Chapter 4: So I'm A Demigod?
"Character Speech"
'Character Thought'
"Monsters/Summon/Jutsu /Deity Speech"
'Monsters/Summon/Jutsu /Deity Thought'
Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Naruto or Percy Jackson.
So far these are the people that have been voted to pair with Naruko:
Percy – 22
Luke - 7
Apollo – 8
Hermes - 7
Artemis – 11
Connor - 3
Annabeth – 2
Zoe – 2
Silena – 2
Thaila – 2
Piper – 2
Clarisse – 2
Kate - 2
Travis – 2
Harem's
Harem with Percy, Luke, Connor, Travis, Apollo, and Hermes – 19 (A/N : This is still my favourite harem other than one with Percy, Apollo and Luke.)
Percy, Apollo and Luke - 14
Naruko with Annabeth, Zoe, Artemis, Silena, Thaila, Piper, Reyna, Clarisse, Calypso and Katie – 12
Chapter 4: So I'm A Demigod?
"So let me get this straight... so, Your name's Thalia. Right?" Naruko asked looking up at her. She nodded. "And you're the daughter of Zeus, Right?"
"Yep" Thalia answered popping the 'p'.
"And were in limbo, Right" Naruko continued, causing Thalia to nod again. "SHIT, I can't be in limbo again, last time I wasn't dead, this time I'm not dead. Why is it always me!?" Naruko exclaimed dramatically.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Thalia shrugged. "Anyway, you know my name, but I don't know yours?"
Naruko calmed herself before answering, " My name is Naruko Uzumaki " Naruko replied.
"Nice to meet you Naruko." Thalia said with a smile.
"So, whose kid are you?" Thalia asked
"I have no idea, well not yet anyway" Naruko sighed " My friend Percy arrived here with me and a satyr named Grover."
"GROVER!"
"Yeah, I take it you've met him?"" Naruko said as she started to back up from Thalia slightly disturbed by her outburst.
"He was the Satyr who found me, Annabeth, and Luke. How are they by the way?" Thalia asked.
"Well, Grover was always trying to protect us but with his façade as a cripple, and it didn't really work out that well. Him, Percy and I are best friends. Annabeth is a nice person from what I have seen and I have not even seen this Luke guy yet." Naruto replied with a shrug. "How long have you been here anyway?"
"I think more than 5 years."
"Ok so not too long..." Naruko muttered to herself. "Well since I have this annoying power to attract Limbo's, I guess I can keep you company every now and then." Naruko said with a smile.
Which Thalia happily returned. "I would like that"
"Naruko."
"Yeah?"
"I think I might know whose child you are."
"What do you think?"
"Hades, or Aphrodite"
"Why Aphrodite?" Naruko exclaimed.
"Cause your pretty. Deal with it"
"No"
"Fine then just Hades" she sighed
Naruko nodded, thinking it was a genuine possibility due to the fact that she could enter this tree...limbo...thing, and Aphrodite wouldn't explain her blond hair since her mother had red. "Well if that is the case, you still got a friend in me. I don't really care if our parents have petty sibling rivalry; it has nothing to do with us."
Thalia smiled floating down to Naruko and gave her a sisterly hug. "Thank you. And…I won't hate you either. Besides that is a stupid reason anyway."
"Exactly." Naruko said. "Well, I'll see you later; Chiron probably thinks I left Camp"
"Yeah." Thalia said smiling sadly.
"Don't worry Thalia, I'll be back….I promise and I never go back on my promises. Ja Ne" Naruko smiled
Thalia chuckled, " Ok Naruko" Naruko just smiled as she disappeared.
Outside Naruko opened her eyes, seeing it was getting close to dark she made her way down to what the campers called the 'Big House'. She decided to walk down towards there her hood up and in place hiding her body and face. She walked up to Chiron and asked "So where will I be staying tonight?".
"Ah Naruko you will be staying in the Hermes Cabin" he answered. Naruko nodded and turned to walk towards the cabin. Once she reached there she opened the door. All of the kayos going on in the cabin came to a standstill, as they turned and stared at Naruko. This moment's awkwardness was so dense that it could shatter glass.
"Decided or undecided" asked one of them.
"Und-" Naruko was cut off when she heard a load of boos an Awws. "Gee I feel so loved" she stated, sarcasm dripping from her words.
A older boy, The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty hot. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-coloured clay beads. He had a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash, that made him look dangerous and sexy. "Ah don't mind them dude. So you're going to be staying on this side, and there's space for you over there. My name's Luke by the way." He said pointing to the side filled to the brim with boys. Naruko blinked before frowning.
"That's the boys side right" she asked pointing.
"Correct" Luke said.
"I'm a girl" Naruko said pointing back at herself.
"Listen, dude I know you're a little short and your voice is a bit too high but- oh! you are a girl" he stared wide eye. He put his hands up as if to say I surrender, backing away slowly.
Naruko felt a pair of hands grab her shoulder and pull her to the other side of the cabin, only to be confronted by a female version of Luke, the only difference is she was younger, shorter, didn't have the scar and was a mixture of a blonde and brown hair. "Don't go to their side, we're at war" she whispered. Naruto blinked. "Wanna join" she asked Naruko shook her head; she'd been through enough war to last her several life times. "Please, I saw you with Clarisse today, we could use someone like you on our side, I'll even let you handle the water guns" she begged. I was at this point Naruko started looking like a owl, she blinked once, twice, three times before answering her.
"What kind of war" she sighed
"Prank" she replied, a sly grin worked its way to Naruko's face, 'It's been awhile' she thought. Nodding the Naruko let out a sly giggle that made most of the boys on the other side of the cabin's blood leave there face.
It's On
Next Day
Naruko woke up her shoulders sore, covered in whip cream, feathers and flour, looking around she notice the Prank war ended pretty equally, people hanging from the ceiling, honey, flour, ice cream and all sorts on the bed in the pillows, and kids and teens of all ages on the floor covered in goo. Getting up quietly she tiptoed around the body's, and walked out of the cabin into the light.
Following the signs she found the girls shower rooms, walking in she came face to face with a familiar nine tailed fox "Where were you? Hmm Kurama" she asked tapping her foot, but the fox continued to sleep soundly, "HEY! You dirty Perv, WHY ARE YOU HERE!" she shouted scowling.
Kurama jumped up, and was about to run away when Naruko grabbed his tails, "You are some example aren't you, sleeping in the girls shower room huh?" Naruko asked. A nervous smile worked its way onto his face. "If you want to be useful go get me something to wear" she hissed. She sighed when he was out of view was acting an awful lot like Tsunade and Jiraiya lately, but perverts were just so annoying. Now she gets why baa-chan beat Jiraiya so much.
Later...
When Percy finally came around, there to him, was nothing weird about his surroundings, except that they were nicer than he was used to. He was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but his mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. His tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt. On the table next to him was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. His hand was so weak he almost dropped the glass once his got my fingers around it.
"Careful, " a familiar voice said. Looking up he saw Grover leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy. 'So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And-'
Percy's train of thought was broken by Grover's voice."You saved my life, " Grover said. "I... Well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this. "
Reverently, he placed the shoe box in Percy's lap. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. 'It hadn't been a nightmare.' Thought Percy.
"The Minotaur, " Percy said.
"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"
"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" he demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull. "
Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"
"My mom. Is she really..."
Grover looked down sadly.
Percy stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of them, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.
'My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.' Thought Percy sadly
"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm-I'm the worst satyr in the world. " He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. Well, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole. "Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.
Thunder rolled across the clear sky.
As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, 'Well, that settles it.' Percy thought 'Grover was a satyr'. Percy was ready to bet that if he shaved his curly brown hair, he'd find tiny horns on his head. But he was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was his mother really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.
He was alone. An orphan. 'Would I have to live with... Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.' He thought silently.
Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever-looked as if he expected to be hit.
"It wasn't your fault." Percy said trying to make the young satyr feel better.
"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you. " Grover sniffed.
"Did my mother ask you to protect me?" Percy inquired
"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was. "
"But why ... " Percy suddenly felt dizzy, his vision swimming.
"Don't strain yourself, " Grover said. "Here. " He helped Percy hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.
