Lea smiled to herself when she saw Percy's side of the cabin had shifted to accommodate Tyson. There was also now a divider in the cabin that gave her some makeshift privacy. She enjoyed it very much as she changed into camp attire.
(She was very thankful for the friendship that she had with Drew because that highlighter orange shirt was hideous. The pastel orange shirt actually brought out the different shades of green in her eyes.)
And then she made her way around the camp to look for her brother.
The camp was a lot different than what it was last summer. Less summer-campish and more militia as most of them walked grimly past and carried on with their duties-running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels.
It sorts of reminded her of the few military schools she had been kicked out of, and she had half the mind to check to make sure that her hair was in regulation.
Drew joined her about halfway through. "Apparently, Chiron is gone. He got fired."
"Guess this is what he meant when he said a change of management."
If anyone had asked her just hours ago how she felt about it, Lea would have smiled and said good riddance. Now, however, after the run in with the creepy new camp director who looked at her as if he wanted to devour her... well Lea preferred the pervert pony.
"Do you know why," Lea asked.
"Because of Thalia's tree," Drew said, with a nod towards the rotting tree. Lea winced as she thought about it and her heart ached for Luke – even if he was a disgusting traitor — she knew some people went crazy about their so-called soulmates so she could only guess how hard he was taking in whatever evil villain lair he was hiding in. "No one thinks he did it of course, but someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was infuriated, apparently. It makes those thunderstorms all the more ominous."
Lea inwardly rolled her eyes. Thunderstorms were a natural phenomenon and not an overgrown man-child throwing a hissy fit.
"Word is that some of the people in Olympos no longer trust Chiron because of his, you know, circumstances. And Mr. D had to punish someone. It was a punishment of convenience."
"What circumstances?" Lea asked.
Drew looked around almost nervously. "His, um, dad."
Lea blinked, a little confused wondering what his dad had to do with anything and then—She remembered that Chiron said that her supposed Father was his brother and the myths said nothing about Rheia dating anyone else after her husband got chopped and screwed.
His old man was Kronos?
Lea thinks she remembers something about that. Kronos was cheating on his wife and was sleeping with some nymph in his horse form and then Rheia almost found them, so he took off and the nymph gave birth sometime later and ditched the kid.
Child abandonment was just prominent in this "immortal" family, huh.
"Well, what's the poison used on the tree? Can't they just call like the gardener of gods and have them fix it up? Who's the local herbalist or herbologists? What's even the difference in that?"
"Herbologists primarily study medicinal plants while herbalists practice the use of medicinal plants for promoting healing in other people. And the best in the field aside from Lord Apollo and his healing retinue is Chiron and well..."
"Well, what?"
Drew shook her head sadly. "The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld, Lea. Some venom even Chiron has never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."
"Then we know who's responsible. Kro-"
"Do not invoke the titan lord's name, idiot. Especially not here, not now."
"Fine then. PawPaw Dicey had the idea and had any of the little runaways do it."
Drew snorted at the name. "Still, Chiron can't cure the poison, nor did he keep it from happening. And someone had to be punished especially since this would be something that kept Luke on the other side and unable to be convinced to turn on the enemy."
Lea grimaced. And her Mother wondered why she wanted nothing to do with this fantasy land.
"The tree has only a few weeks of life left. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison and it—oh. Nevermind."
"Don't do that," Lea whined. "You can't just do that."
"I thought you didn't believe in our religion," Drew mocked.
"I don't," Lea stated vehemently. "But if we can find whatever that is, then we can get Chancellor Neighsay back and the knockoff Judge Frollo can go back to wherever he came from."
"No, I don't think I'll tell you," the girl snickered.
Lea pouted almost dangerously. "Tanaka Aeriiahhhh!" The younger girl slapped her over Lea's mouth and dragged her behind the camp store. Lea pushed her away, a snap of mageia sounding between the two. "What the hell?"
Drew rolled her eyes, looking around them to make sure no one had seen them. "Listen, Leaneira, you're not the only one with a boundary about their name. Here and even at school, Drew Tanaka is a brand. It's a title. It's the next Tony Stark except for fashion instead of tech. Tanaka Aeri is for friends and family only and honestly, only like three of my siblings here know it. Mother does not even call me Aeri nor does Eros and he was my godly babysitter at one point."
"Eros?"
"Most people refer to him as Cupid," Drew said wryly.
