☽
                         

THEY tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. They didn't know how their mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, Percy and his sister looked at grover who was sitting next to the former in the backseat and they wondered if they'd gone insane, or he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one they remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo—lanolin, like from wool.

The smell of a wet barnyard animal. All percy could think to say was, "So, you and our mom.. know each other?" He asked, Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though they were no cars behind them.

"Not exactly." He said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew i was watching you guys."

"Watching us?" Percy said and looked at pandora who glanced at him, "Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But i wasn't faking being your friend," He added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Um..what are you exactly?" The girl asked, "That doesn't matter right now." Grover said, "It doesn't matter? From the waist down, our best friend is a donkey—"

Grover cut her off with a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

They'd heard him make that sound before, but they'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now they realized it was more of an irritated bleat. "Goat!" He cried.

"What?" Pandora looked at him. "I'm a goat from the waist down." He corrected. "You just said it didn't matter." She tilted her head at him, "Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!" He exclaimed.

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like.. Mr. Brunner's myths?" Percy cut in, glancing at grover, "Were those ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" The satyr questioned.

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" Pandora pointed from her spot in the passengers seat, "Of course." He admited. "Then why—"

"The less you two knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract." Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put most over the human's eyes. We hoped you'd think the kindly one was a hallucination. But it was no good. You two started to realize who you are."

"Who we—wait a minute, what do you mean?" Percy continues questioning the satyr. The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind them, closer than before. Whatever was chasing them was still on their trail.

"Percy, dory," Their mom said, pandora looking at her as the woman focused her eyes on the road, "There's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety." She stated. "Safety? Who's after us?" Percy questioned.

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the lord of the dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!" Sally exclaimed.

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?" He asked as percy and pandora tried to wrap their minds around what was happening, but they could do it. They knew it wasn't a dream. They had no imagination. They could never dream up something this weird.

Their mom made a hard left. They swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and pick your strawberries signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" Percy asked, "The summer camp i told you two about." Their mother's voice was tight; she was trying for their sake to not be scared.

"The place percy's father wanted to send you two."

"The place you didn't want us to go." Percy commented, "Please, dear," their mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some weird old ladies cut yarn." Pandora pointed out.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the fates. I know what it means—the fact that they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to..when someone's about to die."

"Whoa. You said 'you' which basically means 'us" The girl and percy looked at grover, "No i didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You mean 'you' As in us." Percy argued. "I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Guys!" Sally said. She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and percy and pandora got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the stone.

"What was that?" Percy and Pandora asked in sync, looking at each other, nervously before turning to look at their mother.

"We're almost there," Their mother said, ignoring their question, "Another mile. Please. Please. Please." Percy and pandora looked at each other again, they didn't know where there was, but they found themselves leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting them to arrive.

Outside, there was nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. They thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed and leathery wings. They limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill them.

Then they thought about Mr. Brunner..and the swords he thrown them. Before they could ask grover about that, the hair rose on the back of their necks.

There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and their car exploded. They remember feeling weightless, like they were being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. Percy pulled his forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said. "Ow."

"Seatbelts." Pandora said, a little delayed as she rubbed her head after hitting it against the dashboard, "Percy!" Their mom shouted,

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Liz winced and sally turned to her and checked her for injuries.

"I'm okay.." Percy tried to shake off the daze. He wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. They swerved into a ditch. Their driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in. Lightning.

That was the only explanation. They'd been blasted right off the road. Next to percy in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

Pandora looked at percy and grover so fast, she almost got a whiplash, Grover was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Percy shook his furry hip, thinking, 'No! even if you are half barnyard animal you're me and dory's best friend and we don't want you to die!' Then he groaned "Food." Pandora let out a sigh of relief and she and percy knew there was hope.

"Percy, dory," Their mother said, "we have to.." Her voice faltered. The two looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, they saw a figure lumbering towards them on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made their skin crawl.

It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seem to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

Percy swallowed hard. "Who is—"

"Percy, dory," Sally said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car." Their mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. Percy tried his. Stuck too. Percy looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" Their mother told them and pandora tried her door. "Percy, dory—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

Pandora stopped and she and percy looked at their mother, "What?" They asked in sync, another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof they saw the tree she meant: a huge, white house christmas tree—sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," Their mother said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too." Pandora shook her head as sally's face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

"No!" Percy shouted. "You are coming with us. Help me carry grover."

