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tsarisfanfiction · 2 years

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Snake Day

Fandom: Heroes of Olympus Rating: Teen Genre: Friendship Characters: Will Solace, Apollo Cabin, Malcolm Pace, Clarisse La Rue

There’s an agreement between cabins six and seven: Cabin Seven takes point on the spiders. Cabin Six takes point on the snakes.

Just a silly little thing to get my muses back in order, based on my headcanon that Apollo kids have a snake phobia. No exact timescale in mind for this, but it’s probably around MOA - HOH but before the Tartarus Napkin.

Reminder that there’s now a discord server for all my fics, including this one! If you wanna chat with me or with other readers about stuff I write (or just be social in general), hop on over and say hi!

Everyone knew Athena kids couldn’t do spiders. Will felt bad for them – while he, personally, had no issue with the eight-legged creatures and would happily relocate them outside when asked, having a whole group of creatures that targeted you specifically for your parentage sucked. It sucked even worse when they were small and crafty enough to crawl in through closed windows and non-existent cracks in walls and floors.

Spiders were a horrific thing to have as a natural enemy, and every time cabin six erupted into terrified screams and cabin seven led the charge to evict the culprits, Will found himself incredibly grateful not to be on the receiving end of that. Still he, personally, had no quarrel with spiders and was quite happy to be Annabeth or Malcolm (depending who was filling the head counsellor position)’s first port of call when they had an infestation that needed removing.

Cabin six and cabin seven had an agreement, after all.

Will almost trod on it when he left the cabin that morning, and immediately thanked his dad that his foot – clad in just a flip-flop, as per usual – missed it by a scant inch.

Well, he thanked Apollo after letting out a shrill scream he’d be embarrassed about in any other situation and scrambling backwards, away from the hss and strike of the fanged monster lying in wait. He slammed the cabin door shut, gaining the attention of any siblings that had somehow missed the shriek and bodily pressed his back against it, aware that he was trembling like a leaf.

His siblings didn’t ask questions. There was only one thing that his reactions could possibly stem from, and it had them hurrying to barricade the windows, faces white. Unlike cabin six, they were only rarely plagued by creatures, much to Will’s ongoing relief. He wasn’t sure why there was a general lack of snakes in Camp Half-Blood, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

He just wished it was an all the time lack, rather than just general.

He also wished that the snakes, when they came, weren’t so big, or numerous. It was as though the serpents co-ordinated their attacks, because when they came, they always came in droves. Will had only seen the one, but prior experience told him that there would be several other snakes lurking in the grass outside of the cabin.

They were also vicious, nasty things, and maybe it was the sheer terror welling up inside him that led him to insist that every move they made was an attack, or preparation thereof, but he had no positive snake experiences to compare it with – and as far as his siblings were concerned, he’d got off the lightest when it came to the snakes.

Austin had scarring on his leg from when he’d arrived at camp, half-carried by his protector, the satyr whiter than Will had known satyrs could get. Will remembered staying by his new brother’s side day and night for three days as he desperately made sure that all the venom was neutralised – proof that the snakes were dangerous, and were actively trying to kill Apollo kids.

Not one of them would be leaving the safety of their cabin – safe only as long as none of the snakes had managed to slither in before they put themselves on lockdown – until every single snake was removed from camp. It was a tall order, that was true, and it was definitely a good thing that the serpents didn’t come often because clearing out the snakes was a huge operation – far bigger than relocating spiders away from cabin six – but cabin seven had horror stories about too many of their number succumbing to snake bites even inside camp to risk it.

Thankfully, the rest of the campers liked Apollo kids enough to rally against the snakes (either that, or they just didn’t want to lose their healers; Will was pragmatic enough to know that some of them, at least, saw them as nothing more than handy healers). Cabin six took the lead, Will knew, the same way cabin seven took the lead against spiders. It was a mutual understanding – as the only two cabins with an inbuilt fear straight from their godly parent’s natural nemesis, they knew exactly how debilitating the phobias could be.

Will was still shaking like a leaf, his back plastered to the door. He wouldn’t be able to peel himself away for several minutes, past experience told him. It wasn’t the first time he’d been the first one to discover the snakes. He was dimly aware of Raphael talking him through the stages of breathing, guiding him into getting air into his lungs again, but his body remained frozen in place.

