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ɪ ʙᴇᴄᴏᴍᴇ ꜱᴜᴘʀᴇᴍᴇ ʟᴏʀᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛʜʀᴏᴏᴍ (ᴘᴛ.1)

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The screen fades back in as the murmuring comes to an end.

Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.

"That is the funniest thing I've ever heard!" The Weasley twins chorused with their father Hermes.

Percy looked at Chiron's offended face and just shrugged

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."

Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. 

I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.

All the campers had the decency to look sheepish and apologise

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realised—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

Apollo glared at Hades a bit, but Astrea got him to calm down

"Truthful lies" spoke Luna Lovegood 

I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."

"Thanks Percy"

"No problem man"

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!"

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

"Nope!"

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"WHAT!"

"HOW"

"NANI WHAT THE FUCK MAN"

"That sucks." "Nico! You already knew that"

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"Very"

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career... ."

"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

"Okay lets see," said Grover, "we got lost, somehow entered a cyclops cave, got chased by cyclops, just barely managed to make it to camp, one of my closest friends decided to sacrifice herself, and she got turned into a tree. You tell me."

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.

"That's never good" said Sirius

"Hey!"

"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

"No. Nope. Nyet. Non. Zilp. Zich. Nada. Get all those thoughts out of your head Percy."

"He didn't" Annabeth, Grover, and Astrea deadpanned.

Chiron's expression darkened. "Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words care-fully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

As we got closer, I realised how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

"My own—?"

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armoury later."

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armoury, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.

"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

"Usually!? What kind of a dangerous place is this!?" Shrieked Molly Weasley

"Its safer than the wizarding world for sure and that's saying something" Astrea shouted back at the same voice, getting annoyed at the big headed lady.

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.

Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.

"Chiron! He didn't see the camp entrance film"

Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt
the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. 

Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.

The Hephaestus kids cheered, banging their tools together.

Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. 

The Demeter children had smiles on their face as they saw their cabin

Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. But at the same it was so pretty.

Apollo smirked as his kids whooped with joy. It seems like his ego just got inflated.

They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

"You were probably one of the first after Astrea to see me there" Hestia gave a warm smile to Percy who slightly blushed in embarrassment but still smiled back at his favourite aunt. 

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. 

Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.

Thalia rolled her eyes as Zeus puffed his chest in pride. That was one of the worst places to live.

 Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded
with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

Most demigods (read Annabeth and Thalia) trued to contain their scowls.

"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.

"Correct," Chiron said.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of
the ocean floor. 

I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were five empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down and only one which messed up as if somebody had just woken up. The place felt happy and up homely but also as if it were missing something which made me sad. 

"Yup! It was missing your presence"

I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. 

Ares glared at Percy but flinched and looked away when he saw his uncle's face.

Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

"I'm nothing like that bitch Prissy!" Clarisse hissed with narrow eyes at Percy who put his hands up in defence.

I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.

"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."

"But there are centaurs in the forbidden forest?" Questioned Harry

"And how would you know that Mr. Potter?" Asked Snape with malice on his eyes. 

"Maybe because you threw us in there for detention in our FIRST YEAR"

Snape shut up but still glared at the Potter boy.

"To answer your question Potter, the centaurs in the forest are of a slightly different magical breed than the one in our world. They are foresee-ers who study the stars while as Chrion said, the ones we know of are either trying to kill us or just want to party." Astrea answered the first question.

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."

He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."

"But, shouldn't you be dead?"

"Pretty sure we've all asked him that question." Will said and received a tired nod from the horse-man (read PONY in Tyson's voice) in speaking

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I hon-estly don't know aboutshould be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could con-tinue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Why depressing?"

"Because we all die~" the demigods said together in a sing-song voice gaining worried expressions from their immortal parents and the others in the hall. 

"Why are you so happy about that?" Asked a child from the Hufflepuff table 

"We all need therapy" Nico and Astrea clarified

Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.

"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth and Astrea are waiting for us. Let us go."

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Sya Notes ! 

Chapter 6 pt.1 let's go ! Give me ideas for interactions and stuff. 

I'm probably gonna write a break after they see the trio get issued their quest. Where Astrea comes into that yet i'm not sure but i'll see.

Happy reading!

P.S. I've got a surprise for you guys coming soon!

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