Long-Lost Relations
People pay too much attention to me....
Chiron had advised a week. I had already asked James to come with me, but that was almost a given.
We had been training like maniacs, but I still had no idea who else we should ask to come… until I met Bex, daughter of Hecate.
I had seen her twice before, once, the first night by the campfire, doing a card-trick that appeared to impress the bystanders, and after capture-the-flag, when she had congratulated me; apparently her and the girl I accidentally beat up are good friends but with a heated rivalry, and this time? When she set the archery-area on fire, by accident of course. Afterwards, she had called it her specialty.
Children of Hecate have highly differential powers. Apparently, a few decades ago, they had a kid who was an illusionist, literally. She could make you hallucinate, in the way she wanted to you to, making images and objects appear that weren’t really there.
Another kid could do things to metals. Everyone had assumed he was a kid of Hephaestus, but he was later claimed as a child of Hecate, and Bex? She snapped her fingers, and things would happen.
Bex
“Come on Bex, please, just try?” Declan begged.
“Seriously Dec,” I sighed, rolling my eyes at his pleading look “I don’t even know how I did it, you of all people should know how weird my powers are”
But he would stop, I don’t think he could even if he tried.
He would always say to me:
‘If you can do it once, you can do it again’ and the funny thing was, most of the time he was right.
We had been joking around, Dec had been talking about a song he had written during the school-year, and we were trying to think of a name for it.
“How about…” He furrowed his brow, trying to come up with something reasonable, when I had an okay idea.
“I think I’ve got it!” I exclaimed as I jumped up… and snapped my fingers.
I froze, as Declan stared behind me with wide-eyes.
Slowly swiveling, I heard several shouts as the kids in the Apollo cabin sighted the disaster, and I realized I had just set Declan’s bed on fire, which is why he was currently nagging me so much.
His bed now had to be replaced, and he was stuck sleeping on the floor until they could get a new mattress and bed-frame in for him, the Apollo cabin has no spare room at the moment, and the kid on the top-bunk would be sleeping on the floor too.
“Come on,” he moaned, snapping me back into the present “just think of whatever it was you were thinking of, and snap those fingers!” He demonstrates and I roll my eyes again, leaning against a tree.
“Fine,” I say, staring him down “three times, and three alone”
He grinned, and I took a deep breath as I stood up a little straighter and though of flames, fire, heat and such, then I snapped my fingers.
A light, but warm, breeze drifted through the area, and I could almost hear the crackling of logs on a fire, but, no cake.
“That was kinda cool” Declan shrugged, but I just sighed and sat down, concentrating a bit more this time.
Declan walked over and sat next to me, and after a goods 30 seconds sitting there, and I with much prodding from Declan, I took a deep breath, poised my hand, and snapped my fingers.
A flame flickered to life on the tip of my thumb, and heat encompassed my hand.
“Yes! That is so cool!” Declan cheered, as I stared open-mouthed at my hand, which did not hurt or pain in any form or way, and appeared to be completely invincible to the flames.
I shook out my hand, and re-focused my thoughts, and the flame diminished before going out as another gust of wind blew through the trees.
“Can you try and light the arrow, please?” Declan begs, sitting next to me on his knees, holding out the arrow in question.
“Fine” I roll my eyes again and we both stand up. I take a breath and take a second or two to concentrate, before snapping my fingers with force.
The whole arrow bursts into flames.
Declan yells out, before dropping the bow… onto the grass.
“Declan!” I yell frantically, but he’s already running, hopefully to get water.
I take a deep breath, before trying to put out some of the quickly-spreading flames.
Snapping some water into existence? No cake.
I try to actually make the flame disappear, the fire spreads further.
I decide to go and get water myself, but I see Declan already running back, water sloshing from a large bucket, and several kids following.
They all dump the numerous buckets of water onto the flames, but it isn’t enough, and the fire is spreading further away… towards the archer targets, which are made of wood and straw, highly flammable.
