Chapter Text
Rhea didn’t know how tired she was until she had collapsed on her borrowed sleeping bag, fingers curled around the Minotaur horn with Murphy cuddling up to her chest. She thought of her mama and Triton, closing her eyes with a smile on her face.
Sleeping peacefully, until she found herself on the middle of a desert, no water in sight. She couldn’t help but shiver at the cold wind, pulling at her jacket tighter around her, curling closer to the flame of the hearth. When another cold wind came from her left, Rhea looked up to see a light coming closer. She squeezes her eyes, trying to get a better look when the same cold voice from the dream she had on the night of the Minotaur attack rang in her ears.
“He left you here, left you with nothing,” The voice gently spoke, sighing knowingly. Rhea slowly stood up, swallowing nervously. And then she stills, feeling as if something was pressed against her cheek, almost nuzzling her, “I know how you feel. You want what’s been taken from you,” the thought of her mama, being brought back to her made a lump rise in her throat. But the sound of the earth beginning to crack made her turn, seeing the sand sink into a deep dark abyss.
“You want justice,” the voice stated, but that was the last Rhea heard before the land under her feet cracked and she felt herself falling into the abyss.
Rhea shot up, panting and almost clawing at the sleeping bag. Her eyes wide as the sensation of falling still surrounded her. She looked down when she heard a chirp and saw Murphy looking at her with concern. With a trembling hand, she pets his head reassuring.
“You, ok?” Turning her head, she blinks at Luke, who he and Chris looked at her in worried.
“Super,” Rhea swallows, nodding her head as she moves the blanket off her and pulling herself out of the sleeping bag. She grimaces a bit, rubbing her neck in pain.
“We all have them, you know,” Rhea turns to Luke, watching as he shakes his head, “Intense, recurring nightmares. That’s normal here And the daydreams, and the ADHD, and the dyslexia,”
“Wait...really?” Rhea blinks at this. Was...was she normal here? Was she finally like everyone else?
“Take together it’s almost a sure sign,” Chris said, grabbing a brush as Luke gently grabs her arm, gently bringing it down through her hair. “The letters floating off the page when you read, right? That’s because your brain is hardwired to the Parthenon language, while the ADHD- you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight they’d keep you alive. As for attention problems, that because you see too much. Even before you become twelve and can fully see through the Mist, there are sometimes you are able to push through it and see the truth,”
“Demigods just process reality differently than mortals do,” Luke said as he passes Rhea an Camp Half-Blood Shirt to her, “Its just for the first time in your life, you’re just like everyone else,” Rhea smiles at him, “We’re all on the same team here,”
“Great,” Rhea smiles, taking the leather band that Chris pass to her, “So...where do we start?”
The next few days, Rhea settle into a routine that felt almost normal, if you didn’t count the fact that she was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, fellow older demigods and a centaur.
Each morning Rhea took lessons on Parthenon language with Annabeth, talking about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kinda weird. Rhea did discovered that Chris was right about her dyslexia: the Parthenon language wasn’t that hard for me to read. Though the only bad thing was that the lessons were a bit awkward at first when Rhea tried to make small talk.
“So…” Rhea drawls a bit, biting at her lip, “You’re a year rounder?”
Annabeth stares at her before she nodded her head. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. She saw that it was like the one Luke wore, except Annabeth’s had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring. “I’ve been here since I was seven,” she said, “Every August, on the last day of summer, you get a bead for surviving another year. I’ve been here longer than most of the councilors, and they’re all in college,”
“Wait, so there’s adult Half-Bloods,” Rhea asked, placing the book of Homer down.
“Oh yeah,” Annabeth nodded her head, “Its not like how it was in the Ancient days, I mean,” she shrugs her shoulders, gently brushing her fingers through her Rowlet’s feathers, who was glaring at Murphy who has been making faces at them. “It may not seem like it, but lots of Demigods make it to adulthood. We’re just all spread out, though the Regions. Some go out and become Top Trainers, you may actually know a few while some go out and work for companies the Gods own,”
“The Gods own companies?” Rhea blink at this. But then she frowns, she could actually see that now that she thought of it.
