Work Text:
Thick, orange blood.
A PJO fanfic
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Percy
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There was an ominous gloom lingering in the air that evening over camp, but nobody except for Percy seemed to notice it. He felt a strange sense of unease and restlessness, but he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t want to show his discomfort, as everyone else was merrily singing along at the campfire as usual. Percy was sure that it was probably nothing, and that it would pass while he slept.
“Hey, Annabeth? I’m gonna go to bed a little early tonight.” He said to his loving girlfriend, who was also enjoying the evening. She looked back with a slightly confused look.
“Don’t you want any more marshmallows? You never want to leave this early, are you feeling alright?”
“I’m not too sure… it’s nothing major, just… a feeling. It’ll go away by morning.”
“Oh, well if you’re sure… goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Annabeth.”
Percy got up from the campfire and snuck away, trying to ignore the worried look she was giving him. He didn’t want to put anyone at unease, as any subtle feeling of dread was usually accompanied by something bad in the demigod world. However, if it was only him who felt it, then it was probably nothing. He decided that if he still felt this way in the morning then he would actually worry.
Soon he arrived at cabin 3, the Poseidon cabin. He opened the door and went inside. The cabin, usually warm and cosy to him, also had a slight tense aura. Normally, on the ceiling there was a display of light refracting through water, the filament pattern you see when looking into a pool. But today, it played slower and dimmer, and the ocean breeze that used to run through the cabin was now deathly still, as if the entire cabin was holding its breath. Percy felt a slight sickness in his stomach, but he settled down for bed.
At first he couldn’t sleep, he tossed and turned uselessly. He tried to think of calming things. The beach, the ocean, his friends, but it didn’t help. Eventually, he gave up on sleeping and went to the lake, one of his favourite places at camp.
There was a cool, gentle breeze washing over him as he sat, alone, by the water. He looked down and saw the Naiads. They looked back at him and waved, but they weren't flirtatious and playful as usual. Seeing them so inactive made Percy even more uneasy. He sat there for a while, not knowing how much time had passed, when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Percy? Are you feeling alright?”
Percy looked behind him. It was his friend, Piper. She must have seen that he was missing from the campfire and asked Annabeth what had happened. She walked forward and sat next to him.
“Yeah, I think. I have this weird feeling of… foreboding.” Percy found it easy to open up to Piper. He was closer with Annabeth, but at the same time, they had been through so much together, and they didn’t know how much more there was coming to them. If he admitted that he suspected something, then it would worry her far too much.
Piper nodded. She looked out onto the lake, and she saw the Naids sitting still. Percy saw her gaze, and decided to say something.
“They aren’t as active as usual. It’s strange, my cabin also felt… off.”
“Off? How so?
“I’m not sure… I don’t know why only I can feel it. I can’t sleep either.”
Piper looked slightly worried at what he said. Percy didn’t want to cause any unnecessary unease around camp, so he hastily said:
“It’s probably nothing, I’ll feel fine in the morning. Can you just help me get to sleep?”
Piper rolled her eyes. After the war had ended, random kids around camp would come up to her. They would ask her to tell them to do things using charmspeak, if they didn’t have the motivation or ability to do it themselves. Piper was happy to help at first, but using so much charmspeak was exhausting, and the more she did it the more frequent the requests got. But as she looked at Percy in his uneasy state, and decided to comply.
“Fine, let's go to your cabin first.”
When they arrived at the cabin, Percy crawled into bed and tucked himself in. He lay down and looked hopefully up at Piper. Piper felt a bit strange watching him in bed, but she lulled him to sleep as they agreed. Her voice was extremely soothing, and Percy allowed all rational thought to escape his brain, and he allowed it to be filled with her words. He had fallen asleep in moments. Piper smiled to herself and left quietly. She was proud of how skilled she had gotten at charmspeak.
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That night he had a dream. He was watching a murky lake with a grassy windswept shoreline. There was a highway in the distance and a small gravel trail. The dark water reflected a dark sky full of grey clouds. The weather was still and dry.
