Chapter 61

[Third Person's PoV]

"You have to help us out sometimes when you have the chance," Denise said enthusiastically.

Lucian just shrugged his shoulders. "I'll help out if I don't have anything planned."

"That's perfect," Denise nodded.

"So… we cool?"

Denise and the others around nodded their heads.

"But what about your head counselor? I doubt she would be okay with Lucian coming around," Annabeth asked, leaning to the side as she looked at Rose tying her long black hair into a ponytail before getting to work on the fields in front of her.

Denise just picked the last remaining strawberry from the plant in front of her. "Leave everything to me. Watch this."

With the strawberry in hand, she walked towards Rose, who now had a woven straw basket filled with strawberries.

"Hey Rose, here, try this."

Rose looked at Denise in confusion before sighing. "Denise, we should be collecting our harvest, not eating it."

Since Rose didn't want to bother with Lucian any longer, she stopped paying attention to him, so she failed to notice his abilities and his capability to grow crops.

Denise gave her the puppy dog eyes as she pleaded, "Please, Rose, just try this one."

Rose looked at her for a bit before sighing once again. "Fine." She picked the strawberry from Denise's hand and took a bite out of it.

"There happ– wow, wait a minute, why is it so juicy and sweet?"

"They're good, right?" Denise smiled.

Rose nodded her head, taking the last bite, leaving only the leaves of the fruit in her hands.

"You wouldn't guess who made it?" Denise teased.

"The dead kid, right?" Rose said, sounding confident in her answer.

"What– how did you guess?!"

"I'm not stupid. You were literally with him, and the next thing I know, you come here wanting to show me a fruit." Rose said with a scoffed

"But if you knew it was from him, why did you still eat it?"

"I may not like or trust him but I trust you. You wouldn't have fed me something if you knew it would be dangerous for me to eat."

Denise giggled while rubbing the back of her head, "So what do you think, would he be able to come around and help us?"

"No, not really. I mean, taking care of these plants is the job of our cabin, so having someone that's not from our cabin, especially him, come and help is weird, but…" She paused and looked towards the others engaging in conversations with Lucian.

She then continued, "I see the others getting along with him, so I guess it wouldn't hurt… but, and I mean this in all seriousness, if just one single leaf dies because of him, I'm banning him from access to anywhere near our cabin, and this is non-negotiable. As the head counselor, this is where I put my foot down."

Denise nodded her head in understanding, smiling proudly as she said, "Yes ma'am."

Rose just rolled her eyes before getting back to work.

Denise then went and informed Lucian of what was agreed upon. "That's fair," he said, nodding his head.

They spent a couple of minutes getting to know each other and talking about ways to help a plant grow faster without affecting its health until close to an hour had passed.

"Well, it was nice meeting you all, but I have something to ask Chiron. I'll come and help when I'm free," Lucian informed them.

They all nodded and said their goodbyes as they returned to work, Denise not being any different.

As they left, Lucian and Annabeth walked side by side back towards where Chiron was.

After a few minutes of walking, Annabeth let out a little giggle.

"What?" Lucian asked, which caused her to giggle some more.

Annabeth put her palms together, turned her head to the side slightly, and lifted one leg off the ground, "Wow, Lucian, you were so charming, I can see why you were so confident in your looks. They totally had a good first impression of you back there," she said in a high-pitched girly voice.

Lucian rolled his eyes and scoffed as he playfully shoved her head, "Oh, shut it, they were just so enamored the first girl didn't know how to act," he scoffed, which just caused Annabeth to laugh.

After a bit of banter between the two of them, Annabeth asked, "So what is it that you have to ask Chiron? Why didn't you ask him earlier?"

"I mean, you'll most likely be present when I ask him, so wait and see. As for why I didn't ask him earlier, he was surrounded by campers and in the middle of something. I wanted to talk to him alone, in a secluded spot. He should have finished what he was doing by now, so he should be in the Big House."

Annabeth nodded in understanding as they made their way towards Chiron's office. They walked past Dionysus, who was resting on a rocking chair on the porch, and headed towards Chiron's office. Lucian knocked on the door before Chiron instructed him to come in.

"Is something the matter?" Chiron asked curiously, not expecting to see Lucian come towards him.

"I want to see what I have to do in order to have permission to leave the camp periodically."

"May I ask why?" Chiron asked, while Annabeth looked shocked at Lucian asking such a thing.

"I want to be able to get ingredients to make something," was all Lucian answered with.

"Is there something you need that isn't actively here? I don't mean this in a bragging sense, but everything you'll ever need is most likely in the attic, where we keep most objects obtained from quests ever since the camp has started."

"I'm confident you don't have what I need to make."

Chiron just looked at Lucian with a raised brow, which caused him to sigh.

He stood up and went behind Annabeth, plunging her ears into his shadow, making her unable to hear anything.

"Hey! What are you doing?!?!?" She said, trying to pry Lucian's fingers off but being unsuccessful.

Chiron just looked lost on what Lucian was doing.

"If you have Phoenix feathers, I would be more than happy to take them off your hands," Lucian then smiled down towards Annabeth.

"Her birthday is in a few days, and I'm making her something, but for what I have in mind, I need the feathers of a Phoenix in order to make it."

"I'll bite you if you don't release my ears!" She exclaimed, still failing to pry his hands.

"And do you know where you find such a mythical bird?" Chiron asked, to which Lucian just nodded his head confidently.

Lucian then let go of her ears and sat back down next to her; she glared at Lucian in annoyance.

"What's the point of bringing me with you if you were just going to cover my ears!" Annabeth grumbled.

To which Lucian just playfully shrugged.

"I see…" Chiron said with a hand on his chin. He then let out a sigh.

"Well, if I'm being honest, you are probably the only person in this camp that has the permission to come and leave as you please. I wouldn't have the power to stop you."

"Wait, what?" Annabeth couldn't help but exclaim.

As someone that likes to be well-educated, Annabeth has a firm grasp on the rules of the camp, so hearing about this shocked Annabeth slightly.

"But isn't it stated that for their own safety, campers aren't allowed to leave unless it's a quest-related activity?"

Chiron nodded his head, "You're right, but that's the thing, due to who Lucian's father is… I'm afraid to say this, but Lucian technically doesn't belong to Camp Half-Blood. In fact, he doesn't belong in any place for that matter. He currently has the status of an outcast. Which gives him the power to come and leave camp without much or any consequences."

Annabeth simply had a look of pure disbelief, but Lucian simply had a look of understanding, knowing that at some point it would come to that.