Just realized there's a pattern with these oneshots. Luke's so far have been relatively short while Thalia's are long. Of course, this is chapter I wouldn't alter for the life of me. Why? This is Thalia and Luke's first fight together.
Plenty of little Thuke seeds here and there you're going to see this chapter. I'm actually quite proud of this fight scene.
Enjoy!
"Thalia, Thalia. Wake up." His voice comes in and she's caught between worlds. You know, that feeling where you want to sleep on but are semi-conscious of what's going on around you. She groans and turns over, damn intent on ignoring him in favor of a little extra sleep. Even if it's only a couple seconds, she was getting revenge on the jerk for practically forcing them together.
She's curling into herself further, ignoring his persistent shakes to her shoulders, when BOOM! The sound of something very large—or rather a couple of somethings—snaps her eyes open and she lets out a string of curses as she shoots to her feet. She'd thought she was rid of them damn it! But she sees their fat heads cresting over the tree line like some stupid parody of the sun—which is conspicuously absent at this hour of the night. As is the moon.
But giants are notorious for their bad site. It was their sense of smell that was the problem. Or at least that was the case for these two. They were like bloodhounds, tweaking their noses up into the air. Whiffing and scenting her. And they'd tracked her somehow, out of the swamps and into the sparse forest they'd bedded in for the night. Nearest she could gather they were brothers and they'd like nothing more than to snack on demigods like French fries, maybe with a little salt, grease, and ketchup.
"Girl! Come out! We make it quick if you give up!" One of them bellowed, his voice producing so many decibels of sound it nearly popped out her eardrums.
"No we not. Gator bit toe because you." The other one replied.
"You not sposed tell her that!" Ear-bleeder reprimanded his brother, shoving him over and snapping several branches in the canopy. Leaves rained down from just above Thalia as she and Luke kept to the back of the large boulder they'd set up camp beside. Thalia was now thankful for the cover it provided.
"I sorry. Hey girl! I just kidding. Quick snap you feel nothing." The idiot brother amended. As if that were a better option even if she didn't already know he was lying. Luke wordlessly passed off her weapon, which she took gratefully as the trunks of Gator-toe came into sight. Finally. She'd felt naked without it over the last couple of days. She smirked as she twirled the hilt in her hand; its grip cool and familiar. Reassuring.
Thalia was moving before Luke even realized she was gone. She'd dealt with these bozos before. Maybe she hadn't beaten them but she'd still fended them off enough to slow them down. And that was injured. Her leg was finally healing now and she could maneuver much better when she didn't have to grit her teeth every step. Her dagger carves into the giant's ankle, cutting the tendon and sheering monstrous muscle from bone that fell off and turned to dust. Gator-toe roared and kicked out at Thalia but she managed to roll backwards, safely out of reach.
She attacked the other leg next and this time with Luke's help. The giant bellowed as his knees threatened to buckle, but Luke and Thalia kept thrusting their weapons into its lower leg. A hand tried to grab her but Thalia just viciously sliced off a fingertip with a blow that in all honesty shouldn't have been possible with a dagger…that is if she wasn't a demigod.
"No fair! You cheating! Have other!" Yeah, well, screw you hypocrite, Thalia thinks. He didn't have a problem with teaming up on her when she was all by herself. Yet just because the fight was even now she was cheating? Please.
"Yeah she cheat, cheat, cheat. That why she still alive." The other one added.
The problem was, his minutely smarter brother chose that moment to join the fray. Simply the gust of wind sent up by his feet was enough to knock Thalia off her feet and he tried to stomp on her but she rolled out of the way and into his other hairy foot. Ear-Bleeder was smarter about fighting than his brother and started to raise his other foot to stamp on here but she latched onto the course hair (ew) on it and rode the foot up till he stomped downward again.
She couldn't maintain her grip and was sent sailing through the air, hitting the nearby boulder hard enough to knock the wind out of her, but it would likely only bruise. Luke, she faintly realized, had managed to rend the other giant's foot off entirely and the stupid creature wobbled for a moment before toppling forward onto his brother's far foot.
"OW!" The giant hopped up and down on his feet the way a human might when after dropping a bowling ball on their foot. Luke didn't wait for things to clear up. He was at the giant's head, gouging out its eyes and scraping its pudgy face for all it was worth.
"Watch out!" Thalia shouted. Ear-bleeder turned his attention on Luke as Gator-toe started to disintegrate. He backhanded Luke, sending him flying against a nearby tree. "Luke!"
