On the way out, Hazel bought us an espresso drink and a cherry muffin each from Bombilo, the two-headed coffee merchant.
I may have swallowed the muffin or inhaled it. The coffee was great. Now, all I needed was a shower, a change of clothes, and some sleep, and voila, I'd be golden. Maybe even Imperial golden.
A bunch of kids in swimsuits and towels headed into a building that had steam coming out of a row of chimneys. Laughter and watery sounds echoed from inside, like it was an indoor pool—my kind of place.
"Bath house," Hazel said. "We'll get you in there before dinner, hopefully. You haven't lived until you've had a Roman bath." Percy sighed with anticipation, and I turned around, looking at it with so much desire as we we passed by.
As we approached the front gate, the barracks got bigger and nicer. Even the ghosts looked better—with fancier armor and shinier auras. Percy tried to decipher the banners and symbols hanging in front of the buildings.
"You guys are divided into different cabins?" he asked.
"Sort of." Hazel ducked as a kid riding a giant eagle swooped overhead. "We have five cohorts of about forty kids each. Each cohort is divided into barracks of ten—like roommates, kind of. "
Percy had never been great at math, but he did it. "You're telling me there's two hundred kids at camp?"
"Roughly."
I was just really proud of him at that moment. He could do math!
"And all of them are children of the gods? The gods have been busy."
Hazel laughed. "Not all of them are children of major gods. There are hundreds of minor Roman gods. Plus, a lot of the campers are legacies—second or third generation. Maybe their parents were demigods. Or their grandparents."
Percy blinked. "Children of demigods?"
"Why? Does that surprise you?"
"I didn't think it was possible," I muttered. Percy nodded. The idea of living long enough to be an adult and have kids of their own—that seemed like an impossible dream.
"These Legos—" Percy started.
"Legacies," Hazel corrected.
"They have powers like a demigod?"
"Sometimes. Sometimes not. But they can be trained. All the best Roman generals and emperors—you know, they all claimed to be descended from gods. Most of the time, they were telling the truth. The camp augur we're going to meet, Octavian, he's a legacy, descendant of Apollo. He's got the gift of prophecy, supposedly."
"Supposedly?" I asked.
Hazel made a sour face. "You'll see."
That didn't make me feel so great. He didn't sound like he had a little popularity in the place.
"So the divisions," Percy asked, "the cohorts, whatever—you're divided according to who your godly parent is?"
YOU ARE READING
The Forgotten Olympian |BOOK 1| PJO X HP | Alexandra Marine
Fanfiction#2 IN HARRY POTTER CHANGED THE COVER AGAIN Water, water, everywhere, as I open my eyes and the moonlight, so striking, so beautiful, shines brightly over the lake, as I rise, feeling dazed and tired. "My daughter. Alexandra Marine. Thank you." That'...
