The Legacy of the Sky, Book 1: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: We Play Pretend
Daughter of a Titan? I thought. Well, we found the demi-titans.

“And who might you be?” she asked us.

“I am Matthew Anderson, son of… Krios. This is Elissa, daughter of Theia, and this is Lily, daughter of Koios. We are three demi-titans trying to find our way,” I tried to explain. Carly still looked suspicious, her grip on her sword still tight.

“Three demi-titans on their own? That seems very unlikely. I suppose I can take you to camp to determine whether we will keep you around,” she said coolly.

“Camp? There’s a camp around here?” I asked.

“Not around here, no. I am on a simple reconnaissance mission, recruiting allies. Our base camp is in Colorado, or Nebraska , which ever way you want to look at it,” Carly explained.

“Well, it would be nice to have a safe place to stay for the next few days,” Lily said, and she and I exchanged a look.

“If you want to get their by tomorrow, we will have to leave now. And I am sure Nathan will want to meet you three,” she smiled, but it was not a friendly smile. She turned around and started to walk away, until she reached a clearing without any grain stalks on it, where she turned to face us again. The three of us instinctively looked behind us for our white companion, but the giant bunny rabbit was nowhere to be found. We all frowned at each other, then followed in Carly’s footsteps to the little clearing.

“Careful, don’t fall until I say you can,” she warned, and I wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not, but she plunged her sword hilt-deep into the ground, and a large fissure opened.

“Why is there a big hole in the ground?” Elissa asked, sounding as unsure about it as the idea of riding a giant rabbit to Iowa.

“It’s a tunnel through the earth. Our people have the favour of Gaea, the goddess of the earth. She can help us transport across the world really fast,” explained Carly.

“So, we jump in and we get to camp?” I summed up.

“Yes. You may experience some discomfort. It happens to everybody the first time they travel through the earth. Just follow me,” she instructed, then leaped and dove into the open tunnel, like a professional high diver.

Lily looked up from the depths of the pit to stare at me. “What are you doing? This could get us killed, posing as them,” she pointed out.

“We need to find out where this Titan camp is, and then we’ll Instant Message Chiron and see what to do next,” I explained, thinking of that plan only at the moment I had said it.

“ Iris -Message,” Lily corrected. “So, we see where they are, and then we run away?”

“Sure. I mean, we’ll try and find out as much as we can, but we should get a move on, Carly will be suspicious,” I announced, and then without warning, I jumped and plummeted into the earth.

You may not like travelling through the earth if you don’t like the feeling of getting your skin torn off by wind and G-forces. Otherwise, you’ll be perfectly fine.

I tore through the ground, getting pushed through by wind as if I were in one of those high-power NASA wind tunnels. It felt like I was sky diving sideways, except that I was totally blind and it was underground instead of hundreds of feet in the air. I was pretty sure I yelled in excitement several times, but I couldn’t have heard over the sound of the wind propelling me forward. I zipped along for what felt like an exhilarating eternity. Once I had lost all feeling in my body, and I was close to passing out, I shot out of the ground and flying fifteen feet into the air. As I started to fall back to the ground, I caught a glimpse of Elissa and Lily shooting out, but I plummeted too fast, but made a surprisingly soft landing. I looked up to see that I had landed on a bed of mattresses surrounding a large hole in the ground that shot winds up like a geyser. We appeared to be within a simple marble structure, a dome above us with only heavy pillars to support it. Outside laid two main buildings: a hexagon shaped structure about the size of two houses put together in the exact center of a natural bowl of a valley surrounded by mountains, and a wide, metal, square structure not far from the main building. Carly led the three of us out of the marble air tunnel structure and towards the hexagon, probably the headquarters to the camp. As we drew nearer, I made out a navy blue banner hanging over the entrance. It was emblazoned with a black scythe, and the letters  Camp' 'Othrys  circled it. As we came closer and closer to the headquarters, I knew for sure that we were on enemy territory, and that we really shouldn't be here.

“Welcome to the Hexagon. Yes, I know, we meant it to be like the Pentagon,” Carly informed us. “This is the headquarters for Camp Othrys. The quarters, meeting area, command center, prison cells, rec room, kitchen, the swimming pool, they’re all in there,” she explained.

“You all live in their?” Elissa asked.

“There actually aren’t too many of us. At least one for each main Titan. Some have two at most,” Carly explained. We looked at each other, a little relieved by this news. “You three are the biggest group of demi-titans that we’ve seen outside of Camp Othrys .” She frowned again with suspicion once again, and I zipped up my jacket further to hide my orange Camp Half-Blood shirt.

“So, how do you survive if there are so few of you?” Lily wondered aloud.

“We’ve hidden here for about the past twenty years. Nathan has been here the longest,” she continued.

“Is this Nathan the leader around here?” I asked, not very anxious to meet him.

