Olympian Gods, Truth Or Dare?

Before it Lays Eggs

Athena's brow furrowed when Hephaestus called her name. When asked the question that would decide her fate forever, she took a sharp breath and thought of any event where she may have offended Hephaestus so she can properly decide her choice.

Was there any? A memory speedily came to her thoughts. There was one time when the blacksmith god courted her and she refused, but they had  already talked it out. But what if he still felt bitter? What if he wanted to take revenge on her?

Athena bit her lip. You're overthinking, she said to calm herself.

The word "dare" slipped off her mouth even before she could reconsider her decision.

"I dare you to dress up in a spider suit and stay in your cabin in Camp Half Blood for one minute!"

"What?" Athena could not recover from what she just heard. Her children hates spiders! How could he do that to her?!

"N-nothing personal, of course!" Hephaestus said upon looking at Athena's reaction. "This is just for the game, I swear!"

The goddess still had the same reaction, but with a frown added to it. She was relieved it wasn't personal, but still-

"You still have to do the dare!" Called Poseidon from his throne with a smug smile.

Athena swallowed. Aphrodite approached her and handed out a spider suit for her.

"I'm not into costumes," she said, "but I made it pretty realistic! Also, it's heavily mist-powered so they couldn't see through your disguise!"

The wisdom goddess grimaced at the costume. She remembered back then how this woman Arachne boasted that her weaving skills are better, and how she made the mortal into a spider. Athena shuddered. Her children would be traumatized!

Nevertheless she took the costume and went to camp half blood.

*

Three demigods lay in a bed alone in the Athena cabin. They were just new, and they weren't still used to the activities of the camp half blood. One of them was the only Athena child in the room, the other ones an Ares and a still unclaimed. They weren't given activities yet, so they simply lazed together

"I'm bored," slurred one of them, a male. His green eyes were fluttering, as if he wanted to sleep.

"You've said that for the nth time, Eric." Another male, lying in the bunk above Eric's, sighed as he finger- combed his chin-length blonde hair. "We just have to wait for their instructions."

"Wait, you mean they still have to orient us and all?"

"That's what Annabeth told me earlier. I don't know about yours, though. It might vary depending on your cabin."

"Well Clarisse told me nothing." Eric sat up and scratched his brown hair. He stretched and got off the bed. He looked from the cabin the activities of the other campers and envied them.

"I don't like the look in your eyes, Eric."

The only girl of the trio glared at him as she saw mischief in his eyes.

"I didn't say anything, Mira," he half grinned.

"Please, you don't even have to say it," the Athena child said with an amused smile.

"Dammit Arian, you're not helping!"

"You are not leaving this cabin, Eric."

"You are not my mom, Mira."

"Eric, you know very well than to mess with Mira."

From afar, Athena could listen to their conversation. Even when only one of her children could see her, she still couldn't bear to embarrass herself in front of the campers -especially the  new ones- again, even if she was in disguise. She was already in the weird spider suit, and she was one jump away from surprising the three twelve year-olds. She had to be careful. Hephaestus had a loophole in the dare which could save her: she has to be there for a minute, but that doesn't necessarily mean she has to show herself. With only three children in the cabin, the only thing she has to do is survive her one minute. It had been less than ten seconds since she arrived.

But a few seconds later, one of the demigods spoke something that shook her.

"We're not alone."

The two boys looked at Mira, who quickly got out of bed and whose senses were alert. How did she notice her? Athena was astonished. She was physically there, but she never made any noise that would make them notice her. Suddenly, she heard the soft sounds of weight crunching on top of the mattress, and the goddess looked up. A surprised face of her son Arian greeted her. That surprised face immediately turned that into an afraid one.

"A-A S-S-SPIDER! A B-BIG SPIDER!"

She leapt away from his sight, but it had exposed her further. The two other children saw her; Eric stumbled to his feet, and Mira hissed.

After that was a wild goose chase.

She circled around the  cabin, running away from Eric and Mira. A few Athena children who arrived to see the scene wailed, "Kill it! Kill it before it lays eggs!"

She just terrified a lot of her children, especially her son who was new to the camp! This is a stupid dare! she thought. Damn that Hephaestus!

Other campers eventually came to help Eric and Mira and pursued Spider Athena. They ran in circles in cabin, mostly because Athena had to survive the time limit, and she couldn't risk herself to be cornered against the walls with all the weapons the other campers had with them in chasing her.

Ten seconds.

The goddess quickly estimated her escape plan. Two more rounds of running would take seven seconds, and she would use the remaining three seconds to run towards the window for escape. Disappearing right in front of the campers would stir suspicion among them, especially her children.

After the excruciating 2 laps Athena finally reached the nearest window she could fit through, and swiftly passed through it, exiting her cabin and dodging a lot of spears the non-Athena campers threw towards her direction.

"Get lost, sucker!" Eric's voice was the last voice she heard before disappearing.

*

"What?!"
Annabeth's raging voice can be heard by the neighboring cabins as she angrily grips Percy's wrist upon hearing upon the attack of the monster spider.

"Monsters can't enter camp half-blood!" Her boyfriend exclaimed, half-wincing in pain at Annabeth's grip.

"Then what was that, then?" incredulously answered the Asian newbie they had talked to. She was cuddling a sobbing Athena child in her arms as they sat in one of the beds. Percy was surprised of the lax manner she used. She was scary.

"Well it could be a prank," said Malcolm, who had heard the news ahead of Annabeth. "It could either be a camper or a satyr or a nymph who just wanted to pick on us. Chiron might have already heard, so I think he'll definitely be scolding someone later at dinner."

"Well he better punish that culprit, 'cause he just traumatized us on our first day here," said a boisterous Ares boy who was apparently a friend of the Asian girl and the crying Athena boy. "Good job for first impressions."

Annabeth sighed. "Why are strange things happening today?" Then she went towards her new half-brother, ignoring the other demigods' tired scowls. "I'm really sorry, Arian, isn't it? We don't know what's going on. Our life as demigods may be really strange, but I swear, today was not normal. We're going to find whoever did this, okay?"

The boy nodded, wiping his tears. Annabeth then turned to Malcolm and Percy.

"We need to know what's going on."

---

This chapter's excuse: Midterm exams (I suck at Math :']), Term Paper for Translation, 2 Critical Analysis for Literature, School Play, Damaged Laptop (for the fanfiction counterpart)

I AM SO SORRY THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MARCH CHAPTER

So, about these 3 new 12 year old demigods...you probably know the reference 😂 To those who can correctly tell me, I love you already :3

My original dare was for Athena to sing the Spiderman theme song but I don't think it would terrify Arian that much.

Tell me what you think of this chapter!

-TheGelatin