Chapter 12.

A wolf cures me of a headache

Some mornings are the best. Everything goes your way, and you know you're going to have a good day.

The sun is shining, birds chirp on the trees (or gas pipes, depending on where you live), and the sky is clear. Your morning coffee is perfect, you wake up on time without feeling sleepy, and you're just feeling amazing. Like you could take on the world.

Yeah, my morning was literally the opposite of that.

I woke up because I suddenly felt a lack of warmth. Like there was a source of heat next to me that had suddenly gone- probably because the space next to me was empty- Eleanor had gone somewhere.

I didn't take her for a morning person. But apparently she was one.

Feeling cold, I sleepily opened my eyes and wrapped the blanket closer to me. I yawned once, enjoying the warmth of the blanket. My head stuck out as I leaned on the gunwale, my nose up in the air smelling a mixture of salty sea breeze, dusty wood and doritos.

I looked up. The sky was gray, a dull type of gray that pretty much predicted a thunderstorm. The gloomy overcast weather was as cold as the biting wind that flew all around me, making me sneeze a few times. It had gotten really cold overnight, so I was glad that had the blanket.

Then my brain clicked in and wondered for a panicked second where I was.

I got the answer, of course. 39.22 degrees North and 129.25 degrees West.

In more precise terms, I was lost.

That woke me up. Note to self: Never sleep on a boat that's randomly floating on the ocean. Especially if you're the one supposed to be steering it.

"Looks like someone's up."

I shuddered, getting up, and continued walking with the blanket wrapped around me. I probably looked like a sausage with legs, especially because the blanket was brown, but I didn't really care. It was cold and while I had some form of heat resistance (I'd found out when June accidentally lit me on fire once. Don't ask), I was not resistant to the cold. I mean, not more than other demigods.

Eleanor sat near the mast, dressed in a navy blue fleece jacket and jeans- where did she get the jacket? She sipped on coffee from a small cup, and there were several other cups around her. All empty- except there was a flask nearby. It looked magical, so I raised a brow.

"Another of my powers, Percy," Eleanor explained. "I can make travelling comfortable- to an extent. You won't run out of coffee on my watch."

"Thanks," I muttered, before grabbing a cup and filling it with coffee. A few plumes of smoke rose up, and I brought the liquid to my face, sighing in pleasure. You know, that feeling when your nose is literally frozen and you have a steaming hot liquid next to your face- makes you think twice about even drinking the liquid.

Either ways, back home, mom never let me have coffee. Something about caffeine and ADHD, she said. Which was why this was the first time I tasted coffee in a long time.

I took a sip- not too much, the coffee was too hot for that- and swallowed.

Damn, she was right.

The coffee was like fire in my veins. My brain went into overdrive, and so did my senses. My heart thumped against my chest, and my ears began to buzz. I could hear everything around me for miles, and my thoughts flew all over the place. I felt like I was high, so I took a deep breath, and took another sip before putting the cup down and staggering to the gunwale.

"No more coffee for me," I shuddered, shaking my head and trying to clear it. My heart still pounded away, and I wondered if coffee was some sort of heart-attack making drink.

(It is. Don't drink too much of it at a go. Or be like me and just, uh, ignore this)

Eleanor laughed. "Don't worry, you'll build a tolerance."

Before I could reply, the door to the cabin bust open, and Caleb burst out.

When I say burst out, I mean literally. Normal people get up, open their eyes, yawn and maybe stretch a bit. Sometimes, like me, they go back to sleep.

Caleb's not like that. As soon as his eyes open, he jumps up, no matter where he is, and walks to the nearest bit of fresh air to do a spot of cardio, at least, that's what he did in Camp, according to Eleanor. She had told me last night he was the one in charge of the Fifth Cohort's sword drills. She decided to stop telling me more though, because I had asked her how they drilled stuff with swords and weren't mechanical drills more convenient.

The son of Mars looked around, yawning, while I greeted him with a nod. He didn't acknowledge it, instead he took out his map, swiped some of the cups out of the way, and plonked it on the table, ignoring Eleanor's protest (those cups broke. One of them was really cute too- it had a unicorn on one side and a pink walrus on the other).

I guess he woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

"Mornin, Cap'n" I tried again.

He grunted. "Location?"

Oh. Straight to business then. I was a bit annoyed- I mean, would it kill him to say Hello Percy! Morning to you too!- but I blurted out our coordinates anyway.

