He's healed. He roams, ending up on a porch. He watches as the light clouds stretch upon the light blue sky, and the sun peaks through the clouds. He sighs, enjoying the sight. His friend-the one that was bleeding- Grover, comes next to him. He says hello, and the boy almost jumps. He flinches instead. He tells his friend not to do that, and his friend with the furry legs apologizes. The boy- Percy his name was- now notices that there's a shoebox tucked under Grover's left arm. He asks what it is, and the satyr smirks. He balances the shoebox on the wooden rail, still holding onto it, and takes the lid off. Percy peaks inside. When he sees the brutal thing inside he winces. Sitting inside of the box is the broken horn of the Minotaur. At the tip rests its own dried blood. Percy takes the lid from Grover and places it back over the shoebox. Grover starts walking down the porch and around the corner. Percy looks in wonder after his best friend, and after thirty seconds, follows him. Percy finds himself still on the porch, but on a different side. On this different side there's a table which two men are playing some sort of card game. One of the men has overly-greased curly black hair, and a small jet-black goatee. He wears a purple dress shirt, but the first four buttons are unbuttoned, showing everyone the mans hairy chest.
The other man Percy knows. It's his old teacher. There's something different about him though. He seems much more confidant and focused. The man with the curly black hair cries out in protest, for it is obvious that the boys' teacher had one. Finally, the two take notice in the two standing there. A look of mock surprise reaches them both. His teacher stands up. He's confused by this motion because his teacher is- was- chair-bind. The boy looks down, and sees that his teacher's legs are really hairy. After a while of staring him down he realizes his teacher has horse legs. Before the boy could even make a sound, his teacher stops him by only saying one word.
"Percy," He says smiling. "Take a seat. Play with us." Percy's eyebrows furrow at this. Percy wants answers; he doesn't want to play a silly card game. He wants to know where he is, why he's there. Who had killed his mom.
But Percy sits down with Grover anyway. They hand him a pile of cards, and Percy looks at them. He's confused by what's on some of them. A naked lady, a dude with a crown and a mustache holding another person's hand. Then on others there were only numbers. The man with curly black hair sighs in frustration.
"You're not supposed to look at them!" He exclaims. His voice isn't as deep as Percy had imagined. Percy asks what he's supposed to do and the man barks with laughter. The boy's teacher, Chiron, rubs his forehead.
"Dionysus, be nice to the boy." Dionysus stops laughing, glaring at Chiron. As they go step by step into the game, Percy's mentally screaming questions. At the end of the game when Chiron had one, Grover had gone through two tin cans, and Dionysus had a small fit, he got some answers. But none had any hints on his mother. It seemed around three, and Percy found his stomach grumbling. He's been on the porch for what he believes to be an hour at the least. A girl- the blonde one from before- steps onto the porch. She leans onto the railing with her fingers knotted together.
"You wanted to see me?" She asks. Percy feels himself smile slightly.
"Hm?" Dionysus looks up from his wine magazine. Once he sees the girl he nods slightly. "Oh, yes. We need you to show the brat around. Tell Luke to get him a spot ready in the cabins." The girl nods, motioning with her finger for the boy to stand up. He does so immediately, walking over to the girl. He'd go as fast as he needed to get off the porch.
Grover had left a few minutes earlier to go to a Council meeting and Chiron had just vanished somewhere. Dionysus had been going on and on about different wines.
"Don't go just yet." Dionysus groaned. Percy slowly winced.
"This young lady brought you to a healthy stage." Percy looks towards the figure. Her heads down, and she's wearing a baseball cap. Yankees.
"Uh, thanks?" Percy says but it turns to be a statement. He wanted to say something cool to her, but he thought he ended up saying it lamely.
"You drool in your sleep." Was the only way she replied. Percy's sea green eyes widened and he subconsciously wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The girl took off down the porch with the boy in tow, telling her to wait up. They end up near a cabin. You can hear people yelling inside.
"What's this place?" Percy asks, his eyebrows furrowing once more.
"This place is where you'll be staying." The girl answered. The boy didn't know her name. He didn't even know what her face looked like. All he knew was that she had blonde hair. Something inside crashed and the girl took a deep breath, opening the door.
It was a total mess. Sleeping bags and rejected piles of clothing on the floor. It smelt like sweaty armpit, the air was hot and hard to breathe in. To make it even worse there was some sort of fight going on between the campers.
"It's my pillow!" One boy said almost raising his voice.
"It's mine. It was on my sleeping bag." Replied a brown haired girl.
"Because you bloody stole it you thief you!" He has a slight UK accent and his voice squeaks near the end of his sentence. It's obvious he's going through a stage of puberty.
"Why I oughta-" The girl starts raising her fist, but someone steps in between them. He has short blonde hair, and piercing brown eyes. He catches the girl's fist with a calm expression.
"Jennifer, it's Tommy's pillow. I saw you take it this morning." He says.
