Triton didn’t come often, Percy might not see him for weeks at a time. But he did come back. Always. He wasn’t super talkative, but he was surprised the time he was gone for a month and came back to see Percy able to make a dome around him to walk into the water.
Percy asked him if he was named after the Greek God Triton (his mom gave him some audio books on the myths, they were cool). Triton seemed to find that funny but didn’t answer.
Percy worked hard to master the tricks that Katara had used.
But he was running out of stuff to clean up in the river. The water still ran dirty, from the other parts of the river. But there wasn’t much stuck in the dirt and most of this area of the river was clean.
Unfortunately, it was the only part of the river that was hidden from view. He didn’t know what to do about this issue.
Triton was no help the time that Percy asked, just said that Percy should focus on improving his skills, said he needed to learn how to use a trident.
Percy didn’t get Triton. He seemed to focus on weapons a lot.
Percy still let Triton teach him how to use a trident though, one Percy made out of ice.
It only took him a week to figure out how to shape it. It was very weak at first though.
Percy was getting better at making the ice sturdy, now it could take a few hits.
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It was nearly summer. So Percy no longer needed his warm jacket. He hid it in the back of the closet, so Gabe wouldn’t find it.
The air was grown warmer again, and Triton seemed busier.
He didn’t really explain his job, but the fish called him prince and lord, so Percy figured he was an important merman.
Percy kind of missed him when he was gone though, he was Percy’s only real friend.
Plus, Percy had gotten expelled again.
Triton had been unimpressed, but for once not with Percy.
Percy was expelled for pulling the wrong lever over a shark tank. But the guide had pointed him to the lever. Triton thought they ought to fire the guide.
Percy was glad Triton sided with him. He was a good friend.
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Triton said he would be really busy for a while. But he didn’t want Percy to slack off.
He gave Percy four scrolls, they looked really cool.
They were also written in a language Percy didn’t understand and only had a few pictures.
Triton also gave him a dictionary scroll when Percy said that.
Apparently, they were written in a language of the sea. Percy was expected to be able to do basic conversations in it by the time that Triton got back.
Percy now had lots of summer homework.
Yay.
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Percy was starting to figure out more fighting tricks for his waterbending, making blades of ice and controlling them.
He could perfectly control up to six at once right now, and more shakily control up to fourteen.
He was determined to get perfect up to twenty.
He was getting a better sense for the water, it had been a year since he figured out he was a waterbender. With a master like Katara to emulate, and not much else to do, he’d improved pretty well.
He still couldn’t control things nearly as quickly or instinctively as Katara, but he would get there. Practice makes perfect.
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The scrolls turned out to be really interesting, and the language was actually really easy to understand. Percy didn’t know why, but he wasn’t complaining.
The language felt natural, like he’d always known it and just hadn’t realized. He didn’t even need the dictionary after a few weeks.
He wasn’t sure he was pronouncing them right mind you. But he was sure Triton would help with that.
The first scroll talked about sea etiquette. Apparently it was very different from land etiquette, though Percy didn’t know much about that either.
Apparently merpeople don’t bow, they place their hand a certain way, twisting their fingers in different ways depending on the rank of the person.
And the tails have meaning too. The sleek ones are merpeople with weaker magic, but more strength. The sleeker it is, the less magic. The more flowy and pretty and patterned the more powerful they are in magic, but also slower and tends to be weaker.
Triton has a bit of flowyness to his tail, so he has some magic, that’s so cool!
He wondered what kind of tail he would have if he were a merman.
…
He’s gonna make a tail out of water.
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Making a tail out of water didn’t work.
It was very disappointing.
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Percy decided that summer was nice, even if Triton wasn’t there.
He had more time to practice his control over water. He was also getting to work on his ice control more. It took a lot more work to make the ice in the summer, and more focus to keep it frozen, but he was managing.
Ice was the best for fighting, so he wanted to get really good at it.
He wished he’d practiced more snow stuff in the winter, that was bad planning on his part.
But his ice was doing pretty good, so next winter he’d practice with the snow. He was going to be the best waterbender ever!
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The second scroll was Percy’s favorite.
It talked about the magics of the sea.
The Siren’s song was so cool! Percy hoped he could learn it someday, he was a waterbender and all, that’s practically of the sea, right?
There were some really cool magics.
Purification, that would really speed up cleaning the river. It was on Percy’s list to learn more about.
Speaking of, he made a list, waterproof, of everything he wanted to learn more about. The sea was so cool!
Anyways, Percy really liked Purification. It can clean basically anything. Get rid of grime and dirt and pollution. It was also apparently a super hard to learn magic. Most that could use it channeled the power into sand dollars. Which Percy thought was super cool still.
Then there was healing. Like what Katara could do.
Percy was determined to master that.
Maybe he should start trying? He wasn’t sure how. Maybe wait till Gabe gets angry with him again then try?
Well, controlling the sea currents was cool. Apparently more advanced and bigger in scale and not something he’d be able to learn for a while.
He paused looking down at the river.
…
Well, river currents would be easier right?
…
Yeah, he should try that.
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So, controlling river currents is hard.
He’ll probably need a lot more practice before he can do that reliably.
…
Or at all.
…
Yeah, he’ll come back to that.
Anyways, next on the list of magic types…
Prophecy. Apparently, a lot of the oracles and seers were from the sea. Nereus being a well-known one. That was cool.
