Another Son Of Hermes

Chapter 2

Rory was walking aimlessly along a row of cabins when he met Annabeth. He wasn't one for drawing attention to himself and had only just managed to escape from the crowd of demi-gods greeting him upon his arrival. Now he was starting to regret running away, as much as he hated the attention it was better than being lost. Rory was contemplating whether or not he should go and find the horse dude again when a blond girl with a bronze knife materialised in front of him. She took a step away from him, clearly alarmed.

“What is it?” he asked. The blond girl's expression changed suddenly.

“It's nothing you just reminded me of some one.” she said “Oh are you the newbie?” Rory nodded. The girl held out her hand.

“I'm Annabeth, head of the Athena cabin.” Rory shook her hand and said.

“Rory. Rory De'ath.”

“Your last name is Death?” she asked

“No, De'ath there's an apostrophe between the E and the A.” he explained

“Aah.” Annabeth looked thoughtfully at him “and what does De'ath mean?” Rory paused.

“It means death...” He said, reluctantly. Annabeth giggled, then started to walk along the cabins and Rory followed.

“Have you been claimed yet?” she asked

“No, Grover said something about a camp-fire?”

“Yeah, we have one every night, most people are claimed then.” Annabeth showed him the armoury, the stables and the the big house but it wasn't until they reached the lake that Annabeth stopped to ask more questions.

“Any ideas who your godly parent might be?” Rory shook his head.

“I know it's my dad but that's it.” Annabeth put her hand to her mouth suddenly.

“How long has it been since you spoke to your mum?” Rory blinked. He hadn't given it much thought but now Annabeth had mentioned it Rory hadn't seen his mum in almost two weeks. He hadn't told her where he was going, she must have been worrying about him. He opened his mouth to respond to Annabeth's question but his voice cracked before any words came out. Annabeth nodded, understanding. She moved towards the lake and knelt at the edge.

“Percy!” she shouted into the water. Annabeth stood up again and turned towards Rory.

“He won't be a minu...” She was cut of as a boy suddenly emerged from within the water and raised himself onto the lake's edge. After having just been underwater he should have been dripping wet but he (and his clothes) were bone dry. He had dark hair and sea green eyes, he wore an orange t-shirt like the others at camp half-blood and there were four clay beads on his leather necklace. Annabeth looked like she was about to swoon at the sight of him.

“This is Percy.” she said “my boyfriend.” Percy looked at Rory and frowned. Rory raised his eyebrows in response. Then the lake boy abruptly turned back to Annabeth as if nothing had happened.

“What's up?” he asked. Percy's voice was light care free.

“Rory hasn't spoken to his mum since Grover found him, I'm gonna need some help with the Iris message.” Percy faced the water and screwed up his face slightly in concentration and a small fountain of water appeared in the lake. He bent and warped the small fountain until it was in optimum position and hit the sun light just right. Annabeth rummaged through her pocket and with some triumph produced a large gold coin. She threw it into the rainbow that had been created.

“Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering.” she said and then prompted Rory for his mum's name and location.

“Mellissa De'ath, London” The image of his mother's kitchen appeared in a screen of mist. His mum stood at the work top kneading a ball of dough. Rory swallowed, his mum only baked when she was stressed or worried, Rory suspected her worry might have something to do with his disappearance.

“Mum.” Rory said into the mist. Mellissa turned around and gasped.

“Rory!” she said wiping a tear from her cheek. Rory smiled sadly.

“Hi mum, I'm at Camp Half-Blood, I'm okay.” Mellissa sighed.

“I should have told you about all that, I'm sorry.”

“No... it's okay” he said “I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Rory, stay at Camp Half-Blood this summer. Then when term starts again I'll find you a new school in London. No more boarding schools abroad. I promise.” a doorbell rang on Mellissa's side. She looked apologetically at Rory. “I have to go now, but please, stay at Camp Half-Blood. It's the safest place you can be. Goodbye.” Annabeth waved her hand through the mist and the image disappeared.

“Me and Percy have to go see Chiron now.” she said “You gonna be okay?” Rory nodded.

“All right, we've got two hours until the camp-fire. Meet us then?” she asked, checking Rory's face to make sure he really was okay. He nodded again and Annabeth, with Percy's arm around her waist walked off towards the big house.