Finally getting this story onto the computer.

Sorry it's been so long, to the few of you who have read my first story. I actually have an attention problem and while I have the imagination of a seven year old artist, and still constantly daydream about Cary's adventures in this story, I also have the attention span of a squirrel. Yes, I have been tested and the squirrel won (cheater). But enough about that.

I do not own Percy Jackson or the series he is represented in. If I did, Riptide would have been broken in some battle and then remade into an appropriately sized trident by now.

6:00 AM

The ominous clouds began to disperse as the sun rose to peek from the horizon. As the dark marshmallows dissolved in the sky, a cry was heard that seemed to shake the entire valley. Granted, the valley was only about a mile wide, as well as long, but let's not dwell on that.

"WHAT THE F#*& WAS THAT FOR?!?!" shrilly echoed through the surrounding forest, strangely causing even some of the trees to relieve themselves. If one were to try and track the source of this sound, they would find themselves in front of a cabin. From outside, it seemed pretty normal. But, taking one step inside, you'll notice a few quaint features that make it special. What might stand out at first is the fact that there is no floor, just the same grass that covered every inch of the surrounding forest. Then, it might also come to your attention that you can still see the clouds in the sky. This is because there is also no roof, leaving anyone who walks in subject to the elements.

The furniture seemed to be made of the same sturdy, yet aged, wood as the rest of the cabin. It had also been worn down just as much due to the lack of protection from the weather. Finally, decorating most of the walls seemed to be claw marks, along with fist-sized holes, that appeared to become more frequent as you ventured to the back. If it was your choice to follow this trail of apparent destruction, it would lead to where our story begins. In the room of two loving siblings.

"Answer me, Devil Spawn!"

..............Love has many forms.

"Come out and be a man!" snarled out a young girl as she seemed to be yelling at a mass of tattered covers from across the room. Out of the heap flew a fist, which soon turned into a one-finger salute before slithering back into the mound of covers. Erupting a roar that would make lions crawl away, the brunette dove at the mountain of hole-ridden cloth and started yanking off each cover protecting her brother. Once the final sheet was sent flying, all that was left was a boy with a bored look in his yellow, wolfish eyes.

"What is it, Ica?" coolly asked her brother.

"You KNOW what, Cary. Why did you just try and kill me with your stupid sword?!?" screamed out Ica, waving a Bokken wildly in the air.

"You were -'yawn'- yelling really loud. Tried to shut you up," replied Cary tiredly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. At the same time, he was trying to keep his wild, shaggy black hair out of his eyes so that his sister would at least think he cared. She might go easier on him, then.

A violent strike to his head killed that idea.

"So you decide to try and decapitate me with THIS!?!?" Ica yelled out indignantly while thrusting the wooden sword into his face. To Ica, it was one thing to throw a sword at someone's head just because they woke them. But, for him to not care!? Ohhhhh, he's getting a special surprise for breakfast today! Soon she was rubbing her hands together greedily as she began plotting her revenge, which didn't go unnoticed by her increasingly worried brother.

"Ummm, Sis? Why do you have the same look as that guy who was pointing his metal stick at a deer?" Cary remembered what the deer looked like after the man was done. Let's just say he hoped Ica hadn't been talking to him recently. As he thought this, he felt something wet hit his chest.

"Ica. Ica! ICA!!!!"

"Huh?" Ica responded cluelessly.

"You're drooling," Cary deadpanned.

Awkward silence.

Using Ica's embarrassment to his advantage, Cary spun out from under her, and then dashed out the room and down the hallway. His echoing laughter seemed to bring Ica out of her stupor.

"I wasn't drooling that much, Cary," Ica mumbled, absentmindedly wiping the drool off her face. When she realized Cary hadn't responded, she looked down. She was met with the sight of Cary's imprint in the grass he had been laying on, along with the grass's way of telling what happened. Ica just stared at where he had just been. It was then she felt the presence. Without thinking twice, she rushed out to find the intruder and protect her brother. She was in such a rush that she didn't notice that she was missing a few things......

*****

6:47 AM

'Hmmm, I wonder how long it'll take her to realize I.......,' just as Cary began that thought, a hush soon fell over the forest. The shadows of the trees were cast all over the land. Cary thought it strange that a giant, ominous shadow had overtaken the forest so early in the morning. 'It's usually only late in the day when this happens. Wait, what did Ica say this meant again?'

Cary continued trekking through the deadly silent forest while he was caught up in trying to remember Ica's warning. With his hands behind his head and his casual pace, you would almost think he was just taking a stroll. This caused one of the deer to seek him out about his seemingly careless nature.

