The Aphrodite Curse (Book)

'''I knew that the mortal world was dangerous for half-bloods, especially me. But we had to go, Ariadne was going and me and Diana were her best friends! I guess we should have waited, but I thought that even if I was new, they must know what they were doing. But I was wrong.'''

Megan Feddoner believes that she is an ordinary Mortal girl- until a freak lightning storm, a fire, and a monster attack happen in the same day as she is taken to Camp Half-Blood by Ariadne De Occultis. Her life is turned upside down as the start of the second Giant war approaches, and soon she, Ariadne and their friend Diana have to leave Camp- but through their own choice...

1- I Destroy The School
I didn't know how the school was set on fire. Not until later anyway. But basically, it all started when Shannon Parker started picking on me. Again. Because, apparently, I'm a freak. Don't get angry. 15 schools in 9 years. Don't get angry. "Look who it is!" She crowed, a cruel smile creeping over her face "Megan the freaky camper!" She called me that all the time. Seriously though, just becuse I liked it outdoors, in the fresh air. Don't get angry. Don't get angry. Too late. "Ooh, isn't she high and mighty?" Shannon Crooned "Staring off into space, trying not to react? Well freak, guess what I know about you and your mum!?" Outside, the Thunder rumbled. Funny. It hadn't seemed like there would be a storm. I would have been excited if it had- loved storms. "You dare insult my mother-" I growled, narrowing my eyes. "You say one word..." "Well, guess what, Guys?!" She called, making 'Gather round' motions with her hand "Megan's mum is..." She looked at me. I looked at her, furious "Megan's Mum can't support her! She works in Tesco and Megan can only come here because of a Scholarship! They live in a One-Bedroom flat! And- Listen up- Megan's Mum doesn't even know who Megan's Dad is!" Everyone laughed. I was so angry. I mean, I swear I have never been that angry before or since. The storm outside was really heating up. Everyone but me and Shannon (Shanny to her friends) rushed to the window to see the action. Shannon smiled, a cruel, torturous smile. No-one had expected me to get into a good school- what with ADHD and Dyslexia, everyone was really surprised. I couldn't get kicked out of here. I tried to calm down, but I seemed to have this total battle-mode on. Then there was a deafening crash. Lightining zipped across the sky, reaching down like a flashlight onto the floor. Shannon Smiled again "Oh, maybe I know..." she said mysteriously. "What do you Mean?!" I shouted Lighting flashed again, but this time it wasn't in the distance. It was near, loud and deafening. "I mean, halfblood, that when they told me you were powerful I assumed you were a boy. we empousa don't really go for killing girls. But a Child of Lightning like yourself.... even I wouldn't mind killing you!" she smiled, scarily. There was a clattering sound as a girl came running down the corridor. She couldn't have been older than 13, she was so short. She had long, pale-blonde hair and pale eyes that seemed to be a pastel green. Her skin was pale and she seemed to give the impression of blending in to the background of the school. It seemed almost like she was hardly there, hardly real. Her face was almost pretty, but her face was contorted into a mask of horror. "Megan!" She gasped, skidding to a standstill "Megan. don't-" "How do you know-" I was cut off by Shannon "Oh, I wondered why the stink was so bad." She strutted round. "There's two of you here. Well, all the more to kill- and Ariadne? Of course they'd send you- unclaimed, not useful, obviously! Don't forget I'll be back soon.... Ah, I though I had her when I killed that stupid goat friend of hers, but obviously they'd send someone else!" "What's going on?!" I asked. Smoke was surrounding us, alarm bells ringng, but me and the other two stayed rooted to the spot. "Ah, Newbies!" Shannon laughed. "So Naive." Suddenly, her features contorted, and I could see flaming hair appearing from where her short brown hair was. She had Red eyes, white skin, one donkey leg and one bronze leg, and, most scarily, Fangs. "Shannon?" I asked, partly not beilieving what I saw. "My real name Saraphona, HalfBlood" she spat "And get ready for Asphodel!" "Asphodel?" I asked, the fear not yet kicking in "Isn't that the greek name for the thing in between Heaven and Hell?" Shannon -sorry, Saraphona (pronounced Sar-ah-phone-a)- advanced on me. "Megan!" The girl called "Megan, catch! She's an Empuosa!" She threw something at me. I saw with surprise as I caught it that was a bronze knife, almost like a sword. I caught it, assuming that it was some kind of weapons for killing these things. I slashed at her as she approached but she dodged, and I missed her completely, nearly hitting my own side. "Now, Megan..." She said slowly, and I turned to face her. Her voice was different somehow, almost alluring. "Put down that knife. You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?" Suddenly, I had the upmost desire to drop the knife. I knew I probably shouldn't, but I wanted to, so much... "Megan!" The transparent girl screamed "Don't drop the knife! It's charmspeak!" I didn't know what charmspeak was, but something told me that used like this, it was a bad thing. I didn't drop the knife. The girl spun into action, grabbing something out of her pocket that somehow grew into a spear. She grimaced, but stuck it into Saraphona's side. Saraphona screeched. I knew, somehow, what to do. Whilst the monster was distracted, I lunged at her and slit her neck with the knife. She spun to face me, and I suddenly saw the other girl's face once more. She had a gash about 5 centimetres long across her forehead. It was dripping blood and her face was even paler than before. She shook her head slowly, and I knew what that meant. She wasn't going to be able to fight any more. It was up to me. I looked at Saraphona and realised that she was not going to surender. I had to kill her. Kill her or die. Boy, was I gonna get in trouble for this. I lunged at her with the knife, my heart beating fast. I mean, seriously here. I had to kill a -what did the girl call her? Emprosa? Empousa. But Saraphona didn't seem worried. Even as I struck her chest, she looked at me with complete contempt.

