Keeper Of Their Hearts (EG/PJO) - Book One

III. I Become A Member Of Camp

(A/N: Again, if you do see a song or piece of music inserted into the story, highly recommend you read the part the music covers with the music actually playing. Repeat as many times as you have if the duration of the music is short.

Also, believe it or not.. this fanfic is not the first time I have fan cast Lucky Blue Smith in the villain role. In my Freezing / Clone Wars fanfic "Freezing: The Boy That Pandora Wanted", Smith plays the role of Astrid Burke, a terrorist thorn in the Chevalier's side that takes a graduating class of trainee Pandora hostage for his own sick games, only for his base to be destroyed and himself killed when Cameron Spears, the only male member of said class of trainees and his small droid force turn out to be way more than his group can handle.

Also, using references from the actual book itself to help guide me along here, so yeah there's that too. Plus, a shout-out to AO3 user phoenix_flying here, since I'm using her description of Lou Ellen here mostly for this fanfic.

Thanks, enjoy the chapter!)

(** Colton's Main Theme - Tenth Man Down - starts here **)

I smelled like damn livestock and stunk of blood, while also muddy too. Yeah, did I mention I'm also covered in blood too?

Yeah? Well, you get the picture. I was a fucking mess now. It was that mess that was currently carrying both the unconscious kid named Percy in my arms as well as the bloody horn, which was all that's left of the Minotaur, at the same time.

The fact that the girl that ran up towards us, alongside this weird dude I'll talk about in a minute, from this big building as we came down the opposite slope of the hill actually had to turn her head and hold her nose with her fingers only belied how much of a mess I even was.

In the porch light of the building, I could see that she was around my age, maybe slightly older. With dark skin, brown eyes, and black hair in box braids, she definitely looked to be someone who likely had been here for quite a while.

The dude that came with her, man was he interesting. He was half man, half horse, as well as being a middle aged man from the waist up, with thinning brown hair, bushy eyebrows, some very intense dark eyes and a scruffy beard. His lower half was that of a white stallion.

The dude gagged and had to pinch his nose with his fingers as well.

I sighed.

"Yeah.. I smell that bad.. okay, I get it.." I said to them. "At least tell me where the showers are.. and a fresh set of clothes would be nice too, please. I'll set the kid down where you want me to, and then I'll do it."

"There's a chair on the porch that will do nicely.." the half horse dude said, pointing towards a chair on the porch. "We have showers in the basement, with an entrance to it behind the building."

I simply just nodded, said "thanks", went to sit the kid down in the chair gently, and then went to clean myself off.

I really did fucking stink, I won't lie. Glad I'll be getting clean.

As I walked around to the back, I heard a female voice - most likely the girl - call out, "He's the one. He must be."

"Silence, Annabeth.." the horse dude said back. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

(** Music ends here **)

- — - — - — - — -

So, long story short, somehow the piece of notebook paper that the ghost lady left behind that I folded up into a square was somehow still completely clean despite all that had gone on between then and now, which was a shock to me.