Entering Camp Half-Blood for the first time ((open))

As Camryn Lyric slowly walked up the hill, she kept thinking to herself Why did I run away? I dont know anyone here! It's been three years since Camryn has seen another human except for glimpses here and there. She hasn't had a bath in about a week, all of her food is gone thanks to the bear that tore through her makeshift "home" two days ago, and her legs are bruised and cut because of all the brambles around.
Camryn noticed that no matter how far she walked up the hill, the farther away the top seemed to get. It must be my eyes playing tricks again. I knew I should have brought my glasses case with.
Finally, she got to the very top of the hill, only to be stuck in some sort of netting. Walking a little farther the feeling seemed to lift and she felt the nature presence very strongly. I wish Hanah was here to help me with all of these new things. Camryn thought. ((Hanah is Camryn's best friend and the satyr that brought her to Camp. When Camryn was at the base of Half-Blood Hill, Hanah disappeared into the forest. She is NOT my character and she is NOT in anything else execpt right now.))
Taking a deep breath, Camryn started to walk down into a beautiful campsite.
All of a sudden she saw a beautiful girl who seemed very familiar.
"Laura!" Camryn now recognized the girl and sprinted off to meet her. Now how did I know who she was? This is starting to freak me out.

Kyriakos stuck the small bit of driftwood between the pages of his book, closed the cover, and slowly stood up. He was getting used to camp now and was becoming quite used to the way things were run, but he still missed the outside world and everything he had known before. That was why he had borrowed a book on Greek architecture from the camp library a few days ago. Growing up just outside of Athens, he saw the ancient marvels on a regular basis, but they still never failed to amaze him. Many of the structures around camp did an excellent job of imitating those marvels, but they were still nothing compared to the real thing. Kyriakos had picked up the book, hoping the details of how and why the Parthenon was constructed would help ease some of the sadness he felt. He knew he wouldn’t be getting back to Greece anytime soon, and the book was the closest thing he could find to home at camp.

Now, though, he really did need to see the outside world. Sure, camp had almost everything he could ever need or want, but it was missing a certain freedom. The borders were huge and Kyriakos was free to wander as he pleased, but it still felt like a cage at times. He still felt like he was being held inside, no matter how much he wanted to walk past that pine tree, or how badly he wanted to swim across the entire sound. He knew for a fact he wouldn’t even make it halfway across the sound, but he really wished he could step past the pine tree, even if it was only for three or four minutes.

Carrying the book under his arm, Kyriakos began to make his way towards the hill. He knew he would be stopped from actually crossing the border, but just to look across it and down the road would still quell his desires for a short time. He waved to his new sister, Laura, as he made his way across the commons, through the strawberry fields, to the bottom of the hill, and slowly up the side. About halfway to the top, though, he heard a scream. Laura! Looking back, Kyriakos realized Laura wasn’t too far behind him, but looking ahead, he wondered who this girl was. From her battered appearance, he could tell she was just arriving to camp for the first time, but he didn’t have the slightest clue how she would already know Laura. Stepping in her path, he moved to catch her or at least slow her down before she could trip and go rolling down the hill. “Take it easy,” he said, his Greek accent still very apparent. “You look hurt enough already. It might be a good idea for you to slow down and wait for Laura to come to you.”

((Grr okay I want to make this post really totally awesometacular and my mind is like dead except for my fish from the sky story which I don't want to be writing. I swear on the River Styx I'll post when I come back though!!))

((It's ok Laura take as much time as you need. Whatever you write will be awsome I'm sure! ))
Suddenly, a person stepped in Camryn's path and grabbed her. Take it easy. You look hurt enough already. It might be a good idea for you to slow down and wait for Laura to come to you.
"I-I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone." Camryn stammered. "I'm not even sure HOW I know your sister." How did I know that was his sister? I dont even know who HE is!! Camryn could feel her face growing red as she looked all the way up into the boy's mysterious eyes. She then bent her head down to the ground and felt her face grow redder still because she just noticed how dirty she was.
"Where am I? And who are you?" She asked the boy. Camryn couldn't hear his answer because suddenly she saw the ground racing towards her and then darkness.

((Try not to automatically know info, okay ;] We can just say that Camryn and Laura were friends back before Laura had to kill her folks~ XP Annnddd I'm sorry it's soooo late =gering smell of the rain was still there from the night before. Even though just the other day was wet, the leaves off of the trees looked crisp, just right to crush beneath her foot. Of course Laura had to restrain herself from crushing every crunchy looking leaf. Jumping about from one leaf to another would make her look as if she was mental, not that she was sane or anything. When the occasional leaf happened upon her path where it would look natural if she stepped on it, she did and the crunch it gave out was that of satisfaction.

