Non-Canon Omake: The Little Spider, Chapter 10

Arachne was having fun.

While she usually enjoys spending her time fighting or training or doing things of that nature, that didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy things that normal girls her age did.

Truthfully, she didn’t have many friends her age. It was hard to make friends when your parents were such high profile individuals. 

“What color should this one be?” Percy asked, holding up Aunt Raiden’s signboard.

“Use the purple for that one.” Arachne told him, going back to her own as she painted Aunt Tiamat’s signboard.

She and Percy were currently painting the seven signboards that would now alternate on the Ares Cabin.

And Arachne was having fun.

At this point in time, almost all of the campers were afraid to go near them. Despite many of them sneaking peeks or watching them from a distance, they dared not get too close.

Despite the chaos happening both in the godly realm, and within the camp, Percy and Arachne were simply painting. It was ironic considering that it was the most ‘normal’ camp activity they could have been doing right at this moment.

“Don’t you want to spend time with yer mum before she goes back?” Arachne asked, still painting.

“She’s talking to Mr. Brunner – erm Chiron right now. The car got blown up on the way here so she kinda needs a ride back to the city.”

“Why not ask yer da to help her?” Arachne looked at him, holding her hand out as Mr. Burberry came floating over. She happily began to rub his head as he positioned himself next to her.

“....I can do that?” Percy looked up in surprise.

“He’s yer da, why wouldn’t he? And he must’ve liked yer mum at some point.” Arachne pointed out. “The cabin is a temple, so ya can just pray to him there when ya get the chance.”

“Huh.” Percy took her advice at face value and nodded.

He was still acclimating to everything that was going on. To him, the fact that Arachne turned into an Angel temporarily was no stranger than anything else that was happening. So he didn’t share any of the same reactions that his fellow campers had.

Though, their quiet play time didn’t last long as two shadows appeared above them. 

Both Arachne and Percy looked up to see who joined them, and they both recognized the people. 

“Oh hey, Annabeth and Luke, right?” Percy named them from memory. It wasn’t that long ago, but a lot had happened since then, so it wouldn't be surprising if he forgot.

“Hey, Percy and….. Arachne.” Luke spoke up for them, though he had to force out her name and he looked up at the sky, worried he might get smote from a certain Goddess.

Arachne just grunted and went back to her painting.

“Need something?” Percy asked.

“....kinda.” Luke said awkwardly. “We – “ He scratched his head, seemingly having trouble finding the words.

“I asked Chiron and even prayed to mom, but everyone’s refusing to talk about what happened.” Annabeth spoke up. 

“Talk about what?” Percy asked.

“If there are other gods.” Annabeth was blunt.

“Well…yeah?” Percy looked at Arachne. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Thats…that’s not what I meant. I mean, they haven't clarified anything, and I’ve never heard about any gods other than the Greeks existing.”

“What she means to say is that, all this time, we’ve been led to believe that our parents and Olympus are the only ones around. Well, the Greeks in total, the Underworld too and all that…” Luke recited, not forgetting to include the underworld gods. “And after the…fight, a lot of us were questioning things.”

And that wasn’t even going into the fight itself. They were hesitant to even bring it up after seeing what happened. A faint fear towards the young girl after watching her fight a god-enhanced Clarisse.

“Are ya stupid? O’ course there are.” Arachne rolled her eyes. “Why would there be other religions if they were the only ones?” 

Arachne was starting to feel like her half-sister and cousins were a bit on the stupid side.

“There are other Pantheons!!” Annabeth exclaimed, hearing it so directly, she felt like a whole new world opened up.

Arachne, however, frowned, ignoring her outburst and standing up quickly, looking around.

“You have good instincts.” The Goddess Athena appeared and it seemed like a shimmering golden barrier appeared around them.

“Mom?” Annabeth called out to her.

The Goddess gave her a rather detached smile and focused on Arachne instead, eyeing her curiously. “You must have trained a lot to notice so quickly.”

“Me mum taught me.” Arachne grunted, sitting back down. “It’s just a simple Bounded Field, any half-decent Magus would notice right away.”

Athena didn’t comment on her phrasings, but she filed them away for later.

