Child of Hades {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

SEVENTEEN: Always

It was the moment I had been waiting for. My forefinger was pressed into my thumb in anticipation, I waited with bated breath for Chiron to say it. That dinner was over, and that it was time for Capture the Flag.

When he finally did, I gave Simon a quick hug, and ran to Matt's side.

"Strawberry fields," I told him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him along. He returned my persistence with a smile, showing off his freckles and kind brown eyes. I noticed he'd slipped a hoodie over his camp shirt, hood pulled tight against his neck as though it were hiding the brand Tyler had made. I didn't say anything about it. When he was ready he'd stop hiding it, like he had before. By now it was hard for me to even focus on the burns that ran across the right side of his face and just down over his neck. I had become so used to it, so used to it bing a part of him. We reached the strawberry fields, and met up with a few other support group members there, standing in the very centre of the fields, looking up at the sky as the sun slowly began descending.

So far, there was no sign of a wondrous being who came only for us - and I was almost worried it was some big prank. If it was, that'd be super uncool, and I'd be sure to show it to them by not attending a few meetings. After everything, I just wanted some excitement.

It took a while, but Terra and the rest of the group - save for three half-bloods permitted to play the game - joined us in the centre of the strawberry fields.

There was chatter amongst separated groups of the demigods, some picking strawberries to enjoy while they talked, others seemingly playing charades. I kept my eyes open, and Matt kept promising he'd be here soon. He, that was about the only clue I had. I was beginning to fall into a conversation, losing the spark of awe I had before. The least this guy could have done was show up on time.

Maybe half an hour later, conversation came to a screeching halt. Everyone turned their attention to the man who'd appeared out of nowhere, a few rows of strawberries away. He haphazardly reached to pick one of the red fruits, and as he did the plants reached up to greet him, blooming with so many strawberries that it weighed itself back to the ground.

The man was shorter than average, with curly black hair and a curly black beard to match. He was in a sort of leopard printed button up shirt and cargo shorts. I couldn't read his face, much less figure out how he appeared from thin air.

"Y/N," Terra said somewhere behind me, "Alia, Luci, meet our special guest. Lord Dionysus."

Oh crap.

Without thinking I straightened my back out and smoothed down my shirt. Sure, I'd seen Hades and Zeus, but this was a god who had came down specifically for us. I tried to remember something Eleo had said about Dionysus before, but came up empty.

Dionysus made his way to the group, and we sat in from of him with our backs to the bushes like school children, eager for the teacher to speak. Matt quietly informed me that he'd make some welcome speech, and then we'd continue mingling. Dionysus would call on specific people to have an audience with, because of something he himself was about to explain.

In a chesty voice that lulled me into a calm, he spread his arms wide, diet Coca-Cola fresh in hand, and began to speak. Though his name was Dionysus, he prompted us to call him Mr. D, like he'd been called back when he helped run this camp alongside Chiron after a romp in the woods with Zeus' favourite wood nymph. Running camp, as he described it, had been the worst punishment he'd had to endure, and it made me wonder why he'd come back to camp every Friday.

"As you all know," he said in a way that made me think if I didn't know, I should have, "I am the god of wine and fertility of nature." He surveyed the faces of the demigods scattered before him. "Yet, I am here because I am also the god of madness."