“Someone go get the new kid of Poseidon!” I hear a boy yell out. An older girl runs off into the direction of the rock-climbing wall, while the other kids run towards the lake to get more water and I continue to try and put out the raging flames of my own accord.
Just as some more kids come back with full buckets of water, I manage to snap out some of the flames.
I hear someone yell out, and turn to find the new kid of Poseidon.
She had a puzzled look on her face as she stared at the flames, but it soon morphed into concentration. Fat droplets of water started to form in the air surrounding the flames, and they hissed as they splashed down onto the flames and dispersed into steam.
She held her hands out, staring at the buckets of water, and the contents ‘flowed’ out of the buckets, over the flames, and then exploded outwards. More hissing as some of the flames where drenched into non-existence and then whatever water that was left created a mini water-spout. It rampaged through the flames, leaving behind charred pieces of wood and blackened grass.
The onlookers stared as the last flames were hindered, and then the kids drifted off to whatever they were doing beforehand, leaving behind empty buckets.
“Excuse me?” The daughter of Poseidon said, and my head snapped over to her annoyed-looking face.
“Why exactly did you set the archers range on fire?” She asked.
“You see,” I started, biting my lip “I didn’t actually mean to set it on fire, it just… happened” Which is when Declan walked up to me, pointing to an only slightly browned arrow.
“At least we know they’re flame-proof” He shrugged.
“This idiot is Declan,” I jokingly say, pointing to him “I’m Bex, and you’re?”
“Astrid” she confirms. I nod before looking behind her.
“Who’s that?” I say, pointing to a bow waving to her from the bottom of the hill.
She quickly spins before a look comes across her face.
“That’s James,” She states, rolling her eyes.
“So, you think you might be able to clear things up for me, you know… how the heck you set this place on fire?”
“It’s my specialty” I shrug, before going into an explanation.
Astrid
“So, would you like to come?” I ask nervously, biting my lip as I wait for her reply.
“Sure, I’d love to,” She shrugs, a smile spreading across her face.
“But, just saying, you might have to bring Declan too, I’m not sure how he’d go on with me” She winks at me and we both laugh.
Bex is like that. Easy-going, sarcastic (not unlike me), funny in a good way, but also bold and she gives the aura that she knows what she’s doing.
She has that look about her too, with a striking face, full lips, brown hair with a red tinge, and yellow-brown eyes with flecks of green.
“I’m pretty sure we need to bring five people anyway, what with the prophecy…” She looks at me, her face tinged with concern.
“Don’t worry Astrid, kids of the Big Three tend to get bad prophecies, but most of the time it turns out fine, you should hear some of the prophecies Percy got, it sounded like the world was going to end every single time, still does” I smile at her and shrug, but I still feel slightly worried.
We head off to dinner and I notice that less people are staring at me as I walk in, for once.
I drop a bit of everything into the brazier.
“For Poseidon; For the Gods” I whisper, and again I feel the rush of an ocean breeze, time seems to freeze in place and I can hear the waves crash, but then the loud noises of the hall come back to me, and all is normal… enough for camp that is.
General POV
The snapping of fingers was now a constant in their lives.
The frequent shout of ‘Oh Gods!’ could be heard after the snapping of fingers, or the slightly less frequent shouts of ‘Yes!’ and ‘I got it!’ after the snapping.
These things, and many other not-quite-so-appropriate things were heard numerous times over the next two days… after the snapping of fingers, of course.
Declan was used to it, Astrid didn’t mind it and did half of the shouting on the topic, but James couldn’t stand it.
“Oops” she’d say, as a stray arrow flew off in the general direction of the cabins, then the single click, and it would be in her left hand.
He couldn’t quite understand why, but it just annoyed him, it really, truly, did.
“Sorry,” Astrid groaned “my eyesight’s completely awful today, I don’t know why though” She sighs and gives a pained smile to the rest of the group
“Umm… Astrid?” Declan asks.
“Hmm?” She replies, lining up another arrow.
