Well, I hope you guys like this chapter! It's pretty long and a lot happens in it! Please read and review! Enjoy!
Chapter 8: I Am Claimed[]
Alternate Chapter Title: I Am the Daughter of Poseidon[]
I rushed through the door of the Big House. Luckily, Chiron was there.
“Chiron, I need to call my mom. She probably freaking out right now, all worried about me because I never came home from school,” I told him.
He sighed. “Alright, you can call her. Usually I don’t let anyone make phone calls because it attracts monsters, but you may since your family doesn’t know where you are right now. The phone is over there.” He pointed to a desk with a phone and a computer sitting on top. I walked over and put in my home phone number. At the first ring, someone picked up. They had probably been standing right next to it.
“Hello? Kelsey, is that you?” my mother asked.
“Yeah, Mom, it’s me. I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” I told her.
“Oh, thank goodness. Where are you, young lady? What’s this about you and Sophia leaving school in the middle of your exam and not coming back?” she asked. She didn’t exactly sound mad, but relieved that I was okay. I was kind of afraid to tell her what happened. I didn’t think she would believe me. I told her anyways. While I was telling her what had happened today, I remembered a voice that I had heard in a dream. Tell your parents it’s time, the voice said. They will know what you mean by this.
“So, now I’m at Camp Half-Blood,” I told her, “Someone told me in a dream last night to tell you it’s time and that you would know what that means.
She let out a long sigh. “Well, you already know don’t you? It means that it is time for you to go to Camp Half-Blood, and you are already there. I’ll tell the school that you got sick and will make up your exams later. So you might have to come home sometime in a couple of weeks to do that. Just promise me that you will come home at the end of the summer.”
“I will Mom,” I promised. Don’t you just love mothers? I made a mental note to write a three page letter to put in her Mother’s Day card next year telling her how great of a mom she is.
“Ok then, have fun Kelsey,” she said.
“I will. Bye, Mom,” I told her.
“Bye, sweetie,” she said and then she hung up. I put the phone down. I was still in shock with the fact that she believed me.
Finally the conch horn blew to signify that it was time for the campfire. I was nervous and excited for the campfire at the same time. I was excited to see what happened at the campfires, but I was nervous about being claimed. I didn’t exactly want to know who my parent was because they had left me not knowing about any of this for fifteen and a half years, but at the same time I couldn’t wait to find out who I was.
I reached the ampitheatre and everyone was already there sitting on the benches that surrounded a campfire. There was a group of about fifteen kids standing in front of the campfire holding some sort of instrument in their hands. I figured out that it was the Apollo cabin because Celestina was in that group of campers. When everyone was seated, the Apollo campers began to play their instruments and sing. The song quickly became a sing-along. The campfire got bigger and bigger until it was at least ten feet high and it changed color from orange to yellow to gold. Obviously it was a magical campfire because I had never seen a campfire like that before (and trust me, I’ve seen a lot campfires). It was so much fun with everyone singing and messing around that I was actually disappointed when the song was over and Chiron trotted over to the campfire looking like he was ready to make an announcement. The Apollo campers sat down in a section of the ampitheatre that was under a gold banner with a bow and arrows on it.
“That was very entertaining as usual. Now, this week we will have our weekly game of Capture the Flag on Friday as usual,” Chiron announced. Everyone cheered wildly. I was excited myself. I was actually pretty good at Capture the Flag when we played in gym because I was fast and had good peripheral vision. I couldn’t believe that a camp for demigods could have an activity so normal. I didn’t know how wrong I was about that at the time. Chiron went on about something for about five minutes, but I wasn’t actually listening. When he was done talking, we ate some s’mores and everyone slowly started to head back to their cabins. I was about to walk away to go to a cabin like everyone else, but then I remembered that I didn’t have a cabin because I hadn’t been claimed yet. Chiron had seemed so sure that it was going to happen tonight. So, I sat down on one of the benches that was closest to the fire and stared into the dancing orange flames.
“You know if you sit here all night the monsters in the woods will come and attack you or the harpies will come and eat you,” a voice said from behind. For a second, I thought it was Rose again, but then I realized that it was a guy’s voice that said that. Sure enough, when I turned around, Austin was standing right behind me grinning with his face lit up by the dimming firelight.
“I don’t have a cabin to go to, though. I haven’t been claimed yet,” I told him.
“Well, you can stay in the Hermes cabin. That’s usually where unclaimed demigods stay until they are claimed. There should be room for you in there now,” he said.
We walked through almost complete darkness to the cabins. I was actually glad that it was Austin who was walking with me to the cabins rather than Celestina or Rose. He was definitely a lot easier to be around than either one of those girls were. Up ahead of us, I could see the light of the cabins. We reached the cabins, which were definitely a very odd collection of buildings, and walked towards the one with peeling brown paint, the Hermes cabin. Even from a distance, you could hear them blaming each other for taking their things. Austin stepped into the wide-open doorway of the cabin, which stopped the bickering.
“Um, hey guys. I brought Kelsey here to stay until she gets claimed. She shouldn’t be here very long unless-,” he said being interrupted by a howl.
“That was definitely not Mrs. O’Leary,” said one of the Hermes campers.
“Who’s Mrs. O’Leary?” I asked. There was another long howl, but it was even closer this time. I stepped out of the cabin and flipped my coin so that it was a sword again. Suddenly, a big black mass lunged at me knocking me to the ground really hard and trying to bite my head off. I was glad that my sword hadn’t been knocked out of my hand or that my arm wasn’t being stepped on by the thing trying to kill me. So, I did the only thing I could think of at the moment and stabbed the thing in the heart with my sword. I was sure that it was going to collapse and flatten me like a pancake, but it just melted into a shadow. Austin ran over and offered a hand to pull me up off the ground. I stood up, touched the tip of my sword to make it shrink back into a coin, and dusted my school uniform off which I had just realized I had been wearing all day.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. What was that thing?” I asked. Everyone was out of their cabins now.
“That was a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. Someone summoned it inside the camp,” Austin said. There were some grumbles in the crowd that made it sound like this had happened before. Suddenly, everyone’s faces were lit up with a blue-green light. They were all staring above my head again, which could only mean one thing: I had just been claimed. I looked up to see a blue-green trident floating over my head. When it disappeared, I looked at the crowd. They were all staring at me with their mouths wide open and dead silent. Celestina took a step forward from the crowd and knelt. The rest followed her example.
“Typically Chiron does this, but he’s not here right now so I’m going to,” she said, “Hail, Kelsey Fisher! Daughter of Poseidon, god of the seas and earthquakes, and the creator of horses.”