“He’s only co-leader. Kelsey Sheppard is the other leader,” she told us as we came up to the eight foot tall bronze doors of the Hexagon. She barely had to touch the doors to open them, but they moved aside silently, which seemed almost impossible. Carly walked through the threshold and led us into a rather large entrance hall. It was primarily made of marble, except for the metal doors and florescent lights on the ceiling 10 feet above us. Columns ran sparsely along the walls, blue Camp Othrys banners hanging from them. At the end of the hall stood seven foot tall, silver doors, with engravings of the various symbols of the Titans. Doors ran along the sides of the hall between the columns, probably leading to the quarters and the various other rooms that Carly had mentioned.

“So where are you taking us?” I asked, trying to sound casual, like I wasn’t walking to my probable death.

Carly smirked, and it wasn’t in a friendly way. “To see if we keep you around, or if we have to kill you.”

She led us through the large silver doors at the end of the hall, and we found ourselves in a large command center. The room looked nothing like the entrance hall. This one was covered in metal: metal walls, floors, and ceiling. A few computers hooked up onto those new SMART boards were put around the room. Battle maps of various places were plastered up on the wall; one of Manhattan, one of San Francisco , but there was one that stood out in particular, right next to one of some valley in California. An exact map of Camp Half-Blood; Long Island Sound, the Big House, the exact number of cabins, the large pine tree on the hill, even the rock climbing wall. I tried not to show that it shocked me, and with one exchanged look from my companions, I knew they had seen it too. Around a central table with a fountain at one end and holographic images on top, stood about seven teenagers in navy blue shirts with the words Camp Othrys and the black scythe underneath. They all ranged in age from about fourteen to seventeen. They looked deep in discussion, probably having to do with the battles they were planning.

“What of Christian? Has he made progress?” asked a seventeen year old guy with black hair and cool sea-green eyes, which reminded me of Percy.

“He has infiltrated them successfully, but he fears their leader has some suspicions,” reported a smart looking guy with ginger coloured hair. “Sebastian is getting prepared to set out for the other one after dinner. He is waiting on those letters of credentials he needs,” he informed the leader.

“Yes, we will have them ready,” said a girl with hair the colour of bricks and silvery blue eyes, frowning at the holograms on the table. She stood at the head of the table with the Percy-like guy, so I assumed she was important, possibly the Kelsey Sheppard that Carly had mentioned before. The black-haired leader looked up and noticed that Carly had entered, though nobody seemed to notice the three of us.

“Carly! What is the news from the allies in Iowa ? Have they agreed to help us?” asked the male leader.

“Mostly good news Nathan. The Karpoi have agreed to be on our side, and also the centaurs in that region too,” Carly reported. “I have also found something else that is most interesting: a group of three demi-titans travelling together.”

“Three demi-titans on their own? They have to be in their teens, and for demi-titans to survive that long on their own is highly improbable,” the leader, Nathan, said, now rather interested in our presence.

“We have encountered many monsters, but we have only recently found each other,” I explained, mostly truthful, I just left out the art that we were actually demigods, not demi-titans.

“Hmm, what are your names?” the female leader, Kelsey, asked us.

“I am Lily, daughter of Koios, and this is Elissa, daughter of Theia, and Matthew, son of Krios,” Lily said, remembering better than me what I had told Carly earlier. Kelsey peered at us with a suspicious gaze.

“You already know your immortal parent? It took us until the Titan War to figure out who our parents were,” piped up that smart looking ginger haired guy.

“Nigel is correct. You are getting more and more interesting, and forgive me for saying it, suspicious, by the second. You’re story seems most outlandish,” Nathan said, a slight smirk pulling at his mouth.

“I’m sorry but who gave you the authority to question us?” I asked him with a hint of disgust for affect.

“I assure you, your tale is very improbable. And I noticed that you are wearing the same colour of t-shirt. Orange, I see, even though you are trying to hide it. Do you know who also wears orange t-shirts?” Kelsey ranted, pausing for an answer, but kept going when we didn’t give one, “The cursed demigods of Camp Half-Blood .” As soon as she said it, I could feel everyone in the room feel uneasy with anger towards the demigods.

“Yes, the demigods of Camp Half-Blood. They brought down our parents last summer. Poseidon brought down my own father, Oceanus, and now my father is in hiding in the deepest regions of the ocean,” Nathan said bitterly. “Their leader, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, prevented the rise of Kronos, king of the Titans, and we shall never forgive him.”

“That’s… understandable,” Elissa said tentatively.

“I’m not sure we should trust you. You’re claim is very unbelievable, and we cannot accept you if you are not truthful towards us. We will have to test you, in a… great challenge,” Carly said.

“We shall assign you quarters and tomorrow you will be told of the challenge.” Nathan stated, and then he smirked, as if this next idea amused him. “Until then, I recommend you enjoy your time here, for you may not be around much longer.”