(Small mention of suicidal thoughts)
Esmeralda woke up to someone poking her in the ear.
"Yo!" She swatted Percy's hand away and he ran away laughing.
"Good morning princess." He said from across the room (where she couldn't slap him). He had a big grin on his face after provoking her.
Em sat up, "good morning asshole." She said, rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"
"Uh, a little after six." Percy said.
"Why'd you wake me up so early, we don't have to be at breakfast till seven." She grumbled. She was always sleepy, it was a natural child of Hades thing.
"So you can get out of here without getting caught." He said, and it was honestly it was pretty smart of him.
"Damn you're kicking me out already? What happened to staying as long as I like." Em joked.
Percy crossed his arms over his chest, "do you really want to get caught walking out of here?"
Though they'd done nothing, Esme still dreaded the idea. She thought of all the things Selina would say if the daughter of Aphrodite caught her sneaking out of the Poseidon cabin in the morning. "Yeah, no."
"Exactly." Percy was still standing on the other side of the cabin.
"Jesus Percy do you really think I'm gonna hit you."
"I don't know, you're grumpy in the morning."
"Well I'm not." She said.
Stupidly, Percy believed her and walked back over to the bed. As soon as he was close enough Esmeralda sprang up, grabbing him by his t-shirt. She threw him onto the bed and smacked him with the nearest pillow.
"You fuckin' lair!"
Esme laughed, "that's for sticking your finger in my ear."
Percy grabbed her and rolled over on the bed, trapping Em underneath him. She tried to push him off but he pinned her down.
"Stuck?" He teased.
"Percy get off me." She tried to fight but it was no use, he was physically stronger than her.
"You lied to me."
"Get over it, you're hurting me." She complained.
"Shit sorry," Percy sat back. Unfortunately a split second later he was smacked in the face with another pillow.
"Yikes, twice in a row."
"I hate you so much." Percy sat up, prepared in case she attacked again. Thankfully she'd decided not to.
"No you don't." Esme laughed and Percy couldn't help but admire the girl in front of him. He was glad that with everything going on around them, he still had her by his side. He hoped that was how it would be forever, or at least a really long time.
Esme noticed his gaze and grew slightly uncomfortable. What was he thinking about when he looked at her like that? "I uh, I should go before someone sees me."
Percy snapped out of his trance. "Oh, yeah."
"Meet me after breakfast, Grover's going to want to know about this." She said, making her way over to the door.
"About you sleeping here?" Percy asked.
Em sighed, "no Percy, the dreams." She reminded.
"Oh! Yeah alrig-" Before Percy could finish Esme closed the door behind her. She then dashed back across camp and into cabin 11 before anyone woke up.
She ended up getting ready quietly, though it was pretty hard to wake the Stoll brothers, she was scared Nico might wake up and start asking her questions. She changed into some blue jeans and a white long sleeve. She even had time to put her hair into two braids. By the time she finished alarms had began to go off and people began to stir.
After breakfast Esme met up with Percy and Grover. They sat in the meadows watching satyrs chase after wood nymphs in the snow. The nymphs promised to kiss the satyrs if they were caught, but they rarely did. Usually the nymphs would give the satyrs a full head start, then turn into a snow covered tree and the poor satyr would slam into it head first while getting dumped with snow.
Percy and Esmeralda took turns telling the different parts of the dream. Apparently they'd had the exact same visions.
"A cave collapsed on her?" Grover asked.
"Yeah, what's that supposed to mean?" Percy questioned.
"I'm not too sure." He looked at Esme. "Isn't that like, your thing?"
"My thing?" She tilted her head slightly in confusion.
"Collapsing caves."
"Oh, um yes. But I've never really tried to do it. There aren't many caves lying around that I can just destroy for practice. And why would I collapse a cave on Annabeth!"
Grover raised his hands in defense. "I'm not saying you do but maybe it has something to do with it!"
Esme's tension subsided, "do you have any idea what it could be about?"
Grover shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure. Especially after the dream Zoe had-"
"Woah wait-" Percy said, "what do you mean, Zoe had the same dream too?"
"I don't know all the details." Said Grover, "but at about three in the morning Zoe came to the big house demanding to talk to Chiron. She seemed pretty upset."
"How do you know this?" Esme asked.
Grover blushed, "I was sort of camped outside the Artemis cabin last night."
"O-oh?" Em turned to Percy discretely. "You didn't happen to see anything else, Grover? At maybe like 12am, I don't know."
Grover thought hard, "I don't think so, no. Why?"
