•as the world caves in•

•the new guy finally wakes up•

I walked into the infirmary, where this new boy was. He had been fading in and out of sleep for the past few days, and me and Annabeth took our turns watching over him.

Annabeth smiled at me as she stuffed his mouth with pudding. "My shift finally over?"

"Sure is. Luke said he wants to help you with sword fighting or knife fighting, whatever you want to call it."

"Oh, okay. Well, here's the pudding, you know what to do." Annabeth said as she handed it to me and walked out of the room.

I sighed as I sat down next to the bed. I grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth of pudding and drool. The guy drooled in his sleep.

I smiled slightly once his face was clean and put the napkin in the trash. I grabbed my book from the table and read some.

•.•.•.•

"Coriane," Annabeth said, walking over to me and Luke. "The new boy woke up, Chiron wants us to give him a tour or something like that, let's go."

"Really, right now?" Luke asked. "I mean, she's doing super good."

"Chiron said it, not me." Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Luke, it's fine, we can practice more later." I sighed and turned my sword back to it's ring.

Luke opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. He then nodded and turned away to go somewhere else.

I followed after Annabeth to the Big House. When we arrived, he was up and sitting with Grover, Chiron, and Mr. D. Grover was muttering to him and motioned to me and Annabeth.

The boys eyes lingered on Annabeth for a moment before switching over to me. His eyes lingered on me before looking up at mine, and for the first time ever, I could see him fully.

Black hair, a light tan skin, and his most noticeable feature, sea green eyes.

He blinked and then turned away. He turned to Chiron and his face changed. "Mr. Brunner!"

Me and Annabeth looked at one another and frowned.

"Ah, good, Percy. Now we have four for pinochle."

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Uh, thanks." Percy said and scooted away from him.

"Annabeth, Coriane?" Chiron, or as Percy calls him, Mr. Brunner, nodded to us. We both stood up and looked at him. He turned to Percy. "These young girls nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now. Coriane, you may stay here for a bit, I'll have a job for you soon."

"Sure, Chrion," Annabeth shrugged and walked off.

"Coriane, this is Percy, although I'm sure you figured that out."

I took one hard look at Percy, looking at the horn in his hands. "You drool in your sleep."

Everyone at the table looked at me with confusion. Percy was the first to recover. "So, you, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner, I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

Percy seemed highly confused at this, and I found some amusement in it. "And Mr. D... does that stand for something?"

Mr. D stopped shuffling and looked at Percy. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

Percy seemed even more confused. "Oh. Right. Sorry."

"I must say, Percy," Chrion broke in. "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?"

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. I have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a look out. But Grover alerted my as soon as he met you. 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."

Percy furrowed his brow and seemed like he was thinking hard about something.

I didn't blame him. The poor kid was probably lost and confused on what was happening. I mean, he shows up on some porch, is knocked out for a few days, and is suddenly hearing that his Latin teacher or something isn't really a Latin teacher. Even I was having a hard time following.

I had spaced out until Mr. D started yelling about the game they were playing and Grover eating a Coke can, then Percy was listing Greek Gods.

"Young man, I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you." Mr. D sighed.

"But they're stories. They're... myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."

I slowly started spacing out again.

I didn't mean to, but I kept getting lost in thought.

This boy, he was different. I couldn't explain it. He was just different. Annabeth knew it as well. We both did. Chiron did too, he just wasn't sharing something with us.

I jumped when thunder boomed and saw that Mr. D had a goblet of wine out.

Oh, that's all, just Mr. D forgetting his restrictions. He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"

I jumped as more thunder boomed. Percy looked my way and we locked eyes again. He looked away as Chiron explained why Mr. D couldn't drink wine or what not.

Basically, His dad, Zeus, took a fancy to a wood nymph even though he was "happily" married to Hera. Mr. D went and pranced along with the wood nymph, knowing fully well what would happen, and got sent here.

When I got done running through the story in my head, Mr. D was claiming victory, but so did Chiron.

They all got up and Chiron turned to me. "My apologies, Coriane. I thought that would all be done sooner, but I was wrong. Give me and Percy a moment longer and you can do the job I had for you."