UNFORGIVEN¹ PERCY JACKSON

005

Evelyn and Grover knocked out as soon as their heads hit the pillow. The same couldn't be said for Percy and Annabeth

"Hey, you asleep?" Percy questioned. 

"Yes," Annabeth replied sarcastically.

"What was Medusa talking about with Eve? That whole kindness with monsters thing?" He asked Annabeth.

"Eve, she... she isn't like you or me. Eve sees everyone differently and she isn't the type to believe stories or rumors about someone until she meets them herself. That's just who she is." Annabeth responded, "One time, when she was 11, she had to go on this quest all by herself and she had to meet with this sea-dragon who didn't like demigods or the gods." 

"Wait, but I thought Chiron didn't let anyone go on quests until now." Percy asked.

Annabeth sighed, "Well this wasn't an actual quest, more like an adventure. Besides, it was a request from her mother, Aphrodite herself so Chiron couldn't just say no." She continued on explaining, "We were all worried she wouldn't come back alive but you know what she did? Eve came back to camp, with a scale of the dragon as a gift. She had managed to make amends between her mother and it."

Percy was amazed and looked at the girl who was sleeping soundly with her back towards him, how could Eve do something like that? "Wow, that's..." 

"That's Eve for you, she has so much love in her to give to everyone. It's what I admire most about her." Annabeth filled in what Percy trailed off on.

There was silence for a few moments before Percy spoke up again. "So, you and Thalia were really close, right?" He asked Annabeth. 

"Yeah," She responded

"What was she like?" He asked her. 

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"

"She was the last forbidden kid before me, right?" He said. "She must've dealt with the same kind of stuff"

"She was tough," Annabeth stated. "I mean, she knew she was a forbidden kid, she just didn't care. When Luke and Thalia found me, Luke cared for me right away. But Thalia, she made me earn it."

"Is that why I gotta earn with you too!" Percy questioned. 

Annabeth sighed. "Yeah. Maybe." She told him.

"I gotta say, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me," Percy stated. 

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows again. "What doesn't make sense to you?"

"The way you guys all talk." The blonde explained. "The way the gods want us to think. Gotta burn an offering to get a parent's attention. Gotta beat up on Clarissa just to get my father to admit he's my father. It isn't supposed to work that way. People who are close to you aren't supposed to treat you that way"

A sigh left her lips. "You wanna know how I ended up alone on the road in the first place?" She asked. "I started out as a gift to my father. That's how it works with Athena. We're born from a thought in her mind and then given to a partner she feels connected to. And for a while, I was treated like a gift. My father cared for me. He loved me. I knew it. Then. he met a woman. They had their own kids. And to her, I-I wasn't a gift, I was a problem. So I left. I was seven. It isn't the gods who think that way, it's everybody. But at least with the gods you know the rules. Show them respect and they'll be in your corner, no matter what."

"So what about Eve's mortal parent? What was it like for Eve?" Percy asked,

Annabeth sighed, "I won't tell you everything because that's something Eve should tell you...but Eve didn't know who any of her parents were at first, she was raised in an orphanage, completely alone. When she was 8, we found her in the forest with a broken arm and she was surrounded by doves and sparrows. Just like with me, her mother guided her to us. It took awhile for Eve to come out of her shell because the things she faced in that orphanage..." Annabeth shook her head, reminding herself that Eve wouldn't want her to talk about it. "Anyways, Eve and I clicked and here we are."