Max POV
It had been five years since I was officially 'crowned' as a goddess. Surprisingly enough, the gods were actually, honest to God, gods; not just nut jobs with a lot of access to special effects. Since then I had adjusted to my life pretty well.
I had since been acquainted with most—if not all—of the gods, major and minor, and was on friendly terms with…most of them. Scratch that, I was only really friendly with a few of them seeing as most of them labeled me as the 'bastard child of Zeus and an island.' Surprise, surprise, mother dearest Asteria had gotten turned into an island. Ironic, isn't it? The Titan goddess of astrology was doomed to forever be a hunk of land floating in the water.
Despite that, there were still a few gods and goddesses who I considered my allies. There was Apollo, who insisted that, since I had been granted my mother's powers of prophecies at night and prophecies from dreams, we were immediately best friends. He said, and I quote, 'us gods of prophecies have got to stick together! Never know when we'll be struck with the future and end up, I don't know, dying or something.' Honestly, I didn't even understand half of what he said. Nor do I ever.
Apollo's twin sister, Artemis had become my friend as well. Granted, the fact that I had no skills with a bow and arrow seemed to piss her off, especially when I nearly took her head off by shooting it at random, but the fact that I had been betrayed by a boy seemed to intrigue her and 'deepen her hate for the male gender.' I simply let her think that.
There was also Hades, technically my uncle or something like that. The fact that I had been blessed with the power of necromancy made him somewhat bitter towards me, but otherwise we got along…well. We met up at his palace every other Saturday for tea, which was enjoyable. I suppose.
Hecate, a minor goddess who had taken a strong liking to me simply because of the fact that I, too, was a goddess of necromancy, was very kind to me. She liked to poke and prod at my wings and talk about how she had knew my mother and all of that. I simply nodded along to whatever she said.
Likewise, there was Nyx, whom I had met on a field-trip down into Tartarus–zero out of ten, would not recommend. Despite being very imposing, intimidating, dark, horrifying, scary, creepy, and any other synonym of the sort, she and I had actually become friends, and pretty close ones at that. We often Iris messaged, which made dearest Iris quite annoyed at times.
Até was the goddess of mischief and was someone I was also extremely close to. She reminded me a lot of Gazzy, a thought that often pained me to think of. They really would have gotten along well. Still, she and I had bonded over a mutual love of 'pulling a fast one' on other gods and goddesses of the court, especially daddy dearest.
There were others that I got along with as well. Alectrona, an early goddess of the Sun who often argued with Apollo on how the Sun should be driven across the sky, Bia, the goddess of force, Hemera, a goddess of daylight who often argued along with Alectrona, Hypnos, the god of sleep whom I got along quite well with, Khine, the goddess of snow who may seem like a cold hearted bitch but was actually a warm hearted bitch, Peitha, the goddess of persuasion who had persuaded me into being friends with her, and Thanatos, the god of death whom often claimed that I had cheated him, which I suppose that I did
It really was a lot of people, when you think about it in terms of 'Max's Previous List of Friends,' but when you think of it in terms of 'All of the Gods in Olympus' it's actually not that many.
Besides the point, really. In fact, the major 'point of the moment' was the fact that I had somewhere to be in less than three minutes and, instead of soaring down to the predetermined destination, I was enjoying a rerun of one of the most popular Hephaestus TV Specials. Apparently the ratings for the show had been going down lately, so Hephaestus decided it would be for the best to replay everyone's favorite 'Two Demigods Do Some Stuff.' Although personally out of the loop of what the hell was going on, it was still amusing, especially since I happened to know the two said demigods.
Glancing down at my wrist–surprise, surprise, I took it upon myself to purchase a wristwatch–I jumped up at the notion of time. The three minutes that I had treasured so much had somehow dwindled down to a measly one. Oh sweet baby Jesus, let me be safe. Now that I thought about it, would it really be 'sweet baby Jesus?' Could the phrase technically be 'sweet baby Max?'
