The Hermit

The Prodigal Son's Return

Twelve years had past since Percy had laid eyes on his former home-away-from-home. The camp had changed quite a bit. The gods had at least honored his request to establish cabins for all the gods on Olympus as well as those in the Underworld. What was before maybe a bit over a hundred demigods all those years ago, was now well over two hundred, maybe even three hundred. The expansion pushed into the forest, the original cabins were much larger than before, and all of the amenities had been upgraded to accommodate the large influx of young demigods.

Percy was impressed. The gods cared enough to not only bring their children to camp, but also upgrade said camp for them. It was wildly different than what he remembered of them during his four years of war and two more years of slaughter.

"Things are a bit different, aren't they?" Annabeth asked. Percy nodded, still not used to doing as much talking as they had already. "It is much better here, or so I hear. I'm not around much, between the time I spent looking for you and doing online schooling, I didn't have much time to be here."

Percy looked at her with a strained look. "You should have stopped looking for me years ago. You have lost a decade of time looking for me, time that could have been spent here or with your family."

"Percy. You were my family. My father and I still stay in touch and I visited between leads on you. It was actually him who finally pushed me to search for you. You don't know but my first six months after I found out, I was devastated and never left my room. I had gotten a ticket to fly to him and be as far from my mother as I could get.

"He convinced me that I couldn't sit by and let something like this destroy my life and he asked what I wanted. The only thing I could think of was to see you, so he pushed me onto the path of seeking you out. Whether it was right or wrong I don't care. I'd go to the ends of the earth to find you."

Percy stared at her, at a loss for words. "Thanks," he mumbled, before looking back at the camp. A half man, half horse came cantering up to them, a centaur. "Chiron," Percy said.

"Annabeth...is this?"

"Yes, Chiron. It's him," she replied.

"You look more like your father. I could hardly recognize you," Chiron said, pulling Percy in for a hug.

Before he could finish, Percy's staff was between them. "I'm sorry Chiron. I don't do well with unexpected movements. You'll have to forgive me. There's...a lot of people here and I'm not used to people touching me, let alone the number of people in the area."

Chiron nodded, a small frown creasing his face. "Well you must at least be hungry from your journey? Come, dinner is about to start. We'll discuss things at the pavilion.

Annabeth held his hand and talked quietly to him as she guided them to the pavilion. "You sure you're okay with this? You didn't even react so violently to me or those around you at the train station."

"I don't know, Wisegirl. I can't give you a straight answer. I panicked when he reached for me. Not to mention, it's hard to be worried about mortals when I can make them leave me alone with the Mist."

As they walked into the pavilion, Chiron directed them to the front table where both Percy and Annabeth sat down while Chiron stood and made his normal end of day announcements.

"Great job today everyone. Don't forget that Friday is Capture the Flag. Currently the leaders are Ares Cabin and Hermes Cabin. Anyone wishing to join must join as an entire cabin. Also, I'd like to welcome back a former camper. For some special reasons, I won't disclose his name and I recommend you all don't rush up to meet him. He's been living alone for a long time and he's still getting used to having so many people around.