"Food!" Grover loaned, a little louder. The man with the blanket on his head kept coming towards us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, they realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head.. was his head. And the points that looked like horns..

"He doesn't want us," Their mother told them. "He wants you two. Besides, i can't cross the property line."

"But.." Pandora started, "We don't have time, panda. Go. Please." They got mad, then mad at their mother, at grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward them slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

Percy climbed across grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! We are not leaving you. Help me with grover." Percy didn't wait for her answer. He scrambled outside, with pandora in tow, dragging grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but percy couldn't have carried him very far if their mom hadn't come to his aid.

Together, percy and sally draped grover's arms around their shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass with pandora in slightly front.

Percy and pandora glanced back, they got their first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin.

He wore no clothes except underwear—i mean, bright white fruit of the looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as their arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

They recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told them. But he couldn't be real. Percy blinked the rain out of his eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," Their mother said. "I wish i'd known how badly they wanted to kill you two."

"But he's the min—" Pandora started looking at her mom as they continued stumbling uphill, "Don't say his name," She warned. "Names have power."

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least. Percy glanced behind him again. The bull-man hunched over their car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffing, nuzzling. Percy wasn't too sure why he bothered, since they were only about fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned and pandora looked back.

"Shh." Percy told him, "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?" Percy asked. "His sight and hearing are terrible," She said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough.

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up gabe's camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about a half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, They remembered gabe saying. Oops. Percy and pandora shared a look, "Percy, dory," Their mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way—directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"How do you know all this?" Percy asked. "I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping us near you? But—" Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smell them. The pine tree was only a few more yards but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds he'd be on top on them. Their mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered grover.

"Go, Percy, pandora! Separate! Remember what i said." They didn't want to split up, but they had the feeling she was right—it was their only chance.

They sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on them. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat. Percy grabbed his sister's hand as the bull-man lowered his head and charged, those razar-sharp horns aimed straight at their chest.

The fear in their stomachs made them want to bolt, but that didn't wouldn't work. They could never outrun this thing. So they held their ground, and at the last moment, they jumped to the side.

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward them this time, toward their mother, who was settling grover down in the grass.

They'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side they could see a valley, just as their mother said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was a half a mile away. They'd never make it.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing their mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from grover.

"Run, Percy! Pandora!" She told them. "I can't go any farther. Run!" Sally yelled.

But they just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told them to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"Mom!" They both shouted and percy's grip on his sister's hand tightened, She caught their eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!" Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fist around their mother's neck, and she dissolved before their eyes, melting into light, shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply..gone. Just like their mama.

"No!" Anger replaced their fear. Newfound strength burned in their limbs—the same rush of energy they'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. The bull-man bore down on grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling their best friend, as if he were about to lift grover up and make him dissolve too.

They couldn't allow that.

They both stripped of their red and green rain jackets. "Hey!" Percy screamed, he and pandora waving their jackets, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, Stupid, ground beef!" The girl yelled.

"Raaaarrrr!" The monster turned toward them, shaking his meaty fists. Pandora had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. She told percy to follow her and they both put their backs to the big pine tree and waved their jackets in front of the bull-man, thinking they'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen. The bull-man charged way too fast, his arms out to grab them whichever way they tried to dodge. Time slowed down.

Their legs tensed. They couldn't jump sideways, so they leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

They turned to each other with shocked looks, How did they do that? They didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked their teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake them. They their arms around each of his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in their eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned their nostrils.

"This—is—a bad idea!" Pandora yelled over the rain,

"I agree!" The monster shook himself around and bucked around like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed them flat, but they was starting to realize that this thing only had one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, grover started groaning in the grass. They wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way they was getting tossed around, if they opened their mouths they'd bite their own tongues off.

"Food!" Grover moaned. The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. They thought about how he squeezed the life out of their mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled them like high-octane fuel. They got both hands around each of his horns and pulled backward with all their might. Monster tensed, gave one surprised grunt, then—snap!

The bull-man screamed and flung them through the air. They landed flat on their backs in the grass. Their heads smacked against a rock. When they sat up, their vision was blurry, but they had each of his horns in their hands, ragged bones weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged. Without thinking, Percy rolled to one side while pandora rolled to the other side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, they drove the broken horns straight into his right and left side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like their mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chucks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

The monster was gone. The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. They smelled like livestock and their knees were shaking. Their head felt like it was splitting open. They were weak and scared and trembling with grief. They'd just seen their mother vanish. They wanted to lie down and cry, but there was grover, needing their help, so they managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. They were crying, calling for their mothers, but they held on to grover—they wasn't going to let him go.

