Jesse Tylers, Daughter of the Sea

“Zeus, Poseidon, and whoever else is listening, why does my life suck?!” the girl screamed to the sky. The rain was coming down in torrents and she was standing on the pier behind her house. She had waist long black hair, and sea green eyes. She was beautiful, except for a pair of ugly glasses on her nose, and she was about 5’ 11” tall.

            “Your life doesn’t suck, young one,” came a gentle voice over the noise of the rain. It was a man’s voice, and it sounded like the flow of the ocean. The girl turned around so fast it might have given her whiplash.

            “Wh… Who are you?” She cringed towards the sea, which was lapping at the edge of the pier, the water level raised from constant downpour. She loved the water, the strength, calm, and clear-headedness it gave her. She used her mask to look scared, but inside, she was running over everything she could do to get rid of the stranger.

The strange man seemed at ease near the water as well. He was dressed like a Greek warrior. He had bronze armor, gauntlets adorning his arms, scaled breast and shoulder plates, and a chain mail kilt-thing. On his right upper arm was a tattoo of a Grecian trident.

“I am your true Father,” said Poseidon, for that’s who he was.“You called for me, my Jesse. I see your mother has hidden you well. I would have never…” her father trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief. “You are all wrong. Your mother changed you, my child!” The cloud above had been getting darker and angrier as he talked, and they now clashed together with an earth shaking explosion. Poseidon turned his face upward, growling, “What, brother? You broke the oath before either of us!”

Jesse stood there the whole time, watching her father confusedly. “How am I wrong? Am I supposed to be some perfect kid without any care in the world? Cuz if so, I may look perfect, but mom’s husband is a real world-class bastard of a jackass. And that’s being tame. If you’re really my father, where have you been while Seamus has being torturing and abusing me?” She rapidly became indignant, showing Poseidon’s temper in herself. A wave of seawater rose behind her, a menacing wall of grey sea-foam protecting her.

Poseidon regarded Jesse and her sea wall with an air of pride before comprehending her words. He answered, “I couldn’t protect you because you hadn’t said my name out loud yet. And we’re not usually allowed to directly interfere with our children’s lives. And you look wrong. Your mother or aunt probably cast an enchantment on you that hid your true self. It changed your gender. You were born a boy, Jesse.  It was also supposed to hide half blood characteristics and signs of your true parentage.” He paused before focusing  on the almost nonexistent horizon. “Surely you have learned Greek history.”

“Nope,” Jesse popped her P. “Haven’t even read Homer’s The Odyssey in school yet.”

“Well, let me explain what I can. You were born at midnight on April 25th, 1995. You were born a boy with a swath of black hair and sea green eyes. They held such knowledge, we thought you were older than you actually are.” His voice held the tone of one reminiscing. “Your mother wanted you to have Erin, your middle name, from her Scottish heritage. I chose Jesse. It was a perfect name for such a handsome baby boy. I had thought that if you were a girl, I’d have to keep the boys away with baseball bats, horrible waves, and floods. I see I was right.” He paused as though afraid of something before continuing.

“When you and Jonathan were riding those horses on the beach in California, I was the one who made the horse throw him off, and I made the tide pull him out to sea to scare him.” Jesse snorted, holding back gales of laughter as Poseidon glanced up hesitantly, slight fear and guilt turning to confusion in his eyes. “Aren’t you angry at all?”

At that, Jesse let loose her laughter, falling over with wide, belly-shaking screams of joy. When she finished, she stood up, wiping tears from her eyes before answering. “John was a jerk. His brother Jay, or you may know him as James, was nicer. The other twin. How ironic,” she snorted.

Poseidon smiled wistfully at her. “Well, there’s a camp for half-bloods in New York. If you want, you can go to the camp. And I can get Hecate to reverse the enchantment on you, if you wish.”