Heliophile - Apollo

1.4| Our Dinner Goes Up In Smoke

Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever they went, campers pointed at Percy and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.

Ana and Annabeth showed Percy a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. Finally, the three returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets," Percy spoke but Ana knew that it would do no good.

"Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault." She looked at Percy skeptically, Ana knew that it was Percy's fault. He'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. Ana also knew that he didn't understand how and she felt so bad that she couldn't tell him.

"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said causing Ana's breath to hitch as she played with her bracelet.

"Who?"

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron," Annabeth spoke as Percy stared into the lake, and Ana knew that he was wishing somebody would give him a straight answer for once. It was then that Ana noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shim-mering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if Percy were a long-lost friend which Ana supposed considering his father he was. Percy and Ana waved back. "Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"Naiads," Percy repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."

Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us." Ana groaned and facepalmed as Annabeth said that wishing she wasn't so fucking blunt.

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?" Ana snorted mainly because that did describe most of them.

"I mean not human.  Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

"Half-human and half-what?"

"I think you know," Annabeth spoke making the daughter of Phanes facepalm once again and wish anyone else was doing this.

"God," Percy said. "Half-god."

Annabeth and Ana nodded. Ana spoke softly knowing how freaky this could be "your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."

"That's ... crazy."

"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?" Ana snorted at what Annabeth had said, Ana was sure that Hera the Queen Bitch wanted them to change but they definitely hadn't.

Ana should have been worried about it because Apollo was her soulmate. All she knew was that if Apollo cheated on her, she would strip away his powers and torture him for all eternity. She wasn't going to be living like that and she was sure that her father would have something to say about Apollo cheating on her.

"But those are just—" Percy almost said myths again. Then he remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, he might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods—"