Lea blinked. "Your babysitter was a baby?" The whole diaper and arrows thing was all she could think about. Was it like modern diapers or did he just tie his toga under him with a giant pin? How big was a godly baby because she somehow doubted that they were 7 ponds and 8 ounces.
Drew snorted. "Yes and no. On occasion, he does prefer a more childlike appearance. You wouldn't believe the stuff he got away with because he looked like a brat. But like all gods, he can appear whatever age he wants. Though, whenever Anteros came around, he was usually stuck in his more adult-like appearance."
"Anteros?"
A teasing smile came onto her face. "Now that one is moreso your brother."
And here, she scowled as she turned away. Lea had only one brother, thank you very much. But— "How?"
"There was this sea-god. Nerites, I believe. Your stepuncle." Lea grimaced. Honestly, could they stop? "Anyway, he was your dad's lover and a friend of my mom. He was also your dad's charioteer. Your dad and Nerites loved each other and thus, Anteros was born."
"Did his sister... my, um, stepmother get revenge? Because honestly, if someone I was dating decided to start messing around with Percy then I'm knocking both of their heads together like bowling pins."
As much as she refused to acknowledge the thing between her and Hermes, she could not deny that she would rain hell if he turned his attention to Percy. One because her brother deserved better than a two-timing slimy ba— ahem. Two because Lea did not like sharing at all. A cause of censure growing up between her and Percy whenever she did not want to share the toys that had been bought for them both.
Drew shook her head, leading them back out into camp proper. "No, when Mother was invited to Olympos, she wanted Nerites to go with her but he scorned her and he apparently challenged Helios, the god of the sun, to a race and lost. Mother and Helios decided that he would do much better as a slow moving shell-fish."
Lea snorted. Shellfish were aphrodisiacs and some of them fed through photosynthesis. How ironic.
A conch horn blew across the valley. Lea and Drew blinked as they realized how late it was. It made sense though. They had got there around lunch and relaxed in her cabin for awhile with Ethan and Alabaster. The boys had split from them after they hid to go finish the duties they had for their cabin. But now it was time for the campers to assemble for dinner.
Lea and Drew split off near the dining pavilion as the campers came up from their cabins. The younger girl had paused to check her appearance to make sure not a hair was out of place before branching off to join her siblings.
The daughter of Sally Jackson leaned against one of the columns watching the other kids walk in. She inwardly grimaced because it really was like those military schools. They were all grim-faced with bags under their eyes.
Percy's friend, the blonde girl, Anna something walked in with her "siblings". The so-called children of Athena and Lea was still calling bullshit on that. A dozen boys and girls and non-binaries that were blonde and grey-eyed just like she was.
The girl looked constipated, and Lea hoped for her "siblings" sake that she didn't eat anything gassy.
There was that Clarisse girl. Drew had told her one night back at school that if any of them was the most like what their parents appeared to be then, Clarisse was a dead ringer. Powerful and strong, and sure of herself, but there was a vulnerability there. Something about her Father being the god of manliness and courage and the opposite qualities–fear, terror and cowardice.
Lea didn't really care, but Drew was coming up with all types of plans to get her to accept her hair care products. Drew saw her as some sort of godly stepsibling since her Mother was dating Clarisse's Father, Ares. Though with how long it's been, they were more than likely married now.
Clarisse had one arm in a sling and a nasty-looking gash on her cheek. Someone had taped a piece of paper to her back that said, YOU MOO, GIRL! But nobody in her cabin was bothering to tell her about it.
Lea was disgusted at the bullying that went on at this camp also. She seriously wondered how they got anything done with all the stereotypical bullshit that they did.
After the Ares kids came, the Hephaestus cabin-six guys led by Charles Beckendorf, a big fifteen-year-old African American kid.
He was nice enough once you got to know him, but no one ever called him Charlie or Chuck or Charles. Most just called him Beckendorf. Lea was halfway in love with him. And for that reason alone, she almost allowed him to call her by a nickname, but then her mark flared to life and though she couldn't see the green-eyed bastard, she knew he was around and he was green-eyed for something that had nothing to do with biology.
The other cabins filed in: Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus. Naiads came up from the canoe lake— and they had an annoying habit of calling her their princess and if they did not stop, they could give her a complex, just saying. Dryads melted out of the trees. From the meadow came a dozen satyrs.
