Working on this one tonight as I'm not feeling up to working on anything else. Sorry!
I finished the Divergent trilogy today! What-? Why-? Uriah! D: And what-? OH MY GODS, THOSE BOOKS WERE INSANE! She- and- ASDFGHJKL.
"OK, so there's training and then there's, um…" Leo glanced at his wife, biting his lip. She stared right back. He should know the Camp's procedures by now, considering they spent the summer and some of the winter here- Christmas at Camp was lovely. "No, don't tell me." Leo raised his hands to silence his wife who hadn't even attempted to speak. "I know this, I know this!" He massaged his forehead with his knuckles, grumbling to himself.
Alokia took pity on her father after a few minutes of him trying to secure ADHD thoughts and remember what happened next.
"Armour, rock climbing, combat training, capture-the-flag-"
"Pegasi flying, canoeing and Ancient Greek." Leo finished proudly. "See, I did know!"
"You just need Kia to remind you." Elsie smirked.
"Shush you, horrible child." Leo scrunched his face up at his eldest daughter, to which she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Who's that?" Tobias pointed towards the hearth in the centre of the cabins. They all looked, Leo holding his hands by his eyes as if they were binoculars.
"Oh, Hestia." Elsie and Alokia ran towards the fire, Leo scrambling after them. Louisa kept in step with Tobias. He could feel the weight of her gaze on him and avoided looking at her for as long as he could.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"Want ta tell ya face that?" Tobias looked at her then, frowning. "Ya don't have ta tell me what happened if ya don't wanna, but if I can help…"
"I thought you didn't like me?"
"Can't say I'm a huge fan, but…" Her voice caught. She cleared her throat and rubbed the back of her neck. "You're all that's left of my brother." She said quietly.
"You were angry at me."
"Not you. The gods. As usual."
"Poseidon and Athena didn't seem that bad."
"Ya should meet the others then. Bunch of fruit loots." Thunder rumbled menacingly through the clear blue sky. Tobias glanced up nervously, but his aunt remained unfazed.
They caught up with Leo and the girls. There was a girl about Elsie's age wearing a soft brown dress and tending to the fire with them. She looked up at Tobias and he saw that her eyes were like the fire, homely and warm. She smiled kindly.
"Tobias, this is Lady Hestia, goddess of the hearth."
"It's so good to finally meet you, Tobias. I've been watching your progress."
"Progress." Tobias repeated distastefully. She simply nodded and gestured for him to sit next to her.
"You've done well, considering the circumstances. But you won't heal without help." Tobias dug his fingers into his palms. She was just trying to help and she seemed a genuinely lovely lady, but he didn't want to talk about it. "Claire is on her way." His anger subsided at that. His mother was coming here.
"Who's Claire?" Elsie asked.
"Tobias's foster mother, sweetheart." Hestia smiled kindly.
"Foster?" Elsie frowned. She looked at her father. "What's that?"
"I'm adopted." Tobias answered for her. Elsie looked at him curiously. Tobias sighed, clenching his fists. "I… I don't have… real parents…"
"Parents… like Mom and Dad?" Tobias just nodded. "Why?"
"Elsie." Leo put his hand on his daughter's shoulder and she stayed quiet, even though she clearly didn't agree with it. "I'll explain later, OK? Tobias is sulking." Leo made a face at Tobias, but Tobias wasn't paying attention, watching the flames twist and crackle and trying to spot pictures in the flame. It was an old game from when he and Claire went camping.
"Leo, if I'm not wrong, I think you have to take these two to their archery class." Leo glanced at his watch and cursed in Spanish.
"Up, up, up." He waved his daughters to their feet and chased them in the general direction of the archery range, shouting his thanks over his shoulder.
"Louisa, may I speak to Tobias for a moment, please?" Louisa glanced at Tobias suspiciously and then nodded, getting up and walking off, stopping about thirty paces away.
The goddess didn't speak for a moment, prodding the flames with a stick. "Your parents." She eventually said. "What are you worrying about?"
"It's nothing." Tobias muttered. "Just me being stupid."
"They won't be ashamed of you for any reason, Tobias. That was not your fault." She glanced at him. "You are not weak. And you will not disappoint them. They'll be proud of you whatever you do."
