When a Demigod Dreams
This world a little AU, I like a lot of the characters but I don't really have the attention span or the patients to write about them all so I'm just sticking to my favorites. Feedback is very important to me so feel free to comment a lot! I restarted it to fix my mistakes and to make it longer.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan the biggest troll ever does.
Chapter 1: I Meet the Greeks
"Three...Two...One, We have lift off!" I pronounced into a makeshift microphone, tossing a cleaning rag in my hand onto the drying rack. This day had dragged on for what seemed like an eternity and now only one minute stood between me and sweet freedom. Don't get me wrong I love my job at "Pans Corner" but if it's slow like it was today I can't but help to look at the clock constantly. I looked around the open lobby with pride, every table had been wiped down, the faux marble floor was mopped and all napkins and condiments had been stocked. All that was left were one or two customers still enjoying the last bits of their food, but even the slow consumption of their meal didn't bother me. I was almost free and on my way to the best place in the world, my apartment for some much needed R&R and perhaps a bowl of ramen. "Such is the glamorous life of me." I thought to myself.
"Hey Luis, the lobby is all cleaned up, we just have to wait for these last few stragglers." I tossed to my boss. Luis was a short man with a round belly and a major case of goat beard, he always walked funny like every step took a lot of effort but don't let that fool you. The sight of him sprinting whenever some punk tries to run off without paying is forever burned into my mind. That man can really strike fear in to anyone despite his small size. He often reminded me of the fauns that lived at Camp Jupiter only this guy wasn't a bum, as far as I knew.
Luis grunted putting down a fifty "You sure you got everything killer?" he asked me, looking up from counting today's intake, his eyes focused on me like lasers scopes. I nodded, unlike other nights I had actually gotten all of the required chores done on time for once.
"Alright, take the trash out and you can head home." He grumbled as he went back to counting.
"Sure thing boss." I waved, picking up the garbage and headed out side to the dump. The cold night air felt refreshing on my face, I had heard Luis grumbling earlier that today was one of the hottest on record in the whole state of Colorado. It made me glad that I worked at a place with plenty of A.C. As I neared the dumpster a soft breeze blew by bringing the sound of crickets and slightly dampened the stink of garbage.
"Phew!" I exclaimed taking in deep breath before opening the lid, a thick barrage of rotting goat cheese and tomato sauce assaulted my nostrils," I can't wait for trash day to get rid of this." I gasped, my eyes tearing up.
"Tell me about it, can't you work at a nicer restaurant? Or at least in retail?" a creaky voice complained behind me causing my ears to burn. The mark on my arm started to ache as I quickly spun around to see my least favorite relative.
"Hello Somnus, long time no see you lazy lard" I greeted though my teeth, my anger being barely contained as Somnus feigned injury at my insult. He looked older than the last time I saw him, his white beard had grown a few inches so that he looked more like a skinny Santa the wings that came out of his head fluttered a bit as he pulled a handkerchief out of the pocket of his blue leisure suit to cover his nose. I snickered at the god's discomfort and hefted the garbage bag into the dumpster shutting the lid thus cutting off the smell.
"Really? Is that any way to greet your great grandfather? After all, I was the one who saved you from that miserable Camp Jupiter. You should be on your knee's thanking me." He said pointing a gloved finger at me.
"Yeah you saved me, only after you had gotten me in trouble with the praetor Frank Zhang! What were you thinking!" I seriously wanted to deck the S.O.B but given how he was the immortal god of sleep I didn't see any good chances.
"Oh please, the boy wasn't even conscious of what he was doing. That's what he gets for sleeping on the job. Honestly back in my day praetors were killed for falling asleep while they were on duty. "
"Yeah well you're not the one he was trying to smooch you sick bastard! He nearly would have got me had I not hit him with Reyna's jar of jelly beans."
The god of sleep rolled his eyes in annoyance, we had gone through this conversation before many times. I often enjoyed throwing what happened in his face. It was the only time I got the upper hand on him. But this was getting tedious and I wanted to go home.
"What do you want anyways?" I quipped trying to get to the point of why he decided to appear.
"Oh right, I nearly forgot with your constant complaining. Its time you continued on your journey." He stated as if it was a matter of fact. I pinched the bridge of my nose, I had not heard from him in months and during that time I had to scrape together a living just to get my next meal and here he was, the god of sleep, telling me I should keep going like I had just sat down to catch my breath.
