Celebrations of the Goodbye of a Friend

The return of Percy, Albert, Annabeth, and Grover caused a stir in Camp Half-Blood.

They were the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill since Luke, so of course, everybody treated them as if they had won a contest and became celebrities overnight. According to camp tradition, they got to wear laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in their honor, then the four of them led a procession down to the central bonfire, where they proceeded to burn the burial shrouds their cabins had made for them in their absence, in case they perished.

Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful—gray silk with a silver metallic shine with embroidered owls decorating some parts—Percy stupidly told her it seemed a shame not to bury her in it.

The girl punched him and told the boy to shut up. Albert thought that was well deserved, what was he thinking?!

Being the sole son of Poseidon on camp, Percy didn't have any cabin mates, so the Ares cabin had volunteered to make his shroud. They'd taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word 'LOSER' was painted really big in the middle.

It was fun to burn to that one burn.

Albert's shroud was made by his half-sisters and half-brothers, it was as expected for a child of the Goddess of Love and Beauty, it was stunningly beautiful. Made out of a pale pink silky fabric that had a white glimmer, with wings of doves decorations. That one was hard to see being consumed in the flames.

Grover didn't have to undergo these rituals at all, he was a satyr and they did things their own way, with a celebration more private, where nymphs and other creatures got to enjoy themselves. Grover had told his friends that his kin was treating him like royalty not only for coming back alive and helping on the quest but also because he was the first satyr and thousands of years to manage to contact Pan.

Albert and his Uncle Joseph got to talk in private and the boy saw the man cry for the first time in his whole life, he thanked him because he knew from Grover that the idea had been given by him. The boy found out he had secretly become adored by satyrs and other creatures related to nature, some of the younger nymphs... had been winking at him and he finally understood why.

That was... something.

The campers from Apollo's cabin led the sing-along and passed out s'mores. Percy was surrounded by his old Hermes cabinmates. Annabeth's half-siblings from the Athena cabin were also surrounding the girl, mostly interrogating her with endless questions and looks of awe. Albert was happy around his half-siblings who begged him for details and juicy gossip about the quest, he was entertaining them a little, but mostly he stayed with Silena, who proudly showed off her dagger telling others about the things Albert had done with it. Grover's satyr buddies were admiring the brand-new searcher's license he'd received from the Council of Cloven Elders.

The council had called Grover's performance on the quest "Brave to the point of indigestion. Horns-and-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past. Legendary."

The only ones not in a party mood were Clarisse and her inner circle, whose poisonous looks at Percy tell enough about how they would never forgive me for disgracing their father. Still, most of the Ares' kids were unbothered, most of them were familiar with Albert, who openly invited them to come and celebrate. The boy had been nothing but welcoming of them despite the encounter with their father, who was far from being 'Dad of the Year', which made them feel giddy and excited to party. 

Lord Dionysus, also known as Mr. D gave them a welcome-home speech that wasn't enough to dampen their spirits.

"Yes, yes, so the little brats didn't get themselves killed and now they'll have even bigger heads. Well, huzzah for that. I guess. In other announcements, there will be no canoe races this Saturday..."

 Percy moved back into cabin three, but this time he didn't feel so lonely anymore. He had finally made real friends to train with during the day. At night, he would lay awake and listen to the melody of the sea, knowing that his father was out there somewhere going god-stuff... that was also something, despite their bittersweet talk at Olympus.

It was late in the night after the celebration, Albert had sneaked out of his bed and went to the front of his cabin to get some fresh air. The night was full of stars and the moonlight cast a pale light over the canopy of the trees.

"You should be sleeping." 

The boy almost had a heart attack, he shot the blue-eyed girl a nasty look, "I could say the same about you, Silena. I am just not really tired."

 "Really?" The girl asked skeptically, "Is this about me handing over the counselor position? I already talked with Drew and the others, they are ok with it. They idolize you now. You should be more cheerful, instead, I find you brooding late in the night alone."

"I'm not brooding!" The boy retorted. "I am just... reminiscing and pondering about life, that's all."

"Fancy words for the same thing..." Silena snorted playfulling, giving him a gentle push as she took a place beside him on the steps. "A penny for your thoughts?"

"Huh...not sure." The boy said regarding the girl with a skeptical side-eye, he knew that she would have been, maybe already was a spy, hopefully not. He decided that he was not gonna say a word about his true worries. "We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy."

