Title: Forgotten
Category: Books » Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Author: Morgan K'Treva
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Adventure/General
Published: 12-21-14, Updated: 11-05-16
Chapters: 17, Words: 18,321
Chapter 1: 1: Hera, Hephaestus, Fates
I stare impassively down the the mortal world, watching my husband and his newest conquest.
"Mother?" a voice called, and I turn to see my youngest son watching me, his face in that odd look of his that meant that he was concerned, but unsure of what to do.
"Hello Hepheastus," I say calmly, turning back to watch my husband. There was a moment of hesitation before footsteps came, echoing in the large hall, and a warm leather coat is draped over my shoulders.
"You shouldn't torture yourself," the god of fire said, gently nut firmly grasping my shoulders and turning me away from the mirror as my hands come up and grasp the coat to stop it from falling off.
"Thank you," I say, giving him a small smile before my face falls back to the weariness that I can never show my husband, and I bring the hand that isn't clutching at my coat up to rub at my eyes before turning to look at the heart fire and watching Hestia tend to it. "I'm just tiered of seeing him ignore me time after time. We had three hundred good years together, but then . . . I guess he got bored of me."
Hepheastus rubbed his bare arm, looking uncomfortable and shooting glances at Hestia, trying to ask for her help.
"I'm probably not the best to be talking about this and all," he said. "Aphrodite and I never really wanted to be together, and I'm horrible with people."
"I know," I sigh, turning slightly so that I can see just Zues's face in the mirror. "Sometime, I wish I could just go down there and do what all of you do."
Then I snort. "Look at me, the Goddess of Marriage wishing to cheat!"
Hephaestus shifted uncomfortably again before sighing.
"Look, it's not really my place to say anything, Mother," he said gruffly. "But I think that Zeus has forgotten your temper. I think that you should do whatever you want for once."
He smiled a bit, making the scars on his face twist. "After all, you had a condition for marrying him. He didn't remain loyal, so there is no reason your marriage is still valid, considering that was your condition."
A small smile starts to grow on my face as I nod slowly. "Yes, that was my condition."
I turn sharply to Hestia. "Sister-"
"Be careful," the old woman said, cloudy eyes staring straight at me. "I am tired of seeing you hurt, but you must be careful sister."
She smile after a moment. "Though I do believe that Hephaestus is right. We have all forgotten your temper, and Zeus should be reminded. Do not worry sister. I shall cover for you."
As I look into the eyes of a for that my sister has only take twice before, the impact of what I want to do hits me.
"Oh- oh- oh Rhea, Sister," I gasp my hands coming up to my mouth. "What will I-"
"Do not worry," Hestia smile at me. "Now go. Go to the mortals and find someone you like."
I have to fight back the urge to laugh as for a moment, I shed the calm and collected personality I had grasped for millennia and laugh wildly as I dart outside and fly out to the mortal world. I switch to an inconspicuous sparrow and fly above the crowds, looking for trends before I disappear between one flap and another, and reappear over the mountains, settling on a branch before letting myself take the form of the young woman I had not been in many year.
I stifle a giggle as I wave a hand over myself to change my cloths into one of the more sensible outfits I had seen before setting out to the nearest town.
It's been too long since I could just relax!
Back in the throne room, Hephaestus turned to look at his Aunt, who had once again resumed the form of a young girl.
"Are you sure this is alright?" he asked he.
"This is what she needs," Hestia replied, with a mysterious smile on her face. "It's time that this pantheon remembers that old times."
She turns to stare at him eyes sharp.
"Be careful nephew, times are changing, and I don't want you hurt," she said. "If you want a show, watch for what people have forgotten in their complacency."
She turned back to tending the fire with that, and Hephaestus could only shake his head in bemusement.
Clotho watched in amusement as the thread she had been weaving unraveled in her hand.
"Laches! Atropos!" she called, making her sisters turn, smiles coming to their faces as they saw the four new threads coming out of the one that Clotho had been weaving.
"So she finally snapped?" Laches asked in amusement.
"Yes," Clotho said. "Now look here, it seems that things long forgotten shall be dug up."
"Oh?" Atropos asked. "A fixed point now, then?"
"So it seems," Clotho said in amusement. "We haven't had a true one of those in a while now. This will be fun!"
The laughter of the three goddesses filed their room, and the lone animal close to them brayed softly before going back to eating the grass.
Hey, this is Morgan, with another story. I was just looking at things when Hera's condition for marrying Zeus came up. That's not the only this though, so stay tuned!
Chapter 2: 2: Imad, Zoe
"Asha!" Imad cried as he ran into the room.
"Imad," Asha replied, a flush still coloring her dark skin, but happy as she rocked the blue wrapped bundle in her arms. She motioned him closer, and as he sat down, tilted her arms so that he could see the child's dark pink skin. After a moment, the baby's eyes twitch and he blinks, revealing startlingly dark blue eyes. "Meet Thomas."
"He's a boy?" Imad asked, reaching up to gently touch Thomas's skin, brushing his forehead.
"Yes," Asha replied. "The doctors examined him and found nothing unusual, so it seems that the traits of who ever we summoned haven't shown up yet, and might not for a while."
"Really?" Imad asked, his eyes lighting up when Asha nodded. "That's-"
"Incorrect."
"Who's there?" Imad snapped, whirling around into a standing pose, his staff pulled out of the duat in a mere moment.
"Peace," the young girl said, raising her hands. "I am from his father's pantheon."
"Who are you?" Imad practically snarled.
"I am Hestia," the girl said. "May I sit? I have come with a warning for you about little Thomas."
"Hestia," Imad repeated, as if tasting the name as he pushed the chair he had been sitting on towards the child-god. "Greek Goddess of Hearth, Home, Hope, and Family."
"Yes," the girl said somberly, sitting on the chair and resting her hands on her lap, unconsciously smoothing out a few creases of her simple brown dress.
"Speak then, Goddess," Imad said, straightening. "What is it you have come for?"
"I have come to warn you about your child," Hestia replied, the reflection of a fire shimmering i her eyes as she turned her gaze to the child behind Imad. "The Fates have deemed that as Blood of your Pharaohs and child of our Gods, he has too much power for one mortal."
"Too much power for one mortal?" Asha whispered from behind Imad, and he turned to see her face was as pale as her dark skin would allow. "But-"
"You needen't worry just yet," Hestia calmed her. "In Greece, it is not our way to interfere with mortal lives overly much, so the fates would normally tie his life to that of an object."
Her lips twisted bitterly. "An object such as a piece of fire wood burning in your fire place. I believe that you call is sympathetic magic. This is their way of balancing the mortal's power."
"What do you mean normally?" asked Imad, catching the loop hole in what she had said.
"Well, this time, there were two others of similar parentage, identical in the way that matters to the fates," Hestia said, pulling a picture from her pocket of a woman and two new born children in her arms, a man with his arm around her shoulder as he smile at the camera, making Asha gasp. "This is Afra, and Simba Kokinos, with their two newborn children Selene and Zoe Kokinos."
"So she's alright?" Asha asked at the same time as her husband asked, "What do they have to do with anything?"
"Patience child," Hestia said sternly to Imad, before smiling at Asha. "Yes she is fine."
"Now, as I was saying," Hestia said, tucking the photo back into her pocket. "The twin's parents are much like you two. Afra, was sterile, her eggs were damaged in an accident when she was young."
Ashe gasped, her hand flying to her mouth before she frowned. "But didn't you say she had children?"
"Yes, I did," Hestia replied with a smile. "Now, once they realized this, they called upon the Greek gods, and they were blessed, two goddesses giving them starts."
"What does this have to do with Thomas?" Imad asked, still prickly thoguh he was content to sit on Asha's bed.
"Patience, Magician," Hestia said, exasperated. "Now because of their very much the same heritage, the fates bound their lives together. Should one die, then all three will."
"What?" Asha asked shocked. Hestia merely sighed, eyes flicckering to the ceiling.
"I'm sorry, but I must go now. Zues will be looking for me soon," she said, standing. She opened the door before pausing and turning.
"Take this," she said, tossing a silver bracelet. "Put it on Thomas's wrist, and don't take it off, not even for baths. You needn't worry about it growing too small for him, it will grow with him, and when he needs it, it will turn into a good weapon that should injure anything not of the mortals. Goodbye."
Imad caught the bracelet, and after glancing at Asha, he offered it to her so that she could put it on Thomas's wrist, as she was already unwrapping him.
A pair of sad fiery eyes watched the couple as they huddled close together on the bed as if it wold help them.
"May you stay safe, Thomas Sanna," a voice said, floating in the hall outside the door.
When the nurse turned the corner the next moment, there was nothing.
Five Years Later . . .
I scowl at the bowl of oil in front of me, and look up at Thomas and Selene as they listen to the heads of some other nome and write down their reports. I sigh as I wave my hand over my scrying bowl once with a muttered "Ha-tep" to cleanse the oil, and am about to try scrying the teacher again when the door to the the scryign room opens, and I look up, watching curiously as Chief Lector Iskandar comes in with an Arabian looking girl who looks a few years older than me, and I scowl at the people around me as I remember once again, that most of the initiates weren't brought here until they were ten.
I cleanse the oil again, and quickly reach out for the teacher's bowl, holding my breath when an image of the ceiling appears, wavering for a moment before it became stable, and I hiss a yes before I go quiet as I realize that I can hear the teacher's conversation despite the fact that he's away from his bowl.
"-need to be careful, and if you need any help protecting her just call for me," come the Chief Lector's voice from the bowl.
"I will. Are you certain she's alright?" came the worried voice of the teacher.
"She's fine," said the Chief Lector, and I hastily terminate the scrying session as I realize that they were approaching the bowl.
I cleanse the oil and try the scrying once again, smiling when the image of the teacher sitting down comes into focus.
"Yes!" I exclaim, pumping my fist into the air. "Finally!"
"Zoe?" the teacher asked in amusement.
"This is my second time getting your bowl old man!" I exclaim, getting 'Shut-up!' looks from the people around you.
"Really?" the teacher asked seriously, and I nod, making him smile. "Well, the how about I set you up with one of the other initiates so you can try it a few more times."
"Sure," I reply, and the teacher cut the connection off.
Chapter 3: 3: Zoe
They say everyone who looks into their family history will find a secret sooner or later.
