I glared into the distance, waiting for some kind of immense shadow to appear before my very eyes.
None came.
The ear-piercing blow of a horn made me jump with fright. Is he here yet? I ask myself. I look around, looking for some kind of towering wall of pure muscle.
Something, or someone, tapped me on the shoulder and I looked in their direction. I saw a small boy, who only reached my shoulders, and he looked barely fourteen.
"Hello Percy," he announced, in a cute manner.
I looked at him in disbelief. He had cobalt grey eyes and curly tawny-gold hair that gleamed in the fading dawn. He had ghostly white skin and ivory-white teeth.
He had several bruises on one side of his face, and a vast, bleeding wound on his chest.
He was wearing traveller's clothes and it was ripped, as if he'd been in a sword-fight recently. He was clutching the remnants of a silver trident.
"Who are you?" I demanded, brandishing my sword.
"What's up, dude?" Grover asked, showing off his weirdly, hairy donkey's legs.
"Who's he?" I ask Grover.
"Dunno, Percy. Who's he?" Grover replies.
"Grover, it's not a joke!" I yell," who is he?"
Grover merely shrugs his shoulders and grabs a bit of official parchment from his top pocket.
"By the order of Zeus, blah blah blah, you must report to the Camp Head, which is Percy, and we will asses your state to confirm if you are a Demi-god or a mortal, blah-"
The boy collapsed onto the ground half-way through Grover's speech.
"Do something!" I shouted hoarsely.
I lifted the boy up easily and hauled him over my shoulder in the fireman's lift, whilst racing to the camp first aid station.
The medical on duty asked us why the boy had collapsed so suddenly.
"Perhaps he was dying of boredom?" Grover suggests.
The medical scowled fiercely at Grover and turned to me instead.
"He's covered in sword wounds. Maybe he had an accident or he was involved in a sword-fight," I answered.
"Name?" asked the medic.
"He never said, mate," Grover answered.
"He'll have to stay here a week before he'll be walking and talking then you can both show him around the camp, if you want," the medic said.
But it turned out that the boy needed more than a week. He needed a year to wake up.