Introductions

Chapter 26

Monday November 25, 2013

8:38 am

(Ivan's POV)

I walked beside the guy for a long time. Where he was taking me, I don't know. The worse part was that it didn't take a long time because we made a couple of stops, it was he was looking at the pieces of metal in his hands. Eventually we stopped at a cabin that had a strong smell of medicine pouring out of the building. The smell was mixed with a faint fruity smell. The guy looked up and then looked back down at his hands.

"So what's your name?" The guy said as he walked up to the door.

"Ivan" I responded as we walked to the door. He gave slight nod. The smell of medicine got stronger as we got closer to the door. He didn't bother to look up from his hands as he got closer to the door, he bumped head first into the door. I felt a smirk appear on my face. The door quickly opened to reveal a tall woman wearing pajamas with messy hair going down her back.

"What?" The girl responded. The guy pointed to me before responding.

"Arm wrong." She sighed before stepping out of the way.

"Come in." The inside looked plain, there was nothing that stood out. Just a few desks in the corner and a bookshelf on the side. Unlike the Fūjin cabin, the building was small and there were bunk beds at the end of the building. I notice a cabinet on left side of the door. She immediately opened the cabinet and took out a bottle of water. She points at one of the desks and said, "sit." I walk over to a desk and pull back a chair. She walks over with a bottle of pills, with a water bottle in hand. In a bored tone, she asked me a question. "So, where do you feel pain?"

"Mostly my arms."

"Anywhere else?"

"My torso and head."

She walked over to my left side and put her hand on my shoulders. I heard her mutter, "Not that bad." She grabbed my left hand and stretched it out. She put her other hand under my armpit. "Can you take a deep breath?" I took a deep breath and a pop came from my shoulder. I groaned from the pain. She gently put my arm on the table. In a matter of seconds the pain faded. My arm felt sore, but that was it. There was no more pain. I flexed my fingers with ease. A smile formed on my face. She stepped to my right and touched my shoulder. She quickly took her hand off and placed her hands on the side of my head. "Brick?" The girl said.

"Yeah?"

"Why did't you tell me about the back of his head." What?

"What's wrong with the back of my head?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it." She quickly said.

"I didn't even know there was something wrong with his head."

"How?"

"I was looking down at him, he was looking up at me. You get the point right?" The girl let out a loud and long sigh before grabbing the bottle of water. She quickly unscrewed the cap and held the bottle in front of my face.

"Just a sip." I rolled my eyes and grabbed the bottle. As soon as I brought up the bottle to my lips a sweet, fruity taste filled my mouth. The girl quickly snatched the bottle away from my lips. I licked my lips, wanting more.

"The bottle barely touched my lips, why did you take it away?"

"The drink has alcohol." Oh.

"Why would you give me something with alcohol?" She sighed.

"Are you new to camp?"

"Yeah? Why?" She put the bottle on the table.

"Do you know who Inari Ōkami is?" I don't really care.

"Nope."

"Okay, so Inari Ōkami is the god of," She took a deep breath. "foxes,rice, fertility,tea, sake,agri-" I had a feeling this would go on for a while. I had to cut her off.

"Oh wow cool." I heard the guy quickly run out of the door shouting, "I'm leaving!" The girl had a face of anger before quickly calming down.

"Can you please get out? Before you go you should remember to not disrespect any god here." Okay? I slowly get up from my chair and walk to the door. I'm pretty sure I did nothing wrong. Is it because I cut her off? If so, that's kind of petty. I walked out the door feeling the back of my head. I feel something wet on my fingers. I bite my lip as I saw blood dripping down my fingers. Where did this blood come from? Actually now that I think about it, my head did bang on the floor a lot. I didn't notice it though. Weird. I walked into the camp, trying to find where the blood was coming from. There wasn't a cut or anything like that. Did that drink heal me? I shouldn't have cut off that girl, at least then I could at least know what that drink was. I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see that girl I saw who ripped the gauze from my arm.

