Meeting, Departure, and Xavier...
A clatter of noises was heard and everyone ran to the noise. I shoved people to the side even though my body hurts. oh shit, Xavier, don't tell me you did! I see Brian, he's all pale and points at Xavier, his small figure is seen and he smiles and frown with embarrassment. I facepalmed, Chiron cut through out of the campers and asked Brian, "what happened here?" Brian still points at Xavier, "he-he-he kissed me!" Everyone gasped and snickered, I was emotionless, just appalled yet not surprised. Xavier is passionate for people he loves, I remember in school, he liked three guys, of course he either gets alienated by almost everyone but me and Alexis. I looked at Brian, he looks at me, I bet he's thinking, did I know that he was gay? or how am I a friend of this kid. I shrugged, I'm not good looking and even though I protect Xavier most of the time, I'm just too violent for the kid to like me, which saves me from him liking me. "Alright, everyone! get back to your sectors! Xavier!" Chiron spoke and pointed his staff at Xavier, "You're coming to the Big House with me. We need to talk" Chiron commanded and Xavier nods with his head down as they walk to the Big House.
Everyone walked away talking about what happened, some people even looked at me. I sighed, Hopefully they don't get the wrong way on me. I walked to Brian, "hey, calm down now, he's gone." I said, he's still pale and nodded. "I-I-I just don't know what happened! I was getting taken care of here an-an-and Xavier just sneaked in while everyone walked out, and he..." Brian told me what happened and he didn't want to speak the last words, I sighed, "You'll be alright, just don't think of that and try to act normal around Xavier. He's hurt enough." I reassured him, he looks at me, "I'll try, just tell him not to do anything with him for a while, if he ask when, say when I start doing stuff with him." Brian looked at me seriously as he can but his fear and shock still existed in his eyes. I nodded and spoke, "I will." I bid farewell to him and walked back to the Ares's section.
Karen watches me as I enter, I waved a hello to her and sat in a wooden chair with goat fur as cushioning. "That's some shocking news about your friend." Karen spoke, I looked at her and sighed, "what do you want to know?" I asked, Karen sighed as Devon, Walker, Gale, and Dawn enters. "Why would he do that?" she asked me, I looked at her, "that is a question I can't answer." I retorted, I don't want to tell them Xavier is gay... Karen looks at me more interested, "why not?" she asked again, everyone is looking at me and I lied, "I don't know why he did that." I looked at them all, trying not to smile or laugh, but these people, I haven't lied to till now. They brought it and starts murmuring among themselves and I spoke again "Just don't spread any crap around the camp, or humiliate him, I swear if he feels left out or more depressed than he is, I'll harm you." my words flowed out and everyone looks at me for one second, the next, they're all frighten. My eyes feel a little tingly and I rubbed it. "You're just a newbie." Devon retorted as he calmed down, "a newbie that kicked your ass." I looked at him with a smirk, Devon dropped a sweat and he shook his head. "I'm still leader of this cabin." I nodded and spoke "true but still doesn't mean I turn your ass into grass." Gale and Evan made a "ohhhhhhh, you got burn!" I laughed and Devon gets a bit annoyed and calmed down.
The day went on and I fell asleep for staying up late. I woke up to someone patting my leg. I opened my eyes to see the wooden ceiling and lift myself up. "jeez, can I sleep more?" I grumbled as bright sunlight hit my face. I looked at my legs and see Devon looking at me in his battle armor, "no time to sleep, we have a meeting about the prophecy you got!" Devon filled me in, I was slow to move out of my bed and he pushes me out to the floor. "gods! damn!" I get up and Devon tossed some leather armor next to me. I get up and put on the armor. "come on! can't you be any faster?" Devon complained, I looked at him and sighed as I walked out of the infirmary, my arms still sting a bit but it's way better now.
