CALYPSO
Calypso glanced back at the young demigod, who was straggling behind. Calypso was still trying to determine the young girl's godly parent, but it was proving to be difficult. She had no defining characteristics of any god she knew, and the girl, Sami, had refused to say anything since her name.
As Leo lead back to where they had stashed Festus, he glanced back at Calypso and Sami. Calypso gave a smile, and Leo mouthed at her, 'I can't wait to see her expression' Calypso smiled wider, she too imagining the young girl's face wen Festus emerged in glory.
Sami gave a loud cough behind them, and said "I'm not blind you know. My expression when WHAT exactly?"
Leo grinned, and pulled out Festus the suitcase. "This, is Festus"
Sami looked confused, and said "A marvelous suitcase I'm sure. Is there anything else I need to know about this fine piece of luggage?"
Leo's grin stretched even wider. "Hmm... Let me think... oh yeah! How about this!" He pulled a lever on the suitcase, then stepped back quickly to avoid getting crushed by the rapidly unfolding celestial bronze.
As Festus emerged, Calypso turned to look at Sami's expression. Her jaw was practically on the ground, and her eyes were bugging out of her head. Calypso stole a glance at Leo, who was grinning so widely it looked like his face would split in half.
Leo announced, "Sami, meet Festus, our dragon." Calypso smiled when Leo said our.
Sami picked her jaw up off the floor, and asked tentatively, "Can I touch him?" Leo nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. Sami stepped softly forward, and placed a trembling hand on Festus's snout. Festus gave a puff of smoke and whirred in a friendly way. "He likes you!" Leo said, and Sami smiled. "He's amazing." She breathed.
Calypso glanced at the sky, and noticed the sun was nearing the horizon. She placed a hand on Sami's shoulder, noticing how she flinched and jumped a bit. "Leo, I think we should camp here for the night. Why don't you figure out a shelter for the night and I'll cook. Sami, can you find some wood for a fire?" Calypso was reluctant to send the young demigod out on her own, so she resolved to keep and eye on her. There was something about her... Calypso shook her head to clear the thought.
Watching Sami scamper around the clearing collecting wood, Calypso climbed on Festus to find her bags. She had packed food in one of them, because she had no idea what awaited her and Leo when they left the island. Now, she was thankful she had. She found the bag with her food, and Calypso clambered off Festus.
As Calypso started to unpack her supplies, she glanced up to check on Sami again and saw her coming back with wood. Calypso jumped up to help her, Sami's arms were loaded with twigs and branches. Calypso noticed that she was limping a bit. When they dumped the wood into a pile, she turned to Sami and asked, "Is your leg bothering you" Sami shook her head stubbornly, and Calypso smiled slightly. "OK, so you just naturally walk away from a hellhound with no injuries ."
Sami grinned shyly, and started to laugh. She rolled up her pants leg, wincing as she did so. Calypso gasped as she saw the wound on her leg. The cut was deep, and it had a greenish tint around the edges. "Sami! Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?!" Sami avoided her gaze, "Didn't want to seem weak. Always have to be tough on the streets and to strangers."
"Oh Sami," Calypso started. "It's ok, you don't have to act tough. It's just me and Leo here, and we certainly won't judge. Not everyone can survive being chased by a hellhound across several states! Leo and I barely survived a cyclopes attack!"
Sami bit her lip, and her eyes started to water. Calypso grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. Sami stiffened up at first, like she hadn't had a hug in a while, and then hugged Calypso back. Calypso felt tears fall onto her shoulder, and Sami's body started to shake violently. Calypso felt her own eyes tear up, she hadn't become this close to another girl since... since before she had been exiled to Ogygia. This little girl seemed to have been through a lot, and if she needed someone to confide in, a family member, Calypso desperately wanted to help. She was sure Leo would also step up to the job also. Even though he hadn't told her much of his past, she could tell he had been through a lot also, not just on his quests.
