Horizon's Point: The Rise of the Lyre (Jason Grace)

Chapter 4: My cool gift

After breakfast, we made our way over to Chiron to explain everything to him in a clearer fashion than Drew had.

"Yes, yes. I see. That makes sense now." He stroked his beard clearly thinking hard about what to do with me, also, what now made sense?

Making eye-contact with the old centaur, I realised that getting claimed by Poseidon was going to end up becoming a heck of lot more than I had bargained for. I couldn't tell if it was a new prophecy, quest or worse... no, I really shouldn't be thinking about that right now. Like they say: "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it".

"Um, Chiron?" Jason looked uneasy, as if he was having the same thoughts as I was "What do you mean by that? What's happened?"

The poor centaur seemed to have aged by twenty years when he looked at me, the pity, sorrow and regret that his features held were definitely not a good sign, but what had happened? And why hadn't he told us?

"There are some things out of my control, child. I will speak to Jackson, Ambrosia and Grace later."

That sounded way too formal for my liking, Ambrosia is the food of the Gods as well, I'd never told anyone my surname, the campers would make fun of me, I just know it. Even Jason didn't know it. Oh, Gods. This was embarrassing, now they are probably going to tell others and Drew can use it as another thing to bully me with.

Leo looked like he had just been smacked in the face with a frying pan, while the others looked equally dumb-founded. I released a small, quiet sigh and wished that Chiron didn't feel the urge to be formal.

He shooed us out of the big house a moment later because Mr D had just come in -wearing that awful leopard-print shirt like always- he was yelling something about poker and the Hermes kids.

But, as we were walking out of the door, he called "Abigail, Poseidon wanted me to give you this!" He threw a blue pendant, I caught it, thanked him, then ran after the other four securing the bead to my camp necklace while doing so. I could examine it with Percy later.

"Wait. Who's Ambrosia?" Percy queried as we made our way over to the training arena, glancing at all of us, like he was making sure that he didn't sound stupid and that no one knew a camper with the last name of Ambrosia.

"I don't know, I know everyone's names, why don't I know an Ambrosia?!" Annabeth glared at the ground and started furiously rubbing her temples.

"Neither, but that's so funny! 'Mr or Miss Ambrosia', that kid must be the creator of ambrosia or something!" Leo exclaimed, doing his very best not to laugh. I opened my mouth to explain that Chiron was talking about me but Jason was quicker.

"Must be the only one who is immortal here, I bet they've been coming to camp since it started!" They all started howling with laughter, but I just stood there, watching. This is why I've not told anyone, even my friends think it's hilarious, why am I really that unlucky?

Percy noticed that I wasn't laughing so teasingly said, "Aw, common Abi, it is kinda funny."

"Yeah, if your name's not Abigail Ambrosia." I explained.

Everyone fell silent. I could have heard a pin drop, it was awful. I usually just walk away when the silence becomes this loud and awkward, so that's what I did: turned on my heel, away from their stunned faces, and walked into the woods with my head hung low.

I don't know how far I had walked, but at some stage I plonked down by a stream, I wasn't upset, just annoyed and frustrated that he had to address me by my last name. Starting to look at the pendant my dad had told Chiron to give me, I realised how smooth it was. It wasn't a large bead, it was circular with a silver loop connecting it to my necklace, the sky-blue surface was engraved with silver horses emerging from waves.

I pulled it as far as my necklace would allow so that I could get a closer look at the beautiful pendant, but then it came away from the cord and became a five-foot, sky-blue trident! I gasped and almost dropped it. Regaining some sense, I examined the weapon in my hands, it still had those waves-to-horses engraved in silver, only on a much larger scale. The end with the prongs was of celestial bronze, while the rest felt like another type of solid metal.

I decided to start training with it, there would be no point seeking help because no one else at camp owns a trident. Wow, my own, personal weapon. This was so cool.

I spun it round, slashed at neighbouring rocks, pretended to protect myself from imaginary missiles. It was great fun. By the time I heard the lunch horn, I was very confident in using this weapon, but not quite as confident as I am with my scimitars.

I touched the butt-end of my new weapon to the silver loop, then it shrank back to being a pendant. Feeling pleased with myself, I ran over to the dining pavilion.

By the time I got there, everyone had sat down at their tables and were happily eating, chatting and laughing. I got up to get my own food, suddenly not feeling self-conscious of being the only one. I pushed some of my meal into the flames and muttered my father's name before going over to sit at the Poseidon table with Percy.

Plopping down opposite him, I realised that he wasn't eating. That was strange.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, now really concerned. Does he skip meals? Has there been some bad news? What did I miss?

"It's just... I kinda laughed at my little sister's last name, then she walked off into the woods and now hasn't come back and I'm really worried that she's gotten hurt or worse!" He cried, burying his face in his hands. Oh, Gods! I did this, I caused more concern today, that's just great!

"She's fine." I replied bluntly.

He looked up and started to shout something but realised that it was me he had been talking to, and me that was at his table. I leaned back off the table and gave him a goofy smile.

"Oh, thank the Gods your alright!" He exclaimed, "I'm so, so, so, sorry! I didn't know that he was talking about you!"

"It's fine, I was expecting it. That's why I never told anyone here my last name."

"Thank you, so what were you doing in the woods for all of that time?"

"Oh! Dad told Chiron to give me this and it's so cool!"

I took off my necklace and handed it to him so that he could see the new pendant on it. He held it up to the sky and examined its beauty in the light.

"So, what does it do?" He asked, clearly curious but handing it back to me so that I could fasten it back around my neck.

"Not here." I muttered, glancing around at everyone, a five-foot trident was bound to draw a lot of attention, more than I was ready for yet. "At the training arena."

This seemed to satisfy him, he nodded and sat back in his bench and I could tell that he was trying to figure out what it could possibly be.

"Anyway," I spoke at a normal volume again, and wrapped up some of my spaghetti bolognaise around my fork "did I miss anything?"

"Yeah, after you left Jason started getting really mad at himself for making that joke, he wanted to try to find you in the woods -and I did too- but we thought that it was better to let you have some time to yourself first. Then, when we were almost at the training arena, Drew showed up and started having a go at him for befriending you in the first place. They had a massive argument which was kind of funny because Drew kept on trying to charm-speak him, but every time Annabeth would yell at her, Leo and I were just watching the drama unfold to be honest."

I almost spat out my spaghetti at that last sentence. "That actually does sound really funny, I need to go talk to him, just gonna let him know that I'm not angry, or upset." I explained, Percy nodded so I turned around and tapped Jason on the shoulder (because our tables are right next to each other), "Hey, Jason."

He whirled his head around to face me, he broke out into a huge grin we gave each other an awkward hug then I explained that I wasn't mad at him by any means. But then we heard footsteps coming closer to us and then the voice of Drew Tanka.