Abandoned- a pertemis story Ψ ☑️

Campfire Stories. Chapter 7

Alright. I hope I'm not gonna keep getting interrupted. Wait... it looks like nothing is going to happ- Internet Head.

ΨPercyΨ
All of us sat around the campfire in the middle of the camp, which was surrounded by logs that were to be used as chairs. I forgot wether this was the standard Hunter camp or things had been changed. I honestly didn't care. Thalia and Artemis sat next to me on the log and Carmen was across from me, squished in-between two uncomfortable Hunters. I almost laughed at the look on his face. The fire was actually quite large, bigger than the one at Camp Half-Blood and it was warm but also not too hot to the point where it was uncomfortable to sit close to. Some Hunters were glaring at us (mostly Carmen because most Hunters realized that if Thalia was cool with me then they shouldn't get too hostile) and others were sharpening arrows or priming their bows. The ones next to Carmen were violently sharpening various knives on their person and giving him "Don't-even-think-about-it" glares while his face had a "definitely-not-thinking-about-it-And-Percy-why-are-you-staring-at-me?" Look on his face. I gave him my best "let's-make-small-talk" look. A lot of looks very quickly. I'm not sure how well the Hunters were reading the room but I could tell Carmen didn't want to take any chances. I looked over at Thalia, silently begging her to start a conversation. She nodded and leaning forward in her seat "so... wanna explain this?" She said, waving towards Artemis and Carmen. Why Thalia!? Why!? The one thing I didn't want to talk about! "Well." I started "Artemis here appeared in my cabin and bullied me into being her master." I finished, aware of how horrible it sounded. It didn't help that there were gasps from the Hunters and from Thalia herself. Artemis looked completely embarrassed "Lord Zeus said that I must have a demigod Master... so." She gestured to me. It's a very uncomfortable thing to have every single able-bodied woman in the area look at you like a deer in headlights that they very much wanted to run over. "I'll have you know. I didn't want to do this." That didn't make it better. It made it so much worse. "Wait. That's the dynamic here? I didn't know that! I haven't seen him give you any orders at all!" Carmen exclaimed, breaking the ice "wait really? I thought seaweed brain would've made you do the Macarena already." Thalia scoffed, enjoying the distraction "I did that once. I asked Meg to do that once! It was Apollo! You wouldn't give up the chance to make the god of the sun who almost vaporized Grover because he slightly damaged his Lyre, dance on command!" Percy complained, throwing his hands up. Thalia and Carmen started laughing, even Artemis joined in with a few Hunters. I looked around "what? What?" I asked, completely confused. What are they laughing about? I was just defending myself... am I that pathetic? Carmen stood up, still chuckling to himself and walked up to me "don't worry about it, guy. Everything will be fine." He smiled at me as he patted my shoulder "everything." To me his smile seemed to get a little dimmer.