Calypso stroked Sami's hair, her own tears falling freely now. Sami's body was wracked with sobs, and Calypso hugged her tighter. She heard footsteps approaching them, and heard Leo's cheerful voice pipe up, "Well I rigged up a shelter, it's not a palace but-" His voice cut off abruptly as he saw the two weeping girls. "Oh. Umm... you know what I'm going to go over here somewhere... Uh... Yeah. I guess I'll take over cooking while you two do... Ummm... yeah."
Calypso smiled through her tears, and she felt Sami's sobs subside. She let go of her death grip on Sami, and held her at an arm's length. She smiled at Sami, both their faces red and blotchy. Sami smiled back, and slowly, they both began to laugh. It was small at first, giggles, but it turned into full out guffaws, both of them holding their stomachs as they gasped for breath as they tried to recover their composure. Calypso recovered first, and she stood up. Sami followed her example, and Calypso slung her arm over Sami's shoulder. "Shall we check on Leo, make sure he hasn't burnt the camp down?" Sami giggled again and said, "Sure, but don't you think he would notice if the camp was burning around him?" Calypso winced, and laughed. "Oh I wouldn't be so sure. He wouldn't even be bothered by it. You see, he is immune to fire and heat of any kind. The thing is, have you ever heard of the Greek gods?" Sami nodded, confused, "Yeah, like Zeus and Hera and all that myth?" Calypso nodded.
Calypso grabbed gauze and started wrapping it around Sami's cut, binding it effectively as she talked. She wished they had some ambrosia or nectar to help heal the wound, but she would have to make do with what they had.
"They're real. All of it. The gods, monsters, heroes." As Calypso was speaking , Sami's eyes got wider and wider. "The gods sometimes have children with mortals, and their children are called demigods. That's what you are." Sami nodded thoughtfully. "This explains a lot. So are you and Leo demigods too?" Calypso shook her head. "Leo is. He is a son of Hephaestus, an he is also the first fire user to be born in hundreds of years. I'm a goddess, daughter of Atlas." As she said this, Sami eyes her up carefully. "A daughter of Atlas? Wasn't he one of the bad guys?" Calypso sighed. "Yes he was. In the first Titan war I supported him, but when they lost, I was punished. I was exiled to an island called Ogygia. Leo was the one who rescued me." Sami smiled, and she said "So what happens to demigods? Do they-we just wander around like you and Leo?"
Calypso shook her head. "No. We are on a quest to rescue Loe's friend Piper who was captured by Khione, the snow goddess. She has a palace in Quebec City, and that's where we think she has Piper. There are two places demigods can go. The gods have different aspects, Greek and Roman. Until recently, all roman demigods went to a camp in San Francisco called Camp Jupiter. The Greeks went to Camp Half-Blood in Long Island sound. For hundreds of years, the two camps were kept apart, each with no knowledge of the other"
"So what happened?" Sami asked. She was leaning forward, eagerly awaiting for the next part of the story.
"Hera happened. You see, Gaea, the goddess of the earth, is evil."
Sami interrupted her with a giggle. "Evil Mother Earth? I thought she had birds doing her laundry."
Calypso smiled, and said "I don't know where that came from. Anyway, there was a prophecy about the demigods who were destined to defeat Gaea. I think it went like this:
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call
To storm or fire the world must fall
An oath to keep with a final breath
And foes bear arms to the doors of death"
Calypso could practically see the wonder and amazement in Sami's eyes. "So seven half bloods. Who were they?" Sami asked. Calypso replied. "Percy Jackson son of Poseidon, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Piper McLean,daughter of Aphrodite, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Frank Zhang son of Mars, Hazel Levesque daughter of Pluto, and Leo."
Sami interrupted. "So where do you come into the picture? And what did it mean to storm or fire the world must fall? The earth is still here!" Calypso replied. "After the seven's voyage to the ancient lands, they defeated the giants and came back to New York. Leo here and his friend Jason defeated Gaea. Jason along with Festus kept her in the air, separate from her source of power. Leo blew her up with his fire. Jason and Piper, who lulled Gaea back to sleep survived. Leo did not."
