Chapter Text
Percy never really felt the same after the war against Gaea ended. His emotions were strange, he never really felt happy or sad at the right times. He just didn’t know how to feel at certain moments.
For example, at the campfire while they were singing songs it never really felt the same. Feeling happy just wasn’t right, being sad was pulling down the mood and he had an ‘image’ to retain, or so Annabeth said. So many once familiar faces who were missing. Questions he never got to ask, friendships that didn’t grow into something that he could really call sacred. Campers pretending that they were fine even though if you paid attention and watched closely, which almost nobody did because most of them were traumatised children for the gods sake, you could see the strain in their smiles and notice the grieve in their eyes.
Training also changed after the war. People often kept a distance between him and them, like he was dangerous to be around, talking about him in hushed voices, too unsure if they should get closer to the two-time saviour of Olympus or keep staying away from him. They didn’t see him as another demigod, no, they saw him as some kind of unbreakable destroyer. Something that was more powerful than them, that could cause harm any second. A sparring match was almost as rare as a god sincerely apologising because they did something wrong, so pretty much never. The only people that really liked, well better to say “liked” to spar with him were Clarisse and occasionally Jason, though what Clarisse called a sparring match a relatively normal person would call an attempted murder. Still, it was nice that at least two people were treating him normally. The usual insults the daughter of Ares would throw at him were nice. Kind of a reminder of a time that had long since passed but would never return. Of good memorise. But also, a time that was broken, gone forever. Never to be fixed.
Slowly everything was falling back into place. People stopped outright avoiding him, and Percy had started to form friendships with some of the water spirits and water related animals in and around camp.
Through his interactions with some fish, he found out that they were HUGE gossips. And Percy couldn’t even put into words what kind of information he had found out only through them, like come on, it wasn’t common knowledge that Triton, Percys unfortunate half-brother, had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with rubber ducks. Of course, the fact that the reason for his obsession had started because of Poseidon, during father son bonding time, was also not a known thing. Whatever was going on in the ocean, the fish knew about it.
So, when things seemed to go slightly uphill in Percy Jacksons life the fates decided that hey, they had to do something to spice things up around here. And eventually the right moment, or better to say wrong moment, was there. The day on which two new campers arrived. Their arrival would change a lot of things in the times to come. And they entered the camp with a bang. Literally.
Percy was sitting at the lake in the forest, talking to the nymphs. It was a sunny day in august and he was enjoying the sun and the gentle breeze. The gods seemed to have a good day and feel merciful. Everything was normal. The apollo kids were teaching some campers how to shoot with a bow and arrow without killing yourself or another person. The satyrs and Demeter cabin were tending to the strawberry fields, making sure that the plants wouldn’t dry out. The Athena cabin was having a field day, finding the best spots for the upcoming capture the flag game and discussing future battle plans they could use. In the middle of their little group his girlfriend Annabeth stood.
Annabeth and him hadn’t really been talking as much as they used to, he thought after the whole falling into Tartarus together they would be closer but HA, Nope, they seemed to be drifting apart. Well, if you went through literal hell with another person you’d either be closer than ever or you’d be drifting apart. Percy didn’t like that he could watch Annabeth, the love of his life, distance herself from him. Not in a possessive way, just in a worried boyfriend way. He had once brought it up with her, but she had just said that she needed some space because she was concentrating on her studies and she wanted to get into a good college. Of course he could understand her reasoning, she took her education very seriously, however, Percy wasn’t stupid against contrary believe in camp. He just wasn’t book smart, when it came to reading people, he noticed basically everything. So, Percy knew that his girlfriend was just waiting for the right moment to suggest a break from their relationship. It was kind of his fault and not his fault. He didn’t know anymore. The powers he had used in what he liked to call the pit while useful, had scared Annabeth. She hadn’t been scared of Achlys, she had feared him and sadly that feeling hadn’t left completely. Percy saw it in the secret glances she took at him. Ensuring that he was staying in the imaginary line that she had made up for him.
The son of Poseidon was pulled out of his thoughts as a loud bang rippled through camp. Shocking everybody and getting the campers on high alert. The blue sky darkened and the winds picked up. Before Percy even realised it, he was running in the direction from where the sound had come from, which was the border. Next to him Will, a son of Apollo and counsellor of the Apollo cabin was also running to the bolder. “Do you know what’s going on?”, asked Will. “I know as much as you do right now.”, replied Percy.
As they got closer to the border they were met with more campers and made a horrifying discovery. Will stopped and gasped, his face portraying a horrified expression. Percy completely understood his reaction.
