Red Skies at Morning | Clarisse La Rue x OC | Percy Jackson AU

The Birds, by Alfred Hitchcock

The next two days went about as well as they could under Tantalus's rule. As promised, we had fewer scheduled activities and more free time so that those participating in the race could work on their chariots. I'd wanted to make one with Clarisse but she insisted that she was racing for the honor of the Ares Cabin, which apparently meant that only her half-siblings could help her build the chariot and only one of them would be able to race with her. 

I did feel a little hurt and the fear that she might have believed I was the one to poison the tree, but I tried to keep my thoughts from straying in that direction. I know the Ares kids have to bring honor to Ares in general since their dad was an egotistical psychopath, but they also have a lot of pride in their cabin itself. It was pretty well-known around camp that Ares kids had some of the strongest bonds with each other out of any of the other cabins. The familial relationship between the children of Ares was tightly knit and no one could get between them. 

I understood. I just wasn't an Ares kid. I wasn't part of their family.

'Am I part of any family?' I realized. 'I left Dad and my step-family that night. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back. Not now at least, it's too late. I can't call myself part of what they have anymore. The Hermes kids tolerate unclaimed campers, and maybe they can be friends with a few of us, but they've never considered us as family. Not the same way they think of each other as siblings. I don't know even know who my half-siblings are, either.'

Luke had been the closest thing I'd had to family since I'd left home three years ago, but he was gone now. Calling Camp Half-Blood itself home provided what little stability was left in my life, but now I wasn't even sure if that was true anymore after Tantalus had thrown the word traitor in the air. 

Kids had undeniably been suspicious of me for a while before that. Even before Percy and I had explained what happened in the forest when Luke left. I could understand, they knew that I hadn't done much more than plead with Luke when he tried to kill Percy. 

Not to mention everyone knew how I used to follow him around like a duckling. Everyone was probably more surprised that I didn't just disappear into the night to follow him. Hell, I still wonder how I didn't. But all that, plus being one of the first people to find the problem with the camp border was just too much evidence stacked against me.

So yeah, no surprise people had lost trust in me after everything that had happened. But things had changed now that it had been said out loud. The way many campers felt about me now was beyond being uncertain of my loyalties, they thought I was a danger to them and the camp. Or, at the very least, untrustworthy. 

Acquaintances now held a notable distance. Even when they would speak to me, they were on guard, careful about their words. Other campers would just not get near me at all if they could help it.

The change in how I was treated was more than just how people acted around me. The main example being the time I'd come back to my sleeping bag one night to find the word 'TRAITOR' painted across it in black. None of my cabinmates acknowledged it or made eye contact with me when I saw it. I wasn't sure if that was because one of them had done it or if they just didn't want to get involved. 

Despite most campers' feelings, Michel had still been treating my hands. I'd shown up daily as he'd requested and it turns out he hadn't been kidding about the wonders the magic salve could work. After my third visit to the infirmary, my feet were completely healed and my hands were deemed good enough to do sword training again, though they did feel a bit unsteady.

Michel said the stiffness in the muscles would go away with time but the nerve endings in m fingers had permanent damage. Luckily it was minor, only feeling a bit numb and occasionally twitching, but it was bearable. All that mattered to me was that I could still use my hands mostly the same as I used to and could grip things just fine.