We were all of six years old, and had only been initiates for a year when it happened. Ma and Aunt Imad had taken us to a pond when the first odd thing happened. I giant, and I mean giant, as in probably as tall as it's back hitting the bottom of the life guard's tower, came crawling out from the waves, sending people screaming. Selene, Thomas, and I are pushed behind the two women as they face the crab. The three of us kids grab each other's hands, squeezing almost painfully, and I think I that one of us whimpers as we huddle together.
This wasn't our first time being attacked while outside the nome, but usually we had at least three of our parents with us, and no witnesses. There was also the fact that after a year of training, we all knew when a person was loosing, and from the few glimpses we caught of our mothers when we dared to peak up said that the fight was not going good. Every weapon that the two women were using against the grab just passed right through it like it was made of air, but the way it managed to hit Ma and Aunt Imad told a different story. My hand clenches down even more painfully of Thomas's wrist, the rounded edges and braided wire of the silver-looking bracelet digging into the skin of my fingers. I can feel Selene doing the same thing to my right wrist, and there's a tugging from Thomas.
"What is it?" I hiss as he tries to tug us towards the water.
"What?" he replies, a confused look on his face even as he continues.
"Why are you tugging us to the water?" I ask, and he stops.
"I-" he frowns in confusion, but before he can continue, Selee gasps and tugs at my wrist, making me turn as she points at a monster that looked like the classic European gryphon, in other words, almost nothing like an Egyptian griffin. Thomas also follows Selene's finger, and abruptly starts tugging at me again, making me stumble this time.
"Come on," he says frantically, and with a glance back at the gryphon, I follow him, pulling Selene along as we run towards the water.
"What is it?" Selene yells as we sprint, stumbling over a rock as we start running down hill to the pond.
"I think the water can protect us some how!" Thomas yelled back, pulling Selene and me with him as he wades into the river. I grip his wrist tighter as I glance at Ma and Aunt Imad, who were too busy fighting the giant crab to think of helping us.
"I sure hope so," I tell Thomas. Then we yelp as the crab sends a ton of sand flying at us, our hands still inter locked as we raise them to protect our faces. After a moment, we cautiously look around our arms before gasping. Before us stands a swirling half-dome of sand, little patterns spiraling in and out of existence as we watch in awe. Beside me I can feel Thomas and Selene reaching out to touch it, but before their had had even risen above their waist, the and slowly shifted down to cover the ground, leaving a lifeless pile after a moment. Before I can register anything else, Ma is in front of me, gasping and crying as she pulls Selene and I into her grasp. I blink before I let go Thomas's hand to warp an arm around Ma, and he quickly wraps his arm around Aunt Imad, the two of the moving a couple of feet away.
"What were you thinking?" Ma asks when she finally pulls back, tears staining her face.
"Ma, did you see that?" asks Selene, her voice soft and wavering.
"See what?" Ma asked as she pulled back, but her eyes have that shifty glint that they always have when ever she speaks of the gods, especially when ever we ask her about any Greek references.
"Ma," I say, my voice soft as I lean forward and bury my face into her for a moment before pulling back. "I know you know something."
Ma looks between Selene and I before glancing up to look at Aunt Imad, and I turn to watch. Aunt Imad is looking resigned, and when Ma tilts her head, Aunt Imad nods, and picks Thomas up to carry him over to us. When Aunt Imad and Thomas have settled down next to us, Aunt Imad starts, "What do you know about the Greek Gods and their children?"
"Their children?" Selene asks, scrunching her nose up.
"Do you mean the demi-gods?" Thomas asks in a small voice, and I take a moment to realize just how much his eyes remind me of water. "Like Herakles and Perseus?"
"Yes," Ma says looking resigned.
"You three are each the children of a different god or goddess," Aunt Imad says.
"But- but I thought only the Egyptian gods were real," I whisper, making Ma turn to look at me, a sympathetic look on her face.
"Honey, as far as we can tell, almost all of the gods are real," she says. "The earth goes through a different culture's end of the world at least once ever year now, though there are always heroes or simply insane people fighting it off."
"Who are we the children of?" Thomas asks.
"Well, you are most likely the child of Poseidon," Aunt Imad says.
"And as for you two, " Ma says, looking at Selene and I, "We don't know whose daughters you are, other than that you each have a different goddess's blessing."
"You don't even know who our parents are?" Selene asks as I stare numbly. "How do you even know they're Greek?"
"We know that your other parents are Greek because of the Greek goddess who came down to tell us of-" Aunt Imad broke off. "Hestia, the Greek Goddess of Hearth, Home, Hope, and Family came down to tell us that if one of you three dies, all of you die, and to give you your bracelets."
"Do you think she could be one of our parents? She came to see us after all," I say hopefully, but Ma is already shaking her head.
"Hestia is a virgin goddess, and she probably only came because you're her family, and that is part of what she's the goddess of," Ma says.
I sight back tears as we're pulled home, not letting go of Thomas, even when bed time comes.
Chapter 4: 4: Thomas
Things change in the next five years.
Maybe for some people, the revelation that your life is dependent on your two best friends staying alive would have pushed you apart from said friends, but we only got closer. It got to the point that the three of us got a separate room from the rest of the initiates because we refused to sleep apart. Our parents on the other hand were pushed away.
Once we truly got into magic, it didn't take us long to find our specialties.
I had always had an affinity for water and earth, from Poseidon I suppose, but it helped me, and I was able to use the earth, and sometimes the water in ways people say are impossible. Zoe has a similar affinity for fire, and I think that's because of the way she thinks of it, as heat, as energy, as warmth, instead of just destruction. Selene on the other hand specializes in divine words (in other words, the element of cheese, which means the lack of an affinity), healing, and animal charming.
But our magic isn't all that's changed. I'm always in front of Zoe and Selene, distracting the enemy until the twins can strike. Zoe calmed down entirely, loosing her temper and becoming what I call home, while her twin Selene did the exact opposite and lost her shy attitude, growing a temper that was only ever calm when the three on us were alone.
(In a way, it reminds me of a manga I read, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, with Zoe as our Sky, me as her Rain, Lightning and Mist, and Selene as her Storm, Sun, and Cloud.)
(I choke when I realize that Zoe started wearing orange, and Selene red, yellow and purple after I started wearing blue, green and indigo.)
Magic wasn't the only thing we practiced though. After our parents told us about our godly parents, they also told us that Hestia had told them that our bracelets would turn into weapons and they did, turning into almost identical daggers, each with different inscriptions. Mine says "fluctus aequorei" meaning "breaking waves" in Latin. Zoe's dagger reads "Ελπίδα για το αύριο", or "Elpída gia to áv̱rio", meaning "Hope for tomorrow", and Selene's reads "Η μητέρα μας βοηθήσει", or "I̱ mi̱téra mas voi̱thí̱sei", meaning "Mother help us", both in Greek. (Honestly that scares me.) Together, the three of us have practiced fighting with the daggers, and while most likely not that good, we can fight each other now.
We also started reading as many Greek and Roman myths as we could, reading about Hercules's labors, and about Bellerophon, and Atalanta. We read the Roman myths because despite what our parents told us, my dagger had Latin on it, not Greek, and there is actually quite a gap between the two.
Now at eleven, we're actually pretty good magicians despite our age, and nearly impossible to split apart. We worked together in ways that many of the older magicians probably wished for.
So when we were summoned together for our nome assignment, it was understandable that we were together, unlike the many other magicians.
We walk down the Hall of Ages in our formal clothes and stop in front of Chief Lector Iskandar. I shift uncomfortably in the kilt think before Selene kicks me.
"You three," Iskandar says as a new cloud of hieroglyphs appears, "Shall take watch of the 21st Nome."
"You mean Amos Kane's Nome?" Zoe asks calmly as Selene and I continue to stand at attention.
"Yes," Iskandar confirms. "You are expected tomorrow at eight. Arangements have been made for you to attend Mariwether College Prep. Make sure to keep a close eye on Amos Kane. He has all of the paperwork for your transfer."
"Anything else?" Zoe asks calmly, and Iskandar shakes his head.
"If you are needed, we will send word on your phones," he says, and the three of us bow before turning, Selene and I stepping apart as we do so so that Zoe can pass between us to walk in front of us before falling into position two steps behind her. Desjardins is waiting for us just outside of the doors to the Hall of Ages, an odd look on his face as he hands me a picture of a statue of Bast.
At 5:25 a.m. the three of us are up and waiting for the sun to rise, gathered around one of the many sandstone pyramids that had been constructed for the purpose of making portals, all of us dressed in simple linen and cotton outfits in our chosen colors. Before us, Zoe's hieroglyph floats, waiting for the moment we believe is auspicious (because the three of us defiantly managed to open gates on moments that aren't supposed to auspicious, which makes me suspect that it really depends on what you believe). In the space between moments, the swirling portal of sand appears and with a glance at each other, we step through together. A shabati is waiting for us on the other side, handing us a paper with writing on it and escorting us down a set of stairs.
Zoe reads the paper as we walk down, Selene in front of her, and me in back. She looks up from the note as the stairs open into a great hall. The great hall's cedar ceiling climbs four stories high and is held up by stone pillars with hieroglyphs engraved upon them. Three of these stories contain balconies looking out onto the room. The walls are decorated with strange assortment of musical instruments and Ancient Egyptian weapons. There is an enormous fireplace (big enough to park a car) with a plasma-screen TV above the mantel; it is flanked by two leather sofas. There is a giant snake-skin rug on the ground. In the center of the Great Room is a black marble statue of Thoth.
Sitting on one one of the sofas is a baboon with golden hair in a purple sports shirt. He looks up curiously, but does nothing as the shabati bows and walks away.
We set our bags down, and Selene and I gather around Zoe to read the note. It's brief, saying that he won't be able to meet with us for an hour or so because of a recent disturbance, and that should we need anything, we should call for the shabati Juniper. The baboon's name is also apparently Khufu, who would show us to the floor where we could pick rooms, if we asked.
We look at each other and sigh in unison in the way that only close friends or coincidences can produce before Selene grabs her bags goes over to the baboon and presumably asks him to take us to the floor with the rooms. Khufu grunts, and claps, making three shabati appear and take our bags before leading us back to and up the stairs.
He takes us to a landing with three halls branching off of it and grunts, pointing at each of the halls. Selene does something, and Khufu grunds again before heading down the stairs.
