[LUCKY] CH.6 - A Demigod

Of all the weird things that had happened Dexter, the car ride was the worst one. They swished through New York, making sudden turns and hopped when they drove over sleeping policemen and curbs. Dexter’s head threw around so hard it almost felt like it would let go from the rest of his body. The three blind old ladies in the driver’s seat yelled at each other, fighting over an eye and a tooth as if they had totally forgotten they were driving a car didn’t calm Dexter down. He groaned and tried not to vomit. His two friends, Ray and Ban, sat next to Dexter, both screaming and laughing, like they were riding a rollercoaster.

The ride seemed to go on for an eternity or two, but at last one of the ladies finally jammed on the breaks and the car stopped with a whining sound. Dexter flew forward and hit his head on the seat in front of him. He moaned and put his head in his hands, taking a few deep breaths and tried to force down the nausea.

”Camp Half-Blood!” the three ladies said together and smiled. Dexter lifted his head and dizzyingly checking out the land outside. They had stopped in the middle of nowhere. He saw a big forest on his left and a hill, with a single pine tree on the top, to the right, followed by a forest further away, but there was nothing that looked like a camp.

”But…” he started

”Now, off with you!” one of the ladies said. ”Come on, we don’t have all day!”

Not like Dexter wanted to stay with the three grandmas in the car, but what would he do in the middle of a forest? The ladies started complaining about him being too slow and they had other things to do and to avoid getting worse headache, Dexter stepped out of the car. Immediately his buttery knees collapsed under the weight of his body and he fell to the ground, moaning out of exhaust. He wanted to lie down and sleep, right where he was. His head ached, his stomach felt like it had been turned inside out and his ears ringed constantly. Ray and Ban ran up to him, asking if he was okay. The ladies roared away with the car, leaving Dexter, Ray and Ban in a big cloud of smoke.

”Wha-What now?” Ray coughed and looked around “Didn’t they say something about a camp? We are like… nowhere”

Dexter sat up. Ray was right. It was nothing that told that people even been there, except for the road. At least it had stopped raining and the sun peeked out from holes in the thick cover of clouds above them.

“That Faine-guy tricked us?” Dexter suggested “Doesn’t surprise me, he seemed like a douche”

”No, can’t you smell it?” Ban said. Dexter and Ray gave him an asking look and sniffed the air.

”I can’t smell anything” Dexter said

”I can just smell Dexter” Ray shrugged “And he smells bad”

”Hey!”

”Come on, are you nose-blind?” Ban rolled his eyes and knocked on Ray’s forehead ”Are you really sure it’s Dexter you’re smelling?”

Ray put his hands to his hips, but before he could start complaining Ban cut him off: ”Just try again, really carefully!”

Ray sighed and sniffed the air again. ”Yeah, so what? I can just smell-… Ooh” Ray widened his eyes and started breathing in air even heavier. He walked a few steps before turning towards Ban again.

”I can feel it!” he said and smiled  ”It smells like… multiplied Dexter’s!”

”What?” Dexter asked, but Ray and Ban didn’t seem like noticing him. They started running up the hill, leaving Dexter behind, who yelled after them and tried to get up on his feet.

He started slow by walking up the hill, but ended up crawling over the edge. He panted and looked up at his friends. Ban watched with awe on something down the other side and Ray stood frozen and stared at the pine tree. At first, Dexter didn’t see what he was looking at; there was nothing about the tree that was different. Then he saw a purple tube-like thing surrounding the trunk of the tree. Dexter scowled and blinked a few times, was it normal that tubes had scales? And wing-looking flaps? Not until the tube lifted his head and looked at them with big, yellow eyes Dexter could tell what it was. He screamed and jumped backwards. He tripped over his own feet and rolled down the hill. Ray squeaked and tumbled down the hill after Dexter and Ban stood on the top and looked confused.

”M-Monster!” Ray and Dexter bleated and pointed at the snake-like monster behind Ban. Ban made a chicken-like scream and ran down the hill. The snake-monster tilted its head, before shaking it and then lying down again, probably going back to sleep.

”What is happening here?” a voice spoke behind Dexter, Ray and Ban.

Dexter screamed again and spun around. He saw a bunch of kids in different ages standing around them and looked at them. Some looked confused and some shocked, but most of them smiled and tried to hold down their laughter. The voice that had spoken came from a grown up, middle aged man. He had brown hair and beard who made his way through the crowd towards Dexter and his friends. He looked nice and pretty normal, except for his legs. Waist down there was a body of an white horse, like if his body had replaced the head of the horse.

