Tantalus is furious and a good cry...

You awoke to a loud pounding on your door and blinked sleepily before you irritably rolled out of bed to answer the door. You can tell it’s way too early for normal wake up time and whoever doing this is probably doing it for a reason. You walked up to the door and it swung open to reveal Tantalus and a female and male camper you haven’t met. The female opened her mouth to say something when she froze and her face flushed red. The male camper gaze flitted from her face to you and he smirked at her obvious embarrassment. You neglected to put on a shirt when you went to bed so you were essentially in a pair of shorts and about 75% naked. You were definitely fit enough to be attractive — and again, not a body builder — and definitely not ashamed of your body with how it looks. You rubbed and your eyes and fail to stifle a yawn before you gave Tantalus the most annoyed and dirty look you could’ve mustered.

“Can I help you?” You asked, trying to straighten the bird’s nest that is your bed-head.

“Where are your bastard siblings?” He snarled, “The harpies informed me that they left the camp on hippocampus and haven’t been seen since.”

“Then why are you asking me?” You demanded, “They weren’t back when I returned to my cabin and I figured they’d be back later!”

“Do you have a witness?!” He shot back.

You rolled your eyes and gave him a pointed look, “I am quite literally one of three people in this whole cabin. The other two are missing and now you’re asking if anyone can confirm when I returned? I don’t think I could have anyone to verify that unless you’ve been planting surveillance on every cabin and I’d wonder what the gods would think of that if they even thought you might be looking at their children.”

You let the threat of what you could pass along hang in the air.

You knew that the gods weren’t exactly parents of the year — hard to be with the whole god thing — but if they thought a criminal — and Tantalus no less — was possibly peeping and perving on their children...

They’d kill him several times over and find someone else.

“It must sting to know that your own bastard brothers can’t trust you.” He sneered, “You’d better not be hiding something Langnan or you’ll be tossed out of the camp and I’ll watch when the monsters tear you apart.”

You struggled to push down the acute feeling of pain in your chest.

Because even if you want to believe he is wrong...

You have no proof and your two brothers just left you behind to go on a quest they weren’t even sanctioned for.

You scowled as he stomps off before you turn to the two campers that are still there, “What do you guys need?”

The girl has fair skin and mid-length dirty blond hair in a pony tail and a slender build that looks deceptively fragile despite the fact demigods are not weak while the guy was paler then one would think at a camp with a beach and has dark brown hair and a build you’d expect on a sprinter, not all bulky like the Ares’ children.

“Sorry.” sighed the male camper, “The douche needed someone to lead him here. I’m Nicholas and this is my friend Gwen. I’m a child of Hermes and she is a daughter of Athena. Oh and call me Nick.”

You nod at this and reach out a hand for them to shake, “Oh, cool. I’m Jack Langnan, newest camper and Son of Poseidon.”

Nick grin widened and he clasped your hand before turning to his companion, who seems to have regained control over her blush, “Nice to meet you.”

Gwen steps up and shakes your hand as well, “I guess this is a good a time as any to tell you that no one in the camp likes him and you should be on guard. He hates the gods and since he knows you are important he’ll want you to hate this place as well.”

“What? Why? This is the only safe haven for Demigods!” You try to wrap your head around why anyone would want to tear this place down.

“The Prophecy.” Comes her instant reply.

Something in you chest twists, “I can’t deal with that. I don’t want to be the one who deals with that.”

Gwen opens her mouth to say something but seems to think better of it and shakes her head, “Sorry. Just forget I said anything.”

You groan and scrub a hand across your face, “Look... Just... I need to get dressed.”

They nod and you gently close the door before you slide down against it. You squeeze your eyes shut and just take deep and even breaths. You knew this would happen, you knew the fact that your brothers suddenly leaving would draw Tantalus’ ire on you. You can’t tell him where you were because you don’t want to throw Melanie under the bus and frankly you don’t even want to leave your cabin for today because of what everyone might think. Then there is this prophecy that you don’t want to think about and everyone also thinking you could be one of the potential people to end the system of the gods. There is so much that is different from your fairly standard life and it has only been a couple of days, not even a week. You let a few sobs work your way out of your mouth and tears fall as the weight of the world (in an almost literal sense) seems to land on your shoulders.

Your mother always taught you that sometimes a good cry is the best medicine and surely beats bottling it all up. And you may hate crying in public, but you don’t care if it is just you (and maybe someone who genuinely loves you).

Your mom...

You take a shaky breath in and out.

Regardless, something inside feels a bit better.

You sadly smile as you’ve let yourself grieve.

It’s not much and you have a whole lot of grief to let out, but the process has started and that’s good enough for now.