Chapter 5 Any other questions?

As Jakob followed Annabeth silently, he took in the view around them. The valley that came into view rolled all the way up to the water. It seemed to almost glitter in the distance. The landscape was dotted with small buildings that looked like Ancient Greek architecture, with an open-air pavilion, an amphitheatre, and a circular arena. The strange thing was that they all looked brand new, the bright white columns shining in the sun.

In a nearby sandspit, many high school kids and satyrs were playing volleyball. Canoes glided across a lake. Kids in bright orange tee-shirts were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins below. Some shot targets at archery ranges. Others rode horses- which had wings- down a wooded trail.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blonde haired girl who'd spoon-fed him strawberry cheesecake-flavoured pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.

The man facing them was small, but plump. He had a red nose, watery eyes and curly hair so black it seemed purple. He looked like your average gambler, yet Jakob knew right away that he was a god. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt.

"That's Mr. D," Annabeth murmured. "He's the camp director. Be polite. And there's Chiron…"

She pointed at the guy who had their back to them.

The first thing Jakob noticed about Chiron was that he was sitting in a wheelchair. He wore a tweed jacket, thinning brown hair, a scraggly beard.

'If this is Chiron, the trainer of heroes himself, then where's his horse half?' Jakob wondered with a frown but guessed that his horse half was hidden by illusion magic.

"Chiron, I've brought him and the talking head." Annabeth said, announcing their presence as Chiron turned to them with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

"Ah good. Come, young man, sit." Chiron said, offering one of the empty seats at the table. Jakob quietly sighed but walked over, taking Mimir off his hip and placing the head on the table before taking a seat that did not put him any closer to Chiron or Mr. D.

Mr. D looked up upon Mimir being placed on the table, then looked at Jakob and immediately sensed what he was. He shot Chiron a look. "What in Chaos' name is an Aesir doing here?"

"A-Aesir?!" Said Chiron, worried and nervous at the idea of an Aesir being here.

"If I had my way, I wouldn't have came here at all." Jakob retorted, crossing his arms with a huff. "Feel off a cliff and into a river, got washed ashore here. That answer your question?"

"I'll handle this, brother." Mimir cut in gently. "Believe me, we had no intention of coming here. But Jakob here faced off against a pair of Cyclops and a Hellhound, and at one pint the back of his head was hurt and his vision blurred. So he stumbled and fell off a cliff and washed ashore to this place, and that's how we came to be here."

Mr. D huffed and shook his head. "At least I won't be blamed once it starts raining lightning." Said Dionysus, knowing his father won't be happy to learn that someone from another Pantheon is here.

"Like it'd even tickle me." Jakob retorted, causing Dionysus to pause before sighing in annoyance.

"Because of course you're the Thunder Lummox's spawn. Wonderful!" Dionysus said sarcastically.

"Look, we're only here in America because we're in hiding from the Aesir." Mimir explained, knowing they'll need to or else it'll be worse for them if the Olympians just assume why they are here... especially Zeus, given the tension between the Olympians and the Aesir which was quite similar to the cold war tension between Americana and Russia really.

"Oh? And what caused the son of Thor to hide from his own family, huh?" Dionysus inquired with a look at said demigod.

"That's personal." Jakob said with a hard look in his eyes. "All you need to know is Mimir and I are not here as an act of war, Odin does not know we're even in America or this close to Olympus."

"Why would you even come this close, anyway? Why not hide somewhere else?" Dionysus asked with a frown.

"They won't be expecting me to hide in another pantheon's territory, especially one that isn't as strong as they used to be." Jakob said with a raised brow, with Dionysus scowling in annoyance at this but he reluctantly admitted to himself that the boy was right. The Olympians weren't as strong as they used to be before their decline in worship.

Dionysus then stood. "I'm going to have to go to Olympus and inform my father about this. Chiron, watch the Aesir." With that, the God of Wine flashed away to Olympus.

"Cheerful fellow." Mimir commented. "I always heard he was the life of a party when drunk, but seeing him sober... it's a little disturbing."

"So you're really from another pantheon?" Annabeth asked with a look of curiosity and interest in her eyes as she stepped forward. "The Aesir are part of Norse mythology, right?"

"Correct." Mimir confirmed. "I'd wager, with that look of intelligence, curiosity and interest in your eyes... you must be a daughter of Athena, right?"

"I am." Annabeth nodded proudly.

"Well, this has certainly been a interesting morning." Chiron said with a small smile as he looked at Jakob.

"Might become a bad one if Zeus decides to have us executed." Mimir said with a sigh. "I've already died once, not sure I want it to happen again."

"How are you even... alive?" Annabeth asked with a frown as she looked at the head. "I mean, you're just a severed head."

"I was reanimated though magic." Mimir explained, only confusing Annabeth a little bit more. "It's a long story. So, any other questions?"

On Olympus, Dionysus arrived in the throne room and wasted no time in calling for a meeting. With it not being long before all of the Olympians gathered together, all of them in their thrones and Hestia tending to the hearth in the center.