We walked into the Big House and walked up the stair to see all of the cabin leader gathered around a ping pong table. I sat down next to Xavier since he's the only one of his cabin, it makes him leader. He is still sulking of what happened yesterday. I can't blame him. All of the cabin leaders look at the both of us oddly, I looked at them and sighed, "We're all together now, what is this about?" Kate, the leader of Athena spoke first. Devon spoke, "We're all here because a prophecy has been proclaimed." "To who?" Eric, the leader of the Dionysus cabin, "To me." I said as I stood up. "The prophecy was meant for me solidly but there are a couple chosen people as well." I finished my sentence. Everyone looks at me, Xavier is sulking more, Hopefully this will cheer him up. "If that's so, why not recite the prophecy for us?" Tom (yep, he's the leader of the Hermes cabin) asked, I nodded and recited the prophecy that oracle told me from memory.
"War and sea will clash?" Kate looked questioned, She looks at the both of us, "Xavier, your dad is the ruler of the seas and Mario, your dad is the god of war." Kate said, "yeah?" We both said, "that'll means you two will fight." Kate looked a bit scared but she hid most of her fear. I looked at Xavier in thought of us fighting, might be destructive. I spoke again, my tongue was getting tired from reciting the last short prophecy, I recited the one that Ares told me. Valo, the leader of the Hephaestus cabin banged the table with his hammer. "Damn it! this means big time trouble!" Everyone looked at him, Kate nods, "this is going to be a major one, but we need a crew of the selected people, We have two already." Kate glares at us, "you will go with the one of the seas, one of the sun, two from the roads, one with the book, three from warriors, and one that make the skies bow to him." Devon recited those words, surprised that he can remember them and paid attention to me. Devon looks at everyone's faces and he spoke "what? just because I'm a son of Ares, doesn't mean I can't think and do smart shit." I chuckled a bit, "the last line, we don't have anyone who is a offspring to a god who has that power!" Tom said, everyone nodded, everyone slowly get silent and I broke it when I looked at Xavier and back to everyone else.
"Hey guys, just tell all of your cabins, Xavier isn't what you think he is, just tell everyone to not make fun of him, or make him feel excluded. He's my friend and he's part of an important prophecy." I looked at everyone, they looked at me for a couple seconds, Please let my words work this time! Kate slowly nods as well with Devon and Tom. Everyone joined in and I looked down at Xavier. "See, I can fix things as well." I whispered, remembering a long time ago, he insulted me saying "Jeez Mario! You never can fix anything!" Xavier looks at me, his eyes filled with tears and said something softly, I was about to ask again but it was probably a "thank you."
The meeting was over and I walked with Xavier back to his cabin. "hey, do you feel better?" I asked, Xavier spoke "I do, thank you so much Mario." I looked at him and smiled, "hey, it's nothing, just smile first though." Xavier looks at me, he starts to slowly smiles.
"See, just calm down and all will be fine." I spoke, Xavier takes out some water from a stream and sprayed it on me. "Hey!" I looked at him mad, he starts laughing "hashtag got him" I get more annoyed and smiled, "glad you're back X" I said, "hell yeah I'm back! I'm back to kick your butt." Xavier retorted, I laughed and pats his back. We stopped in front a boardwalk. It leads out to the middle of the waters to a cabin, it has giant emblems of a trident paved in blue marble, there's one on each wall. I looked at Xavier, "may I go in?" I asked, "yes you can." Xavier granted me access.
He walked first and I followed him. "how is your waterbending going?" I said and smiled to myself that reminds me of the show Avatar. He looks back at me and snickers a bit "it's good enough to flood you down to the bottom of the ocean." Xavier retorted, "really? now I'm scared facing you near water." I laughed, we kept walking down. Xavier opened the door and I walk in "welcome to my crib." Xavier said, I nodded around, There's some tridents, statues of horses and tools sailors would use in the sea. "Nice." I said, he smiled and frowned. "it sucks though, I'm the only living and sleeping in my cabin." I know how it feels to live by yourself, Xavier has a sibling, I'm an only child. "It won't be bad, you'll get used to it, as did I." I said and nodded, the moon seems to be rising and I pat Xavier's chest. "beat you to the mess hall." I laughed "Hey!" Xavier shouted as I start running. He ran after me, He used the water around him to make him reach the other end of the board walk and kept running from there. I shouted "Cheater!" I laughed and caught up with him. We raced neck to neck until it was a tie. Everyone was eating, not even bothering any attention to us. I walked over to the Ares cabin and everyone looks at me.
