Astonishing
Written for Theia 47's 'Picture Challenge' in Veritaville
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or anything related.
A/N: Hai :) Well, as you can see, I'm writing again. This, however, is by far the longest one shot (or story in general) that I've ever written. And I wrote it in a day. Also, thanks to Aanaleigh for beta-ing. :)
Reviews are loved, as always :D
Luffles,
~Tay(:
When I saw you I was afraid to meet you. When I kissed you, I was afraid to love you. Now that I love you, I am afraid to lose you.
You could say that it all started with the pedophile looking monster …
Lila Tewes was walking home from her orientation at Mott High School, the high school she'd be attending her freshman year at. The thought of it made Lila nervous- though it was nothing compared to what was in store for her.
Something rattled in a bush next to her. Pausing, she cautiously picked up a stick and poked the bush. Out came a small rabbit- white tail and all.
Sighing loudly, Lila dropped the stick, turning around, accidentally running into a man.
Now, here's something about Lila: She was startled very easily. So, running into a tall, cleanly shaven, most likely foreign man wasn't her cup of tea.
"AH!" she shrieked, falling backwards into the bush and scraping her arm. She could also feel her leg bump against something hard. That's going to leave a mark.
"Are you okay, Ms. Tewes?" the man asked, a sly smile dancing on his face. Lila noticed he had an accent- though she couldn't place where it was from. It reminded her of those movies that had people from the 1700's, but he obviously wasn't that old.
"H-how do you know my name?" she asked, genuine fear in her voice. She'd heard that Detroit wasn't the best city, but she hadn't expected that there'd be pedophiles in her neighborhood.
"Your nametag," the man simply stated, a bit of arrogance in his voice. Something about him didn't seem … right.
"Oh," Lila blushed, attempting to stand up. But as soon as she tried, sharp pain spread through her calf, and she immediately fell, though the man caught her, squeezing her forearms.
"Please let go of me," she whimpered, because it really hurt. Lila was worried they might burst from the amount of energy he was exerting into them.
"Listen, young demigod," the man said, his voice taking a dark turn. "My name is Dr. Thorn, and I can make your death painful, or really painful. Which would you like?"
Demigod? Lila thought, confused. What the hell was a demigod? But that wasn't her most important issue. That man–Dr. Thorn–had said he was going to kill her. Lila gulped, her pulse quickening, as she tried to escape the "doctor's" grip.
Dr. Thorn laughed at her attempts of freedom. "No answer, half-blood?" he mused, an evil smiling playing on his face. "Let's go with very painful then." Dr. Thorn's grip loosened on Lila, and he dropped her all together, leaving her to fall into the bush again. Scrambling to get away, she heard Thorn's malevolence laughter, which somehow seemed distant …
Lila, who was making no progress in the whole 'get the hell away from the creepy child molester' attempt, risked a look up at him, and gasped at what she saw.
Somehow–Lila had no idea how–Thorn had transformed into this … monster, with a furry lion body, lion's mane, man's face and a tail with spikes that looked like they could do some serious damage. So that's why he's called Dr. Thorn, Some part of Lila's ADHD brain realized.
Let's go with the very painful way … Holy crap, she though, her whole body shaking, he's going to shoot me with one of the spike-thingies!
Thorn smiled–how could it smile?–as if he had read her mind. (Though Lila was never the best at hiding her feelings, so her face probably gave it away)
Then he–it?–raised his tail, preparing to kill the teenager (who was already scared half to death), when suddenly, an arrow came from behind and hit Thorn in the back of the head.
"Arg!" he exclaimed, holding his head, which was now leaking a strange golden liquid.
"Step away from the girl," yelled a deep voice. Lila saw a form emerging from the forest, which did not match the voice it came from. Standing there was a short, scrawny teenage boy, holding a bow and arrow, attempting to look intimidating.
If she hadn't been in a life-or-death situation, Lila might have laughed.
Though, really, the boy had saved her life.
"You never let me kill them …" Thorn muttered, rubbing his head, which was still bleeding that golden blood. The sight looked so wrong.
As soon as he was about ten yards away, Thorn quickly turned around and fired a spike at a surprised Lila.
The teenager screamed, and attempting to move out of the way, but unfortunately, the spike was too fast (it seemed to travel faster than a bullet), and this spike flew into Lila's left calf, causing her to scream out in pain, and her eyes to well up with tears.
She didn't really hear what happened next because she was so caught up in the pain (her vision had black spots in it, for crying out loud!). However, she did hear the boy's scream, which she guessed was some sort of battle cry, and Thorn's screech of pain.
When she finally looked up, she saw the boy's image walking towards her, wiping off a sword covered in a gold dust. Strangely, there was no Dr. Thorn in sight.
"Di Immortals," The boy cried, staring at the wound, his eyes widening. "That is not good."
Lila was about to give him a snarky reply, but was still deeply immersed in the pain. She decided to just glare at him.
"Ok," he replied, holding his hands up as if in surrender. "That was kind of stupid. But let me help you."
