Chapter I
My Giant Red Knight
Damasen grit his teeth, hefting a drakon-bone spear polished to an almost unnatural sheen. Outside, he heard a Drakon's familiar roar, challenging him to come and fight. Tensing his muscles, Damasen wiped his face with a dirt-encrusted napkin, wiping away the sweat that had collected on his face while he had carved the spear out of the Drakon's carcass that he had fought a few days (or was it weeks?) ago.
Crying a battle cry of his own, Damasen opened up the door of his little dirt hut, leveling the deadly-sharp tip ready to plunge inside the Drakon's hide. The 20-foot something giant seemed puny compared to the sea-colored Drakon, but the anger in his eyes was enough to make any sane person cower away from him. Obviously, the Drakon wasn't sane. Screeching, the dragon-like creature ran at full speed toward Damasen, it's red eyes glowing. Damasen roared, his hand snatching up a nearby tree from the scraggly grove with inhuman speed. Taunting the Drakon, Damasen stepped in the gaping hole where the tree's roots once were. The Drakon quickly changed it's course and ran to Damasen, coming to a screeching halt right before Damasen was about to stick the tree in the Drakon's mouth.
Suddenly Damasen felt something like a supersonic boom echo through the depths of Tartarus, and he found himself crashing to his knees in amazement. Tilting its head, the Drakon's teeth were revealed in what looked like was supposed to be a feral snarl. Damasen blinked in confusion, dropping his guard at the Drakon's sudden happiness. The Drakon suddenly twisted around and stormed away from Damasen, disappearing in the thick fog that was settled around Damasen's hut. Damasen's eyes widened, and he faltered, the spear falling from his hand. Ever since he had been cursed to Tartarus, Damasen had fought the Drakon every single day, without fail. Now, suddenly, it appeared that the Drakon had left, which had never happened before. Ever. Something, something big had happened. Unwilling to leave it alone, Damasen soon followed the Drakon, slinking into the dark red fog as though he had never been there.
Damasen crouched his legs, his brown tunic little more then strategically placed pieces of cloth that barely covered him, much less offered protection from the elements, or from the sulfurous air that he had somehow gotten used to. But, in Tartarus, you took what you could get, and Damasen wasn't about to let the gift he had gotten from a stray arai go to waste. In front of him, the Drakon (whom he mentally labeled "Echthrós"*), ran forward at breakneck speed, not faltering in its pace for even a second, not allowing the rocks littering the ground to stop it.
Damasen wasn't sure for how long the two had run. Minutes? Hours? Days? Without the regular fighting every day to help him keep track of time, Damasen was lost. Caught in his own musings, he heard Echthrós's triumphant screech too late, and he looked up to see a gaggle of monsters standing in a loose half-circle in front of a cliff, hissing with delight. Damasen felt a brief flash of vertigo when he saw the dozens of monsters there. Ever since Tartarus, he hadn't seen a single living soul other then Echthrós for a long time, as he couldn't even leave his hut without being steered back there by Tartarus itself. Speaking of Tartarus... how come Damasen wasn't back at his hut already? Any time he had ever traveled this far he had always ended up back there. Why wasn't Tartarus paying attention?
Shoving those questions aside for later, Damasen found himself pushing through the crowd of monsters, ignoring the surprised mutters and hisses at seeing him. Some of the newer empousi or telkhines didn't even know who he was, and cowered away from him in the fear that he would turn out to be like other giants- cold and ruthless. Finding himself at the front of the crowd, Damasen blinked in shock, freezing to the spot. Because there was no way, none at all, that a demigod was in Tartarus.
"I now call the Winter Solstice meeting to order!"
In Tartarus's opposite, Olympus, the twelve Olympians were seated at the Hall of the Gods, along with Hestia, who was always there, and Hades, who was there out of necessity.
In the past century or so, most of the Council's winter solstice meetings were short and abrupt, ending within a span of an hour or two. This time, however, all the Olympians were agitated. Two days ago there was a shockwave that had spread throughout the world, that all the Olympians felt. Most of the mortals had chalked it up to Déjà Vu, but a few who could see through the mist (and were later interviewed on the news) said that it was like a giant crack in the ground, glowing red, had been created in Los Angeles. Of course, it was gone in several minutes, but it was breaking news with conspiracy theorists- and news for the gods as well.
"Our first order of business is Camp Half-Blood." Zeus said, electric blue eyes daring anyone to go against him. "As you all may kno-"
"Cut the crap, Zeus." Poseidon said, rolling his eyes. Wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, he looked like the poster boy of an elderly surfer. "We all know that's not the highlight of this meeting."
The other Olympians nodded, sitting up straighter in their seats, now interested. Apollo even unplugged his iPod, although he still looked pretty uninterested, whispering quietly to Hermes.
"I agree," said Demeter.
Zeus glowered when he saw the other Olympians take Poseidon's side, but he stopped protesting when he saw Athena, of all people, agreeing with Poseidon- and they were enemies.
"Does anyone know what the shockwave was?" Zeus asked bluntly, raising an eyebrow. Normally a shockwave wouldn't have the Olympians so jumpy- Zeus and Poseidon created several on their bad days. But this one was different, this one was one worth noticing.
