Growing Up
Marisol
Prologue
Third Person P.O.V.
The sun had just begun to rise over Camp Half-Blood and so the satyrs, as well as the nature spirits, and Chiron rose with it. The campers had one hour of sleep remaining and so the satyrs did a quick border patrol to make sure the boarders were still strong and protecting the campers. The campers were all demigods and most of them were claimed, yet there were still a handful of extra kids in the Hermes cabin. Many of the campers ranged between the ages of nine and sixteen, and a few kids were younger, as well as a few older. Demigods didn't always find their way to camp, some were killed before arriving, and then buried at camp, or others were killed during the spring, fall, and winter when they weren't at camp. It was sad, but demigods lived dangerous lives and were at constant risk of being attacked by monsters outside of the camp.
Grover was just doing his first round when he heard crying.
It wasn't normal crying, like that of a child or teen, but it was the sound of an infant's wail.
Grover followed the sounds to the main entrance of the camp to see a swathed up bundle smeared slightly in dirt. He picked it up to see a shock of jet black hair, bright and watery green eyes, and a child's pouting face. Obviously this child was a demigod as it got through the boarders, but how did it get in here? It was so small it couldn't be more than a few days old.
He ran to the Big House, forgetting his border job, and burst in to see Chiron taking the curlers out of his tail. He didn't even have to hold back laughter as he came up and held the bundle. The child had begun to cry, again, and he seriously didn't know what to do.
"Chiron, this child was just there, at the boarders, and I don't know what to doooo," Grover said as he hopped from hoof to hoof uneasily. Chiron took the child and set the down on the couch before unwrapping all of the blankets. A note, as well as a locket, slipped free of the bundle and he picked them up.
"Grover, my dear Satyr, go find me a daughter of Apollo. Preferably Elizabeth, I will need assistance in helping this child."
Grover ran off and came back a few minutes later with the strawberry-blonde daughter of Apollo, the seventeen year old Elizabeth. She was the current cabin leader and was great with her siblings.
"Chiron, you summoned me?" she mumbled as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Yes, dear, may you please take this child and get her what she needs. Feed her some Nectar until I can go out and buy some baby milk, and change her for I think if she was out in the grass all night she'd need it. I know you have experience in child care. Please, I shall take her in a moment, but I need to go over this letter that she was found with."
Elizabeth nodded and picked up the little girl before heading out of Chiron's room and going down to the infirmary to get what the baby would need.
Chiron used his favorite sword-shaped letter opener to slice open the seal on the envelope and a neatly written letter was held securely inside. He slid it free of the envelope and unfolded it before he proceeded to read it.
Dear Chiron,
I pray to the gods that you find this letter, as well as my daughter. Her father told me that to keep her and her brother together would be incredibly dangerous as their scent alone is strong. He claimed that together they would attract monster like a neon 'Please Eat Me' sign. I could never put them in such danger. You must understand it was difficult for me to separate them, and I know it's dangerous to keep one of the twins with me, but it killed me to just leave behind one of my children. To leave them both behind would show me no reason to go on.
I beg of you to give her a home at camp, keep her as a year-rounder, and let her grow up in a good place. I don't want my daughter to face what my son may have too. I beg of you to make her believe she is any only child because I know that when the time is right they will meet. The locket was a gift that was enchanted by her father to show a picture of me on one sided, and her brother on the other. They will change to a more recent picture every August 18th. Please, tell her we love her and that her mother died in childbirth. Tell her that this is her older cousin. Please, you train heroes. Can you raise this one with the help of the camp's inhabitants? She's only three days old as she was born on August 18th.
Please, take care of my daughter. Please.
Her name is Marisol.
And so the camp had just gotten a new demigod.
One with a twin she shall grow up knowing as her cousin. She shall grow up knowing her mother to be dead. She shall grow up a demigod. And the campers shall love her as family.
Her name is Marisol.