He took out a divider and scale and plotted our approximate position.

I nodded. "That's right," I muttered under my breath.

"What is?" Eleanor asked, as she leaned over my shoulder to take a look at the map.

"He's marked us right. On the map I mean, that's where we are."

She raised a brow. "I didn't know you were good with maps. How do you know?"

I shrugged. "We're marked," I said, pointing to a small boat Caleb had faintly pencilled in that was located in a blue region of the map, "in the water."

"As opposed to?"

"Land, obviously."

Eleanor snorted, called me a genius, and walked off. Caleb was still frowning.

"We're…no no no. We should be here," he pointed at a map coordinate. "We're too off schedule. We're losing time!"

He glared at me. "Did you or did you not steer this boat at night?"

My face turned red. "I…uh…I kinda- I fell asleep."

That apparently wasn't the right answer.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!"

I winced, as Caleb stood up and bellowed right at my face. "Yes?"

"WE ARE OFF COURSE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF THE-"

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry. Like I said fell asleep- I'll get right to it though."

"HOW CAN YOU DO THIS-YOU INCOMPETENT-ARGHH!" Caleb yelled, and I could see the veins bulge in his neck. He threw his hands up in desperation and began to talk about something like fools and demigods and squids. I watched him, a familiar feeling at the bottom of my stomach building up. It was like a bitter aftertaste, making my whole body uneasy.

My heart beat faster (it had nothing to do with the coffee) and my fists clenched. I narrowed my eyes at Caleb's back- fortunately he didn't see me, he was busy cursing at some whales nearby.

I knew what I was feeling. It'd felt it often enough. Many times at Gabe. Quite a few times at the gods. A minute times against Lupa, and once against June.

I felt angry. Mad. Wrathful.

See, the thing is, Caleb is a son of Mars. He's the god of war. So his kids (Mars' kids, not Caleb's) are really good at fighting. Everything to do with fighting- weaponry, strategy (to an extent), emotional confrontation and most especially, manipulating emotions like anger to trigger fights. It was really hard not to get mad, especially because with Caleb so mad, his powers tended to drive people around him a little off the edge. Children of Mars could do that- they could make you feel mad. Really, really mad.

It didn't help that they had one of the most annoying personalities either.

I chose to ignore him, taking deep breaths to quell the anger building up inside me. Lupa always told me to redirect my anger, because if I ever lost control, and unleashed my powers, that would be really bad. So I tried. I counted to 10. I thought about happy thoughts- mom, kissing June (I don't know why I thought of that), blue pancakes.

The feeling subsided a little, but I knew it was far form gone.

"I'll turn the boat right now," I said, closing my eyes and willing the currents around me to steer the boat back towards land. Or at least, where I thought land would be.

The boat groaned as it turned around, the mast swaying in the wind in an opposite direction now. A few dolphins leaped up in the water, making a curious clicking sound I realized later was dolphin for Incoming storm! Dive!

"We should reach in a few hours, if we travel this slow. I could go a little faster though."

"THEN DO THAT, YOU IDIOT!"

"HEY!" I said, my own temper flaring up. "There's no need to call me an idiot."

I was pissed. Royally. Not only was Caleb just getting up and acting like he owned the place, he just woke up and decided to get a field day by calling me names. Sure, maybe I shouldn't have slept off, but I was as tired as everyone else! I had every right to-

"I'LL CALL YOU WHAT I THINK YOU ARE, NEWBIE! YOU'RE NOT EVEN A ROMAN! YOU HAVEN'T JOINED CAMP JUPITER YET," Caleb yelled back, red in the face.

"Percy," Eleanor called out warningly. "Caleb is a child of Mars. You know he's just mad, he doesn't really mean what he says."

"HELL YEAH I MEAN WHAT I SAY!" he retorted, turning towards Eleanor. "YOU SHUT UP AND STAY OUT OF THIS!"

My vision turned red. Sure, shouting at me was okay…mostly. But shouting at my friends?

Yeah no, you don't do that.

A small part of my brain reminded me that Caleb was part of the team, so technically he was my friend too, but I ignored it. Eleanor hadn't done anything to get shouted at.

"DON'T TALK TO HER LIKE THAT!" I shouted.

Caleb turned to me and laughed in disbelief. "YOU THINK YOU CAN TELL ME HOW TO TALK TO HER? I'VE KNOWN HER LONGER THAN YOU EVER WILL! JUST DO YOU JOB AND DON'T MESS UP THIS TIME," he snarled, spittle flying out of his mouth (I dodged). "THIS QUEST WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH EASIER WITHOUT YOU!"

