The Dark in The Daughter of Apollo¹ | l. valdez

A Doctor Strange Portal Brings The God Of Wine Diet Coke

Ok you all know I don't own Percy Jackson or anything else, I just own Sol.

(Sol's POV)

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My hands began to shake and I forced myself to steady them as I shook their hands. I nodded my head, "It's nice to meet you two." I kept my eye down cast as Percy gave a polite smile, "It's nice to meet you too...um..." I felt my pulse quicken when I realized he was asking for my name, "Oh...it's Sol....my name is Sol Dawn..."

I started coughing into my fist before anyone could respond. I had to forced myself to close my mouth before I choked on the punching bag thing in my throat.

I swallowed the spit forming in the back of my mouth, "Sorry, I haven't had to talk much in the past six months." My throat came out a little scratchy, but I think they got the message.

Will handed me a small glass filled with something that looked like...apple juice?? I looked at him with a disturbed glance, "Did you just pull that out of thin air or something?"

Will rolled his eyes at me, "Just drink it, it'll help your throat." I rolled my eyes right back at him before picking up the glass and muttering a sarcastic, "Cheers."

Before it could even go down my throat, I slapped my hand over my mouth to keep myself from throwing it back up. As soon as I was sure that it wouldn't come back up, I took my hand off my mouth, "It tasted like a moldy Hamburger."

They looked at my with confused and disgusted looks, except Mr. D, he was muttering something about how father was so unfair, sending him to this Camp. I just ignored him.

Or, at least that was my plan, until he waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass.

The goblet filled itself with red wine. My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped, but the other kids hardly gave it a second glance. "Mr. D," Chiron warned, "your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"
Thunder sounded in the distance, (which was odd, cause there wasn't a cloud in the sky).

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron gave a light hearted chuckle and looked back at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits".

"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it just came out of a portal from Doctor Strange.

"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha. Absolutely unfair." Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid, but in all honesty, it was kind of funny.

"And ..." I stammered, hoping my question wouldn't get me turned into dust, "your father is ..."

"Di immortales", Mr. D said. "My father is Zeus, of course." Yes, and that cuts it down to about a million gods. I tried to use whatever little brain power I had and started to see who this dude was.

Skin of a tiger? Doesn't ring a bell. Wine? I might have an idea. Name starts with a D? I mentally face palmed, that should have been a given from the start.

"So, I'm guessing you're Dionysus? The God of wine?" I prepared myself for his worst. Mr. D rolled his eyes, "I'm assuming that the kids these days still say, 'Well, duh'?"

I nodded skeptically, "Then, well duh! Sol Hija Dawn", I cringed at the awkwardness of him using my middle name, "Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"

I put my hands up in surrender, hoping I hadn't offended him, "I don't know what to think. I could be hallucinating from the moldy hamburger juice for all I know."

He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature.

I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elon-gating into dolphin snouts.

I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life. He raised an eyebrow, "Are we really going to get into that topic?"

I shook my head, "Nope. No I'm good, but I am officially scared of dolphins now." He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win." I nodded rapidly, officially scared of the dude who was in front of me, "Yeah absolutely."

I was to busy resisting the urge to run to even care about what was going on. I came back to reality when Mr. D stood up, clearing his throat, "Cabin eleven, Sol Dawn. And mind your manners."

Then he turned and entered the barn house, the only thing remaining was his now empty Diet Coke can.

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