Prologue
The bone-shattering scream ran through the frozen winds again. The liner was sinking fast, and there was nothing Gale could do. He looked at all the screaming people, the wind slicing at his face.
"Nothing I can do..." he whispered. He saw a shining blue dot growing larger in the sky. "No" he said "Need... to find Azira..." The frost dragon swooped out of the sky and picked up Gale from the sinking ocean liner. "NO!" he yelled "SHE'S STILL THERE. WE NEED TO SAVE HER! We need to save... all of them!" The dragon spoke to him. No. You could not have saved them all.
"I could've saved her!" You would have died. I cannot let that happen. There was a long silence, filled only by the beating of the dragon's wings. She loved you, you know. Gale said nothing. You loved her too.
"I still do" he said. The dragon swept off into the distance.
This has not happened yet. It may never happen, but this story wouldn't be very interesting if it didn't happen, so there is a high chance that it will happen. If it does happen, then the story will get better reviews. But the story might not turn out like that. I just have to hope that it will. Now...
Read on
The Atlantis of the Azure Flame
Atlantis. The great sunken city, the centre of many myths, legends and the odd hilarious parody that no-one's ever watched. Many people have tried to find it. But maybe they're looking in the wrong place? Of course they are already looking in the wrong place because otherwise they would've found it, but maybe people are wrong about where it actually sank? After all, with all these Gods and things messing up the world, a lot has probably changed over 3000 years.
It was a large marble room. It doesn't really need much more describing, but for the purpose of detail, it's going to get some. There were twelve statues, lining the walls. In the centre of the room, was a large brazier, richly decorated with ancient carvings. The room had probably looked quite nice when it was new, but several thousand years of being underwater had given it a lining of coral, fish, and other things that you find at the bottom of the sea. Then suddenly, everything froze. All the fish stopped moving and the coral stopped waving. It was if the sea was waiting for something. A deep blue glow pulsed from the bottom of the brazier, getting brighter and brighter by the second. Then there was an explosion of blue light as an azure flame sprang from the brazier and lit up the room. Life sprang back into the sea and the fish scattered. Even the coral looked as if it was trying to get away. One of the statues looked as if it had blinked, but it couldn't have. Everyone knows that statues can't blink.
A Peaceful World
It was summer in camp half blood. Technically, it is summer for most of the year in camp half blood, but it was also summer outside camp half blood so that's ok. It was also hot, as it is in summer. It was too hot to do anything, except swim, but Gale didn't mind. He didn't get hot. It wasn't part of his material existence to get hot, it didn't make sense. When Gale gets hot, an elephant will fall on him. He was currently walking along the wooden peer at the lake. He sat down on the edge and dipped his feet in the cool- no, not cool- water. He looked up and sighed. It was a beautiful morning, the sun shining brightly on the peaceful world. He looked at the can of Coke in his hand. Nothing like a Coke to start the day. Except what was right about to happen in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, NOW. Many things happened at once. We will run the events in slow motion for viewing purposes. There was a scream, coming from far out of the bay. Then there was an ear-shattering roar that sent ripples across the lake water. There also Gale shouting "SHIT" as he sprayed Coke all over his face.
He stared as a mind blowingly massive sea serpent raised it's head out of the water. It was looking at a small white dot that was right under it. There was another roar. And another scream. And silence. Gale looked behind him. Where the hell was everyone? How could you not hear that? He looked back. He could now see that the serpent was chasing a person. How the person was still alive was not important at the moment. He sighed. So much for a peaceful world.
He then did something that most people would consider very stupid, and others would consider very brave. Most of the time they are the same thing. He dived.
No, he didn't dive, he jumped. And ran on the wa- not water. Ice. Ice was forming under his feet as he ran. Gale didn't notice this little convenience, as it is very difficult to notice anything when you're running towards the largest sea monster you've ever seen. The monster turned it's gigantic head towards him, creating tidal waves that crashed along the beach. The noise was deafening. It was almost as deafening as the voice in his head, telling him to stop being an idiot and get out of the way of something that probably wants to eat him. He reached the base of the creature's neck and jumped on. It's scales were huge, so they were easy to grip onto. he scrambled up to it's head, drew his sword (which he always manages to have with him. This is part of the physics of fiction-convenience) and stabbed it in the forehead. It screeched and shook it's head, almost throwing Gale off. Then he pulled it out and thrust it down again. The creature cried out in pain and collapsed into the sea. Gale didn't notice that this was also impossible, the sea where he was standing was far too shallow for a huge sea monster to be. But then he wasn't standing.
Gale crashed into the waves. He fought against the weight of water and pushed to the surface again. He looked around. Silence. Oh no. He dived again and swam around desperately. Then he saw a glint of light, about 5 meters under him. He swam down and grabbed the person around the waist, and then pulled it up and gasped as he re-surfaced. He stared back at the shore. It was a long swim back. He started swimming.
Gale collapsed onto the sand, dizzy with tiredness. He hadn't had a chance to get a proper look at the person he'd just saved, so he crawled over to the body. It was a girl. She looked the same age as Gale, just the right age to be a main character. Her hair was blue. Gale didn't see a problem with that. Blue was a good colour. She was also wearing blue jeans and a black jacket, that were both soaking wet. She coughed and opened her eyes. She stared at Gale.
"Wha-?" she started, but she flopped back again. Gale sighed and looked around. Still, there was no-one there. It was if the camp was dead. He crouched down, hauled the girl onto his back and started to walk to the Big House.
Silent Death
That night,
The forest was dark. Except for a clearing with a fire in it, and 5 campers who had payed a Hermes camper to sneak out and steal a few cans of beer and a bottle of "something". They were amazingly drunk.
"And then, then, he did a thing, yea"
"Yea he did, i saw him"
"I feel like we're thing"
"What thing?"
"Y'know, that thing" He waived his arms about. "Waswasthing... Wassssssaaaaaa..."
"Wassaaaaaaiiiliinggggggggggg!"
"WASAILING"
"WAZZUP"
"WAZZZZAAAAAAAAAAP"
"WURRZZZZZZZEEEERRRPPPP"
"High-five man!"
"Yea!" There was the sound of a twig snapping. All five campers stood up. The one with the bottle smashed it on a rock, to create the greatest brawler weapon known to man. No matter how pissed a demigod is, the god half never gets drunk. There was movement in the trees, a dark shape, circling the clearing.
"Come out... hic!" Two dots of blue appeared. A man dressed all in black stepped into the fire-light. No. He wasn't a man, he was a statue, if you looked closer. He wasn't wearing black either. He was made of black stone.
"Who're... you?" said the one with the bottle. The statue stared at him. Then finally it spoke. it spoke in the tone of mountains. In the tone of gravel. It wasn't possible, but most things aren't.
"Death"
"No you're not" It paused again.
"Fighting then"
"No, that's Ares" Another pause.
"Ares... is not fighting. He is not war. He is just the face of war, the representation of war. Ares is a manifestation of war, not the other way round. But me..." It pulled a black crossbow from a stone belt from it's stone waist. "I am... War" It was a very good shot.