When we returned to Yancy, Grover told Alumi and me who and what he was.
He was a Satyr.
Like the ones from Greek myth.
He has shown Alumi and me by removing styrofoam legs and showing his goat legs, and it shocked and amazed us that Grover was half goat, as I bet his family raised goats Alumi said he was using some form of deodorant that smirked like a goat.
And my mood was getting worse for some reason as I would snap at Alumi and Grover before apologizing.
I told Grover that I was connected to the sea and that if the sea was getting stormy and dark, so was my mood.
But the freak weather continued over the rest of the year, which didn't help my mood.
One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows of my dorm room.
A few days later, the most significant tornado spotted in the Hudson Valley was only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.
One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden storms in the Atlantic that year.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time.
And it was a real struggle to keep my grades slipped from Ds to Fs.
I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends, and I am ashamed I did this, but I put the fear of the gods into her as I made sure that she knew to in the politest way possible.
To Fuck Off.
I was almost sent out into the hallway in nearly every class.
And with anger coursing through me, people steered away from Grover, Alumi and me.
I always had this sudden urge to destroy something; my hands were itching to punch something, but I kept it down to not drown the school.
I would not repeat an expulsion reason; thank you very much.
Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, even if I had managed to pass them.
But I snapped anyway.
So I called him an old sot.
I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.
The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.
Fine, I told myself.
Just fine.
I was homesick.
I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school.
Then Alumi got kicked out of one of her classes, and she told me that
Nancy will have a hard time getting her teeth fixed after what she did.
And I saw that Alumi had blood dripping from her hand.
So I did not question it.
And Alumi, like me, got a letter sent to Mom saying the same thing that mine said.
And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy.
The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.
I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days, where he would challenge you to the sword to calk point to write down every person in Greek myth along with the god they worshipped and their mother, and his faith that I could do well, even if I were going to a camp that he was at.
But as exam week approached, Latin was the only test I studied for.
I had remembered what Mr. Brunner had told me about making the right decisions.
I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe that when he said that, he didn't just mean the tests.
I was called to Mr Brunner's office with Alumi and Grover as he waited for us, "Now, before your last Latin test tomorrow, I have to know do you three know what you have to do," He asked us as we nodded at him, "Good, now to answer a question you had for me Percy, something haven't been right since the winter solstice," He told me as I nodded as Undine and Hyōrinmaru, my second spirit, appeared next to me along with Alumi's spirits.
"Why is that," Undine asked him as he looked at her.
"That I know, but I hope I am wrong," Mr Brunner said as we nodded, "Anyway, even thou you will see what I look like normally when you get to camp here is what I normally look like," Mr Brunner said as he started to pull himself out of the seat.
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, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur.
Looking back at the wheelchair, I found that it was not a chair but a container, an enormous box on wheels hidden by magic.
Aleg came out long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof, then another front leg, then the hindquarters and then the box was empty with a couple of fake human legs.
Mr Brunners lower half was a huge white stallion, and where its neck should be was my Latin teacher.
"You're a Centaur," I asked him as he nodded.
"And my name is not Brunner," He told me as I nodded, "It's Chiron," Chiron told us as Alumi's eyes shot wide.
"As in the trainer of Heracles," She asked as Chiron nodded.
"Both my greatest student and my greatest failer," He told us as we nodded as he walked over to a wall that showed something I could not make it out.
"Something has happened on Olympus, and we do not know what has happened as it happened on the last winter solstice," He told us as the freak weather came to my mind.
"And so we need to get as many demi-gods to camp as possible so that if a quest is given, we can plan academy," Chiron said as both Alumi.
I nodded, "Now shaman are allowed in camp, but mortals are not, so as tomorrow is your last day at Yancy, when you see your mother, Percy, give her this," Chiron told me as he held out a bracelet.
It looked like a silver bracelet with twelve symbols that looked like charms on it.
