Daughter of gods

Christopher (AKA beautiful ginger dude)

          The guy that had pulled me out of the water (Christopher was his name. Very gallant) was tall, with a light brown skin, wearing an old camp t-shirt hidden under a denim jumpsuit. His hair was so red that it looked like fire, and his green eyes were playfully analyzing me. His freckles looked like stars in a clear night, and his mouth was curled into a soft smile. As his face was dirty with grease, I figured he was a Hephaestus son.

- Katherine, then. – I smiled and nodded, also praying that I wasn't as red as I felt.

- Hephaestus son?

- Yeah. You? – I didn't really know if I could tell him about the daughter-of-all-gods situation, so I just him that I was unclaimed. – It's hard I know, not knowing if your parent will care enough to tell the world that you're their child. But they do, you just have to wait a while.

- Isn't it weird that gods have like, a lot of children with humans even though they're married?

- Kind of, yes. The thing is, gods need us heroes, to fight their battles for them, which is very annoying. – he started connecting and disconnecting some cables from a metal ball, and I figured that asking him to explain what was it to me was as good as knowing nothing. – So, they keep having the heroes. Well, they are immortal and knew that wouldn't be able to contain themselves for all eternity. Probably they shouldn't have married.

He shrugged and glanced at the sea, but without stopping whatever he was doing with that metal ball. His neck had a huge scar, that seemed to go on further inside his shirts. I figured that was probably something he didn't want to talk about, so I only wondered.

- Have you ever helped them?

- What?

- Helped the gods. I mean, went on a mission. – he nodded slightly. He looked like he didn't want to talk about it. Probably had something to do with that scar. But we had nothing else to talk about. – What did you do? For them, I mean?

- No big deal. There were only a few satyrs left after the war, so they needed someone to help bring the demigods here.

- Is it how you got that scar? – I regretted it as soon as I said it, but there was nothing I could do now.

- Yes... And no. I had just brought a new kid to camp when I heard something weird coming from the sea. It was just like a scream, but hundreds of times louder. Then, I saw bubbles and supposed that someone was drowning, so I just jumped into the water and tried to save whoever had been drowning. By the time I got there... - he closed his eyes and frowned. I knew I had touched in a delicate topic. Before I could say anything, he went on – The person was dead already. A giant monster turned his head at me, and his teeth were still wet on my friend's blood. I fought him for a while, but soon, I lost my air and passed out. I woke up on an island in the middle of nowhere, and Hermes appeared out of nowhere telling me I had to kill that monster, that was now at that island. Then, he vanished, and left me alone, without any weapons.

That was a very reasonable reason to hate the gods. But he didn't seem upset with them as he spoke, but with himself, like he had been through a test and failed. I wanted to hug him and say that he wasn't guilty or something like it, but then he kept going.

- Well, I fought with it for three days, until he cut me here. – he pointed his scar – I didn't know anything about that monster, but I knew that when he cut me, he poisoned the wound. As it burned, I kept fighting. The worst thing was the nymphs from the island. They were screaming to me, begging me to stop, but I just couldn't. The monster had killed... A friend. So I fought until he died. As he turned to dust, a golden flower burst from the place where he had died. All the spirits of the island were there, crying over the flower. Only then I realized who the monster was. He was the protector of the Chrissi spirits. They were now exposed to attacks. – he looked down and pressed a little button on the metal ball. It made some creaking sounds, but that was it. He shook his head and started pulling the cables again. – Then the gods sent me a small raft. I said sorry to the spirits and did everything I could to help them. After I left... The island was destroyed. Completely. The only thing that survived was the golden flower. Hermes brought it to me, along with the news about the destruction of the island. I... I had no idea what to do with it, so I kept it. It's a daily reminder that I can't let my emotions rule me. Because bad things happen when I let them. What about you? That big gauze covering half of your leg stand for?

I told him the story with every single detail. He didn't believe when I told him I had conjured a sword out of nowhere, but even I didn't believe it, so how could he? We were having a pretty solid conversation when Max appeared out of nowhere, running like I had offered him free burritos or something like it.

- Kath... Katherine – he was gasping, so I let him breathe a little before asking him what did he want (with all the love and respect possible, of course).

- What?

- The Oracle request to see you. – Max had recovered his breath and his face lost its red color. Not only the red one though, all of them. He was extremely pale.

- The Oracle? Requests?

- Yes, and if I were you, I wouldn't leave it waiting.