The rise of the falcon (ON HOLD)

Discovering and exploring (VI)

I woke up with a panic. Where am I ? What am I doing here? Then I quickly calmed down and remembered I was at camp half blood in the Hades cabin. Last night Hades had claimed me as his daughter. I hadn't had much time to check out the cabin last night but with the light shining through the windows it was beautiful. I walked over to a dresser at the end of my bed and opened the first drawer expecting nothing. Instead the drawer was stocked full of Orange t-shirts with the words Camp half-blood sprawled across them. A black Pegasus underneath the words. I opened the drawer below that it had a couple pairs of black jeans,—not as much as the shirts though. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt and walked I front of a mirror. I was tempted to stay in my jean shorts and my black and white blouse but I had been wearing these for 3 days straight. I finally convinced myself to change my cloths. Once I was done I hopped in front of the mirror again. To my surprise the cloths fit perfectly! I swore the pants were 2 sizes too big or something but I guess I was wrong.

I put my cloths in the drawer by my bed as I heard a knock at the door. I walked over and opened it to see Leo leaning on the door frame. He smiled when he saw me.

" hey Leo!" I tried for a smile "not to be rude or anything but why are you here?"

"I am here to take you exploring the camp!" He explained. " you ready to go?" He asked. I nodded and we walked out. I pointed at the big house

"What's that place." I asked him. I knew it was the big house, but that's all I knew.

"That's the big house. Chiron and mr. D stay there. They are both sick since it was raining the day you came and they're not quite used to the colder weather." He explained in detail.

"Why not" I asked inquisitively. It had been raining for almost a week straight before I got here so how could they not be used to it.

"Well, you see that pine tree over there?" He asked pointing to a a pine tree that towered over the others. I nodded. " a couple years ago a girl named Thalia came to camp with her 2 friends. On their way there a cyclops was attacking them. The only way for them to make it was for one of them to stay back and distract the monster. Thalia volunteered. None of them wanted her to but she insisted. The monster gravely injured her and she was on the verge of death. While her friend made it to safety, she lied there dying. Her father looked down at her from Olympus and spared her life turning her into a pine tree to protect the camp."

"What does this have to do with the weather?" I wondered where this story was going.

"Let me explain, when she was turned into a tree her spirit lived on and made a magical barrier around camp, keeping us from monster invasions mortals entering and weather. But once a month Chiron let's all the weather inside to water the strawberry fields," Leo stated

"Ok then, so what else is in there?" I asked, furrowing my brow.

"That's pretty much it....at one point in time there was an oracle upstairs but now she lives in a magical hideout in the woods. Downstairs there is the rec. room where we have ping pong tables and hold meeting with all the head counsellors. Speaking of which, since Nico doesn't stay at camp and only visits every week or so and Hazel is at camp Jupiter, it looks like your the head counsellor for the Hades cabin!" He said this as a smile crept across his face. I shot him a confused look.

"Who?" In that one word he knew exactly what I meant.

"Nico and Hazel are your siblings!" He answered "Do you remember me mentioning them at the campfire last night ?" I nodded, though I vaguely remember the names they seem familiar. 

We walked around camp more and Leo gave me the story behind everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! He told me about Zeus' fist and how an entrance to the labyrinth was underneath and he told me about the great battle of Manhattan (second Titan war) , the battle against Gaea and how he lost his life to save the ones he loved. When he went to calypsos island and tried to take her back to camp but ultimately failed because the gods put up an invisible barrier 100 feet away from the island and she couldn't pass through. I could see it still hurt him a little to talk about it so I asked him more questions about the camp that would distract him. He led me into the woods and about 10 minutes in I finally asked him.

"Where are we going?"I asked, the words finally coming out of my mouth.
"You'll see" he said as we reached a white cliff. "Here we are!" He said eagerly

"You took me to a cliff? What for?" I said, a puzzled look spread across my face like wild fire.

"You'll see" he repeated. He put his hands over my eyes and said "don't peek" I nodded and he slowly took his hands away. I could hear some rock shifting but I didn't open my eyes. I felt someone talk my hand and lead me forward, they put their hands back over my eyes and I heard more shifting rock.

"Open your eyes..." Leo whispered in my ear. I obeyed and opened them. To my surprise the room was pitch black. I searched the darkness for Leo's hand, I absolutely hated the dark. I found it and I immediately felt a little safer.

"Ready?" He whispered again. I squeezed his hand to let him know I was. He swiftly let go of my hand, I heard a noise cut through the darkness. Instinctively I put my hands to my hips, where my daggers were. Then I realized the noise was Leo clapping. The lights turned on and I stared  in awe, the room was huge. There were work benches all around the room and blueprints hanging from every free inch of the walls. The oddest thing was a giant bronze metal dragon laying in the middle of the room, it seemed to be broken.
Leo strolled up to the dragon and gestured for me to join him. I did. He put his hand on the dragons head and spoke
"his name was Festus" a sad smile replaced the happy sarcastic one he usually wore.

"Doesn't Festus mean happy in Latin?" I inquired, trying to lighten the mood.

"Ya....it does..." He replied vaguely

"You named him happy the dragon?"

"Ya! So?"

"I thought happy was more of a cats name..."

"A blue flying cat maybe....I wish I had one of those.... But a giant flying bronze dragon is way better" a small smile returned to his face. "That's why I spend all my free time here....trying to fix him" I could see the sadness in his face. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"In sure you will fix him" I gave a reassuring smile "i mean, you're a son of Hephaestus after all!"

"Thanks" he smiled weakly, he gathered himself up " come on there is one more place I want to show you!" He took her hand and basically dragged her out the door and out into the woods.

(Thanks for reading this part which is long overdue! The photo at the top is of camp half blood. Hope you all enjoyed! See you next time! Wait no I won't......I can't see into the future or through screens...or can I! But in all seriousness hope y'all enjoyed!)
~Brooke!