Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Lost in History
AN: Heeey, so this is my first PJaO fanfic, yay! reviews are appreciated
Chapter 1
Being a demigod isn't easy let me tell you. Sure you can have cool powers, your godly parent can control stuff like the entire ocean and you get a cool weapon that can be concealed in a simple pen. You may be thinking, 'Hey that's awesome! Who wouldn't want that? Are you some kind of weirdo?' well being one also entitles you to have a huge target on your back for all sorts of nasties, getting you killed in unpleasant ways and only getting one safe haven in the entire world! There are times I'd rather kiss a toilet seat and live in a manure pile than be a demigod, but maybe I'm being to drastic.
I suppose it isn't as bad as I've led on, I mean, I did end up meeting some great friends and an incredible girlfriend that at times makes me feel dumb as bricks. Good times.
My name is Percy Jackson; I'm currently sixteen and live in New York City with my mother Sally Jackson and stepfather Paul Bofis. Things have currently been pretty calm, which is a bit of a shock to all of us.
See, things were a little…messed up over the past few years, it all started with a whole spat about someone stealing Zeus' master bolt, a son of Hermes joining the Titans and helping the lord of time, Kronos rising from Tartarus and then starting a whole war between the Titans and gods…nothing too major but it did cause a bit of grief…
It was just the beginning of summer and I was currently preparing for departure to Camp Half Blood, the safe haven for people like me, half-bloods, the children of ancient Greek gods and mortals. My father's Poseidon by the way, meaning I'm a child of the 'Big Three', and that also means my life is a little more complicated than the other Demigods'
I continued to pack my bag, though I didn't need much since I already had a supply of clothes in my cabin (yes I am aware that they've most likely sat there unwashed since last summer since the cleaning harpies most likely missed them…)
There was a quiet rapping on my bedroom door as I pulled my orange Camp Half Blood shirt over my head.
"Come in!" I said, assuming it was my mom.
"Nice abs Seaweed Brain," a voice said, most definitely not my mother's voice. I jumped three feet in the air and ended up falling back into my dresser. Still with my shirt caught over my head. Quickly pulling it down, I looked to see, much to my everlasting shame, my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, leaning casually in the doorway. 'Alright Zeus, you can go ahead and blast me to ashes now, nothing's going to top that' I thought miserably, seeing that she was clearly fighting back laughter.
"Still as graceful as ever." She said, walking over and holding out her hand to me. Reluctantly I took it and she helped me back to my feet. Annabeth's curly blonde hair was still the same as I remember, but it wasn't messy this time, and it even smelled like lemons. She wore an orange t-shirt like mine, her celestial bronze dagger strapped to her arm and a bag slung over her shoulder. I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair, my face still felt hot as I attempted to act cool.
"Uhhh…" was all I could say, causing her to snicker.
"I see your range of vocabulary still staggers the imagination." She mused. I let out a sigh.
"Hey Annabeth…I thought you were going to meet me when I got to Half Blood Hill?" I said.
"About that…Chiron sent me here because he wants us to make a little pit stop first." Annabeth explained.
"A pit stop? Where? What's going on?" I asked.
"Apparently there is something happening up at Lake Okanogan, in Canada. Some satyrs up there have been attacked by a monster that lives in the lake." Annabeth replied.
"What kind of pit stop is that? It's all the way across the continent in another country." I gawked, "and I've heard of that monster, locals call in the Ogopogo, it's just some myth. It's not even Greek."
"Percy, I thought you moved past the whole 'it's just a myth' stage already." Annabeth rolled her eyes, I shook my head and picked up my packed bag and slung it over my shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, ok, I guess lake monsters would be my department, but how are we supposed to get there?" I asked. Annabeth took my hand and let me out of the room towards the exit of the apartment.
