(AN I have posted a poll on my profile for the pairing in this story. [NOTE: I previously did not know how to but now I do, all review votes are disregarded]. /AN)
Chapter 2: The Bow
Percy's POV
I shot up awake as soon as the food touched my lips. Immediately I spat it out and glared at the person who had almost killed me. Sure the brief taste was nice, but I don't exactly want to turn to ash. The girl who stood there had stormy gray eyes and blonde hair; like the shy girl Annabeth except older. She looked at me confusedly as her hand unconsciously stirred the ambrosia pudding. "You don't like it? That's odd..."
My glare harshened and I snapped, "Maybe you should check my bio-signature! I can't eat that stuff!"
Sure enough she picked up a clipboard with information filled into it and had a spot of realization. "You're a mortal? How do you know of the gods? How can you see this place?"
I rolled my eyes an sat up with a pounding headache, "I'm clear-sighted. Can you get me an Advil?"
The girl nodded and ran off to a cupboard. A minute later she returned with a glass of water and the painkiller. The curse of Achilles allows me to take the adult dosage of anything but I didn't want to risk nectar or ambrosia even though my mortality was supposedly burnt away.
Groaning, I gulped the Advil down and got up to stretch. The joints in my back popped as they realigned themselves.
"How long was I out for?"
"Half a day. Sorry about almost killing you."
I just nodded and stumbled my way to the door. Turning around, I looked to see the injured campers that all lay in their beds. Some of them were covered in cuts and blood while other had casts around what I presumed were broken bones. The white sheets were all stained red, gold or both with blood or nectar; apart from mine.
I left the infirmary to see a beautiful camp. The first thing I saw was Luke and Annabeth running up to me, "Percy! You're up! This place is great!"
I smiled, perhaps this place would help him get over the small grudge he had against his father. Then looked around confusedly, expecting an electric-eyed menace to jump out of nowhere, "Where's Thalia?"
Luke and Annabeth's face turned downcast and the memories of what happened just before I was knocked out came back to me, "She didn't make it? I thought Zeus sent something to help her?"
Luke snorted, "Yea, real helpful! He turned Thalia into a tree! What kind of help is that?"
My eyes widened in surprise that Zeus would do nothing more than turn her into a tree. I looked with frustration and growled out, "I can't do anything right! It's all my fault! I was supposed to protect you guys! My mother wanted it!"
Luke gave me a pitying look, "It's not your fault. All three of us would have died without you."
"It's not enough!"
I stormed off but Luke, being taller than me, easily caught up. "Look, Percy. Chiron wants to speak to you so just come with me."
I hesitantly followed as he walked off, leaving no room to argue. Annabeth was walking beside me timidly, "Percy? Why are you always so angry."
She may be seven but being a daughter of Athena makes her capable of adult speech like me. "My life is hard. Most people would not like my job. Sure you guys are demigods and have it worse off than me but my life is simply a difficult path to follow."
Honestly, it probably wasn't all that difficult compared to demigod lives but I couldn't care less. We approached a big house which Luke explained to me was appropriately named the 'Big House' (cue rolled eyes) to see a fat man and a man in a wheelchair playing some kind of card game. We stopped and Luke clears his throat to garner their attention. The man in the wheelchair glanced at us briefly before his eyes settled on me, "Ah, you must be Perseus! The mortal!"
I gave a stiff nod, "That I am. Please just call me Percy. I am here to see Chiron."
The wheelchair dude laughed with mirth, "That would be me."
I cocked my head sideways, "Huh? I must be seeing things wrong because I'm pretty sure Chiron's a centaur."
He smiled brightly, "That I am. This wheelchair contraption is a disguise."
"Why do you need a disguise at camp?"
"I don't. The ceiling is just too low."" He explained and I slowly nodded.
Then the fat guy turned and analyzed me before saying, "I'm Mr. D, I must say your heritage is quite unique. Pure Roman blood on one side and pure Ancient Greek blood on the other. Do you have any godly ancestors?"
I shook my head, 'D' obviously stood for Dionysus, "No. Well, at least none that I know of."
Chiron wheeled his chair closer to me and inspected my face even closer, "Now that you mention it… I do see the resemblance. Do you happen to have a photo of your parents?"
I nodded, "Its in my bag… do you know where my bag is?"
"Right there." He pointed at the wall which had two bags leaned up against it. Opening the bag, the first thing I saw was the photo. When I saw it I stopped and thought. I thought about how I could have prevented their deaths. Chiron shook me out of my stupor by calling my name and I handed the photo to him.
He looked intently at the photo before nodding, "Your mother has Jason's looks."
"Jason? He wasn't a demigod right?" I asked.
Chiron shook his head, "No his uncle was."
He handed the photo to Dionysus who glanced at the photo and stopped. "Holy Hera! Your father looks like a replica of Brutus!"
His form flickered a moment, much to Luke, Annabeth and I's confusion. When his form flickered he looked a lot less fat (but still fat nonetheless) but it was gone before we could see it.
I nodded. "So I'm still just a mortal with powerful heritage, eh? Wait… Brutus? Like the guy who betrayed Caesar?"
Dionysus shook his head, "No that was Marcus Brutus. I'm talking Lucius Junius Brutus, the first consul of Rome. He overthrew the king and made the Romans swear never to have a king again when he made the Republic. If the Romans stayed to that oath and didn't turn into an empire later on then the Roman gods would still have been in power and the senate wouldn't have allowed Christianity to be made the empire religion and Rome could possibly have lasted longer. For the record the Roman and Greek gods are essentially the same, we just call them by the names they originally went by when in Greece."
