Chapter 7 Chapter 7: Dinner of the Gods

The bathroom incident was immediately spread. No matter where I went, the practitioners would point at me, whisper about toilet water, or maybe they just stared at Annabeth, because she was still soaked and embarrassed. She took me to see a few places.In the smithy, several children are forging their own swords; in the arts and crafts workshop, satyrs are sandblasting a huge marble statue of a sheep man; Walls shake violently, rocks fall, karst erupts, and if you don't get to the top fast enough, you'll get hit. Eventually we made our way back to Canoe Lake, where there was a path leading to the cabin.

"I'm going to a training session," Annabeth said in a flat tone. "Dinner time is half past seven, and then you and your students in the same room will go to the restaurant." "Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilet." "That's not what I did." She looked at me suspiciously, and that's when I realized that it was indeed me who caused the bathroom fixture to shoot water.Although I don't understand how it is done, the toilet did respond to me.In everyone's eyes, I am inseparable from the toilet. "You need to ask an oracle," Annabeth said.

"what?" "Not 'what' is the oracle. I'll ask Chiron." I stared into the lake, wishing someone could answer me straight once. But I didn't expect someone to actually look back at me from the bottom of the lake six meters deep, so when I saw two girls sitting on the dock base at the bottom of the water, my heart skipped a beat.They wore blue jeans and sparkling green T-shirts, and their long brown hair fell to their shoulders and drifted with the water, with small fish swimming in it.They smiled at me and waved to me as if I were old friends whom I hadn't seen for a long time.

I didn't know what to do, so I waved to them too. "Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned me, "the water sprites are always firing." "Water sprite." I repeated, feeling completely broken. "That's enough, I want to go home now." Annabeth frowned and said, "Percy, you haven't gotten the point yet, have you? You're at home right now, and for kids like us, this is the only safe place on earth." "You mean deranged children?" "I'm not talking about human children. It should be said that they are not entirely human children, but hybrids."

"Usually human, what about the other half?" "I think you know." I hate to admit it, but I'm afraid I have to nod.I felt a tremor in my extremities, which sometimes happens when Mom mentions Dad. "God," I said, "half god, half-blood god." Annabeth nodded. "Percy, your father is not dead, he is one of the gods of Olympus." "This... is crazy." "Is it crazy? Think about what the gods in mythology do most often. They go to the mortal world and fall in love with humans, and then give birth to children. Do you think they will change this habit in the last few thousand years?"

"But that's just..." I almost said the word "myth", when I remembered Chiron's warning, he said that people in two thousand years may also regard me as a myth. "But if all the children in it are half-breed gods..." "Demigod," said Annabeth. "That's the official term, or half-breed." "Then who is your father?" Her hand was gripping the railing of the pier. My question must have stepped on a landmine. "My dad was a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very young. He taught American history."

"He's human." "Please, do you think it must be the male god who went to find an attractive woman? You discriminate against women at all!" "Then who is your mother?" "Cabin Six." "Who is it?" Annabeth said directly: "Athena, the god of wisdom and fighting skills." Well, I thought, why not? "Then my father is?" "Not sure," Annabeth said. "Like I told you before." "Except for my mother, she knows." "Percy, maybe she doesn't know either. The gods don't reveal themselves very often."

"My dad will, he loves my mom." Annabeth's expression was wary, he didn't want to disillusion me. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll leave a mark. That's the only way to identify you. Your dad has to leave a mark for you, proclaiming that you're his son. Sometimes it does." "But sometimes not?" Annabeth's hand gripping the railing began to turn back and forth. "The Celestials are busy, and they have a lot of kids, so not every... well... sometimes they don't care about us. Percy, they don't care about us." I think of the kids in the Hermes cabin, the sullen teenagers waiting for a phone call that never came.I've known kids like this at Yancy School too, rich parents pushing them to boarding school because they're too busy to care about them.However, the gods should behave better.

