I found myself sitting on a stonewall looking out over the Egyptian desert. It was familiar and homely, my hair drifting freely in the wind. But part of me was on edge, as if stepping past this wall was forbidden. "I always loved how the air smelled here," a soft voice remarked, startling me as I turned to look upon my father. He looked middle aged, several greys in his black hair and small beard around his jaw. "Though I could never stay here long, sadly."
"Is that why you dragged my mother away from here?" There was spite in my voice, always spite. I couldn't help it. There was anger in my soul towards the man, due to his constant interfering in my life and my mother's. If he hadn't done what he'd done...she would never have died.
"Nakia," he remarked, running his soft hand over my hair as I flinched at the touch, "I did not drag her away from here. I gave her a choice and she chose to be free."
"And now she's dead."
"Nakia." His hair greyed and bread grew, the serious tone in his voice giving life to my father as an old man. "You act like such a child a times. I have given more to you than anyone deserves."
"Then what am I supposed to do now that I am here?" The pair of us stopped our conversation glancing to our left, the sun setting in the opposite direction and beautifully lighting a young woman not too far off. She had left some sort of party that filled the space with music, her evening dress flowing gently in the wind. I smiled, looking up on my young and beautiful mother, wishing I could simply walk over and hug her, smell her scent again. But that wasn't how it worked.
My mother looked over at us, seeming to sense our gaze and gave a gentle smile as I looked back and up at my father. He smiled but it was filled with more sadness than I expected. Had he always known what would happen to my mother? How often had he experienced it before choosing to become part of her life? I found that was a question I was always too fearful to ask.
She waved at us before returning to the party and I gave a small twiddle of my fingers in her direction before returning to the conversation. "You will learn." His response startled me as I looked up at him, his features returning back to the age he would be if time were relevant to him.
"What else is there to learn? I spend all of my time training to fight but I have no enemies to fight. I saw the battles, they defeated the evil while I just kept training." My father simply chuckle, clapping his hand on my shoulder and giving a small peck to the top of my head.
"There is more to learn than violence, Nakia, there is always more to learn." At that he stood and walked towards the party, his age decreasing with each step till he matched that of my mothers. I sighed, watching as he disappeared around the corner before looking back out at the nighttime desert.
My body suddenly surged away from my perch and I found myself snapping up in a white cotton bed, startling the person next to me. It was Annabeth, a book placed gently in her lap. Immediately the last image I saw of her returned to my thoughts and I felt my head pounding as I blinked, trying to put it to the side. "Nakia, you're up. How are you feeling?"
"I am fine," I explained, grabbing my head as the pain increased, "a bitch of a headache," the New Yorker accent slid in without hesitation as Annabeth chuckled and handed over a cup with a small bit of golden liquid.
"It's ambrosia, should help with your head and not taste too bad either," she smiled. I looked at it suspiciously. I knew what it was but had obviously never tried it before...though I'd seen what it had done to humans who were too curious for there own good. Slowly I let it run down my throat before tasting the surprising taste of mowz bil-laban, resulting in me finishing the drink quickly with a lick of my lips. Annabeth laughed, seeing my face as she set her book to the side, several impressive architecture buildings decorating the cover. "What did you taste?"
"Mowz bil-Laban," I explained, getting a curious look from the girl, "it's an Egyptian drink my mother used to make for me. Nothing particularly special, just blended banana and milk...but there was always something about hers that was just different." Annabeth nodded, seeming to easily understand what I meant as I swung my legs over the edge, immediately feeling my headache disappear.
"So do you mind me asking what happened? Back at the arena?" I sighed, looking toward the floor before giving a shrug of my shoulders.
"I don't know, it's never happened to me before. I mean I've shaken plenty of people's hands, but never had that come out of it." Annabeth shrugged, seemingly dropping it as I followed her outside, coming to the quick realization that I had none of my things on me and the sun had started to descend behind the trees. "How long was I out?"