Lost in the leaves, Laura ended up almost on Half-Blood Hill. What disturbed her was not the fact she had run out of leaves in her path, oh no there were many more for her to crush. What had disturbed her was the calling of her name by an unknown voice. This is what made Laura's head snap up to see a somewhat familiar girl and her brother. After the call of her name, she saw that the girl fell and Kyriakos had caught her. At this she began to run up the hill towards the two. As she approached them, the girl became familiar. She was an old friend. Someone she hadn't seen in about a year. She couldn't make out any of the dialouge that was exchanged between the two, but the moment she arrived at Thalia's Pine Tree, the girl had passed out.

[color=cyan]"Kyriakos! What happened?" Laura said, alarmed. She recognized the girl to be Camryn, a friend from school back before it was between her and her parents. She was so grubby and she was covered in wounds. She would have never thought that one of her friends from back home would have been a demigod. Then again she hadn't even really thought of anyone from back home since she had been at Camp. It all seemed like her past that she would never see again. Well, right in front of her was one of her friends from her past.

"Come on! We've got to get her to the Infirmary!" Laura said as she tried to help support her. She took a step ahead before looking back at Kyriakos, waiting for him to move with her. If she ended up to be dead, she could only blame herself for not looking up fast enough and seeing her on the hill.

((One week later))
Ugh I feel like I just swallowed a giant cotton ball. Now I remember how I know Laura! She was my best friend at school, well, my ONLY friend at school but we kind of lost touch after she left. Oh well, it was probably all just a crazy dream anyway.
Admitting defeat, Camryn opened her eyes, saw Kyriakos and Laura, and rolled onto her stomach praying that she could just wake up from this weird dream.
"Wait" she whispered turning onto her back, "you two really are here, does that mean that I'm not dreaming?"
She tried to sit up but two pairs of hands pushed her down and handed her something to drink. It tasted wonderfully, like a bowl of her great-grandmother's chicken noodle soup. Slowly she looked up from the cup and noticed that Kyriakos left to tend to someone else and Laura was sitting on my bed. I must be in an infirmary. Makes sense since I did faint
Camryn scoots closer to Laura and mutters "Laura, can I ask you something?"

Gah! It's all my fault! She's been out for a week at this rate she's probably on the verge of dying, Laura thought to herself as she sat on Camryns bed, next to her body. To be truthful, she had only left her bedside a couple times. She had asked some of her friends at camp if they would mind bringing her a meal at least once a day. Knowing Luke he ended up coming to give her every meal. The thought of her friend doing this for her brought a smile to her face as a tear ran down her face. It's my fault. She felt as if she owed it to whoever her family was to stick by her side. Mortals weren't allowed inside the borders and a God(ess) would never leave to see their child, even if they seemed to be on the brink of death. Of course whether Camryn was actually going to die was something she did not know, but being unconcious for a week makes other believe the worst, no matter what the Apollo kids say.

Laura's eyes went from watching her friend with watery eyes, to slowly closing them. They were closed, until she heard a faint voice. At this her eyes sprung open just in time to see Camryn trying to get up. She tried to be gentle when pushing her friend back down, but after all her training there at camp, she had become aggressive and was afraid she had pushed her down too hard. Instead of apologising like she normally would have, she grabbed the glass they had ready on the bed-side table. Laura grabbed the cup and handed it to Camryn.

"Drink this. You'll feel better," she said with worry in her eyes. Camryn had finally awoken meaning she would be fine. At that moment Laura could ask for nothing more. When Camryn had finished with the nectar, she took the cup and placed it back on the bed-side table.

"Can't drink too much of that," Laura said chuckling, "Don't want to explode or anything." She hoped that this would lighten the mood. Then Camryn started to sit up and come closer to her.

"Laura, can I ask you something?" she had asked in a seemingly shy voice. It was to be expected of course. Afterall, the two hadn't seen eachother since early last school year. What if she thinks I abandoned her at school? Laura thought as her heart rate increased slightly. Whatever it is I'm sure it's not that bad, she thought trying to calm herself down.

"Anything," Laura said with a bit of a nod.

Laura looked at Camryn with the most sincere look on her face and answered
"Anything."

"Well, ummm..." Camryn stuttered. "I have a few questions actually. First,and probably the easiest, is where the heck am I? I remember walking up the hill and seeing you than I passed out. Second, is Kyriakos your brother? You two seemed to have a strange connection, like you are related but you aren't at the same time. Third, have you ever felt like you were different, like other than what you look like?"

