5 The “One”

Annabeth Chase (POV)

I arrived at camp when I was seven years old and have been training the last five. Unfortunately due to my "family" circumstances I haven't left camp since my arrival.

My heritage is a little special, you see, I'm a demi-god, which results from one of my parents being human and the other being a god. In my case my father was human and my mother was the goddess Athena. She is mainly known as the goddess of wisdom and reason however she is also the goddess of strategy, warfare, and lastly arts and crafts.

Now you might be wondering how possible it is to be a daughter of Athena. After all Athena is one of the virgin goddesses. If she's supposed to be a virgin, how are you her kid? Did she break her oath of chastity? Well at least in my case Athena found a man of great intellect and wisdom. Sharing ideas until I am a brain child was born from them. I still don't know the exact process but that's about it.

Now you might be wondering what it's like growing up as a demi-god. Well let me tell you it's not the best. I've been treated as an outcast and a freak since the day I was born.

I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist. He'd even asked Athena to raise me in Olympus.

His wife, my stepmom, treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children and dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.'.

I lived in that house with them until I was seven and then the attacks started. For three nights they would come. Spiders flooded in from all corners of the room as they bit and tortured me.

Now you might be wondering why spiders. Well that actually has to do with my mother back in the day. She had a weaving contest against Arachne. Athena's tapestry consists of the gods together in glory and joy while Arachne's tapestry depicted the gods making fools of themselves.

Athena had to begrudgingly admit that Arachne tapestry was just as good as hers. The tapestry itself was the issue however as it was an insult not only to her but the other gods as well making fools of themselves. The issue escalated until one thing lead to another ultimately resulting in Arachne committing suicide.

Athena, distraught by what she did, turned Arachne into a spider so that she and her children could continue to weave.

Unfortunately for her children, Arachne still held a grudge and while she couldn't get her revenge on Athena she could target Athena's children instead plaguing them with madness, torture, and death.

As a result all children of Athena have a natural fear of spiders.

But as I was saying the attacks lasted for three nights I screamed and tried to explain however when someone checked in on me or when morning came the spiders would vanish, the bite wounds would heal, and all that would remain would be the cobwebs. That wasn't enough proof for my stepmom, she labeled me a liar. Saying I was just trying to get attention and scare my stepbrothers.

Seeing that I couldn't rely on my "family" I left. Running away from home was hard but I never felt alone. I had Athena's guidance. I survived a few months by myself dodging monsters and struggling to get a full meal before they found me.

Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes and Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, both runaways with bad home situations.

We survived moving from place to place fighting monsters and never staying in one place too long. Until one day a satyr Grover found us and led us to camp half-blood, a safe haven for demigods to get the training and skills needed to survive in a world that is constantly trying to kill them.

Not all of us made it to camp however the closer we got to camp the more monsters appeared. Thaila being the strongest stayed behind to hold them back, dying in the process. As she lay dying Zeus saddened by the fate of his daughter turned her into a tree establishing the boundary and keeping the monsters at bay.

Since that day I've been training. Waiting for a chance to prove my skills, to prove that I don't just have to run away as my friends die protecting me.

To this end I've honed my fighting skills, trained my body, acquired a magic item, and as much knowledge as I can. Now I'm just waiting for my chance.

It wasn't until I was ten that I heard the great prophecy and was told I had a part to play. Now I just have to find the "One" a son or daughter of the big three. If she hadn't died it probably would have probably been Thalia as she was a daughter of Zeus and the chance that another offspring of the big three will show up is unlikely as the big three Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades created a pact stating that they will not stop sire anymore children. They were afraid of the impact their children would have on the world. After all, World War 2 was a result of a fight between Hades children versus Poseidon and Zeus's children.

Zeus broke this agreement when siring Thalia. As far as we know besides her there have been no other children of the big three born that we know of within the last 60 years.

Two more years of waiting for the "One". There were false leads of course those that I thought could be the "One" only to be disappointed.

That changed however whenever a demi-god staggered his way into the valley dragging a satyr with him before collapsing on the porch of the Big House. Chiron and myself after discovering them dragged them to the nursing wing to tend to their wounds and feed them some nectar and ambrosia. However it wasn't until Grover woke up that we learned the events that had transpired.

They had been chased by a minotaur and unfortunately the boy's mother died in the process of getting them to camp.

After scouting the area for the minotaur we discover the horn. All evidence points to the boy defeating the minotaur before the boy dragged Grover and himself to the Big House.

All that was going through my mind was that if there was ever a chance of someone being "Big Three" material then then this was it.