Silence was deafening until it was broken by the one person I expected least. I believe the war has begun, Könungr said in our minds.

Indeed it has, and whoever did this is going to pay.

Percy's POV

Arya still held my head to her chest, continuing to whisper comforting things to me and rubbing a hand along my back, though they helped little. All that I had known after my return to Earth had been destroyed and I was not going to sit here and wallow in self-pity.

Standing and shaking off her hands, I ignored the looks of concern she was giving me. A fire had been started in my soul, and it would only be diminished by the vengeance of this assault on my Order, my family, and my home.

I felt a flash of alarm and heard, Virtha! I must check on them! in my mind and saw Alexō took off towards the mountains to check on his family.

I hope they're okay.

Walking through the charred bones of my former house, I pulled open my nightstand, thanking the gods that the four scrolls were still there, barely scathed. The horn of the minotaur and my armor from the battle of Manhattan were still there too. Garnering what little belongings I had that survived the fire, I placed them in the bags on Alexō's saddle. The library that I had built to hold scrolls that had been recovered had been partially burned, and as such, maybe a third of those scrolls had been destroyed.

Using the same method I had before, I placed all the scrolls and the armor and weapons in that pocket of space where it followed me around but didn't take up much space.

After everything had been gathered and we were ready to rejoin Thalia and the others at Camp Half-Blood, however bad it was to stay there, I felt my wards trying to keep something out of the camp. Whatever it was, it broke through the barrier, followed by many others. I ran towards the disturbance, Adurna drawn and ready to fight.

I heard the rustling, the barking and the panting before I saw a red haired mortal burst out of the tree line and keep running towards me, a pack of hellhounds right on her tail.

"Percy! Help!"

"Rachel?" I dove into the fray behind my friend, cutting heads and lopping off paws until the pack that had been chasing her laid in piles of gold dust, blown about by the wind. I turned back to Rachel, who had collapsed against a tree, breathing heavily. "How did you find me?"

Arya bristled at my rudeness. "Percy, calm down." I spared her a look that said, I'm not in the mood. I walked over to Rachel and crouched before her.

"Why are you here?"

Still breathing heavily, she said, "You told – you told me to find y- you. And you would train me, so here – here I am." I sighed heavily and turned to Arya.

"Well, I will keep my word then. Let's just try to find anything else that can be salvaged and we'll take Rachel with us when we leave." As Arya and I were collecting the supplies, I felt Alexō's relief and happiness wash over me. At least his family survived.

As Arya, Rachel, and I, as well as Alexō's family, flew towards Camp Half-Blood, I saw my students, their dragons, Eragon, and Murtagh along the border of the camp. We only left a short while after they did but being faster and older allowed us to shorten the distance between us and them substantially. It appeared that they had only been there for a few minutes, but there was already a group of uneducated demigods waiting with weapons and armor at the ready. Thalia seemed to be pleading with Chiron but as soon as he turned to answer, Alexō loosed a roar so ferocious that I couldn't have been more proud of him. All three of his young butted heads against him and I could feel their pride in him as their father.

Good job, Alexō. That'll show them we're not to be trifled with. I could feel his pleasure at my compliment and his agreement wash over our bond.

Everyone skirted to the side as Alexō made to land. His large bulk sent vibrations and dust flying as he folded his wings and dropped to the ground, allowing me to slide from the saddle, helping Rachel dismount after I had done so myself. As I turned around, my eyes swept across the small crowd that had gathered along the border of camp. My eyes finally landed on Thalia's former tree, where Peleus was supposed to be wrapped, guarding the Golden Fleece, yet he was not there. I filed the observation away for another time.

My long, swift strides brought me face to face with Chiron in little time. "Chiron."

"Percy, I know what you're here to ask, and I'm sorry to say that I cannot allow it. You and your dragons must find some other place to live, because I will not allow you to live here."

"We have nowhere else to go, Chiron. Someone is hunting us. Please, Chiron. If you won't do it for me, do it in remembrance of your time as my mentor." For a moment Chiron seemed torn, then he immediately returned to his former disposition.

"No," he replied adamantly. "I will not allow you or your dragons to stay here so long as I hold a place of authority at this camp." I set my jaw in anger. "Now, on authority of the Olympian Council and of Camp Half-Blood, I command you and all your accomplices to leave immediately. You and all who join you are, from now on, banished from these lands. Leave now." I heard my friends gasps and I felt a hand place itself on my shoulder before I heard Arya's voice in my ear.

"Percy, we must not tarry here any longer. It would be reckless not to leave."

I turned to face my friends, my students; hell, my family.

"Where will we go, Percy? There is nowhere safe for us besides here. Would the elves or dwarves be willing to host us?" Thalia asks.

"No, we cannot go to either of them. Doing so would lead the other to believe that we are biased and we favor one over the other. It would only hurt our position as a recovering Order," I answer.

"My name is Alessyäta. I was a Rider, and for almost a thousand years, I was." … "Do you know where?" … "It is probably in the ruins of our Rider capital … in a mountain range near what is now Asia. I believe modern mortals call them the Himalayas."

"Percy!" Thalia yelled in my face, holding me by the shoulders. I shook my head and answered, "I know where we're going." Seeing their confused looks I said, "We're going to Mount Everest."

"Why Mount Everest?" I recounted my talk with Alessyäta and how he said that when he was alive, the Order resided within the largest mountain there was. They were skeptical but I had a hunch that this would either turn out to really benefit us, or it might bring about something we had not intended.

A/N: End of the first real chapter of Downhill. It's been quite a long while since I finished Similarities and published this but you know how it is. School and college prep for next year is getting crazy. I did finally choose which college I wanted to go to so that definitely takes a load off of my shoulders. I'm halfway through my senior year of high school and then my life lays ahead of me, as well as the completion of this series! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Review please!