First was a lightning bolt, then a lotus flower, then a trident (I felt it called to me), and a cornucopia afterwards. There was a shield and spear, an owl was the next symbol, after that was a lyre and was followed by a crescent moon with an arrow thou it, then there was a hammer, then a dove, followed by a stick with snakes on it and finally the last charm on it was what looked to be grapes on a vine.
"Now then, off you go to bed," He told us as we nodded, and just as I was at the door, I quickly turned to him and handed him a sheet of paper.
"Did I get any of that right," I asked him as he looked at the paper, pulled out a red pen, and started writing something on it before he handed it back to me.
When I saw what he corrected, I nodded and thanked him before I went to bed with Grover and Alumi following me.
The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelt, Mr Brunner called me back inside.
And he had a smile on his face, "Well done, Percy, you have scored well on your test," He told me as he handed it to me, and I saw that it had a B+ on it as I looked amazed.
And below that had an 85%, and I smiled at him as I walked out, seeing the shock on people's faces as Grover and Alumi hid smiles as they scored the same as me.
Soon it was the last day of term, and I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.
The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland.
Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.
They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents.
Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.
I was a nobody from a family of nobodies.
And I was okay with that as it took a nobody to become somebody.
Or that is what chipmunk cheeks told me.
They asked me what I'd be doing this summer, and I told them I was going back to the city.
"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."
They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.
Before we knew all three of us, Alumi, Grove, and I had boarded a Greyhound together again, heading into the city.
"So what can you tell me about this camp," I asked him as he fished out a card.
Grover Underwood, Keeper
Half-Blood Hill
Long Island, New York
(800) 009-0009
"I'm also a protector," He said as Alumi, and I looked at him.
"Who are you protecting," Alumi asked him.
"Percy," Grover told her as she nodded at him.
It kind of shocked me as all year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him.
And much to Alumi's annoyance, I've lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.
That was until I found out he was a Satyr.
And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me; it made a smile form on my face.
"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from," I asked him but was interrupted by a huge grinding noise under our feet.
Black smoke poured from the dashboard, and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.
The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.
After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off.
All three of us filed outside with everybody else.
We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there.
On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars.
On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.
The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.
There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.
I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks.
The lady on the right knitted one of them.
The lady on the left knitted the other.
The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.
All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.
Their gaze was cold and unforgiving; like they were figuring out if I was worth it.
And in that instant, I knew who they were.
Clotho: Fate of Birth.
Lachesis: Fate of Life.
Atropos: Fate of Death.
I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face.
His nose was twitching.
And saw that Alumi was the same but without the twitching nose.
"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"
"Tell me they're not looking at you," He asked me, but before I could answer, he did insisted, "They are, aren't they," He asked.
"Yeah," I said as I returned to them and met their gaze at the Fates.
As Silva once told me.
You are only faded to do three things in life.
Be born, live a life and then die.
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.
I heard Grover catch his breath.
"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on," He tried to move me, but Alumi stopped him.
"The Fates wish him to witness this, so we are unable to do anything," Alumi told him, sounding wise beyond her years.
I felt Undine place a hand on my shoulder along with Hyōrinmaru.
Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me.
The middle one cut the yarn, and I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.
They nodded at me, and I nodded back to them as the other two balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.
At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment.
The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.
The passengers cheered.
"Darn right," yelled the driver.
He slapped the bus with his hat, "Everybody back on board," He called out as we walked back on the bus with Grover looking shocked at Alumi and me, "Why would the Fates want you to see a treat cutting," He asked us as we looked at him.
I did not know what to say, but the words came out, and I did not know where they came from, "It was to tell me that my fate is tied to another and that only one of us will be standing in the end, and I have to make the right chose," I told them as Alumi nodded as Grover sighed looking defeated.
"Do you want to know more about being a shaman," I asked him as he nodded.
And so, for the rest of the bus ride, I told him the duties of a shaman, with Alumi adding information that I missed out on and smiling at us.
"Wow, you guys have a cool job," Grover told us as we smiled at him.