Suddenly, a young girl ran by the lake, severely out of breath and very scared looking. She looked gaunt and lean, as if she hadn't eaten well in weeks. She looked around 13 years old, the age when demigods get claimed. She had long messy brown hair and bright green eyes. It was too dark to make her out clearly, but her complexion was slightly tan in places. She was tired, and covered in small cuts and bruises. She was hunched over panting, and frantically looking around.
She seemed to be in the clear and she breathed a sigh of relief, when suddenly she perked up and looked transfixed in a specific direction. Percy heard nothing and there didn’t appear to be anything there but she stared, unblinking and terrified, at that one spot in the grass. She backed away slowly and picked up a stick behind her, and she brandished it infront of her.
Out of the spot she was looking, a hideous creature lept out, emitting a loud screeching sound. It was vaguely humanoid, yet deathly skinny and pale, with every bone visible through the skin. It crawled around on all fours, and instead of hands and feet at the end of its limbs, its flesh narrowed off into points. The beast had paper thin skin stretched over its entire body, covering every orifice. The only imperfection in the layer of skin was on its supposed face, where one massive eye was transfixed on the poor girl.
The creature slashed forwards at her with its front claws, yet the girl was fast and she skillfully blocked the attacks with the stick. The creature was not out of tricks, as in one sickening motion its back limbs curled up over its face, and it brought down its hind spikes on the girl like a scorpion. She cried out, bleeding from the two gashes, one in her thigh and one in her stomach. The blood was light red, brighter than regular mortal blood.
This girl was a half-blood fighting a monster, and she was losing, Percy realised sickeningly.
She stumbled back, crying in pain, yet still not giving up. Yet the monster had cornered her against the lake, and she had nowhere to go. The monster attacked again, yet instead of blocking, she lunged backwards into the water with a large splash. A few drops hit the monster and it recoiled and screamed. The girl sank into the murky water and stopped moving.
After a few moments, the girl resurfaced dramatically. She appeared to be back to full strength. She thrust her arms toward the monster, and two jets of lake water flew at it with the speed and force of a freight train. The monster screeched so loudly that Percy’s ears rang, and when the jets of water stopped, there was nothing left of the creature.
Hesitantly, drenched in water that was quickly drying, the girl walked out of the lake. The wounds on her stomach and leg had closed up, leaving only holes in her clothing. Her strength seemed to have returned and all the small cuts and bruises had vanished. She ran toward the highway, past cars and past a sign that read: “Long Island 5 miles”
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After a few hours, Percy woke up and sat bolt upright. The air sense of dread had disappeared from the air and was replaced with a sense of purpose. Percy remembered his dream vividly. He remembered that there was a demigod girl, a daughter of Poseidon, running in the direction of camp. He leapt up and ran to breakfast, determined to find her.
Percy sat down and shovelled food into his mouth. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he had seen. Apparently, he had a half sister, who was scared and in danger, yet she was close to camp. Percy had to get her as soon as possible. A powerful demigod like her would attract many monsters and she could get attacked at any moment.
Annabeth noticed Percy eating ravenously and she went to talk to him. Worried about his shift from seeming discomfort to steely determination.
“Hey, Percy. I’ve been meaning to check up on you. Are you… feeling all right?”
“Had a… dream… rogue demigod… Poseidon… gotta… find her.” Percy said between mouthfuls of food. He chugged some milk and swallowed. “Annabeth, can you come with me to find her?” He asked.
“Okay, start from the beginning. Who is this rogue child of Poseidon?” She said, intrigued.
So Percy explained his dream to Annabeth, sparring no detail about the events of the dream and the creepy new monster.
When he was done, she pondered his story for a moment. “Well, we’d better go and find her. She should have been found and brought to camp by a satyr by now though.”
“Well, she was being chased by that thing.”
“True. I have no idea what that thing is, and between us, we’ve killed just about every creature there is in Greek mythology.”
“Yeah, but what if this isn’t a creature from Greek mythology?”
Annabeth shook her head, clearly stumped. She wasn’t used to not knowing things. “Well, you’d better tell Chiron about your dream and where you’re going.”
“Right, you pack some supplies and get two pegasi ready, I think we should use them.”
“Good plan.”
Percy got up from the table and went up to Chiron, who was lounging in his chair and eating breakfast while reading a magazine. Percy went up to him and started speaking.
