II

After a trying day of training Percy headed back to his cabin on the lake. He walked inside the torches already lit all around and took his duffle bag and dumped the contents out onto his bed. He slid onto his bed and picked out bags of chips and candy bars his mother had hid in there for him and he took them and hid them in a wooden box under his bed where they would be cool and wouldn't spoil. He then took his clothes and folded them neatly into stacks according to what article of clothing they were and put them away in drawers where they belonged. His last task was to sift through the types of books his mother had brought, which were of course mostly about the sea, but two things stood out in particular.

It was a very old and tattered copy of the famous book, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." and another famous book, "The Hunt For Red October." Inside each was a scribbled note on a little white piece of paper from his mother. It read;

"Percy, these books belonged to your father, and he often read them as you can see by how weather worn they are. They belong to you now and treat them well so one day you might give them to your own son. Consider these an early birthday present for turning seventeen at the end of the summer. Love Mom." Percy read the last part out loud and smiled to himself as he rest against his headboard that was adorned with sea shells and fish netting and opened the thicker novel and started to read it smiling to himself the entire time.

It wasn't until someone came bursting through his little cabin and he saw that it was Grover looking utterly flustered and panicked.

"Dude you gotta come quick down by the stream! Annabeth and Dea are engaged in some serious death match and you know them Titan kids...they're indestructible! Come on!" Grover pulled his friend up but Percy didn't have to be told twice. He grabbed his sword and rushed out of his little house with Grover in tow as he made his way to the stream where he heard chanting from the others that had come to watch the fight. Percy also felt his heart palpitate as he heard the sounds of metal on metal.

The sight was not pleasant as Annabeth had cuts and bruises all over her and Dea had not but a scratch and a very smug look on her face.

"Stop!" Percy yelled as he came in and stood in between the two girls as Dea glared at him with her eyes.

"Move Jackson! No son of Poseidon will stand in my way!" Dea snarled at him.

"What happened?" Percy asked her holding his hand out not his sword as he blocked Annabeth, who was standing limp on one side cradling her arm.

"Ask her!" Dea pointed a finger at Annabeth and Annabeth spit blood at the ground at her feet in a very unladylike way.

"You're the one talking trash about my mother!" Annabeth glared her big blue eyes at Dea.

"And rightfully so you spawn of a lesser god!" Dea growled as she raised her sword high and was about to bring it down on both Percy and Annabeth when someone came running into the clearing and the sword broke over the chest of none other than Arina Bishop who was now standing in the way of Percy and Annabeth.

The crowd gasped and grew silent as they stood in awe at the fact that a huge metal sword had come in contact with Arina and had not hurt her in the least.

That was the thing about the children of the Titans. Their hides were thick as their skills were magnificent. No sword can pierce their skin much like their parents cannot be destroyed even by the Olympian Gods.

"Dea!" Arina's voice thundered louder than humanly possible.

Dea's eyes widened as she dropped the hilt of the broken sword and took a few steps back. That's when Arina raised one hand to the stream and a large gulf of water shot up and shot at Dea pinning her to a tree and Arina clenched her hand outward suffocating her cousin with water. The water was like a jet with thousands of pounds of pure force she was forcing on Dea with little to no concern for her cousin's well being.

"Listen carefully, I have told you, and Alcander and the twins time and time again. We are not here to settle scores we are here to train and teach the others what we know! If you cannot concede to that reality then you and the rest of our cousins can leave!" at that Arina released Dea and Dea slumped to the ground soaking wet and coughing up large amounts of water.

"You will return to your cabin, and if you decide to keep starting fights with the others then by all means relieve yourself from my sight. Let our cousin Zeus have his way with you!"

Everyone was surprised at Arina's words for usually she glared at the other kids of the gods and was not very friendly herself, but true enough she never verbally abused them like the other Titan children nor picked fights with them. She was just an enigma that was to be avoided and people tend to do just that.

Percy stared at her back as he was in awe himself and he watched Dea stand glaring at her own cousin and stalking off defeated.

