ATLOP: Lessons in Water

Birthdays and Talks

Updates late, but I haven't slept properly in a week so-

There's a lot of Halmaheran this chapter but like... we're in the sea, it should be expected at this point.

Come yell at me on my tumblr: Percabeth4Life

OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO

I set the rainbow stone out, fingering one of my aurova, a gold sea coin that was roughly equal to a drachma in value. The rainbow formed slowly.

"Who are you calling?" Carl asked from his bubble of fresh water.

"I'm calling mom," I said. "I need to tell her what's happened and when I'm coming back."

Metua had just confirmed that I'd be going home in a week and told me I should call my mom about it. I hadn't realized that no one had informed her about what happened to me. Things had been so busy here I hadn't even thought about it.

"Oh," Carl swam around. "Tell her I say hi."

I grinned, "Will do, Carl."

I flipped the coin into the rainbow, murmuring my request.

The image cleared, showing my mom sitting at a table with books around her. She looked tired, her eyes a dark blue and surrounded by dark circles.

"Hi, Mom," I said.

She jolted up, knocking over a book as she stood, "Percy?"

She stared at me in surprise, and I flushed, fingering my bracelet.

"Hi Mom... Carl says hi..."

"Oh, Percy, are you okay? You never replied and I wasn't sure-"

"I'm okay. I'm at Metuan palace."

"Metuan?"

I blinked, "Oh, uh, Father's, um, Poseidon's... sorry."

"No, it's fine... why are you there?"

I blinked, did no one contact her? I guessed I'd have to explain it all.

And I did.

I told her about the rest of the summer and how it ended with Luke trying to kill me. I told her about using the pearl to escape and being healed in the sea. I talked about the almost week spent recovering and another week preparing for the announcement. I told her about the announcement and how I'd gotten the bands. Then she wanted to see them so I showed her them.

"Those are really lovely, Percy," she murmured.

I grinned, "Yeah, I like them a lot."

"Are you having fun in the sea?"

"Yeah, Triton is great, and I missed my friends. It's really cool at the palace too, and Kymopoleia and Herophile took me out for a shopping trip and spa day-"

"Spa!?" Carl cried.

"-it was so cool. And the spa had all these fancy things they do, and uh, the pool thing was super nice, and they did massages! Oh! And Kymopoleia let me get my ears pierced, look!"

I brushed my hair back to show her my ears with the blue pearl earrings.

"They're lovely Percy," she said softly, her gaze sad. "I'm glad you like the sea."

"Yeah, it's really great here, but I'm glad I'm going home next week."

She blinked, "Oh? You're going back to Camp?"