by the looks of it, they reach adulthood when they turn at least three-hundred years, but some mature faster than others, of course." Samuel said as he slowly circled the drakon, trying to confuse it by throwing various objects away from him.  Apparently the drakon didn't have very good eyesight, because it looked to where the objects clattered to the ground every time.
"You've got to help me!" He said urgently, "I can't take it alone." He threw me a big leather pouch, it was quite heavy.  I opened the pouch and took out a blade, it was about as long as my forearm, and it was sharper than any knife that I'd ever seen. It was a shiny bronze color, and it had some writing on it. The writing looked like it was a different language. "Aim for its mouth! That's one of its vulnerable spots, and the easiest to get to.  
"Easy?"  I thought as I looked at the drakon's mouth at least 20 feet off the ground; the only way to get to it was to throw something at it.
The drakon looked straight at Samuel, and it swiped its claws dangerously close to his face.  Samuel whimpered, and took a big jump backwards.  He then pulled out the most dangerous weapon you could ever think of – reed pipes.  He played a slow, mournful song, and vines sprouted out from the floor, and wrapped themselves around the drakon's legs.  "Okay then… I'm defiantly dreaming… plants can't sprout in the middle of a solid concrete floor… I must have a huge imagination to think this up." The plants didn't seem to be doing much, except make the drakon really mad. All the drakon had to do was slash through the vines as easily as I could rip a piece of paper.  
The drakon lunged again, this time at me, I panicked and dropped the knife and felt the deathly sharp claws tear through my arm.  The sharp pain going up my arm was enough to make me scream.  The dragon obviously didn't like loud, high-pitched noises and lashed its tail through a row of windows.  Glass flew everywhere, threatening to make someone trip.
My arm stung every time I moved it, and I could taste my tears on my lips.  The drakon started to open its mouth, and I knew what coming… fire.  I ducked towards the left, slipping on one of the many shards of glass on the floor, twisted my leg the wrong way, and landed painfully on my wounded arm.  Luckily, I got out of the range of fire, but that didn't solve the problem of me being stuck on the floor, vulnerable. I couldn't move myself out of the way even if my life depended on it… and in this case, it did. I saw Samuel throw a piece of glass at the drakon's back, a good idea, but the glass just bounced off of the drakon's armor harmlessly.  It didn't do any damage, but it sure got the drakon's attention, it turned around with great speed, and faced Samuel.  Samuel was cornered… a few more seconds and he would be dinner.
On an impulse, I grabbed the nearest glass shard next to me with my good arm, and threw it as hard as I could towards the drakon.  I heard a big screech, and something heavy landed on my stomach, knocking the breath out of me, and turning my vision hazy.  I looked up and I saw Samuel standing over me, a bloody cut on the side of his face, the corners of my vision were turning black, and then all I could see was an endless black void.

---

I had a dream that I was riding on horseback…clip-clop, clip-clop… but I was riding faster than a normal horse, faster than a normal car even. I was laying on the back of the horse, I couldn't exactly see the horse, but I could see that we were speeding through the cornfields of Maryland… wait, how'd we get here?  I live in south-west Virginia, miles away from Maryland.  Now we were galloping along wheat fields, and I could hear the city sounds not too far away.  I could see the Statue of Liberty now, we were entering New York.  This is where the horse slowed down to car speed, and we were cantering through the streets of the city.  We soon got out of the city and we were surrounded by a field, we passed a sign that said "Delphi Strawberry Co." We whipped past it so fast I barely had time to read it.

