A web of fates | Percy Jackson and the Olympians

iii| Daphne gets soaked

They passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other.

One pointed to the minotaur horn he was carrying. Another said, "That's him."

Most of the campers were older than Daphne. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters.

"What's up there?" Percy asked Daphne.

Daphne looked where he was pointing. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

She was about to respond when Chiron beat her to it.

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

"Come along, guys," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

They walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

"Ellis!" Daphne shouted, waving at her friend.

Ellis grinned and waved back but quickly went back to work when his older brother scolded him.

Chiron told Percy the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He told him how Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around.

It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" Percy asked Chiron. "I mean...he was a good protector. Really."

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse's back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!"

"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate...ah...fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age...."

Daphne looked away, almost everyone knew the story of Grover's first attempt and the story ended with a pinecone tree, which once used to be a human girl.

Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.

Daphne didn't know her personally, but Luke and Annabeth did.

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."