“Correct,” Annabeth nods, “Some even own schools. Like Lord Apollo, he owns many medical schools, for both humans and Pokemon. Lady Demeter owns many farms, and Lord Hermes owns a shipping company. There are many things a Demigod can do once they either reach the age of 18 or grew tired of traveling. While the Gods are busy and they do….ignore us,” she admitted, her gray eyes shining in a bit of sadness, “They do make sure we have the needs to live our lives happily if we survived,”
Rhea hums at this, nodding her head, “What about you?” Annabeth turns to her, “Who is your dad?”
Her hand tighten around the college ring and she glares, making Rhea think she just trespassed on a sensitive subject, “My dad is a Professor at Opelucid Academy,” she said, “I haven’t seen him since I was small. He teaches Unova History,”
“So, he’s the human,”
Annabeth glares at her, “What? You assumed it has to be the male god who finds a female human attractive? How sexist is that?”
“Well maybe,” Rhea drawls, glaring, “Its because in all the myths it was the male Gods who did it! “ Annabeth flushes, looking down while her Rowlet hoots angrily at Rhea. Rolling her eyes, she sighs, “Who’s your mom, then?”
“Cabin Six,”
“Meaning?” Rhea raises an eyebrow.
Annabeth cringes before she straightens out in pride, “Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle,”
Rhea frowns at this, “But Athena is a virgin Goddess. The only close thing she had to a child was Erichthonius…” she shakes her head at this and decided to push those thoughts away.
Afterwards, she followed the rest of Hermes Cabin to the shooting range, where Chiron taught archery. Rhea watches as a girl was showing others how to soot an arrow and she couldn’t help but be in awe as the arrow flew straight at the dummy, “A good source of glory,” Luke explained as he hands her a bow, “are feats of skill. So, we got to figure out what you’re good at,”
Rhea looks around nervously, “I want to be very clear about this,” she said as she looks between Luke and Chiron, “I’ve never done anything like this before, and it looks super dangerous,”
Luke laughs, “And you never killed a Minotaur before either, ‘til you did,” he pointed out.
Rhea still frowned though, but she took an arrow and positioned herself in front of the target. The girl who had showed the proper way to shoot offered to enlight the arrowhead but Rhea shakes her head, “I wouldn’t,” the girl laughs and nods her head. Swallowing, Rhea imitated her position, but when she shot it, they all found out pretty quick that she was not good with a bow and arrow.
Luke was holding his sides as Chiron desnagged the arrow from his tail as Rhea furiously apologizes. When she had asked if she should try again, everybody had screamed out, “No,”
The next activity Rhea was led to was forgery. There she met the Head Counselor of Cabin Nine. Rhea couldn’t help but stare at the very tall boy who had what looked like to be a permanent scowl on his face and hands like catcher mitts. But he gave Rhea a soft gentle smile, while behind him, a Darmantian stood proudly while a Perrserker sharpen its claws together, staring at Rhea with orange eyes filled with disinterested.
He gently explained to Rhea on how to make a sword, and thus Rhea found herself wearing goggles, mitts and an apron as she slams an hammer down onto some hot metal. What she hadn’t been expecting was for the piece of hot metal to be sent flying into some sacks and catching on fire. Murphy quickly lets out a water gun to douse the flames as Luke grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her away.
Foot racing? Was no good either. The Dryad instructors left her in the dust. They had told her not to worry about it. They’d had centuries of practice running away from love sick Gods. “Still humiliating to be slower than a tree,”
Wrestling was no good either. Every time she got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize her. “There’s more where that came from punk,” she would mumble in Rhea’s ear.
