Wait, they're supposed to be dangerous... (Kendall)

It had become a regular occurence for George to venture in the forest alone. Judging from his antisocial tendencies, which now came in contrast with his actual attempt to make friends, -and mostly failure, even though people at camp weren't always as bad as in the outside world- t wasn't a surprise that he would often opt to pick his sword and escape from the crowded camp to find some peace and quiet. And think about whatever, evaluate meetings, people, circumstances. Most times he came in the forest he would encounter monsters, which he liked, because he was afraid of them. Yes, you read it correctly. No,it wasn't a mistake. He enjoyed facing his fears and coping with failure. Probably that's why he keeps trying to read, even though he sucks at it, and tries to make friends, even though he -again- sucks at it. Oh well, he might just be a masochist, for all he knew. He cracked a smile at the thought, mostly because he found it oddly accurate. His blond hair gleamed in the sunlight. The day was fricking hot, wasn't it? Two months at this fascinating place yet he still hadn't gotten used to it. Nor to most things anyway. He was same as how he had gotten here, just with a sword. And a home. Actually, that was a huge improvement, on second thought.

He checked his surroundings. He was fairly sure no one was around. That was always nice. He sat down, his back leaning to a tree and just relaxed. That would probably waste his time till dinner time. If not, well, he wouldn't cry over it. We are talking about a camp with a multitude of different exciting activities. He would probably try the Lava wall, or the library. He sighed. No need to get ahead of himself. Now, he was supposed to clear his mind, and relax.

For some reason, Bee had decided to drift into the forest today after another shouting-filled lunchtime with her lovely demititan comrades -- and then realized that was a terrible mistake when she realized she was lost after about half an hour of very purposeful walking, as if for some reason she had decided to wander in to do something instead of just... flit around like a little birdie.

But for some reason, there was this nagging feeling in the back of her head that something was around here waiting for her, which began to grow as she walked deeper into the forest. There was no one in sight, so maybe it was one of those weird demigod senses that Chiron had told her about -- maybe she was sensing a monster or something. She didn't know any other kids who could do that, besides Stella who could sense people based on their breathing or wind movements around them -- but she was an outlier and should not have been counted.

So there she was, lost in the forest with nowhere to go. It was a bit hot, but the shade from the trees was nice and soothing. Maybe a nymph or satyr would pass by and help her? Unlikely, but it was a glimmer of hope. Bee wasn't exactly scared, but she wasn't very confident that none of the scary stories her cabinmates had told her about monsters in the woods were untrue. Myrmekes and hellhounds, oh my.

A buzzing sound filled the air as Bee walked on, and then a light whisper of an almost childlike voice: Hello. Hello missus. Hello.

She yelped and whipped around suddenly -- but there was no one there. She pressed her hand to her heart and gazed around, wondering if she were hallucinating.

Hello? Hello hello hello. Are you Lord Melisseus' child? You look like him.

"Who is this?" Bee demanded, spinning around on her heel for a full view of the area. "Where are you? Show yourself!"

Look up in the tree to your right, missus. We won't hurt you.

A slight turn of her head -- and then Bee saw the hive, attached to the base of a large tree limb about ten feet off the ground. She stared up at it for a moment before unconsciously taking a step forward, as several bees flew out as if to greet her: "What's this?"

And of course, rule #1 of life applied himself: When George is relaxing, peace and quiet gets disrupted. He sighed when he heard a voice nearby, calling someone to show himself, then confused asking what was going on, or something between the lines of that. His curiosity got the best of him as he got up and walked towards the source of sound. The person that disrupted' him was a female, little short. Not much surprise, camp was stocked with females. She seemed fairly confused, maybe she was lost? Luckily he visited the forest often enough to know his way. If that was the case, he would be able to help. But first, he needed yo approach her, didn't he? "H-hey there. Y-you okay? Are you l-lost?" Ugh, stuttering. His shyness getting the better of him. So annoying...

Bee started suddenly at the sound of a new voice, but this one was definitely much louder: a boy's, very close by. Turning suddenly, she saw a boy walking towards her cautiously as the thing whispered: It's okay. He comes here lots. He's nice to us, to us bees. As if on cue, the buzzing became louder as more bees flooded out of the hive like spectators flocking to a school cafeteria fight.

Bees? Bees. The bees were talking to her. She kept forgetting she could do that -- her powers were so weird. In the short time she had been at camp, she had never once actively tried to use any of these so-called "powers" her father Melisseus had passed down to her. Not for the world would she ever go to that damned arena with her stupid, despicable cabin-mates unless they physically dragged her there kicking and screaming. Sort of the same way she'd go down to Hel-- er, the Underworld, if somehow she was judged terribly.

