Myths and Legends
Chapter 2: Kitsune and Owl
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of characters in the book or any corporate sybols. I only own Kaze's Heritage
I'd like to thank Sheva Das for leaving me a critical review of my writing. I hope to clear up some of the problems she pointed out.
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I was moved into a cabin with my new half-siblings immediately. After I had settled in a little bit, I was called to the Big House. I was relieved to see that Thalia had survived her wound, which I had thought was fatal. I also saw Luke and Annabeth, both standing proud, and Grover, who looked nervous. Across from us was the centaur that saved me and a man in a Hawaiian shirt and surf shorts.
"Mr. Williams," the man said, "it is good to see you. After all, you were able to drive away two of the Kindly Ones away with no training what so ever."
I was embarrassed by the man's compliments. I was also confused. "Sir," I said, "I don't know what a Kindly One is, but what I drove off reminded me of the descriptions of the Fur-"
"DON'T SAY THEIR NAME," the man yelled. "This is not the world you thought you lived in. Grover explained to you some of the basics, but apparently he didn't tell you an important thing."
The centaur cut in, "Mr. Williams, names have powers. Be careful of the names you invoke, or you may offend a powerful deity." He reminded me of my teacher's look when he listened to me explain my answers to my classmates, a mixture of joy and contentment with a bit of scolding. He continued, "I am Chiron and this is our camp director, Mr. D. We wish to welcome you to Camp Half-Blood. All of you have been assigned to your parent's cabin, with the exception of Annabeth Chase. For right now, she will stay with the Hermes cabin."
I was walking back to my cabin to meet new people, when a small fox approached me with a letter in its mouth. I took the letter, knowing who my father was, and read the note within.
Son,
Come to the forest after dinner. I would like to talk to my first child in about five centuries.
Signed,
Your Father
I finished reading the note as I got back to the commons. I noticed a girl wearing a lot of red picking on Annabeth, so I went over to help out, if needed. As I got closer to the two I noticed that Annabeth was crying. When I got close enough, I heard exactly why she was crying.
"-ather or mother was probably ashamed to have you as a child. You won't ever be claimed. You're nothing but a weak coward," the other girl was saying. I decided to intervene at that moment.
"Hey Commie, shut up, before you make her friends, which includes me, force your mouth shut. You weren't on that hill with us," I told the girl, "You didn't have to face four monsters at once, and I know that you didn't watch somebody you consider a sister take what could have been a killing blow for you." She looked like she was about to respond when I cut her off. "Don't you even say that 'Cowardice in battle is never acceptable' because there are times when falling back from a compromised position is all you can do. We needed help, so I, who came up with the plan, decided to send her to get help, along with some back-up in case one of the Kindly Ones escaped my gambit and followed them. Brains are always needed in a battle."
I heard clapping from behind me. I turned and saw some other campers had gathered. The clapping, though, came from Chiron, who was smiling as he was walking forward. He looked like somebody who found gold on the ground, while nobody else noticed. He stopped next to me, Annabeth, and the other girl.
"Kaze, your words allowed me to see how you felt about combat. You moved me with your reaction to the hostility shown towards your friends. I would enjoy talking to you later on your beliefs. Annabeth, don't cry. You have great potential. Do not worry about what Clarisse told you," the kind being soothed the sobbing girl. He turned to Clarisse and punished her by taking away all of her weapon practices for the next two weeks; instead, she would be doing Arts and Crafts.
Dinner was eventful. Mr. D. showed that he didn't really care about us, calling me Kame. I offered some of the beans on my plate to mom, praying that she would help me when I needed a consultation. I smelled pine trees and oranges when the smoke hit my face. I talked with some of the people in my cabin, and discovered that they were masters of the one area I was horrible in, Arts and Crafts.
I finished my meal quickly and headed to the woods after excusing myself. I stopped about 300 yards into the forest, and sat down, waiting on my dad to show up. I was about to go back to the cabin, when a sack of rice came flying at me. I caught the bag, thinking that my father was more eccentric than I had thought. I received a nice slap on the back of my head for that.
