Rise of Erebos: Search of the Hidden

Chapter 2: I get interviewed by a horse man

Immediately, my mind began exploding with questions.
What in the world was Camp Half-Blood, and since when did gods exist? From what I knew, I was some weird demigod kid with a dead sister heading to a magical camp to "hone my abilities".
    Kai and Amethyst led me past the neighborhood and away from the factory. We kept going forward, Amethyst randomly checking the angle of the sun like she didn't have a watch. (In fairness, she didn't). Meanwhile, Kai was muttering bad puns under his breath and slashing the air with his sword like he was in a VR simulation of World War 2.
    Along the way, I asked many questions, feeling about twenty different emotions at once, including anger at Kai after making at least five terrible puns. (Are you gonna PUN-ish me? Are you going to send me to a punitentiary?)
    "So what is this camp anyway? There's just a bunch of demon-gods or whatever learning to fight monsters and stuff?"
    Kai snorted. "Demon gods? That'd be pretty sick, but no. Camp is a place for other god children like us."
    That really didn't answer my question, but thankfully, Amethyst elaborated. "Technically you're right, although that's not all we do. We're a camp for a reason. We do some normal stuff like go to the campfire every night and do basic activities, but the main purpose is to prepare us for the mortal world when we become older."
    "I see. Where are we?" I realized that suddenly, we were in some random forest with flat green grass leading up to a campsite area atop a hill.
As we neared the area, Amethyst started becoming fidgety with excitement. "We're so close! Atop that hill, there's camp! Yay!"
Woah. Who fed that girl a bowl of candy?
"Aye, calm down Nerd Girl. You're just excited to raid the library," Kai said.
Amethyst scowled at him, biting back a response. We walked the rest of the way in silence.
    As we climbed up the hill, my jaw dropped.
    In front of us was a pine tree, with a golden band etched with patterns wrapped around it. It was as bright as a light bulb and would've been beautiful if not for the dragon coiled around the tree.
       "Is that a dragon?" I exclaimed, almost falling flat on my butt.
Amethyst petted the dragon under its snout. "Yeah. This is Peleus, and he guards the Golden Fleece."
The dragon growled in approval.
"Golden Fleece?" I asked.
"It's a magical item that protects the borders of camp. It's pretty cool, right?" Kai explained.
I nodded slowly. "Super cool."
We continued past the tree. To the left of us, there was a sky-blue house. Even further on the left side were a bunch of large cabins making up an omega sign. To our right, there was a humongous amphitheater and a large climbing wall. There were volleyball courts, a quadruplet of a building making up an arts and craft section, and so many other buildings that made my mind reel with shock.
"Whoa," I managed. "This is camp?"
Amethyst looked at me gleefully. "I know, it's a lot to take in at first but once you get used to this camp, you're going to have so much fun!"
    She pointed towards the large sky-blue house. "Over there is the Big House. Around this time, Chiron will be playing that card game with Mr. D and the other satyrs. Let's go find him, he'll know what to do."
    "Good idea, Ruby!" Kai squealed sarcastically, imitating Amethyst. "I will say though, how does Chiron find that game interesting? Pinochle is like a game for old people. Literally nobody plays that crap."
    They led me inside the Big House (brilliant name, by the way), and we went through a couple of rooms, including an infirmary and a rec room with a ping-pong table. We entered a deck area with lawn chairs and tables set up across the room. The deck was wrapped around the entire perimeter of the house, giving a pretty nice view below.
    At one of the tables, ten people were sitting down, playing the card game that Kai mentioned. There were eight half-men, half-goats with goatees and matching orange Camp Half-Blood shirts. At one end of the table, there was a middle-aged man, wearing a leopard-striped Hawaiian shirt, purple running shoes. His hair and eyes were black, but his eyes were also really bloodshot, as if he had one heck of a bad night.
    At the other end of the table, was also a middle-aged man, but he had the lower half of a white stallion. He had thinning brown hair, deep brown eyes (kinda like Kai's), and a scruffy beard. I assumed this was Chiron, based off of Amethyst's description.
    Luckily for us, the game ended basically the second we entered, with Chiron winning and celebrating and the other nine people groaning but still having smiles on their faces.
    "Good game, guys. Now I have some work to do, so I'll see you gu-" Chiron said before running headfirst into Kai, the latter collapsing on the ground.
    "Ow! What in Zeus do they feed you centaurs?" Kai groaned, still sprawled on the floor.
    Chiron stifled a laugh. "Sorry, Kai. Now, what is the nature of your visit?"
    "We found Rose here fainted in a factory area. She says she encountered an empousa," Amethyst explained.
    "I see. Thank you, Amethyst. What is your name, child?"
    "Rose."
    "A good name. Now, follow me. I'm going to ask you some questions in my office to see if we can determine if you are a demigod and can join the camp," Chiron told me.
    My voice was stuck in my throat, so the only response I could muster was a curt nod. He started walking away, motioning for me to follow him. We went through a couple of hallways and rooms before reaching his office.
    The room was bronze-shielded, which I found strange, but ignored. There was a video player and a full-screen video along with a boombox playing some of the most atrocious Italian opera music I'd ever heard. At the center of his room was a desk and computer, likely where he did his work.
We both sat across from each other at his desk as he began questioning me. "So first of all, who are your parents?"
I glanced down at my knees. The truth was, I didn't have any parents.