After the satyrs filed into dinner, the Hermes cabin brought up the rear. They were the biggest cabin. Lea shivered every time she saw them knowing that at least half of them were technically her stepchildren. Something that was incredibly irritating as the two cabin leaders, Travis and Connor Stoll, were the same age as her. Travis was only a year older than her by months after all.
As soon as the last campers had filed in, Lea followed behind them, turning when the conversations stopped around her.
"Who invited that?" somebody at the Apollo table murmured. Percy was with Tyson who Drew and Ethan had kindly informed her was her brother through her Father.
(Though, the only sibling that she was willing to acknowledge was Percy.)
From the head table a familiar voice drawled, "Well, well, if it isn't Peter and Laura Johnson. My millennium is complete."
Lea sniffed, turning back to her seat. Someone was just demoted from DILF.
"Percy Jackson ... sir."
Mr. D sipped his Diet Coke. "Yes. Well, as you young people say these days: Whatever."
Lea took her seat and found herself appreciative of the leopard-pattern Hawaiian shirt, walking shorts, and tennis shoes with black socks. He had a beer belly and blotchy red face, and it was much better than the half-naked, unfairly pretty, long and curly "rich-haired" stunningly androgynous with eyes that burned as brightly as purple neon lights.
It was unfair how hot they all were and she could see why people worshiped them. But Lea was not about to fake it with the rest of the campers to fit in with Hermes or his family. Tuh! It never gave orphan.
Next to him, where Chiron usually sat (or stood, in centaur form), was that Tantalus dude that was an even bigger pervert than any of Gabe's old friends. He had blue shadows under his eyes, dirty fingernails, and badly cut gray hair, like his last haircut had been done with a weed whacker. It was probably the lightning bolt that he got hit with when he stole from the gods and tried to feed them his son.
Cannibalism was also something worrisome in that family and Lea was a little worried about what that meant for her. She had better not start craving brains or she was out. She was done!
He stared at Lea; his eyes made her sick. He looked ... famished. Angry and frustrated and hungry all at the same time.
Disgusting.
Pedophile.
"This boy," Dionysus told him, "you need to watch. One of Poseidon's children, you know."
"Ah!" the pervert said. "That one."
"I am Tántalos," the prisoner said, smiling coldly. "On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble."
"Trouble?" Percy demanded.
Dionysos snapped his fingers. A newspaper appeared on the table-the front page of today's New York Post. Lea didn't even want to know what it said, but she hoped that the gods could sprinkle a little fairy dust up there so that they could stay at the school.
"Yes, trouble," Tántalos said with satisfaction. "You caused plenty of it last summer, I understand."
"Trouble," Lea snorted when it was obvious that Percy was too mad to speak. "Somehow it's our fault that Father and Uncle almost went to war? We never asked to be born nor did we ask to be a part of your little fantasy world."
"Ahhh and you are?"
"Out of your league," she sniffed. "Pervert."
Before he could say anything else, a satyr inched forward nervously and set a plate of barbecue in front of Tántalos. The new activities director licked his lips. He looked at his empty goblet and said, "Root beer. Barq's special stock. 1967."
The glass filled itself with foamy soda. Tántalos stretched out his hand hesitantly, as if he were afraid the goblet was hot.
"Go on, then, old fellow," Dionysos said, a strange sparkle in his eyes. "Perhaps now it will work."
Tántalos grabbed for the glass, but it scooted away before he could touch it. A few drops of root beer spilled, and Tántalos tried to dab them up with his fingers, but the drops rolled away like quicksilver before he could touch them.
Lea snickered as he growled and turned toward the plate of barbecue. He picked up a fork and tried to stab a piece of brisket, but the plate skittered down the table and flew off the end, straight into the coals of the brazier.
"Blast!" Tántalos muttered.
"Ah, well," Dionysos said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."
"Eventually," muttered Tántalos, staring at Dionysus's Diet Coke. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years?"
"You're that spirit from the Fields of Punishment," Percy said. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink."
Tántalos sneered at her brother. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"
"You must've done something really horrible when you were alive," Percy said, mildly impressed. "What was it?"
Tántalos' eyes narrowed. Behind him, the satyrs were shaking their heads vigorously, trying to warn him.
"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson," Tántalos said. "I don't want any problems at my camp."
"Your camp has problems already ... sir."
"Nor is it your camp," Lea purred, walking over to the brazier. "Just like the ambrosia you stole, eh?"
