Chapter Text
I spent the rest of that day by the benches as all the campers rotated to new activities, watching as some get injured, lose, or win the games that put them through. Some may think it looks like a simple school Olympic Game like the ones my father and I would see when passing by public schools, but if you look close enough, you’d see someone with a flaming arrow hitting another camper.
My thoughts were somewhere else throughout the entire time, wishing that I could make myself smaller and hide from everyone, mainly Percy and Annabeth who have been watching me like a hawk, no scratch that––like a stupid Owl.
Chiron had once told me that all the demigods have ADHD because it’s from our battle senses, which has finally made me feel much better to realize I’m not that different from everyone else. But it makes people fidget and not stay in one place so straight-like, and that's what I kept seeing in Percy, as he ached for something to happen every time I caught him staring at me like I was going to blow up a toilet or something like that, Annabeth didn’t seem to be that happy at all over Percy's assumption.
What I did end up questioning was if the mark on my back meant anything related to Poseidon, he would either be my second father or mother-ish. I don’t think there was anything I ever did that leads me to believe I’m the sea God’s daughter.
I’ve been to the beach, lakes, and community pools but I can’t swim professionally like Percy does. I’m not scared of water––I couldn’t be. Dad once said it was normal to feel like you're nearly drowning, even when you're being held down against your will every few minutes for 10 hours after seeing something that you weren’t supposed to. I can’t remember what I saw.
By the end of the three-legged race, I noticed that word was starting to spread around about what happened at the canoe and the mark on my back, when I made my way to the girl’s bathroom, a group of Aphrodite/Venus girls was standing by the mirrors retouching their makeup and gossiping.
Only one had noticed me walk in but didn’t make it a big deal to shush her siblings. Instead, I walked back out and went to the gender-neutral bathroom or as I heard others call it the ‘we don’t care, just wash your dam hands’ bathroom.
I locked the door behind me to not let anyone come in while I tried to control a burning feeling that was starting to ache up in my chest. I leaned towards the sink my fist clenched together so tight my knuckles looked like they were losing circulation. I tried breathing in and out, my reflection in the mirror was in front of me, seeing for the first time the braid that Georgie did to my hair earlier.
I don’t think I’ve ever had my hair done like this before, it almost felt wrong to have it this way. Dad never let me grow out my hair long enough to even be braided or styled, I can’t remember the reason for it, but just the thought of that made me rethink the memory I had earlier when I was injured. It was clear that I didn’t have self-healing magic when I was younger, but I still can’t understand what actually happened to me.
“It’s not your fault, it is never your fault Priy,” I think back to my father’s words, they sounded like an echo.
I try not to think about him, I didn’t need to cry again. My hands started to untangle the braid, letting my hair fall back to its normal flow, or at least as normal as I can remember it being.
I had other thoughts, but they didn’t lead me anywhere else besides taking that moment to pull off the Camp HalfBlood shirt and take a closer look at the mark on my back, still as how I last saw it. How did I even get this? There was someone else who had the same reddish tone on the spine of their back. But who was it?
“You’ll find out soon, perhaps today if your lucky enough” The voice spoke, their voice felt close to me like it was speaking through the mirror I was facing. “Leave me alone, please” I whispered, a loud ringing started forming in my ears, the longer I stared at the reflection, the more I noticed a black figure appearing.
“STOP!” I managed to scream out, my fist shattering the mirror, sending shards everywhere on the floor and sink. There was pain aching my hand. My panting started to slow down just when the bleeding had stopped with the cuts disappearing, not even the sight of a bruise was there.
“Ey yo, who lock the door!? You Hypnos kids better not be hotboxing Mugwort in there again!” I jumped as someone calls out, banging on the door. Quickly I put my shirt back on and washed my hands as fast as I could before opening the door, not giving eye contact to the camper and walking directly out of sight so they wouldn’t see the mess I made.
~*~
When I went to find a seat at the amphitheater, I heard from the corner of the stage Will and Frank arguing with each other, they seem to be concerned over something.
“Where in Hades are they? Nico said they would be back before it starts” Will glanced back at his watch, “I’m just worried––what if something happened?”
“Don’t say that Zhang, I would know if they were, the Harpys would’ve paged me by now” Will pulls out a weird square thing with a screen to show him then sighs, “If they’re not here by then, I guess we could go up there together? Do you know any 70’s songs?”
