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"PERCY, pandora," Chiron said. "Did your mother tell you something?" He asked, "She said.." Percy and Pandora remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told us she was afraid to send us here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once we was here, we probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep us close to her."

"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man and lady, are you bidding or not?" Percy and pandora looked at each other then back at the camp director. "What?" they asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so they 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?" Percy asked. "No," Chiron decided, "Well, percy, pandora. You know your friend grover is a satyr. You know—" He pointed to the horns in the shoe box—"that you two killed the minotaur. No small feat, either, lad, lass. 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."

Pandora and percy stared at the others around the table, they waited for somebody to tell, Not! but all they got was Mr. D yelling, "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?" He asked. "Eh? oh, all right."

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully. "Wait," Percy told chiron, "You're telling us—there's such a thing as god?" He questioned. "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—" Chiron cut the black haired girl off. "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." Chiron answered, "Zeus." Percy said, "Hera. Apollo. You mean them." And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloudless day.

"Young man," Said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if it were you." Pandora rolled her eyes at him and turned to chiron. "But they're stories," She said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."

"Science!" Mr. D scoffed.

"And tell me, Pandora Jackson—" Pandora turned to him with a glare on her face, "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 perspective. They think they're come so-o-o far. And have they, chiron? Look at these two and tell me."

They weren't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called them mortals, as if.. he wasn't. It was enough to put lumps in their throats, to suggest why grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.

"Percy, Pandora," 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?"

They were about to answer, off the top of their heads, that sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of chiron's voice made them hesitate. "You mean, whether people believed in you or not," Percy said.

"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you two were gods, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if i told you, Perseus and Pandora Jackson, that someday people would call you myth, just created to explain how little boys and little girls can get over losing their mothers?"

Their hearts pounded. He was trying to make them angry for some reason, but they wasn't going to let him. Percy said. "We wouldn't like it. But we don't believe in gods."

"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."

Grover said. "P-please, sir. They just lost their mother. They're in shock."

"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, "Bad enough i'm confined to this miserable job, working with kids 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.

Their jaws 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. Chiron winked at them. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."

"A wood nymph," Percy repeated, still staring at the diet coke can like it was from outer space. "Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! 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! Absolutely unfair."

Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid. "And.." Percy stammered and he and liz looked at each other then back at the man. "your father is.."

"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said, "I thought you taught these two the basics. My father is zeus, of course." They ran through D names from greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.

"You're Dionysus," The two said in sync, "The god of wine." Percy finished, Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D."

"Then, well, duh! Percy Pandora Jackson. Did you think i was aphrodite, perhaps?"

"You're a god." Percy said.

"Yes, child."

"A god. You." He turned to look pandora liz straight on, and she 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. She 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. She knew that if she and percy pushed him, Mr. D would show her and percy worse things.

He would plant a disease in their brains that would leave them wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of their lives. "Would you like to test me, child?" He said quietly.

"No. No, sir." 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." Percy and pandora thought Mr. D was going to 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. He got up, and Grover rose, too.

"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 in this assignment."

Grover's face beaded with sweat, "Y-yes, sir." He stuttered, Mr. D turned to percy and pandora, "Cabin eleven, Percy and Pandora Jackson. And mind your manners." He swept into the farmhouse, grover following miserably.

"Will grover be okay?" Percy asked, Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "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 standing waiting another century before he's allowed to go back olympus."

"Mount Olympus," Pandora asked, "You're telling us there really is a palace there?" She continued, "Well now, there's Mount Olympus in greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moved, Pandora, Percy, just as the gods." Chiron explained.

"You mean the greek gods are here? Like..in America?" Percy questioned, "Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the west." Pandora and percy glanced at each other, clearly confused. "The what?

"Come now, Percy, Pandora. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright thousand of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of western civilization were obliterated."

"The fire started in greece. Then, as you well know—or as i hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire moved to rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps—jupiter for zeus, venus for aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods."

"And then they died." Percy said.

"Died? No. Did the west die? The gods simply moved, to germany, to france, to spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in england. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods."

"Every place they're ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, pandora, of course they are in your united states. Look at your symbol, the eagle of zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in rockefeller center, the greek facades of your government buildings in washington."

"I defy you to find any american city where the olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of rome, either—america is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the west. send so Olympus is here. And we are here."

It was all too much, especially the fact that they seemed to be included in chiron's we, as if they were part of some club. "Who are you, Chiron? Who.. who are we?" Pandora asked, Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but they knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

"Who are you?" He mused, "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get to 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 rose from his wheelchair.

But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket flew away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, They thought he was wearing a very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, they realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur.

And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof.

Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake legs attached. Pandora and Percy stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of their latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.

"What a relief," The centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy and Pandora Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."

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Once they got over the fact that their latin teacher was a horse, they had a nice tour, though they were careful not to walk behind him. They'd done pooper-scooper patrol in macy's thanksgiving day parade a few times, and they're sorry, they did not trust chiron's back end the way they trusted the front.

They passed the volleyball pit. Several campers of the nudged each other. One pointed at the minotaur horns percy was carrying. Another said, "That's them."

Most of the campers were older than them. Their satyrs 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.

They weren't normally this shy, but the way they stared at them made them uncomfortable. Percy and Pandora felt like they were expecting to do a flip or something.