The Gods looked at each other, expecting one to say yes.
Hades took this opportunity to speak. "Before that," he said almost lazily, as if it didn't matter to him, but barely concealed rage and self satisfaction threaten to twitch his lips upwards. "Don't you believe that you should confess your betrayal from two years ago, Poseidon?"
All eyes snapped to the sea God. At first, Poseidon looked confused, but the knowing glint in Hades's eyes caused dread to churn his stomach.
"What did you do?" Zeus demanded.
"I have no idea what he speaks of," Poseidon retorted harshly. Surely Hades can't mean-
Hades suddenly exploded, bolting up from his "visitor's" throne with a thunderous expression. "Don't you dare lie!" He hissed. "I never wanted to take that oath, but both you and Zeus forced my hand! And I've honored it! But you- you two-" Hades inhaled sharply. For millennia his brothers had mistreated him, and now all the bitter emotions that he'd so far bottled up were coming to the surface. The shadows seemed to cluster together and towards Hades, and some of the other Gods leaned away slightly.
"Poseidon, did you have a child?" Athena questioned evenly. The discovery threw the Gods into a frenzy as they yelled their claims, accusations, and threats.
"SILENCE!" Zeus thundered, his master bolt appearing in his hand and sparking dangerously with his temper. Everyone quieted, eyes glancing wildly between Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. "Now, Poseidon-"
"Don't," Poseidon warned lowly while keeping his narrowed eyes on Hades. "You have no room to speak, brother." Surprisingly, Zeus's jaw shut as Poseidon rose and stalked in front of Hades. Poseidon's eyes seemed to crash and fall like angry waves. "Swear on the River Styx that you haven't touched or done anything to Percy." When Hades stayed eerily silent, Poseidon snapped, gripping Hades's robes and slamming Hades against the visitor's throne. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
"Hey, hey!" one of the Gods exclaimed. Others moved to break to two apart, but hesitated at the great, raw power that was poring out of two furious Gods.
Hades's smirk was a nasty one. He lifted his chin up and sneered, "Nothing I won't do if this betrayal repeats again."
"What have you done?!" Poseidon raged again, inches away from Hades's face.
Hades didn't look away from Poseidon, wanting to fully experience the other's reaction at the news. "I threw him into Tartarus."
Gasps sound from all around the grand room. Poseidon froze, his grip slacking. All color left the sea God as his knees buckled and he fell to Hades's feet.
"What?" he whispered, utterly horrified. Percy, Percy- his little boy. His Percy. Such a sweet and innocent child. In Tartarus? That can't be right- it just can't be.
Staring at Hades, Aphrodite was also white as a sheet. "You threw a two year old into Tartarus?" she whispered, voice deathly quiet. She felt as though she was about to vomit -and she wasn't the only one either.
Hades only straightened himself, glancing at Poseidon and Zeus with deep loathing and disgust. "Perhaps now you will keep your word." And then he disappeared in a blink.
The room was silent, except for Poseidon's broken sobs and a few Goddesses' sympathetic ones. Hestia slowly approached Poseidon and put a hand on his shaking shoulder.
Poseidon roughly recoiled before disappearing as well.
Zeus sat down on his throne wearily, the other gods taking this as their sign to do the same. He needed to think about this- a lot. "Meeting Dismissed." Despite everything, the first question that came to Zeus's mind was why Poseidon's child and his shared the same name. Was it so that this 'Percy' would share in Perseus's happy ending? Because Percy was in Tartarus. And as much as Zeus didn't want to say, the kid had probably died a gruesome death a few days ago, and if it wasn't dead already it would soon be.
Closing his eyes, he heard a storm brewing in the distance, that wasn't caused by him. He could almost hear Poseidon's anguished cries, even though the sea god was in Atlantis. Fighting the urge to stop the storm, to protect the mortals, Zeus allowed Poseidon to vent out his anger, trying to get used to the weather, knowing that the next months would pass much the same.
Damasen closed his eyes, breathing in and out before opening them. Yup, the kid was still there. The boy was dressed in cloth and linen pants decorated with fishes, and something in another language was inscribed in fancy lettering on his shirt, white against a dark blue background.
He was hanging on a hook made by Tartarus's natural rusty red walls, eyes closed, most likely unconscious, his back nothing more than a mass of raw, bloodied skin. Damasen was shocked the boy was still alive- most would be dead by the fall. The boy had dark black hair, messy and rumpled, and several cuts and scars marring his skin from his fall, his clothes torn. What shocked Damasen the most, however, was his age. No more than two or three, the boy was in Tartarus. If he was older, Damasen could possibly understand. Doing something horrible to Olympus guaranteed you a one-way ticket down here. But the boy was a toddler. There was no way he could've done anything that had him come down here.
His parents, perhaps? But he would be dead and his parents would be down here. Damasen glanced at the boy before another thought came to head. What if the boy was an immortal? Turned into a child so that none in Tartarus would be the wiser. Yet he would have ichor for blood, not red blood.