"It's nice that you know this and I don't." Tobias said quietly. Hestia studied him quietly and she didn't call him back when he found his feet and walked away.
"Yeah, you've got a face like thunder. What'd she say?" Louisa stared back at the hearth- Hestia was already gone.
"It doesn't matter." Louisa opened her mouth to reply, but Tobias didn't want to hear anything more of it. "Leo said I have to get armour and then go to some training class." She looked annoyed.
"Right." She led him away. Tobias looked back over his shoulder, the flames dancing merrily.
Two hours later, Tobias was kitted out with armour, shield and helmet. He had Riptide and his biological mother's knife, but they wanted to train him with lots of other weapons, including a trident.
"This," Louisa stated, holding the trident at an angle away from her and studying the prongs sadly with fond memories, "was Percy's." She looked at him and then back at the weapon and Tobias could tell she didn't want to let go of it- sentimental reasons.
She did hand it over eventually and it was evenly weighted in his hand. He saw 'PJ' carved into the base of the prongs.
"Percy Jackson." He mumbled. "Perseus." He added. Louisa gave a small smile. "Do you have one of these as well?"
"Yeah."
"You throw them?" She nodded. "Are you any good at that?"
"Daughter of Poseidon. It's practically a second nature."
"That's really cool. Can you teach me?" She gave another nod and ushered him out, thanking Leo's half-siblings as she left.
He followed her to the training arena. He saw a line of straw dummies at the other end of the arena, kids in armour throwing spears and javelins at them and other kids, also in armour, sparring against each other.
There was a loud bark and then a wall of black fur and he was knocked flat, the wind slammed out of him. All he could see was black and a giant pink tongue covering him in slobber.
"Mrs. O'Leary! Down!" Louisa ordered. The black mass backed off. Louisa pulled Tobias to his feet while Piper in armour passed a towel over, having appeared out of nowhere.
Cleaning off the slobber, Tobias looked quizzically at what had attacked him. It was a giant black dog that barked happily at him, wagging its tail and causing a breeze behind it. "Tobias, this is Mrs. O'Leary." Louisa smiled, scratching the giant dog under the chin. "She must've recognised ya."
"Recognised me? Wh-? Oh…" According to everyone, he was a spitting image of his father, save his eyes. "Was… was she… Dad's?"
"Uh, yeah. I'll explain later- there's a story behind it." Louisa picked up a nearby shield and threw it. The dog bounded after it, demigods scattering out of the way. "She's a hellhound."
"Hellhound?!" Piper snickered.
"Definitely his father's son." She smirked. Louisa nodded in agreement and then turned to the class, calling for attention. The demigods hurried to stand in a line, smallest to tallest, and at attention, their weapons at their sides. Louisa made to say something more, probably to introduce Tobias, but somebody interrupted her.
"Tobias?" A figure stepped forward, pushing her helmet back from her eyes.
"Sophia? You're a demigod?"
"So they say." She smiled. "Didn't know you were though, but it explains the weirdness."
"Tobias ain't a demigod, he's a legacy."
"What's that?" Sophia quizzed.
"Child of a demigod or demigods." Piper replied. "In Tobias's case, he's a legacy of Poseidon and Athena."
"Percy and Annabeth!" Somebody shouted. Louisa nodded grimly.
"They had a baby?"
"I didn't know that!" The class burst into chatter. Tobias felt nervousness creep over him and he subconsciously held his left bicep.
Sophia was the only one that hadn't joined in the chatter other than to tell them all to shut up.
"Piper, do ya thing or we gonna end up with a lot of extra dummies." Louisa said nonchalantly, studying a knife. Tobias wondered where that had come from, but he had quickly learnt not to ask with his aunt.
Piper grumbled, but stepped forward and cleared her throat.
"OK, settle down now!" Her voice carried across the demigods. There was a power to it that settled Tobias's nerves and released the tension from his shoulders. He dropped his hand from his upper arm and stared back at the class indifferently. Sophia broke ranks to move to his side, bumping him with her shoulder.
