Half Blood Revenge

My half, half-brother

After about 2 hours of learning how to carry the weight of the armor, balance myself, hold a shield properly, I was ready to call it quits. Griff came over to check on how our first day was going and I think he saw the exhaustion in my face. He told Halle and Ethan to give me a break.

Griff says to me, “Melody, join me in a walk. I will give you a little tour around.”

I am relieved to hear this and gladly join Griff so I can stop being hit for a while. At first Griff was quiet and then started pointing out what some of the buildings were. There was a library, game room, hospital, armory, school building and more. I come to find out they call the large Parthenon looking building base camp.

As we are walking along, I couldn’t help but ask. “Griff, am I able to meet Phil? I guess he would be my half-brother.”

“That’s where we are heading my dear, Melody. Phil is usually in the music hall.”

“THERE IS A MUSIC HALL HERE!” I say with so much excitement. All the pain has disappeared and I am filled with pure joy.

Griff laughs. “Yes, Melody. We have a music hall. You aren’t the first musically inclined half-blood child to come through here.”

Now that we are getting closer to the building, it is starting to take shape and at the top of the building is the same shape as my necklace. It is a beautiful golden Lyre. I gaze up at it and smile. As we enter the building Griff explains the layout. There are smaller private rooms I could use to practice and there are bigger orchestra rooms where large groups can put on performances.

“Phil is now our lead director. I know you two will get along well.”

“Griff, I am now super nervous to meet Phil. What if he thinks I am no good?” I ask.

“Melody, if you are anything like Apollo’s other children, you will be fine. I have been alive for a long time, so I have had the pleasure of meeting several of his children. All seem to have some sort of musical talent.”

We walk for another minute and I can hear the amazing music coming from down the hall. There are several large, double doors. I am thinking this is the orchestra room. Griff uses his big paw and pushed open the door. The man on stage stops performing and looks at his intruders.

“Hey there, Phil. I do apologize profusely for the interruption. But, there is someone I must introduce you to.”

Phil rises from his seat. For 60 years old, Phil seems like he is still in pretty good shape. His hair is dirty blonde like mine, but you can see the gray hairs lining his temple area. He is a pretty tall guy, I am guessing about 6 foot 2 inches tall. He reaches out his hand for me to shake it. He is surprisingly muscular.

I am greeted with, “Hello there young lady, my name is Phil. It is great to meet you.”

I think my cheeks must be fully blushed at this point, but I am able to respond. “Hi Phil, my name is Melody. I just arrived yesterday.”

“Melody is the daughter of Apollo.” Griff says to Phil. Phil’s eyes widen and turn back to me. Then to my surprise, I am embraced in a huge hug and he is picking me off the floor and spinning me around.

“Wow. Oh, wow. I have another half-blood sister. I never thought this day would come. I have been waiting so long to meet you!” Phil rambles and I am amazed by his excitement.

“I am excited to meet you as well. I heard you playing before we came in, you are amazing!” I say to Phil.

He brushed it off like it is nothing. Griff excuses himself while Phil and I spend time talking. I learn that Phil is in fact 61 years old. He likes to stay physically fit and runs 5 miles a day still! He was born in Philadelphia, Pa and he had a sister named Harper. He talked about how he came here when we was 18 and has been here ever since. I could tell it upset him to mention Harper’s name, so I didn’t ask any further questions about it.  I did want to find out why he hasn’t left Camp Delos in 42 years, but I could find out later.

Phil then began to ask about me, where I grew up, if I had another other “normal” siblings. I told him how it was just mom and I and we moved around a lot. He thought it was cool that I got to see so much. He then asked about my musical talent.

Phil wanted to see what I could do. He asked what instrument I played so I could show him. I told him to take his pick. He laughed at that but then was really impressed when I told him I could play pretty much any instrument out there.

I ended up picking up the flute and played a tune for him. He then asked me to play the same song, but on the oboe. Then again followed by the saxophone and finally on the violin.

“Melody, you are quite impressive.” Phil says to me. I blush.

“Thank you, Phil. Music has always come naturally to me. It’s like once the instrument hits my hands, my body knows exactly what to do with it.”

I go on to add, “Phil, one of my special powers is that when I play, I can put people into a trance, of sorts. That didn’t seem to happen to you. Is there a reason why.”

“That is a great observance, Melody. It really is for two reasons. Number one, I am also a child of Apollo, so your powers will not work on me, and mine won’t work on you. Number two, I bet you can learn to use your powers to effect those you want and not trance those you don’t.”

