Home Meal

{Camp Half-Blood, 4th of May 2005}

After the crowd of excited campers surrounding me dispersed, I made my way back to the Big House, my mind swirling with questions.

The familiar building painted baby-blue with a white trim. On the roof a bronze eagle weather vane, and by the porch are wind chimes that turned into dryads as they spun.

As I approached, I could see dad their his white stallion legs as strong as ever a small grin on his face, "So, I already heard about your triumph in the arena."

"Yeah I wanted to talk to you about that," I started closing the distance between us.

"Something's wrong with Luke, I don't know what it is but there's something on him. Something that is giving ME the creeps."

Luke Castellan POV

'Dammit Cronos didn't you say I'd be stronger than Odysseus now.'

'No, I said you'd be stronger than the Odysseus from before and you are if you had used what you've assimilated of my powers I'm sure you could beat him. After all he may be a demiprimordial but I'm a Titan."

'But I can't reveal those things in camp, the time isn't right yet. I haven't even had my weapon made.'

""Luke."

A voice cut through my thoughts with Cronos, I turned back and I saw Annabeth staring at me with a worried look on her face. 

"Don't worry about it Annabeth, I'm fine."

"Still-

"I said I'm fine!" I answered, a little louder than I would have liked.

"I'm sorry for raising my voice Annabeth, but really I'm fine I just need to be left alone for a while."

Odysseus POV

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink, the conch horn sounded, signaling dinner.

The mes hall was a hub of activity as I arrived. Campers filed in, chattering and laughing, seemingly oblivious to the undercurrent of wrongness I felt. I hesitated at the entrance, suddenly unsure where to sit. In the past, I'd always sat with either the Aphrodite, Apollo or Ares kids. But now, I had no clue, after all I was technically unclaimed and even if I was claimed there wasn't a house for Erebus.

"Hey, Odysseus!" a gruff voice called out. I turned to see a burly girl with stringy brown hair waving me over to the Ares table. "You look lost. Come sit with us."

Grateful for the invitation, I made my way over. "Thanks," I said, sliding onto the bench. "And my friends call me Ozzy."

The girl's looked at my eyes for a moment and as I stared at her I noticed how her green aura turned pink for a fraction of a second.

"I'm Clarisse, head counselor of the Ares cabin."

I couldn't help but smile. If only she knew. "Nice to meet you, Clarisse. I was friends with one of your Head Counselor's once."

As we began to eat, Clarisse asked me "Who?"

"You probably don't know him, he left camp a decade ago on a quest."

"What happened to him?"

"He died." I replied looking at Beckendorf from the corner of my eye on the Hephaestus table.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, that is what the life of a demigod is all about, death and misery. I made my peace with it a while ago and so did he." I continued a smile forming on my face as I thought back to my early years at camp.

Clarisse seemed to accept this, and so we moved on from that subject. The Ares kids asked me about my quest, battles and fights after my identity became known, Odysseus son of Chiron. They had also given me a title while I was away the Born Camper, turns out a lot of new campers thought I was just a myth made to scare them or prepare them, I honestly didn't care.

Soon my dad galloped into view, "Heroes!" he announced, "It's time for the offering to the gods. Please proceed to the firer."

As campers began to rise, filing towards the central fire, I went along with them. It had been so long since I'd participated in this ritual, I was honestly kind of excited

 I approached the brazier, the flames danced merrily, casting a warm glow over the faces of those around me. I scraped a portion of my meal into the fire, murmuring a quiet prayer to Hestia, goddess of the hearth, and Iris goddess of the rainbow. The only two goddess which I thought were deserving of my offering.

The moment my offering touched the flames, something strange happened. The fire snuffed out, plunging the pavilion into sudden darkness. Gasps of surprise echoed around me, followed by confused murmurs.

Then, as quickly as it had extinguished, the fire roared back to life. It blazed higher than ever before, casting long, eerie shadows across the pavilion. The firelight flickered and danced, creating an illusion of movement in the darkness.

And then I saw them. Eyes. Dozens, maybe hundreds of eyes, blinking open in the shadows cast by every camper. They were everywhere, peering out from beneath tables, from behind pillars, even from the folds of clothing.

A collective gasp rose from the assembled campers as they too noticed the eyes watching them from their own shadows. But their attention was quickly drawn upward, to the space above my head.

Floating there, wreathed in shadows and flame, was a swirling mass of darkness. As I watched, it coalesced into a shape – an amalgamation of eyes and writhing tendrils, constantly shifting and reforming.

The pavilion fell into a hushed silence, broken only by the crackling of the supernatural flame. I could feel every eye on me, a mixture of awe and fear in their gazes.

Chiron stepped forward, his face a mask of shock and... was that recognition? He bowed deeply, an action mirrored by every camper in the pavilion.

"It is determined," he announced, his voice ringing out in the silence. "Hail, Odysseus, Son of..."

But before he could finish, the fiery symbol above my head flickered and vanished, along with all the eyes in the shadows. The brazier's flame returned to normal, leaving us all blinking in the sudden return to ordinary light.

I stood there, smiling thinking of how my father was just laughing in the Underworld knowing the scare that he had caused on some demigods, honestly I wondered why I hadn't caught his flare for the dramatic.

As the other campers began to whisper among themselves, theories and speculation flying, I couldn't help but let out a soft, rueful chuckle.

"Huh," I said, more to myself than anyone else, "I forgot I've never been claimed."

The irony wasn't lost on me. After years of talking with my dad from time to time, playing catch with him, having been cheered on by him like a father at his son's baseball game, I had gotten more time with my godly parent than any other demigod I knew and yet I had never been claimed.

So for just today I decided to embrace my father's dramaticism, I lifted my hand upwards. Tendrils shot from every shadow that was cast by the flames. Two figures jumped from my shadow, a giant mastiff, Lailaps, and a giant fox, Swiper. Three crows flew through one of the windows two of them perching on each of my shoulders and the third perched upon my head.

"I'm Odysseus son of Chiron, Edna Atonal and Erebus the primordial god of darkness and shadows."

All of my animal companions followed my lead, Lailaps barked, Swiper cackled, and Skia, Corvus and Randy squawked.

"MASTER'S BACK!"

"BOW MORTALS!"

"WE LOOK AWESOME!"

[Greek Myth Fact: Part 3 of abductions.

While Helen remained in Athens, Theseus and Pirithous ventured to the underworld to kidnap Persephone, who had already been abducted by Hades, her husband. Recognizing their plot, Hades bound them with live snakes, leaving them to rot. Their plan failed, and they were trapped until Heracles arrived years later. Heracles tried to free both, but the earth shook, signaling Hades' refusal to release Pirithous. Heracles only managed to free Theseus, whose bottom remained stuck in the underworld, leaving Pirithous behind.

Like her sister Selene, Eos, the goddess of dawn, had a habit of kidnapping handsome men—often with worse outcomes. After an affair with Ares, Aphrodite cursed Eos with insatiable desire. Eos abducted Cleitus, who soon died of old age, leaving her heartbroken. She also took Cephalus, a different one from her sister, to Syria and Orion to Delos as lovers. After their deaths, Eos vowed to change and asked Zeus to make her next lover, Tithonus, immortal. Zeus granted this, but Tithonus continued aging, becoming old and frail. To end his suffering (and hers), Eos turned him into a cicada.]

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