𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 || 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚 𝒋𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒙 𝒐𝒄

i am percy. i speak for the toilets.

Percy could not seem to get over the fact that their Latin teacher was part horse.

He trailed behind the Centaur silently gaping, and nudging Maisie to make sure she was seeing the same thing.  When his elbow met her ribs for a third time, she lightly smacked his arm and hissed, "Percy, he's 3 feet in-front of me. Yes. I see the horse-man."

They continued the tour and passed the volleyball pit.  Several of the campers stared at them.  Thankfully, most of them were looking at Percy, since he carried the Minotaur horn, but the few that did look solely at Maisie made her slightly uncomfortable, as if they expected her to do a flip or something.  She could probably do a very sloppy cartwheel if she tried, but that was pretty much it.

Percy looked back at the farmhouse. It was four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. A shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable caught his eye. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and Percy got the distinct impression he was being watched.

"What's up there?" He asked Chiron.

Chiron looked where he was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing. Come along."

As they drifted further from the big house, Maisie became increasingly more worried for Grover.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" She asked Chiron.

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Maisie. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper, or in this case campers, and bring them safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!" Percy argued.

"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 in New York. Then there's the unfortunate...ah...fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you two dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

Maisie felt upset. Clearly none of this was Grover's fault. But they continued on in silence, until Percy asked another question.

"Chiron," he said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real..."

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

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 put that out of your mind."