Percy Pov

The pungent smell of alcohol hovering in the air was discomforting to say the least. It was everywhere. Can't these guys take something less irritating for other people's nose? Everywhere around me people were either piss drunk or in the process of achieving the same state. Shaking my head from the corner I was sitting, I took another good look around for unseen enemies. I was getting more and more paranoid as the days seem to pass. The hustle of the tavern was a discomfort that I'd have to go through. I never did like so much noise. But it was as good a place as any to keep a low profile.

I was in lamia. The small but bustling city was filled with people of different ethnicity and travellers from distant lands. Even though I had been here for a day or two at most, I had heard conversations in at least a dozen different languages already. The benefits of being a trading hotspot. The city was a favorite stop of traders from the east who wished to trade deeper inland in Greece. It was a perfect place to get lost in a horde of strange people. I was still wearing my clothes from the future as I didn't feel like taking the advice of the Theban whom I had considered crazy initially. Here, I had no need to. With the amount of bizarre dresses I saw some people wearing, I looked almost normal. Still I had brought a travelling cloak that stretched down to my feet and draped it over my shoulders to blend in a little.

I waited for my breakfast to be served as I contemplated silently. It had been a week since the debacle in Thebes. A week and I was still to come to terms with the fact that I really was stuck in the past. I had been nearly catatonic for a while after Artemis and Apollo did the royal family. When I came out of my shock I was in complete hysteria. The first few days were the worst, I was just drifting along the way, cursing my luck and the fates. Crying and whining however did me no good. The small amount of drachmas I had were in my backpack and the backpack was in the future. With no money, I stole the food from local shops and money off the passersby and slept wherever I could. It was immoral but necessary. I didn't feel so bad when I scrapped off the drachmas from some stuck up ass though. And here I was a week later, still with no idea of what to do. On the bright side, I had improved my pocketing skills dramatically, I barely got caught these days. I was now good enough that I was able to gather the appropriate amount of money to have accommodations and decent meals. Hence, my stay in the tavern. Hermes would be proud.

A burly guy came in and served me breakfast, most likely he was the son of the owner. He kept glaring at me during the entire time and I didn't have a single idea why. Did he expect a tip or what? I sighed as I stared ruefully at my barely decent meal, a pizza or a burger would be really good about now. I dig in with a barely present enthusiasm. What I wouldn't give for a good meal.

Finishing my food, I paid my dues and went out of the tavern for a walk toward the harbor. I couldn't go on like this. I needed to go back. I was no child of Athena but even I could figure out the problems of travelling to the past. It could create so many paradoxes. Maybe the present was only the way it was because I was supposed to go into the past or maybe it wasn't. What if I changed the events of history? It could even lead to me not being born. I could even be the reason for the destruction of Olympus. I was a wildcard and I had no idea of my next step of action. What should I do? Go back to my own time.

If only that would be so easy, I was no Titan of time after all. Damn Kronos and his stupid dominions. Alright Percy think this through, make a list of priorities. Then act upon them.

What did I need the most? Knowledge. Know what you're dealing with. Great, now I sounded like Chiron.

Nevertheless, knowledge was a hard commodity to come by in my situation. The only person who might even know about this stuff was most likely Athena and I had no intention of meeting one of the gods. Not that she would help me either. The gods were never much helpful to begin with and I was a son of Poseidon to boot. The chances of Athena helping me were slim to none. If only I could find this stuff in a library. Chiron did tell me once that Olympus had a rather vast archive, maybe there were some texts relating to time travel. The only problem was getting in, obtaining the required texts which itself would take a lot of time and getting out. All without being seen. Yep that won't happen.

Help from gods was out, I couldn't go to Olympus, and the mortals couldn't help me. I was back to square one. I sighed and shook my head to clear my thoughts. Reaching the harbor I observed the men working the ships and leaned against a building. Why did life have to be so difficult? It wouldn't hurt if I get the easy stuff for once. Where do my answers lie?

