That night, after lights out, I reached into my bag and pulled out the note Salina had left me, rereading it until the words were burned into my memory. She didn't know who my parent was, and seeing that the Fates hadn't shown up to tell me, I was just in the dark as Salina was.
I was tempted to Iris-message Rick Riordan to update him, but I figured as the official scribe of Olympus, he was well aware of what had changed so far. I reached into my bag again, taking out a tiny flashlight and the first book, The Lightning Thief. I flipped through the pages, reading the parts that talked about Thalia's pine tree.
All of a sudden, as the light touched those words, they disappeared, leaving the page blank. Then the page shimmered and a new story filled the page, talking about me and Thalia taking a stand against the monsters that wanted her dead. I also learned through the newly written paragraphs that Zeus had still created a new pine tree that was taller than any other tree in the valley and imbued it with magic to serve as the magical barrier that kept monsters and mortals out. Instead of being called Thalia's pine tree, the tree was now called the Crest of Camp Half-Blood.
Before anyone could see my greatest secret, I turned out the flashlight and shoved both the book and the flashlight back into my bag. Settling in on the sleeping bag on the floor, I adjusted my bag so that it was under my body while I slept. While Salina had blessed it to hold an infinite amount of things, there was no protection preventing someone from reaching inside and stealing from me. And seeing that I was surrounded by children of Hermes, the god of thieves, you can see why I was a little concerned.
I eventually fell asleep and found myself standing at the edge of a black hole, completely void of any warmth or color. Even I appeared to be black and white, my orange t-shirt and jeans fading to onyx black in the setting.
Tartarus, I thought to myself, clutching my bag tightly to myself. And if I was brought here in my dream, I knew with a sinking feeling who had summoned me to talk.
"Kronos?" I asked timidly, cursing at how weak I sounded. I was terrified out of my mind, but he couldn't know that, not when I was trying to foil his plans. Well, not so much foil as much as postpone.
"How do you know?" he hissed, his voice sounding like someone had taken a knife and dragged it across stone, reminding me of someone dragging their nails across a chalkboard. "How do you know?!"
"A hunch," I answered, trying to keep myself from visibly trembling in my boots.
"No, no, this simply won't do," he said coolly, but I could sense he was trying to conceal his anger and fear. "It's much too early for me to be discovered. We will meet again, daughter, this I promise."
The dream dissolved and now I found myself transported to an apartment on the Upper East Side. I don't know how I knew the location, but as I walked around the apartment, I knew where I was. Beer bottles, poker chips, dirty laundry, and a ton of other garbage were strewed around the room, and even though this was a dream, the repugnant order that filled the apartment was enough to make me want to hurl my dinner.
I forced myself to keep exploring, freezing dead in my tracks as I saw a walrus of a man slumped over in a tan recliner seat, an unopened bottle of beer still gripped in his hand. From the bathroom in the hallway, I could hear silent sniffling, but I wasn't sure if it was Percy or Sally.
I opened the door and found Percy sniffling quietly on the floor, picking out pieces of glass from his arm and chest with his mom's tweezers. He winced as he pulled out the glass, determined to stay as quiet as possible so that Smelly Gabe wouldn't come back to hurt him. Once all the glass was gone, he stepped into the shower, and Percy watched in fascination as the water healed his cuts.
I wanted to scream or go and kill Smelly Gabe with my own bare hands. Who was he to get off abusing a seven-year-old boy? Percy had a smart mouth, but that does not earn him beatings from an abusive stepfather.
Before I had a chance to go back into the kitchen and slit the jerk's throat myself, the door opened, revealing Sally Jackson. Dark bags were under her eyes, and gray streaks were starting to become more prominent in her black hair. She set her keys and purse on the kitchen countertop, shooting her deadbeat husband a malicious glare before sighing in resignation and tying her hair back into a messy bun.
