Non-Canon Omake: The Little Spider, Part 6

“And this is the kitchen I guess?” Percy showed Arachne around the cabin despite it being new to him as well.

His mom just looked at them with mild amusement as he led her around.

“It has a stove, I would assume so.” Arachne nodded.

“Not much of a kitchen.”

“Better than cooking over an open fire.”

“I guess.” He shrugged. “And there’s a bunch of random stuff all over the place.”

Arachne reached over to a desk and picked up an antique looking spyglass, holding it up to her eye to see. “It’s magic, it can see through about twenty feet of water.” She looked out the window and down into the lake, watching the fish.

“Wait, really? Can I see?” Percy’s eyes lit up.

She happy handed it to him and he swept it all out the window towards the lake not far away.

“Holy crap, mom come try this out.” He excitedly called her over. “It’s like the water isn’t even there.”

“Alright, alright.” She humored him, taking it from him as she looked through it. “That’s really cool, Percy.” She smiled.

Percy looked around and his eyes landed back on Arachne. “How’d you know it was magic?”

“A am a Magus, it’s easy to notice.” Arachne said proudly, then pointed towards a weather sextant. “That one help ya with directions even if you don’t know where you’re going.” She then pointed towards a globe in a box. “That one always mark it’s location on its map for ya.”

Percy’s eyes lit up even more. “That’s so cool.” He whispered.

For Arachne, this Mystic Codes were rather simplistic and easy to analyze at a glance.

“You said that anyone can learn magic, right?” Percy asked, recalling the argument she had with her half-sister. “Is it possible for me to learn?”

“Of course. It’s much easier for a Demi-god to learn than a normal human.”

“Regular humans can learn magic?!”

“Yup, but it’s more complicated. Lots of calculations.” She waived her hand. “A don’t like it too much. I know a few things, but I just use what mah mom and da taught me.”

“….would it be possible for you to teach me some things?” He hesitantly asked.

Arachne gave him a scrutinizing look. Normally, she wasn’t one for just willfully teaching people things.

Her mom once told her that becoming a teacher was a responsibility that one had to take seriously, and Arachne wasn’t quite sure she knew how to be a teacher.

But she also wanted to thank him for being so accommodating. She had no desire to sleep in the Athena cabin after meeting her Half-sister. She may be blunt and honest with her opinions, but she wasn’t oblivious to the awkwardness that developed.

Secondly, the Hermes cabin was packed, and she liked her space.

“Okay, I’ll teach you some things.” She agreed. “Just don’t call me teacher.” She settled on a half measure. If it were simply a friendly exchange, then it wouldn’t count as being his teacher proper. “Since you’re a child of Poseidon, I can think of some stuff ta teach ya.”

Percy let out a woop in excitement, but it only lasted a minute.

“Are you gonna be okay?” He looked at her in concern. “Mom gave me this whole speech that she apparently heard from my dad about how Gods have to be respected, blah blah.” He especially was talking about how she made a jab at her mom while they were apparently being ‘watched’.

Percy didn’t know anything about that, he just assumed some godly magical mystic stuff he didn’t understand. And he didn’t feel like she would randomly make up something weird like that, so he was a little bit worried.

Arachne let out a scoff. “It’s about circumstances. If it’s an official gathering ya know, ya should show proper etiquette, my parents taught me that.” It was actually her dad that taught her that. When to read the mood and what-not. “But if they get uppity ‘cause of somethin stupid, then they ain’t worth treating with respect.”

She had met many gods in her life so far, and she realized an important fact early on. The gods that treat themselves too seriously usually are the least worth respecting.

“So this isn’t new to you?” He looked at her, though he assumed and how she talked about magic, but that didn’t immediately mean god stuff.

“Nah, I’ve met plenty of gods before. Got plenty of them in my family too.” She shrugged.

“Oh, that’s neat.” Percy nodded along. “I just found out myself. Thought there was just something wrong with me most my life, turns out it’s because I got god juice in me.”

“Percy!” His mom interrupted with an exclamation. “There was nothing wrong with you.”

“Mom, I got expelled from a bunch of schools for some unexplainable things. What was I supposed to think?” He looked at her with a deadpan.

“….you got expelled too?” She looked at him. “What’d you do?”

“Somehow fired a fake cannon at a school bus.” He said evenly.

“Ah, that’s impressive. How’d you do it?”

“….” Percy blinked. “How did I do it? They said it was sealed and it wasn’t even loaded.”

“Percy, you already had the Mists explained to you.” His mom responded carefully.

“Oh right. Magical stuff that made me see things I didn’t see. Because that makes more sense than think I’m crazy.” He snorted. “Wait, you said you were expelled too?”

Arachne blushed slightly and looked away. “……I stabbed my teacher with my spear.”

“Oh.” Percy blinked. “I mean…yeah, that’s pretty bad.”

“They were a vampire.”

“Oh!” His eyes widened. “That sucks, I guess everyone didn’t know that and – “

“No, it was a magic school, they specifically hired him knowing he was a vampire.”

“….so evil school?”

“No.” Arachne said bluntly. “He was just an average worker who happened to be a vampire through some unfortunate events. Vampires have a time getting employment in many places. Even other magical races discriminate against them, it’s actually very sad.”

“And you stabbed him?”

“….in my defense, I didn’t know he was properly hired.” She flushed in embarrassment.

There was an awkward silence that followed.

There was a firm knock on the cabin door. Percy looked at me and to his mom, then realized that he should properly answer it considering that it’s ‘his’ cabin.

Arachne just walked over to Mr. Blueberry who was happily sleeping on one of the beds. It was a little funny for her to see him somehow fit his big body onto it comfortably. But She just stroked his head between his horns where she knew he liked it while he slept peacefully.

“Uh, Arachne, someone’s here for you?” Percy called to her.

It was just far enough away that she couldn’t see out the door, so she got up as Percy seemingly gave a very wide berth.

As Arachne got close, she noticed who was standing there.

She didn’t need the depth of vision that her da had, to know who it was. The grey eyes shined and the thinly veiled divinity was clear to someone as young as her.

Arachne stood there, facing the Goddess who was her mother.

“We finally meet after all this time.” The Goddess was the first to speak. “I think this is the first time I’ve personally come to greet one of my children at camp. You must have been waiting a long time for this moment, and –“

“Who are you?” Arachne said bluntly.

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, abruptly went silent.

She was the Goddess of Wisdom, she doesn’t make a visual fool of herself. Despite nearly stumbling her words at the abrupt ‘disrespect’ that she was highly unused to, she kept herself composed.

She forced a smile.

Athena knew better than most when being aggressive and when taking a step back is a wise choice. She was dealing with a child, she knew how to handle children very well. She would let her daughter feel like she ‘won’ before moving forward when her own plans.

“I’m your mother.”

It was a simple and direct answer without much room to throw a verbal tantrum what-have-you.

Of course, she knew her children were all witty and she expected a bit of a verbal sparring, even if it came in the form of underhanded insults. Athena was not like the other Olympian Gods, and while she demanded respect all the same, she genuinely appreciated an intelligent way to insult someone rather than just being a bore.

So, she waited for her daughter’s response, preparing an assorting of retorts to every scenario she envisioned.

Would she insult the lack of Athena in her life?

Would she claim some kind of debt owed for the absence of a parent?

So many ways this could go, especially after the incident that occurred not long ago where everyone watched.

Or would she –

“I don’t know you.” Arachne abruptly slammed the door in her face and walked back into the cabin.

She saw Percy hunching over a book with his mother.

“What’s that?” She asked curiously.

Percy looked up. “Oh, did you deal with your….thing?”

“Yup.” She said bluntly. “What’s that?” She pointed at the book.

“Oh, just a random book about sailing, I just wanted to see if knowing I’m a Demigod now makes it so I’m not stupid anymore. But it turns out, I’m still stupid.”

