The 501 (A Rick Riordan fanfiction)

Chapter 2, Sphinx

Sphinx stood still as she was left alone. She sighed, and decided to walk through the border of the camp. It was awesome, but she wasn't all that excited.
"Left alone," she mumbled. "Again." She walked around, noticing a forest near the edge of the camp. Sphinx ran to it, she loved the forest, it was her happy place. One tree in particular caught her eye, it was tall, and the branches were twisted, and looked good for laying and reading on. So Sphinx did the logical thing, she climbed it. Sphinx gasped. In the highest reaches of the tree, there was an abandoned eagle nest. She surveyed her surroundings, this nest looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. The branches were old, dry and crackly, and the moss and leaf padding was crunchy and wilted. Sphinx climbed to the ground once more, and collected fresh materials, Soft moss, more branches, and a LOT of leaves. She even found a bunch of old eagle feathers on the ground below the nest, which she washed and dried thoroughly. Sphinx scaled the smooth limbs of the tree, and began weaving a new section of the nest. Once she finished, she lined the bottom and sides with fresh moss and eagle feathers. When she was done Sphinx surveyed her work, turning her head so that she could see more with her better eye. After she inspected it for a moment, Sphinx plucked a feather from the lining, and fixated it into her hair. Then she curled up into the comfy confines of the nest, and pulled a book about Norse mythology out of her backpack. Sphinx looked down, suddenly, the land did a kind of warpy-thing. And then there was a plume of shadows, and a boy appeared. He wore black clothes that matched his hair, and he had a sword attached to his belt.
"Who are you?" He asked not even looking up at the tree, as if he could sense her presence. Sphinx tried to think of a response, but he beat her to it by grabbing the hilt of his sword.
"Who are you?" He repeated, sounding much more demanding this time.
"Sphinx Dune. I'm sorry, am I not supposed to be here? I'll just go." She said.
"No! it's just, sometimes monsters somehow get through the camp borders." The boy responded.
"So who are you?" Sphinx asked.
"I'm Nico Di Angelo, so what brings you out here?"
She explained how Pura had run off with Jason and about the eagles nest.
"I'm not a people person either, but how did you get to camp?"
"Percy lived next door, and he brought us to camp."
He whistled, "wow, two demigod families lived next door? And twins no less."
"How did you get here?" He frowned. "Long story."
"I've got time," Sphinx called down.
"Can I come up? I look ridiculous talking to a tree." "Sure," she stuck her hand out of the branches and waved him up. "So how'd you make your way to camp?"
"Me and my sister were attacked by a manticore, Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and the hunters of Artemis brought us to camp. But while she was on a quest, my sister Bianca sacrificed herself to save the other demigods."
"I'm sorry."
"So where did you come from?" She explained everything, how they had  been abused, and how Pura and her lived with their uncle. She had never told anyone about it before, but Nico had opened up to her. She couldn't just say I'd rather not say. By the end, she had tears in her eyes from reliving the memory.
"So you didn't know your parents?" He asked after they had sat there awkwardly for a little while.
"No, they probably died or something." She shrugged her shoulders, but he could see through her fake expression.
"Tell me the truth." He insisted.
"When I was little, I always wanted to see my parents. I always dreamed about my dad taking me fishing, and playing baseball with me, and I always thought about my mom teaching me to bake and fun things like that, but eventually me and Pura found out the sad truth. We couldn't trust anyone but each other." He just stared at her for a few seconds, and he opened his mouth to say something but he was cut off by the sound of a blowing horn in the distance.
"Come on," he said with a small smirk on his face.

When they got to the dining pavilion, she stayed close to Nico as she scanned the area for Pura.
"They're over there." He whispered to her. Her gaze moved to where he pointed his fingers. Jason was laughing, Percy was just standing there, his face blank, Pura seemed to be backing away from a boy who was probably Leo. His hands held fire, the scene then made sense to Sphinx, Pura had a deathly fear of fire. Sphinx cautiously approached, Percy then snapped out of his shock and distinguished the fire by throwing water at it. She jumped back when Percy threw the water.
"Leo!" Percy yelled. Nico came up behind her, giving Sphinx no place to go but forward.
"Pura?" She asked.
"Oh hi, who's that?" Pura replied.
"This is Nico, and I assume that's Leo?" Pura nodded.
"We should head to dinner." Percy interrupted.
"I'll be there soon." Leo explained.
"I've got plans tonight." Jason said while walking backwards.
"Chiron!" Percy yelled. A centaur galloped towards them. "Can Nico and the twins sit at my table?"
"No, they have to get used to sitting with their cabin." The centaur was clearly stressed, as if another burden had been set on his shoulders.
"You can go eat, Percy. I'll take them over." Nico signaled for them to follow him.
"This is Travis and Conner Stoll, you'll be staying in the Hermès cabin with them, I should get going now."
"You're not going to stay with us?" Sphinx asked.
"Can't, Chiron won't allow it."
"Ok, I'll see you after dinner?"
"Maybe." He walked away before she could ask why he said maybe.
"You must be Pura." Conner exclaimed, making Sphinx jump.
"And you must be Sphinx." Travis added, inviting them to their table. She nodded slowly, she and Pura sat down in-between the Stoll brothers. She looked down at the empty plate in front of her.
"Think of what food and drink you want and they'll appear." Travis explained with a knowing look. She thought of her favorite food, peach cobbler, Kentucky fried chicken, corn on the cob, and Mac n' Cheese. For the drink, she filled up her glass with root beer.
"Where'd you grow up?" Travis asked, everyone at the table was sitting shoulder to shoulder. On Sphinx's left was Pura, and on her right was Travis.
"New York." She answered, biting into her corn on the cob. Pura was scarfing down her favorite food, a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and no pickles. Sphinx knew her sister's favorite order by heart. The girls never had any friends except each other, normally Pura did the talking, not much, but some. Tonight Sphinx was fulfilling that rule.
"Wait, we have to dump some of our food in the fire. It's a sacrifice."
All four of them walked over to the fire that stood in the center of the pavement.
"Thank you for taking me this far mom and dad, wherever you are." Sphinx ignored all the talking around her as she said that in her mind and scraped a chicken finger and some Mac ń cheese into the fire.
They sat back down, and ate their dinner in silence.
"Curfew!" Chiron yelled from the front of the pavilion. Campers started filing out. A small group of kids were running out of the pavilion, their pockets filled with poker chips and decks of cards. One girl at the back of the group clearly dropped her satchel on purpose to gain speed. Pura picked it up and slid it under the table, we'll open it later she mouthed to Sphinx. Travis tapped her shoulder, almost making her fall off the bench.
"We need to head to our cabin." He walked purposely off into the darkness, with Sphinx in tow.

