AFatO Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Calling In Some Favors

They were on  the beach, Artemis waiting for Holly to pick up.
"So who are you calling again?" Annabeth asked curiously.
"A friend. Holly Short." Artemis replied sketchily.
"I see." Said Annabeth unconvinced that Artemis was telling her everything about this Holly.

Grover was chewing on his soda pop can. He was internally freaking out because Butler was staring at him. Or, to be more precise, his furry hindquarters.

"A-A-Artemis? Who was this again?" Grover stuttered, indicating Butler.
"My good friend, Butler." Artemis replied, pre-occupied.
"He's your butler?" Asked Percy who was stroking the main of a winged horse trotting around on the beach.
"No, Butler, with a capital 'B'." Artemis sighed.

"Oh. That's his name. So what does he-"

"Shh. She answered! Holly? Yes this is Artemis. I was wondering… I'm calling in a favor. Would you mind helping me and some new… friends…" He said for lack of a better use of words. " To solve a little riddle. Whats the twist, you ask. Well, if you must know you'll have to come here. Yes, it is a small strawberry farm, in the middle of the country. A few miles out of New York, yes. Okay, good, good. See you soon. Goodbye." Artemis ended the call.

"Sooo….?"  Percy asked. He wasn't really paying attention when Artemis was talking on the phone. Artemis sighed.

"Yes, she'll help us. So will Mulch Diggums." Artemis told him.

"I see." Percy said, though he had no idea who Mulch Diggums was.

Artemis turned to Annabeth. "Will Holly and Mulch need aid to enter the borders, like me?"

"Yes." Annabeth replied, then added, "Unless their Half-Bloods."

Artemis doubted that, so the group marched up to the Hill, and sat around the tree where Peleus the guard Dragon was sleeping. Very soon, a figure shimmered out of thin air. It was a girl around 3 feet tall with hazelnut skin and auburn  short hair. She was wearing a green jump suit and had a set of wings on her back. Percy spoke up first.

"You didn't say anything about the fact she wasn't human!" He said.

"Uh, Holly, I'm Annabeth." Annabeth managed to smile and help Holly through the magical borders. A few minutes afterward Mulch's head popped up in between Grover's legs which caused him to yelp and hide behind Percy.

"How did you get passed the barriers?" Annabeth demanded.

"Just had to dig deep enough." Mulch replied, pushing himself through the hole he had created, and gave a huge belch. Annabeth noticed the hole was more or less filled up with fresh dirt and clay.

"How did you-?" She muttered to herself.

"Okay, now I think it's time for us to explain ourselves to each other." Artemis said. He sat down and encouraged them into a semi-circle under the tree.

Artemis explained his adventures with Holly, Mulch, Butler, and Foaly and after that Percy explained their adventures with Grover, Annabeth, Thalia and  Tyson.

After they were all finished, they went back to the Big House to introduce Artemis's friends to Chiron… and possibly Mr.D.

"I see. Well hello there." Mr. D said as they passed him. "I see you've brought more friends."
"Yeah, well I guess we're solving Hecate's riddle." Percy muttered.
"Where is Chiron?" Annabeth asked Mr.D.
"The archery range of course. Now scat, I'm busy." Mr. D waved his hand, bored with the children.

They headed off to the archery grounds, where indeed Chiron was teaching archery.

"Neat! Archery!" Juliet said excitedly.

Chiron noticed them as they were just walking up to the grounds.

"Okay, work on hitting that target. I'll be right back!" He called to his class as he galloped towards them.

When Chiron reached them, he turned towards Holly. "Hello there." He smiled. Holly shook his hand.

"Holly Short." Holly introduced herself. "I'm a friend of Artemis'. I'm an elf." She added.
"And this is Mulch Diggums." Artemis introduced Chiron to his other friend. "Mulch is a dwarf." He added. "Guys, this is Chiron."

"Your a centaur? I know a centaur. His name is Foaly and boy does he have privacy issues, he has a bug on EVERYONE he knows-" Mulch was cut off by Artemis.

"Enough Mulch." He said tiredly.

"Well it was nice to meet you all." Chiron said politely. "I will see you all at dinner time." And with that he trotted back to his lesson.

"Okay, let's head back to our cabins and you can all settle in. But I have a lesson soon and so does Percy, so we'll be off." Annabeth said grabbing Percy wrist and they ran off towards the stables.

Artemis and Juliet and Holly wandered off in the direction of the Hermes cabin and Grover clip - clopped off into the woods. Mulch decided he will sleep behind the Demeter cabin since the soil was so well kept over there.

There were only three other campers in the Hermes cabin when the trio arrived there so it was pretty quiet. And soon, they left as well which only left Holly, Artemis and Juliet. Artemis, regarding the mess around him, decided to clean up his living quarters as well as he could.