"Go back to your cabins or tomorrow I will force you to train more!" Arina said to the small crowd. The threat was not empty for she could do that. She was after all an instructor along with Alcander. The others however where not due to their more, aggressive temperaments.

The crowd dispersed all but Annabeth, Percy and Grover.

Arina suddenly looked less threatening as she turned, her eyes apologetic, as she let a stream of frustrated air out of her nose before she spoke.

"I'm sorry for her behavior, she knows better."

At that Annabeth scoffed and Arina's considerate look turned into a harsh one with her eyes narrowing a bit.

"You know I'm trying to be nice. It's not that easy you know." she said and Annabeth bit at her lip and looked to the side cradling her arm still tighter to her middle.

"It's alright. Just keep her away from me." Annabeth said flippantly after a few moments and Arina nodded and walked up to her as she summoned a jet of water from the stream and held her hand out to Annabeth. Touching her arm, the water flowed over the wounds healing the broken skin and washing away the blood.

It healed her well except for the black bruises and Annabeth looked at her arm and cuts and felt much better now that her whole body wasn't bleeding.

"You should return to your cabins and tell no one of this incident least of all Mr. Chiron."

"You're not gonna tell?" Grover looked at her skeptically and Arina smiled then showing off a set of perfect white teeth that even in the minimal sunlight was bright against her tan skin.

It took the three friends aback at the sight of the girl who usually scowled so often was now wearing a bright sincere smile.

"No, I'm not." Arina shook her head a bit as if it was a stupid question to begin with and turned walking away. "This changes nothing you know, my intervening...remember that." she said carefully and with that she disappeared over the hill heading to her own private cabin on the lake front on the other side of camp.

The next day everyone was walking around camp talking about the incident by the stream between Dea and Arina. It was the hottest gossip since Percy's arrival to Camp Half Blood, and that said a lot. Right now it was lunch and everyone was settled in the mess hall all at their tables with their friends. Everyone noticed however that a certain Arina Bishop was only sitting with one of her cousins and the other three were absent.

Alcander was settled next to Arina shredding a piece of garlic bread and staring down anyone that was looking his cousins way forcing them to look the other way. Arina didn't bother to look anywhere else but her plate as she poked her fork into her mashed potatoes and fillet fish. She looked rather tired like she had been up all night as her hair was tied over one shoulder in a loose braid with little strands of hair that fell out of it and in her face.

After a few moments she stood up, glaring at Alcander not to follow her and dumped her trey in a bin before exiting the mess hall and people watched her out of the windows. She started heading alone towards the training grounds and once she was out of sight the hall became louder with chatter and gossip.

"Man, was Arina in a bad mood." Grover said as he chewed on his bread and talked at the same time.

"Probably has something to do with last night." Annabeth said softly and Percy looked at her and then at his plate poking at his own food.

"You know she seems actually really nice."

"What!" Grover dropped his bread then and looked at his friend kind of shocked. "Sure she saved Annabeth's butt, but that girl is still cold as ice man! That is not a nice woman. No woman with bronzed talons for nails is a nice woman."

"Yeah whatever you say Grover." Percy chuckled and continued to eat as he tried to worm his mind away from Arina and what she might be up to and where she had gone without the presence of her cousin. Usually they were a pack but now they were broken and individual and that just didn't seem completely right.

After another day of training Percy dragged himself home and dumped his shield and sword down on top of his wooden weapons chest and then tore off his armor putting it on it's stand that it was meant for. He ruffled his hair and made to go to pick up his towel, a spare change of clothes, soap and shampoo and other toiletries to head to the boys showers when there was a knock behind him.

He turned and was shocked to see Arina standing there in normal clothes which was just a long white flowing dress that was in the style of a toga and clasped at the shoulders is gold pins and barely brushed the middle of her thighs. She looked rather lovely standing there with the lake breeze coming through the pillared rooms and blowing her half tied up hair around her.

