by Emery Pugh
SPOILER ALERT: The following content may reveal parts of the plot of the Percy Jackson book series. There may also be spoilers about the Heroes of Olympus book series, which is a five-book sequel to the Percy Jackson series. The Trials of Apollo series, the sequel to Heroes of Olympus, will be mentioned. It is highly recommended that you read at least the Percy Jackson series AND the first book of the Heroes of Olympus series. If you don’t mind the spoilers, then read on. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Chapter 4
Hector
Let the fun begin was definitely not the first thing I would say in my predicament.
The only reason I was still alive was because Kane was testing out his iron bar. His posse were having practice fights. The clang of metal was near-deafening.
I looked at Garret in horror. “Is this…”
“Real?” Garret finished my sentence. “Unfortunately, yes.”
Garret pulled out a… I didn’t know what it was, but it looked like a pond reed. He was about to put it to his lips, but Kane strode up and snatched it away.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Kane wagged his finger and snapped the reed. “No nature magic of yours.”
Garret whimpered and handed me something. I glanced down and saw that it was a gleaming bronze knife.
“Hide it,” Garret whispered. “Don’t say anything about it.”
“IT IS TIME!” Kane roared, hefting his iron bar. “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET’S EAT THESE PUNKS FOR BREAKFAST!”
Five eight foot tall, super-strong monsters that I couldn’t outrun charged me with iron poles in their hands. What could go wrong?
“DIE!” sounded a cry from above.
I looked up and I was sure that it was the most bizarre scene I would ever see. A half-man, half-goat landed on top of Kane and smacked his head with a baseball bat. Kane went down screaming with a sickening crack!
More goat men soared from the rooftops and started pummeling the monsters. Some stayed on the roof and played music, which I guessed was nature magic, on reed pipes like Garret’s. Thick roots sprouted from the ground and wrapped around Kane and his posse.
“Ahhh!” Kane started to crumble to dust. “Help me!”
And just like that, all that remained of Kane’s group was a few piles of yellow dust.
“Gleeson! Er – I mean, Coach Hedge!” Garret cried. “You heard my call!”
“I don’t abandon a fellow satyr!” Gleeson/Coach Hedge hefted his Louisville Slugger on his shoulder and grinned. “Especially when someone needs a whacking on the head!”
“Um, what do you mean by ‘you heard my call?’” I asked.
“It’s a nature magic thing,” Garret explained. “Remember how I played some music on my reed pipes before school? That was the call. I was lucky that it worked, since Coach was all the way at camp.”
“So,” Hedge pointed his baseball bat at me, which made me flinch. “Do we blow this fella up or take him to camp?”
“Uh, take him to camp.” Garret politely objected to blowing me up. “What transportation do you have?”
“My Ford Pinto, of course,” Gleeson said. “Let’s go whack people!”
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I was not particularly excited when I heard Coach Hedge would be driving. Based on what I knew about him so far, he was a reckless type, which is awesome if you want to get into a car crash. However, he turned out to be a better chaperon than I thought.
I had a thousand questions, but I didn’t know what to ask first. My tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth whenever I tried to speak.
Finally, something unintelligible came out. “Wha – who – where…?”
“What did you say?” Garret asked, leaning towards me.
I cleared my throat. “Um… Where are we going?”
“To a camp,” Garret said, like that cleared up the confusion. He elaborated, “It’s a camp for… well, people who aren’t… I was going to say ‘normal,’ but that’s not quite the word.”
“Great,” I muttered. “I needed the reminder.”
“I don’t mean it like that!” Garret said hastily. “I mean… you know about Greek mythology, right?”
“Yes,” I answered. “What does that have to do with it?”
“Everything,” Garret said. “All the things about Greek mythology… it’s real. Well, most of it, anyways. And you… you’re a half-blood – a child of one of the gods.”
He took a moment to let that sink in. To tell the truth, I had no idea what to say. Should I deny it? Most people would. On the other hand, it would sort of make sense. I mean, I just saw a bunch of horned people called satyrs whack seven-foot tall giants with baseball bats. At this point, anything could be true.
“So… um… how…” I stammered.
“I know,” Garret said. “It’s hard to believe, but it’s true.”
“What is going on in my life?” I yelled. All the other passengers in the car jumped. I attempted to regain self-control, without success.
“Ahhh!” I ripped off a chunk of the leather seat and threw it out the window. I steadied my breathing and slumped in my seat.
“Please don’t damage the car!” Hedge glanced back at me nervously. “It’s the only one I have!”
I didn’t respond. My brain apparently couldn’t process the revelation I had, since everything clouded up and I fainted.
Chapter 5
Godric
I slashed the last monster to dust, standing next to my friend Sanderson, both of us out of breath.
“That was the biggest attack we’ve had so far,” Sanderson muttered. “Even the magic of the statue of Athena couldn’t stop it.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’re gonna become monster chow if it doesn’t finish soon.”
You might ask what “it” is. Well, it’s a top-secret project that only a few campers know about. It may or not work, and if it fails, it could be disastrous. No. It would be disastrous. There was no question about it.
He looked at me gravely. “I’m not against a joke, but this is no laughing matter.”
