Quest of the Half Gods

Chapter 8: Απόλλων

Apollo woke the next morning with a headache that felt like twenty hellhounds were stomping on his brain. "Ughhhh." He groaned as he sat up. Will stared at him from across the room. "Where'd you go last night?" Apollo frowned, "What do you mean?" Will stared at him in confusion, "Um, you left the funeral last night and didn't get back until after the rest of us had fallen asleep. I was worried about you." Apollo furrowed his eyebrows, "I don't understand, I don't remember anything after..." He froze. He did remember something. He'd left the funeral service to follow Galatea into the woods and then...nothing. "I-I followed that girl, Galatea into the woods, and then I don't remember anything after that." Will frowned. "That's really weird. You should talk to her today." Apollo shook his head. "I need to get back to Olympus. I need to see if there's anything I can do up there." Will's face fell. "Dad, I don't want you to go. You saw what happened to Poseidon. I know I'm lucky to have spent as much time with you as I have, and I know that the other campers would kill for their parents to visit them even just once, but I can't let anything happen to you." A lump rose in Apollo's throat and he hugged his son. It was rare that his children referred to him as dad and he was okay with that. He hadn't been around them long enough to deserve them to treat him as a real father, and he didn't deserve to call them his children. They were all far better than he was. 

He gathered himself before pulling away. He didn't want Will to see him cry. He smiled at him and stepped back. "I'll come back once I've checked on things up there." Will looked like he wanted to say more but just nodded. Apollo closed his eyes and willed himself to teleport to Mount Olympus. Huh, he thought, I don't feel like it's working. He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands. Will frowned, "What is it?" "Heh, heh, um... my powers don't appear to be working." He said laughing nervously. Will's eyes widened in fear, "What?" Apollo shook his head, "I-I don't know why they aren't working." He thought as he reached up to itch the inside of his left forearm. He gasped in pain when his fingers hit a spot just below his elbow. It felt like he had a really bad bruise on his arm. He tried to recall getting injured the day before but remembered that that was impossible. Apollo looked up at Will before pulling his sleeve up. On the inside of his forearm was a symbol that looked like it had been branded into his skin. Will stepped forward and looked at the mark. "An oak tree." He said, looking at Apollo. "The symbol of Dodona...and of Zeus." Apollo met Will's eyes and suddenly, it made sense. "Gods of whole made half again." He said, reciting the lines of prophecy. Will's eyes widened. "Wait wait wait, half, meaning, like a demigod?" Apollo looked at the floor in confusion. "I need to speak to Chiron." He decided, "And, I need to find Galatea."

Apollo sped out of the cabin with Will on his heels. Campers around them trained for various combat styles with nature spirits as their teachers. Apollo had to give the campers credit. They'd experienced a major loss the day before and dealt with it by training to kill whatever had brought it upon them. It was a very productive way to mourn. Will went off to find Nico and left Apollo alone to search for Galatea.

Finally, he found her, at the archery range, deep in conversation with Dionysus. Weird, Apollo thought, He never talks to campers. He hid behind a tree to get closer to listen to their conversation. "Listen," Dionysus hissed, "All I'm asking is that you do the same thing to me to protect me from whatever killed Old Barnacle Beard." Apollo curled his fists at the way his brother referred to the deceased god. "I'm not doing anything for you." Galatea shot back, "I did what I did for him, to protect him. I don't just go doing it for whoever asks for it. Besides, you've lost enough Olympians already. They can't afford to lose you too." "Who do you think you're kidding? You did this for yourself because you-" Apollo heard a noise like something was thrown to the ground and looked around his tree hiding spot to see Galatea an inch from Dionysus' face, her countenance filled with rage, "Don't-you-dare-even-SUGGEST-that." She snarled. "You know how dangerous that is." She shoved him back and he stumbled, a look of fear in his eyes. "You don't deserve to live and I hope that whatever killed Poseidon comes after you next you pathetic little worm." Dionysus stumbled to his feet, glaring at Galatea, "Do you think he cares for you? HA! He'll figure out what you did to him and he'll hate you for it little goddess. Everyone here will when they find out the truth about you. Don't you remember? You kill everything you touch." Galatea looked as though she'd been slapped. Dionysus faked a smile and said, "Just something to think about." He walked away, leaving Galatea alone, breathing as though she was about to have a panic attack. 

