Chapter Two
I slowly came to my senses as I heard people talking around me. I had learned to keep my mouth
shut around the strangers that Gabe invited over, because he would beat me for interrupting his poker games.
"... multiple ribs that were never set correctly, along with several scars along his abdomen and inner thighs, and a broken nose," said a male voice gravelly, "along with having that deep scar across his face, which you can obviously see wasn't inflicted too long ago."
"Does he have any serious brain trauma?" This time the voice belonged to a woman's, her voice filled with worry. There was a silence. "Apollo? Hello?" This time her voice was laced with annoyance. "Well, he's already awake. Why don't you ask him?" I could feel that the question was more directed towards me as I stopped faking and sat up groggily.
I looked around and saw that I was in a tent, but this tent was massive. The ceiling was at least twenty feet off of the ground, and the sloped walls were covered in different hides, ranging from a fox's pelt, to that of the dog that was chasing me before I passed out. I was laying in what was a very comfortable bed, with sheets and pillows that shined a brilliant silver color. To the right of the bed, there was a table with an empty vial labeled 'NECTAR' in big bold letters. To the left of him, however, were the two people that he had seen at Central Park.
They sat there, looking at me expectantly. "Um… Hi?" I offered, dumbfounded at where I was and the events that had happened that had changed my life. I was usually much more mature than this, because of living with almost no money I tried to help my mom by taking odd jobs at a mere seven years old.
"Hello." The blonde man replied. "My name is Apollo, and her name is Artemis." The twelve-year-old girl waved at him, looking at him with a worried expression. "I'm Percy." I said feebly, and I suddenly had a million questions running through my head. "What was that thing that was chasing me? How did you pull that bow out of thin air? Why did it explode when you shot it?" Apollo looked at me with a humorous glint in his eyes, as he started explaining. "Well, have you ever heard of the Greek gods?"
"Yes, we just finished learning about them in school, but I don't see what that has to do with…" I trailed off as I pieced the clues together. My eyes widened as I realised that I was in the presence of two Olympian Gods. I sat staring at them both.
"So, you're the god of the sun, right?" I asked Apollo, who smiled in return, and started listing off all of the other things he was deity of. I turned to Artemis and asked, "And you're the goddess of the moon and the hunt." She gave a curt nod.
Apollo went on to explain about how there was a whole other world, one filled with the gods and monsters from Ancient Greece, and based on his eyes, his father was most likely Poseidon, god of the seas, earthquakes, and storms, although he was shocked that his uncle broke his vow.
"Wait, so you're saying that if I am a son of Poseidon, then I have some form of power over the Big Three's powers?" He asked, still processing this new information. Apollo looked thoughtful, and said, "Well, I guess if you were, then yes, you could maybe have some of the Big Three's powers."
"Also, how did you know I was a demigod?" He continued with his barrage of questions. This time, Artemis answered, "We felt the power rolling off of you in waves, and knew that you were someone powerful."
There was a silence that followed. "Anyways, where is your mom?" He inquired. I immediately felt tears come to my eyes, and I looked away and tried not to let the drops escape my eyes, but it was no use. "M-my stepdad… he r-r-raped her and killed her in front of me. I tried to help, but I couldn't do anything, so I watched him kill her. He said he was going to hurt me, so I got mad, and then the water pipes exploded."
" It surrounded him in a bubble of water, and he almost drowned before it all fell. I was scared, so I ran, before he beat me any more." I rasped in between sobs as the tears streaked down my face.
I looked up and saw Apollo saddened, and saw an infuriated Artemis. They both looked at me sadly, and I buried my face into my hands and wallowed in my grief. I felt two pairs of arms wrapped around me and I cried into one of their shoulders.
While I was crying, I realised something: I didn't hurt at all, well, at least not externally. My ribs, my nose, nothing. All the beatings from Gabe felt like they had vanished. "Apollo? Did you heal everything?" I asked curiously. "Yeah, I kinda thought you would like that." He said, trying to lighten the mood.
I settled into Artemis, who had sat down next to me and began stroking my hair. I felt my eyes grow heavy, and decided not to fight the sleepiness and I dazed off.