“It’s true, though,” I pointed out.
The son of Apollo didn’t respond. He gazed across camp.
I should mention: I’m a son of Zeus (worst dad of all time, by the way). Sanderson and I grew up together since we were toddlers, Sanderson being a month older than me. Around turning nine years old we were orphans under the protection of a mysterious yet kind and surprisingly strong woman, until a satyr named Grover led us here at age thirteen. We’ve been at camp for about a year, and yes, we’ve gone on a quest. No, I do not want to talk about it. Not now, not here. Period. End of story.
Sanderson and I went to our respective cabins for a short rest before our morning activities. It really sucks to fight monsters for four hours when you could be sleeping and having the typical nightmares of a demigod.
I closed the door behind me and crashed into bed. Ugh. Did I mention the statue of Zeus looking like a hippie in the middle of the cabin? I was tempted to ask the cleaning harpies to eat it or something, but I didn’t think dad would appreciate it, especially with his humorous reputation (extreme sarcasm there).
I thought I would never be able to fall asleep, but I was wrong. I slipped into the land of dreams, or nightmares; pick your translation.
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My dream took place on the edge of a cliff. Below the cliff’s edge, there was only black void. About half a football field away from me, two beings, each forty feet tall, were conversing. One was so dark I could see no features, and the other was dressed in black and red robes. Its face was a swirling vortex, occasionally sucking in pieces of surrounding rock.
“I have it under control,” Swirly Face rumbled. “The monsters will distract the gods and their children from our real plan.”
“If you say so,” the dark being said with a sigh. Its voice was feminine and soft, but it had an edge to it that told me it could speak harshly as well.
“Trust me, you need not worry,” Swirly Face said reassuringly. “We are both eternal. Even if our minions fail in their plans, we can easily crush the gods underfoot. We will avenge our fallen sister.”
Swirly Face was about to say more, but I didn’t catch it. The whole world seemed to be shaking.
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Godric, a deep, raspy voice whispered in my head. Come to me. Your precious little camp cannot keep you safe.
I sat bolt upright in my bed, gasping. The whispered words echoed in my mind.
Dawn had just arrived. The sun’s rays seeped through the hills into the valley. Usually, today was a day to kick back and relax, since it was Saturday, being an off day. But today was special. I suddenly recalled the capture the flag game at noon and my armor and weapons I needed to polish and practice with.
I changed out of my pajamas and headed towards the combat arena.
I always felt in my element when I was fighting. Even though I was a relatively new camper at Camp Half-Blood, few could contest me in a sword fight. I was also one of the few good shots in archery other than the majority of the Apollo campers.
I strapped on my armor and practiced my moves on the straw-and-rubber dummies for approximately thirty minutes.
“Hey, Godric,” said a voice behind me.
I whirled around and almost decapitated my best friend. “Whoa there, Sanderson. Don’t come sneaking up on me like that. I might accidentally cut your head off.”
“The head cutting-off part is hardly my fault,” Sanderson muttered. “Anyways, I decided I’d come here to practice, since both my sword and my sword skills are a little rusty.”
“Alright,” I said. “I’m ready to destroy you.”
I always tease him about his close-range fighting, but one has to give him credit. Children of Apollo are not meant to be front-line swordsmen. He does have a few good moves (that I taught him, thank you very much).
After an hour or so we went next door to the archery range, where Sanderson scored all bullseyes and it was basically the combat arena but the script was flipped.
“Hey, punk,” said a voice next to me. “You are so gonna get pulverized in capture the flag today. This is your one chance to surrender.”
I turned and found Clarisse in full battle armor, as she always was, glaring at me. After returning a few days ago from her mysterious, top-secret quest, she has been grumpier than ever.
“I’m not surrendering, and definitely not to you,” I said. “I’d rather eat a bottle of wax.”
“Alright, just don’t blame me if you lose.” Clarisse huffed and walked away, but a smile flickered on her face. I had a gut feeling that she had some trick up her sleeve.
The conch horn sounded and everyone shuffled off to the dining pavilion.
“ATTENTION, CAMPERS!” Chiron pounded his hoof on the marble floor as everyone was seated. “Capture the flag will begin at precisely noon! Standard rules: the creek is the boundary line and each team’s flag must be placed in a prominent position where it is clearly visible. No guards within twenty feet of the flag. Magic items are allowed. And remember, no killing or maiming, unless you want extra chores!”
The conch horn sounded again after breakfast and everyone cleared the tables and headed for the woods.
I drifted over to Sanderson, who was mingling with the rest of the Apollo cabin. I hung out with the Apollo cabin a lot since I rarely have cabinmates.
“Clarisse has something up her sleeve,” Sanderson said as I neared him. “I heard her say something about it to her cabin mates, but I didn’t catch what.”
“Could she be bluffing?” I speculated.
“Unfortunately, no. It wouldn’t be like her.” Sanderson said.
“I’m not letting her pulverize me,” I growled. “Not for a million dollars.”
The teams were the Zeus, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Iris, and Hebe cabins versus the Ares, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hecate, Nike, and Nemesis cabins. We slightly outnumbered them, but they have the best fighters (Ares), the best strategists (Athena), and that naughty magic cabin that could cause us no end of trouble (Hecate).
