A/N: Hello, it's been ages... I know and I'm sorry for that. School has started. Again. And I have two big projects that I have to do. I've procrastinated a lot... To write this chapter. Took me about a week. *sigh*
But, enjoy this one. I hope you like it. :)
Chapter 8: In which we go to Olympus
I woke up to poking. Something was poking me. Or someone. I didn't really know. But when I opened my eyes, there was no one near me. The poking had stopped though. I shook my head and glanced at the other occupants of cabin eleven. They were all more or less asleep still. The clock on the wall said it was 5 am. I sighed. I really wanted to continue sleeping. What could one do now, I was already awake. The curse of being a sun child. Waking up in the mornings. Though it really wasn't much different to home when I had to wake up early to school.
Grumbling to myself almost inaudibly, I finally got up and decided to take an early shower and enjoy the warm water without any rush. It wasn't like the warm water could run out but long showers without someone rapping on the stall door, was luxury.
Bundled into winter clothes I headed towards the archery range but something else caught my attention. An eight-year old girl tending the fire. I hadn't seen her before but I did know who she was. Hestia. Goddess of Home and Hearth.
I don't know how long I stood there, just watching, but eventually she looked up at me. She smiled. I'm not a creep, but she was cute. Warm eyes and soft brown curls. She felt like… well, home.
"Why don't you sit with me, Clay Gavin?" She gestured a patch of freshly fallen patch of snow next to her that hadn't melted by the heat of flames.
"That'd be an honor, Lady Hestia." I offered a short bow and made my way to her. I sat down and laid my bow on the ground other side of me, turning my gaze to the flames. A silence reigned between us but it didn't feel uncomfortable. It was more like one of those times between Luna and I. She read books or did research while I did my stuff with the computer. Neither of us disturbing the other but enjoying the presence of them.
"You are causing ripples." Hestia stated after a while.
"…I am aware." I nodded slowly, wondering where this conversation was going.
"Apollo was startled when the prophecy was told to you."
"I was startled too."
"But what he has seen from the future after that… It gives hope. While the outcome may remain the same, the cost may not be as high."
"…" I didn't know what to say. After all it was the aim of my sister and I. To save as many as possible without affecting the outcome. "Has… Has he told anyone of the second prophecy?"
"No. With the tension on Olympus already so high, he doesn't want to add any more pressure on it. And you are his son. No matter the way you came to be, he will protect you. Like he protects any other of his children." The Goddess smiled at me. I gave a tentative smile back.
"And Luna?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Your sister… She is safe for now. She is mortal despite the stones she's collecting. And she on her way to make good connections. She just needs to be careful of who sees her." Hestia turned back towards the flames and poked them a bit. "You need to keep a low profile too. Especially on the upcoming days."
"The Winter Solstice."
"One of the topics under discussion are the thefts going on. And the fact the thief is using the name Thalassa." Was that a hint of mischief in her eyes?
"I… I see." It was interesting how she referred to Luna as collecting stones but Thalassa as stealing… something.
"But I hope you enjoy yourself too. It's been awhile to see a demigod such as you. Balanced one."
"Probably because I wasn't originally one." My fingers were plucking at the string of my bow.
"Probably." Hestia nodded sagely. It was a funny image. Would've been funnier if it had been an actual eight-year-old. "But I'll continue protecting your home nevertheless. What you and your sister will bring to this world… It surely will be interesting."
"I'm sure. We are going to have fun." Have fun stranded in here. I haven't seen my sister in ages and won't even know if something happens to her. I'm cut off from all that I knew. I don't belong-…
"And Clay?" Hestia's voice cut through my thoughts that had taken a dangerous pensive turn. I won't be surprised if she'd been reading my mind and thus chosen that exact moment to interrupt.
"Yes?"
"You realize that you have family here? Like I said, Apollo considers you one of his own despite what happened with Silas. And I'm sure the campers will welcome you sister too when it's the right time."
Well, in the books they did welcome Rachel who became the next Oracle. Maybe Luna could be a test run.
"I…" I swallowed. "Thank you."