Frank folded his arms “Of course, I know a 70’s song.”
I decided to not bother with their conversation and made my way up to one of the rows, just when the next people were up.
“Prim over here!” I heard both of the young Dionysus kids call out for me, Gavin and Uva were sitting by with 3 other kids around my age, drinking those sliver bag things with juice in them.
“These are our Roman siblings, Rohan, Venito, and Channel.” Gavin introduced me to the other three children, all of them sharing the same violet-colored eyes as the God himself.
I waved at them then sat next to Uva as everyone began to take their seats, “Where's Pollux?” I asked “he’s performing, The Hermes Cabin bet 30 that he’ll chicken out again like for the past 2 years now” She rolled her eyes, “Why would Pollux chicken out?”
Each of them shared a look, then faced me, “Well before Gavin and I came to camp, it was only just the twins––Castor and Him, they would perform on karaoke nights, it was their thing, but ever since Castor died 6 years ago, Pollux has had something like–stage fright, he keeps saying that he’ll get over it but it seems like he never will” my face softened hearing that, no wonder he was upset the other day when talking about Castor.
“Ever since we arrived we’ve offered to help him but he keeps pushing us away when it comes to that.” Gavin shakes his head. I glanced up at the sky, blinking my eyes to see how the clouds were darkening by the looks of it. I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose someone so close to you, let alone a twin.
A couple of minutes later a few more people went up the stage to sing, some were awful, some voices sounded so soothing and sweet and a few were booed off the stage. I had to bite my tongue to hide a laugh when one kid tried to crowd surf only to not have anyone catch them and hear a loud slam on the ground. I've never been a good singer nor don’t have any intention to ever do so unless you count humming or whistling.
Pollux was up next after a Ceres kid finished singing some song that I’ve heard the Apollo cabin play on their record player a few times, I don’t know what it was called, but it had the words “We found love right where we are” in it.
He wasn’t looking too well when the song of Frank Sinatra began to play, practically shaking as he was waiting for the words on the giant screen to show up. “Pay up you guys'' The Mercury kid behind us––some kid named Ian, held out his hand. I didn’t know what came through me but I snatched the juice bag from Gavin's hand and squeezed the last remaining juice onto the kid which made him run off crying.
I wasn’t sure if I felt sorry for doing that, yet I did mean to do it on purpose but the Dionysus kids clapped for me, “It was helpful for the both of you”
‘Shut up’ I say in my head to the voice.
Unfortunately, that Ian kid was right about Pollux, he ran off the stage dropping the microphone which caused it to create a loud noise that everyone started covering their ears when it hit the floor. “Oh that's not good, come on guys,” Rohan said standing up to leave his seat, followed by the rest of us.
We found Pollux near the trees with a few bush dryads who were patting his back as he started breathing heavily.
I watched as they all didn’t say anything, the siblings just gather around to hug their brother. A breeze blew next to us, where Dionysus had appeared, he just stood there with a mournful look on his face like he wanted to help but wasn’t doing anything about it. Why can’t he?
There were thoughts roaming in my head that could explain it but I might not know what his actual problem is, for the past few times, I’ve seen him only interact with his kids if it’s training, a plant-related topic, or that card game I’ve seen him play with the Sytrs.
Pollux had managed to calm down a bit right when the campers at the Apmatheater applaud whoever was singing. “Come on, all of you, back to your seats” Dionysus informed. “Except for you Blossom,” he says pointing at me just before I went with the others, I turn back to face him. “Chiron has informed me that you’ve only volunteered at the canoe race, you need to do at least one mandatory one”
“What? I wasn’t informed about that,” I said a bit taken aback, “it says it in the activity flier, Travis has given it to everyone at the cabin and it’s in Ancient Greek” I cuss inwardly to myself, Travis did give me one but I never had the nerve to read it, why would I? I thought I was just going to sit down and watch the games. In fact, I had made that flier into a paper bat.
“I-I forgot,” I tell him, looking down at my shoes, “Thought so, I’ve put you in for the chariot race right after dinner, if you don’t participate then you’ll be on dishwashing duty” My eyes widen, Gods damn it, is it too late to do a Karaoke song?