Our team had a vote and we decided to put our flag atop Bunker 9, which is a secret bunker used in the Civil War by the Hephaestus cabin. By the way, mortal history reflects demigod history. It sounds confusing, and it is, but in summary, any war that the demigods have will carry over into the mortal world.
“You lead defense.” Connor Stoll, the head counselor of the Hermes cabin, tapped me on the shoulder. “I’ll go offense.”
“The last two times you were on offense, we got destroyed,” I said. “We’re reversing it this time.”
“Fine,” Connor relented. I knew I had to watch out. Those Hermes kids know how to prank and steal. By forcing him out of offense, I probably just earned myself the top spot on his prank hit list.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll lead twenty of us to the right, and Sanderson, you lead fifteen people to the left as a decoy. Just make sure to arrive ahead of us and do as much damage as possible. Good luck, everyone.”
Sanderson grumbled something about not wanting to lead the decoy as we parted. The conch horn sounded and the game of capture the flag was on.
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After waiting a few minutes to give the decoy party a lead, I led about fifteen others into the woods. I veered to the right and after twenty minutes or so of jogging through the trees, we reached their flag.
Unfortunately for us, the banner was placed on top of Zeus’s Fist, which is just a pile of rocks that looks like a fist from one particular angle. There were only a few guards around the pile of rocks, but that didn’t matter much. It would be a heck of a challenge to climb the thirty foot high pile. That meant the only person who could get the flag was me. As a son of Zeus, I had some pretty sweet flying and electrifying powers.
In the distance, I saw some of the Ares campers clashing with Sanderson’s decoy. The guards near the flag weren’t paying attention in the slightest.
“This is a trap for you, Godric,” a Hephaestus camper said to me. “They want you to fly.”
I frowned. “It’s wide open. Why shouldn’t I go?”
“I sense a trap.” Another Hephaestus camper pushed through, Jake Mason by name. During Leo Valdez’s absence, who is the primary head counselor, Jake took the job temporarily. “There’s a few shards of metal floating in the air, perhaps caused by the Hecate cabin’s magic.”
“How do you know?” I demanded.
He shrugged. “Just like you know the exact wind speed of any location within five hundred miles, down to five decimal places.”
“Alright,” I said. “I’m going to try something. Stand back.”
I raised my sword to the sky and a streak of lightning ricocheted off of it. The bolt hit the invisible trap and exploded. After the dust cleared, I was about to launch into the air until a Hephaestus camper stopped me for the second time.
“The magic is too strong.” Jake put a hand on my shoulder. “The trap is still intact.”
I stared at the flag. “So… if I can’t fly up there or blast the trap apart, how do we win? It’s impossible.”
“Our job is going to be a lot harder than we thought it would be,” Jake said gravely. “Based on what I know about automatons, we’re going to have to find the makers of this trap and force them to dismantle it.”
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Now I knew why Clarisse had been so cocky in the morning – cocky enough to ask for my surrender. She, alongside the Hecate cabin, had designed a death trap designed specifically for me (it’s probably against the rules, but Clarisse could care less). I silently vowed to pay her back some time later… with interest. Compound interest.
No Hecate camper was in sight, and we certainly didn’t have time to tramp around the entire woods before our flag would be taken.
“Scatter,” I commanded. I didn’t need to explain what that meant. Everyone scattered throughout the woods in ones and twos.
I saw the glint of a helmet flash around a tree and I dropped down to the ground and hid behind a bush.
It was Clarisse, leaning on a tree and polishing her electric spear.
I sneaked closer to Clarisse and jumped out of the bushes. A few moments later, I was sitting on top of her with my sword to her throat.
“What do you want?” Clarisse asked sharply.
“About the trap around the flag,” I replied. “How do I disable it?”
She stared at me blankly.
“Come on,” I said impatiently. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“I – I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
I hesitated, considering that perhaps she actually didn’t know about the trap until a sickly grin spread on her face. She tried to conceal it, but I saw it before the grin faded.
“Aha! So you do know!” I yelled. “Come on, tell me.”
“Tell you what?” Clarisse snorted. “You can’t make me.”
“Actually, I can,” I corrected her. I summoned a strong electric shock. “How’s that?”
“Ow!” Clarisse yelped. “I still won’t tell you.”
I raised my hand as if to conjure a lightning bolt from the sky.
“Okay, fine,” she grumbled. “You have to find a member of the Hecate cabin.”
“We know that already. So… where can we find the Hecate cabin? Tell the truth, or you’ll get it hard,” I warned.
“The trap is for testing purposes,” she said. “It’s related to the project to save the camp.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “But you still haven’t answered my question. Where are the Hecate campers?”
“In the Labyrinth,” Clarisse muttered. “Under the flag.”
I stared at her. Nobody had dared to enter the Labyrinth for a long time. Few had lived to tell the tale of the horrors of the maze. I couldn’t believe that the Hecate cabin had volunteered to do that.
Clarisse (curse the villain!) took that moment to punch me in the gut and slip out from under me. Before I could get to my feet, she was long gone.
The Lighthouse 