Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HOO/TOA
Chapter Five Half-Bloods: A History, (My First Day Part Two)
Once all my stuff had been 'secured', (Luke showed me a few loose floorboards that he hid his sentimental things, and I shoved my bag inside,) the two of us headed on a proper tour of Camp. It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen.
We met a few people while wandering around too. Silena Beauregard, head counsellor for Aphrodite, and Charles Beckendorf, current eldest son of Hephaestus, in the forges. Katie Gardener and a few of her sisters in the strawberry fields, Will Solace, a son of Apollo, and I chatted for a bit about music and Luke practically had to drag me away from the stables (and the beautiful pegasi within) where I met Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate, I liked in particular.
Eventually, we ended up on the beach. It gave me a sense of peace, hearing the familiar sounds of the waves and smelling the salty smell of the sea. I guessed that Montauk, my home with my mother until I was eight and where I continued to run to afterwards, was only about an hour's walk from here. A pang of homesickness and grief hit me and I wished that my mother was here. I wished she'd been the on to tell everything to me, instead of Chiron and Grover.
"Are you okay?" Luke asked me gently. There was no teasing lilt to his tone, only concern. I wrapped my arms around my torso and inhaled shakily.
"It's a lot to take in," I murmured. I gave a weak smile. "I think it's finally hitting me that I'm not dreaming. This is real. I feel like I'm trapped."
I breathed the last sentence out so quietly I'm amazed that Luke heard it. He wrapped his own arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer as we slid to the ground in a hug. Tears welled in my eyes and spilled over, Luke rocking me and whispering soothingly into my dark hair until I finally regained control of myself and pulled back.
"Thanks," I croaked out, wiping my eyes as Luke politely verted his gaze to give me a semblance of privacy.
"I get that it's hard," he told me when I was finished. "You're not the first person I've comforted after they finally realized that we weren't all crazy."
"Oh, that's a shame," I interjected with a weak grin. "All the best people are, you know."
Luke grinned and chuckled. "Funny," he said in amusement. "Maybe you're a daughter of Athena. Most demigods don't bother with reading or English literature. Dyslexia, you know?"
"I get it," I answered. I hesitated before elaborating. "My mother wanted to study English and be a writer but she had to drop out of school when she was in her first year of college. She was always reading classical literature to me. I have a lot of stuff downloaded onto my iPod, and for the actual books." I shrugged. "The headache's worth the connection to her."
Luke nodded but changed the subject. I appreciated his tact. When it comes to Mom, I have very little tolerance for, anything really, unless it's a compliment to her.
"So do you have any questions about Camp?"
I raised an incredulous eyebrow. "I didn't ask any earlier because I was saving them up," I replied dryly.
Luke smirked inclining his head at me. "Go on then," he gestured and I paused for a second to put my thoughts into order.
"Why does Athena have kids?" I finally settled on to start with. "Isn't she a maiden goddess like Artemis and Hestia?"
Luke looked surprised at my chosen question but answered easily. "She is yeah," he agreed. "Athena's children are born from her thoughts. She meets someone with a high intellect, spends some time with them, and goes back to Olympus. Then she imagines what their child would look like and voila! Newborn baby. She leaves them with their other parent then."
"So do some of her children have mortal mothers as well then?"
"Yeah, actually, gender doesn't really matter to the gods. For example, Kayla Knowles from Apollo has a mortal father and there's a few others too."
"Huh," I muttered. I was kinda curious about that but went on. I still had a lot of questions that I wanted answered after all.
"Are we allowed to leave whenever we want? And what happens with our education?"
"Okay," Luke began, clapping his hands together. "So, basically, during the summer, you can only leave if you're a part of a quest. At the end of the summer, you decide if you're staying or leaving for the year. Most people stay, we tend to have troubled home lives. Camp's home for us. During the year, you can leave with permission from Chiron. As for education, Chiron teaches us everything we need to do our SATs, and arranges them for anyone who asks too. Best part is everything is in Greek and interactive so we don't struggle with our ADHD and dyslexia. That's only for year-rounders, though."
I nodded with narrowed eyes as I continued. "Why are some cabins empty?"
Luke took a deep breath and released it before he answered, tension lining his brow. "Cabin Two belongs to Hera," he started, obviously choosing his words carefully. "As the goddess of marriage, all her children are Zeus'." I nodded as Luke went on. "Cabin Eight is Artemis' cabin. She doesn't have kids but her Hunters stay there when they come to visit camp."
From his grimace, I guessed that he had bad memories of the Hunters, either at Camp or out.
"Then there's One and Three," he looked grim as he explained. "They're for Zeus and Poseidon. The Big Three aren't supposed to have children anymore."
"Why not?" I couldn't stop myself from pushing. "Practically 90% of the myths were about Zeus' sons. And there were a lot about Poseidon's too."
Luke grimaced and raked a hand through his short blonde hair.
"Officially, their children are too powerful. We inherit powers from our parents' domains and Big Three kids are the strongest demigods, like the Three themselves are the strongest gods. Zeus' kids could call down lightning strikes or cause tornadoes. A son of Poseidon caused the Long Beach earthquake in 1933, killed 120 people. And supposedly his descendant was accused of causing the 1906 one as well. And Adolf Hitler was a son of Hades, and that's enough said about that. Supposedly they're too powerful to control themselves.
