princess // percy jackson

i. ten - perseus' mommy issues grow a little more complicated

words : 3641

* * *

when clarisse had caught word of the daring newbie who'd beat out luke castellan in a sword fight, she couldn't believe it.

"that's bull." she spat when her brother, mark, informed her about the duel that had been the latest piece of camp news. "luke's the best swordsman on camp, that little princess couldn't win against a slightly sassy dog, you're telling me she fought castellan and won?"

mark nodded. "it's all cabin 10's been whispering about the entire lunch period. same with everybody in the entire pavillion, actually."

clarisse had been busy running track to have witnessed that herself - she'd always said "meals were a procrastinator's favourite excuse."

"oh well if cabin 10 said so, i guess it must to be true." clarisse rolled her eyes. "cuz they're soo reliable when it comes to telling real stories, right?"

cabin 10, cabin of aphrodite's children, had a reputation of being the camp's local dispatch. like their mother, they had an appeal for spreading around certain stories about people, even if they didn't initially have any business involving it - especially if they didn't have any business involving it. 

they had taken it upon themselves to be the ones responsible for churning out gossip and news that would be the week's latest hot scoops - even if some of the things they spread around weren't entirely always true. at first, people pretended to be appaled by it, but the children of aphrodite weren't the only nosy people on the campgrounds and eventually, everybody just accepted it and went along with it.

"it wasn't just them though," mark shook his head. "other people from other cabins were watching the fight too, and they confirmed the same thing..."

he lowered his voice as he leaned into clarisse's ear.

"they're saying she might be one of the big three's kids." he gulped. "if she gets claimed and suddenly has lightning powers or something, do you think she'll smite us to death, after what we did to her last night...?"

clarisse hid the worried lump rising in her throat and shook her head, thwacking her brother across the head. he backed away, frowning.

"oww!"

"don't be stupid," she smirked. "that princess? the big three? puh-lease, you're not actually scared of her, are you?"

mark shook his head unconvincingly.

clarisse scoffed. "wow, i didn't have you down as a total pussy. imagine what dad would say."

mark shuddered at the thought of their godly father, ares', potential response to his son being afraid of somebody like alliah - when he was the god of war.

everyone of their father's kids reacted to him the same way mark did, including clarisse. but she was the only one out of them who could actually get away with talking about him like that - perks of being the favourite child.

"it was probably just a fluke." clarisse sighed as the pair walked towards the archery training grounds. "beginner's luck - there's no way princess' got anything special to her other than her little princess face..."

her eyes lit up as she spotted something in the distance.

selecting a bow from the pile on the table, was alliah. she recognized annabeth chase by her side, the pair laughing about something as alliah picked up a quiver full of arrows.