A Little More Than A Daydream

❂ Chapter Three ❂

It was stormy. For some reason, I was standing on the beach as the rain pelted down and the thunder raged overhead. Next to me, stood a young horse.

We began to run towards two shapes fighting along the beach. As we got closer, the shapes solidified into two animals; a massive stallion and a golden eagle. Above us, the clouds parted to reveal the sun shrouded in mist. An owl appeared, flying hard. The owl flew towards the sun and attacked it.

I screamed in pain as the owl's talons racked across the sun's glistening surface. But my scream wasn't a scream, it was a wolf's howl of pain. I looked down to see that something had clawed my side. The young horse paused and looked between me and the two animals fighting. He looked uncertain of how to proceed.

The owl flew down and carefully perched on his shoulder, as if nothing had happened. It was glaring at me, although I did not know why.

Go. Go and stop them from fighting. I tried to say to the horse, ignoring the owl's glare. I'll be fine.

My eyes flew open.

"Careful. You've been out cold for a day and a bit. You're going to be sore" A boy, a couple of years younger than Percy and Grover appeared in my line of vision. He steadied me as I sat up, my head spinning.

The world stopped spinning, and the boy's face flew into focus. He had floppy blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a kind smile.

"You're Emmalie, right?" He asked, handing me a drink.

"Yeah" I found my voice, my throat sore. "That's my name" I took a sip of the drink. It tasted like a fruit smoothie with all my favourite fruits in it. When the tired feeling over my entire body suddenly faded, I realised that the drink must be Nectar.

"I'm Will Solace, son of Apollo." He introduced "Welcome to camp half-blood"

I blinked. Will Solace. Camp Half-blood. Unwillingly, my mind thought back to the night of the car crash. It seemed a whole world away now, with the sun shining through the window of the infirmary. My heart clenched as I thought about Sally. She's alright. I assured myself. Hades is just holding her captive. She's safe.

But I was trying to convince myself.

"Hey, Apollo's the god of healing right?" I asked, thinking about Grover.

"Yeah, why?" Will sat down next to me on a chair. I caught sight of his necklace, it had one bead on it already. He was nine when he came to camp then. I noticed absentmindedly.

"Something that happened to me..." I quickly described how I had healed Grover and myself in the car crash.

Will looked troubled. "Well, it seems like an Apollo thing, but the glowy thing is weird."

"So I could be a daughter of Apollo then?" I asked, trying the idea out in my head. I kind of liked the idea, as I liked a lot of the things Apollo was a god of, archery, music, the sun, and my real mother was a nurse, so I knew a lot about healing too. But I didn't like how Apollo had acted in Heroes of Olympus or the trials of Apollo.

"Maybe. But children of Hecate can heal too. We won't know until you're claimed..." Will trailed off, looking above my head eagerly. "I'd like it if you were my sister. I only have brothers at the moment." He told me.

I grinned, and he grinned back. A spark of friendship flashed between us, and I knew that I would be spending more time with the son of Apollo, even if I didn't turn out to be his sister.

While Will checked on my healing leg, Grover came to visit. He was a mess, so I did my best to cheer him up. Grover hadn't been my favourite character in the Percy Jackson series, but he was an important one. And over the past term at Yancy, I had begun to see what Percy liked about him. Grover was a lot like myself - probably why he frustrated me a lot, always cheerful and upbeat. He always wanted the best for other people which made him a good friend.