It wouldn’t take camp long to notice the snakes. Even if Will’s scream hadn’t alerted them to the fact that something was wrong – unlikely, given that it was early morning and therefore too early for the daily screams of training – it was difficult to miss the carpet of snakes that invaded camp periodically. They just had to wait; at some point, someone would come by with food, because snake-evicting was an all-day job and thankfully at least some of the campers liked Apollo cabin enough that they didn’t want to see them starve. Malcolm – because Annabeth was off on the Argo II, leaving him in charge of cabin six – would let himself in to let them know when the snakes were gone.

Eventually, Will peeled himself away from the door, breathing mostly under control and limbs no longer trembling so much he was about to collapse, and made the shaky rounds of the cabin, checking up on the rest of his siblings.

All of them had bleached skin, simply the knowledge that the snakes had come enough to strike terror into them. Austin, whose phobia was further exaggerated by his bites, was on the edge of passing out – Emma was with him, trying to keep him from hyperventilating despite not looking much better herself. Kayla and Sam had armed themselves with whatever projectiles they could get their hands on – bows were, at Chiron’s insistence, kept in the camp armoury, but stray arrows often wound up in the cabin, and Will was pretty certain Kayla was hoarding them. Sam had acquired a set of darts from somewhere, and Austin’s blowpipe had been set next to him on the bed by Alice.

The Snake Days were never fun for any of them.

Outside, he could hear yells as the rest of the campers mobilised. Malcolm couldn’t be heard, but Clarisse was loud and unapologetic in her serpent scourge, her fellow Ares kids following her lead. Will didn’t know if they were capturing or killing, and for once in his life, didn’t care. As long as the snakes were gone, it didn’t matter how.

A knock on one of their windows – a high one, more akin to a skylight than anything else, drew his attention. Jake Mason was perched at the top of a precarious-looking contraption, holding a big hamper, and Will gestured for Kayla – whose bunk was closest – to open it.

“Breakfast,” the son of Hephaestus announced. “Don’t worry; it’s all under control.”

The clamour of roaring Ares kids gave no indication about how truthful he was being – whether they were winning or losing the rout, they’d be just as loud. Still, Will appreciated the reassurance as Kayla heaved in the hamper before all but slamming the window shut in Jake’s face. He didn’t seem offended, instead giving them a friendly wave before the contraption he was perched on began to retract.

Breakfast was picked at. None of them had much of an appetite, and each of them managed only a few bites before the food was set aside for later, when they weren’t feeling near-nauseous with fear. Whoever had packed the hamper had clearly expected that because nothing was perishable enough to be in danger of going off if it wasn’t eaten for several hours.

Snake Days were one of the few days that music didn’t fill the cabin. It should have done – music never failed to lift their spirits – but none of them were ever calm enough to go near their instruments, much less play them. Snakes were the only thing that could truly silence cabin seven’s music.

Too wired into fight or flight mode – most of them firmly in flight with Kayla and Sam the only two more inclined towards fight – there was little they could do except sit in near-silence, listening to each other’s shaky breathing and trying not to let panic dig into them any more than it already had. Will hated it, hated how Austin was on the cusp of hyperventilating no matter what Emma did, hated the way Kayla’s knuckles were white around the shaft of an arrow and Alice was curled up into a ball on her bunk.

For his part, Will couldn’t quite settle until he’d done a round of all the windows himself, just to be certain they were all firmly sealed shut against sneaky snakes. It wasn’t that he doubted his siblings’ thoroughness in keeping the snakes out; it was just an itch, that of the big brother, the one in charge of the cabin. He kept his eyes firmly unfocused as he faced each window in turn, unwilling to catch sight of any snakes even as the vague fuzzy shapes of the other campers ran around outside, making sure all the latches were tight.

They were, of course.

All bar one.

The bathroom door was tightly shut, but when Will nudged it open to check on the small frosted window, he blanched and stumbled backwards.

A snake, thick and writhing, was worming its way through, and he had the panicked half-thought about why no-one outside had noticed before there was a rattle, down on the floor.

Exactly where Will’s foot landed, and pain exploded in his ankle.

He fell backwards, barely noticing the bang on his head against the floor, far more preoccupied by the hissing and the rattling and the snakes in the bathroom.

Behind him, there was screaming. Will would have joined in if he had the breath to scream, but his diaphragm had frozen solid and there was no air travelling in or out, even though his chest was heaving.

“THEY’VE GOT IN!” he vaguely heard a shrill voice shriek. Alice, maybe. He only had eyes for the creature latched onto his ankle, tail rattling ominously, and the other snake – snakes, how many were there – slithering closer.

