A Touch of Destiny
by Lady Dawson
Chapter Three: The Next Morning
When I woke up the next morning, I kept my eyes closed tightly, waiting for my dad to come and wake me up. Yesterday did not happen, I convinced myself. It was just a dream. Dad wasn't killed by some monster and I wasn't the daughter of one of the Olympian gods. That was just some wacky dream caused by eating too many sweets before bed. That's all that it was. I would open my eyes and I would be in my own room, in my own bed, and Dad would be in the kitchen, attempting to salvage breakfast.
Slowly, I cracked open my eyes, peering at the sight around me, only to find that I was looking around an unfamiliar cabin, with lots of other kids were chattering and getting ready. I pushed off my blankets, my blue eyes flickering around me as I slowly stood up, pushing my sheets off of me and sliding out of my bunk, my heart aching with every step as I headed towards the girls' bathroom that I'd spotted the night before.
I didn't really have any extra change of clothes, since I hadn't thought to grab my suitcase out of the car yesterday, so I had to just wear the same clothes that I'd worn yesterday, though I tried to shake them out a little bit to tidy them up.
Alexia was directing people to line up when I got back to the cabin and she turned around to face me with a smile. "Lily, there you are. Everybody, this is Lily Sawyer," she called, pulling me towards the line. "Undetermined, she just got here last night." A few people groaned at the undetermined part and she gave the boys a sharp look. "Now, I am sure that everybody is going to make her feel at home here, now won't we?" she asked, giving a few of them a piercing stare, causing them to roll their eyes.
"By the way, Lily," she added as she motioned for me to follow her, "Chiron brought your things earlier. I put them over by your bunk, if you want to change."
I let out a sigh of relief, not particularly wanting to go to breakfast wearing the same clothes that I'd been wearing for over twenty-four hours. "Thank you," I said gratefully. She gestured for me to hurry up and I hastily grabbed a few items from my suitcase, my hand brushing against something very hard and cold.
Tugging on it, I found my necklace lying in between a couple of shirts. I'd forgotten that I had put it there. Gripping the gold locket tightly, I remembered when my dad had given this to me. I was probably eight or nine and I had brought home an excellent grade from art class, the only class that I ever excelled in. He had given it to me as a reward for it.
And now, it was all that I had left of him.
Realising that a few of the other campers were looking at me, I brushed away my tears impatiently, grabbing the fresh clothes as I headed back to the girls' room, throwing them on quickly before I stared down at the locket, slowly clasping it around my neck, laying it lay flat over my chest.
By the time that I had come back, everybody was ready to go, so I fell in line with the rest of the Hermes cabin, following them to the mess hall, joining the crowded table and eating breakfast.
It wasn't that everybody else was being unfriendly, but I had never been very good at making friends, what with people thinking that I'm stuck-up and everything, so I kind of sat a little off by myself, not talking to anybody, but they were busy talking to their own friends, so I don't think that anybody really noticed.
After breakfast, everybody kind of went their separate ways on various activities. Unsure of what I should do, I headed out of the mess hall, intent on exploring and getting to know the place when I felt someone touch my shoulder.
Automatically, I swung, hitting the guy right behind me straight in the jaw and he stumbled back, his hand going straight for his jaw and he let out something that sounded like a curse, but it was in Greek. Or I'm pretty sure that it was Greek. It sounded like it, anyway.
"Ow!" he complained, rubbing his jaw tentatively and my hand went to cover my mouth automatically, wincing slightly. He gave me a half-glare, but I could tell that he wasn't really angry, because he was grinning somewhat. "Remind me never to sneak up on you in the middle of a dark alley."
"Sorry," I said, averting my gaze from him and staring down at my shoes, but he only laughed.
"Don't worry about it. You hit pretty good, for a girl," he said teasingly. My eyes moved upwards and I recognised him automatically from the night before, the camper that had been in the Big House when I had arrived. "You're Lily, right?"
"Yeah, you're . . . Steven?" I asked, searching my memory for the right name and while it sounded close, it didn't sound quite right.
"Stefan," he corrected. "You were close. I'm Stefan Dalloway, son of Athena." He smiled good-naturedly, my punch already forgotten as he stuck out his hand and I accepted it shyly, tucking a strand of dark hair behind my ear. "Chiron asked me if I could show you around today. Since you're the new girl and all."
"I can take care of myself."
He smiled. "Clearly," he said. "But I could still show you around, show you the archery court and where we practice with swords and stuff. And we could check out the lake and the stables, if you want. Come on, Lils," he said, putting on a begging face. "It's not every day that I get to show a pretty camper around."