"You may kill me now..." she snarled, as lunged again, this time only missing by a little. "But the Doors of Death are open, Thanatos is Chained, and I can be back by even tommorow!" She smiled, one last evil smile, as I slashed her neck, slicing ofher head. Saraphona dissolved into a pile of dust. I breathed in a sigh of relief, and walked over to the girl. I choked and coughed, realizing this was not yet over. "We have to get out of here." I coughed, helping her up. "I know." She replied, looking up "I'll get you to Camp, don't worry..." I blinked, mainly to get the dust out of my eyes, although also in surprise. "Camp?" "Don't worry, just get us out!" She said. The fire door was over by the nearest wall. It couldn't have been more than 4 foot away from us, but the flames were getting dangerously close. "Can you run?" I asked, worried "Oh, yes. I only got almost killed by an Empousa. Of course I can run." She said, sarcastically. "Sorry." I grabbed her arm, helping her lean on me as she limped towards the door. It was slow, but eventually we got outta there and on to the Fire escape stairs. We both breathed in heavily, huffing and puffing. But suddenly, the girl went limp in my arms. I shook her, trying to wake her up. "Girl... Umm... wake up..." I put my head by her mouth. No breathing. She was dead. I lifted my head. So now what did I do? I had no way to get to this 'Camp' she told me about. Suddenly, the girl gasped in her breath. I whipped round to see that her eyes were open. I gasped. "You're... You're..." "Alive? Yeah. Something is wrong with Hades, or the underworld or something. people can't die easily dfor the time being... didn't she say something about the doors of death? Thanatos? this isn't good..." "what are you on about?!" I practically shouted "All I've gotten from the last half an hour is, I'm apparently powerful, I've fought and won against an Empousa -Which is a Greek Vampire, If you don't know, and also the Greek/Roman God of death has been chained up and for somereason that means death no longer happens!" "You've hit the nail right on the head." The girl smiled. "My name's Ariadne, by the way. Don't laugh- my mum liked the Greek myths, and I guess It'sjust as well. It's just good she didn't call me June!" She laughed "What? June originally came from the Roman Goddess Juno... What do you have against Juno? Although I prefer her Greek Name- Hera." "You sure know a lot about Greek/Roman Mythology." "Well done, I guess you've never met someone like me before. I like Greek Mythology, don't judge." She seemed to find that funny. "I've met many people like you. And you've gotten it just right." "What do you mean?" I asked, exasperated "You're a fiesty one." She commented. "Maybe... Hephaestus? Athena?" "You're talking about the Greek Gods... and me? So you mean-" "I'm a DemiGod, Megan." She looked into my eyes solemnly "And unless I'm very much mistaken, you are too." I gasped. "You can't be serious? I mean..." "The Greek Gods aren't real? Well guess what. That mass storm in Manhatten last year? That was the Gods winning the war against Kronos." "That storm did seem unrealistic..." "And the death toll going down remarkably in these last few months? I think I already mentioned Death not working..." I grimaced. It couldn't be true. Could it? "I guess you're right... but what do I do now?" "We go to Camp. And quickly, too many monsters are gonna know now that you know..."

Since we were in England (yes, I am English),we had to go on a plane to America (Long Island) where camp was. Apparently the Gods moved to do with where te main culture of the world at that time- so America, for now. They'd moved to Rome when the Romans had taken over, and moved to America in the last couple of centuries. We'd gotten into the Taxi with three old ladies who had one eye. On the side was something that seems rot read 'chariot of damnation. Apparently, this was normal for Demigods, so I didn't mention anything, but it was kinda strange. Plus, I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. "Take us to Half-Blood Hill." Ariadne told them, and we set off. "IS this normal for Demigods or something? Coz it's kinda wierd." I whispered. "Don't worry." When they stopped, Ariadne grabbed my arm, and pulled me out of the Cab "Thanks." She said to the things in the front of the cab, and handed them a shiny golden coin. "What's that?" I asked her, wondering. I never really showed much interest in Greek Currency. "A Drachma." She replied, turning to the mound of grass in front of us. "This is Half-Blood Hill." "It doesn't look like there's any type of Camp here... there's no tents or anything..." "Stupid. We don't sleep in tents, we have Cabins. One for each God, so it houses the children of that God. And of course you can't see the camp, we have magical borders. You saw the monsters, you think it would be a safe place for Halfbloods if it didn't? We have Thalia's tree- long story- and the Golden fleece." I gaped " The Golden fleece?" "Yeah, the real Golden fleece... we have a lot of Greek artifacts lying around Camp. I mean, this new camper Piper got the actual Helen of Troy's Dagger." "Really? Woah." I though for a moment. "Wait, who's your Godly parent? You didn't say." She shuffled nervously "Well, um, I don't really know. My 13th Birthday is in a while... Sorry, I forgot you didn't know. Basically, you have to be claimed by your parent, and that was quite a problem. People who haven't been claimed stay in the Hermes cabin-" "God of Travellers." I stated "Makes sense." "Yes. But anyway, about... 6 months ago? After we won the war against Kronos, this guy Percy Jackson- Basically the Hero of the whole thing. Us winning? Well, that was basically down to him. Him and Annabeth Chase, that is. Anyway, after the war, he made them promise that every Demigod would be claimed by the time they were 13, or the moment they stepped over the border of Camp if they were over 13 by the time the promise was made or they come to camp for the first time. He disppeared about 2 months later, but that's irrelevant." "Oh... Wow. I'm guessing Athena and Artemis have no children then? Cause, they're like, Maiden Goddeses, right?" "You're right about Artemis, although she has the Hunters, but just because Athena is a Maiden Goddess doesn't mean no children. Her Children are born in the same way as she was- out of Athena's head.They're literally brain children- apparently they are meant to be a gift, a mix of their mother's wisdom and their individual fathers' knowledge. Some of the fathers obviously don't appreciate it though." I grimaced "Okay then... well, can we go in?" She nodded, and we walked up the hill together.

