Percy

The training grounds were much livelier today than usual. The aftermath of the Titan War seemed to slowly fade in the background, not forgotten but just lived through. Naturally, the younger cabin members were more enthusiastic to learn sword fighting, swinging their wooden swords at each other. The older ones were occasionally bored with the 'technical' stuff I was trying to teach as soon as I signaled practice with real swords, they begin to liven up. I seriously don't know why Chiron put me up to this. He said that my skills greatly improved since I first fought with riptide and that I was 'qualified' to teach in camp in case another conflict breaks out. Annabeth immediately agreed with what he said, being supportive as usual of what I do. We're too busy to even see each other in the camp. She's doing the whole rebuild thing while I was doing… well, this.

I was packing up when I heard someone calling out. "Percy!" someone shouted. I looked up from arranging the swords in a rack to see the new kid, Zagreus, walking in the direction of the Hecate cabin. He had an upbeat smile, keeping his hands in his pocket, he seemed to have fully recovered from the previous incident. We still had many unanswered questions about what happened that day, but my mind tells me that it made perfect sense since he was a son of Hecate, and magic was more than second nature to her children. And the name, Hecate would definitely name her children weird names.

"Done with training so I see," he motioned to the swords I was arranging. He shook me from my thoughts.

"Oh yeah, just cleaning up actually," I abruptly said, trying to pretend I was still aligning the swords. I was never organized really, but Zagreus' presence felt strange since I first talked to him in the Big House. He carried a strange aura. As I looked at him now, that aura is faint, yet it remains.

"I assume sword fighting is your forte," he looked at the rack beside me, and before I knew it, he grabbed a sword (the real ones, not the wooden ones, unfortunately) and began moving it by rotating his wrist.

"Not really, they say I'm better at defense when it comes to that," I hastily said. For some reason, I was nervous he'll ask me to a duel.

"I think it's not my weapon of choice either," he said then he paused looking confused for a moment. He shook his head and continued to rotate the weapon.

"But why did you come to camp with a sword. That's a weird occurrence for a new demigod," I asked, carefully walking on the surface of the ice.

"It's funny, isn't it? how we demigods find ourselves in situations like that. Monsters always come in our way"

"Believe me, I have my fair share of that. Too much as I could say. But it still amazes me how you got claimed so fast before you even arrived here. I mean, I haven't encountered demigods that have been claimed by their godly parents before coming here," it was a genuine question I wanted to ask since the beginning. Most demigods flee and seek refuge in the camp knowing only that they're demigods but not knowing who their actual godly parents are.

"There's always a first to everything, Percy. I just go lucky to be claimed by Hecate as I journeyed to camp. I think I wouldn't have survived without the help of my mother with the number of monsters trying to hunt me down. I'm thankful I got here even if I slimly missed the mark of safety"

"I guess you are right. There's a first to everything," I shifted my gaze to the Poseidon cabin. I was its first member and the last. Tyson rarely visits the cabin anymore.

Zagreus followed the direction of my gaze for the first time and asked, "There are others like you, am I right?"

"Huh? You mean the son of Poseidon? Well, I have this brother he's a cyclops actually, his name is Tyson and-"

"No, I meant the children of the 'Big Three' as Lou Ellen had told me. She said that there's a daughter of Zeus named Thalia and I believe the god Hades has two children. Beats me how Hades had demigod children, as far as I remembered…" he cut himself off, shifting his attention again to the sword.

I didn't want to ask what he was about to say, instead, I offered a possible answer "Well, the three gods had a pact you see, to stop the Great Prophecy from happening. It's a long story but basically the prophecy says that one of the children of the three would see the end of Olympus," I turned to Zagreus with some pride in my face. Hey, you got to have bragging rights when overcoming those prophecies.

"End of Olympus…" he wistfully said. He seemed lost at that final remark. "And the other children of the Big Three? Did they play a part in this?"

"The prophecy? Well… we were expecting Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, to be the one who would fulfill that prophecy. But she got turned into a tree years ago, which technically froze her age. She got back to her usual self but soon joined Artemis and her huntresses, which you know basically turned her immortal and completely stopped her from aging. That left the possibility to the Di Angelo siblings. Nico was too young to fulfill the prophecy but was a plausible candidate, her sister Bianca, on the other hand… couldn't make it to see the outcome," I suddenly shifted my gaze, feeling remorse flooding again.

My reaction immediately triggered Zagreus' reflexes. He swiveled towards me, seemingly tightening the grip on his sword. I could somehow sense that he was restraining himself. He was weird in a way, and trust me, I have a different definition of 'weird' in my demigod world of strange events. He looked at me, a cold dead stare. I would have froze to death right there and then when he said, "what do you mean by that?"

"Uhh.. well… you see," my tongue was stuck, I could not speak. He resonated a different energy from the jovial one I encountered when he approached me. He might have sensed my nervousness and he quickly blinked and shifted his gaze back at the weapon he was holding. He shook his head as if he got rid of some annoying bug that festered his temple.

"Never mind," he muttered and continued mulling over the blade then the horizon then the blade again. When he pondered much he sighed and tossed the sheathed sword back to me. I barely caught it as my hands were shaking badly.

"You seem like you know a lot about the demigods around here. You do care about them so much," the last sentence trailed off.

"Yeah, they're the only people that I could consider my family, really. Besides, well… my mom," I mumbled.

"Yes, I bet they are grateful of that," he said with a half-hearted smile. I could sense the conversation was dragging him. I was about to end it when he gave me hearty pat on the shoulder.

"I'll see you around. I heard there's this game going on, "Capture the Flag" is it? I'll see you then," he smiled then walked away.

I stood there for a few minutes watching as his shadowed faded in the distance. There was a sudden change in the aura I felt around him like something snapped when I mentioned Bianca's death. Whatever this feeling is, one this is for sure: I don't want to go against him in Capture the flag.

In the shadows, Nico loomed behind the thick berry bushes. He had done this months before to watch how camp was doing, how Percy was doing… The shadows aided his invisibility. He squinted at the boy who patted Percy's shoulder and tried to follow his figure until it disappeared. The boy may have been meters away but he could sense the different aura around him. A familiar yet distinct aura. His heart dropped when he saw the boy was talking to Percy. It brought discomfort to him and he did not know why. Whoever he was, Nico knew he had to protect Percy. It was an inherent sense that won over the potential jealousy.