"I was uh, hoping to catch Annabeth here, but I see she's not." Arina said looking around and Percy looked at her confused.

"Why would Annabeth be here?"

"Well you the satyr and her usually are always with each other. I often see you guys going to each others places, so I figured maybe she'd be here."

"Well she's not right now, but what do you need to see her for?"

"Just, uh to say I'm sorry for Dea to her. I know I'm not one for apologies but Dea could have killed her and she may be a demigod but still..." Arina looked down at the ground poking her sandal clad feet into the wood and Percy smiled as he walked around his room area gathering his toiletries and sticking them in the duffle his mom had brought him just yesterday.

"Well, why didn't you just tell her in the mess hall?" he said his back to her and she sighed.

"I didn't want to cause a fuss. Everyone's talking, and last night I got a stern talking to by Chiron. Somehow he found out and he told me I should keep my cousins in check more, but, I'm not a hydra I don't have multiple heads with multiple eyes to keep track of everything." she said hardly and Percy looked over his shoulder at her as she was looking at the books stacked on his night stand. She was holding in her hands his fathers copy of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and was handling it carefully sifting through the weathered pages nimbly.

"At least you're making an effort. I have the a question though?" Percy turned and leant against the table he was standing in front of and she looked up at him expectantly. "You seem nice, why do you act like you hate me?"

"It's expected. You're dad and my father aren't exactly close family members. After all my dad's locked under the ice in Antarctica for eternity, I'll never get to see him or know him. In some aspects I do hate you. I hate you cause you get to know your father. Though I can't be angry with you for that because deep down I know it's not directly your fault." she set the book down and eyed it still. "Have you read this yet?" she gestured to the book.

"Uh, not yet. I plan to start tonight."

"It's a good book." she said softly and then looked up at him placing her hands on her hips and slouching to the side a bit which was very uncharacteristic of her. "Well uh, tell Annabeth uh, I'm sorry?"

"Sure." Percy nodded feeling awkward about their parting because he knew from the way she was leaning towards the exit that she was going to leave.

She didn't say anything else just turned and started walking out and Percy watched her go as he then turned and stuffed the rest of his things in his duffle and stood there thinking. His mother told him to be nice to the Titan children because showing them kindness even if they wont was something that a good person would do. He wanted to be a good person.

So throwing his duffle over his shoulder he ran out of his house and saw that Arina hadn't gone far as she was barely up the hill.

"Arina!" he called out and she stopped looking shocked as she turned to face him.

"Uh yeah?" she looked at him confused thinking maybe she did something wrong or that maybe it was gonna now lead to a confrontation. Percy had never been hostile towards her so why would he now?

"I was wondering, I'm having a little summer party at my cabin in a few days. Just a swim thing and maybe perhaps you'd like to come? It's just a few people, nothing too big and well...you can get to know us and maybe we can be friends?" Percy said hopefully as he shoved his right hand in his pocket and Arina was even more shocked as her wide sea colored eyes stared at him.

She then looked down and off to the side as she played with her hair and bit her lip in thought.

"Maybe. You know if I have time. What day is it?"

"Saturday, our first day off for the season." Percy said.

"And who's gonna be there?"

"Well Annabeth, Grover, Myself, two of the kids from the Aphrodite Cabin and some other guys. It'll be fun." Percy said looking hopeful and Arina caught it as she sighed and looked at him unsure still.

"Like I said, maybe." she repeated. "If I show I show and if I don't it's nothing personal I was just too busy."

"Okay. Well I really hope you come. We shouldn't not be friends because of our parents you know? I mean Annabeth and I get along and her mom and my dad hate each other." Percy laughed causing Arina to smile very slightly.

It wasn't like the amused toothy grin she had on her face the other night but to Percy it was enough.

"Yeah that's logical I suppose." she said and then turned walking away. "See you round' Jackson." she called back without a second glance and Percy turned with a grin plastered on his face as he headed to go bathe and then go to sleep.

He couldn't wait till Saturday.