YEAH?" I shouted, mad with rage. I felt my muscles tighten up, and my mouth was dry. I could feel the blood rushing in my veins, and the ocean calling to me. Telling me, 'You are the child of Neptune. The strongest of all these. Show them your power!'

Yeah I don't know how the ocean told me all that, but I got the sense that it felt like how I felt. Then there was this other voice. Cackling. The voice said, Show him your power, son of Neptune! The ocean is nothing to be trifled with! How long will you take the insults, the mockery? If Camp Jupiter can honour the leader of the gods, there is certainly no reason it cannot equally honour Neptune!

Trembling with rage, I screamed. "THEN YOU CAN STEER THIS DAMN BOAT YOURSELF!"

"PERCY!"

I turned to see Eleanor scream, and her shocked expression and the fear in her voice was enough to knock me out of it. I blinked, stepping away from Caleb and taking a few deep breaths. The red haze cleared. I heard a chuckle in the back of my mind, like someone laughing at me, before my vision cleared, and I nearly fainted.

All around me, the winds and waves had reacted to my mood.

And by that, I mean the weather was bad. Really bad.

The sky had turned dark, with a powerful storm thundering all around. The sea rose, powerful and turbulent. Waves more than ten feet tall washed across the deck, knocking off the food and supplies we had. Water lashed past the gunwale, and rain pelted the whole area. The wind screamed, small pellets of hail falling all around as it built up speed.

I quickly grabbed the weapons crate and slid it across the wet deck into the cabin. It clattered down the steps and disappeared into the shadow that was the interior of the cabin. I heard a distant Ouch! but I was too worried to care.

"What- what d..did you do?"

I turned to see Caleb, his eyes wide with fear. He was looking up at the sky, like he expected it to shoot lightning at it, and clutching his map.

I shook my head. I was in shock. Before anything worse happened- I had to get these two off deck. I could survive underwater, they couldn't.

"Take Eleanor and run into the cabin. I'll handle this!" I screamed, trying to make myself heard over the screaming wind and pouring rain.

The son of Mars shook his head, before running into the cabin, grabbing Eleanor with him.

"Take cover!"

"Who did this-did Percy?"

I couldn't hear what he said over the waves, but I was sure it wasn't good. A few tears formed in my eyes, and I sniffed once. I quickly grabbed several blankets and put them in piles over the door, to prevent any water getting in.

The rain didn't wet me. Neither did the waves. I was in my element- literally nothing could hurt me. Storms were something children of Neptune revelled in- they enjoyed every second of them. Perhaps even more than children of Jupiter.

The storm called to me, electrifying me with the power it held.

But I didn't care.

I was crying. Screaming in rage and pain and fear.

I was crying because I'd done the single thing Lupa had warned me against. The one rule she'd told me not to break, I'd gone ahead and broken.

I'd lost my temper and control of my power. I had forgotten how powerful I could be. I acted out in anger and lashed out in power, scaring off my fellow demigods.

I had created a hurricane.

And we were in the centre of it.

As a child of Neptune, my powers depended to a large extent on my emotions. Which was why when I got really mad, and I didn't rein it back in by letting it out, instead absorbing the emotion in my gut, sending it to my core, I used my powers. Sometimes without even knowing- like that time against the gorgons.

It's not fair.

Normal kids throw a tantrum and they get a scolding.

Demigods throw a tantrum and maybe a few monsters run away. Or the sun shines extra harshly.

Or if you're really mad a child of Demeter, a random plum tree grows somewhere.

I throw a tantrum and a natural disaster occurs.

I screamed at the unfairness of it all, and a small part of me realized that as much as my powers were a blessing, they were also a curse.

I shivered, looking up at the storm I'd created.

But the actual scary part was, I didn't know how to stop it.

Sure, riling up the wind and waves was easier. I just had to get mad and concentrate enough. The water would answer me. The storms would form on their own. But controlling or stopping them- that was much, much harder.

A child of Neptune's greatest power flaw is control.

I struggled against the wind, trying to control the boat, which was going up and down with the waves. I could hear panicked screams from the cabin, but I didn't look back. The waves tossed the boat around like it was a toy, and thunder and lightning flickered in the sky. A powerful gust knocked me off my feet, and I banged my head against the mast, nearly fainting. Only a wave of saltwater that lashed across the deck, dousing me as well, awakened me.

