There were no unicorns in the camp. But there was a centaur waiting for us at the porch of the farmhouse, with a pretty blonde girl about my age at his side. 

"He's the one. He must be" the girl said, looking at the boy in my arms.

"Silence, Annabeth" the centaur said "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

Together, we hauled the boy and the satyr inside the farmhouse and laid them on the beds.

The centaur then turned to me and Aaron.

"What happened? I need to know everything."

We told him about the odonto-dinosaur and the demon birds, about escaping from the police and all the crazy stuff. Then we told him about how the boy fought the minotaur and that we carried them inside camp.

The centaur sighed deeply, he muttered something under his breath in ancient Greek which I couldn't understand. He then turned to me.

"I wish we had met under better circumstances Ryan. I'm Chiron, activities director of camp half blood. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Unfortunately they must have to wait until morning as I have urgent matters to attend to right now. Annabeth, I think it best you go back to your cabin. Aaron, take him to the spare bedroom. There's no need to wake up cabin eleven at this time."

The girl, Annabeth, looked like she wanted to argue, her stormy grey eyes glared at Chiron. But then she turned and left. Chiron trotted out after wishing me a good night, leaving me with Aaron.

"Come on, I'll show you the room. Tomorrow morning, we can have a detailed tour."

I nodded and followed Aaron out of the room. He led me to a small bedroom which was empty except for a bed and a small bedside table. I put the sword and the horn on the bedside table and climbed onto the bed. 

"Good night then Ryan" Aaron turned to leave but then came back, pulling the lunch box from his duffel bag. He opened it and took a spoonful of a pudding like substance.

"I forgot. You should probably have some" He said, offering the spoon to me. I ate it, expecting a taste like pudding. But it turned out to taste like buttered popcorn.

"Good night Aaron" I said as he exited the room, switching off the light and closing the door behind him.

⨳⨳⨳

In my dream, I was in a snowstorm. Lightning flashed overhead and thunder rumbled. The cold wind was blowing all around me. I could barely see a few feet ahead of me with the snow whipping around. Through the howling of the wind, I could hear a faint voice calling out to me.

"Ryan..." 

I walked towards the direction of the sound, holding my clothes tightly against the wind. The voice became clearer as I stumbled forward.

"Find it..." the voice was telling me.

"Find what?" I shouted back.

"The bolt..."

"What bolt?" I screamed at the voice, not able to take it anymore.

Whatever reply the voice was about to give was cut off by the deafening crack behind me. I looked back and watched in horror as a section of a mountain collapsed, as if sheared off by a godly sword. The piece of the mountain came down on me in a cascade of ice, snow and rocks. I tried to run but my feet were frozen. I braced for impact as the avalanche got closer.

⨳⨳⨳

I woke up screaming. After realizing that I was still in the room, I somewhat calmed down. When I looked outside the windows, it was night.

I frowned. Unless I had slept only for a short time, this would mean I had slept all day. I decided to take a look around the place. I opened the door quietly and went to the room where the other boy was sleeping. The satyr, Grover, was not in the bed. The boy kept mumbling something in his breath. 

A thud came from somewhere above, startling me. I slipped outside. I looked at the dark, creepy stairs that probably lead to the attic. Another thud sounded from above the stairs. After hearing a few more thuds, I started to climb the stairs quietly.

It's just an attic, I thought to myself, trying to calm my racing heart. After climbing four flights of stairs, I reached a green trapdoor. I pulled the cord, the door swung down and a wooden ladder clattered in place. Another thud sounded above me. I swallowed and started climbing.

The attic was filled with all sorts of Greek junk. There were rusted armors, shields, swords and other weapons. Along with a variety of other artifacts that  I could not see clearly in the dark. By the window, I saw a dark humanoid shape. I crept closer to it.

Sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was a mummy, a shriveled husk of a woman. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces and a headband over her long, black hair. Her skin was thin and leathery, her eyes were glassy white slits.

The thudding sound came from the window. It was swinging in the wind, hitting against the frame from time to time. 

Sighing in relief, I went and closed the window. As I turned back, the mummy grabbed my hand. It's grip surprisingly strong for a shriveled mummy. Terror gripped my heart.

Green mist started to billow out of the mummy's mouth, coiling around me in thick tendrils, hissing like a thousand snakes. A rasping voice sounded inside my head, coiling around my brain.

Son of winter, you shall fall.

I managed to break free of the mummy's grip and ran out of the attic. An invisible force seemed to try and stop me as I ran. I somehow made it to the stairs, almost falling down. I stumbled down each flight of stairs, my heart beating so fast that I was afraid it would burst out from my chest. I rushed into my room, bolted the door and climbed into the bed, pulling the covers over me.

I could not sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, green mist snakes and mummies strangled me. I lay shivering in my bed till morning. I heard a knock on my door some time after the sun rose.

"Hey Ryan, are you alright?" Aaron called.

I got out of bed and opened the door.

"Thank the gods. I was really worried about you. You slept through all of yesterday, wouldn't wake up when I called you" he said, concerned.

"Yeah man, I'm fine. Guess I was more tired than I thought" I chuckled, trying to hide my nervousness. I was still badly shaken up by the mummy.

Aaron frowned. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Of course man. Why would I lie?"

Aaron looked unconvinced but didn't press the issue.