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

"Percy, i saw something up there!" She whispered and pointed, a little scared of the shadow, the boy turned turned to his sister then looked back at the farm house in confusion.

"What's up there?" Pandora asked chiron. He looked up to where she was pointing, and chiron's smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Liar." She mutters, glancing back at the window.

"Somebody lives there?" Percy asks, looking at the chiron, "No," Chiron said with finality. "Not a single living thing." Pandora got the feeling he was being truthful. But she was sure something had moved that curtain.

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

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

Chiron told them the camp grew a nice crop to export New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses." He explained. "And the strawberries."

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.

Pandora and Percy watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing the line of bugs to leave the strawberry in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire.

They wondered if grover could work that kind of magic with music. They wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D. "Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" Percy asked chiron.

"I mean.. he was a good protector. Really." Pandora nodded in agreement, he really was. Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse's back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, percy, pandora. 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 them safely to Half-Blood hill."

"But he did that!" They exclaimed in sync then glared at each other, "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 two 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 in grover's part." He stated.

They wanted to protest. None of what happened was grover's fault. They also felt really, really guilty. If they 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?" Pandora looked up at chiron who winced. "I'm afraid that was grover's second chance, pandora. 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 so small for his age.."

"How old is he?" Percy asked. "Oh, twenty-eight."

Pandora quickly glanced toward percy then toward chiron, "What! And he's in sixth grade?" She questioned then rubbed her neck.

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, percy, pandora. Grover has been there equivalent of middle school student for the last six years." He explained.

"that's horrible." Percy said, pandora nodding in agreement, "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," Pandora said, "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?" She asked, Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

But they weren't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to them when chiron talked about their mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in percy's mind.

"Chiron," He said, "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real.." Pandora looked at him, wondering where he's going with this, "Yes, child?" Chiron spoke.

"Does that mean the underworld is real, too?0 He asked, chiron's expression darkened. "Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now.. until we know more..i would urge you to that out of your minds."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?" Pandora questioned, "Come, Percy, Pandora. Let's see the woods." As they got closer, they realized 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?" Percy asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is friday night. Do you two have your own swords and shields?" He asked.

"Our own—?" Percy started,

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

Percy wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. They 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 said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" They both asked,  "Cabin challenge and all that," He explained, "Not lethal. Usually. Oh, yes, there's the mess hall." 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?" Pandora asked, percy nodding to her, the boy was going to ask the same thing but she beat him to it, chiron looked at her as if she'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" Pandora decided to drop the subject.

Finally, he showed them 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 building percy and pandora had ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens in the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight. It was impossible to look at. 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 their speed).

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. 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.

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

"Zeus and Hera?" Percy guessed. "Correct," Chiron said, "Their cabins look empty." Pandora pointed out,

"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? Percy and Pandora 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. They peaked inside the open doorway and chiron said, "I wouldn't do that!" Before he could pull them back, they caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. but there was no sign anyway had ever slept there. The place felt sad and lonely, they was glad when chiron put his hands on their shoulders and said. "Come along, percy, pandora

Most of the cabins were crowed with campers. Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on 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 percy and pandora. Inside they 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 girl was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a XXXL camp half-blood T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zoned in on percy and pandora and gave them an evil sneer. She reminded them of nancy bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

They kept walking, trying to stay clear of chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," Percy observed, "No," Chiron said 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 see any here."

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really.." He smiled down at them. "The chiron from the stories? Trainer of hercules and all that? Yes, Pandora, i am."

"But, shouldn't you be dead?" Pandora questioned, chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, i can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I would continue the work i loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained so much from the wish..and i gave up much. But I'm still here, so i can only assume I'm still needed."

They thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made their Top Ten things to wish for list. "Doesn't it ever get boring?" Percy asked.

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

"Why depressing?" Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again. "Oh, look," He said. "Annabeth and Midas are waiting for us."

The blond girl they'd met at the big house was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven, the brown haired boy was leaning against the wall, constantly flipping the page of annabeth's book to annoy her.

When they reached them, the two looked them over critically, like they were still thinking about much percy and pandora drooled and sleep talked. The siblings tried to see what she was reading, but they couldn't make out the title. They thought their dyslexia was acting up. Then they realized the title wasn't even english. The letters looked greek to them. I mean, literally greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kind of columns, like those in an architecture book.

"Annabeth, Midas," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take percy and pandora from here?" He asked. "Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told them, gesturing to toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it..? A caduceus.

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over the floor. It looked like a gym where the red cross had set up for an evacuation center.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully. "Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, percy, pandora. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

They stood there in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at percy and pandora, sizing them up. Percy and elizabeth knew this routine. They'd gone through it at enough schools.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on." So naturally percy tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of himself, pandora helping him up. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.

Midas announced. "Percy and Pandora Jackson, meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked, Percy and pandora didn't know what to say, but annabeth said, "Undetermined." Everybody groaned. A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward with a girl like a year older than them. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy, Pandora. You two can give those two spots on the floor, right over there." The girl smiled at them, warmly.

The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

The girl was a couple inches shorter than the blond boy besides her, she had hair that reached down to her back, a orange shirt with converse, and a necklace just like the blond next to her with five beads. She and the boy looked alike.

"This is luke and leah," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. pandora glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing and midas rolling his eyes. Annabeth saw pandora looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."

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