Chapter 9 - Camp Again - An annoying visit from the God of the Sun

Camp passed into sight like a shadow of blurs. Mrs. O' Leary promptly landed perfectly. The only problem was that the hellhound had landed in the middle of the arena where a group of demigods were practicing. Demigods bolted out of the way and scattered. A short freckled boy shrieked and fell down.

"Oh Mrs. O' Leary," Verna shook her head. "Can you try not to land in the arena next time?"

"Woof!" Mrs. O' Leary made a sound like a cannon. Verna slid off. She patted her.

Nico popped out of the shadows.

"She caused a bit of an accident," Verna said.

"Again actually," Nico sighed, looking at all the collapsed people from the impact. "Mrs. O'Leary, can you go take a walk in the forest?"

"WOOF!" She barked and bounded off happily.

"This is third time this happened when we're here! Nico, you've got to teach her not to go in the arena!" A guy yelled, waving his broken bow.

"I'm sorry, Will! She just hasn't… got the hang of it yet."
"Oh come on Will, let it go." An Aphrodite girl she'd seen at breakfast with heavy heart accessories (Verna could see silver heart earrings, clips, T-shirt and flip-flops all heart shaped. She also had heart shaped pockets on her designer jeans. "Please for me?"

Will looked disgusted. There was a massive age difference, Verna noted. About four years apart at least. Then she noticed the girl batting her eyelashes at Nico. Nico didn't seem to notice.

"Class dismissed!" Will yelled. Suddenly a golden flash appeared. A young sandy-haired, American guy appeared. He took his sunglasses and took a deep bow.

"Oh that was such an awesome appearance!" The guy laughed.

"Father," Will and a couple of other blonde haired demigods armed with bows knelt.

"Aww, you don't have to do that, kids. I'm getting so proud that I feel a haiku coming up!" He coughed dramatically.

"I arrive at camp,

My kids all bow down to me,

That shows I'm the best."

All the kids except for the Apollo ones winced.

"What are you doing here father?" Will asked.

Apollo tsked. "Secrets, secrets." He said. "I need to go see Chiron. Can you round all the counselors up for a meeting in the arena?"

Will nodded and ran off to the cabins.

A few minutes later, all the counselors (including Verna and Grover) were sitting in the arena with Apollo shining like a superstar (literally) and Chiron standing patiently next to him. Dionysus had apparently refused to come and had been heard by many demigods, complaining something about Apollo's haikus.

"So what have you come to tell us today, Lord Apollo?" Chiron asked politely.

"Ah… the muses have always recorded extraordinary demigod events, wars and all the heroic stuff. Well, they've done one for our young Percy Jackson!"

"Hold on, they've written a biography about me?" Percy asked.

"You could say that they've accessed a lot of interesting information. It's actually an autobiography…"

"What? I never wrote an autobiography!"

"Courtesy of the muses. They sort of accessed your mind."

"So all my thoughts, and everything…"
"All of them are in the books!" Apollo said happily.

"Sweet!" Conner said. "We get to know what Percy's thinking!"
"Is that legal?" Annabeth asked uncertainly. "Invading Percy's mind?"

"Don't you want to see what he thought of you?" Travis asked slyly. "About when he started liking you…"
Annabeth sat up straighter, "I'm in."

Percy groaned. "Is there anything else we need to know?"

"Yep! You, the lucky counselors have a special field trip to read with the gods!

You will bring a myth,

To the past of the council,

And read it with them!

I LOVE THAT HAIKU! I MUST WRITE THAT IN MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY!"

Apollo started dancing around the arena.

"Oh yeah, one more thing, only reveal your names and not your parentage or accomplishments. It'll be a more interesting show for me! Can you, Jake, install this camera and film the gods? I want to see it when you guys come back." Apollo handed Jake a gold Nixon camera.
"Sure," Jake said. "But I'll need to bring some basic equipment in case it breaks." Apollo snapped his fingers and a golden tool box dotted with golden suns appeared.

"Um, thanks." Jake said.

Percy raised his hand, "I still don't understand."

"Well then," He chuckled. "Off you guys go! Except for Chiron because he needs to supervise the camp in case old D turns them all into Merlot and Verna, I need to talk to her. I'll send her later."
The demigods all disappeared in a golden flash.

"So basically, you sent them on a trip to the past to read about what happened in the last few years?"

"Yep! When the demigods leave, the gods will forget until the counselors come back to this time. Make sense?"
"Somewhat," Verna said. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I needed to tell you to be extra careful and try not to reveal your parentage since your mother isn't supposed to have children. If you want to, you can, except that Uncle might go nuts."
Verna sighed, "I'm pretty sure they'll eventually find out anyway."

Apollo nodded, "I also kept you here because I want you to go there with another person. I think she's coming… about… now."

A silver deer soared down from the cloudless sky. On the deer's back, a dark spiky haired girl was clinging tightly on to the deer's neck.

"Never again," The girl staggered to the ground. "Hey, Lord Apollo. Lady Artemis informed me about the little trip. "

"This is Thalia, she's a daughter of Zeus."

"I heard from Annabeth that a few years ago, the Big Three weren't supposed to have children."
Thalia snorted. "Gods are never, ever faithful." Thunder rumbled.

"And Thalia, Verna's a daughter of Persephone so you need to try and protect her parentage or she'll get killed by Uncle Hades."

"Persephone?"

"It's a long story."

"Oh… Persephone and I don't exactly have the best history ever since she turned my bow into flowers."

"Don't worry, I won't turn your bow into flowers. Besides," Verna paused. "She's not much of a mom."

There was a small rumble of thunder.

"See?" Verna said in an undertone.

"Good point." Thalia chuckled. "We'll get along just fine."

"You girls ready?" Apollo asked.

"Course'" Thalia said.

"Whenever you are," Verna smiled.

"I can't promise it'll be a safe landing, though I can guarantee it'll be a fun one." Apollo said.

"Hold on… what do you mean no safe landing?"

They disappeared too.