Chapter six: Maybe a demigod
So when I woke up the next day, I was super confused. You see, my room normally wasn't filled with exactly the right amount of light, gently waking me up. No, it was either completely dark or
blindingly bright when I forgot to put the shutters down.
Also, my bedsheets didn't go with the vases and picture frames in it, and come to think of it, I didn't even have vases in my room, cause every flower I touch, like, dies.
So yeah, I was pretty disorientated, until the memories of the previous day made their way into my mind through the foggy haze of sleep.
Okay, so a little recap, I told myself: You're in a town called Little Athens, somewhere on Long Island. The world is ruled by gods who have kids with humans who then go to this camp which is right next door. You're currently in the guest room of two of said demigods.
Oh yeah, and you might be one yourself, which would mean your parents aren't really your parents.
Great.
Okay.
So now I had the facts cleared in my mind, I needed to prepare for the day.
First of all, I had a shower.
Ah, glorious hot water, you are my saviour. Feeling much more refreshed, I used the towels and a little hair-dryer I found in the bathroom to get myself dry. Then I went to put on some of the clothes Percy had brought me, old ones which no longer fitted his wife, Annabeth.
There was a full length mirror in one corner of the room, and I stepped in front of it:
So there I was, a-little-longer-than-shoulder-length hazelnut coloured hair with a messy fringe, pale blue eyes and normal complexion. Average height, a little on the tall side I guess for my age. Normal build.
I sighed. This girl in the mirror was definitely not the daughter of an all powerful god or goddess.
I mean, it wasn't like I didn't like myself or had any major self-confidence problems, no, I was a perfectly happy fifteen year old girl with your average fifteen year old girl problems. And that, apparently, was my problem right now.
How could Percy or any of the others expect me to be special, when I was just me?
There was a knock on the door, and I went over to open it. Percy was standing there, the easy smile on his lips, black hair in a cute sort of mess.
"Mornin'" he said, leaning against the door frame and giving me a once over. He chuckled.
"What?" I asked, a little defensively.
"Nothing" he said "It's just...your clothes."
I looked down at myself: I'd put on jeans shorts and an orange t-shirt which said Camp Half-Blood.
It was comfy and kind of fitting I'd thought.
"What's wrong with them?" I demanded to know, my eyebrows drawing together.
"Nothing's wrong with them" Percy said, smiling "You just remind me a lot of Annabeth. She nearly always wore that."
This remark made me smile, and I got a warm feeling inside. If I could be even a little like Annabeth Jackson, I would probably be able to manage this whole affair much better.
"So, you still not freaking out? Trying to run for it? Denying our existence?" Percy asked as we went downstairs.
He'd made breakfast, eggs on toast with bacon, and I was so hungry my mouth actually watered.
"Dig in" he told me, which I did.
Between bites, I answered his questions: "I sorta already did the freaking out bit yesterday before you came along. And I don't think running for it would exactly help me, also, breakfast" I pointed at my already almost empty plate and Percy laughed.
"As for denying your existence, eh, kind of difficult?" I actually smiled and received a nod in return.
When we'd finished eating, Percy asked: "Ready for the grand tour? Piper and Jason are coming along as well."
"Yup" I nodded "Just let me get my-" I faltered.
"What?" Percy asked, looking confused.
"I...I was going to say let me get my bag, but I don't have one, do I?" I tried to put of the remark with a grin, but secretly I felt a pang of home sickness. I didn't like not having a single thing of my own with me, well, except for the track pants and top I'd arrived in yesterday that is.
Percy didn't say anything, but I saw him throwing me a quick glance as we left the house and made our way through Little Athens.
He showed me quite a bit of the neighbourhood, which was mainly for living.
"This side of the high street is for permanent residents, and some others who have, like, a holiday home here." Percy explained, as we wandered through the cobbled streets, slowly making our way west.
At some point, we stopped in front of a cute house with beautiful white flowers growing outside on the balcony.
"They'll be out in a moment" Percy told me and sure enough, Jason Grace and Piper McLean emerged barely two minutes later.
They smiled at me, and Piper took up the job of narrating the sights around us, while Percy went a little ahead and Jason walked behind us.
Maybe I was imagining things, but I couldn't help thinking of guards watching a prisoner, the way they moved around me...
I noticed a few other things as we reached the high street, which was the broadest road we'd seen so far and was lined with lots of shops, selling all kinds of stuff, like armour or self-polishing swords:
Percy Jackson continually kept his hand in his pocket, and from the way it was bunched together, I gathered he was gripping something tightly.
Jason Grace had one hand swinging loosely by his side, the other one was flipping a new looking golden coin.
The two boys never altered these positions, and I couldn't help but wonder: Why?
Piper on the other hand was constantly talking: "Look over there, they sell the best brownies ever, and this is where we all get our weapons sharpened and over there-"
Her voice had a soothing quality to it, and if I let myself listen to it for longer than a few minutes, I felt much more relaxed and less worried about my problems than before.
After walking a while along the high street, my guides (or at least I hoped that's all they were) turned left and soon we came to a small, round plazza. It was lined by immense buildings, all in Ancient Greek style with columns and arcs and beautiful friezes.
"Right." Percy picked up the talking again. "This is Damasen Square, it's the main centre of the town. Over there you have the Council building, the Chariot race place, the Colosseum and a bunch of other important stuff."
I looked around, feeling like I was in Greece on holiday with my family. Except, you know, this wasn't Greece and these people, although nice enough, weren't my family.
"What's up there?" I asked, pointing up a street which climbed up the side of a hill, at whose end I saw a shimmering golden light.
"That's the Temple Boulevard." Piper said. "If you wanna worship, that's where you're heading."
"And over there?" I wanted to know, looking to the other side, where the streets became darker and I could barely see what was at the end of them, except for a scarce scattering of trees.
"The cemetery." Jason said grimly. "Don't go there unless you want to be spooked for like, a month."
I made a mental note to go down there the next chance I got.
"Wow." I stated, and sat down on a stone bench nearby. "This town, it's beautiful. How old is it?"
"Fifteen years" Piper answered immediately.
"That's not very old." I stated, looking around at the buildings which (apart from their unblemished-ness) might have been standing there for aeons.
"No, it's not. We started building it straight away after the Second Giant War. A bit of our camp was demolished back then, and we wanted something new, so this is what happened." Percy sounded a little lost in the past.
"It's not yet finished though." I thought out loud, remembering the building sights at the edge of Little Athens which I'd seen from the top of the hill.
"No, not yet." Piper agreed with a little smile. "Annabeth still has all these plans in her head, though if she keeps it up, even the Hecate lot won't be able to magically extend our land anymore."
I had no idea what she'd just said but I just nodded like I understood.
After the grand tour of LA (Little Athens, get it?), Piper showed me the rest of the camp while the men went off to their sword fighting courses.
Cause that's the sort of thing they taught little kids here, how to impale somebody with a pointy piece of metal.
The last part of our tour were the cabins, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. Each cabin stood for a god, and that god or goddess's kids lived there.
The only cabin Piper could really show me the inside of was the Aphrodite cabin, which was cute I guess once you got used to the powerful smell of perfume.
"You don't sleep here anymore though, do you?" I asked Piper outside, where there was a little bench which we sat on.
"Nah, you saw Jason's and my house in town. We moved there two years ago."
"Are you guys married?" I asked, interested.
"Nope" Piper replied, looking off into the distance with a little smile on her face. "Not yet. We're engaged and have been for, like, four years, but there's tons of legal work to do what with Jason being Roman and all..."
"Jason's Roman?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "But how come he's not a Roman envoy then?"
"Well, it's kinda complicated, like I said. Jason was born Roman but he, how to say, he kinda chose his Greek side over his Roman one, ages ago."
"Oh. I didn't realise you could do that."
"Not a lot of people have."
"So, what's the Roman camp like?" I asked, eager to know more about this strange and fascinating world. "Is it very different? Do they have a city as well?"
Piper grinned. "We kinda copied to be honest. Camp Jupiter's built next to New Rome, which existed long before Little Athens came along. As for it being different, well I guess you could say that, I mean they're a legion for one thing and so the rules are stricter and they use unicorns instead of ambrosia..."
We continued to sit there for quite a while, and I listened carefully to everything Piper told me. I have to say, I probably learnt more in that hour than in four years of high school.
Soon I was relatively up to date on the average life of a demigod, the monster attacks and dyslexia, the ADHD and the slim chance of survival outside of a half blood camp.
And the more I learnt, the more certain I grew that I was not a demigod.
Piper seemed to believe differently however, for at some point she said: "You know, I think I've got you figured out now."
"You do?" I asked sceptically.
"Yes." Piper nodded. "I think your dad might be a minor wind god, like Circios for example. I've heard of gods pretending to be humans before and living with their families, for a few days a week.
It would fit you see, you told us your dad was only at home for five days during the week and even the transporting yourself somewhere else would be explained that way. Maybe it was your dad, wanting you to find us! He must be minor though, otherwise you'd be attacked all the time. I guess your dad's put some kind of extra protection on you and your mum."
I didn't answer. I didn't know what to say.
Piper later repeated the same theory to the others and Chiron, Jason and Percy seemed to agree. Hazel looked unsure, but it was the best lead we had so far.
"But how could I not notice if my dad was a god?" I asked, a frown on my face. Surely, if Dad was a god, we wouldn't need to call the repair man every time our bathroom sink broke.
"Gods are very adapt at concealing their true selves, Erin." Chiron said gently. "He's still your father, and I'm sure he loves you very much, even if Piper's theory is true."
"So, how do we find out for sure?" I asked uncertainly.
Chiron cleared his throat, rolled over to the fridge and got out a can of soda, which he passed to me.
"Drink that, Erin. As for proving our theory, there are two possible ways: Option one, your father officially claims you, for example at the camp fire tonight. Option two, we wait until Mr D, that's the camp director, comes back from his holiday and agrees with us. He's the god of wine you see, so he should be able to recognize a demigod."