We talked for hours. Mostly we told jokes and funny stories. After a while we finally came to the subject of Annabeth. I told the story and when we were done we hung our heads in silence. Thalia patted my back awkwardly as she tried to hide tears. Artemis sat silently with the look of someone who was trying their best to remain emotionless. For a complete minute or two there was nothing but the sound of the campfire crackling. "So... by harpies, huh?" Thalia said quietly "yeah." I clasped my hands together and squeezed until my knuckles turned white "no. The harpies...they didn't get her." Carmen spoke up, his head in his hands "...what?" I looked up at him, my heartbeat pounding in my ears "when... when I came in to help out. I tried to go for Annabeth first... I was too late. The Hydra hit her hard and she went down. After that she was pretty much gone. I-i tried but I wasn't strong enough." Carmen said weakly, giving me that pleading look again. I wanted to be angry at him. I wanted to feel that rage that would drive me to power wash him the freezing water of the Styx. I wanted to do so many things and get so mad but I couldn't... it was like all my energy and everything that drove me washed right out of me like watercolor. I felt so weak right then and there. I knew I couldn't do anything, for one because it wasn't right... he couldn't do anything. I sighed "it's-it's not your fault... just drop the subject." I waved him off with a few tired swipes of the hand. Thalia clapped her hands in an effort to get everyone's attention "well. It's time for bed anyway. Who wants to help me lead Lady Artemis to her tent?" Hunters cheered and soon the fire was doused and the Hunters were snoozing in bed. They gave me a small sleeping bag without a tent and they didn't give Carmen anything. Harsh. I laid down in my sleeping bag and looked up at the twinkling stars. I couldn't sleep. How could I? Annabeth was dead and I was to blame! I got up and started towards the now put-out fire. I stopped in my tracks and crouched down as soon as I noticed a shape near the fire. My eyes weren't yet used to the darkness but they soon began to clear. Carmen was sitting alone near the fire. I was still suspicious of him. No demigod just appears out of thin air to save you. He's got an ulterior motive. Carmen looked around as if to check if anyone was watching and then leaned forward and touched the sticks in the campfire. Slowly, as though he had struck a match, fire started up from beneath the bundle of sticks and logs. It burned low but hot, enough to give off some light but not enough to attract attention. I sucked in a breath. He said that he didn't know who his godly parent was. Could he be lying? I decided that I wasn't going to wait to find out. I stood up and strode over to him, sitting across from where he was sitting. He noticed me and immediately tensed up. "Hey. Chill. I just want to talk." I said, raising my hands in the classic surrender position. He relaxed and nodded before grabbing a stick from the fire and using it to tend to the fire. "What are you doing awake?" I asked "I don't sleep often. I got used to it. When your on your own as a demigod, sleeping isn't always the wisest choice." He replied, not looking up from what he was doing "that's gotta be bad for your body though. I mean, are you okay?" I countered "am I okay?" He chuckled right before he took his tending stick and blew on the burnt tip, spreading embers throughout the night sky between us "I'm never okay, Percy Jackson. I don't sleep by choice. The only time I get a wink is when I'm so exhausted I pass out." He looked like he did too. I noticed the bags under his eyes, his slouch and how his hand trembled slightly when handling something. His eyes had the look of someone who was just tired with everything and his smile was always somewhat apologetic. "That's... not good. You can't do that to yourself. You'll die..." I started, my voice soft "huh, Ive never really thought of it that way. It's always kept me alive. Plus, I can't just give up." Carmen replied, sticking his stick back into the fire and shifting around some fuel "give up? On what?" I asked, curious "I want to find my mom. I can't rest until I figure out why I exist, Who my parent is. I want to know who abandoned me and my dad and why." He shook his head "I have abilities. Weird ones, that don't make any sense." I thought about that for a moment "you can start fires. You sure it's not Hephaestus?" I asked "my godly parent is a woman. I don't think so." Carmen said, giving me a thin smile. I decided not to go into how weird godly relationships could go and how it was very possible his godly parent was in fact a dude. "I can do a lot more than start fires too. My abilities keep me alive but... I don't like using them." He said quietly. As he said that he stroked a scar down his eye and while I studied his face I realized he had plenty of scars covering his face and hands. Every demigod had their fare share of scars and gnarly wounds but in the firelight I could see he had way more than your average half-blood. "That scar. Where'd you get it?" I asked. I seemed to be more on the offensive here. He scoffed a little "this scar?" He traced his eye scar again "a freind gave it to me as a gift. I intend to pay him back in full." He growled softly and suddenly I could see the scary part of him. Under all the jokes and the tiredness I could see a core yearning for revenge that was doused in broiling anger. I grimaced. He was definitely going down the wrong path. I was also worried about who his godly parent might be. I had a theory. "Have you perhaps met Nemesis?" I asked, testing out my idea "yeah. Of course. She's a bit weird don't you think?" He replied "yeah... she is." I said, leaning back on my log. Now that I knew he had met Nemesis at least once I could assume his mother was indeed Nemesis. I didn't know what kind of abilities children of Nemesis had because the one that I had met, Ethan Nakumura, didn't display any sort of powers. I could manipulate water, Piper could charmspeak, Leo could set himself on fire, and Jason could call down lightning among other things. Plenty of demigods inherited abilities form their parents, a good percentage of them had some type of unexplainable thing they could do. Annabeth, being the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom, was inherently smart and could calculate things on the go that I could never hope to do normally. Carmen hadn't displayed much besides starting fires and a pension for revenge but I was sure he was somehow important. Not to brag or anything but when people are around me, things happen. Ask Rachel Dare. Or Frank. Or Nick for gods sake. One last thing was bothering me though... "your sword. What... what's up with it?" I asked, out of the blue "oh. My sword?" Carmen seemed off guard. There had been a long silence since the last thing I said so he must've stopped trying to engage at some point. "Yeah. Is that... mortal steel?" I said as I gestured to him to take it out "um. Not really." He flicked his wrist and dark mist sprayed from his sleeve, zig zagging down his hand and condensing until it solidified into his sword "this part-" he traced the silver blade with a finger "is Etherial Silver. Now, this-" he tapped the edge of the blade which was outlined in a night black metal "is Stygian Iron. The handle is made from Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold-" he tapped the pommel, which was night black as well with studs of bronze and gold here and there, with his other hand "however, you were kind of right." He flipped the blade so it was lying on it side. He then traced the edge with a finger, cutting himself in the process "the sides have a steel stripe going down them." I looked where he had been tracing and I could see that in the middle of the Stygian Iron sides was a line of normal steel. "Why?" I asked, worried "well. Mostly I kill monsters but mortals and other demigods tend to get rowdy so this little stripe comes in handy when dealing with humans. Y'know how Greek metals can't hurt mortals? With the addition of this steel stripe I can still damage them with the entirety of the sword. The other Greek metals allow me to kill monsters. It can cut through mortals and monsters alike." He explained as his sword shrank "but wouldn't the steel act like a barrier against the Greek metal?" I asked because I was genuinely interested. I remember Luke's sword "BackBiter" and thought of how different that sword was in comparison to this blade. "Nah. Mortal metals go straight through monsters so the steel doesn't affect them but as soon as the Greek metal hits them they crumble. Vice versa for mortals." Carmen nodded "huh. You learn something new every late night chat." I yawned though I tried to hide it "you should get some sleep." Carmen noted, giving me a look "so you can kill me in my sleep? Nah, you first." I joked "I don't sleep easy." Carmen warned "yeah well. Your safe here. Nobody in their right mind would attack a camp full of Hunters. C'mon, you can have the sleeping bag." I got up and waved for him to follow me "fine but if I wake up craving pancakes it's on you." He said, grudgingly following after me. I laughed at that and we joked around as we walked to my sleeping spot.

Carmen was asleep in the sleeping bag a few inches from me but I still laid awake. I watched the night sky and then looked at the guy using my sleeping bag with drowsy eyes. He sucks his thumb in his sleep. Loser. I scoffed to myself good natured-ly. The world went dark and I almost got away without a dream. I dreamt of two eyes which had every color known to man swirling through them while the pupils were stark white. I dreamt of a soft laugh and the words of a madman filled my head. You've met almost everyone you need too Perseus Jackson. So soon... so soon.