Threat from the North - A Percy Jackson & the Olympians fanfiction

Chapter One

The Message in Blood

The laestrygonian giant pushed up on the top of the door frame, snapping the solid wood, as it squeezes into the small, New England home. It paused, smelling the air for signs of danger, pulled itself further into the room, then motioned to its companion. The second lastrygonion was a juvenile, a great deal smaller than the first - only half the size, and had no trouble moving through the doorway.

Humans had been killed here. Not a fresh kill, the elder lastrygonian could tell, but human. A delicacy.

The elder lastrygonian was about to tear the leg off one of the corpses when the juvenile squealed with alarm. The elder turned in time to see the juvenile get pierced by a silver shaft of light before it dissolved in a cloud of dust. The adult could not even process a reaction before it too was pierced by an arrow loosed from the same bow.

"All clear, my Lady," a feminine voice called. The owner of the voice, a young woman appearing no older than fifteen summers, with black hair in severe spikes, which clashed against a silver tiara, and intelligent blue eyes, stared silently at the carnage in the home's entry room. "Thalia?" a younger female voice called from behind her.

Thalia, daughter of Zeus, knelt reverently as a girl who appeared to be only twelve approached her. "My Lady Artemis," Thalia whispered with respect.

Artemis, Olympian goddess of the hunt, nodded her acknowledgement to her lieutenant. "What appears to be the situation here?"

Thalia stood and turned back to the dimly lit room, gesturing as she spoke. "Ophelia and Jeremiah LeGrange. Aged forty-two and forty-five respectively. No known offspring. Ophelia was a demigod: a daughter of Dionysus, Jeremiah, a mortal, heir to the LeGrange wineries in France. Both killed, their blood spilled about the room; although, it appears as though there is more blood here than there should be for two human adults…"

"Very astute," Artemis praised. She strode carefully into the room, not disturbing any of the evidence, as though her feet did not touch the floor at all. "Do you have any further observations?"

Thalia closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose. "The smell of blood and death permeates, mostly blocking any other smells, aside from the stench of monsters. But the monsters are the most recent smell - those we just killed and perhaps one or two others. These bodies, however, have lain cold for more than three days. Monsters do not linger at kill sites. More than likely, they were merely drawn by the smell and presence of death. No monster killed these two humans."

"Go on…"

"I smell…hints of steel…celestial bronze…magic…and…something else," Thalia paused, cocking her head to the side in slight confusion. "It almost smells like…(sniff)…honey?"

Artemis frowned. "Honey?…Obviously, they were murdered by one or more demigod wielding steel and celestial bronze. However, the scent of honey confuses me…Have Guinevere record everything here, then we shall purge this place with fire."

"Aye, my Lady," Thalia said, bowing her head and turning to go. Before Thalia left, Artemis stopped her. "I shall be bringing this incident up at the next solstice council."

"Are you sure, my Lady? The winter solstice is still four months off. Any chance of a pantheon-sanctioned hunt succeeding will be gone by then."

"I know…but it cannot be helped…" Artemis remained a moment longer as Thalia left, staring at the strange symbols splattered on one wall in the victims' blood.

(Inscribed on the wall is a single word in runes: REVENGE)

Author's note:

Apologies to everyone who expected a group of symbols after that last punctuation, but unfortunately the runic font I downloaded will not translate over to this website...*sigh* so, I have a solution. If you'd like to see what "revenge" looks like in the Elder Futhark, just send me a message and I'll get you a link to the saved image in my photobucket.

Thanks to Crazytop14 for her assistance and moral support in making this happen.

Please be gentle in any reviews and comments. As always, constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged.

Disclaimer:

I do not own rights Percy Jackson & the Olympians, or any characters thereof. I just like the books.