She laughed nervously and, ignoring the little voices of the buzzing winged insects that were now floating suspiciously near her head, she waved to the boy. "Well, howdy-doo, stranger. Yes, I'm fine -- and lost, but still healthy. Can you direct me out of here? Towards the cabins, preferably?"

[ooc: sorry for the late post]

After some moments, the girl laughed in nervousness. From what had it derived? Then she spoke to him. "Howdy-doo, stranger." Was that sarcasm or just trying to sound friendly. The girl freaked him out a bit. But she did ask for his help, and he'd offer it. He smiled at her. "Sure. Let's say l know my way. Follow me."he said as he started walking. Well, that would be an interesting way to spend his time. With a stranger, trying to lead her out of the forest. "How come you got lost? We were close to the Titan Cabin, too. Nasty and dangerous people, or, to be fair, so l've heard.By the way, l'm George. Cabin six. You?" He wouldn't be able to guess her parentage, which was unusual, since most people were easy to identify. Usually demigods have stereotypical appearances according to their parentage, but with this demigoddess it was not the case. That was even a little annoying, not being able to guess. He tried to fix his attention on where they were going, since there was a slight chance of getting cometely lost if he didn't. Or lead her to certain death facing a monster, since today he had been smart enough to forget his sword, which fairly unnerved him.

So they took off walking together, with the bees following at a distance behind her while making no effort to hide themselves and their buzzing sounds -- way to make it obvious, guys. Bee mentally blessed whoever the heck was the parent of Cabin 6 for having such a nice son to lead her out of the forest, but then --

"I, uh." It had all been going so well, too, until George had brought up the Titan Cabin and explicitly pointed out its reputation to her. She hadn't even known there was a second one nearby. Nobody had told her there was a second one. Why was she so ill-informed? Why did they even need to have two cabins to themselves in the first place, if there were so few of them? Nothing in this camp made any damned sense, and now Bee had to figure out how to survive before she did something that would cost her a limb or two or maybe her life.

Well. It certainly wouldn't help her if she told him about her dad; he might insult her or, even worse, abandon her in the middle of the forest with nobody but the bees to help her. (For good reason, she didn't exactly trust them when it came to directions. Maybe she was just hallucinating her conversations with them. She wouldn't put it past anything that was happening around camp.) She had to think for a second: If she didn't know her way out of the forest, she was obviously at most semi-new to camp. She was thirteen years old, but maybe she could pass for twelve. The centaur man, Chiron, had mentioned to her something about demigods being claimed by the age of thirteen, but this kid might not be able to tell her age and could assume if she lied that she was younger than what she really was.

The main issue was: she sucked at lying. Could not stand it. Could not look people in the eye while doing it. Honesty was key, but did you really have to be honest when it looked like your guide out of a dark forest might abandon you as some wretched tyrant if you claimed to be part of a certain group of people? Maybe not. But it still made Bee feel terrible for even thinking about doing it.

Laughing uncomfortably, she tried her best to give a confident reply: "Uh. I'm Bee -- for Beatrice. Unclaimed or something, that's what I was told. Still waiting on getting claimed or whatever that means."

