Chapter Text
___ ★₊˚﹟☀️🛡️'
〞when you know, you know, when you know, you know, it kinda makes me laugh, running down that path, when you're good, it's gold 'cause when you know, you know〝
━━ margaret • lana del rey
✧
She didn't feel any better, but the next morning, Alexander assured her that some fresh air and a short walk would be enough to make her feel as good as new. She chose not to argue that the humiliation was something that fresh air and a walk couldn't cure.
He left the infirmary after breakfast, Anastácia brought him a tray with a series of fruits, and helped to braid his hair, separated a change of clothes, and in a short time they were outside the big house, turning and moving, He watched her cast a worried glance towards her bandaged ankle.
━━ It is practically cured. ━━ assured. ━━ Alexander said the band is just to keep it tighter.
He preferred to hide the part that something seemed to scratch deep down every time she stepped harder, Anastasia already seemed worried enough, and was being so good that she would hate to torment him more with it.
━━ Oh yes, I understand. ━━ he murmured, forcing a smile. ━━ That's great then.
She ran her hands over the sides of her arms, she had no idea what to do, Percy was getting comfortable in cabin 3, the last time she saw him was a little earlier before breakfast, Alexander said she didn't need to show up to train with him. bow, and he would hardly risk stepping into the arena with his foot like that, especially training with Clarisse.
Over the few days that had passed, she had ended up adapting to that routine, and now part of it had slipped through her fingers faster than she could see, Amaryllis felt lost.
━━ It's a bit, I mean, I don't really know what to do. ━━ he said, Anastácia gave him a hesitant look, she seemed more worried than usual.
Finally, Aphrodite's daughter shook her hand relaxedly, and linked her arm with hers.
━━ Silena, me and a girl from the Apollo cabin were organizing to exchange bracelets, you should come.
She bit her lip uncertainly, she watched some campers give her long looks, no one talked about what happened, but it was clear that there was an air of pity, some whispers, and sometimes she could hear a thing or two about the hellhound.
━━ Won't I get in the way? ━━ Anastácia frowned a little horrified.
━━ They're bracelets, not a marathon, you're just going to sit around all day. ━━ she joked, moving her head hiding her smile.
Anastácia guided her straight to the lake, some campers were practicing canoeing and a few further along she noticed four girls gathered around, one of them, a little younger, was commenting something about how this summer was going by faster, she had long, dark hair. , expressive blue eyes, and really quite beautiful, it was strange to say that despite the differences she ended up looking like Anastácia, so he thought it could be Silena, he had already seen her again at Aphrodite's table at dinner. The other had shoulder-length dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin, her features marked the presence of Indian descent, which she must have been around her age.
What surprised him most was seeing Clarisse's half-sister sitting on the huge patchwork fabric. Chloé didn't usually have a very friendly look, and it wouldn't have been any different from the way she looked at her that morning, but she gave a half smile, which almost sounded like a “what a thing, huh”, followed by a look away at the younger girl. old lady of the group.
Daphne, a little closer to the fabric, who hadn't taken her eyes off her since she was walking along the lake, pushed something into her jeans pocket and said:
━━ I won't be able to stay for long. ━━ from Anastácia's face, she seemed surprised to see her there. ━━ I have to talk to one of my younger brothers.
Chloé made a face, checking out one of the colored beads with a letter and mumbled in a slurred tone:
━━ Imagine being advised by you.
The girl who she thought was Silene crossed her legs with a tense half smile as she was between the two, Daphne didn't seem to mind, she shrugged.
━━ You would be surprised by how much you can learn.
Anastácia raised her shoulders and cleared her throat, Amaryllis forced her weight onto the other leg, starting to feel uncomfortable about being standing. Chloe mumbled something again, grimacing in disgust at Daphne's double meaning, and the other girl half-smiled.
━━ I'm so excited, I've had ideas all week. ━━ said Anastácia, giving a little jump, she grabbed Amaryllis' shoulders and shook her. ━━ And I brought Lis to make bracelets with us.
The unfamiliar girl gave him a wide smile and a gentle wave, eyes dark and bright.
━━ It's good to finally meet you, Amaryllis. My name is Kalama, from cabin 7. ━━ despite the kindness there was a deeper tone of curiosity that I couldn't understand why.
Anastácia put her hands together Before he could say anything about it, he continued:
━━ You already know Chloé, cabin 5, the one in the middle is Silena, my sister, and finally Daphne, cabin 4, you met her at the flag hunt, didn't you?
The daughter of Demeter's gaze fell on her, burning like a flame, she put her hands in her pockets uncomfortably.
━━ A little earlier, actually.
━━ Really? She had no idea. ━━ replied Anastácia.
If they sat down leaving the circle open, there was a large amount of beads scattered across the fabric, some of the lighter ones eventually ended up slipping as the fabric pulled, Chloé was the first to complain about this.