A flash of white blinded me, turning the whole area around me white, before I heard a distant peal, like someone banging two bass drums together. It was so loud, my ears nearly burst. Just then, a colossal wave nearly washed me off the boat, dragging me towards the right of the deck.

I shook my head and walked back to the centre of the boat, my core muscles screaming in pain as I kept using my powers to keep the boat afloat. I was too tired at this point to even control the storm, all I could do was focus on keeping the boat afloat and work on staying alive.

The rain whipped around me, reducing how much I could see, but I kept going. Another large wave doused the deck, and I screamed, an explosion of sound causing the water to scatter on either side of the deck, making it dry again.

Sea gulls cried in fear around me, and I sighed. This storm was beyond my power- I was pretty sure there was a natural storm all around me, I'd just triggered it. There was no way I'd be able to keep such a powerful storm for so long right now- maybe with more training in endurance, perhaps. But not now- this was clearly out of my control.

That helped me feel a bit better, but then I heard a voice in my head laugh once again. What consolation is that, demigod? Instead of drowning your friends immediately, you have just postponed their death!

I glared, before shaking my head, trying to get the voice out. By the way in which the voice sounded female, made me angry and was stuck in my head, I figured it was some goddess messing with me. But I wasn't sure why, and I didn't want to know either.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" I screamed, and waves of water erupted all around me, falling on the boat and causing it to get too much water on the deck, lowering the deck till it was nearly at level with the sea.

A few flying fish hopped on board. They had been skimming the water, and the gunwale had sunk low enough to strand some of them.

They flopped around, before one of them shouted something like Get back into water, protocol 21! and they all flopped back out with the next wave.

The laughter continued, while water continued the enter into the deck.

The boat was sinking, but I couldn't do anything about it. My head ached, and I was quickly losing the ability to stay conscious.

Desperate, I grabbed maelstrom and raised it up, muttering prayers to Neptune- and one to Lupa.

The goddess continued to cackle. My vision turned red again, and I felt like I had the worst migrane in the world. But even then, I felt mad again. Like I wanted to tear everything around me to shreds. Like I wanted to destroy the boat I was on. My hands raised themselves of their own accord, and I felt powerless to stop the onslaught of rage that followed.

The oceans responeded, roaring, as the waves grew more and more turbulent.

I was going to sink us, and I couldn't do anything about it. The red haze was too strong now, commanding me, forcing me to keep the storm up.

I screamed in agony, the waves rising again. I saw nothing- I had closed my eyes- but I could still hear the laughter in my head, mocking me. I could still sense the ocean, rising, coming closer and closer, as the waves made their way towards the ocean.

I screamed to Lupa for help, before hitting my head, pulling my hair, reciting the times table, doing anything to get the voice to leave, but it didn't.

The waves were too high for me to stop now. They would soon reach the boat, over load it, and we would sink or capsize- which ever came first.

I couldn't save everyone. I didn't have the power left.

I closed my eyes and focused still, on fighting the red haze.

But I knew it was too late.

Just as the first waves reached the boat, and it began to slowly sink into the depths, I heard a single wolf howl.

It wasn't a normal howl. It was powerful, full of rage and anger. No wolf I'd ever heard howled like that- except, well, Lupa.

It nearly blew my mind to bits- but whatever it was, it had chased off the laughing voice.

I opened my eyes, but I was still in the ocean. There was no wolf for miles here- unless they had wings or fins. I quickly streatched my hands out, my muscles protesting from the overuse of power. I could feel my body giving up on me, so I quickly reached into my pocket for some emergency ambrosia and nectar, to prevent myself from burning up.

I was glad Lupa had thought me the warming signs of power overuse.

I couldn't go on for much longer, so I focused the last of my willpower on clearing the boat of the water that had logged it, sighing in relief as it rose back up.

So I looked up at the sky, and around me in the water, scanning for a stray overpowered wolf with mind control powers but there was none.

I knew enough about wolves to tell that was a she-wolf howl. And that howl had chased away the voice in my head- for now at least.

I sighed in relief, before grimacing in pain as I forced the water out of the deck, and back into the ocean.

Lupa must have answered my prayer. I allowed myself a small smile, though it disappeared in bitterness when I realized Neptune hadn't done anything.

Would he really just ignore me?

