Some Candy, A Dream, and a...Frog?​

The rest of that night for Liam would be just as eventful as its beginning, that is to say very much so.

Inside the main hall of the Big House stood both Liam and Sam with one looking on in fear at what was in front of them. Across from the hall two pairs of eyes were watching the boys one of them filled with relief while the other pair were nothing but apathetic.

The first to make a move, surprising no one, was the Camp Director. Already irritable and angry from his missed sleep Mr. D threw up his hands into the air and exclaimed, "Get over here! I don't have all night and I swear to all things holy that if I'm not out of this room by sun up someone's gonna pay!"

Much like the satyr from before Sam quickly complied with the man's demands while Liam continued to stand there and stare at what was in front of him, although he wasn't worried about the recovering alcoholic.

His eyes were glued to Chiron, or more specifically his lower body. Much quicker than before Liam shook himself from his shock before heading into the room behind Sam.

The room itself looked about what you could expect from some country club's poker room. It was almost completely barren besides a giant table in the middle with a row of six chairs on either side of it. As Liam looked around more he noticed another door leading further into the building on the other side of the room.

Just as Sam and Liam got themselves situated, i.e. awkwardly standing once again in front of a glowering short-stack of a man, Chiron deemed it high time to join in the conversation. With a short cough to announce himself the Centaur commented, "Well it seems that you've made it here-" He stopped to take a glance at Liam's wounded shoulder before continuing "-relatively safe."

"Yes, yes and I'm thrilled to see another camper join..." sarcastically called out Mr. D after Chiron.

The Camp Director's eyes narrowed as he looked at Liam continue to take glances at Chiron and not respond to anything he said. Opening his mouth once again, the portly man asked: "Tell me, boy are you daft?"

Finally being drawn out of his reverie Liam looked at the man with a slightly annoyed expression on his face and said, "No, I'm no-"

Mr. D interrupted him quickly uttering "Rhetorical question."

Who does this guy think he is? Growled Liam in his mind feeling a little bit of anger start to froth in his chest.

Meanwhile, the other two people in the room had very different reactions. The first, Sam, still had a diminutive look on him. His back was slumped slightly while he refused to make eye contact with the man. He's heard the horror stories about those who don't.

The second, Chiron, had the same disapproving look on his face. However, it wasn't really a look of anger; it was more along the lines of the look a teacher gives to a student he's disappointed in. It's not truly harmful, but it hurts all the same.

The Centaur's face shifted as he looked away from Mr. D to a genuinely happy grin. Looking over at the Satyr in disguise Chiron congratulated, "You're one step closer to your dream, Samuel."

A grimace came onto Sam's face at his full name; he replied by saying, "I thought I asked you not to call me that?"

"Why not? It is your name." questioned the Centaur before turning to the other guest in the room.

The Satyr opened his mouth before quickly closing it. It wouldn't do him much good in the long run. For some reason Sam couldn't even begin to fathom, Chiron always referred to him by his full name. To Sam, it was infuriating.

"I don't believe we've truly met. My name is Chiron, but I believe the introductions can wait until we get you taken care of." greeted the Centaur as he strode up to Liam looking at his wounded shoulder and the large scab on his cheek.

It only took Liam a second to respond as his eyes moved away from the hateful Camp Director in front of him to what he could only describe as the horseman in front of him. Slowly Liam introduced himself, "L-Liam...my name's Liam."

"Well it's nice to meet you," responded Chiron before turning to Mr. D and giving him a curt nod. As his head dipped down the man quickly stood up from his chair before muttering, "Finally, nice meeting ya stupid. Come and tell me when you get into cabin six." and walking towards the door.

The slow-burning heat in Liam's chest seemed to swell as he silently seethed, That's it!

"Do you think you're funny?" asked Liam in a noticeably bitter voice.

The Camp Director didn't even stop walking as he quipped, "If I was looking for advice on how to make a joke I'd ask your parents."

Right then and there Liam decided that he hated the man. For Liam at least, the scruffy-looking man reminded him a little too much of a certain someone from his school life.

Chiron gave a few seconds to fully let Mr. D get out of earshot before revealing more about the man.

"Please don't antagonize him. I don't want another...incident. Ever since he was forced to come here Mr. D has been fairly, ah...irritable." counseled the Centaur before motioning for the two to follow him.

Chiron walked over to a nearby door before pulling it open to reveal what looked like a makeshift hospital. Lining both sides of what seemed to be a repurposed hallway was rows upon rows of beds that had plastic curtains separating them. Each bed had some basic medical supplies including a mix of bandages, scissors, a suture needle, and other assorted medical supplies next to them on top of their individual nightstands.