---

I was drinking home-made waffles with maple syrup… yes, I said drinking.  I had a straw in my mouth, and the drink tasted exactly like waffles with syrup.  I remember having waffles one day, with Mrs. Miller.  She took us out to a restaurant, we hardly ever get that treat, and we all got waffles, and they were the best thing that I had ever tasted.
My vision was hazy, but I had a feeling that I wasn't in Virginia anymore.  I looked over and saw a blurry version of Samuel talking to a tall, tan guy with longish wavy brown hair. The guy looked about 13 or 14. Samuel saw that I had awoken, so he got a damp cloth and put it on my head, "You ok?" he asked. His expression was full with worry.
I sat up. "Yeah, I'm ok… I just had a crazy dream, you were there, and we were fighting this dragon-thing, and I broke my le-" At that moment I looked down at my legs, One of them was in a splint.  My arm was wrapped in bandages. I looked at Samuel, "It wasn't a dream, was it?"
He shook his head.  The tan dude stepped foreword and bowed, I mean like he actually bent over, and bowed, to me.  He took my hand and shook it, "I am glad you are feeling better, celui qui a capturé mon cœur"
He had light blue eyes, and they were sparkling.  They reminded me of a blanket of blueish snow with the sun reflecting off of it. I couldn't think of anything else to say but, "Was that French?"
"Oui, yes, it was" he said back, as he fixed his gaze on my eyes. "And I would like to vous amène à une date, take you on a date."
I wanted to say no, but there was something about his unbroken gaze, something that was telling me to say yes. "O.K." I said, suddenly sure of my decision.
"Then we'll meet tonight, at twilight, on the beach." He started to walk away, "au revoir"
When he left I felt like I dropped out of a trance, "Woah, what just happened?"
Samuel looked at me.  He had a huge grin on his face, "That was Joshua Jennings, and it looks like he just charmspoked his way into getting a date."
"charmspoke?" I asked, unsure of what it was.
"It's a gift that some sons and daughters of Aphrodite have, and Joshua is infamous for it.  He gets out of everything; all he does is just talk his way out of it."
"Wait, you said Aphrodite… isn't that a mythical Roman goddess or something?" Thunder roared loudly in the distance, though the sky was not cloudy at all.
Samuel gritted his teeth, "I don't think you'll want to call Aphrodite Roman… she's Greek, and she'll have your head if you call her mythical."
"Wait, so are you telling me that Aphrodite is real?"
Samuel nodded, "So is Zues, Athena, Posiedon, and all the other ancient Greek gods and goddesses.
"The dude that throws lightning bolts?"
"Yeah, and that 'dude' is the most powerful being in the world, so I wouldn't say that so lightly." Samuel was getting annoyed now; I could tell that he had to explain this many times before.
"See, this place" he gestured to everywhere around, "Is Camp Half-Blood."
I looked around for the first time.  I was sitting on the porch of a two story house, and beyond the house was a sloping hill, and beyond that… well it was just too much for words… It simply took my breath away.
There were lots of people around, all of them busy, they were doing lots of different activities like Archery, Horse-back riding, Rock climbing, and Sword fighting. And yes, I did say sword fighting… that was exactly what it looked like.  And right in the middle of this place, there were cabins, about 20 of them, arranged in a U with two great wings stretched out.  Those were the most bizarre set of cabins, I'd ever seen… the next one was weirder than the last.  And in the middle there was a campfire, now extinguished.  There was a girl in a brown dress, about 9, tending to the hot coals, but she looked different from the other campers… she had a sort of a glow to her.
Samuel said this place was called Camp Half-Blood. I got the Camp part… but "What's a half-blood?" I thought out loud.
"Well, you have to be one to get into camp…"
"But what does it mean to be a half-blood?"
"Well, it means that you're half human, and half god or goddess… they're also called demigods."
'Okay… I just fought a drakon, traveled hundreds of miles, drank waffles, and now this person is telling me that gods and goddesses are real… ok, this is defiantly a dream… I'm going to wake up in my bedroom any second now.'  "So, if you have to be Half-blood to get into camp, than that means you are a Half-blood, right?"
"No, I'm a satyr."
"A what?"
"Satyr" He kicked off his shoes, There right under his pants were cloven hooves. And above the hooves was wooly goat fur. "Half-human, Half-goat."
I started to get creeped out… I mean where exactly was I, I was obviously hundreds of miles away from my home… and I was practically kid-napped and taken to this place with freaks… "Ok…" I said quietly, half sarcastic.
"But, you are a half-blood."
"What? I can't be, my parents weren't gods or goddesses… they abandoned me long ago!"  I just remembered something, I hope I hadn't lost it, my hand flew to my neck, I felt the cold silver chain underneath my fingers.  I exhaled in relief, it was still there. I brought out the only memory of my parents.  It was a crescent moon locket on a long silver chain.  The moon was made out of a special stone that seemed to glow in the moonlight.  It was the most precious thing I owned.
Samuel stayed quiet for a long time, and then he said, "Is that from your parents?"
I nodded a yes, "It was on my neck when they left me on the doorstep at Mrs. Miller's house.  It's how I got my name." I opened the locket; there, written in the stone on the inside was a message:
My precious Luna,
Know that you were never forgotten, and that I always watch over you.

I've always felt forgotten, no matter what the locket said, and if my parents were really watching over me, I would be living with them, not in some orphanage.  
I yelped in pain… I'd accidentally tried to move my leg, and a searing pain shot up it.
"Here" Samuel said, handing me a drink with a little mini umbrella in it. "Drink this, you'll feel better."
I drank the drink and I was surprised that it was the same drink that tasted like waffles.  Before I knew it, the drink was gone.  I tried moving my leg again, nothing, no pain, not at all.  I moved my arm a bit and again, I felt no pain.  I reached at the bandages on my arm and tried to untie them.
"Woah" Samuel said, "It can't be healed yet, you just got hurt yesterday."
When I uncovered my arm, it was completely healed, not bloody, and not hurting. "Maybe I'm just a fast healer?" I asked, I was surprised to see this myself. I took my leg off of the splint and unwrapped the bandages… my leg was perfectly fine, not bent at all… it was hard to believe that I'd even hurt it.  
I thought about it some more, and it made sense, every time I'd gotten cut or bruised before, the scars wouldn't last that long, they would heal in an hour or so.
"Well" Samuel said, clearly amazed… "I guess I get to give you a tour of camp, earlier than expected." He said as he helped me get out of the chair.