Memories replayed in my mind of the last time I felt like I had no idea of what to do. When Annabeth was taken and I forced myself into the quest. My mom had advised me to follow my heart back then, now I didn't had her and my heart had no idea of what it should do. Reminiscing about the quest I got lost in time. My motive and determination were so strong back then, even the danger of Othrys and a mad titan didn't held me back then. I perked up. Othrys. If Olympus had an archive, maybe Othrys had one too. Those texts may even prove to be more useful since they would be from the home of Titans. Sure Othrys was mostly destroyed but some of it would always stand as long as the Titans were present. I just hoped that the collection would not be too damaged from thousands of years of being in a depilated condition. Now for the million drachma question, where was Othrys? A mount Othrys was located just to the northeast of lamia but it wasn't the stronghold of Titans. Most likely the gods had put the real thing under heavy mist and made the mortals believe otherwise. Maybe they did it to protect them or maybe they just didn't wanted anyone hanging around the home of their former enemies. Whatever the reason, I had my work cut out in front of me. My only option was to go west and hope I stumble to the right place which wasn't too appealing since Greece was quite a big place, and west was too vague. Guess I'll just have to wing it. My mood considerably improved despite the major setback, I glanced at the docked ships wondering if any of them went west.

But first, I needed to change my get up. If I needed to go roaming around Greece I had to lose these cloths and get attuned to something more appropriate for this time. I was not going to wear any of those stupid frilly and loose skirts types of chitons or gods forbid, Spartan clothing. If wearing underwear can be classified as being clothed, that is. I never did feel much comfortable in traditional Greek clothing, since they were mostly what girls wear or will wear in a couple of thousand years. Showing off my legs regardless of however toned they were, was not my style at all. The Persians had a much better sense of fashion at this point. At least they had trousers and tunics that didn't hung off the body like a sack. Good thing, that Darius and Xerxes weren't even born yet so there was not too much animosity between the people at this point. I had even noticed a few Persian guys hovering here and there quite freely.

Grinning I turned back, I had some shopping to do and a boat to catch.

A day and several drachmas lighter I was aboard The Danube sailing in the Aegean Sea. The sun was shining brightly in the horizon as the gentle sweep of the winds crashed against the smile on my face. After brooding for a week, I was now genuinely optimistic that I was at least doing something to help myself. Moving around and sitting didn't do much to boost my spirit. But this, I knew. Going across a country to find the answers I seek was something that I had done before, albeit in different circumstances. This was just the life of a demigod and I was pretty damn good at going through its challenges.

The only difference though was that this time I was alone. I always had someone to look out for me, one of my friends always had my back, and I could count on them. Annabeth and Grover were the ones who were always with me, on every quest. This time I was alone, but I'll go through it. I have too. I couldn't just roll over and let myself die. That'd be like spitting on the sacrifice of all those people who died during the war so that the rest of us could live. Oh no. I was going to do this and go back.

Some heated whispering to my side brought me out of my musing. Two guys were murmuring about bringing a woman on deck. Rolling my eyes at them, I leaned a little closer nonetheless. That had been the hot topic for the past day since the ship set sail for Pervaz, that and the presence of some demigods one of whom was the very woman they were talking about. What was the big deal about having a woman on the ship though, I couldn't understand. Evidently they were bad luck or so I was told on the day I boarded the ship by the captain.

"I tell you Mephos, we'll be at the bottom of the sea soon enough if we don't chuck that woman out of here first." The one with dark hair whispered.

"Can't do much against it now can we? Demigods and their quests. If we raise our voice against them, it'll be us who'd be chucked overboard." The now identified Mephos muttered.

The first one carried on, "I tell you, we're challenging Poseidon by letting her sail with us. The lord of seas won't be pleased. This ship got doomed the moment she set foot on it."

I quiet doubted that. Poseidon was hardly the one to go around sinking ships just because they had a woman on it. Unless it was a demigod of Zeus of course but that was a different story entirely.

Here in ancient Greece, the mist didn't separate the mortal world from the godly one. Demigods mixed quite freely with the ordinary folk. Okay maybe not too freely, but still there was no hostility but rather a sense of awe and wariness towards demigods among the general populace. People could even see the monsters and demigods were sometimes held with great reverence when they would manage to beat a particularly nasty one terrorizing the people of a city or village. Life for demigod was definitely better in ancient Greece. Nobody even held them responsible for the collateral damage which was a total plus in my books.