Em let out a breath, "oh it's nothing, just thought I heard something." She was grateful their friend hadn't caught her running towards cabin three in the middle of the night.
"Oh, well anyways. I followed her to the big house and then hid in a bush and watched the whole thing. Argus wouldn't let her in, it was kind of a dangerous scene."
"Well what happened?" Em asked.
"Well, Zoe starts speaking really old fashioned when she gets upset so it was hard to tell. But she mentioned something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the hunters help."
Percy interrupted. "What, how can Artemis be in trouble too?"
"I- well, Chiron finally came out in his pajamas with curlers in his horse tail-"
"He wears curlers?"
Esme tried not to laugh, then tried to cover it up with a cough.
Grover slapped a half over his mouth.
"Sorry," said Percy, "go on."
"Right uh, Zoe said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused and reminded Zoe that the hunters were to stay at camp till further orders from Artemis. And then Zoe asked how were they to get orders if Artemis was lost..." Grover trailed off at the end.
"What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?"
"No not lost, gone, kidnapped."
"What?" Percy tried to wrap his mind around how a goddess could be kidnapped.
"Well I mean it's possible, it happened to Persephone."
"Yeah but she's like, the goddess for flowers."
Both Grover and Em looked offended.
"Springtime." Said Grover.
"And that's my stepmother." Em slapped his shoulder.
"My bad."
Esmeralda rolled her eyes.
Grover shook his head miserably, "still, whoever took Artemis is much more powerful."
Esme looked uneasy, "you guys don't think-"
"There's no way." Percy said. "The last time we saw Kronos he was in a bunch of tiny pieces. He can't be that powerful already?"
Esmeralda shivered remembering her time she spent in the presence of the corrupted titan. Though she hadn't know it, she'd been sitting in a room with him for hours. And the few times she'd been conscious she felt nothing but cold energy. That said a lot coming from a child of Hades. "I hope not," she said.
Percy looked at her, "can't you like sense if he's alive or not?"
She shook her head. "I can sense the dead, not the living." Em turned over a jagged blue rock in her hands. Sapphire, except it wasn't shiny and bright like most people assume. After decades underground, the shiny outer surface is dulled by the dirt. "Besides he's out of my range. Too far away for me to read anything." As she spoke she pressed the blade of her Swiss Army knife into a crack in the stone. It split under the pressure and revealed its shiny insides.
"I think someone would know if Kronos reformed, the gods would be much more nervous." Grover pointed out. "It's strange though, you two having the same dream. And Zoe's too, it's like-"
"They're connected?" Percy said.
"They're connected," I said.
Over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph. She giggled and held out her arms as he ran toward her. Pop! She turned into a Scotch pine and he kissed the trunk at top speed,
"Ah, love," Grover said dreamily.
"Not quite how I would put it." Em mumbled.
"We should talk to Zoe." Percy said.
Esme made a face, "do we have to?" She whined. Her and Zoe tried to stay as far apart from each other as possible. Nothing good ever happened to the other person when they were around. Last time they played capture the flag Zoe had almost shot her, and Silena swore she saw her do it on purpose. So naturally the next time they met Esme summoned a fleet of skeletons to go after her.
"Yes we do, it might help us get Annabeth back."
With those words Esmeralda changed her mind. "Fine."
"We'll find her later, maybe at dinner."
She nodded, "let us know if you hear anything else Grover "
With that, the three went their separate ways. Esme headed towards the stables as that's where Silena spent a lot of her time. Unfortunately, she found the daughter of Aphrodite in a heated argument with a hunter.
"Woah woah, what's going on here." She tried to separate them before things got violent.
"Ugh! Em tell this brainwashed idiot that this camp doesn't belong to the hunters, and they can't just do whatever they what." Silena pulled the reins to a Pegasus out of the hunters arms.
"How about you tell your love sick friend that she doesn't own this camp either, and doesn't get to tell people what to do." The hunter scowled and gripped her bow.
"Alright alright, enough." Em pushed between them. "Let's go Silena she's not worth your time."
Thankfully Silena obliged and turned to exit the stables, Esme trailed close behind her. Unfortunately the hunter couldn't keep her mouth shut, and just had to make a snarky comment. "Brainwashed? The only one who is brainwashed are you children of Aphrodite. Thinking that love concurs all, pft, ridiculous."
Silena clenched her fists in anger but Esme reacted before she could. "Alright listen," she snapped, "you all are starting to piss me off. You walk around all high and mighty because you're immortal and don't like boys or whatever. But honestly, no one fucking cares! So pull that stick out of your ass because not everyone has the same morals. And trust me, you may not be worth Silena's time but I always have a few minutes to spare." Her hand rested on her sword, ready to use it if she had to. Em gave the hunter ten more seconds to reply, when she was met with no comeback she stormed off, Silena close behind her.
