A/N Hey I am back with a new chapter. But before that, I would like to correct a mistake. there is a bit of Percy - Penny problem that arose. At some point where it was supposed to be Percy, I wrote Penny. It was a mistake. Sorry about that.
Now new chapter here we come.
Chapter: 16 Playing Pinochle with a horse-man part 1
Jason's Pov
Silence... Then Andrew cleared his throat and said " Just so you should know my meaning was not as anything other than platonic. Chiron once told me that if I wish to go on a quest, I will have to wait for someone special to arrive. Sooo..." The sea family stopped glaring at him, which was pretty scary, while Lady Aphrodite dropped her smile. I cleared my throat " Anyway, let's move to the next chapter. So that we could finish one more and have lunch. Everyone nodded and Lady Aphrodite said, "Here, give me the book. I wish to see if she has any love interests." Lord Posiedon glared at her as she started reading.
5. I PLAY PINOCHLE WITH A HORSE
"That sounds less scary!" The Sea god said. "And boring", lord Ares commented. I was starting to see why Percy dislikes him so much.
I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.
Everyone looked at Grover. "What! " "Fooood!" Travis replied in an imitation of Satyr. We all laughed at the red-faced Satyr.
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.
"Ambrosia!" Past demigods said dreamily.
The guy with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as he scraped drips off my chin with the spoon. When he saw my eyes open, he asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"
"Beginning of a nightmare is what happened," Grover replied. When everybody looked at him questioningly, " What that quest was a nightmare! It was so confusing even Andrew could not understand it until the 21st of June." Damn! How bad was that quest?
I managed to croak, "What?"He looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"
"Oh, come on Andrew give her a break!" I told him remembering my first interrogation.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."Somebody knocked on the door, and the guy quickly filled my mouth with pudding.
"That's the second best way to shut her up!" Andrew said, fondly. "What is the first?" Sally asks, narrowing her eyes at him. Huh! Seems like she is onto something. "First is when he starts babbling on boring stuff!" Percy came to the rescue."Typical, Athena!" Lady Amphitrite chuckled softly while Lady Minerva looked angry for some reason.
The next time I woke up, the guy was gone.
"Eeee. She already misses you!" You can guess who said it.
A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.
"Argus is alive!"Lady Hera smiled while Lord Zeus looked apologetic at her. She kissed him in accepting his apology. Thalia and I gagged behind their backs. Yuck
When I finally came around for good, there was nothing 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 been using 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.
"Nectar!" The past demigods sighed.
My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.
"Wimp! Can't even hold a glass properly!" Heracules said.
"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 was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMPHALF-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...
I wish that was true, book Percy!
"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 my lap.
Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood.
"So that's how she got it. " piper exclaimed while Lord Ares licked his lips and said excitedly "spoils of war."
It hadn't been a nightmare.
We all winced.
"The Minotaur," I said.
" Names have powers, stupid girl!"Lady Athena said haughtily. ALL the sons of sea God glared at her while Lady Hestia sighed.
"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"
"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I 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 ..."
"Oh, Percy I would die a thousand times just so that you could live. " Sally said hugging her daughter while Penny smiled toothlessly from Lady Amphitrite's lap. Why can't we have a mother like her? Thalia sensing my thought turned to me and said " I know what you are thinking Jason. I know we didn't have a mom or even a proper father but in return, fates gave us a family in form of our cousins and friends. And truthfully I doubt I would ever exchange them for a normal life." I realized that what she was saying was true. We were not just friends, we are a family. A big crazy family. I smiled at that thought. "Whatcha smiling sparky!" Percy grinned at me. " Nothing kelp head!" "Hey! That's my nickname for her, think for something else." Thalia said annoyed while we laughed.
He looked down.
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.
"Are you saying I- the pine tree is ugly!" Thalia huffed. "Yup! " Percy retorted and winked. Most of us looked confused. " Next chapter!" She replied to our confusion.
My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.
" You are very pessimist. you should eat some bread!" Lady Dementer commented. Lord Hades and Nico groaned while Percy made a face.
"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world.
"Yeah! That worse satyr who completed a mission no other Satyr could do ." "Yeah and who was able to find all the Greek kids of the big three." "And-" "Ok, I get it. I was just sad!" All the greek campers other than Piper and Leo snorted at him while lord Pan looked proud.