I felt a flutter of fear at the mention of this god and the possibility of being scrutinized by him. Piper had told me about Mr D: He was the god Dionysus and had been sent here by Zeus as repentance for lusting after some off-limits wood nymph. Apparently he was a right old git.
"So in the meantime I'm...?" I prompted, wanting to know what I could call myself at the moment. Apparently I wasn't all human, like I'd thought for the past fifteen years.
"You're maybe a demigod!" Percy clamped a hand on my shoulder and grinned down at me. "Don't worry, Erin. My guess is your dad will claim you as soon as possible, and then we'll know for sure that you're a Half-Blood. Right, Chiron?"
Percy looked at the old centaur for him to agree, and Chiron nodded, but I saw a hint of unease on his face.
We were walking past the shiniest of the cabins, Apollo, when just at that moment, a familiar figure walked out and shouted "Hey, Mr G!"
Next to me, Jason stopped walking and waved at Ryan, who came over to us quickly.
"What's up, Ryan?" Jason asked.
Ryan neither looked at me nor showed any sign of recognition, instead he started talking to Jason.
"I was just wondering if you could show me that blocking trick again. I tried it, but it still won't work."
"Sure." Jason replied, throwing a glance at Piper as if asking her for permission. She nodded with a smile on her lips. "We can go down to the arena straight away."
Ryan nodded eagerly, and turned around, halting only when Jason said: "Erin, do you want to come? It would be best if you started training as soon as possible."
Even if I couldn't see his face, I was prepared to bet everything I owned that Ryan was wearing a look of distaste.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to go fight with swords (I mean, I wasn't medieval, was I?) but the chance to annoy Mr Smirk-a-lot was too good to pass up.
"Sure" I smiled, and followed the two males to the arena Piper had shown me earlier. There were a few other kids milling around, and after he'd given me a sword, Jason paired me up with someone called Jayne Smithee, a perky blonde girl.
Jayne was nice enough, maybe a little reserved but then again I was a stranger to her.
"So, who's your godly parent?" I asked her while she showed me how to hold my sword correctly.
"Demeter." she answered, then added "the goddess of farming and plants and stuff."
I could see Jayne being a child of an earth goddess, I thought. She had straw coloured hair and grass green eyes, with freckles sprinkled all around her nose. There was a kind air about her, and I decided she might make a good friend.
"Have you been claimed yet?" she asked me, while making me swing the blade a couple of times. I wasn't very good, and holding up the sword was using up all my strength, so I only managed a shake of the head.
"Don't worry, you will be soon." Jayne smiled a little at me and I smiled back. I missed Kara, I realised suddenly. I missed home.
"Right, are you ready? One, two and three!"
Before I could react, before I could even blink, Jayne had slammed my sword out of my hand and sent it clattering to the ground.
"Sorry, sorry" I said hastily, picking up the blade, fumbling it and letting it fall again almost immediately.
I heard some kids laughing over by the seats, and my face grew warm.
"Ignore them." Jayne advised.
We tried again. And again. And again.
But no matter what or how hard I tried, I was completely useless. My sword spent more time on the ground than in my hand.
"Okay, maybe sword fight isn't your forte." Jayne said finally, barely breathing hard while I was wiping sweat off my forehead and panting like I'd just run a mile.
"Diner's in an hour. Maybe you should shower before." Jayne suggested, and I nodded, grasping my side. Jeez, I really was unfit.
"Okay. See you then." she waved, and was gone.
It took me another five minutes before I could stand straight and breathe normally again. As I looked around, I saw nearly everybody had left, except for one boy who was still practising vehemently: Ryan.
I hesitated for a moment, but then decided that I wanted to see a familiar face, no matter how unfriendly it was.
"Hey" I called, as I slowly approached him.
He didn't look up immediately, but went on with his moves for another minute or so. Perhaps he was hoping I would go away, but I waited.
Finally, he finished and looked up. "Hello." His voice was cool, like I'd expected. It made me long for home more than anything, for a hug from my Mum or my bed.
I pictured myself lying underneath the covers, with a good book and perhaps a nice cup of tea by my side.
For a second I felt better when suddenly my vision blurred and before I realised what was happening, the ground rushed up to meet me.
I must have blacked out for a second cause the next thing I knew I was lying on the arena floor, half propped up in Ryan's arms.
He was talking to me, but I couldn't understand him. It was as if his voice was coming out of a badly tuned radio, getting softer and louder and softer again, and there was a ringing sound accompanying it.
"Erin. Erin!" finally his voice became clearer and his face appeared before mine. "Can you hear me?"
I tried to nod, but my muscles wouldn't respond, and so all I could do was lie there and look at him, my head lolling uselessly.
"Help!" I half heard him shout, as he leant my head against his chest.
Everything went blurry again, the only thing I was really aware of was Ryan's chest, his rapid breathing and the sound of his beating heart.
"Help!" I heard Ryan's voice again.
Help, I agreed silently.
Help.
Uh oh, trouble ahead!
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