Lassa
After the sing along, we start heading back to the cabins. I'm exhausted after a long day at camp, and ready to collapse into my bunk that Percy and Annabeth said they got set up. But I don't want to cramp their space too much, so I decide I'll go to the beach for a bit first. I head over to tell Percy, when I trip over someone's foot and fall, scraping my hands on the ground.
"Ooops. Sorry, Ocean Girl." I hear that same bratty voice say that challenged my claim to being Poseidon's daughter earlier. I grit my teeth but stand up and smile at her.
"It's okay. How I could miss shoes that size being shoved in my way, I'll never know. But no matter. I'm Lassa. You're Erica?" I ask, putting my hand out to shake. She narrows her eyes, but shakes anyway.
"Yes. Erica Shaw. Daughter of Tyche, goddess of chance and fortune. I'm also the best archer in camp, outside of Cabin 7 of course."
"Oh really? Are you actually any good at archery, or is it all luck from your mother being thrown your way?" She tightens her grip and glares at me again, then let's go.
"I'm plenty good. You'll see."
"I'm sure I will. Goodnight, Erica Shaw." I say, then catch up with Percy and Annabeth.
"Hey Lassa!" Annabeth greets me when I get to the cabin. "How was your first day?"
"It was good, I s'pose. Anyways, I was thinking I'd have a tough time sleeping tonight, so I'm going to head to the ocean for a bit. Get some rest."
"No can do, Kiddo. Like the orientation video said, Lights out after the campfire or the harpies will eat you." Percy says, coming out of the bathroom.
"Oh. I'm sorry, then. I guess Y'all are stuck with me." I say and purse my lips as I head over to my bunk. I smile when I see it. It's a beautiful bed frame with dolphins carved into it.
"This looks great. Thank Y'all." I tell them.
"The trunk may look small, but the inside is bigger than the outside. All your stuff is in there." Percy says.
"Really?" I ask, then check it out. He's right. "That's so cool!" I say, and grab a tank top and some boxer shorts to sleep in, and my toiletry bag to get ready for bed. Heading into the bathroom I brush my teeth, shower, and change before coming back out. Annabeth is sitting up with Percy sleeping next to her, his head in her lap. Her gray eyes meet mine as she plays with his hair.
"How was your first day, really?" She asks. "It'll stay between us." I take a breath and am about to respond it was fine and go to bed, but there's something about the way her eyes are staring into mine. I decide to tell her the truth. I climb into bed and sit up facing her.
"It's been exhausting. And scarry. I've never been away from home for long before, and I'm about to spend 12 weeks here. I'm surrounded by people I don't know, and my family is hundreds of miles south. And I'm already getting picked on by that Erica Shaw girl. She tripped me on my way here and I don't think it was an accident, and I didn't even do anything to make her not like me." Annabeth smiles gently at me.
"I haven't met Erica yet since she just came here after New Years, but my friends at Camp keep me posted. She's used to getting her way. A young, pretty demigod whose parentage is far more powerful than hers is going to ruffle her feathers. But it'll be okay. You'll make friends here too."
"I hope so. But there's something about me that's going to set me apart from everyone else, and I don't know how people will receive it." Her eyebrows knit together.
"What's that?"
"I'm a Christian." I tell her, my hand rubbing my cross necklace. "I doubt there are any others here at camp."
"Why are you..I mean…"
"How can I believe in monotheism when I'm literally a demigod of the Greek Pantheon?"
"I mean…yes."
"Fair question. How much do you know about Christianity, Annabeth?"
"Not much." She admits.
"Well, back before the creation of the Earth it was God in Heaven with the Angels. But one Angel, Lucifer, wanted to be God. So when he rebelled, about a third of the angels followed him and were kicked out of Heaven with him. They have ranks, I guess you could say. And each was granted a dominion of sorts for a time. The highest ranks were who you know as the most primordial gods. Ouranos, Gaea, and Pontus, ones like children, as you know, are the Titans, and their children are the gods. I don't see them as deities as much as powerful beings who have control of certain spheres of Earth as long as God allows them to. It makes us the descendants of angels, the nephilim."
"I see…" She says. I fight the urge to shrug it all off and go to sleep. Instead, I give Annabeth the option to keep talking.
