The Cosmic King: Book 1

Welcome to Hermes Cabin

"Is that a... climbing wall?"

"Yup."

"And is that... lava?"

"Yup."

"... cool."

Grover and I had been walking around camp for close to an hour now and we had just passed the training grounds in the combat arena. I had to hide a snicker when I noticed Grover sort of trots when he walks.

"So where next, G-Man?" I asked as we exited the arena, my hands in my pockets. At that moment the deep, resonating sound of a horn echoed throughout the camp

"That's lunch. Let's head to the dining pavilion," Grover said, and started leading me towards the pavilion filled with stone tables. As we got closer, I noticed a large, bronze brazier set towards one end of the pavilion. Even from this distance I could hear a fire crackling within it.

I also noticed that several of the tables were filled with kids of all ages, the youngest probably being nine or ten, and the oldest looking about seventeen. There seemed to be close to eighty or ninety kids here, and more continued to file into the stone space and find seats at the tables.

"Just like the cabins, there are twelve groups of tables for the twelve Olympians," Grover explained, leading me towards the end of the pavilion where the brazier sat. A comparatively small table sat just behind the bronze fire pit, large enough to fit maybe three or four people on one side.

"Who sits there?" I asked, pointing to the table.

"Chiron and Mr. D mainly. Occasional important visitors or guests too." Grover led me to the head table and patted the chair next to him as he sat. "You can sit here until Chiron places you in Hermes cabin or you get claimed."

"Alright," I said as I sat down. Time to play the part. "That's the second time I've heard about 'claiming' and you keep calling Brunner, 'Chiron'. Why? And what the Hades is claiming?" Grover smiled sheepishly - or would that be 'goatishly'? I felt Dad snicker in my head at the pun.

"Oh, right. Sorry Perce," Grover crossed his arms on the smooth, stone tabletop and adopted, what I consider, a lecturing tone. "Brunner is actually Chiron; a centaur who trained a lot of the famous heroes; Achilles, Jason of the Argonauts, Theseus and Perseus, to name a few."

"Seriously?" Grover nodded. "Sweet."

"As for claiming," Grover started. "Usually when a demigod arrives at Camp, their godly parent will claim them. This is usually done with a symbol representing that god or goddess appearing above their heads." Usually? That didn't sound right...

"What do you mean by 'usually'?" Grover didn't answer right away. I followed his gaze to a rather crowded group of tables, with easily double the amount of kids as any of the other tables. "Who are they?"

"Hermes cabin," Grover said quietly. "The unclaimed, those who don't know their godly parent, are sent to the Hermes cabin. I don't know when, but it became the cabin for unclaimed demigods," Grover sighed. "It seems like every year we have to expand their cabin."

"That bad, huh?" My expression was neutral, but inside I was furious. Dozens of these kids all crammed into one cabin because their godly parent hasn't or couldn't claim them? That was unacceptable. I could feel Dad's anger on the matter as well. The gods would pay for their crimes soon enough.

TCK TCK TCK

Lunch passed fairly quickly. Grover and I were joined shortly by Chiron, still in his wheelchair, and Mr. D. The former struck up a rather interesting conversation with us about how much of Greek mythology was actual fact. I think Grover and Chiron were slightly surprised that I was able to follow along so well. I could almost see my Dad smiling smugly as I showed off my knowledge of ancient Greece. It wasn't long after Chiron and the slob joined us that a smattering of nymphs walked into the pavilion carrying trays heaped with food. Seafood, bar-b-que, pizza, sandwiches. Almost anything you could want, it was there.