I'm baaaaccckk! Finally. I had a great trip, though, and even saw Mount Olympus! Okay, not the "real" one, the one in Washington state USA, but it was close enough. Anyhow, here is the much anticipated chapter 9! Enjoy...
It was evening, and everyone was enjoying the enormous campfire at Camp Half-Blood. We sang songs, roasted just about anything we could fit onto a stick, and – if you were in the Hephaestus cabin – built mini-machines that catapulted flaming marshmallows. It was pretty typical, really.
I sat mainly by myself. It took about ten seconds for everyone to get over the fact that I was back at camp, and now they were all pulling an Annabeth and ignoring me. She was on my left, with Minnie and a couple more campers – mostly from Athena – but made sure there was a good six feet of space between us. I didn't try my luck and edge closer. Minnie was the only one of them that caught my eye every once and a while with a smile. So I just roasted a couple marshmallows and enjoyed the smell of charred food, the idea of a quest nagging at the back of my mind.
Finally Chiron stepped forward and motioned for everyone to settle down.
"Ahem!" he cleared his throat.
"So as you probably all already know, we have a new camper: Minnie Coulter, daughter of Poseidon." Minnie figeted in her seat when everyone stared at her. I knew the feeling.
"But there have also been a lot of campers responsible for spreading rumours about her," Chiron continued, looking pointedly at Travis and Connor Stoll. "The most crazy involving a giant octopus and a magic carpet." A couple campers giggled. Connor raised his hands guiltily.
"I'd like to clear all of this up since some of it is important to you as heroes. Minnie was in New York shortly after the Battle of Olympus, and stumbled upon a group of surviving empousai who were rallying in Central Park. From what her, and the satyr Jasper Sherwood have told us, we think the monsters that escaped us may be joining forces once again. There are not many, but we don't know yet why they are doing such, and myself and Mr. D would like to indeed find out and put a stop to it. That is why we have decided to offer a quest."
"Not a very large quest," Chiron said, as the crowd started muttering, and a few people cheered. "More of a mission, if you'd like to call it that. I know everyone has been through a lot lately, but this is something I don't think we should turn a blind eye to."
I nodded slowly to myself. Judging by the overall mood of the crowd, not everyone was willing to get out and battle some more monsters so soon after everything had finally settled down. I sure hoped that they had chosen someone with enough guts to take it all on. Now if I could still go on quests… but no – this was someone else's turn.
Mr. D stepped forward, looking the same as ever in his ugly Hawaiian shirt and shorts.
"The camper that has been chosen, to lead the quest; to prove himself," there was some muttering from the now sour-looking girls. "Even though everyone who fought recently has already pretty much proven themselves… For reasons of bravery and skill… blah blah blah, it's Cameron Stymeist, son of Athena, hooray everyone."
The Athena cabin burst into applause and cheering. Can Stymeist – a friendly guy maybe a year or two younger than me – was sitting on Annabeth's other side, but momentarily disappeared under all the pats-on-the-back his friends gave him. The nosie level started rising again as all the other campers went back to their conversations, some looking more disappointed then before.
I wasn't – disappointed I mean. If the worst thing happening right now was the gathering of a handful of tired monsters, life was good. Cam was just the sort of guy to deal with them. Trying to be as sly as possible, I edged a little closer to Annabeth to try and get in on some of the action.
"So, Cam," Chiron said, arriving at our group. "Are you accepting the quest?"
"Yes," Cam said immediately. "Of course."
"Wonderful," Chiron clapped his hands together. "Now you're still allowed to bring two friends with you…"
"Patrick."
A couple of the other Athena campers started whispering. Cam seemed pretty sure of his answer, but the son of Hermes who was his best friend didn't exactly have enough courage to tip the scales, if you know what I mean. I may have been imagining it, but Patrick didn't look too thrilled about it either.
"And…" Cam scanned the faces all around him. He finally looked to the girl on his right. "Annabeth."
There was a lot more whispering. Annabeth's lists of quests, after all, was as high as mine, and probably about ten times as long as any average camper. But at least she would be doing something interesting, and would maybe get some more time to simmer down before I tried talking to her again.
"Are you sure?" Chiron asked.