Chiron was the first to walk inside the med-bay followed by Sam and finally Liam. Surprising Liam, he didn't go for any of the obviously well-stocked supplies next to the beds. The Centaur walked down towards the end of the room and up to something that Liam didn't notice when they walked in.

Near the back edge of the room was a locked metal cabinet that was leaned precariously up against the Big House's wooden walls. A chemical locker...or something. Thought Liam as Chiron reached into one of the pockets on his suit pulling out a small key.

Slowly the old iron key was pushed into the corresponding hole on the front of the cabinet before and audible click was heard. Quickly putting the key back in the same pocket Chiron pulled open the cabinet's metal doors.

What was inside definitely corresponded with Liam's 'or something.'

Inside the cabinet, there were two distinct shelves labeled 'Nectar' and 'Ambrosia' with each having more corresponding shelves below the two.

The shelf containing the nectar had what Liam thought to be some type of drink. Lining all of those shelves where large gallon jugs with a childish cartoon of a smiling man with bright golden hair giving a thumbs up and the words 'Apollo Approved!' across the bottom in big bold letters.

The ambrosia, on the other hand, was much more succinct.

There were layers upon layers of what looked like wrapped up chocolate bars in small packs of four squares. The candy looked almost like the caramel-filled Valentine's candy Liam's father would bring home every year for Olivia.

Chiron seemed to eye one of the opened gallons before cursing, "Stolls, again." and grabbing a bar of Ambrosia instead. Meanwhile, Liam stood behind him trying to make sense of why a makeshift hospital would have candy.

To make the patients happy? Thought Liam still trying to rationalize the stuff.

In front of him, Chiron unwrapped the confectionery before throwing away the extra plastic in a nearby trashcan. Breaking the candy in half the Centaur handed two squares to Liam before looking at him with and expecting look on his face.

It took a second of staring at Liam's confused look before Chiron noticed his mistake.

Letting off a baritone laugh the Centaur joked, "Ah, I forgot. You're new here; I guess I'm getting old."

Sam let off a seemingly tired laugh at a joke Liam didn't just seem to get before Chiron explained, "This is Ambrosia; the food of the gods. It has an...ability to rapidly accelerate the healing process. Eat it; Ambrosia tastes great, I promise."

A little apprehensive at the description Liam looked down at the two squares in his hand before breaking one off and popping into his mouth. Almost immediately, Liam felt an eerily familiar taste burst onto his tongue. (1)

An almost scared look came into Liam's eyes as he glanced at the Centaur in front of him thinking C-Crap do they know?!

One might be thinking that was a quick turn of events yet for Liam it wasn't. The tantalizing taste that seemed to grip his entire tongue with an iron hand was one he savored not but a few hours ago. Slowly the blinding heat lessened as the same addictive sweetness from before followed it.

Almost immediately, Liam could feel the stinging pain in his shoulder lessen as the injuries his supernatural healing abilities couldn't fix seemed to disappear. On his cheek, Liam felt a small prickling sensation before the blackened scab on his cheek fell to the ground.

Chiron gave a goodhearted laugh at his reaction before telling him what he left out of his explanation.

"Taste good did it? They've always said that Ambrosia tasted like the best food you've ever had. What's yours if you don't mind me asking?" stated the Centaur as he began locking the cabinet back up.

Liam looked away before thinking up a believable lie. "It...uh tastes like my mother's cooking. She always made really good chili," replied Liam with a semi-straight look on his face.

"Chili?" asked the Activities Director pushing the cabinet back into place with a final click.

Oh, come on Liam Chili? You can do better than that! Thought Liam quickly imagining a way to keep up the charade.

Liam tried his best to keep eye contact with Chiron while reassuring, "Ya, she said she got the recipe from when we traveled down South. Damn if it wasn't spicy though."

"Language." chided Chiron before he began to walk back towards the hospital's main door.

Following just behind him was Sam, looking increasingly beat despite his quick nap on the way there. Rubbing his eyes the Satyr asked, "Do you want me to take him to Cabin Eleven for the night?"

The Centaur absentmindedly messed with his beard before telling Sam, "No, lights out was called a few hours ago. He can stay here for the night."

Sam gave him a short nod before turning back towards Liam and saying, "Well I'm beat...I'm gonna go get out of these stuffy clothes and sleep until it's dark again. See ya later Liam."