"So, I'm stuck here." I said, "Is that all? Am I going to be here for the rest of my life?" "Not necessarily." Annabeth said: "Some people only stay here for summer vacation. If you are a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you may not have fighting power, so the monster may let you go. In this case, you It is possible to receive only a few months of summer training here, and to live in the mortal world for the rest of the time. However, some of us are so dangerous to leave here, so we live here all year. In the mortal world, we will Attracts monsters who can sense us and challenge us. Many times they don't show up until we're old enough to cause trouble, around the age of ten or eleven. After this age, most semihumans The demigods either came here or were killed, and only a few survived in the outside world and became famous. Believe me, if I say their names, you will know who they are. Some of them Not even knowing that you're half-human, half-god, but that's very, very rare."

"Monsters can't come in here?" Annabeth shook her head. "No, unless they were put into the forest on purpose, or called in by the camp." "Why would anyone want to summon a monster?" "Practice fighting, or prank." "mischief?" "The point is, the dividing line separates mortals and monsters. From the outside, mortals will only see the valley, and will not find any unusual sights. They will only see a strawberry field." "So...you are the one who lives here all year?" Annabeth nodded, and she pulled a leather necklace from the neckline of her T-shirt. It had five beads of different colors on it, very similar to Luke's necklace, but Annabeth's also had a large gold ring on it, which looked like Luke's necklace. College commemorative ring.

