ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter two
━━ AFTER BREAKFAST THE next morning, Elisa and Percy walked down to inspect the cabins. It was Cabin Twelve's turn for inspection, and the head counselors normally did it, but Castor and Pollux, who both shared the head counselor spot, were out on a combat mission. And so, that left Elisa to do their job for them. And Percy shouldn't have been going with her, but his morning chore was to sort through reports for Chiron, and since both of them hated their morning chore they decided doing them together would be better than trying to get through them alone.
Actually, it was Percy's suggestion at doing the chores together. Elisa felt it would be too rude to completely reject the idea in cold blood, so she had given him a smile through gritted teeth and agreed to the idea.
They started at Cabin Three, Percy's cabin. Elisa raised her eyebrows at the state of the cabin, not believing what the boy had told her. He apparently had made his bed ( which certainly didn't look that way ) and had 'straightened' the Minotaur horn on the wall. Elisa's lip curled with humor and shock as she saw Percy write '⅘' on the inspection scroll.
"That's generous," she told him, tearing the scroll out of his hands to mark out his score. She kicked a pair of dirty running shorts by her foot across the floor to prove her point.
Percy flushed and shoved them underneath his bed, trying to get them out of sight from Elisa's amused eyes. "Hey, give me a break," he said. "I don't have Tyson cleaning up after me this summer."
"That's sad." Elisa snickered. "Look—I'll give you a two out of five for pity."
"A two?"
"Two points of pity."
Percy knew better than to push his luck so he left it at that and they moved on.
The boy tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as they walked. There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, and satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity. Miniature battles were raging everywhere. Camp recruitment was down to zero. Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill because so many monsters were roaming the country. Thalia, who led the Hunters of Artemis, hadn't been heard from in months, and if Artemis knew what had happened to them, she wasn't sharing information.
Elisa and Percy visited the Aphrodite Cabin, which of course got a five out of five. The beds were perfectly made. The clothes in everyone's footlocker were color-coordinated. Fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills. Percy suggested that Elisa dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume, but she only ignored him.
"Great job as usual, Silena," the black-haired girl said.
Silena nodded listlessly. The wall behind her bed was decorated with pictures of Beckendorf. She sat on her bunk with a box of chocolates on her lap, and Elisa remembered that her dad owned a chocolate store in the Village, which was how he'd caught the attention of Aphrodite.
"You want a bonbon?" Silena asked. 'My dad sent them. He thought—" Her voice cracked. "He thought they might cheer me up."
"Are they any good?" Percy asked.
She shook her head. "They taste like cardboard."
Elisa passed politely while Percy took a couple. They promised to see Silena later and kept going. As they crossed the commons area, a fight broke out between the Ares and Apollo cabins. Some Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares Cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi. Soon, the roof of the Ares Cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it.
Then the Ares campers called down a curse and all the Apollo kids' arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids but the arrows bounced off. Two archers ran by, chased by an angry Ares kid who was yelling in poetry: "Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay!/I don't want to rhyme all day!"
Elisa rolled her eyes at the scene. "They're at it again. Last time the Apollo kids cursed a cabin, it took a week for the rhyming couplets to wear off. It was horrendous hearing rhymes about everything."
Apollo was the God of Poetry as well as archery, and she'd heard him recite in person, and from what she'd heard she would rather get shot by an arrow in between the eye.
"What are they fighting about anyway?" Percy asked.
Elisa sighed heavily, writing on her inspection scroll, giving both cabins a one out of five. "It's a long story. It's what Clarisse and Michael were fighting about yesterday at the meeting."
Percy found himself staring at her, which felt odd since he had seen her a billion times. The two were no longer the same height, Elisa now standing about half a head shorter than him. Still, despite being shorter, she seemed so much more mature. It was almost intimidating. Elisa had always been cute, don't get Percy wrong, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful. She had lost some of the baby fat she still bore at fourteen, and her black hair, which she had since the beginning of the year, made her eyes seem even more striking than ever before. Percy didn't think it was possible, but somehow, it was.