Afraid that she might lose Laura yet again, Camryn hurridly said, "You dont have to answer all of those at once, I'm just glad to finally have you back in my life. I just hope we can be friends again." Glancing down, Camryn noticed that her usual attire of a long sleeve shirt was removed so she was now only in her favorite tee, but also showing off the faded scars and livid red self-inflicted marks covering her forearms. She quickly put her arms under the covers and hoped that Laura didnt notice.

((Sorry about that Laura, I'm just so used to controlling all the characters in the book I'm writing that I guess I got carried away. Hope this is better. Sorry again.))

((XD Hey could you edit it so you aren't controlling my charrie? Nobody at camp would really be surprised to see injuries like that on someone and my character wouldn't look at scars with horror seeing as she has her own. I'll reply later~ Thanks ^-^))

((Whoops sorry, I didn't realize you had edited it yet XDD))

Laura listened to what Camryn had to ask and they were pretty much the usual questions. They would be a bit interesting to answer though seeing that this was one of her best friends from school there at camp where she had started a whole new life. She had been trying to forget about everyone from camp and how all the other 'relatives' in her family could really be nothing more than other monsters. One of the worst thoughts that crept into her head was that what if the monsters for the so called 'tests' were really her relatives?

She turned back to Camryn, ready to answer her questions. "Well you see this is a special camp. . . . for special people. . . well like you mentioned, kids who feel and are different. You see the kids that are able to get past the borders of the camp are these different kids. Well they aren't exactly human, they're half-Greek God aswell as being half human," Laura paused as she let that sink into Camryn's mind. She hoped that she would understand what she was saying. She hoped she wouldn't have to come out a bluntly say that one of her parents was a Greek God and the other was some human, aka a demigod. She also didn't want to say she would have to start coming to camp if she didn't want to get killed in the near future.

"Yes, he is my brother. . . . well half. We share the same mother. Lady Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy is our mother. We don't exactly share DNA, but we think of ourselves as siblings," Laura explained to Camryn hoping she was understanding what she was throwing out. Just as she finished her sentence she saw Camryn move so her arms were under the covers, trying to hide her scars.

"No need to hide," she said bluntly, "everyone who's got a good story to tell has some of those. That includes me. It was never my dog who gave me those serious cuts on my arms. On my fifth birthday I was given this little mp3 player here," she held up her mp3 player," what I didn't know was that this was going to be the weapon to save my life over and over. Up until about January I kept going through these 'tests' where I would have to fend off monsters. Finally I had to kill my last two and they ended up being my parents. I'm not an awful person or anything! I swear I'm not! It was life or death!" Laura said trying to defend herself.

((-twitch- too much dialouge X___X))

After Laura explained everything, it kind of made sense. Camryn could remember reading every story about the Greek Gods and Goddesses she could find after her Latin teacher told her about Arachne and...Athena!

Now let's see, there were 14 Gods and Goddesses, Zeus, Hera, Ares, Apollo, Hades, Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Posiden, Hestia and finally Athena Camryn counted off all the gods and goddesses off on her fingers but could only come up with twelve. She ran over everything again in her brain, including the Roman names of all.

Lets try this again, Zeus-Jupiter, Hera-Juno, Ares-Mars, Apollo-Apollo, Hades-Pluto, Aphrodite-Venus, Artemis-Diana, Demeter-Ceres, Dionysus-Bacchus, Hephaestus-Vulcan, Posiden-Neptune, Hestia-Vesta, Athena-Minerva, and finally Mercury...umm... Oh ya, Hermes god of travelers and messenger of the gods. The only reason Camryn could never remember Hermes was because he was not as well known to most people outside of Latin (the dead language) communities.

The more Camryn thought about it, the more she could see Athena in Laura, at least the Athena you see in sculptures and other "fake" representations. Maybe, just maybe, Laura would like a picture of her mother through Camryn's eyes, or through Camryn's memories of museums would be more like it. She reached over the side of her bed where her bag usually would be and, forgetting that she was not home anymore, her hand fell through empty space until it hit the floor.

"Hey Laura, where's my bag?"

((Hope this is better, I'm still kinda new at this))

Camryn seemed to be taking it all in and she was handling it very well. Laura was pleased at this. If she took it all in fast, the better she would be off. Soon enough once she was healed she could begin training after finding a weapon. Probably not long after that she would be claimed. When that thought crossed her mind, she couldn't help but wonder who her friend would be claimed by. It could wait though. First she had to adjust to the new life she was about to leave. It would take a bit, but she knew Camryn could do it. That and it was nice to have one of her only friends back, even though she was upset that of all places it was at Camp where most kids ended up dying a gruesome death.

"Oh, it's right over there. Here I'll grab it for you." Laura offered as she got up and grabbed Camryn's bag along with the fresh camp t-shirt sitting on top. "Most kids wear that shirt, some don't, but most do." She said with a smile.

