When we see things that cause us great pain our first response may be to run, to run away from my pain and to try to never look back. That is what I did, I ran straight into the generous arms of Khaos who offered me a powerful position as general of...
When they tell you that you are a demigod you are alerted that your life will be tough but they do not dare to tell you how tough and leave out the minor detail of how many friends burials you will attend. For the next week many burials were held, not nearly as much as in previous wars but enough for it to be considered detrimental.
It took me six hours to heal, whilst I lay weak in my bed with my consciousness flickering like an old light at an old truck stop as an angry voice roared throughout the tent. When I was conscious enough to wake up, I was surprised to find a new face in our tent, one that I had been expecting but not so soon. Fortunately before I could get a lecture and probably worse, another burial was set to start, a burial that I was glad to be awake for, Alexander's.
In silence we all stood as he is cremated, a sibling of his from the Hermes cabin holds his shroud, tears fall down his cheeks as he places the shroud over his small body. I stayed throughout his cremation with Alpha feeling obliged to stay too.
His siblings all spoke kind words about their fallen brother, the youngest of the cabin which had immediately given all his siblings the feeling of responsibility to look after their little brother, now they stood in solemn all feeling angry with themselves for letting him interact with the deadly battle. Towards the end the Hermes's cabin counsellor, Connor Stoll walked up to my side,
"He admired you" He tells me with a soft voice, "When you helped him in the arena, you didn't just help with his fighting but with his confidence, he was a happy kid after that and I am thankful that you helped my little brother then"
Guilt fills me, "I am sorry that I did not train him enough to save him"
Bravely Connor pats my shoulder, something that no other Demigod would dare to try, "Alex was far too young to be in that battle, if I had had more time to respond I would have sent him away"
With that Connor walks away with a sad and grieving aura. Eventually we leave the burning shroud, outside the big house we find a crowd of scheming demigods they stop when they see us. Clarisse is the first to speak, she points at me.
"You" She says, "We need to ask you some questions"
I walk towards them, their eyes stay on me until I reach their gathering. Clarisse leads me into the Big House followed by Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, Will and Alpha.
Unsure of what to do I take a seat on a nearby chair and rest my arms on the arm rests, the others fill in finding seats on chairs and nearby surfaces. Clarisse sits closest to me,
"During the battle you warned me about Carter" She immediately starts, "Why should I trust you that you are telling the truth?"
I lean back in the chair as I try to procure an answer that would make them believe me, but nothing comes to mind but the honest truth.
"Look, I have no reason to give you but my word that you can trust me, but knowing the history of demigods I know that that holds no grounds" Awkwardly I look to Alpha, hoping that he has taken no offense, "The other night during the boarder patrol my team and I hid in trees out of sight from any of you to ensure that we could find out the cause of the attacks, inside camp we found nothing until I stepped outside of the barrier and found Carter with a Dracaena discussing breaching the barriers"
"Do you have physical proof?" Nico asks.
I shake my head, "No" I say, "Although I do not need to present physical proof you just need common sense" I put it bluntly, "Carter was nowhere during the first attack that we witnessed, he conveniently left after stabbing me with a poisoned blade and only appeared during the battle, as demigods you should not believe in coincidences"
"So you are a demigod" Annabeth says from the back of the room.
"I am indeed"
"What is your parentage?" Will asks.
"That is irrelevant" I argue, "I understand that I have taken a rather rude approach, but I have realised that it will not work if we are to sort this issue out and that issue is Carter"
"How did he manage to get the monsters in camp?" Thaila asks, "And why is he attacking camp?"
"I think he manages to get the fleece and poisons the barrier shortly allowing the invasions and then returns the fleece"
"I do not trust you" Clarisse says through gritted teeth, her arms folded over her chest as leans back into her chair.
"Good" I compliment, "Trust issues are beneficial to a demigod, but know that I trust you all and hopefully we will soon meet on a mutual basis"
Different emotions sit on their faces, Clarisse seems frustrated with what to make of my declaration, Will tries to hide his approval of me with a frown that fights away a friendly smile, an angry look sits on Thalia and Nico's faces and Annabeth seems caught up in an array of emotions.
"Where is the Ares brat anyways?" I ask.
Embarrassment and shame sits on majority of their faces as they tell me about how Carter had left camp claiming to need to find answers about the invasion. Mentally I face palm, yet again Carter has managed to slip through our slippery grip.
I turn to face his sister, "Tell me, has he settled in since he joined?" I ask, feeling like a therapist to a bunch of worried parents, "I noticed three beads on his necklace when I arrived, has he always been a dodgy fellow or only recently?" I ask, knowing a portion of the answer.
The campers chatter among themselves as they debate how much they should reveal. After a few minutes Clarisse speaks,
"There was an incident a few months ago" She starts, and what's to follow is a pain worse than two manticore thorns but rather a hundred all struck in one area.
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