Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)

CHAPTER 10 (Part-1)

(Percy's POV)

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Nora at the lake, resting from a near- death experience on the climbing wall. She had scaled it in ten seconds flat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had holes in it. The hair had been singed off my forearms.

We were laughing about the sword fighting incident that happened the previous day, until I got up the nerve to ask Nora how Grover's conversation had gone with Mr. D.

"Just great." She said sarcastically.

"So his career’s still on track?"

"Chiron told you about a searcher’s license?"

"Well…no." I didn't know what a searcher’s license was, but it didn’t seem like the time to ask. "He just said he had big plans...& that he needs credit for completing a keeper’s assignment. So did he get it?"

Nora looked at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said he didn't fail or succeed with you yet, so your fates are still tied together. If you got a quest & he went along to protect you, & you both came back alive, then he’d consider the job done."

My spirits lifted. "Well, that’s not so bad, right?"

"Grover said & I quote 'He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty'." We laughed at that.

We talked about canoeing & swordplay for a while, then debated the pros & cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked her about the four empty cabins.

"Number eight, belongs to Artemis," she said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So, no kids. The cabin is, kind of, honorary. If she didn’t have one, she’d be mad."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

Nora tensed. We were close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera’s," she said. "That’s another honorary thing. She’s the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn’t go around having affairs with mortals. That’s her husband’s job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

"Right. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad & drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. “Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"But Hades doesn’t have a cabin here."

"No. He doesn’t have a throne on Olympus, either. If he did have a cabin here…" Nora shuddered. "Well, it won’t be pleasant. Let’s leave it at that."

"But Zeus & Poseidon-had like, a million kids in the myths. Why is Poseidon's cabin empty? & why do you stay alone in the Zeus cabin?"

"Sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn’t sire more heroes. Their children were too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events, causing carnage. World War II, you know, was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus & Poseidon, & the sons of Hades. The winning side, Zeus & Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

I said, "That’s the most serious oath you can make." Nora nodded. "And the brothers kept their word-no kids?"

Her face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo-he couldn’t help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia...well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus got off easy because he’s immortal, but he caused a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that's not fair. It wasn’t her fault."

Nora hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three are more powerful than other half-bloods. They have a strong scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out, he wasn’t happy about Zeus breaking his oath. He let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to kill Thalia. A satyr was her keeper when she was twelve. He had to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she befriended. They almost made it to the top of that hill."

She pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I’d fought the minotaur.

"All three Kindly Ones were after them & a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half- bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. The satyr didn’t want to leave her, but he couldn’t change her mind, & he had to protect the others. Thalia made her final stand alone, on that hill. As she died, Zeus turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the valley's borders. That’s why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill." Nora had tears in her eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Thalia was...my older sister. I'd come to camp a month later only to find out that she's dead."

"I'm sorry...but how come Hades hasn't noticed you yet?"

"Well...I don't really know. I was born 3 years after she was. My twin brother - Jason, disappeared when we were four. I was the only one left. I stayed with my mom for a while. But she blamed me & said that Thalia & Jason were gone because of me."

"Sometimes," she continued, "I feel like it really was my fault. It would've been better if I was taken instead of Jason." Nora said as she began crying.

"Hey, shh, it's okay. Don't blame yourself." I said wrapping her in a hug. I'd never seen anyone so broken & vulnerable before. Nora was the kind of person who always put a smile on her face even if her whole life was falling apart.

I stared at the pine tree & wondered, if I’d acted differently, could I have saved my mother?

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Alice signing off.
XOXO.