After taking one more look at his half-dead state Liam decided to let him off easy and waved him off. Sam hurriedly walked out of the room and back towards the Big House's main entrance wobbling all the way. Liam was still too curious to try and fall asleep.

"Will you tell me, what in the nine hells is going on now? Or is this all just some weird fever dream? Because I'm really leaning towards-" interrupting Liam's rant Chiron answered him in a sympathetic tone saying, "In time my boy, tomorrow morning I'll send someone to wake you. Normally, we have an orientation video all the newcomers get to watch, but I feel you'd appreciate a more personal approach."

Why is it that whenever I ask a simple question everyone turns into a philosopher? Thought Liam.

Liam gave one last pleading look at the Centaur before finally deciding to give up for now. Turning back towards one of the many empty beds, Liam leaned down into one quietly muttering "Fine."

Chiron walked through the Medical Bay's main door quiet closing it behind him, leaving Liam alone with his thoughts.

-Inside Liam's Dreams-​

Sleep couldn't come for Liam soon enough. He ended up sitting there in his rickety hospital bed tossing and turning about while trying to sleep all the while thoughts of his mother and father tormented him. Over and over again a still image of his mother's horrified face was brought to the forefront of his mind just before sleep could take him.

When the boy finally was able to lose consciousness things still weren't as blissful as they seemed.

Despite what he hoped, Liam only ended up trading his thoughts for nightmares. He dreamt of a cave, of blinding holy light, of bloody altars with bodies hanged across them, and the boy dreamt of a mace.

The dream started like all of the others, innocent enough at first. He was in some kind of dark cave with echoing noises coming from the darkness and then the light came.

And with it came pain. Horrendous, unthinkable pain.

It was like Liam was staring into the sun, no not even that would hurt him so. The blasted light seemed to grow brighter and brighter, burning him even more, before suddenly it all stopped. With nothing so much as a sound, the bright light vanished leaving him alone.

Liam tried to move, but his body wouldn't listen. It was like something was holding him down. Slowly his eyes looked down to see what was binding him.

Looking down he saw a sword going through his stomach with the same infernal light from before coursing from its blade. Slowly his vision started to fade, leaving him with a ghostly image of that damn sword.

When his vision finally came back, he was once again in that damp and darkened cave. However this time, he was free.

Without any real input of his own, his body shot up from the cold hard ground and began to trudge through the damp undergrowth. It only took him a few seconds to reach his destination.

Out in front of him in a line was a series of what seemed to be altars. They were large things made up of wrought iron and cut stone built into the perfect likeness of a creature quite familiar to the boy. Each of these altars seemed to have a basin in the middle of them with a bowl that was filled with a tantalizing liquid.

Liam's head looked up his own will be damned to see what was filling them. Draped from the ceiling with reckless abandon were bodies. Each altar had a corresponding corpse raised high into the air from chains that seemed to fade away into the darkness above.

Dripping from their necks was the same ruby red from below that seemed to make Liam's mouth water.

Once again Liam's body jerked itself forward approaching one of the many altars within the cave. He could smell it now, the sickeningly sweet scent; hell he could almost taste it. With deliberate slowness, his body leaned down towards the altar in front of him.

He was salivating now. The boy could feel it in his veins the want, no the need to have a taste. Unfortunately for him, his body wouldn't let him as it left the altar choosing instead to head further in the room.

Up ahead stood another shrine much like the others in the cave. On the ground surrounding it, the altar had what looked like small steps and a few holes drilled into the stone below. What was most interesting though was what was in the shrine.

Just like all the others, it was made in the terrifying likeness of some horrid beast while above, seemingly floating in mid-air, was a rusted mace. Attentively, Liam's hand reached out to grab the handle; a smile came over his face as an eerily familiar grip met his palm.

Bringing the mace from the altar's invisible hold Liam felt the bonds forcing him to act suddenly snap as he was once again in control of his body. The boy's arm dropped down and with it came the rusty mace, both falling towards the blackened rock below.

From the darkness, a voice growled It could be yours...

-Within the Big House's Medical Bay-​

Meanwhile inside the Big House's medical bay was one other person. His name was Fletcher, the brother of one Michael Yew. Like his brother, he was fairly short standing at a total of four foot seven, but unlike his brother, he had a mean streak a mile wide. (2)

If you were being nice you could call it having an attitude, but most would just refer to it as him generally being an asshole.

Now imagine what someone of that persuasion would do when he was woken up at the ass crack of dawn only to be told he has to escort someone from the infirmary all the way to the Mess Hall. Suffice to say he was already a little ticked off.