Well, I smiled; Alumi gained an air of pride around her.
When we entered the city, we waited for Grover to return from the bathroom and got into a cap.
"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.
When we got to my and Alumi's home that we shared with my mother, and after I paid the cabbie, I smiled at the car that Mom now how had.
It took Alumi and me talking to a shaman named Iron Maiden Jeanne, and I knew that Jeanne owed her a favour.
She allowed Mom to buy a car from Super Marco LLC, which the shaman owned and let her buy it at not only half price and was slowly paying it off.
The car she bought was a blue dodge charger 1972.
We walked up to our apartment, finding that the door was locked, so Alumi pulled out her key and unlocked it as we walked in, and I smiled as I looked at the three-bedroom apartment.
Grover looked around, took in a big smell, and gained a smile, "It smells like a home here," He said as Alumi, and I nodded at him as we sat on the sofa, waiting for Mom to get home.
And we did not have to wait long as Mom walked in the door in her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform that smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, liquorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central.
She'd brought Alumi and me a huge bag of "free samples," as always, when we came home.
And do not let Alumi fool you. She is addicted to caramel.
And saw that Alumi and I were there before she looked at Grover and started to grow scared before she saw my smile, "Mom, you don't have to worry about that," I told her as she looked at me, confused as I held out the silver bracelet.
"Chiron told me that he and Grover took forever trying to find out if I were a demi-god," I told her as Grover nodded along with what I was saying, "And I know that you don't want me going to that camp as you are not allowed to go there but Chiron about that and he got this for you," I told her as she looked at it.
Mom took it gently from my hands as she looked over the bracelet, "What does it do," She asked as Grover stood up.
"It was made so that you could enter Camp Half-blood," Grover said as she looked at him with wide eyes, "And that also means that you can go to camp, but Chiron has one thing that he said is a must for you to have this," He said as Mom nodded.
Grover looked her dead in the eye, "You must sware on the River Styx that if there is a demi-god or Satyr in need of a bed for a night, you will allow them to stay and make sure that they are healthy and happy," He said as Mom's eyes widened.
"And if I agree," Mom asked as I looked at Grover.
"Then each month you will get a pay $12,000 a month, and for each demi-god and Satyr that make it to camp from your home and says good things, you get $500," Grover said as I looked at Mom, and I could see her eyes again tears.
"Mom," I said as she turned to me, and I smiled at her, "I think that it's the right path for you," I told her as she looked at me before smiling back.
She nodded before turning to Grover, "When do we head out," She asked, putting the bracelet on.
"Once you swear," Grover said as Mom nodded.
"I, Sally Jackosn, now swear on the river Styx that I shall lend my home to any demi-god, god or Satyr in need and will make sure that I can do everything in my power so that they are kept healthy and happy," Mom said as a slight earthquake formed around the city before it died down.
Alumi and I walked to each of our rooms and started gathering things to help us at camp.
I pulled out a katana that Alumi and I found in an antique shop that belonged to Hyōrinmaru.
And for something else, it was forged with salt water.
We loaded our stuff into Mom's car before we got in.
Mom drove the same what that she would go when she took Alumi and me to Montauk/
But it had the same effect because she seemed to grow younger as he grew closer to the sea, years of worry and work disappeared from her face.
Her eyes turned the color of the sea.
As we drone, I ate some of my mom's blue cookies.
I guess I should explain the blue food.
See, Alumi had once told my mom there was no such thing.
They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time.
But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue.
She baked blue birthday cakes.
She mixed blueberry smoothies.
She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.
She did have a rebellious streak, like me.
And to help her, I joined in, and I started to eat everything I had; I made sure that it was a shade of blue.
"So, Grover, what can we expect of this camp," I asked him as Grover looked over to me.
"It was made to help demi-gods like you, train and make sure that they can live a life," Grover told me as I nodded as I saw that Mom had gained a look of guilt, "Don't worry, Miss Jackson, what you did most parents do, and it normally takes Chiron himself talking to them for them to send their children to camp," Grover told her as she looked at him in the rearview mirror.