"Alright, most of the bedrooms are technically for only one person, but he says that the smaller ones should fit two comfortable and the larger one could fit the three of us easily. The hall going that way -" she says, pointing to the hall directly across from the stairs "- leads to the rooms with balconies on the outside. The other two both lead to the rooms with balconies over the Great Room, and rooms without balconies."
"I forgot how much you could get out of so little sound," I mutter before clearing my throat. "We should find if thre are any rooms that connect to both the outside and inside. That way we have an escape route on two sides, and easy acess to the Great Room."
Zoe and Selene nod in agreement, and we walk down the halls looking for such a room. We're each checking different rooms, but it isn't till we reach the very end of the hallway that we find one.
Selene opens to door and calls for the rest of us. "Here, I think I found something!"
"What colors are it?" Zoe asks as she ambles over to her twin.
"Orange, blue, and purple," Selene states in satisfaction, making me laugh. I glance into the room as the shabati put down our suitcases and Selene and Zoe happily chat about decorating it. We all start pulling our clothes out and tucking them into dressers or putting them into closets.
Chapter 5: 5: Thomas
"Hello?" a male voice calls. Selene and Zoe exchange glances as I walk towards the balcony and look carefully over the railing. Below us, in the great hall, stands a dark-skinned man in a black suite, trench coat, and fedora, just as he had looked in his pictures.
"Amos Kane," I say as he takes his hat and coat off and sets them on the coat rack, stepping up to the railing, and the man looks up.
"You must be Thomas Sanna," Amos says as Selene and Zoe come up to stand beside me. "And the Kokinos twins, Selene and Zoe."
"That's right," I reply. Then I jump over the railing and roll into a standing position when I hit the floor, my hands already folded as I bow my head slightly. "Nice to meet you."
"Will you be doing that much?" Amos asks as Selene and Zoe drop down behind me.
"Yes," I says calmly as the girls step up beside me. "Why do you ask?"
"It's bad for my heart is all," Amos says calmly. "I expect you'll have a bit of jet lag, so you have the rest of the night to sleep, and you'll have the day after that to settle in. School starts the day after that."
"Alright," I acknowledge with a nod. "Anything else you should tell me?"
"Khufu only eats foods ending in an -o, and there;s an albino crocodile on our balcony in the swimming pool," Amos says calmly, meeting my eyes. "His name is Philip of Macedonia, and he likes bacon. Breakfast is out on the patio with him."
We nod, and with that, I turn and throw a strong piece of rope up towards our balcony and murmur "Tas!" so it wraps it's end securely around the balcony rail for us to climb up. I can feel Amos's gaze on my back all the way up, and there's a frown on his face when I glance back before he sweeps out of the room. I loosen the rope in a couple of quick tugs and pull it up once Selene and Zoe are up, and we go back into our room and collapse on our beds.
" 'Night, Thomas. 'Night Selene," Zoe calls.
"Good night," we call back as the lights that had been on flick off and leave us in darkness.
We all wake up way too early for New York, as expected, and after lazing around for an hour, we go down stairs and look through the library. When we's found all of the stories we felt that we needed to reread, we'd reread all of the Greek and Roman stories we'd collected, and placed them on a shelf one of the shabti had fetched for us and put in an empty room with it's entrance between two of the book cases on one of the lower levels. In total, that took us around five hours of fetching from the Duat, placing on shelves, arranging, rearranging when we find another book, and simply reading through the books.
Still, with those six hours spent, we still have around an hour left before a polite breakfast, and so we ask a shabti to how us a training room. We grin at each other the whole way there, and when the shabti opens the door, I step aside with a small mocking bow to the ladies, and they charge in. Fire roars, and I smile as I lean against the door and watch the twins fight each other, their short, curly dark hair moving with them, and their dark eyes gleaming against their dark skin. Then I ump into the fray, intercepting a fireball from Zoe and sending a wave of water to crash down on her as I intercept the flock of birds that Selene sent at me and whirl the in Zoe's direction to intercept her kick, making her falter.
The three on three fight goes on until we're all exhausted, sweaty, and grinning like crazy as we lay on the stone floor and try to cool down.
"I won . . . this time," Zoe gasps out, and I laugh breathlessly. Then I let out a groan as I prop myself up and turn to look at my friends.
"Come on then," I say, pushing myself to my feet and helping them up. "Let's not show up sweaty for breakfast."
I wander onto the patio before the girls, and look curiously at the swimming pool, remembering Amos's comment about the crocodile last night. The I turn and look the buffet table and take the seat in front of Amos, who is already there, reading some old book, and drinking a cup of coffee, a dirty plate and silverware set beside him. He waves a lazy and at me and I nod in recognition.
I run a hand through my still-wet hair, and grab a chocolate muffin, bacon, some grapes, and cup of a hot, sweetened tea that I can usually find at a nome. The muffin is gone, and I eating the last of the grapes and drinking the dregs of my tea before Zoe and Selene come out to eat, and Amos is on another cup of coffee.
He looks up from his coffee as they walk towards the table, Zoe slightly leading Selene. He blinks slightly, looking between Zoe and I with a frown, before he shakes his head. He motions them towards the buffet table, and they quickly grab some rolls, yogurt, sausage, watermelon, and a glass of milk. He starts to speak when they sit down.
"As you've likely already heard, you three will be going to Meriwether College Prep," he said, before muttering, "I don't really think Iskandar researched this properly, because it's in Manhattan."
"What's wrong with Manhattan?" Zoe asks as Amos sips his coffee.
"Manhattan has other problems," he replies cryptically. "Other gods."
At that, our eyes spark, and we exchange a weighted look. Amos interrupts by snapping his finger and having the shabti clear away used plates and decorations to give him room to spread a subway map out. He shows us a route to easily get to our new school, and then hands us three subway tickets.
"Use these to get to where ever you want to be in New York. Just, be careful in Manhattan please," he ends, draining his coffee cup. "I know that I need watchers, but it would be hard to explain loosing you three to Iskandar. Do you three have phones?"
"No," we reply simultaneously. "We never needed them."
"Here you go then," Amos says, and pushes three orange and white phones over the map to us. "My number is already saved, but you'll have to save eachother's numbers."
"Thanks," Zoe replies as we each take a phone, before looking up. "What should we do for the rest of today?"
"You could look around the mansion, and at the warehouse below," Amos offers. "If you need help, ask Khufu, he'll show you around. I'll be out all day."
Sorry I'm so late, I was finding a new fandom so that I could understand my friend's references. Hope you like this chapter!
Chapter 6: 6: Selene
In the end, I ask Khufu to show Zoe, Thomas and I around the mansion, getting a feel for where everything is, and looking for any signs that Amos was still in contact with his brother. After we've seen the mansion, we eat lunch. We watch TV for a bit before getting bored with it, and after consulting Khufu and arming ourselves with an appropriately lifelike adult figure shabti, we set off into New York to explore the surrounding area. That activity takes up the rest of the day, and we get back at 6:00 with sore feet and rumbling stomachs.
We then eat dinner out on the patio, Amos showing up about halfway through to join us. We chat with him when he shows up, exchanging pleasantries and talking about our days. He had been off sending Hathor back into her sleep from where she had been making random people fall in love in Central Park. There wasn't any way to reverse her love spells other than time though, so he had had to leave that alone. I keep catching him looking between Zoe and Thomas as he pretends to be our leader. Khufu joined us half way through Amos's explanation, grabbing the piece of meat that had been left to the far side of the table and chomping down on it. We finished around 7, and left the dishes and extra food to the shabti, who would clean the dishes and give the extra food to local homeless groups.
Amos settled down in the Great Room to play sax, and the three of us go back to the training room we had used this morning to spar again, this time without magic, and to exercise. Our feet are still sore from our exploration of the area around the building, so once we were finished with our spars, we lay back and did a bunch of sit down stretches. We're exhausted at the end, and climb into bed at nine. I lie with my back to Thomas and Zoe, and my face to balcony in the Great Room, their breathing lulling me to sleep easily.
We wake up the next day at seven, and eat breakfast with Amos and Khufu before Amos obliges Thomas's request and leads us to the subway, waving us off and reminding us which stop to get off at. We go to the administration office to get our schedules and one of those name tags you think aren't real until you see them, the dreaded Hi! My Name Is: tags. There, we meet Mr. Bonsai, the principal, who tells us that Amos had arranged that we stay together for all of our classes. Luckily, because of something Amos had told him about our Karma, it had worked.
Our first class is English with Mrs. Joshi, a preppy Indian woman in a navy blue sari, who immediately started us on reading Romeo and Juliet. Instead of just reading it though, she announced that we were going to put on a play for the rest of the school, and then promptly told us what our roles were. She pulled Thomas and his beanbag up to the front and looped a name tag with Romeo written over his head, then promptly placed Zoe next to him as Juliet while I watch on in amusement. I end up playing Tybalt, and watch in amusement as the teacher whirls around placing people in roles, many of the other girls complaining because they got a male part.
By the time the bell rings, everyone has their play script and a part, and Mrs. Joshi waves us cheerfully out of the classroom. Next up is our science class, with a fierce looking Russian man who gruffly tells us to call him Valeiy, even though the schedule states that we should actually call him Mr. Yakovlev. I decide to do as the teacher says and call him Valeiy, and after he gives a speech about how dangerous the chemicals are, and about how we can have lots of fun, so long as we wear the face masks and gloves provided, I decide to do as he asks. He then proceeds to explode several different things, from gunpowder, to a bubble full of hydrogen. I decide that he's pretty cool, and that I'll keep calling him Valeiy even if the principal comes around.
After that, he lets us pile our bean bags in the middle of the room so the won't get in the way, the allows us to take turns remotely releasing chlorine gas into a bowl with sodium in it under nets full of popcorn. When we're doe, he lets us eat the now salted popcorn as a snack during the last ten minutes of class time. Thomas playfully steals some popcorn out of my net of popcorn, and I ruffle his black hair in revenge, making it stick up. He scowls and ducks away as Selene laughs at him, and I smile crookedly.
Our third class is P.E., with the young, Japanese, Koizumi-san. He, unlike our first two teachers gives us something to send home to the parents, but all it really says it that he will be teaching us the way of the ninja and the samurai in the short time that he has. Some of the girls are obviously more interested in the teacher than in what he was saying from the way they were giggling together as he talked. Once he's finished with his speech, Thomas, Zoe and I start debating the merits of learning yet another fighting style other than the three we have down already (non magic, magic, and Hakudo, striking at vital points).