I followed Sally as she stood outside the bathroom, cringing silently at hearing her son shower. I guess she was afraid that Smelly Gabe had hurt him and he was realizing that the water could heal him. And she would've been right.
Sally reached into her pocket, and I knew with absolute certainly she was tracing the charm I had given her. I could see her weighing the pros and cons of using my gift, but one look between Smelly Gabe and the door to the bathroom, and she had made her decision.
She waited outside the bathroom door until Percy came out in his superhero pajamas, flinching as he was not expecting his mother to be right outside the door. "Mom?" he asked softly, trying to read her expression. "What's going on?"
"Pack a bag," she told Percy, giving the charm a final squeeze before setting her hands on his shoulder. "Be quick and quiet about it. We're leaving."
"For real?" Percy asked, his sea green eyes lighting up with hope.
"Yes, now hurry before Gabriel wakes up."
Before I could see how that dream ended, I was jerked awake by Connor Stoll, who had a way too playful smile on his face. My hands flew to my bag first and my bracelet second, both of which were still with me.
"Time to wake up, Andy," Connor chirped happily, before moving onto the next camper who had been on the floor next to me.
I wiped my eyes and got up, rolling up my sleeping bag into a pack and shoving it into my bag, earning myself some weird looks from some of the other campers. I brushed off their looks and helped the older kids help organize the rest of the cabin, because there was no way I was going to end up on kitchen duty for sloppiness.
Although the other kids would never know this, I felt right at home in the Hermes cabin, feeling as if I had gone back to Mrs. Stetson's orphanage and was cleaning up my room with Leah while she blasted some obscure indie-rock band that she loved.
I swept the floors while Noah helped the younger kids roll up their sleeping bags, Luke helped make the beds, and Connor and Travis Stoll tag-teamed dusting the whole place. The other kids hastily threw dirty laundry under beds, thinking that would be better than placing them in the hamper that was literally two feet away.
The conch horn sounded, and we all fell in line in order of seniority, meaning I was dead last. The morning rays made the dew on the grass sparkle like thousands of little diamonds, filling the whole valley with a beautiful golden glow. Cabin Seven, Apollo, glowed so brightly that I thought if someone were to look at the cabin without sunglasses, they'd be blinded instantly.
After breakfast, Noah told me that we were free to do whatever until after lunch, where we would have to go to Chiron's archery class and then arts and crafts for the rest of the afternoon. I smiled softly to myself as Noah informed the rest of us that we had a Capture the Flag game tonight, already thinking up of dozens of different battle strategies that would work in our benefit.
I decided to follow the Demeter cabin down to the strawberry fields and helped them cultivate the ripe strawberries while planting new seeds in their places. I smiled as I worked, once again feeling nostalgic for my garden back home, comfortable with planting and harvesting strawberries into huge baskets for the satyrs to take to the vans that led into the mortal world.
Chiron told me that the camp grew strawberries to cover their expenses, and seeing that they had a resident wine god, plants grew crazy fast in his presence. But due to his restrictions, Dionysus was prohibited from growing grapes, so the camp settled for strawberries.
I worked alongside the Demeter cabin for a few hours, loving the feeling of the sun on my skin as I pulled weeds, dirt caking my pants and boots and sweat pouring down my face. I struck up a conversation with Fiona Reynolds, a daughter of Demeter, while we pulled weeds and planted seeds.
Of course, I managed to mess up whatever chance I had at her friendship there when she looked up from her row of strawberries and stared at me in abject terror. I frowned, looking down at myself to see if I had started glowing gold again. Thankfully, I wasn't.
"What's wrong?" I asked Fiona, clapping my hands together to shake off the excess dirt.
"The strawberries," she spluttered out, her face white as a sheet as she raised a hand and pointed at the last two rows I had been working on.
"What about them?"
"Look!"
I turned around and gasped at what I saw.