NEIGH

I turned, confused. Wolves was one thing, but hearing horses as well?

I leaned over the gunwale, looking down, before opening my mouth in amazement. Below the deck, prancing in the water was a hippocampus. Its front part was that of a sleek grey horse, but waist down, it had silvery scales and rainbow coloured fins. There were four of them, and they were all prancing in the water, neighing and doing other horse activities. Two were playing hacky sack with what looked like an old WW2 mine.

"Hey!" I called out, and they immediately turned towards me, swimming up towards the edge of the boat.

Good morning, little lord. How may we help you?

"Can you help me get to land? Like, guide the boat there?" I asked, leaning heavily against the edge of the boat.

I was tired. So tired.

The son of the sea wants to go to the land?

I stepped back from the gunwale for a moment, because a particularly large wave had just breached the deck, and I had to force the water back out. It took the last bit of strength I had, but I forced myself to go back to the gunwale. I nodded. "Yes, please."

The hippocampi snorted, before circling the boat. Two on either side, in front and at the back.

Together, they cut through the water with powerful strokes- the storm didn't bother them- and slowly, we made progress. The prevented any rogue waves from washing up, and I collapsed on the spot, blacking out.

I don't know how long I was out, but I'm pretty sure the ocean accelerated my already speedy recovery with the help of nectar and ambrosia. I sighed in relief once I realized I could see the wind and waves calming down around me. The sky began to clear again, and for the first time today, I saw land.

Everyone else was still in the cabin. They'd locked the door from inside.

I sighed.

This was what being a son of one of the most powerful gods felt like, I guess. It was lonely- because nearly everyone treated you like a ticking time bomb. Oh I hope Percy doesn't get mad. I hope Percy doesn't destroy San Fran! I hope Percy keeps calm! Don't talk to Percy, he might get mad at you!

Well, with the stunt I'd just pull off, I couldn't even argue with people like that. In fact, the only people so far who'd treated me differently were mom and Lupa. And my friends- if I could call them that- from Camp Jupiter. At least, they used to treat me that way. I didn't know how they would react to me after this.

NEIGH

The hippocampi called again, and I looked up to see land quickly approaching.

Only, we were off course.

Instead of half moon bay, or any beach of that sort, I expected to at least see the forest line. But in front of me, there was nothing like that.

The sky had cleared up, as if there had never been a storm in the first place. The ocean calmed back down, the waves simply cresting gently along the sides of the boat. A warm breeze blew from land to sea, and right now it felt like I was on a tropical cruise.

Except, well, in front of me was a cornfield.

And it was huge.

Miles and miles of corn stretched in front of me, like a golden ocean. The corn rustled in the wind, swaying right and left creating ripples like the whole field of corn was doing the wave. There was a short white picket fence around the corn fields, beyond which was a rocky beach- no sand, just tons and tons of small volcanic rocks and boulders. The ocean hit against the beach, sounding like rolling marbles.

Oh well. Land was land.

"Thanks, guys!" I called out to the hippocampi, and they neighed, before disappearing into the ocean. their rainbow fins blending in with the sparkling water.

I smiled. Hippocampi were from the sea, they understood me. They weren't scared of me- they knew I wouldn't do anything to harm them.

I could only hope my friends felt the same way.

Neptune's Gift hit against the beach. It created a crackling sound as it slid past a few feet of stones, before coming to a standstill. I looked around.

From the elevated perch on the boat, I could see several lines of cornfields, which stretched up to the horizon. Beyond that, I could faintly make out dark shapes that rose up, clustered together.

The forest.

I shuddered reflexively.

A few miles past me, nearly at the centre of the cornfields, was a lone house. I couldn't really make out what colour it was, or what the sign above it said, but I could see a faint red and white splotch with a plume of smoke rising above it. I figured it was a house, because that made more sense than a cornfield having a gaming centre.

"Percy?"

I turned around. Melissa was looking at me through the doorway. The blankets had been washed off.

"Is-is it safe?"

I let out a long breath. "Yeah," I said, my voice cracking. "It is."

At that, the rest of them stumbled out. Eleanor and Caleb both looked around warily. Caroline was holding the shaft of her spear so tight it looked like she would break it. Nike had torn his stress ball to shreds. Haniel was rubbing his eyes like he'd just woken up. He yawned, and with a jolt I realized that he'd actually slept through the entire storm.