After that, we have lunch, and the three of us find a janitor's closet to hide and eat in. The moment we're behind closed doors we bust out laughing.
"They're so gung ho!" I gasp, tears coming from my eyes from laughing so hard. My family nods in agreement, unable to stop laughing. We manage to stop eventually, and Finnish our lunch just as the bell rings.
The fourth class we have is History, in which our teacher has the room set up so that it looks like a cave, with a fire in the middle, and he tells us stories about cave people, and how they'd discovered bodies over the years that told them about the cave people. The teacher is a young, soft spoken African man who tells us to all him Mr. Elder, who easily commands the attention of even the group of chatty girls, who listen to him with rapt expressions on their faces. Everyone gasps and pulls back when ever he throws different powders into the fire, each one changing the color and making it flare up for a moment.
Our fifth class math, with the Norwegian Mrs. Toove, who excitedly tells us that she'll be teaching us math using candy, and that when we're done, we can eat it. She hands out zip lock bags with assorted candies, and tells us to take out the Skittles. We spend the rest of the period using the and to start learning Algebra.
Our last lass as an elective, Computer class with Mrs. Campbell, who assigns us each to a computer, then starts instructing us on what to do.
"Today, class, we are going to star on your flip books," Mrs. Campbell said, clasping her hands as she walks around, her crinkled skirt swirling. She teaches us how to use Powerpoint to make animations, and then started us on making our own.
At the end of the day, when we arrive back at the Brooklyn Mansion, we're exhausted, the level of energy needed to keep up with our enthusiastic teachers having been more than we're used to. We fall together into a puppy pile on the couch in the Great Room, and don't more until Amos gets home and asks in amusement if we want any dinner today.
Hope you like this chapter!
Chapter 7: 7: Selene
Of course, not everything can be fun, and the very next day, one of the timid kids who had sat to the side during lunch comes up to us the next day, a serious look on his face. That alone is enough to make me nervous, and I nudge Zoe, making he turn from her conversation with Thomas and the boy draws nearer.
"Argyris Appleton, right?" Zoe asks politely, but with none of the warmth she shows to Zoe and I as she leads us in front of others for once.
"Yes," Argyris says, wringing his hands. "Have you, um, ever experienced anything, um, odd?"
"Like, um, like giant animals? Attacking you?" he mumbles nervously. My eyes narrow, and I stalk forward, my temper flaring abruptly. I grab his shirt.
"Who are you," I growl, and he goes pale, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head as he collapses. I catch him before he can hit the ground, and lay him out, my movements more gentle now. No point in harming the unconscious.
"Honestly Selene, you didn't have to scare him that much," Zoe chides, keeling down and placing a hand over his head. She accidentally knocks the bucket hat off Argyris's hat off, and the three of us pause to stare at the two small horns on his head. Before she can say anything, I pull one of the legs of the boy's, or rather satyr/faun's, sweatpants up, to reveal fur, and with my other hand pull his shoe off to reveal the cloven foot.
"Well, he's obviously not that old," I say sitting back. "So he's not here for sex. And he's in this school, so he probably doesn't drink. I'll count him as friendly."
I replace the pant leg and shoe, and after a moment of hesitation, Zoe does the same with his hat. We wait about ten more seconds before he comes around, looking confused, and we stop him before he tries to get up.
"Hey, hey. You just fainted," Zoe gently calms him as I help Thomas stop his struggles. Argyris's eyes flick from face to face as he stops struggling, and I make a hmph sound and back away, stopping and turning away after a couple of feet.
"So, what is a satyr doing here?" Thomas asks, Argyris goes pale again, but doesn't faint.
"I'm- I'm- I'm- I'm supos-posed to- to find- find o-o-out if you-u know know tha-that you-you're de-de-de-demi-g-g-gods,"Argyris stutters, and I turn back to the group just in time to share a three way glance with Zoe and Thomas. But he isn't finished. "I-I-I'm al-a-als-al-also s-suppos-suposed t-to to h-help you-u t-to Camp."
"Y-yes," Argyris replies, his voice a bit more confident. "Camp Half-Blood. It's, uh, for, for demigods. Kids of, um, the Greek gods, and, um, humans, or, um, mortals."
"Just Greek?" Thomas asks with some confusion in his voice, and Argyris goes pale, and starts muttering under his breath.
"Plea- um, why? Ha-have you met o-other other monsters," his voice goes up on the last couple of words, and we quickly stop him from getting up. "Please say you haven't please say you haven't."
"Calm down," Zoe tries to soothe him, as he starts getting hysterical. "Why don't you call your boss. I think we should talk to him."
"Good, good idea," Argyris says pulling out a cell phone and fiddling with it. "Chiron, Chiron, Chiron."
He selected something and his phone started doing the ringing sound phones make when they're waiting for the other side to pick up. He thrusts the phone at us and bolts, "Hereyougobye!"
Zoe grabs the phone before it can hit the ground and raises it hesitantly to her ear. "Hello? This is Zoe, Zoe Kokinos."
She looks slightly relieved before replying.
"Argyris gave me his phone."
"No, he panicked when my friend if the camp he mention was only for Greeks."
She frown slightly at whatever reply she gets.
"He said the camp was for Greek demigods, kids of Greek gods and mortals. He also said, you were his boss."
"Yes, that's a good idea. I think we might have to talk."
She nods for a moment in reply to whatever she's hearing.
"Yes, of course."
Then she hangs up.
"Well?" Thomas asks, and Zoe looks up from the phone with a frown.
"We're going to visit Camp Half-Blood tonight with Amos. Come on, let's go find Argyris. He's supposed to lead us there," she replies after a moment.
Later . . .
"Turn here," Argyris says as we come up to a sign reading PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES, and Amos follows his directions. He frowns all the way stopping before we can pass a hill and drive down the road between fields up ahead.
"I'm not allowed past here," he says calmly. "I'm afraid that you're on your own now. Good luck."
The three of us exchange glances before piling out, Argyris gladly hops out of the passenger's seat, throwing a wary glace at the car like he's afraid it might eat him.
"Come on," he says after watching Amos pull away, and starts walking down the road. We start to walk down the fields and I start to relax at the feeling of protection that comes over me once we pass the hill, but before I can do much else, Thomas makes a small pained sound. I turn to see him clutching his shirt on his knees.
"Thomas?" I ask, hurrying back and crouching next to him. He waves me ooff foe a moment before changing his mod and letting me help him up. I cast a glance ahead to see Zoe following Argyris, unaware of Thomas's pain. "What is it?"
"This feels wrong," he says as he leans on me, his face pained as I help him walk. "It feels like the air itself hates me. Like I shouldn't be here."
"Sorry," I say as he manages to stand on his own. "We have to keep going though. Come on."
After a few paces he manages to stand on his own, and we jog to catch up with Zoe and Argyris. At the end of the road we find ourselves at a sky-blue house with white trim. There are two people sitting on the wrap around porch, who appear to be playing a game of chess.
"Chiron," Argyris calls. "I brought them."
"Argyris!" the man in the wheel chair replies. "I was wondering when you were going to come. You may go now if you want."
"Thank you," Argyris says. "Hello Mr. D."
"Angelo Peartown," the other man says as we draw closer. He ruuns a hand through his messy hair. "Found us some more have you?"
"Sir," is all Argyris says before he practically flees the scene.
"Now, you must be Zoe," the man in the wheelchair says, wheeling to the steps leading up to the porch. "Who are your friends?"
"This is my sister, Selene, and my best friends Thomas," Selene says simply. "Are you really the Chiron of myth, teacher of heroes?"
"Ah, yes," Chiron says. "You know your mythology then?"
"Of course," Zoe says simple, and Chiron laughs before something odd happens, like he was standing, but his legs remained unmoving, two horses legs popping out of the chair-box, the the rest of a body.
"Ah," he sighs in satisfaction before looking at us, his eyes sharpening at our bracelets. "What have we here?"
Thomas and I step forward, in front of Zoe, but Chiron doesn't step forward, merely moving his wheelchair box out of the way as he asks us in a deceptively calm voice, "May I see your bracelets, one of you?"
Thomas and I trade sharp glances, and I notice the man called Mr. D turn out of the corner of my eye as I step forward and let him see the bracelet on my wrist. He reaches up to touch it as Mr. D wanders over, a glass of Coke in his hand. Chiron reaches out to touch the bracelet, but I speak before he can do anything. "Don't take it off, please. It's very precious."
"That's ethereal silver," Mr. D says, his eyes careful as he looks at the bracelet. "Mined and forged at the same time at the volcano vents be Poseidon's finest workers, then blessed by priests of all twelve Olympians, and Hestia. Some one really likes you three, because that is rarer than any of the other blessed metals."
"Yes," Chiron mutters, examining the braided bracelet. "I suppose I should show you the orientation video now."
Chapter 8: 8: Zoe
I am well aware of the eyes on Thomas through out the video, and they honestly make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I glance at the hungover guy halfway through at the revelation that he is Dionysus, but turn back when the video didn't stop. Honestly, by the end I'm more confused than I was before the video. I turn to Thomas and Selene, who are both wearing impassive faces, waiting to see my reaction.
"I thing I would like to have that talk now," say, turning to Chiron (who is apparently the Chiron of legend), and he nods with a solemn face.
"Yes," he says. "So, why did you ask if this camp was only for the Greek Pantheon?"
"Because I've been trained to capture and incapacitate gods all my life," I fire back. "What are you hiding from us?"
"Enough," Dionysus says before matters go any farther. "You three are Egyptain demigods, and you centaur knew but couldn't say anything. There. Is everyone happy now? Because I want to go back to my game."
"What's wrong with the air here?" Thomas asks. "Why does it feel do wrong?"
Dionysus eyes him for a moment before sighing and staring at the ceiling. "Please, let me have a drink for this."
Thunder rumbles in the distance, and Dionysus glares at the ceiling for a moment before dropping his head and pinching his nose.
"If he's here, then some one is messing with the world and it's fine," he says, more to himself than to us. "You're Roman, not Greek. Greeks hate Romans. Do the math."
Then he pokes his head up and glares at all three of us. "Though considering who your parents are, none of you should be alive to talk to me."
"You know who are parents are?" I ask. That was the one thing we hadn't been able to figure out. We couldn't match any of what I could do with the powers of any goddess. Our current running theory was that Hephaestus was the one who had responded to Selene and my parent's prayers, and . . . um . . . did you know what with my father. Because he's a god and all he could make it work. Anyways, back to Mr. D.