“Well, I was just thinking… maybe the glasses are affecting you…” He shrugs.
“What?” She lowers the bow, looking at him now.
“Well, I mean, most of us have bad eyesight, but only with reading, so maybe because your not doing much reading, they might actually be making it harder for you…” he shrugs and a look passes over her face before she shrugs back in agreement.
“that does kinda make sense I guess, I mean, the only times I read now are at dinner and when I’m trying to learn Ancient Greek… so maybe your right”
James
She pulls off her glasses and we all stare at her open-mouthed.
The brown in her hair darkens, and the blonde becomes lighter, making it a medium brown with light-blonde highlights.
Her eyes lighten too, going from a mixture of medium blue and seaweed green to jade, or a green-tinged mist mixed in with electric blue. They sparkle darkly, and specks of darker blue are also scattered through them.
She looks completely different, and even her face shape has shifts, fuller lips, darker lashes, fair skin.
As soon as she sees her reflection, she just goes silent, staring at us all in some form of shock. In that moment, we all know that her glasses are not normal in the least, and they were charmed to hide her true appearance.
Mt. Olympus, New York.
“Well I for one am glad she finally got rid of those glasses,” Aphrodite states “ I mean, really, those eyes of hers are to-die-for!”
“It isn’t as simple as that, her and her friend are suspicious now, and I have a feeling that he’s going to make it easier on her, she’ll find out soon” Poseidon states, a flicker of concern crossing his face.
“We can’t do anything now, we noticed it too late, but even Hades sent a message. This child of yours could affect the war as badly as The Seven, especially with those other four” Zeus says pointedly to Poseidon.
Those of them present know exactly what could happen because of this, but they have to keep to their word.
“Time flies” Murmurs Poseidon as the others leave, before he gets up and walks out.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that last pre-written chapter *evil grin* if you can guess what is so special with Astrid, I will give you free virtual cookies and hugs!
Next chapter will be in a few days, but you guys can live... right?
Anyway, really hoped you enjoyed!
<3 Arabelladuaghterofzeus
We had been training like maniacs, but I still had no idea who else we should ask to come… until I met Bex, daughter of Hecate.
I had seen her twice before, once, the first night by the campfire, doing a card-trick that appeared to impress the bystanders, and after capture-the-flag, when she had congratulated me; apparently her and the girl I accidentally beat up are good friends but with a heated rivalry, and this time? When she set the archery-area on fire, by accident of course. Afterwards, she had called it her specialty.
Children of Hecate have highly differential powers. Apparently, a few decades ago, they had a kid who was an illusionist, literally. She could make you hallucinate, in the way she wanted to you to, making images and objects appear that weren’t really there.
Another kid could do things to metals. Everyone had assumed he was a kid of Hephaestus, but he was later claimed as a child of Hecate, and Bex? She snapped her fingers, and things would happen.
Bex
“Come on Bex, please, just try?” Declan begged.
“Seriously Dec,” I sighed, rolling my eyes at his pleading look “I don’t even know how I did it, you of all people should know how weird my powers are”
But he would stop, I don’t think he could even if he tried.
He would always say to me:
‘If you can do it once, you can do it again’ and the funny thing was, most of the time he was right.
We had been joking around, Dec had been talking about a song he had written during the school-year, and we were trying to think of a name for it.
“How about…” He furrowed his brow, trying to come up with something reasonable, when I had an okay idea.
“I think I’ve got it!” I exclaimed as I jumped up… and snapped my fingers.
I froze, as Declan stared behind me with wide-eyes.
Slowly swiveling, I heard several shouts as the kids in the Apollo cabin sighted the disaster, and I realized I had just set Declan’s bed on fire, which is why he was currently nagging me so much.
His bed now had to be replaced, and he was stuck sleeping on the floor until they could get a new mattress and bed-frame in for him, the Apollo cabin has no spare room at the moment, and the kid on the top-bunk would be sleeping on the floor too.