She then turned to Annabeth. “It’s not that I didn’t want to answer your questions, it’s that we’re not allowed to speak of it. If you had risen up the ranks and became someone important to Olympus, you would have eventually learned the truth.”

“S-so why can I know now?” She asked.

“We’re not allowed to tell you about it, if you learn it yourself, that’s a whole other matter.” She smiled wistfully. “Though, I would suggest you don’t spread it around, Zeus may get angry even if it’s not technically against his decrees.”

“But why keep it a secret?” Luke asked as well. “It’s a pretty big deal, isn’t it?”

“Nothing good comes from intermingling between Pantheons. It’s happened in the past and has caused many problems.” She looked Arachne’s ways. “It’s explicitly forbidden for any of you to interact with other Pantheons intentionally, now that you know.”

“But…why does she get to?” Annabeth pointed at Arachne. “Clearly, she’s doing that, right?” There was an obvious amount of jealousy in Annabeth’s tone.

“It applies to her as well.” Athena said calmly.

Arachne, however, let out a laugh, causing a weird tension as Athena frowned, watching her daughter laugh at her words.

“That was a good one, I’ll have’ta tell me da later.” Arachne wiped away a tear at the corner of her eye.

Truthfully, Athena didn’t really have much ground to stand on, but she was trying to play a few games to see if she could pin her wayward daughter down without resorting to other means. If her daughter atleast acknowledged the ‘laws’ then that was a step in the right direction.

She also didn’t want to further push her Daughter away despite the other gods hounding her for answers. And despite her first instinct to demand answers herself, she realized the logical course of action was the soft approach.

Not only that, but there was a fine line she needed to walk when it potentially involved other Pantheons. They had enough problems within their own Pantheon without another coming to cause a commotion.

The immediate incident with Ares cabin was already enough to cause everyone to freak out. Though, Ares oddly said that he felt a bit more clear headed recently, not even realizing that he had been muddle headed beforehand.

“.....how is Wilhelm?” Athena asked.

“Da is doing alright.” Arachne said bluntly, not elaborating.

“Wait, mom. If other Pantheons exist, then why havn’t we run into other Demigods? Surely we should have notice one or two when they’re being chased by monsters, right? That usually causes a big commotion when it happens.” Annabeth asked.

Athena, once more, frowned. But before she could answer, Arachne began to speak.

“That’s only a Greek thing. Well, a Greek and Roman thing.” She said as if it were a casual thing.

“What?” Luke was the first to respond to her, his tone not betraying the hint of anger that quickly flashed across his face.

“My da told me about it, it’s a curse or somethin. Demigods still smell like good food to monsters, but only you lot get the worst of it.” She explained more.

“Why are we just hearing about this now?” Annabeth asked. “Obviously, I know the story and everything. But if it’s only us, then there should be a way to fix it, right?”

“Well, duh. It’s a curse.” Arachne looked at her with the same look from earlier. “Do ya really know nothin about magic despite being a demigod?”

She wasn’t trying to be insulting, it just seemed to foreign and odd to her that her half-sister had absolutely no idea how things like this worked despite being a Demigod.

Athena kept a stoic face up despite being annoyed about the topic of the conversation. She had no plans on letting this get out, but apparently her daughter had different goals.

“Mom!?”

“It’s complicated.” Athena said vaguely, not elaborating.

“So they let it happen?” Percy asked, looking towards Arachne. At this point, he basically trusted every word that came out of her mouth.

“Yeah.” Arachne responded.

“That’s pretty messed up.” Percy frowned himself.

Athena resisted the urge to smack her own face.

Both Annabeth and Luke stared at Athena with mixes of shock and betrayal.

Arachne noticed her ‘mothers’ expression, or lack thereof, and faintly she could get a sense on her thoughts.

And it made her smile.

Though they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a horn reverberating through camp that made everyone look towards the source.

“What’s that?” Percy was the one to ask.

“Its –” Annabeth paused because she noticed that her mom disappeared, pursing her lips, she continued. “It’s the horn for alerting everyone that Lady Artemis and her Hunters are back.”

“Is there like some kind of big thing we need to prepare for?” Percy asked.

“No, it’s just to give everyone a chance to get out of their way.” Luke pursed his lips. “Sometimes they can be a bit….aggressive.”

