𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀, luke castellan

ꜰɪᴠᴇ

Trial and Error.
 
⚡

   THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS, LUKE HAD PERCY ROTATE THROUGH OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES TO FIND SOMETHING HE WAS GOOD AT. It was hard to do, the kid didn't seem to be particularly great at anything.

    Percy was hellbent on his pursuit of glory, despite their insistence that it wouldn't be an easy thing to do. But it was obvious that the boy desperately wanted to impress his father. Still, to do that he would have to actually succeed at something, anything.

    For once, Rory actually attended her cabin's activities much to Valentine's disappointment who, left to her own devices and without her friend to ditch with her, reluctantly joined in on her own cabin's planning.

    They tried archery first, but found out pretty quickly that Percy wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. Although he looked obviously disappointed, and even embarrassed at just how horribly he kept missing the targets, Luke and Rory simply comforted him, insisting that they'd find what he was good at. Then, they tried foot racing, but that was no good either, with Percy trailing far behind even the wood nymphs who were quite literally trees.

    They tried activity after activity but nothing seemed to click.

    Even though Percy, despite his puny build, managed to somewhat hold his own everytime they got onto the wrestling mat, he was still absolutely pulverized by the Ares kids. Rory cringed as she watched Clarisse effortlessly throwing him around again and again roughly against the mats.

    "Is that really him?" Maddie asked in disgust as she watched the very one-sided match. Maddie was about Percy's age, although unlike him, she was lean and muscular, her red hair up in a ponytail.

    "Be nice," Rory chided but Maddie simply scoffed.

    "Are we sure the Minotaur didn't just fall over laughing?" the girl said in distaste watching as finally Luke intervened and pulled Percy away from Clarisse. At Rory's judgmental silence the younger girl sighed. "It's not fair, I could take him in a fight, why does he get to fight the Minotaur?"

    "You have years of training," Rory shrugged. "He got here a few days ago. You'll get your turn."

    "I'll die of boredom before then," The girl murmured unhappily. She was about to say more, probably to complain some more, but Clarisse was calling her back over to the mat, having lost her previous partner. Rory went to join the rest of the Hermes cabin as they set off for lunch.

*

    "Is there a Greek god of disappointment?" Percy sighed heavily, the weight of his own disappointment evident in the slump of his shoulders. Rory shot him a sympathetic glance. "Maybe someone should ask him if he's missing a kid," he suggested, a touch of wry humor attempting to lighten the mood.

    Before either Rory or Luke could respond with something reassuring, as they had been doing for the last couple of days, Chris said, "Oizys... But she's a goddess. And her whole thing isn't really disappointment, it's more like failure."

    That didn't seem to be helping Percy's mood in the slightest. Luke shot his friend a look before turning, ever the optimist, to Percy with a comforting smile. "We're gonna find the thing that you're good at. I know it," he insisted.

    "I find that hard to believe," Percy muttered.

    It had been hard on all of them, those first few weeks at camp, trying to find their ground, trying to find just where they fit into this whole mythological world, leaving them grappling with a reality steeped in gods, monsters, and untold powers. It was certainly difficult being thrust into this whole new world, to have everything turned completely upside down.

    "You're good at canoeing," Rory attempted offhandedly but Percy simply looked down at his food in a tangible sense of despair.

    "Real heroic," He mumbled, the frustration evident in his voice.

   By the end of that day they had ruled out most of the cabins. He wasn't strong like the Ares kids, or exceptionally good at metalwork like the Hephaestus kids, and he didn't seem to be able to grow vines like Castor and Pollux either. So that left the minor gods—or the big three...

    Luke suggested that maybe he was a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But Rory knew he was just saying that to try and make Percy feel better.

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A bit of a shorter chapter so sorry! You'll get a second one today to make up for it! The Lightning Thief has a total of 17 chapters so we're getting there...
Next few ones will be longer but I needed to get this part out of the way...

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