"You are welcome, Clay. Enjoy your field trip." And she was gone with a smell of smoke and home cooked meal. I glanced at her previous spot a noted a small covered bowl on a wooden tray with a spoon next to it. I picked the tray and placed it on my lap. And carefully I took the lid off the bowl. There was rice porridge. With a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar on top it and a little bit of butter melting and forming a golden yellow 'eye' in there. I smiled. It was almost Christmas. Back home we always ate rice porridge on Christmas Eve lunch while turkey, salmon, potatoes, rosolli and other Christmas dishes were for a dinner.
"Home…" I took the spoon and dug in. The first bite was indescribable. It was everything I remembered from home. Everything I missed. It was just like I remembered the Christmas porridge to be. As I continued eating I even found an almond in there. Finding an almost meant one could make a wish. Back home mother used to put many almonds in the porridge so Luna and I could get at least one. Well, we were kids and later on it became a habit. Because the almonds tasted so nice and it was exciting to see which spoonful would have it. Hmm… What to wish?
I ate the porridge in reverent silence and once I placed the bowl back on the tray, it and the rest of the utensils disappeared. I smiled freely for the first time for a while. "Thank you for the meal, Lady Hestia."
We'd leave after lunch towards Olympus. Normally it was during dinner that we sacrificed to the gods but this time it was done during lunch. Probably because it was sort of common and uniting thing to do among the campers and some of them would be gone for the next two days.
"You aren't coming then?" I asked Luke after sacrificing some salmon for Hades and wishing him patience to deal with his bothersome family.
"Nah, next year then. Someone has to watch after these guys." The older camper gestured the kids at the tables. I barely stifled a chuckle.
"I can believe that. Surprisingly many are staying here though."
"But you are going, right?"
"Yeah. I can't wait to see it. If only based on curiosity."
"Alright…" The boy nodded but I could see his thoughts were elsewhere. I could only hope it wasn't anything sinister. The moment was gone as soon as it had appeared. "You look after Stolls then. Can't have them causing trouble, eh?" I got a nudge in the ribs.
"Luke, you put way too much weight on my abilities when it comes to controlling them." I tried to deflect whatever praise was coming next.
"No, you just work on the same wavelength with them. After pulling that prank on cabin five and hiding from them on the roof of cabin eight? I don't know if you are a fool or suicidal." Laughter rang along the table eleven. This time I couldn't help but laugh along with them. "So, yeah, you pretty much earned their respect. Lately you've managed to make some nigh impossible feats here."
I scrolled back my memories. Yeah. I had done much stuff that was borderline insane or impossible. Lying to Kheiron and not getting caught? Yep, and it was now a public secret between the demigod campers that my sister was actually alive and well. Sneaking to attic and getting a prophecy with the knowledge of the rest of the camp? No one but Apollo and Hestia knew about that to my knowledge. Avoiding a swirly? People were astonished but that had faded quickly. Cheating but yet not cheating at Capture the Flag? Annabeth was still harping about it. And now pranking the Ares campers and not found afterwards PLUS hiding half a day on the roof of Goddess of the Hunt's cabin. Well, let's just say I barely slept a week afterwards.
"I still think you are flattering me." I smirked. "Besides, none of you have figured out yet who's my godly parent."
"The betting pool is on-going." Samuel interjected. "But by your own admission we managed to weed out the goddesses. My own bet is on you being our sibling."
"Nah. Can't be." Lou Ellen laughed lightly. "While he does have quick fingers and a mischievous streak, he is clearly Apollo's. Oh, c'mon, Clay! I've seen the way you eye that grand piano at the Big House. Besides his skills with a bow rival those of cabin seven."
The conversation flowed from there, each tossing their guesses. It was broken only when Mirco Kirkland from Ares table opened the days paper got to the part where they handled smaller news.
"Ya know…" He drawled with Southern Accent. "The thief is strikin' tonight."
"What do you mean?" Clarisse frowned and stopped shoveling bacon to her mouth.