“Will!” someone else was shouting, hands pawing at his shoulders but shaking too much to be of any use.

Or maybe it was Will shaking that much.

Projectiles zoomed past him, most glancing harmlessly off of scales but a couple of things sticking into the creature like a pincushion. If it let go of Will’s ankle, he didn’t notice.

Their door slammed open with a bang that shook the bunks.

“Wh- Solace!” Heavy footsteps ran across the cabin’s floor, and Will only caught sight of bulk and a ragged camp t-shirt before, with a war cry, a flash of celestial bronze neatly decapitated the snake. “Treat him!” Clarisse ordered; Will couldn’t see which of his siblings she was addressing, but it didn’t really matter when shaking hands started dragging him across the floor, away from the bathroom door.

Clarisse strode through and slammed the door behind her. There was the sound of chaos and snarling, but Will couldn’t tell much more as a trembling hand pressed the opening of a vial to his lips.

Nectar trickled in, although it felt like more was spilling down his chin than into his mouth. The auburn curls told him it was Emma, and he felt like he ought to be reassuring her but he still couldn’t breathe, his chest seized and frozen in position. Whether that was from the blind terror or the venom, Will couldn’t begin to decipher.

It felt like no time at all had passed when the bathroom door swung open again, narrowly missing Will’s foot and revealing a disgruntled-looking Clarisse. “All dead,” she reported bluntly.

Will tried to thank her but he could barely push air out of his lungs, let alone talk. The daughter of Ares didn’t seem to care as she came to squat next to him. He felt assessed as her dark eyes raked over him once, taking in his condition.

“Does he need Chiron?” By the time Emma had stuttered out a negative, bulging muscles had forced their way beneath Will and lifted him from the cabin floor. “I’ll leave him here, then. Easier to secure.” Rigid in Clarisse’s arms, he barely reacted as she crossed the cabin in a couple of strides and deposited him on a bed he recognised as his own.

On the next bunk over, he caught sight of Raphael cradling Austin, who’d apparently passed out. His other brother and sisters were torn between eyeing the bathroom in terrified mistrust, and glancing over at him. Emma hurried to his side as Clarisse moved away, storming around the cabin as though the invasion of the snakes was a personal insult before the front door opened and slammed shut again. Will hoped she’d taken the snake corpses with her.

“D-don’t move,” Emma told him, her voice shaking just as badly as her hands. Will felt her press down on his shrieking ankle and barely held in a cry as the pain increased. His whole body tensed without his command, not that he’d realised his muscles had had any slack left in them, and he jumped when fingers gripped his tightly enough to bruise.

Black and purple strands of hair in his periphery declared that Alice had left her bunk to curl up next to his. Shaking fingers with painted black nails passed through his vision before fingers settled in his hair. Will managed to force his head to turn enough to meet her blue eyes, focusing on her as strains of healing hymn stuttered their way out from where Emma was by his feet.

It didn’t do much for helping the pain. If anything, it seemed to increase, and with it came black flickers across his vision. Alice’s hand tightened around his and he tried to respond in kind, but his muscles appeared to be limited to involuntary actions only. In the background, he could hear Raphael muttering in Spanish, presumably quiet words of encouragement to Austin as their brother – hopefully – started to come around again.

Will wanted to check, but the pain was still causing little fireworks of darkness to explode across his vision and it was getting harder and harder to focus on anything. He chose to listen to the healing chant, the words familiar enough to mentally sing along with even if his mouth wasn’t working. If he could just stay conscious through the healing session…

Black spiralled across his vision, getting larger and more insistent, and he realised that something in the combination of snake-panic-venom wasn’t going to take no for an answer no matter how hard he tried to cling to consciousness.

“Will!” he heard faintly, a panicked voice he couldn’t identify as it echoed down a long tunnel before tapering away.

The last thing he was aware of was the sharp agony in his ankle.

Then nothing.

When his eyes peeled open, it was to a distinct lack of distant chaos. He was still in his bed, which was good news, he supposed – although as most of the camp’s healers shared his cabin, that didn’t necessarily mean much – and there was the unmistakable feeling of bandages wrapped around his ankle.

Shuffling noises indicated that his siblings were still in the cabin, but the head of blond hair sat on the floor next to his bed didn’t belong to any of them.