"If you're ever curious to know more about what I believe, all you have to do is ask. It's not a secret. That's just the how of why my Christian beliefs tie into the Greek Pantheon. The stories and beliefs go much deeper. I'm not into boring people to sleep or shoving my faith down other's throats."
"Do you know who my godly parent is?" She asks. I shake my head no. "Athena. She's the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, among a few other things. Being her daughter makes me very curious and thirsty for knowledge. So if it wouldn't make you feel like a bug under a microscope, I'd be more than happy to listen." She smiles at me. I smile brighter back.
"I'd love to." While Percy lightly snores and drools, Annabeth and I stay up late talking. I start with the gospel, then go from Genesis all the way through Revelation answering all her questions. She has a lot. At the end she gets into the deeper ones.
"But if God is real, why wouldn't he stop all the things we've gone through. The gods didn't have the power, and honestly they don't always care about us anyways. But if you're telling me that God, capital G, is real, and that he's all powerful and all good, then why?"
"I don't have all the answers, Annabeth. But what I can say is that he tolerates Evil on a temporary basis, One day it will be eradicated permanently, and that his definition of 'soon' is different than ours. And he respects free will. But even though Y'all had these awful wars, you won, didn't you? Against all odds? The way Melonie told the stories tonight, you were less than 50 demigods defending Manhattan against an army of thousands."
"Granted, but Lassa I've been to the underworld, I've seen Tartarus, The Fields of Punishment, Asphodel, Elysium, and The Isles of the Blessed. Christianity centers around the afterlife being either Heaven or Hell. How do you explain that?"
"I'm not sure, but if I had to venture a guess it's Sheol. A waiting place before the final judgment. Once that comes, the believers will go to Heaven. And I believe your good deeds store up rewards in Heaven for believers and that wrong deeds store up punishment in Hell. So someone who lived a good life but wasn't a believer wouldn't be as bad off as, say, Hitler."
"Okay. I guess that could make sense." She smiles at me. "It's late. We should probably get some sleep. Thanks for opening up to me, Lassa."
"Thanks for listening. Goodnight." I tell her and lay down. She pushes Percy off her lap and curls up with her head in the crook of his shoulder and switches off the lights with a remote. I smile at how perfectly they fit each other, and everything they had to go through to get here. I close my eyes and go to sleep, feeling safe next to a new brother and sister.
….
Percy
"So what are your plans today, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asks as we head to the dining hall.
"I think I'm going to give Lassa her first sword fighting lesson. See how good she is and how to help her get better.
"She uses two swords. Do you even know how to teach that?"
"Well yeah, I know how to. Luke taught me the basics my first summer, and Chiron made me keep practice up during training for the war. I just prefer it when it's only me and Riptide." I smirk at her. She rolls her eyes and laughs, making heat rush through my body.
"Hey," I breathe and stop to grab her hand. I pull her into me and kiss her deeply.
"What was that for?" She breathes when I pull back.
"For being beautiful." I tell her. She giggles. "I love you, Wise Girl."
"I love you too, Percy." She sighs.
"What's on your mind?" I ask as we start walking again.
"What do you mean?"
"That wasn't your I'm so in love with Percy Jackson I'm so happy and content right now and honestly if he wants to have sex I'd go back to the cabin this second Sigh." I smirk at her. "It was your thinking sigh. So what's on your mind?" She snickers.
"Alright. Lassa told me it's not a secret so I guess it's okay. We stayed up late talking last night, and apparently that faith and providence she was mentioning yesterday isn't trusting in the gods."
"Thank goodness for that."
"It's in God. Capital G."
"Huh. Really?"
"Yeah. Christianity to be exact."
"How can you be a halfblood your whole life and be a Christian?"
"Evidently she believes that the more primordial gods like Gaia, Oranus, Tartarus and such aren't gods but fallen angels who followed Satan when he rebelled against God, and have been given temporary dominion over the world until the second coming when God eradicates evil and establishes his kingdom on Earth. All the descendants of the fallen angels, including us, are nephilim. At least that's what Lassa told me last night."
"Huh. Interesting." I say and ponder that.
"Now you have that look on your face." She says.
"What look?"
"That brooding, deep in thought look."
"Most of the time when I have that look I just have Kahoot music playing in my head."
"But not now. What's on your mind, Seaweed Brain?"
