A/N: This takes place in the book continuum after The Last Olympian.
“Sibling Rivalry”
Coming, The whispers of the great ocean marlins echo in my mind. He’s coming for you, son of the Sea God.
A large, dark shadow with two fins
swims by.
Beware,
Water Child, the silverfish of Long Island Sound whistle. The prince has parted the seas.
Boss!
Boss! Blackjack’s bubby voice warns through my awakening haze of sleep. He is
in the stables of
From the Long Island Sound emerges a towering figure, dark and brooding.
Who?
I demand, tossing and turning in bed, my hands fisted in my dark, night
hair. Who’s—
And just like that, my sea-green eyes snap open. I reach for the pen on the end table. Uncapping it, I swing in bed, clanging Riptide against the deadly trident less than six inches from my exposed neck.
At once, the creatures of the sea
shout, TRITON!
“Hello, Perseus Jackson,” my attacker snickers, “we meet again.”
I wish I could say I didn’t know this was coming. When and how, I was always fuzzy on, but I knew, eventually, this day would come.
Though the low moonlight, I can
make the newcomer’s faultless features. He doesn’t look much older than me,
maybe twenty at the most, with pristine, granny-smith apple skin that drips
with the power of the seas. We share the same dark hair, but he ties his back
into a low tail at the base of his neck. His venomous eyes glow a furious sea
blue in my darkened cabin at
“Hello, brother,” I greet back, my teeth clenched as we play a short game of power-trip, his trident slowly pushing my sword against my throat. “You want to talk?”
“Oh, I believe there has been enough of that.”
“Good.”
I kick, hitting him directly in the stomach and forcing him back. By the time he recovers, I’m out of my bed and lunging, meeting him swipe for swipe before another swift kick takes him out of my cabin and into the yard of Camp Half-Blood.
You have to realize, I’ve only met Triton once when I was recuperating at our dad’s palace for, like, a second. He had two tails back then, so I guess he can make them legs on land (and apparently fit them into black leather pants). He only said two words to me back then—well, actually twelve—to tell me he was Dad’s heir and insinuate I was doing nothing to help the war.
Great times.
As Triton gets to his feet, I know it’s only a matter of time before the end comes. He’s a full-blown god with all the power to match—and a bag of potato chips.
Yeah, he’s going to kick my backend
from
“Who do you think you are, Percy Jackson?” he spat my name like a
curse. “You had to be saved in
I duck his swipe and retaliate with my own, clanging my sword against the rod of his trident. “At least I did something to stop the war, unlike you who was running around like your fins were chopped off.”
That probably isn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done. Triton’s eyes burn a deeper shade of teal, and he slashes viciously.
“You are a godling, a half-blood, half-mortal!”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“What can you possibly hope to achieve? Greatness?” He chortles, hardly out of breath as I battle through my greatest enemy—exhaustion. “Do you want a footnote in a book, a statue, a temple?”
“I’ll settle for an uninterrupted night of sleep.”
Triton stops his attack for a
moment and takes an appraisal glare at me, truly studying me for the first time
in the black of night. I bet I’m a great sight—my hair bedraggled from sleep,
dark circles under my eyes—oh, and my Finding
Nemo pajama bottoms over my
Yeah, fierce hero right here.
Look, it’s not like this doesn’t happen to us half-bloods. Ares let Clarisse ride his chariot when she turned sixteen, and her godly brother Phobos and Deimos jacked it. I even killed one of my brothers in the Labyrinth not too long ago. It happens. Sibling rivalry is a big deal between the immortal and mortal kids of the gods.
And unlike your brother and/or sister who gives you a noogie and locks you in your parents’ closet with a daddy long-leg, our brothers and sisters put us in halls with dragons and give swords between ribs.
Like I said, great times.
Finally, Triton finishes his scrutiny and shakes his head in disapproval. “I wonder what Father saw in your mother. I guess it was only her end. After all, working in that candy store, she must have been a sweet piece of —”
Oh, that tears it. With a battle cry, I launch myself at him, swiping, carving, and battling my way toward his heart, so I can rip it out.
It doesn’t matter that Blackjack has whinnied Annabeth and the Athenian cabin awake. It doesn’t matter that Thalia and Nico are both charging out of their respective cabins, leading a pack of new half-bloods and Artemis’s huntresses to help me. It doesn’t matter that Chiron now stands with Mr. D at the edge of the battlefield, an arrow poised to kill.
Not that it could.
“Stay back!” I yell as I knock his large fork away. “This is my battle.”