The last thing they remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above them, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl and a boy standing next to her, the girl with blond hair curled like a princess's and the boy with short messy brown hair.

They all looked down at the two, and the blond girl said. "They're the ones. They must be."

"Silence, annabeth," The man said. "They're still conscious. Bring them inside."

☽

They had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill them. The rest wanted food.

They must've woken up several times, but what they heard and saw made no sense, so they passed out again. They remember lying in soft beds, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over pandora while the brown haired boy hovered over percy.

The blond girl smirking as she scraped drips off pandora's chin with the spoon. When she saw both of their eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?" Percy managed to croak out before the boy in front of him shoved more pudding in his mouth. "Wha—"

The brunet and blond looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sorry," Pandora mumbled, "We don't.." Somebody knocked on the door, the two quickly filled their mouths with pudding.

The next time they woke up, the two were gone.

A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over them. He had blue eyes—at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the back of his hands.

When they finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about their surroundings, except that they were nicer than they were used to. They were sitting in desk chairs on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries.

There was blankets over their legs, pillows behind their neck. All that was great, but their mouths felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. Their tongues were dry and nasty and every one of their teeth hurt.

On the table next to them was two tall drinks. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green and paper parasol duck through a maraschino cherry. Their hands were so weak they almost dropped the two glasses once they got their fingers around it.

"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 camp half-blood. Just plain old grover: Not the goat boy.

So maybe they'd had a nightmare, percy and pandora looked at each other. Maybe their mom was okay. They were still on vacation, and they'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And..

"You saved my life," Grover said. "I..well, the least i could do..i went back to the hill. I thought you two might want this."

Reverently, he placed the shoe box in percy's lap. Inside was two black-and-white bull horns, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood.

It hadn't been a nightmare. "The minotaur." Pandora said. "Um, dory, it isn't a good idea—"

"That's what they call him in greek myths, isn't it?" She demanded, "The minotaur. Half man, half bull." Grover shifted uncomfortably at percy and pandora's words. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"

"Our mom. Is she really.." Grover looked down. Percy stared across the meadow and pandora looked down at the glass in her hands. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of them, was the one with the huge pine tree on top.

Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

First their mama was gone now their mom was gone. The whole would should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled and pandora looked up,

"I'm a failure. I'm—i'm the worst satyr in the world." pandora went to deny but grover moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.

"Oh, styx!" He mumbled.

Thunder rolled across the clear sky. As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, they thought, well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr. They were ready to bet if that they shaved his curly brown hair, they'd find tiny horns on his head. But they were to miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs.

All that meant was that their mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.

They were alone, they only had each other. Orphans. They would have to live with..smelly gabe? No. That would never happen. They would live on streets first. They would pretend they were seventeen and join the army or something. They'd do something.

Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.

Pandora nudged percy's foot and nodded toward grover, "It wasn't your fault." Percy said. "Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."

"Did our mothers ask you to protect us?" Percy asked.

"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least..i was."

"But why.." Percy trailed off as he suddenly felt dizzy, his vision swimming. "Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here."

He helped percy hold his glass and put the straw to his lips. "Ha! you need help. But i don't." Pandora smirked and lifted the glass to her mouth with shaky hands, she didn't need a straw, she thought confidently and the two boys watched as she spilled some on the blanket over her legs. "Son of a bit—"

Before she spilled some of the drink, Pandora caught a taste of the it, She and percy both recoiled at the taste and looked at each other, because they were expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies.

Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—their mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.

Pandora put to the glass back to her mouth but this time with the straw. Drinking it, their whole bodies felt warm and good, full of energy. Their grief didn't go away, but they felt as if mom had just brushed her hands against their cheeks, given them cookies the way she used to when they were small, and told them everything was going to be okay.

Before they knew it, they'd drained the glass. They stared into it, sure they'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

"Was it good?" Grover asked and they both nodded in sync, "What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, percy felt guilty while pandora asked for more.

"Sorry," Percy said. "I should've let you taste." Grover's eyes got wide. "No! that's not what i meant. I just.. wondered."

"Chocolate-chip cookies," Percy said, "Our mom's homemade." Grover sighed, "And how do you feel?" He asked, "Like i could throw nancy bobofit a hundred yards." Percy answered. "That's good. That's good."

