Mostly Normal: Only Half of the Story

(Rio) Act Four, Scene Three

Rio was feeling absolutely terrible. He couldn't keep any kind of food down, and Will Solace had worriedly told him he'd have to at least stay the night. Rio was okay with that, though, as long as he got better.

Another son of Apollo, Colin Pine, who was relatively new to camp, was trying to feed ambrosia and nectar to Rio without the redhead bringing them back up again. Colin was smiling faintly, but Rio was miserable.

Finally, after many tries, Rio managed to keep a tiny bit of nectar in his stomach, which immediately started to feel a little better. Colin then fed him a nibble of ambrosia, which stayed down too, and then a little bit more nectar. Rio managed not to throw up for about five minutes, which was something of a record in his mind.

After what seemed like forever, he finally was let go from the infirmary after Will made certain that he would not vomit again. Rio walked over to the pine tree that used to be the daughter of Zeus, Thalia Grace. As he sat down at its base, he saw two figures running hand in hand.

He jumped up to see that it was his old friends from back before he found out that he was a demigod. "Taka? Salvador? What on Olympus are you two doing here?" the confused child of Janus asked in bewilderment.

Salvador and Taka, a strange pair, collapsed on the top of Half-Blood Hill, panting. They were both bruised and scratched in places.

Taka brushed off his jeans and stared at Rio frantically, his dark eyes full of fear. He started shouting rapidly in Japanese. Salvador rolled his startlingly blue eyes and punched the Japanese boy in the shoulder. "English, Taka," the handsome boy warned.

Rio blinked. "Wait a sec," he said, "how did you make it up here? You're mor--" he covered his mouth to keep from saying the word fully, afraid he'd give things away. Taka wiped sweat from his brow and smiled grimly.

"No, Rio," he said in slightly accented English, "I'm not a mortal. I am a river spirit. Meaning that I can enter the camp."

Rio blinked again. "You're kidding, right?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course not," Taka said with a blank face.

Rio was seriously confused now. "Um," he managed to say, "so who's your godly parent, Taka?"

"I have no godly parent. Though I serve under Lady Bishamonten," the Japanese boy said promptly, "the Guardian of the North. She is also one of the seven gods of luck." he winked at Rio. "Which makes me lucky."

"Oh," Rio said, kind of confused, "If you're that powerful then how did we not get chased by monsters as little kids?"

"That was Taka's doing," Salvador said proudly, gesturing to his friend.

"I placed wards on our school and our homes," Taka explained with a small blush.

The spirit suddenly whimpered and glanced backwards. Rio stood up with the aid of Thalia's tree. "What's chasing you?" he whispered, his eyes widening. Taka glanced backward again. "Remember," he said, "names are powerful."

Rio scowled. "Just freaking tell me already!" he growled.

"It looks like a phoenix, but is made of water," Salvador explained with his hands. He then grabbed Taka and Rio and pulled them to the other side of the tree.

Taka muttered a curse in Japanese, there was a shout from what must have been a bird, and Salvador let both of them go. "Care to explain why you're at Camp Half-Blood?" Rio asked as he began to drag his two friends down to the Big House. "Aren't you supposed be with the third Cohort back home?" he said, gesturing to Salvador

"I was exiled from the Roman camp for 'cavorting with the enemy'. And Taka doesn't have a camp. The Japanese spirits are too good at magic to need protection of others. It doesn't help that if they are different types of spirits then they don't get along very well," The black-haired Roman boy explained.

Taka placed a hand on his hip, said hand then disappeared within the folds of his work kimono. "Does that mean you think I'm weak?" he asked with an offended tone.

"No it means that I was weak and you were bored," Salvador explained with a much too sweet smile.