"Don't worry, I've got it all arranged." She explained as we left, after a fast goodbye from my mom of course, but she was used to these sudden departures I did by now. We made our way down to the main floor of the building, but instead of heading out the front, Annabeth pulled me out through a back janitor's door and into an alley. Out waiting for us was a boy about twelve, he had pale skin and was wearing an aviator jacket over a black shirt covered in skulls, and his hair was messy and jet-black. He leaned against an enormous mass of fur the size of a dump truck, a giant black dog chewing on an empty metal garbage can.
"Nico?" I asked, rather surprised to see him here of all places.
AROOF!
"Hey Mrs. O Leary." I greeted the dog, the world's only friendly hellhound to be exact, and patted her nose. She licked me with her enormous tongue until I was drenched head to toe in drool, my ability to stay dry didn't apply to monster drool as I have come to discover since I started taking care of her several years ago.
"Sup Percy, ready to go shadow travel some more?" Nico asked me casually. He was the son of Hades, so he could do things like that. But since there were so many people going via shadow travel I assumed that's why my dog was here, she could carry us all easy.
"Yeah I guess so." I replied, Annabeth climbed on top of Mrs. O Leary and pulled Nico and I up on her back as well. The son of Hades whispered something in the Hellhound's ear. She stood up immediately and started bounding down the alley, making the ground vibrate so much I wondered if people were going to start screaming 'Earthquake!' she then ran towards a shadowy wall and went right through into a black abyss.
After speeding through the unknown shadowzone, we appeared in a different location, somewhere in the rocky mountains by some empty picnic area beside a big lake, so thankfully there weren't any mortals around to wet their pants at the sight of three kids riding a giant mastiff appearing out of thin air. We jumped off Mrs. O Leary before she fell over and flattened us. Shadow Travel really tended to wear her out.
"So…where's this Ogopogo?" I asked.
"Still in the lake, duh." Annabeth snorted, "Apparently it likes to show up around sunset."
"So we have some time to look around." Nico added, "maybe we can find some satyrs around here, or Naiads since this is a fresh water area."
"Good idea, there's a town down that way at the end of the lake, let's go." Annabeth said and led us along a road; Mrs. O Leary was perfectly content snoozing in a shadow close to the picnic table so we left her there, the Mist would be enough to mask her from mortal eyes so we didn't have to worry about anyone seeing her. I followed my friends, glancing at the lake a few times. It looked harmless enough, but it was definitely more than big enough for a serpent to call home, the blue/green water stretched out along the valley in the mountains, smooth as stone, no ripples at all. But I also got a strange feeling, a small tug in my chest, like an urge to go dive into the water that very second, but it was strange because I didn't feel as at ease by fresh water as I did by the sea. I did remember something said that Poseidon wasn't as welcome around the fresh water realms, though he did technically rule them, he didn't really go in them, he stayed in the sea.
"Percy, you coming or what?" I heard Nico call to me. I snapped out of my thoughts to notice that I was standing at the lake's edge, several feet behind my friends.
"Yeah, yeah I'm coming, just got distracted." I replied and ran up to meet them, and to get far away from that lake as I could.
Annabeth was right about the small town at the end of the lake, there was a long beach that stretched from one end of the valley to the other, there were a few people there soaking up the last rays of the day from the sun, some kids were splashing in the shallow water, completely oblivious to what might have been lurking beneath the depths. A road was parallel to the beach; on the other side were a few motels and restaurants. I caught sight of a girl playing a guitar while sitting on the shore, her feet in the water as she played something that sounded a bit like an old sea chantey that pirates would sing. I found that a bit odd but then turned away to face Annabeth and Nico.
"So what now?" I asked.
"Well, we probably have about an hour before sunset, maybe you could go investigate the lake now?" Nico replied. I looked at the water again, feeling a nervous flutter in my gut, which wasn't like me at all, I'm not afraid of water, so why was this lake any different?
"Yeah…I could do that." I replied slowly.
"Percy are you ok? You look a bit pale." Annabeth told me, her stormy grey eyes were studying my face intently. I shrugged.
