Percy Jackson: The Firstborn

Chapter 184: Chapter 184: Wants and Needs

A few hours had passed since Damon began gathering all the demigods. It had taken longer than he expected and, of course, had also given him a few additional headaches. Convincing thirty children to follow a complete stranger, even after explaining who he was and what he intended to offer them, had turned out to be considerably more difficult than it sounded. Not to mention trying to learn all their names at once.

Even so, he had managed it in the end.

When Damon and Hades finally began leaving the Lotus with the entire group of children following behind them, the stares came almost immediately. More than one person inside the casino probably thought they were witnessing some kind of mass kidnapping. After all, it wasn’t exactly normal to see two grown men in questionable clothing calmly walking toward the exit with around thirty children trailing behind them in a line.

Curiously, none of the Lotus employees tried to stop them.

Damon raised an eyebrow slightly at that, though he didn’t need to think very hard to understand why. Either the workers knew exactly who he and Hades were and had wisely decided not to play with fire, or they had simply come to the conclusion that trying to stop them could end with the casino literally disappearing from the map.

A fairly sensible decision.

In any case, by the time they finally crossed the doors of the Lotus Hotel and Casino, three days had passed in the outside world.

Damon briefly looked up at the Las Vegas sky before turning toward the enormous group of children now gathered behind him, noticing how they stared back at the entrance to the Lotus Casino, some nervous and others a little excited.

"Alright... everyone stay close," Damon ordered.

The children began to gather while Hades remained near Nico and Bianca. More than one of them had already tried wandering off to look at whatever happened to catch their attention.

Damon let out a small sigh. He was definitely going to need patience. Without further delay, a golden flash enveloped the entire group and they vanished from sight while the Mist immediately went to work, diligently concealing the supernatural event from mortal eyes.

When the light faded, Damon, Hades, and the thirty demigods were standing in front of the entrance to Camp Half-Blood. The redhead looked at the camp sign for a moment before turning his attention back toward the group behind him.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

For several seconds, no one said anything. The children simply stared at the place in front of them, clearly surprised by how different it was from the Lotus. After spending so much time surrounded by artificial lights, machines, enclosed walls, and endless hallways, they now had a vast open space before them covered in trees and hills. The wind gently moved through the leaves while the scent of earth and vegetation filled the air.

Damon wasn’t surprised by their reactions. Most of these children came from Aztec and Norse bloodlines, two groups of deities deeply connected to nature and the cycles of the world. Even if many of them still didn’t fully understand their heritage, their divine blood seemed to recognize something familiar in the environment.

Marcos, his eyes wide open, took several steps forward. "This whole place is the camp?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes," Damon replied simply.

The boy’s smile widened even further. "Can we run around?"

Damon barely had time to open his mouth before a massive "YEEEEES!" exploded from the group behind Marcos.

Practically all the children took off at the same time, shouting over one another as they ran into the camp. "LOOK! THERE’S GREEN EVERYWHERE, I’VE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH OF IT IN MY LIFE !!!!!!!!" one of them yelled, while another pointed toward one of the hills. "WHOA, LOOK AT THAT HILL!"

In the middle of the chaos, Marcos sprinted away at full speed while shouting his sister’s name. "MARÍA, COME ON!"

"DON’T RUN SO FAST, IDIOT!" María shouted back as she chased after him.

Damon slowly blinked and scratched the back of his neck with a completely blank expression. "Well... FUCK."

Hades looked toward his brother, a faint glimmer of amusement in his eyes. Damon, meanwhile, crossed his arms as he watched Marcos attempt to climb a tree. "At least now I know they actually like it. I guess that’s a good start," the god commented before letting out a loud laugh.

María’s voice immediately rang out from the distance. "MARCOS, GET DOWN FROM THERE!"

"BUT I WANT TO SEE EVERYTHING FROM UP HERE! YOU SHOULD CLIMB TOO, SIS! DON’T BE BORING!" the excited boy shouted back.

As expected, all the noise didn’t take long to draw the attention of the rest of the camp. At that hour, a good portion of the demigods were gathered in the dining pavilion, so the sound of thirty children running and shouting across the fields was more than enough to make Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Luke, Clarisse, Selene, and several members of the other cabins come out within seconds to figure out what the hell was going on.