Elisa stopped watching the cabins fight, turning to the boy to say, "The flying chariot. The one they're flying right now."
Percy blinked, his face burning and hoping Elisa hadn't seen him staring. "What?"
"You asked what they were fighting about. The Ares and Apollo cabins are fighting over that chariot they're flying right now."
"Oh. Oh—right."
"They captured it in a raid in Philadelphia last week. Some of Luke's demigods were there with it. The Apollo Cabin seized it during the battle, but Ares Cabin had been leading the raid. So now, they're fighting over it. They've been fighting about who gets it."
The two had to duck as Michael Yew's chariot dive-bombed an Ares camper. The Ares camper tried to stab him and cuss him out in rhyming couplets. He was pretty creative about rhyming those cuss words.
"We're fighting for our lives," Percy said, "and they're bickering about some stupid chariot."
"I get why they bickered about it at first because it kinda confusing on who should get it but now they've just taken it too far," Elisa said, shaking her head. "Annabeth keeps saying that Clarisse will come to her senses but I'm not so sure about that. We all know how prideful she is."
Percy raised his eyebrows, silently agreeing with her. He scanned more reports and they inspected a few more cabins. Demeter got a four. Elisa's cabin, Cabin Twelve, got a five, which she made Percy inspect so nobody would think she gave a biased answer. ( When arguably, Percy's answer was probably just as biased; if he hadn't given the cabin a perfect score Elisa probably would've chased him with Acantha. ) Hephaestus got a three and probably should've gotten lower, but with Beckendorf being gone and all, Elisa cut them some major slack. Hermes got a two, which was no surprise. All campers who didn't know their godly parentage were shoved into the Hermes cabin, and since the gods were kind of forgetful, that cabin was always overcrowded.
Finally, they got to Athena's cabin, which was orderly and clean as usual. Books were straightened on the shelves. The armor was polished. Battle maps and blueprints decorated the walls. Only Annabeth's bunk was messy. It was covered in papers and her silver laptop was still running.
Elisa didn't look surprised at the mess. "Let me guess," she told Malcolm, who was Cabin Six's second-in-command, "you didn't touch her stuff so she won't get mad?"
Malcolm grinned slightly. "Yeah, um ... we cleaned everything else. We didn't know if it was safe to move her notes."
That was smart of Annabeth's siblings. The daughter of Athena had a bronze knife that she reserved just for monsters and people who messed with her stuff.
Malcolm gave Elisa and Percy a bigger smile. "We'll wait outside while you finish inspection."
The Athena campers filed out the door while Elisa briefly looked over the notes sprawled out on Annabeth's bed. Percy snickered as he noticed the girl carefully putting everything back where the blonde had left it.
Elisa glared at him but he knew she didn't quite mean it. She would've sprouted off with something if she had. As the silence settled between them, the more Percy realized what Annabeth's siblings had done. Even on inspection, it was against camp rules for two campers of the opposite sex to be alone in a cabin. ( He thought it was a little stupid to specify the whole opposite sex thing since people could be attracted to the same gender or any gender, but he understood why in technical terms. Chiron didn't want any babies to be made on campgrounds. ) That rule had come up a lot when Silena and Beckendorf started dating.
And Percy knows what some of you might be thinking: Aren't all demigods related on the godly side, and doesn't that make dating gross? But the thing is, the godly side of your family doesn't count genetically speaking, since gods don't have DNA like mortals. A demigod would never think about dating someone who had the same godly parent. Like two kids from Athena Cabin? No way. But a daughter of Aphrodite and a son of Hephaestus? They're not related, so it's no problem.
For some strange reason, Percy was thinking about that as he watched Elisa inspect the rest of Cabin Four. She scrawled '⅘' on the inspection scroll, Percy figured Elisa was cutting their friend some slack.
He cleared his throat. "So ... is she getting any good info from that thing?"
Elisa paused and looked at Percy, looking confused. "What thing? Annabeth's laptop? I don't know." She shrugged lightly, rolling up the scroll. "I figure she's getting too much considering she won't put it down for a day straight."
