The demigods were more or less awake and ready to start reading a couple of chapters. After having a pretty big breakfast; the kids started wandering into the throne room. The Gods were already there sitting on their thrones.
"Alright, who did we say was going next?" Hestia asks her family.
"I don't think we did." Apollo frowns.
"I'll read." Demeter says to her sister.
Hestia hands the book to Demeter. She opens the book to the next chapter and reads it aloud. Demeter, a couple of other gods, and the Romans were confused as to what that title meant. Brushing the confusion aside she began to read in earnest.
(I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.)
"What is up with your dreams?" Rachel asks Percy, "There almost as bad as my prophetic dreams."
"You haven't even heard the worst of it yet. These dreams are just the beginning." Percy tells her.
"That's true. Percy has the dreams out of all the demigods." Annabeth adds.
(I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blonde hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. When she saw my eyes open, she asked, 'What will happen at the summer solstice?' )
"Really, Annabeth?" Thalia asks shocked, "He hasn't even truly woken yet."
Annabeth grimaces.
All the Gods perked up hoping they were finally about to learn something of the situation.
(I managed to croak, 'What?' She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. 'What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!' )
"STOLEN?!" Thunders Zeus, standing up from his throne, "Who dares steal from the Gods?"
The Greeks stared at Zeus completely unimpressed while the Romans were trying to hide in their seats.
"Well, you might find out if you let Lady Demeter read." Nico says to Zeus deadpanned.
Zeus frowns and grumbles but sits back down. The other Gods all shared looks trying to come up with answers.
('I'm sorry,' I mumbled, 'I don't…' Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding. The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.)
"I had to switch out to go to bed." Annabeth said to the room.
(A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes – at least a dozen of them – on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.)
Hera smiled at the mention of her son.
(When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.)
"How do you even know what that feels like?" Poseidon asks his son.
"I don't, but I assume that's what it would feel like." Percy replies.
(On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it. 'Careful,' a familiar voice said. Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy.)
"Yeah, I put the fake feet back on to not cause you to have a freakout." Grover says to Percy.
"It mostly just caused a whole lot of confusion on my part." Percy tells Grover.
Grover grimaces.
(So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And… 'You saved my life,' Grover said. 'I… well, the least I could do… I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this.' Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.)
Everyone looked at Grover weirdly.
"What? We didn't have many boxes." Graver said exasperated.
(Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare. 'The Minotaur,' said. )
"Is it still hanging on your wall?" Chris asks.
"It should be unless one of your brothers stole it." Percy said staring at the Strolls.
('Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea –' 'That's what they call it in the Greek myths, isn't it?' I demanded. 'The Minotaur. Half man, half bull.' Grover shifted uncomfortably. 'You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?' 'My mom. Is she really…' )
All the demigods glanced at Percy to make sure he was good with rehearing this.
(He looked down. I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.)
"There I am again." Thalia yells out causing the Greeks to roll their eyes at her.
(My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.)
"Aww." the girls cooed at the love Percy has for his mother.
Hera glared at her sons, uncaring brats she thought.
('I'm sorry,' Grover sniffled. 'I'm a failure. I'm – I'm the worst satyr in the world.' He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.)
"Beckendorf had to keep remaking them cause I keep breaking them." Grover said sheepishly.
('Oh, Styx!' he mumbled. Thunder rolled across the clear sky. As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr.)
"I think he's finally getting it." Nico said smirking.
(I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.)
Percy winced.
(I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with… Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.)
"There was no way you could have passed for seventeen back then." Clarisse said to Percy, "You only recently looked your age."
Percy pouted.
(Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid – poor goat, satyr, whatever – looked as if he expected to be hit. I said, 'It wasn't your fault.' 'Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you.' 'Did my mother ask you to protect me?' 'No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least… I was.' 'But why…' I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming. 'Don't strain yourself,' Grover said. 'Here.' He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. I recoiled at the taste,)
"Apple juice?" Katie asked Percy knowing what ambrosia looks like.
Percy nodded at Katie.
(because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies – my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.)
"Awww." all the girls except a few cooed at Percy's past thoughts.
(Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted. 'Was it good?' Grover asked. I nodded. 'What did it taste like?' He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty. 'Sorry,' I said. 'I should've let you taste.' His eyes got wide. 'No! That's not what I meant. I just… wondered.' 'Chocolate-chip cookies,' I said. 'My mom's. Homemade.')
"I love your mom's cookies." Travis said drooling.
"They are the best things ever." Connor agreed.
All the demigods who have had her cookies nodded.
(He sighed. 'And how do you feel?' 'Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred metres.')
"I wish I could throw her." Clarisse grumbled thinking of the girl they had read about.
('That's good,' he said. 'That's good. I don't think you should risk drinking any more of that stuff.' 'What do you mean?' He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. 'Come on. Chiron and Mr D are waiting.')
"Oh, this will be good." smirked Thalia.
(The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse. My legs felt wobbly trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.)
"I can understand that." Clarisse mutters.
The demigods and even the Gods nodded.
(As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath. We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to Long Island Sound, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture – an open-air pavilion, an amphitheatre, a circular arena – except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.)
The Greeks all smiled at the description of their home while the Romans were in awe hearing about the Greeks' camp, so very different from their home.
(Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blonde-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavoured pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.)
"And so it begins." Chris said smirking.
(The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels – what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs.)
Dionysus leaned forward to stare at Percy as some Gods and demigods burst out laughing, some smirking and rest frowning at the description of the Wine God.
(That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fitted right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.)
"Oh, I most definitely could." Dionysus taking a sip of his Diet Coke, "It wouldn't have even been a challenge."
('That's Mr D,' Grover murmured to me. 'He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron…')
"Chiron!" yelled all the demigods who knew Chiron.
(He pointed at the guy whose back was to me. First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard. 'Mr Brunner!' I cried.)
"Seriously? Grover told you his real name." Will said to Percy.
"I know but I knew him as Mr. Brunner first." Percy shrugged.
(The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.)
"Who does that?" the Strolls said disgustedly.
"A teacher who wants to know his students are paying attention." Annabeth said rolling her eyes at the boys.
('Ah, good, Percy,' he said. 'Now we have four for pinochle.' He offered me a chair to the right of Mr D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. 'Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don't expect me to be glad to see you.')
Poseidon glared at Dionysus for talking to his son like he was.
('Uh, thanks.' I scooted a little further away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.)
Everyone chuckled at that.
('Annabeth?' Mr Brunner called to the blonde girl. She came forward and Mr Brunner introduced us. 'This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now.' )
The Hermes kids all groaned.
Hermes frowned, knowing how the Hermes cabin was now, and wondered how bad was it in the future.
(Annabeth said, 'Sure, Chiron.' She was probably my age, maybe a couple of centimetres taller, and a whole lot more athletic-looking. With her deep tan and her curly blonde hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.)
"What does that mean?" Annabeth said turning towards Percy.
"It's not anything bad." Percy said panicking.
(They were a startling grey, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analysing the best way to take me down in a fight.)
"See." Percy grins at Annabeth.
Annabeth rolled her eyes at him and pecked him on the lips.
(She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that. Instead she said, 'You drool when you sleep.')
All the demigods burst out laughing. Percy blushed and tried to sink into the couch. Poseidon grinned at his son.
(Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blonde hair flying behind her. 'So,' I said, anxious to change the subject. 'You, uh, work here, Mr Brunner?' 'Not Mr Brunner,' the ex-Mr Brunner said. 'I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron.' 'Okay.' Totally confused, I looked at the director. 'And Mr D… does that stand for something?')
"Does that stand for something?" Hermes and Apollo laugh.
(Mr D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. 'Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason.')
"Three times you were told about names in the first twenty-four hours of being in and near camp." Annabeth scolds Percy, "Yet you keep doing it."
"Don't bother. He'll never learn." Thalia tells her shaking her head.
Percy smiled sheepishly.
('Oh. Right. Sorry.' 'I must say, Percy,' Chiron-Brunner broke in, 'I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time.' 'House call?' 'My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to… ah, take a leave of absence.')
"He gave her a ticket for a cruise he got from Hermes." Grover tells everyone.
(I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr Brunner had taken the class. 'You came to Yancy just to teach me?' I asked.)
"It's been a while since Chiron had to leave the camp for a demigod." muttered Demeter.