He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off.
"What!" Lord Pan looked worried.
I mean, the Converse hi-top came off.
"Oh !" Pan blushed while lord Hermes chuckled at him.
The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole."Oh, Styx!" he mumbled. Thunder rolled across the clear sky.
"Someone is quite dramatic!" Lord Apollo said. "Nah all gods and goddesses are dramatic. It is nothing new. " Andrew said as a matter of fact. "Except lady Hestia!" Percy added. All of the except lord Posiedon huffed and glared at her. Lord Posiedon looked amused.
As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.
I pitied her. At least I didn't have to see my mother turn into yellow light.
I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?
"No," Most of us said. I didn't want her to suffer at the hands of her stepfather. She is like a sister to me which I might have wished for but never got the way I liked.
No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and take up a part-time job. I'd do something. Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.
"What! I would never hit him. He is my oldest and best friend." Percy defended herself from the glare Pan threw at her. Wow, who knew goats could be scary?
I said, "It wasn't your fault.". . .
"Yes, It was!" Lord Posiedon affirmed only to get glares from Lord Pan and Lord Dionysus.
"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."
" Daaadd! You started thinking like a goat. Oh no!" Percy groaned while we laughed. Lord Posiedon simply huffed.
"Did my mother ask you to protect me?". . .
"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."
"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.
Now the entire sea family frowned. Seems like she has a habit of straining herself.
"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.
I recoiled at the taste
"WHAT!" father thundered " YOU DARE TO INSULT THE DRINK OF THE GODS!". Next to me, Thalia muttered, "Drama queen." "Zeus, she doesn't mean it like that. You will know only if you will allow me to finish." Lady Aphrodite admonished him and he withered back. There is a reason I am scared of the goddess of love.
, 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.
"See!" Lord Hades teased, "Now stop being a thunderbutt!" Father glared at him but relented. Travis, Conner and several other demigods were daydreaming about those cookies.
Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but 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 was going to 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.
"You shouldn't! Ambrosia and nectar are dangerous for satyrs and nymphs." Lady Diana- Athemis said. Damn, these greek names.
"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."
His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."
"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."
"Yumm!" Thalia and Nico said together and then looked at each other, disgusted." I think like" "Pinecone face!" "Death breath!" Both their father looked proud of their children.
He sighed. "And how do you feel?"
"Like I could throw Nathan Bobofit a hundred yards."
"Throw him. This chapter Seriously lacks some fights!" Lord Ares shouted only to get hit by a bunch of peacocks out of nowhere. "Shut up! You are talking to a book you loon."
"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."
"What do you mean?"
He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."
Many of the greek campers chuckled. "What?" I asked Andrew. "Read and you will know!"
The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.
My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.
I nodded my head. With that kind of attitude, no doubt she was chosen as a praetor so easily.
As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.
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 the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture
"They didn't look like greek architecture, they were Greek architecture. " Andrew sighed.
—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, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.
"Pegasi! You guys are so lucky to have so many of them." Hazel sighs dreamily.
Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired guy who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.
"Stop calling me blonde guy!" Andrew glared at his girlfriend.
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,
"Who is he?" Most gods looked confused they didn't know any middle-aged cherub while we understood why most of the greek demigods laughed when Mr. D was mentioned earlier. That girl Seriously has a death wish.
and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.
"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director.
Lady Athena seemed to understand who the person was as she tried not to laugh.
Be polite. The guy, that's Andrew Chase. He's just a camper,
"JUST A CAMPER!" Andrew looked annoyed while Grover tried to hide behind Percy.
but he's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron... ."
He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.
First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.
"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.
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.
"What were you thinking when you did that?" Hestia asked Chiron, amused, who shrugged in reply.
"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."
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. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."
Lord Posiedon glared at the book.
"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, 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 nymph.
"You are not a nymph, So that would mean..." " Wait a sec, -" " No spoilers, Lady Artemis!" Thalia shouted, smiling amusedly. She also smiled in understanding. All the other gods and the past looked at them suspiciously.
1)Jason dislikes Ares because technically, he is just you know god of war and a lot more bloodthirsty than mars.
2 )Jason wanted a real brother-sister relationship. This is not possible with Thalia because you know the hunt and stuff.