"What?" I asked with a gesture, everyone looks at each other and Walker sighed, "remember the line that involves Ares?" Walker asked, I nodded and answered "three from the warriors, yeah, did you guys choose yet?" Everyone nodded and Walker spoke again, "Gavin volunteers and we saw what you taught him in a day, Karen wants to go as well, and the last one is Dawn." Devon and Walker fidgeted a bit when he said her name. I looked at the three volunteers, Dawn seems to be looking down at her food shy, Karen was munching on her food and she looks at me and back at her food, Gavin smiled and I smiled back. "Are these three okay with you Mario?" Devon spoked, I looked at him and nodded respectively. "Yeah, they'll do." I replied, "why aren't you guys going?" I asked, "who's going to protect the camp and still make the Ares cabin awesome?" Devon said, I smiled and nodded, "alright, don't fail our cabin here." I said, we went to eating our food now.
We surround the amphitheater as we watched the Dionysus kids acting with some of the Apollonians (nickname for the Apollo kids.) and with a few amount of the Hecate and Hermes. The play was about the adventures of Percy Jackson, I watched closely as a Hecate kid played Percy, a Apollonian girl played as Annabeth, she had blond hair like Annabeth's but not the same stormy gray eyes like the rest of the Athenians. a Hermes played Grover and I laughed a bit when it comes to Grover. "Every demigod has a fatal flaw Percy, yours is your loyalty to your friends, you would save a friend even if it means destroying the world." Athena's actress is Kate, spoke her line. Annabeth told Percy later that her fatal flaw was pride. I started to think, What is my fatal flaw? I looked at Xavier where he sits in the Big Three's seating with Chiron and Mr. D. He looked bored while Chiron looks at Xavier and back at the play, Mr. D was watching and got mostly happy when his children comes into acting. I smiled, you must be a proud father to see your kids grow. I looked back at the play and watched the rest of the play.
The next morning, it was departure day. Dawn, Karen, Gavin, and I started to pack our belongings. We headed out of the cabin and we walked to the campfire. Xavier was there waiting for us. I waved my hand and chuckled "Morning X." Xavier starts skipping towards me and I smiled more. The kid is always something. "Hey mar mar." Xavier replied and I get frustrated, "Don't ever call me that!" I shouted, he laughed. I punched him on his arm and smiled. I put my stuff in a backpack next to Xavier's on the east side of the dead fire, so did my cabinmates. I looked at everyone who was walking up to the fire. The Athenians were the first group and a girl walks to us, she has brown hair and stormy gray eyes, she looks tough and smart, but shy in a way. "Hiya, what's your name?" I asked, Xavier looks at all of the Athenians shyly. "My name? oh sorry, my name is Rane." Rane answered, I nodded and smiled, "My name is Mario" I introduced myself and pointed at Xavier, "That's Xavier, and the rest you should know, go and meet them." I finished the introduction, Rane nodded respectively and waked to my cabin mates. Kate walks up to me "Spartan (nickname for Ares) get over here!" Kate ordered me, I walked to her and she looks very stern. "Listen up, Rane is one of my favorites and she wants to do this. If she dies, I'll have your head on a stick!" Kate ordered me, I gulped and nodded, "I got it, all understood." I replied, "oh and one more thing." Kate added, I twirl my head at her. "What?" I asked, "I know what you are, ρωμαϊκός!" Kate hissed on the last word and I flinched a bit "Roman?" I translated, Kate nodded and turns away to go back to her cabin and her whole cabin seems to look at me with hostile "looks. I gulped and looks back at Rane with Xavier as they chat. I walked to them and I sighed, wrong timing, the Apollonians came in with their bows slinged to their backs and Lexi appears in the crowd. She's in the lead of the cabin, next to a boy who is twice as tall as her, same sunburnt hair and with muscular arms but a lean torso. They stopped in front of me and Lexi walks to me with a straight face but a slight smile. "I'm going with you, at least this group has a healer at least." She said, I chuckled a bit as it was a joke, but it was true. She had a single strap backpack with her as the rest of her stuff. I nodded, "Hey Lexi, that's cool to have you on." I smiled and she passes by whispering "don't get yourself hurt too much without me around you big fella." I looked stunned and quickly covers with a laugh, "Alright, whatever." I looked back at the rest of the Apollonians, the one that walked with Lexi looked at me and shot a swagger. I sighed, My cabin is known for being asses, I know there are people that are more asses than us. A horn was blown and the Hermes cabin ran up the hill and down to us. "Holy shit!" I shouted as I almost got scared.