Then… Siren’s song.
Viewed as the most powerful of all the magics because it’s singing that controls people and the strongest singers can even affect nature.
That sounds cool.
…
Would he need singing lessons for that? He should learn that, it might be useful.
Okay, so maybe he wants to learn everything.
He wonders if he’d be any good at the magics. Well, he’s gonna try regardless.
He’ll ask Triton for more books on sea magics.
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Trying healing wasn’t fun in the end. Gabe got mad when Percy brought less money back that day.
It didn’t end well for Percy.
He limped back upstairs, then turned to the shower.
His head was swimming from the hard hit that Gabe had given him. Maybe some water could help?
He turned on the shower and almost fell over taking his clothes off.
The instant recovery from stepping into the shower was shocking. He watched quietly as his blood spiraled down the drain.
Well, at least he knew he could heal.
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He moved on to the third scroll.
Ugh, history.
At least he can read this. The letters don’t move around so it’s already better than English.
He reluctantly read through the history, at least until he realized that it was practically fantasy.
Like, it was super dry, but also really interesting if you ignored the boring phrasing.
The different merpeople grouping and sectors. How they fought each other and argued over land. How Poseidon, king of the seas, had to constantly interfere in the fights to stop all out wars. It was super interesting to read about how the different merpeople worked together and fought each other.
He thinks its pretty similar to on land with all those countries fighting each other, but more interesting cause it’s in the ocean and fish fight too.
One of the big generals in one of the wars was a shark! And an octopus was recognized as one of the most vital spies. And even minnows got praise for their help in one of the wars, the war of the Perlisn Caves.
Percy really liked this history.
Why couldn’t land history be that interesting?
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Percy decided to try to ask the beings he saw sometimes if they could bring more trash towards him.
It was… something.
They disappeared whenever he tried to approach, and whenever he tried to talk to them, and whenever he so much as looked at them.
He had to get clever.
He tried sending a note to them, using the water, they ignored it.
He tried leaving out cookies with a note beside them. They were left untouched. That was insulting, he’d made them himself, he’d even left out the blue dye!
He went to the bottom of the river. Apparently, he can breathe underwater… Who knew?
That was fun to find out and distracted him for a good three hours.
He finally got back on track, he arranged some trash in a message. Hopefully they see it.
He came back the next day to see that the river was back to being absolutely filthy. Right back to where he started.
He rolled up his sleeves, he could do this.
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The fourth scroll was stories. He thinks they’re children’s stories. They’re really fun though.
He really likes the story of the mermaid that became human because she was betrayed. The poor mermaid.
She became really powerful later though. He thought it was sad but cool. She didn’t stay human, she was amazing.
And the merman that fought the sea serpents of the deep in order to save his love the prince of the southern seas was so cool! He was so brave and they really loved each other.
He really liked the story about the young mermaid that escaped from the evil older mermaid keeping her prisoner, then catching the eye of the princess and of one of the generals.
They all fell in love and ended up defeating the evil older mermaid who tried to overthrow the kingdom. It was so cool. They’re so loyal to each other. He really enjoyed it.
The stories were really fun, he wondered if there were more?
Reading was actually enjoyable when he didn’t have to figure out which letters went where.
Maybe he could write his notes in the language of the sea? Did it have a name? He should probably find that out.
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The summer was a lot of cleaning. He managed to do it a lot faster now.
He knew more about controlling the water, plus he could breathe underwater now (could he always do that?) so he didn’t worry about going under so much.
Though the filthy water was a bit hard to breathe in, it wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it would be.
Almost like the water was cleaner just around him than everywhere else.
…
OH!
Okay, so maybe he could do that purification stuff. He just had no idea how it would work.
That was good to know at least.
He continued to clean.
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Triton came back near the end of the summer. Refused to talk to Percy unless it was in the language of the sea, apparently called the Halmaheran language.
Cool.
Percy was getting better, though Triton had to correct his pronunciation sometimes still.
He liked it, it was nice to share something with his friend. Even if Triton acted really weird when he’d told him that Triton was a great friend.
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Triton asked when Percy’s birthday was.
He was annoyed to find out that he’d just missed it, it was a few days before he’d come back. Percy was nine now.
Triton didn’t return for three days.
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Triton got him a present!
Well two presents, to apologize for missing Percy’s actual birthday.
He asked if Percy had had a celebration. Percy said no, he didn’t have any friends to celebrate with but Triton. And anyways, smelly Gabe would never have allowed it. His mom did make blue cake though!
Triton seemed angry again.
Percy ignored it for now and opened the presents.
His eyes widened.
He now understood, thanks to the books Triton got him, what the significance of a sand dollar was in the sea. It held powerful purifying power.
Triton had gotten him two.
He’d treasure them.
Percy carefully put them back on shore, tucking them into his bag. Then he opened the next gift.
He tilted his head. It was a bracelet.
It had a piece of coral shaped like a conch shell hanging on the end. That was cool.
“I had something more for your birthday planned, you’ll get another charm for the winter solstice.” Triton sounded displeased, but Percy was delighted.
“It’s okay! I love it!”
Percy put it on.
Triton seemed a bit happier then.
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Percy sighed as he stared at his new school. Hopefully this one was better.
Spoiler: It was not better