Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 7

Camp Halfblood, or as I Call it by a Better Suited Name: Camp Crazy

I noticed the differences between Hotel Valhalla and Camp Halfblood pretty fast: At Valhalla, the warriors aren't civilized but at least we live nice. Camp Half-Blood seemed like a total mess. A giant area was just covered with temples of Greek Gods and Goddesses and one big pavilion. Next to that, I saw a lava wall. Yeah you heard me right. A wall with lava. And people were climbing it! Back at the hotel we just kill each other the normal way. You know, chop chop and slicey slicey, stabby stabby. This was new.

They had an archery range, which at first might sound cool but when their frontman said "loose" they all shot their arrows with such precision and such a high impact that some of the shields they had put up as targets just cracked as if they were made out of cheap cardboard. There was an arena where people were sword fighting. But they didn't fight as we did. I knew exactly what the next move my opponent would make, it was just about being quicker and stronger (No I'm not quick, no I'm not strong, no I'm not good at fighting in case you wondered). The people fighting here were unpredictable. One of them let himself fall but used it as a ruse to distract his partner. He dove below his sword thrust, rolled on the floor and stood up behind him. I don't know how, but his friend saw it coming and with his sword arm fully stretched he spun around and hit him right in the side. If he didn't have armor he'd be dead.

In contrast to all the war and training going on on one side of the Valley, the other side, separated by a creek, had a large house painted blue with a volleyball court right next to it. A dark forest surrounded the cam completely except for one side that bordered to the long island sound. "Wow!" I heard Alex say next me. She and all the others were now standing next to me and we just enjoyed the view for a moment. All of a sudden we heard a horn resound through the valley and all the campers just stopped what they were doing and headed towards the pavilion.

"It's lunchtime!" Grover said happily and walked past us. We all followed him in awe walking through the camp and took in every last bit of what the camp had to offer - the strawberry fields, the forge, the stables - until we finally reached the pavilion. About a hundred campers all gathered inside and sat down at different tables. At first we just kind of stood there and waited for something to happen. Then I heard another horn-call but it sounded like a 10-year-old would play it. I looked around to see where it was coming from. Some of the younger campers started to giggle and the older ones who were about my age just shook their heads and sighed.
"I'm really not getting better at this, huh", I heard someone say. I didn't see him but I knew the voice. Then he stood up.
"Alright, I'm sure you've had a great day so far and you've been practicing your fighting abilities as good as you can. Now as you know this evening we'll be having our weekly game of capture the flag. We will start at 6 p.m. and I expect all of you to be ready by then. Fully armed with whatever weapon you choose. The rules stay the same: Only one weapon, no killing. As a little bonus, the team who wins can take a day off and..."
He got cut off by a woman's voice sitting next to him that I immediately identified as my cousin Annabeth.
"I don't think we can just let them take a day off, Percy."
Percy sighed. "Alright, I just wanted them to live my dream. Okay, listen up everyone! Apparently I don't get a break from studying Calucus-"
"It's Calculus, dork."
Percy sighed again. It seemed to be his thing. "Apparently, I don't get a break from Calculus and so you don't get a break from training."
some campers started boo-ing.
"I'm sorry, I don't make the rules. As you know Chiron is away and he informed me that he won't come back any time soon. However it seems that Annabeth and I maybe have to leave you too because her cousin has got some problems he can't handle on his own and we need to help him out. Grover contacted me through our empathy link and told me everything that happened. It's a long story and believe me when I say you don't want to get into it. Anyway, I myself would've just let them handle it on their own but Annabeth says we have to help them out."

"We can hear you, you know?" Alex said.
Everybody turned their heads.
Percy looked shocked at first but then he saw Grover. "Dude why didn't you say something? Welcome back!" Percy smiled and walked towards us.
"Well, I didn't want to interrupt your big speech. Annabeth still makes you prepare for the university huh? That really sucks."
"Oh shut up Grover", Annabeth said jokingly and stood up too. "Magnus! It's nice to see you again. How have you been?"

I laughed. "Haven't you heard? We were threatened to be killed!"
Percy tilted his head: "So what?"
I didn't expect that I'd have to explain why a death threat would make me worry. "Well, it wasn't nice!" I said in an almost whining tone.
Percy nodded and waved his hands as if to calm me down. "Yes, yes, I get that but aren't you already dead? How does a death threat even work on you? I mean if you can still die then what's the point of your whole 'dead warrior' thing you got going on?"
"I can still die again! In fact, I almost did just hours ago!" I said outraged.
"Wait, what happened?" Annabeth looked at me worried.

Alex answered for me. "We were attacked by monsters. They called themselves Mare... None of us have ever heard of them. We think that they have been summoned by Morpheus."
Percy started looking around the campers almost frantically. "Well let's discuss this at the table." He said quietly and stared at me. I have to admit his gaze was pretty intense but I knew what he wanted to say: Not in front of everybody. We don't want them to know too much about this.
Then he raised his voice and smiled as if nothing had just happened. "Now let's eat!" He said and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture. He turned towards us. "Come and sit down with us. We obviously need to talk."

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The food was great. Magnus, how is the food relevant to the story? It's not but I don't care because given the falafel disaster I had earlier I was really relieved. I'm still mad at Alex by the way. We ate, we caught up on what had happened and talked about the main reason why we came here: Morpheus.

Percy sighed (it's really something with this guy and his sighs). "The dream thing and the whole Ima kill y'all attitude is good and well... Actually it's not but we all know that. No the most important thing at the moment is the artifact Grover told me about. Annabeth have you found out anything about it yet?"
She looked at him surprised. "What artifact? You never told me anything about that! What is it?"
Percy seemed confused. "I didn't tell you? Wait... Oh yeah, I remember now..." He muttered something about wanting to tell her and then pancakes.

"Okay stop it!" Annabeth demanded. "Magnus? The artifact. What artifact?"
"Right. When Grover overheard Morpheus's conversation he heard him talk about an artifact that had just arrived in Boston, I guess in a museum but I'm not sure. Somehow this artifact is supposed to give him more power. The only problem is we have no idea what it is, where it is or how it can give him more power."
I looked her in the eyes, she had an absent look on her face. "Is everything okay?"

Silently, almost whispering, she started to talk. "You're sure it's in Boston?"
"Yeah", Grover said. "I heard him say it had just arrived there. Why?"
Annabeth's face was as pale as a ghost.
"You look sick. Is everything okay?", he asked.
She looked away.
"I know which artifact Morpheus wants to have... and you won't like it."