GOLDEN | annabeth chase

iii

EVE COULD TELL THAT PERCY WAS GETTING MORE COMFORTABLE WITH BEING AT CAMP, minus the fact he was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs and a centaur.

each morning she took him to learn ancient greek from annabeth, and they would talk about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which weirded him out at first. 

then, she'd bring him through outdoor activities, looking for something he was good at. chiron tried to teach him archery, but they found out pretty quick he wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. chiron didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.

foot racing? no good either. the wood-nymph instructors left him in the dust. they told him not to worry about it. eve knew they'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. her dad for instance. but still, percy felt it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.

eve tried getting percy to help her whilst healing other campers too. throughout the day, he ended up stabbing himself with a pair of scissors and tripping over rolls of bandages.

percy noticed that eve's expression wasn't as bright as before after he fell into a cot and broke it.

chiron informed her that the only thing percy really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill anyone expected to see from the kid who had beaten the minotaur.

eve knew the senior campers and counsellors were watching him, trying to decide who his dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. he wasn't as strong as the ares kids, or as good at archery as the apollo kids. he didn't have hephaestus's skill with metalwork or – gods forbid – dionysus's way with vine plants. luke told her he thought he might be a child of hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. but she got the feeling he was just trying to make him feel better. he really didn't know what to make of him either.

during her spare time from the healer tent, she split it between helping percy and spending it with annabeth.

he told her he got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. he would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of his meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to his real dad. 

nothing came. 

he told her there was just this warm feeling he was looking for, like the memory of his smile. 

she confessed that she felt the same way when she first came- except that whenever she stared into the sun whilst sitting in hermes cabin, she could feel this light and longing towards it.

thursday afternoon, three days after percy arrived at camp half-blood, he had his first sword-fighting lesson. cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where luke would be the instructor.

eve stood at the side on stand-by in case anything went severely wrong.

they started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in greek armour. he seemed to understand what he was supposed to do and his reflexes looked good.

after failing to find a perfect blade for percy, they moved on to duelling in pairs. luke announced he would be his partner, since this was his first time.

"good luck." eve overheard one of the campers tell percy. "luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

eve winced and almost covered her eyes the whole time.

luke showed him the thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. with every swipe, percy got a little more battered and bruised.