Daughter Of The Moon

Chapter 6

Luna

"So, what about the cabins? Chiron talked about them a bit..." I ask curiously.

"That's where we'll be going next. Which cabin you're in depends on your godly parent, so, for instance, I live in the Apollo cabin because my father is Apollo." My eyes go round, and he laughs at my expression. "Gods can be in many places at once, that's why they have so many children round about the same age, if that's what you're wondering." I nod slowly. There's a lot of information to take in, and most of it doesn't even seem remotely plausible, but I decide to listen openly anyway, even asking the odd question. I still don't think I'll ever get used to them talking about the gods in present tense, though.

"But what did Chiron mean about me having to live in the Hermes Cabin? I've told him I'm Artemis's daughter, and all of the hunters thought I was her, so isn't that proof enough?" He grins.

"I'm guessing your first impression of the Hermes kids wasn't so good." I shake my head.

"Hermes boys." I correct, recalling an image of Took and his half-wit-half-brothers. "But I suppose, being Artemis's daughter, I'm basically genetically programmed to not like boys much." I can hear the slight regret in my tone, and he looks at me with pity in his eyes, but the smile returns soon.

"What, does that mean you don't like me?"

I don't reply, just turn my head away from the blinding light of his smile to the laces of my boots. Not kidding, his smile could light up the dark side of the moon. Maybe that's an Apollo thing?

"Well... no." I say teasingly, meeting his eyes again.

"Ouch," He laughs, "What do I have to do to prove myself to you, fair lady?" I kick a pebble around as we carry on walking, and give him a sly smirk. "Archery competition. First to five bulls-eyes wins."

"And every time we both hit it, we have to step a meter back, don't forget." He adds in.

"Deal." We shake on it, and a few minutes later, I get my first up-close look at the cabins.

 I have never seen a summer camp before, but when one of my cousins came to town a few years ago, all he could talk about was this summer camp he'd been two. He'd made all kinds of sketches of the buildings and the scenery and such, and honestly not a single one of them matched up to these cabins.

They stand in an inverted U, and Zack shows me the first two, one of which is solid bronze and has all sorts of metal contraptions built in to the outside, with pistons pumping and smoke belching from the chimney. Two burly kids stumble out of the door and wave at us as we walk by. The other one couldn't be more different. It looks like a dolls house, as it is pastel pink with candy-coloured roses poking out from window boxes. All of the windows are heart-shaped, and high, tinkly, girly laughs can be heard from inside. The few boys that seem to inhabit the cabin sit miserably on the front steps, gazing longingly at a couple of boys sparing with swords in a blood-red cabin a few cabins away, opposite theirs.

"Hephastus and Aphrodite cabins." Anounces Zack. I give a very un-ladylike snicker, pointing at the pink cabin, "Is that where dolls go to die, or what? I feel sorry for those poor boys." He chuckles and gives the boys sympathetic smiles. They give twinkling smiles back at us, and I feel myself blushing. Damn those Aphrodite good-looks.

Then we move on to the next two cabins: Dionysus and Athena. The Dionysus cabin has this lazy feel about it that makes you want to fall asleep, and the Athena cabin is pretty unremarkable other than a banner above it with an owl and an olive branch on it. The next two are Demeter and Ares, then Hermes... and so on and so forth. But the next two cabins are the ones most interesting of all.

Apollo and Artemis.