Chapter Text
“Hurry! We’re nearly there!” Trevor urged, tugging on the sleeve of Nick’s coat to get him to hurry up. Nick kept stumbling in the thick soles of his combat boots, while Trevor was making it up the hill with ease- jumping from spot to spot like he knew this specific hill like the back of his hand. The sun, beginning to set already, cast looming shadows and caused Nick to stumble over hidden stones and tufts of grass.
A towering pine tree loomed at the top of the hill. Its sheer size made Nick hesitate, before he felt a pull at his boot and yelped, jumping out of the grasping claws trying to drag him down and running full pelt for the tree. The boundary, Trevor had called it. He’d also mentioned something about a camp, but Nick couldn’t see a camp nor a boundary of any kind.
Nick heard the sound of metal being unsheathed and a pair of feet other than his own and Trevor’s pounding the ground, and looked up to see a guy older than him – he looked 17 or maybe even 18 – with cropped blond hair, carrying a massive fricking sword – was that a massive scar down his face or were Nick’s eyes messing with him again? – race past the massive tree and towards the nightmare woman chasing him and Trevor.
Nick and Trevor made it past the tree, only just, before a root tripped Nick up and he went sprawling, colliding with Trevor and landing face-first on the other side of the immense pine.
There was a slashing sound behind them, then the terrifying combo of metal-donkey-vampire lady who’d been chasing the pair for a day screeched with a sound that made Nick wince, before a noise like falling sand accompanied the ensuing silence.
Nick gasped for air, pushing himself up with hands that trembled faintly from a mixture of cold and the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Trevor groaned and sat up beside him, rubbing his elbow. His sort-of-friend’s beanie had been knocked off with the fall to reveal a pair of small, protruding goat’s horns – as Nick had discovered last night, when the hat fell off and Trevor started frantically explaining some crap about satyrs and gods and monsters and demigods.
In all honesty, Nick hadn’t really taken much of it in out of shock at finding out his only friend – kind of – was half goat.
Nick’s first, logical reaction to Trevor spouting gibberish about the Greek gods and monsters would have been to laugh in his face and call him a liar, if it hadn’t been for that demonic-looking woman chasing them and trying to seduce Nick – probably to get him to let her drink his blood or something. Stuff like that was liable to change your mind pretty quick.
Speaking of the vampire lady...
Nick looked back to the boundary point of the so-called camp, past the tree. The boy who’d sprinted past just a few moments ago came over the rise of the hill, the sword he’d been holding and the monster woman nowhere to be seen.
“You two okay?” A pair of blue eyes were narrowed at Nick in careful examination before moving over to Trevor, where his expression shifted to one of recognition.
“Trevor?” A smile cracked, twisting the scar going down past his right eye, and the guy – Christ was he tall or what – stepped forward, taking one of Trevor’s hands and helping him to his feet. Hooves. Whatever.
“Luke!” Trevor grinned. His shoes had flown off in the fall as well, so his hooves clopped on the ground as he shifted. “How’s it been?”
Luke’s friendly response afforded Nick a closer look at him without being observed. Blond hair, blue eyes, and he couldn’t have been older than 18. His skin was tanned and he looked like he spent a lot of time outside. The guy had incredibly toned arms, like he worked out a lot, and he wore faded blue jeans and a bright orange shirt that read “Camp Half-Blood” over a black print of a pegasus.
He was pretty hot.
Then he grinned and turned, and Nick’s shoulders were instantly up, defensive beneath the coat and hoodie he always wore.
Luke showed no reaction to the defensive stance Nick took and simply gave him a once-over, then smiled, extending a hand for a shake. “Hey, kid, my name’s Luke Castellan. Nice hair.”
“Nick Isolas.” Nick muttered, neither meeting Luke’s eyes nor addressing the compliment. Nick didn’t like when people commented on his hair – it had started to grow pure white a few years ago, and now the jet black it once had been was fully gone.
The proffered hand remained for a moment before Luke lowered it and shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. Nick’s eyes followed the movement until he realised where he was staring and diverted his eyes away, face warming a hint.
“So, Nick,” Luke started, and started walking toward the edge of the hill – past the boundary marked by the pine tree, on the side Nick hadn’t seen yet. He followed him, noticing that Trevor was already gone. “How much exactly did Trevor manage to explain?”
“Some, but we were pretty busy not dying. No time for his crap about Eos and Selene and whoever else.” Nick answered bitingly.
Luke seemed unfazed by the blunt sarcasm. Before he responded, the pair rounded the crest of the hill, and a sweeping valley was revealed. Nick’s eyes widened.
Trevor hadn’t been lying when he said camp was big – it was a massive space of land. There was a huge farmhouse painted blue, sitting near the top of the valley as if overlooking the camp. Nick could see a climbing wall, a couple other old-looking buildings, a lake and kids in orange milling all around.
There were a lot of cabins, in two long rows facing each other. Nick counted twelve in total. And the buildings themselves...
One looked like it was made from solid gold, and glowed in the sunlight. Another had vines of some sort winding up a trellis on the porch area, and one further down the line looked like a miniature factory with bronze cogs and gears, producing steam from a chimney. They all looked vaguely Greek in some way, like how most of the support pillars had those same spirals at the base as the ones in Ancient Greek buildings. Nick remembered that much from school, at any rate.
“You okay for me to show you around?” Luke offered, and Nick looked at him and nodded.
Luke really was hot. Nick wondered if he was dating anyone.