It was now evening, and everyone was ready to celebrate, right at the stroke of midnight, Persephone's return.
Lizzy wasn't thrilled at the thought, she'd never liked campfire parties, or maybe she just hated how at any moment she suddenly found herself alone.
The bonfire was already lit, and the half-bloods were starting to arrive, but Lizzy couldn't see her friends, what were the chances that she would find herself alone from the start?
Not that it caused her much of a problem, right? She had her brothers, yeah a bunch of kids who would soon disappear into the crowd to go have fun with others.
It was almost a twist of fate, why the hell had Apollo welcomed Asteria's daughter into his cabin? He was the sun, her mother the stars, day and night, a stark contrast.
Lizzy lacked solar energy that her 'brothers',who weren't even really her brothers, had.
She was sure she looked like a zombie or something when she walked out of the cabin after sleeping the entire afternoon.
When she finished a book in a day without ever putting it down just to escape from reality.
When she refused her brothers' requests to go out by making excuses and then was devoured by remorse.
And when, like today, she was left alone at a table and felt completely out of place.
Feeling out of place was routine.
She saw all her brothers.
Always able to understand each other with just a glance, always together, good at the same things, and as cheerful as ever,some more, some less, but each in their own way.
99% of the boys in the cabin mirrored a son of Apollo perfectly.
The 1% didn't reflect their father at all.
Where was Lizzy in all this?
Maybe somewhere between that 99% and that 1%,or perhaps completely far from being expressed in a percentage.
She didn't look like a child of Apollo,she wasn't a daughter of Apollo,but she could feel a connection to him, perhaps just her imagination.
She wanted to talk to him, to ask why on earth he had claimed her in his cabin,but she was just a girl.
He was a god.
What could it matter to him?
Why would he waste his time on her?
The girl, who had been alone all evening, stared at the can of coke in front of her, still half full.
There was no one to share it with.
Besides, she had had enough of caffeine for that day.
Enough to not feel sleepy, yet Lizzy kept telling her brain that her eyes were burning because she needed to sleep.
It wasn't a clear threat of tears pricking her eyes.
She wasn't that weak.
She just needed to lie down somewhere in the camp and look at the stars,her home,her mother.
Remembering the constellations helped chase the thoughts away.
It kept her mind busy, away from whatever her past,her future,and her present were.
Only her, the stars and Zeffiro's whispers.
Incomprehensible whispers,that somehow made sense.
⚛⚛︎⚛︎ ⚛︎⚛︎⚛︎ ⚛︎⚛︎⚛︎ ⚛︎⚛︎⚛︎ ⚛︎⚛︎⚛︎ ⚛︎⚛︎⚛︎
The gentle breeze of the wind carried with it drops of water from the stream.
Lizzy felt some of these on her skin as she approached.
Now far from the bonfire and the others, she didn't expect to find anyone else there, isolated like her.
She was even more surprised to see who it was.
Luke stood there, kneeling right at the edge of the stream,as he stared at his reflection in the clear flowing water.
Demeter's light illuminated the water and the faces of both of them.
For a moment Lizzy was grateful for Apollo's absence and the absence of his light.
No shadow, everything shrouded in total darkness, so much so that Luke hadn't noticed her.
She could leave, and find another place, even if that had always been hers.
Surrounded by trees and rocks and bushes,almost invisible to find.
Her safe place,yet Luke was there, he had found it,and Lizzy wondered why the best swordsman in the camp needed a place to be isolated from everyone. He was perfect.
Maybe he was waiting for someone.
That thought hit Lizzy like a wave of wind, and for a moment her breath stopped.For no reason,or maybe it was Lizzy who couldn't explain why.
Without thinking, she found herself at the edge of the stream,looking at her reflection distort at the flow of water.
Hard to say whether she followed her heart or her mind.
She had found herself there, and what she had thought as she approached or before doing so, was not there.
It was cancelled.
It seemed damn wrong that she, a girl Chiron himself barely remembered,
was there with Luke,Luke castellan,a son of Hermes,the most known in the camp.
And Lizzy silently cursed herself for not leaving.
The boy raised his head and looked at her, but he didn't seem surprised, he had already noticed her.
Looking up at the sky, he was the first to break the silence.
«What star is that?»
He said pointing towards the night sky.
Lizzy was surprised by the question, which seemed out of place in this situation, of all the questions he could ask her.
She followed with her gaze his hand toward the sky, and finally toward the star he was pointing to.
«It's Mercury» She said, omitting that that planet corresponded to the god Hermes,his father.But Luke seemed to notice something in her expression.
«It corresponds to the god Hermes» He wasn't asking her,it was a statement.
«Yes.»She said in a barely audible whisper,feeling uncomfortable with that topic she tried to talk about something else.
«That instead is Venus, which corresponds to Aphrodite»She said pointing to another star.
«They are both visible in spring after sunset»
Luke stopped for a moment to look at the star, then turned his gaze to the girl.
«Do you learn about astronomy out of passion, or do you study it because you are in Apollo's cabin?»
«No, I don't learn it out of duty, it's just a pastime, and I have a passion for space and its galaxies»
«It's no surprise, daughter of Asteria.»
Lizzy laughed at his attempt to copy the nickname she had given him.
«It doesn't sound good, your attempt was in vain Castellan»
«Come on Lady constellation, that other one sounded good to me»
«This is even more senseless»
«Good, so it's decided,my lady»
Lizzy tried not to notice the nickname she had been given, even though it had something mysterious and intriguing about it.
«Why are you here?»Lizzy said out of context,sounding a little abrupt.
«What do you mean?» Luke frowned
«You should be with the others»
«I could tell you the same»
«I always come here,as for you I have never seen you here»
«I'll give you that, I don't come here often, only when it all becomes too much»
«Too much?»
«The attention, the fact of having to do better, of being the best, I soon find myself suffocated»
Lizzy didn't know why Luke was opening up to her so easily, she wouldn't have done it, but now he had given her an explanation and she felt like she owed him hers.
Luke looked at her, not to convince her to talk, but so that she understood that if she wanted to she could do it, she wasn't forced,she could 𝗍𝗋𝗎𝗌𝗍 him.
«I come here to be alone, away from others»She said avoiding contact between their eyes.
She couldn't hold eye contact with someone while talking about the simplest thing, let alone talking about herself.
«Alone huh? Yet it doesn't seem to me that my company bothers you»
«Maybe»She responded hearing footsteps, and then a voice, they were looking for Luke, his brothers.
«Luke where have you gone?Come back to the bonfire»
Luke looked at Lizzy, as if seeking her permission, Lizzy looked back to tell him to go, although she wasn't sure why he needed to ask her.
«Do you want to come?»He asked her.
Lizzy shook her head, and Luke didn't insist, knowing her answer wouldn't change.
He left shortly after, leaving her there.
She was finally alone again,she thought.
The air was calm.
For the first time, however, that solitude was different, it made her feel an emptiness in her stomach, a lump in her throat.
But she had created it herself,she deserved it,so there was nothing to worry about here.
𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝙽𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚞𝚗𝚎,𝚏𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖.