Thalia's POV

   The new girl was different from the others. I could tell she was a loner, but so was Alli, so that wasn't it. I was wary to get close to her, but I came here to recruit, so attempt to recruit I shall.

   "Hi," I said, putting on my friendliest smile, "Who are you?"

   "You don't need to know," the girl said. She pointed the pen she had in hand towards Lydia, "Make sure they keep quiet."

   Lydia threw her hands up like a surrender, but I wasn't paying attention to them. I was staring at the pen in her hand. It looked just like Percy's... but I wasn't going to THINK about Percy! I shook the thought from my mind. The girl (who I shall call G because saying 'the girl' over and over will get old fast) went deeper into the woods.

   "What do you know about her?" I asked.

   "Absolutely nothing," Lydia said, "She kinda stays on her own like Alli."

   "How long have you been in the woods?" I asked them.

   "Why do you want to know," Alli asked me, more ice coming off her words than usual, but Lydia and Katie were thinking.

   "About 8 years," Katie said with a nonchalant shrug.

   "Wait a minute, how old are you guys?" I asked this directly to Lydia and Katie, knowing I wouldn't get an answer out of Alli.

   "I'm 12!" Katie said making jazz hands, "but I'll be 13 soon."

   "I turn 14 in November," Lydia said, eyeing me suspiciously.

   I sat on a nearby log. These girls had been in the woods all their lives. They've been out in the wild for so long. All the more reason for them to join the hunt.

   "Look, I know this is going to be hard, but you have to trust me. You're all something called a demigod. That's someone whose's parents are a human and a god. If you've ever been attacked by a monster, or seen something that you couldn't understand, this is why. I'm part of the Hunters of Artemis. We can help you train to fight monsters, survive, and you'll even meet other people like you. In the middle of the woods, there's an old redwood tree. There's an entrance to the camp through that tree."

   "That old redwood tree?!" Lydia exclaimed. There was a look of realization on her face. "That's where the swords were appearing from."

   "Are you going to want those back?" Katie asked. Before I could answer, Katie went and dropped a pile of celestial bronze swords at my foot. She gave a look that Dopey would be proud of.

   Out of nowhere, I hear the sound of whispering. I turn to Alli, and she was talking to... no one. She was talking to thin air.

     "Maybe it's a spirit," I thought, "I wouldn't be surprised if she's a child of Hades." 

   Suddenly, I saw the image of a girl in my head, and a wave of sadness came over me because I knew who the girl was. It was Bianca Di Angelo. She joined the hunt not that long ago, but died on her first quest. 

   "Don't you people ever sleep?" The voice of G broke me from my thoughts.

   "We live in a monster infested woods," Lydia shouted," How are you even able to sleep?"

   "Carefully," G muttered. She started heading back into the woods.

   "Wait," I said. I wanted to know who this girl was. I thought back to the pen. "Where did you get that pen?"

   Before she could answer, I caught a familiar scent. When you're in the hunt, you learn to smell monsters before they can smell you. My heart sinks. I know which one it is. "Something's coming." I whispered, barely loud enough to be heard. As soon as I say it, a Minotaur comes running towards us. 

   Alli ignores it, continuing her conversation with the spirit. Katie rubs her hands together. Lydia pulls a recorder out of the inside pocket of her jacket and flips it in the air. It transforms into a double bladed sword (one blade being made of iron and one out of celestial bronze). G grabbed her pen and confirmed what I had expected. The pen turned into a celestial bronze sword. She looked at us and said the most sincere thing she's said since I met her.

   "I've got this one. You just run."