"Wait, what does that mean? Leo is over there somewhere! He is not dead!" Calypso went on. "He did die, but he was brought back to life with the Physician's Cure. That's when he came back to me on my island. We just recently found he was dead for over six months, and he hasn't seen the rest of the seven since he died."
Sami listened with wide eyes. "So did Leo know he was going to die?"
"Yep!" Came a cheerful voice from behind Calypso. She turned and saw Leo bouncing over, and he sat down next to Calypso. "In Olympia, me and a couple others captured Nike, the goddess of victory. She warned us that one of the four present would die. Me!"
Sami stared at Leo incredulously. "Why didn't you try to avoid it?! It's DEATH!" Leo smiled. "I knew we could collect the cure in time, well at least I hoped, and I also figured my friends or me? Additionally, it was the only way to get back to Sunshine here."
"Anyway," Leo continued, "I would love to sit here and tell you many tales of my awesomeness, but it's dark, and I'm hungry. Story time will resume later folks!" Sami giggled and Calypso rolled her eyes and smiled. They followed Leo into another clearing, and Calypso gasped.
Leo had erected a huge bonfire, over ten feet tall. On the other side, there were two tents, one slightly bigger than the other. Leo lead them over to the tents, and pointed to the larger one. "That one is for you two, and I'll take the other one. Festus is searching the woods for threats, and he'll send up a flare if he needs help. Now, who's ready for Chef Leo's famous tacos?!"
Sami and Calypso eagerly followed Leo to the fire, where he had set up a makeshift cooking area. Leo grabbed a tray and handed a taco to each the girls.
Surprisingly, Leo was a good cook. The tacos were delicious, and he provided lemonade as well. They laughed and talked as they finished their meal, Leo leaned back and stared at the stars. "Man this meal brings back memories. Not all good, but memories. Sewers, crazy saleswoman, and a screaming Coach Hedge. Yep, memories."
Sami and Calypso exchanged a look, and Calypso said, "what are you talking- wait I don't want to know. Tell us later." The three kids laid back and looked at the stars. There was a constellation there Calypso hadn't noticed before. It was a huntress, and it looked like she was running across the sky.
Calypso got up and offered her hand to Sami. Sami grabbed it, and Calypso pulled her up. "Head over to tent Sami. There should be a change of clothes in there for you, I'll be in in a minute." When Sami left, Calypso turned to Leo. "Leo, how soon can we be in Quebec?"
Leo thought for a minute before responding. "I think we can be there in two days, assuming we don't run into any trouble, which is unlikely."
Calypso considered that thoughtfully. "What are we going to do with Sami? We don't know her godly parent yet, and she doesn't know anything about fighting. We can't exactly send her off and tell her to find Camp Half-Blood on her own. I'm just worried if we take her with us to fight Khione, she will get hurt and I care too much about her already to do that."
Leo responded after a minute. "I know what you mean about caring about her too much, I feel the same way. But I'm pretty sure she can fend for herself, she has that look about her. I was thinking about this earlier. I think when we go face Khione, she can go and get Piper out. Khione doesn't know about her yet, and I'm not even sure she knows about you."
Calypso nodded. "That is true, and I'm not sure Sami would appreciate being left behind. She would probably run in after us anyway, so at least this way we know where she is. Now I'm going to bed, wake me up when its my turn for watch."
After kissing Leo and turning to go, Calypso climbed into the tent and smiled when she saw Sami was asleep already. Calypso got into her own sleeping beg, and drifted of to sleep.
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HELLO DEMIGODS! Oh my gods I think this is the longest chapter yet! So anyway, I just wanted to clear something up.
So I created Sami, and she is not going to be some overpowered OC, who is like a daughter of the big three blessed by a million other gods. She's just going to be another demigod. Not saying she isn't going to be special, just not an insanely overpowered demigod.
Getting that out of the way, this chapter is dedicated to
That's all for now!
Vote, Comment, Fangirl!