Shaking the thoughts from my head, I rushed to one of the many windows that happened to come with the house that I had received upon being declared a god. It was pretty shitty, in all honesty, seeing how it was basically just an ancient mud-house except made of more sanitary building equipment. Really, these people were gods, shouldn't they be able to afford all sorts of fancy modern houses? Hire an architect or two, am I right?
Perching on the windowsill, I looked down on New York City, sprawled beneath me in all of it's glory. It seemed that my house was located on the very edge of Olympus, likely because no one expected it to be filled. Ignoring that, I skillfully launched myself from the window, allowing myself to free-fall for a grand total of 1.5 seconds before slowly opened up my wings. I had long since learnt not to snap them open quickly.
Giving myself another moment or two of simple soaring through the sky, I expertly kicked up the speed, reaching that of an airplane in a split second as I zoomed towards my destination. Camp Half-Blood, in case you happened to be wondering. I'm sure you were, my life is very interesting, after all.
I reached the camp in record time–not really; my actual record was 0.78 seconds but that resulted in the tennis courts on fire and my overall ban of soaring about at that speed–and quickly landed on the ground, following up the speedy pace with a slight jog until I slowed to a walk.
I quickly gathered my bearings before heading off towards the Big House. Unsurprisingly, it was a big house where most meetings at Camp Half-Blood were held. Surprisingly, however, these meetings were often held around a ping-pong table and had a surplus of Cheez-Whiz for all to snack on. It really threw everyone off, including myself.
On my way towards the Big House, I passed a few local campers, most of whom sent me a familiar wave before going on with their duties. New campers would likely be entering the camp soon, judging by the excited murmuring that was spreading throughout of the camp as well as the need to primp up the camp that seemed to be overtaking the current campers. Then again, it was the summer time, new campers were to be expected.
"Max!" a voice shouted out to me. I was nearly knocked off of my feet as a body crashed into mine, arms wrapping around my waist like a snake and squeezing me hard enough to make me feel like prey of sorts.
"Hello, Percy," I deadpanned, wiggling about in the campers arms until he relented and let me go. In all technicalities, Percy was my cousin, but I don't think cousin's see each other as often as to two of us do. We were close, almost like brother and sister, and he was one of the few people at the camp who knew about my life before becoming an all powerful goddess reigning supreme in the sky.
Percy casually slung his arm around my shoulder, pulling me lazily towards the Big House where I could see Chiron and Dionysus along with a satyr or two playing a hand of cards out on the porch. "Why has your goddess-ness decided to gift us with her heavenly presence?"
I snorted, but that didn't stop me from tilting my nose into the air and speaking in a voice as pompous as possible, "What is it to you, mortal? My godly affairs do not concern you."
"Come on, Maxie," he teased, hanging off of my arm now and digging his soles into the dirt to try to slow me down. Nonetheless, I kept on marching forward. Even without the godly powers granting me a decent strength boost I would have been able to pull the boy behind me. He weighed next to nothing, after all. "Show me some love! It's been forever since we've last seen each other."
"You're kidding, right?" I asked incredulously, finally reaching the steps up to the Big House with a breath of relief, "We literally saw each other two weeks ago. Your mom made me cookies."
"That didn't count, it was strictly business." he tutted seriously, his face freezing over comically. I let out a snort of laughter and playfully shoved at his shoulder as if to push him off of me.
"Oh yes," I agreed, trying to imitate his expressionless voice, but breaking the façade as a giggle let out from my lips, "Business. Very serious. Where else would I be able to barter for cookies all the while kicking your ass at monopoly? It was business to the extreme."
"Don't you forget, Maxie-Max," Percy breathed into my ear, the air causing the small tufts of hair that curled around my neck to flare out. "I was the one who kicked ass at monopoly, not the other way around."