I knew the moment I set foot over the border of Camp. The whole scenery changed, and I realised I was looking down on the Camp. There was a tree to my right, with what looked like a dragon curled around the base, and some type of fleecy golden thing lying on it. I looked into the valley and saw the actual camp. There were many cabins in two rows, shaped like and Omega sign, facing each other; I assumed that it was one side for Goddesses, one side for Gods, and there were what looked like archery courts, a lava wall, a big house and a beach. I stared, gaping at the sight of this place, obviously a home for all Demigods. "Welcome." Ariadne said, quietly "To Camp Half-Blood."

We walked down the bit in between the Cabins. A few kids lounged in the sunlight (There was still a storm raging outside, but it seemed camp had it's own weather thing depending on the Gods' mood) But most were on the Lava climbing wall (I know, I thought it was kinda crazy too) or cleaning their Cabins. There was one girl, who had Blonde hair and Grey eyes, who was talking quietly and seemingly urgently to a satyr with a cap and ordinary T-shirt. I looked at the girl, and Ariadne, obviously seeing me staring, said "That's Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. They're still lookign for Percy Jackson." She sighed. "They've been looking for ages now... Though I shouldn't say anyhting else. They'll explain at the big house." We carried on walking through the camp. One girl, obviously around 16/17, stared out at me like she was just waiting to stuff my head down the loo or something. She was wearing an (Obviously Extra-large size) orange T-shirt with the words 'Camp Half-Blood' emblazoned on the front and a picture of a Pegasus underneath. "Ignore her." She whispered. "That's the Ares cabin." I nodded. It made sense. We continued walking. Eventually, we came to a stop outside the big house I mentioned earlier. Sitting on the Deck was a Centaur. "That's Chiron." She whispered to me. "Chiron?" I hissed back, my tone slightly higher than usual. "You have Chiron here?!" "Um yeah. Anyways, you have to meet Chiron. He'll like, show you around." "Um, Okay..." I walked up to the Deck where Chiron turned to me. "Um, Hi." I said, doing some random wavy thing with my right hand. "Chiron, this is Megan Feddoner, the new Camper." "Hello Megan." Chiron turned to Ariadne. "Were there any problem with Monsters?" "Um, yes. There was an Empousa. I fought her and gave Megan my Knife- Can I have that back, by the way?- but she got me and Megan got her to Tartarus. Plus... she mentioned something about the doors of death, and Thanatos..." I gave her back the knife. Chiron's smile faded " Ariadne, do not mention this to anyone. Everyone who needs to know this knows." He replaced his smile on his face "Well done, all the same. Did she show any traits that could be a trace of her parent?" "What?" I interrupted. "Oh, sorry." "No, don't worry. Let me explain. We try to identify possibilities of a Camper's Godly Parent before they are Claimed. Mainly people get claimed at mealtimes, but we try and guess. So, any?" He turned back to Ariadne. "No, not really. There was lightning but- No that's impossible. Not enough if a time gap between the end of the oath and.... Zeus was probably just angry. Although Saraphona did call her a Child of Lightning." "Okay. Well then Megan, I'm assuming you have nothing with you?" "No... I didn't get to grab anything before we had to go." "Well, go do what you like. Ariadne, show her around. If tonight you have not been claimed, we'll set you up in Hermes. Oh, and here you go." He handed me an orange T-shirt like the one the girl was wearing. "Thank you. Okay." "Wait, Megan?" Ariadne said "Yeah?" I turned back to face her. "How old are you?" "I'm 13." My birthday was the 11th of July. It was around November at this time, and as I later found out, a week after Jason Grace and his friends had gotten back from a quest to save Hera, queen of the gods and (Apparently) a real pain in the butt. "Ah, Chiron said "so you should get claimed tonight." "Oh, cool!" I stated, turning to Ariadne. "can you show me Around?"