"I was just wondering…Remember how I told you something was different about Lassa? How she just seemed so much more at peace? Think her faith has anything to do with it?"
"Maybe, I guess it could, but I honestly wish she didn't have it."
"Why?"
"False hope. When have the gods ever lived up to what they were supposed to be? Why would Capital G be any different? I don't want her to get crushed."
"I don't know. There were a couple of guys on my swim team at Goode that were Christians. Jake and Michael. The main thing I picked up from them is they believe God has unfailing love and forgiveness. That seems like a pretty sweet deal compared to how petty and vengeful and negligent the Olympians can be."
"You don't seriously believe this could be real, do you?"
"Well I never spent too much time thinking about it. And I know almost zip about Christianity anyways. But the way you told me Lassa explained it, it could be true I guess." Annabeth shakes her head.
"I'm going to disprove it."
"Why? I thought you just said you didn't want her crushed."
"It'll crush her worse if she finds out later after believing it longer."
"Okay, I guess. But what if she's right? Would that just shatter your world view?"
"It won't because she's not right, I am." She says and kisses me on the cheek as we get to the dining pavilion.
After breakfast, I go to the arena and set up for sword fighting. Lassa's not the only one on the schedule for today. I'll have a full class of relative beginners. Sighing, I set up the dummies. Half an hour later, I'm surrounded by a couple dozen kids from 9-13. I go over different techniques for two handed fighting, grabbing Riptide and a training sword to demonstrate. After the kids practice the movements for a solid hour, I have them start a dueling tournament. Double elimination, winner at the end faces me. I sit back and watch, noting who was paying attention and who needs to work at it a bit harder. Lassa's tearing it up though. She coated her swords with water and froze them so she can hit without worrying about cutting her opponents, although the ice will still hurt plenty. After another hour, It's down to 3 groups, and everyone's lost at least once by now. Then It's down to a son of Hermes named Aaron, a daughter of Nike named Alyssa, and Lassa.
"Alright, now that we're down to the three of you we're going to do it a little different." I announce. "Instead of one on one, it'll be one on one on one. The winner has to defeat the other two."
"What do we get if we win?" Alyssa asks. I smirk.
"Are bragging rights not enough?"
"They are, but there should still be more."
"The winner gets to face off with me." I say. "If you can win that fight, I'll get you out of chores the rest of the week." I say. Alyssa smiles. "And go!" I say. The three jump right into it, attacking and defending all at once. Alyssa fights with a competitive fury, determined to win. She focuses her attack on Aaron, and Lassa joins her to knock the stronger threat out of the battle. Once he concedes, the girls whirl on each other. Alyssa puts Lassa on the defensive, attacking hard. Lassa's losing ground fast, and goes to one knee at the strength of Alyssa's strikes. But right before Alyssa delivers what would be a killing strike if we weren't using training swords, Lassa takes advantage of how high she raised her swords and uses the extra half second to pull out Alyssa's legs with a sickle sweep. As Alyssa falls on her back, Lassa quickly gets up and pins her knee to Alyssa's chest, crossing her swords in an x against her throat. Alyssa cries out in frustration. And Lassa has a small smirk as she gets up. I smile at her.
"Okay, little sister. Let's see what you've got." I say and keep Riptide in my pocket in favor of a left handed training sword to make it a little more interesting.
"Just one sword?" She asks.
"It's all I need."
"Okay." She says and leaps to attack. I parrie her attacks and don't let her gain ground. We circle each other, her trying to get an advantage but I won't let her. The point of ever letting first time fighters duel the instructor isn't to give them confidence in their fighting. If they're halfway decent, they have that already. They need to know they still have a lot to learn. After a few minutes I can see Lassa getting increasingly frustrated and I go on the offensive. She fights hard to parry my blows, and since I'm fighting with my left hand she's able to at first, but quickly gets tired. I force her to a knee like Alyssa did, but when she goes for the sweep I jump over her legs. I'm about to bring my sword down when I freeze. Literally, I can't move. Panic starts to swell up in me until I realize why. My Blood is literally frozen in place. Anger courses through me and I feel a familiar tug in my gut as I retake control of my own body. I generate a wave of water and slam it against Lassa, forcing her flat on her back.
"Everyone Else out!" I Roar, and all the kids stare at me. "Now!" I yell, causing them all to stampede out of the arena.