Clarisse came out in a foul mood that made it painfully obvious she wasn’t happy and was probably ready to start handing out beatings, still holding a piece of bread in one hand. The moment she laid eyes on the group, however, her frown deepened even further at the sight of the unfamiliar children running all over the place.

"What the hell...? Where did all these brokies come from?"

Thalia, walking beside her, gave her a tired look. "And how the hell am I supposed to know, genius?"

Clarisse immediately turned toward her. "Was I asking you?"

"Then stop yelling questions into the air like a chimpanzee. You’re just as annoying as all these kids," Thalia mocked, rolling her eyes.

At that, Clarisse’s blood immediately began to boil. "You want to start again, Grace?"

"Anytime, La Rue."

Annabeth, walking between the two of them, let out a sigh while Percy simply kept a safe distance. Lately, Clarisse and Thalia seemed capable of finding a reason to take shots at each other practically every time they were nearby, and Percy had learned enough to know that getting between them usually ended with one of them hitting him instead.

"Can we focus on all these unfamiliar kids who just appeared in the camp?" Annabeth interrupted before the argument could escalate.

That finally got both of them to look away, though neither seemed even remotely willing to apologize.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes slightly as she studied the newcomers. It didn’t take her long to realize that they clearly didn’t all come from the same place. Most had features that pointed toward Mexico and other parts of Mesoamerica, and many wore clothing quite different from anything the campers normally used. Three others, however, immediately stood out because of their lighter skin, blond or brown hair, and thicker clothing that bore some resemblance to what certain campers wore around here.

"They definitely aren’t normal new campers," Annabeth murmured.

"No SHIT, Annie... Even I can tell that," Percy replied sarcastically while watching Marcos hang from a branch several yards away.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at Percy’s sarcasm while Selene, who had come out behind them alongside several children of Apollo, Demeter, and Hermes, let out a small laugh at the sight of María desperately trying to get her brother down from the tree.

"At least they look like they’re having fun, and they don’t seem like bad people."

While much of the camp continued trying to figure out what was happening, three of the newcomers had separated from the rest of the group. The three Norse-looking children had found something that captured their attention far more than the green fields..... The workshop of the Hephaestus Cabin.

The three approached slowly, curiously inspecting the metal parts, tools, and mechanisms scattered around the entrance. The oldest, a brown-haired boy around thirteen years old, seemed especially fascinated by the weapons and a few stacked metal figures that resembled dragons.

Beside him, a blond girl around the same age with her hair tied into a braid leaned slightly forward to examine one of the mechanisms. The youngest of the three, who couldn’t have been older than ten, already had one hand dangerously close to grabbing what looked like some kind of device resting on a table.

Leo Valdez stepped out of the workshop just in time to see him.... His eyes widened. "Hey, hey, hey! Don’t touch that!"

The three children froze on the spot. Leo rushed toward them while the youngest immediately pulled his hand back like he had just been caught stealing.

"Hold on now... do you have any idea how long that took me to make?" Leo asked while quickly checking the mechanism to make sure it was still intact. Only after confirming that everything was fine did he look back at the three strangers with one eyebrow raised.

"Okay... now for the important question. Who the hell are you guys?"

The three exchanged looks for a second before the brown-haired boy stepped forward. "I’m Hiccup. She’s Astrid, and that’s her little brother, Soren. We’re better known as the three Vikings," the boy introduced himself decisively.

Leo rolled his eyes as his gaze moved from one to the next. "Right..... Hiccup, Astrid, and Soren. Perfect. Now, why were you about to put your hands all over my stuff?"

Soren immediately lowered his head. "We’re sorry, sir."

Astrid also stepped forward to defend her younger brother. "My brother has a habit of putting his hands where they don’t belong. It won’t happen again," the girl assured him while grabbing Soren by one ear and twisting it.

"Ow, ow, sis! I already said I was sorry!" the younger blond whined.

Leo, meanwhile, had gone completely still. "Wait... did you just call me sir?" he muttered, raising one finger.

Soren, still rubbing his ear and glaring at his sister, looked back at Leo in obvious confusion. "Yes, sir. Is that wrong?"

Leo blinked several times before looking behind himself to check if there happened to be an adult standing there. After confirming there wasn’t, he looked back at the boy. "Okay, first of all, I’m sixteen. Don’t call me sir because it makes me feel like I’m forty, especially when you’re not even that far from my age."