We spent the rest of the afternoon until Dinner looking around the camp. First she showed me the dining Pavillion. She walked around the tables. "Right... Here, we have this system of dividing people by who their Godly parent is. If you're undecided, you eat and sleep with the Hermes Cabin. they used to be overflowing, but you know about the agreement. Anyways, now most people are claimed on their first mealtime here, regardless of their age. If they are over 13 when they arrive, they'll often be claimed right away, or, depending on the God or Goddess, at their first mealtime here. It depends on wenether your parent likes the limelight or not." I nodded "That makes sense." "Let me show you the Cabins... especially the Hermes one." "Why?" "Because unless you're claimed, that's where you're sleeping tonight." The cabins were all, as I'd expected, very different. As far as I could see after peeking in the door, the Posiedon Cabin was very blue. We weren't technically meant to go in any cabin without permission, especially not the Big Three's (That's the name they had for Zeus, Poseidon and Hades together) but Ariadne said that 'This was different' and that it would be fun, so we looked. We got caught by some annoying kid who I later found out was a Hermes kid- The god of travellers, theives, and messaging. So his kids were good at being telltales. Next she showed me the Campfire with the big fire circle (Apparently the fire reflected the Campers' moods) and the banners to show where each Cabin should sit. The Hermes area was obviously well used (another sign of the old system where people could go years without being claimed) and some of them looked brand new. Then we went to the Weaponry shed. "Right, let's try se of these." She looked at me, as of sizing me up for something. "Gods, I'm bad at this." she groaned. "I have no idea which weapon would suit you at all!" "I did well with that knife," I offered. "You know what, let's just wait until tomorrow, then get an Athena kid or a Hephaestus kid to come help you or something." I nodded, wondering why this girl was on 'newbie duty' at all, but then the bell went for dinner. At Dinner, I sat at the Hermes table with Ariadne at the dining pavillion. The dryads brought barbecue beef and strawberries and fruit to us and filled our plates with food. Along with the others, I took my food up too one of the ' eternal fires' and pushed in my best piece of Beef. I assumed this was some kind of sacrafice, so I just thought 'For whichever God is my Dad.' and walked back to the table. At the end of the meal,we all went to the Campfire along with Chiron and the rest of the campers. I sat under the Hermes banner of a winged sandal. I noticed that there was one kid under the Lightning banner- obviously Zeus. That was strange. The Annabeth Chase girl looked kinda sadly at the empty space below the Trident banner- Poseidon's.. "Right, we now have some notices." Someone around the circle said "Percy Jackson." The fire turned deep purple. After the most part of 2 weeks looking, the camp was obviously not happy to know how little information they had about him. Annabeth stood up. "The Argo II is due to be ready on the solstice. Grover is still unable to contact Percy through the empathy link, but we think that Hera has disabled it... that's sorta all." Chiron stood up again as Annabeth sat down. "Thank you Annabeth. On other points, the Lava wall is currently Out Of Order due to someone throwing a block of wood at the chute supplying the lava and blocking it. The blocking has been removed but something has gone wrong with the mechanism and it simply sputes lava everywhere when you turn it on. Can the Hephaestus cabin members who are not helping in Bunker 9 please look into this tommorow morning. And can the person who did this please not do this again- I'm looking at you, Travis and Conner Stoll. Also, we have a new camper. Can we all please welcome Megan Feddoner." He held a hand in my direction, and everyone turned to look at me. But he'd just turned away from me when a gasp rippled through the camp. They all seemed to be looking at me. One girl pointed to just above my head.I looked up, and gasped as I saw the reason. A singular silver lightning bolt flickered above my head. "Ah," said Chiron. "Hail, Megan Feddoner- Daughter of Zeus, God of the Sky, Lord of the Heavens."

2- I Learn How To Fly
That evening, I slept in the Zeus Cabin. I'd thought I had no siblings, but it turned out I did sorta have one. (Well, two- Thalia Grace, my half-sister (Zeus, somehow there had been a Greek and a Roman child from the same mother), was a Hunter of Artemis, having given up camp after getting a personal invite from Artemis herself) Nobody had told me about Jason Grace. He'd been in Bunker 9 (The place that a guy named 'Leo Valdez' had Discovered and was building some kind of boat in. Basically they were going to find this Percy Jackson guy and save the world from Gaia- long story. Something to do with a prophecy) when I arrived, and Ariadne seemed to be that type of person that didn't talk about random things unless asked (unlike me). I swear that girl was the most ghost-like person I'd ever met. But basically, she explained that the deal with Jason was that he was from the other camp- Camp Jupiter, the Roman Demigod camp. Chiron had been the only one who knew about it but he had been forbidden from telling anyone since there had been a Civil war between Demigods at the time of the American Civil war. They'd only found out when Percy Jackson had gone missing and Jason had turned up- both having no recollection of their previous life. (At least, that's what they assumed for Percy. They had no actual contact with the Roman camp, so they had no consolidated idea) After the meal, Ariadne introduced me to him. "Megan, this is Jason." She said gesturing to him. "Hi." He said, and smiled. I realized exactly what Ariadne had meant by 'The eyes'. looking into my half-brother's eyes, I realized that they were an exact copy of mine- like the sky on a sunny day. "Hey... well, I guess I'm your sister!" I said, smiling. We couldn't be that different... could we? Just then, Annabeth Chase came running up. "Jason, Where's piper?." She asked, breathless "Leo wants you guys in bunker 9. I can look for Piper-" "She's probably in the Aphrodite Cabin." Jason cut her off "She said she was going to Charmspeak Drew into doing the cleaning." "-okay. you just go to Bunker 9, tell Leo me and Piper are coming." Jason nodded "Okay. Goodbye, Megan and Ariadne." I waved, and he walked off towards the woods, as Annabeth ran in the other direction. "So he's... My brother." I said. The words were strange to me. I'd never had any siblings. "Yeah." She looked towards the Hermes Cabin. Travis Stoll was running out of the door with what looked like a wad of paper, rolled up and tied with an elastic band. "Oh no!" She cried "No you don't! You may be head chancellor, but I'll still tell Chiron on you!" She ran towards him. "Come get them then." He taunted "You know you're not allowed to touch my photos!" She wailed, her face drooping. "I knew I shoudl hve used the-" She muttered. suddenly, she darted off towards Travis, unbelievably fast. Travis ran, dodging her running, seeing where she would go before she ran towards him and moving quickly away. Ariadne sighed. "I hate living in the Hermes Cabin." her shoulders slumped forward and she face fell. I wanted to do something; this girl was my only friend at the camp and Travis (who I knew liked pranks) was obviously taking this too far. Suddenly, Ariadne flickered. Like she was a hologram, not there in actuality. She was invisible for a moment, and then suddenly, she faded away into nothing. "Ariadne?!" I asked, shocked. People don't usually... turn invisible. You know. It's kinda strange. "What?" She said, sounding indifferent. "Um, you're kind of... invisible." I explained quickly. "Oh." It was strange, hearing a disembodied voice floating around. Suddenly, the photos in Travis' hands moved, jerked upwards. "Thank you." she said, and suddenly she was visible again. "That... was weird." Suddenly, Travis doubled over I. Laughter. "If-you-could-see-your-face-" He laughed. "Sorry about that Araidne- I just had to see her face when she saw that trick you do." He carried on laughing. She glared at him "Hmm. well, next time steal something that I don't love so much, Kay?" She walked over. "Yeah. Look, we should probably go sleep now... Breakfast is.... well, we have a gong. first gong is wake up. Second gong is breakfast. See ya."

