As Hiccup held on to his ride, he thought back to when he was a little kid and Gobber was teaching him about the gods. He taught him that not everyone believed in gods like Odin and Thor, but rather gods like Zeus and Ares. He called them Greek gods. The crazy blacksmith always had stories to tell about the Greek gods and their people.
Hiccup recalled a story Gobber told all the time about half man half horse creature named Chiron that taught the offspring of the Greek gods.
He wondered in this was the Chiron Gobber had mentioned in his stories. If so that means the Greek gods were real. And if the Greek gods were real, maybe the Norse ones were as well.
In a matter of a few hours, Hiccup could see a shoreline. Standing on the shoreline was a bunch of people. The closer he got, he could see them holding swords, and wearing armor. Very few of them looked older than 20. In middle stood a half horse half man, Chiron. Chiron held a bow and arrow at the ready.
As Hiccup got within a few feet of the shore, the hippocampus stopped swimming and bucked him off. Hiccup went flying through the air and landed on the shore right in front of Chiron. He looked up and saw an arrow being pointed at him.
He held his hands up in defense. "I'm Hiccup Haddock. You sent for me."
Everyone looked at each other, sharing confused glances. Then they all looked at Chiron who had loosened his gripped of the arrow and held out a hand for Hiccup.
"Welcome, lad, to Camp Half-Blood," Chiron greeted.
One of the kids spoke up "Why isn't he speaking English or Greek?"
Chiron looked at the kid, who couldn't have been more than ten years old. "He's speaking a language called Norse. He doesn't know English or Greek."
"How come you can understand him?" another kid asked.
"I speak many languages," Chiron said. "Now, everyone, get back to training. We will have a formal meeting at supper time."
The crowd dispersed, heading into different directions. Hiccup watched them all leave. Some in groups, some alone.
Chiron placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulders. "I know this is a lot to take in, but we have little time." He pulled a necklace out of coat pocket and placed it in Hiccup's hand. "Here. Put this on. This will help with the language barrier until you learn English."
Hiccup put on the necklace. "Okay, but I have a few questions. What is this place? Are you actually Chiron from the Greek legends. If so, are the Greek and Norse gods real? If they are do they know why I'm still alive?"
Chiron let out a small chuckle. "Yes, I am that Chiron. The correct term for my species is Centaur. Yes the gods are real. As for your immortality, perhaps it was a gift from your gods. And this is a camp were the human children of the gods can train to fight monsters. Some live here year round. Others go back and forth between here and their families. Few even live outside of camp able to live in the real world with very little training. Monsters frequently hunt demigods because of their powerful auras."
"Why am I here?" Hiccup asked.
Chiron began walking and motioned for Hiccup to follow. "The Hephaestus children built a dragon during this country's Civil War. It was meant to help the Union side win, but went haywire and disappeared. The dragon reemerged during the Great War a few years ago. It helped carry wounded demigods for a short while before going haywire and disappearing again. Now it's back causing all kinds of mayhem, burning parts of the forest, trampling patrols. It's been like this for three months. I was getting ready to close the camp down for good and move it to a new location when a girl from the Athena cabin me told about you. She found a reference to you in a history book at her school and went looking for more information about you. When she read that you might still be alive she practically begged for me to get a hold of you since all her attempts had failed. Thankfully Iris and I are on very good terms, so she was willing to bend the rules to help me find you."
Hiccup had a million more questions reeling in his head, like, "How do you build a dragon? Is it even a real dragon? How do you expect me to tame it?"
"Things have advanced quite a bit since your time. Transportation, communication, electrical power. We don't need you to tame it. We need you to find a way to shut it off. If the Hephaestus children can't fix it, I doubt a man out of his time could. Later on we can look into taming it later on once we have more advanced resources available."
Hiccup didn't speak up again as he followed the centaur to a very large house, at least by his own standards. He spent the past 835 years sleeping in a cave, before that a house he had built for himself and his family.
In the distance he could hear children laughing and shouting as their swords clanged against each other. He could smell a forge fire, as well as a strawberries. He smiled at the thought of eating a fresh strawberry. He remembered his mom's strawberry pie. She might have been a lousy cook, but she could bake like there was no tomorrow.
As if reading his thoughts, Chiron spoke again. "We grow some the best strawberries in the country. The funds we get from selling them help keep the camp going. With the help of saytr magic we can sell year round."
"I'll have to try one or two later," Hiccup said to himself.
"Ah, here we are. The Big House," Chiron said as he trotted up the steps.
"Aptly named," Hiccup mused. "But why are we here? Don't you need me in the forest?"