"Whatever," I grunted as I walked into the Big House, ignoring Percy even though he was still tightly glued onto my back, bemoaning into my ear as I yanked him along with me. "Get off of me so I can talk to Chiron, you ass."
Percy pouted and twisted himself around me, all but hanging off of my body as he whined, "No, I want to know what's going on. Firsthand."
"Chiron!" I shouted out, swatting at Percy until he untangled himself from me, wrapping his arm lazily around my shoulders and waiting for the centaur to join to two of us in the front room of the house. Sure enough, the soft clip-clop of hooves on polished wood reached our ears not a moment later. I smirked over at Percy as Chiron entered the front room and peered at the two of us, his head ducking slightly so as not to be hit on the doorframe.
"Max," Chiron greeted warmly, reaching forward to ruffle my hair affectionately despite my protests, "I'm glad that you were able to make it on time. We wouldn't want you to miss anything, after all."
"Ooh, Chiron," I sang out, wrapping my arm around Percy in lieu of poking teasingly at the centaur, "Do you have a surprise for me? Did you build a tower of chocolate-chip-ambrosia cookies just for me? Perhaps a chocolate fountain? Pancakes made of nectar and Nutella? Tell me, Chiron, don't just leave me hanging here."
Chiron chuckled and gestured vaguely towards Percy, whose grip on my shoulder had tightened excitedly. "Percy will take you to your surprise. Please, feel free to join the campers tonight for dinner, they love it when you visit, after all."
I nodded evasively before allowing Percy to pull me out of the Big House at a speed that easily rivaled how he had dragged his feet behind him before. I laughed loudly at his eagerness and swatted at him as he continued to yank me towards where the large collection of cabins were. The original twelve sat in a comfortable U-shape, a dwindling hearth burning in the middle of it all. Spread out beyond them were the cabins of the minor gods and goddesses, as well as Hades' cabin.
"You are going to love this," Percy squawked happily as we rounded a small cropping of cabins and rolled up in front of what seemed to be a freshly built cabin. I tilted my head as I stared at it, trying to identify which god it may belong to. It was built from heavy looking logs and was coated with mosses and vines, giving it a very rural look. Along the doorframe there were intricately carved birds that glowed as if the night sky had been inserted into them.
"Holy shit," I whispered before rounding on Percy with a shocked look on my face, "Holy shit, Perce, is this mine? Is this my cabin? Is this a cabin for me? Is this cabin mine? Holy shit, is this real?"
Percy laughed lightly as he grabbed me and turned me about to face the cabin again. He gave me a light shove towards the door and made a gesture as if to urge me into the cabin, which I happily obliged to, swinging the door open with vigor and immediately gasping at the sight, much to Percy's amusement if the chuckle he let out was anything to go by.
Inside the cabin there was a small collection of bunks on one side of the room, the other side busy with a small stone pit filled with a few ever glowing embers and blackened charcoal, obviously a small spot for whatever prophecies the night brought along with it.
When I turned back to Percy, a goofy smile had spread across my face and I quickly ran at him and embraced him, the tight hug he was stuck in making him grunt quietly.
"You should really be thanking Annabeth," Percy huffed out breathlessly once I had let go of him, still not letting go of his shoulders as I snuck glances back at my cabin. My cabin! Mine! It was made for me! "She was the one who came up with the blueprints, and the Hephaestus kids were the ones who built it. All I did was approve the building of it at a meeting and show it to you."
I screeched at him nonetheless and pulled him into another coma-inducing hug. Finally, I let go of him, smiling apologetically as he coughed roughly from all of the squeezing I had wrought on him. Instead, I wrapped an arm around his shoulders as he had done to me when I first arrived. "Come on, Perce," I hummed happily, "I've got a shit ton of people to squeeze to death, and you are most definitely accompanying you."
Percy let out a loud laugh and swung his own arm around me, "Oh, Maxie," he teased, "I would follow you even if you had said that I couldn't."
