Child of Time

Chapter Thirteen: Rumours are Dangerous Beasts.. so is Milk

PERCY

It felt good to talk to them again. That was probably the only good thing about this day though.

"Have you heard?" Someone whispered as I walked along the paths.

"Heard what?"

"That he's immortal?"

"People say he was turned immortal and then his friends went back to him when they found out."

"That's bullshit. The kid's not even that cool."

"Hey, it's what I heard."

I clenched my fists as I kept walking. My fingers curled against my skin, until I felt something warm trickle along my fingers.

Suddenly, I felt a hand hold onto mine and look up to see Luke. Another hand grabs my opposite one and I look to my left to see Annabeth.

"Ichor." Luke whispered in my ear. I looked down at my hands to see my golden ichor swirling around in my palm. I closed my eyes until the small wounds healed up and the two demigods let go of my hands.

"Just breathe, Percy." Luke says.

"But they're talking shit that they don't even know about. It's getting on my nerves."

"I know." He sighed. "But most of them think it's all bullshit anyway."

I nod and we kept walking until someone came up to us.

"Is it true?"

I pretended to act as if I had no clue what the camper was talking about. "Is what true?"

The camper just rolled his eyes. "Were you turned immortal?" I scoffed.

"No. Now leave me alone." The camper looked as someone with blonde hair and she just nodded. I frown but I shrug it off anyway.

"You wouldn't mind if we did an experiment, would you?"

I raise and eyebrow at him. Do people not know what 'leave me alone' means? "Depends on the experiment."

"We want to cut your arm."

I looked at the camper in disbelief. "What the fuck?" I ask, at the same time making my ichor appear to look like mortal blood. "Why would I let you cut open my arm you sadist?"

"Oh for the love of Zeus, just let us make a small cut in your arm so the campers can stop talking about these foolish rumours."

I let out a small sigh and hold my arm out in front of me. "This is the only time I will allow this. If you so much as try to cut me again I will kill you." I glare at the brunette camper who is holding the knife. He nods and takes slow steps towards me.

Annabeth looks at me with wide eyes but I just give her a reassuring smile. She raises an eyebrow and turns her attention to the boy who now has the blade over my outstretched arm.

I motion for him to get on with it and he takes a breath and slides the blade across my arm, red blood pouring out of the small cut.

"So now that you have seen my red blood. Can you stop saying I'm immortal. If I was I would not be staying here." I said with a grin as I looked at Luke, who was shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"How did this even become a rumour?"

"Someone said that they heard you and someone talking about it."

I furrow my eyebrows before snapping my fingers in realisation. "Oh you mean when I was talking to Luke? We were asking each other stupid questions like what we'd do if we were immortal." I lied with a grin.