My father began, "Kaze, it's good to see you after eight years of looking after you from afar. I figured that you might have some questions about your circumstances, so I'll tell you about how your mother and I met and why you grew up without knowing either of us except from myths.
A few years before you were born, I had arrived here in the US. I looked like a normal immigrant from Japan, so I blended in pretty well. I applied to go to Yale, and was barely accepted. I majored in engineering, while taking some classes in chemistry. I met Athena as she was working on getting a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and felt the urge to pull a prank on her. It was going to be big, like when I pulled one over on the Japanese Navy in the 1940's.
She was assigned to be my lab partner, and we hit it off great. I heard that she had a really protective family, and that she never would find a man that would live up to her family's expectations. I started dating her soon afterwards. All I have to say about my prank is that it is too possible for the info to get back to certain parties, and I would be hunted down, viciously.
Your mom was actually forced to give you up. I couldn't keep you, as a certain goddess is following me just about everywhere, but she can't cross the barrier. Your mother couldn't get you here before her family found out, so she hid you. I couldn't interfere with your life until now because of ancient laws that prevent me from helping you until you were first attacked.
I think you should know why you are considered a demigod and not a full blooded god. Like the Greek gods, we of the Shinto pantheon are immortal. Our children are, with the exception of with other Shinto gods, mortal. I know this because all of the gods and goddesses are the ancestors of the original Japanese people."
I stood there, taking in all that my father told me. I was the son of two deities and they both wanted me to accept them, and were sorry for abandoning me. My thoughts were interrupted by a figure stepping out of the darkness, two figures actually.
One of them had olive skin and grey eyes, while the other had tanned skin and green eyes. The first was wearing a blue toga and brown sandals. The tanned one was wearing green robes and wore no footwear. The green robed, green-eyed woman had green hair and had an air of confidence around her. The grey-eyed woman had brown hair and wore an expression of analysis and concern. She spoke first to me, "So, son, we met again and for the first time. My cousin and I are here because you only preyed to your mother. The problem is nobody knows who your mother is. I will introduce myself and my cousin, so you should know who we are if you need to call on either of us. I am Athena, goddess of wisdom, arts, Matron of Athens and wielder of Aegis. My cousin is Nike, goddess of victory."
Nike spoke next, "Son, what we mean by we don't know who your mother is that your dad was going out with both of us at the same time, and were both getting the same degree at that time. He got us both "pregnant" at the same time, and nobody knows what happened to either baby.
I was thinking about the whole incident and realized something. I kept it to myself, hoping to grill my parent about it latter, and asked if I could head back to my cabin as I needed to start back so nobody would get suspicious. They agreed and sent me on my way with smiles and, in my dad's case, some gold. My cabin mates were just getting back to the cabins themselves as I got back, so I just mixed myself in with the crowd and went to sleep.
The next morning I discovered the schedule for the day. The first thing was an hour at the forge. We would go to art & crafts after that for two hours and take an hour before lunch doing some weapon practices. I was excited, as I would start to learn more about my culture.
As soon as I was made aware that we would have some of Hesphaestus's kids with us, I started making a design that came to me the previous night. I had a book with me on how to make katana (guess who) and asked for assistance with the shaping of the sword. I made a three foot blade and had a fox-head as the crossgaurd and orange grip. On the blade I had in kanji Owl on one side and Victory on the other. Most of the people in there were impressed that I had finished a blade that fast. It had taken me most of the time to make the blade and I had used some left over metal to create the crossgaurd and some wood and cloth I'd found to create the grip. Just as it was time to change activities, the sword had cooled down enough to put some finishing touches on it.
During arts and crafts I created the sheath. I used olive wood, after sending a prayer to Athena, and put carved the Nike symbol onto one side of it. I gave it managed to get it colored black. Surprisingly, I didn't screw up the sheath and also had time to craft other things. The remaining arts and crafts time was what I remembered. Most of the other kids were surprised at my artwork but said nothing of it out loud.