"That thief Thalassa. She's gonna do the gig soon. The winds at Time Square 'ave been worse than usual." Mirco explained. "Lately every time she 'as a 'eist, the winds are picking up there and wallets go missing. They call it the Snatcher Gale now. It's been going on this last month a lot."
"You looked up the weather reports then?" Malcom leaned across the aisle between the two tables. He and Mirco got along surprisingly well considering their parents.
"Yeah… The pattern is tha same but no one's linked them. Media keeps quiet about tha 'eists b'forehand."
I listened with mild interest. So Luna had something planned for tonight then. What could the target be? Something poked me again. Poked me in my head. I brushed it away. It was weird and annoying little thing. Something to ignore really. Or at least that's what I thought.
There was fifteen of us who left for the trip. Argus was driving the van for us to the closest subway station and Chiron was in his wheelchair. It was a relatively interesting sight to be honest. On the way Kayla(daughter of Apollo) managed to challenge Candice – the girl who took offence on my flippant attitude towards being determined on my first day at camp and who Lou Ellen took down in the first Capture the Flag game – to sing Britney Spears' Toxic. Candice did sing that song and she wasn't awful per say… It was just that no one liked the song. And then began challenging each other. Each and every one of us took turn in singing the assigned song as long as the lyrics were known. Some were good. Some were mediocre. Some were bad. Some… sang badly on purpose. Mirco and Clarisse ended up whacking the Stolls on the head for that since I was too far to reach them. Apparently the rest of our group had also heard that Luke had nominated me as their babysitter. I sighed. This was going to be a long trip.
"C'mon, Clay, your turn!" Lee grinned next to me. I liked him. Laidback personality, talent for music, didn't really get into trouble with anyone. Even Ares cabin tended to leave him alone. Maybe because he was also the counsellor of cabin seven.
"Nah… Do I have to?" I cringed. I didn't care for singing. At least not when others could hear and separate my voice from others'.
"Everyone else did." Lou Ellen piped up. "Surely you can do it too?" I didn't like the glint in her eyes.
"Fine, fine… Any suggestions?"
"The Beatles." Malcom threw in at the back of the van. I turned in my seat to look at the son of Athena fully.
"And which song would it be then?"
"Ooh, I know!" Kayla clapped her hands together enthusiastically and then leaned to whisper to Silena who was sitting next to her. The only cabin ten resident with us grinned brightly. I got even worse feeling.
"You shall sing us Oh, Darling. It's said to be the hardest Beatles song to sing."
So I sang. Luna loved the band so I knew the songs quite well by now. A couple of time I had to stop to cough my throat open because of how hoarse the song was sung. The performance wasn't perfect by any means but I managed it 'til the end.
"Satisfied?" I asked, taking a sip from the water bottle given to me by Castor. Or Pollux. I couldn't tell them apart yet.
"Very." Silena smiled before turning to talk with Kayla once again. From the corner of my eye I could see Lou Ellen giving smug looks to Samuel. I just sighed and turned to look out of the window of our cramped van whilst wondering what would be Thalassa's target tonight. Something poked me again. I got a vague impression of wind and a rush but could have been the open window too.
We left our winter coats to the lobby of the Empire State Building and Chiron got the key card for the elevator. Miraculously we needed only one trip to the 600th floor. Probably temporally magically expanded or something similar.
Once up there I couldn't help but gape. Other campers next to me were in similar state. The Olympus was… magnificent. Full of white and gold. Marble everywhere. Pristine cleanness. Bright light.
"Tacky." I said. The Stolls whirled to stare me. A few more Campers had heard me but decided to ignore it in favor of their awe of the place.
"Tacky?" Connor whispered. "This is Olympus, dude. The Olympus."
"Yep. And it's great yeah… Brilliant, truly…" I ran a hand through my hair. It was almost grown out of the cut. I hadn't let the Silena to touch it in the case she gave me a whole new haircut. "But it's a bit too… Plain. Just white and gold. It pushes people away. This is a palace, a temple, a mountain… Not a home. But I suppose this is just fine place for gods." I sighed as we began trailing through the halls after Chiron who was now out of his wheelchair.