“No,” Triton purrs, “it is ours.”
And it is. As we lunge, dive, and deflect, I force out one of my hands, palm up, toward a certain cabin. A force tugs at my stomach, and water crashes from the toilets and the showers, rushing to my aid.
At the same, Triton puts a hand up toward the ocean, and together, the water surrounds us, cradles us, attacks.
But we remain dry.
I can’t say the same for the campers.
I wish I could tell you that I would deliver him his fins, that I would attack with a fury Ares, himself, would be proud of, but as I dive to stab Triton, he sidesteps me. Grabbing the scruff of my shirt, he knees me in the stomach, knocking me flat on my back. He steps on my wrist, freeing my sword. His trident hovers just under my chin.
“Not as mighty as the seven seas, are we, guppy?”
“What’s your problem!” I shove his trident away, not even afraid he’ll just blast me. Let him. “You think I wanted to be born like this? You think I planned it this way? You think my mom did?”
Triton give his trident a passing, almost angered glare before standing straight and crossing his arms. “Mortal women have been known to—”
“My mom went through hell because of me! She married the nastiest, most foul smelling man in the world to keep me safe. She dealt with monsters and assassins and hellhounds and school principals to save me, and when she couldn’t, only then did I come here. And to do what?” I sit up but refuse to look away—and I know better than to stand. “To have my life turned upside down and inside out time and time again. I didn’t ask to be born a demigod, okay? I didn’t ask to be named in some prophecy that almost took my life how many times and took the lives of so many of my friends! I didn’t ask to be born just to screw up your life!”
I shake my head and look toward the ocean. “I’m not asking you to accept me. I’m not asking you to call me ‘brother’ or catch a baseball game with me. Hell, I’m not even asking to be invited for Winter Solstice dinner, all right? All I’m asking is not to have my butt kicked at three o’clock in the morning!”
Triton remains silent, looking at me as if to decide if I’m truly worth the energy to kill. Then, after what seems like an eternity, he twitches his shoulder. “Water polo is more my liking, but come. Let us discuss.”
He doesn’t offer me a hand up, and honestly, I don’t expect one. He simply turns on his heel and treads toward the beach. As he reaches a group of soaked half-bloods, the campers moved to the side to let the prince of the seas pass.
Haggardly, I drag myself up and follow. Annabeth runs to my side. The daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom is someone to always listen to, and I’m more than grateful to see her.
“Go with him.”
I was going to, but she approves? No way.
I tell her that.
A soft smile brightens her face. “Of course. You cannot dismiss a beckon from a god, even if he is your half-brother and might kill you.”
“And if he does?”
She shrugs mischievously. “Have you seen the new cabin counselor for the Aphrodite cabin, Seaweed Brain? Gods, he is hot!”
Ouch.
Then again, Annabeth always keeps me on my fins, and she wins me all over again with a quick peck on the lips.
I dry her in return, and her strength makes me walk a little firmer. I find Triton on the beach, the tide gently caressing his ankles. I come to stand next to him but don’t allow my clothes to get wet.
“I came to kill you,” he says factually.
I stick my hands in my pockets. “Yeah, I kinda figured that.”
“Our Father has decreed you an heir to this throne. Have you not noticed? The seas have responded.”
I don’t meet his stern gaze as it condemns the ocean before us. Instead, I try to hide my surprise and shrug. “Not really.”
“You knew I was coming. How?” There’s no anger to his voice, just reason.
I give him the same in return. “Blackjack, my Pegasus, told me. So did some of the other fish in my dreams.”
“Yes, because they wished to protect you from me. If you were not an heir, they would have deferred to me.”
“But I don’t want to be an heir,” I explain for what seemed like the hundredth time. “I don’t want to be immortal. I don’t even want to be a god. And what good is being an heir to an immortal god anyway? Seems a little worthless to me.”
The salty air caresses Triton’s mane and brushes it back against his shoulders. “You will die.”
Okay. Don’t freak. “Yeah, you came to kill me. Got it. Check in the box.”
“No, you misunderstand. Perhaps not today. Maybe not for a while, but one day, you will die, Perseus Jackson. I do not have that luxury.”
Luxury? “Um…say what?”
“I am neither stupid nor blind. I know how my father feels about you. It is how he has felt about many, if not all, of his mortal children. He knows he only has a short time with you, and me…no matter what, I’m always going to be here.”
He shakes his head. “It is unnatural, almost unclean, to make a mortal a god. Yet you, the greatest of the half-bloods, were given the chance, and you turned it down. Do you know what that means to Father?”
