☾ The Child of Artemis ☾

4. I Meet Some Larrikins

          "Hello and welcome to Camp Half-Blood," the horse man says. "Who brought you here?"

          "First of all," I replied, "why are you half a horse? Second, why do you ask?"

          Seriously, though. Why is everyone half something here? First, half goat, then half blood, and now half horse. The horse man laughs. "I am a centaur, dear boy. I am Chiron, the director of the camp. I sent the satyr who brought you here, but I can't remember which one."

          "Grover brought me here."

          In the corner, I see a grumpy looking dude drinking what city people call "whine." He seemed to be wearing a leopard print shirt, and coincidentally, I was wearing my leopard hides today. "G'day." I started, "I see you are wearing a nice leopard print shirt. You know, leopard hides are a hundred, thousand, billion times better. You should hunt for one, then you will look really cool like me."

          I pointed to my leopard hides. The grumpy whine dude scoffed and continued drinking his "alcoholic beverage." I glared at him. "Looks like you've met Mr. D. He's always like this. His father Zeus banished him to be a counselor here. It's kind of like being grounded." Chiron explained.

          He called for Grover and asked, "Grover, do you remember this boy's name, perhaps?"

          Simultaneously, we said, "Nico McAngelico."

          "Nico, welcome to camp. Since we do not know your godly parentage, you will have to stay in the Hermes Cabin until you are claimed."

          I do not know what a Her me is. "Will Solstice said that I might be a son of a Pallo because of my precise archery aim."

          Chiron gave me a kind smile and told me, "We do not know for sure, though. You could also be a child of Athena for your precise archery aims, since you were able to calculate the angles and energy in your head. Also his name is Will Solace, not Will Solstice. His father's name is Apollo."

          "Oh."

          "Anyway, we all hope you have a great time here and hopefully, you are claimed soon!"

          "Bye, Nick Marina." Mr. D mumbled, without any eye contact at all.

          "It's Nico McAngelico." I said sternly.

          "I know, Nicholas Margarita."

          "Call me anything other than my real name and I will call you Mr. Pee."

          "Ok. Nico McAngelico."

          I left for the Her Me Cabin. Two guys were there at the doorstep and they splashed me with ice cold water. "Hey!" I yelled. "That water's freezing!"

          The two boys laughed. "We know," one said, "so we splashed it on you. As a prank."

          "You remind me of my brother, Nigel."

          "We pranked him, too." the other one laughed. "His prank was even worse than yours!"

          "Travis, you're telling him!"

          "Well fine, Connor! Anyways, he was climbing the climbing wall and we threw a rock at him! The rock barely missed and he was screaming in horror!"

          I chuckled a little since I would not scream in horror if a rock was thrown at me. "We ran away and Nigel never suspected us at all. He just blamed everyone around him and tattled on them," Connor continued, "then the one who got in trouble in the end was Will Solace."

          I felt kind of upset that my brother blamed Will Solace, out of all people, for something Travis and Connor did. "What if I told Nigel that you two pranked him?"

          "Then," Travis threatened, "we will get you back without getting in trouble."

          "Likely story," I scoffed.

          The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I had dinner at the Her Me Table, this time. My favorite part of the day was probably unarmed combat, where I got to fight some other campers. Then, we all gathered around a campfire and sang nonsense songs. We went to bed after singing the stupid songs.

          Right before we went back to our cabins, I asked Hunter if this gobbledegook happens every night. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Good luck, me. I fell asleep right away. I guess it was easy because I had a tiring day. But, soon after I fall asleep, I immediately wake up again.

          I didn't wake up in my bunk, though. I woke up in a bright room with many thrones in it. I covered my eyes to protect them from the piercing light. A giant stands over me. The giant radiated some sort of power. She had raven black hair, and held a bow and arrow. She nocked it, then pointed it straight at me. I stared in absolute horror. Another giant, with golden hair tied nicely in a man - bun yelled, "No! Don't do it!"

          But, by the time he got a word out, I was shot in the heart with the dreaded arrow. I had to lie there bleeding and sobbing for help. My blood gushed onto the majestic floor. The black haired archer stormed off while the golden haired one left, too. He left slower and kept taking sorrowful glances at me. My eyes shut and I'd say that's how my life ended.