“Chiron, sir. Last night I had this dream about a demigod in trouble.”
Chiron looked up at Percy and nodded. “Go on.” He said.
Percy told the entire story of his dream, then he explained what he intended to do in order to find the girl. Percy didn’t specify what monster was chasing her. Once he was finished, Chiron nodded in understanding. “I suggest that you take a satyr with you, so that they can better find this rogue demigod.”
“Good idea. I’ll be on my way now.”
“Godspeed to you, Perseus.”
Percy dashed over to the stables, where he found Annabeth, saddling up two pegasi.
“I assumed that you would wanna ride Blackjack.” Annabeth said, smiling.
“Thanks, I do. But we should take Grover as well, as he is good at spotting rogue demigods. And monsters. He’s over in the strawberry fields, could you go tell him to come with us?”
“Ah, me, you and grover. Just like old times.” Annabeth grinned. “Sure, I’ll go get him.”
As she ran off, Percy stood by blackjack. “Hey buddy. Are you up for an adventure? We’ve got to find a rogue demigod.”
You know me, I’m up for anything. Got a sugar cube?
Percy chuckled and ruffled Blackjack’s mane. He reached into the saddle pouch and fed the pegasus a treat. Blackjack whinnied appreciatively as he crunched the sugar cube.
A few moments later, Annabeth came back with Grover. Grover looked at Percy nervously.
“Been a while since I brought in a demigod. It’s also the three of us, very nostalgic.”
Percy nodded and smiled in agreement. Chuckling, he said: “Well everyone, saddle up.”
Percy climbed onto Blackjack while Grover and Annabeth climbed onto the other pegasus, and they flew off into the countryside.
They flew just over the ground, scanning it carefully. Percy described what he saw in his dream. They were good at scouting out the area, as when Annabeth was young she used to run across this very same area herself.
“There! That’s the one! I see it!” Percy called to them, pointing down at a highway.
The party landed, and Grover sniffed the air. “Smells like a powerful demigod came through here recently.”
“Right! She was running that way.” Percy said as he pointed down the highway. “How would she know to run in the direction of the camp?”
“Sometimes the gods help their offspring to reach camp, giving protection and guidance.” Annabeth said, glad to distribute knowledge to Percy again.
“Well, let's get going.” Percy said. He saddled up onto his horse and flew in the direction of the highway, as the rest of the party followed suit.
“I can smell her scent more strongly now!” Grover called. The two pegasi flew faster.
Sure enough, around half a mile later, they came across a large red oak tree. It casted a wide area of shade on the surrounding area and beneath was a young girl laying down, asleep, on a few flattened cardboard boxes. As soon as they landed she perked up and turned to face them.
The girl could not see them through the tree. She must have heard them approaching. Annabeth dismounted her pegasus and strode over to her
“Make sure not to startle her, she seems very skittish from what I’ve seen.” Percy said.
The girl got up and approached Annabeth, while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She seemed cautious, good for a demigod. She also looked as if she had just woken up. She looked at Annabeth hesitantly.
“It’s okay, there aren’t any monsters here now.” Annabeth said soothingly. Percy remembered that this was also the first thing that Luke told her when they first met.
“Monsters? You- You see them too?” The girl asked. Percy felt a sense of sadness after he heard her voice, and how fearful she sounded. That this sweet, innocent girl was forced into a life of constant battle and misery simply due to her ancestry.
“Yes. We see monsters. We fight them all the time.” Annabeth said calmly. “I’m Annabeth, and I’m a halfblood.”
The girl's eyes widened. “Half Bloods? What’s that? Why can nobody else see these creatures? Why is this all happening now?” She seemed close to tears. Percy remembered how difficult it was for him to come to terms with the world he lived in. He climbed down from his pegasus and went over to the tent.
“Listen, I know that this is difficult to understand, but I’ll do my best. Do you know any of the Greek myths?”
The girl calmed down slightly and she took a few deep breaths. “Yes, I- I was such a huge mythology nerd. I felt…. Connected somehow to those stories.”
“Right, well- that’s great.” Percy said, relieved. This all might be easier to explain than he thought.
“So, you know how in many stories the gods will go around falling in love with mortals?” He continued.