"A delicious meal he will make," an empousi hissed, hair flaming brightly against Tartarus's dark sky.
Damasen heard others cry out in agreement, and he found people jostling him, trying in vain to grab the boy's body. "STOP!" Damasen roared, snatching the boy up before they could. The boy's eyes opened when he was snatched up, and his sea-green eyes widened in fear, beginning to scream and struggle against Damasen. Damasen forced himself to ignore the boy, and eyed the crowd.
The monsters who had been alive in the old days, like Echidna or the Minotaur, wouldn't mind him, as they knew he wouldn't do anything. But, surrounded by newbies, the monsters shied away in terror. "The boy is mine."
"Yes, yes," a telkhine hissed, "Yet he would make a good meal for all of us."
"He. Is. Mine." Damasen growled, using his stature to terrify the crowd even more. The monsters hissed, closing in a haphazard circle around Damasen, fangs bared and claws shining in preparation for a fight. Echthrós seemed to lead the charge, it's claws poised in readiness for their annual, postponed fight.
Damasen held the boy in one arm, the giant's hands brushing the cliff. Sensing a crevice in the cliff, Damasen carefully set the boy in it, taking care not to disturb any of its wounds, a difficult feat as the boy kept on squirming and screaming. As soon as the boy was set in the cliff, Damasen confronted Echthrós, tensing his muscles. It felt odd, fighting with a cliff at his back rather than a wall, and without a spear or trees next to him. Yet Damasen was as ready for the fight as he ever could be.
Echthrós pawed the ground, the claws in its feet burrowing in the hard rock. The other monsters settled back into a circle, content to watch the Drakon do their dirty work for them. Jumping in the air, Echthrós let out a guttural scream, aiming to land where Damasen was standing. Ducking, Damasen threw his hand out in a vain effort to try and smash the Drakon against the wall. Instead, Damasen felt a blinding pain in his hand as rocks tumbled down. Hearing the boy's scared cries, Damasen faltered- he had forgotten that the boy was there. And if he forgot again, all his efforts to save the demigod would go to waste.
Hearing another battle cry, Damasen allowed muscle memory and instinct to guide his movements, jumping out of the way again. Now, the two had turned a total 180, and Echthrós was now the one against the wall, rather then Damasen. Pressing his advantage, Damasen walked toward Echthrós, the giant's iron-colored eyes glinting eerily in Tartarus's red lighting. The Drakon arched its back, ready to fly over Damasen, but before it could do so Damasen snatched out his hand, arms pinning the Drakon's wings. Looking Echthrós in the eye, Damasen fought the urge to paralyze on the spot, and instead raised his right hand, gripping the Drakon's neck and twisting it to the side until a loud crack could be heard. The drakon, rather then having its carcass freeze on the spot like Damasen was used to, instead disappeared in a cloud of golden colored dust.
Looking behind him, Damasen saw the other monsters' eyes widen and quickly scatter, unwilling to have to fight him. Above him, Damasen heard something scrabble against the rock, and barely remembered the boy. Lifting his hands, Damasen carefully picked up the boy and brought him to eye level. The boy stared at Damasen with a sort of impressed shock, sea green eyes wide- but instead of with fear, as before, with wonder. "What's your name?" Damasen croaked out. The boy looked at him in confusion, and Damasen mentally hit himself. Of course, he was speaking in Greek- and he doubted the boy knew that. Sifting through his memory, Damasen closed his eyes as he remembered a bit of... what was it called? Engik?
"Name?"
The boy's eyes glinted with understanding and trust, the latter of which made Damasen's heart warm.
"Percy," the boy- no, Percy said.
"Well then," said Damasen, "let's take you home, Percy."
*Echthrós = 'Enemy' in Greek
Oh my gods! *Squeals* Thank you guys SO MUCH! I didn't expect that much feedback on the last chapter, and all the responses made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)
In honor of me getting a laptop and (hopefully) updating every Saturday, and in honor of the first reviews:
Writer Obsession: Aww, no problem :) And thanks for catching the mistakes. ALSO, thank you so so so so so much for your help on this chapter :)
Bruce77: Thanks for the feedback :) As for the Sally thing, right as Alecto appeared she made Sally fall asleep- that's why Sally didn't see her. And thanks :)
BethnPercy: Hopefully you found out what Hades was thinking :) (I use ':)' a lot) Thanks! :)
Tiredofthisbs: Thanks :) Hopefully it lives up to your standards :) But really, you should give the W.O. (Writer Obsession) credit for this idea, they're the one who made it after all. Thanks Writer!
28: Lol, I've updated now :) And thanks!
ChocoChomper: Thanks! As I said before though, W.O. helped come up w/this idea :) I already have that seen planned out, and (imo) it's going to be AMAZING. As for the child of the prophecy- not having an idiot becoming it, but to see who it is ;) And I've updated!
I was grinning like an idiot while responding to this, and still am... :) And also, thanks to everyone who followed or favorited! Ya'll, plus the reviewers, is what motivates me to continue writing and updating quickly *hint hint* :) But anyway, thank ya'll so much! Can't wait to see you guys next chapter.
-Lauren Swan
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