“Like Clarisse?” Percy asked again.

“No, like, if you’re a boy, stay away from them.” Luke cringed a little. “There might ‘accidently’ be an arrow flying your way.”

Arachne blinked and found herself annoyed at the presumptuousness of those ‘Hunters’. She remembered how her Aunt Atalanta spoke well of her friends and Goddess from her life, but it doesn’t sound nearly the same here.

Annabeth seemed mentally preoccupied with something else though. The way she was looking at Arachne, her emotions were obviously in turmoil.

Why did she get so much of their mother’s attention when she was brand new?

Annabeth had been training and praying to her mom for years, she was one of the more experienced with the camp, coming here when we was little. Yet, the newest sibling of hers waltzes right in and her Mom literally descends just to speak with her openly.

However, she was quickly able to put a lid on those emotions, focusing on some more important things. Oh, she had a lot of things she wanted to know, but she was start slow.

“If it’s a Curse like you said, does that mean you’re not effected?” Annabeth asked her.

“The smell thing?” Arachne got up, wiping her hands clean. “Nah, a still smell good ta them.” She said. “Never bothered with it. If a monster wans’ to come and fight, then I’ll kill it.”

“You can remove it but you choose not to!?”

“Ya?” Arachne tilted her yead.

“Are you insane!?”

Arachne considered her question and genuinely might have answered yes. Truthfully, what sane 14 year old girl would intentionally leave a ‘curse’ on her to lure monsters her way for life and death fights?

Well, it couldn’t be said that she wasn’t her mother’s daughter.

Seeing her confused, Annabeth bit her lip and forcibly stopped herself from screaming in exasperation. “What if they attacked your home, your family? What if you’re sleeping?” These all seemed like logical things she would take into consideration as she was also a Daughter of Athena.

“There aint a monster dumb enough alive to come attack mah home.” Arachne spoke as if it were an obvious fact.

“There’s that arrogance…” Luke muttered under his breath.

It was no secret that Athena’s Children sometimes had a bout of arrogance that sometimes blinded them.

Annabeth snapped her head at him before turning back her half sister with utter bewilderment. “You would bet your family's safety on your own pride?” Even at her worse, Annabeth wouldn’t put her dad’s safety to the test like that.

Arachne looked at her and started whole heartedly laughing. “I aint unconcerned because of myself. I aint concerned ‘cause there aint no monster alive that could threaten me da or mum.”

“...what?” Annabeth looked at her. “Isn’t your dad human?”

Arachne snorted. “Don’t know why everyone thinks that.”

Annabeth didn’t know what to make of that, nor did anyone else listening. It was just one more question ontop of a mountain of others that were continuously piling up.

“What about….spiders?” Annabeth whispered the last part, her hands unconsciously clenched as she said.

“Spiders?” Arachne repeated,confused. “What ‘bout them?”

“How did you deal with that curse?”

“We’re cursed with spiders?” Percy’s eyes widened.

“No, not Demigods. Just children of Athena, you know because of her namesake.” Annabeth pointed at Arachne. “Which is the whole reason her name is ridiculous.”

Arachne was confused for a moment before she recalled something. “A remember when I was a girl that some spiders were attacking me at night when a was sleeping.”

Annabeth’s eyes lit up. “Me too. Everyone in the cabin is the same. My dad never believed me and they put me in therapy because they thought I was imagining things!” She felt like she finally found some semblance of normalcy when it came to her half sister.

“A think me mum just cast some magic around the house that stopped any spiders from coming inside before they fixed it. A don’t really remember, but a think they mentioned ‘fixing’ that?” Arachne scratched her head.

Annabeth just stood there, mouth open.

However, Arachne felt a twinge of sympathy for her half sister. Her Da told her that blood doesn’t make one family, but she also shouldn't be closed minded towards blood that she hasn’t met yet. 

She had no love towards her ‘mother’ but that didn’t mean she had to be cold and aloof to any ‘siblings’ of hers out of spite.

“Do ya still have tha problem here?” Arachne asked her.

“In the camp?” Annabeth shook her head. “No, this place stops all that. But it’s still a problem sometimes outside.” She shuddered slightly.