At the border Thalias tree was up in flames. Like the worst Christmas gone wrong. If you took a picture of the burning tree and slapped it on a Christmas card the text beneath it would probably be something like Happy early catastrophe Christmas. The wood that he had passed so many times he had lost count was burning brightly and turning to ash. The golden fleece was also somehow on fire. The gold slowly burning away. In front of the border stood a kid with blonde hair. He looked like he was 16 maybe 17. Next to him a brown-haired girl was hysterically yelling at the campers to do something and that she didn’t want to die like this. The reason for the mass panic was a Dracon with fire-like red skin. It let out a breath of flames and nearly turned the two newcomers to barbeque. The satyr next to them, which Percy only now realised was Grover, his best friend, was trying to convince the two teenagers to cross the border and that they would be safe there. Neither of them made any attempt to move. Clarisse was barking orders at campers. “You, tell the other campers that there’s a dracon here. You! Get the newbies over the border.” Without even looking if I was there, she ordered “Jackson! Put the fire out or the whole tree will burn down!”
Percy thought her comment was useless because he was already working on it. He concentrated and felt the familiar pull in his stomach as the water from the creek and from several bathrooms came shooting towards the tree to put out the fire.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Before the water could reach the tree the dracon charged and rammed against the Spruce with so much force that its roots ripped out of the ground and it fell over.
The tree fell. Thalias tree fell. The camps border crumpled to the ground under the dracons weight. The probably only thing that made camp relatively safe for them was gone. As the monster was getting ready to burn the campers in front of it to a crisp the water finally shot against its serpent-like face and extinguished the flames. It looked like it was confused, well as confused as a snake faced thing can look like. Percy noticed before it died that the not quiet dragon had lightning scars all over its body, as if it had been struck by lightning. Clarisse and her siblings charged at it and soon it turned into a cloud of golden dust and dracon scales.
Chiron and Mr D showed up. They both stopped at the sight of the fallen tree. Chiron looked at them with a look of pure bewilderment and Mr D, for once in his time at camp looked concerned.
“What did you do?!” asked the centaur. Nobody offered an answer. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Chiron looked shocked and Mr D’s face was pulled into a slightly concerned grimace. "How did you manage to do this?", asked Mr D.
It was completely quiet. Kind of unnerving. If camp half-blood was ever quiet then it meant that something very bad had happened, or that the Apollo kids had accidentally drugged the camps food again. This was probably one of the worst things that could happen to camp.
Percy thought it was like everybody was moving in slow motion. The new campers were standing next to the fallen tree. The ash and monster dust now mixed, making the remains of the tree look like someone had spilled golden party glitter over a very dusty surface. It was a strange sight. He felt like he was going to throw up.
People were going around looking for ways to fix the tree, as if the solution would just fall from the sky or pop up in front of them.
Somehow, through Percy’s twisted luck the situation got even worse for him. What had he done to the fates to deserve this?
"I mean Percy should have put out the fire sooner", a camper said, their voice unsure, but laced with something that he couldn’t quite decipher. It was someone from the Hermes cabin, he hadn't remembered their name.
"How is this my fault?!". "Well if you were quicker with putting out the fire and killing the monster than this would have never happened!". It seemed like the campers around him were looking at him with some doubt. They started to murmur. The saviour of Olympus purposefully letting the tree that protected them burn? It sounded crazy, but somehow, in their heads they needed a reason for all this chaos to go down, so why not blame him?
"Come on, you seriously think Prissy would want the border gone? That's just more work in the long run. And the chance of him dying because of his own stupidity is way higher now with probably more monsters running around.", this comment came from Clarisse of all people. Percy stared at her in shock. Clarisse was the last person he had expected to stick up for him.
“It’s still his fault, I mean, he’s the one with water powers. If anyone should get the blame for not putting out the fire in time it should be him. He failed!”, the camper, a boy with brown hair was now basically shouting. Campers were now talking louder, some even screaming that it wasn’t his fault or asking him why he wasn’t quicker.
Before the arguments between the demigods could spiral into something worse Chiron stepped in. “Quiet!”, he yelled. When the campers finally quieted down, he spoke again “This is nobody but the dracons fault. Do not start blaming other campers, that will just start even more problems. We’ll find a way to protect the camp, until we find a good enough solution, there will be more campers on guard duty. And don’t” Chiron stopped what he was saying and just stared in the direction of the new half-bloods.
Above the blond boys head a lightning bolt floated. The yellow light casting a slight shadow over the campers and standing out in the now dark grey sky. Thunder rumbled and a couple of lightning strikes danced across the sky. Next to him, the girl was staring at the symbol a strange looking circle that turned out to be Hecate’s wheel above her head.
“All hail to the new camper, son of Zeus, king of the gods and ruler over the sky, lightning, and thunder. And the new daughter of Hecate.”, Chiron said as he bowed down. The rest of the demigods followed him and bowed down.