“What are your powers, Phil? If you don’t mind me asking.” I say, feeling a little shy even asking.

“I don’t mind sharing. I am sad to say that I only have one. While I have inherited Apollo’s musical talents, the only thing I have a special talent for is healing. If I am not here, I am in the hospital, using my powers to heal.”

“How does that work?” I ask him.

“Well, I am not exactly sure! But, what I have learned over the years is that my healing power can be used with I play instruments or when I sing. I can choose when I want to use the healing power. The power does have limitations though.” He states as he stand us and gestures me to follow him. “Let’s go see it in action.”

I get up and follow Phil out of the music hall. It looks like we are heading to the hospital.

“I am going to show you what it looks like. When I sing, I channel the healing energy into my hands. They emit a sort of light that I can touch the area that needs healed. Now, I can’t help everyone. Some wounds are too far, even for my powers.”

“Are there any repercussions when you use your powers?” I ask Phil.

“That’s a great question, and yes there is.” He says. “Depending on how much energy I put into healing, I grow very tired. If I have one patient that needs a lot of my energy, I could be out for a day or two.”

“Wow, what type of healing has it been to do that?” I ask.

Phil starts to explain how healing something like a broken bone doesn’t require much of his energy. Things like internal bleeding, deep cuts and lots of blood loss can really drain his powers. I am impressed with his skill. Having healing power seems pretty cool.

“Here, let’s see who may need my help today.” Phil says. “I am really utilized when someone needs help quick. Otherwise, they can go through the normal healing process. Because of our half-blood genetics, we heal faster than normal humans would.”

That is so cool, I think to myself. Maybe that is why I rarely got sick and how my wrist healed so quickly when Alex ran me over!

“Ah, Melody, this is Evan. He is son of Hermes. Evan’s special skill is speed.”

“Hi Evan.” I say to him and reach out my hand. Evan looks to be in his upper 20’s and seems like a “not playing by the rules” type of guy.

“Hey, Phil. Think you can help a brother out and repair my broken femur?” Evan asks Phil.

“Yes, and I don’t even want to know what caused it, so stay quiet and let me work.” Phil answers.

Evan looks calm and relaxed. You can tell this is not his first healing. I stand back and watch Phil work. First, he begins to sway back and forth. Then, he begins to hum some sort of song. I am not sure what it is.  Next, he starts running his hands together. His hands start to glow emitting some sort of light from them. Finally, he places his hands over Evan’s femur, closes his eyes and finishes his song.

Evan remained cool as a cucumber during the whole process. I thought bone repair would be at least a little painful, but he didn’t flinch. Once Phil was done, he looks up at Evan and asks how he feels. Evan moves his leg around, jumps off the table and shouts “Good as new! Thanks Phil, you’re the man!” And runs out at lightning speed.

“He’ll be back tomorrow.” Phil says with a laugh.

I was still stuck in shock, so no questions were coming out of my mouth. But, Phil broke the silence and said, “healing makes me hungry, let’s go get some dinner.”

I was thankful because my stomach was starting to rumble. Time seemed to be flying by and I didn’t realize that I didn’t eat lunch. I spent so much time talking with Phil, I lost all track of time.

We head into the cafeteria and the air smells amazing.

“Ahhhh, chicken parmesan tonight.” Phil says. “Go grab a tray and I will come find you. I want to take a moment to find Eric while I am here.”

So, I go in line and fill up my plate with pasta, chicken and a side salad. I also grab a cookie for dessert. I fill up a large cup of water realizing I haven’t had much to drink all day. After I leave the line I head to the tables and find Alex, Halle and Ethan.

They ask where I have been all day and I tell them I had the chance to meet Phil today and how well we are getting along. I can sense a little sadness from Alex. I feel bad that he doesn’t have a half, half-blood sibling. Well, he does. She isn’t here though.

“Did he tell you about Harper?” Alex asks.

“No, I could tell he got upset when he mentioned her name, so I thought it best not to rush it.” I said back. “How did the rest of training go?” I asked the group.

“Your boy, Alex, is a beast with weapons,” says Halle. Alex looked to actually blush a bit with her comment.

“Well, his mom is the goddess of the hunt, so it makes sense that he is good with weapons.” Ethan adds with a nudge towards Alex. It’s really cool that they are all getting along so well.

I tell them all about what Phil and I did during the day. When dinner was over, Phil was still not back. Halle and Ethan said the rest of the day was to us. I decided I wanted to go back to my room and shower and relax the rest of the night. I had a lot on my mind after the day and could use the time to unwind.