“And having children with them? Who would then have semi godly powers?”
“Exactly! So, that's what you are. A god’s child. Poseidon, to be exact. As for why you can see all these monsters where regular mortals can’t? The “mist”, a veil that distorts reality, is weaker for demigods.”
“And monsters seek us out and try to kill us?” The girl asked. She looked less scared, as if this was all starting to make sense to her.
“Yeah. We want to take you to the only safe place in the world for demigods: camp half blood. We’ll train you well and you’ll be able to fend off these monsters all on your own.” Percy said proudly.
The girl still looked hesitant. But she must have realised that she wouldn’t survive much longer running. She was still understandably shocked by everything.
“Okay. I… don’t have anything to pack, so let's go.”
They began walking around the tree, toward Grover and the Pegasi. Annabeth smiled at Percy relieved.
“How did you know exactly what to say to her?” She asked, genuinely impressed. She never thought Percy to be a good talker.
“I remember being like her. Scared, alone and confused.” Annabeth looked troubled, as if she didn’t want to see a reflection of herself from before she came to camp, so scared and innocent, expecting death to come tomorrow or the next day, always thinking about monsters.
When she turned to them and saw the pegasi, her jaw dropped. She had come to terms with the fact that she lived in a world with such awful mythological monsters, but she didn’t realise that meant there would also be such magnificent creatures, like Pegasi.
“A-Are we getting to camp on pegasi?! They’re beautiful…” Blackjack reared and whinnied gracefully. The girl suddenly looked shocked.
She turned to Percy. “D-did you just hear that? It… talked?” Percy laughed and patted the Pegasus behind him, indicating her to hop on. “Poseidon trait, we can talk to horses”
“We?”
Percy blushed slightly, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m Percy, and I’m a child of Poseidon. We can breathe underwater, water heals us, and we can manipulate it. Also, we can talk to horses.”
“Wow! That’s so cool! What about your friend Annabeth?” She asked excitedly.
“Oh, Annabeth is a daughter of Athena, the wisdom goddess. That means she’s an annoying know-it-all.” Percy said teasingly. Annabeth made a choked sound, not expecting the teasing, then she laughed along with Percy.
“And the guy behind her?”
“That’s Grover. He’s a satyr, a nature spirit.”
“Oh” she turned to Grover “Nice pants Grover!”
“Hey! These are my actual legs!”
She raised an eyebrow. “What? No way. Those look like mule legs.”
Grover made an insulted bleating noise in the back of his throat. “Another satyr would trample you underhoof for such an insult! Satyrs are goats from the waist down!”
The girl climbed onto the pegasus behind Percy, looking down embarrassed.
“Oh, by the way I didn’t catch your name.” Percy said over his shoulder.
“Oh. I’m Nora. Nora Layton.”
“Glad to meet you, always happy to help a demigod in need.”
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Nora
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Nora flew over the countryside, trying to understand this crazy world that she lived in. But after Percy’s explanation, things started making sense. She never knew her father, whenever she brought it up, her mother would get angry, and say that he was a scoundrel. He was the nicest guy she ever met, rich, caring and especially handsome. Yet one day he just disappeared, left her on her own, pregnant, broke, and heartbroken.
Nora’s mother struggled to make it on her own, but eventually she did get a job. Through seriously hard work and perseverance, Nora!s mother was able to support herself and a child. A feat typically impossible in today’s economy, yet maybe Nora’s father was still pulling some strings, despite leaving.
Things were good for a few years. Nora did surprisingly well in school, for a demigod. She may not have made the highest grades, due to dyslexia and ADHD, but she did manage to avoid being kicked out. Her mother was doing well career-wise. She had more than enough to make ends meet, yet she always saved up money, as though she had a fear of spending any of it, or she just couldn't decide what to spend it on.
Of course, nothing good lasts for demigods unless it is hard earned.
One day, on her thirteenth birthday, something changed. On her way to school there was a sudden abundance of large black dogs at the city square. This wouldn’t be that unsettling on its own, but as she passed, they all turned and barked at her and growled. The dogs made her uneasy, but she should be safe still, right?
