BookWorm here once again! So I'm just gonna say that I don't really know how often I will be updating this, but thanks for clicking this and I hope you enjoy!
I hoped that my thin, grease covered and torn up jacket was enough to keep me warm during the frigid nights. Even my heightened body temperature from my fire abilities pwasn't enough to keep me entirely safe from the frigid New York weather.
Though on the outside I may have seemed like an innocent teenager trying to survive on the dirty streets, the inside was a completely different story.
My goal was clear - prove to everyone that doubted me that I shouldn't have been ignored. To achieve that, I had to gain power. Lots of it. But first things first. I had to prevent the Gods from watching my little quest.
There was only one thing that would allow me to do that - Circe's Medallion. Little did everyone at camp know that the seventh wheel had been planning this for a while now. After joking my way into the Athena cabin several times with well thought out excuses, I researched all of the possible ways for me to stay under the Gods' magical radar. The Athena kids never paid much attention to me anyway to notice that I was in there way more often than I should be.
And what do you know? I find this interesting piece of information about a certain sorceress' necklace able to shield the wearer from the Gods' eyes.
All it took was a few weeks worth of careful and skilled forging with a mix of celestial bronze and imperial gold, and tada! You are one step closer to being completely hidden from all of the Gods and their obnoxiously large heads. Uncertain of how easily they can be broken, I made four.
Unfortunately, they weren't completely finished yet. And while I can probably go weeks without anyone finally realizing their favorite little repair boy has gone missing, I don't have a clue as to when the Gods notice. I was on a time limit to gather the final ingredient to Circe's Medallions. Monster dust.
According to the old notes about forbidden magic in Owl head's cabin, it was necessary for the amulets to be doused in monster dust. I'm no master about magic, but my best guess is that the medallion uses the monster's essence to disguise the wearer as a non-powerful monster to any God that looks at it.
But it's not like I really care about the whole technicalities, I just want to finish the stupid necklaces, so my only problem is finding a monster. I would've just snagged some dust from one that dared to go near the camp borders, but seeing as the number of monsters who attack the camp are dwindling each day, there are almost no chances.
So now is the easy part - finding a monster. Not sure about the best method for this, but running up and down the streets of manhattan screaming, "COME AT ME MONSTER SCUM! DEMIGOD RIGHT HERE!" surely has to be somewhat effective.
I grabbed the largest hammer my tool belt had available and reached into my magic bag for the medallions. I willed for them to appear in my hand and pulled them out. For a minute or two I simply stared at the medallions, admiring its workmanship. A large calligraphed K adorned the center of the medallions for Circe's greek name, Kirke. And while the alleyway wasn't very bright due to the setting sun, they glowed a soft gold into my calloused hand.
I wrapped the large chains around my arm so I could easily access them after I had found and killed a monster, and picked myself up from the trash ridden alleyway I chose to rest at and walked into the semi-busy sidewalk.
Time to get this show on the road.
"YO MONSTERS! DELICIOUS DEMIGOD MEAL RIGHT HERE!" I yelled while sprinting up the side of the street. My magical, brown knapsack bounced against my back with each step and several strange looks were sent my way by the civilians, but I knew I couldn't stop if I did want to find a monster.
Not long after my arms began getting heavier from the medallions and hammer I have yet to actually use, and I was sweating profusely. I was still running through random streets - accidentally knocking over a few people in the process - and screaming insults at any monsters lurking around, but nothing.
I stopped to catch my breath against an abandoned building that looked like the remains of "Crusty's Waterbed Palace" - what kind of name is that? - and shouted a final taunt to seemingly no creatures of any kind.
"NOTHING? ALL OF YOU MONSTERS ARE WIMPS IF YO-"
"Are you stupid or something Leo?" a hushed voice whisper-shouted from the corner of the store.
"Nico?"
"Yes, Nico. Now shut up and get over here or the horde of them will see you."
I glanced around, but didn't see anything on the now dark streets except the pieces of trash flying around in the wind and the few lights turning off in nearby apartments. I turned my head back to the corner where I saw Nico's mess of black hair disappear to and cautiously made my way over there. When I was close enough to the edge of the building, Nico suddenly grabbed my arm and dragged me to the back of the alley he was hiding out at.
"Hey, what are yo-" I started to raise my voice.
"Shh! Look, I'll explain. But can you just light a fire or something? I can't see anything."
I could only see his silhouette, and I eyed where his face would be with suspicion, but conjured a small ball of flame in my hand after returning the hammer to its rightful place in my tool belt. The flame's light flickered across Nico's face making his ghostly paleness disappear. But illuminated his coal-black eyes that hovered above dark bags which revealed his worried expression.
Trying to keep a stoic face, I finally responded in my own hushed voice,"Okay, you got me here, now explain. What horde?"
I watched as Nico glanced around before answering as if something could pop out from the shadows any second... but knowing Nico, that's probably very likely. "I may or may not have angered a large horde of hellhounds while I was traveling..." he stated sheepishly. Bingo. Angering one of the only monsters that actually can shadow travel.
I stared at him with a are-you-kidding-me face before replying, "Well why didn't you just head back to camp? You know everyone at either camps can take care of hellhounds easily."
"Well I didn't want to give either camps any more reason to hate me."
"The camps don't ha-" Nico just responded with his own are-you-kidding-me face,"Okay, maybe just a little bit, but can't you outrun them with your own shadow traveling?" I asked with a curious expression on my face.
"I've been close enough to them that they've pretty much locked onto my scent, and shadow traveling is a pain in the ass with how tiring it is," he said exasperatedly, "But yours is probably confusing them so I think we have some time before they get here."
He looked at me with suspicious eyes before continuing, "What are you doing out here anyway? I didn't think there was a need for any quests."
I looked down with an expression of hatred and hurt, but replied with venom in my voice. "You're right. There aren't any quests. I left everyone there because I was treated like the shitty, good for nothing repair boy. I was ignored, but now I'm off to show them how wrong they were to ignore me."
"Really? Oh."
Nico put on an expression of surprise, but I've been living with people who lied about their kindness for a while now, so I could see right through it. With renewed distrust, I looked at him with narrowed eyes and asked, "But you already knew that didn't you? And I wonder just how in Tartarus in all of the places of the world, you managed to find a spot to shadow travel to that's right next to me."
Nico's eyes widened with every word, but he stuttered out an answer to my question,"Look I-I didn't mean any harm, b-but at camp I saw yo-"
But a low growling noise stopped the both of us and we turned our heads to see a hellhound across the street emerge from the shadows, with more appearing each second.
"Apparently this conversation will have to wait until after we deal with these," I said with a pointed glare and gritted teeth to which Nico only replied with unsheathing his Stygian iron sword and staring at me expectantly.
I reached into my tool belt an pulled out my largest hammer once again, but this time lighting my hand, and in turn, the hammer on fire.
"C'mon Nico, let's do this thing!"
Okay, sorry if this is not the beginning of a story you dreamed about, but like I said before I am a noob writer and this is my first serious story. Some pointers would be nice if you guys do want me to do anything different, so please review and see you next chapter!
