The Boy with the Bread
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or otherwise I would edit the book about the big mother warship that is the Argo II. Also 'The Boy with Bread' is not my idea, sadly, unless I am secretly Suzanne Collins.
Thalia was dangerously close to ripping that toddler to shreds. The wide-eyed little boy adorably kept on licking that damn lollipop, laughing whenever his mother tickled his tummy -which happened roughly a million times - and he never cried, not once, which is incredibly abnormal for a boy of two. Why did toddlers have to be so happy and carefree all the time?
Although Thalia realised that wasn't the genuine reason why she wanted to throw the child into a pit of Drakon acid, she decided it was a good enough excuse for now, pretending is less painful than reliving memories which is best left behind.
Borborygmus was roughly the sound which just admitted from Thalia's stomach. Great, she thought, not only do I look like rubbish; I'm going to have to scavenge through rubbish and eat it.
Thalia stood up, brushing off the grass which she continuously pulled at, off her filthy, shredded jeans. Shooting one murderous last look at the ecstatic, exultant toddler, who still had the world's biggest smile on his face, Thalia went to her least favourite place: The McDonalds' trashcan.
The smell of sour milk, over-salty fries, and mouldy Thalia-didn't-even-want-to-know-what-it-was-but-it-looked-like-it-was-moving was overwhelming. Thalia's eyes started stinging, and she could feel the tears forming. Except she refused to cry; Thalia was rather fond of the eye liner which she bought with her few remaining dollars.
Her hands trembled to the bin, her eyes more murderous that Medusa's and she pulled out a package from the trashcan from Hades. Over-salty fries, one bite and your daily salt limit is fulfilled! After effects may include: not being able to get that taste out of your mouth for days, occasional burping, and your ego being completely deflated.
Just then, a fry shuffled slightly to the left. Wait a minute, I'm no cooking expert but fries aren't supposed to move? Thalia yelped, as the fries did a Mexican Wave like motion, even being a demigod, she wasn't prepared for a dancing fries. Actually, she didn't even think her dad was ready for that.
Looking closer at the fries, it soon dawned on Thalia fries weren't the only things in the packet – maggots were there as well. Thalia threw it as far as she could. Maggots were on her hate list, along with heights, her parents, and her life, not necessarily in that order.
Thalia wasn't sure for everyone else in the world, but finding maggots in fries really did ruin her appetite, it was kind of disgusting. Screw that, it was really disgusting.
Any chance of a decent meal today was ruled out, so Thalia returned to the grass area outside a random mall, and continued to rip grass roots out. Thalia recommended it for anyone who had anger issues, lousy parents, or was a demigod. Or all three.
Being a demigod sucked. Your dad was never there, he had to run Olympus, or something stupid like that, your mother transformed into this crazy woman which you only see in horror films, you get chased by monsters which made your mother look stable, you're constantly reminded you smelled – Thalia even rolled in a field of flowers to get rid of the 'smell'- that completely ruined her bad daughter of Zeus image, and your little brother gets taken away. Meanwhile you're trying to find food in trashcans, you've blown most of your dollars already, you spent your eleventh birthday getting chased by some weird men-horse-fish hybrid, and you're trying to prevent a nervous breakdown from happening. It's not an easy job.
Thalia laid back and enjoyed the cloudless sunlit day while she could; before security kicked her away, and started to make little pictures of the clouds. However after a few minutes she realized her dad was Lord of the sky, and looking up to her day was on her Never-to-do list unless she was dying. So continuing pulling the grass it was.
Unexpectedly, Thalia's very important mission of removing grass from the whole area was interrupted by a shout off between a baker which resembled an egg, and a boy, perhaps two years older than Thalia was.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE RUNT!" The baker yelled deafeningly. Thalia felt sorry for whoever lived with him.
"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me because you're old, slow and frankly, quite ugly," the boy laughed, he appeared roughly two years older than Thalia, and he looked like one of those children models you find on one of those really cheesy 'We're a happy family now buy this product' advert.