I shrugged. “He won’t have to buy me, like, a bijillion birthday presents.”
“It means he will lose another child to Hades, one who could have been saved.”
“What does it matter to him? He
sees me once, maybe twice a year, popping into my life. And he’s gone within a
moment’s time. So what if I’m—
Note to self: trident to the throat—never pleasant.
“Gods are forbidden to give direct aid
to their mortal children, and interfering with your lives usually causes you
more harm. Politics in
“Yeah, but—”
Triton lowers the trident, so I won’t sound like I’ve eaten jalapeños. “Half-blood children aren’t safe. How do you hurt a god who can’t be hurt, who can’t die or be tortured?” He looks at me mournfully as if I’m already dead. “You attack those he loves who aren’t invisible, and sadly, our own family is full of culprits. Such is the way of the gods.”
“Hermes said I might teach them all a thing or two.”
“Do not be so audacious. If you can teach them a single thing, it will be a feat never achieved by a mortal.” Triton’s eyes fall to the sloshing water at his feet, and a comfortable rhythm sets against our legs. “I do not like to get close to my mortal brothers and sisters. It…is painful. The last Perseus…”
There aren’t tears in his eyes, but a sad, wistful look clouds them. He reaches out, and for a moment, I think he was going to punch me and try to drown me, however impossible that is. Instead, his feather-light knuckles brush against my cheek.
“You are of two worlds,
I laugh, loud and hearty, and
though it would be nice to have a few more bodies in
Yeah, yeah, I know. Selfish, but it makes me special. Me and Thalia and Nico.
Triton takes out a canteen and pours some bluish-green liquid into the cap. Then, he hands me the canteen. “I do not take pleasure in killing my kin, and I seldom do it.”
I stare at the fierce god and warrior. ”I killed our brother Antaeus.”
Triton blinks for a moment, then nods, clinging his cup against my canteen. “Good. He was a jellyfish anyway. Always bragging that he was Father’s favorite. Good that someone finally put him in his place."
I sniff the opening of the canteen.
It smells like my mom’s chocolate chip cookies (which are usually blue), but
I’m not a newbie at
“Dad said I was his favorite.”
Triton winks. “You are everyone’s
favorite half-blooded son of Poseidon, Percy Jackson. Now, drink. It is a
special type of nectar only found in
“Okay, so it’s pure nectar that’s gonna burn every part of me until there’s nothing left for the catfish to eat.”
Triton grants me the first real smile I’ve ever seen from him. “Trust your older brother, will you? If I was going to kill you, I would have done it already.”
Well, yeah, that seems truthful enough.
I take a cautious slip, but Triton puts a hand on the end of the canteen, forcing the thick liquid down my throat. The spicy, hot drink scorches all the way down my throat, and violent coughs protest its invasion. The liquid fights through my lips and dribbles down my chin as Triton refuses me reprieve. I struggle against his hold on the canteen and my shirt but to no avail.
Abruptly, he lets go, and my knees buckle. The water wets my pajamas and splashes up onto my T-shirt when I sink into the cradling ocean. I feel the waves rise and crest, hear the dolphins whinny, see the whales that shouldn’t be present come toward the shore. The sharks, which should be looking for blood, swim side by side with the halibut and octopi.
Everything’s magnified in a way it’s never been before. I can feel, hear, and see the ocean, the seas, the rivers and everything in them with an awareness I’ve never had before.
The sea creatures all stop before Triton and me, grouped together in a semi-circle, their heads bowed. The Pegasi flapped from the stables, with Blackjack in the lead.
Boss! Boss! He called. You…You’re…
I look up shakily at Triton, who has a contented, almost pleased, look on his face.
That bast—
“Father said you were the one who could protect his kingdom with me. I told him he was wrong, and he sent me to find out. If I weren’t convinced like him, then I could kill you. If I was—and I am—then I was to feed you the Eternal Nectar of the Gods.”
I wiped the excess blue from my chin. “No…”
Triton beseeches the rising sun upon the suddenly calm waves, swallowing his own shot of the nectar with one gulp. “I only wish the gods will take pity on me for performing such an unclean act.”
In response, thunder rumbles in a distance.
The End
A/N: Thanks for reading. I have an idea for a multi-chaptered story, like a sixth book about the prophecy addressed at the end of The Last Olympian. Is that something people would want to read? If so, please let me know, and I’ll get writing. If not, no harm, no foul. Also, if someone would be willing to be a beta, I’d be grateful!
Thanks again!
Dev