Hey guys, Jack here with a quick one shot. This story is tied in with my other Percy Jackson stories; The Hunter and Son of Fire. The character that is introduced will feature more heavily in the latter of those two stories. With that, let's get into it:
A dark thunderstorm rumbled out over the sea, yet the valley which held Camp Half Blood remained dry. Ink black clouds boiled overhead, and thunder rattled cabin windows, but not a single drop of rain fell. Oddly enough, this wasn't the weirdest thing Will Solace was going to see today. As he ran toward the Big House, several campers, stayers, and nymphs watched the storm closely, wondering if it was going to break loose upon them or not.
The son of Apollo was one of the best healers Camp had to offer, and he'd been summoned to the Big House for an urgent matter. He figured some new camper had smarted off just a little too much to the counselor, Mr. D, and was now in need of some medical assistance. Chiron was a good healer himself, but the Centaur often deferred to the healing skills of the Apollo Cabin, as their abilities were far more potent.
But when he got to the Big House, Will found that this was something else entirely.
About half of the Cabin counselors were gathered around the ping pong table. Dionysus sat a short distance away from the gathering, sipping a diet coke and flipping lazily through a wine magazine. Whatever held the interest of everyone else in the room clearly wasn't even worth a passing glance from the god of wine.
"Ah, Will, excellent. You made good time," Chiron said. Will didn't seem to have heard him as he went into medic mode and pushed his way past the others to the table. What he found there was odd, even by demigod standards.
It was a single, long stretch of canvas. Dirt covered the entirety of the fabric, indicating that it had been buried. But that wasn't all, for it reminded Will of the burial shrouds the Campers burned whenever a quest ended. Someone had cut into the canvas and pulled it back in an effort to see what was inside. As Will walked forward, he realized why it reminded him of the shrouds.
There was a body contained inside.
It was a young man, seventeen or eighteen if he had to guess. He had short, dark, curly hair, and was dressed in an old military uniform. Will wasn't the greatest at history, so figuring out when it was from was beyond him. Clutched in the body's hands was a wooden staff with a pinecone on top of it. Will looked over the body, before looking back at Chiron with a confused expression.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"This only recently arrived. It came from one of Mr. D's vineyards, in France," Chiron explained.
"Pesky servants. I give them one measly task and they can't maintain it for a single century," Dionysus said with an annoyed tone.
"So why am I here?" Will asked.
"Look how well he is preserved, William, I would ask that you check for life signs before we go any further," Chiron answered. The young archer looked back down at the body of the soldier. It did look like he was sleeping, rather than being dead. Then again, he'd lost count how many times he'd seen that before.
With a sigh, he reached out and grabbed the young man's wrist. To his utter surprise, he found a heartbeat. It was faint, but it was defiantly there.
"He's alive," he reported, earning a bunch of surprised gasps from the on lookers.
"You said it came from France?" Malcom Pace from the Athena Cabin asked. Chiron nodded.
"Dug up to be precise, as you can tell," he said, gesturing to the dirt.
"His uniform is American, First World War," Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares noted.
"My vineyards are always digging things up from that war, one kid in a sack isn't any different," Dionysus said in a dismissive tone, still not bothering to look up.
"But, sir, he's got your symbol," Will pointed out. There was the sound of rustling as the god sat his magazine aside and came over to finally see what the big fuss was all about. Any annoyance he had vanished the instant he laid eyes on the body. His face visibly paled, and he seemed to age by several years as he stood there, looking on in shock.
"Mr. D, are you alright?" Chiron asked.
"Chiron…do you recognize him?" Dionysus asked, his voice unusually soft. The Centaur had a frown as he came forward and studied the face of the young man much closer. Gently, he reached out and turned his head with his hands. When he took notice of a small scar on his left cheek, Will heard him let out a soft gasp of recognition.
"I believe I do, Mr. D," he finally replied. The two shared an uneasy look, while Will resumed his work.
"I can't wake him. There seems to be something keeping him under, far too strong for me," he reported. Dionysus raised his hand and gently placed his fingertips on the young man's forehead.
"Awaken," he said, softly yet firmly. Instantly the young man's eyes flew open and he sucked in a massive gasp of air. Will leapt back a half step out of surprise.
"Well, that's one way to do it," he said. In terms of power, god beat demigod every time. The young man let out a long coughing fit as he tried to sit up. He didn't get very far, and quickly gave up, resigning himself to catching his breath. He blinked several times, and when his vision finally cleared, he focused on the god of wine himself.
"Father?" he asked. His voice sounded raspy, like he hadn't had a drink in a very long time. Much to everyone's surprise, the god in question actually gave a small smile.
"John Henry." The young man, John Henry, raised the staff still clutched in his hands.
"I was successful," he said. Dionysus looked at it before nodding again.