"I've been here since I was seven years old," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer classes, I get a bead that represents an extra year of my life. I've been here longer than most of the instructors. Before long, they have all gone to college." "Why are you here at such a young age?" She rubbed the rings on the necklace, "It's none of your business." "Oh." In the awkward silence, I stood there for about a minute. "So... I can get out of here right away, too, if I want to, can I?" "That's an act of suicide, but if Mr.D or Chiron allows it. Then again, they won't allow it until the end of the summer course, unless..." "unless?" "Unless you are assigned to find a mission, but this is rare, the last time..." Her voice trailed off, and from the tone of her tone, I knew things must have been bad the last time. "By the way, in the ward," I said, "when you fed me that or something..." "That's god food." "Well, you asked about the summer solstice at that time." Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "Do you really know anything?" "Um... no, I overheard Grover and Chiron talk about this back when I was at that school. Grover talked about the summer solstice, and said we're running out of time, deadlines are approaching. What the hell does that mean? " She clenched her fist and said, "I want to know too. Chiron and satyr know, but they don't tell me. Olympus is in trouble, and it's serious. But last time I was there, it seemed It's all normal." "Have you been to Olympus?" "Those of us who live year-round, like Luke, Cressa, me, and a few others, teach off-campus there during the winter solstice, which is also when the gods hold their annual meeting." "But...how are you going?" "Take the Long Island Rail Road, of course, get off at Penn Station, then take the special elevator to the Empire State Building to the 600th floor." She looked at me like she was sure I already knew. "Are you really a New Yorker?" "Oh, of course." As far as I know, the Empire State Building has only one hundred and two floors, but I decided not to say it. "Just after we went to visit," continued Annabeth, "the weather became very strange, as if the gods started fighting. From that time to now, I overheard the conversation twice that the satyr said, All I can decipher is that something important has been stolen, and if it's not returned before the summer solstice there will be trouble. When you came I was hoping... I mean, Athena and Anyone can get along, but she was competing with Poseidon too. But I mean, all that aside, I think we can work together, so I guess you know something." I shook my head, hoping to help her, but I was really hungry, tired, and mentally overwhelmed, and I couldn't ask any more questions. "I've got to get the quest," Annabeth murmured. "I'm old enough to join them and tell me the problem..." I asked about the smell of barbecue nearby. Annabeth must have heard my stomach rumbling. She told me to keep going and come back to me later.I left her alone on the pier, her fingers pointing to the other side of the railing, as if planning a battle plan. Back at Cabin Eleven, everyone is talking, booing, and waiting for dinner time.This is the first time I have noticed that many students have similar facial features: pointed noses, raised eyebrows, and mischievous smiles. They are the kind of children who will be firmly labeled as problem students by the teacher.Thank goodness I didn't attract much attention when I reached my bed on the floor and slammed the Minotaur's horn on the floor. The instructor Luke came over. He also had the appearance of the Hermes family. Although the scar on the right cheek affected his appearance, his smile was still perfect. "I found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And this, I stole some toiletries for you from the camp store." I couldn't tell if he was joking when he said he stole. I said, "Thank you." "You're welcome." Luke sat next to me, with his back against the wall. "The first day was tough, wasn't it?" "I don't belong here," I said, "I don't even believe in gods." "Well," he said, "that's how we all started out, but once you start trusting them, it doesn't get any easier." I was surprised by the bitterness in his voice, because Luke seemed like an easygoing guy who could handle anything. "Then your father is Hermes?" I asked. He pulled a switchblade from his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he was just scraping the mud off his sandals. "Yes, Hermes." "A messenger with wings on his feet." "It's him, the messenger, the doctor, the traveler, the merchant, the thief, in fact, everyone who uses the road. That's why you stay here. Enjoy the hospitality and hospitality of Cabin Eleven. No one is picky." I understand that it's not that Luke doesn't take me seriously, it's just that there are too many things on his mind. "Have you seen your dad?" I asked. "I saw it once." I waited to see if he would tell me, and obviously he didn't want to.I guess the story has something to do with the scar on his face. Luke looked up and forced a smile. "Don't worry, Percy. Most of the students here are good people. After all, we are a big family and we all take care of each other." He seemed to understand my sense of loss, and I appreciated him even though he was my mentor.A senior like him, who is older than me, can know me as a young boy with a superior attitude, but Luke welcomes me to join the cabin and steals toiletries for me.All day long, he is the best thing for me. I decided to ask him one last big question that had been bugging me all afternoon. "Cressa over at Ares laughed at me as 'Three Great Gods' material. Then Annabeth said twice...she said I might be 'the one' and that I should ask an oracle. These What exactly do the words mean?" Luke folded his knife and said, "I hate the language of the oracle." "what do you mean?" The muscles around the scar on his face twitched. "All I can say is that I screwed up everyone. The Chiron hasn't assigned me a new search mission for the past two years, only since my disappointing trip to the Hesperides Orchard. Annabeth is very Wanting to