PERCYS POV
The truth was, Percy was beginning to worry about Jade. Four days had passed and she still hadn’t been claimed. Percy didn’t know why it bothered him so much, plenty of kids went months without being claimed. But jade worried him.
Every night he tried iris messaging his dad, but he never responded. And every morning he would sit on the beach and try to get his dad to answer him, that didn’t work either.
Throughout the day, Percy did the best he could to help train jade. But she didn’t need much help, one full day at camp, and she had adjusted well, he wondered vaguely where she learned to adjust so quickly from, but he knew better than to ask her. She would tell him her past when the time was right.
Percy stood up of the beach ad brushed off his pants. “Trying to talk to your dad?” jade asks, startling Percy. He hadn’t even heard of her. She reminded him so much of Nico, that he vaguely wondered if maybe she was a child of hades. But he knew she wasn't, she was much too full of to be, even though she guarded herself.
“Yea, haven’t heard from him in a while, starting to get a little worried” Percy says, staring back out to the water.
“He must be a cool guy from all the stories I’ve heard you tell” she says, sitting down on the beach, her brown hair loose and curling around her shoulders. Percy settles down next to her.
“He is, although, he can be a bit distant” Percy answers. She smiles softly and gazes wistfully out at the water. A comfortable silence grew around them.
“When I was born, my mother died, giving birth to me, or some effect from that. I was raised partially by my aunt, she wasn’t bad I guess, she did drink a lot, and forgot my name but at least she never hit me” she used the word so casually that it made Percy wince, that was the first time Percy noticed the small scars on her shoulders, as if she had been whipped, what had happened to this poor girl.
“She died, drowned, when I was six. That’s when the monsters really started coming after me. If it wasn’t for Ms. Graceou I would have died. She took me in, fed me, taught me the Greek ways, told me I was a demi god, although she wasn’t sure who my parent was, and trained me to fight. It wasn’t until I was about eight or so that I was put into the pits. And when I started winning, and getting Ms. Graceou a lot of money, she began to get greedy. Watching without even blinking as her kids died one after another screaming her name. She was cruel, ruthless, bloodthirsty, evil incarnated. I had to leave Percy” she says, turning her face to mine, pleading me with her eyes to believe her.
“Jade” Percy says, putting a hand on her shoulders, she tensed, but then relaxed, comforted by his touch. He comes closer, something about this poor girl, drew him in closer, he rested his forehead on hers, and looked into her eyes. Trying to figure out the whole story, trying to figure out what she meant to him. “It’s ok, you're safe now, and she can’t reach you now” Percy says, draping his arm around her shoulders in a half hug. She let out a big breath, as if she had been waiting to let that go. This poor girl, he thought to himself. But he kept thinking there was something she wasn't telling him.
Before he could question me though, someone started making their way down the beach to them. It couldn't have been a regular human, there were magic borders that prevented mortals and monsters from crossing. Percy resisted the urge to run up ad hug him, instead he cleared his throat.
“Um jade,” he says, when the man got closer. His salt and pepper hair cut short, and his shiny green eyes just like Percy’s smiling down at both of them, “this is my father.”

Notes