Amara's pov
I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals and aliens. Some I am this girl in Greek clothing kissing a tall, handsome boy
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 pudding.
The boy with super blond hair hovered over me, smiling as he scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.
When the older boy saw my eyes open, he asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"
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!"
"The bolt..," I mumbled, "helmet . . .who are..."
Somebody knocked on the door, and the boy quickly filled my mouth with pudding.
The next time I woke up, the boy was gone.
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, and the backs of his hands. He was argus. Before I fell back asleep, I spot Percy next to me on his bed.
My hands reached out, and I held his finger before I fell asleep again.
The next thing I woke up, Percy was sitting next to my bed, looking at Grover, who looked relieved seeing me.
"Perseus...." I said with my throat hurting, letting him know I am fine. The only time I say his full name is to let him know I am fine after danger or scared or if he is in deep trouble. He knows by my tone which calls it is.
Percy pov
I immediately turned to the voice and saw Amara wake. "Andromeda," I said, seeing her smile. The only time I say her second name is when I am scared of losing her or her in general...yet this tone I never used before...
"Water..." She croaked, and Grover gave her water, which she drank and looked a lot better. she smiled at me but then her face fell."Percy....your mom I...."
I stopped her as I hugged her thigh and close. I have so many things I want to ask her about. What secrets she has. But her eyes always give me that look that she will tell me...she never truly lied to me, she just mix up the truth or say something like a white lie.
"Ship!ship!" The weird toy or dog caught our attention and Amara hugs him laughing. "Hi, ship hey boy.....were you good?"
"So not a toy?" I asked "Nope a childhood pet.....his name is ship," She said as ship let me pet him. I didn't know how long I was staring at her eyes till Grover coughed and made me remember he was here too.
"Come on. Chiron and Mr D are waiting."
The porch wrapped 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. Amara grabbed my free hand and looked at me with a soft smile. I returned that smile as we walked together.
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 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 - an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, 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 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. Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table.
Amara's pov
Camp is beautiful. As we arrived I saw a blond-haired girl who was leaning on the porch rail next to the two men. 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. In a way he looked still Godly then I remembered he was Dionysus, the God of wine.
"That's Mr D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron. . . ." He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.
"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. I was the one who got full marks when I saw that trick.
"Ah, good, Percy and Amara ," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle." He offered me a chair to the right of Mr D, who looked at Percy with bloodshot eyes and me curiously but as I was taught by my late parents to always show respect to elders then if they are a dick...be a dick. So I bowed to them both and Mr D smiled a bit....but be a while since a mortal bowed to them.
"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you." he points to Percy but smiled at me. "Uh, thanks," Percy said
"Annabeth?" Mr Brunner called to the blond girl. She came forward and Mr Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's and Amara's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now." Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."
She was probably my age and Percy's but a bit shorter than me. She has this calculating look in her grey eyes...Athena's kid for sure.....but my gut tells me never to trust her and believe me my gut saved my life a lot. She glanced at the minotaur horn in Percy's hands, then back at me and him leaving.
Mr D motion me to sit next to him. I sat quickly because you don't want to make any god mad.
Soon we were playing a round of pinole as mr. Brunner who is Chiron explained to Percy to why he was there and how he replaced the Latin teacher and so and so.
"Please," percy said , "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr Brun - Chiron - why would you go
to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"
Mr D snorted. "I asked the same question."
The camp director dealt the cards and I looked in the cards at my pile as grover looked grateful he is not playing.
Chiron smiled sympathetically Percy
"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?"
"She said ...She told me she was afraid to
send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."
"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"
"What?" I asked.
He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so he did.
"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be
sufficient."
"Orientation film?" I asked. Wow, I wonder how that film goes.
"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What
you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods - the forces you call the Greek gods - are very much alive."
"That explained a lot I saw, " I said making a bid
"Indeed Amara through you clear-sighted mortal how are your able to enter Camp," Chiron asked and I looked at him
"I was told in a dream last night to wait till the campfire and the whole camp will find out. Till then I am sorry" I said and Chiron nodded accepting some of my words
Mr D yelled, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick!
Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.
"Mr D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"
"Eh? Oh, all right."
Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.
"Wait, You're telling me there's such a thing as God," Percy said
"Well, now," Chiron said. "God - capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."
"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about - "
"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."
"Smaller?"
"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."
"Zeus, Hera. Apollo. You mean them."
Suddenly a distant thunder on a cloudless day happened
"Young man," said Mr D, "I would be less casual about throwing those names around if I were you."
"But they're stories," Percy said. "They're - myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."
"Science! And tell me, Perseus Jackson, what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?"
Mr D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals -
they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they,
Chiron? LoMrat this boy and tell me."
"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for
all time?"
"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," Percy said.
"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story
to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"
My heart pounded and I help Percy hand to calm him down "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."
"Oh, you'd better," Mr D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."
Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."
"A lucky thing, too," Mr D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!"
He 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.
Percy's jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.
"Mr D," he warned, "your restrictions."
Mr D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.
"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! 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 top of the soda, and went back to his card game.
"Mr D offended his father a while back, and took a fancy to a wood nymph who
had been declared off-Mrits."
"A wood nymph,"
"Yes," Mr D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, was Prohibition. Ghastly! Horrid ten Mrrs! 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. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha! Unfair."
Mr D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid. I can't believe Zeus did that. His domain is wine.
"And ..." percy stammered, "your father is . . ."
"Zeus...God of the sky, King of Olympus. Your Dionysius, God of wine and Madness" I said
"What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'? Your got a smart girlfriend Perseus" I blushed a bit
"You're a god."
"Yes, child."
"A god. You."
"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.
"No. No, sir." Percy said a bit scared
The fire died a little. 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."
Looks like he was used to Chiron beating him.
"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."
Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."
Mr. D turned to me and Percy. "Cabin eleven, Perry johnson and Amara Tennyson. And mind your manners."
He swept into the farmhouse after patting my head, Grover following miserably.
"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.
"Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century
before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."
"That's unfair...his domain is wine....its dangerous to not use your domain"
"Indeed child," Chiron said.
"I see if the gods as here that means that the western era is now the fire to fuel the gods. So olympus is here in America?"
"Indeed child, at the empire state building is where the new Mount Olympus is" Chiron said
"Who are you, Chiron? Who . . . who am I?" Percy asked
Chiron smiled.
"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."
And then he did rise from his wheelchair and present us his true form...a centaur. Chiron trainer of heros.
"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."