"Oh...what's that?" The girl asked, there was something weird about her tone. "Another one of your quotes?"

"Yes... from a character known in the story as 'Maester Aemon', his name is Aemon Targaryen though...", Albert explained as he hummed softly. "Interesting thing he said there, right?"

Silena merely hummed but made no further comment. Like him, she was admiring the view.

"I never told anyone this before... I never really said that out loud before... but I am a bit scared of love," Albert said. "Weird, right? As a son of the Goddess of Love, it is at least ironic and sounds pathetic. Love is more powerful than we think, even we from cabin 10 don't truly get it. It is said that Love and Beauty can cause great pain... like Helen and Paris' love being the harbinger of the Fall of Troy... or Medea who did unspeakable acts for the love she held for Jason... all tales of love that ended up in tragedy. I am scared, Silena. I am scared of what I would do for love. I am scared of what we... the children of Aphrodite, are capable of doing for the sake of love."

There was a long silence until she finally said something looking at him with an intense look of curiosity. "What is left for us to do then? Love is also more precious than all the riches of the world, even the gods cherish and seek love. Brooding outside the cabin can't be the answer though."

"I don't know..." The boy confessed in all honesty. "I think... there is more than just romantic love though. There is the love that grows from friendship and family bonds... maybe what we can do is make sure we don't have to trade one love for the other... and carefully tread our lives balancing between them. Love is the only thing I believe can truly ground us against Love itself."

"Have you ever fallen in love, brother?" Silena suddenly asked.

"Gods.. no!" Albert chuckled at the thought. "I had crushes here and there sure, no big deal... we all have them. But fall in love? Not really. I am way too young for that. Not into that at all. Like I said... I get too self-conscious when it comes to love of any kind. Like... what if I love myself in it? What if I act like a prick? What if I break someone's heart? Worse, what if I get my heart broken? Not going there yet. I am not ready and I think too much. "

The girl rolled her eyes and sighed, there was a long pause, where they just stood there in silence. "Thank you, Albie."

"What are you thanking me for?" The boy replied, genuinely confused. "All I did was vent a little bit and talk about a quote of a character you never heard of."

Silena shook her head, and hugged him, before silently returning to the cabin. As soon as she disappeared through the doors, the boy sighed heavily. He suspected Luke had tried to recruit Silena, but he wasn't sure if she had agreed or not. All he could do was plant some seeds and give her some stuff to think about. He wasn't lying about what they talked through. He meant what he said.

After that night, things started to look normal again.

Albert got back to his training routine, he had leveled up again too. He mostly did archery and spent some time trying to figure out a way to open Circe's Book. He failed every time. Annabeth had been harassing him with probing questions whenever she got the sight of him, she wanted to know about the traitor among the campers, she was hellbent and adamant that he definitely already knew, but still, he mostly ignored her. Grover and Joseph had been teaching him more about animals and the wild whenever they could. Percy had also gotten back to training and was still awfully close to Luke.

On the Fourth of July, the day of the U.S.A. independence, the whole camp gathered at the shore of the lake for a fireworks show prepared by cabin nine. Although as a foreigner he didn't care very much, Albert liked the fact he was being included. Being stuff from the Hephaestus's kids, they weren't going to settle for a few lame red-white-and-blue explosions. They'd anchored a barge offshore and loaded it with rockets the size of Patriot missiles. According to Annabeth, who'd seen the show before, the blasts would be sequenced so tightly they'd look like frames of animation across the sky. The finale was supposed to be a couple of hundred-foot-tall Spartan warriors who would crackle to life above the water, fight a battle, and then explode into a million colors.

Annabeth and Grover had prepared a picnic for the four of them after the show.

Grover wanted to celebrate with them and say goodbye. The young cheerful satyr was dressed in his usual jeans T-shirt and sneakers combi, but in the last few weeks, he'd started to look a bit older, almost like a young high-schooler. He started to grow a goatee and put on weight. His horns had grown at least three inches, a long-awaited growth spur he said. Satyr thing.

"I'm off soon," Grover awkwardly said with teary eyes. "I just came to say... well, you know."

 They tried to feel happy for him. After all, it wasn't every day a satyr got permission to go look for the great god Pan. But it was hard saying goodbye after they had gone through so much together. Percy was in the worst situation, Grover was his best friend.