I walked to Cabin 1 alone. Inside, it was like an old Greek Temple rather than a cabin. It didn't even seem to have a bathroom; there was simply two beds and two chests, one with a tattered purple T-shirt on top. I sat on the other bed, trying to block out the continuous thunder that was going on in the cabin and looking at the Cabin's interior. It had a huge statue of what looked like some kind of Hippie God guy with a grumpy expression and a black beard (Who I assumed was meant to be Zeus) that no matter where you went, you couldn't escape the sight of. I think it was designed like that; I don't really know. I tried to sleep that night, but I couldn't. I was vaugely aware of Jason sleeping in the bed on the other side of the room; That was awkward. I wished that Thalia, whoever she was, was still at Camp. I just had... so much information to process. I had the whole Demgiod thing, then the whole Shannon-being-Saraphona thing, and then the fact that I was actually the daughter of a three-millennia old immortal God, who just happened to be the most powerful in the universe. Yeah. It's enough to make your head hurt. Had my mum known? Had she known that Dad and the Immortal God Zeus were the same person? I rolled over and tried to sleep. Of course Mum couldn't have known. That was what the mist was for. I'd grown up on a semi-okay housing block of apartments with my mum and a complete asshole called Dave. My mum had met him (At the same time as her best friend Steph met her husband Neil, who's also the father of Alex, who's always been like a brother to me) at the cinema. He was serving popcorn and slipped his number into her tub. She rung him up (yeah, they really didn't have stranger danger in those days- if they had, Mum'd have been in a much better place) and they went on a date, blah, blah, blah. Mum was a small-time singer who didn't really have more than a few fans. If you ask me, she'd always deluded herself into thinking she had a much bigger fandom. Maybe that was what drew Zeus to her; She'd always told me that Dave was my father, but obviously she had some kind of... fling, 'cause... well, something must have happened because she was with Dave when she was pregnant with me. And I'm a demigod. And trust me, Dave is not a God. Honestly. Just don't even think about it because that will be time wasted. Life was changing.. and to be honest, I hated change. Change was bad. Let me explain. The first change I can every remember experiencing was when Dave moved out. I was three, and all I can remember was Dave and Mum shouting, a loud slapping sound and toddling into the lounge to see Mum crying. I never saw Dave again. I never called him Daddy, or Dad after that. I knew what had happened- Dave had hit Mum because they were fighting. That was the very first change I went through. My Mother's musical career would have been much more successfull if it wasn't for Dave. It was just taking off properly when he started saying that he didn't want her doing this. (By the way, can't rememeber this. Mum told me the story afterwards.) So yeah. Change has akways been bad for me. But this chnage seemed good. Surely a new home, a different father to the one I thought I had, was good? All of this had to be good. I smiled. Yes, this would be good. Very good. I mean, I was the daughter of the King Of The Gods! That was so awesome! And, did that mean that the lightning at the school was me? Or, like, that my dad was sticking up for me agains the whatever-it-was. Apparently names were important. Ariadne had told me not to say the names on the way to the campfire. Names could summon a monster, and the internet was dangerous too. One boy had apparently googled Gorgons- and gotten..... well, Gorgons. I wondered what this was going to be like. I was fairly optimistic- I thought this would be okay, if not good. I just hoped that nobody expected me to be amazing simply because of my father. Because trust me, I wasn't anything... amazing. I rolled over to face the wall, where I couldn't see the massive statue.