"Well gee whiz, I'm sure glad you made it all the way here but sorry I like my life here, I have a job, a home, and I don't have to wake up at four am for guard duty. So thanks but no thanks." With that I pushed past him but I suddenly felt a hand on my shirt collar yanking me back.
"You do not have a choice," he warned his dark eyes twinkling with worry," Something is stirring, a being no Olympian has encountered, it will come for you. You are more special than you realize."
His words made my eyes sting, how was I special? A roman legion drop out with no future working at a vegan pizza place. Yeah that sounded real special. Somnus looked at me with a questioning gaze, one that I always hated but always found familiar.
"*Sigh* fine I'll go, any place you have in mind?" The god smiled like he had just won the lottery. I knew I was going to regret saying yes to him.
"Actually your way there is already close by, I'm just here to make sure your prepared and I do believe I missed your birthday so for that I have these." He opened my hand and placed a leather bracelet and a can of pepper spray. I tried to smile, but this was the worse gift I had ever gotten. Somnus gestured for me to inspect the items further. I turned the leather bracelet around and saw on the front it had a silver wolfs head with a ring dangling from its mouth. Ok so it wasn't a total bust, but I still didn't understand how fashion was going to help my journey.
"It's a shield," the god barked, seeing as I was still not understanding what it was he pulled on the ring in the wolfs mouth causing it to grow until I was holding a four foot wide disk with the imprint of a snarling wolf on its face. I marveled at the detail and ancient Greek lettering around the edges.
"Its name is efiálti̱s."
"Nightmare," I translated, surprised by instantly knowing what he had said, I could have sworn it sounded Greek. I didn't even know I knew Greek, but being a demigod weirder things have happened.
"Yes, it is a lot like Zeus's shield aegis, only with this shield in eyes of your enemy you will become what they fear most. Quite useful when it's a decisive battle and you don't want to scare the hummus out of your comrade's while you're fighting a foe. And as for the pepper spray give the lid a twist and you hold óneiro the dream spear one touch and your foe with fall into a deep slumber." I whistled in appreciation of the gifts, maybe the old coot wasn't so bad. Of course he quickly ruined my opinion of him by disappearing before I could say thank you leaving a pungent stink of lavender and gasoline.
"Great, I finally get a gift from the guy and now he's gone again." I put the ring back into Nightmare's mouth causing it to shrink back into a normal bracelet. With many choice words I made it back to Pans Corner. I kicked the door open as a means of relieving my anger earning me an annoyed glare from Luis.
"What's wrong kid? The raccoon back again?!" he inquired pulling up a chair for me.
"No, Luis the raccoon isn't back," I plopped down on the chair. "You know my grandpa I've been telling you about." I didn't need to finish my sentence. Luis knew all too well that my grandfather and I didn't have the smoothest of relationships. He nodded with a knowing gaze and handed me a slice of pizza.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much kid, he may be a total loser but he's still family." I looked up from my food. Sometimes I didn't get this guy, one moment he's a total scrooge and the next he's Doctor Phil.
"Yeah that's true," I mumble finishing up my pizza. "I think I should head home, I'll see you tomorrow at opening." Luis looked like he was about to say something else but I scurried out of there as fast as I could. I was not in the mood for another adult to tell me everything was going to be ok. I made my way to my apartment in very much need of a shower and a good night sleep when something caught my eye. Hiding in the shadows were three teens huddling into a corner. They seemed to be looking at the apartment windows to see if anyone was home.
"This can't be good" I thought to myself as I made my way towards them. I fingered the pocket knife I always kept with me until I could hear them whispering.
"Are you sure that this is the right place? I don't think we'll find any demigods here." a blonde girl inquired to one of the figures next to her. All three of them looked like they had been through hell and back. Looking around as if they were being chased by the devil himself.
"I'm 99% sure that he is here, well maybe 95%," a girl in a black leather jacket and a death to Barbie T-shirt quipped. "This is definitely the place I saw in my dream." That caught my attention Somnus had mentioned that ride to where I needed to go was close.
"Well let's get going then, I'm tired of squatting here." A boy about my age complained, he had dark black hair and strange green eyes like the sea after a storm. These kids were looking for a demigod and as far as I knew I was the only demigod around so I decided to make myself known to them. I coughed loudly causing them to snap at attention they stared at me in shock.
"H-how long were you standing there?" the green eye boy asked nervously.