"Yes," the irritated wine god says, eyeing me. "Or rather I can take an educated guess. No real answer until you're claimed."
"So, what now?" I ask, looking at Chiron. "We don't need to stay here, and we do need to go back, so we aren't going to the Hermes cabin."
"Yes," Chiron says, looking contemplative before he turns and walks out of the glorified family room, motioning for us to follow him. "Come along."
We go outside, and at the railing, Chiron calls to one of the campers walking by. "Ethan! Could you please come here?"
An Asian boy with an eye patch over his left eye jogs over, giving us a once over before he turns his attention to Chiron. "Yes Chiron?"
"Would you mind showing these kids around? They won't be staying during the school year, but they need to know their way around, and I have grading to do," Chiron says, pulling a face slightly at the end of his sentence.
"I wouldn't mind," he says, turning to look at us.
"Thank you," Chiron says looking relieved as he turned carefully and walked back into the Big House.
"Come one," Ethan says, catching our attention. "If you want to see everything before dark, we've got to get moving."
"Alright," I say and use my right hand to vault over the porch railing. "We're coming."
Things don't really change after that. We go back to the Brooklyn House and keep going to school. On our weekends, we visit Camp Half-blood, and practice fighting the Greek way. We also manage to convince Mr. D to let us leave a little pyramid at camp so that we can get there quickly if we ever need to.
Christmas comes, and after it, we we find ourselves watched more closely by the people around us. I catch strangers on the subway staring at me, and homeless people or business men following me on the streets. When I ask Argyris the week after we get back from break, who taken to eating with us, he turns pale and shakes his head. Thomas comes to me later that day a bit pale and he tells me that Mr. D had told him to be careful.
Storms start happening more and more frequently, and so come floods, snow storms, and lightning bolts strong enough to start wild fires. Some times when we're sitting in the environment controlled patio at the Brooklyn Mansion, I could swear that there's a Tsunami headed for the land, reaching up and trying to tear the sky apart, but then the wave diminishes till it's simply sea foam lapping at the bank.
I don't manage to find out what's wrong until I manage to corner Chiron in May, and force him to tell me what happened. I come away feeling almost sick, because people had died over the god's squabble, over Zues's insistence that Poseidon took his lightning bolt.
When our final exams come at the end of the year, it's a relief. I'm also somewhat amazed that no monsters attacked us during the school year considering the tales that campers have told me. We finish the year with good grades, and get ready for Camp on the schedule that Iskandar had given us, with Thomas and I going to camp first, and Selene staying to watch Amos. Then one of us would switch with her after a week, and so on for the rest of the summer - or so we had hoped until Dionysus informed us that he really though Thomas should be shipped off to the Roman camp as soon as possible.
Thomas and I leave the day school gets out, straight from school to Camp. Thomas, following Mr. D's advice had nothing packed but a twenty dollar bill in his pocket. We find Chiron and Mr. D playing Slapjack on the porch, and they look up when the camp van trundles up. Mr. D give an annoyed sigh as we get out, and walk up to them, before holding a hand out to Thomas.
"Offering?" he asks, blinking his watery eyes at Thomas who quickly scrambles to get the twenty out. He places it hesitantly on Mr. D's hand, who looks at it for a moment before sighing and tucking it into the pocket of his purple tiger striped Hawaiian shirt. "Alright get your goodbyes out of the way now."
I give Thomas a watery smile and we hug for a moment, my tears seeping into the fabric of his shirt before I sniff and stand back. He gives me another smile before nodding at Mr. D.
"I'm ready."
Goodbye then Tron," Mr. D says, turning back to the cards he had placed on the table, and Thomas is suddenly gone. I blink and my breath shudders for a moment before I manage to smile at Chiron.
"Are you alright?" he asks, a concerned expression on his face, and I manage to nod.
"I'll be fine," I murmur. "I'm going grab back my place on the floor at the Hermes cabin."
With that I flee, running past several campers as my drawstring backpack bumps on my back.
Chapter 9: 9: Zoe
I take a deep breath once I'm deep into the woods and force myself to slow down. I'm alone - totally alone - for the first time I can remember, and if things go as they're supposed to, it'll stay that way for the rest of the summer. The thought makes me sick as I manage to stop, and I sink down to sit with my back to Zeus's fist. My breath shudders as the tears come out of my eyes slowly, but I don't make a sound. There's still quite a bit of time left before dark by my reckoning when the tears stop, and I scrub my face to get rid of the tell tale tracks.
I force myself to stand and make my way back to camp, listening for any monsters that want to come near. when I arrive at the Hermes Cabin, I find Ethan sitting on his bunk and idly ready a book. He looks up when my shadow blocks the light coming in from the doorway and gives me a slight smile, book marking his page and standing.
"How are you?" he asks, his voice a bit sharp on the surface. I manage as smile as I grab my sleeping bag from its spot on the end of his bed.
"Fine," I reply, turning to look at the cabin floor, which is now absolutely covered, with barely an inch left free. "Though I think I'll be sleeping out under the stars again."
"You think?" Ethan snorted, raising his left hand to rub at his eye, only to drop it when he encountered the eye patch. "You haven't slept inside once since you came here!"
"Well, I guess I just like Hestia," I retort, rummaging through my backpack. It only takes me a moment to find what I was looking for, and I hold the candy bar out to Ethan. "Truce?"
Ethan glances at the candy bar before sight, and taking it, as if he would do any different. "Fine. I'm coming with you tonight though."
"What?" I ask in surprise as I pull the backpack closed. "Why?"
"I'm going with you," Ethan says, opening the candy bar. "Because you're alone tonight."
"Oh," I say quietly, and look down as my hands. My knuckles are white on the bag, and I have to force them to relax. "Thank you."
By the time the conch blew for dinner, I'd managed to get maybe a quarter of the way through one of Ethan's books, and tons of Hermes kids had piled into the cabin and were sitting on their sleeping bags chatting. Some of them come up to me, curious, but after an introduction and an explanation, they wander back to the group they came from. The conch blows, and Luke calls for the us to line up. I leave my back pack and sleeping bag on Ethan's bed as I leave.
I get one of the plates of brisket, and dump some into the flames for Hestia for allowing me to sleep next to her fire and Hermes for allowing me to eat at his table. When all the cabins had sacrificed something to the gods and eanten, Mr. D cleared his throat and stood in response to some prodding from Chiron.
"Brats," he says, sounding utterly bored of us. "You're back. Yay, or whatever. Our activities director Chiron informs me that we will be having a Capture the Flag game tonight to welcome you back. Cabin seven currently holds the laurels."
Mr. D pauses to yawn as the Apollo cabin let out loud cheer.
"Yes, yes, congratulations, blah, blah, blah," Mr. D says as he starts to st down, only for Chiron to nudge him and mutter something. "Oh, yes. I suppose I should tell you, we've got five new campers, but two of them aren't here right now. Zaria Kantor, Sandhya Kantor, Thorin Stuart, Marian Green, and Macbeth Lee."
Chiron mutters something, as i look down at the reminder of Thomas and Selene.
"Er, Zoe Kokinos, Selene Kokinos, Thomas Sanna, Mandy Gorman, and Michael Lynch," Mr. D says before he sits down. "Now go ahead and sing your silly songs."
Everyone cheered and went to the campfire where Apollo's cabin led a sing along. I managed to smile, but my heart isn't into it, and I leave early to grab my stuff and set up next to Hestia's fire in between the cabins. Ethan comes and joins me with his stuff a couple of moments later, and we stare up into the stars.
We occasionally pint out different constellations to each other in the sky, and by the time the other campers trample their way back to their cabins, I'm drifting to sleep.
My dream is a whirl wind of different colors, blues washing over my like waves and crashing down around me, only to spin and but at my hand like a dog begging to be petted.
I wake up at around seven in the morning and stumble into the Hermes cabin to throw some water at my face, stepping over campers in sleeping bags on the floor with the long suffering ease of one who has done it many times. Back outside, I quickly re-roll my sleeping bag up and after stuffing it into my back pack, which is promptly thrown into the cubbyhole I share with Thomas and Selene at the back of the Hermes cabin. Ethan copies me, after a couple of minutes as I wait for him by Hestia's fire, and when he's done, we both walk over to the pavilion.
Breakfast is the free for all buffet like usual, and I manage to eat in peace since we're here so early. I go to the big house to see if they have any good books, for lack of anything better to do, and leave Ethan sleepily eating a healthy breakfast as he stares across the table with unfocused eyes.
I wander around, looking for a library, and push open one of the doors. There's something almost familiar about the air right now, though I think it's just nostalgia about the number of times I had to go to the medical room back in Egypt. Then I blink and stare at the boy laying on the bed.
Chapter 10: 10: Thomas
I blink, and suddenly all I can see are ruins. There's a growl, and I turn to find myself facing a single wolf.
"Who are you, to call yourself a child of Rome?" the wolf growls at me, teeth bared.
"Who are you to judge me?" I retort, my fingers on my bracelet.
"I am Lupa, mother of all Roman demigods, and their trainer," the wolf replies. "Mother as I was mother of Romulus and Remus. Who are you to question my authority?"
"Thomas Sanna, son of Neptune, son of Asha and Imad, brother to Zoe and Selene Kokinos," I state calmly, and Lupa stares at me for a moment before she sits back on her haunches.
"Oh, it's you."
"You know about me?" I ask, still wary.
"Son of Neptune, brother to the daughters of Hera and Hestia, of course I know about you," Lupa says. "Whether or not you are worthy is another matter."
And with that she leapt at me and I dodged to the side, my fingers already twisting to catch my dagger.
"My oh my, you have ethereal silver," Lupa says, her voice slightly mocking. "Rely upon the gods much?"
"Always," I retort, rolling to the side as she leaps at me again, and slashing at her flank.
"You can't dodge me forever!" Lupa snarls, turning and scratching my leg as I just barely get away.
"I wasn't planning to!"
"I guess you'll do," Lupa pants finally, and I let myself collapse to my knees as wolves seem to suddenly appear out of the bushes behind her.
"Thank you," I pant, wiping the sweat from my forehead.
"You don't have anything for me to teach you either," Lupa sighs, turning to nuzzle one of the wolf pups as it runs up to her. Then she turns and fixes her eyes on me. "You may not stay the night, for there is nothing here for you to learn."