No one looked me in the eye, everyone just grabbed their weapons and jumped off the boat. Everything other than our weapons had been washed off. Food, blankets, juice boxes, the spare Trivia Hunt game, everything was overboard.

Even the gravestones, I found out later. One of them had bonked a merman on the head and he had lodged a civil complaint against me in the Central Atlantis Regulation and Law Court, also known as CARL. Nothing happened to me because my dad was the lord of the seas, he was cool that way.

I was the last to jump off the boat.

The rocks crunched under my legs, and I grated my shoes against them. I was probably the only child of Neptune to ever be glad to be back on land instead of my element.

I didn't have anything to carry, so I nervously rubbed my neck. No one said anything for a good five minutes, then my ADHD gave in.

"Actually, there was a legit storm. I'm not that powerful, I just-"

"It's okay, Percy," Caroline cut in. She smiled at me, but it quickly disappeared as if she couldn't hold it for more than a second.

"Let's move on," Caleb grunted. He looked subdued. "The shack in the corn fields should have some supplies. We'll regroup there and head to Half Moon Bay."

The group moved forward- with me dead last, as usual.

Only this time, I wasn't staying back on purpose. For protecting and whatever. If anything, I was the real danger.

The stones crunched under my feet. I felt in my pocket for maelstrom, it had become almost routine now.

Once we reached the white fence, we easily jumped over it and walked through the corn fields.

The corn heads were taller than me. It was easy to get lost in the tall grass, but thanks to Caleb's bulky frame, he cut a clear path through the fields. The corn, for some reason, felt magical. I didn't exactly know why, but it was like a sixth sense that warned me, telling me Careful! This corn is magic!

I mean, I didn't know how dangerous magical corn was, but at this point, I wasn't ready to deal with anymore magic.

"Hey,"

Caroline brought me out of my thoughts. She smiled at me, but I could tell it was a little forced. "You alright?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Lupa always told me to be careful of my powers- but after this," I shivered, "I don't know."

She slipped her hand into mine and gave me a quick hug. "Don't worry. I mean, everyone else is kinda freaked out right now, but we'll get over it. Just don't…urm… don't hesitate to use your powers if you can save someone."

I looked ahead at the corn, not meeting her gaze. "I don't know, Caroline…Maybe it's better for everyone if I don't use my powers. I didn't even ask for them in the first place, and besides, I'm a pretty good swordsman," I tried smiling, but I couldn't.

Lupa had warned me about my powers 'alienating me from the regular Roman demigod'. I always thought she was joking, because I knew children of Mars could create weapons from almost anything, Ceres' kids could literally summon plants from nothing, why would anyone fear a water show?

But yeah, as usual, I was wrong. Don't get me wrong- I still loved the sea, and everything about it called to me because it could never hurt me.

But others?

It definitely could hurt others, yeah. Maybe it would be better if I didn't use my powers around other demigods- unless I really had to. I could already feel a part of me close up. Become more guarded- as if the ocean was a private thing I could only enjoy by myself. Others wouldn't get it.

I heard Caroline sigh, but she walked on and I stalled so that she could go ahead and catch up with Haniel, who shot me a thumbs up, though I wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean.

To my right, Nike was trying to see if the corn was edible. I mean, corn is edible, but I'm pretty sure even he knew this was magical corn, and he wanted to make sure the corn didn't turn whoever ate it into a pig (it's happened before) or make them spontaneously combust. Eleanor was making sure he didn't actually taste any of the corn, but when she saw me staring at her, she walked up to me.

I looked away. I didn't really want to talk to anyone right now- at least, not anyone of them. They wouldn't get me.

Lupa would. Or mom. She never feared me.

I'd never spoken to Neptune in person, but I doubted he'd get me. Being scared of my own powers? He was a god- he only knew power.

"Hey,"

"Hey."

Eleanor sighed. "You know we don't blame you for the storm, right? We all knew that there was a natural storm brewing, and maybe you triggered it, but whatever. You got us to safety, right?"

"You're just saying that to make me feel better. I know you're still scared of what would happen if I lost control."

"Percy-I-" she shook her head, stray strands of brown hair crossing her forehead. "I can't say you're wrong. But you can't really blame the guys. We've never actually seen a child of the Big Three- Jupiter, Neptune or Pluto- for decades now. Besides," she added under her breath, "the last child of Neptune nearly destroyed Camp."

I stopped walking, shocked. Eleanor looked at me funnily. "What's wrong?"

