Chiron only stared at the Nemean Lion pelt that I put on the table in front of him, while Mr. D look bored as usual. Chiron let out a small sigh as he finally looked at me, he gave me small smile as he pushed the pelt towards me.
"You deserved it" he said "You killed the Lion and that pelt is yours"
I only raised my eyebrow at him "Really? Well, I thought you're going to take it away from me and put it in the attic along with your 'dead' oracle"
"You deserved it, you kill the Lion by yourself after all" Chiron said and gave me a proud smile.
I blushed slightly as I rubbed the back of my neck, then I remembered my encounter with Luke and I decided to tell Chiron about it.
"Chiron, maybe you already knew this, but..."my eyes trailed to the pelt in front of me "Luke attacked me not too long after I killed the Lion. He wanted the pelt for himself"
Chiron gave me a look, a disbelieved and a worried one "I see, so I guess he never gave up about made you join his side"
I shook my head quickly "No, this time he seemed hated me, he wanted to kill me" I licked my dry lips "He said that he hated me because Kronos favor me than him. Because I am Kronos favorite, and Kronos wanted me to join his rank as his vessel"
Chiron shared a look with Mr. D who looked slightly interested, Mr. D put his diet coke can on the table as he leaned forward. He rested his elbow on the table and he closed his purple eyes, and for the first time in my life, I saw Mr. D thinking hard over something. He looked so focused and I'm afraid that he will burst a vein or something.
"Reiner" Mr. D finally spoke, in serious tone and he didn't misspell my name "Are you sure? About Kronos wanted you as a vessel?"
I avoided Mr. D purple eyes "Yeah, he told me before, last summer when we went to fetch the fleece"
Mr. D raised his eyebrow "Then?"
"Luke caught up with us, but I managed to send Clarisse back with the fleece. And then, Luke brought me, Annabeth, Percy and Tyson to his cruise ship" I retold the story "He brought us to a big room, and I-I saw a gold coffin on that room. After that-"I stopped momentarily and looked at Mr. D eyes "Kronos spoke to me, he spoke to me from my mind. He convinced me to join his army, he wanted me as his vessel and he told me he will give me anything I wanted if I agree to be his vessel"
"I see" Mr. D leaned back to his chair as he took his coke can "I think I probably know why Luke wanted the pelt for himself"
I looked at the pelt in front of me, if I get it right Luke needed to bathe in River Styx to be Kronos vessel, so why he needed the pelt? The pelt is not enough after all, to contain Kronos power inside of him.
"Do you know what happened if you bathe in the river of Styx while you wearing the pelt, boy?" Mr.D asked in dark tone.
"Sir, I don't-" Chiron started to protest.
Mr. D raised his right hand and Chiron didn't finish his sentences.
"Let the kid know, what's coming for him" Mr. D said "As much as I hated to say it, this kid might be could stop Kronos from raising. Last time I went for the annual meeting, Apollo said he couldn't see this brat future at all, as if something obstruct his future, even the oracle didn't have anything for him." Mr. D explained "Athena said something like that could be our weapon to kill Kronos once and for all. But, this brat also could destroy us if he wanted too, after all we didn't know his future or anything about him aside from he is Apollo and Hades kid"
"Are you saying the Gods wanted him to kill Kronos?" Chiron asked
"I never said that" Mr. D grunted "You can't kill a Titan, but you can made sure he will never come back here or made sure that he will having a hard time regenerate"
"So?" I asked "What's the connection with the pelt?"
Mr. D sighed heavily "You are annoying as hell for making me repeat my previous question"
Chiron looked at me softly "Do you know what happened if you bathe in the river of Styx while you wearing the pelt?"
I bit my lower lips as I racked my brain for an answer, I never heard someone do that before.
"Come on brat" Mr. D said quickly "It's a simple thing really"
"The Nemean Lion pelt is made you invincible" I said slowly "But it didn't make you all invincible, you still can get hurt where its didn't cover you" I tapped my chin "Bathe in river Styx, just like Achilles, it made you invincible but you have one weak spot, if you get hurt in that spot you will die"
"If you wore the pelt while bathe in the River Styx?" Chiron asked me again.