But you are Lord Melisseus' child? That damned bee again. Why do you lie? Be proud of your heritage! He is a goodly lord.

~~~~

[ooc: clearly she sucks at lying]

She didn't talk much. Rare case. But it was a happy change. They walked silently, him waiting for her reply, which was an obvious lie. Why? Was she ashamed of her parentage? He didn't get it. To be honest, he didn't like being an Athena kid either, he felt too stupid. But denying it? Couldn't she just be hit by a thunder or whatever any moment now since she did that? Or she indeed was unclaimed and ashame of it. People were usually claimed at the first night's campfire, or generally their first days. He himself had been claimed within minutes, which made no sense since he possesed no extraordinary talents or powers. Or any for that matter. He gave her a look and her body language suggested that she was indeed lying. He shot her a blank look. "Why would you ever lie about that?" he asked, honestly puzzled. Part of him couldn't help but think it was his fault, but he hadn't done a thing. Weird, he thought, then encouragingly tried to smile at her t persuade her to tell the truth.

"Eh. I...." How could she put this so that it didn't sound like another blatant lie? George already knew she was lying about the first thing, and since she sucked at lying he would definitely figure out if she was lying again. Bee still did have issues trying to believe in all this Greek/Roman/Norse/Egyptian mumbo-jumbo, though, so there was always that. Assuming a bit of a more confident air now, she shrugged and replied as casually as she could: "Still in denial about the godly thing, I guess. I was just a regular brat a while ago. Still don't believe I'm not having some sort of weird hallucination, I refuse to believe this isn't some giant joke. I'm gonna take everything with a grain of salt 'til I see for myself what's up and maybe talk it over with my mom."

And why wouldn't she? Magic and hellhounds and centaurs, oh my. Everything Bee had ever been taught was science- and logic-based; magic was, as far as she knew with her past learning from her parents and school, a giant trick. But Bee couldn't explain why she could talk to bees, couldn't explain why the other demititans had fallen out of the sky to help her and then brought her back on a cloud. Maybe she was dreaming. It would be a lot less painful.

George nodded. He could understand what she said. The whole thing was beyond confusing and ridiculous. Him being half God was even worse and difficult to believe. But at least here he felt like he belonged somewhere. He was less of a social outcast. Then of course still that meant she had been claimed. And she hadn't answered that question. "Yes, but who claimed.you? Different thing than believing it. I know it is, l still don't get being the son of Athena. I honestly feel mentally challenged sometimes." He blinked hard. Why the hell was he confessing that to a stranger? He averted his look and wishpered. "You get the point. Who is your God parent?"

"Some dude who controls bees, I think. Starts with an... 'M.'" Crap, had she really forgotten her supposed biological father's name? That was a new low for Bee, and definitely not one she'd like to sink to ever again. Guy hadn't been around for, like, all her life, but she still needed to know his name to yell at him if she ever saw him. "Like. Michael? No, wait, it ends with an 'S.' Like.... Mortis? That doesn't even sound like a name, I'm sorry. I think I blocked out most of ehat happened my first week."

The bees behind her seemed to be a bit amused, because one said slyly: Mel--

"-inda?" She turned to look back at the group, which seemed to have collected quite a following; there were at least twelve bees there now, buzzing along like a tiny black-and-yellow winged biker gang.

Melisseus. Your father's name is Melisseus.

"... oops."

Starts with M, dude that controls bees? Instantly, his inner Athena-ism got activated, him wanting to 'solve' the 'riddle'. He had that on the tip of his tongue when she said -inda. That distracted him because she was just randomly saying half words. Which was fairly creepy. Oh well, he had actually found it himself. "Isn't it Melisseius... or something between the lines of that?" Then it occured to him. The guy was a Titan. Then why the hell had she asked him to get her towards the cabins. And his nect thought was, he had no way to defend himself against a powerful demititan. On the other hand, she hsdn't shown hoatility, whereas he had said bad things about the Titan cabin. "Uh...sorry about that before. With"the Titan cabin.

"I, uh... yeah. It's no problem, I expected to hear that." And what a terrible thing to expect, to have people trampling on your identity before they even knew about it. Bee wasn't too keen now on walking with George, but still -- to get out of the forest was pretty damned important to her. "I won't hurt you or anything," she half-mumbled to him, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly as the bees behind her buzzed, almost dangerously, as she spoke. "I just wanna get out of here. And maybe the rest of camp too, I don't like it here."

And why wouldn't she? Her cabinmates sucked and so did their cabin's general reputation.

It seemed that George had f-ed up. Pretty badly. Suddenly Bee was very cautious with her words and really negative towards ihim. Which was a bummer, because he just wanted to help her. On the other hand, why the hell did she want to go to the cabins at the main camp instead of her own? There were many other questions too unanswered. "So... l take it you actually want to go to your cabin? Cause, uh, it's the other way. I will gladly lead you there if your cabinmates don't show off their enormous powers, with me as a target. And, l am really sorry about that before. I mean, you certainly don't fit the demititan descriptios. Which is a great thing."

Other way? Missus, he's leading you astray.

