Echoes Through Eternity : Percy's Second Chance

Chapter 19

The next few days became like a new routine for the twins, one they adapted to despite their discomfort at having to give up their daily rituals, and only being able to worship certain members of their family through certain food sacrifices. They missed playing their instruments too much and were really looking forward to being claimed so they could finally play them again, having been told by their father that he will send the instruments to them so they will be able to wear it as charms on a necklace or bracelet.

Every morning they would get up early, go for a run around camp before anyone got up, sit with their Godmother for a few minutes before going and changing so they wouldn't be caught in the crowd that would come barrelling through later.

They would go to the library and select a book in Ancient Greek before going to sit by the river and read, with Annabeth joining them more often than not, reminding them that she could teach them, and with the twins politely declining her before they all would sit in the silence and read.

The rest of the day they would rotate through outdoor activities, knowing that Chiron and the rest were looking at them to see what they were good at.

Percy had never been more glad to have a Godly upbringing than then. In his previous life, he remembered being a clumsy kid that barely looked twelve, and yet, here at fourteen, he was towering over most kids and trained in areas that he had not been in the past life. Being allowed to train in the environment made just for one to thrive in did him wonders.

Chiron tried to teach them archery, watching how the two hit their targets each time at the very least. The twins knew they were not masters by any chance, but someone had to have cursed their lives with being bad at archery because it took them a long time to be able to hit targets, the fact that they were was mainly because they were too stubborn to let a sport be their end.

Foot racing? They still lost to the wood-nymph instructors, but at least they were not left in the dust.

Wrestling? They held their own long enough before letting the Ares kids defeat them. They could have won half of those matches, if not most of them had they tried to actually properly fight, but they were trying to maintain somewhat in the background, which wasn't exactly working for some reason. Except for one match where Rhea beat a kid black and blue for making a comment about her.

The one thing they really skilled at was canoeing... which wasn't really a surprise considering their parentage.

The senior campers and counsellors were watching them, trying to decide who their dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. They weren't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. They didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or - gods forbid - Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told them that they might be the children of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

Rhea nearly punched him for trying to comfort them, and Percy had to be the bigger person and offer a diplomatic smile and thanked him for his words before dragging his younger sister away.

Despite all that, they liked camp. They got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. They would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of their meal into the fire, and try to ignore the feeling of not being able to follow their carefully cultivated routine. They could feel a misty version of their dad's hand brushing over their head, reassuring them that it would be okay, just a little while more.

They missed home, despite loving the camp. They missed the beach and the sand. They missed Atlantis, and the corals, the pearls and the swish of water around them.