“Why are you telling me this now? I could’ve done a different one, anything but that!” I was starting to get annoyed by this man when he just shrugged at me “I forgot” he then tried to walk away, but I stopped him.
“Is it actually true what Percy said? That I’m one of the big three’s kid, because of the mark on my back, being Poseidon?” he turned back in a tiring matter like he just wanted me to shut up already, “You are not Poseidon’s child”
“But am I one of the big three? Even though you said Apollo might be my parent?”
“I did not say that, I said your ability might be from Apollos' doing, and yet no one knows why” he sighs.
“I’m not certain about the whole big three-part, but that mark you have is nothing related to him, let alone Greek. If you were then you would’ve won that Canoe race and not nearly drowned” He takes a step close to me “Have you ever considered more about what you are, rather than worry about others, maybe you can prove that by doing the chariot race” he grins then leaves me standing there.
I crossed my arms to hide the balled-up fist I formed in my hands, I wanted to tell him off, how much more of a stupid God could he be for that?
“Doesn’t that make you want to strangle him? Maybe you’re mad?”
‘No! Please stop it!’ I throw my hands to my head ‘I don’t want to feel angry, It’s my fault too’ I admit to myself the truth, taking the guilt through me.
I tried to breathe, It burned to count back from 100 when I returned to the amphitheater. This feeling isn't normal, it ached, why?
Pollux did look a lot better, someone had given him a Kitkat bar which seemed to have brightened his mood—-except mine because he wasn’t eating it correctly. “What did my dad want to talk to you about?” he asked, making room for me to sit, “nothing important” I lied.
I looked back at the stage where Chiron was calling up the next campers who happen to be Will and Frank, singing ‘Dream On’ by Aerosmith. ––Wait that was a ’70s song? I could’ve sworn it was the 80s.
They look to be putting their hearts into the singing, especially during the high note part they shared, which got the most applause from the campers going wild over the performance like a festival concert.
Will followed the other chorus of the song while Frank was doing an air guitar during the solo part, throughout each beat, they’d pose dramatically like rockstars. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they decided to throw themselves off the stage and start crowd surfing, the campers for sure would catch them. Out of all the other performances they were the only ones who received the most applause.
~*~
Dinner was an in-between of a free-for-all and everyone mostly prepared their gear and Chariots for the race. There was a large sign near the pathway to the beach where the race was going to be held, everyone was passing by and some stopped to look at it to recheck if they had everyone in their teams. I––however, had to stare at it multiple times to find my name.
Okay, admitting the truth is difficult, my dad struggled to try to teach me, yes that’s true, but this was all before Chiron mentioned to me that there’s this thing called ‘Dyslexia’ that all the Greek demigods have and yet here I was thinking I’d be Illiterate for the rest of my life, even in the language of Ancient Greek, I don’t seem to understand what the words even say or how are they pronounced.
It’s embarrassing to tell anyone that, most of the books I was given at the Juvenile were for Origami, and now that I’ve been here, I’ve tried to hide it.
Shoot me.
I went to find Chiron who was giving orders to the camp Harpys nearby, “Chiron” I said interrupting him, “Yes?”
“I don’t know which Chariot am I supposed to be in?”
“It says it on the board,” he tells me, eyeing the direction to where it is, “I would like for you to tell me, please” I started fidgeting with my hands, Chiron sighed then pointed at the far distance from the line of chariots from the starting point, “Over there, you’re assigned with Nico and Hazel”
“What!” I say a bit too loud, luckily not many people looked in our direction, “they were the last to arrive back, Mr. D says that it’s only fair” He looked back at the Camps Harpies, handing each a piece of paper. Is he serious?
After the scene Nico had created last night, I’d expected them to be my last option.
“Would be nice to get mad right now”
“Shut up,” I say through clutched teeth, putting my hands back in my head. “Excuse me?” I forgot Chiron was standing right next to me, “No not you–just–” I groaned leaving out of his sight and going towards the last Chariot.
Noticing that they were there already, Nico was checking the Chariot from the front and back while Hazel was sitting on top of a horse with black hair. Though the horse uncontrollably started to react when I got close.