A few seconds later, the baker who looked as old as the Olympian Gods should look like, being thousands of years old and everything, tumbled. Looks like a sloth could've outrun him. However the boy kept on sprinting, never looking back, and his eyes focused on the horizon. He caught Thalia gaping at him unblinkingly, and winked.
Although, Thalia was focusing on what he was carrying: Bread. The smell was heavenly, like the Olympic Gods had created that loaf itself, the aroma was mouth-watering, literally. Thalia couldn't remember the last time she had bread, proper bread, not a cheap hamburger bun, and she never had it straight out of a bakery.
So Thalia did what any respectable eleven year old would do – she stalked him until he gave her some bread.
Of course Thalia wasn't completely stupid; she had a terrifying mace canister. The terrifying part was that it could turn into a spear which made a pretty useful weapon when it came to kicking butts. And a shiny silver bracelet: No, it didn't attract deathly magpies, but it did transform into a shield with a face so petrifying – yes, more disturbing than your French teacher- and that worked for Thalia.
After jogging a few blocks, the boy came to a halt, and sat down in a soundless threadbare field, a lot quieter than the mall grounds. Thalia hid in some bushes that didn't look poisonous, but hey, she hadn't read 101 Wilderness Survival tips. He started munching on the bread. That delicious, luscious loaf of-
Thalia's stomach rumbled louder and fiercer than thunder – her dad would be proud. Her face went red, not the red some girls pull off when they're supposed to look cutely embarrassed, but a deep scarlet which resembled a tomato read.
"Who's there?" The boy yelled, taking out a knife, or a really dangerous pointy stick, you can never be sure. Now Thalia could see him closer up, his eyes were sky blue; Thalia thought that he looked pretty cute, even though he was ready to jam a pointy stick/knife through her heart.
The boy walked into the direction where Thalia was hiding awkwardly, although she had more awkward positions - try being in a trashcan with two demon chickens, then and only then, will you understand the definition of awkward. She felt her face flush with heat, how was she going to say Hi, I don't know you, but I've been on the run from monsters for a year and before you think I'm a complete lunatic, may I have some bread? In every situation Thalia played in her head the more and more she sounded like she should be locked up.
To save her remaining shreds of dignity, Thalia decided to meet the boy face to face, rather than him discover that she was spying on him in a gawky position.
The boy just stared at her; it's not every day you get a girl casually walking out of a bush. Monsters? Yes. Girls? No.
"Uhh… What are you doing here?" He asked.
"Selling Girl Scout cookies, want some? The chocolate ones are to die for," Thalia replied dryly.
"You're not really a Girl Scout, are you?" His hand was still firmly gripped, on what Thalia could now confirm, a knife.
"I'm not? Wow, I'm crushed," Thalia said, her voice thickly layered with sarcasm.
"No, I'm pretty sure they don't let girls who's face looks like it's been attacked by a Sharpie."
Thalia didn't mind that he stole from a bakery, people got to do what people got to do, however insulting her eyeliner was a step to far, a dangerous step too far. Especially when the insulter was threateningly pointing a knife at her.
Suddenly, without a moment's hesitation, Thalia reached the mace canister with in her pocket, and gripped it tightly in her right hand.
"What you going to do, spray me-"
The boy stopped mid-sentence when the mace canister expanded into a deadly look sphere. "Yes," Thalia grinned, "I will spray you to death with my spear."
The boy held his hands up in surrender, smiling innocently and he dropped his bronze knife. Thalia walked over to him and picked up his knife, the fact that he hadn't randomly changed into a monster comforted her. She bent down to pick up his knife, it fit wrongly in her hand, the handle was too rough and heavy, and the blade was too light. She felt a tug at her hand, and before she could even understand, the boy took her spear.
Insulting her eyeliner, taking her spear away from her was too much for Thalia, but of course the boy had to send her over the edge, "I don't know who you are, of what you are for that matter, but I am a son of Hermes, and I am not afraid to jam you with your spear."
Wait Hermes? Where did Thalia hear that name before? It sounded familiar, maybe she heard someone mention it before in a previous conversation. Her mother never mentioned anyone beside herself, so she was out of the question, her brother only knew a few words before he disappeared- Hermes not being one of them- but her father, it sounded like a name like he would know, it sounded old, older than that angry baker.
