-𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 8-
𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔤𝔬𝔡𝔰 𝔱𝔞𝔨𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔦𝔯 𝔣𝔬𝔬𝔡
'When the fire burns rose, two souls born on the same hour face betrayal and sow great misfortune
Alike, yet far apart, they reunite with what is theirs and bring forth row above
It shall be when secret family, despair in the realm will unleash suffering and behold the return of balance
And shall hold the earth in their hands when son of Hermes Reap'
Nicholas stared blankly at Annabeth, blinking repeatedly in silence as he took in what she'd just said. Next to him, Paige gulped and drew in a deep breath.
Percy watched the twins, anxiously awaiting their responses.
"Can you say that again? Slowly, this time," the McCallister boy asked with squinted eyes.
The blond sighed, "I knew I should've just waited for Luke to tell you."
He shook his head adamantly, "no, I don't think that's the problem. The problem is, you're speaking in riddles and I don't remember anything you just said."
She knitted her brows at him.
Paige frowned.
"If that's Luke's prophecy, why do you know it?"
Annabeth shrugged slightly, almost carelessly at that. She didn't seem to be all that interested in any of it, but deep down, she wanted to know what it meant just as much as them.
"Everyone at camp knows it. He heard it basically as soon as he arrived. Every time siblings came in, he always asked the same question. Eventually, people started asking him why."
The brunette nodded slowly.
She glanced at her brother, who was mouthing something. Probably trying to repeat the prophecy. It didn't look like it was going very well.
"Do you know what it means?"
"No."
"No?"
"No."
Huffing, the twin crossed her arms over her chest. She hated being left in the dark.
Percy pushed his tongue against his cheek, wondering what to say. It didn't matter though, because apparently the blond was done with the conversation anyway.
"I've got training to do. Dinner's at 7:30. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall." Then she turned to face the black-haired boy sceptically, looking him up and down like she was scanning him for anything potentially threatening. "You need to talk to the Oracle."
"What?"
She rolled her cold, grey eyes.
"Not what. Who, I'll ask Chiron."
As she spoke about her parents, how she was the daughter of Athena, and her dad was a professor, and talking about the undetermined kids in the Hermes cabin, he couldn't help but watch as the twins listened intently.
Or, Paige listened intently.
Nicholas seemed to be in his own world, looking out into the distance with furrowed brows and chewing his bottom lip.
Whatever he was thinking about must've been interesting.
He felt bad.
These kids, the same age as him, find out about Gods and everything, and then are told they'll hold the world in their hands. Oh, and also bring misfortune, arguments and despair.
On their first day.
Is this what would happen to him?
Is he part of a huge prophecy too?
"So, we're stuck here then," Paige muttered under her breath, glancing down at the ground.
She thought about her dad.
Would she ever see him again? Did she even want to?
And this whole Luke's 'prophecy' thing...
Would they get hurt?
Was it true?
She looked up again at Annabeth's voice. Her heartbeat slowed slightly, and the creases in her forehead loosened.
Wait.
What?
"It depends. Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we re old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off."
Even with the dark, foreboding words the spoke, the brunette couldn't look away from the blond. She shook the thought away.
She didn't even know this girl.
No way her voice would calm her down like that.
That's stupid.
Must be shock or something.
"A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."
Percy nodded to himself. "So monsters can't get in here?"
Again, the pair watched her as she explained everything: borders, year-rounders, Olympus, the reason she thought the Gods were fighting.
Apparently something had been stolen.
They wondered what...
A lingering smell of bbq wafted around the air, and she didn't fail to hear the growling of their stomachs.
"Go back to the cabin. I'll catch you later."
Percy agreed, glancing at Paige briefly, as if to ask 'are you coming?'
She smiled at him, nodding.
The girl turned to face her twin, only to see an empty space where he used to sit.
Panic struck in her heart, looking around with wide eyes, Percy doing the same once he realised what had happened.
"Don't worry. He walked off five minutes ago. Nothing can hurt him. Go back to cabin 11, he'll probably be there."
Trying to calm down, she followed the Jackson boy back to the Hermes Cabin, hoping to find her brother.
But he wasn't there.
However, someone else was.
And her curiosity got the better of her.
She'd find him later, she told herself, making herself feel better.
"Stole you guys some sleeping bags and toiletries from the camp store," a tall, muscly boy came over to them, a perky grin on his face. His blue eyes set on Paige, then to the empty space next to her. She assumed he was looking for Nicholas.
"Thanks," Percy said, forcing a smile back.
"No prob." Luke sat down, gesturing for them to do the same and pushed his back against the wall. The McCallister did first, wanting to know about the prophecy. Percy followed her lead. "Tough first day?"
Half-heartedly, the black-haired boy shrugged. "I don't belong here," he said. "I don't even believe in gods."
