Cold salty water splashed onto Leo's face, and his eyes snapped open, flames filling his vision as his skin caught fire in the shock. The rivulets of water running down his face turned to vapor in a second, but panic filled him and the fire would not die down. Voices from his rapidly fading nightmare swirled in his head, and he tried hopelessly to remember where he was.
He could hear shouting in the background, but what really brought Leo back to reality was the jolt of his body hitting the sand as his plastic lounge chair melted beneath him. He could see Percy's blurry face through the flames, but the roaring blaze drowned out his voice.
Leo tried to draw back the fire, but nothing was working. He could see his hand, and it was glowing with red heat, the veins molten lava beneath his skin. Usually, when he was this scared in the face of a monster on his travels, Leo would simply let the flames grow until he passed out in exhaustion, the monster a pile of ashes swept away in the breeze.
But right now, that wasn't an option, and if he couldn't control his fire, there would be serious consequences. Leo squeezed his eyes shut, bringing his knees up against his chest, and made a conscious effort to slow the racing of his heart.
The inferno lessened, and he could finally make out the concerned and near-panicked expression of Percy through the blaze.
"-eo, Leo!" Percy's worried voice carried through the dying flames. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out with the water!"
Normally, just the sound of someone walking towards Leo was enough to jolt him into wakefulness. He was never a deep sleeper, always prepared to get moving the moment he opened his eyes.
One second on the streets could be the only thing keeping the police from catching him, or a monster from impaling him through the abdomen. A couple weeks ago, he couldn't decide which of those options was more appealing.
But now he was at Camp Half-Blood, a place that everyone around Leo promised was safe, and he had no reason to overreact from a little water waking him up.
Leo pasted a big grin on his face right before the fire faded, and responded while patting his head to snuff out the final embers in his hair.
"Yeah, man, I'm fine!" Leo promised, laughter in his voice. "I should be asking if you're okay, panicking over a little fire! You're literally the water guy."
Despite having taken a swim in the ocean, Percy was completely dry, although his jet black hair was a mess, covering his forehead and getting in his eyes. He was standing a good fifteen feet away from Leo, but he stepped closer once the flames died.
Leo was stupefied by the amount of concern in Percy's expression as he approached, carefully avoiding the shards of glass embedded in the blackened sand. Percy's eyes caught on the molten red remains of the plastic chair, and his eyebrows pinched with a troubled look before turning to search Leo's face, his expression softening.
"I should have known better than to splash you," Percy said, completely ignoring Leo's attempt at lightening the mood. "I don't know what I was thinking-no, I wasn't thinking, and I'm sorry."
Leo was momentarily stunned into silence, and he covered it up by quickly standing and brushing the sand off his jeans to hide the shaking of his hands. He picked up his thankfully unburnt backpack and slung it over his shoulder, turning back to face Percy.
"Seriously, I'm okay!" Leo assured him. "You just startled me, everything's fine!"
Percy eyed him dubiously, and Leo fidgeted under his gaze, tapping out a phrase in morse code on his thigh [. ...- . .-. -.-- - .... .. -. --. ... / --- -.- .- -.--]. Finally, Percy accepted Leo's words, and he summoned a wave of water to douse the sizzling spot of sand while Leo watched in awe.
"Dude, that's awesome!" Leo exclaimed, watching as the saltwater trickled down the beach towards the waves. "What else can you do?!"
"No way," Percy said firmly, yet unhappily. "If I show off, then you'll want me to teach you, and then Will is going to kill me. If he doesn't already, since I caused you to use your fire."
Leo released a long-suffering groan, and almost considered begging, but Percy didn't look like he would be moved.
"Ugh, fine." Leo relented. "Then what's next?"
"Next," Percy said, a grin finally spreading across his face. "Is lunch!"
The walk to the dining pavilion was thankfully a short trip, and Leo's nap had refreshed him enough to make it with minor pain—like the soreness that set in a day after a hard workout.
