Chapter Text
After a morning of storm spirits, goat men, and flying boyfriends, Piper should've been losing her mind. Instead, all she felt was dread.
It's starting, she thought. Just like the dream said.
She stood in the back of the chariot with Leo and Jason while the bald guy, Butch, handled the reins. The blond guy, Luke, was adjusting some sort of bronze navigation device. They rose above the Grand Canyon and started flying east, away from the growing storm. The icy wind ripped at their clothing, piercing through Piper's jacket. She glanced back, holding tighter to the side of the chariot as she eyed the lack of seatbelts or back to the chariot. She absently wondered if Jason would catch her again if she fell out.
That was one of the most disturbing things about the day so far - not that Jason could fly, but that he'd held her in his arms and had no idea who she was.
All semester, Piper had worked up to a relationship with Jason, trying to make him see her as more than a friend. They finally kissed a few weeks ago and it had since been the best few weeks of her life. Then, three nights ago ...that horrible voice giving her horrible news - she hadn't told anyone about it, not even Jason. Now she didn't even have him. It was like someone had wiped his memory, and she was stuck in the worst “do-over” of all time. She wanted to scream. Jason stood right next to her: those sky blue eyes, close-cropped blonde hair, that cute little scar on his upper lip. His face was kind and gentle, but always a little sad. And he just stared at the horizon, not even noticing her.
Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying as usual. "This is so cool!" He spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. "Where are we going?"
“A safe place” Luke said, his voice emotionless. “The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood.”
“Half-Blood?” Piper was immediately on guard. She hated that word. She'd been called a half-blood too many times - half Cherokee half white - and it was never a compliment. “Is that some kind of bad joke?”
“He means we're demigods, right? Half mortal, half god?”
Luke stared at the teen with a wary eye.
“You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My father is Hermes. The god of travelers, thieves, and a whole lot of other stuff. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess.”
Leo choked. “Your mom is a rainbow goddess?”
“Got a problem with that?” Butch asked, a hint of a threat in his voice.
“No, no,” Leo denied. “Rainbows. Very macho.”
“Butch is one of our best equestrians,” Luke said, ignoring the tension. “He gets along great with the pegasi.”
“Rainbows, ponies,” Leo muttered.
“I will toss you off this chariot,” Butch warned.
“I will toss you both off this chariot if you don’t knock it off,” Luke said.
Leo and Butch fell silent, so Piper carefully took the opportunity to speak.
“Demigods. You mean you think you’re… you think we’re–”
Lightning flashed. The chariot shuddered, and Jason yelled, “Left wheel’s on fire!”
Luke cursed as Piper stepped back to see that the wheel was indeed on fire, white flames lapping up the side of the chariot.
Storm spirits swirled behind them, wind howling as dark clouds formed into horse-like figures.
Before she could even ask, Luke was starting to explain.
“Anemoi come in different shapes,” he said. “Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are. Hold on tight kids, this is gonna get rough.”
Butch flicked the reins, the pegasi picked up speed, and the world around them blurred. Piper closed her eyes against the nausea produced, and held the chariot tight enough to hurt as she waited for her brain to catch up with her body. When she opened her eyes again, they were in a completely different place. A cold grey ocean stretched out to the left. Snow-covered fields, roads, and forests spread to the right. Directly below them was a green valley, like an island of spring, rimmed with snowy hills on three sides, and water to the north.
Piper saw a cluster of buildings like ancient greek temples, a big blue mansion, ball courts, a lake, and a climbing wall that seemed to be on fire.
Before she could truly process all of this, the chariot failed. The pegasi struggled to keep control of their descent.
“Aim for the lake!” Luke shouted. It almost looked like he was saying it directly to the black pegasus that was helping pull the death trap they were currently crashing in.
Piper absently recalled her dad telling her that hitting water from high up was as bad as hitting cement before–BOOM.
The biggest shock was the cold. She was underwater, so disoriented that she couldn’t figure out which way was up.
A strong arm wrapped around her and dragged her to the surface. It was Luke, expression just as stony as it had been since he realized his wife wasn’t with them. Thankfully they weren’t too far from shore and there were girls in the lake– Piper did a double-take at the sight of girls just hanging out underwater, but Luke just kept her moving out of the water with a solid hand against her back, between her shoulder blades.
Some campers came up to them with towels while others were approaching with what looked like a strange bronze leaf blower. When they got closer, they pointed it at their group and it sent a blast of hot air at all four of them so they were soon dry, then the campers moved the machine towards where Butch was tending to the pegasi, who were thankfully fine despite the cold water they were splashing everywhere.
At least twenty campers ranging from about 9 years old to 19 gathered around them, asking so many questions Piper couldn’t parse out anything being said.
Looking back at the lake, the strange girls waved cheerily before disappearing into the depths. A moment later, the wreckage of the chariot was brought to the surface and deposited on the shore with a wet crunch.
“Luke!” A guy cried as he pushed his way through the crowd, a bow and quiver on his back. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"
Luke sighed.
"Will, I'm sorry. I'll get it fixed, I promise."
Will frowned at the chariot, then the older guy. Piper could tell there was more going on here than worry about a chariot. Rather than saying anything more on the subject, Will turned to Piper, Leo, and Jason.
"Are these the ones? They're way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"
Luke's jaw clenched as Leo questioned the "claimed" portion of what was said.