"Gods I can't wait for them to leave." Silena murmured.
"Tell me about it. Some of them are so stuck up." She made it appoint to say some, since Bianca seemed to be the only one with sense.
"Hopefully we win capture the flag later so I shove it in one of their faces."
Esme laughed, "damn Lena, I've never seen you so excited for capture the flag."
"I'm only playing in hopes I get to shove a hunter in the dirt."
"That's great, you can take my spot then."
"You're not playing?"
"Definitely not with Percy and Thalia co-captaining." She could practically sense the trouble that was going to come out of that combination. "I love a good game but I'm not going to watch to two of them argue."
"Why didn't you offer to be captain then? I'm sure Percy wouldn't mind taking orders from you." Silena nudged her gently with her elbow.
"Shh- don't say that so loudly. And ew that's kind of kinky." Esme pushed her arm away while trying to hide her smile. "And definitely not. I'm never captain for a reason. And when I am it's always with Annabeth."
"Em that's ridiculous, you love to tell yourself that you can't do things and you never realize how good you'd actually be at them."
She shook her head. "I'm not a captain, much less a leader. I'm a follower, and I'm ok with that. I'm good at taking orders and completing them, why fix whats not broken."
Silena smiled softly. "If that's what you think."
The thing with Silena is she knows more than you think. She'd pretty much taken upon the role as her mother, or an older sister if you will. The first time Esme met Silena was her second year at camp, just before her brother arrived.
Prior to this time period, Esmeralda had been claimed by Hades, giving her a bit of a reputation. People looked at her like she was some sort of freak outcast. Or that she might kill them with a glare. No one ever got close enough to realize they were wrong, except for Annabeth and Luke of course.
This one afternoon Esmeralda was sitting by herself near the beach. It was a nice day out so most campers did the same. They'd gather their friend groups and sit in little pods near the water. Not too far to Esme's right was a group of maybe six girls, all children of Aphrodite. She'd been minding her business when all of a sudden a cloud of shade began to loom over her. She turned around to see what had blocked the sun light and found herself face to face six girls.
All of Aphrodite's children a stunning, however the expressions these girls had on their faces made Esme want to run and hide. One girl stood front and center of the friend group. Drew Tanaka, a drop dead gorgeous, manipulative, little bitch whose insides were no where near as pretty as her outsides.
Drew stared at her, "hm," her lips turned downward into some sort of disgusted frown.
Em tensed, desperately trying to make herself smaller. "Is something the matter?"
Drew crossed an arm over her chest and propped her other under her chin. "Yes actually, there's a huge issue here."
Esmeralda looked around in confusion, nothing seemed strikingly alarming. "Where?"
Drew scoffed, "where?" She mocked, looking at her friends she smiled, "she totally clueless. Poor thing." Her friends laughed, Esme didn't know what was funny.
Clutching her knees into her chest Em wished Luke or Annabeth would show up right about now. Unfortunately, neither of them did, and she was left to fend for herself.
Returning her attention to Em, Drew began to grow impatient. "Are you really just going to sit there?"
"I- what do you want me-"
"I- I- I" Drew mocked, "I don't recall inviting you to sit with us, freak."
A few of the girls snickered and the name, another girl picked up her shoe, kicking dirt and rocks towards Em's face.
"But I'm not." She said, wiping away dirt.
"Oh but you are. This is our spot, and you're sitting in it."
"Ok fine, I'm not really sure what makes this your spot but whatever, I'll leave." She moved to stand up, just wanting to get as far away from them as possible.
"No don't leave, I'm having so much fun." Drew whined, "can't you like do something for us?"
"What?" Em mumbled.
A blonde girl next to Drew piped up. "A trick, didn't your dad give you any cool powers."
"Do I look like a circus monkey to you?"
"Oh come on, don't tell me that the child of the big three has no powers, show us something."
Drew was right at the time. Esme hadn't learned to shadow travel and she hadn't even know about summoning the dead.
"No, it's not happening." She tried to leave but one of Drew's friends grabbed her by the shoulders. "Let go of me!"
The girl looked at Drew, "what do you want to do with her?"
Drew shrugged, "push her."
Without a second thought the girl pushed Esmeralda backwards. She lost her balance and splashed into the water behind her. Everyone's heads turned towards the loud splash, finding Esme, drenched from head to toe.
