Started With A Dare - A POTHENA STORY ✔

Chiron Makes Me Babysit (Unintentionally)

ATHENA'S POV

  "Ambrosia, ambrosia, nectar, more nectar..." I packed as quickly as my hands would allow me. The thought of setting off in less than an hour was driving my mind wild - I didn't have any plans at all.

  The girl's section of the Hermes cabin was unsurprisingly quiet. Most of the Hermes kids like to wake up early as a headstart for creating a prank, and there weren't many undetermined kids. Even the undetermined kids, though, seemed to have learned from the Hermes kids and had a tendency to wake up early so that they could be part of the prank and not be the victim. By the sound of it, they were pranking the Ares cabin today.

  The Ares cabin reminded me of fighting...and my spear. I had handled it so well it felt like I was born with it...or I had an eternity of fighting with it. The image of myself as the actual almighty Athena slaughtering enemies with my spear crossed my mind again, but I swatted it away. The possibility of me being Athena was low, and the reason Poseidon and Athena had gone missing recently must have a different reason.

  Tired of trying to convince myself, I grabbed a map from my bed, stowed it into my rucksack and looked into the mirror in front of a fellow female camper's mirror. I had no doubts that the undetermined girl I was 'borrowing' a mirror from was definitely a daughter of Aphrodite. She was famous for the overuse of makeup at the Hermes cabin.

  My dark hair cascading down to my shoulders. I pulled it into a ponytail for the ease of fighting and examined my face. The acne and flab shown got me biting my lip and feeling displeased. Weren't all human beings like that without makeup on, though? Why wasn't I content with my face? It wasn't like I had a perfect one before my amnesia...or did I?

  I groaned as I realised that everything in the room sent me back to being the goddess Athena and just double-checked my rucksack before heading to the boy's section to check on Poseidon.

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  He had surprisingly finished packing. I looked around and realised that we were breaking a rule - male and female campers couldn't be alone in the cabin. I dismissed the thought and snatched the rucksack Poseidon had. I knew he was about to protest, so I covered his mouth with one of my hands and opened his rucksack to check with my other.

  As expected, he didn't bring much. No extra flask of nectar or squares of ambrosia. He didn't bring a map, either, and even had a severe lack of water. I let his mouth go, surprised to hear him silent and filled in the contents he hadn't packed for him.

  Putting the last item in, I shoved the sack into his arms and beckoned him to leave the cabin with me. "C'mon, Chiron isn't going to wait for us forever."

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  Chiron greeted us with a smile full of concern...and unmistakable excitement. "There you two are! You took quite a while to pack. As for the weapons, I present you..."

  He held out a necklace with a pendant of an owl and pen with red ink. I already knew which belonged to which.

  "The owl necklace was found in the fire god's fortress a few weeks ago by a demigod on a quest. He was a little mad that we took what was ours, but he told us that it was meant to be a present for the Athena cabin as Annabeth designed a much better fortress for him." Chiron handed the necklace to me as I examined it. "We held it for safekeeping as most of the Athena cabin weren't old enough to fight and the ones who are don't use a spear. As for you, Poseidon..."

  His expression turned wary as he held up the pen. "This was meant to be a present from the Cyclops to Percy as, you know, they pretty much worship him. But Percy didn't use tridents and didn't have the heart to say no to the Cyclops, so he gave it to me for safekeeping as well." Poseidon took the pen from him and uncapped it. Instead of turning into Riptide, a shiny golden trident came into sight.

  "Neither of the weapons are named yet. Maybe you two can name it along the way of your quest, but right now, I would recommend giving your new weapons a few swings and stabs-" he gestured towards the dummies around the Big House, "for you to get used to them. After that, the god of lightning was considerate to lend us a small aircraft with a crew who..."

  Poseidon and I widened our eyes and leaned forward expectantly.

  "Well, you'll find out soon enough. The only thing you have to know for now is that there's someone to take care of the flying," Chiron concluded. He opened the pendant of my necklace and revealed a small spear model. He took it out and it immediately expanded to full size. "To return it to the necklace, just tap one end of the spear on the pendant," he told me. "Oh, and your weapon returns to your pocket if you lost them, just like Riptide, Poseidon. Athena...I'm afraid you'll have to take good care of your spear. Now go on and train a short while."

Poseidon and I wielded our weapons simultaneously and each headed for a dummy.

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  "Whoa," Poseidon gasped in shock and surprise.

  I didn't blame him. That was my first reaction to the aircraft as well, though I didn't say it out loud.

  It was...yellow, to say the least. Making it sound nicer (aka exaggerating) would mean that it was golden and shiny, bore a beautiful lightning strike on the side and was nicely polished. I had already gained a liking for the crew staff inside.

  "This is the farthest I can accompany you on your journey," Chiron told us. "The Fleece is already stored inside the aircraft. Your crew members would be happy to serve you anytime in your flight to Italy. I already told them to cut the safety video as you probably know the guidelines on a plane."

  "Basically not to do anything weird or stupid," Poseidon clasped his hands together. By the look of his face, he was definitely going to do something weird or stupid, whether it was intentional or not.

  Great. Thanks for making me a babysitter too, Chiron.

  We boarded the plane, him getting ready to provoke the staff and wreck the plane unintentionally while I got ready to babysit.