I was greeted back with the smiles and hugs I'd grown accustomed to. Us god-blooded children may swing swords at each other and hack each other to bits, but you can't say we aren't a loving family.
Scratch that- you can't say that, minus the Ares cabin, we aren't a loving family. Much better.
However I noticed one of my friends faces wasn't among the crowd..
"Where's Grover?" I asked, interrupting Mr D's usual greeting of 'Don't expect me to welcome you back, Lilac Doors.' Mr D muttered something about interrupting brats before stalking off, no doubt plotting to turn me into a sunflower sometime soon.
"He's been let back out to his searching duties." Chiron, the activities director, told me, his tail twitching slightly.
Yes, I said tail. I'm an Oracle. You've met Apollo. You honestly should have expected this. Chiron is the Chiron. You know, the centaur trainer of Hercules? That Chiron? Yeah, my camp's activities director is an immortal horse.
Woah, that souned odd- back on task Lily!
"What do you mean Grover's been let back out? Why wasn't I informed?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.
Before you ask stupid questions about my love life, lets make one thing clear- I am not dating Grover. I will never date Grover. I do not want to date Grover. I'm the Oracle of Delphi. The Virgin Oracle of Delphi.
Grover is my best friend. A few years ago, back when I was really new at the camp, an accident happened. Grover was a searcher and escorting three demigods back to camp, but were being chased by a horde of monsters and a terribly nasty cyclops.
Long story short- Thalia, one of the demigods, is now a pine tree on Half-Blood Hill. She was about to die, but her father, Zeus, changed her instead. Annabeth and Luke made it fine, a few injuries, but nothing a little nectar couldn't fix. Grover was in a bad way. He had to tangle with something rough as he was half unconcious when he dragged the two kids near the boundary.
I, being the idiot that I was stood and gawped for a second. But a second was long enough for him to pass out, as well as the kids. The monsters were gaining on them as Thalia had already made, what came to be known as 'her last stand' (although I knew differently, I had several drawings of her looking older, which were all channeled from my visions, unfortnately, I'm not allowed to acknowledge them so I never told anyone of them). I ended up running out and dragging the three of them though the boundary, whilest a couple of the Apollo cabin ran up the hill aiming arrows at the monsters.
Grover and I had been friends ever since, so you'll excuse me if I'm a little miffed that no one informed me of this change.
"The Council of Elders has agreed to let him back out on probation. We didn't tell you because we assumed you would be going to the same school. He was sent to Yancy academy to watch for the Perseus Jackson you mentioned." Chiron answered, watching my face carefully as though I was a ticking time bomb about to burst out in a fit of shouts and protests.
And here I thought Chiron would have faith in me. I didn't yell; I sulked.
I huffed and stalked over to the big house, where my room was in the attic. I didn't come out until an hour or so before dinner.
At the time, I didn't know it was Apollo's Oracle Spirit guiding me to Thalia, I only realized that after. I wish I'd ignored my instinct to go see the dumb tree- it would have saved me from ivading on an awful personal moment. I sat down by the tree and was only there for about five minutes when I heard yelling.
"Hey! Hey stupid! Ground Beef!"
What on earth?
I looked down the hill to see the Minotaur charging at a weedy little dark haired boy half dragging a satyr with him.
I repeat. What on earth?
I pulled off the ring from my middle finger on my left hand and it transformed into a glittery bronze sword.
If you're wondering what the ring thing is about, lets just say I have four rings. Each one turns into something different when taken off. I pulled some weight with the Hephaestus cabin- I bought them some new gear over the school term a couple of years back and in return they made me my four rings. They turn into a shield, a sword, a spear and a sack full of darts. They aren't magical by any means- just regular old weapons, albeit perfectly made and perfectly balanced weapons, but regular with great mist manipulations.
The sword is a given. Everyone at Camp Half-Blood is trained to use a sword like second nature. Same with the shield, really. Swords and shields are like the butter to every half-blood's toast. It just is.
The spear is a little less common, but we still train to use it. A couple of us are very proficient at it- Clarisse from the Ares cabin has an electric one as a gift from her father. She's shockingly good with it.
The darts, however, are another thing entirely. The darts aren't very greek- but I suck with a bow and arrow. Like, really suck. As in I hit Chiron behind me, instead of the target in front of me bad. Luckily though, I used to play darts with my old chauffer at weddings and parties I didn't care much for. I was pretty good, so I told Chiron who coincidently has a dart board in the big house (Apparently its the only game Mr D can beat him in..). Nonetheless, I am now the unofficial Darts Master at camp.
The Hephaestus cabin thought it'd be funny to give me some Celestial Bronze darts from left over metal from their other projects. We never thought they'd be good as a weapon.
But we're getting off track- I drew my sword and was about to charge down the hill when the new camper got an idea. A very stupid idea.
He waved a red blanket infront of the bull, making me halt as giggles erupted from my mouth.
Then on my following expressions went like this: worry, disbelief, amusement, slack-jawed. Yeah, this kid was crazy.
Imagine my suprise when I find out this crazy new camper was the kid that lived a couple streets over!
"Grover! Oi, all-knowing Oracle coming through!" I ran down the hill, still carrying my sword, and elbowed my way passed the new kid. He just stood there in shock. But never mind that- Grover was hurt.
I knelt down to Grover and noticed he was out cold. Summoning up my dignity, I hoped to the gods that the kid new enough about Grover to realize I wasn't crazy.
"Juniper has Enchiladas!" Juniper is a cute tree nymph that lived in the woods behind camp, who Grover has had a crush on since forever. I really shouldn't have to explain the enchiladas. He's crazy for them.
It worked. He woke up straight away.
"Juniper? Enchi- Lily! Don't do that!" I smirked and hugged him, before pulling him to his feet. The new kid still hadn't moved from his spot. I noticed the Minotaur Horn that he'd used to kill the monster was on the floor just left to his hand as if he'd dropped it.
Grover noticed him then too and grinned.
"Lily let me introduce you to-" I cut him off. I knew this kid.
"Percy Jackson. Son of the blue-candy lady." I cut him off. Grover seemed a little shocked I knew him, but that was when I reckoned I'd said something wrong. Percy trembled.
"Grover.., Mom's gone.." He collapsed.
I'm not gonna carry on from there, as it'd be mean to Percy. But I will tell you that he's still an unclaimed half-blood but he's not-long woke up from being out-cold so we're not too worried about over-packing the Hermes cabin for too long.
At least, I'm not. That kid'll be claimed. I'm sure of it.
Speaking about Percy- he just got informed about Capture the Flag. Man, if you'd have seen his face! (Clarisse's earlier was better, but I'm not supposed to mention that if I don't want my face rearranged..)
I don' think he's quite realized that we atually do use weapons. Just wait 'till he sees Annabeth and he nasty dagger!
Authros Note: Thanks to those who reviewed. Criticism would be nice, as well as suggestions for plot hoops.
-Amber Quirke
