Lily's POV
When I saw those electric blue eyes, the memories came flooding back from when I was only 13 years old. I listened as Percy called him over to our group and watched him turn our way, before I faded into my memories, and there was nothing I could do to make it stop.
It was August 18, 3 years ago. I'll never forget it, because I had the strangest dream-at least I thought it was a dream then-that day. A monster followed me home, a Chimera I think it's called. It was my mistake to leave school alone, to head home by the alley between streets. It was almost dark already, so I thought maybe a shortcut would make it faster. I thought I'd get home safe, with no issues. I was wrong.
I woke up in my bedroom, in my bed. So of course it was only a nightmare right? My imagination? Now I'm not so sure, looking into his eyes.
The thing followed me all the way to the alley way, without my noticing. That was of course, until I finally turned around, hearing something scraping the brick wall behind me. The scraping sound? It's huge, snake-headed tail.
I screamed as it got closer, paralyzed and unable to move. My second mistake that day was to try and fight it on my own. The streets of San Francisco were eerily empty that day. No one was there to save me. A whole 2 minutes later I was flung against the cement ground, breathing heavily, a large gash down the side of my left arm.
That was when I saw him. The tall, relatively handsome, blonde boy with the electric blue eyes, running up from behind the monster, with a long golden sword in hand.
I passed out shortly after watching him slay the Chimera in front of my eyes and rush over to me.
When I woke up again, I was lying on a couch, the blonde haired boy standing in front of me, and a crowd of kids both older and younger than me standing around us. This really annoying looking different blonde kid stood a few feet ahead of the crowd, a white cape on his back, and a teddy bear under his arm. I was dizzy, but tried my best to listen in to their conversation.
"Jason Grace, why have you brought this girl here," The kid with the bear shouted, which was pretty dumb considering the bo-Jason was right in front of him. I could tell right off the bat this kid wanted all the attention. Jason paused a minute, before talking.
"She's one of us, Octavian. A monster almost killed her a few minutes ago. We need to let her into the Legion…we could always use more warriors in the battle at Mount Othrys," Jason explains, turning briefly to me, noticing at last that I had woken up. He gives me a sad smile before turning back to…Octavian. For a moment I wondered about what he said. Mount Othrys, like, in Greece?
"She cannot join. She has not yet proved her worth by training with Lupa. True Romans show no fear, if she did indeed almost die, then she is not worthy to join the Legion." Octavian declares. He was making me angry. I wondered if anyone else had noticed the small pipe burst a few roofs away, water sprouting from the hole. A taller girl, with beautiful long black hair in a braid, and a purple cape along her shoulders steps forward from the crowd. She's regal. She's got power.
"Jason, though I admire your compassion, Octavian is right. She can't join the Legion until Lupa has tested her." The girl says. The gold on her cape shines. It only makes me dizzier.
"But Reyna-" Jason objects, silenced by her hand.
"I'm sorry, Jason. But as Praetor of Camp Jupiter, I cannot allow her to join. Its law," Reyna states, sympathy in her tone. It was obvious to me then that they were close, but it was also obvious that if she had let me join whatever it is Jason wanted me to join, she'd be faced with trouble among the crowd of kids. She was strong. She glanced at me for a moment, an immediately I felt the strength return to my bones, so much so that I was able to pull myself into a sitting position in front of the crowd of kids. They looked at me strangely, like I was a single strip of bacon in the middle of a pack of dogs. It was weird. She was magical.
Which of course was another reason I thought it was only a dream. No one could give strength to someone else, right?
But then again, if Jason really was a real person, that meant Reyna and Octavian must've been real too. It's just too hard to believe, even knowing now that I am a demigod, with strange powers of my own.
Jason helped me to stand, and we were starting to walk away when I felt a sudden surge of sleepiness. Like someone had hit me with a brick, that sudden.
"Bring her back to wherever she came from, Grace." I heard Octavian say, just before I passed out again, and everything went dark.
The next morning I woke up in my bed, not a scar on my arm, nothing. A strange dream indeed.
Except, I kept seeing the blonde haired boy on and off for a year. I could've sworn I'd seen him in the shadows, watching me, many times I'd walked home from school alone, without Becky.
The same Becky who turned out to be a monster.
A monster trying to kill me, the pipe bursting pulsing water into the sky when I got mad, Jason slaying the Chimera, the sensation of gaining my strength back instantly when Reyna looked my way…
All things that should not have been real. All characteristics of a really bad dream/nightmare.
I'd had plenty of other 'nightmares' about monsters following me home, plenty of other 'dreams' about bursting plumbing lines in school and dousing the people who'd made fun of me.
My mom had always made it clear that the things I'd seen, the things I'd done, were all just a result of my vivid imagination. So I believed that August 18th, was only a day in my mind.
Even after my mother had told me about my father and who I really was, the thought never crossed my mind that August 18th really happened. It was the only event I still refused to believe, until now.
Jason is right in front of me. The Jason from August 18th, who saved my life, and brought me to Reyna-who could give strength to others-and Octavian-the teddy bear kid. And I really did cause the pipe to burst. I did that with my anger alone.
Because I am a demigod, and so is Jason, and probably Reyna and Octavian too. And it's only really hitting me now.
Like a ton of teddy bears.