On the way home, she passed by the dogs again. They were louder, and angrier, and one attacked her. It lunged at her and pushed her into a fountain. The others followed suit, biting, clawing, pushing her into the water. Yet for some reason they couldn’t hurt her. Nora felt the fear and panic associated with drowning after being submerged for so long. And just when she was sure she was going to drown, the foundation exploded. And Nora ran home as fast as she could, but the dogs didn’t chase her.
As she ran, she saw such strange things. She saw a silhouette of a person in an alleyway who appeared to be headless and shirtless. She saw one construction worker who seemed to have six arms. She saw a woman with one eye biting down on a small cooked poodle, not even skinned or anything.
When she got home, she closed the door and cried behind it. So disturbed about what she saw and what had happened, when the thing appeared. It was the same monster who attacked her in Percy’s dream. It was inside her house. It slowly crawled towards her, when Nora ran into the other room, screaming for her mother. But her mother was still at work. Nora ran through the house, jumping over furniture and swinging around doorways. The monster was sprinting after her, leaping over objects with surprising agility. Nora didn’t want to see the house destroyed, who she ran out into the street, still in hot pursuit.
She was running away and she hoped that someone would notice the ungodly demon behind her, but nobody did. They just stood there confused. Nora realised this, and she ran through as many streets as possible, hoping that someone would hit the beast with their car, and eventually, someone did.
The creature screeched out in pain as the car hit it, and it rolled off to the side. It didn’t look dead, but it was laying in the middle of the road. Just as it started to get up, a bus drove past, going over it like a speed bump. Nora sighed in relief, believing that it had died, yet when the bus passed it was still there, twitching slightly. Nora’s eyes widened, and she ran into a dumpster and hid. She held her breath as she heard the creature drawing near, and she hoped it wouldn’t hear her heartbeat.
It didn’t. She breathed another sigh of relief and immediately broke down into tears. She cried tears of fear and panic, not understanding what was going on. Eventually she calmed down, she climbed out and thought about going home. Then a powerful urge came over her, to leave and run in a specific direction, over to who knows where. She couldn’t explain this urge, yet she felt it strongly, in every part of her body. Every step she took in that direction just felt so right, that she had to keep going.
And that's how she lived for the next few days. She tried to avoid monsters, but they always caught up eventually. She hardly slept at all, yet she was always pushed to keep going in that one direction.
After a while of graceful flying, Nora saw a beautiful valley below her. There was a massive lake, glowing like a massive emerald under the sun, an expansive forest that stretched out beyond the hills and deep into the countryside. Most magnificently of all, were the two hills which encompassed the valley. Attop one hill was a Greek statue of Athena, made of ivory with glowing golden highlights. The valley had a strawberry field with a massive blue building in the centre, and next to the field there was a row of cabins, at least a dozen, all different. To the left of all the cabins was a straight road full of even more cabins, smaller and more numerous.
They touched down by the stables, and they dismounted the pegasi. The pegasi whinied and Percy got them both sugar cubes while chuckling and patting their necks. Nora glanced around, trying to take everything in. She could barely comprehend this world which she apparently lived in. She was nervous towards seeing the place she would be for the rest of her life. Annabeth noticed her looking around nervously, and she went up to her and said:
“Don’t worry, I know this all seems very sudden and scary, but you’ll be fine. I’ll have my friend give you a tour, she’s much better at talking than I am. Come with me and I’ll go get her.”
Nora didn’t respond. She followed along and passed many more points of interest not seen from the sky. She saw an archery range with lots of hot blonde kids shooting arrows at all kinds of targets. Some were shaped like various monsters with multiple bullseyes painted on them, some moved around erratically. She also passed a large collection of small open shacks. They all housed forges and anvils and various other metalworking machines. All the shacks were built to keep their contents dry. Many short, stocky kids worked inside these shacks.
Nora was trying to take in everything at once, there were so many interesting things that she simply couldn’t look at all of them at once. Eventually, they reached the cabins. They were the strangest collection of buildings Nora had ever seen. They were all different. One was built like a factory, one was made almost entirely out of plants One was built like a prison, bright red with high walls and barbed wire, directly adjacent to one that shone like the sun itself.
