Luminesence (Slow Updates)

004

After the shock of Thalia's tree had been somewhat processed, Phaedra took a look around the place she had called home since the age of seven.

On the surface, things didn't look all that different. The Big House was still there with its blue gabled roof and its wraparound porch. The strawberry fields still baked in the sun. The same white- columned Greek buildings were scattered around the valley, the amphitheater, the combat arena, the dining pavilion overlooking Long Island Sound. And nestled between the woods and the creek were the same cabins; a crazy assortment of twelve buildings, each representing a different Olympian god.

But there was an air of danger now. Anybody could tell something was wrong. It was no longer the safe haven Phaedra thought it was.

Instead of playing volleyball in the sandpit, counselors and satyrs were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed. Dryads armed with bows and arrows talked nervously at the edge of the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow was pale yellow, and the fire marks on Half-Blood Hill stood out like ugly scars.

Who the hell messed with my home?

As Phaedra, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson made their way to the Big House, Percy seemed to recognize a lot of kids from last summer.

Nobody stopped to talk. Nobody said, "Welcome back." Some did double takes when they saw Tyson, but most just walked grimly past and carried on with their duties-running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels. The camp felt like a military school. Everyone seemed so tense.

None of that mattered to Tyson. He was absolutely fascinated by everything he saw. "Whasthat!" he gasped.

"The stables for pegasi," Percy said. "The winged horses."

"Whasthat!"

"Um ... those are the toilets."

"Whasthat!"

"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in the Hermes cabin-that brown one over there-until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."

He looked at Percy in awe. "You ... have a cabin?"

"Number three." He pointed to a low gray building made of sea stone.

"You live with friends in the cabin?" Tyson asked. Phaedra and Annabeth just looked at each other before grabbing each other's hand and shuffling away slightly from the cyclops.

"No. No, just me." Percy blushed before looking down. He clearly didn't feel like explaining. The embarrassing truth: he was the only one who stayed in that cabin because he wasn't supposed to be alive.

Demigods like Percy are more powerful than regular half-bloods. They were too unpredictable. When they got mad they tended to cause problems ... like World War II, for instance. The "Big Three" pact had only been broken twice-once when Zeus sired Thalia, once when Poseidon sired Percy. Neither of them should've been born.

When the group got to the Big House, they found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags.

Wait, packing? Why is he packing?

As soon as they saw him, Tyson froze. "Pony!" he cried in total rapture.

Chiron turned, looking offended. "I beg your pardon?"

Annabeth and Phaedra ran up and hugged him. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not ... leaving?" Annabeth's voice was shaky. Chiron was like a second father to her.