Chapter 57: Demigods Lesson 101.
"That's . . . crazy."
"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you both think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"
"But those are just------" my little brother almost said myths again. "But if all kids here are half-gods------"
"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term.
Or half-bloods."
"Then who's your dad?"
Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling my little brother Percy just trespassed on a sensitive subject.
"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."
"He's human."
"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"
"Who's your mom, then?"
"Cabin six."
"Meaning?"
Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."
Okay, we thought. Why not?
"And our dad?"
"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you both before. Nobody knows."
"Except our mother. She knew."
"Maybe not, Percy. James. Gods don't always reveal their identities."
"Our dad would have. He loved her."
Annabeth gave us a cautious look. She didn't want to burst our bubbles. "Maybe you're both right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you both a sign claiming both of you as his sons. Sometimes it happens."
"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"
Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always . . . Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. James. They ignore us."
We thought about some of the kids we'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. We'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.
"So We're stuck here," we said. "That's it? For the rest of our life?"
"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're children of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're both probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you guys, so you both can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters.
They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble -------about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off.
A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd both know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."
Chapter 58: Monsters
"So monsters can't get in here?"
Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."
"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"
"Practice fights. Practical jokes."
"Practical jokes?"
"The point is, the boarders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."
"So . . . you're a year-rounder?"
Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.
"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."
"So . . . We could just walk out of here right now if we wanted to?"
"It would be suicide, but you guys could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless you guys were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time . . ."
Her voice trailed off. We could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.
Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by the summer solstice, there's going to be trouble.
We shook our heads. We wished we could help her, but we felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.
"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem . . ."