Golden Green

Ch. 5

Percy Jackson and the Olympians belong to Rick Riordan. All credit to him.

 The next day passed smoother than chilled water. Cabin four spent their days at the stations in a new order and time in the armory behind the Athena cabin taking stock of weapons, sharpening blades, and polishing shields. We also spent time climbing the non lethal lava wall and taking care of the strawberry fields with the Dionysus boys Castor and Pollux who I got along with much better than their father. Doing those activities took the places of Archery, arts and crafts, and training with the Hermes cabin which I was thankful for because that kept Luke's dark mood and the odd scythe out of my head.

That day me and Fidi had bright cereal with satyr marshmallow for breakfast, pizza with sweet and sour pineapple on it that made people give us odd stares for lunch, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with tomato soup for dinner, and flavorful frozen mush called ice cream for dessert.

Needing to whisper to Katie questions didn't seem to bother her after she had to explain to me how to brush my teeth that morning again, which I did get down how to do after a moment.

The two Apollo girls asked me if I liked listening to Hip hop or rock music better in the Amphitheater and I told them I had never listened to either of the two so they had their cabin wheel in a machine used for Karaoke. I spoke the words rolling across the machine's bright glass front as best I could with the english grammar Ares gave me to their musical rhythms that night.

The two girls and their siblings sang with me in front of the camp in the stands and right before the song ended I got a hold of the melody and sang louder with a more confident grin on my face. The cabin rolled back to our own, got ready for the night, and packed up happy with our nice day.

No odd dreams of animal noises or cold voices on a beach or anywhere came to me but rather a calm, blank dark that made the night forgetful. I woke up with the quiet buzz of the cabin and left the warm covers of the bed to get ready with them.

Walking out of the cabin with my new bright orange camp half blood shirt on and Fidi by me Annabeth immediately appeared in front of me as soon as I rubbed the gunk out of my eyes.

"The Percy Jackson boy is awake and at the big house. Chiron wants you to meet him so I would recommend heading down there quickly," Annabeth said, almost spitting it all past my fresh, half functioning ears before she kept jogging toward Cabin four without hearing my reply.

I yelled to Katie where I was going and that I would be a second before I joined Fidi already strolling toward the big house. The stroll was nice enough to wake me up with it's near perfect weather before I arrived at the big house with Dionysus, Chiron, Grover, and Percy sitting around the game table.

"Yes, come join us, Dan. You can listen to how Pinochle goes while we teach it to Percy," Chiron called from his wheel chain reaching for the chair he pulled out to pull his wheelchair close to the table. I walked up the steps and joined them silently while Mr. D lectured Percy how any fine young man should know how to play Pinochle. Grover was flinching at every card Mr. D served into his pile but Chiron was still grinning at Percy who was looking like he didn't want to be playing the card game.

"Percy. Did your mother tell you nothing?" Chiron asked, taking up his hand of cards.

"She said—" Percy started but stopped, taking up his hand more solemnly before looking off into the distance. "She said she was afraid to send me here even though my father had wanted her to. She said once I was here I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her," Percy answered.

"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not." The god squinted at the boy like he did at me when I told him he looked like none of his Olympian family, in distaste.