The Gods nodded knowing it had been more than a hundred years since he left the camp for a demigod.
(Chiron nodded. 'Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test.')
"Which I failed." Thalia tells the room.
"Does this have to do with why you keep calling yourself a tree?" Dakota asked her.
Thalia nods, grinning.
('Grover,' Mr D said impatiently, 'are you playing or not?' 'Yes, sir!' Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt. 'You do know how to play pinochle?' Mr D eyed me suspiciously. 'I'm afraid not,' I said. 'I'm afraid not, sir,' he said. 'Sir,' I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less)
"I'm not liking you much either, Perry." Dionysus said to Percy.
The Romans were confused as to why Dionysus called Percy the wrong name.
('Well,' he told me, 'it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules.' 'I'm sure the boy can learn,' Chiron said. 'Please,' I said, 'what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr Brun – Chiron – why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?' Mr D snorted. 'I asked the same question.')
Dakota frowned at his father wondering why he was acting the way he was.
(The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile. Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer. 'Percy,' he said. 'Did your mother tell you nothing?' )
"Nope. Not a single thing." Percy said grinning.
('She said…' I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. 'She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her.')
"That's the problem with mortals, wanting what they can't truly have." Dionysus says aloud.
"I think the same could be said about the Gods." Percy said glaring at Dionysus.
('Typical,' Mr D said. 'That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?' 'What?' I asked. He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did. 'I'm afraid there's too much to tell,' Chiron said. 'I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient.')
Annabeth groaned.
"I thought you had seen the orientation film." Annabeth said to Percy.
"At least now, you know it wasn't because I was too stupid to not know anything, just clueless." Percy said to Annabeth.
('Orientation film?' I asked. 'No,' Chiron decided. 'Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know –' he pointed to the horn in the shoebox – 'that you have killed a Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods – the forces you call the Greek gods – are very much alive.' I stared at the others around the table. )
"I feel so sorry for you." Rachel said, "This is one of the worst ways to find out the truth."
Percy grimaced.
(I waited for somebody to yell, Not!)
"Yeah, I was in denial for quite awhile." Percy shrugged.
(But all I got was Mr D yelling, 'Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!' He cackled as he tallied up his points. 'Mr D,' Grover asked timidly, 'if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?' 'Eh? Oh, all right.' Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminium can and chewed it mournfully. )
"How do you chew mournfully?" Jason asked Grover.
"You know when you are sad but you are forced to eat?" Grover waits for Jason to nod, "It's like that."
Jason nods even though he was still confused.
('Wait,' I told Chiron. 'You're telling me there's such a thing as God.' 'Well, now,' Chiron said. 'God – capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical.' 'Metaphysical? But you were just talking about –' 'Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavours: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter.')
"A small matter?!" the Gods yelled at the book.
The Greeks rolled their eyes at the Gods.
('Smaller!' 'Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class.' 'Zeus,' I said. 'Hera. Apollo. You mean them.' And there it was again – distant thunder on a cloudless day. 'Young man,' said Mr D. 'I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you.' 'But they're stories,' I said. 'They're – myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science.')
"Oh, Don't get me started on science." Zeus scoffs.
('Science!' Mr. D scoffed.)
Percy rolled his eyes.
('And tell me, Perseus Jackson –' I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody. '– what will people think of your "science" two thousand years from now?' Mr D continued. 'Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals – they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so˜o˜o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me.')
"Hey! I don't really know Percy but what I can tell from what we've read so far and that I've heard from camp is that he's a good person and a true hero." Leo said to Dionysus.
Percy smiled at Leo in thanks for him standing up to a God for him.
(I wasn't liking Mr D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if… he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut. 'Percy,' Chiron said, 'you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?' I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.)
"You hesitate?" Nico asked Percy shocked.
"I do. Not often but I do." Percy told Nico.
('You mean, whether people believed in you or not,' I said. 'Exactly,' Chiron agreed. 'If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?' )
"Wow, Chiron really needs to learn how to make speeches." Will grimaces.
(My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, 'I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods.' 'Oh, you'd better,' Mr D murmured. 'Before one of them incinerates you.')
"I've been threatened with that too many times for it to be a threat now." Percy said to his friends.
Poseidon heard this and was pale at the thought of his son being threatened with incineration so often that he can joke about it.