"We're almost there," My mother said, as I saw her gain a smile.
Soon a large grassy hill with the largest White House Christmas tree-sized pine tree sat at the crest of the hill.
Mom drove close to it before parking, and we all got out and got our stuff before the weather changed.
The sky darkened as rain started to pour before something told me that something was close as I took hold of the katana.
I looked around as Alumi stopped what she was doing as she saw that I was looking around.
"What is it," She asked me before the lightning started to rain down, and something caught my eye.
It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player.
He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head.
His top half was bulky and fuzzy.
His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.
"Alumi gets Mom and Grover to the camp," I told her; my spirits formed next to me as I drew the katana.
"Are you crazy," She yelled at me as the silhouette grew closer.
The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises.
As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides.
There was no blanket.
Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head.
And the points that looked like horns ...
"Perseus Jackson, you will come with us this instant," Mom yelled at me.
I winched when she called me my full name, but I did not move.
I just looked at her, "I know you wanted to protect me, but I have to do that now for you," I told her as I looked back.
The katana looked like a standard katana except for the guard, shaped like a four-pointed bronze-coloured star with a light blue hilt.
Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster.
He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin.
He wore no clothes except underwear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary.
Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
I recognized the monster, all right.
He had been in one of the first stories Chiron told us.
I blinked the rain out of my eyes.
"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.
"Hyōrinmaru Spirt Ball," I called out as the Japanese spirit turned into the small ball that looked to have an icey scarf, "Soul Integration," I called out as I felt my body become straighter and the air around me become colder.
"Mom, I will be right behind you," I told her with my layered voice as she looked at me.
"Alright, but come right behind us, alright," Mom said as I nodded.
"I swear on the sea that I will," I said as I heard two people running.
"Are you sure you can fight him," Alumi said, as I knew she would have stayed behind.
"Go, I can handle some ground beef," I told her as she nodded and joined Mom and Grover running.
"Percy-dono, our blade will only cut him slowly because of the metal used," Hyōrinmaru told me as I saw the beast lumber forward.
I felt fear wash over me, but I pushed it back down as I looked at the beast.
The Minotaur.
"Then we shall form ice around the edge," I told the spirit as the water on the blade froze.
It sniffed the air before it let out a bellow and started to charge at me, but I moved around him while slashing it in the chest.
And Hyōrinmaru was right, as we only cut skin deep, but it was enough for the ice to do its work.
As it was turning.
I slashed again, finding another trail of ice on its back.
As it tried to get me, I danced around him, skillfully cutting at him, delivering small bows.
But my luck did not last as he hit me square in the chest and sent me to a tree, as the wind was knocked out of me.
I was dased, but I managed to get up but heard a faint cracking sound as I got up.
It was possibly my ribs, but I was not going down yet.
Then I heard a louder cracking sound as I quickly glanced down at Frozen Passion, the name of my katana, and saw that it had a crack.
"It seemed that my blade has reached its end here," Hyōrinmaru told me as I looked back at the Minotaur, who was charging at me.
And so my body flowed as I felt me and Hyōrinmaru become truly one and called out one of the signature moves of one of the greatest samurai that had ever lived, "Amida-Ryū: Shinkū Budda-giri," I called.
We slashed the air so fast that we formed a shockwave that travelled to the bull-man but cut off his horn and through the beast with the frozen air within the shockwave.
The shockwave not only cut off his horn when it moved thou him but cut off his left arm along with most of the left side of his body,
But the Minotaur, in a last-ditch effort to take me out back, handed me as it slammed onto the ground, and my head hit some rocks.
It slowly disintegrated into golden sand as I got up, feeling now I had a lot of broken bones.
I limped up the hill, felt blood drip and roll down my neck, and I made my way up before I spotted a girl with blond hair that was not Alumi.
