I started to move again when the sun came up; my limbs were stiff in exhaustion, but I pushed through it. I looked around for somewhere to clean myself up before anything else, and after that, I put the same clothes back on before I made my way to the porch.
"Percy." I jumped at the sudden voice. I looked to my right to see Grover sitting on what looked like a deck chair. He had his pants off again, and where his legs would usually be, there was fur; he still had hooves for feet too, so I didn't imagine that.
"Grover," I greeted. "So you're a…" I racked my brain through what I remembered from Chiron's lessons. "Satyr?" Grover nodded in assent.
"Yeah, sorry for lying to you all year." He looked down at his hooves, glistening in the morning sunlight. "I was supposed to protect her, and I failed." The poor guy looked ready to burst into tears, so I sat with him.
"You don't get to do that," I told him. "I'm already taking the blame for that, don't make me feel bad for you too." Grover looked up at me.
"It was my job, Percy. Any other satyr wouldn't have allowed that to happen." He leaned away from me as if he expected me to hit him. "It should've been me." He repeated his line from the night before.
"Maybe it should've." He deflated dejectedly. "Maybe it should've been me too." I looked off toward the pine tree up the hill that signified the property line. "But it wasn't."
I stood and offered Grover a hand. "We're both failures, Grover," I kept it blunt with him. "I don't blame you, and you'll only be failing yourself if you keep thinking it's your fault." Grover looked at me in awe as he took my hand.
"Thank you." I shrugged his thanks off because it didn't matter too much in my eyes; I was too busy blaming myself.
"So how come it isn't freezing cold here?" I changed the subject. Last I checked, it was still the middle of the winter, but it felt like a spring day on the porch.
"The barriers keep the frigid weather out during the winter," Grover explained, welcoming the change of topic. "The only time you'll see snow at this time of the year is if Mr. D allows it in."
"How does he do that?"
Grover shrugged in response. I was about to ask him where he slept last night, but Annabeth came around the porch, ending the casual conversation with her intimidating stare.
"Percy, you're up." She so astutely observed.
"Astute observation there." She didn't look amused by my joke.
"Let's go for your tour, Jackson." She turned toward Grover and softened up. "Mr. D is waiting for your report." I didn't know who Mr. D was, but Grover visibly paled at his name.
"I'll see you later." He hurriedly made his way around the porch, leaving me alone with Annabeth.
I moved to her side as she led me away from the farmhouse. She guided me throughout the camp, showing me all the sights I saw from afar last night. The volleyball court was empty, but she told me that that wasn't usually the case.
"Where is everybody then?" I asked her.
"Most demigods go with their mortal families during the year, making their way through the schooling systems." I would've asked her why she was still here, but she moved onto the glowing wall of lava without another word.
She led me through the archery and javelin range, the canoe lake, the stable, the arena, and the amphitheater before we stopped for rest. Mainly for me because although I could usually make it through that much walking, I didn't get the sleep I needed to recharge from the night before.
"What's it like here?" I tried to start small talk with Annabeth. Her eyes raked over me as if checking to make sure I was being genuine.
"Depends on who you're asking." Annabeth gestured around us from where we sat in the amphitheater. We could see the sunlight reflecting off the canoe lake, the empty gladiatorial arena, and the empty archery range. The hissing sound of the lava from the climbing wall came from behind us. "I've been here for seven years, and I can't wait until I have the chance to get out of here." I wasn't expecting that kind of response from her, but I rolled with it.
"So that's you, but how do you think other people feel?" She arched an eyebrow in slight surprise before thinking.
"This place is a haven for us, so I think most people here wouldn't want to be anywhere else." Annabeth started drawing on her leg with her finger. "There's a lot out there in the world, and I can't live with not exploring it."
"So why not just leave?"
"The only way to leave is if Mr. D or Chiron gives you either special permission or if you get assigned a quest."
"A quest?"
"There hasn't been one in years," she started. "Things went sour the last time, so they've been holding out on letting people leave on a quest."
"Hey!" Someone interrupted my next question.
We both looked up to see a big girl in a camo jacket walk up to us. By the sneer Annabeth gave, this wasn't someone she particularly liked.
"Go away, Clarisse; Chiron's having me give him a tour." Annabeth tried to dismiss her quickly.
"Just came to meet the newbie, Wise Girl." Clarisse looked me up and down as I stayed rooted in my seat. "Doesn't look like much to me," she spoke as she observed.
"He's the one Chiron left to watch over." Recognition flickered through Clarisse's eyes as Annabeth explained. "Percy Jackson, this is Clarisse, the daughter of Ares."