"Completely invincible?" I said, unsure with my answer "You will be completely invincible without a weak point"
Mr. D looked at me with pointed look "Do you understand now?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't follow your logic" I muttered
Mr.D exhaled loudly "You are really stupid and annoying. Ugh, imagine if Kronos inhabited your body at that state"
"We can't actually kill the vessel, thus we can't hurt Kronos" I said slowly and the reality finally started to sink in "Oh, shi-" I quickly cleared my throat when I realized I'm about to curse near Chiron "I mean, that's bad"
"I hope you understand it all" Mr. D said "Why we the gods, are don't like Athena idea at all. If I can, I just wanted to kill you right here and now"
Thunder boomed in the sky as Mr. D just clicked his tongue in distaste "No, I'm not planning to kill him, yet!"
"You mean, I somehow turn into Kronos side, bathe in the river Styx with the pelt and be a vessel for Kronos?" I asked in bewilderment tone.
"Kronos will hunt you more intently boy" Mr. D said while sipped his coke "He already learn about your possession of the Nemean Lion pelt. He will hunt you down and made you join his rank one way or another"
I clenched my fist angrily "I see"
Chiron gave me a sympathetic looks "Reiner, I hope you understand it. It's a big burden on your shoulder, and whatever choice you made will affect the whole world. I hope you chose the right thing"
I only chuckled darkly "I understand it completely Chiron. I get it"
"Are you sure brat?" Mr. D eyeing me suspiciously.
I frowned at his words "What else do you guys want from me?!" I finally snapped "You already ripped me from my mother, you took away my life from me! You made my life a living hell, and you dare to rip me away from my old life! And now you want me to do what?! What else you want from me?!"
"Reiner..."
"I'm sick of all off this!" I slammed my hand into the table, ignoring the angry glint on Mr. D eyes "Why won't you trust me?! Are you that afraid of me?! I'm nobody!"
Mr. D suddenly stood up and grabbed my collar, he pulling closer and I literally could smell the wine that came from his breath.
"I don't care about your pathetic life brat!" he hissed at me "I don't give a fuck about it and you better listen to me! This is not about you anymore, a lot of life on the line here, including your mother and your so called friend! If you don't want to help us the god, then at least think about them! You selfish little bastard!"
I slapped his hand away and I snatched the pelt from the table "Just...." I took a deep breath "Leave me alone and let me think about it"
After that I stormed away from the big house into my cabin, I stopped in front of the door and unclenched my fist slowly. The anger started to fade away bit by bit, I looked down at my shoe and exhaled slowly.
"Fuck" I muttered lowly "Why it always happened to me? Why me? Just..." I shook my head quickly "No, I need to focus on what Mr. D and Chiron said. I need to focus so Kronos won't fool me easily"
I glanced to the pelt on my left hand and sighed heavily. This stupid pelt actually bring more trouble into my already complicated life. I pushed the door opened and walked into my own bed, I pulled a rather large box underneath my bed and opened it. The box rather empty with a few books on the bottom of it, quickly I put the pelt into the box, closed it and pushed the box back.
"What is that?"
I jumped back and accidentally bumped into something or rather someone behind me. That person let out a rather 'manly' yelp and grabbed the back of my shirt before brought me down with whoever the fuck it was. I heard a grunt underneath me and a hand pushed me roughly to the side, I rolled to the side and saw Lee on the floor, looking blankly at the golden ceiling above him.
"I think I'm on heaven" he muttered weakly.
"You moron, there's no heaven in here" I said and pushed myself up "It's heavenly hell I suppose since it's literally in the underworld, and the Elysium field right next to the punishment field" then I realized something and jabbed Lee rather harshly on his side by my foot "Are you just calling me heavy?"
Lee grunted as he pushed himself up "Hell yes! It's felt like tons of pounds!"
"Stop being a drama queen" I said and ran my hand through my black hair "What is it anyway?"
Lee looked bashful all of the sudden "Ah, do you free tomorrow evening?"
I raised my eyebrows "Are you asking me for a date?"
Lee blinked and gave me disgust expression "No, are you an idiot or what? Even if I swing that way, I have a good taste you know"
"I heard an insult" I said flatly "Are you calling me ugly, Lee?"
