Blood of Earth

t h r e e

"You." I glared daggers into his pale face. He sighed, combing his hair with his hands nervously.

"Me," Nico agreed solemnly. He fidgeted, plucking his jacket as he fixedly stares at the sheets of my gurney. I continue to burn holes through him, silently contemplated how easy it would be to flip this dude (which I decided to call Greenbean for kicks) over my shoulder, pull the sword I saw belted to his slender waist, and slice it through his neck.

"So, um, just wondering what in Hades is going on here," Greenbean interjected calmly, still gripping my arms. I scowled at him fiercely, still struggling against him.

"None of your business, Greenbean," I snapped at him. I twisted my arms together until Greenie let go, wincing, and sprang up. Nico began to back away but I stalked past him, to Chiron. As I marched through the camp, everyone's eyes fell on me. The laughter and loud chatter of the campers reduced to shocked and angry whispers as everything stopped. One kid was too busy staring at me that a Frisbee another guy had tossed him crashed into his head and knocked him to the ground. I stifled a giggle as I stopped by the Big House, my serious face returning.

"Get a grip," I muttered to myself, sucking in a huge breath. Passing over the stairs, I saw two men hunched over a card table. One was wearing a loud shirt that curved over his paunchy stomach, with his dark hair sticking up all over the place and his eyes bloodshot. He had a faint glow to him, so faint that mortal eyes would dismiss it as the reflection of light, but I knew what it meant he was. Judging by his glowing aura, a loud shirt, bloodshot eyes, and the fact a gold-wrought goblet sat next to him, he was Dionysus, god of wine and madness.

The other man was sitting in a wheelchair. He was wearing a smart dark pine jacket over a lime green shirt with a blue collar, and dark aqua slacks. His luxurious chestnut hair and beard had a sprinkling of gray in them, and his eyes were the only thing that belied his true nature. They were sad and old as if he had fought in a thousand wars, but with a twinkle that brightened them up. He must have been Chiron, if we were where I think we were.

They were huddled over a game of pinochle, and Dionysus raised his arms in triumph as Chiron thumped the table softly with his fist. Dionysus gulped down the liquid in his goblet and smiled at me with a glimmering goatee stain around his lips.

"Who are you and what the Hades do you want right now?" He greeted me pleasantly, still managing to seem annoyed.

"Don't you remember?" I snarled sarcastically. "My grandmother and father forced me to help her raise her army and you threw me to Tartarus a few millennia ago? It was a 9-4 vote? You were part of the 9?"

"Terra Aevum," he recalled, his eyes flashing. "So I'm guessing your bonds were broken err the forced slumber of Gaea?"

"I wouldn't know," I agreed, pulling out a rickety wooden chair and plopping upon it. "I was too busy being mentally, physically, and emotionally scarred by my father and grandmother down in the hell even your godly father was too scared to venture in." The cloudless forget-me-not blue sky rumbled, and I waved my hand airily.

"You're quite annoying, it's a pity I can't turn you into a dolphin," Dionsysus commented as he leaned back in his chair.

"Sorry to disappoint."

"But to be quite serious, what are you doing here?" Chiron told me.

"The redhead who threw a blue hairbrush at my father?" I checked with a grin. "Luke told me about her. Connected to Apollo, and teller of prophecies and schist. Well, like Grandmother always says, to fix the problem, go to the roots."

"Apollo. We know there must be something wrong, but the gods have fallen silent on that matter."

"Then, let's take a visit to them, in Olympus," I countered, fire blazing in my eyes. "Wasn't it the 300th floor?