Half-Blood Hell: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

The House of The Goat Men (And Their Leader)

The first thing his eyes caught hold of was the sheer number of people standing around in the big house, all of whom huddled around in a swarm of fur and skin alike. That was, of course, the second thing - the quantity of fur protruding from the cluster. Beyond the beard of the only human present, there was a series of people with goat legs and many with long hair or scruffy chins. It smelled just as magnificent as you would imagine a bunch of body-odor-filled goats would smell like. Ace held his breath and waited while the centaur walked through to the group of goat-men.

"My name's Bell, she/her, by the way," the helpful but terrifyingly angry half-blood said, "I didn't catch your pronouns?"

"Oh, uh, he/him," he uttered, keeping his eyes trained on the conversation between the centaur and the tall bearded man in the mass of goats. "What are they talking about?"

Bell lowered her eyebrows and wrinkled her mouth like a duck-face, clearly thinking as hard as she possibly could. After a moment, a bright understanding seemed to pass over her as her face lit up. "Oh! Probably where to put you since the Hermes cabin could only hold one more half-blood this month."

Ace felt something horrid stir in his stomach. A mix of jealousy and disappointment. "The other kid got there before me, huh?"

He had tried not to sound too sad about it, but her reaction told him he hadn't succeeded. He was just so used to being shoved in the second option, never being good or fast enough to get there for the first. He desperately tried not to let his mind fall back into a daydream and instead focussed on the feel of his soft jacket and the glaring eyes of the bearded man. The bearded man would occasionally glance over at Bell and Ace, give them a scrutinizing look, then return back to discussing with Chiron.

It took way too long for them to finish.

"Bell," Chiron said softly as he clopped back over, "does the Ares cabin have enough room for another face?"

Bell's face scrunched up again as her eyes drifted to the ceiling as if the answer was written on the wooden beams. Just as quickly, her eyes drifted down to the ground and her face contorted even more. It looked much like she was having a conversation with herself. "I think there'd be room for him, sir, but I doubt he'd be welcome."

Chiron nodded, then turned back to the bearded man, who was giving him a glare that said 'if you come near me, I will pull you apart piece by tiny piece and then turn you into an army of munchable ducks'. Chiron made some kind of gesture with his hands and the bearded man dropped the glare, loudly sighing with exasperation. "Fine, but only because I'm not sure if any of the other gods would be willing to take him in without turning him into skewered beef."

Chiron turned back, a stupidly humourful grin on his face. "I think we've found you a cabin."

Given the chance to look at the cabins again, Ace managed to connect the dots. They looked like temples because they kind of were temples, but they also served as cabins to different gods. Presumably, whichever god the half-blood was connected to was the cabin they slept in. He would have said lived in, but it seemed that the campers pretty much lived in the entire camp, constantly running from activity to activity. The cabins were about as useful as a tent would have been.

"...And this," Bell said with so much enthusiasm he thought she might have been faking it, "is the Dionysus cabin, where you'll be spending your time until a god claims you."

"Claims?"

"Well, it's kinda impossible to tell whose kid you are until they own up to bringing you into the world. It took me about a month for Ares to let me know he was my father, but people suspected it before it actually happened. There are... hints. Like the fact that I was constantly fighting without reason." She smiled as though she remembered those times fondly. "But at the time we all thought it was because I was stressed and unfamiliar with the camp. Hindsight's twenty-twenty, huh?"

Ace nodded, but his mind was already somewhere else. He was watching the vines that grew up the sides of Dionysus' cabin, snaking in and around the tiles and creeping through every crack in the wall. It unnerved him. He felt like they were snakes, slithering in to steal the lives of the poor half-bloods on the inside of the building. He really didn't like snakes. 

"Hey, don't worry if you go more than a month, either - some kids never get claimed, you won't be left out," Bell continued, offering a weak smile. 

"Yeah..." He mumbled, already knowing he was not going to be claimed any time soon. It would be a year or two at the very least before anyone showed up for him; it always was. His parents had taken years to get used to his new name, his teachers had taken years to notice his dyslexia, his friends had taken years to show up. Maybe he was being petty and whiny, but it had just become instinct to expect to be left far behind. 

"Hey, I know what'll cheer you up!" Bell said suddenly, a huge grin on her face, "let's get you to meet the other newbie!"

The other newbie was young. Like, really young. Just being around the kid made Ace feel exceptionally uncomfortable. But Bell was there trying her best to create a friendship between the two, and Ace was not about to ignore her efforts. He offered the kid a smile. "Hey."

The kid looked up. Their eyes had clearly recently seen tears, and their left hand was wrapped up tight in a bandage. They looked ready to sleep for a thousand years with the dark circles under their eyes. The only benefit was that the purple beneath their eyes matched their purple shirt. They said nothing, but their expression changed slightly. Like they were analyzing the thoughts within Ace's mind.

"I-"

"You're not right," they said finally, tilting their head. 

Ace felt a bubble of anger rising in the pit of his stomach. To hell with politeness in the face of a child, this kid opened up with telling him he wasn't right?! He clenched his fist and was seconds from bringing it to the kid's face when he realized what he was doing and took a deep breath. The kid was probably just... unused to seeing teenagers. If he showed the kid patience, maybe the kid would learn.

"What do you mean?" He croaked out, trying not to sound as furious as Bell always looked.

The kid shook their head like they were trying to get rid of a thought and looked back up at him, a fresher, kinder gleam in their eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. That was rude."

"It's fine."

"You have a name, right?" 

Ace looked at the kid quizzically. They certainly had an odd way of asking questions. "Yeah, Ace, uh, he/him pronouns."

The kid smiled, some kind of understanding washing over their face. "My name is Clay." They furrowed their brow, seeming lost in thought, then let out a sigh with the exasperation of the bearded man but the innocence of a lamb. "I don't know my pronouns."

"Oh, well, er, that makes things difficult. Do you... Have any that you like particularly?"

The kid hummed - a beautiful sound, really, so sweet and thoughtful - but it stopped almost as soon as it started. "Yours?"

Ace felt something new tugging in the pit of his stomach. Not quite jealousy or envy, but something impossibly far from kindness. "Sure, we can work with that."

Bell walked in before he did something incredibly stupid and beamed when she saw Clay smiling. Her grin faltered when she saw Ace's expression but she seemed mostly to ignore it. She clapped her hands loudly and rubbed her hands together. "Time to fill our stomachs." 

It was not a moment after her announcement that a loud conch horn sounded from somewhere in the distance. A worried smile on her face, Bell led the two new campers from the cabin's oval to the pavilion, ready for one hell of a night.