"What-what do you mean? About the child of Neptune thing?"

"Oh. There was this demigod- Shen Lun. Camp Leaders claimed he caused the 1906 San Fran earthquake- dude nearly split Camp in two. Of course, he was sent away from Camp after that. That kind of power…" she shuddered, "it's too much for a single person to have. And he wasn't even a child of Neptune- he was a legacy."

"Gee, thanks," I muttered sarcastically, "What's a legacy?"

"I-I didn't mean to…urm…"

I raised my palms. "It's alright. I guess. What's a legacy?"

"Percy! I'm serious! I didn't mean it that way- sure Shen Lun could've destroyed Camp, but I trust you!"

"Sure you do," I muttered, looking down and rubbing my sleeve against my eyes. The last thing I needed Eleanor to see was me crying about an earthquake in 1906.

"Percy-"

"Don't. Just tell me what a legacy is."

She sighed. "A legacy…is, well, not a direct descendant of Neptune. More like, uh, if someone in his ancestry was a descendant of Neptune, and thus he inherited some of his powers."

"I don't think a legacy is powerful enough to create earthquakes then. The powers don't all pass down from generation to generation."

Eleanor nodded. "I know. It makes sense, that's what Shen Lun argued too. He was a legacy of Neptune, and I hear he was a really powerful demigod but even he had very limited water and earth powers. He was mostly just really skilled in battle, besides the shapeshifter thing."

"Shapeshifter thing?" I asked, curious even in spite of myself. If Shen Lun could shapeshift….maybe I could too?

"Oh, you know," she said waving her hands around, "shapeshifting. Turning into animals and other mythical creatures."

Eleanor spoke about it like it was something she saw everyday.

"Are there other shapeshifters?"

She frowned. "Nope. Shen Lun's shapeshifting wasn't due to his Neptune powers- he was a descendant of one of the argonauts. Periclymenus."

"Peri-what?"

"Periclymenus. He had the ability to shapeshift, and that's a family gift now," Eleanor explained, and I nodded.

"So if anyone I meet can shapeshift, they're basically a descendant of Shen Lun."

She nodded. "I-I hope you get what I mean, Percy. Shen Lun wasn't even a direct child of Neptune, but the legion feared his powers so much. The guys here- they're really nice. They're used to being rejected by others, which was why they were really cool with you being a son of Neptune. But the legion is…less understanding."

"I know," I replied. I couldn't hide the bitterness in my voice even if I tried. "If I was a child of Jupiter, or whatever, sure, they'd pretty much worship me. But children of Pluto or Neptune are always outcasts. Lupa told me."

Eleanor put a hand on my shoulder. Her left hand- the one I'd healed the night before. "Well," she said, smiling. "I for one prefer this child of Neptune to any demigod of Jupiter I'd ever meet."

I blushed. "Thanks, El. But I'm not a child."

"Sure, whatever you say, lil P."

"Just because you're a year older-"

"Ah ah ah," Eleanor replied, laughing. "I am older, Perseus. Respect your elders."

I wrinkled my nose. "Okay, if you don't call me Perseus anymore."

"Sure thing, Perseus," she replied, laughing, before she sprinted away in front of me.

While that wasn't the best conversatio

I smiled. I was glad I had friends- well, a friend- like Eleanor. She always knew what to say when I wasn't feeling great.

I was still thinking about what she'd said, when Caleb raised his fist up. I was pretty sure that was a universal signal for 'Stop. Danger ahead.' so I kept walking till I reached up to the point where he was.

"What's up?" I whispered.

"House. Straight ahead," he replied, still squinting straight ahead.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Look at the sign above it."

I glanced at the house.

It looked like one of the old 90s houses you saw in cornfields. White walls, with red sloping roofs and multiple windows. A single chimney shot plumes of smoke from somewhere at the back of the house. There was a birch porch in front, with a few chairs and a table on it. The table had an abandoned game of chess on it, with two empty soda cans on each side. An elaborate railing bordered the porch, and a cat slept on it. I didn't see any dogs, but I could hear one barking in the distance.

In front of the house, there was a small clearing. No corn grew here, but there was bundles and bundles of hay, a bright red tractor, and two cows eating from a trough. A chicken clucked in front of the cows.

It looked like an old farm that an elderly couple would be running, honestly. In fact, it looked really normal, like any mortal house, except for the sign.