Tántalos' eyes flared and Lea blinked innocently at him. She'd be damned before she let some bottom-feeder pick on her brother.
"Oh, go sit down, Johnson," Dionysus sighed.
"Come on, Tyson." Percy said.
"Oh, no," Tántalos said. "The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."
"Him," Percy snapped. "His name is Tyson."
"I have an idea," Lea chirped. "How about we stick you back where you belong, and he can be the new camp director."
The new activities director raised an eyebrow, glaring at both of them with his beady little eyes.
"Tyson saved the camp," Percy insisted. "He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise, they would have burned down this whole place."
"Yes," Tántalos sighed, "and what a pity that would've been."
Dionysus snickered. And well, Lea didn't outwardly agree because she and Percy needed to have a united front, but she wouldn't have shed a tear if it was destroyed.
"Leave us," Tántalos ordered, "while we decide this creature's fate."
She rolled her eyes at the pervert and raised a brow when her brother slumped in front of her. He looked horrible and she eyed him as he took his own plate to the bronze brazier.
Tántalos had one of the satyrs blow the conch horn to get their attention for announcements. Hmp. Lucky for Percy because she was going to let him have it for ditching her and the others.
"Yes, well," Tántalos said, once the talking had died down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." As he spoke, he inched his hand toward his refilled dinner plate, as if maybe the food wouldn't notice what he was doing, but it did. It shot away down the table as soon as he got within six inches.
Lea laughed aloud.
"And here on my first day of authority," he continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat."
He leered at Lea as he spoke that last sentence and she felt so disgusted that even a three-hour shower wouldn't be enough to wash away the feel of his eyes.
Dionysos clapped politely, though his eyes burning with fury the more the pervert stared at her, leading to some halfhearted applause from the satyrs. Tyson was still standing at the head table, looking uncomfortable, but every time he tried to scoot out of the limelight, Tántalos pulled him back.
"And now some changes!" Tántalos gave the campers a crooked smile. "We are reinstituting the chariot races!"
Murmuring broke out at all the tables-excitement, fear, disbelief.
"Now I know," Tántalos continued, raising his voice, "that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."
"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," someone at the Apollo table called.
"Yes, yes!" Tántalos said. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days' time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"
"But, sir!" Clarisse said. She looked nervous, but she stood up to speak from the Ares table. Some of the campers snickered when they saw the YOU MOO, GIRL! sign on her back. Assholes. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop every-thing to ready our chariots-"
"Ah, the hero of the day," Tántalos exclaimed. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!"
Clarisse blinked, then blushed. "Um, I didn't-"
"And modest, too." Tántalos grinned. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy our-selves, yes?"
"But the tree-"
"And now," Tántalos said, as several of Clarisse's cabin mates pulled her back into her seat, "before we proceed to the campfire and sing-along, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." Tántalos waved a hand toward Tyson.
Uneasy murmuring spread among the campers. A lot of sideways looks at her brother and she glared right back.
"Now, of course," he said, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"
Silence at the Hermes table. Travis and Connor Stoll developed a sudden interest in the tablecloth. Lea sniffed. Her cabin had already made room for Tyson. It didn't matter what that creep said.
"Come now," Tántalos chided. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"
Suddenly, everybody gasped.
Tántalos scooted away from Tyson in surprise. Lea hummed, staring at the glowing green pitchfork.
"It has been determined," Lea announced, standing to her feet. She didn't know it, but her eyes were glowing in the same intensity as the pitchfork. A wide cheshire smile filled with mischief and cruelty lingered within it. In face of that, it was no wonder how she was Hermes' blessing from khaos. "Stormbreaker. Father of Horses. Hail Tyson. Son of the Sea God."
There was a moment of awed silence and Tántalos looked as if he wanted to ring her neck. But he fixed his face and roared with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"
Everybody laughed except the friends that she and Percy made.
Tyson didn't seem to notice. He was too mystified, trying to swat the glowing trident that was now fading over his head. He was too innocent to understand how much they were making fun of him, how cruel people were.
Lea rolled her eyes. Considering Tántalos was still staring at her as if he would take her right on top of the table, he had no room to talk. "Didn't peg you as furry," she muttered. "But I'm sure if you ask nicely, Tyson might peg you."
And with those simple words, the campers stopped laughing with Tántalos to laughing at him.
Good.
They'll all learn to not fuck with her people.
Monsters included.