A snap was heard as Frozen Passion broke, and as I crested the hill, I fell to my knees, as mine and Hyōrinmaru's integration broke, and he was ejected from my body.
Before I lost consciousness, I saw the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded centre and a pretty girl with the most beautiful and angelic face I had ever seen, her blond hair curled like a princess's.
They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one; he must be."
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said, "He's still conscious; bring him inside," He told her before I was off to dreamland.
That night I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals.
They all wanted to kill me.
I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again.
I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding.
The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me along with my mother.
She smirked as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.
When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice."
I managed to croak, "What."
She looked around as if afraid someone would overhear.
"What's going on, what was stolen, we've only got a few weeks," She asked me as Mom looked equally confused as I felt that sleep was taking me once more.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't . . ."
Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding, and I then soon fell asleep after that.
Then that night, I had a vivid dream.
It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.
The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons.
The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings.
As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.
I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion.
I knew I would be too late.
I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!
I woke with a start; the girl was gone so was Mom.
A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom, watching me.
He had blue eyes — at least a dozen of them — on his cheeks, his forehead, and the backs of his hands.
When I finally came around for good, nothing was weird about my surroundings except that they were nicer than I was used to.
I 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 my mouth felt like a scorpion had used it for a nest.
My tongue was dry and nasty, and every one of my teeth hurt.
On the table next to me was a tall drink.
It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.
My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.
"Careful," a familiar voice said.
Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.
Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box.
He wore a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD, and his goat legs were on full display.
Next to his was Alumi, holding the broken form of Frozen Passion in her hands.
"You saved our lives," Grover said as he saw me look at the shoe box, "I . . . well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill; I thought you might want this," He told me as he placed the shoe box in my lap.
Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood.
I looked at him, confused, "Why are you giving me this," I asked him.
He smiled at me as he looked at me, then pointed at the horn, "It's your spoil of war," He told me as I nodded, "You beat it; it's now yours to have," He said as I nodded.
"How did it feel to beat the Minotaur," Alumi asked me as I smiled at her.
"Uh, Alumi, it isn't a good idea — " Grover started to say as she looked at him.
"Name does have power, yes, but so long as you give them power over you will they gain power," I told him.
Grover looked confused as Alumi nodded.
We both knew that I just spoke absolute bullshit, but I needed something to say to sound wise.
I stared across the meadow.
There were groves of trees, a winding stream, and acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky.
The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top.
Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.
As I looked out and took in the scenery before, suddenly I felt dizzy, with my vision swimming.
"Don't strain yourself," Grover told me as he held the glass, "Here," He said as he helped me hold my drink and put the straw to my lips.
I first recoiled at the taste because I was expecting apple juice.
It wasn't that at all.
It was chocolate chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies — my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.
Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and full of energy.
I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything would be okay.
Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.
"Was it good," Grover asked.
I nodded.
"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful I felt guilty.
"Sorry," I said before looking at him, "I should've let you taste it," He said as his eyes widened.
"Fish face, that was nectar," Alumi said as it was my turn to have wide eyes.
"Oh right, only gods and demi-gods can have nectar," I said as Grover nodded, "Well, it tasted like Mom's Chocolate-chip cookies," I told him as I managed to put the glass down.
I then looked over to Alumi, "What's going to happen with Frozen Passion," I asked her as she looked down at the katana.
"I messaged a great Itako about a spirit that we could call to help fix it," She told me as I nodded as I started to get up with wobbly legs.
"Itako," Grover asked me.
"A female shaman with the ability to summon spirits from the afterlife to integrate with a shaman," I told him as he nodded before looking pensive and off to the big pine tree.
He then shook his head, "Come on, Chiron, your Mom and Mr D are waiting," Grover told me as he pointed at the Minotaur horn, "Do you want me to carry that for you," He asked as I shook my head.
"I lost a trusty weapon to that beast, so I must carry it to honour the weapon's last stand," I told him; he nodded as we started to walk across the farmhouse's porch that wrapped around it.
