In the next few days, I tried to fall into some semblance of routine.
It worked. Kinda.
The problem was that, unfortunately, I was overqualified and underqualified for several of Camp Half-Blood's activities to an… extreme… extent.
First, Chiron signed me up for Ancient Greek lessons with Annabeth. That would have been fine if I wasn't already fluent in Ancient Greek and many of it's different forms.
After what was a very frustrating session for her, Annabeth marched me up to the Big House so I could demonstrate to Chiron and Dionysus why I should be teaching the class instead of being taught it. Dionysus seemed to have the time of his immortal life quizzing me on the all the Greek dialects, switching his words from Attic to Doric to Ionic to Aeolic Greek, even going as far to throw in some Mycenaean Greek and Koine Greek- which I stumbled over as I had only looked at them in passing and Pallas knew it, but still their memories are too hazy. Eventually, I very politely snapped at him in modern Greek that no, I'm not a nerd for knowing a lot of Greek dialects, languages are just my special interest, and could people stop saying I'm Athena's son?
Annabeth ended up handing me back to Luke with the words "Well, if he's not my brother, maybe he's yours, because he needs the power of the god of languages to know so many."
Neither of them knew what I said in Russian, but if Sasha was here they would've been laughing their butt off.
Then, they would try to rotate me through a few outdoor activities.
Canoeing went just fine, right up until the naiads got over excited at seeing me and suddenly I was sitting at the bottom of the lake. Mark Zelon, the Ares kid who was stuck with the lifeguarding duty, ended up diving in after me in a panic, and I had to make a hasty excuse that the naiads gave me an air bubble. Thankfully, everybody was too busy joking that the naiads tried to kidnap the 'cute kid' to notice that I grew gills briefly.
The Climbing wall was just one big heart attack, and to my utmost embarrassment, I started crying halfway up the wall. I got up a good twenty feet off the ground, with another ten feet to go, before I realised how high I was off the ground and how it's so easy for me to fall and how I'm surrounded by lava and the Pallas part of me started screaming for her Pater, and next thing I knew Luke was carrying me down the wall because I froze. A few kids started snickering at me, which absolutely did not help the situation, but I did end up getting a hug and a new friend out of the mess.
Luke had passed me to Silena as soon as he got me back on the ground, who started fussing over me and telling it's fine because she did the same thing the first time she got on the 'Climbing Wall of Death and Broken Nails' as she put it. Luke gave me a hug, but then Aaron and Chiara started snickering at me, and Silena's little sister stepped in to yell at them. Drew called them 'Monkey-Faced-Idiots-With-Projected-Insecurities' and then grabbed my hand to drag me off to fix my red eyes with some makeup.
She was awesome, and I have decided that if she, Sasha, and Olivia ever meet, they would overthrow Olympus.
The running races went a little bit better, if by better I mean that there was no crying and I managed to complete the activity. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it as they'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods (one of them bragged about outrunning Hermes once and I mentally scheduled A Talk with him).
Wrestling was a fun activity, as instead of instructing us himself, Luke and Silena gathered the younger half of their Cabins (everyone 15 and younger, so only 10 of us) and dropped us off with Clarisse so they could hang out with their friends without being interrupted with their counselor duties. Despite this being a clearly regular thing, Clarisse had this deer-in-headlights look that is familiar to anyone who isn't very used to dealing with children (Athena gets this look whenever a child that isn't mostly independent approaches her). Clarisse absolutely wiped the floor with me, but I managed to get a few good hits in.
"Good job, tiny," She told me through a bloody nose, holding the pink handkerchief Drew handed her to her face.
Silena fussed over her girlfriend when she came back.
Weapons training was a very mixed bag that ended with Helion Days, the Apollo Cabin Counselor, declaring that his dad must have cursed me.
In my defense, I told Chiron I don't know how to use a bow and arrow, I don't know what he was expecting when he told me Archery was compulsory at Camp. Well, probably not being shot while he was standing behind me, but really that's just an example of my amazing skills.
