<div align="center"><em>“Keeping Young Heroes Safe from Harm (Mostly) For Over Three Millennia"</em><br/>(http://www.deviantart.com/download/100326482/Camp_Half_Blood_Cabin_Yard_by_EvJones.jpg)</div><br/>Chiron had just released the new comers as the sun started to set. The Harpies would be released in about five hours. Just enough time for the Cabin Leaders to get all the new comers settled. Each new comer had a map, but it was likely to be unhelpful till they calmed down and took the time to look around. It was only the first day of camp, but new comers were likely to come and go almost daily. It wasn't like this was a place that one registered to. Kids usually came by here way of being chased by monsters.  Cold, bloodied, and scared witless. The lucky ones were picked up quickly by a Saytr Protector and brought here safely. Even those kids were scared most of the time. Those that weren't, were generally just confused.<br/><br/>The camp had been around for quite a long time, though, like the rest of Olympus, it had moved location. Just as the Flame of Western Civilization had moved from Greece to America over the long years, so moved the camp and all aspects of Olympus. Those children lucky enough to survive the summer sometimes got a chance to go meet their parent on the new Mt. Olympus for the Winter Solstice (which was currently located on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building).<br/><br/>The air was always filled with the scent of strawberries. The camp made it's mortal money from being the largest exporter of strawberries in the country. The strawberry fields themselves took up a whole section of the camp and was accessible to all students. The only time the smell of the berries isn't lingering in the air is when the bonfires take place, or if the children of Hephaestus blow something up and it had a sulfur smell.<br/><br/>"Now, I will ask all new Godlings to follow their designated Cabin Leader. They will find you a bunk and help you settle for the night. I would also like to say 'Welcome back and congrats for surviving the winter' to our old members. And to our year round campers, please try not to get fussy if you have to share something that you didn't before. Mr. D won't tolerate whiners this year and I don't want a repeat of the Big House being covered in toilet paper again. Any camper caught doing such things will have to wash dishes with the Harpies for a week," Chiron smiled and his hooves clopped on the ground a little, "If a satyr hasn't removed your cell phones by now, I ask that all of you leave them in the can over there," he pointed towards a trashcan, "They are strictly prohibited here at Camp Half-Blood and pose a serious danger to all of you."<br/><br/>"Now, if you have any questions, please ask your Cabin Leaders or senior members. Dinner will be served in two hours, lights out in five hours. See you all then," he smiled again before trotting off towards the Big House.<br/><br/>Abigale Norwick stood at the back of the crowd, as usual, with a bright orange T-shirt on that said 'Camp Half-Blood' on it. The outline of her undershirt could be seen through her camp shirt, and a bit of the black lace of it poked out from under the hem. Her usually multi-colored hair was, for once, it's natural sandy blond but there were still a few bits of red down at the tips. Her eyelids were coated with a thick layer of black sparkling eye shadow and her formerly fake lip and nose piercings had been replaced with real ones. Having decided over the winter that just bothering her father with fake ones wasn't enough.<br/><br/>All the campers, new and old, started squirming around, trying to find their places. The volume of the area became quite loud and the cabin leaders would have to yell to be heard, "Hey! All children of Hermes, unclaimed, and Lesser Gods over here!" Abby yelled out, wondering if any could hear her. Her siblings that had been here before found her easily, and so did any unclaimed that had been here before as well. She wondered how many new campers she'd have to cram in their already crowded cabin. It annoyed her to no end that the Gods and Goddess couldn't be bothered to claim their children half the time. Even her own father. It was obvious whose child was whose, but old camp laws prevented 'guessing' which cabin to put kids in. Her father was better at claiming kids than some, but even he left dozens of them around the world without a clue as to who their father was. There were at least six kids last year that had the same eyes, ears, nose, and stealth skills that she had that were no doubt her brothers and sisters, yet her dad never claimed them. She now only caught the eyes of three of those kids, the others hadn't shown up. She hoped they were alive and would show up in the next few weeks.<br/><br/>Slowly, campers started down the path to the thirteen cabins. One for each god. Each one taking on the traits of the god or goddess they represented. Even Abigale shuddered a little as they passed by Hades' cabin, which had walls that were made of solid obsidian, with heavy columns, and no windows. The steps are made up of skulls. It's torches burned green Greek fire twenty-four hours a day. Aphrodite's cabin was a sharp contrast to that with it's painted roof, with pillars and a checkerboard deck with steps, with gray walls and carvings of hearts and various flower types.<br/><br/>"Unclaimed, Lesser Gods, and Hermes' children over here!" she yelled and lead them to Cabin #11. It was the most old and worn looking. Its dull brown paint is chipped off and had a caduceus overhanging the door. They'd added on a second room last year to house the large number of children that sometimes inhabited it, "Find a bed and find it fast!" she yelled over the crowd after opening the door. Abigale had her own bedroom, though it was hardly a bedroom. More like a closet with a bed in it and her duffel bag shoved under it. It was her 'privilege' as a Cabin Leader to have a room. She knew Mr. D got a laugh out of it when a new Cabin Leader would complain about having a closet for a room, "Any fighting over cots or beds and you'll be sleeping outside tonight! Any questions, ask me! Once you have a bed, get cleaned up at the fountain..." she pointed out the door to the large fountain in the middle of the cabins, "...and get ready for dinner. If you want to mark your bed, there are papers and markers in the back of the cabin!"<br/><br/>It was like kindergarten, except a lot of the kids had knives.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>OOC Link (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=105114.0)