“Come on,” he moaned, snapping me back into the present “just think of whatever it was you were thinking of, and snap those fingers!” He demonstrates and I roll my eyes again, leaning against a tree.
“Fine,” I say, staring him down “three times, and three alone”
He grinned, and I took a deep breath as I stood up a little straighter and though of flames, fire, heat and such, then I snapped my fingers.
A light, but warm, breeze drifted through the area, and I could almost hear the crackling of logs on a fire, but, no cake.
“That was kinda cool” Declan shrugged, but I just sighed and sat down, concentrating a bit more this time.
Declan walked over and sat next to me, and after a goods 30 seconds sitting there, and I with much prodding from Declan, I took a deep breath, poised my hand, and snapped my fingers.
A flame flickered to life on the tip of my thumb, and heat encompassed my hand.
“Yes! That is so cool!” Declan cheered, as I stared open-mouthed at my hand, which did not hurt or pain in any form or way, and appeared to be completely invincible to the flames.
I shook out my hand, and re-focused my thoughts, and the flame diminished before going out as another gust of wind blew through the trees.
“Can you try and light the arrow, please?” Declan begs, sitting next to me on his knees, holding out the arrow in question.
“Fine” I roll my eyes again and we both stand up. I take a breath and take a second or two to concentrate, before snapping my fingers with force.
The whole arrow bursts into flames.
Declan yells out, before dropping the bow… onto the grass.
“Declan!” I yell frantically, but he’s already running, hopefully to get water.
I take a deep breath, before trying to put out some of the quickly-spreading flames.
Snapping some water into existence? No cake.
I try to actually make the flame disappear, the fire spreads further.
I decide to go and get water myself, but I see Declan already running back, water sloshing from a large bucket, and several kids following.
They all dump the numerous buckets of water onto the flames, but it isn’t enough, and the fire is spreading further away… towards the archer targets, which are made of wood and straw, highly flammable.
“Someone go get the new kid of Poseidon!” I hear a boy yell out. An older girl runs off into the direction of the rock-climbing wall, while the other kids run towards the lake to get more water and I continue to try and put out the raging flames of my own accord.
Just as some more kids come back with full buckets of water, I manage to snap out some of the flames.
I hear someone yell out, and turn to find the new kid of Poseidon.
She had a puzzled look on her face as she stared at the flames, but it soon morphed into concentration. Fat droplets of water started to form in the air surrounding the flames, and they hissed as they splashed down onto the flames and dispersed into steam.
She held her hands out, staring at the buckets of water, and the contents ‘flowed’ out of the buckets, over the flames, and then exploded outwards. More hissing as some of the flames where drenched into non-existence and then whatever water that was left created a mini water-spout. It rampaged through the flames, leaving behind charred pieces of wood and blackened grass.
The onlookers stared as the last flames were hindered, and then the kids drifted off to whatever they were doing beforehand, leaving behind empty buckets.
“Excuse me?” The daughter of Poseidon said, and my head snapped over to her annoyed-looking face.
“Why exactly did you set the archers range on fire?” She asked.
“You see,” I started, biting my lip “I didn’t actually mean to set it on fire, it just… happened” Which is when Declan walked up to me, pointing to an only slightly browned arrow.
“At least we know they’re flame-proof” He shrugged.
“This idiot is Declan,” I jokingly say, pointing to him “I’m Bex, and you’re?”
“Astrid” she confirms. I nod before looking behind her.
“Who’s that?” I say, pointing to a bow waving to her from the bottom of the hill.
She quickly spins before a look comes across her face.
“That’s James,” She states, rolling her eyes.
“So, you think you might be able to clear things up for me, you know… how the heck you set this place on fire?”
“It’s my specialty” I shrug, before going into an explanation.
Astrid
“So, would you like to come?” I ask nervously, biting my lip as I wait for her reply.
“Sure, I’d love to,” She shrugs, a smile spreading across her face.
“But, just saying, you might have to bring Declan too, I’m not sure how he’d go on with me” She winks at me and we both laugh.