”Monster!” Dexter screamed again and tried to get up and run, but ended up lying on the ground with the mouth full of grass. Ray and Ban shrieked and ran halfway up the hill until they realized that it was another monster at the tree. With no idea of where to run, they started running around in circles. The kids laughed as Dexter crawled backwards and looked with terrified eyes at the horse-man.

The horse-man smiled, but Dexter wasn’t sure if it meant “Excuse the laughs, they don’t mean it” or “Excuse me, did you just call me monster?” and Dexter was too scared to dare asking him.

”Hush, children. It’s okay, there’s no monster here!” the horse-man said with a calm voice.
Dexter lifted a trembling finger and pointed at him “then what the heck are you?!”

”I’m Chiron. I’m a centaur and a friendly one!” the horse-man said and gave him a forced smile. “So there’s no need for calling me monster!” It was something special about his appearance, but Dexter couldn’t put his finger on what it was. His brown eyes felt old, like they were thousands of years old and had seen much more than any old man had done in a lifetime. But still, they gleamed of life and Dexter got a feel that the man was a  caring man, like a father. The man’s aura was so calm it affected the surroundings; the children quiet down, Ray and Ban stopped running around and screaming and even Dexter felt how his panic was calming down.

”C-Chiron?” Dexter asked and Chiron nodded.

”Ooh, that’s the guy Faine-dude was talking about!” Ban said

”Aah, yeah! That’s right!” Ray nodded

”Oh, so Faine send you?” Chiron asked ”How’s it with him? It was a long time since he was here”

”Bah, who cares?” Dexter muttered

”It was a hard time to even make him eat, now he works outside camp on his own will!” Chiron smiled and shook his head, probably thinking something like: “they grow up so fast!”.
”Well, that aside, now you, son…what’s your name?”

“Dexter” Dexter answered

”Aah, Dexter” Chrion gave him a worm smile ”Why don’t you come with me and tell me your story?” he gestured towards a big blue house a few hundred meters away.

Dexter never had time to analyze his surroundings before, but when they walked towards “the big house” (which was what Chiron had called it) he had plenty of time. His knees were still shaky and his muscles numb, so he needed support to even stand up. Chiron let Dexter hold onto his horseback while walking which prevented him to stumble and fall.

Dexter looked at their surroundings. He couldn’t believe that Faine actually had told them the truth; there really had been a camp. Kids was scattered all over the place, some far younger than Dexter and some older. All wore the same orange t-shirt with black letters saying “Camp Half-Blood”. Dexter saw a circle of cabins where several orange-shirted campers walked in and out of them. On the other side of the Big House a wide field of plants with red berries stretched out. He saw  kids doing all sorts of different activities: archery, volleyball, wall climbing and canoeing in a lake in the middle of the camp. The whole camp was settled in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by forest, except for the far end, where an endless blue of water glittered in the sun. The wind carried smell of salt and sand from the blue-green sea and Dexter couldn’t resist stopping and fill his lungs with freshening air. It felt good with the warming sun and the wind’s stroking his cheek, like on any beautiful summer day. Suddenly, every problem disappeared, just like they’d done when he, Ray and Ban sat in that Jacuzzi earlier that day. It all was here and now, no troubles existed. He’d lost his memories, so what? It was sunny and warm. He’d met supernatural monster that wanted to eat him, whatever! The birds were singing and he just wanted to lie down on the beach and watch the glistening blue waves. Dexter closed his eyes and sighed out of relief, he felt free.

Unfortunately, that feeling only lasted for a few seconds. He started to feel his aching muscles again. The nausea was about to grow worse and his knees shook of exhaust. He groaned when Chiron finally sat him down on a chair on the terrace of the Big House. Ray and Ban were directed to sit down next to him. Dexter had almost forgotten they were there with him; they’d been so calm and quiet.

Chiron told Dexter to wait there and went inside the house. Dexter didn’t protest, he laid down his head on the table in front of him and sighed. Soon Chiron rolled out of the house again. Dexter frowned and took a second look at the drastically shorter Chiron. Now sitting in a wheelchair  with a blanked over his lap and without any signs of a horse body waist down. It looked like it never had been there. Had Dexter imagined it all? He wanted to ask him, but Chiron gave him a glass filled with golden liquid and ordered him to drink it.

