Shadow's Light – Prologue
"Percy, are you sure you really want to go? I'm sure we could wait one or ten yea-"
"Mom! Seriously, I'm 8 years old, I can handle going to school!"
"Well… do you need more blue cookies? Did you pack enough clothes? Extra underwear? You have a tendency to wet the be-"
She was cut off by a big hug by 8-year-old Percy Jackson. "Really, I'm fine mom. I'll miss you."
"Well, if you're sure…" said Sally, returning the hug. A hug that I never wanted to break away from. Mom and I stayed like that for a few minutes until we were forced up short by my stepfather Gabe, or as I call him 'Smelly Gabe'.
"Hurry up boy, I have a poker game in another hour. Get out before my co-workers arrive!" he snarled. I reluctantly removed myself from my mother's embrace, threw my backpack full of clothes on my back, waved mom goodbye, discreetly gave Smelly Gabe a rude hand gesture, and ran out the apartment door.
I had barely gotten on the bus and seated myself next ti a red-haired girl with green eyes, when it started moving towards 'Thompson's Elementary School'. It was a boarding school on the outskirts of New York, 40 miles from the city. I had never been more nervous or excited before. As this was my first year going to an ACTUAL school, not just being homeschooled.
So I guess I should explain my life a little bit. I have lived with my mom and Smelly Gabe for my entire life. My birth-father went on a sea voyage before I was even born and never came back. As far as I can remember, I have always had ADHD and dyslexia. I was homeschooled in 1st and 2nd grade, but I finally managed to convince mom to let me go to a boarding school for 3rd grade. Smelly Gabe was all for it, just to have me gone for 9 months.
My mother has always been very overprotective of me, and almost never lets me outside. Because whenever I do, I… see weird things. Every time I go out, red dogs that are on fire snarl at me, half-snake half-woman ladies hiss at me, and once I even saw a huge one-eyed man stalking me. One-eyed not as in like pirates with eyepatches, but a 8'9" tall man with a singular eye in the middle of his face right above his nose. But the thing was that most people couldn't see these… things. By most people, I mean everyone except me. Mom always tells me that I'm imagining things, but I can tell when she's lying, that and the fact that worry is evident in her eyes. So about a year ago, I decided to Google these stuff without my mom knowing, since she won't tell me. What the search results ended up being was enough to almost make me want to have imagined these things. Hellhounds, Gorgons, Cyclops… monsters. Monsters were chasing me.
I also have some weird affinity to water. Whenever I step inside water, I feel like I could lift a million tons, and filled with energy. Whenever I'm underwater, I never run out of breath, and when I walk out of the water I am dry for some reason. And weirdest of all was that injuries like scars or cuts or bruises instantly heal up whenever I dip them into water. I was like a kid version of Aquaman or something.
Now a normal kid would just dismiss these as excessive imagination, but I can swear I saw them in real life, and did those things. I also noticed one thing too. All the creatures I encountered were all connected to Greek Mythology, which when I was introduced to, I immediately took to. Ancient Greek just seemed to come naturally to me thanks to my dyslexia. When I was being homeschooled, maths and stuff like that would just refuse to get through to my brain. But names like Chaos, Poseidon, and heck even Hecatoncheires just came naturally.
Thunder rumbled overhead. Seems like a storm was brewing up. Through the foggy glass, I could make out the general shape of a huge 4 story tall building in the distance. Looks like we're nearing Thompson's. Another wave of excitement and anxiety hit me. Rain started pouring.
About 10 minutes later, the rain was getting heavier and heavier. Suddenly the bus lurched. "Whoa, road must be slippery from all this rain." said the redheaded girl beside me. "Yeah, that's probably what it is…", but I wasn't sure. My thoughts immediately turned to monsters chasing me. Not good.
