PROLOGUE
"Run!," the woman urged her little boy. He was strides in front of her. His little feet racing him forward as quick as he could. The concrete street was unkind to the soles of their feet. They were bruised and, blistered a hundred times over she didn't bother to count. It was night and the moon was high in the sky. Silver rays streaming down to penetrate the veil of darkness that enveloped the small town. Behind her the thumping of footsteps grew louder. They were approaching faster than should have been possible. Their footsteps were nearly rhythmic. She pressed forward harder. How had they been found so fast? She wondered. A whizzing sound flew over her shoulder as an arrow sailed past her nearly catching the boy in the back who by chance or instinct had jumped out of the way. They wanted to kill him…they knew who he was. What he could be. They wanted to kill him. Her son. Her little boy. This made her… angry.
She reached behind her back and pulled out a gun. She stopped, turned and began firing. The monsters fell into shimmers of golden dust. Her aim was perfect felling the monsters in their dozens. But they pressed forward. Some were armored the bullets bouncing of their armored plates harmlessly. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pen pressing the cap the pen elongated into a leaf shaped sword. She turned to see the boy frozen in his tracks. An arrow ripped into her arm. She snapped back into the fight. She cut the arrow shaft leaving a better part of it embedded in her. She lunge into the horde. She shifted the gun into her bad arm. Her body worked with a mind of its own. Slashing, ducking, shooting, weaving, jumping, feinting, and stabbing. She tore through the monsters. It was unusual, unseen of a mortal who could do battle with such prowess. She smiled though bloodied and wounded. Then came the scream.
A Cyclopes loomed over her son. Its club raised high above its head. It was going to smash him to bits. Without any conscious thought she hurled the sword. The meter long blade sank into the Cyclopes head. The creature didn't even let out a sound before it burst into golden dust. She let out a sigh of relief before the wind was knocked out her and she was sent flying to the other side of the street. She landed into a brick wall. She struggled to open her eyes. Vainly she could see ten monsters racing to her. Three Cyclopes, two empousai, a Laistrygonian giant and four harpies. She lifted the gun and fired at the Cyclopes. The bullet rebounded of it armor and flew through both the empousai. The burst into golden dust as the rest of the gang roared. Probably in excitement as there would be far less sharing. She fired again now catching a Cyclopes in the eye. She moved to fire again but the gun clicked empty. She smiled and awaited her death. At least her son was safe. That thought alone made her sigh however painful it was. She closed her eyes and awaited the pain but it never came.
The painful cry of a harpy rang through her mind. She opened and was suddenly aware of all that surrounded her. The whipping wind, the creatures of the night fleeing away in fear. The humming of the hear earth beneath her as Gaea slept. There he was. The sword held in two hands. He slid smoothly into an attacking stance before dashing forward. His movements were smooth, fluid and graceful. He ducked beneath a club and opened a Cyclopes stomach. His left hand reached out catching an arrow and hurling it back to the unfortunate harpy. Racing forward he jumped onto the Laistrogonian's head, stabbing it through its skull and leaping onto a harpy trying to fly away and stabbed it in its back. The creature dissolved into dust as the boy did a back flip and landed smoothly on a knee. The last Cyclopes raced to him swinging its club. He leaped over it, kicking it in the eye. The Cyclopes fell back pawing its eye. The boy leapt and stabbed it through its chest. The harpy retreated slowly away. Its eyes pleading for mercy. The boy saw this and in an older far more frightening voice spoke.
"Go and never return or I will kill you,"
The harpy turned and fled. The boy turned to her. His eyes softening as he walked to her. But he didn't see. Her face contorted as she struggled to come to her feet. The arrow was already in the air. Its black tip screaming as it went. He saw this and began to turn. Time seemed to freeze. The arrow sailed and she lurched forward past the boy spinning around her face to his back. Then she felt it. Sheer raw pain. Skin tearing, muscle shredding. The arrow tore through her back coming through the front and piercing shallowly into the boy right above his heart. He held her falling form. The cackling sound of a laughing harpy rang in the sky before it flew away.
"I'm sorry," he said his voice resonant in pain.
"Don't be. Go…home. I'm so proud of you," she said.
Slowly the light behind her eyes dimmed. She was dead.
The boy shook his mother's dying form. There was a pain on his heart and it wasn't from his wound. She was dead. He picked her gun from her cold hands. Her body shone lightly in the moonlight. The light brightened. She was going. The light enveloped her and she rose into the sky. The boy rose tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans. The sword shimmered and turned into a pen. He pocketed it. Wiped his tears away. They did him no good. He had to fulfill her last wish.
Sally Jackson was dead. Perseus was going home.