Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: Not much to say about this chapter! Not much had to be changed. Next chapter, on the other hand... :)
Until next week!
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
Κηρύκειον – Herald's wand or staff
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 6: Does Love At Third Sight Exist?
Katie left me and Chiron not very long after he started his tour.
I understood why, especially after she explained her reasoning and all. You see, Katie was something of a "year-rounder" – most people only stayed at camp for the summer, apparently – and after having spent the entire school year with me, sans Winter Break, she just wanted to talk with her old friends and check out her cabin and what not.
Which was fine with me. Really. I mean, my only concern at this point was making sure that I did not walk behind Chiron, because despite the fact that he was the trainer of heroes and a good guy, I did not trust his back end the way that I trusted his front.
We passed the volleyball pit early on in the tour. Several of the campers there turned to look at me and nudged each other. One of them even pointed at me and muttered, "That's him."
I didn't really know what to think about that.
'Cause, see, look: most of the campers here were my age, if not a little bit older. I'd never really had anybody my age outside of Katie be impressed with me and something that I'd done, so the fact that everyone was in awe of me now for killing the Minotaur – names don't have power when you just think of them, right? I'd been assuming all this time that they don't, anyways – was a little weird, to say the least.
While we were walking away from the volleyball pit, I turned and looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized, as it was four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale sea resort. But I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top of the roof when a flicker of movement in the uppermost window of the attic gable caught my eye. It was like something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I had the distinct impression I was being watched.
"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.
He looked to see where I was pointing, and his smile faded a little. "Just the attic."
"Does somebody live there?"
"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."
I got the feeling that he was being truthful. But, at the same time, I was also sure that something had moved the curtain. So despite his tone, I opened my mouth to ask another question.
"Come along, Percy," Chiron said before I could, his lighthearted tone now more than a little forced. "Lots to see."
After that, we walked through the strawberry fields, where two campers – Castor and Pollux, were their names – were picking bushels of berries. Chiron told me while we watched them work that the camp grew a nice crop to export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus, which was apparently resting above New York, now. Something about "the gods move with the spirit of the West" and all that. I don't know, I didn't really pay much attention to that part.
He also spoke about how Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes – which was something both Castor and Pollux snickered at – but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.
We went to the woods next, which took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees that were so tall and thick I imagined they had been there since before the colonization of the Americas. Chiron told me that they were also stocked with monsters, just in case "I wanted to try my luck" (yeah, right. I'd already had enough experience with Mrs. Dodds and the Minotaur to last me a lifetime), and that Capture the Flag would also take place there Friday night.
I kind of wanted to ask just how productive capturing the flag could be with monsters trying to chase after me on top of trying to beat the other team, but I kept my mouth shut and didn't press my luck.
Then we went to the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights. That also seemed kind of off to me at the first, the idea of a bunch of kids fighting with gladiator weapons, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it kind of made sense, so I didn't say anything about it.
Chiron pointed out the outdoor pavilion while we were talking towards the cabins. It was on a hill overlooking the sea, and the dozen stone picnic tables that were there were framed in white Grecian columns. There was no roof, nor were there any walls.
This was the one thing that I couldn't help but question.
"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.
In response, Chiron looked me as if I'd gone a little weird. Rude. "We still have to eat, don't we?" He replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
Wisely, I decided to drop the subject.
Just like how there had been a dozen picnic tables at the pavilion, there were a dozen cabins, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a 'U,' with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were, without a doubt, the most bizarre collection of cabins I'd ever seen.
...I mean, none of these cabins looked alike, save for how each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left, evens on the right). Number nine had smokestacks, like it was a tiny factory or something like that. Number four looked exactly like a hobbit house from The Lord of the Rings, complete with a circular door and a grass roof and everything. Seven seemed to be solid gold, which was funny, because eight seemed to be the next same in that regard, just that it looked like it was made of silver instead of gold.
All of the cabins, though, were facing a commons area about the size of a soccer field dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops. There was also a huge, stone-lined fire pit in the center of it, and it was alight with a fire that was being tended by a girl who couldn't have been more than nine or ten years old.