"What d'ya mean, 'other way'? Isn't that leading further into the woo-- wait a second." Bee paused for a second to collect her thoughts, then continued on slowly: "No, it's at the main camp. My cabinmates mentioned an old cabin in the woods. Is that where you're leading me? 'Cause I definitely don't wanna go there."

Another pause. Bee was sure he was a bit nervous about the very thought of her being near him, so she tried to console him a bit. The very prospect of being near someone so "powerful" -- which was ironic, because she was the daughter of one of the most ridiculous Titans -- probably didn't make people too eager to help them thanks to their beautiful reputation as murderous tyrants. "They won't care a speck for you, you'll be fine. They don't care about me either for not fitting in, so... s'all good." She shrugged nonchalantly, waiting for him to proceed further out of the forest. Bee had absorbed that thought long ago and would probably not deviate from it very much in the future; nothing her fellow demititans did or said to her would make her any less suspicious of anything they did for her, nor would she want to do anything for them. To be a stranger in a place you were supposed to call home -- ha.

George was puzzled for a mere moment, then he understood how wrong his last statement had been. "No, l've been leading you to the main camp. Just, since l found you close to that cabin.and you said you are a demititan, l thought you wanted to go there." He decided not to comment on her reassurement. He had already screwed things up by mentioning how bad the demititans were and how dangerous and all that stuff, whereas the girl just wanted his freaking help. And he nearly messed up again since he had considered leading her to that old cabineven further into the woods. Worst GPS ever. "Don't worry, we're getting there..." he said silently, his tone of voice sad since at the same time he was thinking how much he sucked at such simple tasks like socializing or showing people the coreect way to get somewhere. Or anything really.

"I... yeah. It's fine. Didn't even know that place existed, honestly, I only just got here a few weeks ago." How awkward. Why did everything always end up like this when she was around? Nothing of this sort had happened at home, but... that was when Bee thought she knew she was perfectly normal, aside from a few weird instances that she could neither prove or disprove to others. Rubbing her arm, she stared straight ahead as they continued to walk, not really sure what to say now or if anything could be said at all.

Missus? The bee again, tentatively poking his head into the conversation. Are you angry at the boy? Shall we sting him?

Bee turned to look over her shoulder, scowling slightly as she hissed out of the corner of her mouth: "You leave him alone."

They kept walking in awkward silence. He kept wondering if he should say anything at all for the rest of the walk. He leaned towards keeping silent when he heard the Bee girl say "You leave him alone." No sense, not at all. Either she was warning him not to harm something/someone he hadn't noticed or she was fighting with her conscience on wether she should kill him for saying bad things about the Titan cabin. He turned towards her. "Uh, i-is anything wrong?" Did l do another thing wtong? he wanted to keep on, but he didn't.

Bee shook her head, turning back to face forward as they continued to walk their winding way through the forest. "Oh no, nothing. Just... talking to bees. Not bad."

It was a weirs ability that had only just taken off the day she arrived at camp -- maybe it was because she had been claimed that the bees would now speak to her, aaas they hadn't before. But they probably knew her heritage, right? That was why they had helped her during her first hellhound attack. Maybe her father had told them not to speak to her, or she had mentally blocked them out until the stunning revelation that she was a demititan, or that the bees simply hadn't wanted to talk to her. So few answers, so little time to search for them.

The silence between her and George felt sort of suffocating, so she hesitantly ventured: "You got any weird powers?"

Talking to bees. Right. Sometimes he forgot how... supernatural his fellow campers were. Even that -seemingly- useless ability, was far more,than he would ever have. Zeus kids summoned thunder, Poseidon's water, Aeolus air etc. and the other Athena kids were at least disgustingly intelligent. And there was he, with the ability to do NOTHING. Needless to say, he cringed when she decided to break the silence with asking him about his powers. "Uh, l-l don't have any." he said, his voice a wishper in embarassment, stopping on his tracks and looking down at his tpes. The non existence of any powers made him feel even more useless than his issues in...behaving like a human. Basically, he left the outside world, where he was,an outcast, and here, where everyone thatwas an outcast led a somewhat-not really- normal life, he was,even more of an outcast.

"Well, that's good, actually. Powers sorta suck." Bee wasn't really surprised they had stopped so suddenly, but whatever. At least she knew she was on her way out of this damned forest with this guy, who probably wasn't so bad if he could get past his anti-demititan prejudices (but she couldn't blame him for it, they weren't nice people). "Just a whole new set of things to worry about besides the demigod thing. What if you accidentally hurt someone? What if you even kill? They're not fun, just another liability."

Maybe she was being a bit too emphatic about it; maybe she was just blinded by her anger at being wrested from her home to get plopped smack-dab in the middle of some camp for Greek gods' kids. But she definitely didn't like her powers, definitely didn't want such obvious proof that she wasn't normal anymore and could never be. Shuffling around on the grass, Bee felt slightly more awkward as she stood there, waiting for the boy to reply again; he looked uncomfortable and that was definitely her fault. God. This was all so stupid.

