Blood is a five letter word

Enter Ryder Caleun

"My daughter is dead, Taeiten."

"-Ryder! Hello?" Ryder looked to his left where Grover was running towards him, looking as stressed as the kid always had, slightly out of breath.

"Sorry kid. What's with all the...everything." Ryder gestures vaguely to all of the young boy.

"I'm not a ki-"

"What's going on?" Ryder throws his cigarette on the ground, stomping it out with his heel. Chiron had only gotten on him about it over a hundred times, not that he ever did more than hum and proceed to continue smoking as he pleased.

"I...I need your advice." Ryder nods, waiting for him to continue with a small smile on his face, trying to help Grover remain calm.

"Is this about Percy?" Ryder begins walking along the edge of the shoreline, something he did everyday, several times a day. "Yeah, it is. I'm wo- I'm worried about him. He's been getting more spaced out lately and I think more monsters are gonna start coming for him and lying to him is so ha-"

The old God stops in his tracks, turning to Grover with a soft look on his face, gently putting his hands on Grover's shoulders.

"You have got to breath, Grover." Ryder pauses for a moment, trying to find all the right words. He's done this whole fatherly thing for a while, long enough to know how to calm each of the kids down, but sometimes you just have to dig a little bit deeper. "He's gonna be okay. Have you talked to his mom about bringing him here?" Grover had ranted on more than one occasion about how Sally wanted Percy to have a normal life. Ryder had never interjected because in no realm could he ever blame her, or disagree with a mothers wish to simply give her son a normal childhood. He had been trying to help give all of the kids a normal childhood, the best he could. Not simply training and training and more training.

They needed to be kids too.

"She doesn't want him to know about all this yet." Ryder hums, looking towards the sky. The clouds were rolling in angrily and Ryder sighed softly. He knew what was unfolding, Chiron had told him and Grover in private. Of course it had gotten to the rest of the camp because someone is always watching Ryder.

"Here's what I don't understand, Grover." The God says after a few minutes, pulls a cigarette from behind his ear and lights it. "How exactly would a kid who knows nothing about any of this?" He gestures around vaguely, "Steal the master bolt?" The younger boy is bouncing to his left, looking as if he's about to explode.

"Exactly!! Why are God's so fucking stupid?!" Grover yells before quickly rambling on, "Well not all Gods because of you but you k-"

"Grover, relax I knew what you meant kiddo." Grover smiles softly and Ryder turns on his heels, walking back the way they came, looking through the trees.

"I'm gonna get back to the city." The satyr says after a few moments and Ryder smiles, ruffling his hair, watching carefully as Grover leaves until he can no longer see the boy.

He takes a deep breath once he's alone, filling his lungs with smoke as he squats over the water.

"You need to help that boy, Poseidon. You have to." He's stares at the water for a long time before throwing his cigarette along the shore and trekking back to camp.

He had a bad feeling, about everything. More than just the war, more than just the kids. Something was going on.

He shakes his head slightly to clear his mind, trekking back to camp.