Chapter 14: Chapter 13- Camp Half-Blood
[3rd PoV]
Camp Half-Blood is a place for demigods. True.
Camp Half-Blood is a safe place for demigods. Well, safer.
Camp Half-Blood is a sanctuary for demigods. False.
Camp Half-Blood is a training ground for demigods to protect themselves from monsters and gods while also preparing themselves to be used by the gods for various tasks that the gods are either too lazy to do or by doing those tasks the gods violate some Ancient Law. These task are usually very dangerous and are likely to cause death for the involved demigod but they will still have to accept the quest unless they want to make an enemy of the god in question.
But still Camp Half-Blood is a place for the demigods to learn survival in the modern jungle with creatures from myth and antiquity.
And it does teach them well. After all the one who teaches them has millenia of experience in teaching heroes.
Chiron, Trainer of Heroes, has a wealth of experience in teaching and training these heroes in the art of survival but also in the art of heroes.
The camp is relatively safe due to the magic barriers and the Mist which protect and hide the camp though some monsters either find a way to sneak in or are already in the camp forest.
The camp is divided by the godly parentage any camper possesses and it is also necessary that the god in question is one of the Olympians or you basically have to stay in the Hermes Cabin as Hermes is very accepting of 'strays'.
It is also possible that your parent will not claim you and might just forget you due to their nature of irresponsibility.
That is the reason some demigods are eager to prove themselves to get some recognition from their parents as they are the only ones the campers can turn to as their parents on the mortal side cannot really protect them outside camp.
The half-bloods live in cabins,one for each of the twelve Olympians, and eat at the dining pavilion. There is also an archery field, a sword fighting arena, a climbing wall with lava for training, an amphitheater, stables, an armory, and the Big House.
The camp's cover name is Delphi Strawberry Service, a reference to the name of the Oracle of Delphi which also resides at camp though it is more of a mummy than a Oracle now.
All in all it is a good place to train to fight and that is exactly what Skye is hoping for.
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[Skye Hunt PoV]
2 years have passed with me staying in camp.
A month after Thalia's death I got out of my slump, though I became more introverted and rarely took the initiative to interact with others.
Since then I started training methodically. Chiron oversees the training and was very impressed with my skills with ....any weapon really. Whichever weapon I was given I used and no one was able to beat me in skill.
Only Luke had a chance but that was only due his age and physical maturity which my young body could not match That changed soon yhough as I went through Scathach's training and life and death battles in my sleep and, Chiron's training when I was awake.
Chiron had us go through different situations and scenarios which helped me improve as these could not be replicated in the Shadow Realm.
Also no matter how much I trained with Scathach and how much ever muscle memory I gained if I didn't work on my physical body it would be a waste.
Though I always worked out before coming to camp, I didn't have the luxury to test my limits and push past them because I could not afford to be without stamina when I could be ambushed or could simply have bad luck and run into a monster group out of my capabilities. I would need that stamina to fight and run.
But here, in camp I could truly work on my body and perfect it.
I met a few interesting people I camp who I would call friends.
There are Luke, son of Hermes, and Annabeth, daughter of Athena, who I knew beforehand. Our relationship was a bit strained in the beginning as Thalia's death hung over our heads as a reminder and I was quite new to the group compared to Luke and Annabeth. It improved over time however and Annabeth became a good friend and so did Luke, though Luke always seems to wear a mask. But I don't blame him or try to call him out. He has complete right to all that rage.
Bottling it up is bad but I didn't know any effective way to release it and neither did Annabeth.
He became better though lately or just better at hiding it.
Then there is Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus, who is a calm african-american boy who speaks little but is a genius in creation of weapons. He is a year older than me. I gave him the hammer I won from the cyclops and in exchange he gave me a bracelet which morphs into a shield and a hairclip that turn into a spear.
The shield and spear are masterfully made and I was allowed to go to him for adjustments as I grow.
There are the Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor who are children of Hermes. Theya re very annoying as they keep trying to steal.... well anything that belongs to anybody.
They managed to steal some of my snacks which I kept aside for myself so I kept raps and waited. It was surprisingly hard for them to get caught in traps, a trait from Hermes I presume but I wad ultimately successful. I then proceeded to string them up to a tree and pasted a sign to play piñata. They never tried stealing from me again.
Chris Rodriguez is an unclaimed demigod who hangs around at times with us, usually following Luke around.
Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite who seemed to have a small crush on Luke though she also paid extra attention to Charles. She is the only child of Aphrodite whose head I did not get the urge to blow off.
The Aphrodite cabin seemed to like and dislike me at the same time. They liked the fact that I am pretty enough to be a child of Aphrodite but they dislike that I look better than them. They also disliked how casually I treat my looks and wardrobe sometimes going as far to nag me to 'dress properly' and 'take care' of myself. That were a quite envious to find that even without 'taking care' of myself with dozens of lotions, conditioners and medicine I did not get acne or anydefect to my skin, hair and just my overall appearance.
Then there are Pollux and Castor, twin sons of Dionysus. They are quite relaxed and are usually responsible for the proper growth and management of the Strawberry Fields, which is the main source of income for the camp. They both are quite easy to talk to are both quite helpful around camp making them the only campers without any enemies.
The last kid that hangs around or rather just follows me around like a duckling following her mother duck is Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares.
She is 2 years older than me and ever since I won against her and everyone else in the fighting arena she has asked me to fight her.
At first she was embarrassed and kept looking for me to challenge her but after a few defeats and after I beat everybody at camp and she was not the only one who lost she started following me around, trying to keep up with my training and basically treating me as her rival.
Everybody else including me didn't see it like that. They saw this situation as a puppy barking at tigress.
The campers thought I didn't know that they are calling me 'scary woman', 'tigress', 'black riot' and the nickname I got when I just entered camp 'Purple-eyed reaper'.
They called me 'Purple-eyed reaper' because apparently when I went on a rampage in the darkness all they could see were some flashes of purple orbs that were my eyes.
It is a nice place but I need to leave. I want to grow further and this place while still helpful is not helping me grow as fast anymore.
I will miss this place and these people. I really started thinking of this place as a home and I enjoyed my time here.
Leaving camp is not allowed. This is an unwritten rule that exists and only when a demigod gets a quest or have explicitly gotten permission can they leave.
If I don't give a valid reason, Chiron will never let me go and so I am going to sneak out. Dionysus might notice and though I will not be able to beat him, I will be able to run away.
But I found the perfect exit for the camp. I found it by complete coincidence under a landmark in camp known as Zeus's fist while the campers were playing capture the flag.
That was the only time I lost the game and that was because I fell into the door for a minute and when I cam out the game was already on its last moments.
I realized after some studying and questioning Scatach that that is The Labyrinth, a maze that existed in greek mythology and has shifted here to America.
As long as I can survive through this maze I can leave camp. Also as long as I can learn to navigate this maze and figure out it's quirks and eccentricities then I will be able to quickly move anywhere in America.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone