Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan.
I'm just playing with the concepts.
This chapter is a little short, but I'm introducing a historical character who never made her way into the books, so it's important regardless.
Enjoy #^-^#
I woke gasping. The pain was gone, but the memory of it… Well, I wasn't gonna go participating in any gender changing rituals again in the near future. When I finally calmed down, taking a look at my surroundings, it seemed I was in a cabin.
It certainly wasn't Poseidon's cabin.
For one thing there was more than one bed, and they appeared to have been used.
The bigger clue was that it was full of hunters, chatting and laughing in camaraderie.
The moment they noticed I was awake, however, the whole cabin fell silent.
They all looked around at each other, trying to decide what to do. Eventually Bianca walked over to me, and Zoë sighed before coming over to join the new recruit.
"Umm… are you feeling okay?", Bianca asked gingerly.
I pretended to think about it, but my brain was still to tired to think. "I'm doing fine. It hurt really bad before I passed out, but I'm okay now."
My eyes widened. That… Was not my voice. Not even close. Looking down my hands and arms were thinner than I remembered. My body was shaped… different…
"D-Does anyone have a mirror?", I asked in that definitely-not-mine-but-so-much-lovelier-voice.
Zoë rolled her eyes, pointing to the bathroom at the end of the cabin. Walking towards it, I was torn between feeling awkward being in a cabin full of girls, and marveling at Artemis' blessing. I was able to move swiftly and silently with almost no effort at all, as well as sense the presences of those around me. I wasn't really feeling the extra strength, but that might just be because it was balanced out by… Other Changes…
Seeing myself in the mirror finally brought those changes to life. I gasped quite audibly. Standing in the mirror was a young woman with wavy jet black hair down to her shoulders, and my sea green eyes. I seemed to have lost a few inches, and was initially miffed about that… Until I remembered that no one expected girls to be tall. I also seemed to be dressed in hunter regalia. Not sure who had dressed me, but I tried hard not to think about it.
I slapped myself. Hard.
Definitely not a dream.
I turned back to the cabin, tears of happiness in my eyes. A hunter over in the corner muttered, "I told you he didn't actually mean it. Now look at him. Crying cause he has to be a girl."
It was too much. I rushed over to my bed, full on crying, happiness and sorrow and loneliness, I couldn't really tell what it was I was crying from. In between my sobs, I could hear the lieutenant chewing the girl out.
"Do you just not trust the Lady Artemis? She was quite clear about this being the girls deepest desire. Anything less, and that oath would have killed her. If you can find it in you to care about her, great. If not, then leave her alone. Gods know this is going to be hard enough for her without you breathing down her neck."
"I trust Artemis. I don't trust him. Even If he really wanted to be a girl, that's not how he was born."
Another girl stepped up out of the woodwork. "Well, do you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you Tease. We've been through more battles together than I could count. Plus, you're actually a girl, unlike him."
I just wanted to shrivel into the covers and vanish into nothing.
The new girl, Tease was her name, I guess, continued, "Well I was born with a boy's body just like she was. It doesn't change the fact that I'm a girl now, does it? So unless you want to make an enemy of me too, then you can take your opinions and shove them down to Tartarus."
She then walked over to my bed and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Hey there, I'm Sipriotes, but you can call me Tease for short, everyone born in the past thousand years does anyway. What do you want to be called?"
The question from the friendly girl stumped me. I really had no idea what name I'd go by.
She continued, "So… from what I've heard, you're a daughter of the Sea God. What would you think about Pearl? It fits with the theme, and seems similar enough to your past name, so the adjustment won't be too hard."
I nodded, still feeling a little cowed by everything. "I need to go talk to Thalia, find out what they're going to do about Annabeth going missing… She's gone now and it's my fault…"
Tease looked at me pityingly. "All right, let's go find her then."
"Let's?"
"Yes, let's. I'm not having you go around by yourself. If my past is anything to go by, people aren't going to react well to your makeover.", she looked to Zoë who gave us permission to go, with the express requirement that we be back in time to go over strategy for capture the flag that night.
Thanks for reading! And what do you all think of Tease so far? I'm kind of excited about where things will be going from here #^-^#
Thanks for the kind reviews!
