Diversions: Book 1, Start: Chapter 2 out of 22, Dark

I put my last orange T-shirt in the black case. I finally got the bag I wanted to stand out from camp. A midnight-black shoulder-case with eerie neon letters that spelled: EZ DEATH. There was a small ring of silver skulls lacing around the words. "Sis?" I heard a sweet voice. "Katrina?" She smiled and walked over. She was pretty, not as pretty as an Aphrodite kid, but as smart as she could be. (Especially since mom was Athena.) She bent down and her long black hair fell over her shoulder. Her dark-grey eyes glistened with excitement. Most siblings would think 16-year-old older brothers or sisters are a pain, but not me. Kat was always so nice. She patted me on the back and said, "Skylar, I can't wait for you to get to Athena cabin. If you can't find it, it's cabin 8, lil' sis."  She looked at my bag and frowned at me. She wagged a tanned finger at me and said, "You are not a Hades kid." I frowned back at her. "Dad is. Dad is a Hades kid." I muttered loudly. She sighed impatiently. "But YOU aren't! You're a quarter Hades, quarter mortal, and HALF Athena! YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT." She yelled. Then she straightened her Saints football jersey and walked away. I glumly pulled my EZ DEATH case over my shoulder and walked into my dad's black car. Once i'm at Half-Blood Hill, I walk to the top and the long, twined golden-purple dragon walks over to me and stares for a moment. It snaps open it's mouth, but just eats the bottom half of my shirt. Then it walks back to the tree and lays down. I walk in, and a centaur with glistening auburn hair, hazel eyes, and a cracked wooden bow slung over his shoulder walked up. The centaur in the picture. He stuck out his hand and said, "I'm-" But I cut in. "Chiron. You're Chiron. You trained... Perseus Jackson." I said Percy's name with disgust and distaste. Chiron saw the automatic dislike with Percy's name. He looked at me, my black high-tops, dark silver shirt, grey jeans, silver bone ring, (dad gave it to me,) black eyes and hair. He automatically guessed who I was. "Nico DiAngelo's other daughter?" He asked. I nodded gravely. "Yes. He always had a... problem with Perseus." There was a moment of silence, then Chiron said: "Come now. You must choose a weapon." He led me to a shed, and we walked inside. The walls were completely lined with swords, daggers, shields, hammers, bows, belts, clubs, and guns. I walked around, seeing mostly AK-47's, dusty splintered bows, cracked and bent knives, and large, heavy wooden clubs. Two things caught my eye. A black shield with silver-and-ruby drakon going around the entire lining of the shield, and the head and tail meeting at the top point. Also, a Imperial gold-ish Stygian-ish Celestial bronze-ish sword. Chiron saw where I was looking. "Ah. Dark taste. Very dark taste. The Cursed Shield of the Lydian Drakon, and Harpe." He murmured. (Author's note: I made up the shield.) "What? I haven't heard of either of those." I replied. "Yes. The shield was used to slay one of the last Lydian Drakons. It got covered in the Drakon's poison. From that moment on, nothing or nobody could touch it. Harpe- the first Perseus- not Percy Jackson- used that to slay Medusa." I walk over to the sword and shield. The sword is perfectly weighed. I sheath it in my black sword case. The shield... I slowly reach my hand to it. "No, don't!" Chiron shouts. It's too late. My hand is already on the middle of the shield where the side of a Drakon's head is carved. I feel a sharp sting, but nothing else. The sting quickly fades. The ruby eyes of the Drakon glow brightly why my hand touched the drakon in the middle. "How is this possible?" Chiron murmurs. The tail looks loose. I pull it down, and realize it isn't loose. It's on hinges. When I pull down the tail, a jet of glowing green fire spurts out. Chiron waves his left hoof at the shield, and it clangs against it. It doesn't even make a dent. "Stop that!" Chiron yells. Suddenly, a girl bursts in. She has dirty blonde hair, (hair color, she's not a blonde with dirty hair,) grey-blue eyes, suntanned skin, a orange T-shirt that was too big for her, and a pair of white jeans. She had a bow and quiver slung over her back and a bronze sword on her side. She grinned. "Celeste Zoe Jackson, reporting for duty."