(Grover said, 'P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock.' 'A lucky thing, too,' Mr D grumbled, playing a card. 'Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!' He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.)
"How's your denial now?" Chris asked Percy.
"It's going good." Percy said jokingly. "I just saw wine appear from nowhere. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for it."
(My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up. 'Mr D,' he warned, 'your restrictions.' Mr D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. 'Dear me.' He looked at the sky and yelled, 'Old habits! Sorry!' More thunder. )
"Stupid restriction." Dionysus grumbles.
Dakota frowns as his dad grumbles about his restriction.
(Mr D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game. Chiron winked at me. 'Mr D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits.')
"Why have you declared a Nymph off-limits?" Hera asks her husband sternly.
Zeus gulps at the look on Hera's face.
The Greeks smirked at the trouble Zeus was in.
('A wood nymph,' I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space. 'Yes,' Mr D confessed. 'Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time – well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away – the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. "Be a better influence," he told me. "Work with youths rather than tearing them down." Ha! Absolutely unfair.' Mr D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid. )
Dionysus stares at Percy.
Percy just shrugs and says, "You were acting like one."
Poseidon face-palmed.
('And…' I stammered, 'your father is…' 'Di immortales, Chiron,' Mr D said. 'I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course.' I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr D were his master. 'You're Dionysus,' I said. 'The god of wine.')
Dakota smiled at his dad.
(Mr D rolled his eyes. 'What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, "Well, duh!"?' 'Y-yes, Mr D.' 'Then, "Well, duh!" Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?' 'You're a god.' 'Yes, child.' 'A god. You.' )
Dionysus and Dakota frowned at Percy.
Percy frowns apologetically at them.
(He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life. )
Poseidon glares at Dionysus for showing his child such things.
('Would you like to test me, child?' he said quietly. 'No. No, sir.' The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. 'I believe I win.')
"Oh, did I finally win?" Dionysus asks leaning forward.
('Not quite, Mr D,' Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, 'The game goes to me.' )
Dionysus grumbles, leaning back on his throne.
(I thought Mr D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too. 'I'm tired,' Mr D said. 'I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment.')
The Greek demigods frowned at that.
"It's not his fault that Percy is a danger magnet." Clarisse grumbles at no one.
(Grover's face beaded with sweat. 'Y-yes, sir.' Mr D turned to me. 'Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners.' )
All the demigods burst into laughter at the thought of Percy keeping his mouth shut and being respectful.
(He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably. 'Will Grover be okay?' I asked Chiron. Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. 'Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been… ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus.' 'Mount Olympus,' I said. 'You're telling me there really is a palace there?')
"Don't worry. I know where it is now." Percy assures his dad, "I've been there a few times."
('Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do.' 'You mean the Greek gods are here? Like… in America?' 'Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West.' )
"He made this whole conversation so confusing." Conner groaned.
('The what?' 'Come now, Percy. What you call "Western civilization". Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know – or as I hope you know, since you passed my course – the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps – Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on – but the same forces, the same gods.' 'And then they died.' )
"It would have been easier." Percy grumbles to himself.
Some of the Gods heard him and frowned.
('Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not – and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either – America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here.')
"The only reason I understand what he's talking about is cause I have background knowledge." Will said.
(It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club. 'Who are you, Chiron? Who… who am I?' )
"Our leader." Will stated.
"Our friend." Katie said smiling at Percy.
"A Kelp head." both Nico and Thalia called him.
"My Seaweed brain." Annabeth said kissing him.
Poseidon and everyone with something of a heart smiled at the demigods.
(Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralysed from the waist down. 'Who are you,' he mused. 'Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be toasted marshmallows at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore them.')
"Wow. He's great at changing topics." Chris said.
(And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.)
"That must have been shocking to see for the first time." Rachel remarked.
(I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk. 'What a relief the centaur said. 'I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers)
"You must have been so confused." Gwen said compassionately.
"Yup. For a good day or two." Percy said nodding.
"Ok, who wants to read next?" Demeter asked.
"Can I? Can I read?" Apollo asks Demeter waving his hand.
Demeter nodded and tossed the book to him.
Apollo opened the book to the correct chapter and burst out laughing. The demigods looked at each other and settled in for an entertaining chapter.