Pandora went to ask grover again and he turned to her, "I don't think you two could risk drinking any more of that stuff." Pandora frowned. "Why not?" She whined and grover took both of their empty glasses from them gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set them back in the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse. Their legs felt wobbly, trying to talk that far. Grover offered to carry the minotaur horns, but percy held on to it. He and pandora'd paid for those souvenirs the hard way. He wasn't going to let it go.

As they came around the opposite end of the house, they caught their breath. They 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, Percy and pandora couldn't process everything they were seeing. The landscape was dotted with building 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. a

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 they were 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. The blond girl and the brown haired boy who'd spoon-fed percy and pandora popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch railings next to them.

The man facing percy and pandora 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, and he would've fit right in at one of gabe's poker parties, except they got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even their stepfather.

"That's Mr. D." Grover murmured to them. "He's the camp director. Be polite. Those two, that's Annabeth Chase and Midas Hart. They're just campers, but they've been here longer than just anybody. And you already know chiron.."

He pointed at the guy whose back was to them. First, they realized he was sitting in a wheelchair. Then they recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.

"Mr. Brunner!" They cried and the latin teacher turned and smiled at them. 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.

"Ah, good, Percy, Pandora." He said. "Now we have six for pinochle " He offered percy a chair to the right of Mr. D who looked at him with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. Mr. Brunner offered a chair to pandora next to him.

"Oh, i suppose i must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you." He said after percy and pandora sat down, the two looked at each other, "Uh, thanks." Percy scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing he had learned from living with gabe, it was how to tell when an adult had been hitting the happy juice.

If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, Percy and pandora was satyrs. "Annabeth, Midas?" Mr. Brunner called to the two campers.

They came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced them. "These young campers nursed you back to health, Percy, Pandora. Annabeth, Midas, My dears, why don't you go check on percy and pandora's bunks? We'll be putting them in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron." She was probably their age, maybe a couple inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what buffy thought a stereotypical california girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the imagine. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take pandora and percy down in a fight.

The boy next to the blond was the same height as annabeth, and athletic looking like the blond, his brown short messy hair, sported his neck and wrists, was a colorful necklace and multiple bracelets on each hand, his pretty green eyes were staring right into percy's soul which made him blush and look down nervously and for liz snort.

The two glanced down at the minotaur horns in percy's hands, then back to him and pandora, They imagined they were going to say, You killed the minotaur! or Wow, you're so awesome! or something like that.

Instead they said, "You drool when you sleep." Midas said to the boy next to pandora, making her let out another snort, "I wouldn't be laughing. You drool and talk when you sleep." Pandora's face dropped and she coughed as percy gave her a grin.

Then the two sprinted off down the lawn, annabeth's hair flying behind her. "So," Pandora said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner," The ex—Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me chiron."

"Okay," Totally confused, they looked at the director then they glared at each other after speaking in sync, They glared at each other for a moment before chiron cleared his throat.

"And Mr. D... does that stand for something?" Percy asked as he turned away from his sister, Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at percy like he'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"I must say, Percy, Pandora," Chiron-Brunner broke in, percy and pandora glanced at him, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since i've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think i've wasted my time."

"House call?" Pandora questioned, "My year at yancy academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But grover alerted me as soon as he met you two. He sensed you were something special, so i decided to come upstate. I convinced the other latin teacher to.. ah, take a leave of absence." They tried to remember the beginning of the school year.

It seem like so long ago, but they did have a fuzzy memory of there being another latin teacher their first week at yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.

"You came to yancy just to teach us?" Percy asked. Chiron nodded. "Honestly, i wasn't so sure about you two at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."

"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "Are you playing or not?" He asked, "Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the sixth chair, though percy and pandora didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print hawaiian shirt.

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed them suspiciously. "I'm afraid not," Percy spoke for the both of them. "I'm afraid not, sir."

"Sir," Percy repeated. He and pandora was liking the camp director less and less. "Well." He told them, "It is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men and women to know this."

"I'm sure the boy and girl can learn," Chiron said.

Pandora shook her head, "Please," She said, "What is this place? What is this place? What are we doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to yancy just to teach us?" Mr. D snorted, "I asked the same question." Pandora glared at him as he dealt with the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.

Chiron smiled at them sympathetically, the way he used to in latin class, as if to let them know that no matter what their average was, They was his star students. He expected them to have the right answer.

☽