Lila was about to ask how, when the boy pulled a first aid kit out of a backpack that she hadn't noticed earlier. The boy pulled out a canteen and handed it to her. Lila took it, staring at it skeptically.
"Don't worry, it'll make you feel better." The boy laughed. "Oh, I'm Jared, by the way."
"What is it?" Lila crooked, her voice cracking in different places. "And Lila's the name."
"Nectar; the food of the gods," Jared stated.
"The go-" Lila began to ask, but Jared cut her off.
"Why don't you drink that, and I'll explain it to you?" Jared asked rhetorically.
Lila glared, but sipped the drink nervously. The liquid spread onto her tongue, and Lila was surprised by the taste. It was her dad's homemade cheesecake, with strawberries and whipped cream. The kind he'd only let her have if the edges were burnt (which made it even better) and he couldn't sell it in the bakery.
Lila jerked the canteen away, studying the bottle. How was that possible? A drink couldn't taste like cheesecake!
To Lila's anger, Jared seemed to find this humorous. He stifled a laugh. "Feeling any better?" He asked, and Lila noticed the seriously tone under the sarcasm.
"Um … yeah, actually," Lila answered her voice a bit unsure. The drink had made her feel better (this scratch on her arm felt like a paper cut), though her calf still hurt, but it had dulled down a smidgen. Then she remembered something. "Are you going to explain to me about 'the gods' now?" Lila asked, using air quotes around 'gods'.
"Oh … yeah," Jared pursed his lips, as if trying to decide the best way to break bad news to someone. Grabbing a roll of medical tape he answered, "Well, first of all, have you ever heard of the Greek gods?"
"Um … I've heard of them, but I don't know anything about them." Lila replied, unsure of where this was going.
"Well those myths … they aren't myths, they're the truth."
Lila stared at Jared in shock. He was crazy! Greek mythology was just that–mythology. Not real … there was no such this as the Greek gods, right?
Jared obviously sensed Lila's shock (either that, or he read her face) and continued, "I know you don't believe me. But ask yourself: Has something strange ever happened to you, that you know happened, but no one else believes you?"
Lila paused, thinking about a time in second grade when one of her classmates had pushed her out of the way of a huge bird creature thing, but denied the whole thing later … or the time when she swore that her babysitter only had one eye … or the time she saw the dog that was a big as a bus … but her dad had told her it was just her imagination …
But what if it wasn't, a voice in the back of her head countered. What if Jared's telling the truth and the myths are true? Then what?
"Ok," Lila said slowly. "Let's say for argument's sake that the myths are true. What does that have to do with me?"
"What do they have to do with you?" Jared mused, obviously finding that hilarious. "Well, let's see … the gods, well, they have everything to do with us."
Lila raised her eyebrows, an unconvinced look on her face. But she stayed quiet, waiting for Jared to continue on. He laughed a bit before saying, "Well the gods were known to have … um, affairs with mortals. And when they did, well, they had kids–who were half-mortal half-god–called demigods or half bloods."
"Whoa there, wait a minute," Lila said, holding her hands up as if that would stop him from talking. "Are you seriously trying to tell me that I'm the child of a Greek god?" Lila laughed as she said the last part, finding it somewhat comical. Seriously, she thought, rolling her eyes. Lila was not the least bit godly. She had ADHD, dyslexia, was über clumsy, failed every subject besides gym, and not to mention that she didn't look the least bit godly either.
"I know, I know," Jared said, a bit more serious now. "It's really hard to believe, but you have to realize that whether you like it or not it's true."
"It's not–I don't–you're–um–prove it." Lila finally managed to sputter out, completely lost for words.
"Well …" Jared said, furrowing his eyebrows. Lila smiled smugly, happy to prove someone wrong. "You have ADHD, which is part of your battle reflexes. You're dyslexic because your brain reads ancient Greek a lot better. You only have one parent because … well … the other one's a god. And, well, I think that's it."
Lila stared at Jared in shock for a minute or two, biting her lip. His points did make a little sense … but it was just, not possible. The Greek gods weren't real. They were just myths. Hence the term Greek mythology. But … what if they were? That had to mean that the monsters were real, too. Wait, Lila thought, thinking hard. There were monsters in Greek mythology, weren't there?
"So … there's really Greek gods in Greece right now?"
"Well …" Jared said, pursing his lips. For a second, Lila was worried that he had made up the whole thing, but she was relieved when he continued, "They aren't in Greece, they're in New York City–The Empire State Building, to be exact. It's due to something called Western Civilization, but I don't know too much about it."
"No …" Lila said stubbornly. "Last summer, I went to the Empire State Building, and it was god-free."
"Well, there's this thing called the Mist, and it keeps mortals from seeing stuff that could expose us … it can also fool us demigods, if we aren't careful. Plus, Mt. Olympus is on the 600th Floor –which you can only get to by using a special key … or at least that's what I've heard. I–I've never actually been to Olympus …" Jared trailed off, a distant, almost wistful look in his eyes.
