New Camper (Chiron, OPEN)

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Chiron    

They crested the hill where the tree with the oddly golden-colored fleece hanging off its branches. The thirteen-year-old was on the back of her buckskin horse, with the satyr next to them.

"So this is camp?" Hitomi asked Kyle. He nodded a surprisingly soft look on his face.

"Welcome, Hitomi, to Camp Half-Blood," he told her. He started walking down the hill, pulling her wheeled suitcase behind him as she encouraged Butterscotch to keep walking.

"Thanks for taking my suitcase," she told him as they walked. "I know it's kind of heavy." He just glanced up at her, smiling slightly, and kept going. So Hitomi fell silent as well. Kyle led her to a large farmhouse that actually resembled her home in Wyoming.

"Why don't you wait out here with her and I'll go inside and get Chiron and the director," the satyr told her, leaving her suitcase by the base of the steps that led to the porch. He had his suspicions about who's kid she was, given that pure Japanese people didn't even carry the gene for the odd blue-green eyes that she sported. There was only one god with children who had eyes of that particular color. He would, of course, voice his suspicions to Mr. D and Chiron, but until she was Claimed by her father there was technically no guarantee. But there weren't exactly many gods who had anything to do with horses.

I like this place, Butterscotch told Hitomi. It's very green, and I feel safe here.

"You know, so do I," Hitomi admitted softly. "I've been worried about the next accident ever since I started hearing you, but now... I feel like I don't have to be so tense anymore."

You do not, Butterscotch agreed. It will be nice to get some time away from the show ring, too. Not all Mustangs can be like Nightingale and Snowstorm. Hitomi nodded and began running her hand under Butterscotch's mane, a nervous habit from their first show together. Butterscotch nickered softly in an attempt to get Hitomi to relax. Her girl didn't show it much, but Butterscotch could tell when Hitomi was nervous.

[Chiron]

Chiron was just trying to enjoy the quiet morning to himself. There was no campers he needed to punish, yet, and nobody was being carried into the infirmary crying and writhing in pain. So all in all, it was a very successful morning. He was facing the window while he had a cup of coffee in his hands. He was in his wheelchair trying to recover from another wild outing with the Party Ponies. However, his quiet time was coming to a halt when he heard the sound of hoof steps. There was a satyr which only meant one thing: a new snot-nosed camper.

He groaned as he turned around in his wheelchair to glare at the satyr. He barely let the guy get a few words, something about the girl being a child of a Big Three, in before he rolled out onto the porch of the big house. And there she was, on a horse, just waiting for him. Chiron settled his wheelchair as he crossed his arms over his chest. "So you're the new camper?" he asked a bit grumpily.

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"Chiron, sir, I really should-!" Kyle's protests fell on deaf ears as Chiron made his way outside, so the satyr followed him.

Hitomi looked up when the door opened and a man in a wheelchair came outside. She swung her leg over and slid to the ground, landing with both knees bent. She didn't bother clipping a lead line to Butterscotch's halter, the Morgan knew better than to wander off.

He smells funny, Butterscotch said. Hitomi had only gotten up one step before she turned back to the horse.

"Butterscotch that's just rude," she said sternly.

I mean he doesn't smell human, she clarified. His smell kind of reminds me of Snowstorm.

"Are you sure?" Hitomi asked, sounding surprised now. Butterscotch snorted and dipped her head in a semblance of a nod. "Well, that wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened this week," the girl said with a sigh, turning back toward the man in the wheelchair. Her blue-green eyes looked out of place with her dark hair and olive-toned skin.

"I'm Hitomi Wilson, sir," she told him respectfully. "You must be Chiron. It's a pleasure to meet you." She offered her hand to him, eyes sparkling with curiosity. If he really wasn't human, then what was he?

[Chiron]

Chiron furrowed his eyebrows together when he saw the way the girl was interacting with the horse she arrived on. He was dealing with another Big Three brat. And not only that, but it was a Poseidon brat as well and he was having all sorts of difficulties with that cabin with people coming back from the dead and stuff. Chiron said a quick little pray to the gods underneath his breath that someone else would claim her, so she didn't have to worry about these sea brats.

But he watched her dismount and come over to him as she extended a hand out. He looked at it for a moment before he uncrossed his arms to shake her hand briefly. "I am indeed Chiron," he said a bit grumpily before he let go of it and crossed his arms over his chest. "Have you been claimed, Hitomi? If not, we'll need to send you to the Hermes cabin in the meantime."

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She shook her head at his question. "Kyle was explaining it to me on the way here," she told him. "He said it's weird that I'm almost fourteen and haven't been claimed yet. Something about someone named... Percy Jackson?" She tilted her head slightly to the side, thinking. She sighed and shook her head. "He's dropped so much on me in the last week that it's hard to remember all of it," she admitted. She moved over to the rail that ran around the porch and put one hand on the wood. Without being beckoned, Butterscotch walked over and stuck her head over the rail. Hitomi raised her other hand up to touch her horse's soft nose.