"NO!" Lee finally pulled his hair, clearly feeling frustrated "Ugh, why the fuck I agree to do this?!"
"Then what?" I huffed "And yes, I have nothing to do tomorrow afternoon after my class"
Lee stopped pulling his hair and cough awkwardly into his fist "Good, good. And come back here after school"
Lee pulled out a card, containing a place near my school, a café to be exact. I took it and looked at it with confused looks.
"Uh, are you sure this is not a date?" I asked again.
"GAH!" Lee jumped to get me and I quickly side stepped.
"Just stayed where the fuck you are, you punk!" Lee growled loudly and jumped into me again.
"And now you literally throwing yourself over me. Made up your mind Lee!" I teased him as I avoided each of his assault.
Lee clenched and unclenched his fist as he glared at me, probably hoping that I would die if he glared at me, or he probably ran a lot of possibilities of killing me on his head. I walked over to him carefully and patted his shoulder.
"Don't wreck your brain Lee. You still young and you still needed it" I said and patted his shoulder
Lee turned his head slowly as he gripped my wrist tightly.
"DIE!" he yelled at me pushed the palm of his hand into my face.
"HOLY FUCK!" I exclaimed "Don't squeezed my face goddamnit!"
"I will reconstruct your face!" Lee yelled while squeezed my face harder.
"Fuck you!" I yelled as I put the palm of my free hand into his face "Just get your hand off me!"
And that ended with Will pulled me away and one of my sibling pull Lee away.
"You guys" Will said slowly "Just stop fight and get married already"
"FUCK YOU!" both of me and Lee spat at him.
****
This is 19th December, the said day that Lee asked me to come into this place. A simple café near my school, usually it's packed full with people and I loved the atmosphere in there, the beverage and the food are delicious there and it's quite cheap. But, now it's empty and quiet, nobody there and it's dark. I furrowed my eyebrow and put my hand on the door, is Lee fucking with me? If he is messing with me, then I will remodel his face into something unrecognizable. I pushed the door opened only to find darkness and silent greeted me, but then suddenly bright like attacked my eyes and I covered my eyes with my hand.
"SURPRISE!!"
I removed my hand from my eyes and opened my eyes slowly, my eyes widened when I saw a lot of people stood there, holding a big cake with total of 15 candles on it. Well, I totally forgot about my birthday which happened to be today. So, this is really take me off guard. I saw Percy and his mom, Grover, Lee, Will, Thalia, Clarisse, Silena, and some of the campers, mostly my siblings, and even Annabeth is here.
"M-mom" I stuttered when I realized that my mom is the one who hold the cake.
"Happy birthday sweetheart" my mom said and smile sweetly at me.
"Isn't this dangerous or something?" I asked.
"Don't worry" Annabeth walked towards me and swung her arm around me "Chiron and me find a way to put a barrier around this café for 3 hours, so yeah you got" she looked at the clock that hung on the wall "2 hours and 50 minutes more"
I felt like tearing up right now "Thank you guys"
Percy patted my back "You always worked so hard and after everything shitty thing happened to you, I think you deserve a break"
"It's okay" Thalia said while held two glasses on her hand "Chiron agree with it, but he said sorry he couldn't came. He need to take care of the camp while we gone. But he did say hi and happy birthday to you" and the she shoved a glass into my hand.
"Thank you guys really" I said while smile widely at the people who came to celebrate my birthday
Clarisse raised her glass "Thanks Percy, he's the one who plan all of this. Couldn't believe that he managed it by himself"
Percy only chuckled bashfully "Actually my mom and Reiner's mom helped me out in this"
And so, the short and simple party is began. It's simple, but I like it. I like that they wanted to spend their time to attend this, and celebrate with me despite a monster could attack anytime. And a birthday celebration is quite nice, after all...I never know how long I will live and survive in this world. I could be dead next year or even before I reached 20. I am not being negative jerk and ruin the positive energy around me, but if you live in this world as a demigod, believe me reaching 20 is like living the impossible. So be glad, if you out there could live till 60 or 75 years later, because honestly I envy that thing, trust me, I want to live until I grow old with someone I loved too you know.