"Your dad's Hermes," Thalia said cautiously, pronouncing each word carefully.
The boy nodded his head; he was carefully studying Thalia like she was a bomb ready to explode. "God of messaging and thieving."
Thalia was never an expert at social events, but she knew never to introduce that she was the daughter of Zeus. Normal people would think she was crazy and suggest she should be sent to a crazy clinic, and if they were immortal they would want to kill her some way or another. Maybe the boy was delusional, or maybe he was one of her kind – half god, half human. Thalia almost felt… relieved, she wasn't the only godly mistake.
Thalia tried to come up with a funny name for a boy, she once watched this comedy show and a character introduced herself as 'Regina Phalange' or something like that, which was followed by canned laughter from the audience, although she just responded with 'Thalia.'
'Thalia no-last-name?"
"Yes, and if you could be so kind, what's yours?" Thalia replied sarcastically.
"Luke."
"Luke no-last-name?"
"Luke Castellan."
"Damn it, we could have matched!"
The boy – Luke, smiled walking back to where he left the bread, it still smelled pretty darn good, and tore off a piece chucking it at Thalia. She hastily tossed it in her mouth, it tasted like Zeus Himself cooked Olympus into a loaf of bread.
"Hungry then?" Luke asked, watching Thalia continuing on gnawing the bread. "The way your stomach grumbled as if the heavens from above played a gong."
"Ironically, my dad is from the heavens above, but he's not the official gong player."
"Proceed."
Thalia signalled for the boy to give her spear back, and in return she gave him his knife which was covered in monster grime. She defiantly held up her spear, the air crackling, and then a beam of light, brighter than her mother's false teeth, blinded Luke. Lightning.
Casting a big mother bolt of lightning isn't easy, last time Thalia did it she passed out for a few hours; however as soon as she woke up there was a hellhound to deliver a muffin! Just kidding, the hellhound was there to murder her. Yet this time she remained conscious, her brain felt like it had been trampled by a herd of elephants, and her knees buckled, nonetheless she didn't faint.
Luke held out his hand, his cerulean eyes widened. He looked slightly frighten, although he went over to Thalia and helped her up; his tanned skin contrasting against Thalia's pale skin. "Zeus," he whispered.
Before Thalia could utter a word of thanks, a howl ripped throughout the atmosphere and all the hairs on Thalia's neck stood up. Styx. Seemed like hellhounds really enjoyed the lightning trick. Note to self, Thalia thought, never do that lightning thing again unless you want to party with hellhounds.
"Run?" Luke asked, his eyes focused on the bushes.
"Running would be a good idea."
Thalia didn't know how long she ran for, or how fast, all she knew was that she had ran until her heart was pounding and her lungs hurt like Hades. She didn't even think it was possible to outrun a hellhound, she'd met those things – they were like ninjas in dog form. Luke didn't look in good shape either; you could easily mistake him as a walrus with bronchitis.
As soon as Luke regained his breath he asked something which Thalia would have never guessed. "Allies?"
Thalia nodded her head, "I suppose you'll do."
A storm was brewing inside Thalia's head, she barely knew him for an hour. How would know if he was an assassin or worse, a fan of her mother's TV show? Everything was signalling this was going to be awfully wrong. Maybe he could help her find Jason, that is if he is still alive. It seemed irrational and stupid, however she trusted him, she trusted the boy with the bread.
"Trust me," he grinned shoving his arm around Thalia's shoulder, his eyebrows upturning so mischievously Thalia noted to herself to never let that guy near her sleeping bag with shaving cream, "You're going to have an unforgettable experience, two whatever we are against the world and hellhounds."
Thalia never did forget the boy with the bread.
Reviews would be awesome!
Author's Note: I'm pretty happy where I left this, there are a few ideas, but I like it left as it is. This idea randomly came when I was rereading the Titan's Curse, Thalia's life before. I don't think Katniss is the only person with the boy with the bread.