"Jackson." Clarisse seemed to let the name roll around her tongue. "We've got an initiation ceremony for newbies like you." Clarisse cracked her knuckles as she stalked toward me, and I felt a ripple of anger course through me. Before I could get up to defend myself, Annabeth met Clarisse halfway and started to whisper to her. I couldn't hear what it was from where I was, but whatever Annabeth said made Clarisse back down. The anger I felt suddenly went away too.
"Let's go, Percy." Annabeth beckoned me to follow her away. Clarisse stood still in her spot, staring off into the woods next to us. As I walked past her, she lowered her voice to a whisper.
"Meet me in the arena after dinner." I shot her a curious look, but I nodded to the odd request. I left the daughter of Ares in my wake.
I quickly caught up to Annabeth as she made her way toward the buildings I saw from last night. In the sunlight, I could see the vast differences between them. The only thing they had in common was the brass numbers above the entrances. Number seven was solid gold and almost burned my retinas with its reflection. Number eight seemed to have an ethereal glow to it. I felt myself draw toward number three, but Annabeth started talking before I could act.
"These are the twelve cabins for the Olympian gods." She pointed each one out, calling all the gods out by name. Thunder boomed as she pointed out Zeus, but she didn't stop naming the rest.
"Does that happen every time?" Her look gave me all the answers I needed. "Which cabin will I be staying in?" I knew that cabin three was the one for Poseidon, but I couldn't tell anybody that I was a son of the sea god.
Not by choice, I thought to myself.
"Cabin eleven," Annabeth answered. "Hermes allows his cabin to hold any unclaimed demigods we have."
"Unclaimed? Why wouldn't the gods claim us?" Annabeth shrugged in reply.
"Sometimes the gods are busy." It sounded like an excuse, but I didn't voice it.
"Who's your godly parent?" I asked as we talked toward my new cabin.
"Athena," she said proudly. "Cabin six, goddess of wisdom and battle."
"That explains a lot." She gave me a curious look. "You wouldn't stop staring at me like you were trying to figure out how to beat me up last night." She tried to hide her blush behind her long blonde hair.
"I was," she confirmed as she knocked on the door to cabin eleven. The person who came to open the door was a tall surfer-looking guy, and he gave us a smile that probably inadvertently came off as mischievous.
"Hey, Annabeth." Her blush from earlier came back in full force, but neither of us called her out on it.
"Hi, Luke." She pushed me forward. "This is Percy Jackson, unclaimed."
Luke gave me a once-over, almost the same way as Clarisse, but his look was more like he was scouting a new recruit.
"Luke Castellan." He stuck a hand out for a shake, so I obliged. "Glad to have you here, Percy."
"How long does it take to get claimed?" I asked both of them. The way Annabeth made it sound is that the gods rarely claim their kids.
If there was one thing that Chiron made clear in Latin, it's that the gods get around, and I didn't want to be stuck in a cabin with all those people forever.
"If you're lucky, maybe a week." Luke shrugged. "Besides that, it's a toss-up between then and never." Annabeth frowned at his answer but didn't speak.
"Lucky me." Luke chuckled and patted my shoulder.
"You'll fit right in."
…
After Luke introduced me to the other two guys in the Hermes cabin for the winter, Connor and Travis Stoll(not twins, by the way), Annabeth brought me through the mess hall to show me where we eat and then brought me back to what she called the Big House.
"How many people are here during the winter?" I asked her as we made our way.
"All the cabin counselors are year-rounders, so that's already nine." She told me earlier about Hera, Artemis, Zeus, and Poseidon(oops) not having children. Dionysus had co-counselors. "Some others stay during the school year; take Connor and Travis as an example." Annabeth let me walk up the porch on my own.
"Thanks for earlier." She caught on to what I meant quickly.
"We all know what it's like to some extent, so we don't cross that line," Annabeth reassured me. I couldn't help but think about what tragedies plagued everyone here.
"Good to know." I nodded. "So I'll see you around?" she rolled her eyes.
"There are only twenty other people here right now, dumbass."
"Didn't know you had it in you, Princess," I smirked at her vulgar language. She gave me a fierce glare as I laughed.
"I'll come up with a nickname for you soon, but I'll just refer to you as a dumbass for now." She smirked in triumph as I stopped laughing. I smiled at her back.
"I know what you're doing." She stopped smirking. "You don't have to do this, but thank you."
"Anytime, Percy."
I watched her hair sway as she ran back to her cabin.
"Mr. Jackson." I turned to my left to see Chiron waiting for me.
"Hey, Chiron." I walked up to him.
"Glad to see you up and about. I assume the tour went well." He raised his eyebrow, telling me he saw my interaction with Annabeth.
"It was fine, very informative." I tried to deflect with a joke, and he let it work.
"Come," he turned around. "It's due time you meet Mr. D, our camp director. And Percy, please be respectful." I wondered what kind of guy Mr. D had to be for Chiron to ask that of me.
