She started fidgeting with her hands, and her lips suddenly felt dry. What would she tell them? She hadn't been expecting this question; she hadn't been told what to say. She pulled on her dress while she tried to stall for an answer, and fortunately Annabeth took notice.
"Oh, you must want to change right? We'll get you a fresh set of clothes. Just wait here." She dashed out of the room, her hair bouncing after her. Eirene sighed with relief and sat down; pulling her dress as far as it would go. She'd had this thing for years, and it was her favorite piece of clothing. But it never grew with her, and since Eirene was fairly tall the dress often rid up on her thighs.
Chiron looked down at her, his eyes understanding and narrow. "You haven't been claimed yet, have you?" His eyes looked hard though, like he was angry.
Eirene didn't look up from her feet, just shook her head. She didn't bother to add what else she was thinking: And I never will be. The Goddess of the Styx River is dead.
Dead because no one believed in her anymore and Eirene was the one chosen to bear the curse when the river dried up. Sometimes when she thought too much about it her mood worsened. They only person she could really call 'mom' was centuries dead, and the closest person she'd ever known as a father figure she'd only seen once. No, stop thinking negative thoughts; It'll show in your face. Eirene shook her head and forced herself to smile.
"That's weird. The gods swore to claim all of their kids by age thirteen. You're far overdue." Percy said, concern and frustration hidden in his voice.
"But, it doesn't matter right? I can still stay here, right?" A her tone was a bit panicked when she didn't mean it to be, she was just worried that they'd reject her and send her back into the horrible life of running…. always running.
She didn't want to run anymore.
"Of course you can, we don't turn away demigods. We'll just stick you in the Hermes cabin until you get claimed." Percy answered, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. Eirene almost jerked at the sudden contact when a burst of light shielded her vision. She saw a glimpse of Percy touching the lower part of his back, where his Achilles' mark used to be. When she was sucked back into the present she jumped up from her seat and moved five steps back away from Percy.
He looked confused. "Are you…?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Eirene interrupted. "Just…don't touch me."
She didn't mean for it to come out as harshly as it did, but she had said it and she couldn't take it back. She was just scared, she didn't know what was happening, she didn't like what was happening. If Percy was the one that provoked the visions within her, then she'd stay away from him. Sam frowned and stepped towards her, her hand motions questioning.
"Eirene? What's wrong?" Then she narrowed her eyes and snapped her head towards Percy. "Did you do something perverted to her?"
He held up his hands defensively. "I didn't do anything!" his expression was so frightened and worried, Eirene chuckled a bit.
Annabeth laughed as she came back into the room, holding a folded pair of clothes. "Percy wouldn't do something perverted to me, let alone someone he's just met." She held the clothes out to Eirene. "Here you go; Fresh and clean."
Taking the clothes, she nodded to Annabeth. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." She laid her hands on her hips and shifted her weight. "So, whose kid are you?"
Sam shook her head. "Unclaimed, she'll be in the Hermes cabin." She then shot Eirene a longing look. "Lucky, Matthew's in that cabin."
"Matthew?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes and gestured for Eirene to follow her. "Come on, I'll show you to the cabin, its number eleven."
Eirene followed Annabeth out of the big house and on the way caught sneaking glances at her. From what she knew about her…Annabeth had gone through a lot with Percy. And she had grown from it, which was obvious enough in the way she walked and carried herself. She respected the girl and looked forward to being friends with her.
"So…you're in the Athena cabin?"
Annabeth gave her a side glance. "Yeah, how'd you know?"
Eirene mentally kicked herself, she hadn't thought about the question before asking it. "Lucky guess," She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Whose kid is Percy?"
"Poseidon. You should see him at work; it's amazing."
Eirene nodded, not wanting to reveal she'd already seen him at work. "So are you and Percy going out?"
A small smile tugged at Annabeth's lips. "Yeah, we have been for a while now."
"That's nice, with the whole rivalry going on between your parents and all."
Annabeth didn't stop walking but she did give Eirene another side glance. "I'm surprised you know about that; with you being on the run for so long and all."
Eirene flushed. "Um, I've always had an interest in Greek mythology. I'd look it up in my spare time, before I ran away."
Annabeth nodded. "Well, you and I have that in common."
"The Greek mythology?"
She giggled. "Well yeah, but also the fact that you ran away from home so early; I ran away too, when I was seven."
"Seven?" Eirene felt a pang of sympathy for Annabeth having run away at such a young. Eirene knew how hard it was to handle yourself at age ten, so she couldn't even begin to imagine age seven.
"Family problems," She looked down at her feet, and Eirene got the feeling the subject was a touchy matter. "What about you? What was your reason?"
"They kept sending me away to new places. And when the new places would complain about me, they'd send me away again. Monsters kept attacking, and I'd get blamed for the deaths. I finally decided to stop endangering the people around me and hit the road." Memories were running through her head, and Eirene felt herself shrink at the sudden sting behind her eyes. She didn't want to cry, this was the worst place to cry. She was finally in a good place, she was finally safe. It made no sense to cry here.
