I'm updating because I'm a review whore, dammit. We are introduced to other minor Gods in this chapter.

The drive to the camp at Long Island didn't take long. Once out of the seaport, Nico had heralded a black SUV, which had picked us up and whisked us away down the road, headed for camp. It was very, very cold inside the car, and I shivered.

How did I feel? Nervous, anticipatory, hungry. What? I haven't eaten since this morning. But more then that, I felt excited. Since learning I was the son of the Sea God, and since a monster had tried to kill me, I was anticipating a whole community where there were others like me.

I had learnt more about recent demigod history, including the pact with the Big Three. In fact, apparently the pact had been officially broken just a week ago. Which didn't explain why I was a son of Poseidon and sixteen-years-old, but that was something for later. I also knew about Luke and Kronos. Just quietly, I think that that whole catastrophe would have been avoided if the Olympians had stood up and claimed their children. But, thanks to Percy, that is exactly what was now happening.

We stopped at the bottom of a hill and got out. The grass swayed in a gentle breeze, and I looked up the hill. There, at the crest, was an enormous tree, something glittery hanging from its lower branch. And curled up around it…

"That's Peleus, the guard dragon," Annabeth said, as though reading my mind. "Come on."

Behind us, Nico snapped his fingers and the car turned to dust, sucked into the earth.

Because that's not strange. Although, I'm figuring that I'm going to see a lot more strange stuff then a car made of dust.

We walked up the hill, cutting swathes through the thick grass. Stopping only so that Annabeth could scratch the dragon under the chin, we passed the tree. I felt a slight resistance, but then it was gone, and I was looking down on the other side of the hill.

In the middle of a large field, a huge white barnhouse, three stories high, with a number of evenly placed windows and a large wrap-around balcony stood casting a shadow.

To the right of this was a large mass of trees, through which I could sense a river. Fresh water, too.

On the left, there were a number of cabins, arranged in a haphazard U formation, with a number of statues and bushes in the middle. To the right of this there was a more orderly and smaller U shape of buildings, with a volleyball court, a barbecue pit, and more statues.

To the north was a Greek-columned pavilion with tables facing a longer one, and scattered around this were other things I couldn't make out.

We walked down the other side of the hill, and towards the barnhouse. Up close, I could see the plants growing were strawberries, arranged in neat orderly rows.

"We do an export on the strawberries," Annabeth explained, as we went passed. "It pays for the maintenance of the camp."

"I see," I said back, not really listening. "Are those the cabins for the campers?" I pointed towards the two U-shapes.

"Yes, one for each God," she said. "It used to be only the twelve Olympians, but the lesser Gods had cabins built too. You wouldn't believe how many half-human; half-minor gods there are around. We had to build them bigger then I specified, just to fit everyone."

"You specified?"

"Yes," she said, voice taking on a proud tone. "I designed all of them, and I designed the buildings they rebuilt on Olympus."

"Really?" I asked, interested. I liked architecture. "Do you go for a classical style?"

This seemed to set off the volcano. In an instant, her eyes took on a shining tone, and she started to talk, very quickly as though someone was going to glue her mouth shut.

"Great going," Nico groaned. "Now she's not going to shut-up."

Making sure Annabeth wasn't looking at him, Percy nodded quickly.

Finally, we arrived at the barnhouse.

"Have fun in there," Nico said, grinning. "Mr. D's still here."

"Mr. D?"

"Don't mind Nico," Annabeth said. "Just go." She pushed me lightly in the back.

"He didn't turn you into a bottlenose dolphin," I heard Nico say to Percy. "He's not anymore annoying then you are."

And on that cheery note, I headed inside.

It was quiet inside the farmhouse, and warm, the heat descending like a heavy blanket.

The floors and walls were wooden, and an open door led out the back, onto the porch, the Sound glittering in the distance. Crossing through the threshold, I walked right, where I could hear low mummers.

It was at that point I found the blotchy man with the purple hair and the guy in a motorized wheelchair playing a game of cards.

"Uh," I cleared my throat uncertainly. "Am I—"

"Oh, hurry up and sit." The guy with the purple hair didn't even look up.

I sat.

"Now, do you know how to Pinochle," he asked me, still not looking up. I was starting to like him less and less. I vaguely remembered it from Ancient History.

"Maybe…?" It came out as a question.

The man sighed theatrically and put down his cards. Impatiently, he explained how to play, the other guy waiting patiently.

Finally, I bid. The blotchy guy cackled in delight and proceeded to tally up points. Still not really having any idea what was going on, I decided to go with it, and peace descended on the deck, for half an hour at least.

Finally, after the blotchy man who smelled like alcohol has finished counting up the points, tried to cheat, and then started sulking, the other man turned to me.

"So," he said. "Young Jakob. Do you know why you're here?"

"Because one of my parents is a god?" I asked him, although I had pretty much confirmed at this point that it wasn't a dream. Unless I was going crazy…

"Indeed," he continued. "Percy has informed me that he is sure of who your father is, but unfortunately, until you are claimed—"

"Claimed?" I asked.

"Claimed, owned, recognized, whatever you want," sulked the other guy.

The one in the wheelchair smiled. "Indeed, Mr. D."

"As I was saying, until you are claimed by your Olympian parent, you will have to stay in the Hermes cabin."

"Why?"

"Hermes is the God of Thieves, Travelers and Medicine. He isn't picky about who he sponsors," the wheelchair-guy said. "And we don't want to anger the Gods."

"Yet you continue to beat me…" Mr. D muttered.

"Wait," I said, rounding on him. "So, you're a god?"

He glared at me. "Dionysus, God of Wine, Lust and Pleasure."