I shook my head, "You know that isn't exactly true though, Dionysus. For example Minerva is weak while Athena is not. Bellona replaced the warlike entity of Athena and the Greeks have hated Rome ever since."
Chiron raised an eyebrow, "Aye, but that is a story not for the ears of some in this room. For all our intents and purposes; they are the same." He gestured to Luke and Annabeth and I nodded in understanding. "Back to our original topic; yes you are essentially a mortal with a simply powerful heritage. I think Mr D can testify to that?"
Mr D's eyes snapped over to me once again and he observed me carefully, "Yes he is mortal… But there is something else… Tell me Peter, have you ever bathed in the river of oaths?"
I glared at the god, "The name's Percy! As for the Styx, I suppose you can call me Achilles 2.0."
Dionysus's eyes harshened, "Don't speak to me like that!"
Chiron had a pondering look as he scratched his chin before nodding his head, "So the prophecy is coming to play… The child who doth bear the curse…"
"It's more of a blessing to me." I sighed exasperatedly.
"Luke, put him under camp arrest; we cannot have him leave this place." Dionysus immediately ordered.
My eyes darted around, "Why?"
"Because if you get captured and you give into the temptation of power it could mean the downfall of Olympus."
I would have face palmed at that if it weren't a god, "What if I just keep a low profile? I don't have a godly scent so if I don't do anything stupid to attract their attention then I should be fine!"
Then Chiron of all people had to speak up, "I'm sorry child but Mr D is right. Even if you do keep a low profile, how would you feed yourself?"
"Hunting!"
"Your too young to be out there alone. You are to stay under camp arrest and that is final." Said Dionysus with an air of absolution.
I growled but Luke put a hand on my shoulder, "Percy lets just head to the armory. You'll love it here at camp, don't worry."
Reluctantly, I backtracked and followed Luke and Annabeth away from the Big House. As I looked around I saw lots of things that perhaps wouldn't be so bad to deal with while I was in camp. But I didn't like to be caged up. I preferred to run free and I was already formulating an escape plan while walking towards this armory. Hopefully there would be lots of those mythical metal weapons there and I could use those. That was when I remembered about the spear and sword that I had.
Reaching into my pocket I pulled out a familiar pen with the word ΑΝΑΚΛΥΣΜΟΣ engraved into it. Then something seemed to weigh down my other pocket. Reaching into it, I discovered a gold coin; very similar to a Roman denarius coin except it seemed to glow with power. On one side was a stamped image of Julius Caesar while on the other was a double-headed axe with the word 'IVLIVS'. That was the Latin spelling for Julius — back in Rome 'J' and 'U' didn't exist.
"So your descended from the great argonaut, huh?" Luke said.
I grinned, "I guess. I don't exactly know how great he was though, he did betray Medea after all."
Annabeth cut in, "He was a good man for the most part. He really screwed up later on though."
Luke muttered something about know it all daughters of Athena and I silently agreed with him.
We stepped inside the armory and as expected there were lots of bronze weapons and armor. It would take a while to search all the way through this place. One thing in particular caught my eye. There was a celestial bronze recurve bow that stood out from the rest of them. Cautiously, I walked up to it and picked it up, not noticing the gasping person behind me. My veins filled with energy and the bow began to hum with power.
The celestial bronze was intricately carved with an elegant pattern. At either end of the bow were knives so it could be used as a close combat weapon if needed. The drawstring was woven from threads of silver. The bow itself glowed brightly with energy and I could tell that this was a nigh godly grade weapon. Resting against the stand was a beautiful quiver that held arrows that seemed to be cast from the light of the moon itself.
A girl with sky blue eyes walked up to me with a shocked expression, "How… how did you pick it up?"
I was confused at that, "What do you mean? It's really light, how can you not pick it up."
"That bow… Its legendary. It was created millennia ago by lady Artemis herself and is only to be used by one person other than her. No one knows who… for you to pick it up means… It belongs to you… Why would lady Artemis bestow such a gift upon a boy?"
I was now feeling less sure about taking it after finding out that lady Artemis made it. I mean, she hates males so she would likely rip me into confetti if she found out that I was using it. Reluctantly, I placed the bow down on the rack. As soon as it left my hand it felt as if I had lost a part of me and that sadness was taking its hold upon me. So great was its power that it was almost as if I had been taking cocaine but had attempted to stop. My whole body yearned and craved for the feel and power of the bow in my hands but I fought it and walked to look at similarly made bows.
Every time I picked up a bow I felt a surge of disappointment, and that it simply wasn't right for me. It was almost like choosing a wand like in that Harry Potter book. I could use them all but none of them had the same pull effect on me as that one. None of them gave me the rush of joy or happiness that I had been lacking since the death of my parents. But I picked a bow nonetheless. They were all much better than the bow which I currently used.
The bow I picked was a recurve bow that was similar in shape and draw-weight to the bow of Artemis but was simple and had a normal drawstring. The arrows that came with it were celestial bronze and were capable of killing monsters. The girl looked at me incredulously, "Why didn't you take the Bow of the Moon?"
"Two reasons. Firstly, I don't want respect because of the weapon I use; I want to earn it. Secondly, it is not my place to take it. It belongs to lady Artemis and her alone." I explained and the girl seemed to understand.
As soon I said that the strangest thing happened. The bow started glowing brighter and brighter until it was impossible to look at. And then the light vanished, faster than it came. I looked at the rack to see that the bow and quiver had disappeared. Oddly enough, I felt something weighing down my on my neck slightly. Looking down, I saw a silver necklace with a pendant that looked like a target with an arrow sticking out of it. There was a faint voice in my mind.
The Chosen One has arrived!