As the path rounded a curve, Leo finally saw the Mess Hall for the first time, and—like everything else at camp—it looked like it had been stolen straight from ancient Greece.
Large marble columns rose from the ground, connecting in a circular frame at the top, and torches blazed from sconces embedded in the Greek framing. There were no walls or roof filling the gaps, so the dining pavilion was open to the stars and scenery of the ocean.
Peals of laughter and loud chatter drifted from the demigods seated at their respective tables, each one with various tablecloths, designs, and numbers of campers. Leo knew enough to deduce that the tables were separated by godly parent, but he was clueless when it came to which tables represented which gods.
The only thing Leo was sure of was that he was about to enter a somewhat enclosed space with more people than he had interacted with in the last year combined. And he wasn't sure if he would be able to eat with Percy and Will, or be forced to sit at a table with people Leo had never spoken to in his life.
This whole thing reminded him way too much of the first 'family' meal in a new group home, all the kids staring at Leo like he had just taken a dip in an algae-ridden pond and still had gunk tangled in his hair.
Leo's feet stopped while they were still out of sight from the Mess Hall, and Percy paused with a questioning look on his face.
Normally, Leo would ignore his anxiety and continue on with a broad smile and a joke—but Percy hadn't given Leo any reason not to trust him. So with an almost physical effort, Leo let the tiniest bit of vulnerability leak through his fire walls.
"Can you tell me a little bit about what will happen before we go in?" Leo asked, his voice hesitant and quiet like the twelve-year-old kid he actually was, however much Leo tried to make people forget that through his loud humor.
Percy's expression immediately softened, and he nodded in understanding.
"Of course, bro," Percy said with a kind and genuine smile. "All of the half-bloods have to sit at their cabin table, and each one is like a family. Technically, they are family since campers from the same cabin are half-siblings. Satyrs, Nymphs, and Mr. D, the camp director also known as Dionysus, sit at table twelve, while Chiron sits with the campers."
"Wait wait wait, Dionysus ?! Like, the god?!" Leo whisper-yelled, his eyebrows shooting up. There had been a literal god at camp the whole time he had been here?!
"Yeah, the god of wine. He was banished here because he chased after a forbidden nymph, and now he's just insufferable because he's banned from drinking wine," Percy replied, zero admiration or awe in his tone, only vague annoyance.
Leo guessed that Percy's clear reverence of Mr. D meant that Greek gods fit the whole 'never meet your heroes' idea, but replace 'heroes,' with 'all powerful immortal beings.'
"How can he be the god of wine if he can't drink wine?" Leo asked incredulously, amusement creeping into his voice. "I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous."
"Don't let him hear you say that!" Percy warned, but he sounded just as amused. "You'll get turned into a dolphin before you can blink."
"That doesn't sound half-bad, I can finally learn the gossip you dove into the ocean for!" Leo replied with a smirk, but it fell into a frown when something occurred to him. "Hold on, you said demigods sit with their cabin, but I don't know who my godly parent is."
"Yeah, that's kind of a thing that relies on the gods to pay attention to their kids for once," Percy scoffed, and Leo had never seen him look so bitter. "Your parent has to claim you, usually through a magical symbol floating above your head once you 'prove your worthy,' or whatever," Percy said with an eye roll and air-quotation marks.
Leo was brimming with questions, the toe of his shoe drawing patterns in the dirt to release his energy, but Percy continued on before he could ask any of them.
"The gods promised to claim their kids by the time they turn thirteen, but since you're still twelve, they don't have to, so they haven't yet," Percy stated, frustration leaking into his voice. "Which means you'll be with the Hermes cabin until you're claimed, since he's the god of travelers."
"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" Leo asked warily, all too used to being shoved in with a group of kids who saw him as an outsider. It never ended well.
"Oh, the Hermes kids are all nice enough," Percy said, the tight line of his lips smoothing into a smirk. "Just don't take your eyes off them or they'll rob you blind. They're dad's also the god of thieves."