"Anyway, you are not the only one who woke up. Percy Jackson, the boy we helped has also woken up. Chiron will be giving both of you a tour now. So you better get going" saying this, he handed me a glass of what looked like apple juice.

"It's nectar" he explained when I gave him a questioning look.

Putting the straw to my mouth, I started sipping the drink of the gods.

My eyes widened at the taste. It tasted like pistachio ice cream. I closed my eyes and for a moment I felt as if I was 8 years old again. My foster parents at that time, Jane and Gavin, used to buy me ice cream everyday. Jane used to scold me for eating too much ice cream, telling that I would get a brain freeze. But I never did. It had devastated me when the grocery shop had caught fire and I was taken away from them. Sooner than I wished to, the drink was over.

"How was it?" Aaron asked.

"Amazing! How did it taste exactly like the ice cream? And can I get more?"

"It's not a good idea to have any more of it, you'll probably combust. And it's the drink of the gods. It tastes exactly like your favorite food" Aaron explained.

"Right. So shall we get going?"

"Come on, follow me" Aaron led the way.

He led me through the porch that wrapped all around the house. The valley marched all the way up to the glittering sea. Between the farmhouse and the sea, I could see several Greek looking buildings, an amphitheater, a circular arena, an open air pavilion and several others. High school age kids and satyrs roamed around the place, all doing different activities. I was pretty sure I saw someone riding a winged horse.

"Man, this place is so cool" I was amazed at the sight before me. 

Aaron, grinned and motioned me to continue. At the end of the porch, I could see four figures sitting around a card table. One of them was the boy, Percy, and the other was Grover the satyr.

 The man facing me looked like a middle-aged baby, if that made sense. He was small and porky, with big watery eyes, a red nose and curly black hair that was almost purple. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt and looked seriously drunk. 

The other man was sitting in a motorized wheelchair. It took me a moment to recognize the man as Chiron though I did not understand why he was in a wheelchair.

"Chiron" Aaron called out.

Chiron, who was explaining something to Percy, looked back. He smiled at me.

"Ah yes, you're awake" he said "Come on , join us."

Aaron patted my back and walked away. I went over to the table and took a seat. The rest of them were playing pinochle. The drunk guy looked at me as I sat down.

"Another one?" he scoffed "Welcome to camp half blood I suppose."

"Ryan, this is Mr. D, the camp director" Chiron introduced the man. I simply nodded, not sure what to say.

Percy returned to the conversation he was having with Chiron. 

"I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."

"Oh, you'd better" Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."

I figured that Percy was still in denial about the whole gods thing.

"P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock" Grover pleaded.

"A lucky thing too" Mr. D grumbled "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe."

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine. 

Both mine and Percy's jaws dropped simultaneously. I stared at Mr. D with newfound respect.

"Mr. D, your restrictions" Chiron warned him.

He looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me" he looked at the sky and yelled "Old habits! Sorry!"

Thunder rumbled. Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

"Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits" Chiron explained.

"A wood nymph" Percy muttered in a daze, still looking at the can. 

"Yes" Mr. D confessed "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away-the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha. Absolutely unfair."

I held back my laughter. The guy sounded like a pouting six year old.

"Wait, who's your father?" I asked him.

"Kids these days, don't know anything. My father is Zeus, of course"

My eyes widened. As far as I knew, Zeus was the god of the sky. So that would mean that Mr. D was also a god.

"You're Dionysus" Percy said "The god of wine."

Percy apparently knew more about Greek mythology. I had no idea who that was.

Mr. D rolled his eyes "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D"

"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?" another name I had no idea about.

"You're a god." Percy was not taking this well.

"Yes, child."

"A god. You."

For a moment, there was a purple fire in Mr. D's eyes. For the first time, I saw a hint of his godhood. His eyes showed horrible visions of wine, madness and death. I realized that he could break our minds with a simple thought if he wanted to. 

"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.

"No. No, sir."

He turned to me then. I gulped and shook my head.

The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game "I believe I win."

"Not quite, Mr. D" Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said "The game goes to me."

I was pretty sure Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron. But to my surprise, he just sighed and got up, Grover got up with him. 

 "I'm tired" Mr. D said "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."

Grover's face beaded with sweat and I felt bad for the guy "Y-yes, sir."

Mr. D turned to us "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson, Ryan Williams. And mind your manners."

He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.

"Will Grover be okay?" Percy asked Chiron.

Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Another century?" I asked incredulously. That was one hell of a grounding. But then again they were immortal so it wasn't probably too much time for them. 

Percy continued to ask Chiron about Mount Olympus and the flame of the west. I mostly zoned out of the conversation,. I put my hand in my pocket and found the flashlight. I frowned. I was sure that I had left it back in the room. How did it end up here?

 "Who are you, Chiron? Who... who am I?" Percy asked Chiron.

Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair.

"Who are you?" he mused "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get both of you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."

Saying this, Chiron got out of his wheelchair. It seemed that the wheelchair was a magical container of some sort. As I watched, the body of a white stallion came into view. Chiron smiled down at Percy, who looked ready to faint.

"What a relief" the centaur said "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy, Ryan. Let's meet the other campers."

He trotted out of the porch. Percy was still staring at the same spot. I felt bad for him.

"Come on man, let's go" I put my hand around Percy's shoulder, leading him out.

A/N :

Hope you guys liked this chapter. As you could tell, we have reached the lightning thief now. Updates will be hopefully faster in the coming days.

Again, feel free to point out any mistakes. 

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