Earlier, the field we were working in was completely void of any plants, simply being identical rows of dirt with holes periodically placed in the ground. Now, the rows where I had planted seeds were full of life. Strawberry plants that had been seeds mere minutes ago were now full on plants, going so far as to the majority of the strawberries were already bright red and ripe for the picking.
Sure enough, the last seed I had just planted started to glow green, and two seconds later, a fully grown strawberry plant was sitting in front of me and Fiona, who stared at the plant like it was going to grow limbs and strangle her to death.
She stood up and ran, saying that I was cursed by Demeter. I frowned at her choice of words. Wouldn't this be a blessing from Demeter as the goddess of the harvest? Last I checked, the majority of her children could grow anything as long as they had the seeds. I mean, those tulips on the roof of the Demeter cabin had been grown today before cabin inspections.
Before anyone else could come and gawk at what a freak I was, I left the strawberry fields and headed for the armory. If I was going to come out of Capture the Flag in one piece, I needed to get myself some armor.
I met up with James Turner, the head counselor for the Hephaestus cabin, who helped me get fitted with my armor. Afterwards, he told me he could add stuff to it if I'd liked, but I told him not to worry about it. Armor was made to be worn into battle, not to look pretty.
"By the way," James said before I left, "I think what you did to Holly was awesome. She needed to be taken down a notch."
"Thanks," I said, my face a bright red. It wasn't that I had a crush on him or anything, but I hated being praised for the things I did. I do what I think is right and that's the end of the story. I didn't need my deeds immortalized in writing when there were thousands of more heroic things happening in the world.
During lunch, I felt the stares of dozens of campers watching me as I ate. It was so awkward that not even the kids in the Hermes cabin wanted to talk to me. No, they'd much rather talk about me even though I was sitting right next to them.
Luke took pity on me and tried to start up a conversation, but the entire time, he stared at my hands like he was expecting the grapes I was eating to grow to the size of a wrecking ball. I stood up halfway through lunch and left the dining pavilion, heading for Thalia's pine tree. I knew it wasn't called that anymore, but to me, it will always be Thalia's pine tree.
I sat right on the border of Camp Half-Blood debating if I should go into the city to check on Sally and Percy, but I was afraid if I left, Dionysus would have my hide. Also, I acknowledged that if I went to check on Percy, that would alert his presence to Zeus, and I wanted him to have a few more years of normalcy before being flung into the crazy chaos that was my new life.
My child, why are you so sad? Salina's voice whispered in my mind.
I looked up at the sky, but it was still day, meaning that there were no other stars other than the sun visible. I'd feel better if it was nighttime, where I could see a shooting star and be certain that Salina was talking to me.
"I'm an outcast amongst outcasts," I grumbled, picking at the blades of grass surrounding the base of the tree.
And why do you think that?
Okay, now I knew Salina was definitely here.
"All the campers look at me as if I had leprosy or smallpox. Ever since these powers of mine have started manifesting, no one other than Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia. And even then, they look at me with pity, like they're sorry for what's happening to me."
They're afraid, Salina told me. And rightfully so. I spoke with the Fates earlier and they revealed your father to me. I know why your powers are acting so weirdly and why you have developed what you have.
"Let me guess," I said miserably, "you can't tell me anything."
I'm sorry, Andromeda, but if I tell you the truth, everything will go back to the way it was. The Fates ordained it to be this way. Even now I risk much by contacting you.
"At least you care. You gave me my bag, my books, and my weapons. You gave me the knowledge I need to succeed. Although this kind of sucks right now, I'm thankful you're watching over me."
I'll always be here, my daughter. Remember, I'm there whenever you make a wish.
Salina's presence disappeared as quickly as it had come, and I suddenly yearned to see her again, for her to wrap her arms around me and tell me that I was her strong warrior. Even if she had pushed me past my breaking point for over a year, she did it out of love for me, and I wouldn't ever be able to repay her for that.