"Yeah," the son of Poseidon muttered. "Probably."
Elisa's eyes took one giant sweep across the cabin. She seemed to be studying it like it was the last time she would step foot in there. "As much as I want to be sad for myself," she said, "I feel even worse for Silena. You know—what happened to Beckendorf? He was something short of being a brother to me but he was her boyfriend."
She pursed her lips, looking like she was gathering her thoughts. Elisa tucked hair behind her ears, the bangs falling to brush her face. "I don't know," she admitted quietly. "I guess it makes you think. About what's important. About losing people you care about, who are important to you."
Percy nodded. His brain felt like it was starting to seize on random, little details, like the fact that Elisa was still wearing those earrings he had bought her.
"Um—yeah," he stammered. "Like ... is everything cool with Callum? I—uh—know you haven't seen him since you came back to Camp."
The daughter of Dionysus looked disgruntled, like Percy's answer wasn't the answer she had looking for. "He's fine. Peachy, even," she responded, sounding slightly stony. "He's staying in Manhattan right now, I know that.
"Really?" Percy asked.
Elisa nodded. "Yeah, he came down a week or so ago, to be close to camp and everything. He and a couple of other campers who lived into adulthood are staying over there. Chiron offered up the idea; that they come back and help fight and stuff. I figure it's pretty smart since if they survived this long they clearly know a thing or two about killing monsters."
What was said next was about the most bone-headed remark Elisa ever heard the son of Poseidon say; "But the hoards of monsters that Luke has?"
Elisa took a deep breath through her nose. She didn't say anything about Percy's last comment, instead, changing the topic. "Let's get all those reports finished and get back to Chiron."
Percy winced silently at his question as he followed the daughter of madness out of Cabin Six.
On the way to the Big House, they read the last report, which was handwritten on a maple leaf from a satyr in Canada.
"Dear Grover," Percy read aloud. "Woods outside Toronto attacked by giant evil badger. Tried to do as you suggested and summon power of Pan. No effect. Many naiads' trees destroyed. Retreating to Ottawa. Please advise. Where are you? — Gleeson Hedge, protector."
Elisa grimaced slightly. "You haven't heard anything from him? From Grover? Even with your empathy link?"
The son of the sea shook his head dejectedly. Ever since last summer when the god Pan died, Grover had been drifting further and further away. The Council of Cloven Elders treated him like an outcast, but Grover still traveled all over the East Coast, trying to spread the word about Pan and convince nature spirits to protect their own little bits of the wild. He'd only come back to camp a few times to see his girlfriend Juniper.
Last thing Elisa heard, Grover was in Central Park, organizing the dryads, but nobody had seen or heard from him in two months. They'd tried to send Iris Messages. They never got through, however. Percy and the satyr had an empathy link, so there was hope that if anything bad happened to him, they would find out pretty quickly. Elisa had heard that people who shared empathy links basically had tied life forces; if one person died, the other might, too. She wasn't sure how true that all was, though.
"Elisa," Percy said, stopping her by the tetherball court. "Listen, I had this dream about—um—Rachel ..."
Elisa's jaw clenched. "Really?" she asked, her voice colder than ever.
"Uh—yeah," Percy said nervously. He told Elisa about the dream—the weird dark clouds closing in on the city, an army gathered around the Empire State Building, and the weird picture of Luke as a child, all seemingly having been drawn by the mortal savior herself.
For a while, Elisa didn't say anything. Her nostrils were flared, and it looked like her lips were curling with disgust.
"What do you want me to say?" she said, her voice level but angry.
"I'm not sure," admitted Percy. "I just felt like I needed to tell you. And you're good at giving advice. So, like ... if you were Kronos planning this war, what would you do next?"
Elisa leaned against the metal pole beside her. She scratched her right temple, setting her face into a more neutral expression. "Considering just how confident Kronos and Luke are about winning, I'm sure they're confident enough to use Typhon as a distraction. While the gods are all busy trying to keep Typhone at bay, that leaves a huge opening for Luke to attack Olympus. Directly.
