Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Six: A Family Reunion

I just stood there in silence.

"Come on, let's get you to the Big House," Michael said. They'll explain everything a bit better."

He led me to a big blue house that sat towards one end of the camp. Along the way, I saw a bunch of other campers, all wearing orange-t shirts, doing various camp activities. I saw a bunch of kids around my age sword fighting, shooting bows at an archery range down the way, climbing a giant rock face on the other side of camp, and all sorts of other summer camp-type things. There were acres of strawberry fields down to the west, and their smell was intoxicating.

We walked into the big blue house, and Michael led me to the living room, which was empty except for two armchairs across from a desk occupied by a pudgy guy with curly black hair, and an actual centaur. The human half of the centaur was a middle-aged man with graying hair and brown beard, and the horse half was a huge white stallion. I wanted to ask him which set of vital organs he preferred to use, considering he had two torsos with two rib cages, but I decided not to.

They were introduced to me as the camp directors. The pudgy guy was named Mr. D. "His real name is Dionysus, but he just goes by Mr. D here," whispered Michael. It seemed a little inappropriate to me that the god of wine was in charge of a kid's summer camp but I decided not to say anything. The centaur was named Chiron, and I found out he was the one who trained Hercules, my favorite Greek hero. I sat down in front of the desk in the center of the room. Mr. D sat opposite me, Chiron to his left. They asked Michael to leave the room.

Mr. D. gave me an irritated look. "So, who are you exactly?" he questioned.

"Erm, excuse me?" I asked, confused.

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Jace. Jace Irons." I said hesitantly.

"Jake Sirens..." mumbled Mr. D. who scribbled something down in what looked like a big ledger. He looked up at me again.

"Well Mr. Sirens," he began. "It seems you've stumbled upon our little camp here, which is hardly a happy little accident." He glared at me. "How did you find this camp?" he interrogated.

"I just followed the map here." I said. I put my hand on my pocket and noticed that it was no longer there.

"Do you mean this map?" Mr. D asked, lifting the folded map up off of his desk.

"Yeah. That's the one." I shifted in my chair.

"Really? Well I happen to know that this particular map belonged to a trusted satyr named Briar Holmgreen, a fine satyr whom I knew personally." he said. He turned the map over to show me the back of it. Sure enough, it said Property of Briar H. on the back. Mr. D. then leaned forward and sneered as if he were a smug cop interrogating a guilty perp.

He continued. "Three days ago you stumbled across our camp borders bearing serious wounds with a map that belonged to Briar Holmgreen, but without Briar. Tell us how that happened."

I exhaled, and I told them everything. About my childhood, my mom, and the boxing gym. I told them how Briar had showed up and saved me from a cyclops. I told them about our journey, and how we had guessed I was a son of Ares. I ended with telling them how Briar had been mortally wounded in the fight with the manticore, and how I had lost my arm and had barely made it to camp alive. They just sat there and nodded. The story was taxing, I hadn't really processed all the trauma I had been through yet, physically or psychologically. When I was done, I just sat there and hung my head, exhausted.

Mr. D. opened his mouth as if to tell me he thought that I was full of bullshit when Chrion cut him off.

"Well," Chiron interjected. "It does sound like you've been through alot, boy. And..." he began, glancing at Mr. D. "...it should bring you some comfort to know that last we heard, your friend Briar was alive."