'Cary, why are you not in hiding?! Do you not sense the intruder?' the small doe asked anxiously. Though it was not uncommon for a forest animal to come and converse with Cary or Ica, neither ever realized that they weren't using their mouths to speak with their furry neighbors. This did not go unnoticed, however, by the hidden intruder.

'Oh Yeah!! Ica said that whenever the shadows overtake the forest, that meant someone was.....' as Cary trailed off, he realized just what those words meant. Finally undistracted, his strangely acute senses began to go off like sirens in his head.

His ears could pick up the stifled breath of the trespasser. He also caught a whiff of their scent. The smell of their sweat gave them away as male, and he also smelled a strange fruity aroma mixed in with it. What stood out the most however was the scent of blood, a smell he wouldn't forget since he saw that hunter. This reminded Cary.....

'Hey, you're gonna need to leave, little one."

'What? Aren't you going to go hide as well?!" the young doe replied, shocked.

'Nah. This guy, I'm pretty sure I can take him. I mean, he's about my age, I think. He also smells like he's been injured recently. So don't worry about me. Just go hide,' and with that, he gently pushed her away until she reluctantly disappeared into the bushes.

'Okay. Now, I just need to find him fir-,' his thoughts interrupted by a twig snapping a few meters ahead, Cary snapped his head in that direction in that direction and focused his eyes as hard as he could. He then proceeded to slap himself for not noticing how close he was. This guy, who was his age, was only 50 meters away! He seemed to be looking through some weird black things that made a scared doe's eyes look like pebbles. Now, he was putting them down, and Cary got his first good look at him.

He had weird pants that looked like they were supposed to blend in with the rest of the forest. Huh, as if! The kid also had a red t-shirt looked like the sleeves had been ripped off and read 'Camp Half-Blood' across the front. His stringy, brown hair was as long as Cary's, all the way the way down to his shoulders. There also seemed to be a little blood flowing from behind a wrap of crimson-stained gauze around one of his huge arms. The only thing that seemed out of place on this intruder was the look of pure fear and panic on his face. Apparently, he wasn't used to giving away his position while stalking.

Heh, noob.

Even so, his eyes still held a sort of fire to them. Cary didn't know what to make of this guy, but he didn't have much time to figure out. This newcomer was leaving his state of shock, and upon his face, a new look of determination set in as he apparently readied himself to charge into combat. Now, Cary had three ways he could deal with this potential threat.

a) Go back to the cabin and get Ica's help.

b) Calmly walk up to him and ask why he's here.

c) Rush in blindly and overwhelm him with unrelenting attacks.

Well, since Ica was PMS-ing, Plan "A" wasn't gonna happen. And Plan "B"..... HA! What kind of pansy would do that?!? So, that left him with Plan "C", his personal favorite.

At the back of Cary's mind, something about this screamed stupid. But, since the other voice in his head hadn't said anything about it, he didn't really give a flying pickle.

With that thought done, there was only one thing left...

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" the two impetuous boys roared in unison, as they charged at each other simultaneously.

______________________________________________

Meanwhile, in another neck of the woods......... (Pun intended)

"Where can that idiot be......," worried Ica as she leaped from tree to tree, searching for any signs of her brother. So far, all she had seen was a heap of recently broken trees. Yes, Broken. You could see how something had just thrashed right through them, leaving destruction in its wake.

While she would eventually find and castrate whoever did this, and she seriously would, first things were first. She needed to find the stupid mutt before he made all this worse.

"Well, he couldn't have done that much that fast," she tried to reason. ".......Could he?"

As the blurring view of green continued to flash by her eyes, Ica noticed something out of the ordinary.

There weren't anymore signs of an oversized 5-yr olds. Temper tantrum. As if they had just vanished. This caused Ica to leap down from her current tree, in order to search for any clues that might have been left behind in the process. As she landed----

---SPLAT! ---

"Huh?" Ica whimpered as she heard the sound and felt an extremely soft landing. Chanting quickly to herself, she closed her eyes slowly brought her down so that it was directly facing her feet. Her eyelids slowly crept open to reveal.........

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

______________________________________________

As the intruder cocked back his arm, and Cary swung back his rear leg, Ica's shriek shocked them enough for them both to forget to follow through with their attacks. This caused them both to fly forward and come crashing unimpressively into each other. Afterwards, they landed dazed in a heap on the ground.

"Uggghh............Hey, ummmmm, guy...," Cary muttered while trying to move his head.

"What?" the other kid mumbled. Strangely, he sounded as if he was muffled.

"Can you move your head from my crotch?

This moment tended to always appear in their future therapy sessions. But, that's a different story........

Author Note: Well, the first chapter of my new and main story is now up. Once again, sorry it's been so long. But, I will try my best to setup a normal schedule in order to get these stories out in a more reliable way. Till then, enjoy the beginning of Cary's adventures!