I woke up to the sound of thunder. ...But then again, it was always, always, thundering in Cabin 1. I realised that the other noise I'd heard was the first gong, the breakfast gong. I got dressed quickly noting that Jason had already left, obviously for breakfast. I wore my orange t-shirt that I was guessing was the camp shirt And my light blue jeans, and some blue trainers- someone had obviously been to the nearest primary ir something in the middle of the night, as I hadn't brought any of my possessions with me to camp. I went to breakfast, where I saw Ariadne sitting at the Hermes table and smiled. Breakfast passed quickly. the food was good and we literally did the same drill as the night before - giving some of our food to the gods and stuff. After breakfast Ariadne introduced me to Nyssa, a Hephaestus kid who liked making weapons. "Okay, Nyssa this is Megan. Megan, Nyssa." "Okay. Megan you kinda need a better weapon than other people as you're a daughter of Zeus- monsters find potentially powerful demigods- and that includes you now- more easily, especially if they know who they are. Right... you look like you'd do okay with most weapons, although maybe not a sword... too heavy. But maybe.. that's an idea. Okay, I'll get back to you on that." And with that she ran off. I turned to Ariadne, who nodded. "Well, let's go." "Where?" I asked. What exactly did they do at this camp? "The lava climbing wall. Chiron booked you a slot this morning. Also, the Hephaestus kids have fixed it, which is a plus." We walked to the lava wall slowly. When we got there, the Aphrodite cabin members were scaling the wall (Well, partly. Some members were k. The ground complaining that if they went on the wall the their makeup would get messed up, and somebody the girls who were on the wall were complaining about their hair.) Jason was at the bottom, watching one of the only non-makeuppy girls on the wall climb. I vaguely remembered her as Piper, and I realised that she must be a Daughter of Aphrodite (great logic, huh?) and quite obviously trying to get Jason to go out with her. The wall was obviously made of rock, and streaks of lava were running down it, sometimes covering handholds and footholds. I could see where there had been a circular block of wood I. The shoot at the top that shot lava into little rivets that divided it equally, so the lava didn't go straight down the middle and make it easy for the people on the sides and very, very, hard for the person in the middle. "Hey." Ariadne called up "Aphrodite kids? Yeah, get off the wall. It's the Zeus cabin's turn now." The girls in the wall (apart from a few ) looks relieved and came down slowly. The guys frowned slightly. And came down, and Piper rejoined Jason at the bottom. U noticed something else about the wall. "No safety ropes?" I asked Ariadne, pursing my lips slightly "won't people fall?" "Maybe." she said, shrugging her shoulders "It gets you motivated." "I bet it does." I walked up to the wall and looked around. Ariadne gave me a thumbs up and I started climbing. I looked down about three handholds up and saw lots of people watching. I looked back up and carried on climbing. the further up I got, the better I felt. I started going faster, swinging my hands up and narrowly missing lava. I heard shouts from below- stuff like 'call Diana' and 'medic!' I wondered what had happened. I was fine, so why were they calling 'Diana'? Maybe it was Jason. he was also on the wall... I was nearly at the top. Suddenly, a shot of lava went past and singed the end of my finger. My foot slipped, and suddenly I was falling. I was vaguely aware of a dark-olive skinned girl running towards the wall. She smiled at Ariadne, who scowled. I looked down, and realised that I was no longed falling. I was only about 9 feet from the ground, but I'd stopped. Ariadne smacked her palm against her forehead. "I forgot- Zeus thing. As daughter if The Lord if the sky, you can call on the winds to Stop your fall and carry you places, blah blah blah. Basically, you can fly." I looked down at my feet, hovering above the ground. "Cool! That's do awesome. So... can I do... This?" I shot upwards and laughed, before dropping slowly back to the ground. The pretty dark skinned girl who I assumed was Diana had a slightly annoyed expression on her face "I was in the infirmary." she said "I don't like being called for no reason." "Umm.. I have slightly burnt finger?" I offered, finally coming to a rest on the ground again. She laughed "Okay then. come with me and we'll... give you a band-aid. I dunno." I followed her to a room in the big house, Ariadne following behind me. She got a piece of what looked like honeycomb from a fridge and gave it too me, looking at the burn (It was charred and black, throbbing in pain. Not fun.) and cut some off. "What is th-" "Ambrosia. Food of the Gods. Literally. We can eat it in small amounts when we're ill or hurt, but otherwise it will burn us up." The honeycomb, which had looked delicious the moment before, now looked like a dangerous weapon. She laughed. "That's the right amount exactly, you shoud eat it. It wil heal that." She nodded towards my finger. I shrugged and ate it- my finger hurt really bad. The food tasted delicious, like strawberries and chocolate flavoured cream- a food me and Alex ate together all the time. Diana seemed satisfied with my expression. "it always tastes like comforting memories- it helps you mentally, not just physically." Later, all three of us left the infirmary for lunch.

Diana was our friend after that. Ariadne occasionally acted slightly hostile towards Diana, as if holding an old grudge, but there were no real problems. Diana was a daughter of Apollo, aged just over 13, and the best medic that Camp Half-Blood had see. In the last century. she had (frustratingly for the campers) been rescued by a satyr just after the end of the Titan War, which must have been annoying. I tried not to think about the fact that that made her my half-niece, technically, since Apollo was my half-brother. The days flew by. On my third day at camp, Chiron added a rule that you had to touch the Lava wall at least four times before you reached the top, otherwise there was no real point. That rule was really my rule, as I do t think Jason had ever cheated on the wall and I was the only other one who could fly at camp. I gradually got closer to Jason, although not very close, as we were so different- he was calm and assessed situations. I was bubbly and permanently hyper and I ran into things without thinking. We had a game of Capture-the-flag on that day; it was a friday and my first game. I sidled up to Jason at the beggining of the game, and asked him casually "Who does Zeus side with?" "Well, today it's Zeus, Athena, Apollo and all the other gods to do with music and healing, they usually play as a team, and Hepheastus, against Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite, Dionysis and all of the others are divided between the two- the list is too long." "Cool." I ran off to Ariadne. "So it seems we are enemies now, mwahahahaha!" I fake-evil laughed. "whatcha mean?" "Zeus sides with Athena. Hermes sides with Ares. Boom! War." "What? we always side with- Of course. Clarisse." She said the name like an answer. "Well, we may hae worked well against that vampire thing, but we're on different teams now! Beware the great Megan!" "Yeah, right!" she laughed

The game began with me on guard duty above the flag. Jason was with me, and no other campers could fly, so I decided to take the opportunity. "Jason, cover for me." "Megan, wait-" I dived at the ground, stopping as my feet hit the floor. I walked softly down by the river until I came to a place where the trees were thick and leaved, so I shot upwards into the sky. Just below leaf level, I flew along silently, coming to a stop near their flag. I saw Diana and Annabeth and soem other kids hiding around the clearing, who I assumed weer our team. I made a beeline for Annabeth. "Psst." She whipped round to face me, her eyes grey and calm. "What? Megan I think you're meant to be on surprise guard duty, right?" "Yeah, btu I have an idea." I told her the plan, and she nodded. "It's  an improvemwent on our current plan. They ahve it really well guarded today. I shot up into the skies. Five seconds later, the campers hidden in the trees burst out, and started fighting the enemy team, with so much gusto that they had no one protectign the flag. I waited until they wereall absorbed in the fight and swooped down, grabbing te flagpole, and flew it over the river, planting it in the ground. Chiron walked into the clearing and declared our victory, and the look on the Ares cabins faces was something I'd pay to see.