"Oh about the whole time," I smirked as their faces turned a slight shade of crimson from being surprised, "you guys look like you've seen better days, come on inside I was going to make some dinner anyways." I motioned for them to follow me into the apartment. They looked at each other with doubt for a moment before following my lead. After ten minutes had passed I lead our small group into the living room each of us with a cup of instant ramen. I sat down on my chair with as much gusto as was humanly possible, letting myself sink into the soft leather.
"So… rough day today?" The green eyed boy asked between sips of his noodles trying to start light conversation.
"Yeah," I mused to myself, "restaurants seem like fun but then you realize you've got to actually work." They laughed at that except for the girl in the death to Barbie t-shirt. Her electric blue eyes kept focus on me, they were pretty yes but also sort of disturbing as if she was expecting me to grow horns or something. She kept at it as we ate until I finally couldn't take it anymore. "You lose something over here cupcake?" I asked meeting her angry gaze with one of annoyance. Our glaring at each other continued like that before the blonde girl cleared her throat.
"Sorry," she said her gray eyes cutting between us. "Were just a little surprised is all, we've never really met a demigod our age on his own, alive at least."
"Well I wouldn't really call it living, I'm just squatting here until the next part of my quest comes along." They looked at me strangely, I guess it would sound crazy. A demigod on his own would sound crazy to anyone who knew the dangers that the world held.
"You really are him aren't you? The demigod from my dream." The death to Barbie girl stated with an undertone of disappointment.
"Well I think I might know why that is but before we get down to business let's introduce ourselves." I said with a confident smile trying to hide the curiosity that was eating at my gut.
Death to Barbie glared at me in challenge "You first." I was beginning to like this girl less and less but there was something about her I found endearing.
"Sure I'll give you the courtesy, I'm Kai McLane second legionnaire of the 3rd regiment, great grandson of Somnus or Hypnos to you guys and son of Sarah McLain and some mystery guy she fell in love with. I'm 19 years old and I am currently on a quest to head east. Is that enough information or do you need to know my hobbies and where I keep my dream journal?" Death to Barbie fixed me with a perfect ten in annoyed. With her black punk style hair and leather jacket she reminded me of a female ghost rider with skin, the other two demigods looked at us in utter disbelief. Finally shaking out of her trance the gray eyed blonde spoke first.
"I am Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena." I shook her hand politely, moving my gaze to the green eyed boy next to her.
"Percy Jackson son of Poseidon" I shook his hand a bit more roughly, I had heard stories about him during my time at Camp Jupiter. Lastly I turned towards the dark cloud in the corner. She sighed indignantly but met my gaze.
"Thalia Grace daughter of Zeus." I smiled at her with appreciation.
"Well, two kids of the Big Three. I had the pleasure of meeting your brother Ms. Thalia Grace he is one hell of a fighter. And you Percy Jackson I've heard a lot about you, well done. So now that we've been introduced…. What the fuck are you three doing here!?" the last part I didn't mean to yell but the suspense was starting to bug me and when you're a demigod with serious add and no patience, shit will get on your nerves if they take too long. Also the daughter of Zeus was starting to get on my nerves with her constant glares and haughty attitude. Like being the spawn of the sky somehow made you all that.
"We are on a quest to find a half-blood that might be able to help us back at our camp." Annabeth stated like we were in a war meeting, my outburst seeming to not have surprised her at all. I looked her with interest, I had never met a child of Athena before and this was quite the good impression.
"So you guys expect me to believe that there's some problem at your camp and I'm to just go with you willy nilly?"
"Well, yeah kind of." Percy shrugged as he finished off the last of his ramen. His honesty was astounding but then again what did I have to lose.
"Alright say no more I'll go. Just don't think you're getting away with that lame story, your telling me all the details on our way there." Percy and Annabeth nodded while Thalia just rolled her eyes and walked out of the building, I watched her go.
"Is she ok? She seems to be a little pissed off or is that just her natural setting."
Annabeth and Percy looked at each other nervously. I could tell that there was a story here but with how Percy was nodding off slightly It would have to wait for tomorrow. I told them they could stay here tonight and that we'll leave tomorrow. Annabeth left to tell Thalia leaving only me and Percy.
"So….," I started. "You want to play some monopoly?"
I decided that the first chapters were far too short so I decided to extend them and make them much better. Sound good guys? I do apologies if this upsets anyone.
Somnus: roman equivalent to Hypnos the god of sleep.