“Percy, you’re not stupid. It’s called Dyslexia and you know that.” His mother chided.

“Shouldn’t being part god make it so I’m like, super smart and stuff? Not have trouble reading at a fourth grade level?” Percy grumbled.

“It’s cause gods don’t speak or read human languages. You hear them, you think they’re speaking in English, but it’s just projected that way.” Arachne replied to him, rummaging through some of the junk in the cabin until she found a pair of glasses. “It messes up your brain cause a god isn’t physical, they’re metaphysical. Their concepts align with the Greek Cosmology, so your brain is partly Greek in makeup on a conceptual level, so everything you read wants to be Greek in her mind making it hard to read properly.”

She remembered her parents talking to her about this a long time ago. She has had some issues, less than a ‘regular’ Demigod due to her Devil Heritage, but they had to fix a few things.

“I understood some of those words.” Percy said after a moment.

“Gods don’t mix well with humans.” Arachne shrugged, tracing very small runes along the outer edge of the glass portion of the glasses. “Put these one.” She tossed them to him as she finished.

Percy blinked. “I’m stupid, not blind.”

“Percy.” His mom said sternly.

Percy rolled his eyes.

“It should help the words be clearer for you on paper.” She said.

Percy blinked again, and decided to put them on and looked down at the book. There was several moments of silence as he seemingly kept reading. “…I can read fine.”

The boy looked up at Arachne with an indiscernible expression.

Arachne just smiled.

It was a simple gesture for her, but for him, it was something he’d always struggled with and had low self-esteem with.

“I also made them very durable.”

“How durable?” Percy asked.

“Should be fine getting run over by a car.” She estimated.

Percy choked somewhat, but there was a small redness in his eyes and his mom quickly hugged him, mouthing a big thank you to Arachne.

Again, Arachne smiled.

It made her feel good, being a hero to someone.

She understood why Uncle Achilles was always so prideful about being a hero.

There was another loud and assertive knock on the cabin’s door.

Percy was still being hugged tightly by his mom, so Arachne got up and went to check this time. She expected a certain someone but to her surprise, it wasn’t the Goddess.

Truthfully, she expected the Goddess to throw a fit, but it never came.

Regardless, she was looking at three other people about her age.

A girl, with a large stature and noticeable muscles due to her torn off sleeves at the front with a couple of boys behind her.

“You the shrimp with the fish that everyone’s talking about?” The girl in front called out to Arachne.

“No.” Arachne replied.

“I can see it from here.” She peered around Arachne to see Mr. Blueberry sleeping soundly on the bed.

Arachne turned out, looking at Mr. Blueberry then back at the strange girl and slammed the door in her face.

Before she could take a second step away, there was a large thump at the door behind her. She could just barely make out a fist indentation on the door from her side.

Arachne frowned.

She knew that Percy didn’t understand the significance when he allowed her to stay, but this place was utterly enveloped in a certain Divine Aura.

It was no different than being in a god’s temple, for which she was a guest. And now someone was causing a commotion to the proverbial temple she was staying.

She marched back over, threw the door open, and before the girl could utter a word, Arachne threw out a punch, knocking the girl off her feet, landing on her butt.

The two boys next to her looked on with eyes wide, not expecting the sudden violence.

The girl, to her credit, was barely dazed, merely surprised. “You got some balls!” She nearly snarled, pushing back up to her feet.

“Then I guess that mean we both got a pair!” Arachne snorted, insulting the girl’s looks, insinuating that she looked like a man.

The girl looked ready to rage and start throwing punches, which suited Arachne just fine.

“Hand over the fish, or you’re in for a beating.” She rubbed her nose where she had been punched.

“His name is Mr. Blueberry, and no.” Arachne crossed her arms.

“That’s a stupid name.” The girl snorted. “Hand over the fish, my dad even told me to get it, don’t make me go through you.”

“Fuck you.” Arachne spat out. “If you dare lay a hand on Mr. Blueberry I’ll kill you.”

The girl blinked, even amidst her growing rage, because she could feel that Arachne was being serious.