Nora remembered the Greek stories she was told during her childhood. She identified the cabins to their corresponding gods, due to the nature of their architecture. Through a window in the assumed Hephaestus cabin, Nora saw more kids carpenting, fixing small contraptions, and generally crafting. One kid was just outside the cabin sitting on a bench, talking and laughing with some pale girl. The girl was the only one Nora actually saw wearing an ancient-Greek style toga.
Annabeth led her up to a hot pink cabin which emitted an awful smell. It smelled like the back section of an airport perfume store. Nora didn’t expect to be hit with the smell and she gagged and coughed. Annabeth looked over at her and grimaced.
“This is the cabin for Aphrodite, the love goddess. As you can imagine, the inhabitants are quite…self centred.”
Annabeth knocked on the door and after a moment it opened. Nora backed away from the cabin to avoid inhaling the fumes, so she couldn't see who it was, but she could catch the main parts of the conversation.
“We have a new demigod, from Poseidon. She’s nervous. Could you show her around?”
“Poseidon? That's rare. But I’d be happy to.”
“Great. Thanks Pipes.”
Annabeth turned away, and through the door stepped an extremely beautiful girl. She clearly wasn’t trying to draw too much attention, due to her casual clothes and lack of makeup, but it didn’t really work. She just naturally shone glamorously. Nora looked down and shook her head to snap out of it. It was just the cabin's magic. When she looked back up she saw that Annabeth had left and the girl approached her.
“Hey there, I’m Piper.” She had her hand outstretched. Nora took it and shook hands.
“I’m Nora. Annabeth said that you would show me around.”
Nora didn’t want to say what she said next, but due to the ADHD nature of demigods, they sometimes blurt stuff out uncontrollably.
“What’s with the toxic smell?” She really didn’t want to be rude, especially on her first day at camp, but it had become the only thing on her mind the longer she stood there. She was ready for Piper to react negatively, but to her pleasant surprise, she laughed and said:
“Haha, I thought that too on my first day. I was so embarrassed to be claimed by Aphrodite at first, but after all the quests… it became the least of my concerns rather quickly.”
Nora wasn’t sure what to say. Piper was really nice and agreeable. After a bit of thought, she came to say.
“Can you show me around camp, and what are all the different demigods like?”
Piper smiled. “Sure. Let's go.”
Nora smiled and tagged along behind as Piper led her along the camp. As they walked they talked about the quests Piper had been on, camp history, and what all the different demigods were like. They passed the dining pavilion, the chariot racetrack, the climbing wall and Thalia’s tree.
When they got to the tree, Piper said: “That’s Thalia’s tree. Hanging from it is the original golden fleece.” She said proudly.
“Wow! But who’s Thalia?”
“Thalia is a daughter of Zeus. She got turned into a tree by him to protect the camp. When we placed the fleece on the tree, she was cured. Then she joined the hunters and is now immortal.”
Nora frowned and looked at Piper. “It feels like you’re making this all up. How is she immortal?”
Piper chuckled. “All girls who join the hunters of Artemis are granted immortality, unless they fall in battle. They come by camp every so often.”
“Cool! How would I join?”
“If you want to join then you’d have to swear of any form of non-platonic love at all, forever.”
“What the hell? That sounds awful. What kind of life would that be?”
“As a daughter of Aphrodite, I truly agree. I wouldn’t want to give up my boyfriend, even for immortality.”
“Aww, who is he?”
“He’s also a son of Zeus, but you won’t see him here, he’s visiting the other camp, for roman demigods.”
“Okay, you’re definitely making stuff up now.”
Piper laughed and showed her around the rest of camp. Piper was telling her about her family when they reached the big house at the centre of the strawberry fields. Nora had just told her about how she was forced to run away from home and that she hadn’t been able to tell her mother where she went. Nora noticed how good Piper was at talking to people.
Back, done. Added 1 line. Don’t know if that’s good ot more insulting to myself than nothing at all.
“Piper, I need to tell my mother where I am. I can’t handle thinking about her worrying. Could you help me? I can tell you’re good at calming people down.”
Piper smirked. “Well, I do have a special Aphrodite power, charmspeak, it basically means that I can force anyone to believe anything I tell them, they fully trust my words. You’re not above me using it on your mother, right?”