"What?"

"Just wanted to know why you just walked out of the Inari Ōkami cabin?" I glared at her for a second.

"I got my arm healed. I'm just walking back to my cabin." She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank god, I thought you were going to be my sibling".

"Oh." I turned around and walked away. I stopped dead in my tracks. Where is the Fūjin cabin again? I reluctantly turned around asked the girl where the Fūjin cabin was as she walking away.

"I think it's near the Amaterasu cabin."

"Where's that?"

"Near the Fūjin cabin."

"I've known you for less than ten minutes and I already hate you." Her face quickly turned into a smile.

"Wonderful!" I felt a little annoyed with her.

"Can you just give me directions to the cabin. Please?" She stared off into space for a little bit.

"Sure." She said in a bored voice. "Just follow me." She quickly speed walked past me. I just wanted directions. I sighed as I chased after her. We walked in silence for a bit. I notice that more people were outside compared to earlier. "So what's your name?" She asked uncomfortably.

"Why did you sound so uncomfortable?"

"I don't like the silence."

"Ah." I liked the silence. She ruined it. "My name's Ivan."

"Cool. My name's Alice."

"Cool."

"So," Please stop trying to break the silence. "Fūjin is your dad."

"Yep."

"What's it like having so many siblings?"

"I don't know, got here this morning."

"Oh yeah, I forgot." There was silence for between us for a little bit. Now the silence felt weird.

"So, how long have you been at camp?" I asked.

"Uhh, ten years. Came here when I was one."

"Why so early?" She didn't respond for awhile.

"None of your business." Fair enough. We eventually walk onto a street with various creatures' corpse piled up. I see someone light a match before dropping the match on a corpse. The pile of corpses quickly burst into flames then to ash, all in less than a second. I sigh as Alice and I walk past the pile. "God that smells." She said while pinching her nose.

"I don't smell anything though."

"Really? The smell is strong."

"Doesn't smell like it."

"Lucky." We turned onto another street.

"How close are we?" She took a few steps forward and stopped.

"I think it's here."

"You think?"

"I'm probably right." I look up up at the cabin.

"Looks the sames as any other cabin."

"Every cabin looks the same."

"True." She spun on her heels and walked away.

"Okay bye!" I mutter, "bye" as I walked up to the front door. I hear faint crying coming from the other sound of the door. Sounds like the Fūjin cabin. I open the door and notice a crowd people surrounding a picture of Nate. I stare blankly at the crowd before stepping inside. I felt out of place as I approached the crowd. I didn't know him enough to cry over him, it looks like everyone else is crying over him though. Was he really that important to everyone? I slowly walk past the crowd and walk over to the part where all the beds were at. I leaned on the wall, hoping no one would notice me. I heard a bell ring in the middle of the crowd, suddenly everyone settled down. There were still a few sniffles and whimpers. I notice a girl standing on a chair, she was holding a small white board. Her eyes were red, I caught a glimpse of snot on the bottom of her nose.

"Can you guys please settle down? We have something to talk about." I made my way over to the crowd. "As all of you know, Nate has peacefully passed away." Did they not see Nate's body? He looked awful. "Sadly, we have to move on. I'm pretty sure all you know that Nate was the leader of our cabin. Unfortunately, Nate isn't here to be our leader anymore." Yeah, I wonder why. "I hate to say this, but we need a new leader." She paused for a moment to pull out a marker to write something on the board. When she was done writing she threw the marker to the side and showed the crowd what she wrote. On the board were two names: Stacy, Alex, and Derek. Three people suddenly appear next to the girl on the chair. There was a petite, blond girl on the right of the girl on the chair.. The other two, were boy who had more muscle, but there were still differences between them. One had glasses while also having hair coming down to his shoulders. The other boy looked like a body builder, he had a buzz cut to go along with his muscles. It kind of looked like he was in the military. They each had one box in there hands. The box had a lever with a screen in the middle. They all had a nervous look on their face, almost like they didn't want to be here. "Can you guys pick one person to be our leader? Please don't pick someone based on your relation ship with them."

