Kia was staring at the snow falling, forming the most beautiful sight she could ever behold.

She wondered what it would be like, being a clump of snow falling from the heavens. Just swaying to wherever the wind took you, not needing any specified direction; being beautiful without trying, and eventually, when the time came, melt.

She spotted a snowflake reaching the window, sticking to it and laying flat against the glass. It was so unique; not two snowflakes ever were dotted with the same pattern. Snowflakes symbolised so many things for so many people, hope, beauty, sophistication of maybe even nothing more than a good memory; Kia loved the ambiguity of snowflakes.

Realising how much of a philosophical turn she'd taken on something as ephemeral as snow, she shook her head at the silliness of it all. Dwelling on the existence of something so temporary.

A knock resounded against the wood of the door in the room.

Kia croaked out, "Come in," and immediately cringed at the rasp in her voice. The last person she'd talked to was Will, had it really been that long?

The door opened with a 'creak' and in came... a centaur?

Oddly enough, Kia was unfazed at the thought of centaurs existing. It did surprise her, however, how unaffected she was by the revelation.

The centaur smiled kindly at her. "Are you feeling well, dear?"

He had scraggly brown hair parted professionally down the middle and a gentle twinkle in his eyes that made Kia relax her unknowingly tensed muscles. He wore a tweed jacket and well... no pants, obviously but the jagged facial features and straight nose made a very nice-looking face, she supposed.

"I'm... okay," she said, trying to find the right words to describe the state she was in.

The centaur nodded understandingly, seeming to be able to translate the unsaid words. He looked around the room a bit, as if giving her a moment to prepare herself for the conversation.

"I am Chiron," he said, looking back at her and linking his hands behind him, well his back. "Do you know where you are?"

Kia nodded, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "Camp Half-Blood. I don't understand, I somehow just... know all this, how?"

Chiron sighed, tilting his head up. "That is a mystery, even for me."

"I don't know anything... but I know everything," Kia said, scoffing lightly.

Chiron's face softened and he smiled at her. "I think you'll find out soon. Onto more serious matters, you have a quest."

The two discussed the details, Kia taking in everything peculiarly well. At the end, Chiron had decided to put her in the Hermes cabin for now, since Morpheus didn't have a cabin here. Kia fought down the twinge of bitterness that crawled up her throat; why were these so-called major Olympians more important than her father? Did they even care enough about their children? Or was deserting them and leaving them in a world full of danger called 'caring?'

One might wonder, how Kia took in the fact that Morpheus was her father. The answer was: placidly.

It didn't poke her in the slightest that her father might've been Morpheus, nor did she care to acknowledge the fact at all. Morpheus was nothing more than spare sperm for her to be born. He didn't take care or guide her when she was sure she really needed it, there was no reason to pay attention to him when she suddenly became oh-so important. As far as Kia was concerned, her mother was the only parent in her life.

Key word: was.

Kia felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes, despite feeling that her face was completely devoid of all emotion. Chiron stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. She was grateful for that.

She preferred pretending that she hasn't cried at all, and if you'd asked her later if she did, all she'd do is cock her head to the side confusedly with a perplexed 'no?'

Her mother, Hua Mitsuho wasn't the best person in the world, not even close; but she loved Kia with her whole heart, and that happened to be more than what she could say for her dad. Kia didn't have a tragic backstory or anything like that; she had friends, genuine people she could trust, a great mother, a happy home-life—overall a very mundanely sort of beautiful life. But what hurt her was that it was gone now. No, it wasn't ripped away from her tight and unforgiving grasp. It slipped away as she did nothing to stop it.

The darkness swallowed her whole, and she did nothing to struggle its grip, she just stood there, closing her eyes and waiting for it to take her. In her final moments, she didn't think she had any regrets, but one look in her mother's eyes made her want to take everything back.

But now wasn't the time.

There was a world with new people, new people to save. Kia would be damned if she let anything happen to someone else while she just stood by and watched; it didn't matter whether they deserved to be saved, the judgement was not hers to give.

The tears eventually receded back into her eyes and the conversation resumed between her and Chiron.

Even though the bad news had already been gotten over with, Kia had a feeling Chiron was holding back information. It wasn't like she expected him to do something awful or betray the camp, more so just feeling unsettled that he knew something about Kia that she didn't know about herself.

"Do you... " she hesitated. "Am I going to do something big? Is there a big choice I have to make?"

He stayed silent for a moment, not a sound other than the gentle taps against the window.

"Sometimes knowing does more evil than good," was all Chiron said. He patted her ankle and trotted out of the room.

Kia rested her head against the wall, bringing her knees up to her chest and contemplated what Chiron said. The man himself wasn't bad, but he seemed like he had too many secrets for Kia to feel completely at ease and other than that, she didn't really have much of an opinion of him.

She craned her neck, looking back outside at the snow, her eye catching one snowflake in particular, not a dot familiar to the previous one.

Her mother had told her stories that her father would tell her during snowfall in China. Every snowflake that fell would be a wish from someone in heaven as a blessing on someone alive. The twist to the myth was that the blessings would only come through with help from the Earth, and to do that, the snowflake would have to melt and be absorbed as water.

A part of Kia hoped that this tiny little snowflake was a manifestation of her mother's blessing on her from way above. Just then, Kia thought, maybe it was beautiful because it was temporary.