In A Way, It's Nice To Know

Even Dionysus's Welcome-home Speech Wasn't Enough To Dampen My Spirits. "yes, Yes, So The Little Brat Didn't Get Himself Killed And Now He'll Have An Even Bigger Head. Well, Huzzah For That. In Other Announcements, There Will Be No Canoe Races This Saturday.

Just Tell Me, Percy, Do You Still Have The Birthday Gift I Gave You Last Summer?" I Nodded And Pulled Out My Camp Necklace. It Had A Bead For Every Summer I'd Been At Camp Half-blood, But Since Last Year I'd Also Kept A Sand Dollar On The Cord. My Father Had Given It To Me For My Fifteenth Birthday. He'd Told Me I Would Know When To "spend It," But So Far I Hadn't Figured Out What He Meant. All I Knew That It Didn't Fit The Vending Machines In The School Cafeteria.

People Are More Difficult To Work With Than Machines. And When You Break A Person, He Can't Be Fixed.

Normally My Sister, Sadie, Or Some Of Our Other Initiates From Brooklyn House Would've Come With Me. But They Were All At The First Nome, In Egypt, For A Weeklong Training Session On Controlling Cheese Demons(yes, They're A Real Thing; Believe Me, You Don't Want To Know)

But Remember, Boy, That A Kind Act Can Sometimes Be As Powerful As A Sword. As A Mortal, I Was Never A Great Fighter Or Athlete Or Poet. I Only Made Wine. The People In My Village Laughed At Me. They Said I Would Never Amount To Anything. Look At Me Now. Sometimes Small Things Can Become Very Large Indeed.