"So, I'll just leave now?" I ask lightly as more wolves slip into the courtyard, and Lupa nods. I turn and start walking out
"Listen to your instincts now, they will lead you to safety," Lupa calls as I walk out, and I wave a hand slightly in acknowledgement.
It takes three days of running, hiking, stowing away, and fighting monsters before I get really annoyed. The amphisbaena were fairly easy to kill, despite their two poisonous heads because half the time one head forgot that the other was a part of itself and would attack it.
The hippalectryon on the other hand were bizarre, if only because I actually understood about half of what they were saying, when they weren't talking.
The taraxippus, who finally scared the hippalectryon I hadn't killed away were another matter all together. I don't know exactly what they were supposed to do other than scare horses, or half horse creature, but I'm fairly certain they weren't supposed to hang out around the son of the guy who made horses. If I was one of them, I wouldn't have done so and expected everything to be gung ho, but apparently they don't think so.
Also, apparently praing to you dad to get rid of they doesn't work either. How strange.
(I hope you're getting all the sarcasm here, it is rather a lot to take in.)
Self, I hope you're taking notes.
Now that you've heard my rant, I do hope you'll understand why I was so very pissed when the two guards stopped me at entrance to the Caldecott Tunnel, the first place that's felt safe-ish to my instincts since I left Zoe. I eye them suspiciously, their image flickering slightly between the brightly clothed maintenance workers that the Duat is projecting, and the armed guards I see they are.
"Sir, you can't come in here," the one on the left says, her voice steady even as her eyes are warily trained on me.
"Oh yeah? Because I will find a way to haunt you if these kill me or so Father help me!" my voice gets higher and higher as I get more and more hysterical, and starts breaking towards the end as I push past the guards and into the tunnel behind them while they're too stunned by my outburst to stop me.
"Hey wait! You can't go in there!" the girl yells, coming to her senses finally and running after me.
"Like Pluto I can't," I mutter, ignoring her as she catches up to me and starts trying to tug me back. I surge past the last of the tunnel's electrical functionality and into the older part of it built by the Romans, and lit with reed torches.
There's an odd humming in my head as something unfelt spurs me on, despite my weariness, and the girl's works fade to a buzzing in the background as I start to run, the hairs on the back of my neck pricking up. I break out of the tunnel and into daylight, giving myself not even a moments rest before I'm plunging down the hill, ignoring that the guard isn't trying to stop me anymore, just running towards the safety of the water as my senses scream at me that its not safe.
I dive right into the water, and revel at the feeling of safety. This is my father's domain, and while my power leans more towards earthshaking than the sea, I am still of my father, and his domain will protect me. I open my eyes and watch, feeling strangely disconnected as two Romans plunge into the water, and immediately start fighting the current. Then suddenly the world rushes back to me as my feet connect with the river bottom, and I stand solid, anchored, and ready.
"Ilen En-mar!" I yell as I surge out of the water, and the taraxippus come flying towards me with an unhappy wailing, before I slash them to dust with my silver knife. I stand there panting for a moment before I turn around to look at the two roman guards behind me, who are staring at me silently as water drips from their armor.
"Hello."
My greeting drops into the silence like a stone, but it seems to wake up the other two, and the girl shakes her head slightly before she climbs out of the river, the boy quickly following her.
"Hello, I'm Gewndolyn, and this is Bobby," she offers, extending a hand, which I shake after a moment of staring at it, lost.
"I'm Thomas."
"Well Thomas, welcome to Camp Jupiter."
Chapter 11: 11: Thomas
"What's happening here?" a strict voice asks, making me look away from Gwendolyn and Bobby and towards the stern looking female marching towards us.
"Preator Rani!" Gwendolyn exclaims, half scrambling out of the river, half trying to make herself more presentable, frantically twisting her dirty blonde hair in an effort to dry it. Bobby climbs out of the river behind her with a grumble, tugging his armor back into place. "I'm sorry, he just pushed past us, then the taraxipus was coming and we didn't have room to fight, so we . . . um . . ."
"We retreated. Strategically," Bobby puts in, and the girl eyes them suspiciously, but turns to me after a moment.
"And who are you?" she asks, crossing her arms under her purple cape, green eyes suspicious.
"Thomas Sanna," I reply calmly, twirling my knives and eyeing her. "And you are?"
"Rani Ezra, daughter of Epione," she says, ignoring the crowd as it gather behind her. I spot another person in a purple cape coming, but he's still a ways off. "Do you know who your godly relative is?"
"No."
"Letters of recommendation?"
"No," I state calmly, the both of us ignoring the mutterings of the growing crowd.
"Gifts, tokens, anything?" There's a slightly hopeful not in her voice now, probably hoping that Lupa didn't just send her a useless teen.
"My knives," I tell her, and she manages not to look immensely relieved as the brown haired guy in the purple cloak stops beside her.
"Who did you get it from?" the guy demands, and I notice Bobby wince out of the corner of my eye, and Gwendoly suddenly go rigid.
"I received it from Vesta," I say calmly, running a finger along the blade of one dagger. I can see the male praetor's stiff breath out of the corner of my eye as both silver daggers are suddenly gone, and the familiar bracelet is once again around my wrist. "Who are you?"
"Fion Carey," the guy says firmly, extending a a hand. "Son of Apollo."
"I'm Thomas Sanna," I repeat myself. Fion nods and turns to Gwendoly and Bobby, who are standing to attention stiffly behind me now.
"Bobby, bring him to the principia, we'll question him there," Fion states.
"Of course, Praetor," Bobby murmurs, and the two people in purple cloaks turn as one and stride off, the crown parting before them. Bobby looks up as the two leave, and the crowd starts to disperse. "Come on, Thomas was it?"
"Thomas, yes," I say, barely able to stop myself from yawning despite the bright sunlight.
"See you later Bobby," Gwen say, wringing out her hair again. "Brownies?"
"Yeah," Bobby says to her before he turns back to me and starts walking. The crowd is almost entirely gone now, only one or two people lingering to watch the new kid, and even they disperse as we start walking away. "Come on, Thomas."
I quickly follow Bobby as he stats walking towards the fortified encampment. We enter the gate, and the fist thing I notice is the large amount of purple clad ghosts hanging around. "Bobby, who are they?"
Bobby throws a glances at the kid playing with his ball in the street ahead of us, wiping away the water dripping from his black hair. "They're Lares. Hose gods, ancestral spirits, mostly mascots."
I blink as suddenly the boy runs up to me, a brilliant smile on his face as he holds out the pendant on his necklace, a trident symbol carved into wood and painted blue.
"Bother! Bother!" the boy says happily. The he reaches out, and though he doesn't look as if he should be solid, I can feel his fingers. When they touch me, I blink as I'm suddenly dry and hear paper crackle as I shift away from the boy. "Do not worry brother. I will help as much as I can. Give this to the Praetors."
Then he happily runs away, leaving my blinking. "Is that usual?"
"No," Bobby sighs, even as he pulls my arm slightly to get me moving again. "I don't think I've ever head of a Lare sponsoring a camper. I just wish he'd died me off too."
We stop at the center of camp, where two wide stone-paved roads meet at a T.
A street sign labeled the road to the main gates as Via Praetoria. The other road, cutting across the middle of camp, is labeled Via Principalis. Under those markers were hand-painted signs like; Berkeley 5 miles; New Rome 1 Mile, Old Rome 7280 Miles, Hades 2310 Miles (pointing straight down), Reno 208 Miles, and Certain Death: You Are Here!
I cast a look around at the place, taking in the bight sunlight and the clean and carefully organised buildings. Considering the setting, I think certain death is a bit of an over estimation, but considering that most kids at Camp Half-Blood don't seem to live to their thirties, maybe it's true.
"Come on," Bobby murmurs, pulling me from my thoughts and my spot in the middle of the road to a two story, white marble, bank-like structure sitting one one corner of the cross roads as I quickly look along the roads, taking in the blatant advertising (Buy one set of armor, get and extra helmet free!) on many of the stores as I do so.
Then Bobby is marching me under the purple SPQR banner and into a very impressive room. The walls are draped with velvet, reminding me of a story I'd read once, and there ceiling is a glittering mosaic of the founders of Rome and Lupa. On the polished marble floor sits a large cluttered table, filled with books, parchment, computers, phones, papyrus, animal skins, chunks of rock with paintings, wood carvings, scrolls, knives, notebooks, the occasional sword, and a giant bowl of a green bubbling liquid spewing white vapor. The two preators are sitting behind it, and as we enter the room a matching set of silver and gold dogs looks up to growl at us.
"Quiet boys," Rani says absently, not looking up from the piece of paper she was filling out. She signed it with a flourish of her pen, and set it down to look up at Bobby and me, Fion doing the same beside her.
"Bobby, you can wait outside for now. Thank you for escorting Thomas here," Fion says as my eyes wander to the trophy wall behind them. There's a rather large spot for an empty display stand in the middle, and I focus on that as Bobby leaves the room.
"So, Thomas, you come to me without any letters of recommendation, no knowledge of your godly relative, and not gifts. Why should be accept you into our legion?" Rani asks, lacing her fingers together and propping her chin up on then.
"I was sent here by a god, and more recently, told to give you this," I say, pulling the paper that had appeared in my back pocket when the boy touched me out and extending it to the preators. Rani's eyes sharpen, and she quickly leans forward to snatch the paper from my fingers, and she carefully reads it, her fellow praetor doing the same over her shoulder.
"Well," she says once she's finished, leaning back and letting Fion have the paper. Her eyes are very carefully on me. "That will do. Go outside and find Bobby, he should be waiting, and go to Temple Hill. Find Calogero."
I want to groan about my heightening lack of sleep, but now that the adrenaline rush from knifing the tariappus earlier is fading, It''s all I can do to nod and obey, my limbs feeling shaky as I walk outside and find Bobby leaning against one of the columns. "Well?"
"They said to go to Temple Hill and find Calogero," I tell him.
I blink tiredly as I trudge up the hill next to Bobby, thankful for the coffee he'd gotten me on the way. I blink blearily at the many little temples along the way, but don't say anything. as we get near the top, I blink, then look around, trying to figure out what's making me feel nervous.
"What is it?" Bobby asks, apparently having noticed my agiation even as the cause occurs to me.
"Where's Neptune's temple?" I ask, tring to make my eyes clear again as I look around. "I can see Jupiter, Minerva, Mars, Pluto, Ceres, Juno, Vesta, Bacchus, Mercury, Venus, Vulcan, Apollo and Diana's temples. Where is Neptune's temple?"
