The Daughter of the Sky // Wattys 2016

Chapter 11

Percy agreed to walk me to my assigned cabin - cabin eleven, home to the children of Hermes, after giving me a comprehensive tour of where I would be living. He explained that until my father claimed me, which could be any time between now and never, Hermes would be my patron god.

Hermes was the messenger god, so naturally he had a nomadic spirit and a soft spot for travelers. Hermes' kids were expected to take in unclaimed children as their own and house them until further notice.

Percy broke the cabins down into two groups; the Olympian group and the Minor group. The Olympian group consisted of the twelve gods who had a spot on Mount Olympus (which was apparently located at the top of the Empire State Building). The twelve gods were Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, and Dionysus, but occasionally he took turns with the goddess Hestia.

The Olympian group was home to cabins one through eleven, excluding Hades. There was one isolated cabin off to the side that Percy said belonged to Nico Di Angelo, the son of Hades. He pointed out other isolated corners of camp where other campers had recently built cabins to accommodate their minor godly parents.

Cabin one was the biggest of all of the cabins; the obvious leader of them. Zeus. It was big, bulky, and built with obvious inspiration from traditional greek architecture. The cabin itself was made of white marble, with two grand columns in the front. Its door was bronze, with lightning holograms that seemed to change every few seconds and shine brightly, even through the rain. Through the carved windows of the cabin, I could see that there was a twenty foot statue of Zeus in the back of the cabin; high, mighty and holding a huge thunderbolt that flickered before my eyes. The ceiling of the cabin had tiles that immigrated the movement of clouds in the sky, and I even heard a soft distance sound of a storm inside. Oddly enough, I felt an immediate connection to the cabin. It was magnetic, almost as if it were drawing me closer and closer.

I barely got to the entrance when Percy hauled me back to the camp cabin tour.

Cabin two was almost cabin one's twin, but more petite and girlies somehow. It was Hera's, the wife of Zeus. The two columns in the front matched her husbands, but were less bulky and lined with pomegranate and salmon colored flowers. On the sides of the cabin's marble walls were beautiful images of, what I assumed to be, elegant peacocks with their multicolored feathers fanned out for all to envy. The cabin had no beds inside and a tall, elegant statue of Hera stood in the middle of the cabin, just like the first.

"What's the point of having a cabin if it doesn't have any beds inside?"

"Hera's a virgin goddess. Being the goddess of marriage, she likes to uphold her vows to Zeus by not having any children. We have the cabin as a sign of respect, that's all," Percy looked at the cabin nostalgically and I'd wondered if he'd ever met Hera.

Cabin three was to the left of Zeus' cabin, and it was where Percy lived.

The cabin was turned to face the sea, and a portion of it was wooden; open to the air with a dock that led out to the lake I had seen when I first arrived to camp. The cabin itself was long and slender, made of what looked like grey limestone. The closer I got to the cabin, the more subtle details I began to notice; small chunks of coral, seaweed, and elaborate seashells I had never even seen before lined the walls of the cabin in elusive patterns. It even smelled like the ocean, which only made me miss home even more. Percy said his father had designed the cabin himself before he was born, and my heart swelled at the thought of my father thinking of me in the same way, but the thought seemed too good to possibly be true.

Cabin four was Demeter's cabin, goddess of the harvest and agriculture. The cabin stood out from the first three I had seen because it looked the most like an actual cabin. The top of the small, hazel colored cabin was lined with authentic, lush green grass. Every single window in the place was adorned with a kaleidoscope of exotic flowers, which only made the cabin stand out more amongst the others. The place practically screamed nature. It kind of reminded me of the cottage from Snow White. Maybe Demeter's kids were dwarves.