So, it's been three days. That means only three more 'till my birthday. Monite says that I should be claimed any second now. I try not to look up through my bangs to the top of my head. It would be pretty obvious, wouldn't it? I mean, my hair is almost black, is there a god whose favorite color or whatever is black? Probably, but I don't like black that much so she's probably not my mom. Besides, I don't think any of the goddesses have anything depressing enough to have a black symbol. So, let's see there's Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. I'm not even going to comment on how far off that one could be from my mother. Hestia, a virgin goddess, but had a cabin "out of respect." Moving on. Demeter, goddess of growing plants and stuff. Ok, let's do a little experiment on this one. Step one, put hand on ground. Step two, will grass or whatever plant is under your hand to grow, like a lot, and fast. If it does, Congratulations! You're a child of Demeter. If, like me, you're having trouble summoning your green thumb, or even a slightly sickly looking pinky, better luck on the next goddess.
I was running this whole "Whose daughter am I?" experiment on the front porch of the Hermes cabin, while I skipped out on lunch. I wasn't hungry. So, Athena, goddess of wisdom. Well, I don't think any of her kids have any really cool powers except being smart and having gray eyes. Lunch wasn't the only thing I skipped out on, my grades were what they were because my teachers' handwriting makes it easier to change a D or an F to a B. Also, my eyes are hazel. Next up, Hera, goddess of Mariagge and, well, I think that's about it. She sounded like a good candidate, besides the fact that she didn't have any kids. I put her on my list of potential mothers. Artemis, virgin goddess, and she doesn't do the whole "my kids are born out of my head thing" like Athena...Persphone, she's the daughter of Demeter and the goddess of spring. I like spring and all, but if I failed the Demeter test, it wasn't likely I was her daughter. Hectate is the goddess of magic and some other stuff, but I can't make sparkles in the air. Next up, Nemesis, goddess of divine retribution. I don't know what that means, but according to Annabeth, it means revenge. I'm not a particularly vengeful person, so I'm crossing that one off the list. But in erasable pen, just in case. Iris is the goddess of the rainbow. Learning that seriously put me off skittles. I guess she could be my mother, so second one on the list. Ok, now time for another experiment. It's to find out if you're the goddess of Hebe. Ok, here's how you do it, start the experiment when you're a teenager, then wait, oh, fifty years. If you still look the same, awesome, you are now sixty-three and know your godly parent. She's the goddess of youth. Since I have nothing to disprove her, she goes on the list, too.
My list, when it was finished, consisted of:
And they were all because I couldn't really find a way that they couldn't be my mother. There's no evidence for any of them that I am their child. Yippee! This has gotten me so much farther on my seach. In case you're daft or something, I'm being sarcastic. It was Sunday that day, so we pretty much were free to do whatever we wanted as long as nobody died or left the camp. I worked on my sword skills with Annabeth. Now, a word about swords. They're heavy. Don't let the idea of kids fighting with them confuse you. Now, I'm a relativly small person, I'm 4'9" and weigh about 100 pounds. So yeah, I'm a bit stocky for my height, I've learned to deal with it. But even with that slight more amount of muscle, I can barely lift one of those practice swords, let alone swing it around.
So Annabeth persuaded a son of Hephesteus to make me a lighter sword. It's sort of like a fencing sword, only bronze and a bit wider. Plus, there's no safety tip on the end of it. Even that tires my arms sometimes, so I'm trying to learn to use it in both hands. It's particularly painful in my right hand, or my un-dominant hand. And one more cool thing about my sword. The boy who made it, Evan, seems to like Annabeth (does he not realize that she's totally into Percy? I mean, seriously!), so he put an opal in the hilt (that's the part where I hold it). It apparently has two purposes. One is that it just looks awesome. It also makes rainbows. You know how when you tilt opals, you see a bunch of different colors? Well, apparently that's a rainbow. So it's a communication device, because I can ask Iris, the goddess of rainbows and one of my potential mothers, to deliver a message. The're called Iris messages.
"Dia, stop admiring that opal and focus." Annabeth scolded. "No, you're hands are wrong. They're supposed to be like this." She repositioned my hands on the hilt of my sword. "Good, now, practice with that dummy, I'm going to get some water."
Percy walked into the practice arena while she was gone, holding a ballpoint pen. "Nice sword, can I see it?" He asked. I handed it over to him. "Here, you can see mine." He threw me the pen.
"Uh, Percy?" I said uncertianly.
"Just uncap it." He instructed, inspecting the blade of my new sword. I did as he told me to. A sword, wider than mine but made out of the same metal, formed into my hand. I dropped it, half because I was surprised, and half because it was really heavy. "What was that for?" He asked, looking up at me.
'I-I'm sorry, I just was surprised and I can't hold it and-" I was so scared I didn't know what to do. I grabbed my new weapon and ran.