Pets

A/N: Part of a (hopefully) series of little shorts based in the PJO universe. Written to one-word-prompts. Prompt was 'Pets' ... and this is what came out. Review?

Summary: As Mrs O'Leary inevitably finds out, annoying a son of Hephaestus does not result in goodness. More like the opposite.

~O~

Charles Bekendorf tripped and crash landed in the wet mud of the forest floor. He lay there sprawled across the undergrowth, grimly wondering whether the Fates had gone trigger happy with his quota of bad luck for today. Bits of fallen leaves and dead wood, not to mention the grimy dirt itself stuck into his face and hair like glue onto to paper. For the hundredth time that day, the son of Hephaestus glared at the one-ton hellhound sitting in front of him, looking for the entire world like a perfectly innocent puppy. Bekendorf snorted. Innocent, he scoffed. Right. More like the devil in disguise.

Beckendorf could take a tumble with the best of them, but two hours playing hit-the-dirt with a hellhound and he had more bruises than he ever could have imagined a person was physically capable of having. He had bruises in places he didn't even know existed!

As he hauled himself up into a standing position, Bekendorf gave the hellhound a disapproving glare. To her credit Mrs O'Leary simply yawned and turned away from him with a disinterested air. Bekendorf grit his teeth. This was proving to be downright impossible! How he had gotten into his head that he could take a rhino sized dog out for a walk was beyond him at the moment.

He'd had enough, if Percy wanted to keep the slobbering behemoth, then he was welcome to her.

He heaved himself up back to a standing position using the thick steel cable that he had rigged up to act as a collar for the monster. Not that it was proving to be of much use at the moment. As it was all good and well to have a leash connected to Mrs O'Leary's collar but if the person holding on to the other end was anything less than a semi-trailer, controlling the hellhound was downright impossible.

But then again ... Beckendorf suddenly had a glorious idea.

~O~

Later that night when Percy finally returned to camp, Beckendorf was nowhere to be seen.

"Mrs O'Leary!" he called out, "Come here girl!" Nothing. Percy frowned. That was unlike the hellhound. Usually the second she could smell him, she would be bounding towards him with the speed of a freight train and the enthusiasm of a sugared up five year old. It was unsettling, but Percy couldn't help but be somewhat glad. It was all and well being invulnerable but being immune to hellhound slobber was another thing entirely.

Suddenly, his ears picked up a low mournful wail coming from the direction of the forest. Not that it was unusual to hear strange sounds from the woods, it was after all, stocked with monsters. But most monsters had the intelligence and enough instinct for self-preservation to not draw the attention of an entire camp of hyperactive marauding demigods with pointy celestial bronze weapons. It was either a very stupid monster, or big and bad enough to not care. The latter could prove worrying.

His interest piqued, Percy headed off to the forest, drawing Riptide as he went. He followed the sound of the wailing but as he got closer, he got the feeling that the yowling was strangely familiar.

Percy burst through the bushes, sword brandished out, fully prepared for a battle to the death against a vicious spawn of the underworld – only to find his dog and what looked like half the Smithsonian paraphernalia.

"Mrs O'Leary?" Percy asked, dumbfounded. The hellhound looked at him with a sheepish expression and with a suitably chastised attitude, lay her chin down on her paws.

"W-What ...?" He trailed off as he realised that the hellhound had a thick steel cable attached to her collar, which was connected to a complicated looking contraption that wrapped around the trunk of a gigantic tree. Essentially, it was a monster version of a peg and a chain. Shock absorbers, industrial strength electrical motors and celestial bronze chains ensured that Mrs O'Leary could move, but only a certain distance before the motors would activate and she would be yanked back towards the tree.

Percy couldn't help it, he started laughing. Five minutes later, still wiping tears from his eyes, he managed to choke out, "So what the hell did you do Beckendorf?" He paused before catching the guilty look on the hellhound's face and it dawned on him. Percy burst out chuckling once more. "Awww, you didn't," he said incredulously, "You wrestled him? No wonder he chained you up!"

Mrs O' Leary gave him a dirty look and growled, barking out several phrases before turning around and presenting her hindquarters to him and flicking her tail up. Too busy laughing, Percy only realised later that Mrs O'Leary had probably given him the hellhound version of the middle finger.

~O~