((Sorry for the fail and late post =____="))

Well, that's an interesting shirt Camryn thought while reading the orange fabric hanging three inches from her face.

Camryn grabbed her bag and rummaged through it, looking for her drawing pad. Finally she felt the dog-eared, well-worn pages of the last present from her foster mother. She flipped through the pages until she found her favorite drawing, a beautiful woman dressed in blue jeans and a t-shirt showing an owl and an olive tree. The woman had piercing gray eyes and long brown hair.

Not the most common way of showing her, but I should get points for originality! Camryn inquired while tearing the picture out of the pad and handing it to Laura.

"I hope you like it. I cant wait to see who I can draw next! Umm... where can I put this on?"

When Laura was handed the drawing she stared at it in amazement. She knew that Camryn had pretty mad drawing skills, but since she was away they had improved! Even though the woman was dressed casually the whole drawing was elegant. It was odd because casual and elegant usually clashed, but it was obvious that this woman was her mother. Still looking at it, the only thing she was able to say was, "Whoa. . . " and that was not the height of her intelligent skills.

Awoken from her gawking at the picture she looked back at Camryn when she spoke. "I love it!" was what came out of her mouth with a grin. She couldn't wait to pin the picture up by her bedside in the Athena cabin. Of course first she would have to let Camryn change and then she could take her to the Athena cabin momentarily so she could hang up the drawing.

"Oh, we can head to the bathrooms and you can change there," Laura said as she stood up and ushered Camryn out of the bathroom. Her injuries would be healed enough now thanks to their 'advanced' medicines aka ambrosia and nectar. She led Camryn to the rest room and leaned against the wall as she waited for her friend to pick a stall and change.

How anyone expected Iris to get around was beyond her knowing. Being messenger of the gods was particularly tasking, especially when one was giving another the silent treatment. Once again, Zeus was refusing to speak with Poseidon, and Iris was left to be the happy medium between the two. And there she stood, listening to Zeus go one his tirade again, expecting that Iris deliver the whole message to his “abominable” brother. As if she was really going to mimic the whole rant.

”And tell him that it was not my fault! He should not have let one of his horses venture so far up! After all, it is my territory. I was absolutely right in zapping that stupid horse. And—“

By then, Iris just left her ears to listen on their own while she contemplated on what to do. She knew full well that Poseidon would not take that argument in a calm manner, but what really made her head throb was the fact that she was expected to pass the stubbornness to the two brothers and having that much going on in her head was enough to make Iris stubborn in her own decision. She would put off that message to do what she wanted to do, not what those bickering gods wanted her to do. After all, it was their problem.

I think it is time. Iris sighed at the thought. It had been a while since she last claimed a child; she was going to be a bit rusty in the process. She was good at sending messages, and most times, she could only think of a message-like way to tell her child who his or her mother really is. She had a pretty good feeling that a message just wouldn’t cut it. It would have been like a telegraph notice that your sister’s child was finally born! Or had they moved to a higher technology by now?

Shaking her head, Iris went over to Camp Half-Blood, knowing that her daughter would have made it there. And sure enough, there she was, talking to a daughter of Athena. Iris beamed at the picture her daughter handed to that other girl; it was a very good representation of the Goddess of Wisdom. Her daughter’s artistic ability was incredible, something Iris was very proud of. But she was not there to only admire her daughter’s drawing skills; she had a different mission.

“Camryn Lyric, I claim you as my child, a daughter of Iris. I am proud of you, Camryn, for all you have done. I’m sorry, but there is not much more that I can give than this drawing set.” Iris left a pack of colouring utensils on the ground, the colour of the rainbow inside plus more. “You will do well in camp, and I have faith in you.”

And with that, Iris disappeared. She wished she could have been a bit more kind about the whole thing, but what was she good at besides giving messages? So she took off, dreading Poseidon’s response to his brother’s reply.

While Camryn was attempting to get off the bed, she heard a strange sound, kind of like a "shimmering", then she turned around and saw the most beautiful woman she has ever seen.
This must be Iris, the messenger goddess. She thought while looking at her beautiful rainbow colored dress.

"Camryn Lyric, I claim you as my child, a daughter of Iris. I am proud of you, Camryn, for all you have done..." There was more that the goddess said but Camryn didnt hear it, her mother-her REAL mother- was proud of her! Before she could say anything in return, Iris dropped the most intricate drawing set Camryn had ever seen on the ground and left.

Camryn stood there with her mouth hanging open until she felt a dampness on her legs, looking down she saw she fell onto the grass. Getting up and brushing herself off she turned to Laura and said, "What do I do now?"