Part II

Lassa

I lay in the ocean, allowing the water to soak me, the salty liquid healing me and giving me strength. These slashes and gashes were deeper than usual, the monster more powerful.

You probably don't know what I'm talking about. My name is Thalassa Beth Jackson, but no one uses my full name unless I'm in trouble. Which, admittedly, is a lot.

Anyways, I go by Lassa. I'm eleven years old, have been born and raised on Tybee Island, Georgia, and I'm a daughter of Poseidon. No one knows that except me, my mom, my brothers, and my dad. Not Poseidon, although I guess he's on the list too, my stepdad. My real dad, the one who raised me.

Cass Jackson had been in love with my mother, Maya Seaver, since Kindergarten. They were best friends their whole lives, but drifted apart somewhat towards the end of High School when they both started dating other people. Fast forward to the summer after graduation, my mom meets Poseidon.

She tells me she first saw him in the ocean one morning when she was on the beach, and how she was instantly taken with him. She fell for his gentle strength, his kindness, and his aura of power, authority and calm. My mother kept her relationship with the stranger to our small town a secret, having many boat trips to other nearby places and many late night rendezvous on the beach. They were together long enough for my mother to want to come out of the shadows with everything and want a ring. Knowing she could see through the mist, Poseidon revealed who he truly was. She knew that was it, and they parted ways. Two months later, she found out I was on the way. She was waiting for her parents to get home to tell them about everything, not knowing her best friend had already called Cass. He showed up at her front door with his mother's engagement ring, said he had loved her for years, would love me as his own child, and if she loved him too he'd marry her on the spot. Two weeks later, my great grandfather married them at their little white church on the outskirts of town. The wedding wasn't really a surprise to anyone, they all expected for that hard working fisherman's son to settle down with the preacher's daughter one day, but how soon my mother's pregnancy announcement came wasn't planned on. 3 months later, I was born at 3lbs 7oz. It was a rough few months, but since I was born so premature it saved my parents a lot of small town gossip about a shotgun wedding. I look like my mother, just having Poseidon's black curls and green eyes instead of her chocolate locks and crystal blue eyes. Everyone assumes I got my black hair from my grandmother and my green eyes from my dad, so no one is the wiser.

Sorry, I really went on a tangent there. It's an ADHD thing, really common in half-bloods, demigods, nephilim, whatever you want to call us. How, might you ask, does being a christian and the daughter of a deity go hand in hand? It just does. Those two things are not as mutually exclusive as they seem.

Right. The Monster. I'm not really sure what kind it was, but it sure was powerful. It was a fight I shouldn't have won. It was luck, no, providence, that I made it to the ocean in time to heal. Knowing that, and knowing my scent is now attracting a new caliber of monster, I know it's time for me to go to Camp Half-Blood.

As the ocean heals the last of my wounds I swim home and will myself dry before walking inside the beachouse my dad inherited when his parents died, not long after he graduated high school. Car Crash is all I know, he doesn't like to talk about it much. It's small, two bedrooms and two bathrooms with an open floorplan of a kitchen, living room and dining area. Small, but all we need.

"Hi, Mama." I say when I walk in. She's got her brown waves pulled back in a single fishbone braid and an apron over her clothes, so I know she's about to start Supper. "Need any help?" She puts her knife down and smiles at me as I hug her.

"Always, Lassa." She kisses my head.

"What are we cooking?"

"Your daddy's favorite."

"Mmm. Salmon Patties?"

"Atta girl. Now go get washed up and pick all the bone out of the salmon. I'll fry 'em, you cook the rice, tomatoes, and green beans."

"Yes Ma'am. What time is Daddy getting off the boat?"

"He told me sunset. I guess that means another two hours. Plenty of time to cook the food and clean up before he's home. He's been out there since before the sun was up."

"He's always happy when he comes home to your cooking."

"Tonight it's Our cooking, Baby Girl. And of course! A man's always going to be happy coming home from a long day working to a good cooked supper, a clean house, and a wife and daughter that adores him. Now get going!" She says with a smile and lightly swats a towel at me. I make a face at her before washing my hands and getting started on the salmon. I usually hate picking the bone out, but now I'm glad for it. I don't know how to tell them I'm leaving for camp this summer and I don't want to think about it.

"Maya! Lassa!" I hear my daddy hollar as he walks in the front door, the screen slamming behind him. I smile and run to give him a bear hug, breathing in his salty scent. "Mmmmhhh! I missed you on the boat today, Lassa!" He says as he picks me up in a hug. At 11 years old I'm five foot nothing and 96 lbs, so it's nothing for him to get me off the ground. I'm a bit on the small size but at least my weight is all muscle. Comes with fighting my whole life and working on my dad's fishing boat since I could tottle.

"I missed you too!" I giggle, then shriek as he starts tickling me. I squirm out of his grasp and run over to my mother in the kitchen and stand behind her. "Mama's base!" I hollar as they both laugh at me. My mother takes off her apron and walks over to my father as he wraps her in a hug as she smiles. My dad's tan arms hold her close to him as he kisses the top of her hair, his own blonde waves still damp from the ocean spray.

"Where are the boys?" Mama asks him.

"Spraying the sand off each other. They sugar-cookied themselves by rolling down the dunes." He chuckles. Almost as if on cue, my two rascal brothers come running through the doors dripping wet.

"Woah Woah Woah! Hold Y'all's Horses!" I say before they can run into the kitchen.

"Lassa!" River's face brightens and gives me a hug.

"Me first!" Seaver says and pushes him off to hug me.

"Eww Eww! Get off me you runts!" I say pushing them both aside.

"Lassa!" My mother scolds me, but I keep my eyes trained on my brothers. They might have gotten away with it if not for the sly grins on their faces.

