komorebi_www

“What…where am I?” Your brows furrowed when the world finally fixed into place and you were met with the empty gaze of a shadowy floating entity. Dark smoke poured from their bony lips as their wide brimmed hat tilted down when they loomed over you. A guttural scream tore from your throat as you crawled backwards, your hand brushed against the sword that miraculously clung to your belt. You pushed onto your feet and pulled your sword out, pointing it towards the entity. “Who are you?! Where am I?!”

“Hrrrrrrrrrgh.” The entity croaked and you raised an eyebrow, your chest pounded with fear as your eyes finally took in your surroundings. It was the scent of burning sulphur that assaulted your senses first, followed by the sight of lava covered land and raging infernos. 

“Oh gods…the Underworld.” 

You swallowed dryly, your hand gripped tightly around the handle of your sword as you forced yourself to focus. You took in a slow, deep breath as you willed yourself to calm down though that intake of undead air caused you to burst into a fit of hacking coughs (thankfully, not into flames). 

You barely had time to recover when you felt a heavy thud against your back, as if someone was trying to help you but clearly it was doing more harm than good. Once, twice, and you finally turned around to see that same entity again with a long wooden oar go in for a third hit. You jumped back, waving your hands in front of your frantically “Thanks! But I’m fine!” You gave it a wide nervous smile as you used one of your hands to rub the sore flesh of your back. Fuck…that was going to bruise… 

It grunted at you before outstretching one of its hands towards a few shelves as if to encourage you to take a look. Your brows furrowed as you alternated your gaze between the strange entity and the shelf of odd items. With narrowed eyes you slowly approached what it was offering. A mysterious bundle…a pile of small multi coloured gems…and…was that a happy meal?

Okay…maybe you weren’t in the more unsavoury parts of the Underworld. That was certainly a possibility and increased your likelihood of survival. Great! Perhaps you could get this thing to take you to Nico and he’ll talk it out with Hades so you can leave this place. Even better!

You tilted your head up to the entity and cleared your throat, “Uh…hello! I’m…well, this might be a little crazy but I’m not dead. I’m a demigod.” and when the entity continued to merely stare at you with its hollow gaze, you anxiously kept talking. “From Camp Half Blood.” 

Considering you’re a child of Athena pursuing psychology, Chiron thought it'd be most appropriate for you to fill in that position. In all honesty, you didn't mind taking on the job for a year or two to fill in a spot on your already glowing CV and they (surprisingly) paid you a few dollars above minimum wage. If you were being honest, you weren't expecting to be paid at all. Not that you were complaining, you certainly had it better than Mr D. who was still chained to camp serving an indeterminate sentence with a wine ban. 

“I'm tellin' ya' N/Y Hollins, how will you know unless you don't try? Come on now, say it with me lady: R-E-D W-I-N-E."  

“It's Y/N. Y/N Hawkins, and you know the goblets only serve non-alcoholic drinks Mr D.” You took a drink of your lemonade as he let out a groan causing you to chuckle against the rim of the goblet, “If you're craving the taste of grapes, why not drink grape juice?" 

He scoffed as he downed his diet cola and glowered at the goblet, “It's not just about the taste of grapes it's also about the experience.”

“Spoken like a true drunkard." You stood up ignoring him when he likened you to your mother under his breath, plate in hand and you walked over to the central bonfire to offer up a chicken wing and a handful of Reese's peanut butter cups, “‘Night Mom.” you murmured absentmindedly as you head out of the Dining Pavilion. 

You passed by Table 6, watching as your younger half siblings played a game of chess. Your lips curved slowly upwards; almost tempted to join them. You paused behind the ‘umpire’, Malcolm Pace and watched over his shoulder as the game progressed before you. “They’ve been at it since dinner started, haven't they?" 

He nodded and whispered in a low voice as to prevent disrupting the players, “Clara objectively has the upper hand in terms of pieces but Rowan's got a few plays up her sleeve though whether or not she decides to take up those sets of moves is another matter…” You nodded in understanding as you watched on briefly. 

Clara had indeed taken quite a few of Rowan's pieces and in doing so made Rowan's position more open to attack while creating a dense wall around her king, but of course, not without minor gaps in her build that could be exploited by Rowan's knight which almost looked keen to strike. You shook your head slightly, tearing your gaze away from the board. You had work to do, you reminded yourself and turned to Malcolm. “Make sure you don't stay up too late, I don't want any of you complaining to me about a headache or sleep deprivation.”