"It's over there," Bobby says, pointing to a small blue temple about the size of the temples out on the edges, tiny in comparison to the temples around it. I walk towards it as if in a daze to bush spiderwebs off the trident and right it slightly before I open the door. Inside, on the altar there's a puddle of wax that looks like it might have once been a candle, and I blink at it tiredly, feeling like I'm looking at everything from underwater.
"Thomas?" Bobby asks, making me look up for a moment before my gaze returns to the altar. I shouldn't have anything on me, but I dig into my pockets anyways, and Bobby stops me after a moment with a hand on my shoulder. "Here."
He holds out a lump of gold that could have been a coin if it had anything stamped on it, and I take it. "The taraxippus left, as a trophy I guess. You defeated it, so the trophy is yours."
"Thanks," I say as I set the coin down on the altar. I lift the melted remains of the candle and its dish off the altar and set them aside before I stand and let Bobby guide me out of the temple and up the hill.
Chapter 12: 12: Selene
I sigh and pick at my nails slightly. There isn't much to do around here with out the others gone, and Amos can be pretty boring to watch. I look out at the sky for a moment before I stand to walk to the library.
"Wait! Miss Selene!" a small voice calls, and I pause.
"Who is it?" I ask, turning, to look around, but there's no one there.
"Over here Miss Selene," the voice calls. "By the edge. I'm sorry it took me so long, but my legs aren't long enough-"
I grab the small shabti and turn it so I can see the seal impressed into its back. It grips my fingers tightly, but doesn't protest as I look it over carefully to make sure it wasn't sent by one of the chaos magicians. Once I'm sure that it really is from Zoe, I sit back down on he table and carefully set it down.
"Thank you Miss Selene," it says, smoothing out an imaginary fold in its clay shirt before looking up and clearing its throat. I sit forward as it's voice changes to match the cadence of my twin's. "Selene. I have a situation here. There's something they didn't tell us, and there's someone here who I thin is Thomas's little brother. I need your help. This shabti is equipped with enough to watch Amos for the summer at least before we need to return. Please come."
"That it?" I ask after a slight pause, and the shabti nods. "Alright. You go meet Amos. Don't forget to send us reports every week."
"I will, Miss Selene," the shabti replies instantly. I stand with a sharp nod and turn on my heel to enter the great hall. I don't bother with going the long way round, simply push off the ground with a grunt of "Fly!" to send me soaring through the air before I land of the railing of our balcony. I grab the packed back pack I keep on the balcony and jump down before the magic wears off. I shift myself into the Duat as I fall, and land in a crouch on the hill with Thalia's Pine. I pull the strap of my back pack over my shoulder as I stand. I look around, but no one seems to have noticed me.
I sigh and start walking down the hill to the Big house. I can hear yelling as I get closer, but it doesn't really hit me until I open the back door.
"-And you never thought that we might be interested in that information? Sure Thomas may not have been claimed, but that sounds pretty much like this kid's situation, except for the small fact that we do know that the god are real, and we knew where to find them! If anything I want to know why they're pushing all the blame off on this kid, who still doesn't know that the Greek gods are real!" Zoe is shouting as Chiron, who looks like he wants to interrupt her, but can't find any room in her rant to get a word in, while Mr. D is just sitting back in his hair with his coke in hand.
"Zoe," I say, and she instantly stops, turning around to see me.
"Selene!" she says, sounding relieved and tired. "How was Aren?"
"You named that shabti Aren?" I ask, shifting my weight and letting her wrap her arms around me.
"Yes, did he work fine? He was a bit of a rush job," she says, pulling back.
"He worked fine," I reply. "Really polite. So, what's up? I heard something about a boy and how we should be blamed for something."
"Zoe is mad at us-" Chiron starts before casting a glance at Mr. D, who looks totally oblivious to our conversation - "me for not telling you three that Zues's Master bolt was stolen over Christmas break."
"And what was that about a boy, and blame?" I ask.
"A boy came to the camp last night, and Zoe is mad because the god are blaming him rather than your group for stealing the lightning bolt despite the fact that he was unaware of the god's current existence, then and now," Chiron continues.
"Yes, I can see why that might be a problem," I comment dryly, before I turn to Zoe. "And what was that about Thomas's brother?"
"The boy who came in is a child of Poseidon," Mr. D comments.
"Thank you," I say fishing some money out of one of my pockets and handing it to him before Chiron's disbelieving eyes. "Alright. Chiron - we were in Manhattan over Christmas. Having some waning that we might be accused of crime would be nice. Zoe, relax. There's nothing we can do to shift the blame. The gods are stubborn-"
I give Mr. D another five as I say that.
"- and by now they've decided that it was this Poseidon kid, no matter who actually did it. For now, let's just protect him as best as we can."
Mr. D laughs into the sudden silence that comes after my straightforward laying out of my plan.
"I like you," he says, eyeing me over the top of his coke can as he brings it to his lips. "You should do stuff like that more often."
"Thank you," I reply, slightly uncertain as to why he was complimenting me, but willing to take it. "Chiron?"
The centaur sighs. "I apologize for not warning you of the possible danger that the theft presented to you. I'll try harder to warn you should something that might affect you occur."
"Thank you Chiron," I say, before I turn my gaze to me twin. "Zoe?"
"I apologize for yelling at you Chiron," Zoe says. "I know the gods are stubborn, but I do wish to know if I am in any danger."
"Alright," I say. "Zoe, can I see this boy?"
"Sure," she says, and she pulls me towards the infirmary. I wave goodbye to the old Centaur and the God before I disappear behind a door.
Chapter 13: 13: Zoe
I open the infirmary door and slip into the clean white space. Selene follows behind me, closing the door behind her and looking around the room.
"We need to cut our hair soon," she comments with a frown as she pulls the hair so that the curl straightens out. "My hair's starting to get in my eyes."
"Yeah," I say softly, not really looking at her as my eyes gravitate on the kid lying in bed. His eyes are closed right now, and his skin is much lighter than Thomas's with more of the Greek complexion, but there's a sense of familiarity despite that. I brush his hair back, then step backwards so that Selene can look at him. "His name is Percy Jackson."
She steps forward to stand beside me, and stares at the boy with a blank face.
"So this is Thomas's brother," she muses. Then she turns abruptly and walks out. I cast the boy a glance before I hurry after her, ignoring Chiron as I sprint to through the house and towards Thalia's Pine.
"Selene, wait up!" Selene ignores my calls, throwing herself down to sprawl across the roots of Thalia's Pine. I walk the last couple of steps and sit down next to her. After a moment, I lean back against the tree with a quick prayer to Thalia, thanking her for her shade and protection. If Selene feels bad enough about something to run off like this, then she won't talk until she's ready. The first time she got like this was when she had her first period, and woke to blood all over her sheets.
"Zoe, that boy's our responsibility now," she says, and I turn so I can see the shadows cast by Thalia's Pine dance over her face as she stares upwards. "Some one's life - that's so much responsibility."
"It is a lot of responsibility," I agree, turning my eyes back up to the sky.
"I just - I don't know what to do," Selene continues. "The most I've been trusted to do was watch Amos, and that was shared with you and Thomas."
"Well, you know what I'll say."
"Step follows step, hope follows courage. Set your face towards danger, set your heart on victory," we recite, and I smile as I feel her take my hand. The saying is't one we say often, but it's one that almost always fits. It's frown "The Two Princesses of Bamare", and we consider the words instructions when backed into a corner.
"So, what's your first step," I ask Selene.
"First, I'm going to see the Oracle," she declares, sitting up and brushing off her clothes.
"And then?" I sat, letting her pull me up.
"Then I'm going to go on the Oracle's quest?" she says, a little uncertainly.
"Good enough for now," I say. "But first, let's go and get our hair cut. We might be able to catch some of the Aphrodite campers to help us."
I watch Selene stumble out of the attic with sympathy. She sits down heavily on one of the cushioned chairs, and shakily accepts the glass of grape juice I paid Mr. D for.
"Anything I should know," I ask gently, and Selene's face seems to pale under her dark skin. Chiron leans forward, watching her with a look of slight curiosity on his face.
"I can't say anything," she states, her voice as shaky as her hand as she sets the glass of juice on the table before it spills.
"Do you know if you are to go on a quest?" Chiron inquires gently as stand from my seat and move to sit with Selene in hers.
"Yes," Selene replies, looking up from entwining her fingers with mine. "Ethan, Zoe and I are to go on a quest."
"Anything-"
"I can't say anything else," Selene immediately interrupts, shaking her head sharply. "Can I go now?"
"Yes, of course," Chiron says, absently waving a hand. "Do you want and help?"
Selene is already shaking her head. "We'll leave the day after Percy wakes up, with standard quest supplies."
"If you're sure," Chiron replies, and she nods.
"I'm going to go tell Ethan," she says, before she practically flees the room. The clock ticks on in the silence before Chiron sighs and turns to me.
"If I might ask, how are you planning to travel?" Chiron asks me, and I fiddle with the charm bracelet that sits on my left wrist, with a variety of Egyptian symbols that my mother had given to me uncertainty the night before I left for my Nome assignment.
"I was planning to travel using the Duat," I tell him after a moment, and there's a moment of awkward silence. "Was there anything else?"
"No. But if you have any questions . . . ?"
"Not really," I say, edging towards the door before a thought comes to me, making me stop and turn back towards Chiron, who is looking sadly up at one of the trophies decorating the house. "Actually, what exactly is ethereal silver? Or rather, how is it special? I know what it is, but what makes it special?"
"Well," Chiron replies, looking slightly startled. "Ethereal silver is different from the other metals in that it can kill Lycantropes - werewolves. Like Sygian Iron, it can harm both mortals and godly beings. I think - here."
He pulls a book down from one of the shelves that lay against the wall, and I take it after a moment of surprise. It's not heavy or thick, but there's the sort of weight to it that means it's important. Chiron nods in a satisfied manner as he steps back. "There. That book should tell you all you want to to know."
I look back down at the book again before I carefully lift the cover to see the title on the page below.
A Guide to Godly Ores: Edition 4000
"Thank you," I grin at him. He smiles back and ushers me out the door. My happiness fades quickly though, and my mouth quickly falls to a frown as I start towards the fire pit in the middle distance, where I can see three people sitting.