“Arion, Arion calm down boy!” Hazel began to flick the ropes of the harness around her horse, but the horse, however, started kicking his front hooves up in front of Nico, to which he backed away out of panic, Percy came running through to calm the horse down, “what is he saying?” Nico asked him holding up his sword, “I don’t know, he’s just whinnying–Hazel! Get down from him” Percy tells her, but instead of climbing off, she had fallen off the horse, and in a blink, it vanished through speed, just an inch away from me.
“Are you alright?” I asked, helping her up. Her skin felt cold in my hands which made me step away from her. “I’m fine” her voice sounded forced when her eyes locked on mines.
A very loud whistle has blown through, and the guy from earlier Butch Walker, was standing on a podium.
“You're assigned with us aren’t you” Nico spoke, I couldn’t tell if he was mad or afraid, his emotions looked the same, but it so happens that they were informed that I would be joining them in this race then.
I gave a slow nod, noticing their chariot, it was a black stone color with gold laced around it along with jewels but no Pegasus’ were on the front side to pull it, “are these real?” I asked, hoping Hazel could just answer and not Nico, I was unsure about his behavior when he looked like he wanted to avoid me. I did see that he had a purple bruise on the left side of his face near his eye, I think that was my part from yesterday.
“Yes, it was a gift from my father Pluto, Hades Roman form,” Hazel tells me quickly but everything she was saying sounded forced out.
“what about the horses’ how is the Chariot going to move?”
“Arion was supposed to do that but since he’s gone now, we’ll stick to another plan, Nico” She looked at her brother as if he should take it away from the performance, the boy nodded and placed his hand on the ground where it began to shake, a herd of 3 large skeletons had risen from the dirt, but it wasn’t human skeletons, they were dead Pegasus with a black glow around them.
I forgot to blink. The sight of what I was seeing was surprising, “do you have a weapon?” Hazel looked back at me.
“Right here” I pointed at my belt that I got it back from the Venus tent, and unstrapped both of the whips to show her, she looked surprised “You could be in charge with Nico in taking defense while I drive” Hazel’s instructed me, I took to memorizing it just as the whistle blew again.
“All right, campers!” Butch announces holding up a flag, Chiron stepped up the podium, it was an odd sight to see a Centaur walk up the small stair steps, “Demigods! Attention! These are the rules for the Iris Cabins Chariot race. Everyone is to listen closely to what I’m going to say, now most of you are already aware of the regular rules on the ground, but this… will be a race on air!”
The campers began to applaud and cheer, “Silence! The children of Iris have come up with a twist to their game. You must fly across the whole camp and collect 8 of these–” he held up a large bagel-like stone, “–silver rings, whoever has the most, wins the game” another round of cheers plus shouting came through the campers.
“Rules to be no killing, as usual––hurting is allowed, now any messes around the camp and no campfire for the remainder of this summer!” Dionysus shouts, either to make sure everyone heard it or if he just wanted to see the look of shock and screams from the demigods.
From my front left, I spot Connor and Travis with Lavinia. To the far side, Austin from the Apollo Cabin was there with a small Roman girl and Miranda Gardener, the Tyche chariot was behind them along with the Nike one.
Hazel guided the Pegusus while Nico and I put on our armor, the helmet was a bit loose but I wondered if it wasn’t too late to regret loosening my braid earlier now that the helmet will bother me by falling off, or if I could tie my hair up on my own but I didn’t have anything to tie it with.
“And last is the twist to the game” Butch signaled his siblings with the flag, they were on top of the view tower, and one of them pulled out a crystal ball and held it on top of their head, in an instant the sky had now turned to a much darker gray, with the clouds coming together, drops of rain began to pour through, a few kids who were at the very front of the line started cursing out about their hair and makeup being ruined.
I smiled tilting my head up and closing my eyes, for the first time feeling the rain hit me, it had been too long since I haven’t felt it, but I quickly opened them when I heard the sound of thunder booming. “This should be fun,” Nico says sarcastically, the rain had flattened his hair which he then started to tie back into a man bun with a string of rope.
I started looking around my armor to see if there was any loose string so I could do the same, as I did, I noticed Dionysus and Chiron staring directly at me. Something about the way they were doing that felt just like how Percy was behaving during the activities. Dionysus’ words came back into my head, only it was about how I should prove what I am during this race. The only thing is that I don’t know what he was talking about.
“On your marks!” someone shouts at the front line they were waving a checkered flag.
