"I want a real christmas tree!" Zoё, who was eight, begged her father Percy. Percy laughed as he patted her head.
"We can just get aunt Thalia to be our tree." Percy joked. "She was a tree for a while, you know."
Percy's wife, Annabeth, punched Percy lightly in the arm. "It wasn't her fault."
"Speaking of Aunt Thalia," Percy's son, Luke, who was twelve, said as he looked up from his book, "Isn't she and our other aunts and uncles coming over for the holidays?"
Percy nodded. "They aren't really your actually aunts and uncles though. They're just some close family friends."
"I like uncle Leo the best!" Zoë exclaimed. "When will they be coming?"
"Sweetie, they live just down the road." Annabeth pointed out.
Percy himself was excited for the holidays. He had officially retired from technically being a demigod. He had two kids now, and lived in New Rome with Annabeth. All of his friends had also retired and were living in New Rome too. Zoё looked a lot like Annabeth, except she had sea green eyes. Luke looked like Percy with grey-blue eyes.
"They're supposed to be coming today, actually." Percy noted, glancing at the calendar. "Some of them anyways. Including Aunt Thalia and Uncle Leo."
"And I'll get to play with Buttercup!" Zoё said excitedly. Buttercup was Leo's daughter.
"Where should we put the tree?" Luke wondered. Annabeth stood up and walked around the living room, looking for an exact spot.
"Right here." She stated and pointed to a corner of the room. "It depends how big of a tree we get though. We should probably measure how tall our tree needs to be to fit in the room, and how wide it needs to be--"
Percy laughed and stood up and kissed Annabeth. "Always got to be using that brain, don't you?"
Annabeth chuckled, and Luke groaned at the kiss. "I know you two or married, but please try not to kiss in front of me."
"Shut up, Luke." Zoё said. "We all know you just wish you could kiss Emily!"
Luke blushed. Emily was Frank and Hazel's daughter. "Shut up."
"Both of you please stop fighting." Annabeth sighed. "And Luke, if you like Emily, just go for it! When I was your age--"
"You had a crush on dad." Luke finished and rolled his eyes. "Yes, you've told us the story a million times."
Zoё giggled. "I like the part about the underwater kiss."
"I like that part too." Percy said smiling at Annabeth. Annabeth blushed slightly. "And you'll be able to do that someday, Zoё." Zoё had the power to control water and talk to horses and sea creatures. Luke on the other hand could create mini hurricanes or earthquakes, and had his mother's smarts.
Zoё giggled. Luke rolled his eyes and went back to reading his book.
Soon enough the doorbell rang. Zoё shouted, "I got it!" and ran to the door.
As soon as the door opened, Percy smiled. Standing there was Leo and Calypso, and their child Buttercup, who was also eight years old. Like her father, Buttercup was immune to and could conjure fire.
"Buttercup!" Zoё shouted and hugged her friend.
"Zoё!" Buttercup exclaimed and hugged Zoё back.
"Hey Percy, how's it going?" Leo asked and he and Percy shared a bro hug.
"Glad you could make it." Annabeth said and smiled at Leo.
"Who else is coming?" Calypso asked.
"For today I think Jason and Piper are coming, and then Thalia and Reyna." Percy said. "Come sit down! I think we've got some eggnog in the fridge."
"No thank you." Leo said shaking his head. "I don't ever want to drink eggnog, not after--"
"After you saw those followers of Dionysus getting drunk on eggnog." Buttercup said laughing. "I love it when you tell that story."
"Oh, that's right." Annabeth said and joined in with Buttercup's laugh. "I can't believe I almost forgot that story."
"It's not funny, I almost died!" Leo said frowning.
"It's because you cleaned your table with Windex!" Zoë burst out laughing.
Leo rolled his eyes. "A simple mistake."
"And the whole woods almost ended up being blown up." Calypso snorted. Leo folded his arms.
"Can you guys keep it down?" Luke asked annoyed. "I'm trying to read."
"Just like his mother." Leo smiled.
"Go give your uncle a hug." Annabeth said. Luke rolled his eyes and slammed his book shut. He stood up and hugged Leo, and even hugged his aunt Calypso. Then he glared at his parents and stomped upstairs. They heard a door slam shut.