Chiron led me around the cabins, starting off with the evens side first. When we got to the pair of cabins at the head of the field, I couldn't help but notice they stood out like a pair of sore thumbs. As while all of the other cabins seemed to be individual and personalized, these two...were no. In fact, if anything they looked like big, white mausoleums, with bronze doors and white columns. Only the second of the cabins seemed to be a little personalized, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers and peacock carvings on its walls.
"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.
"Correct," Chiron said.
"Their cabins look empty."
"Several of the cabins are," he admitted. "That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."
Okay, I thought. So each cabin is for a different god...err, Olympian, since there's only twelve of them. That makes sense. But why would some be empty, besides Hera's and maybe Artemis', and maybe Athena's?
For some reason I couldn't explain, I came to a stop in front of the first cabin on the left. Cabin Three.
It wasn't high and mighty like the first two cabins were, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were made of rough grey stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron called out, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"
But before he could pull me back, I got a good glimpse of the interior. The walls inside glowed like abalone, and there were six bunk beds with ocean blue silk sheets turned down, as if nobody had ever slept there. Despite that, though, there was a salty scent in the air, like the wind on the shore at Montauk.
I felt Chiron place a hand on my shoulder, a grim expression on his face, like he had a feeling he knew something I didn't. "Come along, Percy," he said.
Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.
Number five was bright red – a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire and a stuffed boar's head hung over the doorway, with eyes that seemed to follow me. Inside, I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm-wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl my age, with a camouflage jacket over her Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. Whe she saw that I was watching her, she gave me a wicked-looking smirk, but otherwise didn't say or do anything else.
Nevertheless, I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.
"No," Chiron said sadly. "Most of my kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here.'
I couldn't help but notice how he said most of his kinsmen. Not all. But the way he didn't elaborate on it led me to believe that it was a touchy subject, so I didn't say anything further on the subject.
Besides, we'd finally reached the end of the cabins on the left, anyways. To my surprise, the girl I'd met at the Big House – Annabeth, I reminded myself – was sitting on the steps of Cabin Eleven, the last cabin, reading a book. I tried to see what the title of the book was, but I couldn't make out the title because it looked Greek to me. Like, actual Greek. But there were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns and things like that, so I figured it must've been some sort of architecture book.
...And the way that the Greek suddenly started to make sense to me a few moments later confirmed that. Yeesh. Was this another part of being a demigod? It was kinda creepy.
"Annabeth," Chiron greeted her. "I have a masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"
She looked up, then over at me critically. She had that look on her face again, the carefully blank one, but nonetheless she replied politely, "Yes, sir."
Chiron nodded, obviously pleased. "Cabin Eleven," he told me as he gestured towards the doorway. "Make yourself at home."
Out of all of the cabins, Cabin Eleven looked the most like a regular old summer cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, the one that was a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. A caduceus, I thought.
Κηρύκειον, a voice in the back of my mind corrected me in turn.
I ignored it.
Inside, the cabin was packed with people, both buys and girls. In fact, I was relatively certain that there were way more people than there were bunk beds. The sleeping bags spread all over the floor only cemented that idea.
Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him, they all stood and bowed respectfully.
"Well, then," he said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."
Then, he galloped away towards the archery range.
I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me instead, sizing me up. I knew this routine. It was one I was all too familiar with, given how many schools I'd gone to over the years.
"Well?" Annabeth prompted, sounding annoyed. "Go on."
I walked in, making sure not to trip over the doorway, with Annabeth following right behind me. When we were both inside, she announced, "Percy Jackson, meet Cabin Eleven."
"Regular or undetermined?" a lanky boy with black hair and an eyepatch – yes, an actual pirate-y eyepatch, I shit you not – towards the front asked.
I didn't know what to say, but that was fine, because Annabeth spoke for me. "Undetermined."
Everybody groaned.
"Now, now, campers," a familiar voice said. "That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."
I looked up in surprise, because the same blonde-haired guy that had taken Katie out of my arms the other night and spoon-fed me that popcorn pudding was speaking. And, now that I could see his features in full light and without any blurred vision, I couldn't help but admit that damn, he was hot.
He looked to be around seventeen or so and he was tall (the tallest guy at camp, probably – Chiron excluded, of course), with short-cropped sandy blonde hair and a friendly and easygoing smile. He wore an orange tank top with cutffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different clay-colored beads on it. The only thing that might have been off-putting about his appearance was the long, twisted, thick white scar he had going from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.