She wanted nothing more than to sink back under the water, suffocate, and never have to see anyone ever again. But she couldn't, instead she stood, shivering in her soaked clothes and Drew and her friends laughed.
"Drew!" Someone shouted over the laughter.
Drew's head snapped towards the sound. A few yards behind her stood Silena Beauregard, the Aphrodite cabin counselor.
The laugher instantly died down as Silena walked around them, getting a closer look at Esme. "Drew, care to explain?" Silena's tone was laced with authority.
"I- um..."
Look who's stuttering now?
"Go, now. You've all done enough." Silena demanded.
The girls quickly scurried away, leaving Silena and Esme with practically the entire camp staring at them.
"Nothing to see here." Silena said, "mind your business."
Without hesitation everyone looked away, returning to whatever nonsense they'd been doing before.
Silena turned to Esme, "are you ok?"
Course she wasn't ok, she felt violated and humiliated. "I guess."
"Come here, we'll get you cleaned up."
Em hesitated, Silena noticed.
"I don't bite I promise. I'm much nicer than most of my sisters. Emerald, right."
A soft smile took place on Em's face. "Esmeralda."
From that point forward Silena had taken on the role as her older sister. She was sort of like a safety net. Whenever Esme left down or upset, Silena was always there to break her fall and comfort her.
~
Later one in the evening campers gathered together to play capture the flag against the hunters. Esme stood near her brother as she helped Nico put on his armor.
"So you're really not playing?" The older Beckendorf sibling asked.
"Nope," she pulled the straps on Nico's armor as tight as she could. The breast plate was still way too large but it would have to do.
"Well we're cooked." Charlie said, accepting defeat.
"Good luck," she said, "you'll need it with those two. She shoved a thumb behind her towards Percy and Thalia. They seemed to be conversing perfectly civilized at the moment, but Em knew it wouldn't last.
"I'll take the offense," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense."
"Oh." Percy hesitated, because he'd been about to say the exact same thing, only reversed. "Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better defense?"
Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even their own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa. "Well, I was thinking it would make better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense."
Percy wasn't sure if she was teasing him. He'd had some pretty bad experiences with defense on capture the flag. His first year, Annabeth and Esme had put him out as a kind of bait, and he'd almost been gored to death with spears and killed by a hellhound.
"Yeah, no problem," he lied.
"Cool." Thalia said.
"I'll take Beckendorf, Nico and Esme with me." Percy said.
"Oh," Thalia raised her brows slightly. "I was actually going to take Esme with me, you know she's got a whole skeleton army she's pretty good offense."
Percy fumed slightly at the sound of Esmeralda's nickname on Thalia's tongue. "The skeletons also make good defense, given that they do whatever she tells them to."
So much for civilized. Esme decided it was time for her to step in.
She stepped in between the two. "Um actually, Esme's not going anywhere."
Thalia looked at her in confusion, when she noticed the girls lack of armor she seemed to understand. "Where's your armor?"
"Don't need it." Em pressed her lips together.
"Why?" Percy asked.
"I'm not playing." She explained.
Thalia snorted, "haha very funny. Go get your armor your on offense with me." Thalia tried to end the conversation but Esmeralda didn't let her leave.
"No, Thalia. I said I'm not playing."
"You're serious? Esme come on we'll loose without you."
"Yes I am serious. And it's Em to you, not Esme."
Before the daughter of Zeus could argue further another voice stepped in. "She said she's not playing, Thalia." Beckendorf said.
The two weren't that close, Charlie was extremely thankful for Thalia since without her Em probably would have died out on her own when she was younger. But that didn't give Thalia the right to boss her around. "She made her choice, don't push it." He warned.
Thalia's electric blue eyes met her dark ones. Esme wasn't a little kid anymore, and Thalia needed to wrap her head around that.
Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor gathering their attention. "Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team—Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"
Thalia sent one last glare towards Esme before shouting. "Blue team! Follow me!" The team cheered and followed.
Before Percy could follow Esme grabbed his arm, pulling him back. She leaned up on her tippy toes and planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Be careful, those hunters aren't too fond of you." She said with a soft smile.
"Gah- I- yeah... I will." He struggled to respond, like a spell had been casted upon him.
Esme bit her lip to hold in her laughter. "Go, Seaweed brain." She urged.
Percy snapped back to reality. "Right, sorry."
He had to run to catch up, and tripped over somebody's shield in the process. Looking more like a blushing idiot than a co-captain.
He caught up and found Thalia barking order. "Anything to add Percy."