“....a can make ya a mystic code to help keep spiders away.” Arachne figured if it were just normal spiders, a simple Mystic Code would suffice.

“A what?”

“Oh, like the glasses you made me!” Percy added on. “She made me magic glasses that fixed my dyslexia” He said proudly.

“Wait, you can fix that so easily?” Luke looked at them both with eyes wide. “Why is everything we’re dealing with such an easy fix and no one’s bothered to help us!?”

Luke felt like the world he knew was turning upside down.

“Children.” Chiron came trotting over with a bit of a pep in his step. “You’ve been summoned to the big house.”

“All of us?” Luke asked, his mind snapping back into focus.

Chiron let out a sigh. “Yes, all of you. Percy, that includes you as well. And I advise you all to be on your best behavior. It’s not just Mr. D that’s there right now, but Lady Artemis has returned.”

“Why me?” Percy asked. “I’m kinda a nobody here..?”

“It’s…complicated. It involves your birth more than anything. Don’t worry, you personally have not done anything wrong.” Chiron reassured him. 

“I’m bringing Mr. Blueberry.” Arachne said, not bothering to reject him even if she didn’t want to go meet whoever it was that was calling for her.

But it made sense to her now why her ‘mother’ suddenly up and disappeared without a word.

They all had to do a double take as Arachne lifted up the fish creature that was easily twice the size of her, up over here head and carry him with ease.

In fact, the Ophiotaurus was wiggling in her grasp with a big smile on its face, like it was the most fun thing in the world for it.

“...very well, let’s not keep them waiting.” He knew a losing battle when he saw one.

@****@

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the Big House, it was a simple trek up the hill even if it was a lot of stairs to climb.

As soon as Arachne entered, she set Mr. Blueberry down and sniffed the air, something grabbing her attention. When no one was looking, she quickly cast a spell to make Mr. Blueberry take on her form.

She gave him a quick kiss on the forehead and whispered to him to take her place for now, she was going to look around.

The big fish nodded happily, keeping up with the others, as they were completely unaware of her departure.

The inside was deceptively large. Perhaps larger than it should be, but considering that a god lived here some parts of the day, it wasn’t too strange.

She continued to sniff the air, the fragrance leading her around the corridors. And if it were any normal time, she would have made note how they were shifting and moving with each step she took.

It was as if she were stuck in a maze.

However, her nose did not lead her astray.

She finally found the source, what appeared to be an office, and inside the God Dionysus blinked, looking at her at the threshold as he held a decadent glass bottle of wine in his hand and an empty cup in the other.

Slowly, while keeping eye contact with her, he poured himself a drink.

And very quickly, the young girl was up against his desk, looking at it longfully. In fact, she began to reach for the glass bottle.

Dionysus, noticing her, frowned and used his godly powers to warp the room. Everything twisted around her, the desk became larger and longer, even as she poked her head over top and reached for it, it seemed forever out of her reach.

“Okay, seriously, can’t you take a hint?” The God of Wine finally snapped his fingers and returned everything to normal. 

“A want it.” She pointed at the bottle of wine.

The god opened his mouth once before closing it again. “How did you even find me? I specifically made it so any brats would get lost in the hallway. It’s bad enough that I have to deal with all you, but my dear sister also brought her annoying brats with her too.” 

“A smelled it.” Arachne stated.

The god twitched silently. Both from annoyance and a hint of genuine admiration. “Can you even handle your drink?”

“A am scottish.” Arachne said proudly.

“Right, you were.” Dionysus acknowledged that. “You know, if it were anyone else, you would have already been turned into a dolphin for even reaching for this bottle. But….and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am grateful to you. So, for a once in a lifetime opportunity, I will let you taste a drop of my specially brewed wine.”

“A drop?” Arachne pouted, crossing her arms. 

“Do you think I’m being stingy? Little girl, I am the god of wine and revelry, I wouldn’t ever dissuade someone from drinking, unless it’s my drink of course. But this is a specially crafted vintage that took me over a thousand years to perfect. This is one of my greatest vintages yet and I was saving it for a special occasion.”

He of course thought that getting out of his punishment was worth the celebration. 

However, every word he spoke just made Arachne want it more.

“Trade.” Arachne finally said.