Just then the bus halted abruptly and the roof was sliced off by a huge axe. Screams were heard all around me. The teacher-in-charge ordered us to exit the bus. As I ran out of the bus, I immediately stopped in my tracks. Because about 10 feet ahead of me… was a huge furry pair of cow-like legs. Slowly looking up, I saw a monster at least 12 feet tall, furry, and had 2 huge menacing-looking bull-like horns. And he was holding an axe. I recognized it as… "the Minotaur" I whispered to myself fearfully. As if it had heard me and didn't like being called it's name by me, it roared in rage and made to grab me.
As the hand slowly came closer, only one thought ran through my mind: 'Sorry mom, I love you.'
Just then a feminine voice yelled "Get down!" Out of pure instinct or something else, I don't know but I immediately ducked. A spear, probably thrown by the owner of the voice that told me to get down, impaled the hand that almost crushed me. The Minotaur roared in rage and pain, withdrew his hand only to swing his axe to somewhere behind me. I looked back to see a young girl around my age with black hair and beautiful electric-blue eyes that literally radiated sparks. I immediately felt sorry for her sacrificing herself to save me. But the axe never hit her. The axe and the hand that was holding it turned to golden dust. At first he was confused but then he saw a sandy-haired boy holding a long sword. He had severed off the Minotaur's arm. Speaking of which, it roared even louder and started to charge at us with his horns. We were all forced to jump aside. But the second time he charged, we weren't so lucky. He managed to cut my leg, and nicked the sandy-haired guy in the biceps, forcing him to drop his sword. I tried to remember whatever information I read up on the Minotaur. It was originally killed by the Greek hero Perseus, who used his bare hands to break off one of his horns and impale it in his neck. But the first Perseus was an adult at the time, what could an 8 year old kid Perseus do? Especially one who had an injured leg?
The blue-eyed girl shouted "Do you know how to kill this thing?" Weird thing to ask.
I tried to think of something, the Minotaur was starting to charge again. Then I remembered something. It has poor eyesight and hearing. It goes on smell alone. That means…
"Wait for it and jump to the side at the last second!" I shouted back.
"Are you crazy?!"
"Maybe! Just do it!"
It was charging at the girl and boy now, who waited until the half-bull half-man was 5 feet away until they jumped to the right, the bull not expecting this couldn't halt and rammed into the school bus and impaled his horns on the metal sheeting.
I suddenly felt invigorated. I looked at my injured leg to find no bleeding or injuries. 'The rain!' I realized. A couple feet from me were the sandy haired boy's sword. From madness or from courage I broke into a run, grabbed the sword, and jumped with inhumane strength onto the thing's back. It tried to shake me off but I held on with all my might. Without hesitation I thrust the sword with as much force as I muster into its neck. It roared in pain one final time before dissipating into golden dust like its hand and axe.
I landed hard on my legs, but I never felt better. I was approached by the two kids that helped me.
"Umm, t-thanks." I said rather awkwardly, handing the sandy haired kid his sword back.
"We should be telling YOU that. You just saved us all! Where did you learn to fight like that?"
Then it occurred to me. These two had seen the monster and fought it off. They had seen it.
"Are you… like me?" I asked.
"I think so, but what exactly do you think we are? We're being chased by these weird monsters all the time." the girl replied.
Good question, I thought to myself. What am I? I thought back to the moment when my leg was healed by the rain's water. Then it struck me like a freight train. Greek history coming naturally to me, mysterious powers over water, Greek monsters out of mythology. Could it be that I was… a god? No my mom was not a god. Maybe my dad was a god. Mom said he went to the sea. No, she said he returned to the sea, remembering now. My dad was a god of the sea? As in Poseidon? That would explain why water affects me strangely. All doubt gone, I was about to reply when I heard the teacher-in-charge searching for me.
The pair looked at me expectantly. I hesitated. My mom would be worried sick. But I owed them, they saved me from being crushed meat.
"We should go talk somewhere else, they're searching for me. By the way what's your names?"
"His name is Luke, and I'm Thalia. You?"
"Percy Jackson, come on let's go."
Little did I know, that my life was about to change completely.