Percy thought for a second as everyone looked at him. He was still slightly frazzled and didn't really know what to say. "Uh- keep a sharp defense and yell if you need any help."
"And don't leave your post." Thalia added.
"Yeah, unless you see a golden opportunity." Percy said.
"Just stay at your post." She insisted.
"Yeah but-"
"Everyone clear?" Thalia cut him off, turning to the rest of the team.
They all nodded and dispersed before Percy could say another word. Heading to their post Percy tried to clear his mind and focus. Thalia was easy to push out of his mind, but Esme on the other hand.
"Percy?" Nico piped up, "why are your cheeks so red?"
Percy felt his face, not realizing a blush had spread across his face once again.
Beckendorf chuckled. "It's cause he's whipped." He said.
"Am not, man." Percy tried to hide his face till the blush faded.
Charlie smiled and raised his hands in surrender, "hey man, I'm cool with it. Long as you don't hurt her, then we've got a problem."
"It's really not like that it's just-" Percy actually wasn't sure what it was.
"Yeah, right."
Near the creek, Esme stood waiting with a few others, waiting anxiously to see who would win. Esme was surprised she hadn't heard a loud explosion by now. Maybe Thalia and Percy had worked it out.
A few seconds later she heard a cry for help and saw Percy running towards the creek, a silver flag waving in his hand. For a moment she thought he was going to make it, but a moment later an arrow whizzed past him a silvery cord trailed behind it, wrapping around a near by tree. Before Percy could react he tripped and fell face first into the snow.
"Percy!" Thalia yelled, "what are you doing?"
Before she could reach him another arrow zipped past. This time, a sickly yellow gas began to explode from it. The smell of sulfur filled their senses, temporarily stunning them.
"No fair!" Thalia gasped for air, "Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike."
Percy didn't let the gas stop him. He stood up and began running again. On the other side of the creek he caught of glimpse of Nico and Beckendorf running towards him. For a second he thought they were welcoming him. Then he realized they were chasing someone. Zoe Nightshade. And she had their flag.
Percy sped up his pace, only a few yards from the creek. He was only two feet away when Zoe bolted across to her own side, slamming into Percy for good measure. The hunters cheered and Zoe stood, holding up the flag proudly.
"The hunters win!" Chiron announced, "for the fifty-sixth time in a row."
Esme walked towards Percy, "are you alri-" she didn't get to finish because Thalia started screaming.
"PERSEUS JACKSON!" She stormed up to him in rage as blue sparks flicked off her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all his willpower not to cower.
"What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" She bellowed.
Percy balled his fists. He'd had enough bad stuff happen to him for one day. He didn't need this. "I got the flag, Thalia!" He shook it in her face. "I saw a chance and I took it!"
"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."
"You had too many on you!"
"Oh, so it's my fault?"
"I didn't say that."
"Argh!" Thalia pushed him, and a shock went through him body that blew him backward ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs.
"Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to—"
Anger roared in his ears. A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe. Percy stood up. "Yeah," he growled. "I didn't mean to, either."
Thalia held out her spear, breathing heavily. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?" Somehow, it was okay when Esme called him that—at least, he'd gotten used to it but hearing it from Thalia was not cool.
"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"
Percy raised Riptide, but someone grabbed his arm, pulling it back down. "Percy enough." Esme pleaded.
Failing to notice her, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod. Without second thought she slammed the spear forward. And though her intentions were to hit Percy, she came up short and ended up shoving the rod against Esmeralda's chest.
She screamed and flew backwards upon impact. She landed in the creek, her body limp and motionless.
Thalia stood in horror, her spear fell to the ground. Her face turned sickeningly pale as she clamped a shaky hand over her mouth. Percy turned to her in rage, his mind went completely blank and all he saw was red. He was about to pounce on her when Chiron yelled.
"Enough!" He bellowed.
Hunters and campers gasped. Beckendorf ran forward towards his sister, pulling her out of the water. He pressed his ear to her chest, the entire camp remained silent, waiting for him to say something.
"She's breathing." Though he let out a sigh of relief, is eyes pooled with anger as he glared at Thalia. "Let's get her to the infirmary, now!"
4752 Words
Authors note
This shi long as hell my hands are cramping. I feel like so much is going on in here but it was too little to split into two chapters so you get one big one. Also wanted to say thank you for all the reads, votes, and comments. Your feedback means so much to me so pls as always let me know what you thought. (Also I changed a few things aesthetic wise so if you go to the very fist chapter you'll see I changed some things :))
I did not proof read this if u see a mistake leave a comment I'll fix it, thx!
- Your Mystery Girl ★