there must be more than this provincial life.
[ percy jackson x original character ]
[ book three in the belle series ]
[ the mark of athena, the house of hades, & the blood of olympus ]
[ bonus: the lost hero, the hidden oracle, the ship of the dea...
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𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖊-𝖉𝖊𝖚𝖝: TALE AS OLD AS TIME
★ 。／｜＼。★
THE QUIET WAS almost a little too deafening. Of course, there was nothing quite like being back in Cabin Four. Belle couldn't even begin describe how much she had missed her bunk surrounded by her siblings and the way soil and seeds were scattered around the floor. And as much as she loved to be back at Camp Half-Blood, she also missed the life she had become adjusted to the last couple of months. She missed the Romans, especially Frank, Hazel, and Reyna. She missed the quiet hum of the Argo II and how the lamp had projected constellations onto her ceiling. And most of all, she missed Leo. Who was to say if the physician's cure worked? If it hadn't . . . she didn't want to think about it.
And so there Belle sat there by herself on the steps of the Demeter Cabin, staring up at the actual constellations above her. As she always did, she recited under her breath that Bob said hello to them. Saying hello to the stars definitely didn't even compare to his and Damasen's sacrifice, but . . . they had risked their lives so Belle and Percy could live to see another day. It was the least she could do to honor them.
Nobody else was awake. At least not that she could see. Belle let out a quiet sigh and pulled the blanket that rested on her shoulders around her a little tighter. She absentmindedly ran her fingers against the pages of the book in her lap. Funny enough, it was the one story she had always tried to separate herself from. A copy of Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast was the first book she had reached for when she left the Cabin.
She didn't know why. Maybe it was a reminder of the girl she used to be. Two years ago, people saw her as nothing but a princess. A girl with a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in a book. Belle didn't realize how much her life would change the second she fell into the Labyrinth with Percy. But now, after being in the Labyrinth, fighting in the Battle of Manhattan, surviving Tartarus, and helping to defeat Gaea . . . she had changed drastically. She was still that same girl who loved to read and was the closest to Katie, Connor, and Travis, but she wasn't shy anymore. That princess stereotype that had been placed on her was suddenly ripped away. Her powers had only grown and she wasn't afraid to use Sunflower anymore.
Her experiences had changed her. Not for the worst, no. In fact, Belle liked to think that she had only grown more into herself. The shell that she had been in her entire life was broken. Belle Adair was still Belle Adair, just . . . different. She had been through so much the past couple of years that she was bound to be altered by it. And maybe that was a good thing. Changing was just a part of growing up.
