This is short as I am super busy today, my cat is getting fixed among other things...
As they walked towards the cabins, they passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horns Percy was carrying. Another said, "That's him." Most of the campers were older than either boy. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. Naruto felt uncomfortable, but he could tell that Percy was way worse off, so he glared at the idiots staring at Percy and spiked his chakra. Their fear was something he relished in.
Naruto looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than he'd realized-four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. He was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught his eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, and Naruto knew he was being watched. He focused his energies towards it and realized he could sense something in there, something powerful and mighty but more subtle, comparable if not stronger then Dionysius.
"What's up there?" Percy asked Chiron.
He looked where Percy was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."
"Somebody lives there?"
"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."
"I can feel something." Naruto said, frowning. "It's powerful, like God tier powerful. What is it?"
Ignoring them thoroughly as only a teacher could, Chiron gestured towards where they were walking. "Come along, you two," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."
The walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. Chiron told them, the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. Naruto thought of the sound Jutsu that he had seen before, and wondered if it was similar. If nothing else it reminded him of the First Hokage and some of the many scrolls his Godmom had forced him to read on the man she apparently had known ( he hadn't bought that until he found out that she might be a god.)
"It pays our expenses," Chiron explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort." He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.
They watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire.
Percy suddenly turned to Chiron. "Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean, he was a terrible protector but he make a serious effort. I only managed to fight the Bull because of Naruto's training."
Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."
Percy sighed. "I guess that hurts him a lot then, he didn't do much helpful and got knocked out. He did put in effort but maybe your right, and it's too big for him."
Naruto felt a pang of for Grover, he had been in his shoes... underestimated and undervalued, but unlike Grover he had had someone help him get over his flaws. Maybe that was all that Grover needed... maybe Naruto had been too harsh on the parasite.
"I might disagree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."
Naruto chuckled a little. " I actually knocked him out on the Bus. I guess there are no second chances huh?"
Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Naruto. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."
"How old is he?" Percy asked.
"Oh, twenty-eight."
"What! And he's in sixth grade?"
"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."
"That's horrible."
"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career... ."
"Maybe he should." Percy said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"
Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"
There was an edge of silence that filled the space between then, an awkwardness from Chiron's lack of honesty. "Stop hiding stuff from us, it only makes us dislike you."
Percy nodded. " He's right."
The hold centaur sighed. " I will tell you another time, it is a sad tale but not mine to share entirely. That is why I do not wish to tell you. Now, come, you two. Let's see the woods." As they got closer, Naruto realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans. Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."
"Stocked with what?" Percy asked. "Armed with what?"
"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"
Percy smirked. "Just the one you gave me. Naruto has a sword and a bow from his Godmother."
Chiron turned to Naruto, eyeing him with curiosity. "A bow you say... and that sword, how skilled are you?"
"I only just started with it, and it is a tanto. My godmother said it would fit my small size, she also wants me to eventually learn to wield two of them. She does something similar with two daggers from what she said. Though to be honest I can use Percy's blade as well as he can, I did train with it and my clones."
Chiron's eyes widened. "Two Daggers... I do believe I know who your godmother is, I just cannot believe she would... "
During the next silence they went and saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.
"Sword and spear fights?" Percy and Naruto asked, both trying to mask their excitement. They both wanted a new challenge beyond each other.
"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall." Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.
"What do you do when it rains?" Percy asked.
Chiron looked at him as if he'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?"
Finally, he showed them the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings even Naruto had ever seen. Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dot-ted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.
'They each radiate literal god power, I can feel it from here. It's intense... That one with the barnacles feels like Percy, I wonder if it's his father... curiously, it seems empty.'
In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.
"Zeus and Hera?" Percy guessed.
"Correct," Chiron said.
"Their cabins look empty."
"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."
"I thought Zeus had a million kids, why would his cabin be empty?" Naruto turned to Chiron, who sighed.
"It is tied to the story I mentioned earlier, I will explain it to you later." Percy suddenly stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three, the one that felt like him. It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. Percy peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that! Come along, Percy."
Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers. Number five was bright red-a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow Naruto. Inside He could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on Percy and gave him an evil sneer. Percy, to Naruto's intense pride, snarled right back at her with such ferocity she actually recoiled in shock.
They kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," Percy observed.
"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."
"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."
He smiled down at Percy. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."
"But, shouldn't you be dead?"
Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."
"Doesn't it ever get boring?"
"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."
"Why depressing?"
Naruto felt a pang of pain for Chiron. " He outlives his students Percy, his kids for all intents and purposes."
"Oh, look," Chiron suddenly said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."
"""
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was fun to write!
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.