I caught my breath as we approached the opposite end of the house.
We must've been on the north shore of Long Island because, on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to Long Island Sound, which glittered about a mile in the distance.
I simply couldn't process everything I saw between here and there.
The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture — an open-air pavilion, an amphitheatre, a circular arena — except that they looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun.
In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs were playing volleyball.
Canoes glided across a small lake.
Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other.
Some shot targets at an archery range.
Others rode horses down a wooded trail; unless I hallucinated, some of their horses had wings.
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 me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.
The man facing me was small, but porky.
He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple.
He looked like those paintings of baby angels — what do you call them, hubbubs?
No, cherubs.
That's it.
He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.
He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Charlie Sheen's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my mom's ex-boyfriend.
"That's Mr D," Grover murmured to me.
My mind then started to go thou every name in Greek myth that started with the letter D.
"He's the camp director, be polite," Grover finished as I nodded as the names were slowing wittering down, "The girl, that's Annabeth Chase, she's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody," Grover said as he pointed at the blond girl as I noded her name.
Annabeth.
"And you already know Chiron," He said as I also saw the centaur.
"Chiron," I said as the Latin teacher turned and smiled at me.
His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.
It was always funny when he did that, as I would watch Alumi want to kill someone.
"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have six for pinochle," Chiron said as I looked at Mom sitting with them.
He offered me a chair to the right of Mr D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh, "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," He said as it sounded like he did not like his job as the list of Greek myth names soon left me with one, "There, now, don't expect me to be glad to see you," He added to me.
And I already did not like this guy.
"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from sending druck souls off, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice.
If Mr D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.
"Annabeth?" Chiron called Annabeth.
She came forward, and Chiron introduced us, "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy," He told me as my mother nodded, "Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk, that is if Miss Jackson will tell us who Percy's father is," Chiron said as he then looked to mom.
She looked over at him, confused, "Is it alright for me to say," Mom asked him as Chiron nodded.
"Yes, as normally it would help to see if the gods would claim their child faster," He told her.
Then mom looked at me with a slight smile, "Remember when Silva told you that you're the son of a sea god," I nodded as Chiron looked shocked and a little annoyed with me; I saw some humour in his eyes, "Your father is," She was saying before something shon above my head.
I looked up to see that it was a trident, "Poseidon," I said as I looked at the trident.
Annabeth knelt and bowed to me along with a few others that were around me, as did Undine and Hyōrinmaru, who was next to Mom.
Even Mom was bowing at me.
"Indeed it is Poseidon," said Chiron as I looked at the trident, "Earthshaker, Storm bringer, Father of Horses," Chiron said my father's titles as I felt each one.
"Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God," He said as each person called out hail.
Everyone stood back up as Undine swam over to me, "You knew, didn't you," I asked as she nodded.
"I had my suspicions," She said as I nodded.
I looked at Annabeth to see that she was glaring at me, then turned back to Chiron, "What would you like for me to do now," She asked him.
"I would like for you to give Percy, Alumi and Sally a tour of the camp in a little bit," He told her as she nodded and walked over.
She was probably my age, a couple of inches taller, around Alumi's height, and a lot more athletic looking.
With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.
They were startling grey, like storm clouds, pretty but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.
They were so pretty, like they were made to be appreciated.
She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me.
I imagined she was going to say, 'You killed a minotaur' or 'Wow, you're so awesome' or something like that.
Instead, she said, "You drool when you sleep."
Yep, that was it, but I said nothing as I thought back about thinking about something, "Do you know any place that I could reforge my katana," I asked her as she looked shocked before looking at the sword and then back at me.
"Why," She asked as Chiron also looked interested as Mr D just looked at us, waiting for us to play the game.
"I need a weapon that is forged in the sea, using seawater to quench the blade or something made by a cyclops," I told them as Chiron winched at the information.
"And your katana," He asked me.
