Death and Madness|| Nico di Angelo

I meet my brothers from another mother

"Annabeth" One of the twins greeted.

"Castor- uh.. Pollux, no wait" It seemed even Annabeth couldn't distinguish between them. 

"Castor" The one on the left said. 

"Pollux" The one on the right said. 

Now that we were closer, I could see the similarities between the twins and myself. We all had light hair, even though mine was almost platinum blonde, and their eyes were the same shade of violet as mine. 

"Right..." Annabeth said. "Castor and Pollux, meet Violet Keen"

"Hey" I waved awkwardly. 

The two grinned. "Sister?" 

"Sister" Annabeth confirmed. 

"Awesome" Castor high fived me. Pollux pulled me away from Annabeth and further into the cabin. 

"We have so much knowledge to pass on" Castor and Pollux shared a look. 

"Please don't let her drink, she's thirteen" Annabeth warned. 

"Us? Castor gasped dramatically. 

"Bad influences?" Pollux joined in. 

"Never" They completed in unison. 

"Loving my new family already" I grinned back at the two. I turned back to Annabeth. "Thanks for everything Annie, truly"

Annabeth didn't even react to the nickname, instead she gave me a warm smile and a hug before leaving. 

"Now fun fact, children of Dionysus can't get drunk" Castor said as he turned to me. 

"At least we can't" Pollux added. 

"And you want to prove your theory" I guessed. The two nodded. "Great, I'm in."

---

Turned out, the twins' theory wasn't bullshit. Even after drinking two whole bottles of something that the twins had stolen, and several bathroom trips later, I was still sober. 

That day spent with Castor and Pollux was one of the best days of my life. I showed them my powers and they showed me theirs. 

I noted that Castor was more gifted in plant magic while Pollux used his powers over the mind as well as being gifted in combat. The two even gave me lessons on fighting with my daggers, which I greatly appreciated. 

It was safe to say, I loved it better at Camp Half blood than at home. 

By the time the conch horn blew for dinner, Castor and Pollux had mostly filled me in on everything. We three filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.

In all, there were maybe fifty campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. 

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! 

My glass was empty, but Castor said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want"

"—nonalcoholic, of course." Pollux rolled his eyes. "It's not like we can get drunk"

I thought a bit before saying, "Grape juice"

The twins stared at me. "It's not that I want to be a stereotypical kid of Dionysus, I just like Grapes and Berries a lot" I defended myself. 

Castor sighed and turned to Pollux, "She's too much like us"

Pollux agreed. 

"Here you go, Violet" Pollux said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket. I had some what luck at telling the two apart. Castor was the more mischievious one, the life of the party and a seriously ADHD guy. While Pollux was more laid back, you sort of unintentionally mirrored his emotions whenever you were near him because of his extensive control over minds. Sometimes Castor, Pollux and I had fully mental conversations without even realising it.

I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.

"Come on," Castor told me.

As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.

 "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell." The twins said.

"You're kidding."

Their look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why immortal, all-powerful beings would like the smell of burning food.

Castor approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Dionysus"

Pollux was next with ten strawberries. "Dionysus"

I was next. "Dionysus" I repeated.

I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.

When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.

It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

"We have a new camper today" Chiron announced. I groaned. "Violet Keen, daughter of Dionysus"

A few people cheered and some laughed. I guessed my dad wasn't very popular. 

"They treat him like a joke" Castor said. 

"Yeah, he's mean sometimes... but they don't take him seriously most of the time" Pollux gritted his teeth. 

I felt myself grow angry at the campers, then realised who I was sitting across from. I tossed a grape at Pollux who caught it in his mouth. "You're making me angry Pollux"

He shrugged. 

We all headed down toward the amphitheatre, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my purple bed.

When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

That was my first day at CampHalf-Blood.