"I suppose you are right." Travis shrugged with mock seriousness. "I wouldn't recommend this place either for extended stay."
"Going to tourism business then, eh?" I nudged him with my elbow. The boy showed me back.
"Ey, knock it off." Connor stepped between us. "I thought, you were supposed to be the babysitter, Clay, not me."
"Oh, shut it, Con-man."
"And that joke is getting so old."
"Told in fitting place then. 'cause this place is ancient." Travis commented lightly.
"Travis, Connor, Clay, don't get left behind." Chiron called from the front of the group.
"Yeah." We chorused and jogged to catch the rest. We were now going through an area where numerous stalls littered the streets. The vendors were vocal and smell of Greek food was everywhere. There even was stalls for souvenirs. But what I liked the most of them was the colors. All sorts of colors on both sides of the streets. A nice change after the boring and cold and unwelcoming whiteness. Blame Luna. Yeah, it was good to blame her for me being so hung up on colors. She was right though.
"Hurry up campers, we need to get to the Council room before sundown." Chiron called again. And was it my imagination but did the sun actually slow down? The time of Dusk seemed to stretch. I checked it later. And according to Lee the sun went down half an hour later than it should have. When such an observation was made, Chiron just sighed and told us it was Lady of the Dusk who must've heard us. The centaur said she had certain fondness towards demigods while she herself had had only few during the course of history. That was interesting because according to the information I had, Astraeus was male and he was the God of the Dusk. But maybe being the Lady of the Dusk was somewhat minor role despite the domain being the same. I didn't know. And eventually I would forget about it.
We reached a pair of giant doors. Chiron gave us a moment to straighten our appearance. After all we'd just walked about the entirety of the modern Mount Olympus that hangs above the heads of the citizens of New York City.
"I shudder to think what would happen if this place were to fall down." I muttered. Mirco and Clarisse snickered.
"It would be bad." Travis stated solemnly.
"Very bad." Conner nodded.
The doors opened and we were led inside. And… It was impressive. To see the full Olympian Council sitting on their thrones and either idly chatting with each other (surprisingly there was no arguments yet) or then glancing in our direction. I didn't know what was so special about us in their eyes. I mean. We were just demigods amongst many. I wasn't even that. But each of us would die eventually and become an insignificant drop in the vast ocean of memories for them…
So each of us introduced ourselves. I noted that only Candice and I were unclaimed ones. Two versus thirteen. I bet Chiron had something to do with this…
"Clay Gavin, undetermined." I stated finally, offering a short bow to the twelve Olympians (plus Hades and Hestia). I was the last of the line, right after the Stolls. And I noticed Ares giving me a death glare. I admit I was a bit intimidated by it. How in earth could Luna work with him?
We were ushered to sit by the side, sort of out of the view of half of the council. Since the position of the thrones was the same than of the cabins at Camp Half-Blood, we were sat behind the goddesses plus Dionysus. I wasn't sure what the strategy behind that was. Maybe so the boys wouldn't ogle the females' front side – they were wearing long chitons after all – and their backside was safe due the coverage of the backrests of their thrones. Or then because gods simply had more children than goddesses they should keep an eye on the kids. Or because Hera didn't want to see us, we were put behind her back. Yeah, let's go with that last one.
The conversation, debates and arguments began. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. For gods they were being very childish. On opposite side of the horse shoe formation, sitting next to Hermes, the Lord of the Underworld seemed to have similar thoughts. Well, he was the eldest of the brothers; it was only right that he was more mature than the other two. Though being trapped in the Underworld was millennials and otherwise treated unfairly probably didn't help the temper problems that all of the Olympian family more or less had. Grainzilla, anyone? But Hades could be more mature about them. Right? Right.
As if sensing my thoughts, the Rich One glanced into my direction just as I was hiding a yawn behind my palm. I shut my mouth with soft clack of teeth and arched my eyebrows at the gaze. The eldest brother of Big Three just shook his head before glancing at the ceiling in expiration. Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
Then suddenly wind blew into the Council room. It wasn't harsh, just a soft gust that ruffled hair gently. The voices grew silent. The gods looked at each other.