Chapter 14: 14: Thomas
I slowly come to myself, the darkness around me fading into focus with brilliant creatures glowing and moving.
"Hello?" someone calls, their voice echoing.
I turn at the voice, interrupting the silence to see a boy about my age, but with lighter skin and less curly hair floating behind me in the water.
"Hello?" I ask, and the boy turns and looks at me with startled sea green eyes.
"Who are you?" he asks.
"I'm Thomas. Thomas Sanna. Who are you?"
"Percy Jackson. What are you doing here?"
I shrug. "I'm dreaming. You must be important if you're here."
The boy blinks at my response before he sits down, or at least makes the motions with a sigh. "Great. Lightning, man-bulls, my mom dying, my best friend turning out to be half goat, and now my dream telling me that I'm a dream."
"Don't worry," I say. "Things will just get worse from here. Today will be just another day in comparison."
Percy rolls his eyes. "Not helping."
I laugh. Then I blink as I realize that the water around us is getting lighter. "Do you see that?"
"See what" Percy asks, but I can see him looking up to, towards the turbulent water high above us. Suddenly we're accelerating upwards even faster, and we burst out of the turbulent water and find ourselves thrown on a shore. I scramble back into the water before I can think of it at the sound of animals fighting and crying out in pain. I blink the water out of my eyes even as I try to stay in the water as much as I an, and blink at the fighting animals before me.
There's a giant eagle and an equally large owl attacking a horse that keeps snapping at them and lashing out with it's hooves, but it can't fight both of them at once, and there are numerous long scratches along its body.
"I had a dream like this before," Percy says, just barely audible over the sound of the animals fighting, and I turn to look at him. He's still looking at the animals fighting. "The owl wasn't here last time."
"Hey, wake up."
I open my eyes and yawn.
"What happened?" I ask blearily. The man before me smiles as Bobby helps me to my feet.
"He accepted you into the Legion," Bobby replies, stopping me from falling as I waver. "Then he prattled on about fortune and luck for a good half hour as you slept."
"It wasn't prattle!" Calogero squawks. "Not a word I said was false! So what if I was a bit more thorough then I am with most people?"
"You told him he's the twin without a twin, child of lily, seller of hay, and that he should have had large teeth," Bobby says critically.
"That's all name meanings," I say with a yawn before Calogero can protest his innocence. "Names are sometimes thought to be a prediction of the future."
"Exactly," Calogero nods as Bobby lets go of my arm cautiously. "Though I did extrapolate some, I think that if you had a twin, they would have been her with you."
"I don't have a twin," I reply after a moment. But my life is tied to the lives of a set of twins."
"Your life is tied to someone else's?" Bobby asks after a moment of silence that I spent tearing my eyes away from the flames in one of the briers.
"Yes. Is that bad?"
"It's odd," Calogero says, a frown on his face. "I think the only instance of something like that I've heard of was with Meleager."
"Yeah," I sigh.
"Well, you two should be going now. Muster will be happening soon."
"Thanks Calogero," Bobby says. "Come on, Thomas. I might be able to get you armor if we leave now."
We sprint down the hill past the various temples.
"Can I . . . use . . . my own armor?" I ask as we run.
"If you . . . have it," Bobby replies, and I grin at him.
"I . . . have it."
Several minutes later, we dart into the last set of barracks, and I pause at the door to watch Bobby fight his way through the crowd to one of the beds. I stand still uncertainly for a moment before I fight my way through the changing kids calling out names and demanding people give their armor back.
"What do I do now?" I yell to be heard, and Bobby glances up from pulling his chain mail on.
"If you do have armor, put it on now!" he shouts back, and I shrug, a quick moment of concentration allowing me to change my clothes out for the armor I have stored in the Duat. A quick look around shows me that my armor is exactly not anything at all like the Roman's armor, and I want to sigh at the idea of getting a third set to wear. Bobby tightens a strap and looks up at me, his expression incredulous as he takes in my Egyptain set of armor. "What in Pluto's name is that?"
"Armor," I reply, my voice lower now that people were starting to file out of the room. I sigh as I look down. The overlapping pieces of leather traditional to Egyptain armor aren't dyed, but in comparison to the Roman plate armor that most of the people around me seem to be wearing, it stands out. "Hold on a moment - there."
There's another quick switch and I shift at the weight of my Greek armor.
"How'd you do that?" Bobby asks with wide eyes. "I though you were Neptune's son."
I shrug and use the excuse Mr. D had told all of us to use if we were ever asked about our Egyptain abilities. "I have some old talents from Trivia that flared up, probably because I'm a demi-god."
"Well you seem to have found good use for your talents. Do you have a shield to go with that?"
"No one that could be used in the legion," I say, and Bobby's eyes gleam.
"Bobby!" Gwendolyn calls. "Come on, time to line up."
"Go it," Bobby calls back before turning to me. "We're getting you your equipment after this."
There's the dark gleam of promise in his voice as we go out finally.
Chapter 15: 15: Selene
I look up from the card I'd placed down on the pile with a frown, the sound of hooves alerting me to the satyr moment before he arrives, a pale looking boy trailing uncertainly behind him.
"Cheet," Chiron calls, making me turn back to the cards, and I grin as I realize that Zoe had been caught.
"Mr. Brunner!" the boy calls as Zoe pulls the cards towards herself, grumbling.
"Ah, Percy!" Chiron says brightly, turning now. Mr. D is eyeing his cards, and after a moment's thought, he quickly puts one down before Chiron can turn back. "Would you like to join us? We're playing Cheet!"
The boy carefully sits down on the bench next to Mr. D, and Chiron gives Mr. D a brief but viscous glare. "I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don't expect me to be glad to see you."
"Uh, thanks," the boy says, inching ever so slightly farther from Mr. D as Chiron places a card down on the table.
"Cheet!" I call, and Chiron sighs, but pulls the two cards on the pile back towards himself.
"How'd you know this time?" he asks, putting the two card into his deck.
"You sort your cards Chiron. I've told you that five times now."
"Yes, well," Chiron shakes his head as he sets down his cards. "Zoe, Selene, Ethan, this is Percy. Percy, Selene is the young lady wearing red, and Zoe is the one wearing orange. They are, ah . . . friends of someone we believe to be your sibling. You three, if you would be so kind as to make sure Percy has a spot somewhere, it would be most kind."
"Sure Chiron," I reply, setting my cards down on the table. Zoe eyes the card suspiciously as she sets her down, then silently hand Mr. D a five dollar bill. Ethan stands with us, and the three of us head into the Big House.
It's easy enough to grab an extra sleeping bag, and I also grab a few of the other necessities that Percy probably wasn't able to bring given his manner of arrival. Then we head out of the cabin and cut across the grounds to the fire in the middle of the cabin green that we always sleep around.
I blink slightly as I realize that something had changed.
"Did you put in this?" I ask the girl who's almost always there during the day, and she smiles at me.
"Yes, you keep sleeping out here, and I thought it would be nice for you not to have to keep going back and forth between here and the Hermes cabin."
"I'll still have to use their bathroom though, but thanks," I smile at her. I turn to the cubicles and blink to find them already labeled.
"You labeled them too, thanks," Ethan notes quietly. He smiles as he pulls the one labeled as his open to find his stuff inside.
"You're welcome," the girl replies as she prods the the fire, then heaves another log into it. Zoe pulls the one with Percy's name on it open and stuffs the sleeping bag in before standing back to let me drop the all important demi-god supplies (toothpaste, a toothbrush, deodorant, as well as the Acne prevention cream that the Aphrodite campers insist each cabin has) in and kick it shut. "They should only open for for the person whose name is on them."
"You did just see me open that, right?" Zoe asks abrasively, but not unkindly.
"Well, you have to put his stuff in there, right? It's not like there was anything in there?" the girl says lightly. I frown slightly before I open my mouth to ask the girl her name and her parent when the sound of hooves interrupts me.
"Hey! Chiron!" Zoe hollers, waving at the Centaur.
"Zoe," Chiron greets my twin sedately as he nears, a confused looking Percy trailing along next to him. "I see you have storage space now."
"Yes, apparently we've slept out here long enough that Hestia decided that e should have our own space," I say, momentarily looking around for the girl, but she must have left while I was distracted because it's just the five of us.
"Yes, well, I've got my master's archery class to get to, so if you would be kind enough to show Percy the rest of camp?"
"Of course," I reply before Zoe can think of a smart remark. Chiron nods before turning and trotting off to disappear behind the Hermes cabin.
"Well," Ethan starts, getting Percy's attention. "Where has Chiron shown you already?"
"The dining pavilion, the fields, archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables, the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena," Percy says, his voice coming out stronger than he looks, though that was something I half expected. We'd been feeding him nectar and ambrosia for a couple of days now, if he wasn't better, something was wrong.
"Alright," Ethan says, nodding absently. "That just leaves the cabins."
"You haven't even told him where he's sleeping yet," Zoe says before we can move, patting the storage unit. "You'll be sleeping out here. All your stuff should be in here. Mind, that only means the stuff we grabbed for you. Hope you like minty-fresh toothpaste."
"I'll manage," Percy replies, looking better almost by the second now. "But, no cabin?"
"Nah," Zoe shakes her head. "Like Chiron said, you're our friend's sibling, until you're decided, you're stuck with us. Or rather, you're free from the rest of the camp because we'll be leaving soon."
"So, cabins," Ethan starts before anyone else can say anything. "Chiron's been teaching you for the last year, so give them your best guess."
"Um," Percy blushes. but obediently turns to look at the cabins. I take a sharp note of the way his eyes linger on Cabin 3 in much the same way as Thomas's had, which sends a burst of pain through my chest that I breath through as he points towards Cabin 1. "That's Zues's right? And the one next to it is Hera's, his wife's then."
Ethan doesn't say anything, simply modding when Percy glances in his direction. Percy takes a deep breath before he turns back to the cabins and names them off one by one, growing more confident as he gets them correct. He names the Hermes cabin last, with a grin from Zoe. "That's right. Tidbit- the Hermes cabin is the one you would have gone to if we weren't here."
"Thanks," Percy replies.
"Bully alert," Zoe grumbles, making me look up to see Clarisse stalking towards us.
"Wonderful."
Chapter 16: Chapter 16
I'm putting this on hiatus so I can concentrate on fewer stories. I'm sorry.
Chapter 17: Chapter 17
Hi. This is abandoned, and will go to my Dribbles story tomorrow. I apologize.