Astrid tilted her head slightly. "We’ll keep that in mind, then. Nice to meet you, uh..." The blond girl went silent as she realized she didn’t even know the name of the boy standing in front of them, giving him an inquisitive look.

Leo cleared his throat as a faint blush appeared on his cheeks when he realized he hadn’t even introduced himself. "Uh... right. Sorry. My name’s Leo Valdez. Nice to meet you."

The three Norse demigods nodded in acknowledgment before Hiccup looked back toward the workshop behind Leo. After studying it for a few seconds, he turned his attention back toward the son of Hephaestus with obvious admiration. "Did you build all of that?"

Leo immediately lifted his chin. "Well... not all of it." A proud smile began to spread across his face. "But I’d say I built a good portion of it, though I mostly work alongside my brothers. This is the cabin of our father, Hephaestus."

Leo followed Hiccup’s gaze and noticed that the boy was particularly focused on a small metal dragon figure resting on one of the tables. "Looks like you’re into dragons," he commented casually.

Hiccup tensed slightly after realizing he’d been caught staring and let out a small nervous laugh. "Well... yeah. Let’s just say I really like them."

Leo gave him a somewhat strange look before shrugging. "Hm. Well, I’ve never seen a dragon in my life. Even in the supernatural world they’re pretty rare, though some of my siblings always seem fascinated by them," he commented without giving it much thought.

Astrid crossed her arms before joining the conversation. "Where we come from, up north, stories about dragons are pretty common."

Hiccup immediately nodded. "My dream is to ride one someday."

Hearing this, Leo blinked 3 times, staring at them as if they had just said the most ridiculous thing imaginable. "Ride a dragon?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Wow... I’ve definitely never heard that one from any demigod before. You two are definitely the first."

Under Leo’s inquisitive stare, Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck somewhat nervously. "Well... we also like forging things. I’ve always felt drawn to the forge, so maybe you could teach us a few things."

At that, a smile immediately began to form on Leo’s face as he temporarily pushed the dragon topic aside. "Well, then you’re in the right place."

The son of Hephaestus pulled off one of his gloves and extended his hand toward Hiccup.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

Hiccup looked at the offered hand for barely a second before shaking it with a smile. "Thank you"

Several yards away, Damon watched the entire scene with his arms crossed, a faint smile appearing on his face as he saw the Greek campers slowly beginning to mingle with the newcomers.

The god’s thoughts were interrupted when an explosion of fire suddenly appeared beside him. The flames rose for barely an instant before vanishing, revealing Hestia standing in their place. The Goddess of the Hearth had been near the campfire when all the noise began spreading through the camp, and the moment she sensed the presence of her brothers, she hadn’t wasted even a second before appearing.

"Whoa, brother! Don’t tell me these are the demigods Hades was talking about. You really brought them here?" Hestia asked with obvious excitement while looking over the children still scattered throughout the fields.

From the moment Hades had mentioned that there was a group of demigods living inside the Lotus Hotel and Casino without a real home or anyone to care for them, Hestia had immediately felt saddened. As the Goddess of the Hearth and Home, hearing that so many children had spent who knew how long taking refuge inside a casino simply because they had nowhere better to return to had been more than enough to affect her.

Damon let out a laugh at her reaction and placed a hand on his sister’s head, lightly ruffling her reddish hair. "That’s right, Hestia. I figured you’d want to meet them. They’re good kids... a little difficult to control, but good kids."

The goddess was about to agree and tell him how happy she was that he had made that decision, but Damon began messing up her hair even more.

"Brother!" Hestia protested while trying to fix it again, although the faint blush appearing across her cheeks made it fairly obvious that she wasn’t truly upset. She had always liked it when Damon showed her that kind of affection, treating her as though they were still children.

The familiar moment, however, didn’t last long.

"WHAT THE HADES IS ALL THIS?!"

Artemis’s furious voice rang across practically all of Camp Half-Blood, immediately drawing everyone’s attention.

Hades, who had been standing close by, turned his head toward his niece.

"You said what?"

For a brief second, Artemis’s angry expression froze her eyebrow twitching. Damon immediately covered his mouth with one hand, but it was already too late. A laugh escaped him, followed by Hestia trying to suppress one of her own.

Yeah... once again, I am reminded that not everything can be rainbows in this world, Damon thought as he let out a small sigh, still visibly amused.

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