After World War II, which had Hitler for the Axis Powers, and Roosevelt, a son of Zeus, and Churchill, son of Poseidon, for the Allies, leading it, the Big Three took an oath on the Styx to never sire any other demigod children again. That's the official story anyway."
I'm sure that my face was ashen. "And the unofficial one?" I asked.
Luke shot me a wry grin. "Caught that huh? Yeah, it's not the real reason. If it was, they probably would've tried centuries ago. The only heroes recorded to have fought gods or Titans and lived, sometimes even defeated them even, were Big Three kids after all. Really, what happened was the Oracle made a prophecy. A child of the Big Three would either save or destroy Olympus, and Western Civilization with it at sixteen. That's why they made the Oath."
"But they didn't keep it," I guessed shrewdly. "You said that they aren't supposed to have kids anymore, not that they don't at all."
"You're clever," Luke told me. He flashed a grin at me but it disappeared as soon as it arrived. Pain and grief were in his eyes as he continued without any emotion. Which, in itself said a lot about how much this hurt him. "In 1986 to 87, about nineteen years ago, Zeus had an affair with a TV starlet named Beryl Grace. They ended up having a daughter in 1987. Thalia.
She ran away from home when she was nine. Camp sent a satyr to get her to safety, but she'd teamed up with two other demigods. Their combined scent was too strong, and Hades was enraged by Zeus breaking the Oath.
They were attacked constantly and the satyr eventually made a wrong turn. They got to the hill but they wouldn't have made it over the border. Thalia made the others go ahead while she bought them time. As she was," he faltered in his monotone telling of Thalia's fate before forcing himself to continue. "Dying, Zeus turned her into that pine tree. Her lifeforce strengthens the barriers. Keeps all of us safe."
I studied him for a minute in silence before speaking tentatively. "You and Annabeth were the demigods she teamed up with, weren't you." It was a statement, not a question. Luke nodded, looking pained. I didn't say 'I'm sorry', knowing from experience how much it doesn't help. I just took his hand and sat in silence with him as he weathered the renewed storm of grief.
"Why tell me all of this?" I asked eventually. I thought it was a valid question. He didn't have to tell me the unofficial parts of the, well it seemed wrong to call it a story when Thalia had died because of it. History, then.
He turned to look at me and I was startled at the intensity of his blue eyes. I could practically see the different shades in them, he was looking so deeply at me.
"I'm not a son of Apollo," he told me. "I don't see the future. But I do have good instincts. And they're telling me that it's important that you know this, and as soon as possible, too."
I bit my lip, dread coursing through me at the thought of this information being relevant to my future. My mother's voice, echoing a long-forgotten conversation with someone who's identity I'd never known, sounded in my head.
"I won't give up my baby! How can you ask me to?"
"I ask you to for her sake!" The strange man's voice snapped back. It sounded odd, like he wasn't really there. "If you keep her with you, they'll find her eventually. It's only a matter of time. And now that Zeus' daughter is dead, I have no leverage-"
"That's a little girl you're talking about!" Mom interrupted, sounding horrified. "How you think of an innocent girl as leverage?"
"I'm thinking of Ana. Sally-"
"No, I won't. Now I'm done. Leave, you only put her in danger by coming here."
"I really hope you're wrong about that," I told Luke hoarsely after the sound of a conch shell being blown returned me to the present. He stood, offering me his hand to help me to my feet as well.
"Me too. Come on, that's the call for dinner."
The pavilion was framed in Greek columns on a hill that overlooked the sea. There were no walls or roof anything to cover the mess hall. Torches blazed from the columns and a central fire was burning inside a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each table had a white cloth with purple trim. I liked it, it had a friendly, comfortable air in it.
Everyone in Cabin 11 lined up behind Luke and followed him to our table where we were served our dinner by wood nymphs. I wasn't surprised that the food itself was Greek-styled health food.
I had BBQ, grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, and fresh bread. I wouldn't really have considered anything except the BBQ dinner food, but I wasn't about to object. Long periods of time without steady access to any food, let alone good food, had taught me to eat whatever was on my plate without objection.
Luke leaned over to whisper into my ear. "We have to sacrifice a bit of our meals to the gods before eating," he explained softly to me. "I'll show you."
We headed up to the brazier with our plates. For a second I was sure that I saw a young looking girl sitting in the flames but when I blinked, the image was gone again.
Luke pushed a small portion of his meal into the fire, saying "Hermes," in a clear tone. I stepped up beside him, hesitating for a moment before pushing in some of my own food.
"Hestia, and Hermes," I muttered. The brazier had reminded me of Hestia, whom I'd always liked the most in the myths, or history books I suppose. And seeing as I was staying in Hermes' cabin, it seemed like basic politeness to give him some too.
"Most people just direct it to their parents," Luke commented lowly as we wandered back to the table.
I jutted out my chin stubbornly. "It takes more than conceiving a kid to be a parent, Luke," I replied. "If he acknowledges me, I'll sacrifice to him too. Don't see the point of doing so before that."
He glanced down at me, a smile playing on his lips. "Sleeping Beauty, you are definitely gonna be a breath of fresh air around here."