I was a little worried by her presence though. Or more precisely by her heritage. Just a little over a week and I had already managed to come across two gods and three demigods. She had come along with two other guys who looked quite similar. They were twins most likely, not identical or it would've been difficult to keep track of them. Sons of Ares most likely, guessing by their body structure and the permanent glare on their faces. The girl had blond hair that fell just below her shoulder and blue eyes with an oval face. It would've been difficult to know who her godly parent was but the bow she always kept on her gave me the indication that it was most likely Apollo. Or maybe she just liked using a bow. They were old by demigod standards, which meant they had completed their teenage years. The girl looked no older that twenty one while the guys looked nearly that age too. Their number suggested that they were out on a quest and with my luck they had to be on the same ship as me of course.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to know the situation in the godly world. I was going to have to scout them but that wouldn't be much of a problem. They didn't hold much to secrecy and talked quite loudly, not bothering to hide their conversations from the mortals. Of course, if the mortals already knew about demigods and stuff that wasn't that big of a problem anyway. I would only have to casually go near them and busy myself with something and hope they pass me off for a common guy or don't pay attention to me at all.

After buying my new cloths which were quite close to the modern one in design or at least the closest I would get, I thought that I would stick out like a sore thumb. But nope, hardly anybody paid me any attention. I had brought black trousers and had to tighten them at the bottom since they were excessively loose and hung out at that part. For the upper part I had bought a simple dark tunic, which was close enough to a shirt as I was ever going to get here. It was quite long, reaching my upper thigh, I was supposed to tie it at the waist, but I decided to leave it and wear it like an oversized shirt. I also dumped my old cloak for a new darkish grey one reaching my calf. I looked like the dark knight. Except that I lacked a mask which I substituted with stitching a hood on the cloak myself. It was a pretty cool getup. Definitely worth attracting attention, but nobody even gave me a second look which was fine by me. Maybe they were used to seeing weird dudes roaming around in eerie costumes.

I should have a go at them after lunch. They usually hung out in the far corner of the quarterdeck or with the captain near his cabin. I'd have to catch them at the quarterdeck where they usually convened to talk about the serious stuff. Lunch however was still a long time off. I huffed out a breath and strolled towards the stern. It was my favorite part of the ship, not many people dropped down here due this being one of the favorite spot of the demigods, here I could just have a bit of peace and serenity even if it was for a little time . Not to mention the awesome view it provided as the ship sailed forward and split the glistening water below, making a gentle and soothing sound. Watching the horizon as the sun set or came out was especially relaxing.

It was also the place where I practiced with my powers - Nothing too dramatic or flashy as I didn't wanted to give away my identity to the demigods and the people. I merely used to close my eyes and feel the sea around me as it flowed and churned. It was a different sort of practice, I started it last year, and it was especially effective for me. My control over the water had increased quite astonishingly due to this. It was sort of like a meditative trance and I quite enjoyed the sensation. Whenever I reached out with my senses, it was like I extended myself beyond my body and physical boundaries. I could feel the schools of fishes swimming in the sea, the turtles going on about their migrations, sharks roaming around and even corals as they expanded their colonies. In those moments, I could feel what they did, see what they did and I felt like a part of another world that had always been within my reach but was never explored by me.

Now however, I extended myself beyond just the sea and towards the air. After all even the air had water in it and it encompassed us all, if I could sense the creatures in the sea why not in the air? Going just beyond myself I could see the glowing outline of a person just some distance away in my mind. Smiling at my small success I pushed myself a little farther. Three meters- I could sense a couple of person, four meters- the number of persons now extended to half a dozen, six meters- I could sense the boy in the lookout at the mizzenmast, ten meters- a couple of birds were flying around. My focus was wavering, I had never been this far and it was getting difficult to push father. Sweat was pouring on my brow in free-fall. I stopped. Perhaps I should put more effort in maintaining my field of sense upto the maximum distance I could and move ahead to longer distance a little later. Ten meters was not so bad after all, I could sense most monsters or people sneaking up on me with plenty of time left to neutralize them effectively.

Opening my eyes, I paced toward my quarters for some water. A little replenishment and I would be back for some more practice. I grinned, lunch didn't seem so far away now.

AN: I changed this chapter quite a lot. Mostly I removed the shit way the storyline was gonna end up as. The storyline diverts now and chapters will be quite different now from as before. From now on, there'll be completely newly written chapters. I'll take down the old ones.

PS: don't shout at me about the clothing. Trousers did exist, they were usually worn by the eastern people for comfort during horse-riding. That includes the Persian and the Chinese. The timeline is that around 7th century BC and yes Percy now knows that after cross checking historical figures. I didn't write that into the story since the timeline really doesn't affect it that much. It is quite useless and minuscule part of the story.

Next part Percy spies on the demigods and decides his next course of action.

SB.