The Grandson

The Claiming

I don't think much of myself. My parents were killed when I was a baby. I never left my home afterwards. My name is Christopher Joseph, and I am twelve years old.

My home isn't actually a home. It's a summer camp. This "Summer camp" I speak of is called Camp Half-Blood. I was never very fond of it until recently. We train with weapons. I always wonder why we can't learn about ecosystems, rivers, trees, and whatnot. But it's basically what I go through. Rock-climbing, monster fighting. Up until this one thing happened. I learned my parentage. Then I began to love it at camp. Before I give you my manuscript of the time spent at camp, I have a question. Have you heard of the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse myths? Zeus, Mars, Thor, Anubis? The thing is, they're all true. All of them. Now, let's begin.

I wake up in the 11th cabin at camp out of 20, the Hermes cabin. We all apparently have a godly parent here at camp. That is how we are sorted. The cabins are situated in an Omega formation, which looks a bit like a capital "U." The cabins themselves, are decorated so that they match and accommodate to the children's godly parent.

Demeter had flowers in the windows, a door covered with vines, and a roof made from leaves. Apollo was made from gold and glowed very bright during the day. It was especially bright during the sunset. Zeus was made from gold and quartz, with a big statue of Zeus in the center, holding a lightning bolt called the Master bolt. Hera's looks just like Zeus' except for the giant Hera statue, and the lack of gold. But nobody stays in the Hera cabin, and there is only one occupant for Zeus, and that's Alex Leah. As I said there are twenty cabins (Zeus through Hecate).

Anyway, enough of the cabins, let's get to the story. 

I get up and out of bed and go to the shower building to get showered and changed into my orange camp T-shirt. I walk back to the cabin, and put on my shoes. I hear a horn. The conch horn that signals breakfast.

"Cabin eleven, fall in!" shouts Joey Young, the head counselor for Hermes. We line up and head for the dining pavilion. 

The dining pavilion is an open-air Greek style pavilion that overlooks the beach to Long Island Sound. Camp Half-Blood is on Long Island, in case you were wondering. Oops. I probably shouldn't have said that. Now we're going to have a raid on camp led by mortal fangirls and boys. Oh well. Good thing we have nice, sharp weapons. 

I sit down at the eleventh table with my cabin mates from cabin 11. Breakfast today, is toast (nymph prepared), sausage, and hash browns. I dig in only to remember to get up and sacrifice something for the gods. Apparently, the gods like the smell of burned food. Because that's a thing.  I see some campers getting up from their tables and walking to the hearth. We eventually get up from our table and scrape food off our plates. In the case of breakfast, we usually scrape off the best piece of sausage into the hearth. The hearth is at the center of the dining pavilion which made sense. I pray silently to the gods. Please claim me tonight maybe?

I am currently known as what is called "Unclaimed." This means that I am a demigod, but my godly parent is undetermined. For the moment.

I walk back to my seat and sit down

BANG!

Chiron pounds his hoof on the table.

Yes, hoof. You read right. Chiron is a centaur. This means that he is half-horse, half-man. Keep reading. 

Chiron, from the waist-up, is a middle-aged man with a scruffy brown beard with the same color hair. From waist-down, he's a white stallion.

"Good morning campers!" he shout, "This weekend, I have a special surprise that most of you probably saw coming."

Confused murmuring spreads throughout the dining pavilion.

"On Saturday, we will be holding our monthly chariot race!"

Excited murmuring spreads like wildfire. The chariot races are very popular here at camp. We have one every month. This month, July, is a time when camp is the most packed because, well, it's a summer camp. People come for the summer holidays. I'm one of the only campers to stay during the winter. I don't have a school to go to. In fact, I'm lucky I'm not living on the streets right now. If it weren't for Chiron, I probably would or even be dead. I owe him my life. Man, life debts are the worst.

After breakfast, we go into our morning activities. For the Hermes cabin, that's archery for an hour, a half-hour of canoeing, arts & crafts for an hour, and a half-hour of free-time before lunch. Everyone has different schedules from each other depending on which cabin you come from. Except for free-time. Everybody as free-time at the same time. Funny, huh? During free-time, I head on down to the Poseidon cabin (number 3) and knock on the door. My friend, Ritzer Cruuz, who is a son of Poseidon, opens the door. He has curly light-brown hair, with tan skin, and green eyes. He has a white mark above his right eyebrow that I have never been brave enough to ask about.

"Hello?" he asks me, "Oh, hey Chris."

"Is is ready yet?" I ask Ritzer.

"Yeah, Harper, Samantha, and I worked on it during forge," he answers.

"Yes!" I reply. We're working on a prank for the Athena cabin and it's finally done. We've spent so much time planning it. Ritzer's promised me that I could help him set it up. I honestly don't know why the prank took so much time to set up. It's only a giant tarantula we're going to put up on the Athena cabin door. 

"When do we put it out?" I ask

"Tonight, after dinner," Ritzer answers.

Two hours later

I am sitting by the canoe lake, building a chariot with Sean Alsman. He has white skin, dark brown hair, and green eyes.

"How are the axles holding up?" I ask

"Pretty well," he answers, "Will the horses be good to us?" 

"Yeah, I think so."

"You don't sound sure," Austin says skeptically.

"Hey. You're not the one who thinks he can speak to horses."

Oops. I probably should've told you guys earlier, but I think I can speak to horses. Telepathically. One time, I was feeding one of the horses in the stables sugarcubes. I thought I heard the word more in my head. I wasn't thinking about anything other than feeding the horses at the time.

I haven't told anyone but Sean at this point. Not even Chiron. Well, now you know about crazy telepathic-horse-talking.

"Who do you think my mother is?" asks Sean.

"I don't have any idea," I reply. Because I don't. Sean, like me, is currently unclaimed. Unlike me, whom was brought to camp when I was a baby, Sean was brought to camp by a satyr at age ten. He knew his dad died in a car accident. He was there for it. But, he claimed his mother died giving birth to him, but none of us believe him at camp. We call those stories baloney. 

I hear a horn in the distance. I look up from making the chariot.

"Dinner," I say.

Five minutes later

Dinner for tonight is steak, carrots, crackers & cheese, and grapes. We get up to scrape the best pieces of steak off of our plates into the hearth. I make the same prayer as always. To be claimed.

I sit down.

A collective gasp.

I look over to where everyone is staring. I see Sean, who sits three tables away from me. He's covered in a rainbow light caused by the rainbow above his head.

I do some math in my head and figure out that I am now the only unclaimed camper at camp. Sean is a son of Iris.