And despite being more than happy to punch her problems away, she knew that punching the door to the cabin was much different than forcing her way inside and ‘stealing’ something from within.

One was straddling the line, the other was pissing all over it.

“Then let’s settle it with a fight!” The girl demanded. “If I win, the fish is mine.”

“No.”

“Are you a coward!?”

“Then if I win, your mom is mine.”

“What!?” The girl was taken aback.

“What, you can demand my family members as prizes, but I can’t do the same?” Arachne scoffed. “Are you a coward!?” She repeated in an obvious sarcastic and mocking tone.

“It’s just a fish!”

“And your mom is a cow, what’s your point?”

The girl – rather, the Daughter of Ares – Clarisse felt the anger rising up in her chest. Her dad snuck her a message telling her to get the fish from the weird girl and she would be rewarded heavily. But she very well couldn’t just barge in and now this girl wasn’t accepting a fight.

“You’re just a coward, hiding behind words like all the other idiots from the Athena Cabin.” Clarisse scoffed. “All of them are pansys, I’m not surprised you’re too scared to fight.”

“Then forget a wager.” Arachne jumped out of the cabin. “Let’s have a duel to the death right here and now!”

Clarisse was once more taken aback, because she genuinely felt the sincerity in what Arachne said.

She was ready to fight to the death right here and now, there was a subtle bloodlust that the Daughter of Ares could pick up.

She was abruptly pulled back from her rage because although she knew she was a bully and tended to be physically oppressive to the other campers, she never actually tried to kill any of them.

In fact, it was heavily against the rules to kill one another. Ignoring the fact that every kid there had a godly parent that would most certainly take revenge, anyone who killed another camper would be treated to the worst punishments.

And the punishments were by ancient Greek standards.

Arachne harumphed at Clarisse’s lack of words of action. “As expect from a Daughter of Ares, nothing but a coward.” She recalled all the stories her mom told her about The War God.

As soon as the words left her mouth, there was a strange thunderclap in the clear sky.

A blood-red spear flashed above Clarisse’s head. Normally, it’s a sign of a child being claimed by their god, but that has long since occurred for the girl. It was used for a different purpose this time.

Clarisse and the others instinctively kneeled.

“Alright, little girl, you got my attention.” The voice of the God of War could be heard from the symbol. “Since you insulted me so openly, I’m allowed to take action now. So, here’s what’s going to happen, you’re going to fight. No smart-ass words like your dear mother, no tricks to confused her, no getting out of it, no running away. Consider this your punishment. A proper duel. And of course, to the victor goes the spoils.” There was no need to elaborate on that part. “I appoint Clarisse as my champion, so sayeth Ares, the God of War.”

The Divine Power dissipated without a chance for Arachne to respond.

She merely rolled her eyes with a sigh.

It was all sophistry if anything.

And ‘Insult’ in the loosest definition of the word, it was obvious he had been watching and waiting for an opportunity.

Clarisse stood up with a big somewhat bloodthirst grin on her face. She could admit that the girl threw her for a loop before, but all she needed to hear was the words ‘duel’ and ‘fight’ and she could just settle everything properly that way.

Since her dad stepped in, she didn’t need to think about it any deeper.

“Okay, but what do I get if I win?” Arachne realized it was better to just nip this in the bud. With a reluctant sigh, she relented with regards to a ‘duel’ rather than a fight to the death.

Clarisse blanked because she didn’t have an answer to that. “…..dad?”

The symbol above her head flashed again.

“I guess I forgot about that.” The God of War sounded bored. “Alright, what do you want if you win?” The way he spoke, it was clear he was just humoring her just for the sake of setting the stakes.

Arachne gave it some thought.

They underestimated her.

Not her strength, not her power.

No, they underestimate who her da was and how petty she could be from learning from him.

“I want the Ares Cabin.”

@***@

A/N

Arachne meet her mom! Or something. She makes a friend in Percy, which is nice. And she took to heart her dad’s investment advice when it came to procuring real estate.