Percy recoiled in shock at the taste, he had been expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies-his mother's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, his whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. But grief didn't go away, but he felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when he was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.
Before Percy even realised, he'd drained the glass. Percy stared into it, sure he'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.
"How do you feel, Percy?" Grover asked.
Percy said, "Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."
"That's good," Grover said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"
"What do you mean?" Percy asked.
Grover took the empty glass from Percy and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."
The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse, and Percy's legs felt wobbly, even thinking about walking that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but he held on to it. He'd paid for that souvenir the hard way, and he wasn't about to let it go. As they came around the opposite end of the house, Percy caught his breath. They had been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, poor Percy simply couldn't process everything he'd was seeing.
The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheatre, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and some horses even had wings.
Percy saw down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed him popcorn-flavoured pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. Finally there was Naruko, who was sitting down on the porch legs swinging, while petting a red fox as she read a complex looking book. He could tell it was her because of the huge hoody, the only difference was it was orange like her skinny jeans.
"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to Percy. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..." He pointed at the guy whose back was to him.
First, Percy realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then he recognized the tweed jacket, that Naruko always hated, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard. "Mr. Brunner!" He cried.
"Ah, good, Percy," Mr Brunner, know known as chiron smiled. "Now we have four for pinochle."
He offered Percy a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at him with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh.
"Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you," Mr. D said.
"Uh, thanks." Percy scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing he had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has hit the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, he was a satyr.
"Annabeth?" Chiron called to the blond girl. She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced him. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth… my dear, why don't you go check Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven with Naruko for now."
"Sure, Chiron." said Annabeth
Percy looked at her. She was probably his age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what he thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take him down in a fight.
Annabeth glanced at the Minotaur horn in Percy hands, then back at him. Percy imagined she was going to say, "You fought with a Minotaur!" Or "Wow, you're so awesome!" Or something liked that. Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."
Percy confused at first until he heard someone snort. "I bet you thought she was going to say that you were amazing or awesome, or something that," Kurama said smirking once again in his human form.
Percy asked, "Who are you anyway" Percy asked rudely.
Kurama put his arm over Naruko's shoulder, as his smirk got wider when he saw Percy's anger.
"That's for me to know, and you to try to work out" Kurama.
Percy tried to lunge at him but had to stop because he was starting to get dizzy.
"He's my brother" Naruko answered simply.
"Or am I" Kurama said lifting his eyebrows.
"You are" Naruko ended, making him pout.
Percy accepted that answer although he still didn't like Kurama, "What happened to the-"
"I killed it" Naruko answered knowing what he was going to ask "For now..."
"Thank you," Percy said before turning to chiron. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"
"Not Mr. Brunner," Chiron said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."
"Okay." A Totally confused Percy said before looking at the director. "And Mr. D ... Does that stand for something?"
'Still so stupid,' Naruko thought.
Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked Percy like he did just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."
"Oh, Right. Sorry."
"I must say, Percy," Chiron broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."
"House call?"
"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you, and then Naruko came along. He sensed both of you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... Ah, take a leave of absence."
"You make me sound like a lost dog" Naruko pouted under the hood. Chiron smiled apologetically at her.
Percy tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but he did have a fuzzy memory of their being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.
"You came to Yancy just to teach me and Naruto?" Percy asked.
"Naruko and I" Naruko corrected.
"Fine, Naruko and I" repeated Percy, while rolling his eyes.
Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother; let her know we were keeping an eye on you if you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."
"Well, It was mostly Naruko." Percy replied.
"We know, and I am glad the both of you made it in one piece," Chiron said.
"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"
"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though Percy couldn't figure out why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.
"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed him suspiciously. Of course he knew that Naruko probably already played him and somehow worked out a strategy.
"I'm afraid not," He replied.
"I'm afraid not, sir," Mr. D said.
"Sir," Percy repeated. He liked the camp director less and less.
"Well," Mr. D explained "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."
"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.
"Please," Percy said, "What is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach us?"
Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."
The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.
Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.
"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?"
"She said ..." He remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."
"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"
"What?" Percy asked.
He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so Percy did.
"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."