"What'd Y'all do?" I ask them with a raised eyebrow. Around that time I feel a crawling feeling in my shorts then a pinch. I let out a shriek and shove my hand down my pants to pull out a crab.

"We're Sorry?" Seaver says, but he doesn't look it.

"Oh Y'all will be." I say and lift all the water they dripped into the house and use it to whip them in the back of the neck with the force of a rattail. Before they can get me back I run over to my mother, hiding behind her. "Mama's Base!" I say as they both run over to me and pull me off her so they can tickle me. Amidst the laughing I eventually get some relief when I hear my dad's hearty laugh when he comes over to pick up the boys, one under each arm.

"Alright, Alright." He says as we all settle down. "Y'all have a mess to clean up."

"Yes sir." I say, then with a flick of my wrist pick all of the water up and shove it back outside.

"I never get tired of that trick." Mama tells us. "Are you hardworking boys ready to eat?"

…..

We all sit around the Supper table and it doesn't take long for us to be laughing and telling stories about the day. This is what every night is like, but usually the night doesn't include my stomach all twisted into knots.

When I was born, A letter appeared for my mother at her hospital bedside. Inside the folded paper were two bronze bracelets. The letter explained that life for a half blood is hard, and that monsters can seek us out by our scent. The two wave bracelets weren't made of just any bronze, but Celestial Bronze and at the will of the wearer could turn into twin Xiphe, two one handed 12 inch greek swords. They'd always return to my wrists as soon as I was old enough to wear them. He told us I'd need to learn how to use them one day to protect myself, that while living by the ocean could help mask my scent it wasn't full proof, and that one day I'd need to leave to go to a safe place called Camp Half-Blood. The only safe place for kids like me. It said that it was off the coast of Long Island, New York, and since Mama can see through the mist we wouldn't have a problem finding it.

I get lost in my thoughts thinking about all I'm going to miss this Summer. School lets out in one week, and after that I'd usually spend the summer teaching surfing lessons and horseback riding, awaiting my brother's birthday, and helping get set up for 4th of July. I love summer for the carefree days, the water gun fights with my brothers that I always win unless I decide not to use my powers, which means they toast me. I get excited about laying in the sun for a couple hours at a time, reading whatever new book I'm obsessing over. I love playing in the ocean in the 90 degree Georgia heat that makes most people pray for winter. Not to mention missing out on teaching VBS and being a counselor, ok well a Jr. Counselor, for my church's week long summer camp.

"So Lassa, school's out next week. Anything different you want to try this summer?" My dad asks, breaking me out of my thoughts. I take a deep breath and try to be calm. Guess now a time is as good as ever.

"Actually yes. I need to go to Camp this year. Camp Half-Blood." A silence hits my parents and my mother drops her fork, but my brothers are oblivious to what I even just said.

"Boys, you're excused." Mama tells them, and they look up at her then scurry off to our shared bedroom. Dad's working on building an add on to the house so I can have my own room and bathroom. He said it should be ready by my 12th birthday.

"Did something happen today, Lassa?" My mother asks me quietly.

"A monster attacked." I tell her, twisting my wave bracelets.

"Monsters have been attacking since you were born, Sweetie. We've always held them off." I sigh, and hold up my wrists to them.

"I can only learn to use these on my own so well. This monster was more powerful than any we've ever fought. My scent is getting stronger, and the ocean isn't masking it anymore. And this monster was so, so Powerful." I say and tears well up in my eyes. My dad stands up and walks over to me, then scoops me up in his arms. "I was so scared. The only reason I survived was cause I managed to get to the ocean before I bled out." He sits on the couch, and I curl up next to him as Mama sits on the other side of me, stroking my hair.

"We always told you it'd be your decision when to go to camp. We honestly should have sent you a long time ago so you didn't end up with close calls like this. An entire summer is a long time for a kid to be away from home, but you're not a normal kid, Lassa."

"I wish I was. I'd give anything not to be Poseidon's daughter." I sniffle.

"Would you?" Daddy asks. "What about your life? What about Seaver and River? How about your mother and I being married? Would you give that up?"

"What? Of course not!"

"All that is thanks to Poseidon, Sweetheart. If Poseidon hadn't fallen for your mother and gotten her pregnant with you, you wouldn't exist. I'd never have had the push to gather the courage to ask her to marry me. Seaver and River would never have been born." He says softly.

"Lassa, Honey, you've brought so much good into the lives of everyone around you. I thank God everyday for you, and you wouldn't have been born without Poseidon. Don't wish that part of yourself away."

"How am I going to go to Camp Half-Blood as a Christian? It's literally a camp dedicated to pagan gods."

"It won't be easy. You'll be all alone in your faith, and given how nasty kids can be with anything different, it might be rough. But you'll have an incredible mission field. These kids might as well be an unreached people group. Why would they believe in Jesus and his love and grace when they're told their parents are gods and are so ignored they're lucky to even get claimed. But you'll still have support. We'll be praying for you every day, and you can write letters to us and your friends."

"How are we going to get there? We can't fly." Part of the letter Poseidon wrote my mom when I was born warned us while Zeus can't just magically tell I exist, he could sense if a descendant of Poseidon were to enter his domain, like on a plane, and he would Not. Be. Happy.

"How about we sail? It's been years since we've taken Wavecrest on a real trip." Daddy suggests. I reach my arms around his torso and hug him, A smile breaking through my tears at the thought. "We'll make it an annual trip. Every summer we'll sail you to camp, then pick you up to sail you home at the end of summer. It'd be great for the boys to finally learn how to sail."

"How about that, Lassa? Would that make it a little easier to go?" I smile at her.

"That sounds perfect."