I skipped the rest of my activities and dinner that day, only reappearing once I heard the conch horn blow two times, meaning that our evening activity was about to start. On my way into the forest, I did the straps on my armor the way Salina had taught me and picked up a shield so big that even Captain America would be jealous as I stood in line with the rest of the Hermes cabin.
"Where have you been?" Luke demanded, jabbing me in the ribs with his elbow. Bad move on his part as my ribs were protected by my armor. His elbow wasn't.
"At the border," I answered, finding no reason why I should lie to him. "I needed time to think."
"About what?"
"Don't worry about it," I told him, relief washing over me as Chiron walked towards the center of where we were all standing. A huge metal whistle hung around his neck, big enough to probably get dogs from as far away as Eighty-Second Street to come running. He stomped his front hooves twice, gaining everyone's attention.
"Heroes," he said, shutting up anyone who was still dumb enough to be talking. "Tonight we play Capture the Flag. The Ares cabin currently holds the laurels, and as such, they get first pick of the forest tonight. But first, some ground rules. No intentional maiming or killing. All magical items are fair game. And tricks and traps are to be expected. Good luck to both teams."
The red team decided to take the south side of the forest, and with that, Chiron shouted, "Begin!" waving his hand over a table that rapidly filled with weapons.
Before anyone could stop me, I grabbed two daggers and ran back to join the Hermes cabin. Thankfully, no one had noticed, and I shoved the daggers into matching sheaths at my belt. My bag was currently a charm on my bracelet, so it was there if I needed it without getting in my way.
On the blue team we had Athena, Hermes, and Apollo, the three biggest cabins, while the red team had everyone else, including Thalia as she was the only member of the Zeus cabin. Chores and shower time slots had been exchanged to create the blue team, but I had a feeling it would be well worth it. I trudged forward in the dark, only stopping when I felt someone tugging at my shirt. I looked down and saw Annabeth, her armor surprisingly fitting her even though she was only seven and way too young to be running around with a dagger. Then again, all normal rules get thrown out the window when you're a demigod.
"What's the plan, kiddo?" I asked, picking up the pace so we weren't left behind.
"Half the Apollo and Athena kids are going to be direct offensive while the rest of us scout from behind. The Hermes cabin will stay here as our defense."
"Where should Luke and I go?"
"You two are border patrol. Go to the river on the western boundary, and don't let anyone through."
"We've got this!"
"Athena always has a plan," Annabeth said happily before putting on her Yankee cap and disappearing.
I got Luke and we walked over to the western boundary, where there was a river flowing. Subconsciously, my hand went to my bracelet where my bag was concealed. This was the same river Percy was claimed at, the one that healed him after nearly being killed by that hellhound, the one that nearly drowned Thalia when the two fought in the winter.
Wow, who knew I could geek out so much over a river?
Call me crazy, but something told me it was a good idea to stand in the river, despite the fact that the water immediately soaked through my shoes and socks. Luke acted like I was crazy, but he brushed it off, moving farther downstream to cover more while I stayed closer to the flag, prepared to fight if it came to that.
Sure enough, three campers wearing red-plumed helmets came running out of the bushes, charging directly at me. "Smash her face in!" the lead girl, who I recognized as Holly, barked at her two comrades.
Luke was too far gone to come and help me, but I was able to hold my ground against the two other kids. One of them I incapacitated by whacking them over the head with the hilt of my sword, but the second backed up, extremely wary of me.
"You coward!" Holly roared at the other camper, shoving them back into the tree line. "Go defend or something if you're not going to attack!" That camper booked it out of there, running as far away from Holly as they could.
Holly then turned her attention to me and unleashed all her pent up anger towards me. I knew this was a game, but I don't think anyone told Holly. I was genuinely concerned that she wanted to kill me.
In the little time I was distracted, Holly jabbed at my arm with her spear, reopening the scratches I had gotten from one of the Furies. I didn't have time to inspect the wound but still felt the dizzy warm sensation from knowing that my blood had been spilt.