Lila shook her head, pushing her long hair away from her face. "Ok, slow it down now. You're throwing information on me. Let me get this straight: the Greek gods are real, and they're in New York City now? And I just happen to be the daughter of one of them?"
Jared nodded, so Lila continued. "So … how do you know who your parent is?"
"Well, once we get to camp, we get claimed by our parent."
"… Camp?"
"Oh, yeah, Camp Half Blood–it's the only safe place on the planet for half-bloods. There's a magical border that protects us from monsters. You can come, y'know if you want."
Exasperated, Lila pulled her legs into her chest. She spared herself a glance at the wound, and gasped. It wasn't the bloody, gruesome, wound she was expecting. In fact, it looked pretty good; although, it was covered with a ton of medical tape and bandages. But somehow … she wasn't really shocked. Though, compared to what had happened earlier, it wasn't that big of a surprise.
"Why not?" Lila said, rolling her eyes. That would be the icing on top of the cake.
Jared snorted. "You seem pretty … what's the word? Blasé? Yeah, that's it. Well, anyway, you seem pretty blasé about the whole thing."
Now it was Lila's turn to laugh. "Me? Blasé? As if."
Jared raised an eyebrow, but didn't press on. Instead, he changed the topic by asking, "So, are there any questions you have about being a half-blood?"
Lila smiled. "Maybe a few," She paused for a second, debating over which one to ask first. "Who's your godly parent?"
"Apollo, god of prophecy, healing, archery, music and transporter of the sun," Jared said somewhat smugly. Lila resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Any others?"
"Plenty more where that came from," Lila winked, a sly smile playing on her face. "So … what do you do at Camp Half-Blood?"
Jared laughed. "The question is: what don't we do." Lila rolled her eyes and waited for him to continue. "Well, there's archery, sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, running, Pegasus stables-"
"Pegasus stables?" Lila cut him off, her eyes widening. "As in the flying horses?"
"Mhm," Jared nodded. "You can groom, feed and ride 'em."
"That's so cool …" Lila said, shocked. "So, do you learn about Greek mythology at camp?"
"Of course! There's like twenty different classes you have to take."
Lila bit her lip before asking the next question. "I don't want to sound stupid … but could you name the Olympian gods for me? I took a mythology class in seventh grade … but I've never been the best at paying attention, with ADHD and all that stuff …"
"No prob," Jared replied with an empathetic smile. "First of all, there's the Twelve Olympians. They're Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysus, Athena, Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite and Hephaestus. But then there's a bunch of minor gods: Hades, Hestia, Amphitrite, Nemesis, Hecate, Eris, Nike, Dike, Hypnos, Aeolus, Boreas, Persephone … well I could go on and on. But you get the point."
"That's really cool." Lila said, shaking her head. This was all so surreal and strange to her.
Jared nodded. "I know it must seem weird right now, but you'll get used to it." He stood up and grabbed his things. "So are you ready to go to camp?"
Lila nodded, standing up. "Wait …" She realized, and a wave of sadness flooded through her. "If I go to Camp Half-Blood, what'll happen to my dad?"
"Well," Jared said, shifting uncomfortably. "If he knows that the gods are real, he'll understand. If he doesn't–well you can either tell him, or not. And camp isn't mandatory during the school year–so if he didn't know you could say you're going to a summer camp –which, technically, you are."
"Ok," Lila nodded, not liking the idea of lying to her dad. "Well … let's go. I don't want to waste my time saying goodbyes."
"You sure you don't want to go home first?" Jared asked skeptically.
"Positive," Lila and her dad were close; so why bother saying goodbye when he didn't even care where she was?
"Ok …"
"So how are we getting to camp?" Lila asked impatiently, ready to leave behind her boring Michigander life.
"Well, actually, I have a Pegasus over there …" Jared said, walking over towards a line of trees. Lila followed at his heels, letting him take the lead.
"You coming?" Jared called, standing next to a tall, black stallion … and matching black wings. Lila gasped and jogged over towards Jared and the horse.
She finally reached then–she also made sure to slow down when coming near the horse so she wouldn't spook it–and stroked the horse's mussel, petting thick, silky hair on it, which tickled her hands.
Lila stayed there for another minute or two, just stroking the Pegasus, before Jared lifted her up (for a short guy, he was pretty dang strong).
Jared directed the Pegasus up higher and higher, and the trees grew smaller and smaller. Sometime in their flight, Lila laid her head against Jared's shoulder subconsciously and fell asleep.
(Though when they did notice, neither of the cared)
Sometime later, Lila awoke to a loud booming noise. She looked down and saw a bouquet of fireworks explode in a sea of color across the sky. It was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.
"Pretty, huh?" Jared muttered, referring to the fireworks. Lila nodded, speechless for once before concluding on one last thing.
Sitting there, leaning against Jared and watching the fireworks below them, Lila concurred that maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to adjust to the demigod world.
FIN