"Yeah. That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."
Paige frowned upon hearing the bitterness in his voice.
Somehow, she'd always believed in God. Or, Gods. She believed someone must've been up there, keeping an eye on things.
And now she was being told they were real?
Epic.
"So your dad is Hermes?" she asked, hoping if she asked enough questions, he'd start talking about the elephant in the room.
He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and f scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."
"The wing-footed messenger guy," Percy interjected, trying to get a sense of everything.
"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."
Looking over, Paige noticed her friend looking a bit... rejected?
Then again, Luke had just called them nobodies...
"You ever meet your dad?"
"Once."
They waited eagerly, waiting for him to tell the story, but he didn't. Instead, he smiled. It was sort of eerie, how much he seemed to do it. "Don't worry about it. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."
Percy nodded, taking in a deep breath before asking what'd been on his mind.
"Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth, twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"
Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."
At the word, the girl perked up.
Maybe this was her chance to ask.
But before she could open her mouth, the green-eyed boy interrupted again.
"What do you mean?"
"Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."
"Somebody special?"
"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinner time." A loud conch shell horn blew from somewhere in the camp. "Eleven, fall in!"
Paige pursed her lips, refusing to leave without answers.
As the counsellor waited for everyone, around twenty kids, to leave and start their walk to the mess hall, she stayed behind, telling Percy to keep going.
Once everyone had gone, Luke turned around, expecting to find it empty, but instead seeing the twelve-year-old girl there.
She had a determined look on her face, waiting for him to speak first.
"Where's your brother? I kind of wanted to talk to both of you."
He watched as her eyes faltered to the ground, almost guiltily. Like she'd forgotten him?
"He wandered off. Probably tried to find something else to do. This isn't really his thing." Luke nodded, knowingly almost. "What do you think the prophecy means? The one about us..."
He gulped, but didn't seem shocked she knew.
"Annabeth told you, didn't she?"
"After Clarisse said something about it. She wanted to wait for you to tell us but-"
"I know. It's important for you to know. I just didn't want to scare you off on your first day. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to hear."
Paige sighed, uncrossing her arms for her chest.
"Do you have any idea what it could mean?"
Her brown eyes scanned his facial expression as he thought what to say.
It was nearly completely stoic.
Nearly.
His lips twitched slightly.
Like he was about to smile.
Or laugh?
That couldn't be right.
"I have a few. I think it has to do with whoever your godly parent is. Which side are they?"
"Mom's."
He hummed, thinking deeply. Then a huge grin broke out on his face as though he'd just realised the best thing he could've.
But he didn't let her in on what she knew.
And maybe if she hadn't been so deep in thought about what this prophecy could mean, she would've noticed how weird it was that he didn't tell her.
"Come on, we can talk after dinner. Maybe your brother will be there."
She trailed after him to the hall, like a lost little puppy.
And still... Nicholas was nowhere to be seen.
Not on the Hermes table, not by Annabeth or Percy.
As she glanced up at the table at the head of the hall, where the 'teachers' sat, she saw Chiron by his lonesome.
Yet his gaze was purely on her.
She swallowed deeply, seeing the knowing look in his eyes.
Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"
Luke gestured for her to take a seat on table 11, next to Percy as he sat opposite them.
Wood nymphs came around with platters of food, and she looked at her empty glass.
"Speak to it. Whatever you want- non-alcoholic, of course."
Percy asked for cherry coke, and it appeared in the glass like magic.
Well, she guessed it was magic.
Then, he changed his mind and said, "blue cherry coke." At his command, it changed colour.
Hesitantly, she said pepsi, and it appeared just like his.
Wow.
"Here you go, " Luke said, handing them a platter of smoked brisket.
Paige looked down at it, suddenly not feeling all that hungry.
Still, she piled her plate up to the brim, and noticed everyone standing up and carrying their plates toward the fire in the centre of the pavilion.
"Come on," Luke spoke quietly, as if not to disturb the calm atmosphere around them.
As they got closer, the pair saw everyone dropping their food into the fire. Not all of it, just portions.
The best looking portions.
"Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."
"You're kidding."
Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of grapes. "Hermes."
Percy was next, he looked at the fire and made a silent plea, before scraping a slice of brisket into the flames and walking away to sit back down.
Paige went up after him, pushing most of her plate into the flames.
She frowned at the sight.
Why do they make offers to the gods if the gods don't even claim half their kids?
Either way, she continued scraping off the food, unconsciously making a small prayer herself.
'Please... claim me. Claim Nik. He needs it.'
As she sat back down, her mind wandered off.
How could she have just forgotten about her twin so easily?
He used to be the only thing she thought about.
And then he disappears for five minutes and all she cares about is the stupid prophecy about them?
Gods.
How could she?
thanks for reading!!!