When we went to the arena to practice weaponry, we discovered that Ares' group was going to practice with us. I was paired up with an amiable boy named Bill. He wasn't as aggressive as his siblings, but he knew combat like nobody's business. He taught me many different strikes and had me go through practicing each move one- and two-handed. I was tired by lunch time, and had worked up a hunger. I piled some Hamachi sushi and some bean burritos on my plate. I sacrificed one sushi roll and one burrito to my parents. I smelled pine trees again and a little bit of fox and some olive. I ate my lunch slowly thought on what I wanted to do for my free time. I decided to ask Chiron if I could practice archery with him. He agreed to let me try an hour of archery and wished me the best.
I got to the archery area and noticed that none of my siblings were there. I was studied by the few Ares kids their and they didn't seem to think much of me. Chiron sized me for what bow I could use and asked what bow type I would prefer. I chose to use a short bow to get use to drawing the arrow. They found an olive short bow, and I was ready. I shot a few arrows and was slightly off each time. After an hour, Chiron saw that I wasn't improving and called me over to him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, "You are doing pretty well for a beginner, yet you haven't improved any."
I replied, "The bow feels strange in my hand, like it isn't the right style. Are their any other styles of bow?"
He paused, as if thinking, and replied, "I don't know. You shall find out. I will have Argos go with you to the nearest library."
The trip there was uneventful. When we got to the library, I headed to the nearest computer and looked up samurai archery. I got page on this online encyclopedia on Yabusame, archery done on horseback. They didn't mention anything about what type of bow they used, but I managed to find out by doing a little digging. I discovered that the Japanese had a style of bow, called Yumi. It refers to any Japanese bow, long or short. It was asymmetrical and was typically six and a half feet. I manage to find a book on making the bows and was able to check it out. The book had a chart for people to make the bow based on their height. I was about five foot, so I had to make the bow seven foot three. I found that I had the materials to make the bow when I got back to my cabin.
I had it finished before dinner and asked if I could show to Chiron. I made it a hankyu, or shot bow, and Chiron asked about the style. I explained that the style caught my eye. He asked me to shoot three arrows at the target and then move to the one next to it and fire three arrows as fast as I could. I managed to fire three bull's eyes in a row, and fire all three of my next ones in a matter of seconds. Chiron was impressed and marveled at the construction of my bow. He asked if I would use it in the Capture the Flag game tomorrow. I agreed.
The next day came quickly. I learned that it was Ares V.S. Athena, and our allies were Hermes and Hesphaestus. Chiron allowed Thallia to chose her side, and she decided to help her friends in Hermes and Athena. I wasn't worried, and asked to take charge of the defense. My teammates agreed and I had Annabeth on the defense and the Hesphaestus kids as well. I knew that the Ares kids wanted a quick victory and would scout out where Annabeth was, and send the main forces there. I planned an ambush of sorts. I had the Hesphaetus kids guard the perimeters with the exception of the center. There was a hill in front of the river in the front, so I positioned Annabeth there, and set up shop on top of the hill. When the horn blew for the start, I strung my bow and got ready. I had told Annabeth my plan, and she agreed. Just as I thought, the main force came rushing down the clearing. The plan worked for the most part. I managed to take down 90 percent of the kids that came our way, the only one Annabeth had to deal with was Clarisse. She did well, and Thalia managed to bring the opposing flag to our side.
Victory was short lived. Most of the Ares cabin complained that the weapon I used was not fair, as none of them nor many of the campers had seen the bow before the night. I explained that in battle, the enemy can use weapons you haven't seen before then, and that if they wanted one, they could borrow the book I checked out to make their own. They declined, but asked why I had eastern weapons. I replied that it was personal, but I would tell Mr. D and Chiron about it in private. They agreed and took me to the Big House and asked me about my weapons. I stated, "My father is a member of the Shinto pantheon. He is Inari, the Shinto god of rice, foxes, and other things. I am as much his son as Athena's. The reason I'm considered a half-blood is because of an ancient Shinto law governing the children of the gods. If it is not with another Shinto god or goddess, the child is mortal, thus I'm a half-blood."
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Hamachi: young yellowtail. One of the more flavorful Called different names based on maturity
If you are curious about why he's just using Japanese weaponry, and not using any "regular" weapons, remember that his body has heritage from Japan as well as Greek. He will use one Greek weapon, but that's later.