The only thing that she really excelled besides canoeing, was of course battle training. Which was taught by Hilbert. She stood besides a boy name Ethan Nakamura, who said that he use to live in Kanto before he and his dad move to Unova. His starter, Yami was an Umberon who he had since he was an Eevee. “My dad and I use to be part of the family that own a mine in Evolution Mountain,” he smiles, softly petting Yami’s fur, “We were also the family to breed Eevees, though when I was about eight they got into trouble for forcing Pokemon to evolve,” he stands up, shrugging his shoulders, “Around that year, Lance Blackthorn started cracking down on Kanto, combing through Gyms to see which ones weren’t going by the rules and regulations, to even Officers were were corrupted to look away by those who were abusing Pokemon. Unfortunately, my family had at the time had started to not ask what Pokemon their Eevees wanted to evolve, forcing them to evole into the Evolution Stone evolutions,”
“Jolteon, Vapereon and Flareon, right?” Rhea asked.
“Correct...luckily me and my dad were allowed to leave after he got interrogated,” Ethan said as he turns to Hilbert who walked over with his very large Emboar, “and my dad knew that one day I’ll be coming here...so we moved here to be closer,”
“Alright, everyone!” Hilbert called out, “Gather round! Gather round!” his wings, which were gold and feathered flapped behind him. The more Rhea stayed, the more she could see. All of the campers had horns, either white, silver, or black coming from their heads, shaped in different ways. Some were curled like ram horns, some pointy like an antelope, some even spiral like that of a kudu. Some were just small spikes that emerge from their heads. Besides horns, they also had tails, with some being short while others were long. They had scales covering their fingers, up their faces and shoulders, like large patches of freckles. But then some have different features, like Hilbert and Luke who had feathered wings. Though while Hilbert’s were gold, Luke’s wings were covered in brown feathers with white speckles. Ethan too had wings, those though were the wings on what most people thought of a dragon. They were black with the membrane being a light silver. Chris too, who had joined camp after the Winter Solstice, had feathered wings.
“So, the dragon features sorta helps us figure out who your Godly parent is,” Luke said as he stood besides Rhea, “While we can’t announce it or anything, its best to get an idea on who they are. So we can get an idea on how to train them,” he spreads his wings a bit, fluttering them, “See mine? The feathers at least gives people an idea that I’m at least part of Lord Zeus’ line. All the kids he had, grew feathers, and so did they're kids,” Rhea nodded her head, looking at Annabeth. Her scales, now that she could see them, were the same color of gray as her eyes. But the feathers that grew on her wings, her neck, and shoulders to see on her elbows, they were tan, buff and brown, with black speckles.
“I really hope I’m not a child of Ares,” Chris mutters and Rhea frowns at him as he stares at the red feathers that grew from the membranes of his brown wings.
“Dude...Clarisse will never give you a chance,” Ethan snickers while Chris glares, pushing him a bit.
“You don’t know that!” he hisses, “I could have a chance with her,”
“Chris, my buddy, my best friend,” Ethan places a hand on his chest, grinning at Chris, “She has never even glanced at you. Why do you think you even have a-” he screeches as Chris tackles him, wrapping his arm around his neck and rubbing his fist in his hair, “Ow! Ow! Luke! Make him stop!”
“That’s all on you,” Luke points out, with a grin.
“Chris like Clarisse?” Rhea mutters, “What does he see in her,” Luke snorts at this, his shoulders shaking.
“Chris! Ethan!” Hilbert calls out, “Stop fooling around! We’re about to start,” the two pull away from each other, and the son of Nike nods his head. “Now then, welcome back summer campers. I hope you had either a good school year or a good month of traveling. Good to see that yall survived another year,” Rhea’s eyes widen at this and she swallows, stepping a bit closer to Luke at this. “Now, I see that we got some new faces here,” he nods at Rhea, “So, even if you have heard it a lot, I’m still going to say it,” groans were heard from the other campers, making Rhea’s shoulders haunch up, “Pokemon battles for demigods are very much different than the ones for mortals. Our Pokemon not only fight for us, but they fight by our sides, helping us by keeping us alive. This isn’t going to be the regular old thing of ‘you fight, I fight’ that are normal in League Tournaments and competitions. Pokemon battles, in the wild and for us Demigods are dangerous and deadly. Hopefully, as you train here at camp, you will learn to command your Pokemon to not only protect you from the Monsters that want nothing more to tear into our flesh and rip us apart, but to also protect themselves,”
Rhea fidgets, taking a deep breath, trying to focus on what Hilbert was saying. “Jackson!” she yelps, jumping up a bit and knocking into Luke who gently grabs her by the shoulders to calm her down. Her face flushes as some of the Campers snicker, “I heard that you were in the top of your battling class in Asperita Trainer Academy,” he grins, “Cheron was singing high praises about you...so why don’t we see what you’re made of,” he waves Rhea over to the Battle Field and after a gently nudge from Luke she walked over, “Chase!” and Rhea’s shoulders slump at this, “How about you battle her,”
“Of course Hilbert,” Annabeth walked over to the other side, releasing her Rowlet. The Grass and Flying Type owl flaps its wings before settling down on the dirt covered field. Taking a deep breath, Rhea released Murphy, who blinks in confusion before grinning sharply, waddling onto the field.