Dionysus raised an eyebrow. “Do you think you have something worth trading?” he found himself laughing. 

Arachne set a bottle on the desk opposite of him, making his laughter abruptly stop. “Asgardian Mead.”

“.....” Dionysus wasn’t sure how to respond. “Okay, I take back my words. But –” He held up a finger. “-- as good as Asgardian mead is, and I have had it before, my wine is much better.”

He didn’t even question where she got it from. He saw her make an Odin signboard for Ares cabin and could do the simple math there.

Though, he was eyeing that Asgardian Mead rather greedily. It wasn’t every day that someone just dropped a bottle of it in his proverbial lap.

He almost snorted when she set a second identical bottle down next to it.

“Look, it’s not a matter of quantity, but quality.” Though if she set down a few more, he might pour her a glass.

Arachne frowned and knew she had to take out the big guns. “A got something special I….found from me da’s stash.” Arachne didn’t steal it, certainly not. She set down a different bottle, and Dionysus sat up, his eyes snapping wide open as he stared unblinkingly at it.

“What…is that.” He whispered.

Arachne smiled. “Me Aunt Grandma made it. She likes to experiment with different things to make different drinks. This is a fruit wine she made from a bunch o’ different things, including a Peach of Immortality and a Golden Apple..”

Dionysus would admit, there was a little bit of drool coming from his mouth as he nearly snatched the bottle from the girl’s hands.

“If I weren’t already married….” Dionysus whispered. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but little girl, you got a deal.” He pushed his own wine across the table towards her and hastily took the fruit wine as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

It was hard to put a ‘value’ on wines like this, but to each of them, they both had ‘more of the same’ when it came to their respective wines, so they each valued the other enough to consider it a trade in their own favor.

Arachne carefully put it away as well, and she was about to put away the Mead, but Dionysus stopped her.

“Wait, what do you want for the mead?” He asked.

Arachne grinned again. “Whatcha got?”

Dionysus also cracked a smile. “I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

@***@

Arachne left his office with a big smile still on her face.

She had enough now that she would have souvenirs to bring back for everyone to share. 

She found her way back to the others, where they had gathered by sensing Mr. Blueberry. And as soon as she entered, all eyes landed on her.

She also noticed that Mr. Blueberry was no longer disguised.

Chiron gave her the most flat look imaginable.

However, she focused more on Mr. Blueberry who was looking at her with sad eyes, thinking it ‘failed’ his mission.

She gave him a reassuring hug to let him know that he did a good job.

Once she looked up, she realized that everyone was still staring at her, and an awkward cough from Chiron let her know to start paying attention.

“Thou must be thy child of Athena.” A girl Arachne didn’t recognize called to her. “I am Zoë Nightshade, and I come here with my Lady. You are graced with the presence of Lady Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, Hunt, Maidenhood, and Children.”

Arachne looked to the person she was gesturing to.

A younger-looking girl with auburn hair and silver eyes. If Arachne wasn’t paying close attention, it would have been easy to overlook her as a Goddess.

“Kay.” She responded simply.

Zoë Nightshade furrowed her brow, not expecting the lackadaisical response. “Thou will showest respect or –”

“It’s alright, Zoë.” Artemis cut her off. “You have been the talk of us gods recently. I personally came here because you caught my attention.”

“Thou hast been given the most gracious of honors.” Zoë added. “Thou hast been personally visited and invited by the goddess herself to join the Hunters of Artemis. Tis an honor that very few have ever received.”

“...what?” Arachne blinked.

“You will join an elite group of maidens that tend to the Lady. You will join us for hunts unimaginable. You will learn beyond the means of the mortal kin. You will be bequeathed with never knowing the frailty of old age. And most important, thou will have the honor of serving the Lady for all eternity.” Zoë recited.

“.....”

Artemis was smiling good-naturedly, and while Zoë kept a stoic demeanor, they both had the presence that it was a matter of fact that she would join agree.

“What say you, child of Athena?”

“.....the fuck would a want any of that for?” She looked at them like they were idiots.

Very quickly, the temperature in the room plummeted.

@***@

A/N

In that Arachne makes friends, and other campers learn that nobody actually gives a shit about them. And Dionysus finds out that he has a favorite niece.