“Get set!” everyone quickly gathered their items up, I held onto the side ropes tightly, my breathing quickening, hoping my non-helping fighting skills come useful to this game.
“Fly!” the camper lifted the flag to signal everyone.
Everyone’s chariot sped off to the riel and up in the air. I saw this once in a movie, where you flick the ropes on the horses and shout Heeya! Or Giddy Up! Unfortunately, Pegasus, No––The dead Pegasus’ isn’t very fond of that, although they did obey the flicking Hazel did.
The flying felt just like how it did when I first arrived at camp. Only a bit faster when it came to guiding the skeletons around, objects were being thrown at us but I, in fact, couldn't see what it was, due to my concentration only being on swatting them away, Nico tried directing Hazel but as we got faster, the rain kept pouring stronger.
“To the left!” Nico call out, “No! My left! The right! Prim––grab it!” we dove down to the volleyball court, I reached over to try and grab what I saw to be the silver ring but my hands were too wet from the rain, causing it to slip out, I groaned.
“Make them go faster!” I couldn’t tell if it was Nico saying that or the other team with their chariot right next to ours, “I’m trying!” Hazel shouts, to my quick notice, Teddy was riding a chariot above us with Georgie throwing every arrow coming near them with her hands, accidentally we both made eye contact.
“You said you weren’t going to do the chariot race!” I heard her say, “Change of plans” I lied, hoping she and Teddy could just go away, “and you still didn’t want to be partnered with me?”
“Now’s not the time to be discussing this Georgie!” I shouted as a sphere was being thrown in my direction, I flicked it away with the whip only to then see it hit their chariot above us.
“Prim, Look straight ahead!” Nico pushed my face to look at what was in front of me, something bright that only indicated that it was an Apollo chariot, aside from its golden color, the sound of a Saxophone was playing but with the storm, it sounded more like a clogged toilet, once again distracting me from the defense as it got close to us.
“Traitor!” I heard Georgie shout, she must’ve thrown something that slashed through the harness of the skeleton Pegasus because we were now left with two of them to carry all three of us. The chariot tilted to the right, causing my helmet to slip out of my head, shit!
And also Nico almost flew out, but I grabbed him by his ankle as he dangled through the air, nearly slipping although I tried to bring any strength I had to hold him for dear life. Pretty sure he’s going to be bruised badly again.
“Use your whip!” Hazel tells me, once I threw her brother back into the chariot, now if that isn’t something to make me feel foolish for not thinking of earlier. I unstrapped the other whip (griping them so tightly that I’m sure my knuckles were turning white) and swished both of them at another set of whatever was being thrown at me.
“I got this, keep going!” Nico grabbed onto the edge where the ropes were attached, he started using his sword as a baseball bat and hitting off anything that looked flammable in his direction.
A loud KABOOM! Was blasted followed by some screams through the lighting, where Connor, Travis, and Lavinia were, or at least I think that’s who it was, the rain was making me squint my eyes at everything, now that my hair was on my face thanks to the force of speed we were going.
“Score! Tyche’s chariot is down!” Hazel chants, she was no longer holding the ropes, “I think that was Tyches?”
“I thought it was Hephestus?” Nico questioned, “You guys!” I shout now taking control of the Pegasus’ pulling hard on the reins “Where should I go!” a ball of fire was now headed our way.
“Prepare for the raging balls of fire!” A bronze chariot was behind us, I could hear both children of Hades cuss in a language I didn’t know, but it didn’t sound Italian.
“Prim take front, I got this” I felt Hazel push behind me to the side where the sight of another fireball was aimed towards them.
“Eat my fire!” the laugh of an Ares kid was echoing through my ears, it was Erik.
“Nico––Shield!” Hazel says, supposedly they took cover, because the heat of the fire was burning my back, “Release the arrows!” one of the other kids shouted.
At this point, by the distance, the horn had been blown, stating that the race was over, but because we were still far away from where the finish line is, the campers behind us kept the fight going. I pulled one whip back and swished it in each direction where all the new arrows were hitting to my right. “Ahh!” Nico grunted clutching his leg “Nico!–Ow!–” Hazel leaned back, griping her upper arm, both of them were hit by a burnt arrow.
