The 501 (A Rick Riordan fanfiction)

Chapter 3 Pura

It felt like she had just fallen asleep, when the camp wake up horn blew. Pura shot up to see Sphinx brushing her long, wavy, dark brown hair. She wore an orange camp half blood shirt, black leggings, and her combat boots. She sat on her sleeping bag and was was the only awake.
"Sleep well?" Sphinx asked.
"Amazing," Pura answered sarcastically. "Breakfast?"
"Curfew." Sphinx stated calmly.
"When has that ever stopped us?"
"True."
Pura grabbed her backpack, went into the bathroom that was at the back of the cabin. She changed, brushed her teeth, and did her hair. Sphinx was waiting by the door with the satchel over her shoulder. Together they snuck out of the cabin. Pura felt a nice autumn breeze on her face as she stepped outside. The wind blew small wisps of hair into her face and she brushed them aside, strolling out onto the dirt path.
"Where too?" Sphinx asked.
"I guess to the dining pavilion." Together they summoned blueberry pancakes and bacon onto their magic plates and feasted. As Pura took her last bite of pancake, Nico came and sat at their table, summoning an egg Mc muffin for breakfast.
"Hi Nico!" Sphinx said enthusiastically.
"Hi." Pura followed suit, her voice slightly groggy.
"Hey." He had bags under his eyes, and you could tell he hadn't slept all night, but he didn't seem tired, just depressed.
"What do we do at this camp exactly?" Pura asked.
"Train." He answered. "To fight monsters, learn about Greek myths, and most importantly, how to not die."
"That lightens the mood." Pura mumbled.
"Chiron wants to talk to you two," Percy announced, as he plopped down next to her. "You should go see him now, and then hopefully, you will be done by the time training starts." Pura nodded and Sphinx did the same. Together they started off in the direction of the big house, and reached it a few minutes later. Pura pulled open the screen door, and they entered together. A fat man with flushed cheeks and a tiger print Hawaiian shirt sat in the kitchen eating a bowl of ice cream. "godlings," he muttered with contempt.
"And who might you be?" Pura asked.
"Mr D, the camp director. Everyone knows me. You know... the eater of grapes, the drinker of Diet Coke, the god of wine? Ring a bell yet?" He growled. They shook their heads, "Chiron is waiting for you in the basement." They nodded, and calmly walked around the corner, before sprinting away from the strange man. They ran down the steps, and screeched to a halt in front of a ping pong table. An odd centaur-type man was.....Sitting? Stand-sitting? Standing? His back horse half was in a chair, and his front legs were standing up. This is just wrong, Pura thought. "Come, sit." The old centaur invited. They sat down on plastic fold up chairs, and waited for him to continue.
"Why did you want us?" Pura asked, normally Sphinx would stay as far away as she could from people, but Pura could tell she was clearly amazed by the centaur.
"Well, there was prophecy, and it could have something to do with you. Rachel, our Oracle, had a vision yesterday, around the time you arrived."
"So what do you want to know?" Pura asked.
"Have you ever come into contact with any gods?" "No," Pura said, appearing confused. Chiron let out a sigh of relief.
"What is this prophecy? What does it say?" Sphinx asked. Chiron bowed his head, and began to recite a poem.

"Two gods different from all,
Shall rise from the ancient wall,
Their powers combined shall win the game,
Son of Poseidon be lost in the rain.
Captured by magic,
Cursed by chaos,
The war won with tragic and loss,
Dead shall return, the sleeping shall wake,
And the world will perish by a massive earthquake."

