Warriors of Wisdom

Chapter Four

At first I thought I died. I thought about the very few people that would attend my funeral, the words engraved on the tombstone: Callisto Gates. Died from screaming like maniac at a giant cannibal. Not such a memorable death. Then, I woke up suddenly in a stretcher, like at a hospital. One figure stood over me, whispering. From what I saw, it was a girl. As I took in my surroundings, I found out I was in a room that was pretty basic: white walls, potted plants on the windowsill, shelves of doctors supplies. The girl standing in front of me spoke up.
        
"Are you okay?" she asked.
        
I sat up, which I found quite easy to do. I thought I would get searing pain from sitting up. "Yeah I'm fine. And, where am I? What happened? And how long have I been knocked out or something?"
        
"You're in the infirmary, where we take care of the wounded campers. We don't know exactly what happened, but we saw Asher carry you into camp. You were as lifeless as a rag doll. We heard about a fight with a Laistrygonian giant, and how he ran away. Strange. As for how long you've been knocked out, three hours."
        
Three hours?
        
"Where's Asher?" I asked.    

"He went back to meet up with his cabin mates. Oh, I'm Ariana. Daughter of Apollo, best healer in camp." She checked my temperature. "I think you're all healed. I should take you outside now."
   
"Okay." I sat up and got out of the hospital bed. I walked out the door and felt the warm sunshine on back, which was unusual, since it was December.
   
There were people surrounding the infirmary. There weren't that many, about 20 at the most. They all wore orange T-shirts with the same words printed on them: Camp Half Blood. I heard someone shuffle forward, and the people made way. And there standing in front of me was my escort, Asher Jones.
   
"Hey, Callisto. Glad to see that you're okay. Welcome to Camp Half Blood."
   
"Thanks," I don't know why I was thanking them, considering that their idea of welcome was to make me enter through some weird entrance that is infiltrated with monsters.
   
"You need to meet Chiron. He'll explain everything to you." He beckoned me to follow him, and reluctantly, I did. Asher led me to this big house that was blue and about the size of one apartment building in my complex.
   
"This is the Big House." Asher announced as we walked toward it. The name made sense.
   
"This is where we plan for battles, discuss important issues, and where Chiron stays. Like I said earlier, Chiron is camp activities director. Our regular camp director isn't here right now, but you should be fine. Oh! Here he is now."
   
Rolling to the front porch was a man in a wheelchair. He looked like your average, middle-aged professor, with a trimmed beard and a pin striped suit. He came towards us with a calm smile on his face, but as he saw me, his face turned into a grimace.
   
"How is it possible? She said you died years ago." he murmured. I had no idea what he was talking about, or who told him I was dead, or who even knew me enough to think that I'm dead. His grimace turned back into that calm smile he had when he came out. "Well, it is always nice to meet a new camper. I am Chiron." He held out his hand, and I shook it. "Please come in. Asher must stay out here. Oh, and, please do not be alarmed when I reveal my, ah, true form." Hearing the words true form kinda scared me.
   
He led me into the Big House. It was basically your typical man cave (I know what I'm talking about, my dad had one in our old house in California, but that's another story). It had a ping pong table, recliner chairs, and (for some reason) a giant leopard's head on the wall. It didn't appear to be moving, but I thought I could hear snoring, and Chiron and I were awake.
   
"Excuse me for a minute." Chiron said. He started to get up from his wheelchair, and that's when I realized that he wasn't human. After a few seconds, a leg popped out, and it looked a lot like a horse's leg, and then another one, and another one, until standing in front of me was a half man, half horse.
   
Centaur, I thought.
   
Chiron stretched his legs, "Ouch. I've been in there for so long." His wheelchair had a large box, where I guess his horse body went, and fake legs attached to it.
   
"Well, my dear, it's a pleasure to meet you. Now, may I ask how old you are?"
   
"Twelve." I said. Then I thought for a minute. "Hold on. Today's my birthday. I just turned thirteen today." I just saw Chiron's mouth twitch, as if he was trying to suppress a frown.
   
"Well, that's good. That means that your parent shall claim you tonight around dinner. Usually, we can find out a little bit before that. Have you experienced anything strange? Have you done something, or seen something, that you could not explain?" His expression got very firm.
   
I felt a little uneasy recalling today's events, especially to a horse guy, but I did my best. "Today, I encountered some Cyclopes in an alleyway, before Asher found me. I was scared. So I screamed, and the Cyclopes covered their ears and ran away. Something similar happened like that happened when we saw the Laistrygonian giant before I got into the camp."
   
Chiron looked down, as if trying to figure out a complex math equation. "Strange," he said, "I've never met a demigod who has experienced something like this. I am going to assume that these are your demigod powers, but I don't know of any demigod, or god, for that matter, who has ever possessed these powers. I will have to read up on some myths after dinner tonight, to see who could possibly be your parent. Perhaps you are a Roman demigod, and you are a daughter of Bellona, the war goddess. I've never studied much about her, but it does sound like a power that a demigod child of her would possess. I know a few children of Bellona as well, I can ask them if they have experienced anything similar."

"Hold on," I started, "who told you I was dead?"

Chiron frowned again. "That is a story for another time. In the meantime, you can go outside. I believe Asher is still out there, waiting for you. Have him bring you to the dining pavilion. It is almost time for dinner. And for you to get claimed."