Henry

When I could see again, there weren't four demigods hovering over me and asking obvious questions. I was in a forest, with large, health trees, gorgeous green grass, and glimmering flowers spread out across the forest floor. Through the tree tops, you could just barely see the sky. The smell of sweet summer breezes, strawberries, and Daisies whipped through the air. For some reason, the three scents made me feel ... lonely.

I walked around for a minute or two, feeling as though I knew the way around. As if I'd been here before. But, in a more comforting way than Camp Half-Blood.

Eventually, I found an opening in the forest, and it led me to a cave entrance. What intrigued me was that the cave had a door a few feet from the opening. A door carved from the rock. Several designs decorated the door, making it interesting, and somewhat ... familiar.

Before I could get a closer look at the door, a pest I knew landed on a branch just in front of me.

I rolled my eyes and glared at the crow. "You again? I can't even escape you when I'm having a seizure?" The crow tilted its head a me, but didn't caw out. By now, the little beast would have started pulling my hair.

I moved around the branch, and the crow moved too. I tried to go another way, and the crow simply followed me. I growled at it, hoping I could scare it into going away. Nope! Because it decided to scare me.

"It's rude to growl at people, Henora," the crow scolded.

I leaned away from it. I'd known this crow for years. Not once had it scolded me like it was my mother. Not even when I was doing things that weren't particularly good. I hoped this was just a side effect of the seizure I was having in real life. Yet, something told me I wasn't that lucky.

I pursed my lips and scanned the crow, wondering if I'd eaten something I shouldn't have. "You ... you can speak?" I asked.

The crow rolled it's own, jet black eyes. "Yes, I can speak, Henora. You don't have to act so surprised."

After hearing the crow's voice more, I began to recognize it. Something about it made me cringe. "Were you the whispering I heard? Or the gods awful monster noises I heard?" I was sneering at the crow, and I felt I had every right to. This thing had been giving me hell for years, and I wasn't going to put up with it any more.

The crow didn't bend under my glare. "Yes," it – or she, since it sounded feminine – answered. "I was trying to call you out to the forest, so you would find what you've been looking for."

Okay, had this situation been any weirder, I would have ran away until I'd woken up. Since I hadn't gotten to that level of weird yet, I decided to stay a little longer and .... speak with the crow.

I shook my head, unsure of what the magical crow could be talking about. "I haven't been looking for anything?"

"Not yet," the crow told her. "But soon, you will look for a place to hide, and practice your powers in peace."

"What powers?" As far as I knew, I didn't have any powers. All I had was that curse, which was now gone. I didn't exactly know what got me onto the roof of Hermes Cabin, but I wouldn't exactly classify that as a power.

The Crow flicked its little head towards the cave doors I'd seen earlier. Then, it took off and said, "Come and see."

As I started to walk towards the cave, my vision tunneled, and the light drifted out of my view. My feet stopped touching the ground, and I was enveloped in black.

.....................

My eyes opened and I shot up into as sitting position. My lungs sucked in a hasty breath and I could see three demigods huddled around me still.

Annabeth hand her hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. Piper was in a squatting position directly in front of me. Jason was on my other side, looking at me funny through his glasses.

The only person missing from the group that I'd seen before blacking out was Percy. But Jason cleared up where he was for me.

"She's awake, Percy!" he called across the camp. "We don't need any water!"

"Water?" I gulped. I then choked on my own spit, which must have looked really attractive to any demigods watching me. I didn't know why, but the mere mention of water and a being that could control it scared the living day lights out of me.

And knowing Percy, he'd probably been going to get a glob the size of me to drench me in. When he came back, he was slightly out of breath, and carrying a cup of what I only assumed was water.

He held the cup out to me. I pulled my arm up and used it to shield my face. "Take some," he told me. I shook my head in refusal. At dinner, I choose the weird, bubbling, orange liquid over the water. Connor Stoll called it Soda, though I thought it was some kind of greek potion the way it fizzed and bubbled.

Bottom line, I wasn't drinking water near a guy who could make it go down my throat and make it come back up for giggles. The fact that my body was made up of 70% water unsettled me enough while I was near Percy. I didn't want to add to that number.

A crackling sound emulated from the woods, and all of us turned to look.

"Is a monster pushing down a tree in there?" Piper asked.

Annabeth sighed. "It could be anything. Emperor Nero hid himself and a handful of campers in those woods for months. Not to mention all of the other creatures that lurk in there. We have no idea what could be in there now."

"And you remember those giant ants you let me and Beckendorf to? The time you and Silena tricked us so we'd be out of the way for Capture the Flag?" Percy added. There was an edge to his tone. Like, the memory was more wistful and saddening than aggravating.

"Yeah," she said. "The Myrmekes. Apollo ran into them while rescuing the campers Nero captured too."

My eyes bulged. "Apollo? As in, God of the Sun, Medicine, and Music?" Again, I felt the same discomfort in that name that I'd felt while learning about so many other things at this camp. As if I was a magnet, and rather than attract those things, I repelled them as fast as I could.

Annabeth nodded to me. I couldn't help but look back the forest. The screeching and whispering was gone. What those sounds left behind was an undying curiosity for what else could be in that forest. What other creatures could be in there.

What that crow had been talking about ... it was in there too. Whatever it was, it had something to me. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with intrigue over what could be hiding out in the thick trees and dark shadows.

I kept watching the trees, letting that line the crow said repeat over and over in my head. Soon, you will look for a place to hide, and practice your powers in peace.

I didn't know what powers she was talking about, or where this place was. What it could be. A fortress. A bunker. A portal to another realm.

Whatever this place was, I was going to find it. Even if it took me the rest of my life.

.....................

After I got up, Annabeth suggested I go to sleep in the Big House. Or at least ask Chiron where I should sleep until I got claimed. The term was somewhat familiar, but I couldn't grasp the exact meaning of it.

Plus, I wasn't trying that hard to figure it out. I was too busy thinking of what could be out in the forest. Waiting for me to find it and explore all of the wonders it had to offer.

"What's Claiming?" I questioned. I ducked my head to the left, then to the right, attempting to see around Annabeth and the others.

Piper gave me a weird look and checked behind her. Jason did the same. Seeing nothing but thick trees and brush behind them, they faced me again.

Even their confused looks weren't enough to deter me. It took all of the impulse control I possessed to keep from running into the forest and searching all night long.

Annabeth was also confused. But she answered me. "Claiming is when your godly parent declares you're their child by having their symbol appear over your head. After that, then you can stay with your demigod siblings in your parent's cabin."

For some unattainable reason, I got the feeling that Annabeth was speaking to me like I was five. Which got my attention, if only for a brief moment.

I did some math in my head, which may or may not have been based on my own speculations. I knew I was older than I looked, and was a few years over thirteen. Yeah, I looked really small and prepubescent, I was growing at an alarming rate.

A rate that was making my black hoodie and jeans almost too tight form me. I made a mental note to ask Chiron for bigger clothes later.

"So ..." I started, a tad confused. "The gods claim all of their kids?"

"They do now," Percy smiled. "And if they stop while I'm still around, I'll take the great pleasure of going up to Olympus and -"

"Asking they continue to claim their kids. Right, Percy?" Annabeth growled.

Percy shut his mouth and moved his gaze to something more interesting. Like the shoes on his feet.

The idea of the Gods claiming their kids like that didn't sound right. In all of the myths I'd read, very few demigods learned of their true heritage. Take Theseus for example. He was one of the most well known heroes of all Greek Mythology and he didn't even know who his father was.

But if something had changed since then, maybe there was a chance I could get claimed. And finally find out which god I had to slap for making my life suck so much.