Pura shivered. Well that's ominous, she thought. The silence stretched, and no one said anything, finally Chiron cleared his throat, "Well I suppose if you haven't heard of any gods, then the prophecy can't have anything to do with you." Sphinx nodded, and they left the basement, trudged up the stairs, and exited the big house.
"You don't know any of the gods?" Sphinx asked, as they walked past the archers.
"Of course I do! But we aren't part of a prophecy! So why does it matter? I personally would prefer to be a normal demigod."
Sphinx snorted, "normal and demigod, don't belong in the same sentence." Pura agreed, and together they walked toward the Hermès cabin, and entered to see who was still there. Conner stoll was sitting on the floor, pulling on a pair of tennis shoes, "why aren't you guys in training?" he asked. Sphinx shrugged, "We kind of don't know which way it is," Pura added. Conner laughed, "just follow me, I was just about to head down."
"What kind of classes are we talking?" Pura asked, begging the universe that it wasn't math.
"Right now we're going to sword fighting class, then we go to Greek myths class, then survival skills, then archery, then we top it all off, with a refreshing climb on the lava wall."
"Climb?" Pura perked up.
"Dueling?" Sphinx's eyes widened.
"Yes and yes. I have something for you two." He pulled something out from under his bunk bed, two shoe boxes. "Last month at the summer solstice, my dad gave these to me, I assumed they were for me and Travis but they were way too small." He handed them each a shoe box. Inside were two pairs of converse, each with small wings on the side. Pura threw her
arms around Conner, "thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"Whoa there, don't thank me yet, we still don't know if they fit." Pura blushed, "sorry, I got carried away." "No! Don't apologize! It was.....nice." Pura was sure her face was bright red. "BUT NOT IN THAT WAY!" He hurriedly added, clearly embarrassed. His face was the color of a tomato, "ummmm, maybe we should get moving," Sphinx snapped them out of the awkward silence. "Right," Conner said, hurrying in front. They raced down the hill to their sword fighting class, not pausing once, as if being in the presence of other people would kill the awkwardness that stood like a wall between them. When they arrived at the arena, Percy was taking a water break, and a lot of bedraggled campers sat on the sideline, exhausted.
"You decided to arrive?" Percy asked.
"Defeat everyone?" Conner guessed, obviously changing the subject. Percy shrugged.
"Sphinx, duel me?" Percy asked, his voice slightly ordering.
"Sure, do you have any extra swords?" She asked.
"You haven't gotten a weapon of your own yet?" He stared at Conner in disapproval.
"Check the rack over-."
"She can borrow mine." Nico interrupted, coming out of nowhere. Normally a sudden appearance would have made Sphinx jump, but she seemed to relax at the sound of his voice.
"Thanks."
"No problem, Percy is a hard one. Don't feel discouraged if you lose." He patted Sphinx on the shoulder as he walked away.
"I'll go easy on you." Percy waved goodbye to Nico, as Nico walked over to the nearest bench.
"Don't," Sphinx answered. "Monsters don't, Titans don't, gods don't, enemies don't. I want to be able to win a fight, not crumble down on my knees at their first strike." She talked from experience, probably remembering their uncle's harsh treatment. Percy attacked, and the battle started. After two minutes they started striking faster. Sphinx seemed to be better at defense, such as dodging, sliding, and perrying his attacks. While Percy went on the offensive, slicing and hacking. After the battle went on for a few more minutes, suddenly Sphinx dodged under percy's defenses, she thrust Nico's sword forward, caught the hilt of Riptide, and quickly twirled her blade. Percy's sword flew out of his grip and clattered on the stones, everyone stared. Sphinx looked like she was trying to get smaller, "sorry," she told Percy, He broke out laughing, "great job. I haven't had a good duel since-," sadness grew upon his face. "It's been a while."
"Beginners luck," she shrugged. Sphinx started to hand Nico back his blade, then staggered a little. Nico looked down at her arm, then asked urgently, "are you bleeding?" Sphinx peered down at her wrists, bringing them towards her face. She hissed in pain at the movement, in one swift motion she flipped over the inside of her forearm, gritting her teeth in agony. On her forearm, a line of blood went from the start of her wrist, to her elbow. Percy gently grasped her arm, and brought it into the light. He gasped at the wound he had created, then wiped some of the blood away. He stared at the scar that was hidden beneath. The fortune cat, engraved in blood on Sphinx's flesh. Pura remembered that scar, she had one just like it, from the day their uncle tried to erase the bad luck that he thought they would bring. "What is this?" Percy demanded. Sphinx yanked her arm out of his grip, and more blood fountained out of the wound. Pura glanced around at the questioning faces, and knew what was about to happen. Sphinx had fear in her eyes. She bolted toward the woods, disappearing between the trees, and Pura let her go.