"I'm sure."
"Well then I suggest you three go back to your cabins and start preparing. You'll need to consult the Oracle, of course –"
"Wait."
Minnie had stood up; she wasn't looking too happy. "I want to go too."
"Minnie," Chiron warned. "This is Cam's quest. He's already chosen his two friends. You'll have to wait until it's your turn."
"But that's not fair!" Minnie cried. "I was the one who found the monsters. I should be able to go."
"You barely know how to fight," Chiron pointed out. "You've only been at Camp Half-Blood less than twenty-four hours, you're too young, and you barely escaped with your life last time. I don't think you're ready to go on a quest, my dear."
"I'll be with other people; it'll be different."
"Look, she can have my place," Patrick said suddenly. "I'm fine if I never have to fight another monster in my life. Minnie really wants to go, so she can go instead of me."
Chiron pulled at his beard, thinking. "Are you okay with this, Cam?"
"I guess so," Cam shrugged. "As long as everyone's happy, I'm good."
Chiron considered this. He glanced over and we locked eyes for a moment. Then he turned back to Cam.
"Well I guess it's decided then. Cam, Annabeth and Minnie will go on the quest. Now as I was saying…"
"Peter Johnson," a voice said behind me, as I resisted the urge to punch the whispering Athena campers in the face. I turned abruptly to see Mr. D standing there. "Come, I need to talk to you."
"Um, okay," I said as I followed him. Dionysus and I weren't really fans of each other so it would have to be something really important for him to actually come and talk to me.
"What do you want?" I asked as soon as we were far enough away.
"My gods, not even a 'hello' for your favourite camp director?" Dionysus chided. "Well anyhow, Perry Jepson, the Council of the Gods met yesterday, and we've decided to appoint you God of Heroes. Do you accept the title?"
I felt like all functions in my brain has slowed down to turtle speed.
"Yes… yes…" I stammered. "I accept."
"Well I suppose I expected that," he sighed. "I didn't vote for it myself, but Poseidon convinced most of the others that it would be best for the demigods, as well as for you."
The gears in my head started turning again.
"Wait, so the majority of the gods wanted me to become more powerful?" I said sarcastically. "How did my dad manage that?"
Dionysus shrigged. "Good arguments. Ares was absolutely furious, and Zeus wasn't happy wih it at all, but Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Apollo, Hera, Demeter and Hermes all seemed to think it was a good idea. I can't see how, personally, anyone would want to be even more connected to this infernal camp."
Dionysus was stuck at Camp Half-Blood for another fifty years, for coveting some sort of off-limits wood nymph. I, on the other hand, didn't believe I'd ever get sick of camp. And I guess now as the god of heroes, I could stay forever. It just seemed too easy. "But wait, is that it? I'm just a proper god now?"
"Well, yes. Being the god to heroes you are now held to all responsibilities from now on. You oversee demigod's quests, go on their quests if need be – I would recommend it for tomorrow just to learn the ropes, by the way – help them with their quests if they pray to you enough… and so on and so forth. You also get all the godly privileges, including: blasting, smiting, appearance altering, true godly form, foresight, premonitions –"
"But isn't that pointless? Why would I go on a quest, if I knew all along how it would end up?"
"Ah, but that's the fun part, Perry. You obviously can't know how all demigod quests end up. You will probably have vague ideas, or slight feelings, but aside from that, you'll have to go hrough everything the poor little half-blodds experience."
"Fun." I was actually pretty excited, but Mr. D thought I was being sarcastic.
"It most undoubtably will be. For me, that is. For you it will simply be frustrating."
"Gee, thanks."
"Well that's all for now, Peter Johnson. I must be getting back to all the exciting duties that I must do as camp director. You should probably be preparing yourself for tomorrow. I'm sure it will be an interesting day." He turned and left.
I didn't notice that the campfire had ended and all the campers were making their way back to their cabins. I didn't notice Minnie's cheerful "Goodnight Percy!" as she skipped by. I felt energized, like I could jump over a building. I probably could.
"Thanks Dad," I whispered, pretty sure he was listening. "I owe you big time."
I could have sworn I heard a chuckle, but it might have just been the waves on the beach.
