I blink my eyes hard to make sure I'm not imagining it, but I still see a camp occupied by a hundred or so teenagers. Some just walking around talking, some practicing with very real-looking weapons, from swords and daggers to bows, and even some clubs.

"Camp Half-Blood," he said, noticing my wide-eyed stare. "Again, the only safe place on earth for half-bloods like you."

I try to place where I've heard that name before, then I realize.

"Half-bloods?" I ask. "Really? But they're just a myth..."

I trail of when I realize that so are Minotaurs, and one was chasing me down the street yesterday.

"Oh." I say, dumbstruck.

"Yeah."

"But what did you mean when you said like me, instead of like us? Aren't you a Half-blood too?"

"Not exactly, Eleanor," he says. "You'll see."

"How do you know my name?" I ask.

"I'll leave the rest of the explaining to the others," he says, getting up. "We should get going, if we're lucky we'll get there with enough time for someone to show you around before we eat."

I follow him, fuming at him for dodging my question yet again.

*—-*—-*—-*—-*—-*

As soon as we step into the camp, we're surrounded by other half-bloods, peppering us with questions, more than one wondering why I'm so young.

"Most half-bloods are brought here at thirteen," he explains, noticing my confused expression.

"Why?" I start to ask, then realize he's already back to focusing on the other demigods.

After an agonizing hour of that, the crowds finally start to disperse, and a girl walks up to me.

"Hi," she says to me, then turns to Dale. "Have you explained anything to her? She looks like she had no idea where she was going when you took her here! And she can't be more than eleven! What is going on here? Explain!"

Dale quickly sums up what happened, from when I ran into him to when I saw the camp.

"'Somewhere safe'? That's seriously all you told her!? Just wait till Chiron hears this!" Dale looks like he wishes he could be anywhere but here in front of this girl. I decide that I like her.

"Hi, I'm Eleanor," I say. "You can call me Ellie."

"Cass," she says. "Come with me, Chiron asked me to show you around. Let's start with the cabins, where all of the campers stay."

She's about thirteen, with dark brown hair, almost black, warm brown eyes, and a dusting of freckles over her nose, which, for some reason, makes her look like she's got a lot of mischief up her sleeve.

She leads me to a group of about twenty cabins, each one with a different style.

"Cabin eleven, me and the rest of Hermes' kids stay here, along with all of the new arrivals," she says, like it's totally normal.

"Your dad's Hermes? God of thieves?" I ask, trying not to sound too weirded out. I did know that the people here were all half-bloods, but that hadn't quite sunk in until now. I look self-consciously down at the gold locket around my neck, the last present I got from my dad before he died. It probably looks pretty tempting to her right now.

"Yeah," she says, looking down. "You don't need to worry; I don't steal from the new kids, but out of curiosity, where did you get that necklace?"

"My dad gave it to me, before he died," I say, trying not to cry.

"If I were you, I'd keep it in a safe place, 'cause not all of my siblings have the same morals as I do, and it seems important to you," she says, either not noticing the mention of a dead parent, or just used to it. I suspect that kind of thing happens a lot. "Let's go see the rest of the camp, otherwise we might not be done before dinner!"

She leads me to a cave with a purple curtain hanging across the entrance, and shouts "RACHEL!"

A girl with wild curly red hairc omes hurtling out the cave entrance.

"Wha-" she says, but Cass immediately cuts her off.

"Rachel, this is Ellie, the new girl. Ellie, this is Rachel Dare, the Oracle."

"Your camp has an oracle?"

"No. Not an Oracle. The Oracle. She houses the spirit of the actual Oracle of Delphi." I try not to look too bug-eyed at this, but it's not every day you get introduced to the Oracle of Delphi.

We leave, and head back over to the cabins, straight towards cabin 6, Athena's cabin.

"Let's get you a weapon," she says, as casually as someone else might say 'Let's get some ice-cream.'

We head around the side of the cabin, towards a tiny metal shack that would look more at home in a garden, but when Cass opens the door, it is, of course, piled high with weapons.

She picks up a very big, very heavy-looking sword. She hands it to me. I was right, I can barely liftit!

"Where's yours?" I ask. "Don't you guys always carry them? Why don't you have a sheath? Is yours a sword? Is it a dagger? What is it?"

She takes out a hair pin proudly. "This," she says, holding it on both ends, and giving the open one a pull. "Is Stinger. Do I have to tell you that it's a sword?"

I shake my head, staring at the sword that had been a hair pina minute ago. It's made out of a bronze-ish material and is actually gleaming. She obviously loves it, but she does live in the Hermes cabin.

"Have any of your siblings ever tried to steal it?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says, grinning. "But they've never succeeded. Not once."

I can't help but grin, too, even as she keeps on looking through the weapons, every once in a while muttering things like "Maybe. No, too long." and "That would be perfect for you if it was better balanced."

Finally I see a dagger with a simple leather sheath.

"How about this one?" I ask, picking it up.

"Sure, try it out," she says. "But lets go outside, first. There's no room in here."

I unsheath it to find a bit of a gold design on the bottom of the blade.

"It's," I stop, looking for the right words, but don't find any. "Beautiful." I finish, thinking it deserves better.

"Yeah, but let's see if it's a good choice,"she says. She sounds like she's inviting me to test it, but there are no dummies around. Then I realise that she means on her. She still has her sword out, so I decide to. Bad idea.

She's ready, and the years of training show through. I can barely get within the reach of my dagger, and she's obviously had training for that kind of thing, since before I know it, she has my dagger on the ground.

"Wow," she says, laughing. "You did better than I expected! You could definitely hold your own with that dagger."

"Really?" I ask doubtfully. It seems to me like I did an awful job. "You think so?"

"With training? Definitely," she says, and she sounds sure. "Come on! Let's go wait for dinner!"

A/N: Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to get most of the introductory stuff done, and I just couldn't figure out how. And I'm also sorry it seems so rushed! Please let people know that this story exists if you think they would like it!

Sorry again!!!