"Great, I never wanted my only two pairs of underwear anyway," Leo said with a sigh, but internally he was dreaming up all sorts of traps to line his backpack with as soon as he had some free time.
"Pfft, we'll get you some more clothes from the camp store in a bit," Percy replied with a chuckle. "But first, I'm hungry. You'll sit with the Hermes cabin; c'mon, I'll introduce you!"
Percy said the words encouragingly, but Leo's stomach was roiling far too much from the nerves for him to feel hungry. Nevertheless, Leo fixed a confident expression on his face, and marched after Percy towards the Mess Hall.
Campers turned to stare as the pair made their way past the Greek columns, but Leo did his best to ignore the whispers, choosing to study the uniquely designed tables instead. They were all the same size and wooden, but that's where the similarities ended.
One of them had a white table cloth with an owl emblem in the center; notes, math equations, and more were scribbled out in ink across the entire surface. Another had random scraps of metal soldered to the surface, as if covering up areas where chunks of the wood were missing or damaged.
Percy led Leo towards the plainest table, although it was thoroughly scratched up and covered in various images that looked like kid's crayon drawings carved into the lumber.
Three teens sat at the table, and they all had similar elvish features with upturned noses and mischievous smiles, like they were constantly planning the best way to ruin your day in the most entertaining way possible.
The two oldest looked like twins around sixteen, with curly brown hair that hung in their blue eyes, and pale skin. The third and youngest, maybe fourteen, had the same curly brown hair, but his eyes were the color of chocolate and his skin tone was a few shades darker than the other two.
The two look-alikes sprung up from their seats with a gleam in their eyes as Percy and Leo approached, but Percy was the first to speak.
"Connor, Travis, this is Leo, and he'll be staying with you guys until he's claimed," Percy began. "Leo, these two are Connor and Travis Stoll, the co-counselors of the Hermes cabin."
If Percy hadn't already told him so, Leo would have immediately pegged the two as troublemakers, but not the type that Leo would need to be truly wary of. Instead, they reminded Leo of himself, the kind of person who just wanted to make a little fun of their lives to avoid the seriousness that could so easily become suffocating.
"Eyyy, it's our new fire-breathing cabinmate!" Exclaimed the one that Leo assumed was Travis, flinging his arms open wide in welcome.
Leo opened his mouth, about to correct him and say that he couldn't actually breathe fire, and then realized that he'd never actually tried, had he? But then the implications of Travis' statement finally caught up to Leo, and oh great, that meant that everyone knew about his freaky curse.
"Not that I'm upset about the excitement, I totally am just that awesome," Leo started with a wink while the brothers smirked at each other. "But just how many people know about my super epic fire breathing abilities?" Leo asked, some trepidation leaking into his tone.
"Take one glance behind you and I think you'll have your answer," Connor said with a grin. Uh oh.
Leo obliged, and thankfully, most of the half-bloods were done staring and instead whispering between themselves, but a group of three at a table with pink and purple embedded jewels were blatantly glaring.
A few words of their loud conversation drifted across the dining pavilion, and Leo caught the words, "lounge chair," and "completely melted," and he promptly released a loud groan.
How did they even find it so fast? If they hadn't thought he was destructive before, there definitely wasn't any doubt in their minds now.
"Ugh, so everyone?" Leo asked, not even bothering to hide his displeasure.
"Camp-wide popularity in less than a day!" Travis announced in a reporter's voice. "Even the infamous Percy Jackson over here was viewed as less than a dirty sock until he was claimed!"
"Gee, thanks Travis," Percy responded dryly. "Good to know you guys thought so highly of me."
Turning to Leo, Percy said, "I'll be back over here after lunch to continue the tour. Try not to be completely corrupted while I'm gone," Percy finished, shooting the Stolls a look that had them snickering. And then he left, leaving Leo to sit down at the table with the trio.
The final kid introduced himself as Cecil Markowitz, but he didn't partake in much of the conversation, instead glancing every few seconds at what Leo assumed was the Hecate table. The wood was slightly darker than the others, and gems were embedded in the wood with strings of charms hanging on the edges.
