the first huntsman || percy jackson

i become a pancake

CASPIAN

Micaela lead me onto the porch of the house and around a corner to where two men and a girl a couple of years older than me sat playing cards, and by the looks of it, the girl was beating their butts.

"Royal flush," the girl smiled brightly and knowingly, laying down her hand before looking up at me. She's very pretty, with her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a necklace laced with multi-colored beads and an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt.

As I took her in, one of the men at the table, a larger man with gnarly black hair, an equally gnarly beard, and an even gnarlier Hawaiian shirt, growled and threw his hand on the table. The other man had much lighter hair and sat in a wheelchair. He looked amusingly at the girl, shook his head laughing, and passed his cards into the center.

"I didn't think I would have to actually cheat to beat her, but I might have to now!" The dark-haired man glared at the pile of cards and angrily took a sip of a diet Coke, "Deal the next round, Annabeth."

"I'd be happy to," I spoke up and finally caught the attention of the other two poker players. The blonde girl, apparently named Annabeth, passed me the cards and watched quizzically, eyes wide and curious, at what I was about to do.

"Micaela, you're back!" The man in the wheelchair said. "And you look moderately unscathed. I'm guessing you didn't run into any trouble, then?"

"Argus was happy to drive me. He said so himself," Micaela said, with a slight hint of amusement in her voice. The man subtly winked at her, like they were sharing a secret.

Meanwhile, I had picked up the cards and swiftly farrow shuffled them together a couple of times. I felt everyone's eyes on me, but it didn't deter me from flicking the ace of spades out from the middle of the deck and catching it with one hand. I gave the cards one more good shuffle before dealing the new hands.

"Who's the bigshot," the dark-haired man said, looking away from me, clearly unamused, and gazing at his new cards. They stunk, again. He pushed them face- down onto the table, clearly not attempting any sort of poker face.

"Mr. D, this is Caspian Jay, our newest camper," the guy in the wheelchair said to the grouchy man, who huffed and watched as Annabeth dealt the flop. "Not all of us may look it, but we're very excited to have you here. Please, Caspian, have a seat. I'm sure you have many questions."

"Have fun with this one," Micaela said, sliding me a chair that was near where she was standing, "I've done my part in getting Dog-breath here. He's all yours. Thanks again for letting us drive, Chiron." And with that, she was off.

"I see you've earned a pet name," The man called Chiron mused as the river revealed that Annabeth had won yet another round, evidenced by Mr. D's curses and angrily crossed arms, "Would you mind explaining how you got here today?"

It took me a couple rounds of Texas Hold-'em to fully recount my day. Even though only two of my audience members were actively listening to my story (Mr.
D couldn't have looked any less interested,) it felt so weird to say everything out loud. Describing the part when I felt like I could understand the dogs was especially painful for me to say, as my special connection with animals was never something I've said out loud before, but Annabeth and Chiron's countenances didn't even waver for a second. Like they've heard crazier.