Annabeth sighed. "And need to talk to him about having better social skills."
The adults all sat on the couch and watched Zoë and Buttercup duel with plastic swords. Buttercup ended up disarming Zoë, and Leo cheered while Calypso clapped politely. Percy smiled and Annabeth clapped too. The girls took a bow. They were both getting better at fencing.
"When will we get to go to Camp Half-Blood?" Zoë asked.
"I don't want you to grow up too fast." Percy chuckled. He loved his daughter, and didn't want her to deal with all the troubles he had to go through when he was younger.
"When you're twelve." Annabeth said. "Your brother will be going this coming summer."
"What cabin will we be in?" Buttercup asked.
"Well you'll be in the Hephaestus cabin." Calypso said gently. "They don't have a cabin for me, since I'm not really a goddess."
"But what about me?" Zoë wondered.
"Be in the Poseidon cabin." Percy said. "I know your brother will choose the Athena one."
Another knock was then heard at the door. Annabeth got up to answer it. In came Jason and Piper with their child Theseus. Theseus had choppy brown hair and electric blue eyes. His powers were charmspeak and controlling the winds. He was eleven, and was quite shy. Zoë blushed when she saw him, and Buttercup laughed at her reaction.
But that wasn't all who came in. Thalia came in, and was wearing a silver winter jacket and black jeans. She hadn't aged much, and looked about sixteen. Reyna followed, and though she had retired from being praetor a while ago, she still looked like she was in charge. She wore a Camp Jupiter sweatshirt, and her hair was braided.
"Uncle Jason!" Luke shouted running down the stairs. "Theseus!"
Theseus smiled and high fived Luke. "Nice to see you too."
"Aunt Thalia and Reyna!" Buttercup exclaimed.
"And Aunt Piper!" Zoë said. They all went up and hugged their aunts and uncles. Theseus and Luke ran upstairs to go play videogames on a Wii U that Leo made so it wouldn't attract monsters. Zoë and Buttercup kept practicing their fencing.
The adults sat on the couch. "So we're going to go pick out a tree for our house." Percy said. "Maybe we could go outside of camp, let the kids have an experience in the mortal world." Percy's and the others' kids didn't usually go out into the mortal world much.
"I don't see why you need to get a tree." Leo said. "I mean, you got a tree already!" He gestured to Thalia and burst out laughing. Jason covered his mouth and glanced at Thalia with humor in his eyes. It was obvious he was trying not to laugh. Annabeth, Piper and Calypso rolled their eyes, and Thalia punched Leo in the arm. Reyna slapped him and Leo shut up.
"That's not funny." Thalia said.
"You're right, it's not." Jason mumbled trying to control his laughter but failed. He, Percy and Leo burst out laughing. "Shut up you're all acting immature." Reyna stated, but the boys laughed harder. Percy got off the chair and ran to the storage closet. He came back with the tree decorations.
"No—" Thalia started to say, but Percy pulled out the Christmas lights. Jason held her in place, while the girls tried to get him to let go. Thalia was screaming for them to stop, and Zoë and Buttercup had stopped fencing to laugh. Percy started wrapping lights on Thalia like she was a tree, frolicking around her. Jason had used the power of the winds to make a wall so the girls wouldn't stop him from holding Thalia in place. Leo sang Rockin around the Christmas tree while throwing tinsel on her, and Buttercup put the star on Thalia's head.
"There's your Christmas tree!" Percy shouted and they all burst out laughing except Thalia and the girls. Thalia angrily shoved Jason and shook the tree decorations off."
"I get turned into a tree for a few years and this is where it gets me." She grumbled.
"Hey, we'll get an actual tree." Percy said wiping the tears from his eyes from laughing so hard.
"Yeah," Leo chuckled. "Then Thalia can be with her tree family."
Leo and Percy burst out laughing again, while Jason controlled Thalia from pouncing on Leo. "Can we go now?" Zoë begged. "I want a tree."
"Okay." Annabeth said getting up to grab the winter coats. "Go get your brother and Theseus. We're going on a road trip."