go outside to the mortal world, she pestered Chiron, and finally Chiron told her that he knew her fate from the oracle. He didn't tell the whole thing, but he said that Annabeth was destined not to participate in the search mission, She had to wait until...someone special came to the camp." "Someone in particular?" "Don't worry about that," Luke said. "Annabeth thinks of every new cadet as the prophecy she's been waiting for. Now go, it's dinnertime." While he was speaking, a horn sounded in the distance. For some reason, although I had never heard such a sound, I knew it was a conch. Luke yelled, "Number Eleven, get in line!" There were about twenty of us in this hut, marching in single file to the dining room.We're sorted by seniority, so of course I'm last.The students from the other huts also came out, except for the three at the end and the No. 8 hut.The No. 8 cabin, which looked ordinary during the day, actually began to shine with silver light after the sun went down. We walked up the hill to the pavilion restaurant.Satyrs came to join us from the meadows, and water sprites emerged from the canoe lake.Several girls emerge from the woods, and by emergence I mean "straight" out of the trees.I saw a girl of about nine or ten years old, slowly emerging from the maple tree, and hopping up the hill again. There are about a hundred students here, dozens of satyrs, a dozen forest elves and water elves. Torches were lit around the pavilion's marble columns, and a flame blazed in the center of the bathtub-sized bronze stove.Each cabin has its own table, covered with a purple-trimmed white tablecloth.Four tables were vacant, but ours was packed.I squeezed a small seat at one end of the bench, but the other half of my ass was still hanging out of the chair. I saw Grover sitting at table 12, with Mr.D, several satyrs, and two chubby blond boys who looked very similar to Mr.D. Chiron stood by, because the picnic was too small for a centaur. Annabeth sat at table six with a group of stern-looking, athletic kids, all of whom looked at her with gray eyes and blond hair. Cressa sits behind me at Ares's table.She's clearly overcome with being pummeled by the jet of water as she laughs and hiccups at her friend. Finally, Chiron's hooves stomped heavily on the marble floor of the gazebo, and the sound of hooves made everyone present fall silent.He held up the glass and was told, "Worship God!" Everyone raised their glasses and said, "Worship God!" The forest elf walked forward, holding a large plate of food in his hand: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and this one, barbecue!My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Go ahead, you can have anything you want, except wine." I said, "Cherry Coca-Cola." The glass is filled with a caramel-colored sparkling drink. Then I thought of a note. "Blue Cherry Coca-Cola." The soda turns a deep blue. I took a careful sip and it was perfect. This is a toast to my mom. I told myself she wasn't leaving.This is not forever, she is only in the underworld now, if that is a real place, one day... "Percy, this is yours," Luke said.He handed me a plate of smoked chicken. I took the plate and was opening my mouth to bite off the food when I saw everyone standing up, picking up their plates and walking towards the fire in the middle of the gazebo, where I thought they were going to get a snack. "Come on," Luke told me. As I got closer, I saw everyone throw part of their plate onto the fire, the ripest and sweetest strawberries, the juiciest steak, the warm brioche. Luke whispered in my ear: "This is an offering to the gods, they like the taste." "You are joking." His eyes warned me not to be contemptuous, but I couldn't help but wonder why immortal gods, beings of omnipotent power, would like the smell of burning food. Luke approached the flame, bowed, threw a bunch of huge red grapes into it and said, "Hermes." I am next. Wish I knew which god's name to say. Finally, I made a silent plea: Whoever you are, please tell me. I threw a large piece of smoked chicken onto the fire. When I smelled a little bit of smoke, I opened my mouth wide and couldn't close it. It smelled nothing like burning food, but hot chocolate, freshly baked brownies, fire-grilled burgers, wildflowers, and a hundred other wonderful smells.It is impossible for these flavors to blend together perfectly, but the fact is that I almost believe that the gods will not be able to live without this smoke. After everyone had returned to their seats and finished their meal, Chiron stomped his hooves again, calling for everyone's attention. Mr. D sighed loudly and got up and said: "Okay, I think I'd better say hello to you little devils, um, hello everyone. Our event host Chiron said that the next capture the flag contest will be on Friday, The leader right now is Cabin Five." A nasty cheer came from Ares' table. "Personally," Mr. D continued, "I don't care at all, but I still congratulate you. Also, I should tell you that we have a new student joining us today, Peter Johnson." Chiron whispered something. "Uh, Percy Jackson." Mr.D corrected, "Yes, yes, that's it, now hurry to your stupid campfire party venue." Everyone cheered together, and then walked to the amphitheater.The trainees of Apollo Cabin led everyone to sing there. We sang camp songs related to the gods, ate roasted marshmallow sandwich cookies, talked and laughed.The funniest part is that I no longer feel like everyone is staring at me, I feel like I am home. It was late at night, the flames of the campfire were drawn into the night sky and turned into little stars, and the conch horn sounded again, so we lined up and went back to the hut.I didn't know I was really exhausted until I collapsed onto my borrowed sleeping bag. I wrap my fingers around the Minotaur's horns and think of my mother, filled with fond memories: her smile, bedtime storytime as a child, and how she taught me not to get bitten by bed bugs. As soon as I close my eyes, I immediately fall asleep. This is my first day at Camp Half Blood. I wish I had realized by this point how short the time I enjoy in my new home can be.