The only thing that stood out was the neon sign hung on the porch. It said, This way, demigods! with an arrow pointing towards the door- a green half glass door, which blinked every second.

Now I wasn't an expert in questing, but the general rule is, when something says WELCOME! COME THIS WAY!, if you're a demigod and don't want to end up eaten/dead/incapacitated/boiled/fried, your best bet is to go the opposite direction. Immediately. And as quietly as possible.

I looked at Caleb, who nodded, pointing with his thumb back to the shore, where we'd left the boat. Sure, we were out of supplies, but it wasn't worth risking it. I took a small measure of hope from the fact that though they hated the sea, they still were ready to retreat back to it now.

So they preferred me on a boat to certain death. Good to know.

I was just about to turn to leave, when the door opened.

Shit.

All of us crouched between the corn, looking out from in-between the green stalks.

Three people stepped out. One of them was a man. He had a curly brown beard, brown eyes, and brown curly hair. He was tanned, and wore a faded checked yellow checked shirt, which he had tucked into a pair of jeans. He had a leather belt around his waist, with two pistols holstered to it. The top of his shirt was unbuttoned, revealing a lot of chest hair and a single corn pendant, made of silver. He had a lot of wrinkles, and looked like he was always looking to tell someone off. I knew that look- I'd seen it on a lot of teachers, especially when they happened to see me.

To his right, was a woman in a greek chiton. How I knew what that was, I don't know. She also had a circlet of flowers around her dull blonde hair. She had a really beautiful face, in a plain way. While nothing stood out about her, you could still tell she was really pretty somehow. Her eyes were puffy though, like she had been crying a lot. Maybe she lost the game of chess.

On the other side of the man, was an older woman. She looked like the fun great-aunt you saw at a family gathering (the one aunt that's actually cool and not talking about how small you look or how she used to save the world back in her day). She wore an orange dress, with patterns of apples and pears and pomegranates and some other fruits that I couldn't recognise.

We though of making a run for it, but just as I tensed my legs to leap back, the man shouted a word, and I suddenly lost the ability to run. He snorted, mumbling something about stupid demigods, before the other lady on his right- the pretty one- smiled at us.

"You are demigods, correct?"

I said yes, we were.

Then it seemed like an invisible force shoved us towards them. We were pushed past the fields of corn, flung past the tractor, and landed with a tumble on the sandy ground in front of the porch, while the three farmers looked down at us.

The cows kept grazing like nothing had happened. I guess they were used to people flying in.

"Oh good!" the pretty woman clapped her hands together. "The last person to come was a last pizza boy. I don't know who ordered the pizza, but how he got lost was beyond me. Mortals can be so silly sometimes!"

She said mortals like…she wasn't one. I frowned.

"A- are you a demigod?" Haniel hesitantly asked the lady.

I could tell why he was confused. I was too. These people looked like they were mortal- they didn't really have an aura of power, but at the same time, you could detect hints of power that sometimes randomly spilt out in overflow, as if they were a nuclear bomb covered in mud (basically their power was cloaked. I know that's a bad analogy but a nuclear bomb is good for comparision in power).

The lady farmer chuckled, before bursting into tears.

"Now look at what you did!" the surly man scolded, and I didn't know what to say to that. The other woman- the one who wasn't crying- turned to Haniel and smiled tiredly.

"Sorry about Rob and Mel . It's their first time. It is always a pleasure to meet the heroes who will assist us. I'm Pompona- you can call me Aunt P. A pleasure, I'm sure."

I wasn't sure what she meant by that, so I asked. "Their first what?"

First marriage? First corn harvest? First time meeting angsty teenagers?

"Oh, child, don't you know?" she asked, before chuckling as I shook my head. "I forgot mortals have such short lifespans. While it's my third- long story- for them it's the first time they were kicked out of Olympus, of course!"

A/N: I don't think Rick has ever dealt much with the fact that other demigods will judge Percy for his power and parentage. Or maybe the Greeks are just really nice- Camp Jupiter is going to be a lot less trusting!

Another note on pairings- they will be realistic(?) and by that I mean Percy is not getting together with Artemis, because she's a goddess. I might write a Pertermis fic some time in the future, but not in this.

Percy/Reyna is being considered, but I will be honest, I can't see it lasting long. I've already decided the ships based off the plot for the series, so I hope you enjoy it as the story unfolds.

Reviews appreciated! Friendly reminder that I can't respond to guest reviews, but I do read them and appreciate them.