“Water type...bad match up against Annabeth,”
“She’s so going to lose…”
“Maybe she’ll think more before she lies,” Rhea’s eyes narrow at Annabeth’s siblings, their gray eyes staring her down as if she was something that smelled bad.
“Alright, this is a One vs One,” Hilbert states, eyeing the Athena kids with a look, “Oshawott vs Rowlet. And…..begin!”
“Atalanta!” Annabeth calls out, “Start things off with Double Team! Confuse the Oshawott!” the now name Rowlet cries out as she takes into the sky, five illusionary copies form around her and begin to circle around Murphy, making the Oshawott cry out in confusion, shaking his little arms.
“Murphy!” turning to look over his shoulder at Rhea, she nods her head, “spin around in a circle while using Water Gun!”
“Osha!” nodding his head, he takes in a deep breath before a gush of water burst from his mouth. He then twirls in a circle, the Water Gun spiraling around him and hitting the illusions. They all faded, one by one before one cries out as it was struck to the ground.
“Shadow Sneak!” Annabeth cries out, and the Atalanta’s show extends from underneath her, surging towards Murphy. Once the shadow was behind him, it strikes up, hitting him in the back. Rhea grits her teeth as Murphy cries out in pain, landing on his stomach, “Now Leafa*ge!” Jumping up into the air, Atalanta flaps her wings, two bright glowing leaves flying off her wings and heading towards Murphy.
“Night Slash!” Heart pounding in her chest, she watches Murphy shot up to his feet, grabbing his shell from his chest and swinging it at the leaves before they could make contact with him with a purple blade. The two halves of the leaves fell to the ground, but Murphy quickly jumps out of the way when the Rowlet tries to tackle him. His tail thumps against the hard dirt ground, before slashing down with a Night Slash, scoring a hit against Atalanta’s side.
Annabeth hisses under her breath, her silver scaled tail thrashing behind her, “You’re pretty good at this,” she complimented, even as her feathers poof up in her annoyance, “But you have to remember, that I have the type advantage. Leafa*ge now Atalanta!” Rhea’s eyes widen and then she grimaces as they hit their mark. Murphy too close to dodge the super effective move slumps to the ground, swirls in his eyes showing he was unconscious, Rhea sighs, walked over, gently lifting him up and cradling him in her arms. “You’re pretty good,”
Looking up, Rhea tilts her head, seeing Annabeth staring at her. “What?” she softly demanded, returning Murphy into his Pokeball. “What are you thinking,”
“I’m thinking,” she said, with a small smirk, “that I want you on my team for capture the flag,”
“Annabeth...scares me,” Rhea told Luke and Chris as they work in the field, where they grew all sorts of fruits and vegetables. For both the campers and to export to restaurants all in Unova and Mount Olympus. Thanks to the help of Mr. D and the Demeter kids, the growth of the plants went crazy. Rhea turns her head, watching as a satyr plays his pipes. His music causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction. “What’s Capture the Flag?”
