The Poseidon Girls

Chapter 5 ~ The Claiming of Liper is Completed

~Coral~

Everyone backed away, and I looked at the two boys; it wasn't Piper, I'd been looking right at her. I saw the Leo had a glowing fiery hammer above his head. He was getting claimed by Hephaestus.

"That is a claiming." Annabeth explained.

"What'd I do?" Leo asked. He backed towards the lake. He then glanced up and yelped. "Is my hair on fire?" Leo ducked, but Hephaestus's symbol moved with him. Cass burst into fits of laughter, shortly joined by me ( I do this weird thing when if someone else laughs I start laughing too).

"This can't be good." Butch muttered. "The curse - "

"Butch, shut up." Annabeth warned. "Leo, you've just been claimed -"

"By a god." Jason finished. "That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?" I remembered what mum had taught me about Greek and Roman gods, causing me to remember that Vulcan is the Roman form of Hephaestus.

"Hephaestus, yeah." I answered. Everyone's eyes turned to Jason.

"Jason, how did you know that?" Annabeth asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Vulcan?" Leo demanded. "I don't even like Star Trek! What are you talking about?"

"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus." Annabeth explained. "The god of blacksmiths and fire." Leo's hammer faded, but he kept swatting the air, clearly thinking it was still there.

"The god of what? Who?" Annabeth turned to Will.

"Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin 9."

"Sure, Annabeth."

"What's Cabin 9?" Leo asked. "And I'm not a Vulcan!"

"Come on, Mr Spock, I'll explain everything." Will put a hand on Leo's shoulder and steered him off towards the Cabins. Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason.

"Hold out your arm." It turns out that underneath his right forearm, Jason had a tattoo burned into it. His tattoo was 12 lines, with an eagle and the letters SPQR. "I've never seen marks like this. Where did you get them?" Jason shook his head.

"I'm getting really tired of saying this, but I don't know." My fellow Campers were surging forwards, all trying to get a look at Jason's tattoo. I felt like some of them were treating it as a declaration of war when they saw it.

"They look burned into your skin." Annabeth realized.

"They were." Saying this caused Jason to wince. "I mean ... I think so. I don't remember." No one said a thing as we waited for Annabeth's verdict.

"He needs to go straight to Chiron." Annabeth decided. "Drew, would you -"

"Absolutely." Drew laced her arm through Jason's. "This way, sweetie. I'll introduce you to our director. He's an ... interesting guy."

"Excuse me while I vomit." I said once Drew was out of earshot. The Campers laughed, and then we all started heading back to our cabins.

When Cass and I arrived at Cabin 3, we saw that Tyson had already left.

"What're we going to do about Perce?" Cass asked, as we clambered up onto my bed.

"I'm not really sure, Cassie. Maybe we could help Annabeth search for him when she goes again? It won't be much of an adventure, but it's something to do that may help Percy."

"Yeah, I guess."

We stayed chatting in Cabin 3 until the horn went for dinner. We looked around for the three newcomers, but there was no sign of Piper sitting with the Hermes kids. Dinner was the usual affair, apart from we were waiting for the campfire, in case Piper returned and got claimed. I hoped like crazy that Piper was OK.