Apollo made a split-second decision to reveal himself and made it look like he'd come from a different path. He froze when he saw Teia's face, a mask of grief and panic had taken over her pretty features. Her entire body seemed to shake as she stared at the ground, frozen in place. A bow and arrow lay on the ground next to her, revealing what had been thrown down in her argument with the wine god. Apollo made his way over to her and bent down, picking up the bow. "Teia?" She jumped when she saw him standing there. She looked exhausted; bags hung under her eyes. "Are you okay?" She stared at him as if he were a stranger and nodded vaguely. "Yeah." She said in a dull tone. "Why are you here?" She asked though it was obvious she wasn't paying attention. "I-I was looking for you. I was going to ask you-" Chiron suddenly pranced over to them, his tired eyes focusing on Apollo, with a look as though he were planning his funeral next. "We need a quest meeting." 

Apollo had never attended a Camp Half-Blood quest meeting, but he didn't know what he'd been expecting. He certainly hadn't expected to be seated around a ping-pong table in the middle of The Big House, but apparently, that's how their meetings went. He was seated next to Galatea at the head of the table with the other counselors filling up the rest of the seats. Meg came in last and sat in the last empty place. Chiron frowned at her, "You aren't the head counselor of Demeter Meg." She shrugged, "Siblings are out of town I guess." Chiron knew better than to fight her and cleared his throat. "I have called you here for this quest meeting because it appears that the prophecy given by Rachel Elizabeth Dare yesterday has begun to come true. That being said, we need a quest team. We all ready decided that the statue and daughter of magic are Galatea, but we haven't decided who needs to go with her." Will frowned, "Um, Chiron? We do know who needs to go with her." Chiron looked at him, "Who?" Nico raised an eyebrow, "Apollo. Duh. Something happened to him last night. I don't know what, but when I saw him last night he didn't have a death aura. Now he has one and it's really high. Not like a regular mortal though," He said as if it had just dawned on him, "more like...a demigod?" Apollo resisted the urge to sink in his seat, "I hate when you refer to it as a death aura." The son of Hades raised his hands, "I just call it as I see it."

Chiron frowned, "If Apollo has indeed somehow been turned into a demigod, then that would mean that more of the prophecy has come to pass." Meg took off her glasses and squinted at Chiron as she cleaned them, which, Apollo noted, was the first time he had ever seen that girl make an attempt to do so, "What line?" Chiron sighed patiently, "Gods of whole made half again. I think it's referring to Apollo becoming a demigod. Though, I don't know who the other god would be." Apollo glanced at Galatea out of the corner of his eye. She'd been very quiet during the meeting. Connor Stoll picked something out of his teeth and then looked up, "How do we know for sure that he's mortal though?" Meg shrugged and stuck out her hand and suddenly she was carrying a large double-edged blade. The demigods around the table cried out in alarm, though the change of blades was no surprise to Apollo. "We could just have him prick his finger." She suggested. "I really don't want to." "You are still such a wimp." Apollo glared at Meg and quickly ran his finger along the edge of the blade, wincing as he felt it cut into his skin. He glanced back at Galatea who watched in suspense. He looked back at his finger and watched in shock as a red droplet of blood ran down his finger. Teia grabbed the paper napkin in front of her and placed it around his finger, applying pressure to the cut. "Thanks." He muttered in a daze. Meg retracted her sword. "Welp, that settles that. Looks like Lester and I are going on a quest again." "No!" Apollo blurted out. Meg looked at him in hurt confusion. "I'm sorry Meg but you can't come with me on this one. It's too dangerous." Meg opened her mouth to protest but Apollo raised his uninjured hand, "I can't let you risk your life for this. It's too dangerous and I can't lose you." She closed her mouth and nodded, kicking him from under the table, which was basically like telling him that she loved him and couldn't lose him either. Meg had saved him too many times already. Everyone at this table had at some point risked their lives for him. He was done playing the victim. He needed to take charge and do something on his own. Well, he and Galatea did.