Solis

Chapter IX

Ron ended up with a high fever that same evening, along with a nightmare. His half-siblings, who hadn't slept, stayed up all night to take care of him, sing a rhythm for their dad, and check on Ron. However, they were confused because it had been two days, and Ron's fever hadn't subsided.

Lee advised them to rest and cooled a towel to place on Ron's forehead. At first, they were hesitant and only gave up when Lee got angry, but later apologized as they were all tired and anxious. 

On that same evening, nearly some of them sensed a slight wavering of magic inside the camp, causing them to feel tense a little—and the following morning, they all simply forgot about the odd magical feeling, thinking it might have been something else, even the Apollo campers were too tired to give it much thought or figure out whatever it was.

"How is he?" Annabeth asked, catching up with some of the tired Apollo campers on their way to the Pavilion. Their responses indicated that Ron was still having a fever.

"Son of Apollo…the god of healing itself..and Ron still has a fever? That's absurd..." Annabeth muttered to herself while heading back to her cabin, and decided to later check Ron.

After almost a week, Lee decided to give Ron some ambrosia again and prayed to their dad, Apollo, for help. Lee was relieved and grateful when Ron's blue eyes started to brighten again. 

"Big bro?" Ron called out to him. Lee felt emotional, but he was not the type to cry in moments of relief and happiness.

"Ron, Ron, I'm here. Don't worry. You're fine," he reassured the redhead, hugging him tightly and as soon as their other half-siblings heard the news, they didn't hesitate to rush towards their cabin and shower Ron with hugs and the redhead giggled at the sudden affections.

🔆

"But I told you guys already! There were people with funny clothes and pointy hats, flying on brooms!“ Ron exclaimed in frustration, stomping his feet at the repeated questions Annabeth was asking. Luke was in his serious and curious mode, wanting to know more details.

After Ron completely recovered from his high fever, his half-siblings couldn't help but ask him what had happened, why Luke found him in the attic, and what he was doing with Luke, Annabeth, and Chiron in the Big House in the first place. The questions overwhelmed Ron, causing him to blurts out whatever he had seen from the attic.

Thought everyone was just relieved that nothing bad happened to Ron.

"Did Austin gave you another new comic last summer?" Annabeth once asked, raising an eyebrow, as it was their turn to question Ron.

"No! Uhm, yeah! It was another season of Spiderman!" Ron admitted.

"Yeah..." Annabeth still had her eyebrow raised, not fully convinced.

"You guys don't believe me!" Ron exclaimed in frustration. “It was like I was really there with those people, It was really scaaaary!“

"It wasn't about us believing you," Luke finally said, expressing his own thoughts. Ron gave him a big, bright smile, feeling relieved that someone now believed him. "It was the attic, so not surprising," Luke added, ruffling the redhead's hair.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and replied, "Whatever."

But Ron noticed the long scar on Luke's face and narrowed his eyes at both of them. "Heeeyy.“ He began while pointing at them, “I still haaate both of you for not telling me the queeeest!"

After their bickering with each other and Ron being amazed when Luke told him how he fought the dragon—Ladon, he didn't manage to get the apples, but he did manage to get the Dragon's claw. Ron thinks that was more awesome than getting the apples.

Ron was hopping happily as they returned to their cabin while Annabeth and Luke began whispering to each other, but Ron accidentally caught some of their words.

"Are you sure it wasn't the Oracle?" Annabeth whispered, glancing nervously at Ron. She sighed with relief when the redhead wasn't paying attention to them.

"No, it wasn't the Oracle," Luke responded. "But Chiron might know what it is. People with pointy hats and flying with brooms? They must be Hecate's people...“

After hanging out with the two, the redhead had a serious talk with Lee, and he almost got banned from visiting the Big House. But Lee just decided to ban him from the upper parts of the Big House instead. This way, he could still help out in the infirmary if needed.

Ron did almost forget about what happened, and seemed everyone so, especially when summer arrived again. 

The camp was already crowded in the first week of summer, with a few new campers, maybe three of them, who hadn't been claimed by their godly parent yet. Ron even noticed Annabeth following one of them, and when he mentioned it, the blonde girl gave him a hard glare, as if he had called her a creepy stalker.

Kayla and Austin came back to the camp earlier that week. They gave Ron their belated birthday presents; a cheap wristwatch from Kayla and a Spiderman figurine from Austin. 

They started their summer by training, playing around, and listening to Austin practicing his saxophone at the Amphiathre joined by satyrs and dryads every two days while, sometimes Ron join them by playing the flute that he always borrows from the satyr named Marton—who always says you smells funny every year to him when they meet. 

And there was this new camper who Ron was looking at very intently with his bright blue eyes besides him. The boy began sweating nervously because of the sudden staring as he stayed silent in a corner of the Arena, sitting on the ground.

The boy had tan skin and blond hair, but Ron was particularly interested in his lighter blue eyes.

They remained in this manner for ten minutes until the boy cleared his throat. "Um," he started, feeling uncomfortable.

"Wanna play volleyball?" Ron suddenly asked, his eyes shining in excitement. The boy blinked at him three times before nodding slowly, taken aback by the unexpected invitation.

"Where are you from? Do you live out there too? Outside of here? Annie refers to it as the mortal world," Ron mentioned, and the taller boy began to rise, clutching his left arm. "Are you injured? Do you wanna go to the infirmary?"

The boy shook his head. "I live in Texas... with my mom," he said softly. "I'm okay, it's just a habit."

"Oh," Ron responded with a smile. "That's cool!Where's Texas?"

"You're not familiar with... Texas?" the boy asked, looking puzzled.

"Nope! I've never been outside, but that's okay," Ron giggled, and the boy started to follow him. 

"Is your hair natural?" the boy asked as they made their way to the volleyball court. 

“Yup!“

“How old are you?“

“Eight!"

“Oh.“

The taller boy started to feel somewhat comfortable with Ron's friendly replies. He initially assumed that the conversation might end there, but Ron had different plans. He began asking questions about what it's like to live outside, whether there are buildings in Texas, if they have cars, and if there are also different places there that sell food—especially bacons.

"Is Spiderman really not a true person? What's the name for that suuuper long car with lots of windows, and what about that car that goes up in the sky?" Ron kept bombarding the boy with a stream of questions that kept changing to another and another, the boy suddenly feel pressured as he tried to answer all of them.

With all the questions, Ron ended up forgetting to ask the first important question he was supposed to say—asking the boy's name. 

Well, Ron did eventually found out during the campfire sing-along when the boy was claimed.