Stones (Lukercy)

Five

Luke wasn't expecting that after almost three days of waiting for something to pop out of the water, claiming to have left the note on the rock, to be a person. And yet, here he was, face to face with a person.

He had messy dark hair that seemed to be perfectly dry. The boy also had vibrant sea green eyes. Luke looked through the water to see a tail that matched the boy's eyes. Then it clicked. The boy was a merman.

"Hello," Luke mused, unsure how the boy would react. There didn't seem to be any reaction, instead he stayed where he was. Luke took a step forward so he was now standing on the edge of the dock. "My name is Luke, the son of Hermes. And you are?"

"I'm--" the merman began, only to be cut off by an angry looking pufferfish. Luke noticed it to be the one he had seen a few days ago. They seemed to be arguing about something, but Luke couldn't understand them. Luke frowned when the merman cast him one last look him before sinking under the water.

Luke sighed, secretly wishing the boy would appear again. This could be the perfect distraction away from his choice. If only he could breath underwater. He picked up a near by stone, and threw it in the water. It only skipped twice, but Luke didn't try. He only wanted to hope he'd return later and there would be a message.

"Hey, Luke," he heard behind him before he could get too lost in thought. He turned around to see Annabeth standing there. "I just came to see if you wanted to get some extra training in. If not, that's fine. I can always go ask Clarisse. She's always looking to show off her electric spear to new comers."

"I'll meet you there in a few minutes," Luke said. Annabeth nodded and walked off. Luke noticed that the water began moving toward him, and in a few seconds it stopped. In front of his feet, there was a stone. The same one he had just tossed a few minutes ago. He picked it up to see if anything was wrote on it.

Percy.

Luke assumed that this was the merman's name and smiled gently to himself. Maybe he would see Percy again. If not, though, he could say he knew a merman. Even if he couldn't prove it. He shoved the stone in his pocket and walked off to where Annabeth was waiting for him.

Percy watched from below as Luke read the stone. He sighed contently, smiling to himself, knowing that he had finally met someone like him. Not only human, but a child of a God. Poseidon had never mentioned other demigods other than those from the stories wrote by blessed mortals and older demigods who had been some of the first of their kind.

If there had been a child of Hermes, Percy could only imagine there were other demigods too. If only he were a normal human who could live above water with people like him. Instead, he was in a constant state of being babysat by fish.

Right now, Joe had him on a close watch. There were fish swimming outside his cave, all of whom were intensely watching his every move, making sure he didn't try to escape.

Percy wasn't sure why, but ever since Luke began skipping stones, Joe had changed. He had become more protective. Percy needed to know why, but he was basically on house arrest at the moment, so that would have to wait.