But to me, it just made him look all the more handsome.
Nervously, I looked at him, keenly aware that my face was beginning to burn something hot. But all he did was smile, and his icy blue eyes were warm and comforting.
"This is Luke," Annabeth informed me, oblivious to the fact that I was about to spontaneously combust from a mixture of attraction and embarrassment. "He's going to be your counselor for now."
I blinked, before forcing myself to look at her and asked, "For now?"
"You're undetermined," Luke explained, and somehow I found myself blushing even harder. Gods, could he make a term I didn't even understand sound hot. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin Eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron god, is the god of travelers, after all."
"And thieves," a guy about the same age as Luke with messy light brown hair and hazel-blue eyes pointed out with a grin.
"And trade," the guy next to him, who I presumed to be his identical twin, added.
"And just about everything else you can imagine," Luke finished with a roll of his eyes. Obviously, this was a thing with them. "Yes, thank you, Travis, Connor. Annabeth, I know that Chiron probably told you to help Percy with the rest of his introduction, but I think we can take it from here now."
Annabeth looked like she wanted to say something, like a protest, but after quickly glancing at me, she nodded and walked out. Good. I wasn't really in the mood to deal with her anyways.
When she left, it was kind of awkward for a few moments, as everybody was looking at me and I was looking at them, doing my best to wish away my blush. No one said anything.
Finally, though, somebody let out a snicker, and everyone started to laugh. Not sure of what else to do, I smiled weakly, while Luke chuckled and bumped my shoulder with his arm. "Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all. For a newbie, anyways."
Over the next few hours, most of the other kids in the cabin eagerly acquainted themselves with me.
Travis and Connor Stoll, the two guys I had thought were identical twins, actually weren't identical twins. They were Irish twins, however, as Connor had apparently been born two weeks before Travis' first birthday. They were sons of Hermes, too, and that combined with their similar features was enough to make me convinced they were the real life versions of the Weasley twins from Harry Potter.
Chris Rodriguez and Cecil Rogers were both sons of Hermes as well. In fact they, along with the Stolls and Luke, were the only children of Hermes in the entire cabin. Apparently the only daughters Hermes had ever had were all goddesses, so the only children of his to come to Camp Half-Blood were, obviously sons.
Then there was Ethan Nakamura, the guy with the eyepatch. He was a son of Nemesis. His best friend, a guy named Alabaster Torrington, was a son of Hecate, and his half-sister was a girl called Lou Ellen.
...She was a little terrifying, not gonna lie.
And those were just the first few people who introduced themselves to me. There were so many more people in the cabin that I just couldn't keep track of their faces, much less their names. So, understandably, I think, by the time that everybody had seemingly had enough with me, my mind was swimming with all of the knowledge it had just acquired.
That was how Luke found me on my tiny section of floor, sleeping bag already splayed out. I had the palms of my hands pressed against my eyes as I tried to take it all in when I heard him ask me, "Hey, you alright?"
"...Yeah," I replied blearily as I looked up, before I shook my head. "No. I don't know. It's...a lot."
He laughed softly, before sitting down next to me. "I know the feeling," he said. "Is there anything you wanna talk about? Anything you wanna ask me?"
Yeah, I thought. I wanna know just why you were in my dream the other night. Among other things. Like –
"Uh, how long am I gonna stay here?" I asked.
"Good question," he said. "Until you're determined, which can take – well, it depends. For some people, it happens relatively fast. Others..." he trailed off and shrugged.
I didn't really know what to say to that, it didn't seem right to me that the gods just wouldn't "claim" their kids for so long, but obviously that wouldn't be a good thing to say. So instead, I just nodded mutely.
That seemed to bother Luke, though, because in the next moment he patted my arm and gave me a grin. "Don't worry about that, though," he said. "'Cause I think you should be worried about other things."
"Like what?"
He hummed. "Like...maybe the fact you talk in your sleep?"
My eyes widened. He laughed. But before I could ask just what he meant by that, he got up and walked away, his hands in his pockets as he went to go check on the rest of our cabin mates.
Fuck, I thought as my eyes trailed after him. I am so screwed.
Word Count: 3,210
Next Chapter Title: I Sacrifice Brisket For The Gods
