The Children of Water

Into a New Battlefield

"A really powerful demigod," Percy translated. Lily felt herself blush. She didn't feel powerful. She felt like she had been thrown into a pop corn machine and was waiting on her insides to explode. She had done so much in such a short amount of time. Everything felt so over her head, she had a hard time coping. Powerful? Maybe, but she was more scared out of her mind and overwhelmed with everything that was happening.

"Yes, we will need to get you trained as soon as possible. She will need it if she decides to go back out into the real world," Chrion said. Lily's heart stopped. Go back out there? Her mind did a run through of all of the horrible things that she had gone through before Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had found her. A shudder went through her remembering running in the dark. . .

Dropping into the scene, Lily was running for her life. Darkness surrounded her as she ran next to the empty highway. She turned to look behind her and saw the monster that followed her. It was a sickly green color in the light. A liquid, what looked like slime, dripped off it's body in splatters and hit the ground followed by a sizzling sound. Acid. It had followed her out of the truck stop she had been resting at and she was just gaining distance. But the monster was resilient. At the time she had not been able to control her ability of making monsters explode. she had an uncanny ability to be able to make monsters explode using her anger as fuel for this feat. (At the present time Lily has stopped using this ability because it was causing her more harm the good) she was in a bind. She could do nothing but keep running.

Lily remembered how she had to run through the dark night until she had managed to flag down a car who was nice enough to speed away from the monster.

She shivered, a release from the memory. She had dozens of examples like that instance when she nearly was killed or skinned or boiled or eaten, or all three at the same time.

Her eyes had gone fearful tint of blue as she stared at the floor, her long black hair like a curtain from the other two who stared at her.

"No," she said trying to keep her voice from shaking, "I am not going back out there, I worked to hard to get here." Chrion put a hand on her shoulder, she looked up at him.

"Lily," he said in a caring tone, "it's okay, you don't have to leave. But you are young and bright, I can tell," he said with a small smile, "you should train here and then go to a mortal school so that you can learn and become brilliant," he tells me. "It's not good for one so you to stay here all her childhood-"

"Annabeth did," Percy said. Chrion looked up and nodded.

"Yes, but Annabeth didn't have an older brother who saved the world twice to protect her." He turned back to Lily, "Percy will take care of you, but as soon as you know how to defend yourself properly, I am sending you to a school close to Goode High School, where Percy goes. We will make sure you are well cared for." He said warmly. "But for the moment why don't you get some sleep, you look tired. There is a spare bedroom down the hall and on the left. You can sleep there tonight. Alright?"

She nodded her head and began to slowly walk down the hall, trying to catch every last bit of their conversation before she was shut away in her room. In hushed voices Percy explained in detail where everyone was and whet he knew about Lily.

Then the door closed behind her as she settled into her little room. She didn't realize how tired she was until she fell asleep sprawled on the bed with her shoes still on. But she soon was Lost in the dreamless sleep that now was so precious.

The next morning was actually late afternoon. She woke at about three that afternoon in her little room that was filled with warm fall light. Lily just laid there for a while holding on to what dear time she had left in the warm bed. Her eyes looked over the room. A small dresser, a door to what she assumed to be a bathroom, and a mirror on the back of the main door.

What caught her eye was a clean, folded, orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and short jeans under a pair of socks and shoes that sat on top the dresser. Her whole body got excited. New clothes? And shoes? She hadn't had new shoes for ever a year. She scrambled out of bed kicking off her old shoes, she grabbed the stuff that was on the dresser and headed for the bathroom.

She showered under the hot water and then changed into her new clothes. They fit relatively well and made everything seem so much cleaner. She pitched her old shoes and clothes in the waste basket happy to be rid of them. She stood in front of the mirror and tied her hair into a bun to keep the wet hair out of her face. When there she examined herself. She had changed from the lost little girl in the shed on Tybee Island, she was now a demigod about to enter her new life. Her hair was long and night black, too long. It was getting in the way of everything. The bun she had made was heavy and weighed her down. She made a mental note to get a hair cut a the first chance she got. She had lightly tanned skin that looked warm against her raven black hair. Then there where her eyes. Her eyes were so bright against the rest of her features. As if they had been super charged by an electrical circuit. Her mother had always told her how honored she should be of her eyes. She said that many girls would be envious of them. But the truth was she was envious of other girls. She had always wanted blonde hair and calm blue eyes. Warm ones, not ones that looked so angry all the time. She thought of Annabeth and changed her mind. She wished she had Blonde hair with a slight wave like Annabeth and gray eyes. Yes, grey eyes. From the moment she had seen Annabeth, Lily looked up to her in awe of her confidence and compassion. In some ways this tailored Lily's likes and dislikes around her. She wanted to be like Annabeth, Annabeth had it all. A brain, a guy, a family; everything Lily wanted. Although Lily had no intention of getting a guy yet. Especially after the prophesy. . .

She shook off that thought and tried to pulled her hair this way and that so the roots wouldn't be strained.

When she finally made her way out of the spare room she felt refreshed. She walked into the living room where she had met Chrion the night before and saw it was empty. She looked around a but before she went outside and onto the porch. The sunlight temporarily blinded her, she squinted while looking about her to find someone. To her right she spotted Chrion in his wheelchair pulled up to a card table facing a man in a very loud Hawaiian shirt. The man had black hair and droopy eyes, a pot belly and a tired, drunkenness about him. They both looked up when she opened the door.

"Well you are trouble of the year aren't you darling?" Said the man across from Chrion.

"We did fight the giants this past year," Chiron pointed out.

"Yes, but that was immortal trouble." He looks nodding at her, "This kind of trouble," he clicked his tongue, "is always seems like its own kind of trouble."

"Sorry, who are you?" She asked, confused and unsure if she should be insulted.

"Ah, right, I am Dionynious, god of wine. You can call me Mr. D. You must be the trouble maker Lilac Baypoweder," he said.

"Actually my name is-" she tried to correct him but he cut her off.

" I am the administrator of this little pocket of hell. So don't get too comfortable I intend it to be as much agony for all you blasted campers as it is for me," he huffs to himself gloomily.

"As you can see Mr. D is just a ray of sunshine," says Percy walking up the stairs of the porch, he smiles, but she could still see the pain behind the facade.

"That's enough from you Perry Johnson! And you Lizzie Magyar! You better hope you stay out of trouble or I am turning you both into leopards that will be hunt down next game night," Mr. D threatened. Percy leaned down and whispered to Lily.

"Wow, he's gotten much more creative with his threats," Percy said. Liz couldn't help smiling.

"Percy, please show Lily around the camp and find Leo, I need to speak with him. We will announce our newest camper at the camp fire tonight," Chrion said while Mr. D rolled his eyes.

"Now off with you Perry James! You too Lindsey Mackentage!" Mr. D roared. With that Lily and Percy made their way down the porch.

Percy's face changed and she could see through his shield. He didn't know she was watching. She reached up and grabbed his hand like she did when she when she was scared in a movie theater. She would always grab daddy's hand. But in this time Percy was sad, Liz knew this would give with comfort. He looked down and gave her a sad smile. He gave her hand a squeeze. The she saw excitement enter his face.

"Come on, let me show you our cabin!" He said. Then he took off running down the hill with Liz right next to him as they raced for the omega of cabins.