...I should probably ask for proper Archery lessons when I get home, even if Triton is going to grouch about how you can't shoot a bow underwater anyways.
Then came the sparring lessons.
I know my strengths lay with my spear, and that I've had two lifetimes of using it as my main weapon, but I just couldn't stand the idea of fighting with it. I got as far as transforming my necklace into it, but the panic rose in my throat at the sight of the weapon that killed me. It protected and hurt me. I nearly threw up then and there.
I sparred with a sword instead.
It was the 6th that I officially had my first sword lesson, as the sparring lessons were split up between swords, spears, and other miscellaneous weapons- though the dagger and knife lessons tended to be joint with the sword lessons.
Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.
We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I did just fine, fluidly moving through each motion, just like how Triton had taught me to do.
The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me. When Triton tossed me one of his old swords that he used when he was learning how to fight as a kid, it was far more balanced in my hands than any of the swords at Camp, and I began wondering if it was because the swords were forged for land-dwellers.
We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.
"Good luck," Travis (Maybe? I can't tell him and Conner apart) told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."
"I'll be fine," I said, not at all confident in that statement.
Maybe-Travis snorted.
At least Athena has taught me that every failure is a lesson, even if said failure leaves bruises. 'Better in the practise ring than the battlefield,' she would say. The practise ring can be just as bad as the battlefield… And Athena is such a hypocrite, she threw a tantrum because I beat her in a shield spar.
To everyone's surprise (and my own- with a title like 'Best Swordman' I expected a harder fight, but I suppose the fact that I've only been fighting gods may mean my scale of ability is off) I kept up with Luke.
It wasn't an even match; he was twice my height and weight, and I have actually only been sword fighting for the past year- more not than often, as the whole 'hide your abilities at Yancy' problem. But he was only getting in a few glancing strikes, nothing deadly on a battlefield, and I only needed the occasional instruction on my footwork.
Which, really? My footwork is impeccable for a being of the Sea. Have you ever seen Triton fight fresh out of the water with no support from his powers? He's far more clumsy on land with two feet than he lets on- he keeps cheating and using his godly powers for some extra grace and poise. I don't! I can fight on both land and Sea equally well!
Whap!
"Focus Percy!" Luke chided, sounding so much like Triton that I fought the urge to snap back in Halmaheran. All my instructors said my head drifts when I fight.
By the time he called a break, I was drenched in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, and as much as I wanted to do the same, I knew it would technically be cheating. I couldn't really drink it either as it was a day of fasting and I couldn't drink water other than during meal times (Hermes insisted I do, he says I'll faint because beings of the Sea can't go without water all day), so I just stared at the drinks cooler mournfully.
"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."
"Go ahead," I replied, then blushed as I realised that it was a rhetorical question.
He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon. "This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."
A brown haired boy snickers from the crowd, and Luke mutters a "Don't be smug, Al."
He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand. "Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"
I nodded, and Luke came after me.
I held him off for a good few seconds, and then Luke suddenly attacked again with renewed aggressiveness. I gasped at the shock of his sword hitting mine so heavily that my knees nearly buckled, and for a second it wasn't Luke I was fighting, but Athena. And Zeus was watching.
In my panic, I did the only thing I could do. I did the disarming technique.
My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.
Clang.
Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.
The other campers were silent.
I tried to push down my panic, pushing down the part of me that lingered and mixed with Pallas, and tried to blink away that vision of Zeus' eagle crying out as pain blossomed in my torso.
For a moment, Luke was shocked. His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you not proud? Show me that again!"
The ringing caw was still in my ears, even if the vision seemed to have mostly faded.
"K-can I n-not?" I asked weakly, "I ff. I ff-eel re-ally diz-dizzy."
Luke tried to insist, but when I fell trying to get back into the position and then didn't respond to him calling out my name, he quickly decided to take me to the infirmary instead.
