Chapter 1

MEG POV

Meg was on guard duty near Thalia's Pine when it all started. From her position she could see all across camp, from the glittering blue waves of Long Island Sound where they had fireworks on July 4th, to the gloomy woods where they played Capture-the-Flag and the Grove of Dodona (Meg tried not to think about there) to the forty-foot tall ivory and gold statue of the Athena Parthenos a couple of hills over, to the Big house and the cabins of the demigods organized in what used to be a greek Omega but had now transformed and rebuilt into a full arc, stretching almost halfway around the centre green and Hestia's Hearth. In the four years Meg had been here, (This would be her fifth if she didn't die to some monster) the number of cabins had grown to thirty, each for a different deity. Turning her attention back to the farm road that ran past the base of Half-Blood Hill, Meg began teasing Peleus by tickling his nose with tall blades of grass, then when he almost wakes up, retracting them again. This had been continuing for several minutes (an ADHD child of Demeter has to have something to do) when she heard a commotion from the road below. Well this should be fun, thought Meg. Readying her Imperial Gold scimitars, she ran down the hill towards the scuffle. As she got closer, she realised it was your run-of-the-mill "get the half-bloods to camp" mission. A lone girl of about twelve years old, ran full pelt down the road, pursued by a few older teens and a squad of Scythian Dracaenae, wielding an assortment of tridents, swords, spears and shields. Two of the older kids, one holding a spear and the other with a sword and shield, played defence against the snake people, while the third ran after the young girl. Taking in all this while running downhill, she soon caught up to the kid and the teen. With a shout of "We'll take care of this! Get the kid in!" to the (she assumed it was a satyr) person chasing after the girl, Meg leapt into battle alongside the other two.

"Get out of here, girlie!" could be heard from the warrior with a spear. Girlie? Meg looked over and almost got decapitated by a trident from a dracaena in her distraction, because instead of some middle school students as expected, two adults were duking it out against the serpents. The one who shouted at her was a college-aged woman with brown hair tied up in a bandanna, wearing a hoodie, jogging trousers and combat boots and stabbing snakes left and right with her spear, which seemed to be shooting off tendrils of electricity. The other was a guy the same age dressed similarly, wearing a similar hoodie with the inscription C. Rodruiguez.

"I'm fairly sure I can help with a few Dracaenae." Meg shot back, stepping inside the guard of one said monster, dissipating it and moving onto two more. "These aren't exactly the hardest monsters I've ever fought."

The guy with a sword blocked a hit with his shield, then sliced upwards towards his attacker. "Seriously kid, me and Clarisse have got this. Go help Rowan and Aria. They need the help more than we do."

"Wait, Clarisse? As in Clarisse La Rue?" Meg chopped down another foe then turned to the woman with the spear with a shocked expression on her face.

"Yup, thats me. Drakon-slayer, daughter of Ares, yadda yadda yadda. Now go help the kid!" Clarisse cut down the last few enemies and turned to Meg with a furious expression. "These Dracaenae aren't the only thing chasing us. They only kept up because we stopped to help Rowan bring the kid in." As Clarisse finished her sentence, a roar sounded up the road. Two lions had appeared from the Brooklyn bridge, pacing towards the three demigods. Charisse cussed under her breath and turned back to Meg. "Alright girlie, get back up to Half-blood Hill. Those are Leontes, immortal descendants of Atalanta. They're vicious, relentless, fast, and hate demigods, so we gotta go."

Meg shook her head, clearly unimpressed at Clarisse's attempt to show dominance in spite of who stood in front of her. "I can take care of these." Kneeling, Meg spread her hands into the dirt, calling upon the powers gifted to her by her mother, Demeter. Her eyes snapped open and glowed green as she stood up and lifted her hands, calling up two giant, gnarled tree roots from either side of the road and slamming them into the path of the lions. "You see? Come on, let's go before they figure out how to climb over." Clarisse and the other demigod stood stunned for a moment before coming to their senses and running up the hill. Meg reached the summit, (the satyr Rowan and the smaller demigod Aria having long gotten over) and waited for Clarisse and her comrade. For a moment it seemed like all three would make it unscathed, but then the faster of the two Leontes came rushing up the hill, towards Clarisse's unprotected back.