Oh. "Okay, one last question. What's your name?" I pointed at the wheelchair guy.

"I am Chiron," he said.

"Like the centaur?" I asked. He smiled again.

"Something like that."

It was at that point someone else stepped onto the deck. He was a teenager, about my age, with spiky blond hair and hazel eyes.

"Hey," he said. "I'm Giac Letterman. You must be Jakob. Nice to meet you." His teeth were very white. He turned to Chiron. "You called me up here?"

"Yes," he said. "Can you show Jakob around? He'll be residing in the Hermes cabin for a while."

"Sure," he said, before turning back to me. "C'mon. There's heaps to see and only an hour until dinner."

There was something about him, an immediate charisma, and I couldn't help liking him.

"Sure," I said, standing up. "Later, Chiron, Mr. D."

Mr. D frowned at me, but Chiron nodded, and together, Giac and I walked off the porch, and away from the man and the god.

So, I heard from Percy that you're pretty sure who your father is?" he asked me as we strolled past the pavilion.

"Yeah," I said. "Poseidon, and it sort of makes sense, when you think about what I can do with water."

To prove my point, and also because I wanted to exercise my power, I flicked a finger towards the ocean. A geyser erupted from the Sound, spraying the beach as it crashed back down into the ocean.

Giac's eyes widened. "Wow," he said. "I wish I could do stuff like that. As it is, all I can do is make plants grow."

"Who's your parent?" I asked him, but he seemed not to hear me, and moved slightly further ahead. I shrugged and upped my pace. We passed the archery range, the volleyball court, and the barbecue pit. Giac explained about the main U ring of cabins, pointing at the average, faded one I would be staying in.

We rounded the side of number twelve, Hephaestus, and was presented with another U-shaped formation of buildings, this one containing more cabins and a lot less orderly.

"This is for the minor God's and Goddess's children to live in, while at camp," Giac explained. "They are only recent, since Percy asked that the minor Gods be included in the camp.

"Ah," I said. We passed several cabins of different colours and designs, Giac pointing them out to me as we passed.

"Erebus, Janus, Iris, Momus, Nyx, Aether…"

We stopped in front of a cabin. It was long and wooden, rustic-looking, with a trellis of vines in the front and small frosted windows.

"And this is my cabin," he said, frowning. "Now, if we'll move along…"

"Wait," I said. "Who's the patron of this one."

He frowned again, before sighing in a resigned way. "This cabin's patron is Priapus."

"The God of…?" It was like pulling teeth. Besides, I'd never heard of this one.

"My father is the rustic God of fertility, livestock, fruit-bearing plants, gardens and…uh, male genitalia…" he muttered the last bit, face going pink.

"Oh," I said, mildly embarrassed.

"And as such, all children of Priapus are always male."

We moved on, to the next cabin. It had black, translucent looking walls, with what looked like smoke roiling around inside it. It had a simple black door on the front, and a wraparound balcony which cast the deck into darkness.

"This is the cabin of Morpheus," he said, recovering from the previous cabin. "God of Dreams. We had to fight for this one, due to Morpheus' involvement in the uprising."

There was a girl sitting on the porch, cross-legged, reading a book. She looked up when we stopped. She had brown hair, tied into a pony tail, green-grey eyes and a slightly large nose. She was cute, I decided. The girl finished appraising me and went back to her book.

Behind me, Giac smiled. "C'mon."

We went back to the Hermes cabin, Giac walking back to his cabin as I walked through the door. It was dark inside, and smelled musty, but the councillor was nice enough. He set me up in the bunk on the far side of the room.

I lay down in the bunk, but as soon as I did, a conch horn blew.

The councillor told us to fall into line, and we walked in time out of the cabin, into the night air. It was pleasant, and the pavilion before us blazed with light.

"That's the dining pavilion," he said to me. "It's where we eat." I rolled my eyes at the sarcasm.

We were seated at a table near the edge of the pavilion, the table cloth white and edged with purple. It was rather crowded at some of the tables, but Percy's was empty save for him, and Nico had one small girl at his.

"Right," Dionysus said, standing up. "We have another bra—camper with us today. His name is Johnson Pastrami."

Chiron whispered in his ear.

"I don't care enough to say it right," Dionysus said. "Just shut up and eat."

Wood nymphs carrying platters of food materialised onto the pavilion. I filled my plate, waiting for the others to start, when everyone stood up, going towards the brazier. Not knowing what else to do, I stood up as well, peering down the line at what they were doing.

They were sliding food into the fire, and all of them were muttering as they did it. Giac was in front of me.

"It's burnt as an offering to the Gods," he whispered to me. "They like the smell."

That's not strange in any way. I shook my head and shuffled forwards, where Giac deposited a bunch of grapes into the fire.

"Father," was the only thing he said, before moving on.

It was my turn. I slid a piece of feta and olive pizza into the fire, and said, "Poseidon, if you're my dad, a sign would be nice."

Then I returned to my seat and sat down.

The meal was soon finished, and Mr. D dismissed us, grumping about what a major inconvenience we were to him.

On the way back to the Hermes cabin, I spied the girl again. She was talking quietly to someone tall with black hair.

It was Nico. And at that, I felt a peculiar rage build inside me. I wanted to drown Nico all of a sudden.

Jelousy, my brain supplied, but I ignored it. With great effort, I wrenched my face away from them, and strode back to the cabin, where I lay in bed for half the night, fuming.

An excerpt of the next chapter for the person who guesses where I got the name 'Giac' from. Signed reviews get an…interesting preview, maybe not of the next chapter, but certainly in the immediate future.

In other news, I need a beta. Any volunteers?

Review me, plox.