"Frozen Passion was my blade before it became Percy's, and the man that forged it used seawater throughout its making," Hyōrinmaru told him as Chiron nodded and Mr D looked at the spirit.
"Let me think on this, Percy," Chiron said as I nodded as Annabeth sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.
I followed her all the way. She was visible, with Mom failing to hide a smile.
"Is it time to start the game now," Mr D said as Grover moved to sit down and he shuffled the deck of cards.
"I believe it is lord of wine," I said as Mr D stopped shuffling and looked at me.
"Oh, you know who I am," He asked me as I looked at him.
I nodded, "Yes, thanks to an Ares son that you drove insane, that got me expelled last year," I told him as he narrowed his eyes at him, but I held up a glowing finger.
"I've always hated shamans," Mr Grumbeled said as Alumi, and I looked offended, "They can banish me from camp but don't do it," He said as I looked at Chiron.
"I must say, Percy," Chiron broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive," He told me as I smiled over him, and he smiled back.
"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"
"Yes, sir," Grover trembled in his chair.
The lord of wine then looked at me, "You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr D eyed me suspiciously.
I looked at my card and saw all aces, "I'm afraid not," I said.
"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.
I stared blankly at him; there wasn't no chance I would call him 'sir.'
Seeing that I would not call him sir even with Mom here looked at me with a raised brow.
"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans," Mr D said as I did not know what he was talking about.
"I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules," He added as I continued to look at him before turning to Mom.
She shrugged at me along with Alumi while Grover was frightened in his seat.
"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said, coming to my rescue.
I only knew how to play one card game, Yugioh.
That was it.
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 correct answer.
And I did 98% of the time, but it usually took a while for it to come out.
"Percy, what do you know about this camp," He asked me as he picked up his cards, and I did the same.
"All mom told me was that it was a place that demi-gods go," I said as Chiron turned to Mom, who nodded.
"That is what Poseidon told me," Mom said as Chiron sighed, and Mr D looked like he did not care.
"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said as Mom, and I looked shocked at him, "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."
"Orientation film," I asked him, but he shook his head.
Mr D yelled, "Oh, a royal marriage," before having a giggle, "Trick, Trick," He cackled as he tallied up his points.
I mean, was it going to beat mine.
I did not know.
Mr D then 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.
Chiron hardly looked up, "Mr D," he warned, "your restrictions," He added as then returned to look at me.
Mr D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.
"Dear me," He said, looking at the sky and yelling, "Old habits, sorry," He said, but he both did not sound or look sorry.
More thunder.
Mr D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke.
He sighed unhappily, popped the soda's top, and returned to his card game.
Chiron winked at me.
"Mr D offended his father a while back and took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits," Chiron told me as I nodded.
"A wood nymph," I repeated.
"Yes," Mr D confessed, and I could hear that he held no love for his father, "Father loves to punish me, the first time, Prohibition," He said as I nodded at him.
"Ghastly; absolutely horrid ten years," He added, started going on a rant, "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," Mr D scoffed as I felt some sympathy for him.
"'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha! Absolutely unfair," He said as Mr D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.
I looked at Alumi across the table, who had the same look I did, "Is it a curse," I asked him.
He looked over his card at me, and I could feel hate aimed at me from him but some curiosity, "Why," He asked me as Chiron smiled.
"If I work with Alumi, we may be able to lift it," I told him as Alumi nodded as Mr D's eyes shot wide, "But that is only if it is a curse," I told him as Alumi nodded again.
Mr D then nodded at me, "It is, as Father Zeus wanted it to be so and stopping most of my power," He told me as I smiled at him.
"Then, after this game, if you want, Alumi and I can take a shot at destroying the curse for you," I asked him as he looked at me.
"You are willing to go agist Zeus, son of Poseidon," Mr D asked me as I looked into his eyes.
I 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.
I 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.
I knew that if I pushed him, Mr D would show me worse things.
He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.