---

Samuel showed me everything, the archery range, the Pegasus stables, the rock climbing wall that spit lava at you, the sword fighting arena, the forges, the forest that was filled with monsters that were like that drakon—I made a silent note to myself to never go in there.  
He also introduced me to Chiron, the camp director. He said that the wine god Dionysus was usually director, but Zeus was acting very kind and gave him a year vacation.  Chiron was busy with teaching archery, so Samuel and I said a quick hello and was off.  When I fist saw him, I thought he was on horseback, and then I saw that he was actually connected to a horse! He had a human top half, and the bottom half was a white stallion.  I still thought I was dreaming, or I had hit my head really hard, so I didn't freak out at Chiron like Samuel said other campers did.
Finally, he showed me the cabins; those were what interested me most.  He said that each had a patron god or goddess, like the one with peacocks on it was Hera's, the one with the lightning bolt and the largest cabin was Zeus's…They had one for almost every god or goddess.  Like Demeter, Poseidon, Morpheus, Apollo, Janus, Athena, Hebe, Hypnos, Aphrodite, Hades, Hermes, Iris, Hecate, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Nemesis, Ares, and Artemis. Most of the names I'd never heard of before.  
All of the cabins were quite unusual, and I wanted to go inside each one and have a look around, but Samuel said it would be disrespectful to do that.  But the one I couldn't take my eyes off of… was the Artemis one.  It seemed to call to me, and I wanted to stay there and look at it forever. I didn't know why, I looked very much like a regular cabin, but it had a crescent moon engraved in the wood on top of it… and if you looked closer, there were many wild animals carved near the bottom, mostly stags.
Most of the cabins were bustling with activity; Samuel said that there were more than two-hundred campers.  He said that it was usually a summer camp though, and some of the summer campers weren't there, but it still was very populated.  I noticed that a select few cabins had no campers in or around the cabin, I begged Samuel to tell me about those.
"Well," he began, "Once you are claimed by your parent, you go to your parent's cabin.  If you aren't claimed yet, you go to the Hermes cabin, but since Percy made that deal with the gods, they have been good about claiming their children before they turn thirteen."
When Samuel mentioned "thirteen" I took a sharp intake of breath, today was my birthday! I had completely forgotten, 'being a teenager doesn't feel that much different from being a preteen.' I thought sadly.
"And that cabin, the first one, Zeus's," Samuel continued, "is usually empty because Zeus hasn't had many kids lately, Hera is making sure of that… But when Jason comes to visit, he stays there, but otherwise he's in the Roman camp… and then there's Thalia, but she joined the hunters of Artemis, and doesn't stay there anymore… but none the less, she's a daughter of Zeus…"
My head was swimming with unanswered questions, I didn't know who Percy, Jason, or Thalia was, but I thought it rude to interrupt.
"Then that cabin next to it, Hera's, is empty, and probably always will be, Hera never has affairs with mortals, seeing as she's the goddess of marriage. Her cabin is kind of… honorary… Hera would be mad if we didn't have a cabin for her."
At least that statement I could comprehend.
"And the one behind Zues's, that one with seashells all over it, that one is Poseidon's.  Percy Jackson is the only one who stays in it, but he's off on a quest.  Poseidon hasn't had any demigod children lately either." Samuel said, pausing for a second to take a breath, "And that one" he said, pointing to the Artemis cabin, the one that interested me, "That one is honorary too, she doesn't have any children… she's kinda against men. Artemis would defiantly be mad if we didn't have a cabin for her.  But occasionally, her hunters stop by for a visit, and they stay in her cabin."
I begged Samuel to tell me more about the hunters of Artemis, he said that they were immortal, and they composed of nymphs, mortal girls, demigod girls, and pretty much any young girl that pledged to join her cause, and promise to never fall in love. They had silver bows and arrows, and never missed a shot.
He introduced me to a bunch of other campers until the sun sank slowly behind the horizon, turning the sky brilliant hues of orange and gold. "Time for dinner" Samuel said as he hopped off to the dining pavilion, which he has shown me hours ago.  The pavilion didn't have a roof, but they didn't ever need them, because any storm cloud that came near camp simply slipped around the border. He told me that the camps magical borders kept out monsters too, and was very thankful for that.

---

Dinner was wonderful, they had roasted barbeque, and fresh bread and fruit, every kind you could imagine.  And you could order any drink you wanted, all you had to do was say what you wanted to your cup and it would fill up with your request. I was sitting at the Hermes table, Samuel said I could sit there until I was claimed.  When I told him it was my thirteenth birthday, he told me it was odd that I hadn't been claimed, and told me that I should be claimed by nightfall.
But before I got to dig in, everyone stood up and started scraping off part of their food in the fire.  The girl sitting next to me told me that we were offering food to the gods.  I nervously scraped off apart of my food, still unsure about believing this whole "gods and goddesses" thing.  I figured when I went to sleep tonight, I'd wake up in my ordinary bed, and everything would go back to normal. I was just having a very, very, vivid dream.
When everyone was full, Chiron stood up to address everyone and make his regular announcements. But before his mouth opened to speak, a silver arrow flew and stuck itself in one of the columns on the opposite side of the pavilion.  Everyone's heads turned to the direction in which it came.  There was a girl with black hair and a silver crown thing on her head. Behind her there were about 50 girls in silvery jackets.  Samuel described these people so well (partly because I begged him to) that I knew at once that they were the hunters of Artemis.