"Orientation film?" Percy asked before looking back at Naruko. "And you seem to be perfectly, despite all this stuff!"
Naruko shrugged "Well, since I woke up earlier, I was told this already and I told them about the other world and they seemed to understand, in fact they knew quite a bit about it." Percy just blinked at the hooded blonde owlishly.
"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"— he pointed to the horn in the shoe box Percy was holding—"that you two young teens have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive."
Percy stared at the others around the table. He waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all he got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.
"Not" he heard next to him, he turned to Naruko as Chiron frowned at her. "Hehe sorry I couldn't help it, I mean did you see his face" she snickered as Kurama high fived her. "Ok so there telling the truth." She assured once again serious.
"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"
"Eh? Oh, all right."
Naruko got a deadpanned look as she stared at their satyr friend while he bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminium can and chewed it mournfully.
"Wait," Percy told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."
"Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."
"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"
"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavours: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."
"Smaller?"
"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."
At this point Naruko decided to intervene, seeing that her friend was having trouble coming to terms with this. "Percy, remember what we learned in class with Chiron, and how it was all Greek mythology." A nod, "Well what there trying to say is that ALL of that is true and very VERY real"
Percy's eyes widened and said, "Zeus, Hera, Apollo. You mean them and that they are real?" That was when a thunder boomed.
"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."
"But they're stories," Percy said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."
"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—He flinched when the man said Percy's real name, which he never told anybody "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron?"
"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"
"Boring, Lonely and sad" muttered Naruko, as Kurama nodded in agreement.
"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," Percy said.
"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"
"I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods." Percy replied which made Naruko sigh at his oblivious recklessness.
"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you.
Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."
"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this job, working with kids who don't even believe."
He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.
"Mr. D," Chiron warned, "your restrictions."
Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. "Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!" More thunder.
Naruko snickered before saying, "Yep, Baa-chan would really love you" That made Mr. D chuckle and waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.
Chiron winked. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits." Naruko just gave Chiron at odd look before shaking his head.
"A wood nymph," Percy repeated, staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.
"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair." Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.
"Hey, you know what would make things easier?" Naruko asked as Mr.D looked at her inquisitively. "If you got the girls on your side, you're a God right, this obviously isn't your true form so why stay in it, try something more, hot, like my brother here" she pointed at Kurama smirking, while he glared at her. Mr.D nodded thoughtfully before looking back at Chiron.
"And, who's your father" asked Percy.
"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."
Percy went through the D name he had learned about and found one that matched Mr. D, though he was not as subtle like his friend. "You're Dionysus," He said. "The god of wine."
Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"
"Y-yes, Mr. D."
"You totally deserved that one" Naruko laughed.
"Sh-shut it!" Percy replied.
"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?" Mr. D asked, irritated while Naruko laughed silently in the background.
"You're a god."
"Yes, child."
"A god. You." Percy asked again, unable to comprehend it.
"Yes him" Naruko said.
Mr. D turned to look at Percy straight on, and he saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. He saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. Percy knew that if he pushed him, Mr. D would show him worse things. He would plant a disease in his brain that would leave him wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of his life.
That an over the top way to get the point across but it worked.
"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.
"No. No, sir."
The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."
"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."
Percy thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.
"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."
Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."
Mr. D turned to Percy. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners. Naruko you can come with me." He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.
"Will Grover be okay?" Percy asked Chiron.
Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."
"Mount Olympus," Pecy said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"
"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."
"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?"
"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."
"The what?"
"Percy." Naruko spoke up again. "The west means where the major power is in the world. You see, it has moved from Greece, which was the heart at one point. But Now it's here in America, and then one day when the power moves so will they." Chiron gave Naruko a grateful look because he really didn't want to explain it right now.
"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?" Percy ask, not really taking in everything and understanding it.
"Who are you?" he mused while he started get out of his chair, which would seem impossible in Percy's mind. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."
And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, Percy thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, he realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair.
It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.
Percy stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of their Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.
"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy, Naruko I'll see you later. Now Let's meet the other campers."
Percy just nodded and followed . "Poor little Percy" Naruko snickered before patting his head despite being the same height as him, making Percy frown, before she ran of to catch up with Mr.D.
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