But I pushed all of them away, and I saw the main thing he was telling me.
Hope.
Hope to regain his true self once more.
"I would, as from what I've been told, his rule is unjust," I told him as Mr D smiled at me with a fair smile.
"Then remove the curse that Zeus has placed upon me, and I shall grant you a reward," Mr D said before he picked up his cards once more, "After this game, of course," He added, and it was the first time I saw him smile.
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."
I thought Mr D would 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.
"Not quite," I said as I turned my cards over; both god and centaur looked at my cards before Chiron laughed at me.
"You better me once more, Percy, and this time it is at a game that I am good at," Chiron said as he started to leave his wheelchair.
Mr D stood up as he looked at me, and I stood up with Alumi, who pulled out some rope from her back.
"What do you need that for," Mr D asked as he looked at the rope and saw that it had paper talismans.
"Do you know of the cursed flames," Alumi asked him as Mr D nodded as he looked at her, "Well, seven years ago, both fish face and I consumed the flames, and now we can use them," Alumi said, explaining nothing, so Mr D turned to me.
"The rope is Shimenawa, and we are going to need to tie it around you," I told him.
As he nodded, Chiron came over and helped us, and Alumi handed me prayer beads.
"Good you have that on," Alumi said as Mr D looked at the Shimenawa tied around him, "Now then, as I told you about the cursed flame that I and Fish face ate, allow us to burn of curses ourselves so that curses do not affect us, but someone we know found out we can use the flames to remove a curse and make sure that the curse can not be placed on them once more," Alumi said as Mr D nodded.
"Now, I have to tell you that the curse is only on your ability over wine, so it will not help you leave the camp," I told him as he nodded, knowing that, "So shall we move outside," I said as we both did as people around us saw Mr D smile as both Alumi and me.
Mr D stood in the centre of us as we raised our right hands as they held the payer beads in as we were outlined in the blue flames.
"In our right hands, we hold the beads," Both of us said as one as more people came around to see what we were doing, "For the one in rope pleads," We said as people talked with one another, and I heard the words son of Poseidon but contiued chanting, "Burn away of evil that holds this one," The prayer beads started to float up into the air as a circle of the cursed flames formed beanth both me and Alumi, "For now you are done," Mr D then started to glow a vile purple, differnet from the purple that his eyes were, "For this curse is a weed with mighty roots," We said as the prayer beasts glowed out colors, mine being cyan while Alumi's being purple, "For we are the ones that hold the noose," lines of cursed flames travled to Mr D's feet and formed anoter circle around him, "For you who go ageist your host," We said as the blue flames around our right eyes, "For you who defeated most," We said as the sky above up us started to turn dark, it seemed that my dear uncle dose not like what we are doing, "Source of evil be pulled out roots and all," The vile purple that covered Mr D was soon moving to the Shimenawa, "There is no one you can call," We called out the sky started to become clear once more as I saw Chiron smile, "Our tightening hold," We said as more people started to turn up, "Curse of sin do as you are told," All of the vile purple was gone from Mr D that it was all in the Shimenawa, "There is no escape," We chanted as my beads flew over to Alumi, "You shall break," Alumi's beads flew over to me as the cycan and purple mixed, "These are our final words," We called out as the beads then contedted to the Shimenawa, "We are here to make sure this curse burns," The cursed flame shout out of our hands and into the Shimenawa setting it on fire but not Mr D who looked at the fire around him, "For we do not need your approval," He called out as the fire was then moving into the Shimenawa, "Let us finish the Curse Removal," We called out as the Shimenawa turned to ash around Mr D.
The prayer beads returned to me and Alumi as I looked at him, "Your curse has been removed," I told him as he summoned a goblet of wine and took a sip before his body started to become better.
His figure became thinner, and he did not look healthier than before.
Chiron approached me as everyone walked away, but Mom and Alumi walked over.
"Now, come, you three," He said as he started to walk away with us following him, "Let's meet the other campers," He told us.