It was absurdly easy to indulge in a simple activity, Silena was even cooler than she looked, and at one time or another she always managed to talk to Kalama, despite her always being more focused on her own bracelets.
━━ How will I do anything if they keep flying? ━━ she said, she threaded one in black through the elastic, it was forming a gradient, in shades of black, white and red with the smaller beads.
Silena brushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear, and analyzed the bracelet.
━━ I think you're doing it wrong. ━━ he said, pointing to the colors. ━━ You changed the third row, placing the red ones before the white ones.
Chloé gave her a deadly look, but she didn't disagree, she let out a heavy sigh and began to break down.
━━ Holy Gods, what did I do to deserve this. ━━ he whispered softly.
━━ I still don't know why you came if you hate this. ━━ said Anastácia.
Chloé gave her a long look and didn't respond, instead she looked towards Daphne, who laughed.
━━ She's probably just running away from some of Nicolas's idiocy.
The girl from the Apollo cabin looked up for the first time in a while, she didn't seem too pleased at the mention of a boy, so she just returned her gaze to the bracelet. Chloe rolled her eyes, and Silene sighed.
━━ Who is Nicolas? ━━ Amaryllis asked.
Contrary to what she expected, it was Chloé who responded in a less irritated tone, but she seemed to have controlled herself enough not to roll her eyes.
━━ My idiot brother.
She frowned, that didn't help much, especially when she only had a week at camp, Anastácia patiently began to explain:
━━ We saw him that day at dinner, he's one of Clarisse's friends, do you remember?
She would hardly remember that night, when she was about to have her head buried in a toilet. Anastácia seemed to remember that, as she shifted uncomfortably, helping her position. She remembered her not reacting very well to Ares' son's nicknames.
━━ Silly, anyway. ━━ she said, when a kind of silence seemed to settle in.
It was as if everyone had ended up remembering some factual fact involving him. He then realized that it wasn't exactly just her, of course he had been thinking lately that Clarisse had ended up turning whatever they had into something personal, he didn't remember provoking her, but deep down he knew that she would never leave him alone.
However, looking from the outside as Kalama shrugged at the son of Ares' quote, and Anastasia looked so uncomfortable, she realized that they were all troubled children, not if some kind of fun, but something that scared.
Whatever was kept outside the camp, keeping them safe there, didn't seem to be entirely true, monsters were everywhere.
━━ Speaking of which, how is the ankle, I hope the herbs have helped it a little. ━━ Daphne hadn't changed the subject, but it was gratifying that the silence between the girls ended.
━━ They were very useful, I felt practically no pain. ━━ she replied. ━━ Thank you.
She started separating the beads, she didn't know exactly what to do, she just thought about following a common pattern with them. Maybe she would give some to Anastasia or Percy, — if he were to use it — at least she would try to use pink and blue tones.
━━ Sounds great to me then. ━━ said the girl from Demeter. ━━ I broke my arm once as a child, it was horrible.
Kalama looked up at her.
━━ So, you really broke your foot?
There was a certain tone of surprise in her voice, as if it were all very illogical, Chloé finished rearranging the rows of colors and said:
━━ Come on, everyone knows that. The best swordsman of the last 300 years had to carry her to the infirmary. ━━ The mockery wasn't meant for Amaryllis, but she ended up feeling a little uncomfortable.
Luke had been one of the kindest people she'd met there, and she felt terrible that she still hadn't found him and thanked him for his help with the flag hunt.
Silena twirled one of the beads between her fingertips and inserted it into the elastic, her eyebrows arched somewhat suspiciously of Chloé.
━━ I'm glad Luke was there, I mean, I know Clarisse wouldn't go that far, but, it's good that you have him as a friend. ━━ said Anastácia.
She didn't know what to say to her daughterha of Aphrodite, the conversation was taking an increasingly uncomfortable turn, this was not what I expected from a simple exchange of bracelets, but getting up and leaving would be too ugly. She just nodded and agreed, watching as an exchange of barbs began.
━━ Who knows, Lis might make him a friendship bracelet too.
It really seemed like a good idea at the time, and a good excuse for not looking for him to thank him for so long.
━━ I could try. ━━ he said.
Chloé's eyes widened a little, as if she was absurdly sorry for what she said, and leaned toward Kalama.
━━ I thought your 'type' understood sarcasm. ━━ she whispered, but Amaryllis didn't understand. Kalama elbowed her lightly in the waist and hissed in a sign of silence.
Daphne pushed some unfinished bracelets, and stood up, Amaryllis held her gaze, from that angle she seemed even taller which was really beautiful when you know few women who don't seem to be intimidated by their own size.
