Chapter 6
Apollo
❝Icarus's Flames❞

APOLLO IS no stranger to awkward situations. With a family like his, every time they were in the same room was uncomfortable. The most memorable moment must've been right after Zeus's lightning bolt had been stolen and Hera still made them attend their weekly Saturday night dinner. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades argued the whole time while the rest were left to awkwardly fidget in their seats and try to not attract the brothers' wrath.

Right now felt exactly like that, except this time Apollo was the one in an argument, and he was still trying not to attract any trouble.

Dinner had been pure torture. After Apollo had joined, the others continued on with their conversations, himself even joining in on occasion, but Charis' distaste of his presence had been blatantly obvious, even to Apollo. Every time he spoke, Charis would glance up from his novel and side-eye him, as if he was only hearing stupidity come out of his mouth. Eventually, Apollo just decided to focus on his meal so he wouldn't look at him, because god his eyes were terrifying. One was a perfectly normal, earth dirt brown, but the other was amber, and when provoked, it seemed to burn brighter than Icarus's flames. Apollo, too, felt like he was being burned alive, but from the inside, and was falling to his own doom just by glancing at those dangerous eyes. He had to look away.

So when Charis suddenly declared he'd be taking Apollo and Meg to Chiron, everyone was surprised--maybe even fearful for Apollo's safety. But Charis only rolled his eyes when Apollo bluntly asked if he was leading them away to murder them and ordered him to shut up.

When the trio reached the Big House, Chiron was already out on the porch to greet them. From the waist up, Apollo's old friend looked every bit the professor he pretended to be out in the mortal world. But from the waist down, he was a white stallion. When he smiled, it didn't reach his eyes. They were stormy and distracted.

"Ah, thank you, Charis. Apollo, it's good to see you. And who is...?"

"Chiron, this is Lester's master, Meg McCaffrey," Charis introduced. Apollo grimaced at the reminder of his predicament and knew instantly that he had done it to annoy him. "Meg, this is—"

"He really is a centaur," The short 12 year old pointed up at him in disbelief. Charis slowly lowered her hand.

"Well done," Apollo said. "I suppose the lower body of a horse is what gave him away?"

Meg looked ready to punch him, but to her and Apollo's surprise, Charis punched him in the arm for her, nearly making him fall over.

Meg pointed and laughed at him.

Apollo internally cursed them both. Since when did they get along? Just on the walk over, the two were fighting because Meg kept stepping on Charis's toes. He believed the first time really had been an accident, but after Charis snapped at her, she did it again out of spite.

"Welcome, Meg," Chiron tried for a friendly tone, which Apollo thought was heroic seeing as...well, Meg. "Charis has told me of the bravery you showed in the woods. I'm glad to have you at Camp Half-Blood."

"Thanks," Meg said. "You're really tall. Don't you hit your head on light fixtures?"

Chiron chuckled. "Sometimes. If I want to be closer to human size, I have a magical wheelchair that allows me to compact my lower half into—"

"I hate to interrupt," Charis thankfully interrupted anyway. "But shouldn't they know about the disappearances?"

"Ah, right. Yes, let's talk inside."

Chiron led them into the living room, where comfy leather couches made a V facing the stone fireplace. Above the mantle, a stuffed leopard head was snoring contentedly.

"Is it alive?" Meg asked.

"Quite." Chiron trotted over to his wheelchair. "That's Seymour. If we speak quietly, we should be able to avoid waking him."

Meg immediately began exploring the living room. Knowing her, she was searching for small objects to throw at the leopard to wake him up.

Chiron settled into his wheelchair. He placed his rear legs into the false compartment of the seat, then backed up, magically compacting his engine hindquarters until he looked like a man sitting down. To complete the illusion, hinged front panels swung closed, giving him fake human legs. One of Charis's hands immediately flew to his mouth in shock and Apollo understood why. Normally those legs were fitted with slacks and loafers to augment his "professor" disguise, but today it seemed Chiron was going for a different look.