Annabeth stayed quiet for a long time. Finally with a sad smile she said, "You aren't alone. All demigods have a similar story." They arrived at the front door of a cabin with brown paint and a caduceus on the door. Voices were echoing from inside.
"You stole my fourth bead!" Voice number 1 accused.
"Did not! I stole your second bead." Voice number 2 corrected.
"Give it back, you lying thief!" Voice number 1 demanded.
"Hey now, we're all lying thieves here." Voice number 3 comforted, trying to break up the fight. There was uproar of argument coming from the cabin, and Eirene hesitated before she knocked. She looked up at the cabin again, and remembered it was Hermes: The god of travel, messages, and thieves. Eirene looked nervously at Annabeth, not sure whether she should walk in or wait for them to finish arguing.
Annabeth smiled like she was used to it shook her head. She proceeded to knock and the door opened almost immediately, revealing two identical twins.
"Anna, what can we do for you?"
"You can start by never calling me Anna again. And also, you have a new camper."
The twin's eyes landed on Eirene and the smiled that appeared on their lips made shivers go throughout her body.
"Hermes kid?" The one of the right asked.
"No. She's unclaimed."
They both frowned, and the one of the left crossed his arms over his chest. "How old?"
"Sixteen." Eirene answered, looking down at her feet in embarrassment. Surely being unclaimed at her age was strange, and she would start getting weirder when she never got claimed. She had never liked being the center of attention, and being the new (unclaimed) camper wasn't helping her preferences.
"Odd. Very Odd,"
Another head popped up in the doorway. A guy with boy band-styled black hair and freckled cheeks smiled when he saw Eirene. "We got a new Hermes camper?"
The left one shook his head. "Nope, but we got an unclaimed."
The freckled one shrugged. "So? Do you what you gotta do and get in here before these two break each other's necks." He disappeared and the twin's attention was back on Eirene.
"Well, I'll leave her in your care." Annabeth turned towards Eirene. "Keep all of your belongings on lock and key. And put this around your neck," the girl took Eirene's hand in her own and place brown thread in it.
"What's this?" The thread was thick and strong and smooth. It looked more like a bracelet than a necklace, and it was bigger than her palm.
"Your camp necklace," She gestured to the string tied around her own neck, filled with dozens of beads. "You add a bead every year you stay at camp. I hope you'll be staying for many."
Eirene smiled softly. "Me too,"
Annabeth nodded once more and walked off, returning to the big house. Eirene turned towards the twins, whose smile had taken a playful turn to it. They both took Eirene's hand in theirs and shook it chronologically.
"Welcome, newbie. I'm Connor, and this is Travis. We're the Stoll brothers."
Eirene giggled. "Your last names are Stoll? Isn't that a bit ironic?"
The boys took on a blank face. She waited for them to get it, but the joke seemed to have passed right over their heads. Finally Travis broke the awkward silence with a laugh and a slap to the knee. "You must be a daughter of Poseidon; Percy told us that same joke years ago. Still don't get it."
She didn't bother correcting them, but stood with her clothes hugged to her chest. "If you don't mind, I'd like to change into the camp clothes?"
"Oh, right! Come right in, bathrooms on the left." Both boys cleared the path and allowed Eirene entrance, and when she stepped into the place she'd be calling home for a while, she felt a warm feeling overtake her. The place was a bit roomy, despite being once so packed that they were sleeping bags on the floor. She made her way towards the bathroom and locked the door, once, twice, three times, and stopped when she got to the fourth one. It was an automatic red flag that the bathroom door had so many locks, she assumed it was so the person inside had enough time to cover themselves before someone burst in. Laying her clothes on the bathroom, she carefully removed her ring and placed it on top of her clothes. She changed into the camp clothes and reveled in the snugness. She hadn't enjoyed the feel of jeans on her legs in a while and liked the shorts; even though they seemed a bit too short. Her height was sometimes a problem for her, Eirene wasn't freakishly tall but she was a bit taller than the average height for her age.
With her ring back on and dress in hand, she unlocked all the doors and stepped out. The first face she saw was of the freckled boy, whose sharp nose and upturned eyebrows spelled troublemaker.
"You're the new camper. Good to meet you, I'm Matthew." He held out his hand and smiled. Eirene wondered if shaking hands was common in this camp, everyone seemed to do it. The boy's light pink lips were turn up in an impish smile; he had bright green eyes and was of average height, but kind of skinny. He had an awkward-boyish charm to him. She shook his hand and returned the smile.
"The names Williams; Matthew, Williams," His changed his voice to sound dark and powerful, imitating a spy. Eirene assumed it was a joke and chuckled, slipping her hand out of his.
"My name's Eirene."
His sudden smile made her furrow her eyebrows. "Well, Eirene, this is a lovely ring you've got…" He opened his palm to show that the ring that was once on her finger was now clutched in his. "It must've caught a pretty shiny penny…"
Eirene gasped. No one touched her ring, No one.
He made as if he was going to tossed it in the air and she lunged for it.
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