Bex is like that. Easy-going, sarcastic (not unlike me), funny in a good way, but also bold and she gives the aura that she knows what she’s doing.
She has that look about her too, with a striking face, full lips, brown hair with a red tinge, and yellow-brown eyes with flecks of green.
“I’m pretty sure we need to bring five people anyway, what with the prophecy…” She looks at me, her face tinged with concern.
“Don’t worry Astrid, kids of the Big Three tend to get bad prophecies, but most of the time it turns out fine, you should hear some of the prophecies Percy got, it sounded like the world was going to end every single time, still does” I smile at her and shrug, but I still feel slightly worried.
We head off to dinner and I notice that less people are staring at me as I walk in, for once.
I drop a bit of everything into the brazier.
“For Poseidon; For the Gods” I whisper, and again I feel the rush of an ocean breeze, time seems to freeze in place and I can hear the waves crash, but then the loud noises of the hall come back to me, and all is normal… enough for camp that is.
General POV
The snapping of fingers was now a constant in their lives.
The frequent shout of ‘Oh Gods!’ could be heard after the snapping of fingers, or the slightly less frequent shouts of ‘Yes!’ and ‘I got it!’ after the snapping.
These things, and many other not-quite-so-appropriate things were heard numerous times over the next two days… after the snapping of fingers, of course.
Declan was used to it, Astrid didn’t mind it and did half of the shouting on the topic, but James couldn’t stand it.
“Oops” she’d say, as a stray arrow flew off in the general direction of the cabins, then the single click, and it would be in her left hand.
He couldn’t quite understand why, but it just annoyed him, it really, truly, did.
“Sorry,” Astrid groaned “my eyesight’s completely awful today, I don’t know why though” She sighs and gives a pained smile to the rest of the group
“Umm… Astrid?” Declan asks.
“Hmm?” She replies, lining up another arrow.
“Well, I was just thinking… maybe the glasses are affecting you…” He shrugs.
“What?” She lowers the bow, looking at him now.
“Well, I mean, most of us have bad eyesight, but only with reading, so maybe because your not doing much reading, they might actually be making it harder for you…” he shrugs and a look passes over her face before she shrugs back in agreement.
“that does kinda make sense I guess, I mean, the only times I read now are at dinner and when I’m trying to learn Ancient Greek… so maybe your right”
James
She pulls off her glasses and we all stare at her open-mouthed.
The brown in her hair darkens, and the blonde becomes lighter, making it a medium brown with light-blonde highlights.
Her eyes lighten too, going from a mixture of medium blue and seaweed green to jade, or a green-tinged mist mixed in with electric blue. They sparkle darkly, and specks of darker blue are also scattered through them.
She looks completely different, and even her face shape has shifts, fuller lips, darker lashes, fair skin.
As soon as she sees her reflection, she just goes silent, staring at us all in some form of shock. In that moment, we all know that her glasses are not normal in the least, and they were charmed to hide her true appearance.
Mt. Olympus, New York.
“Well I for one am glad she finally got rid of those glasses,” Aphrodite states “ I mean, really, those eyes of hers are to-die-for!”
“It isn’t as simple as that, her and her friend are suspicious now, and I have a feeling that he’s going to make it easier on her, she’ll find out soon” Poseidon states, a flicker of concern crossing his face.
“We can’t do anything now, we noticed it too late, but even Hades sent a message. This child of yours could affect the war as badly as The Seven, especially with those other four” Zeus says pointedly to Poseidon.
Those of them present know exactly what could happen because of this, but they have to keep to their word.
“Time flies” Murmurs Poseidon as the others leave, before he gets up and walks out.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that last pre-written chapter *evil grin* if you can guess what is so special with Astrid, I will give you free virtual cookies and hugs!
Next chapter will be in a few days, but you guys can live... right?
Anyway, really hoped you enjoyed!
<3 Arabelladuaghterofzeus
11/1/13