"Yes," Chiron nodded. "However we need to clean you up first, get you a change of clothes, maybe a better leg and catch you up to speed about modern times as fast as we can. Plus you could probably use some rest before we send you out there.
Hiccup looked down at what he was wearing. He was wearing clothes he'd made from shedded dragon scales. It wasn't fancy or pretty, but the idea of walking around naked among dragons didn't sit well with him. He looked further down at his prosthetic leg, despite giving it the best of care it was falling apart. The metal was rusted, wood splintered, the springs squeaked with ever step.
"Yeah, I like that plan," Hiccup said as he followed Chiron into the Big House. Once inside he felt like the wind was knocked out of him. The main room was bigger than his father's house. All across the walls were candles encased in glass. He watched Chiron flick something on the wall and all the glass candles lit up at once.
"You can control candles?" Hiccup asked.
"No, lad. What you see on the walls are light bulbs. They are powered through electricity," Chiron explained. "Come let's get you cleaned up and fed."
Hiccup was in even more awe when Chiron showed him how to work the shower and all the kinds of soaps they had. Instead of just a bar of animal fat, they had figured put how to make soap into a liquid. There was a kind for the body, another for hair. He was amazed that he could control how hot or how cold he could have his shower.
Once he was all clean and smelling better than he had in centuries, Chiron was waiting right outside the door with a clean shirt, a pair of trousers and underwear.
"Once you're dressed, I'm going to introduce you to the camp's barber. He'll cut your hair and shave off some of that unruly beard," Chiron explained as he handed the clothes over. "After that, we'll head over to the hospital wing and get you fitted for a new leg."
Hiccup took the clothes with one hand and closed the door again with the other. After he was dressed, he looked in the mirror. He didn't recognize himself. He'd kept his beard mostly tied up with rope, occasionally using a sharp stone to cut some of it away, same with his hair. It probably been a good fifty years since he last cut any of it off. He felt bad not taking regular care of his body, but the dragons didn't mind. Not like he had company coming to visit him all the time.
As he sat in the barber's chair he requested a clean shave and semi short hair that has easy upkeep.
After a few hours the barber was done and showed Hiccup his new look. Hiccup like what he saw. He could recognize himself again. Despite looking 30 for the past 900 years, Hiccup could have sworn he looked 20 again.
Chiron looked on with approval with Hiccup's new look. No longer did he look like the hermit he was when he got here this morning.
Hiccup sat on the edge of a bed while a teenage boy examined his stump, asking various questions about how he lost his leg, and what kind of prosthetic he wanted. After the boy was done, he left the room promising to be right back and muttering something about ambrosia.
"Ambrosia?" Hiccup asked, looking over at Chiron.
"Ambrosia is a godly food. In small doses it can cure demigods of any injury," Chiron explained. "We learned very early on that if administered in proper doses it can regrow limbs. However it's a very painful and long process that can easily go wrong."
Hiccup understood that Chiron was trying to warn him against trying it, but that thought of having his leg again, was very appealing. "How long does the process take, usually?"
"Depends on the limb, how long it's been missing," Chiron said. "In your case I don't think it would work. We don't even know what ambrosia would do to you, immortal or not. Let's revisit this at a later date."
Hiccup agreed and put the idea in the back of his head. Just then the boy came back pushing a cart carrying various prosthetic legs.
"These are the latest prosthetics we have available thanks to the Hephaestus cabin. All of them can function like real legs, look like real legs. You can even wear a real pair of shoes. No one in the mortal world would even think you had a fake leg."
"Hephaestus cabin?" Hiccup asked. "The cabin that houses the children that let a crazy dragon loose in the forest?"
"Different generation, but yes," the teenage boy answered. "The dragon was a huge risk in a time of desperation. Making limbs however is not that same. Sure the younger demigods need some practice, but these legs are made by the best that cabin has to offer. Trust me, you'll be fine."
Hiccup seemed a bit unsure, but put his trust into this teenager. The kid knew these people, he didn't. He was in no place to actually judge anyone right now.
An hour later, Hiccup had a new leg. And if he didn't know any better, he'd swear it was real thing and that he never actually lost his leg in the first place. He was shocked that with a little bit of effort, he could make the ankle of the prosthetic actually move.
Chiron handed him a pair of buckle fasten boots. Hiccup seemed almost giddy at the thought of wearing an actual pair of boots instead of just one.
"Come, lad," Chiron beckoned. "Supper is ready. Time to eat."
Author's Note: Thank you to those few that are following along with the story. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it.
Hiccup will be going on a few adventures in the year 1920 before I have him and Percy meet. This story is going to have a ton of twists and turns as it progresses, so stay tuned.
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