"I lost your pen," I told Chiron. I never looked for it after the Minotaur knocked it out of my hand.
"Oh! I almost forgot." Chiron reached into his signature tweed jacket and pulled out the missing pen.
"You went back for it?"
"No," He answered. "When it got lost in its sword form, it came back to me." He continued to explain at my raised eyebrow. "The pen will always make its way back to you." He handed it to me and gestured for me to lob it as far as I could.
I sent the pen flying down toward the cabins, out of sight. A few minutes later, Chiron casually pulled it out of his jacket.
"Voila!" He gave me a mischievous grin, the same one he did when he gave us a pop quiz at Yancy. "I now leave this pen in your care, and it will always return to your pocket."
I took the pen and looked it over for the first time. There was an inscription on the side that I read as Anaklusmos.
"What language is this?" I asked Chiron.
"Ancient Greek, which your brain is hard-wired for as a demigod," Chiron explained. "That's why you have dyslexia, to understand the language of the gods."
"Do all demigods have dyslexia?"
"There are rare cases occasionally, but most do," Chiron educated. "Some are dyslexia is more potent than others, but all still understand the ancient tongue."
"What about the ADHD?" I might as well use the teacher while he's here. "And aren't you supposed to be a centaur?" Chiron let out a chuckle at that.
"I am a centaur, yes. This wheelchair conceals my form for the standards at hand." He gestured to the roof of the porch. "There's simply no space for my full form right here."
"Cool."
"Onto the matter of your ADHD, that is a tool for battle." Chiron started moving again as he talked. "They gift you the reflexes to respond fast and the ability to see everything."
I remember using that against Mrs. Dodds and the Minotaur.
"Is it the same as dyslexia? Some people have it, and others don't?"
"It is even rarer to not, and there is more variety for the potency of it. Some children of the gods are more wired for battle than others, and due to that, they require heightened reflexes."
I mulled over all this new information as we walked up to a table. I recognized Grover, so I assumed the other guy was Mr. D.
He didn't look like much at first sight, with the red nose and potbelly under a tiger-patterned Hawaiian shirt, but I could feel an air of power around this guy.
"Percy Jackson, I presume," Mr. D spoke. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He didn't look up from whatever game he and Grover were playing.
"Thank you, Mr. D?" I posed as a question. He absent-mindedly threw a hand in my direction, waving my thanks off. Grover looked at me, slightly pale for some reason.
"Don't thank me just yet, Peter."
"It's Percy-"
"I must make haste to Olympus," Mr. D cut me off. "My presence is required in the council."
Olympus? There was only one council in Olympus, and there was no way this guy was a part of it. I've been around my step-father and his buddies enough to know when someone was a drunk, and this guy looked like he could outdrink all of them at once.
"Olympus?" Mr. D flicked a look at me like I was a pest he was annoyed with having around.
"Would you look at that Chiron; this one has ears," he mocked me with a chuckle.
"I almost wish I didn't," I quipped back at him.
"Dionysus," Chiron interrupted as the man started glaring at me. "I'm sure Percy did not mean any disrespect."
Yes, I did, I thought to myself.
"You're the god of wine?" I ignored Chiron's attempt to save me.
"I am the god of many things, and I suggest you remember that." Dionysus eased up a little after being recognized. "Alas, this is making me late." He flicked his hand as if doing a card trick, and out of thin air popped a key card.
"Percy Jackson," Mr. D addressed me again. "I will return with a timetable for you to return the bolt to my father. I suggest that you prepare for the worse, guilty or innocent." He disappeared from his seat dramatically, leaving behind a smell of fresh grapes.
Mr. D was Dionysus. I was only in his presence for five minutes, and I could already tell he was a bit of an asshole. Something he said still stuck with me.
"Who's his father?" I asked Chiron. He looked at me with heavy eyes.
"The Lord of Olympus himself." There's no way.
"What bolt do they think I stole?" For the first time since the night before, I felt genuine fear course through me as I realized the gravity of the situation.
"The most powerful weapon of the gods and the symbol of power of the King of Olympus," Chiron built up.
"The master bolt."
Author's Note:
I hate the ending of this chapter so much, but I'd like to think it'll build up the next few chapters for some filler. My excuse for this is that I haven't been sleeping, so my brain is just throwing random ideas out there. I kind of like my idea for Dionysus, because I want him to be a more serious character. He's basically the messenger of the gods right now for the demigods.
There I a few things that I ask to get reviews on, because I'm not even sure how I feel about it.
Annabeth's nickname being Princess
Percy being more level-headed and actually knowing the occasional myth
The dynamic between Percy and Annabeth
Opinion on the grammar
Pacing of the story so far
As always, thank you for giving my reading a chance, and for the reviews(I hope)