Her yellow camp t-shirt was tied in a knot at her waist that came undone when she lifted her arms to tie her hair into a bun, her gaze wandering toward the campers canoeing, briefly noticing a reddish mark just below the back of their necks.
Chloé narrowed her gaze and said:
━━ What is this? Has a Puka been biting you? ━━ the Apollo girl gave a half smile, but she seemed a little worried, Silene scolded her. ━━ I'm just kidding.
Casually, Daphne shrugged without a care.
━━ It had huge claws and teeth, I needed to see it.
━━ I definitely wouldn't want to see it. ━━ said Chloé.
Silene shook her head and Anastasia gave a smile that never reached her eyes, she felt like she was missing something. Despite their causality, it really seemed like something serious, scratches like that are usually painful.
━━ Are you okay? ━━ he asked, Daphne let her arms fall to her sides, adjusting the knot on her blouse, paying attention to her. ━━ I mean, it doesn't look very good.
━━ It's nothing I can't solve, save my bracelets for later, Kalama, please.
It didn't take long for her to disappear from sight, walking along the edge of the lake and heading towards a shortcut in the forest.
She watched until all that was left of Daphne was a light breeze with the scent of wildflowers.
෴
She ran into Percy a little later in one of Luke's private lessons. As far as she knew, the people at cabin 11 were too far ahead to take fencing lessons with him, and Chloé didn't have any training scheduled, so her friend was quickly sidelined with Luke. There were no complaints, Percy enjoyed the training, but it was clear how hard Luke took him.
It was a more reserved part of the forest, not very far away, she learned about that place from Anastácia, who told her where she could find them shortly after finishing the “morning of beads”. Part of her wasn't very excited about entering the forest, especially when she was helpless, as if a gun would make any difference there.
Swords didn't seem to suit him very well, daggers were still untested and a bow was the only thing that was a little more than a failure, yet he didn't have one.
Fortunately, she didn't have any obstacles the entire way, she remained silent and followed in the indicated direction, in just under ten minutes she found them, Luke in a shirt stuck to sweat and Percy alternating between breathing and keeping his sword in his hands.
The sun's rays came through the treetops, the whole look had an autumnal aura even though it was summer, you could smell the strong aroma of fauna, wild flowers and disturbed earth, and that smell of sweat pricking your nose, there was a woody background, which had I was almost certain it came from Luke's perfume.
A beam of light hit the scar as he struck Percy, steel against steel, framing the perfect face, but it couldn't help but be a little scary. There were few times that she had ever seen Luke like that, relentless. Unconsciously, she found herself sliding her hand into the comfort of her pocket, feeling the warm material of the necklace.
Percy fell to his knees with one blow, Luke taunted him with the point of the sword under his chin, it was admirable that he was so good. The title of best swordsman definitely seemed to have been deserved, that reminds her of Chloé's mocking tone at the lakeside. She didn't like Luke, maybe it was even a question of Ares' children, they also tend to be good with a sword.
His gaze fell on her, his breathing a little labored, his chest rising and falling against his damp shirt, a smile appeared. Percy pushed Luke's sword away and stood up, a scowl forming at Amaryllis.
━━ Hello, Lis, what a surprise. ━━ her nickname jumped out of Luke's mouth as if it were customary, he realized that he was smiling at him with something so silly.
Percy marched towards her, sword lying on the ground.
━━ I thought it was making bracelets or something like that.
━━ I was, I finished a little while ago. ━━ shrugged softly.
Percy clicked his tongue, and wrapped his arms around her, he was a little smaller than her, but he managed to wrap his sweaty arm around her head and, anticipating, messing up her hair, Amaryllis tried to push him away, hearing Luke's soft laugh.
━━ Now you look like a rat's nest. ━━ he whispered when she finally managed to push him away.
━━ Ew, you look disgusting. ━━ she said, blowing a lock of her disheveled hair.
Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment, she looked at Luke who had an amused smile on his face, his dark eyes slid down to his ankle, and she saw a brief hesitation in his mood, Luke asked then:
━━ How have you been feeling?
━━ Well, it doesn't usually hurt. ━━ replied, Percy again put his arm around her shoulders. ━━ Actually, I really wanted to…
━━ Can we have lunch? I am starving? ━━ interrupted Percy, he closed his mouth almost biting his tongue, he released it and ran to pick up the sword on the ground.
Luke didn't seem all that upset by the interpretation, but she noticed that brief mood swing again.
Her eyes narrowing, as if she was controlling herself from saying something. She felt bad about that, she wanted to thank him, but before she could say anything she found herself being dragged by Percy back to the cabin area.
෴
Lunch was somewhat monotonous, she felt a little lonely at the table in the Hermes cabin, despite the large number of campers.
Chris sat in front, most of them had already finished their lunch, so two absurdly similar boys took the two vacant seats next to him.
