Daughter of shadow (Pjo fan fiction)

A Guided Tour

When I woke up it took me a minute to figure out where I was. I lay still and stared up at the wooden slats of a ceiling and thought about why I was here and why my arm felt like it was on fire. Then I remembered. Zoe, Artemis, the voice, the eagle, the snake, the bite, the valley and the sign. The sign that said, 'Camp halfblood'. when I finally rolled over I noticed a boy who was probably fifteen or sixteen, ten years older than me, sitting on a stool by my stretcher. He noticed me moving and said, "You're awake! You have been out for two days. I was starting to worry the poison had got to you." He smiled and clapped his hands together.

I looked down at my arm and saw the two fang marks and web of veins from the bite were as black as the snake had been, but aside from that there was no trace of the injury apart from the intense burning feeling.

"Where am I?" I asked, voice creaking from days of silence.

"You are at camp half blood, a camp for all children of the gods. I have a couple of questions for you, if you are OK with answering them now?" Using my good arm I propped myself up on my pillow and said, "Go ahead." in the most serious tone five year old me could muster.

"How did you get here?" he asked, curiosity crossing his face. I told him to story of how I had lived with the hunt and about the voice in my head and how we were chased here by the eagle and the snake. He didn't try to hide his shock as he said, "I think you should come with me, if you can walk?"  

I raised a brow at him and said, "It's my arm that got bitten, not my leg, and I'm five not two." He chuckled and said, "OK, M'Lady." With a grin and a joke bow, he took my hand and led me onto a large terrace that wrapped around the stone house I had seen earlier. On the terrace there were two men sitting at a little wooden table playing a card game. One was sitting in a wheelchair and the other was sitting on a wicker chair shaped similarly to a throne, only it was wicker, not gold. 

"What have we here, Zach?" asked the man in the wicker throne, not looking up from his cards. I wondered how he knew who it was. "I have the girl that was bitten by Hades, Sir. She has an interesting story and I thought it might be best if you two heard it from her before she moved in." The man in the wheelchair smiled warmly and said, "Hello there. I'm Chiron. what is your name, little one?" 

I looked up at Zach to check if it was OK and he nodded so I said, "I'm Liane." The man tilted his head and said, "Hello Liane. What did you need to tell us?" I coughed nervously and began to explain in detail how I had lived before that day, and how I had come to arrive at the camp. I paused halfway through, noticing that even the man on the wicker throne had looked up from his cards and was now staring at me with shock written on his face, much like Zach and Chiron. When I finished Chiron said, "Sit down Liane, you too Zach, we have a lot to talk about." I sat at one of  the two wicker stools that I was sure hadn't been there a minute ago and listened as chiron said, "Liane, you are something very special. We have been warned that you would arrive, but we didn't think it would be for another few years yet." 

"How did you know?" asked Zach, confused.

Chiron replied, "I will get to that. Now Liane, your father, he was a demigod. Do you know what that is?" 

The man that was staring at me had finally put down his cards and answered, "A child of a god and a mortal. Chiron don't give me that look, the kid probably doesn't know a twig from a tree trunk."

"Back to the point please. Your father was a demigod. 50% god and 50% mortal. Your mother, however, is a goddess. which makes you 75% god and 25% mortal. This means that by Zeus's law, you aren't meant to exist." 

"Forbidden child. I'm a forbidden child." I said, thinking back to the stories of the few forbidden children that the voice had always told me. "The voice in my head always told me stories about forbidden children. They never made it that far on a quest. Always died before they could finish. I hope that doesn't happen to me." There was a grunt from the man in the wicker chair and he said, "Might well kid. Zeus doesn't like you 'cos you aren't meant to exist and Hades doesn't like you because, well, you'll find out." 

"Who is my mother, and who is my grandparent?" I asked, eager to know who I was. When I lived with the hunt they just told me I was a 'gift from an old friend'. Chiron sighed and said, "That I cannot say, only your mother and grandparent themselves can claim you." Zach looked confused and asked, "But you said you would need to build a new cabin, so you know who her mother is, don't you." 

"I don't I was only told they didn't yet have a cabin. You see the scars on your arm?" He said, gesturing to the two black spots where the snake's fangs had sunk in, "They are the scars of Hades poison. We don't know why but Hades wants to harm you for some reason. You must remain vigilant. Now, Mr D, I do not believe you have introduced yourself."

The man in the wicker chair looked up and said, "I am Mr D, camp director, blah blah blah. She knows who I am now. Have you even told her what this place is?"

I frowned and said, "No. you haven't. What is this place?"

Zach gestured to the rest of the valley, and my gaze spanned over the buildings and forest. "This is Camp Halfblood, the camp for demigods. This is where we train, learn and - for some of us -  grow up. I am a son of Apollo, god of the sun."

Mr D waved a hand and said dismissively, "Very nice, very nice, now go give the kid a tour, will you Smith?"

We left the two talking at the table and made our way down the gravel path towards the junction. As i looked at the forest I felt the weight that had been holding me down since I stepped onto the road with the hunt grow. Zach showed me the archery range, canoe lake, armoury, forge, strawberry fields, cabins and more, but throughout the tour i felt the weight enlarge gradually. As we ended the tour by the Parthenon Zach began to talk about timetables and cabin leaders but I didn't hear him, i was too focused on trying to stay upright. I swayed from side to side and Zach said, "Liane, are you OK?" My vision blurred and my legs came out from under me as I hit the ground. The voice in my head said, "Go to the forest, my daughter, it will strengthen you." The world was flashes of pitch black, white and Zach's panicked face asking if I could hear him. I mustered up the strength to murmur, "The forest." quietly.

"Right, OK, someone help me carry her to the forest!" 

A crowd had gathered around us now as the campers had been returning to their cabins from capture the flag. The world was pitch black but I could hear the commotion that surrounded me. I felt one pair of hands lift my shoulders and another lift my ankles and carry me towards the forest. Footsteps pummelled the ground behind us along with what sounded like a horse galloping beside them. When the scent of the pines and wildflowers hit me I immediately felt stronger, but when the two people who had been carrying me set me down on the forest floor I felt the grass and ivy around me grow and twist into a protective barrier around me.  Gasping for the fresh forest air, I sat upright, catching my breath for a few seconds. Soft grass carpeted the floor and bushes and shrubs were dotted in between towering pines. The forest spanned for what seemed like forever ahead of me but when I looked behind me I saw we were only fifty meters away from the edge of one of the strawberry fields. On my right were more trees but on my left was a crowd of about thirty or forty people, and right at the front were Zach and Chiron, except chiron wasn't in his wheelchair, he was a centaur. He was wringing his hands nervously and shouted, "Everyone, back to your tasks, I will deal with this." 

The crowd left, leaving me, Zach and Chiron in the clearing. Chiron sighed and said, "It appears, Miss Black, that you are much more affected by your power than it had originally seemed. How long has it been since you last set foot into wild nature such as a forest or meadow?" he asked, concern evident in his tone. Thinking back to the day I arrived, I realised I had not entered a place of wild nature since I stepped onto the road when I was still with the hunt. I wondered how they were doing. "I haven't been into a place like this since the morning of the day I arrived." Chiron sighed and said, "You need to go into the forest for at least ten minutes a day then. I would hope this wasn't a regular occurrence."

A/N - This is a long one. I hope you like the story so far!