"Well, my dad died a few years ago and as for my mother...I'd never met her other than hearing a few stories from my dad."
"This is common amongst demigods but alas, I'm sorry about your dad," Chiron said.
"Anyways, what happened to you before you were brought here?" he asked.
I began telling him my whole story, from being an orphan on the streets after my dad died to the death of my sister and me magically killing the empousa before fainting, where Kai and Amethyst found me and brought me to camp.
"I'm very sorry for your loss, Rose. But your story does coincide with being a demigod. However, you didn't just randomly kill the beast. I believe you used your powers in a panic to slay the monster," Chiron said.
Not finding a better response to a revelation like that, I just said, "Yeah, I guess."
"Well, I have asked all the questions that I've needed to ask. From the basis of your story and what you have said, we can allow you to stay here. I would show you the orientation video, but after getting multiple complaints about the disturbing nature of the film, I've had to fix it up. In the meantime, you will get a tour of the camp from Amethyst before conducting normal camp activities. Do you have any other questions before we finish the meeting?"
"Um, why the bronze room?" I asked curiously. In retrospect, it was a stupid question but honestly, what type of room is bronze? You may as well put a carpet on the wall and consider it wallpaper.
Chiron chuckled. "There's a very good reason for it. Demigods are bad with technology because it attracts monsters. Most demigods are better off not using tech, so bronze works fine."
"Oh..that's unfortunate," I said. Well there goes my dreams of owning a phone. But it's all fine, I'll just live the rest of my life knowing I'll never own a phone or get to even touch a-I'm getting side-tracked.
"Is that all?" Chiron asked after about ten seconds of silence. I silently nodded and waved goodbye.
I left the room and met up with Kai and Amethyst outside the Big House. "Well, now that you're done talking with Chiron, it's time to tour the camp!" Amethyst said cheerfully, going up and down on her toes.
Kai looked at me with pure anguish as we began the tour. We first headed towards the Cabins which were still in the shape of an omega symbol.
"So, these are our Cabins. We usually stay inside our godly parent's cabin with other children of that god. All the undecided campers are put in the Hermes cabin," Amethyst explained as we made our way into the center of all the cabins.
"How exactly does a god have that many children? I mean, they're gods. Why are they running around and having children with mortals?" I asked. It was kind of weird that gods were going around having affairs considering that most of the gods were married.
Kai shrugged. "It's kind of strange, but gods are pretty weird-"
"Careful, Kai. You don't want to take a bolt from Zeus," Amethyst warned.
"-so they just do whatever they want when they want. Our dad's got like fifteen other kids," Kai finished.
I guess that sort of made sense. From what I heard, gods are a different class of strange. But don't tell that to Zeus, or else he may strike me with a lightning bolt.
I continued asking questions. "How many cabins are actually here?"
Amethyst fiddled with her hair. "There are about 20, but there are plans for new ones. There used to be only twelve, but thanks to Percy Jackson, eight more cabins were built so we could recognize more minor gods. Jason Grace also had plans to add more Cabins for more minor gods, but for now, we only have twenty."
"Who's Percy Jackson and Jason Grace?"
"They're two well-known demigods that have been on a lot of quests, but it's a long story," Amethyst answered. "Anyways, the twenty Cabins are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Artemis-"
Kai widened his eyes. "Jeez, woman!"
Amethyst rolled her eyes and continued explaining. "Every cabin, as you know, does activities and events and are led by Cabin leaders. For example, I'm the co-leader of the Apollo cabin with Will Solace."
I looked at Kai curiously. He just shook his head, telling me "don't ask" with one glance.
Amethyst finished showing me around the Cabins and tediously telling me how every cabin looked, their leader, and other facts. Kai just lost his voice, because he basically let Amethyst rant on for minutes without saying a single thing.
They then showed me the architecture and activities I could do in camp such as the rock climbing wall and Amphitheater. The camp seemed like a dream come true, with beautiful canoeing lakes and luscious strawberry fields. It was almost hard to believe that this place was even a camp.
By the time we finished the tour, I couldn't wait to explore around camp and do every single activity.
As I headed toward the dining pavilion waiting for dinner to begin, Amethyst insisted that I follow her to a tool shed area (which made Kai wail in agony).
"Seriously?" I groaned. "Do I have to? I just wanna eat!"
Kai nodded. "I second that. However, you do need a weapon of some kind."
"Ugh, fine."
I followed the twins to the tool shed, where it smelled like a mix between rust and dust. There was a large catalog of weapons, ranging from swords and daggers to knives and combat ukuleles (seriously?).
"So now all you have to do is pick out a weapon that interests you and choose it," Amethyst said. I rifled through the weapons, careful not to cut my thumb on a sword or something. Eventually, I found a set of two dark, metallic black knives in the corner.
I don't know why, but something about the knives intrigued me. They were the only weapons that really called out to me and something about them seemed...mysterious, as if there were some dark history to them.
"So you want Merlin and...unnamed?" Amethyst asked.
"Unnamed? Does that mean I get to name it?"
"Yeah, I guess. There's a pretty easy name spell I could do, though that's more of a Norse thing."
"I want to name it...Marianne."
Even though Marianne had always been cruel to me and considered me a waste, she was my sister, who deserved so much more than getting killed by some vampire.
Amethyst touched the unnamed knife and started muttering an incantation of some sort before handing back to me. "There you go. Good choice in weapons, by the way."
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem. Now let's eat!"