Nora thought for a moment. She realised that there was a real difference between them and the mortals, and that she would always be on another plane of being than them. She didn’t want the feeling of superiority to overcome her, but this was a special occasion.
“Yes Piper, could you convince her I’m safe?”
Piper sighed. “Okay, but we can’t use regular mortal communication methods. We’ll have to iris-message her.”
Nora just stood there as if she mishead. “…what?”
Piper laughed and showed her new friend. She tossed a coin into a nearby fountain, and the image of Nora’s mother appeared before them.
“Wouldn’t suddenly appearing like this scare her?”
“Nah, through the mist, this probably looks like a video call or something.”
Piper explained the situation to Nora’s mom, while Nora added random bits of information, like how she was okay, and enjoying camp. They didn’t tell her the truth, only a believable lie; summer camp. Nora’s mother was very angry at first, but after Piper calmed her expertly, putting magic and power behind her words and soon the call ended on very good terms between everyone.
Nora sighed in relief. “Thank you Piper, you’re the best.”
Piper laughed, a warm, happy sound that would light up the darkest shadows. So it felt to Nora, making such a pretty girl laugh. “Aww, I’m not sure about that. Why don’t you get moved into your cabin? Cabin 3, the blue one.”
Nora smiled in thanks and ran off to her new home. She claimed one of the many empty bunks, and she sat on it. Her mind swam with thoughts of her new friends, her new brother, and this entire world she was a part of. She sighed and laid down in bed, satisfied.
After a few minutes, Percy came round. He was talking to Annabeth. Nora couldn’t tell exactly what they were saying, but as soon as the cabin door opened and they saw her, all conversation died.
Nora talked first in the awkward silence. “Uh… sorry to interrupt you two.”
“Ah, no… it’s okay. Usually the cabin is empty, we just… weren’t expecting to see you.” Annabeth said, blushing hard.
Nora raised an eyebrow. She didn't believe it for a moment. But she decided to be courteous, and she said, “You know, I was just heading out to the arena. To check it out and pick out a weapon.”
She headed out the door, and Percy shot her a grateful look as she left, which she snickered at.
She wasn't dumb. She knew what they really were doing.
The next few days went by well. After a while the shock of the immortal world wore off, and Nora saw herself falling into a sort of routine. She could reasonably predict what the next day would entail, despite it being radically different from mortal life. She became closer to her campmates, and saw herself making friends.
Percy had told her that there was no peace in this place, and that something always had to go wrong eventually. That’s why they had consistent quests. But the days remained calm, and the summers stayed peaceful.
Nora grew to love every part of camp, and she felt strong connections to her friends, even those in opposing cabins. As at the end of the day, they were all family. The summer drew to a close, and demigods began to leave camp. They were all assigned a new clay bead for the camp necklace, Nora’s first one.
She didn’t look forward to saying goodbye to her friends, but she knew that she would see them again next summer. Unless something awful happened, which could always be the case in the immortal world. She pushed those thoughts and fears to the back of her head as she parted with her friends.
“Goodbye, sis. Annabeth and I are heading over to college in New rome!” Percy said to her excitedly, as he held Annabeth in his arms.
“Imagine a full year without quests or monsters. Never thought we’d see the day.” Annabeth said to him. In all their years together, they sadly hadn’t had a single one in peace without saving the world. But such was demigod life.
Nora’s best friend, Piper, was talking to the scrawny Hephaestus kid. Nora couldn’t hear the conversation, but they hugged and parted. Piper walked over to Nora.
“So, it's your first summer here… how was it?” She asked.
“It was incredible, it’s gonna be hard to adjust to regular mortal life again.” She replied.
“Haha, I can relate. Are you going to fool around with your demigod powers in school? I sure have, but I learned how to be careful.”
“Well… how would waterbending help me in life? It’s not as generally helpful as charmspeak, or Athena powers.”
“You know, Percy was always a troublemaker back in school, and I bet that you could ask him for tips on how to break rules and take advantage of life with those abilities.” Piper said, grinning.
Nora chuckled, as she remembered stories Percy had told her about his school life. She was definitely going to find a way to abuse her powers somehow.
She packed up anything she wanted to bring home, and she set off. Her destiny was still only starting.