Annabeth gave Grover a tight hug and told him to keep his fake feet on.

Percy asked him where he was going to search first.

"Kind of a secret..." Grover said, looking embarrassed. "I wish you could come with me, guys, but humans and Pan... not a great combo."

"We understand," Annabeth said with a small smile. "You got enough tin cans for the trip, right?"

"Yeah," Grover said emotionally. "Thank you..."

"And you remembered you're taking the Dizi Flute I got you?" Albert asked with a playful look. He had asked his father for some gifts to be delivered at Camp, and he chose a Chinese bamboo flute for Grover, after all, he used his pipes as an offering back when they summoned Pan. "I had it brought from China for my good satyr friend."

"Jeez, Al, you know I loved it and I carry it everywhere!" Grover grumbled and furiously blushed. "You're like an old mama goat teasing me for no reason."

 He gripped his walking stick and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He looked like any hitchhiker you might see on an American highway—nothing like the little runty timid boy Percy used to defend him from bullies at Yancy Academy.

"Well," He said, "wish me luck, ok?"

They gave each of them a tight hug and then headed back through the woods waving at them one last time before he disappeared.

"Wherever you're going—" Percy choked up the words and turned away from the remaining two. "I hope they make good enchiladas there."

"We'll see him again," Annabeth said. "Grover made a promise, right? He will find Pan."

"He definitely will..." Albert added, but feeling the tension he mischievously added "Maybe next time we see him he would have gotten another growth spur and get ripped and hot. I heard he has a crush on nice young Dryad from Uncle Joseph. He says Grover is especially kind to her."

July passed passed like a summer breeze.

Percy spent his days with Annabeth and some other demigods devising new strategies for Capture the Flag and making alliances with the other cabins to keep the banner out of Ares's hands.

Aphrodite's Cabin was under new management after Albert was announced as the new counselor of cabin 10, but they their cabin was still out of that game, mostly he busied himself training some of his campers, earning him new nicknames among the others at camp, the Prince of Cruelty, The Tyrant in Pink, The Warmonger, The Iceberg Beauty, Lord Stoneheart, among other dramatic titles. 

 From time to time, Percy would walk past the Big House, glance up at the attic windows, and think about the Oracle of Delphi. He tried to convince himself that its prophecy had come to completion.

'You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.'

Been there, done that—even though the traitor god had turned out to be Ares rather than Hades, he thought.

'You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned.'

Another check. The Master Bolt was delivered successfully to Olympus. The Helm of Darkness back to the Underworld.

'You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.'

This line still haunted him like a ghost back in the Underworld. Ares had pretended to be his friend, and then he betrayed him. That must be what the Oracle meant... He thought hopefully.

'And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.'

Percy had failed to save his mom at one point, but only because he had to save the rest of the world, and he knew that was the right thing.

 So why was he still so uneasy?

The last night of the summer session came all too quickly. The campers had one last meal together. They burned part of the dinner for the gods and made offerings at the bonfire, the senior counselors awarded the end-of-summer beads. Including Annabeth, Albert, and Luke, representing their cabins as leaders.

Percy got his own leather necklace along with Albert, and when he saw the bead for his first summer there, he was glad the firelight covered his blushing silly. The design was pitch black, with a sea-green trident shimmering in the center.

"The choice was unanimous," Luke announced. "This bead commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!"

The entire camp got to their feet and cheered. Athena's cabin steered Annabeth to the front so she could share in the applause, same for Albert and the kids of cabin 10.

Percy was not sure he had ever felt as happy or sad as he did at that moment. He had finally found a family, people who cared about him and thought he had done something right. And in the morning, most of them would be leaving for the year.

The next morning, Percy woke up and found a form letter on his bedside table. He knew for sure Dionysus must've filled it out because he stubbornly insisted on getting his name wrong:

[Dear, Peter Johnson,

If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorized to eat any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.

Have a nice day!

Mr. D (Dionysus)

Camp Director, Olympian Council #12]

The boy felt his eye twitch as he read the letter, secretly he wondered if Albert got a similar letter. However, Mr. D treated Albert much better than he treated the others, which wasn't much, to be honest, he was still annoying, just not too much. What was that lousy god trying to do? Percy questioned in his mind bitterly. 

Little did he know he was right, Albert did receive a similar letter that morning and it wasn't as petty and childish as the one he got. This was a time for hard choices for both of them.