"Pansy," she spat, narrowly grazing my thigh with her spear. "Too afraid to even try to hurt me."
"No intentional maiming," I told her through gritted teeth, fending off yet another attack, exhaling harshly as I felt something slice open my thigh. Standing behind me was an archer wearing a red-plumed helmet, and her arrow had nicked me.
"Oops," Holly said with a cruel smile as she pressed a button on the spear's shaft, a harsh blue light illuminating the whole thing. "There go my dessert privileges."
I was so angry that all I could see was red. I don't know why this Holly or the original Holly had it so out for me. Back on my Earth, she had everything she could've ever wanted. She had rich, loving parents, popularity, a boyfriend who would move Heaven and Hell for her, yet the only fun she had was beating the snot out of me. This Holly, the daughter of the war god, may have had a completely different upbringing than my Holly, but they both shared one thing in common: they wanted me dead.
I screamed, every bitter and angry feeling I've ever felt towards Holly exploding out of my body in one massive wave of power. I heard Holly and the archer scream in terror, yelling in Ancient Greek as I collapsed to my knees, completely spent.
It took a few seconds, but with the water rushing past me, I regained enough strength to stand without wobbling. Campers from across the forest came rushing in my direction, the game forgotten as they thought there had been an attack. They all stared at me, scared out of their minds.
I looked around and winced. I don't know exactly what had happened, but all around me, it appeared as if a bomb had gone off. There was smoke curling off the edges of some trees and bushes while the ground had been blasted away from me, leaving me in a huge circle of dirt rather than the natural flow of the stream. My clothes were steaming; the hair on my arms had been completely singed off.
And while all of that was terrifying on its own, my heart lurched in my chest when I saw my friends looking at me like a monster. Annabeth's gray eyes were wide with fear, and she hid behind Luke's leg, the flag from the red team in his hand, that glory no longer important. Thalia threw her helmet down to the floor and was downright glaring at me, as if she were saying, How dare you destroy my home?
"Chiron," I said weakly, my voice cracking. "What's happening to me?"
"You just torched half the forest!" Holly shouted angrily, storming through the frozen demigods to slap me across the face. My head snapped to the side, and I knew a bruise would be there later. "You're not a demigod; you're a monster!"
A bunch of kids took up the cry, calling me gods awful names in both English and Ancient Greek. I just stood there and took the insults nonchalantly. I didn't care what the rest of the camp thought of me, I just wanted to know that my friends weren't afraid of me.
Luke whispered something to Annabeth, met my gaze for a painful second, and turned away, walking back to camp with Annabeth in tow. I turned to Thalia, but she couldn't even meet my eyes. She shook her head in sorrow and ran to join Annabeth and Luke, turning her back on me.
"Enough!" another voice shouted. Appearing next to Chiron in a purple glow with the faint scent of grapes blowing in the wind, Dionysus appeared, his expression one of sheer annoyance. "The game is over; the blue team won. All of you have exactly two minutes to return to your cabins before I allow the cleaning harpies to eat anyone breaking curfew!"
Needless to say, the campers scattered, hauling it back to their cabins. I went to join the rest of the Hermes cabin, but Mr. D said, "Not you, Andrew. You're coming with me."
"Where are we going?" I asked, but I had a feeling I already knew the answer. It was the same way I was completely certain I knew who my father was. That explosion I had created had been the last piece of evidence I needed to figure it out.
"Olympus."
I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to Chiron before Dionysus whisked the both of us away.
~~~~~~~
Okay, so quick note about updates before I go. A lot of this story is already prewritten, so it's only a matter of me finding the time to update.
However, seeing that I am taking 4 AP classes, 1 Dual Enrollment class, and my other 2 classes are honors, I barely have time to breathe, let alone find time to update.
I want to try to update once a week, maybe two if I have the time, but nothing is set in stone yet.
I love you all! Thank you for reading!