"That's new," Apollo said, the corners of his mouth quirking upward a bit at the son of Moros' reaction, until he realized what he was doing and quickly stopped. Not again, he thought. Please, no...

Chiron glanced down at his shapely female mannequin legs, dressed in fishnet stockings and red sequinned high heels. He sighed heavily. "I see the Hermes cabin have been watching 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' again. I will have to have a chat with them."

"Let me guess," Apollo said. "Connor and Travis Stoll are the pranksters?" He remembered having heard of some of their pranks from Hermes himself. He always loved to boast about those two in particular. It used to be Luke he talked about all the time, until...yeah.

From a nearby basket, Chiron grabbed a flannel blanket and spread it over his fake legs, though the ruby shoes still poked out at the bottom. "Actually, Travis went off to college last autumn, which has mellowed Connor quite a bit."

Meg looked over from the old Pac-Man arcade game. "I poked Connor in the eyes."

Chiron winced. "That's nice, dear...At any rate, we have Julia Feingold and Alice Miyazawa now. They have taken up pranking duty. You'll meet them soon enough."

He then gestured toward the couches, where Charis was already lounging. "Please sit."

Meg moved on from Pac-Man (having given it twenty seconds worth of her time) and began to literally climb the wall. Dormant grapevines festooned the dining area--no doubt the work of Apollo's old buddy Dionysus. Meg scaled one of the thicker trunks, trying to reach the Gorgon-hair chandelier.

"Ah, Meg," Apollo said. "Perhaps you should watch the orientation film while Chiron, Grace and I talk?"

"Charis told me plenty," She didn't get the hint she wasn't wanted, or more likely she did, and didn't care. "'Safe place for demigods, blah, blah, blah.'"

"Oh, but the film is very good," Apollo urged. "I shot it on a tight budget in the 1950s."

"Makes sense," Charis muttered to himself.

"But some of the camera work was revolutionary," Apollo decided to ignore him. "You should really--"

The grapevine peeled away from the wall. Meg crashed to the floor. She popped up, completely unscathed, and then spotted a platter of cookies on the sideboard. "Are those free?"

"And delicious," Charis nods.

"Bring those over with the tea, would you?" Chiron said.

So they were stuck with Meg, who draped her legs over the couch's armrest, chomped on cookies, and threw crumbs at Seymour's snoring head whenever Chiron wasn't looking.

Chiron poured Apollo a cup of Darjeeling. "I'm sorry, Mr. D is not here to welcome you."

"Mr. D?" Meg asked.

"Dionysus," Apollo explained. "The god of wine. Also the director of this camp."

Chiron handed him his tea. "After the battle with Gaea, I thought Mr. D might return to camp, but he never did. I hope he's alright."

The old centaur looked at Apollo expectantly, but he had nothing to share. The last six months had been a complete void; he had no idea where the other Olympians are up to.

Apollo told him this, and Chiron did a poor job hiding his disappointment. "I see..."

He realized he'd been hoping for guidance—which is exactly what Apollo needed from him. The thought was terrifying. He had always been the one to have people rely on, he'd never had to rely on others until this point.

"So, what's your crisis?" He asked. "You have the same look Cass—" He abruptly stopped, eyes wide. He hastily continued, "Jim Bowie did at the Alamo, that's what I was saying," He gave a awkward laugh that died down upon seeing Charis's annoyed look his way.

Chiron seemed to ignore the drama as he said, "You know that during the war with Gaea, the Oracle of Delphi stopped receiving prophecies. In fact, all known methods of divining the future have failed—all but Charis's because of his...predicament."

"You're a seer?" Meg eyed Charis skeptically. "You don't look very seer-y."

"I'm flattered," Charis deadpanned.

"Yes, yes, because the original cave of Delphi was retaken," Apollo nods.