"You'll like it here. Lots of idiots to beat up." He smiled lopsidedly, trying for grateful, but probably ended up looking anxious.
"Who's your godly parent?"
"I don't know. Who'd you reckon?"
"Um…" Tobias hunched his shoulders.
"Oh, you're helpful."
"I do try." She hit his arm, laughing softly.
"Seein' as you're all buddy-buddy," Louisa cut across. "Why don't you 'n' thingy spar?"
"I'm Sophia."
"Right." Louisa crossed her arms over her chest and looked at them expectantly. "Trot off." She said, jerking her head towards the other demigods she and Piper had already paired up.
"Come on, Tobias. I'm going to kick your ass."
"Doubt that."
"And how much training have you had?" She challenged. Tobias just looked at her.
"I'm stubborn."
"And a sore loser, apparently." Sophia turned to smirk at him, but he had lost train of thought already, rolling a biro in his palms. "You're going to fight me… with a pen?"
"It's my dad's." He said quietly, uncapping it. Her eyes widened into fascination as it lengthened into a sword.
"I want one."
"Tough. It's mine."
Tobias was exhausted from training- Louisa seemed to pair him up against everybody in his class, but he quickly figured out that she was trying to find out if he had inherited his father's sword skills.
He was tempted to go to the Poseidon cabin, shower and go to bed, but then he remembered that Claire would be here soon and his tiredness dimmed, a light switch thrown and giving him extra energy to sprint towards the pine tree in full armour and wait there, eagerly watching the road at the base of the hill.
He stood there for fifteen minutes and then he saw her car trundle around the corner. He ran down the hill and reached the bottom at the same time she did.
"Tobias!" Claire scrambled from the car, leaving it running and hugging him tightly. "Oh, you're OK, you're OK. What are you wearing?" She pulled away from the hug and looked him up and down in confusion.
"Armour. I'll explain later." He promised.
"You are OK though, right?" She scanned his eyes worriedly, holding his face in her hands.
"I'm fine, Mom." Tobias assured. She smiled, tears of relief filling her eyes.
"Ooh, who's that?" Tobias turned. His aunt was making her way down the hill, Elsie and Alokia in tow. Leo was nowhere in sight, but knowing Leo, he'd spring up out of nowhere at the last second and scare the living daylights out of somebody.
"That's my aunt. She's my dad's twin."
"Twins? Wow…" Louisa reached them by that point. She looked Claire over warily. Claire held her hand out, giving a friendly smile. "I'm Claire Heights. Tobias says you're his aunt."
"Louisa Valdez." Louisa grasped Claire's hand briefly.
"Are these your daughters?" Claire turned her smile on Elsie and Alokia. "They look just like you! That's adorable!"
"Hey!" Elsie protested. Claire did a double take. "I'm not adorable!"
"That's Elsie." Claire squealed and whirled round. Leo grinned cheekily. "Leo Valdez." He said, extending his hand.
"You… where… where did you come from?"
"Narnia." He replied casually. "Elsie, be nice."
"She called me adorable." Elsie said 'adorable' as if it were the foulest, most degrading and strenuous insult in existence.
"Um…" Claire looked at Elsie fearfully.
"Don't worry." Leo assured. "She's got her mother's attitude."
"It's not an attitude. You just can't handle my personality."
"Attitude." Leo persisted stubbornly. Elsie folded her arms and sulked. "And this is Alokia or Kia. She's the opposite of Elsie, so flipping quiet."
"Don't know where she got that from." Louisa added. "We ain't the quietest of people."
"Alokia's a pretty name." Claire smiled. Alokia smiled bashfully, hiding behind her mother. "I don't bite." Claire assured. "What is this place anyway? And what's that under the tree?!"
"That's Peleus. He's a drakon. C'mon, tour time." Leo linked his arm with Claire's in a brotherly gesture and dragged her up the hill, shouting at the air/barrier to let her in.
"Is he always like that?" Tobias asked.
"No. Normally, he's more hyper."
"Oh…"
Not much, I know, but I was having a sulk last night and decided to make zombies' heads explode to 'relax' and this is all I've got. This week is going to be the death of me, I swear- IT'S D-R-A-G-G-I-N-G!