"Yes, yes you were. Rest easy now, son, you are home," he said before placing his hand on his head again. The young soldier's eyelids slowly drew down and he dozed off, only this time he actually looked like he was sleeping more soundly. Slowly, his hands came undone from the staff, and the god of wine took it up with a reverend touch.
"He will be very disoriented when he wakes. See to it that he is well cared for," Dionysus said, looking directly at Will. The young man nodded in a hurry, almost squirming under the gaze of the god. With that, he turned away and vanished with a pop, leaving behind the faint scent of grapes. Will turned to Chiron with a confused and concerned look on his face.
"Chiron, what's going on here?" he asked, speaking aloud the question that was on just about everyone's mind.
"This is John Henry Thompson, and the last time he was seen he was a on a quest in 1918," the Centaur explained.
"That can't be right. He doesn't look a day over eighteen," said Selina Beauregard, head of the Aphrodite Cabin. Chiron's face morphed into a frown.
"You all know there is more than one way to extend one's own youth and life force. Will, I want you to move this young man into the infirmary and keep a close eye on him. Let me know when he awakes, he's in for quite the culture shock," he said.
It was almost a full day before the young soldier finally awoke. During that time, Will had taken care to move him from the ping pong table to a bed in the infirmary, along with all the possessions he had with him in the sack. There was a bayonet that was almost the length of a short sword, made from an odd type of steel, and a massive double barreled rifle which Clarisse had identified as an elephant gun. There was no supplies, no personal items, nothing to indicate how he'd ended up buried alive in a far away land.
Will posted guards to watch over the sleeping patient. Most campers were naturally curious, and almost none of them understood the phrase 'look, don't touch'. He wasn't going to have Mr. D turn him into a dolphin because some kid got way too close in their curiosity. He also couldn't afford to watch over the young soldier himself. Injuries were common at Camp Half Blood, and his attention would inevitably be called elsewhere.
Thus, he had two guards watching over the sleeping man at all times, with strict instructions to go find himself and Chiron the second he awoke. They only had to wait until roughly noon the following day for something interesting to happen. Will was taking stock of the Infirmary's healing herbs when there came a yell of surprise, followed by the sounds of a struggle.
He returned to where the soldier was being kept, only to find the two guards having been knocked off their feet, and their charge no where to be seen. The male guard was doubled over on his knees, clutching his stomach. A pile of fresh vomit on the floor before him indicated that he'd been punched pretty hard. The female guard was using a bed frame to pull herself back into a sitting position. Blood flowed freely from an awkwardly bent nose.
"Where did he go?" Will demanded, having quickly determined that their guest had woken up and taken off.
"That way," the young woman slurred, gesturing toward the door.
"Get Chiron!" he yelled over his shoulder before heading out the door at a break neck pace. He had absolutely no intention of being turned into a dolphin today. Ignoring the blinding light from his father's chariot, Will paused and scanned the Camp for any sign of the young soldier. Some toppled nymphs and swearing stayers indicated that he'd gone toward the amphitheater, so that's the direction he went.
Inside, he found the soldier on his knees before the flame, and a girl wearing a brown cloak. The girl had her hand extended, hovering over the soldier's head, but not touching it. Will approached cautiously, not wanting to interrupt something divine, if that is indeed what he was witnessing.
"You need not fear, young Solace, I am merely welcoming Corporal Thompson home," the girl said when Will got within ten feet of them. At that moment, she lowered her hand, and the Corporal in question stood to his full height before bowing before the girl.
"Thank you, milady," he said. The girl gave him a warm smile in return before he turned to face Will. He had a small shy smirk, like a kid that had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
"Sorry about that. I had an old promise to keep," he explained.
"You broke at least one person's nose, you are aware of that," Will chastised.
"I might have cracked a rib or two on that guy, too," Thompson said with a shrug. If looks could ignite, Will's glare would have incinerated him on the spot.
"Mr. D. himself ordered you on bed rest. I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life as a dolphin just because you got stir crazy. Now come on, back to bed!" he ordered. To his surprise, Thompson just gave him a playful grin before nodding his head and going back in the direction of the infirmary. Will followed him the whole way, glaring a hole into the back of his head. They didn't get very far as Chiron came galloping toward them. At sight of the old centaur, Thompson's back stood a little straighter, as if he had just spotted an officer.
"By the gods, you're finally awake," Chiron said, relief in his voice. Thompson gave a quick, short bow of his head.
"I am, no doubt thanks to this Son of Apollo here," he replied.
"He broke one guard's nose and another's ribs trying to get to the Ampatheater," Will said through gritted teeth. Chiron raised a lone eyebrow at that, his expression indicating that he was waiting for an explanation. The soldier simply shrugged his shoulders.