My face heated up at the compliment and my blue eyes met his grey ones, but it was his use of my dad's pet name for me that conquered my protests more than the compliment. No one other than my dad ever called me Lils and somehow, rather than it being painful, it felt nice to hear that name again. As thought everything was going to be okay, despite that my whole world had turned upside down.
"Okay," I said at last. Stefan grinned triumphantly and led me out of the mess hall, showing me all the sights of the camp. The smell of strawberries, which I had picked up last night, was coming from a field full of them, which was the cover for curious mortals who were poking their noses where they didn't belong.
"So where'd you get the bow and arrows?" he asked me while we were passing by the stables, which contained real live winged horses. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw them, but I was starting to think that everything was real, fairy tales and horror stories and myths were all really true.
"I don't know, exactly," I answered, glancing at the quiver that was strapped across my back as he inclined his head towards it. "Last night, when we—my dad and I—were under attack by this monster, it just sort of appeared in these golden lights and there it was, just waiting for me. And I snatched it up and shot the monster with it."
"Your dad was mortal?" Stefan asked to clarify and I nodded, still wondering who my mom was and if she was going to tell me soon. I hoped that she would; it would be nice to know who my mother was. "Then it was probably a gift from your mom. Sometimes our Olympian parents send their demigod children gifts, things that will be helpful when they're in the world, fighting against the monsters and saving the world and stuff. See this?" he asked, pulling out a sword and handing it to me.
It was a well-balanced sword and even though it felt wrong in my hands, I could tell that it was almost made for Stefan and would fit into his slightly larger hands easily, making it a perfect match for the taller, muscular teenager. The blade was light, but sturdy and was the perfect weight for him.
"This was a gift from my mom," Stefan told me when I handed it back to him. "She gave it to me my last year, when I was up against a Wendigo. The sword that I had broke in two and she sent that to me when I needed it the most. Good thing too," he added lightly, replacing the sword into his sheath. "I like this one better, anyway."
"You said that your mom was Athena, didn't you?" I asked slowly. "But didn't she swear she would never marry or something?"
Stefan nodded, looking impressed. "You know your mythology well," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets as we headed across the grounds. "Do you happen to know how my mom was born?" I shook my head, trying to remember that part of Athena. "Well, she was born from Zeus's head, in full battle armour, born from intellectual thought. And her sons and daughters are born the same way, gifts on the men that she favours. They're usually pretty brainy guys," he added with a grin. "My dad lectures on history at this museum in South Dakota."
"Cool," I said, impressed. "My dad's an artist; he pretty much travelled everywhere up until I was about five, when it was time for me to go to school, and then he settled down in New York, getting a job at an art gallery. But he still works on his own stuff. Or . . . I mean, he did," I said quietly, my thoughts drifting towards my father.
"I'm sorry," Stefan said softly. I lifted my head back towards him and saw that he looked truly remorseful, as though he actually meant his words. Not many people that I talked to actually meant what they said to me. Usually, they didn't care less if they hurt my feelings or not. "If it helps . . . I got my dad into trouble lots of times with monsters on my tail. That thing with the Wendigo? That was a really close shave. As it was, Dad ended up in the hospital for about a week." He watched my expression carefully. "It wasn't your fault, Lily. You didn't do anything wrong. Monsters . . . our blood just attracts them. You couldn't help it and it's not like you knew anything about this."
"Why couldn't Dad have told me about this?" I said miserably. "Why didn't he tell me about my mom? It's not like I wouldn't have believed him and it would at least have given me a good explanation as to why she was never there."
"Chiron didn't tell you?" Stefan asked, surprised. I searched my memory of last night, trying to remember, but shook my head. If he told me anything about that, then I didn't remember, but it wasn't like I didn't have a good excuse. Yesterday was a memory overload. "You see, the blood of a demigod is exceptionally attractive to monster. But once we know the truth about what we are, the scent is even stronger. By keeping you in the dark, your dad was providing the ultimate protection. So long as you were in the dark about who you were, it was harder for them to find you. Some parents even go so far as to marry scumbags because there's some mortals whose smell is so repulsive that it'll cover up the smell of a demigod."
"Hmm. . . . Yeah, I guess that's true," I said slowly. The apartment that we lived at wasn't exactly in a nice neighbourhood and the neighbours weren't exactly guys who bathed too often. Maybe my dad actually had good reason for having us live there.
Stefan led me towards the archery practice, where there were already archers training, their bows drawn back and when another camp made the call, they released the arrows, they implanted themselves in the targets, set several yards away.
"Wow," I said, impressed. Nearly all of them had mad a perfect bull's eye. "They're pretty good."
