A New Myth

A New Myth: Part 2

After Carter vanished from my sight, I felt a few tears slip down my face. I heard footsteps pound on the steps behind me and I quickly wiped them away as I turned to face Percy. He was smiling, until he saw my face, which quickly turned into a look of concern. I gave him an I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it look. Thankfully, he understood. He offered me his arm.

“You ready for your tour around camp?” He grinned, a little mischievously I might add.  I smiled back, taking his arm.

“I’d love to.”

Over the course of the rest of the day, Percy led me around, showing me everything. When we got to the sword fighting arena, I stopped cold in my tracks.

“Nicole? Are you okay?” Percy leaned down slightly to get a better look at me.

“Of course. I was just wondering…Could I take a look at the swords?”

Percy seemed a bit taken aback, but led me down into the arena, where a small wall of swords awaited anyone who needed to borrow one.  Grazing my fingers over them, careful as not to cut myself, I smiled.

I picked one up. Suddenly I was reminded of practice and the kopesh. Carter had said I wasn’t a fighter, when I knew I was. Now, I knew why. I could heal and fix with my Egyptian side, but I could fight and harm with my Grecian side. This sword, it felt right. I half-turned to tell Carter what I had figured out, and felt a punch to the gut. Carter was gone. This was my home now. I lay the sword back on the table.

 “Thanks for showing me the swords, Percy. I think I’ll like learning this.” Percy grinned.

 “I can teach you how to sword fight if you like.”He said. I smiled.

 “I’d love that. As long as you don’t kill me.” I added teasing him.

 He laughed and took my hand, leading me out of the arena.

“I’d NEVER harm you.” He said, giving my hand a playful squeeze.

He looked up at the sky. “It’s about dinner time. Come on, lets introduce you to some other campers.”

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Percy explained how I was supposed to sit with the Hermes cabin during meals, and how you sit at your own your own cabin. I ignored his protests and sat down with him at his table after we both threw some food into the fire. (for offerings to the gods or something like that Percy said.)

Percy smiled. “You don’t like to listen to rules do you?”

I shrugged. “If I don’t like them and they seem unreasonable. Then no, I don’t listen to them.” My comment made Percy laugh.

“Okay, I won’t tell you what to do.”

I smirked. “It’s a waste of effort to even try and control me.”

He smiled, before taking a bite of his…blue food. I decided not to ask.

“So…you explained that the new unclaimed demigods go to the Hermes table. That explains why its so crowded. But why is your table so empty? There’s nobody at those other ones too.” I waved to four other tables.

He shrugged. “Those tables are for Hera, Artemis, Hades, and Zeus. Hera and Artemis don’t have any kids. Zeus and Hades each have one or two, but they don’t stay at camp. They visit, but that’s about it. As for me, I’m the only Poseidon kid. The big three- Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon- aren’t supposed to really have kids. We end up too powerful.

 I nodded. “Okay.”

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Later after a nice meal, Percy lead me to the amphitheater for a sing along, led by some Apollo campers. It was fun. I sang along to the silly meaningless songs. At some point in the night, Percy and I had started bumping into each other, trying to get the other to lose their balance as we sang. Some sort messed up swaying to the music.