Legend of Perseus 3: Curse of Atlas

~Chapter 7~

"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."

"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"

Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

"She is thirteen, going to turn fourteen in about a week." I replied

"Eh, it will be fine!" Apollo replied.

Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

Apollo laughed good-naturedly. The rest of us didn't join him.

"Hey Apollo?" I called. He walked over to me.

"Yeah?" He asked. I motioned him to lean over so he did.

"Thalia is phobia of heights, so flying the sun might not be good for her." I whispered. "So unless you want us to crash into the ocean I suggest you fly."

Apollo stood up, nodding. "I see. It's alright Thalia,you don't have to drive."

He got in the drivers seat and started the bus. We took off into the sky as we headed toward Camp Half-Blood.

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"Alright!" Apollo replied. "Long Island, dead ahead!"

I looked out the window to see the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood: the valley, the woods, the beach. I could see the dining pavilion and cabins and the amphitheater. We were only a few hundred yards away now.

Apollo parked the bus in an open field and turned it off as he turned to us. "Alright! I hope you all survived the flight here."

I will say that I'd never seen Camp Half-Blood in winter before, and the snow surprised me.

See, the camp has the ultimate magic climate control. Nothing gets inside the borders unless the director, Mr. D, wants it to. I thought it would be warm and sunny, but instead the snow had been allowed to fall lightly. Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body. I wondered if the spirit of Delphi was roasting marshmallows up there or something.

"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Why is there lava pouring down it?"

"Little extra challenge. Come on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoe, I assume that-"

"We will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me." Zoe said stiffly.

"I'll show you the way," Grover offered, but I stopped him.

"They know the way."

"Oh, really, it's no trouble-"

"Grover, just stop." I reply. "They are fine on their own."

The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. Bianica and Nico walked up to me.

"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at me. "I'll come visit you when you arn't busy."

"Sure." I reply.

Apollo left turning the bus back into a sportcar.

"Who's Chiron?" Bianica asked when Apollo was gone.

"Our activities director," I said. "He's... well, you'll see."

The second thing that surprised me about camp was how empty it was. I mean, I knew most half-bloods only trained during the summer. Just the year-rounders would be here—the ones who didn't have homes to go to, or would get attacked by monsters too much if they left. But there didn't even seem to be many of them, either.

I spotted Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stoking the forge outside the camp armory. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, from the Hermes cabin, were picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from the Ares cabin were having a snowball fight with the wood nymphs at the edge of the forest. That was about it. Clarisse, didn't seem to be around.

The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.

Chiron's brown beard was shaggier for the winter. His curly hair had grown a little longer. He wasn't posing as a teacher this year, so I guess he could afford to be casual. He wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoofprint design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely.

He smiled when he saw us. "Percy! Thalia! Ah, and this must be—"

"Nico and Bianica di Angelo" I said. "He and his sister are half-bloods."

Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. "You succeeded, then."

"Well..." Thalia muttered

His smile melted. "What's wrong? And where is Annabeth?"

"Oh, dear," Mr. D said in a bored voice, "Not another one lost."

I'd been trying not to pay attention to Mr. D, but he was kind of hard to ignore in his neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and his purple running shoes. A golden laurel wreath was tilted sideways on his curly black hair, which must've meant he'd won the last hand of cards.

"What do you mean?" Thalia asked. "Who else is lost?"

Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. "The Hunters are all moved in!"

"Dude, I told you not to bother them." I shake my head.

Chiron frowned. "The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about." He glanced at Nico. "Grover, perhaps you should take our young friends to the den and show them our orientation film."

"But... Oh, right. Yes, sir."

"Orientation film?" Bianica asked. "Is it G or PG?"

"It's PG-13," I said.

"Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room.

"Nico, don't just run off!" Bianica called as she fallowed the two.