"It wasn't me." Zeus, Lord of the Sky, immediately said.
"No. It's the Snatcher Gale." Hermes chuckled. "The great thief Thalassa is striking tonight."
"Yes… That ingrate."
I didn't react to the insult towards my sister. Less clues the gods had, the better. I could see not even Hestia or Apollo reacted.
"She should be stopped." Athena told the others imperiously. "At this rate, she'll collect all of the Stones."
"Ah, yes. It was your stone that was taken first, wasn't it?" Ares smirked at his rival. And cue the wisdom goddess silently seething.
"I don't see why. She obviously eats her cereal. And she can't use the stones if she isn't a demigod and even then there is restrictions to it. Certain stones react only to certain persons." Demeter sighed, while picked some invisible lint from her dress.
"My stone wasn't the first one found. The last stone owl guarding the stone managed to inform me that various other guardians were slayed with Lady Sky."
Now that got the attention of others. Especially that of Zeus, Poseidon, Ares and Hephaestus.
"Lady Sky? Now that hasn't been seen in ages." Poseidon began somewhat smugly. "You sure you don't have another demigod in hiding who received the sword?"
"Of course not! Thalia was the only one." And a glare was thrown in Hades' direction. The Silent One didn't react. At least no outwardly.
"Are you sure it was the Lady Sky?" Hephaestus asked Athena. Meanwhile Ares kept a close eye on them. Probably trying to fish out any information he could and then either blackmail me or Luna, or then come up with new torturing… ahem, training techniques for my sister.
"Yes. The last owl had been guarding the stone for centuries and saw also the ring containing Lady Sky."
I shut off the remainder of the conversation when the wind blew into the room once again. I could feel a poke again. It was right behind my eyes. I could almost hear a giggle and feel a flash of light green light. Same green that of Persephone's stone. One for teleportation. And apparently for telepathy too.
"Tuuli nousee…" Luna whispered in my mind.
"…on uskallettava elää." I thought back.
A/N: I hope this isn't going too fast... It's surprisingly hard to moderate how much to tell now and how much to leave for later on. But do tell me that didn't you think about the chapter. In the next one we'll still be on Olympus but not too much.
Some explanations:
1. Porridge: I love rice porridge. And hunting for the almond is fun. Even though I'm an adult already. Clay pretty much describes the Christmas of our family here by the way.
2. Thalassa: Let's just say I'm happy the Olympians aren't suspecting the actual Thalassa being the thief.
3. Lady Sky: She'd be a perfect weapon for Thalia or Jason. Just saying. Probably Hephaestus made. And here was the meaning of the dissapearing Minerva Owl. The bird can't give Athena a visual though so she doesn't know what Clay and Luna look like. And Ares stays quiet to get a one up on Athena.
4. Hestia and Apollo: Of course they know what is going on. After all Hestia protects the home of the siblings and Apollo is God of Prophecy. And I think they are quite the trolls sometimes.
5. Lady of Dusk: She will appear later. But she is important. Just saying.
6. "Tuuli nousee... On uskallettava elää." : Quote in Finnish from Hayao Miyazaki's last movie. "The wind is rising… we must try to live!"
Replies to Reviews:
-Grace F:
You are welcome. In Dream or Not, she is pretty much in the sidlines because the risk of being caught is bigger. And here she actually has something she wants to steal :)
I'll try my best with the prophecy and I hope it lives up to expectations ;)
Fourth book was about the Labyrinth. Dionysos told Percy about her fate in the Third one though when Percy lef the camp without a permission and Mr. D caught him midair... But yeah, I remembered too that it had nothing to do with being an Oracle. In the other words doesn't that mean Sally could've navigated in there too? Hypothetically speaking I mean...
I'll try to keep updating. I have too many ideas and too little time.
-CastBound Graceus:
Thank you. I hope you like this chapter too. :D
-Regin:
The update is here! I hope you enjoyed reading this one. :)
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And here I want to thank all the new readers, reviewers, followers and favers. You are precious. I try to keep up writing this.