I closed my eyes and muttered under my breath “Please, give me strength” a little unsure what I meant by that but I was in a panic and had to react quickly. Proceeding to reach into my front pocket and use my red bracelet to tie back my hair, then made sure Hazel didn’t fall off the chariot as she leans more away from me.
“Just make us land!” Nico says holding onto the rope, his sword was nowhere in sight, I tried to pull the dead Pegasus’ downward but the sense of something hit me back all at once with a strike of lighting on the side of the chariot, I screamed in pain thus pulling forward the harnesses to which the two skeletal creatures have taken it as a ‘crash right here and make us die’ kind of pull.
The next few seconds of it were permanently blacked out of my mind, hearing the sounds of the three of us screaming, the tree branches, something cracking, and then BONG, FLUMP, CRASH!! onto the muddy dirt.
I hadn’t been sure how long it took until the campers found us like this, assuming that everyone else was much worse than we were. The hurried sounds and charters from them began to come close to our location, a sound of hooves stamping by along with the sound of two worried Boyfriends shouting “Nico!” “Hazel!”
I opened my eyes, seeing that I was on my side, the chariot was ruined completely and the skeleton Pegasus was gone, I could tell that it stopped raining, and I didn’t feel any pain, at least not anymore everything started to feel numb. The last time I felt like this was because I healed myself, which was now my reason for waking up completely, and noticing that a large branch was on top of me, I pushed it away and sat up.
“It’s okay, I’m alright” Hazel sounded like she was trying not to cry from the pain, her arm was at an angle that didn’t look right, and Nico’s face didn’t look too good either. Frank handed her a canteen to drink, while Will started wrapping bandages around Nico’s head.
“I’m fine too if anyone’s asking!” I announced to them with a groan, holding up my hand as I tried to stand up, an amount of gasping was coming from the campers including the four in front of me, “Prim–don’t move!” Pranjal came running in along with 2 other Roman healers in white coats, each of whose faces looked pale white.
“Y-you have arrows on your back, Y-your collar bone” Will stutters putting his hand on to his neck as though he can feel it, cursing the word that rhymes with Duck. I reached behind me, feeling that the armor plack for my back was broken along with not one, not two, but five arrows sticking out. Shit, Shit, Shit.
“No, No it’s alright” I took a step back from them near the tree, Will stood up and tried coming closer. “Prim, just stand still, let–”
“No––don’t you dare come near me!” my voice started to shake, “I’m fine” I didn’t let him finish what he was about to say, instead I reached behind me again and pulled out one of the arrows, cracking sounds came after that and a bunch of shouting from the campers as I started pulling out more of the arrows, then touched my collar where there was an actual bone sticking out of me and blood.
Will and Pranjal walked towards me “Don’t do that you’ll hurt yourself–”
“I SAID I’M FINE!” The anger took over me for just a second. Both of them backed away, completely scared.
I knew that there were probably more injuries on me, like bruises and cuts but surely they were all seeing it fade away from me despite the dirt I was covered in. I took a deep breath and pushed the bone back in place, hissing at the feeling of it, but the pain instantly went away. One of the Roman healers had fainted on the spot.
“H-How is she doing that?” someone said at the front of the crowd who was watching all this happen, more mutters coming from all around.
If obviously, a bunch of demigods are witnessing me self-healing these major injuries while Nico and Hazel are in agony with theirs.
Rather than explaining or saying anything at all. Everybody gasped again, and the muttering continued as they all stare above my head;
“No way!”
“What is that?”
“Oh we’re going to lose so much money”
“Well that explains nothing”
“What’s happening?” I said panicking at the sight of everyones face.
“Prim” Percy said coming forward he seemed upset when he tilted his head up, “Look.”
I was scared to do so, was this what I think it is? It couldn’t be. I didn’t want to look up but my curiosity beat me to it.
A holographic symbol appeared on top of my head, a bright color in a similar form to a Greek symbol I’ve seen before but I can’t remember where.
“W-what does that mean?” I looked around for someone to tell me, except this time everyone began dropping their weapons and kneeling on the ground. I noticed Dionysus having a look of disappointment while Chiron looked afraid but he quickly shook it off and cleared his voice to speak;
“Hail for Prim Evans, Daughter of Persephone, Goddess of Spring, and Queen of the Underworld.”