"Just like in Rachel's picture."
Elisa closed her eyes at that. "Percy," she said, her voice tight, "Rachel is a mortal. You really think she can tell the future?"
"But what if her dream is true? Those other Titans—they said Olympus would be destroyed in a matter of days. They said they had plenty of other challenges. And what's with that picture of Luke as a kid—"
"We'll just have to be ready."
"How?" Percy said. "Look at our camp. We can't even stop fighting each other. And I'm supposed to get my stupid soul reaped."
Elisa's hands had been tightening around the scroll, and suddenly, it ripped in half. She threw each piece into the ground. "You're right! Your soul is fucking stupid. Just like I knew you would, you want to run away." Her voice was angry and hurt. "The only thing that reading the prophecy did was scare you. And just like you've always done, you run when you're scared."
Percy stared at her, completely stunned. "Me? Run away?"
"Yes, you," Elisa spat, jabbing a finger into his chest. "You're a coward, Jackson! Just like I knew you were."
They were nose to nose, now. Elisa's eyes were rimmed red from pure exhaustion. The 'coward' label she was throwing at Percy wasn't entirely about the Great Prophecy.
"If you don't like our chances," she said, "go ahead and go on that vacation with your mortal friend. I'm sure you need a vacation."
"Elisa—"
"If you don't like our company—my company, go ahead and go. I'm sure it'll be fun."
"That's not fair!" Percy protested.
She pushed past the boy and stormed towards the strawberry fields. She hit the tetherball as she passed and sent it spinning angrily around the pole.
ˋˏ [ 👑 ] ˎˊ
To say Elisa's day got worse after that spat would be an understatement.
That afternoon Camp Half-Blood had an assembly at the campfire to burn Beckendorf's burial shroud and say their last goodbyes. Even the Ares and Apollo cabins called a temporary truce to attend. Beckendorf's shroud was made out of metal links like chainmail. Elisa didn't see how it would burn, but the Fates must've been having a good day. The metal melted in the fire and turned to golden smoke that rose into the sky. The campfire flames always reflected the campers' moods, and today the flames burned black with grief.
She hoped Beckendorf's spirit would end up in Elysium. Maybe he'd even choose to be reborn and try for Elysium in three different lifetimes so he could reach the Isles of the Blest, something Bianca was striving for, as well. If anyone deserved it, Beckendorf and Bianca did.
Most of the other campers drifted off to their afternoon activities. Percy stayed, staring at the dying flames. Silena sat nearby crying while Clarisse and her boyfriend Chris Rodriguez tried to comfort her. Elisa tried to leave without saying a word to Percy but he pulled her into the seat next to him, keeping her from moving by putting a hand on her thigh.
The daughter of Dionysus tried to glare at him but the glower wavered as new tears brimmed in her eyes. She wiped at her eyes furiously, saying, "What do you want?"
"I want to say sorry for earlier," the son of Poseidon said. "I didn't think about how much stress you were under already. I shouldn't've told you about the dream."
Elisa stared at him, the red rims of her eyes more pronounced from crying. She seemed a little speechless at what Percy had said, making the boy fear he said something to make it all even worse.
"Not that you can't handle it!" he was quick to add. "I'm sure you can, it's just—"
"Forget it, Percy," said Elisa. "That's not why ... That's not why—just forget it. I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have—uh ..."
"Called me a coward?" Percy suggested, hoping she meant to take back the insult. Even though the damage was done, and his pride was wounded, it would still be nice to hear that Elisa didn't mean it.
"No, I meant that," the daughter of Dionysus promised.
"Great ..." muttered the boy. "Making me feel a lot better, right now."
Elisa gave him a watery-eyed smile. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. It didn't solve anything, even if it made me feel better."
"You suck at apologizing," Percy informed her.
"Thank you," said Elisa. "I learned it from Dionysus."
Percy rolled his eyes at her antics. He asked, "Are we back on good terms?"
