We were sitting down at the end of a table inside of the big house. Me, Calissa, and the man who I believed was called Mr. D were all sitting at it. Chiron, however, was standing next to it, since he can’t sit in a table with a horse butt. Well, he probably could but it would just be uncomfortable.
Chiron was about to speak but he was stopped when he saw Mr. D do something. He moved his hand in a sort of waving motion and made a glass of a plum-colored liquid, which I assumed was wine, appear. My eyes widened as I saw a regular man make a glass of wine appear out of thin air. He was about to grab it before he was stopped my Chiron.
“You know you shouldn’t be drinking that,” He said in a scolding voice.
Mr. D sighed and turned the glass into a can of regular Coke. I was still confused about how he could do that. Chiron looked at me and must have read my expression.
“You didn’t think he was a regular man did you?” He asked me, hinting that it was obvious he was something other than a human. I nodded my head since I did believe he was regular. The not-a-regular-man blurted out a powerful laugh that felt like it vibrated the table.
“Ha, mortals. Always assuming by what they see and not thinking,” he started murmuring to himself things that I couldn’t hear. Calissa and I exchanged confused looks. I looked to Chiron for an answer since he seemed to have lots of them.
“Never mind him, he doesn’t get along with many people, especially the half-bloods at this camp. You see, hid father made him run this camp as a punishment for chasing an off-limits, uh, girl. During this time, he can’t drink wine either,” he explained. I thought about it for a minute but it didn’t help me understand anything any better.
“Harsh. My dad would just not let me go shopping for a week. It’s still super torturous though. Ugh, this one time, I needed new shoes and-“ Mr. D held his hand up and Cal immediately stopped talking. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as well.
“Just tell her the full story. It aggravates me to see such stupid kids take forever to guess who I am! I’m Dionysus alright! Ya, you heard me, and my father is Zeus,” he seemed mad. He pushed his chair out, making the sound of hard wood scraping against another surface. He walking outside and started speaking a language that sounded like nonsense.
I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I was just in the presence of Dionysus, the god of wine and theatre. I didn’t know if he was right or not, but I believed him because I’ve seen things that I would have never thought were true before now.
I tried to remember the children of Zeus and who he might be. I eliminated all of the females since he appeared to be male. But, I could never be too sure. I remembered Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, Hephaestus, Perseus, and Hercules. I ruled out the demi-gods since they would’ve died a long time ago. So, I was left with Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, and Hephaestus. I tried to remember their features and claimed that he looked the most of Dionysus.
“Dionysus,” I said out loud.
“Yes, and sorry about him, he can get grumpy a lot,” I nodded and tried to process the fact that I was in the same room as a god. I looked to Calissa and she wasn’t even paying attention. Instead, she was texting on her phone. I rolled my eyes since that was typical of Cal.
Chiron walked over to her and stood there. We waited for her to look up, but when she didn’t, he crossed his arms. He was patient because it took awhile for her to notice. Eventually, he had to do that fake cough that people use to get other people’s attention. He held out his hand so she would give him her phone. She sighed and handed it to him. He then walked over to me.
“Ambrosia, I need any electronics that you might’ve brought. Here at camp, we want a summer free of these silly things that do no good,” He explained. I nodded and reached in my pocket. I took out my cell phone and handed the small device too him. He walked back to the end of the table and his face turned serious.
“Now let’s get to business,” he said. “So, you two girl are obviously demi-gods since you made it past the border. But, how did you find this place?” He asked. I explained how we went on a trip, Cal’s boyfriend, the deer, the monster, then this place. Chiron listened intently and soaked up everything I said.
“Hmm, well that’s something. Well, I have multiple things to say about this. One, Cal, why were you dating a satyr?” He asked her. He seemed to be holding back a small laugh. She looked a little puzzled as for why he was asking.
“No, his name was Brian,” She said to him. She was still puzzled. I looked to the centaur and he was smiling.
“Brian was a satyr. He was searching for demi-gods and came across you. He must’ve got distracted and forgot what he was doing,” Chiron explained. Calissa looked shocked, but I didn’t know why. It explained why he smelled like a farm. She must’ve never noticed his smell.
“Bu-but, that means… he was a goat?” She said is a high-pitched voice. I knew she would overreact and I was prepared for what was coming.
“Well, half goat. They are basically humans though, just with some weird habits,” he said to her. Cal shot up and her face looked disgusted.
“GROSS! I KISSED A GOAT!” she screamed as she shot up out of her chair and ran outside. I quickly followed behind her because I honestly didn’t want to miss anything that was happening. I probably should’ve been comforting her but it was no use once she gets like this. She was yelling as she was outside and people started looking.
“Well, someone’s over their boyfriend’s death,” I told her. I was okay about the whole monster attack now and was fine to talk about it. She just glared at me while still looking grossed out.
“I. Kissed. A. Goat.” She spoke, separating every word as if it would convince me that this was a crisis. Cal made a scene for a few more minutes until she was interrupted.