That night, Pura crawled up to Sphinx's sleeping bag, and woke her. Together they exited the cabin, and Sphinx followed Pura along the side wall. Pura took hold of the gutter that ran along the side, and hauled herself up onto the roof with some difficulty. Sphinx remembered that Pura sometimes had trouble running or climbing, because of an injury on her right leg. A few years back, uncle Floyd had flown into a rage, and flung boiling water at Sphinx. Pura had lunged and managed to block some, and ended up with burns all up her shin and thigh. Sphinx had been mostly covered. But was protected from a lot of the heat, and ended up with little lasting damage.
Sphinx scrambled up over the edge of the roof after Pura, and they sat on a flat part near the top. Sphinx grinned, she was happy to be alone with her sister after being by herself all day, and eager to share her new experiences. They quickly caught up on everything that had happened in the past day, Pura told her about meeting Leo, and some other kids at camp. Sphinx told Pura about Nico, but conveniently left out the part about the eagles nest, and the huge tree.
"And the satchel?" Sphinx asked, eager to see what was inside.
"Right here," Pura had lugged her pillow to the top of the roof, and at that moment, she upended it onto the shingles. Out of the pillow case fell the satchel. Pura gently tilted it to the side, a medium sized wooden box fell out and inscribed on the top was the word SEBEK. "Is that it?" Sphinx asked,
"I think so." Pura replied unsure. Sphinx carefully took the satchel from Pura and stuck her hand into it. Suddenly the satchel shimmered with pale pink light, then it faded back to its usual dull brown. Sphinx felt around inside the bag, "I can't feel the bottom." She shoved her  whole arm inside and groped around. Her hand closed on an iron bar. Sphinx stood up and stuck her leg in. Somehow it fit, she felt a rung beneath her foot. Sphinx descended a ladder inside the bag and found herself inside a small library. On three walls, there were bookshelves from floor to ceiling. The fourth wall was a large window, through the window Sphinx could see Pura peering at the satchel uncertainty. The library was lit by burning oil lanterns that didn't seem to be burning down. The bookshelves held all of Sphinxes favorite titles. "Sphinx?" Pura called. "I'm coming down!" A moment later Pura descended the ladder and gasped at the hidden library. Sphinx pulled a random book off the shelf, The adventures of Hercules. It was easily 1000 pages, she threw the heavy book back up the ladder. The corner hung off the edge and the book reappeared on the shelf, but the one she'd thrown was still on the roof of the Hermès cabin.
"Woah." The Twins said at the same time.  In the center of the room there were two bean bag chairs, and a fireplace with a blazing fire inside was built into the opposite wall. There was one small wooden crate in the back corner, pushed against the window. The books inside kept changing and a small note placed on top said

Tap Morse code the title of the book you seek and you will be rewarded.

On top of the crate were quills, ink pots, some small containers of colorful wax, envelopes, and some of those wax stamp thingies.
Parallel to the crate was a small nook that was easy to miss. It had a pillow as a seat, a small desk type thing, and looming over the desk, was another shelf that was hidden inside the wall, so that you could only see it if you were sitting at the desk. In one corner of the room, Sphinx even spotted an old fashioned typewriter. In other words, this was heaven. For the rest of the night Pura and Sphinx stayed inside the hidden library, browsing, reading, and writing. By the end of the night, Sphinx had read one three hundred page book and was halfway through a three hundred page one. Finally Pura yawned, and together they left the library, which Sphinx noticed was slightly bigger than when they entered, with three more full shelves of books. They climbed the ladder to the leather flap that was the top of the bag. Sphinx pushed up the flap, and exited the bag, helping Pura up after her. Sphinx sighed with relief that the satchel wasn't noticeably different on the outside than before. The sun was just beginning to rise when they scampered inside, and Pura hid the satchel inside her pillowcase once more. Right before she fell asleep Sphinx decided they would have to find a better hiding place next time they used it.