"I had a promise to keep," he said. The centaur looked past the pair to the young girl in brown, watching them from a distance.
"Yes, I suppose that was wise," he said softly.
"Can we get him back to the Infirmary, please? He still needs rest, and I've got two more patients to deal with now," Will said. This seemed to snap Chiron from whatever trance he'd found himself in.
"You're right. Come along, you two, there is almost a century worth of things to catch up on."
The Dean Martin was a bit of a stretch in Will's opinion. Once they'd gotten back to the Big House, Chiron had put the music on so that John Henry would feel a little more like he was in his own time. All it really did was cause him to give the Centaur an odd look as he slowly ate from a bowl of porridge.
"What was the last thing you remember?" Chiron asked. The young soldier got a far away look as he slowly took a sip from the bowl.
"We were in the Chateau. I had my father's staff. Shells were coming down all around us, the Germans were coming, and then…" he trailed off with a frown.
"And then…what?" Will asked.
"I don't know. There's a gap between then and when I woke up here on the table," he answered.
"You think Mr. D's staff protected him?" Will asked Chiron.
"Many things fall within Dionysus' domain, even some defiance of death, but nothing such as this. There is something else at play here," Chiron answered. Will watched as John Henry took a long gulp from his bowl. There was something off, like he wasn't entirely telling the whole story. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, the sound of the screen door slamming caught their attention.
Standing in the doorway was a large young man with a camo jacket and grease stained blue jeans. His brown eyes shined with a certain kindness, and his dark hair was cropped closely to his head. He had a small rucksack over his shoulder, and a blacksmith's hammer stuck through his belt.
"I'm not interrupting, am I?" he asked with a frown when he noticed the small meeting. His voice was deeper than expected for someone of his age range.
"Ah, Jackson. You and Thalia have returned. Was your trip successful?" Chiron asked. The door slammed again as a teenage girl dressed in a punk rocker getup came in and stormed past them all without saying a word. Down the hall, the bathroom door slammed closed before silence returned.
"Successful in the sense that we're both still alive," Jackson said.
"Is she…?" Chiron asked, gesturing in the direction the girl had gone.
"She'll be alright. Got some bad news is all. Who's the new guy?" the young man asked, gesturing toward John Henry.
"Oh! Of course. Jackson this is John Henry Thompson, Son of Dionysus. John Henry this is Jackson Green, Son of Hephaestus," Chiron said, gesturing to each other.
"Pleasure to meet you, blacksmith," John Henry said, sticking out his hand to shake. Jack looked him over with a frown as he took it.
"Where did they dig you up?" he asked.
"France," John Henry replied with a shrug. Jack gave a short nod.
"Uh huh. Well the twins are gonna like you. Chiron, before we got here, Thalia said something about wanting to talk to you about a school in the city," he said.
"I see, and what about yourself, Mr. Green? Do you wish to leave for the city as well?" Chiron inquired. Jack shook his head.
"I'll be down getting settled in my bunk if you need me," he said as he started to turn toward the door. He quickly paused and looked back, throwing a quick nod toward Will.
"William."
"Jackson." The two were somewhat icy toward each other, yet there was an underlying playfulness in their voices. With that, the towering Son of Hephaestus was out the door and gone.
"Twins?" John Henry asked after several heartbeats of silence.
"Castor and Pollex. Your brothers in your father's cabin," Will explained. John Henry quietly nodded at that. It was going to be an odd conversation when he finally got to meet them.
"And that reminds me. If you wish, we can send you to a high school or community college in New York. It's the First of October now, but we can pull some strings and get you in as a late enrollment," Chiron said.
"As much as I appreciate that, I'm going to have to decline. It's…too early, ya know?" he said after a long period of silence. Chiron nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.
"Alright. We will finish this discussion at another time. Will, would you be so kind as to show Corporal Thompson to his cabin when he finishes his bowl, please?" the Centaur asked.
"I can find the cabin fairly easily Chiron," the young soldier said.
"Yes, but I want you to get there without causing anymore broken bones," he replied, earning a sigh of defeat from the young man. When he was done, John Henry sat the bowl down and thanked Chiron before following Will out the front door. It was only when they were on the front porch did Will stop him.
"Just so you know, you're getting the same warning your brothers got. Mr. D is on probation. That extends to his children as well. You get caught winemaking or consuming, it's a month's worth of KP duty, you got that?" the Son of Apollo warned. John Henry just grinned and gave a quick, crooked salute.
"Yes sir, Mr. Sunshine, sir!" Will rolled his eyes before heading toward the cabins. He had a feeling that this guy was going to be sending a lot more patients his way.
And that's it for now. I hoped you enjoyed it. As I said at the beginning, John Henry will feature more in Son of Fire so please remember to check that one out as well. Review, or send a Pm, and I'll see you all next time.