The fourth day, although she didn't advertise it, was Ariadne's 13th birthday. I realised that that was one of the reasons I was claimed so quickly- I was 13 when I came to camp. But although all day we were expecting a sign to appear above Ariadne's head, she wasn't claimed. And that was the problem.

3- Oh Yippee! More Momsters to Kill
The next morning, Nyssa showed me my weapon. She'd been working from a design a little like 'Riptide'- the magical sword Percy Jackson carried that turned into a ballpoint pen. Because she couldn't make magical items, she'd simply made a dagger that had a retractable blade. Also, she'd added the fact that only I could press the thumb-print in the side, so the weapon would only work for me. It only reacted to my thumbprint. It was disguised as a mascara tube (they had already disguised it when I saw, protesting that I wasn't an Aphrodite kid) and when I pressed the thumbprint in the side, The top would slide off and it would grow into a dagger. Ariadne gave me a look when I left the Hephaestus forges. I knew she was uncomfortable at camp now that she was still unclaimed at 13. No one knew she was 13, of course. She'd told me the day before, excited that she could finally leave the Hermes cabin- or be accepted as one of their own. The problem was that we couldn't exactly go up to Olympus and tell them off for not claiming her- for one thing, all the gods had been recalled, and the gates of Olympus had been closed. The first interaction they'd has from my father for months was when he claimed me. This was quite scary in itself. I loved my new life at Camp- I missed my mother, her best friend Steph who may as well have been and aunt to me. I missed my old friends from the secondary school I'd gone to before my posh school- Penelope, Anna, Lisa. I missed Alex, Steph's son who'd always been like a brother to me, closer then even my mother. He'd been the only one who'd noticed that I was different... special. He could obviously see through the mist, I realised in that moment. I mean, when we were 5, I'd fallen over and cut my knee. Alex had mentioned that my blood shimmered slightly. I scoffed at the time- such a stupid suggestion couldn't possibly been true- but now I realise that he was right. My blood would shimmer slightly- it was half Ichor- the blood of the gods. I missed them all, but the fact that this camp could be in danger scared me. I loves my new life much more then my old life. I felt a pang of guilt at the fact that my mother and Alex must have been going livid their minds with worry, along with Steph and her husband Neil. but if I went back now, they would ask me about my life. Better for them to believe that I was dead. Safer to, as anyone who knew about my world was in danger to monsters

That night, I was about to go to bed after curfew when a voice came from a tree near the Zeus Cabin. "Pssst." I turned, not seeing anything. "Megan, I'm in the tree!" I turned back to the tree and suddenly Araidne was visible again. "Come on." she said, throwing me a backpack "Diana's waiting in the forest. I'll explain on the way." "Ariadne, I-" "SHH!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me through the forest. We came to a clearing, where Diana was standing looking annoyed and slightly confused. "Ariadne De Occultis, what the Hades are we doing here?" She said, with a scolding tone and a mock strict expression on her face. She, too, was holding a rucksack like mine in her hands. I looked at her, questioning, bt she shook her head. So Diana had no idea either "Okay, guys, here's the plan." Ariadne said, rematerializing under a particularly large oak tree, with a strange light in her eyes, a bit like a madman with a plan. "We're going to go and whip the Gods' podex's (I realised that that must have been anicent greek or latin for but) for not claiming me in time." I laughed "You can't be serious? We're going to fly to Greece, climb a mountain and shout at some gods? I'm in." Diana looked at me, a sarcastic expression on her face "Are you joking?" "What?" I asked "Mount Olympus is in Greece. Trust me, my mother took me there once." Ariadne gave Diana a look "Megan, I forgot you didn't know. Olympus is in the Empire State Building. The mountain is in Greece, but Olympus itself attaches itself to the tallest building in the cultural central if the modern world at that point. So Olympus is currently in New York. and that's why we're in Long Island Sound, and most demigods are American." I nodded. "So instead, we're getting a plane to New York and shouting at the gods. I'm still in." Diana looked at me sceptically. "Ariadne, you know how dangerous the mortal world is for us. maybe this isn't a good idea. plus, if we shout at the gods they would have every reason to try and kill us, which would be bad." She looked at me pointedly 'and certain powerful demigods get sniffed out by monsters from over 10 miles away. Also not a good thing." I knew that the mortal world was dangerous for half-bloods, especially me. But we had to go, Ariadne was going and me and Diana were her best friends! I guess we should have waited, but I thought that even if I was new, they must know what they were doing. But I was wrong. "And where would we go anyway? how would we get there? We're pretty much stranded on this island, and we have no mortal money." She stopped, and looked at us hopelessly, As if she'd run out of steam and knew that we were not convinced. I'd assumed that she would stop there, but she continued "Plus, Chiron would go crazy if he found out, you know he would Ariadne." she looked at Ariadne imploringly. Ariadne nodded slowly, but the light was still in her eyes. "I know all that, Diana. but I guess you don't understand... You, miss I-was-claimed-the-moment-I-got-to-camp-and-I'm-the-best-medic-at-camp... I guess you just don't get the feeling of abandonment. I was banking on being claimed yesterday, but I wasn't. I need to Know who my parent is. soon people are going to notice that I'm 13. and then... Diana, there can't be another war like the Titan war. you weren't there, you two. I fought in that war... so many people died... demigods against demigods. it can't happen again. Demigods defied their own parents and fought their own siblings with no thought of how wrong it all was. That's one of the reasons I'm worried about meeting this new camp. If we fight them, then Gaia would literally just have to throw in some monsters and no one would know who was fighting who. we would simultaneously destroy each other, and Gaia would just inherit the wreckage." Diana's voice was quiet and even "I know, Ariadne. I have some precognition. I saw in my sleep last night... I saw a battle." she sighed "There was us, in orange shirts and armour, going against the demigods in purple shirts who used gold weapons. I saw myself and my siblings, rushing to treat the wounded and finding too many. I saw-" her voice caught in a quiet sob "I saw my own death. I was kneeling to treat Katy Redina- you know, from the Demeter cabin?- and an Apollo kid, a Roman Apollo kid shot me through the heart." I stared at her. This image was one I such hopelessness that it was hardly believable. Diana looked at me like she had seen something that she didn't want to tell me. "Well, maybe..." I trailed off "we can go now and warn the gods as well as yelling them about Ariadne. we an stop that scene from becoming real. we can do this!" "Megan, the gods have gone silent." Ariadne said, staring at me "why do you think we were so worried? you need a god and a demigod to kill and giant, and all the gods have been recalled and forbidden from communicating with anyone outside olympus. I didn't want to tell you, but... we are on the brink of disaster. we need the gods, but what they don't like is that they need us. the only people who have been seen outside Olympus since November are Apollo, Artemis and Hera. The twins because of their daily and nightly duties, and Hera because she was captured and nearly devoured by the earth, about a week ago. your brother and His friends saved her, in fact. The first comunication we have had with the King of the Gods since November was when he claimed you." I stared at her. I'd known about the being recalled thing, but a disaster? "Well... maybe we can get in. we have to try. like you said, we can do this. Come on guys." Diana and Ariadne exchanged a look, maybe thinking about the visions they had each seen- Ariadne defending the Empire State Building from Kronos, Diana in her precognitive dreams. Ariadne sighed "Yeah. Let's go shout at some gods."

