Chapter 3

Skye looked around. She was dreaming, that much was obvious. She was on a battlefield, abandoned but bits of fabric, blood spatters, and broken medieval weapons still littered the ground. She looked around and spotted a single figure standing in the rubble. She looked very familiar and suddenly it hit Skye. She looked just just the adult version of a bully who had teased Skye in school, Jamie Kavorski. She had short, curly black hair and tall black boots on as well as a red jacket and black jeans. Her eyes were sharp and piercing, their color deep blue. She leaned against a huge, dangerous-looking motorcycle and was tapping a wound up whip against her leg.

"Jamie?" Skye asked. The woman looked up, appearing to notice Skye for the first time.

"Is that who you see? The girl who teased you?" She stood up straight and took a few steps forward so she was a couple yards away. She looked Skye up and down, appraising her. "You must not have very deep grudges. I will appear as whoever you want revenge against."

"You're Nemesis." Skye guessed. "The goddess of revenge." The goddess nodded, apparently pleased at being recognised.

"Yes, but I'm not only the goddess of revenge. Revenge comes with other things too. I'm the goddess of balance, justice, and retribution. Revenge is just a harsh word for justice. Some would say vengeance. It's all the same, but different."

"That kinda makes sense." Skye agreed. "Why am I dreaming of you though?"

"Because I invited you here…" Nemesis said carefully. "My daughter." Skye almost missed it, thinking of her own questions. She mentally halted herself and replayed the last sentence.

"Daughter? You're-"

"Yes." Nemesis answered. "I'm your mother. When you awake tell Chiron. I will claim you properly in front of the campers so no one shall doubt your heritage."

"Uhh… thanks." Skye stuttered. Nemesis chuckled.

"I wanted to tell you more-or-less in person. Many of the gods are disconnected with their children but I'm trying to make an effort to do otherwise. You are special, my daughter. I will not see you stuffed into the Hermes cabin."

"Okay." Skye agreed, perking up a little. "Can you tell me what happened to me? I've got a lot of unanswered questions."

"Partially, yes." Nemesis said. "You prayed for help when the wolves were after you, but not to any particular Greek god. I heard you though and did the first thing I could think of on short notice. I turned you into wind. I like wind and air because it doesn't weigh in any direction on my scales. In is always even. Unfortunately, I couldn't just change you back after the wolves had left. That would be unfair. Too much good luck. So, you stayed as wind for several years to balance out your luck. I saved your life and took some of it away. You're 14 now. A freshman if you still intend to continue school."

"I'm not sure whether to thank you or not but I appreciate you hearing my prayer." Nemesis smiled.

"You're very welcome, child. I haven't much time left. Zeus still limits interactions between gods and mortals. I can not tell you much more, but know that you had better train hard. You have very little time before you must accomplish something important. You are special. Be brave."

"I'll try." Skye promised although she was practically begging to have more time to ask questions. The dream faded away.

Skye sat up with a bolt and threw away her covers. Piper was still there but it was day now, probably about 10 o'clock. Skye was still slightly sore but she felt much better rested and ready to move. Piper stood and walked over, a smile on her face.

"Skye! You're awake again! How you feeling?"

"Much better." Skye promised. "I need to talk to Chiron. He's the centaur, right?"

"Yeah." Piper said. "I don't know how you know that, or even who you are really, for that matter, but come on." She headed for the tent entrance and Skye followed quickly behind. They jogged up to a large area with lots of cabin-like buildings that looked very diverse and random. "There's Chiron!" Piper pointed to a large stallion-man talking to two burly campers who looked about ready to kill each other with the soccer balls they were holding. Skye nodded her thanks and ran over. When Chiron spotted her he turned and smiled.

"Skye!" He greeted. "I'm glad to see you up! Can you tell us any of what happened to you? Didn't you say you were attacked by wolves?"

"Yeah." Skye said. She relayed what Nemesis had told her plus what she already knew about Lycaon and where she had come from. Her full name was Skye Finavish and her father was a police officer in a small town in Idaho called Winterset. It had a population of about 5,000 and was pleasant enough. She had grown up happy enough, not ever questioning her lack of a mom, but always an outsider at school. She didn't really have any friends. Somebody might stick with her a week or so but she never said the right things and would scare them off. She liked to try and keep the peace but felt like some people had all the luck and that drove her crazy. She didn't like it when people lied either. That just meant they were willing to cheat to get what they wanted. Her father had broken the news to her about the Greek gods, minus the fact that she had a godly parent, on the day that Lycaon had appeared at her house and, after politely introducing himself, tried to attack her. Her father had driven her away but Lycaon had caught up, again and again. One day, after less than two weeks of running, her father had gone out to get some food when Lycaon had reappeared. Skye had grabbed a hunting knife from her father's collection before being chased into the woods where she ran from the wolves for two days. Her father must have been worried sick and now that she thought about it, she had no idea how he was. While she was chased, she had staved off a few wolves with few knife before she dropped it and was forced to run. She had thought she would die that day. She didn't tell Chiron all of this, just the shortened and much less personal version. When she had finished with discovering that Nemesis was her mother, she felt a ripple of energy run through her. She saw a slight glow and looked up to see a shining silver symbol of two scales balancing evenly, mounted on a wheel.

"That's the symbol of Nemesis isn't it?" Skye asked as the symbol faded. Chiron looked uncomfortable but he nodded.

"Yes." he turned to the two camper who had resumed fighting. "Damien, this is Skye Finavish. Skye, this is Damien White. He's the only other camper here who has Nemesis as a godly parent. He's technically your half brother but don't try going into relationships with your godly side. It gets… complicated to say the least."

"Okay then." Skye agreed. She looked at Damien White and smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"Would you mind giving her the big tour?" Chiron asked Damien. "Piper said she'd make sure she got a weapon tomorrow but she'll be sleeping in your cabin tonight."

"That's cool, I've finally got a cabin mate." Damien shrugged. "Come on sis!" he walked up to Skye and gestured at the rest of camp. "We've got a lot of walking to do!"

Two hours or so later Skye found herself standing outside of the Nemesis cabin. It was well-build and gray in color. White pillars acted as supports in each corner and the tall roof was edged in silvery metal that gleamed in the sun. At the very was a scale, balanced by the wind. Damien showed her inside, promising her it was comfortable. The inside was quite different from the outside. The walls were painted dark blue and the floor was tiled in black and white squares except for gray carpeting in the back, where there was wooden table and chairs, and a rug at the door. A wooden clock sat ticking on the table, flanked on each side by a scale. There were two bunk beds on either side of the room. The bottom one on the right was all wrinkled, obviously Damien's spot, and the one above it had lots of random supplies and a backpack of his stuff. It wasn't messy, it was actually pretty organized, but Skye wouldn't have gone so far as to call it clean. It was more like… lived in. She climbed onto the top left bunk and set down an extra pair of clothes that she had been given. That was all she had. Then she told Damien she was tired again and lay down, falling asleep.