To The Gods

A horn blew in the distance. It was a conch shell.

Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"

The whole cabin, about twenty of them, filed into the commons yard. They lined up in order of seniority, so of course Percy was dead last. Although, his mood was sour, hearing a familiar voice lightened it up a bit.

"Hey, don't look so gloomy. I was the last one for six whole months before you!" Y/N came jogging towards him, "I'm the second-last now."

"Oh," Percy moved back to let her enter, "where were you?"

"In the arena, practicing archery."

They looked forward. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

They marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods - one girl, about nine or ten years old, melted from the side of a maple tree and came skipping up the hill.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. Percy had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half of his butt hanging off. He tried his best to make space for Y/N, who was sitting uncomfortably sandwiched between them.

"You can see why some of them in Hermes cabin didn't like it when you joined," Y/N grunted pushing the boy to his left.

"Yeah..It's too congested," Percy said, "But I guess the girl section is more comfortable. There's not many of you girls in here."

"Not really," Y/N sighed, "We have a pretty small room for ourselves."

Percy saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.

Clarisse sat behind him at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! Percy's glass was empty, and Y/N said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want-nonalcoholic, of course."

While Percy ordered a blue cherry coke in the memory of his mother, Y/N thought for a while and muttered, "Eh whatever," and spoke to the glass, "Coke." The guy beside her passed a plate to her.

"Here you go, Percy," Y/N said, handing him a platter of smoke brisket.

She loaded her own plate and then did helped Percy with the rest of it. He was about to take a big bite when he noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.

"Come on," Luke told, passing by him.

Everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.

Luke walked next to Percy and murmured in his ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."

"You're kidding."

His look warned him not to take this lightly, but he couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.

Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

Y/N nudged Percy with her elbow, telling him to follow her and went ahead next. "Apollo." She scraped some sandwiches into the flames.

Percy just wished he knew what god's name to say. Finally, he made a silent plea, "Whoever you are, tell me. Please." He scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.

It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for their attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered. They all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. They sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around. Besides, it felt great for him when no one was staring at him anymore. It finally felt like home.

"Hey! How are you feeling?" Percy snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the face in front of her. He couldn't help but smile a little. Her whole demeanor was so bright, no one could help but smile at that.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm just- I saw you sing along," he said as the girl sat beside him.

"Sorry, it's a lot to digest I guess."

"I'm sure you felt the same. I noticed you offer your food to...Apollo?"

Y/N blushed, "Oh you heard that? Yeah, I'm way too blunt about it right? There's nothing to hide to be honest."

"But...don't you feel angry? Cause I'm.." he sighed.

"Angry?" she clenched her fist, "I am a bit. But, I think he has a lot in his hands right? I mean, Annabeth says god are busy. I'm sure they are."

"Busy enough to not claim your own child?" Percy's voice sounded accusatory, like he wasn't talking about her alone.

"....I'm trying not to get used to it. That's what is keeping me going other than my own family. I mean, I don't exactly have a choice here, do I? I kind of have to do this for the safety of my family."

"So you're accepting this?"

"No, ofcourse not. I want to meet him just like everyone else in this camp. I'm not special." she fidgeted, "But, since I don't have much hope about getting a quest, I try my best in being useful...to the camp."

"Useful?" Percy wanted to shout at her and say how she's the only person who made him feel welcome in the camp, the only one who made it a bit easy for him. Loads more than everyone was with their twisted words.

"Yeah..." she smiled, "I...won't be much help when it comes to gather information about this camp or whatever's going on right now but if you need help, you can count on me. We are friends right?"

Percy felt happy. This was probably the first time, someone other than Grover who wanted to be his friend. He nodded and looked at the kids laughing and joking around, inspite of the problem stirring over their heads.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and they all filed back to their cabins.