We started towards the edge if the island. The outside of camp borders edge, not the inside one. Camp Half Blood had its own beach, but we couldn't use that one as we would probably get noticed- only Ariadne could turn invisible and I had flaming red hair the colour of luminous, glow-in-the-dark carrots. Our spirits gradually rose as we got closer to New York. We were about to find our way to the Empire State Building when a light blue hided thing blocked our way. It had a fan of deep blue and it was like a dragon, but more sea-monster like, and it was growling at us angrily. "Dragon?" I asked uneasily, pushing my thumb into the thumbprint on my mascara tube. "Nope." Ariadne said "worse. Drakon." "Im guessing they're not friendly?" "No. They mainly live on a diet of-" "Demigods." I guessed. "Yup." Diana looked at us. "Did you bring your spear, Ariadne?" she questioned. I vaguely remembered her attacking the Empousa with a long bronze spear thing. She grimaced. "You know I'm bad with the spear, Diana. Chiron only gave me it because of my godly parent, which he wouldn't say who it was." "I know, I just wanted to borrow it. You can use your half-sword." She nodded, and gave Diana a long, bronze tube which Diana pressed a button in the side. From the bottom and the top, a pole apeared. At the top, a spearhead jabbed out. Diana looked at it, satisfied. "I don't have a weapon, you see." She told me "I mainly do medical work and they give us all knives in battle. So I borrow Ariadne's spear as she hates using it." I nodded "so do we attack it, or-" Suddenly, the monster charged, and pushed me sideways. I hacked at it with the knife, trying to use the tactics I'd learnt in sword fighting lessons at camp, but they were mainly for human-like person on human-like monster, not a huge Drakon. I realised that I had somehow ended up on the monster's back. There was a long gash on my cheek from the claw, and I looked down to see Diana fighting the legs, her eyes squeezed shut, so I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "What the-" She opened her eyes "Where are we, how the Hades did we get up here and wait a sec, let me fix that for you." She hummed to herself and the wound on my cheek closed up slowly. "How in Tartar-" "I can do this thing where if I sing a hymmn to my father, it heals the sick person nearest too me." "oh, okay then-" There was a lurch as the Drakon reared upwards. "Help me you idiots!" Ariadne yelled from below me. "I'm fighting a loosing battle here!" "Do the invisible thing!" "I can't control it!" I shoved my hand down at her. "Grab my hand, it's gonna fly off." I had gotten this interesting fact from he sight of it opening it's wings and beginning to flap them slowly. Ariadne grabbed my hand and I pulled her up, just before the bony part of it's wing came forard quickly, and I blacked out.

In my dream I was stood outside the window of my apartment which I shared with my mother. The lights were on, but the room had changed. The Phone was now in the centre of the room, and Steph, Alex and Neil were gathered around it with my mother. Oh, I hadn't realised how much I'd missed her! I wanted to run up and hug her, tell her about camp and stop that tired look on her face, destroy the tired lines on her forehead. Under her eyes were black shadows- bags, she always called them- and she was crying. The TV was turned to the 24-hour news channel, and there were pictures of me and news cuttings tacked to the wall. They were talkign quickly about soemthing, and my Mother looked away in despair. Alex got up ,and fr the first time I saw his face. he had tears runnign down his cheek and he held a picture in his hand. I craned to see it and realised that it was me and him, our arms round each other, the last saturday I was a mortal. we had just been to this milkshake place, and we'd met up with our mums in the park. they's taken the photo and we each had a copy... mine had been in my blazer; I'd moved it too my jeans. The ones I was wearing! I wanted to call out to them, but suddenly Alex spoke, but not in his voice. I didn't recognise thsi voice, until the scene changed. Standing in front of me was a guy with black hair and Bright blue eyes, like mine when Im happy. I knew who this was. "Father?" I asked, my voice doubtful. He opened his mouth to speak, but in that moment, the dream vanished and I woke up. "Megan!" Diana said, exasperated. "Finally. We're in France... and there are more monsters for us to kill."