The Awakening

8 { @ |\| +

"Do you feel . . . different?" Percy asked unsurely.

"I don't think so," I frowned, dropping my head slightly to look down at myself. As I did this, strands of my hair fell around me like a curtain. I marveled at the glowing locks, realizing that they were much lighter than before, in both weight and appearance.

I picked up a strand between my fingers, trailing down to the end of it. It was so soft, yet sparkled as it hit the light at different angles in the room.

My fingers and arms also looked slightly paler, not the usually tanned tone I was used to.

"Your eyes are also brighter," Keefe's voice broke me out of my self-examination. I looked up at him so that he could explain more. "The gold is brighter, and the blue and green are more electric. It's like lighting, sea, and land coexisting but also separate."

Percy sniffled exaggeratedly, furrowing his brows so that he looked about to burst into tears. "That was beautiful, man."

"Thanks, dude," Keefe said, in the same heartfelt tone, holding his free hand, that no longer held the cloth, to his heart. 

"Elements," Annabeth muttered, completely disregarding the boys' conversation. She was staring down at her feet in a trance, when her gaze suddenly snapped up to mine.

She pushed Keefe out of the way to stand directly at my side. Her eyes were stuck on my arm, then my neck, and lastly my other arm. Her brows scrunched, almost in confusion, and then she looked back up at me.

"Can you stand up?"

"Probably," I murmured, allowing Percy to gently guide me off of the cot with his hold on my hand. Planting my feet on the ground at first was a little shaky, but I managed to maintain equilibrium fairly quickly.

"Turn around and lift up your shirt," Annabeth ordered.

I slowly turned to face my back to her, hiking up the torn shirt a bit so that she could see my back.

She gasped softly and, when I turned back around, her eyes were wide and bright, like she'd figured something out.

"The elements," she said, looking around at all of us in awe.

Percy glanced at her weirdly, shifting his feet on the ground uncomfortably and scratching the back of neck. He looked like he thought his girlfriend was losing it.

"Hear me out, guys," Annabeth said, taking a seat on a chair that was next to my cot. "When Sophie was born, with all of her genetic manipulations and the blood of two mythical entities, it caused a disruption in the balance of the elements.

"I think that Sophie has access to all of the elements of both sides of mythology, the Greek/Roman side and the elven side. Nature had never seen a child born to both sides of fiction that it had falsely overloaded the system, giving access to all of the elements. Therefore, the Neverseen must have caught onto that, trying to coax them out of her. Prometheus was probably there to initiate her use of fire, and someone else manifested her ability to manipulate earth," Annabeth elaborated, staring at a fixed point on the bed the whole time.

"The symbols on your arms represent fire on your left, πῦρ, and water on your right, ὕδωρ. The necklace-like burn has the symbol of earth, γῆ. And, the one that lines your spine represents air or wind, ἀήρ. They're essentially tattoos, the four elements of Greek mythology," Annabeth summed up.

Honestly, my head felt like it might explode, with the way it was pounding at the moment.

"Wait, why'd you just figure that out, Wise Girl?" Percy asked. When she glared at him, he backtracked. "No offense, or anything, but we can all read Greek. Maybe you translated the language wrong."