Now add, on top of all that, the certain someone he was supposed to bring all the way across camp was refusing to wake up even after Fletcher had started yelling at the top of his lungs. Looking down at the kid still soundly asleep in the cot Fletcher put both of his hands at the kid's sides before yelling out, "I said...WAKE UP!" and pushing him off the side.

Almost immediately, a disgruntled Liam felt something hard and cold on his front as his eyes snapped open to show him face-first with the wooden floor. The only other notable feeling was the burn in the back of his throat. Giving out a low groan the boy slowly pushed himself up as the teenager behind him stomped about.

"Come on kid, I got places to be and if I'm late your ass is grass!" growled Fletcher as he roughly pulled the kid to his feet by his shirt.

Liam stumbled forward as Fletcher's hand let go of him. The golden-haired boy starting walking towards the door ignoring Liam's obvious distress. Liam still a little out of it from before followed after him without complaint.

As the two exited the big house into the morning sun Liam asked, "Where are we going?"

Fletcher kept up his pace and explained, "You're going to the mess hall, and then I'm going back to bed." putting stress on the You're and the word I'm.

Liam gave it little thought as he looked at his surroundings. Up in front of them were what looked like a ring of twelve different cabins, with each one having a more ridiculous design than the last. Slowly Liam's eyes drifted by them before looking at the red-painted one closest to him.

"...Are those landmines?" muttered Liam looking at the red metal buttons sticking up through the dirt.

Fletcher didn't answer him.

After a few more minutes of walking the cabins shifted behind them as what looked to be the Mess Hall came into Liam's vision. The place looked like something you'd see out of ancient Greece. It had large cut out marble pillars with a flat roof above it, while inside the place were twelve long tables with one extra turned sideways.

Standing by himself with the same suit top and white fur was the Activities Director Chiron with a smile on his face. Fletcher seeing the Centaur's beaming smile almost immediately settled his own mouth into a scowl as he quietly mumbled, "Great, we got another fucking celebrity." before motioning Liam forward.

Chiron's smile slowly went back into a semi-neutral position as he thanked Fletcher before quickly dismissing him. The not so happy camper gave Chiron a small look before heading back towards the cabins. From where Liam stood he could see the teenager walk inside one that seemed like it was trying to outshine the sun.

Liam's head turned back towards Chiron as the Centaur asked, "So tell me, did you sleep well?"

A small grimace flashed onto Liam's face before Chiron quickly changed the subject by saying, "Oh never mind then. Shall we?"

At the end of his sentence, the Activities Director started a slow walk out towards the edge of the Mess Hall motioning for Liam to follow after him. Liam complied.

"As I'm sure you've already guessed this place isn't for most mere mortals." Commented Chiron as the two headed back towards the cabins.

Mortals? Thought Liam before joking, "On account of the solid gold cabin or maybe the horseman as a counselor?"

Chiron's eyes seemed to pop as the word 'horse' left Liam's mouth before he exclaimed, "I'm not a horse! Don't you know any Greek history?"

Liam's silent stare was all that answered him.

The Centaur ruffled his hair before quietly whispering, "I should have just gone with the orientation video..."

"Dear boy, I am a Centaur," explained Chiron keeping up his rather slow walk with Liam just a few feet behind.

"So Liam...by chance do you know any of the Greek myths?" asked the Centaur as he started to regret his decision more and more.

Liam put a finger up to his chin before apprehensively clarifying, "You mean Zeus and all them right? The old Disney cartoon with uh...what's his name...Hercules?"

"Heracles." corrected Chiron before stopping his clopping footsteps.

Turning around the Camp Director looked back towards Liam before asking, "I thought Sam said you were in your school's Introduction to Mythology?"

Liam gave him a weird look before explaining, "We don't really cover that type of stuff...till the second semester I think. What did Mr. Karnes say again? Something along the lines of it not being that important. He was more worried about some pantheon a Tumblr blog made up."

"Not being important!" cried the Centaur with an indignant look on his face.

"Why it's the most important subject you could take!" he continued with the same anger present on his usually chilled facial features.

Liam gave him another sideways glance as he continued to growl something in another language before finally spelling out what he's been trying to say all along.

"Of all utterly useless...I guess what worked with Percy just won't work with you, eh? Oh, no matter. As I've run out of creative ideas for this morning I'll just come out and say it. The Greek myths they're real...all of them are, in one way or another."

A little disbelieving Liam began, "But that's not...they're just myths."

