Penny Ranger and the Lightning Thief

Chapter VI: Meet the Boy Blunder

I had hoped to get some answers out of Chiron. At the very least I expected him to give me a smile and ask how my training was going. I got none of that. Instead, I got a tired looking centaur with his forehead creased in worry.

"Chiron, what happened? Where have you been?" I asked him.

"All will be answered soon. Now please, return to your training Penny." he said before trotting away.

I halted in place. I was surprised by the way he had simply dismissed me. My surprise was quickly replaced by frustration. I had been waiting for months for him to return and answer my questions, yet the first thing he did was tell me to go back to training!

*

I frowned as I sat in my bed. Dinner had been pretty animated and the bonfire was particularly cheerful due to Chiron's return. However, I only shared half the enthusiasm, since the centaur still kept avoiding me. The fact that there was a very loud thunderstorm raging just outside of Camp didn't do anything to improve my mood.

Why wouldn't he tell me what was going on?

Suddenly, I was pulled out of my thoughts by a loud roar. My instincts immediately went haywire. That wasn't a thunder roar, it was a monster.

Moving quickly, I turned Radiance into a bow and pulled on a quiver of arrows I had lying around, before bolting out of the door.

My eyes widened as I spotted two shapes coming over Half-Blood Hill and moving towards the Big House. One was practically carrying the other while they moved slowly down the hill. They only took a few more steps before they fell to the ground. I rushed towards them to help them when my heart stopped.

The one being carried was unconscious and just so happened to be my friend Grover. Only he wasn't wearing his signature baggy pants, revealing his furry goat legs. I wasn't too surprised by this, seeing as Annabeth and Max were also Grover's friends and were quick to explain to me that he was a satyr.

What had made my blood run cold was the other figure. It was a somewhat scrawny boy with messy black hair and sea green eyes, holding a broken bull horn in his hand.
It was Percy Jackson.

I was so focused on the the two of them that I didn't notice Annabeth and Chiron coming up to me.

"Oh my gods!" Annabeth exclaimed breathlessly.

I turned around and saw her staring at the scene in front of, her mouth opened in shock. Her grey eyes were open wide and fixed on Percy.
Chiron, while he also looked very shocked, seemed a lot more composed.

"We should bring them inside." he said.

I nodded and quickly slung my bow across my back, picking up Grover and draping him over Chiron's horseback. For a few seconds I worried that he'd been injured, but then I heard him mumbling about enchiladas and breathed a sigh of relief.

My attention then turned to Percy, who was semiconscious.

"He's the one. He must be." Annabeth said.

I had no idea what she meant by that, but judging by the way she'd spoken, it clearly meant a lot to her.

"Silence, Annabeth. He's still conscious. Bring him inside." Chiron chided Annabeth.