The waves rolled in lazily as Delta Grace Jackson stood on the shore, watching carefully the lines it left on the sandy beach. With her sea green-eyes set with determination, she pulled tight the straps of her life-jacket.
"Half-way," she muttered to herself. "I'll just go half-way."
The little girl took a few steps closer to the water and stared out: she could see her two older brothers splashing around with their father. She was envious – and not so secretly, but she just couldn't get over her fear of water; she didn't understand it the way they did; she had questions, concerns, reservations. The vast and ancient sea, however, had no answers for her.
"You have that look on your face."
Delta turned to see her mother who crouched down next to her. She looked at Delta with her deep gray-eyes which always seemed to look beyond the surface and into the little girl's mind.
"What face?"
Her mother smiled. "The one that says you're over-thinking things."
Delta frowned. "Daddy says I get that from you."
"Probably. So you want to talk about it?"
"I'm trying to enter the ocean," Delta explained simply. "I'm going to go half-way, and then half-way, and then half-way until I reach the water."
This had seemed a sensible approach to the situation, and now she awaited her mother's deliberation.
"That's mathematically impossible," her mother concluded after a brief moment of thought, and before Delta could defend her hypothesis, her mother pushed her forward, causing her to stumble past the half-way point.
"MOM!" Delta cried, outraged.
But her mother just laughed. "Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, sweetheart," she said with a warm smile that easily abated her daughter's anger. "And trust that you're stronger and more capable than your mind tells you."
"If my mind sets the boundaries of my reality, then how can I so easily ignore – "
A large shadow suddenly passed overhead: a black pegasus circled the beach, descending rapidly. He landed with a thud on the sand and galloped to where Delta stood with her mother. The grand creature snorted, bobbing its head magnificently. He looked at Delta, and if pegasi could smile, he did.
Delta's father joined them on the shore moments later; he'd summoned a wave to bring him in quickly.
"No fair, Dad!" Delta could hear one of her brother's shout. They too had summoned waves, but smaller and slower. Her brothers were naturals when it came to controlling water like their father, but they clearly still had a lot to learn.
"Hey Jellyfish," Delta's father said, leaning over and kissing her on the head. "How's the conquest going?"
"Mom's debunked my hypothesis – again."
Her father gave her mother a look. "Annabeth, come on."
"Her method was flawed."
"She's five, not flawed."
"She's my daughter and she knows better."
"She's my daughter too," her father interjected. Annabeth didn't respond, but raised an eyebrow as if her husband had made a statement of conviction rather than a statement of defense.
The pegasus whinnied. "Sorry, Blackjack," Delta's father apologized. "You know how priorities change once you have a family."
The winged-horse neighed and pawed the ground, muttering something about not knowing since he hadn't met the perfect partner yet. He carried on, relaying some news about some monster Delta had never heard of (and she'd heard of a lot of monsters). By now, her brothers had reached shore.
"Oh hey Blackjack!" the older one shouted, running up and wrapping his arms around the pegasus's flank.
Her other brother also ran up, but stayed next to their mother; he liked pegasi, but always tended to shy away from them. "Hello," he greeted politely; Atticus was not one to overlook formalities.
"Yo Maximus! Nemo!" Blackjack brayed, throwing back his head and shaking his mane.
"Don't call us by our middle names," Chase chided, stepping back to stare up at the creature towering over him. "And don't forget about our little sister either."
Blackjack looked at Delta and winked. "I didn't forget about the little princess, but she's clearly got business with the water."
"Observant," Delta responded with an appreciative nod. She brushed a stray strand of blonde hair out of her face and turned her attention back to the ocean. Even though she was only five, she knew that if she couldn't learn to work with water, it wouldn't matter how many monsters she knew. She wouldn't stand a chance against any of them.
"Okay, okay. I'll come with you. Annabeth, you take the kids back to the cottage. I'll be home before midnight."
"Percy, be safe."
Delta's parents kissed, then her father hugged each of the boys before walking over. "Your mother's right," he whispered, putting an arm around her. With his other hand, he summoned a small stream of water, making it dance around them like a ribbon. "You can't think too much about it; you just gotta feel it." He kissed her on the head again. "It's in your blood Jellyfish."
"Be careful Daddy," Delta whispered back, hugging her father around the neck. "And come home early because I have some questions to ask you."
Her father laughed. He got to his feet, kissed his wife one more time, then hopped onto the back of the pegasus, and flew off into the sky.
"Well then. Who's hungry?" Annabeth asked her children. The answer was unanimous; time at the beach always built up an appetite. She asked her two boys to start packing up their things, then turned to her daughter. "You, little miss, have something to accomplish before we go." Slowly, the daughter of Athena waded into the water, stopping when it reached her waist. "Don't think about how much water there is. Just come to Mommy."
Delta seemed to consider this. "Clever," she murmured to herself, tugging on her life-jacket straps. She took a step forward then stopped to stare at the water, only inches from her toes.
"Don't look at the water, baby. Just look at Mommy." She held out her arms toward her daughter. "Keep your eyes on me, and put one foot in front of the other."
Delta shuffled her feet hesitantly, then, taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, plunging her foot into the surf. Her eyes widened as she stared out at her mother, who was beaming. The little girl barely had a moment to contemplate her experience when her mother was suddenly dragged beneath the water's surface. Panic took Delta. Her heart stopped beating, she couldn't breathe; her body wouldn't move, her brain wouldn't think. She screamed.
In response, the water before Delta parted, forming a path on the ocean floor and revealing her mother. Choking and kicking, Annabeth fought her assailant: a large squid-like creature with six glassy eyes had wrapped one of its twenty tentacles around Annabeth's ankle, another coiled around her neck and would have crushed her throat if she hadn't managed to put an arm in between.
"Mommy!" Delta cried. Her knees shook and her body felt like lead; whether it was from fear, shock, or the toll of parting the sea, she didn't know, but she knew she couldn't hold on much longer. Suddenly, her burden lessened; her brothers had come to their aid, each pushing a side of the watery corridor.
"Mom!" Chase cried, staring horrified.
Atticus didn't say anything, but he was deadly pale. A soft wind ruffled his hair and, growing stronger, formed dark clouds above them.
Suddenly the wind changed, bringing the scent of a bad storm.
"Dad!" Chase shouted, looking in the direction of the new wind.
Even from his position in the air, Percy could command the water. He took the weight of the ocean from his children with one hand and threw his sword like a dagger with his other. The blade impaled itself in one of the squid's eyes with deadly accuracy, causing it to loosen its hold on Annabeth enough for her to reach a dagger she kept strapped to her thigh at all times. She sliced off the tentacle holding down her leg, then kicked the squid in another eye. The kids could hear a sickening crunch from where they stood on shore.
As Delta watched her mother fight, she had the vague impression that her father had landed somewhere behind them, but even as he charged forward, Delta's vision was turning black. The last thing she remembered was the sound of her brothers calling her name as she collapsed.