Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Chapter Five
I Place An Underwater Phone Call
21
21
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. Co me on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoe, have you met—"
"I know Chiron," Zoe said stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."
"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.
"We know the way."
"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't"—he tripped over a canoe
and came up still talking—"like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"
Zoe rolled her eyes, but I guess she figured there was no getting rid of Grover. The Hunters
shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca di Angelo was
leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brothers ear. She looked at him for an
answer, but Nico just scowled and turned away.
"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at me. "Watch out for
those prophecies, Percy. I'll see you soon."
"What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, he hopped back in the bus. "Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be
good!"
He gave her a wicked smile, as if he knew something she didn't. Then he closed the doors
and revved the engine. I turned aside as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. When I looked
back, the lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing
higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.
Nico was still looking grumpy. I wondered what his sister had told him.
"Who's Chiron?" he asked. "I don't have his figurine."
"Our activities director," I said. "He's… well, you'll see.
"If those Hunter girls don't like him," Nico grumbled, "that's good enough for me. Let's go."
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. Even my old rival from the Ares cabin, 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.