ATLOP: Lessons in Water

On Your Skin, The Gods Reside

How dare this chapter do this too me. It's too long, I can't fit everything I wanted into it. Perhaps this is a sign I should be less long winded, but alas, I would not be myself if I shortened my writing.

And thus, you lovely readers shall receive two more chapters after this. One more of camp, and one with bonus scenes (both canon and not) that have been planned and requested both.

This chapter is nearly 8k words, so I hope you enjoy the heavy imbalance of chapter lengths from the beginning of the story till now.

Come yell at me on my tumblr: Percabeth4Life
Come chat with me on discord: https://discord.gg/3tGNJhu

OO OO OO OO

The day was hot from the first rays over the horizon. Apollo's chariot rose early with pink rays curling over the camp. Helios' light beat down upon the camp with an uncompromising intent to burn away grief and pain and loss.

The Ancient Greeks believed fire purified, and even now we know fire burns away impurities. You heated your food to make it safe, you burned a blade to clean it, you sent up offerings in purifying flames. The sun was not quite fire, but it was close enough that I imagined Helios and Apollo had turned their cleansing heat upon us on this day, a blessing, a mercy.

A torture.

Annabeth agreed with me, offering sunscreen early in the day as we settled to do our readings on the myths. I wasn't likely to burn like she was, but my mom had encouraged me young to be sure to use sunscreen to prevent health issues.

The sunscreen smeared on the pages, white staining crisp parchment. Annabeth used her shirt to wipe it off, smearing faint oils into the page. It was a copy, not the original, and so she didn't mind too much.

Not today.

We were tucked near the lake, a cool breeze ruffling our hair from the blue water. The shade of the trees was a balm on our skin as we leaned over the parchment to read the myth of Icarus.

I thought it fitting to read it today, with the sun beating down on us.

Icarus had flown high, higher than he should've. Drunk with freedom, wings spread wide as he'd soured free at long last. The sun had melted his wings, Helios' touch uncompromising and merciless as it had burned the wax, melting the wings until he shed feathers and tumbled from the heavens, falling to be embraced by the sea.

I wondered how it had felt, the sun shining on skin that had been trapped for so long. How the wind felt when one had been encased in stone for so long. How it felt to be free after being chained for so long.

Had he looked up, looked at the sun on a day like today, and reached for the burning warmth of Helios? Had he thought it worth it to fall if only for the moment that he had flown?

I wondered if Helios and Apollo had looked upon him as he'd fallen, if They'd realized that Their blessing, Their kindness, Their divine light shining upon the world had caused his fall. Or if They'd shaken Their heads at his hubris as he'd fallen and fallen and fallen from heights he never should've reached. Or even if They'd cradled his form as he'd fallen, honored by his joy and worship as he'd flown as close to them as he could, as he'd reached for the sun and tumbled into the sun struck ocean.

I wondered what They thought when Icarus fell.

I wiped my forehead, pushing a loose curl back as I leaned over the analysis written with Annabeth. The words curling over the page in ancient writing rewritten by modern hands.

I wondered if Apollo had set out to make today hot, hot as the sun that had melted Icarus' wings. If Apollo was doing so for the grief we had faced, or for the simple act of bringing heat forth and warming the land.