Chapter 7: I save a life by burping
[David's Pov]
I usually hated crowds of people.
Maybe it was because I wasn't exactly a very talky person if the subject is not ancient Greek Mythology, or maybe because people surrounding me were criminals for most of my lifetime.
And to be honest, I didn't like the commotion that happened right after the chariot left. The orange T-shirted people (they'd be the campers, I assume) were gaping at me as if I just dropped from the sky (I guess technically I did?) and bombarded Percy, Annabeth, and Grover with questions about everything.
"Alright, that's enough questions for now."
The guy on a wheelchair had to intervene in the end, and even when they parted into their groups, campers glanced at me often, which made me want to just bury myself into the ground.
"I heard you were aiding Grover on his quest. But this is quite an entrance."
"I, um, I'm sorry."
The wheelchair guy raised his eyebrow.
"Sorry?"
"Never mind. May I ask who are you?"
"This is Chiron. The Chiron." Annabeth said and instantly covered her ears after.
I looked at the wheelchair guy again, who was frowning himself and muttering 'The Chiron?' under his breath.
"Uh…I thought Chiron was a centaur. Not…well,"
I didn't want to say crippled, or unable person, or whatever other non-offensive but offensive ways to call a crippled person.
But 'Chiron' just blinked at me for a second.
"I see you are quite familiar with the Greek Myths. Then I suppose I won't have to disguise myself."
Disguise?
But before I can ask what he meant, the guy rose from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about how he did it.
His legs didn't move, but the waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt, arising out of the wheelchair. In seconds, his torso became taller than any man could ever dream to be, then I looked down to see not a leg standing, but muscle and sinew under coarse white fur.
The wheelchair wasn't a chair either. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels.
A long knobby-kneed leg came out, 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.
There was a half-man, half-horse towering over me.
"A-a centaur."
I heard my weak voice murmur, and the wheelchair guy nodded.
"Yes, child. I am Chiron."
"Chiron."
"…Yes."
He was frowning down at me, confused at my awestruck voice I'd imagine, which in turn confused me. How could anyone not be awestruck when Chiron is standing right in front of you, alive and real?
"You, your Chiron, from the myths?"
"I am…?"
"Y-you trained Hercules. Achilles, Jason-"
Now Chiron was confused at my yammering. He glanced at Annabeth, who explained by saying "He is a fan of yours, Chiron." which just confused him more.
"A fan?"
"Can I have an autograph?"
My voice was almost out of breath when I asked. Chiron looked perplexed than ever.
"Son, you just rode the sun here. That's-"
"But you trained Hercules."
I think he gave up at that point.
He promised me an autograph later, which made today a definite top point in my life, no question asked. Also, he muttered something about I could skip on the orientation film, whatever that meant.
It still took me some time to calm my nerves down. I think driving the sun was less nervous than meeting Chiron. The dude was, is a legend! Both figuratively, and literally!
I took a sip of something very sweet and delicious from a wooden tumbler Grover handed. For some reason, he didn't allow me to take more than a small sip, but that was enough to settle down.
It tasted like a strawberry smoothie ma used to make during the summer when…well when we were together. A long time ago.
Then I realized the hunters were also giving me a weird look. Zoë was muttering something on the lines of "Trained Hercules…" is nothing better than a sneer, and I would've retorted back at her if Chiron hadn't turned to them first.
"Grover, would you kindly show hunters the way to cabin 8?"
"We know the way."
Zoë started to protest, but Grover stepped up eagerly.
"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here if you don't-"
He went on about a story that his 'old daddy goat' used to say. I wasn't sure if that was a figure of speech, or his father was a goat. Frankly, I'll live on well without knowing the answer to that.
After sending off the hunters, the rest of us headed to a place called 'The Big House'.
It was a big sky blue-colored farmhouse ahead. Go figure.
To be fair, I was still very much impressed by the camp; it was much larger than Westover Hall's schoolyard, maybe even larger than the school combined.
The place was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture. I could make out the twelve cabins Percy told about; one for each Olympian. Half-Bloods are determined where to sleep according to their parentage.
I wonder if they were the only gods around, or allowed to have children for some reason because there were certainly more gods than Olympians in the myths.
There was also a lake and woods at the far side of the camp, where some gaggle of girls was weaving a basket. The ones at the lake giggled among themselves and waved at Percy.
Annabeth grunted like an angry cat. Percy and I both looked at her.
"What?"
""Nothing.""
There was also a climbing wall that spewed lava (Percy said that was for 'extra challenge'.), a volleyball pit where some gruff-looking kids were having a snowball fight, but the snowballs exploded on impact like they were stuffed with a grenade.
A big girl from the group flipped us off. Percy was about to make a hand gesture back until Chiron cleared his throat.
A patch of strawberry field, where 3-4 campers were walking through, and the plants seemed to frolic at their touch. Also, a bunch of combat ranges like Archery, javelin throwing, sword and spear fights, which reminded me of the sword that just appeared out of nowhere.
I idiotically felt around my pockets, as if the sword hilt would be miraculously hidden up my sleeve, but then I found a small light that I never remembered having. It was in the same black color as the sword. Also, the gas was empty.
I clicked it on anyway, and the lighter started to grow heavy and get longer until it became the sword.
"Whoa…"
"Mr. Lee-"
My heart skipped a beat when Chiron called me 'Mr.'
"-where did you get that sword?"
I turned around and was less thrilled when I saw his face was not that bright. I quickly searched around the hilt for a possible button that'll change the sword back, but as soon as I wished it the sword shrank back to a lighter.
"Um, it, uh, I got it during the fight with the Manticore."
"But where?"
"It kind of just appeared in my hand…"
I glanced at Percy for help, but he looked just as confused as I was. Annabeth however, was now looking at me with a similar expression to Chiron, as if this sword was somehow stolen and didn't belong to me.