Helion looked like he was going to tear his hair out when I refused to have any nectar, and seeing as all my words suddenly got stuck in my throat, barely able to sound out the 'ff' and 'k' sounds in a word quietly- much less say everything out loud- I ended up writing down on a piece of paper that it was the day before Noumenia and I was supposed to fast.
Luke and Helion looked confused, and I heard Luke mutter about 'Ramadan already?'
But then Luke sat down and gently coaxed me into drinking the nectar because no matter the religion, you're allowed to break the rules surrounding food if it saves your life or if following the rules means your wellbeing is at risk. I wanted to argue but whatever sort of panic attack that was left me so exhausted I eventually let myself drink a tiny glass of nectar, though I felt guilty about it.
I went back to Cabin 11 and ended up sleeping the entire afternoon away, only waking up again for dinner, where I only drank a glass of water.
oOoOoOo
The next day, I woke up bright and early to give Luke a heart attack when he found me missing.
He found me eventually, sharing breakfast with Hestia.
Luke was clearly confused, especially when I handed him a waffle and told him "Happy Noumenia!"
"Blessed Noumenia," Hestia gently corrected me.
"Oops, sorry."
Luke took the waffle, staring at it like it was a foreign object. "Percy, you can't sneak out of the Cabin in the middle of the night like that- the Harpies might eat you."
"I was with Hestia the whole time though!" I protested, "And I'm supposed to share breakfast on Noumenia."
Technically, I was supposed to share and offer a whole feast with the household gods on Noumenia, but Hestia was fine with just sharing breakfast with me.
"Thank you for looking after my runaway camper, Lady Hestia," Luke said rather stiffly and through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry for him imposing on you."
Hestia gave him that sorrowful look, the one she had whenever a camper would walk right past her and the hearth would flicker and die down a bit. "Percy is no imposition, and neither are you. Sit, Luke, and eat."
Mechanically, Luke did, looking like this was the last place he wanted to be. Luke has that look sometimes, whenever he talked to Chiron and Dionysus, and when he talked about his dad. I think he has a problem with authority figures or something.
I handed him a glass of chocolate milk. "My mom says that chocolate milk can do everything but perform necromancy, and you look tired."
He gave me that confused yet amused look that I'm getting used to receiving at Camp, and drank.
"Please don't do that again, and if you must, please leave a note," He told me.
"Okay," I agreed. "I'll be disappearing tomorrow morning too."
He sighed, not letting his eyes close, but clearly exasperated. "Too many kids," he muttered under his breath before taking a bite of his waffle.
Hestia was silent, watching, and we took her example as we continued our breakfast in silence, other than my quiet whispering prayers as I tossed a few food bits into the hearth.
After a few minutes, we were found by Chris Rodriguez who informed Luke that the Cabin was up and that Alabaster was getting them ready for the day, sending Chris out to "Go find our missing deadly leader and the tiny deadly one."
I don't know why I have to get stuck with the nickname 'tiny' by everyone, or why I'm supposedly 'deadly' considering Alabaster is the one who's been working through my fear of the Climbing Wall with me, but I followed them back to the cabin after saying goodbye to Hestia.
Vaguely, I noticed that Pallas seemed to be nearly gone, only leaving behind her memories and experiences, and barely none of her own voice left.
Still, she managed to speak up just enough to give the vague impression of a goodbye to our Aunt Hestia.
A/N
I'm back! I'm not dead! I found my muse last night so I'm updating several fics at once, my poor poor inbox is going to be 100+ comments lmao, it's okay, I love reading and answering them!
So! Pallas is mixing more and more with Percy. Percy is suffering at Camp because he is,, you know,, a CHILD! This boy is afraid of heights and goes feral on a wrestling mat and infodumps during language classes! And he is also shown with, yknow, adhd traits unlike canon. When he gets overwhelmed he goes nonverbal and I described the way he did the same way as I get. Noumenia is shown, and Daimon is next chapter alongside Capture the Flag!
I also have a PJO discord server for this fanfic (and my other fics) that anyone can join! (Just remove the spaces) : / / discord . gg/ hfXGUeraTg