“That is very insulting! Satyrs are people too!” someone said from behind her. It must’ve startled her because she jumped and quickly turned around. The person speaking was a guy that had short horns coming out of his head. I looked down and saw that he had very hairy legs. I realized that they weren’t just hairy, they were animal legs. He was a satyr.
“Oh, um, I-I’m sorry, um,” He said with a face of shock and still a sign of slight disgust written in the corner of her face.
The satyr had crossed arms and looked very mad. He let out a few goat noises as well. He looked behind him and I followed his gaze to two people standing behind him. One was a girl with blonde hair. Her eyes were gray and looked wise. She was wearing one of the orange shirts and a pare of shorts. She looked familiar, along with the mad satyr.
Next to her was a boy that looked to be around her age. He had black hair and eyes that were the color of the ocean. He had the same shirt on too. I had to think about it for a while before I realized who they were. They were they people that were in the cabin I intruded in. I noticed the Cyclops I gasped at wasn’t there. I felt slightly embarrassed and hoped that they wouldn’t remember me. The boy caught me looking at him and I quickly looked away.
“Give her a break Grover,” the girl said. The satyr whose name I learned was Grover looked at her and made another goat noise. He put his arms down and walked back to his friends. I noticed they were both laughing, but trying to hold them back.
“Hey, aren’t you the girl that gasped at Tyson? I mean the Cyclops?” The boy said. Great. I thought. Time to be embarrassed. I nodded my head and looked down at the ground.
“Ya, I miss him. He had to go to the Underwater Forges of the Cyclops,” He explained. I was slightly surprised he didn’t make a big deal out of it, since most people I knew would’ve. I looked at him, trying to look sympathetic since he seemed sad that he left.
“So, are you new here? I haven’t seen you around much?” The girl asked.
“Yeah, uh, we came here a few days ago. And I don’t want to go into detail,” I said, unwilling to explain the Hydra. Even though I could talk about, didn’t mean I wanted to. She nodded her head.
“Well, I’m Annabeth, that’s Grover and this is Percy.” The girl, Annabeth, seemed nice enough.
“I’m Ambrosia and this is Calissa. Nice to meet your,” I said, trying to sound polite. We talked for a little bit the trio had to go so we said bye.
She pulled Grover away and they walked toward a group of people. I turned around to see Chiron in the doorway, waiting to finish our talk. We both walked in and sat down at the table again.
“So, girls, what was going on before you got attacked by the Hydra?” He asked. I was confused. Hydra? Was he saying the Hydra attacked us? I raised my eyebrow, questioning what he said.
“The Hydra?” I asked. He nodded in response and I sat back in my chair.
“Anyways, what was your life like? Who did you live with, your mom your dad? Just to maybe get a clue about who your parent might be,” he told me. I was going to speak for myself but Calissa beat me to it.
“Okay, well she is an orphan and lives with a bunch of these other kids. The lady’s name is Ms. Maitland. I, on the other hand, live with my dad. I have no idea who my mom was or what she looked like. So yeah.”
I didn’t like the way she said I was an orphan. It’s like it wasn’t a big deal, which I thought it was. It’s sad that I have no parents, either because they died or didn’t want me. Well, because one of them died or didn’t want me. Chiron scratched is chin and looked like he was thinking.
“So, Calissa, your mother must be a goddess. But Ambrosia, we don’t have a clue. That’s okay, you’ll hopefully get claimed soon enough,” he said. He paused for a minute to think again. He seemed puzzled about something.
“Why would the Hydra attack you? It never comes around here. Did it come for you too or was it just wandering around and came across you to?” He mumbled. I didn’t really understand why it was important so I didn’t really care to talk about it. I heard him say ‘hmm’ a few times but he then slightly shook his head and looked back at us.
“You girls go back to your cabins,” he told us. Calissa and I walked out of House and started back to the Hermes Cabin. But, the weirdest thing happened. The old-looking cabin was in sight when Calissa said she felt weird.
“Ya, I do too. I’m not sure we should stay here,” I thought that she was talking about this place but she shook her head.
“No, I mean, my body feels weird. It’s kinda… tingly,” I didn’t know what she was talking about so I looked at her.
I was shocked when I saw her and I gasped. Around her, there seemed to be a pink haze, like she was glowing. I thought it was the lighting but nothing around us could do that. She was wearing a white, strapless dress that went to her ankles. It was tight around her waist but loose and flowy beneath it.
Her hair was in loose curls all around, as if it was done by a professional hairstylist. She had mascara that lengthened her eyelashes and she had a smoky eye designed with eye shadow. A light pink lipstick covered her lips and blush that enhanced her cheekbones.
I was confused since she didn’t look like this a few seconds ago. Then, someone bumped into her and she fell into a big mud puddle. When she got up, everything was perfectly fine. The person who knocked her over noticed her and stopped. I looked and realized it was Aaron, the one from the forge. He took one look at her and it was like her beauty hypnotized him. He shook his head looked at her again, as if he wasn’t sure that she actually looked like that.
Chiron came over and stopped in his tracks as well. When he saw her, he knelt down and Aaron did too. A few people crowded her and they all did the same.
“All hail Calissa, daughter of Aphrodite,” Chiron told us all.