Myths & Legends Collide

The Return Home

The flight to Seattle airport was a little over six hours. I think that after the war we just ended, Zeus decided to allow my flight to be relatively smooth, minor turbulence. I managed to get a window seat, so I watched as the scenery rolled past. Once I had touched down in Seattle, I took another hour flight to Port Angeles. When that flight had landed, I pulled my bag from the overhead locker, collected my suitcase from the conveyer belt and trudged outside. The unmistakable stark white cruiser sitting in the parking lot. My Dad leaning against the hood. My face broke out into a grin. I skipped the last couple of steps towards him, letting go of my suitcase and towing my arms around his neck, causing him to hug me. "Dad." I greeted happily.

"Aspen." Dad said. He then pushed me back, a grim look on his face. "Chiron IM'd me, he told me about what happened...are you ok?" My smile fell from my face and my eyes fell to the tips of my white flats.

"I...I had a brother." I whispered hoarsely, "He...he was barely ten, Dad, he shouldn't have been fighting."

"I'm sorry." Dad wrapped me in a hug again. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to come fight."

"It's ok dad." I pulled away from Dad, looking up at him again. "At least I know who Mum was, Persephone."

"No wonder you love gardening." I smiled up at dad. "Let's go. Bella won't be at home, she's at school." The two of us piled into the cruiser and started towards Forks. On the drive there, I gave Dad the proper run-down of the war. How his brothers and sisters refused to fight, until one Daughter of Aphrodite decided to bring them all there. Dad was sad at the loss of some of his half-siblings, and he preened when I mentioned one of his half-sisters managed to slay the Drakon. I told him of all the new cabins that were being built, and how I had one all to myself. When we arrived home, I had just finished telling him how my step-brother had actually decided to talk to me for the first time. "Wait, so how much family do you have on your mother's side?"

"If we're talking family in total, I've got two step-siblings." I counted them on my fingers, "Unfortunately one passed away a couple of years back, and then the Demeter Cabin are essentially my aunts and uncles on Mum's side, as well as the Ares Cabin on your side, but they don't know that."

"That's a lot." Dad commented as the car was parked in the driveway next to a beat-up red truck.

"Perks of being a Half-Blood, well...Three-Quater-Blood in my case." The two of us hopped out of the car. Dad retrieved my bag from the boot and we trudged up the stairs to the house. Dad opened up and lead me to the basement, where I had begged my room to be. It matched my Cabin at Camp Half-Blood to almost an exact match. A four-poster queen-sized bed with beige curtains, a cabinet of gardening tools sat to the side with a bookshelf overflowing with books and papers next to it, my dresser stood at the end of my bed, and a vanity rested against the back wall. Luckily, there was a bathroom connected, so I didn't have to share the one upstairs. Dad set my suitcase on the bed, while I placed my bag gently on the dresser.

"Now, because this place is a dead-spot for Monsters, I got you a phone." Dad said, pointing to my bed where I just noticed two packages and a shoulder bag, one package smaller than the other. "And a laptop, for school, and your school supplies."

"Thanks Dad." I said gratefully. Dad smiled, giving me a hug before lumbering back up the stairs. I looked around my room, excited and scared for what was to come.