I handed the lighter to Chiron.
"If I'm not supposed to have it, I'll give it back."
Chiron looked down at the lighter with an even grimmer expression but shook his head.
"It is rare for a weapon to choose its owner. I'm afraid even if I took it, it'll come back for you eventually. Fates tend to be unavoidable."
The way he phrased it made it sound like the sword would be the end of me. I didn't ask on about what he meant. Instead, I turned to Percy because I remembered he had a similar functioning sword.
"Did your sword choose you too?"
"Not really. Chiron gave it to me when a Fur-uhh,"
"The kindly ones." Annabeth chimed in.
"-yeah, when one of those attacked me two years ago. It's called Riptide."
Percy spun his ballpoint pen between his fingers. He looked quite proud of the blade, and I looked down at my black lighter.
"You're not something nasty, right?"
The lighter didn't say anything. But the dream of me being crushed by a gazillion tons of force came back to me, and I shuddered.
[Line Break]
I haven't got to hear much about the Camp director, so to say. I half-guessed Chiron would be the director, mostly because he fitted the role perfectly, or some other Legendary Greek Hero would've been fine too.
Instead, I was introduced to a dude named 'Mr.D' with all of his red-nosed glory. He was a small, chubby dude with big red watery eyes, curly black/purple hair, and a stench of grapes and alcohol that stung my nose.
I would've looked down on him completely, if not for the fact that when he moved his bloodshot eyes to me, I got the strange feeling of foreboding, in which the porky dude was someone more than just an alcoholic.
Mr. D looked me up and down a few times, then snorted out through Rudolph's nose.
"Oh, this one won't last very long now, will him Chiron?"
"Um."
Mr. D gulped down on a can of diet coke.
I looked at Chiron for him to say something, but he was back into his wheelchair and just rolled onto a side of the table. Percy and Annabeth each took a seat without a word, so I just sat down as well.
Why was everyone suddenly eager to omen my death all of a sudden?
I tried to distract myself by trying to guess who Mr. D was. I sincerely doubted he was just a drunk nobody. D…Mr.D…grapes…alcohol…
"…Dionysus?"
Mr. D rolled his eyes.
"Well, duh! I see you are no better than Perry Johnson over there."
"Percy Jackson."
"Whichever!"
Mr. D waved off Percy's correction, and several diet coke cans appeared on the table simultaneously.
"You are the wine dude."
"Wine dude!"
Mr. D scoffed and turned his eyes back to me. It glinted in a faint purple light. In a flash, visions of grapevines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, and sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers flashed past my eyes.
"Tell me, boy. Do you know how much of a weight wine held 3000 years ago?"
I racked my brains to come up with an answer before I get dolphin-ized.
"Uh, wine was the first-ever alcohol to appear, it was mostly for the rich and important when it first did at Ancient Greece, a sign of wealth and prosperity if you will. Then when it got more publicized by Ancient Rome it was used for medicine or drinks, and─"
Then I realized everyone was staring at me. Chiron was looking impressed, which boosted my shoulders up a few inches. Mr. D blinked at me a few times, the purple light in his eyes was gone. He turned back to his cards of poker.
"Well, at least you are aware of the basics."
He waved his hand again, and a can of Pepsi appeared in my hand.
"Thank you, Mr. D."
"Mhm."
After that intense moment (it was intense for me, at least) has passed, Chiron requested to hear the full story about what happened at Westover Hall in detail. Percy was the one who did the most storytelling since he was the two who saw/heard the most.
I just sipped on my Pepsi. It had a grape flavor in it.
When the story was over, Chiron sighed out, deeply concerned. Also, I had like, 4 cans of coke. Westover Hall never allowed any carbonated drinks, so I'm taking the chance while I could.
"So that's why Thalia was…and only after 6 months too."
Percy looked down as well. Annabeth edged up on her chair.
"She is not dead, Chiron. I know it."
"I know that too. For better or for worse, Thalia is still alive. We should have a search for her immediately. We can't let the enemies have held on her, especially since…"
He trailed off, and for some reason glanced at Percy again. There was something I was missing here, but I didn't want to ask out loud when the air was so grim.
Mr. D sniffed his nose.
"I do not think so."
Everyone, including me, turned to him. Percy was about to open his mouth, but Chiron cut in.
"Mr. D. I'd usually agree, as painful it would be to do so. But Thalia is different; the great prophecy-"
"Oh, the prophecy."
Mr. D waved his hand again. Now the table was practically full of diet coke cans.
"Something something doom, something death. If it were to happen sooner than later, I'd say we're already doomed. Err, Thalleon-"
"Thalia."
Annabeth corrected him.
"Yes, yes. We have just the amount of time until winter solstice for her to turn 16, and I doubt wherever she ended upon, that'll be enough time to find her. A hopeless mission."
Then Percy stood up from the table. I nearly choked on my 7th can.
"We still have to try. We can't sit around and just do nothing!"
"Sure we can."
"Why, because that's what you do all day? Nothing?"
He snarled at Mr. D, and for a second the room went quiet except for the crackling of the fire. Mr. D opened his mouth to say something.
And at that exact moment, I let out a huge belch.
You know, perfect timing.
Everyone gave me a blank look.
"Pardon me."
I hoped for the ground to erupt and swallow me up, but sadly that didn't happen.
"Percy," Chiron said quickly, taking advance of the silence. "you and Annabeth go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."
"Capture the flag? But it's not even Fri-"
"Yes," Annabeth said. "Come on, Percy. You too."
She hauled both of us out of the Big House as fast as she could.
Let's be honest, if I was at CHB and meet Chiron in person, I would act the same.
Also, I hope Mr.D didn't come too off a character, I never really grasped his when I was reading the book…
