AN: This is chapter 4, I hope you enjoy it. The story is slow, especially in this chapter as I thought that constant encounters may be a little over the top. :) Enjoy.
Chapter 4
Drifting in and out of consciousness is never pleasant, Percy experienced this and a plethora of images as he rose in and out of reality, drowning in a sea of the false and the true.
Dreams, a dream forged from darkness and night, molding into a nightmare, a nightmare with a face. "My son." The only recognizable voice in the murky mass of white noise. Then the scene shifted into visions of a dark pit, an endless pit into the deepest abyss imaginable. In the darkness, a solitary thread, silver and pure.
Percy finally awoke to a scene of wooden features, small movements of the head revealed more information, a bunch of fresh, pearl-sheet, cots with a trunk at the end for storage and a tiny table beside, the table beside the cot that Percy resided was topped with a glass containing a ridiculously shallow amount of a certain substance which Percy was equally unfamiliar with.
The orphanage which Percy had previously lived at could not compare to the fresh air, homely qualities and background noise of shouts, grunts and playful yells originating from outside.
Percy raised himself up, clad in an orange T-shirt, and some strangely fitting dusty-blue jeans. A note lay under the glass: "Drink up." The murky liquid was slightly strange and a tad suspicious as it was a gel-like drink, however, figuring whoever was here probably could have killed him in his sleep, Percy downed the glass with a single swig. Then immediately regretted the decision.
Golden light shined through a curtained window which followed through to the outside world, Percy stumbled his way over to the area while the liquid burned like intense acid through his throat and stomach, tasteless- also pretty painful.
Closing in on the window, Percy stared into his new environment. A sapphire sky, swathes of strawberry fields and plenty trees upon rolling hills, a gigantic pine tree stood proudly upon the steepest hill and, if you would look closely, you could make out a trail of destruction from yesterday night in the distance.
Speaking of yesterday night, Percy had to find information to fill out the blanks in his mind. Wandering to the doorway, opening the heavy-oak door, gently warmed by the sunshine, he stepped out onto a porch. He basked in the beautiful landscape, so different from the horror of the monsters possibly lurking within.
"Hi Percy, good to see you are up." Stated Grover, looking up, attending to Adonis as he grasped a glass of the same drink.
"Hey, Grover. Are you and Adonis ok? I can't exactly remember last night too well, or at least I cannot remember what happened after I passed out." Percy replied. The drowsiness of morning paralysis had faded along with the cuts and bruises he was previously plagued by.
"Thanks to you Percy, we managed to deal with that bastard monster. I just wish I had done something sooner..." Adonis mumbled, roused from his slumber also. The pitiful awkwardness grew thick like fog. Almost sensing it, a voice came from nowhere and split the silence.
"Boys! Now that you are both awake, come, come, won't you. Our friend here grows impatient." Mr. Brunner yelled from further down on the porch. Mr. Brunner. Percy's jaw dropped at the sight of his Latin teacher, somehow he was involved in this mythic charade.
"Indeed I am, hurry up, pinochle for five." The voice came from a man in an old Hawaiian shirt, a man who was able to make Grover bleat in fright and quickly supply a 'Yes sir' to the offer and yank Adonis out of his seat, nearly knocking Percy over in the process as he attempted to call us down to the table.
As the trio sat down, Percy stated: "Make it a game for four instead, I don't exactly know how to play and I would hate to embarrass myself in the face of experienced players such as yourself." He didn't want to waste his time in pointless play, it truly reminded Percy of the normal, insignificant life. To be fair, he honestly only wished to hear what sort of briefing or debriefing that was clearly underlined in this friendly 'game', and possibly learn whomever the authoritarian figures were (and possibly get on their good side).
The statement was met with a snort from the exotically dressed wonder-man to the tune of: "Suit yourself boy, but don't think flattery and wise-words will get you anywhere special around here." After measuring Percy's response to the attempted aggravation, he decided another random bratty camper wasn't worth the effort. "Alrighty then, pinochle for four, and you all will have to step up your games."
Percy took that as the cue to explore the activities, even if it could just be with his eyes. Javelin throwing, archery practice, sword practice, it was as if these campers were preparing for some kind of war.
"Welcome to camp Half-blood, you can call me Mr. D, or sir. You are a half-blood, except young Grover here, he's a satyr. Before now, you may have been living a normal life, but that is about to change. As you have already seen, there are many, and I mean thousands upon thousands, of different monsters from Greek myths and legends. Your job here is to stay alive and have fun- blah blah blah, this script needs to be shortened, long story short, your mom, dad- whoever the hell you want- is some kind of god, you are a demigod and there are only a few rules around here." Mr. D monologued, stopping to grab his glass of Diet Coke and ease his throat, seemingly pausing for dramatic effect. "Listen to me, Chiron and your head campers, don't cause injury to any fellow campers, stay in your cabin after curfew, stay loyal to the Greek gods."
"You're kidding right, gods exist? Of all gods, they are Greek?" Percy inquired, it seemed too neat and, what was most concerning, it kind of made sense.
Mr. D was not amused, that was an understatement, it just so happened he had just lost to Mr. Brunner, so that was a plausible cause. "You're going to disagree with me after you have seen the Minotaur, one of the most- if not the most- iconic and quite rare monsters in all of Greek culture. Typical mortals. Hasn't Grover already explained that you and Adonis here that you were the spawn of some god?" He tutted, obviously believing himself above mortal status.
"Don't be too put off." Mr. Brunner settled with a faint smile and a twinkle in his eye, "He's been mad at practically everyone since his father, Zeus, punished him for meddling with certain wood-nymphs that were declared off-limits. Nothing stops Mr. D however."
"Mr. Brunner, why are you here at this camp? I thought you were just a teacher of Latin." Adonis pondered, the same question Percy too found needed answering.
"Ah my boy, my name is actually Chiron, I was accompanying Grover in his recruitment, that is bringing you to camp. I have been working undercover for a while now, although, you won't find me out of camp often, only on the rarest of occasions." Chiron solved, addressing Adonis directly, then gazing over to Percy. "It was quite fortunate I was able to come across another half-blood and assure his safety."
"Yeah, fortunate." Mr. D snickered sarcastically to himself before retreating, extremely sluggishly, up the stairs.
"Wait, if you aren't mortal, who are you?" Percy queried, thoughts racing about his qualities, yet nothing was that obvious.
"If you must know, I am Dionysus, one of the Olympians, god of the vine, grape harvest, winemaking, wine, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre, and I'm going to bed, before that, however, Grover, come and report to me your almost failure of a mission." The Hawaiian dressed god dropped out of view as a door slammed shut upstairs.
Grover hurried, head downturned, to pursue the god of wine, unfortunately having the burden of relaying the report of his assignment to an extremely dangerous- not to mention cranky- character.
While Chiron cleaned up the game set, he took the laborious task of explaining how the gods move with the western world and Olympus which isn't the real one but it, sort-of, is, and, you know, how it is directly above the Empire State building.
"Right now, you should head to the cabins, it's near the wooded area where we have plenty of active games for you to enjoy. You will both be settled into Hermes cabin, cabin eleven, the place of travelers- and, of course, children of Hermes. Please do be respectful, you should find the Hermes cabin leader in there: Luke. I've already sent Annabeth ahead to fetch him for your arrivals. Off you pop, you don't want to be late now!"
AN: This should speed up soon, or at least divert, but you may have to wait around for a chapter or two, or three. Review, follow, all that jazz, mostly: enjoy.