Hello! Sorry for making you guys wait for this but here it is. I feel like this part is a bit boring but the story is starting to wind down now. I hope that you guys still lilke it though and now that I'm on holiday I might be able to upload the next bit quicker.

I opened my eyes to find myself back in my cabin. I had purposefully wanted to avoid the communal areas in camp just in case I saw Chiron or Dionysus there. I may be feeling better about the whole situation but that doesn’t mean that I’m happy with it and seeing either of them would probably ruin the partial good mood Iris had managed to put me in.

“Hey.” A deep voice said, startling me. I spun around quickly and almost knocked right into the person behind me.

“Alex? You scared me. What are you doing here?” I asked, whilst trying to regain control over my heart beat.

“Iris mentioned that you might be in need of a little support.” He shrugged.

A wide grin spread over my face at that. Iris was the best friend that a girl could ask for. She seemed to know exactly what I needed.

I didn’t waste any time, and quickly threw my arms around him. I didn’t feel like spilling my guts all over again, especially when Iris had already told me everything I needed to hear, so I just hugged him silently.

I don’t know how much Iris told him, if anything , but he didn’t pressure me to talk or ask what was wrong and I really appreciated that. He seemed to understand that all I wanted was to hug him and he didn’t push for anything else.

I couldn’t tell you how long I stood there in Alex’s arms if my life depended on it. I tended to lose track of time when I was with him. But some time later I eventually pulled away.

“Better?” Alex asked with a hopeful expression.

“Definitely.” I grinned. How could I not be feeling better? I had been given really great advice by my best friend and got a well needed hug from my boyfriend.

“Good. Then my boyfriend duties are complete. I’ve got to go, but maybe I could pick you up later tonight and take you out somewhere? It feels like ages since we last got away from camp.” Alex suggested, with a hopeful look.

I nodded enthusiastically, grabbing at the chance to put all the problems and stress I was dealing with aside for a night and have some fun.

He gave me one more quick hug and a peck on the cheek before disappearing.

Once he was gone, the good mood I was in dulled slightly. Without him here, holding me all those things I thought of doing didn’t seem so easy. Now that he was gone, my task of training Percy up, looked to be like an impossible one. It’s not like I would have much time to teach him anything.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of those depressing thoughts. No, I wasn’t going to let the hopelessness of the situation get me down. I knew what I had to do and nothing was going to stop from trying my hardest to get Percy in quest-condition.

I strode purposefully out of my cabin and in the direction of the archery range, where I knew Percy would be. I kept my head held high as I walked and purposefully made sure to smile and wave back at all the campers so that none of them would pick up on my despair. I had to keep the mood in camp good.

When the archery range came into sight I slowed my pace slightly, taking in the sight of the kids all firing their arrows and laughing to each other. To them, everything was fine. They didn’t know about the impending almost-inevitable death of one of their fellow campmates. Nor did they know about the massive fight going on in Olympus.

My eyes stopped when they landed on Percy towards the end of the line of kids. He was lining up to take his next shot. His stance was a little off making his balance poor. If he moved his feet slightly further apart he would be in a much more stable position, which would make his grip stronger and his aim better. He let go of the arrow and I watched it sail through the air and hit the target slightly left of the centre.

“Not bad.” I said, coming up behind him.

He jumped slightly but relaxed once he turned and saw that it was only me.

“Um, thanks.” He said smiling and lowering the bow to the floor.

“You’d be better if you moved your feet though.” I added nodding down at said feet. “Keep them shoulder width apart, it will help your balance.”

“Thanks.” Percy said again, quickly adjusting his footing.

“You’re welcome.”

I was stalling for time, I knew that.  But I wasn’t quite sure how to bring up the conversation without it seeming suspicious. I didn’t want to let on what was going to happen before we could properly explain it to him. I didn’t want him making a decision before he had all of the facts.  He might go running into this without realising how dangerous it was.

“Hey, Percy? Could I borrow you for a minute?” I asked awkwardly.

I could see the confusion on his face, it mirrored the expression on all the other kids at the archery range too. I hardly ever pulled a kid out of an activity in camp. They knew something was up. I could practically see the wheels in their heads spinning as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Apparently, I wasn’t being as subtle as I thought I was.

“It’s nothing bad, don’t worry. I just wanted to have a quick word with you.” I said, more for the benefit of those listening in than for Percy.

I saw his shoulders relax slightly as he gave me a short nod, still wary of what was about to happen. I didn’t blame him, and in all honesty he probably should be wary. It would be better for him to be on his guard, that way he wouldn’t get sloppy. When people get sloppy, somebody usually gets hurt.

I turned and walked away from the archery range, knowing that Percy was following me. We walked in silence, neither of us knowing what to say to break it.

To say I was tense was an understatement. The enormity of the challenge before me was starting to set in. I had to try and train Percy up to a decent standard so that he even faces a small chance of survival on a quest that I can’t tell him about yet, and hope that he doesn’t figure out what is going on.

Percy wasn’t stupid, he knew that I was acting weird, he just didn’t know why.

We walked all the way through camp without saying a word to each other. I caught a glance at Percy’s face and saw the confusion on it when we walked past all the camp buildings and into the forest.

I had thought about doing this in the arena, but I didn’t want to be disturbed and there was always the possibility of someone walking in there. Instead I settled on somewhere much closer to my heart.

The clearing.

It seemed fitting. It was where my journey in this world had really begun and now it was going to do the same for Percy.

“What are we doing here?” Percy asked, a frown crinkling his forehead.

On the way over here I had made up my mind to just play this off casually. He knew that this wasn’t normal behaviour for me, but he hadn’t been here long enough to question it as much as the other campers. If I kept a level head and acted like there was nothing out of the ordinary going on then he would think it was normal.

“I’m the goddess of heroes and training. I’m training you.” I stated simply, shrugging my shoulders in what I hoped was a casual manner.

“Why are you only training me and not the others? And why are we all the way out here?” Percy asked, the frown not leaving his face.

Ok, so my attempt at getting him to see this as normal appeared to be failing. I needed to step it up a notch.

“I’m only training you, Percy, because you aren’t exactly like the others. You’re a child of the big three. That means that you have more power than they do and you have to learn how to control that so you don’t end up hurting somebody. Also the fact that you have more power means that you are going to attract more monsters like the ones you faced on your journey to camp. You need to be prepared to fight these things.” I said, seriously.

Nothing I said there was a lie. He was going to attract more monsters and he did need to learn how to fight them. I just didn’t mention that he might be tested on what I taught him today in the very near future.

It was a small omission, not a lie.

I flicked my hand around in the air, making a pile of weaponry appear at the edge of the clearing.

“So,” I said, with a small smile. “Shall we begin?”