“You’re going to love it,” Luke grins, “Camp-wide mock warfare, all glory to the victors. And don’t worry about Annabeth, she’s the head counselor of the Athena Cabin, an great honor for someone her age since its usually given to those are college age.She’s itching to get back at Clarisse for the last match,”
“She was there in the bathroom,” Chris frowns at the mention of this, shaking his head at the thought of Clarisse’s welcome initiation, “She said she’d been waiting for it to happen,” Rhea frowns when Luke’s Serperior, Regal snorts at this, eyeing Rhea, “When I first got here, she said that I was the ‘one’ and in the bathroom she said she needed my help to gain a Quest,”
Luke sighs, rubbing his face, “Annabeth sees the world differently. Always six steps ahead of everyone else. You should cut her a break and blame me,” Rhea turns to him, tilting her head as his face twitched around his scar, “Let’s just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, since my trip to the Garden of Hesperides went sour, Chiron and Mr. D hasn’t allowed any more quests. Annabeth’s been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He’d had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn’t tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn’t destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until somebody...special came to camp,”
“Somebody special?”
Luke laughs, “Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through is the omen she’s been waiting for,”
“Yeah, Rhea,” Chris grins, “You’re not that special,”
Rhea pouts, “Whose side are you on, anyway?”
“Oh, hers, always,” Rhea’s head snap up and she smiles at the sight of Grover. He smiles at them as he walks over, being sure to not crush any of the plants underneath his hooves, “Annabeth’s his little sister,”
“Grover, my man!” Luke grins, patting him on the arm as he sat between him and Rhea, “How did the talk go with Mr. D and the Council,”
Grover turns pale, but he was silent as he released Lily, the Petilil looking around before squealing at the sight of Royal and Murphy, crawling over to the two. “Fine,” he mumbles, “Just great,”
“So your career’s still on track?” Luke gently asked before he turns to Rhea, “Grover wants a Searcher License, like most satyrs do. But to gain one, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him/her safely to Camp-Half Blood,”
Rhea stutters, “But he did do that!” she pointed out, gesturing to herself, “I’m here!”
Grover sighs, closing his eyes, “You might say that...but Mr. D and the Council of Cloven Elders are the ones to deiced. They don’t see this assignment as a success, with how I lost you in Castelia City and what happen to your mom,” Rhea swallows and Grover shakes his head, “Anyway, Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I haven’t succeeded but I also haven’t failed either. So our fates are still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along with you to protect you, and we both came back alive. Then maybe he’d consider the job complete,”
Rhea’s spirits lifted at this, “Well that’s not so bad,”
“Blaa-haha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duties,” Grover closes his eyes, reaching his hand up towards his horns. Or would have if Luke didn’t give them a slap. Yelping he grumbles, rubbing his hand, “The chances of you getting a quest… and even if you did, why would you want me along,”
“Of course I want you along!” Rhea said, but Grover looked glumy as he pick a few strawberries and threw them into their basket. Rhea sighs, staring at her friend before looking to Luke, “So...Annabeth’s your sister?” confused as she knew that while Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, Luke was the son of Hermes.
“Maybe I should back up,” Luke sighs sadly, “Before camp, I lived on the street with a forbidden kid I met along the way. Her name was Thalia,”
Rhea’s eyes widen, and she swallows, “A...forbidden kid?” she whispers, heart pounding. There was another child of the Big Three...another child besides her.
“A long time ago, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades agreed their children were becoming too powerful, so they made a pact not to father any more. And it held a long time, until Zeus fell off the wagon and broke that pact,”
Grover’s face darkens as Luke looks down, “Seventeen years ago, there was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo- Zeus couldn’t help himself. When Thalia was born...well they made the pact on the River Styx, and she is serious about promises. Lord Zeus himself got off easy because he was immortal-"
More like he pushed it all on Thaila,” Luke whispers, a flash of anger in his eyes. Chris frowns at him and Luke sighs, “A forbidden kid attracts trouble. Monsters everywhere it’s just a constant battle to stay alive...but one day,” he smiles, “We, uh, find this little girl hiding in an alley, almost cave my head in with a hammer. Annabeth,” his shoulders shake in laughter and sadness, “We were worried about taking her in, exposing her to all that danger. Then we saw her fight” he runs his fingers through his hair, not caring for the dirt that stain them. Royal hisses softly, slithering over and nudging him, “Thalia didn’t make it,” he swallows, his eyes lit up in tears, “But Annabeth and me..we did. And we been family ever since,” he chokes out but then blinks, “Rhea?” he gently takes her hand, “Are you ok?”
