Child of Zeus {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

FIVE: I Get a Camp Tour...And a Pillow Pet?

I was more than thankful when the first thing Chiron did was lead us past the volleyball courts, muttering something about 'hating the game', though I knew he was just saying that so Johnny and I wouldn't feel uncomfortable after the whole Vandari incident.

Instead, he led us to the equally-vacant strawberry fields. I remembered Johnny telling me earlier that this was their source of income. Some bushes were already blooming with the red fruit, but nobody was there to pick them.

"Go ahead," Chiron said, trotting closer to the bushes.

"What?" I asked.

"Have one."

He bent down and picked one off the bush, and threw it into my open hands. I took a bite and closed my eyes in joy. Never had I tasted anything so sweet and fresh - the only strawberries I had were ones from the freezer back at home.

"Mmmmmm..." I muttered, realizing I had finished it already. Chiron was laughing, amusement crossing over his features.

"Yes, yes. It is good. It was better, I'll say, when Dionysus was running the camp with me. It was a punishment to him, yes, but the strawberries were always sweeter then..." He sighed dreamily. "Come on, now."

Another strawberry in hand, I followed Johnny and Chiron towards the woods. The trees here were undecidedly different from the trees in the forest back at school. Suffice to say, I wouldn't be avoiding these woods like I would be the volleyball court - the latter being until I got over my recently developed fear of them and their associated balls.

"In these woods lie the sacred grove of Dodona, which is our secondary camp Oracle. The Apollo campers go there regularly, and they record prophecies or random phrases the trees say. They help give us insight about the future, or issue quests."

I held back a few burning questions about talking trees, and I let the centaur talk.

"It's also home to many entrances to the labyrinth, though we have enough of those scattered around camp. Yes, the labyrinth as in the maze from the Minotaur story."

"Oh, and the woods are loaded," Johnny added. "Like, with monsters. Not really bad ones, but we use them for training purposes and for our games like Capture the Flag - which you'll get to play every Friday until the end of summer. You can try your luck, if you're feeling up to it. Once you've had training, I mean, and you can go in and fight whatever you find to earn skills in real-world application."

I tried to follow what he was saying, but he was talking far too fast for me to comprehend. He did that sometimes, not for any particular reason, he just had a lot on his mind and would speak it all at once in a flurry of jumbled up sentences.

After that lecture was over, we went by the empty archery range, the empty canoeing lake (though it would be empty, because it was muddy brown and closed off by police tape and do not enter signs), the empty Long Island Sound and Fireworks Beach, and the stables (Chiron didn't looked too enthusiastic about them), which was full of very unfit horses of varying colour. I inspected a brown one a little closer.

No, that wasn't extra fat at their sides. They were...

"Pegasi," Johnny said. "You'll get to learn how to ride these along with horses too."

It wasn't until we got to the empty javelin range that I decided to put my foot down.

"Alright. Where are all the kids?"

"The other campers, you mean?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah. Where are they? Why aren't there loads of kids running around the place?"