When thinking about it, Dexter felt how thirsty and hungry he was. It didn’t surprise him; he hadn’t eaten anything since about lunch-time. It was maybe even past dinner, and he had emptied his stomach several times since then. He grabbed the glass and drank. Dexter never thought it would taste like a mixture of Fanta Orange and PEZ candy with taste of sour blue raspberry. And he would never think it would taste so good! After two large gulps the glass was empty and immediately Dexter felt how the exhaustion faded and soon he felt warm and fresh again.
”Woah, spicy” Dexter smacked with his mouth and looked at Chiron ”What exactly was that?”

”Nectar” Chiron answered and smiled ”Feeling better?”

”Are you kidding?” Dexter answered and looked at his hands ”I’m feeling great! It’s weird… how…what…Can I have another one?”

”No, I’m sorry. You only drink when you need to, or you’ll burn up” Chiron said

Dexter laughed, but stopped when he realized that Chiron hadn’t been joking with him. “Eehm, what?” Dexter twisted in his chair.

”Listen, Dexter” Chiron said and gave Dexter a serious look ”You mind telling me your story? Exactly how it was?”

Dexter didn’t mind at all. He told Chiron everything he remembered, which wasn’t much. He told him about how he’d woken up on a railway without knowing anything about himself. He told him about the meeting with Madame Luck and about Mormo the Moron who tried to eat him and his newly found friends. Ray and Ban filled in with comments like: “That was awesome!” and “It was my idea!” every once in a while.

Chiron was a good listener; he sat quiet and nodded while Dexter talked and didn’t seem as shocked about all the weird things that had happened Dexter. When the story was finished, Chiron sat quiet in his wheelchair with a vague frown in his face.

“That’s an interesting story” he said at last

”I-I know it sounds crazy but…” Dexter started to explain, but stopped himself. Chiron’s eyes and expression told him that Chiron really believed him. Well, it maybe wasn’t that weird, the man had a body of a horse. Or at least he had had one; Dexter was ninety-nine percent sure!

“There’s much craziness in this world, but it may not make it less real” Chiron said “Take your friends as an example, the thought of satyrs existing sounds crazy, but still they’re sitting there, fully alive”

”Makes sense” Dexter agreed. He was getting what Chiron wanted to tell him. It wasn’t him that was going crazy; it was the world around him! ”And the bull, it was real too!”

”I’m sure it was!” Chiron continued ”As real as the gods – the ones you call the Greek and Roman gods – is! The powerful forces that give light and life into this world, and you, their children, are very much real!”

Dexter went silent. He didn’t get at all what Chiron was trying to tell him “That’s crazy!” he said at last.

Thunder rumbled high above them. Dexter flinched and looked at the sky. It was clearly blue, not a cloud in sight. Dexter started thinking about Madame Luck and all these stuffed animals. Was Chiron also a crazy witch?

”Easy now, son” Chiron said calmly “Saying the gods being crazy isn’t the wisest thing to do”

”But that is crazy!” Dexter cried and rose from his chair. Angry thunder rumbled again from clear blue sky. ”God? How? Why?”

”Now now, lad. Gods -in plural- not God with capital G” Chiron put a gentle hand on Dexter’s shoulder, directed him to sit down again. ”We’re talking about gods of nature, weather and luck. Those kinds of gods”

Dexter forced himself to calm down. Even thought he’d met many crazy things since he woke up on that railway, but claiming that gods existed was too much!

“Dude…gods? Really” Dexter said and gave Chiron a doubting look, hoping he would burst out laughing and clap on his shoulder saying: “I really got you, boy!”, but he didn’t. Chiron’s face remained calm and serious.

“Greek gods, you say?” Dexter asked ”Like, buds wrapped in bed sheets and grapes in their hair?”

Chiron smiled ”They are not dressed in bedsheets anymore, but yes, it’s indeed those kind of gods”

Dexter remained silent, trying to wrap his head around it. At last he sighed, massaged his temples and stared down on the table. “What has that with me to do anyways?” he asked and looked at Chiron

“They are the very reason why you are here” Chiron gestured out over the camp “This is a camp suited for you and all the other offspring of the gods-…”

“Offspring?”

“Yes, Dexter” Chiron paused and looked deep into Dexter’s sunglasses “You’re a demigod. Child of a god.”