“Y-yeah..I’m fine,” she squeaks out, trying to even her breathing. She should had known that Zeus wouldn’t keep his word, should had known that there….there was another Forbidden Child, like her. Heart pounding in her chest, she went back to picking the strawberries,tossing them in the basket. She tried to push what happen to Thalia out of her mind, to not wonder if that was to be her fate, to have a painful death because she dare to take in air when it was vow to never be. She jumps a bit when she felt a nudge to her side and looks to see Murphy rubbing his head against her hand, chirping softly at her. Smiling, she patted him, knowing that even if she was concern about her future...she will have her Pokemon with her, by her side.
It was Wednesday though, that Rhea woke up terrible. As the other kids got up, to get ready for the conch shell to announce breakfast, Rhea curled in a ball tightly in her sleeping back. Her stomach was churning in discomfort, her whole body to her hands to her backside was aching in pain. She squeezes her eyes shut and groans when she feels someone shake her, “Wakey Wake Rhea,” the voice of Conner push through the fog of pain, “We all got to get up now! Breakfast time,” Rhea mumbles out nonsense words, ones that even she didn’t know what she was saying. “Rhea, really!” he huffs in annoyance, his hand slipping into the sleeping bag to drag her out, “Its time to get- OW!”
Everyone’s heads turn to stare with wide eyes as Conner held his wrist. Blood dripping down his hand to the floor, “She bit me!” he yells as Luke comes over, kneeling down next to the sleeping bag.
Blue eyes narrowing he hisses, “Travis!” he calls over his shoulder, the other boy, walks over, “Take Cabin Eleven to breakfast, I’m taking Rhea to Bianca,” he gently unzips the bag, ignoring the hisses that Rhea made before he lifts her up into his arms, “She’s going through the Change,”
Everyone winces at that, sympathy in their eyes, “She already going through the changes?” she heard one mutters, “Its only been a few days,”
“Sometimes they happen to you as soon as you enter the grounds, sometimes it takes a few weeks or months,” Luke gently said, before he heads out of the cabin, carrying Rhea in his arms. Rhea swallows, gasping for breath as Luke carried her to the Big House.
Trembling in pain, gripping tightly to his shirt, Rhea looks up as Luke calls out, “Bianca?” and at his call a blonde shoulder length hair woman wearing a green hat with a white bow walked in. She wore red half-moon glasses over her green eyes, alongside an orange jacket, a white blouse and green shorts. Her scales were that of a burnt orange, that went across her nose and cheeks. Like Luke, she had feather wings, but her feathers were pure white. Floating beside her was a Musharna, who had pink smoke trailing after it.
“Oh dear,” she blinks, before gesturing to one of the many beds, “Place her down here, Luke,” Rhea hisses as Luke gently set her down.
“What’s happening to me,” she wheezes out, a sob escaping from her lips. Luke grimaces, sliding a chair over and gently grabbing her hand, squeezing it.
“You’re Divine blood is awakening,” Bianca gently explained, gently lifting her hand up. Rhea blinks, staring at the golden scales that were emerging from underneath her skin. It started at her wrist, trailing down her hand to her finger, where her nails were slowly turning into sharp black claws. The golden scales were going up her arm as well, meeting patches of aquamarine scales that was slowly growing along her shoulders. Emerging from her elbows were thin white spikes. Rhea takes a deep breath as Bianca hums, her green eyes looking over her. “It seems that whoever her Divine Parent is, they’re of the sea…” Rhea giggles a bit when a finger traces her ears, giving her a tickling sensation, “Her ears are turning into fins…”
“Of the sea,” Luke frowns, turning his head to Rhea, who was trembling in the bed. He gives her a encourging smile, “It’s going to be ok shrimp,” he gives her hand a gentle, “All demigods go through this,”
“Why not earlier?” Rhea groans, wiggling a bit and hissing in pain at her tailbone.