"Ha!" The guy. Tommy exclaims pointing a finger.
"But it's not fair that all the unclaimed get our pillows!" The guy shrugs it off.
"Win some you lose some." He finally catches sight of the two people in the doorway. The girl next to Percy's side shifts and starts messing with her ponytail and makes her clothes straighter. There are a few giggles from girls in bunks. The guy walks over to them, studying them with his piercing blue eyes intently.
"Percy, this is Luke." The girl says, you could hear the smile in her voice. "He's your cabin leader." Luke smiles. Some people have quieted down to watch the scene.
"Determined or undetermined?" Someone asks. The girl puts her hands in he pockets, looking down.
"Undetermined." Some people groan in unison while others complain to their cabin mates. Percy wants to run out the door for some odd reason. To him it is obvious that no one wants him hear. Luke clears his throat loudly.
"Guys, guys," He says making everyone quiet. He looks at Percy.
"What's your name, kid?" He asks in a whisper.
"Percy." The boy replies back.
"Percy," Luke stops, looking back at Percy then at his mates "Is our new cabin mate. We are going to treat him with respect. No pranks, no stealing," Percy sighs inwardly, but his cheeks are aflame. Had Luke just stood up for him? No one had ever done that before…
"Without me." Luke finished and the cabin burst out into laughter. Percy feels his shoulders slump. Luke hadn't been standing up for him. The girl fidgets with her necklace; four beads and a golden ring.
"Let's finish the tour, Percy." Says the girl. Luke's eyes travel down to Percy's hands.
"You might want to put down your stuff first Percy…" He says eyeing the Minotaur horn in his hands.
"Oh no you don't Luke. You said yourself, no stealing!" She accuses him. He holds his hands up.
"Son of Hermes; sorry, I can't help myself." He apologizes. The girl punches his shoulder and Luke winces pretending to be hurt.
"Just go on with your tour, kid." He winks at the girl.
"Uh-yeah. C'mon newbie." She tells Percy. She quickly leaves the cabin with the black haired pre-teen in tow.
"What was that back there?" He asks as they settle into a walking pace. The girl turns towards him. The baseball cap still shadows her face, and he can't see her face. It's starting to annoy him, and he's just thinking about ripping it off.
"What was what?" She asks, stuffing her hands in her blue-jean pockets.
"That thing between you and Luke. He winked, you stuttered." Percy says, and then bites his lip. He has a feeling that this girl likes Luke. He thinks it's wrong. Luke looked around the age of twenty and the girl is his age. Twelve. How weird is that? Wouldn't that make Luke a pedophile if they ever got together?
"That was nothing." The girl snapped. "We're friends…close friends…" She suddenly stops walking.
"Why am I even answering your questions?" She wonders out loud. "You should be answering my questions!" She exclaims, madly waving her hands in the air.
"What do you mean your questions?" Asks Percy.
"What's starting at the summer solstice? Why are the gods so secretive? Why has Chiron been acting so strange?" She asks and Percy holds up his hand defensively.
"I don't know!" His voice squeaks. "I really don't know what you're talking about." The girl face palms, but it's sort of hard because she's wearing a cap.
"I can't believe I thought…" She mumbles. He strains to hear the rest of her sentence, but cannot.
"Thought, what?" He asks raising an eyebrow. The girl sighs deeply.
"I just thought that you were-"
"Well if it ain't the newbie and Blondie!" A gruff voice says from behind them. Percy expects it to be some guy but when he turns around he finds a girl and a couple people standing behind her making a triangle. Shadows from the trees danced along their faces. The girl who Percy had guessed spoken had knot infested brown hair, dark brown eyes, and was wearing a very big football jersey.
"I heard you fainted on the hill," She starts, "Was it from seeing Blondie?" The girl with the baseball cap and blonde hair stamps her foot in frustration.
"You know my name Clarissa!" She says. The older girl growls.
"Don't. Call. Me. That." She falls her fist.
"I don't understand why you want everyone to call you Clarisse" The girl with blonde hair exclaims. Percy wants to tell her to shut her trap. This girl- Clarisse looked like she could pound them to a pulp.
"Do you think anyone would be afraid of me if my name is Clarissa? Clarisse sounds more…tough." Clarisse settles for.
"Either name, I'm not afraid of you." Clarisse and her friends bark with laughter. Clarisse holds up her right hand and her friends stop laughing immediately.
"Let's see if your newbie friend is." She smiles cruelly. Percy thinks one thought: "Uh oh."
When Percy wakes, his facial expression is twisted into a confused one. What was that? Why was he seeing his twelve-year old self? Who was that girl? Why wouldn't she show him her face, tell him her name? That one girl, Clarisse, was she about to beat him up? Why would Percy want to dream that? Why was Percy dreaming this? It seemed as though all these unwanted dreams kept on coming towards him.
And worst of all he couldn't stop them.