"I'm fine, no worries." I said and turned towards the beach and walked out onto the sand. I stepped into the cool water and immediately started feeling strange. That urge to jump in wasn't there anymore, if anything, it almost felt like something was pushing me away, like the water didn't want me touching it, I heard the song that the girl was playing on her guitar falter a bit but then continued, though the chantey didn't sound as nice as before. I walked deeper into the water until it was up to my knees, but that's when I definitely felt the water pushing me, I dug my feet into the sand and shuffled deeper into the water.
That's when things went wrong.
Suddenly I felt something in the water wrap around my ankles, it wasn't solid but I couldn't get it off, it was like a tendril of water…but under water, and before I could even make a squeak the presence pulled be under the surface. I heard my friends shouting my name but there was nothing I could do except thrash as it pulled me deeper into the water. I had never felt more thankful to be a son of Poseidon than at that moment, I was unable to drown and the pressure of the water had no effect on me so I didn't have to worry about being crushed up like a ball of tinfoil. It pulled me until I let out a grunt and concentrated, I was not going to let this thing take me any further. Clenching my hands into fists and gritting my teeth, I willed my own current to pull myself in the opposite direction. It pulled back but I pulled harder until it finally released me. I then pulled out my ballpoint pen from my pocket, and yes in fact that does sound as heroic as it sounds! Pulling off the cap, the pen lengthened in my hand until a celestial bronze sword, Riptide, had taken its place. I held up the sword in a threatening fashion, trying to scare whatever had grabbed me into submission, but I didn't see anything in the dark, even with my heat sensitive eyes, at least, until I heard something that sounded like something between a growl and a hiss, a griss if you will. Then I saw it, a long serpent like shape snaked into view, though it was far away from me, I could tell it was huge, it's eyes were almost glowing, the water around its body boiled. Then I felt another urge hit me as soon as it laid its eyes on me.
'SWIM AWAY!' screamed in my head, and after a split second,I obeyed. Summoning another current, I rode up to the surface and burst out like a shot out of a cannon. I flew several feet in the air before landing in the shallow water, but luckily didn't hit the bottom.
"Percy!" Annabeth shouted from the shore, "What happened? Are you alright?"
"F-f-fine!" I stuttered, still in shock as I bolted to the shore and flopped down onto the dry sand. Nico and Annabeth were at my side in seconds. I never felt so happy that they were here with me.
"Did you see it?" Nico asked as I looked at them.
"Yeah, I saw it." I managed to say, though in a higher octave than I preferred. I must have looked pretty pathetic or something because Annabeth pulled out a sweater from my bag and draped in on me despite the fact that I was still bone dry, another trait earned from my father, I couldn't get wet unless I wanted to.
"What did it look like? What did it do to you?" she asked, looking concerned. I took a deep breath to compose myself again.
"It's big, and it looked like a giant snake, I didn't get a good look at it though." I replied, "It was too far away."
"Wait, if it was too far than what pulled you under?" Nico asked, his eyebrows creased in confusion.
"I'm not sure…it almost felt like the water itself did it." I said. Annabeth placed her index finger and thumb on her chin, deep in thought.
"Seems like someone doesn't want us here." She murmured.
"Or they don't want Percy here." Nico put in, shrugging. Great, that made me feel loads better.
"Maybe we should go somewhere to eat, take our minds off this for now, get away from the water.." I suggested, 'gods, I can't believe I just said that…' I added mentally as soon as the words left my mouth. Annabeth nodded thoughtfully.
"That's probably the wisest course of action for the moment, we need to make a plan on how to take care of this." She said and stood back up. I got to my feet as well and slipped the sweater all the way on, suddenly feeling a bit chilled. Nico gave me a pat on the back before following Annabeth across the road, I walked after them as well, turning my back to the lake and not looking back once. I could still hear that girl playing her guitar, but the music sounded nice again once I was off that beach.