Almost immediately, the crowd quickly swarmed them. I walk up to a random person and wait in line until it was my turn to pull the lever. I have no idea who these people are, all I know was that today was a bad day to come to camp. I step back and wait until everyone was done pulling the levers. Once everyone stepped back, I was able to count to had the most votes. The guy with a buzz cut had the most votes. The blond girl looked relieved, the other guy had a blank look on his face. The guy who actually won, had a shocked look on his face. His lips formed a grin, but it looked like he was forcing it. He stood still in shock, probably from not knowing what to do. The other two happily walked off to the side.

"Just do whatever you want. I have something to do." The guy with the buzz cut said before rushing out the door. The other two snicker as they go off and to their own thing. The crowd slowly dispersed. I notice some other people pulling on the handles on the floors and walls. The people pulling on the handles looked like they were about to pass out. Eventually a group of people somehow pulled out a metal cabinets from the wall. Did they really just use the the walls and floors for extra storage space? Who does that? Soon another group of people pull out a book case from the floor. I'm surprised that the books didn't fall out when they were pulling it out. Naturally I walked over to the bookcase. I notice a book a called 'Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief.' The cover had a black-haired boy in the middle of the pond while looking at a city. It looked interesting. Before I could turn to the first page I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over my shoulder to see the two teenagers who were throwing kids into a cabin. They each had a uncomfortable look on their faces.

"Can we speak to you for a second?" The boy said.

"Please don't throw me." I said. The girl chuckled, but the boy just sighed. I put the book back on the shelf. "What do you want?"

"Can we just go somewhere more private?" His body tensed up. "We just want to talk to you for a moment."

"Sure." The girl gently grabbed my arm and lead me towards the cabin with all the beds. I don't know how this was silent, but I'm just going to go along with it. The girl was the first one to respond.

"We are so sorry for letting get attacked." What kind of apology is that?

"Thanks?"

"If there is anything we can do to help, please let us know." I thought about it for a little bit. I do have trouble getting around camp. A tour maybe? No, a map is better.

"Is a map of the camp fine with you?"

"Yep! Is that all though?"

"Yeah." She nodded and they both walked away.

I walk to the bookshelf and pull out the book I had put back before. I wonder what this is about.

10:20 am

(Ivan's POV)

I close the book as I read the last word. I didn't know how to feel about the book. It was fun to read, but a twelve-year old kid beating a god without training kind of felt off for me. Other than that it was good book. I get up and put the book on the shelf. I notice a group of people crowding around a desk. On the desk was a bunch of tubes with liquids and what looked like spices. There was a loud knock on the door but no one bothered to answer. The knock got louder, eventually one of the older kids answered the door. I look back at the bookshelf and notice a book called 'Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.' Oh they have the second book, nice. As I reached for the book someone calls out my name. I quickly search for someone calling my name. I notice a familiar looking tail swinging around. I walk over the door. At the door I see the familiar face of the girl who brought me to camp. I immediately think, "how did she get my name?" I'm confident I didn't give her my name.

"Yeah?"

"We have to talk about your living situation." That's the first thing she says?

"Why?"

"Because you can't just be homeless."

"I'm technically not homeless."

"Just come with me." I roll my eyes and step out of the cabin, I made sure to close the door as I walked out. She turned around and made a blueish portal, she then stepped inside. I followed her. My vision blurred out for a little bit, as my vision came back to me, I notice that I was sitting down in a wooden chair. Beside me was a black-hair boy with red eyes.

"Hey Ivan!"

"Do I know you?"

"We met earlier today."

"I still don't remember you." The boy's eyes suddenly turn gray. "Michael?" Michael smiled and nodded. Those eyes are definitely not normal. Someone clears their throat to the side. I quickly look towards the sound to see a tall, lankly person in their mid- thirties.

"I thought you would look different."