Nyctophilia

6| I BECOME THE SUPREME LORD OF THE BATHROOM (Pt. 2)

"Come along, you two," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told us the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" celeste asked Chiron.

"I mean....He was a good protector really" I added

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that though!" Celeste exclaimed frustratedly

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill.

I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If we hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."

"How old is he?" Celeste asked curiously

"Oh he's twenty-eight"

"What! And he's in sixth grade?" I exclaimed

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

The people around looked shocked, some of the demi-gods too no one could imagine being in school for that long

"That's horrible" Celeste said in a small voice

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career... ."

"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

At the mention of his first chance, Grover looked down sadly. Thalia, who was looking at Grover just in case, immediately noticed that he was still blaming himself.

"It wasn't your fault ,G. You brought Thalia, Annie and him safely to camp. It wasn't your fault that thalia decided to play hero " Celeste said trying to console him.

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Celeste nudged me to drop the subject, noticing that Chiron wasn't quite happy to discuss what happened. So instead I asked something that had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.

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So wassup?

i recently got my laptop back and was abke to write so here :)

should i double update?

if i do then i won't update for another idk 5 yrs maybe

just kidding

or am i? i guess you'll never know