"Shoot, kid, that's nothing," Stefan joked. "You should see the advanced archery classes, for when you've been here for a few years and when you've gotten really good at archery. Now, that is something to see," he said, grinning. He noticed my anticipation. "Did you want to give it a try?"
"Well . . ." My fingers twitched in eagerness and I realised that I actually did want to try archery again. I'd done pretty well last night. "Yeah."
"All right," Stefan said, grinning as he motioned for me to follow him, behind the line of archers so we didn't accidentally get in the way, heading towards an older camper that was calling drills, a pretty short guy of sixteen with red hair. "Hey, Brandon. Lily, this is Brandon Thomas, son of Apollo. Brandon, Lily," he introduced us.
"Hey, there," Brandon said, giving me a nod and a grin. "So you're the new girl. Heard you got here." He blew the whistle again and the archers released their arrows. "Pretty nice equipment that you got there," he said, nodding towards my bow and arrow. "Did you want to try it out?"
"Yeah, if you don't mind," I said, watching the archery session with glowing eyes. "It looks cool."
Brandon laughed, glancing at Stefan, a teasing glint in his eyes. "Girl knows a good weapon when she sees one," he said, jesting. Stefan made a face at the older camper, folding his arms across his chest. "All right, I'll have them set up another target really fast."
It didn't take them long to get another target for me to use and when they were all set up, I took my place next to the other campers, waiting for the signal as I pulled my arrow back, taking careful aim at the target. The whistle blew and I released the arrow, letting it fly.
The arrow flew wide, hitting the outer rim of the target area. I groaned slightly, frowning at it, trying to remember how I had done it yesterday. How had I managed to hit that monster directly?
Probably an adrenaline rush, but I was determined to hit the bull's eye. Pulling another arrow out, I took careful aim, keeping both eyes wide open and when the signal blew, I released it.
It flew through the arrow, circling slowly as it flew, and hit the target dead centre, wobbling slightly as it hit. I grinned triumphantly, grabbing another arrow and released it at the signal, making another perfect mark. Time after time, I continued to make perfect marks, but I noticed that while I wasn't running out of arrows, everyone else was. Probably an added bonus feature of my mom's gift to me, I thought in interest. No matter how many arrows I used, I would never run out.
Brandon walked up the line, inspecting the arrows in the targets. "Good job as usual, Alice," he said, nodding as he passed a blonde girl. "Keep practicing, Jeremy. Nancy, not bad. You've gotten better since the last time." He walked up the line, offering advice to some of them and complimenting a few of the others as he made his way to me.
His jaw actually dropped open as he saw my target, all of the arrows save for the first one making it dead centre. "Wow," he said, clearly impressed. "Have you ever handled a bow before?" He stared at the target in amazement as I shook my head. "Not bad, not bad at all. That's . . . very good. Good work, Lily," he told me before looking around at everybody. "Okay, I think that it's just about lunchtime, so everybody should pack up and head to the mess hall. Good job, everybody, really nice work. I can tell you've been practicing."
"Not bad," Stefan commented as he came from where he had been watching on the fence to stand beside me, surveying the arrows. "You're a pretty good shot."
I smiled. "For a girl, you mean?"
Stefan grinned back. "Nah. Pretty good shot for anybody, actually. Come on, I think there's hamburgers on the menu today."
After lunch—which we had to split up for, because he had to sit with all of his siblings at the Athena table—Stefan took me to where they were doing sword training, but I wasn't very good at it. Actually, I was pretty bad at sword duelling. When I got back to the Hermes cabin later, I had welts on my arms and on my side, plus the sword that they gave me was pretty heavy and didn't feel at all right in my hand, but Stefan promised to help me find a better one later, one that was more suited to me.
I liked hanging out with Stefan. He was a really nice guy and wasn't big and meaty like some of the guys that I knew back at my school in New York. I mean, he was pretty tall and muscular, but it wasn't profound. And anyway, he was really nice, a lot nicer than most people that I knew, but then again, most of the people here at the camp were nicer than people I knew.
At dinner, we made offerings to the gods by scraping off some of the food off of our plates and sending it into a fire pit. It smelled pretty good as I made my way through the line, tossing a piece of my chicken into it and sending a silent prayer to my mother.
Please, Mom, whoever you are, send me a sign, I thought desperately and pleadingly, whoever you are, please just send me a sign. I want to know. I need to know.
AN: Okay, guys, I know that this story if just starting out, but I am severely disappointed by the lack of reviews on the last chapters. I mean, I would have been happy just to have one review. Now, I am begging you to please review both this chapter and Chapter Two, because I am going out of my mind here. Please, please, please?
Please?
Lady Dawson