They were thin, with more or less dark curly hair and brown eyes. In front of him, Chris gave one of them a wide smile.
━━ Let Amaryllis breathe, man.
The warning made the boy move his butt to the side a little, but not enough for someone to fit in the space between them. The other stretched his legs and leaned over the table, his face resting on the palm of his hand, looking at her.
━━ Hey, I'm Travis, this is my twin...
━━ Connor. ━━ said the boy on the right.
━━ They're not real twins. ━━ said Chris, before she could say anything.
Travis rolled his eyes, despite being taller, he didn't look much older than her.
━━ You just ruined what could have been years of deception. ━━ Chris snorted without the slightest regret.
━━ I share, they still look enough alike to be twins. ━━ she said, Connor gave a wide smile.
Hermes' children were all really very similar, tall and thin, with somewhat pointy noses, which also ended up reminding him of how light their hands were.
The boy leaning over the table tilted his face to the side, his dark curls sliding, there was a mischievous gleam in his eyes that vaguely reminded her of the lone boy at the third table.
━━ We only heard what happened to you, it's really a shame, but flag hunting is always like this. ━━ he said.
The boy on the other side cleared his throat.
━━ Sometimes, actually. ━━ corrected Connor. ━━ But you're blushing and smiling, so we can assume you're much better, even though Alexander isn't a healer he's good with it.
He felt his cheeks burn, a little color in his face wouldn't hurt, especially when it was such a hot day, but it embarrassed him that someone would comment on it.
━━ Oh, yes, he helped me a lot.
Travis took a piece of chicken from his plate, gave him a somewhat indignant look but he didn't even seem to care.
━━ Once, when I broke my arm, he healed me, I was as good as new in a few days. ━━ commented Chris. ━━ But he irritated me all this time, too.
He felt that annoying little pain rising up his ankle, it was rare but sometimes it happened, on his arm there wasn't much other than a thin layer of white, a trace of the scar caused by Clarisse in the flag hunt.
He had injured his spleen some time ago, a bruise was left a little above the scar for weeks, so much so that he could only wear long sleeves, luckily it was winter.
Her stepfather had pulled her hard as she passed him one late afternoon, she didn't remember exactly what triggered his anger, whether it was because she wanted another bottle, or because Amaryllis took too long to understand what he said.
━━ Wow, I'm so sorry. ━━ I told him, Chris made a carefree gesture with his hand.
Travis laughed, he held his head with an amused smile, white teeth with fangs a little out of alignment.
━━ He got hurt last year and you, with a broken foot today, say you're sorry. ━━ didn't have a malicious tone, he would just appear a little surprised.
━━ My foot is not broken. ━━ he corrected, to his right, Connor passed his arm over his neck, gently moved a parted strand in the wrong direction and then stood up saying:
━━ You couldn't have been our sister, anyway.
━━ Dude. ━━ replied Chris, raising his arms
.
━━ She knows better than to be offended, see it as a compliment. ━━ the voice ahead sounded, she turned her neck quickly enough to see Luke standing a few steps away. ━━ Take it from me. ━━ Chris rolled his eyes and ended up focusing on the food.
He felt something slip into his left jeans pocket, Travis gave him a mischievous smile and whispered:
━━ A courtesy that Aphrodite's children would have loved. Good luck.
She blinked in confusion, she thought about saying something but that smile kept her quiet, anyway, Travis was already on his feet, patting Luke on the shoulder and walking away with his non-twin brother.
It looked like a hurricane had passed through the table, she blinked a little confused, they were a whirlwind.
He put his hand in his pocket, feeling the scissors a little stiff with something, he wanted to find out what it was, but he ended up keeping it hidden. Her eyes guided him back to Luke, sitting next to him.
The son of Hermes gave a gentle smile and said:
━━ I see that the Stoll started.
━━ Yes, they are a little…
━━ Offensive? Screwed up? Daring? Naughty? ━━ kicked Chris, gave an uncertain smile.
━━ I wasn't going to say that.
Chris smiled.
━━ But you certainly thought.
If he remained silent, it wasn't a lie.
━━ You'll get used to it. ━━ said Luke. ━━ They are good kids.
She had no doubts about that. Chris started to tell her about something in training, she listened to every word, despite not being as interested as she wanted, when she finished lunch and her plate was taken away, she put her hand inside her pocket, felt the texture of the material, it looked like plastic, subtly She pulled him onto her lap, a little surprised.
It was a chocolate bar, one of those sold in any corner store, but she didn't know if she would find something like that in the camp easily, she realized then that she was a smuggling specialist, but the twins hadn't asked for anything in return. .
The words Travis whispered came back to him as if blown by the wind: “A courtesy the children of Aphrodite would have adored. Good luck."
She looked up, on the other side of the cafeteria, Clarisse was looking in her direction, impassive.