“Hey,” he croaked, feeling the tell-tale taste of leftover nectar in his mouth. More had been dribbled in during his spate of unconsciousness, apparently. Clearly the combination of godly food and Emma’s hymns had done their job, because his ankle no longer hurt, although if he concentrated Will could feel a dull ache.

Malcolm didn’t jump – Athena kids didn’t jump, not unless there were arachnids involved – as he placed a thin leaf of paper in the book he was reading and closed it carefully. Bespectacled grey eyes flickered over to focus on him, and Will gave him a tired smile.

“The snakes are gone,” Malcolm reported. Will felt for the sun and got back the flicker of late afternoon. He’d been out of it for most of the day, then. “I’m sorry, Will. I should’ve thought to check your windows from the outside.” He sounded like he felt awful for the oversight; whether that was because Athena kids weren’t supposed to make mistakes or because he was upset that Will had been injured, Will couldn’t tell.

“We’ll know for next time,” he reassured him, the implication resting painfully on his tongue. Next time, because the snakes never gave up. They’d be back, their numbers fully replenished no matter how many the Ares cabin had slaughtered, and the Apollo cabin would have to go through it all over again.

Malcolm adjusted his glasses. “It was an unacceptable oversight,” he insisted. “No-one ever gets hurt when you help us.”

Snakes are more dangerous than spiders, Will didn’t say, because it was objectively true but he got it, anyway. Godly parent nemesis induced fears weren’t comparable. They all, quite frankly, sucked, and no doubt if a larger, more venomous spider ever found its way into camp…

“We’re healers,” he said instead, pulling on a reassuring smile. “We do our best.” He pulled himself upright, immediately gaining a hoard of siblings fussing over him. Malcolm shifted out of their way, but it was him that Will kept his attention on even when Austin wriggled under his arm on one side and Alice tutted at him from the other.

He didn’t need the support, but he didn’t push them away. In Austin’s case, he tightened his arm around him in a reassuring hug, because his younger brother was still trembling somewhat.

“Thanks for helping us out,” he said sincerely. It might be a cabins six and seven arrangement ranging back generations, but that didn’t make him appreciate it any less.

“Any time,” Malcolm replied, a soft look settling over his face. “That’s what friends are for, isn’t it? Will you be fit for dinner tonight?”

Will barely had to listen to what his body was saying. “I’ll be fine,” he promised. Emma’s healing hymns had neutralised the venom, leaving just a slightly disgruntled ankle. “See you there,” he added as the son of Athena pulled himself to his feet, tucking his book under his arm and readjusting his glasses again.

“Don’t push yourself.”

“He won’t,” Alice answered for him, to a chorus of agreements from the rest of his siblings. Will let out a small chuckle.

“You heard them,” he said easily, and Malcolm gave a clear look of approval before letting himself out.

Leaving the cabin at the dinner conch put Will at the centre of attention. Word had clearly spread like wildfire about the bite, and the looks he received were a mix of sheepish (mostly the Athena campers, who seemed to have taken it as a personal failure), worried (the majority of the rest of camp), and assessing (Clarisse, who even went as far as going out of her way to walk directly past him as he headed for the table and glared daggers at where he was limping ever so slightly on the ankle. He got a firm grip on his shoulder as she passed).

None of cabin seven were fully at ease out of the cabin. They never were, after a Snake Day. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust the other campers to rout them all – they did – but there was a prickle in Will’s spine that wouldn’t quite go away, that misheard the crackling of the burning offerings as hisses and rattles. He didn’t often wear anything sturdier than flip-flops on his feet, but hiking boots had been dug out from hiding and rarely-worn pants had replaced shorts, just in case. His siblings were equally on edge, dressed in sturdier clothes and, in some cases, weapons hidden underneath layers.

No-one called them out on it. Not that night, not the next day. Will continued to be the subject of scrutiny until he stopped limping two days later, but even after that he occasionally caught Malcolm or Clarisse watching him – not that the latter ever admitted it – to say nothing of his hovering siblings, who insisted on checking it over multiple times a day until it was entirely healed.

A week later, screams from cabin six snapped them into action and Will was first inside, cupping a reasonably-sized one in his hands where it was crawling towards Malcolm with clear intent and sending his friend a reassuring grin. “We’ve got this,” he promised as his siblings poured in behind him.

He got a grateful look in response as a sea of blond heads fled the cabin, trusting them to handle the arachnid invasion the same they always did.

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