▃▃▃ ᴅᴏɴᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ʜᴇʀ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴏꜰ ɪɴɴᴏᴄᴇɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴏᴏʟ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱʜᴇ ɪꜱ ꜰᴜʟʟ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ʙᴀᴅ-ᴊ ɪʀᴏɴ ᴡᴏʀᴅ
▃▃ ʙᴏᴏᴋ 1 ▃▃ In which the only daughter of Persephone sneaks on a quest to see the world for the first time since she's been at camp. The daughter of wisdom...
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𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⭑ ‧₊˚ ⋅ જ⁀➴๋࣭ ⭑๋࣭ ⭑
From Tantalus's perspective, the Stymphalian birds were merely minding their own business in the woods. They wouldn't have attacked if Annabeth, Tyson, and Percy hadn't disturbed them with their poor chariot driving, or if Elara hadn't used her powers.
As punishment, he sentenced them to kitchen patrol—scrubbing pots and platters all afternoon in the underground kitchen with the cleaning harpies. The harpies washed with lava instead of water to ensure an extra-clean sparkle and kill ninety-nine point nine percent of germs. As a result, Annabeth, Percy, and Elara had to wear asbestos gloves and aprons. Tyson, however, didn't mind; he plunged his bare hands right in and started scrubbing. The others, on the other hand, had to endure hours of hot, dangerous work, especially since there were tons of extra plates to clean.
Tantalus had ordered a special luncheon banquet to celebrate Clarisse's chariot victory—a full-course meal featuring country-fried Stymphalian death-bird.
"Elara," Tyson hummed, cleaning his dishes without any problem.
"Yeah, Ty?" she asked, wincing as a bit of her skin came in contact with the lava but ignoring the pain.
"Are you okay?"
Elara blinked, "Uh... y-yeah, of course. W-Why wouldn't I be?"
"It's just," Tyson bit his lip, "your face always seems so... so sad."
"D-Don't worry about it," she reassured him quickly. "I'm okay... just had some incidents happen over the summer, but it's okay. I'm okay. I'm getting better every day, don't worry about me," she lied.
She wasn't getting better.
Tyson's frown only deepened, but he seemed to understand that she wasn't interested in continuing the conversation and went back to his work.
"Lara," Annabeth said quietly from nearby. work.
"Yeah, Annie?" Elara replied softly, scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain.
"You know, you don't have to keep everything bottled up," annabeth said, glancing over at her. "We're your friends. We're here for you."
Elara paused, her hands stilling in the lava. She looked at Percy, then at Annabeth, who gave her a small, encouraging smile. The memory of Annabeth's fearful eyes after the incident in the strawberry fields flashed in her mind, and she felt a pang of guilt.
"I know," she said quietly. "It's just... hard sometimes. But thanks, Annie . It means a lot."
"Anytime," annabeth replied, giving her a reassuring nod.