Down below him a little vine sneakily snaked around his left shoe before pulling down, hard. Liam reflexively pulled his foot backward bringing a long grapevine with it. He looked down at the offending plant before saying, "What the hell?"

"I assume our local 'myth' doesn't like to be referred to as such," commented Chiron with an amused smile.

Liam gave a quick look at the vine before leaning down and silently ripping the thick thing from his foot upturning some of the nearby earth. Straightening himself back out Liam questioned, "Say I believe you, what then?"

"Well, then you'd be welcomed to stay. Camp Half-blood is open to any demi-gods; it's a safe haven to all." replied the Centaur leaving Liam to stew in his thoughts.

At first, Liam was inclined to believe him, why not? Time and time again the boy's life long views were turned overhead only for him to learn some new 'truth.' He could do it, Liam would finally have a place to stay again, and maybe even a place to call home.

I'd get to see Sam every day too! Thought Liam as a smile started to appear on his lips. Slowly the boy began to form a response in his head before a burning reminder in the back of his throat warned him of what truly staying here could mean.

Nervously Liam let out a short cough at the irritation in the back of his throat. Ultimately that didn't help any as the aggravating feeling persisted gnawing at the flesh in his esophagus. Slowly pushing itself to the forefront of his mind was the latent memory of the Vice Principal of his school calling him that word.

Demon.

Monster.

Vampire.

They all had the same negative connotation. Suddenly, Liam took in a deep breath of air trying his best to summon any will power he had. The burning sensation started to fade as he let out the deep breath from his nostrils. Determined Liam swore I'll prove her wrong.

Abruptly, Liam broke the silence declaring, "I'll do it."

Chiron looked over to the boy giving him an encouraging look before asking, "Do what?"

"I'll do it. I'll stay at the camp, fight monsters, and whatever the hell else. Gods be damned." responded Liam with an almost defiant look in his eye. As the last three words left his mouth a single stroke of thunder echoed ominously throughout the camp's snow-less landscape.

"Well then, welcome to the family lad!" congratulated Chiron before clapping Liam on his right shoulder with that same beaming smile.

Chiron gave a look at the still-rising sun before commenting, "I'd best get you to your cabin mates then."

-Outside the Camp's Borders-

Just outside the camp's main boundary lines stood once such beast Liam declared he would fight. Not that the horse-headed creature would understand that oath. It was more worried about something all creatures on this planet need to survive.

Food.

The beast's head was black-skinned and most would see it as equestrian in nature. From its mouth jutted long overgrown tusks that seemed like they would be used as weapons while it hunted. Lowered down from its head the monstrous creature drastically changed.

The elephant-sized creature's lower body almost looked amphibious in nature with green mucus-covered skin that would make it at home within some large body of water, and if you were to assume so, you'd be right.

That's how it hunted its prey after all, back in the sand-filled wastes of Macedonia.

It could remember the great river from within it hid waiting for its next hunt. All it would take is a single charge to gore most things to death, with the two-legged creature's tasting the best. As the beast lumbered around pushing haphazardly upon the camp's borders its mind came back to how it arrived here.

The creature let out a low rumbling roar at the thought.

Oh, how it could remember. During the night it had seen the telltale sign of the two-legged creature's, a bright light and the smell of cooked flesh. It approached and then after being quickly spotted by that man the beast was surrounded.

Man-kin speared it from afar while the man himself approached with a sharp metal stick ready to rend its hide from its flesh. Over and over again the beast gave out cries trying to scare them off to no avail. Slowly it felt its body go slack before collapsing onto the cold river sands below.

Then after what felt like years to the beast it awoke once more reformed and ready to hunt again out in the middle of a forest. After wandering the empty forests for days it finally came upon something of interest. More man-kin behind some invisible wall.

For weeks the beast hunted and stalked to no avail as it couldn't reach inside the borders of the camp, but then it saw two new two-legged morsels enter the camp. Surprising the beast, the second one got caught just like itself. Then the two-legged seemed to struggle for a bit before finally ripping through sending out tears into the sky. Blowing out a snort of air through its horse-like nose the monster approached the large pine. (3)

Tentatively it brought one of its clawed feet forwards onto where it saw the man-kin rip the sky. Slowly, the frog skinned appendage pushed through the camp's borders with nothing to stop it. As the full creature crossed it let out another loud rumble.

It could hunt again.

Sniffing the air for any hint of moisture the beast's eyes came upon a creek in the distance. Deliberately the monster ducked in-between trees heading towards the water before crashing into the muddled substance.

It let out a sigh of relief as the wet liquid touched its lower body before quickly sinking down into the water head and all.