Two girls sat there, one of them being Lou Ellen who seemed to be occupying most of Cecil's attention, and the other was a girl who looked only about a year older than Leo. He remembered Will mentioning a newly arrived child of Hecate, and Leo could only assume that was her.
Sandwiches with whole wheat bread, fresh cheese, and lean meat were served for lunch, and the Hermes campers showed him how to sacrifice a portion of his meal by scraping the best bits into the large brazier in the middle of the Mess Hall.
They explained that the gods liked the smell—which, gross. Leo knew for a fact that the scent of burning food was not appetizing—and could usually be bothered to listen to prayers after a burnt offering. But Leo had no prayers to offer a godly parent who couldn't be bothered to claim Leo as his own.
They finally sat back down, and Connor showed him how he could request any liquid from the goblets. Leo grinned crookedly, and the Stolls quickly rebuffed him with an; "alcohol doesn't work, we tried." Leo sighed heavily, and then requested Dr. Pepper like the good little Texan he was.
"So," Travis started, a sandwich in his hand waving around as he spoke. "What's your opinion on pranks-"
"-because I can think of quite a few ways we can put that fire to use," Connor finished for him with a cunning and mischievous gleam in his eyes.
Their conversation rapidly dissolved into excited whispers and planning as the trio began brainstorming different pranks, Cecil butting in with a couple ideas every now and then. Travis seemed to have a vendetta against the Demeter cabin, particularly Katie Gardner, who they explained was the Cabin Head. But everytime Travis mentioned her name, Connor grew an expression of fond exasperation, and jabbed at him with pointed comments and looks.
Lunch ended with the Hermes campers promising to see him at the cabin, and further plan a prank involving the lava wall, betting, and a pair of Ares campers that the Stolls felt the need to get back at.
For the first time that day, Leo's fire didn't feel like a curse. He had gotten along well with the Hermes campers, and he felt that he might actually have a place with them, at least until his real godly parent could be bothered to claim him.
Honestly, he was kind of hoping that Hermes was his dad, as Leo shared an affinity for mischief and troublemaking with the others. But then his fire powers killed that idea. Hermes was the god of giving travelers somewhere to stay, not the god of burning down homes and providing a need for travel in the first place.
"Ready to continue the tour?" Percy's voice came from his left. "We'll head to the Arena next."
Leo looked up from his pondering to see that he was one of the last people in the Dining Pavilion, the final couple campers slipping out between the columns.
"You got it, aquaboy!" Leo declared, springing up from his seat. "Arena, you said? Does this involve sharp objects, perchance?"
"No! No," Percy said quickly, holding out his hands in a 'stop,' gesture, and then backtracking. "No sharp objects for you, we're just going to watch some other campers train."
"Aw c'mon man," Leo groaned. "I can't be defenseless forever!"
"Says the dude who can literally generate fire from his hands," Percy said with a raised eyebrow. "But, you're right. Can't live life as a demigod without a weapon, so we'll train you with something. Eventually." Percy acquiesced, his hands lowering in defeat.
Leo grinned wildly, and Percy shut his eyes, mouthing "gods help me," like he was already regretting his decision. Leo playfully shoved him, and got a faceful of water from a previously unused goblet for his efforts.
Leo froze, his mind flashing to the fiasco from less than two hours ago, and Percy's eyes filled with instant regret, his mouth opening like he was about to apologize. But then Leo broke down in laughter, and Percy joined him after a moment, the two of them flicking water at each other from the magic goblets, although Percy definitely had an unfair advantage.
Leo couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard. Was it before Teresa's, eight months ago? Or was it all the way back at his mom's warehouse, giggling over one of his projects? Whatever the case, it made him feel whole.
Monsters might continue to chase after Leo for the rest of his life, and he may never escape all of them unscathed.
But with friends like Percy, he was learning to defeat them one by one.