The Unusual Visitors

P|| Dreams- the worst thing a demigod wants after a tiresome day. They might be just nightmares, or they can be messages or even some important events from the past. On a usual night, I will just be tortured by some dracaenae, but today- let us just say it was somewhat different. I was watching the Olympian Gods arguing and each one bore such a deep expression that, well I was scared they might just start blowing up holes over the Manhattan sky- line. I was able to see Zeus, as usual in his pin- striped suit; Poseidon, his regular tan seemed somewhat gone; Ares, sweet Zeus- I hated his expression, that and his daughter's usual behavior; Apollo, his cheerful face somewhere missing in the discussion; and the one least expected- Hades, looking usually grim and deep in thought.

All this was OK. But there was something different. As if on cue, I saw Zeus' outline shimmer.

Nah! It's just my imagination. His eyes were closed as if focusing on something. And then I realized he really was shimmering a moment before. Another thing that I noticed was that no God had their symbol of power- their Weapons. Zeus' master bolt was nowhere to be seen, dad's trident was not in its place, Hades' Helm was not at his side, Apollo's bow was missing and even the war God's weapon- his double handed sword- was out of vision. Something was terribly wrong…

Just about then, my alarm clock brought me back to my real world. Morning.

'Percy, you up?', mom asked from the other side of the door.

'Yeah, up and ready in a moment,' I replied back thinking of what to make out of my dream.

'Better hurry up! You don't want to be late for camp. It will be the first time I drop you there, Percy. And oh, Good Morning!' , shouted Paul Blofis- my mom's boyfriend. I knew we were expecting him, but this early.

All went well from there on and just when I expected everything to go around fine a turn of events just pricked me out of the dream world where me and Annabeth were supposed to go monster hunting. As I was having breakfast- eggs and bacon with blue chocolate drink- a door bell interrupted us. I watched as mom got up to open the door, but then stopped her to check it myself.

'Mind if I do it, mom?', I asked and went to open the door . Well, I got a horrible shock.

How many of you would love to have your ex- Greek Mythology and Camp Activities Director and trainer to visit you with bad news on the first day of your holidays? No, I hope it's something good because Chiron won't leave camp unless it's very urgent or if he is off to meet his kins- The Party Ponies- which I am certainly not.

He seemed to have aged 50 years in the last one year, which is an understatement since he is over three thousand years old. I let him in and he went past me wordlessly. Not even a hello! Something was seriously wrong. He just looked at me, smiled once and made his way past me on his wheel chair.

He straight away went to the kitchen as if he knew my mom will be there, and I just followed. He parked his wheelchair near the table and greeted everyone. My mom looked at me and then at him. 'Is something wrong Chiron?', she asked, her eyes shifting nervously between me and Chiron as if something was going to kill me. Chiron nodded, 'Be a little patient, Mrs. Jackson. I will tell you soon enough. Let us just wait for the other one. ', he said helping himself with a cup of tea.

'The other one? Is there someone else coming too?', I asked half expecting it to be Annabeth. It would be a great start for camp, besides after the Titan war, Annabeth was either busy redesigning Olympus or she was visiting her dad. In this case, the latter. She said that there was something was bugging her quite a lot and also said that she would tell everyone about it on time. I knew she was hiding something, but I didn't want to press her too much. Maybe I could ask her about this while she was here. As if on cue, the doorbell rang again and I went again to open the door.

It was like the Fates had decided to make my life suck. Like one shock was just not enough for me and the fates had decided to keep shocking me until I die. I opened the door and stared blankly at the one standing before me. It felt like I had been ripped from my existence and sent to a world of dreams. The thing is, I got another shock as the one standing in front of me was not Annabeth but exactly the opposite person whom I never dreamt of confronting here, at my house.

Clarisse la Rue shouldered a bag and her hair looked as if she had just come out of a spa that had a really bad hair dresser. She looked at me and said something that I had never expected to hear from her mouth, or from any other kid from the Ares cabin. 'Hi Percy, can I come in?', said she and at that moment it felt like someone had hit me on the head with a really big 'stick', as Tyson would quote it.