Before he could get an answer to either of his questions, Will spoke again.
"Any sign of Ana?"
"No," Luke admitted, fists clenched at his sides.
The campers around them muttered. Piper didn't know much of anything about this Ana girl, but her disappearance seemed to be a big deal.
A girl stepped forward--tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and magazine levels of flawless makeup. Somehow she managed to make jeans and an orange t-shirt look glamorous. She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, then curled her lip at Piper as if she were a week-old burrito that had just been pulled out of a dumpster. Piper knew this girl's type. She'd dealt with a lot of girls like this at the Wilderness School and every other stupid school her father had sent her to. Piper knew instantly they were going to be enemies.
"Well," the girl said, "I hope they're worth the trouble."
"Drew!"
The girl, Drew pursed her lips and backed off as a different girl stepped forward. Her hair was braided back, her eyes constantly shifting colours. She was effortlessly gorgeous.
"Silena, so lovely to see you, sister."
"Yes, I'm sure. Shouldn't you be at archery right now?"
Drew smiled sickly sweet.
"Of course, Silena. Whatever you say."
As Drew flounced off, Silena turned to them with a smile.
"I'm so sorry about her. She has some of our mother's... nastier traits."
Leo snorted. "Yeah, no kidding. The way she spoke, like we were new pets or something."
"Yeah," Jason agreed. "I know I would like some answers before people start judging us. For example, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?"
Piper had the same questions, but a wave of anxiety had washed over her at Drew's words and it had yet to abate. Worth the trouble. If they only knew about her dream. They had no idea...
"Jason," Luke said, "I promise we'll answer all your questions. Drew needs to understand that all demigods are worth saving. I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped, but it wasn't pointless."
Piper hugged herself.
"Well, we didn't ask to be brought here."
"I know," Silena took over. "No one really wants to be a demigod, at least not once you've experienced what it is actually like. Now we like to make our new campers feel welcome. We'll assign each of you a guide, give you a tour of camp. Hopefully you'll be claimed by the time we have campfire tonight."
"Would somebody tell us what claimed means?" Piper asked, feeling a little tense.
Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. At first, Piper thought she'd done something wrong, then she realized that their faces were bathed in a strange red glow, as if there was a sort of coloured spotlight on the area. She turned and almost forgot how to breathe.
Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image--a fiery hammer.
"That," Luke said, "is claiming."
Silena's eyes had started tearing up, and she backed away slightly with a smile that almost looked painful to maintain.
"What'd I do?" Leo asked, backing toward the lake. He looked up and yelped, starting to duck and weave with the symbol following him. "Is my hair on fire?"
"This can't be good," Butch muttered. "The curse-"
"Butch, shut up," Luke cut him off. "Leo, you've just been claimed-"
"By a god," Jason interrupted. "That's the symbol of the Vulcan, isn't it?"
All eyes turned to him.
"Jason," Luke said carefully, "how did you know that?"
"I'm not sure."
"Vulcan?" Leo demanded, sounding quite disgruntled. "I don't even LIKE Star Trek. What are you saying?"
"He didn't mean Star Trek Vulcans," Luke said, keeping his eyes on where Jason was looking more and more awkward. "Vulcan is the roman name for the god Hephaestus. God of blacksmiths and fire."
The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. "The god of what? Who?"
Luke turned back to bow guy, Will.
"Would you take Leo on his tour? Introduce him to his bunkmates in Cabin Nine."
"Sure thing, Luke."
"Uh, what's Cabin Nine?" Leo asked.
"Come on, Mr. Spock, I'll explain everything," Will said as he put a hand on Leo's shoulder to steer the shorter boy towards the cabins.
Luke turned back to Jason, studying him carefully. As the silence grew uncomfortable and the other campers finally started to wander off, Luke finally spoke.
"Hold out your arm."
Piper saw what he was looking at, and her eyes widened.
Jason had taken off his windbreaker after his dip in the lake, leaving his arms bare, and on the inside of his right forearm was a tattoo. How had Piper never noticed it before? She'd looked at Jason's arms a million times. The tattoo shouldn't have been able to just appear after several months of nothing. It didn't even look new, not that he would've had the opportunity to go get a tattoo. It was darkly etched, impossible to miss, with a dozen straight lines under an eagle and the letters SPQR.
"I've never seen marks like this," Luke stated, showing it to Silena who shook her head in agreement, no recognition. "Where did you get it?"
Jason shook his head defeatedly. "I'm getting tired of saying that I don't know."
Silena stepped around to look at them head-on. She seemed really bothered by the markings, almost uncomfortable.
"They looked burned into the skin," she noted.
"They were," Jason said before wincing, a hand automatically rising to rub harshly at his temple. "I mean... I think so. I-I don't remember."
The girl turned to Luke.
"I can talk to Clarisse? See what she knows?"
It was a question, not a statement. It would seem he really was the camp's leader, seeing as everyone seemed to defer to him easily.
"He needs to go straight to Chiron," Luke decided. "Silena, if you could take Piper on her tour, I'll escort him to the Big House. If you run into Clarisse, feel free to ask her about it. If not, I can always track her down later."
Silena nodded, moving to loop her arm around Pipers as Luke and Jason walked away towards the blue house on the hill.
"Who's Chiron," Piper asked. "Is Jason in some kind of trouble?"
Silena hesitated.
"Good question, Piper. Come on, I'll give you a tour and answer as many questions as I can."