Brian and another kid smaller than all of us with a baby face walked to me. I waved a hi and they waved back. "Brian, I thought you weren't going because-" I said until he cut me off, "Mario, Don't talk about that, and of course I would join you guys." Brian laughed and the little kid laughed as well with a cute smile. "hey, Sheldon, go meet with everyone else." Brian said to the little kid as he crouched and patted his back as the little kid runs to everyone. He has black hair and brown eyes with the familiar elfish Hermes face. I looked back at Brian and asked "who's the kid and why is he here?" Brian looks at me "Sheldon, he's 11 years old and I have to take care of him, so I'm basically his mentor." he explains, I facepalmed. I sighed, This kid isn't in the prophecy, he just can't be! I looked at the Hermes cabin to see if anyone else was joining us. No one came out and I sighed, I guess this is our gang. The Hephaestus cabin start running in and I looked at them shocked. What are they doing here? "Wait! thank the gods we're here on time!" Valo shouted, I looked at him puzzled. "what?" I asked, Valo and his cabin stops in front of me, they panted and caught their breath. Valo walks up to me and spoke "I know the prophecy said that there isn't a Hephaestus but we want one of us to go with you, you know, for machines." I nodded, "who's the winner?" I asked, Valo shouted a name. "Dallas! get over here!" a slightly burly guy steps out of the cabin and he walks to me. He looks a bit like a ape, very hairy arms and legs but strong hands and arms like a Hephaestus should, has a dirty blond hair with blue. He spoke with a Gaelic accent, "hey, I'll be working with you lads on your quest." I didn't understand at first and I shook my head a bit. "Sorry, welcome, my name is Mario, yours must be Dallas?" I introduced, he nodded and points at everyone who's going. "Is 'hat who's coming with us?" he asked, I nodded and he walked off. "hey, we left you a present at the ocean dock." Valo said, I looked at him and chuckled. "Thanks, we'll see." I answered, I walked back to everyone and they all look at me, Xavier asked, "are we leaving now?" "yes we are, everyone get your things together, we're going on a blast." I chuckled as I ordered everyone.
We start walking thru the crowds like a parade. Everyone was cheering and rooting for us. I smiled and enjoyed these few moments. Chiron was walking in front of us, the apollonians sang songs of victory and blessings. The Spartans start banging their shield and roared. The Athenians seemed to be the most calmest out of everyone, they just clapped. Kate was glaring at me, my mind repeated the word ρωμαϊκός! ρωμαϊκός! ρωμαϊκός! I shook my head and kept walking straight. The Hermes cabin were shouting and cheering, clapping hard, howling out their fists at the sky. The two Dionysus kids shouted out that they are going to make plays of us when we come back and so forth. We walked to the dock and Chiron moves to the side. It was a trireme, the hull is covered with celestial bronze and the front had a head of eagle. It was fierce looking and it's beak is the ram itself, covered in celestial bronze, has eyes of red rubies. "you like?" Dallas came to my side and asked, I nodded, "we try to make a better version of Leo's flying trireme, we improved." Dallas stated, I looked at him in awe. "that's it, you're sticking with us!" I exclaimed and all of us rushed on board. Chiron and Mr. D walks up, all of us looks at them. Chiron spoke, "I wish you protection and luck and may the gods look over you, but before you leave, you need to go to Roanoke Island." We looked a bit puzzled but we nodded and gave thanks to Chiron and everyone else. The trireme starts saling when Dallas went to the control panel and turns on the oars. Everyone on land and on the boat ran to the closest edge as we waved to each other and some Naiads and nymphs cheered and waved to us in the water.