"About two hours," I nodded slowly as I looked around the slightly quieter camp, watching as campers started to run in the same direction. "They're heading to dinner before capture the flag. Any premonitions?" She teased, jabbing playfully at my side, I smirked before grabbing her shoulders and turning her to face me. Annabeth blinked as I pressed my fingers evenly space along the side of her head, focusing.
My eyes closed and I dove through the time stream, the trip not taking long as I appeared on top of a rock next to Annabeth. She looked over as a mass of blue plumed campers came scurrying out of the woods, an army of red following them. We were ambushed! I dove back out, stumbling back as if someone had pulled me from the future memory. "I would recommend preparing yourself for an ambush," Annabeth gave an impressed look.
"Well...certainly can't hurt. I suppose that would definitely be a surprise from Percy. He's much more of a 'head on' attacker." I nodded with a small smile as we started to walk, only for Athena to stop me. "Hold on...I wanna get you a shirt. Chiron has someone setting up a room for you in the Big House till we can get a cabin built. He decided having you bunk in one of the big threes might've been a bit too dangerous to your health."
"I dunno...they are my half brother's..." I then twisted my face as the disgusted realization and Annabeth gave a large belly laugh as she stopped by a very carefully designed cabin, telling me to wait outside as she returned with an orange camp T-shirt.
"You'll get your fair share of these, but for now you can use one of mine." I nodded, thanking her as I tugged the shirt over my head before we finally continued to the dinning area, which was simply the center of the camp that now had tables lining it with kids and food. Annabeth directed me to what I needed to do to get the food I wanted as well as the fire pit to sacrifice to my parent. I can't say I was completely pleased about that, but I did it anyway, deciding it would be better than making gods other than my father angry.
I sat next to Annabeth at a table with many children of different parents. Percy sat to her right; I to her left, there was a satyr they called Grover across from Percy and several other names I found myself not particularly hearing. It was all just a little bit more than I had expected. My whole life I spent mostly alone accept for when in lessons in which I was scolded by sisters and scorned at by the other children who'd lost their parents to the 9/11 bombings. It had created a pain that I had learned to accept and ignore...but here I found I didn't feel the same sort of pain. Instead the table was curious about me, about the new kid with the apparently surprising knowledge on their parent.
"So what is it you inherited, exactly?" A young girl asked, her hair a dazzling blonde that seemed to sit perfectly no matter what she seemed to do with it. I set down my slice of pizza, sipping at another banana blend to swallow my bite before responding.
"I have the ability to 'adjust' time around my person. Like..." I looked around the table and then at Annabeth's hip, plucking her dagger from her hip. She jumped, startled at the sudden touch as I handed it to the girl. "Throw this at me," she raised a curious and well-shaped brow as she gripped the tip of the blade, flicking her wrist. As the dagger flung the short distance across the table I pulled in a deep breath and the world slowed, the dagger barely crawling towards my face. Without exhaling I turned the point away from me and grabbed the handle, finally breathing out as my arm shifted slightly to absorb the force of the thrown dagger. The table looked at me in amazement. The breathing part of the talent was simply the best way I could keep my powers from exhausting me but had also been able to train myself to hold my breath for over two minutes.
"Can you time travel?" A younger camper asked and I gave a coy smile, looking down at my food with a shake of my head.
"Not really. I can enter different time streams but not as a solid entity...sort of like an out of body experience. And my reach is...limited," I summarized, deciding I didn't want to go into details. Before the kids could question me, though, capture the flag was announced and the camp cheered, breaking into their assigned teams designated by cabin. I figured I would be standing out but suddenly felt an arm around my shoulder as Annabeth dragged me from my place.
"Come on, Nakia, you'll be on my team," she then leaned close to my ear to whisper, the sensation of her breath sending a shiver down my spine, "and feel free to give me any 'suggestions' when the mood hits you." I smirked, following her to get fitted in some armor. It felt uncomfortable, wearing the heavy leather and bronze compared to my normal cloth or linen but it was a sensation I knew I would have to get used to. We were on the blue team, lead by Annabeth of Athena, capturing the flag from the red team, lead by Percy of Poseidon. And I was certainly curious to see how the camp fought as a unit.