It was really weird. She was the first person to not like having powers at all. It may showed in his expression too because she was becoming more uncomfortable towards him. Or so it felt. But anyway, he had to express his disagreement to her false statement. "I-l get it. With great power comes great responsibility et cetera. But the powers are the good part. Unless you think the good part is dyslexia or the monster attacks or not fitting anywhere or fighting for your life every second of your existence. The powers balance it out. They are gifts inside the curse of demigod life."He gave her a weak smile. "Or for the ones that have them, that is." He realised his behaviour had caused them to stop. He hsdn't noticed because it was a subconscious reaction. Maybe that's why she had become even more uncomfortable with him. She wanted to get rid of him and his -well, not exactly his, but it felt like it- forest. He started walking again, leading her out. "Don't worry, we're getting there. You won't have to bear with me for much longer."

Bee had to hand it to him, he was sort of right: powers did balance out a lot of those weird demigod issues they had going on in their lives. But her own powers were fairly useless in the long-run, she couldn't exactly agree that they were gifts to her. "Power and responsibility -- yeah, Uncle Ben, that's part of it. Issue is sometimes your powers are pretty damned useless. I can talk to bees. How will that help me in battle? Bit of fire and they're dead. Bit of water and they can't fly. Some kids are born lucky -- but that doesn't mean their powers should define who they are, and lack of powers definitely won't. We've all got our strengths. Some people's are magical powers. Some are plain talents anyone can be born with -- but few can really, really hone in on. Those people are just as special as anyone with powers, honestly, even if it doesn't relate to your parent."

Was she preaching now? Maybe. The thought that George felt inferior because of his lack of powers dawned on her, finally formed into words in her head, made her do a double-take. Maybe Bee was going about this all wrong, but she almost didn't want him to feel bad for his supposed inadequacy. He couldn't help it. Neither could she. As they started walking again, she mentioned softly: "And y'know. You're not a bad person to talk to, we just started on the wrong foot is all. No need to rush 'less you need to get somewhere."

She initially replied to his complaint with one of her own. About how her powers are supposedly useless and that they couldn't be handy in a battle and so on. And she seemingly was right, but in George's opinion, there was no way she had only the power to talk to bees. She was a demititan after all. And these were stronger than Demigods. Considering that he had faced a person that could use the Force to msnipulate weapons, Bee surely had some butt-kicking powers. "Nah, you are a demititan after all. You just haven't discovered all your powers yet. You just need to practice and develop them. Chiron can help you, he's nice." he said, all serious mode. After that he didn't have what to say, realising that she had spoken well of him, saying that, and l quote, "he's not a bad person to talk to". Granted it wasn't much, but more than most people would ever tell him. He just smiled weakly at Bee.

"Demititan, schmemititan," Bee muttered bitterly, kicking a rock with her shoe and sending it skittering across the forest floor. Dead leaves everywhere underfoot. Twigs. Shrubs. Classic forest stuff with minor differences, like, you know, mythical creatures prancing around in the shadows and ready to kill you -- like bears but worse in every possible way. "I don't see why everyone thinks we're so special. Is it just 'cause we're closer to the gods by blood? I don't even know mythology. What the hell."

This was all so stressful: so many names to memorize, so many relationships to ignore, so many powers to learn to avoid or use to her advantage. This was worse than US History class, and that was saying something; Bee hated that class, even though she was pretty decent at remembering timelines and all. (Could she consider Greek mythology history now, since it was all true? God. What a paradox.) Fighting for her life was a lot harder than she thought it'd be at this point, and she wasn't sure her beautiful bee powers would help her much in anything but annoying people and herself. Why would she ever want to develop such useless --

Missus? We must go. Goodbye, goodbye. And then the sounds of buzzing were beginning to ebb away as the bees turned to leave her and George alone, which she silently praised God for. Maybe they knew she didn't want them around; maybe they just needed to go hunt for flowers. Either way, she was glad. Having them stalking her from behind had become slightly unnerving, to say the least, and she didn't know why they thought they could help her in any way. It was... endearing, at least.

George wanted to laugh, due to how different their viewpoints were. "You sound like you don't want to be special. Why would you not want to be special? You can be powerful and all and do good things and you have a better chance of surviving than most demigods yet you don't think you're special?"lt was really almost funny since he strived to feel special. Or well, a good special. He already felt special-ly bad. And now he found a person that didn't like demigod life because she was special. He would never dislike demigod as much as there were things he hated because it was a lot better than living in a foster home waiting to find a family that you'd never actually have and be bullied by anyone, not being socially accepted. All this made hard for him to understand Bee's point. Actually, not to understand it, but to agree with it. At least those creepy bees had left.