Meg bounced a chocolate chip off Seymour's (the leopard's) nose. "Oracle of Delphi. Percy mentioned that."

"Percy Jackson?" Chiron sat up. "Percy was with you?"

He looked at Charis like, How could you forget to tell me this?

He gave an unbothered shrug, somehow successfully stealing a cookie off of the plate when Meg wasn't paying attention.

Apollo gave a quick recap of their battle in the peach orchard and Percy's return to New York. "He said he would drive out this weekend if he could."

Chiron looked disheartened, as if Apollo's company alone wasn't good enough. Can you imagine?

"At any rate," he continued, "we hoped that once the war was over, the Oracle might start working again. When it did not...Rachel became concerned."

"Who's Rachel?" Meg wondered.

"The Oracle," Charis supplied.

"I thought you were the Oracle?"

"The Oracle?" He was taken aback. "Why would I be the Oracle?"

"You said you were a seer!"

"Yeah, a seer. Not a Oracle."

"But they're the same thing—"

Had Apollo still been a god, he would've ended their squabble by turning them into blue-belly lizards and releasing them into the wilderness, never to be seen or heard from again. The thought soothed him.

"Meg, the difference between Charis and Rachel is, Rachel has the spirit of Delphi inside her, that lets her only speak in prophecies with the occasional vision, while Charis—"

"I see all," Charis interrupted. His left hand played with the skull ring on his right index finger. "I know all. That's all you need to know."

From the cookie platter, Meg plucked the only Oreo, which Apollo had been hoping to have himself. "Mm-kay. Is it too late to watch that movie?"

"Yes," Apollo and Charis snapped together.

Wow. The world really must've been doomed if him and Charis were beginning to say things at the same time. They glared at each other.

"The way I gained possession of the Orcale of Delphi in the first place was by killing this monster called Python who lived in the depths of the cavern."

"A python like the snake," Meg said.

Apollo shook his head then hesitated. "Well, yes and no. The snake species is named after Python the monster, who is also rather snaky, but who is much bigger and scarier and devours small girls who talk too much and false tellers. At any rate, last August—"

Charis's jaw clenched. "False?"

Apollo's head grew cloudy in his anger. He didn't know how he had gotten so worked up, but he'd reached his breaking point. "Oh, please. Don't act like half of your predictions weren't a cry for my attention—"

"Enough!" Chiron snapped before Charis could even think of acting on his statement. "Apollo, you forget yourself. Your mortality is getting to you. Think."

Apollo was about to snap back, his fists clenching, until he saw the sternness in Chiron's eyes, and the anger and glint of pain in Charis's. He faltered in realization. He had never spent so much time alone with Charis as a mortal until now--not that they ever had when he was immortal. He never would've thought in a million years that his curse would begin to affect him, but because of his current form, it had.

"I—," He faltered. What was there to say? Sorry? It wasn't even his own damn fault. Cassandra was the one who backstabbed him. This was her own doing. Apollo just gave her what she deserved.

Meg whistled. "Wow, you guys have some serious issues."

Getting up abruptly from his chair, Charis slammed the door to the Big House behind him. No one went after him. Instead, they all sat in the silence, too shocked to move, stunned at how quickly the conversation took a turn for the worse, and it was deafening.

Well, all except for Meg, who was trying to poke Seymour in the eye. Figures.

-

This chapter was getting way too long for me, so long I didn't have time to write another chapter (I leave for vacation tomorrow), so I decided to cut this one short.

Incase it wasn't obvious, Apollo's curse on Charis only affects mortals, so that's why it's begun to effect him now as well

Sorry to the people who saw I'd be posting again on next Tuesday. I didn't realize how long this would take me. I'll have to write chapter 7 when I get back

Y'all basically know what happens anyways, so I don't think I really need to write the whole thing. I'll only include the important storylines

Thoughts?? Theories?? Anything you want to see in the future? I love it when you guys comment

Unedited.