Son Of The Cup Bearer {Percy Jackson x Ejen Ali}

Ali's Phone Takes A Swim In The River

Campers followed the sound from where the horn came. With Rizwan following at a lazy pace by his side, Ali was rather embarrassed when not a few minutes later upon climbing the ground's steep slope, he was already wheezing. A couple of kids younger than him even raced past him, blowing loud raspberries at each other as they did. They were further joined by people (or goats, whatever) who were like Viktor, and Ali swore, some girls had just melted out from the trees leading up to the dining pavilion, and some rose from the very waves of the river below. Ali did not want to admit it, but they were quite pretty.

After several minutes of panting like an asthmatic person, the ground finally evened. And his jaw dropped.

An open area lined with Greek pillars surrounded a cluster of evenly ordered stone tables and benches. Each table had a white cloth draped over it with a little of purple trim at its edges. There were twenty tables in total, each for each cabin's members. On the Greek pillars, torches blazed merrily orange - almost the same shade as the setting sun behind the valley. And in the middle of it all was a bronze brazier; its elegant curves shimmering in the fading orange light. A fire was burning fiercely within it, and Ali was sure that he smelled food, even if none were visible yet.

The fire most miserably reminded him about his dad. He rather thought he could sneak a talk with him on the phone when someone snatched it out of his hand.

"Hey, no phones allowed in camp, boy," Rizwan said, an amused smile playing on his lips.

"What?" Ali pouted. "No fair! I just want to talk to my dad."

"No exceptions."

With not so much of a flick, Rizwan dropped the phone down the pavilion. After several heart shattering crushes, what remained left of the phone plopped into the river with a depressing 'blub'.

Ali rounded angrily on Rizwan. "You dare-"

"Of course I do," Rizwan said, cocking an eyebrow. "Now let's go. Dinner's not going to wait."

Ali then realised how empty some tables were, and how overcrowded some were. If Ali were to set rules for this place, he would have evened everyone out so that they won't have to sit with half their butts dangling off the stone bench, but unfortunately, Rizwan had told him that they had to sit by their respective godly parent's table, or else it's big trouble from the directors. But Ali just couldn't imagine kind, old, wise Chiron throwing them off the dining pavilion (unlike how a certain someone did with his phone). 

As Rizwan sauntered towards his siblings, which included of the dark-haired Lou Ellen, Ali was left to follow Hermes' children and a sulking Moon to another table. 

When at last everyone was seated, Chiron the centaur standing aside Dionysus' table raised his glass to the whole pavilion. "To the gods!"

In unison, everyone else in the pavilion raised their glasses too, and Ali hurried snatched his up from the table as he said together with the others, "To the gods!"

The pretty girls Ali had just saw came swarming in the dining pavilion like bees. In their hands held all sorts of delicacies. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, steaming barbecue, pots of rice, and so many more! Damn, this is gonna be one hell of a night. 

"Say something to it," said a voice.

Ali looked away from the approaching girls to see a dark-haired man with brown eyes sitting opposite him. He might have been unrelated to the Stoll brothers (mainly due to him not looking as if he might be finding for any chance he could steal his belongings), but his sharp facial features gave him away.

"What?" Ali asked, confused.

"To the glass," the man continued. "And it'll appear - whatever you want. Except for...certain drinks, though."

Ali rather had the impression of what the 'certain things' were, because the Stoll brothers and two other girls who were most probably their siblings (unlike him and Moon who were unclaimed) were taking in turns to shout various names of alcoholic drinks.

The food that had arrived smelled delicious; it was like those meals his father would only occasionally bring him around to eat when they were having their annual family trips in five-star hotels. He already missed his father, despite his ignorance for some time, and his uncle, whom he had barely seen. 

He had filled up his plate and was about to munch down on his very first bite when everybody started standing up. Ali looked around quizzically.

"What's going on?" Ali asked.

"Take your plate," the same man said. "And follow my lead."

So Ali and Moon got their filled plates and headed towards where everyone was crowding around - the bronze brazier. 

When him, Moon and the man was at the front, the man murmured, "Hermes," and scraped his juicy drumstick into the fire. A blast of savoury drumstick filled Ali's nostrils, making his stomach groan loudly.

Ali went next. Though, he had no idea which god's name he should say, since he didn't know who his godly parent was. As he threw him a bunch of large, fat grapes, all he could think to say was, "Gods". Moon followed his words.

Once he settled down again at the Hermes table, Ali spent no time wasting to eat his dinner. He relished with every taste on his tongue, and the drink he had conjured (fizzy drink, just to support the mood) was exactly like the ones he had tasted back in the outside world, not as if it had been summoned by magic.

Just when Ali was thinking about sleeping in somewhere comfortable in the Hermes cabin, Chiron had pounded the stone floor of the pavilion with his horse hoofs, grabbing everyone's attention. The campers all faced him with silent, rapt faces.

"Hello, children. Time is moving, and it is almost time for everyone's favourite activity-"

A chorus of voices went up at once - "CAPTURE THE FLAG!" - interrupting the centaur's speech. But Chiron took no offence in that. He looked rather excited, though he was doing a good job at suppressing it.

"Yes, children. May you please put down your weapons before someone is impaled. Now, as I was saying, there are two new campers to join our camp today. May everyone please give a round of applause to welcome Ali and Moon!"

A pair of hands pushed at Ali's back and to Ali's surprise, he saw that it was Zass. Now he had that mischievous glint in his eyes - though Ali rather think it was more of a supportive one. 

The tousled hair boy pointed with his chin to the centaur, who was anticipating along with the other staring campers. Ali noticed, the group of girls at Artemis' cabin were barely giving any indication that he existed. They were all looking at Moon instead, except for that one Chinese girl, who was narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously. 

Nervously and awkwardly, Ali and Moon made their way to Chiron's side, with about a hundred campers whose stares were like laser beams aimed at them two.

Then they broke in applause. Some of the campers whispered urgently behind their hands. As the clapping died down, which happened after several long difficult seconds, Chiron said to the hall again, "And now, campers, today's Capture the Flag groups will be-"

Suddenly, in unison, everyone gasped. Ali was confused too. It wasn't until somebody yelled, "Look, above her head!"

Ali glanced above Moon's head, and he saw what they were gasping about. A tiny spinning purple torch had appeared over Moon. There was a stunned silence as the torch spun. Moon looked confused at the attention she was earning.

"Um..." she said, which was the second thing Ali had heard her say today. 

Ali pointed helpfully for her. She looked up, and her eyes widened momentarily. For some reason, when her eyes widened, she appeared extremely...adorable. Ali's heart couldn't help but skip a few beats. Then the sign dissipated.

There was a great scrambling as everyone got out of the benches to kneel. Even Chiron did, so Ali did it too. The next thing they knew, everyone in the hall was kneeling to Moon, who seemed as if she had been punched in the face.

"It has been announced," Chiron said mournfully to the stone floor. He rose on his hooves again as he said in a louder voice, "Hail, Moon, daughter of Hecate, goddess of magic."