"Thank you for letting me bring her," she said after a moment. "It means a lot to me that Butterscotch and I can be here together." Her face softened while she had her hand resting on her horse. "Will... will my being here help keep my family safe?" she asked hesitantly.

[Chiron]

Percy Jackson? That name brought back quite a few memories, some of them not so fond. Chiron shook his head before he spoke, "He used to be a camper here and he did some heroic feats and promised the gods that they would claim their children before a certain age." He looked at the girl as he knitted his eyebrows a bit. She didn't seem like the typical Poseidon girl, except for her eyes, but it could've been a genetic mutation or something. He really didn't want to bother with another Big Three brat. "So it's a bit odd that you're not claimed yet, but I have a feeling that your father... or your mother... will claim you soon enough," he said with a bit of a nod to agree with himself.

But the matters of the horse, he shrugged. "I figured she would get along with the pegasus, since they're basically horses that can fly." And then he decided that he had enough of sitting down in his wheelchair as he got up to stretch and show off his entire centaur glory. "Plus I can relate to her slightly." Once he was stretched out, he looked down at the girl and frowned a bit. "They should be safer now. I have no doubt that your demigod scent will linger for a little bit, but it'll air our and they'll be safe once more."

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"My father," she corrected quickly. "My..." She sighed softly, her back still to Chiron. "My mama died in a car accident when I was five." That was how she differentiated between her biological mother and her adoptive mother. Her Japanese mother was Mama, and her American mother was Mom. "She didn't really like to talk about who my father was... Who he is." She didn't like spilling so much personal information to him so soon, but he was one of the people in charge of the camp. So, that meant he was a good person, right? Her mind understood the reasoning, but her heart said that it wasn't safe to trust him yet.

She turned to look at him when he talked about flying horses. "Seriously?" she said, surprise obvious in her voice. "Wow, a Pegasus would blow those other Dressage competitors out of the water!" There was a spark in her eyes that she hadn't allowed to show until then. It was the excitement that she always got when talking about horses or her shows. But it faded after a moment. "Oh, I guess I won't be able to do any horse shows for a while, huh?" she reasoned.

Her eyes went wide as she watched him unfold from the wheelchair. Where there should have been a pair of human legs, instead Chiron had a horse's body.

"Woah..." was all Hitomi was able to manage. Butterscotch, however, was startled and began backing away. Hitomi turned to her horse and went back down the steps. "Easy girl, it's alright," she said gently. She kept up a mantra of soft, gentle words for a few minutes before her horse calmed down.

I told you he didn't smell human Butterscotch insisted. Hitomi raised an eyebrow.

"Now is not the time for an I told you so Butterscotch," she said with an eye roll. She looked over at Chiron, one hand still on Butterscotch's neck. "Earlier she said you didn't smell human. The same way she said Kyle didn't smell human when he first started working for us."

[Chiron]

Chiron swore underneath his breath. Godly father. It was more and more looking like this kid was a spawn of Poseidon which was something he didn't want to deal with at all. He swore that cabin somehow turned evil after that Jackson kid left camp. “Father,” he corrected himself before he shook his head. “And I have a hunch on who he is but I cannot be for certain until he claims you. For all I know, my hunch might be wrong.” But he knew he wasn't wrong unless there was a new god of horses running about that he didn't know of.

But he narrowed his eyes at the horse. He didn't understand it like the girl did, but he'd been around camp long enough to know when a pegasus was insulting him and it happened to be quite frequently. He made an ‘I'm watching you gesture’ to the horse before he turned back to the girl. “There's no horse shows for a while, but you'll be fine.” He turned to the satyr before he said, “Take her to the Hermes cabin. She'll be staying there until she's claimed. Also, make sure she gets a guide of some sort. I don't need her getting lost on her first day here.”

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A hunch, huh? She tilted her head but didn't ask. He obviously didn't want to say anything. Then he made a funny gesture at Butterscotch.

"Hey! Butterscotch is more than just a horse, she's my partner! I won't let you be mean to her!" she said sharply. She felt something pulling in the pit of her stomach, like a sort of power she'd always had but never used. But she couldn't quite grasp it, and it soon faded. She clipped a lead line onto Butterscotch's halter.

"Ah, of course sir," Kyle the satyr said quickly, clip-clopping down the porch steps and taking Hitomi's suitcase handle in one hand.

"Let's go Butterscotch," Hitomi said quickly, turning her back on Chiron as she led Butterscotch around in a circle and then away from the Big House. Kyle was beside her, dragging her suitcase and directing her to the Hermes cabin. From there, they went to the stables to find a stall for Butterscotch.

((And unless you want to post one more time, I think we can call this one done, yes?))