The trip to the Christmas tree place was a hassle. The four kids fought in the back seat while the adults laughed and joked with each other while Piper tried to drive without getting distracted by the others.
When they finally got there, the kids went crazy, pointing to a bunch of trees shouting, "I want this one!" Well, except Luke. He just had his head in a book.
"Dang it, I forgot to take measurements." Annabeth said under her breath.
Piper chuckled. "Always got to be exact, don't you?"
As Percy tried to tell Zoë to slow down, and Leo was making fun of Thalia while Reyna scolded him, and Jason and Piper went to go find their son who had wandered off and while Annabeth wondered what tree size they needed, Luke wandered off.
Luke stumbled on a low tree branch and his book fell out of his hand. He picked up the book and looked around. He didn't see any of his family members.
Standing by one of the trees was a young girl about his age, with a green dress and a white winter jacket. She had elf like features, and her skin was tinted green.
Luke blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He knew he was a legacy, but he was still getting use to all the weird stuff.
"I'm suppose you're here to chop down my life source and take it home with you." She said bitterly.
"Look, I don't know who you are, but I got to get back to my family." Luke said a little nervously. He remembered what his parents had told him about monsters, and was a little bit afraid.
"No one cares if they kill a nymph to get a tree anymore!" She groaned. "Then you use us as decorations!"
"W-we usually use a fake tree." Luke stuttered nervously. He never liked talking to people, especially girls. Even if the girls were green elves.
She nodded. "I wish everyone would do that. But some people still do it the old fashioned way."
"Yeah, I didn't really want to come here in the first place."
She smiled a little at Luke. "My name's Maria Pine. I'm the dryad of this tree." She patted one of the pine trees. Her face suddenly became a darker shade of green, which Luke guessed she was blushing. "Just thought I'd let you know." She said.
"I'm Luke Jackson. I'm a legacy."
"Roman?"
"No, my parents are both Greek."
She nodded. Then suddenly Luke heard yelling.
"Luke, where are you?" Percy shouted. "Luke, I am your father! Come to the dark side this instant!" Percy bursted out laughing with his friends. "By the dark side I mean the shade from the trees!" Percy shouted.
Luke rolled his eyes, and so did Maria. "I got to go." Luke said giving Maria a sympathetic look.
Maria nodded, a little sadly. "You can go where you want without having to depend on a plant to keep you alive." She mumbled.
Luke waved as he turned to leave, but Maria stopped him.
"Here, take this." She handed Luke a sharp dagger made of pine tree bark and bronze metal. She blushed. "I think you'll need it more than I do. Merry Christmas."
Luke smiled. "Merry Christmas, Maria. And I'll avoid cutting down any trees, okay?"
She nodded happily, and before Luke's eyes Maria faded. It had started snowing a bit as Luke walked away and back towards the group.
"There you are!" Annabeth shouted and hugged Luke. "I was afraid we lost you!" Luke rolled his eyes, but smiled.
Luke turned towards his father. "I don't think we should cut down any trees for our Christmas tree." Percy looked a little surprised and Zoë started to pout.
Percy facepalmed as he realized something. "I knew there was a reason we didn't get real Christmas trees! Because of the dryads!"
"Well duh." Reyna muttered. "I was going to point that out."
The group started walking back towards the car. Theseus noticed that Luke was hiding a dagger up his sleeve, the one he had gotten from Maria.
"Where did you get that?" Theseus asked.
"From a woodland friend." Luke replied smirking slightly.
At Percy's house, they set up the fake tree that they usually used every year. Luke surprisingly had a lot of fun doing it, and his aunts and uncles made it interesting, by Leo making more tree jokes, Jason using the wind to help decorate or just goof off, while Piper helped Buttercup and Zoë reach the higher branches and Thalia trying to kill Leo while Reyna told interesting stories to Theseus and Luke.
Luke had found a sheath for his new dagger, and thought about the dryad Maria, and how he now felt a strong passion to protect nature.
He knew what type of book he would be checking out from the library next.
The holidays were off to a good start, with the Christmas tree now set up, glowing brightly in the Jackson home, and Luke was strangely happy that not a single tree had been chopped down by them.