“Well...it used to be that we were born with these features. Back then all mortals knew a demigod's parentage. They were worship and highly praised for being the child of a God. But then mortals started to stop beliving in them, and people who claim to be the children of ‘false gods’ became persecuted, exile and even… tortured...so it was decided that to protect us, our parents used the Mist,”
“Mist?” Rhea wheezes, gripping the bed sheet underneath her tightly as pain pulse in her body. “My mama said it's the veil that hides all this from humans,”
“Yeah the Mist. It was created by Lady Hecate, to twist a mortal’s sight from seeing supernatural occurrences by replacing them with things the mortal mind knows about and can comprehend. But it has a sort of an effect on us, sometimes it can even hide things from us, but it keeps our divine blood dormant...once we know about ourselves and once we become twelve, the Mist is truly taken away from us and our blood awakens,”
“Oh,” Rhea frowns, curling up, “Well that explains why it didn’t happen earlier,” at Luke’s confuse glance, Rhea shrugs, wincing in pain, “I know since I was eleven...thought it doesn’t explain how it took so long...I turned twelve last August…”
“As I said, it varies...sometimes it happens quick, sometimes it takes a long time to wake up,”Luke brushes a strand of her hair out of her face, “Now you should get some sleep...its...it's going to be painful,”
Rhea swallows but nods her head. And Luke was right, it was painful. The whole day she was waking up, screaming in pain as a tail grows from her backside, covered in aquamarine and gold scales, two fins at the end. Black dorsal fins emerging from her spines, ripping apart skin and flesh. Luke was there with her the whole time, alongside Murphy and Leonidas, who didn’t mind the blood that coated them and soaked the bed she was in. It only took one whole day, but soon she was like anyone else at camp. She had the tail, and the horns, no wings though as she was of the sea. But it felt...right...natural even. Though it did made it harder for the senior campers and counselors, who were trying to figure out who her dad was, not have an easy time with it. They now knew it had to be a deity of the sea but they couldn’t figure out who.
Rhea had heard interesting theories, like: Nereus, Glaucus, Aegaeon, Delphin. And of course there was some Goddess thrown in too, as the deities don’t care about gender like mortals do, like: Leucothea, Galene, Psmathe and even Aphrodite, as even if she was the Goddess of Love she was still came from the sea. Some even threw in the Titans such as Oceanus and Tethys. But of course, Rhea kept silent, not wanting them to know that she was a Forbidden Child...not wanting Zeus to know.
Thursday afternoon, three days after she had arrived at Camp Half-Blood, and a day after her Divine Blood awaken, she had her first weapon-fighting lesson, Everybody from Cabin Eleven and Cabin Ten, which was the Aphrodite Cabin were gathered in the big circular arena, where Mason Reeves, a son of Ares was to be our instructor.
“Silene! Get your siblings over here!” Mason calls out, the older demigod had short purple hair, though long enough to have it in a ponytail. His red eyes, which all children of Ares seem to have, gaze onto the black haired daughter of Aphrodite who giggles, “I understand that you all are not powerful enough to bring attention to the Monsters out there like those of Demeter, but you all still need to know this stuff!”
Rhea frowns at this, looking over to Chris, “He does know that Aphrodite started the Trojan War...and that Demeter had almost made the whole world starve when Hades took Persephone?”
Chris shrugs his shoulders, “Yeah, but still, their children are able to live in the world much easier than most and even without the suppressions,”
“Suppressions?” Rhea raises an eyebrow, curiosity in her eyes.
“Its something that is given to those who graduate from training,” Luke said, blue eyes shining in anger, “It keeps the weak monsters away so you can start a family of your own, does nothing for the stronger ones that are determine but you should be strong enough to fight them off,”
“Why...not give it to the kids?” Rhea frowns, brow furrow in confusion, “I mean...the kids who are trying to live...the kids who might not be strong enough…”
“Exactly,” Ethan grins, though it didn’t reach his eyes. He was twirling a wooden knife in his hand, “Makes you prove yourself to them, even if they don’t claim you, and cuts out the weak ones,”
Rhea stares with wide eyes in horror, swallowing but shakes her head when Mason barks at her to grab a wooden weapon. She looked at all of them, but she couldn’t find the right weapon for her. She tried axes, maces, bludgeons, spears and swords, but known of the wooden weapons felt right to her. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Finally, she grits her teeth and grabbed the wooden form of the only weapon she would ever use, the trident.