"We're on okay terms," Elisa corrected him. She grabbed his pointer finger like it was something disgusting and picked his hand up, transporting the hand from her thigh to his lap. "Don't get it twisted."
Percy nodded, flushed red from what just happened. "I'll take what I can get," he murmured.
The two were left with silence after that, both staring at Silena. Finally, they got enough nerve to walk over. "Hey, Silena," the son of Poseidon said, "I'm really sorry."
The daughter of Aphrodite sniffled. Clarisse glared at Percy, but she had a habit of glaring at everyone. Chris would barely look at Elisa and Percy. He had been one of Luke's men until Clarisse rescued him from the Labyrinth last summer, and Elisa guessed he still felt guilty for it. He had thanked her after Dionysus had cured his madness, learning about how much time she had put in trying to cure him herself, but the two were never close despite all that time.
Percy cleared his throat. "Silena, you know Beckendorf carried your picture. He looked at it right before we went into battle. You meant a lot to him. You made the last year the best of his life."
Silena sobbed. Elisa winced.
"Good job, Percy," Clarisse muttered.
"No, it's all right," Silena said. "Thank ... thank you, Percy. I should go."
"You want company?" Clarisse asked.
Silena shook her head and ran off.
"She's stronger than she looks," Clarisse muttered, almost to herself. "She'll survive."
"You could help with that," Percy suggested quickly. "You could honor Beckendorf's memory by fighting with us."
Clarisse went for her knife, but it wasn't there anymore. She'd thrown it on the ping-pong table in the Big House, and it was still there.
"Not my problem," she growled. "My cabin doesn't get honor—I don't fight."
Elisa noticed she wasn't speaking in rhymes. Maybe she hadn't been around when her cabinmates got cursed, or maybe she had a way of breaking the spell. For a brief moment, the daughter of madness wondered if Clarisse was the spy. That could explain why she was keeping her siblings from fighting on the gods' side. But, as much as Clarisse could get on Elisa's nerves, spying for Titans didn't seem like her style.
"All right," Percy told her. "I didn't want to bring this up, but you owe me one. You'd be rotting in a Cyclops' cave in the Sea of Monsters if it weren't for me."
The daughter of Ares clenched her jaw. "Any other favor, Percy, but not this. The Ares Cabin has been dissed too many times. And don't think I don't know what people say about me behind my back."
Elisa looked away. Even if it was true, it was still cruel to talk behind someone's back.
"So what now?" Elisa spoke up. "You're just going to let Kronos kill all of us because your pride's wounded?"
"If you want my help so much, Elisa, go tell Apollo to give us the chariot."
"I ain't doing that," the daughter of Dionysus said, shaking her head. "You know what they'd do to me."
"You're a big ass baby," Percy said, frowning at the daughter of Ares.
She charged for him but Chris got between them. "Whoa, guys," he said. "Clarisse, you know, maybe they got a point."
She sneered at her boyfriend. "Not you too!"
Clarisse trudged off with Chris at her heels. "Hey, wait! I just meant—Clarisse, wait!"
"You don't think she's the spy, do you?" Elisa asked Percy.
"No way," the son of Poseidon said. "She's brash, but not that brash. Spying's not her style."
Elisa nodded. "That's what I thought. But I know you really don't like Clarisse, so I figured ..." She shrugged.
Percy rolled his eyes. "Well—thanks, I guess ..."
They were all alone now, the last sparks from Beckendorf's fire curling into the afternoon sky behind them. Elisa rubbed her arm, staring at it with sad eyes.
"I'm going to check on Mrs. O'Leary," Percy said suddenly, "you wanna come with?"
Elisa's eyebrows furrowed briefly before she gave him a single nod. Hopefully checking up on the only friendly hellhound would distract her mind from everything that was going down in flames around her.
👑 JAN. 28TH, 2023 / remember in the last chapter when i said updates might take longer bc i struggle to write for tlo🧍♀️
here's a double update LMAOO
in my defense there's no battle sequences yet and that's what i struggle writing with
anyways,, thoughts?? opinions??