Luna Silver: Daughter of Artemis

Chapter Three

Speechless. That's what I was when we were greeted by a man from the waist up and white stallion from the waist down. I know it's silly to be in shock of this after all I've been through, but hey, it was involuntary. Kind of.

"Chiron!" Annabeth rushed over to the man horse and hugged him. Sybil, Raina and I simply stood near the pine tree, though far enough from the dragon encircling it. A flicker or gold caught my eye. When I focused on it, it appeared to look like a fleece of some sort...except it was gold. No fleece I ever heard of was made of pure gold. Could it seriously be the Golden Fleece? The one I read about in my greek mythology story books? I shook my head to clear the confusion. It was easy enough to believe after my experiences. Looking around, I realized all the campers were slowly gathering around us. Percy went towards the crowd and began answering thier questions about the day.

The man horse...No, I have to stop calling him that. The centaur, as I recalled from the myths, came towards us, his hooves clopping faintly despite the soft dirt ground.  "Ah, it seems we have new campers." he said warmly. "Welcome."

Percy  came over and led us further into the camp borders. "Chiron, this is..." he faltered and looked at Sybil, Raina and I with those sea green eyes. "What are your full names?"

"Sybil Leon."

"Raina Abbott."

Everyone had thier eyes trained on me. It was foolish and meaningless to hesitate, but after all these years constantly on the run and not trusting anyone, it felt wrong just to give out my name, my real name, to people I barely knew. But who cared anyway? "Luna Galvan," I said, sighing. "But I go by Luna Silver, my father's actual last name. Galvan is Gran's last name and, well, I'm not really related to her, so it sort of feels wrong using her surname."

Raina broke the uncomfotable silence that followed my short speech. "Where are we? Like, what is this place exactly?"

Chiron smiled down at her. "My dear, you are at Camp Half-Blood."

Sybil nodded at this. "Yeah, we know that." She gestured towards Annabeth and Percy. "They told us."

Chiron nodded, his face serious. "Yes. Good. I presume they had explained everything to you on your way here?"

Yes, they did, I thought, and I wish they hadn't. Looking up at Chiron, I shug indiffrently. "They did. Apparently, we have a Greek god or godess for a parent. Am I right?"

Deep down inside, I secretly hoped that Chiron would shake his head and stare at me like I was crazy. I hoped he would say, What has gotten to your head? Of course not! More than anything, I wanted to be a normal girl who could finnally get out of this nightmare. Of course, I had never had a normal life before.

But instead, Chiron smiles. "That's correct, Luna."

"But we don't know who our...who our godly parents are!" Sybil exclaims. Next to her, Raina shifts her feet uncomfortably and keeps her eyes trained on the ground.

Chiron sighs tiredly. I felt bad for him. Somehow, I was certain he'd gone through similar situations before.

"I'm afraid no one else knows either, dear. We'll just have to wait until you are claimed."

Sybil, ever the persistent one, throws her arms into the air. "Okay, but what is claiming?"

I would've supported her if it wasn't for the blinding flash of light that suddenly appeared.

"That, Sybil, is claiming." Annabeth said softly.