Prologue

Sally ran with all her might. Away from the noise- the shouting, screaming, weapons blasting away at a distance, away from the horses with soldiers mounted upon them carrying lord knows what weapons into the thick jungle. She was great full for the clouded sky covering the moon and stars just enough to help her navigate her way through the jungle but not enough to help the soldiers find her. She narrowly missed a tree, almost losing her balance and dropping the bundle she was carrying but- thankfully, she didn't.

Sally knew that for the time being she was safe because of the almost non-existent light but didn't want to risk it for she knew the soldiers chasing her were of a different kind. They were Razaraas- skilled assassins, killers and tracking paramilitary forces of King Kronos whose dangers knew no bounds. Sally knew that they would be able to track her in this dim lighting just by a whiff of her scent and to get rid of it she had to cross a river.

She knew in a jungle there was bound to be a river somewhere so she stopped and stood still trying to block away the sounds of pain, anguish and horse hooves hitting the ground and just listened. Listened to a sound that she was oh-so-familiar with, to a sound of water hitting something solid, to the waves and droplets of water bringing back memories of a happy couple by the bea-

'Focus, Sally!' she scolded herself, pushing away all the memories and just focusing on the sounds around her until she heard it. It was faint but she was sure it was the sound of the river somewhere towards her right. She angled her body towards the sound and ran towards it.

If a stranger saw her, they would wonder what a young woman- running in a silk gown with fine jewellery and a crown over her head- was doing in a jungle, at this time. The thing was she wasn't an ordinary woman but a Queen and she was running away from the assassins who wanted to kill her and take the possession she was carrying but she would never allow that even though her husband, King Poseidon was still in the castle defending his kingdom from Kronos' forces and she didn't know if he was alive or dead.

As much as Sally wanted to go back towards her kingdom and save her husband, she knew she couldn't mainly because she was given standing instructions to run with the bundle she was carrying as far as she could and not to look or return back even if she heard any kind of news, good or bad as they didn't want to risk her life and her possessions safety.

As the sound of the river grew louder, Sally finally broke into a clearing and saw the magnificent water body in front of her- roaring away and the current strong. She could hear the hooves getting louder and louder confirming her fear- they must've caught her scent.

'"Aye, we finally gonna catch za bitch, eh?", one of them yelled.

"Oh, cant wait tah geth a piece of err," yelled another.

Fearing for her life and safety, she had no other choice but to swim across the river. Even though she knew the current would pull her down and her chances of survival were really slim, Sally prayed to each and every god she knew and stepped into the river.

Feeling the current hitting her knee, she was almost pulled down but regained her balance and continued to swim-walk with the current working against her and trying to throw her off. When she was waist deep, she lost her footing on one of the rocks and was claimed into the water. With her head bobbing up and down as she tried to grasp some air into her lungs and keeping the small bundle above the water, Sally felt this was her end but her hand caught on something.

It was a log piece!

Thanking the gods who sent her this blessing, she climbed on the wood and -by a miracle- thCe log was pushed enough sideways to land her on the bank of the other side of the river. As she climbed out of the river and laid down on the soft grass to catch her breath, Sally prayed to the gods once again, thanking them for saving her life but her prayer was cut short when the sound of the hooves were getting extremely loud and extremely close. Scrambling up and running as fast as her heavy, wet clothes would allow, Sally got behind a tree just in time and took a peek when the horses arrived at the bank she just left.

She saw that there were roughly six horse riders, wearing nothing but black, each wearing a turban on their head and black cloaks covering most of their faces but their harsh eyes which were filled with anger, greed and pride. All of them had some sort of a unique deadly weapon with them along with their swords and their horses were as black as squid ink, each had an iron restrainer over their moth and their manes braided with deadly spikes.

"Where did she gah?" one of yelled, "Do ya tink she made it akhross tha rivaar?"

"No, she couldn't have," said a deep but familiar voice which she couldn't place at the moment. Sally searched for the voices owner among the six Razaraas and saw who guessed to be their leader. There was something different about him compared to the others. He had a ruby in the middle of his turban, most probably signifying his rank or position amongst them but it wasn't the ruby that barred him from the identically dressed Razaraas, no. It was the way he held himself, his posture… Pride and Ambition.

He swung off his horse and walked towards the river and put his hand in the river, "As I guessed, the current is too strong. She wouldn't have made it pass the river and she couldn't have gone anywhere. Her scent is strongest here but it also ends here, she must've drowned by now. No point looking for her anymore, we'll just tell the king that we killed her and disposed her body along with her possessions," he said as he walked back to his horse and swung back on.

"Aah, bugger," said the one from earlier, "I really wanted tah fuck that slut. Tey are best when tey are squirming and resistin," he chuckled.

"Oh for once would you stop letting your dick decide your actions and think with your brain once?", said another Razaraas jokingly. And with that, all but the leader turned their horses and went into jungle while the leader stood there, atop his horse looking at the surroundings. Sally held her breath, hoping he wouldn't see her and finally let it out when she heard the horse grunting and the hooves getting fainter each second.

Sinking down the tree, Sally finally looked at her bundle who was now squirming. She saw the baby's black her was only slightly wet but otherwise he was dry. The baby's green eyes opened and as he saw the woman looking at him, he smiled and started to coo. Seeing this, Sally started to cry for a reason she didn't know but she guessed it was exhaustion from the chase and sadness whether she had a home or not but above all she was was happy that she was safe. She brought the baby closer to her chest as whispered, "Don't worry, my love. You are safe now my child, Percy Jackson".

-x-

Hey guys, its me, dreamcatchingcatharsis. I had published this story earlier but due to some errors I coudnt upload or delete the story earlier so I'm uploading it again. I hope you enjoyed this and ill be updating very very very soon. And more the number of reviews, faster the updates!