Then Mason had her join those who were starting out, using the basic stabbing and slashing against straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. She couldn’t help but smile as she went through the motions, remembering her first lesson with Triton.
Rhea frowns as she was knocked onto her butt with a yelp. Gripping the wooden trident tightly in her hands she quickly gets up again but yelps when Triton whaps her in the ribs, “You have to keep your guard up, Rhea,” he advises, before showing her how to thrust, parry and shield blocks, the hard way which would cause bruises to form on her body.
She grimaces, rubbing her head, “Triton...I appreciate you taking the time…”
“But you’re weak and want to quit?” he grins, leaning against his practice trident, “You’re only starting out αδελφή. Its a given that you won’t succeed the first time, I would be surprise if you do,”
“But when will I ever need this stuff?” she yelps bringing her trident up to block Triton when he tried to smack her in the face with his.
“They come for you-”
“I know! They have!” she takes a few steps back, her eyes never leaving him, “A giant Snake tried to eat me! I don’t think a disarm or a high guard or a jab would do anything!” she yelps as she was pushed into the back of a tree, groaning in pain and stilling when the tips of the trident touch her bare neck.
“Repost,” Trition corrected with a smile and Rhea glares, pushing the trident away.
“Point is,” Rhea sighs, “They don’t fight fair, you sound like there are rules..”
“Of course there are rules,” he ruffles her hair, making her yelp and push his hand away, “That’s what warfare is. Knowing the rules, so you can use them against your opponent,”
Rhea frowns, “What’s an example?”
“Oh there are all kinds of examples, αδελφή.”
Mason had us moved into pairs, and she was paired up against Chris, Luke watching over the. She heard someone whisper that Rhea was lucky that she wasn’t against Luke, as he was the best swordsman in the last three hundred years. But Rhea didn’t cared about that she she poured the ice cold water on her head, feeling instantly better as strength surged back into her arms. Was it cheating, knowing that this would happen...maybe...but Rhea was covered in sweat. And she could tell that the others were watching, even though they too should be practicing but Mason didn’t bark at them.
“Oh goody...let’s all watch Rhea get pounded,” she thought, figuring that Mason must have heard about the bathroom incident with Clarisse. Biting at her lip, she gets in a defensive position as Christ came after her. She kept him from reaching her hands, to try and disarm her. Rhea felt her senses were opened up, seeing when his attacks were coming. Counted, she stepped forward and thrusted at him, but Chris deflect it easily. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Luke’s face changing, his eyes narrow as Chris started to press her with more force.
She began to pant, her arms beginning to burn. She knew it was only a matter of seconds before Chris took her down, so she tried the disarming maneuver. The prongs hits the hilt of Chris’ sword, and Rhea twisted, putting her while weight into a downward thrust. With a clang the sword rattle against the stones, the tip of the prongs an inch from Chris’ undefended chest. His eyes wide as he looked up at her and Rhea grins, her tail wagging back and forth.
Luke claps his hands, and soon the silence was broken as everyone follows suit, “That was amazing Rhea!,” she grins, wiping the sweat from her brow as Luke compliments her, “Gods, I can’t wait to see what you could really do on the battlefield,”
And Rhea couldn’t help but grin, as Chris pats her on the back. She couldn’t help but like camp, with its morning fog over the beach, to the strong smell of strawberries from the field. Even the weird noises of monsters mixing with Pokemon from the woods at night didn’t seem bad. She would eat dinner with Cabin Eleven, scraping part of her meal into the fire, offering it to Hermes, Hades, and Triton..while wishing she could do so to her dad...wishing that he could give her a sign without the fear of being shoot by lightning. She liked being friends with Luke, Chris, and Ethan..and just...belonging...feeling like she belong.
Though...she still missed her mama...she hopes that she was right...that her mama wasn’t dead...that she had just been taken...she hope and prey that she would find a way...to get her back.
