Bows and Arrows

"Cut that out!" I said, as my brother, Max, recited yet another piece of horrible poetry.

"Never!" he replied, continuing to create even more annoying poems than the last.

"JUST SHUT UP!!!" I yelled, "You know we're going to the Parthenon tomorrow, and if you dare even start to say one of one of your poems, I will so kill you!!!"

"Yeah right, like you'd hurt me in front of all those people," he smirked.

Unfortunately, I knew he had me there. I wouldn't even speak in front of a crowd, never mind hurt somebody. My shyness would kill me.

"Fine, then I'll tell mom!" I knew I had won when the smug smile on his face disappeared. Mom was always on my side.

Don't get me wrong, I mean I love poetry and all, but when Max makes a poem, it is so horrible they could make a bird drop dead out of the sky.



As soon as we reached the Parthenon, I knew something was wrong. I just got this feeling that something extremely bad was going to happen.

I wish I could tell you that I was wrong, and everything went fine, but then I'd be lying.

So there we were; my mom, my brother, and I looking at the statue of Athena in the middle of the Parthenon, when all of the sudden, there was an earthquake that shook the whole room.

When I turned around, there was a Cyclops equipped with a spear and a shield right behind us. "ME HUNGRY" he yelled, his one eye starring right at Max and me, ignoring our mom; fortunately.

He thrust his spear at me first. I jumped out of the way at the last second, he spear missing me by an inch. I grabbed a janitor's mop and hit him in the arm. The mop bounced harmlessly off him, knocking the top of the mop. He yelled in rage, even though the broom hadn't hurt him.

Next he lunged at Max. But he was too busy trying to get our mom to safety to notice what the Cyclops was doing. He knocked Max and my mom to the floor and they screamed in terror.

The sound of the screaming gave me extra strength to destroy the Cyclops, because all of the sudden, I had a great idea. "You're a meathead!" I yelled at the Cyclops. I know that sounds like a really lame insult, but it worked. He turned, regarding me with hate; then he charged. Then when he was a foot away, I jabbed him in the eye with the bottom of the mop.

He bellowed in pain. I took his spear from him, and slashed through his chest. The Cyclops disappeared in a puff of dust, his shield clattering to the floor.

I rushed over to Max and my mom. My mom was knocked out on the floor, her arm bleeding. Max looked just fine as he jumped up and down asking "Wow, that was so cool, how did you do it???" like he had never been harmed, even though he had a huge scratch right under his eye.

I would have helped them, but the battle had taken all of my strength away. A second later, I fainted.



When I woke up, I found a goat dude leaning over me. "Ahhhhh!" I screamed, surprised and scared at the strangeness of the half goat, half human.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help you, I'm a satyr" he said as he bandaged up my arm. I hadn't noticed how hurt I was until I felt the pain in my arms and legs.

"Where am I?" I asked, looking at the strange new place around me, with cabins, climbing wall, stables, dining pavilion, and lots of other strange things I can't describe.

"You're at camp half blood" he replied, rolling his eyes like I was an idiot.

"What’s camp half blood?" I asked, getting really annoyed now. I had no clue what camp half blood was, and I had been kicked out of as many camps as schools. And trust me, I mean a lot of schools.

"It’s a camp for half gods, half humans."

Now I really thought I was going crazy. Half GOD? That was more than I could take. "Really? Half god?" I said in shock.

"Well, sometimes gods, sometimes goddesses, but yeah, one of your parents is an Olympian god," he replied, like it was natural to have a god as a parent.

"Wait, where's my mom and my brother?" I asked, filled with worry. My mom had had a bleeding arm and Max had had a long scratch under his eye.

"Don’t worry, they're fine. Your mothers not a half blood so she's at home, but Max is in another room getting his eye fixed." he said.

"Wait, what do you mean you're a satyr? What's a satyr? And who are you?" I asked confused.

"Oh... well as you can see a satyr is half human, half goat. And my name is Grover Underwood." he said, smiling.

"Nice to meet you Grover" I said, “I’m Sophie Peterson."

"So do you want to go see your brother or not?" he asked.

"Sure" I said, and we went to go find Max.



When I first saw Max I was very surprised. The long gash under his eye was gone, and he was running around like nothing had ever happened.

"Sophie! Sophie! Sophie!" he shouted. He ran up and gave me a bear hug. Despite all of our fights, I was happy to see him.

"Hi Max!" I said, glad that he was safe. "What happened to that long scratch under your eye?" I asked, because the scratch that had been under his eye had been really deep.

"Well this goat dude gave me a chocolate milkshake, and then I started to feel better, and now the scratch is gone!" he replied.

Before I could reply, Grover started to talk.

"Hey! Us 'goat dudes' have feelings too you know!" he said, but he didn't look very angry. "We're called satyrs, and we're only half goat, thank you very much!" he said which for some reason made me burst out laughing. "And that drink you had is called nectar, the drink of the gods."

"But I thought nectar came from bees? And what do you mean the drink of the gods?" he asked.

"Can you explain?" I whispered to Grover. "Sure" he whispered back.

"Well one of your parents is an Olympian god or goddess" he said "So that means you are a demigod".

"Cool!" Max said. "Do you have any idea who our Olympian parent is?"

"No, you haven't been claimed yet, sorry" he replied. "But we can ask you some questions to see if you match any of their characteristics."

"Ok...” Max said, confused, because he hadn't learned about mythology yet.

"Ok, so are you good at archery?" he asked.

"Never tried" Max and I replied in union.

"Stealing?"

"No".

"Swimming?"

"Not really."

"Growing plants?"

"No".

"Lightning?"

"No", we said, starting to get annoyed.

"Um……" he said, running out of options.”Oh, are you good at poetry?"

"What do you mean by good at it, exactly? I mean, we like it, but aren’t that good at it…" I said.

"Perfect!" he said "You are a child of Apollo!"

"But you said we hadn't been claimed" I said.

"Well you haven't, but Apollo is bad at poetry too, so ya..." Grover said.

"Ok..." Max said.

"Well, still, until you've been claimed, you must stay in the Hermes cabin"