Thalia was at his side instantly. His breathing sounded a bit caught and based on the way his chest caved in at the wrong areas she guessed he'd broken a couple ribs but he was conscious, staring up at her with bleary eyes. "He slapped me…" Luke said, dazed.
Thalia might have laughed if he didn't let out a little gasp of pain as he spoke. She might laugh anyways…maniacally that is. Behind them, the giant was looking for his brother. Seemingly unaware that he was dead already. Gone back to Tartarus. Where he belongs. But the big giant didn't seem to agree. He called out for his brother, big blubbering tears raining down and splashing Thalia. Again, Thalia might have felt bad if…well no she didn't feel bad. Not at all.
"Think you can stand up?" Thalia asks, her eyes flickering between him and the giant.
"Maybe." Luke tries to get to his feet and succeeds, although he winces slightly and clutches his left side. "At least he didn't get my good side."
"You don't have a good side." Thalia retorts.
"Hey yes I—never mind that now. What are we going to do about him?" Luke says, gesturing to the giant whose looking under the boulder as if he expects his brother to be under there. Thalia looks up.
"I have an idea. Give me a boost?" Luke cups his hands together without another word and she puts one foot in them, using his shoulders to help balanced herself out but feeling horrible about the amount pain it's causing him. It doesn't matter for long. She leaps up and catches a low hanging branch and skitters up the tree like a squirrel. Only problems that old feeling pestering her but she ignores it. Now is not the time to be a fraidy cat. Besides, it's not that high. Especially if she doesn't look down.
"What now!" Luke calls just in time to see the giant straitening up and looking around for his playmates.
"Get his attention." Thalia answers as she continues higher. She'll have one shot at this.
"Great. I play decoy." Luke mutters before shouting loudly. "Hey ugly! Ever tried Bossley medical? You have hair everywhere but your head!"
…Luke's an idiot Thalia thinks. But it does the trick and the giant bellows incomprehensively and runs toward him arms spread out superman style. Thalia's muscles coil tightly. She has to time this perfectly… One mistake and they're both screwed. One mistake and they're giant chow.
Three. Two. One. "Now!" She dives right off the tree branch through midair, arms triangled in front of her with her dagger at their tip. Flying right at the distracted giant like a dart. She makes contact right below its diaphragm, her momentum burying the dagger deep. Unlike a dart however her weight pulls her down, along with her dagger and it's like she's unzipping his guts.
She drops with a crouch to brace herself as the giant fumbles clumsily on his own two feet briefly then tumbles downward right on top of her! Luke's somehow closed the distance between them and he slams into her, pushing her to the ground. Just when she thinks they'll both be crushed the monster disintegrates into yellow powder and they merely get rained on by a ton of sulfurous powder. It thoroughly coats both of them and they're both pure pale yellow.
Thalia coughs and sneezes, wiping her face over and over. Nearby, something else falls onto the ground; a set of giant pearly white dentures. Their trophy…what they hell are they going to do with TEETH? "Aw gross!"
Luke shakes off the powder as he kneels back up, getting off of her. "I second that."
On his face was a hard grimace and Thalia reflected that he probably further aggravated his wounds. Just to save her stupid ass.
He caught her looking at him. "Don't worry. I still have some ambrosia left. Spoils from my last fight."
Thalia regarded him oddly. "Ambrosia…" She parroted, the word sounding foreign in her mouth.
Luke smirks knowingly although his face is still clenched a little. "You've never had it?"
Thalia gives a light shake of her head. She's caught between being intrigued and annoyed. There he goes with that condescending shit again, like he's better than her.
She follows him back to where his bag lays next to the boulder. He gestures for her to unzip it for him (which she does without complaining; he's injured and she doesn't feel like being a bitch to him till he's better. Besides leaning over will further aggravate his injuries and possibly even make them worse.) He directs her to a Tupperware full of pale jelly cubes.
"Give me half of one." Luke directs from where he leans against the boulder. She complies, slicing a cube in half with her sharp nails and passing it off before taking the other half and sniffing it curiously. It's the consistency of grainy Jell-o in between her fingers and it smells lightly like lemons. Luke catches her looking and frowns. "Be careful. You shouldn't eat any of it unless you're hurt. It's…risky."
"How do you mean?" Thalia quirks a brow. How can food be dangerous? Much less this little goopy thing in her fingers. It's just food. Unless it's poisoned or spoiled the most it should give you is a little case of indigestion, right?
"Oh, it'll just incinerate you." …or not. She gave him a look. Was he kidding? No, he looked deadly serious. Emphasis on the deadly part. It still sounded ridiculous yet…Thalia didn't doubt him. For some reason she couldn't put her finger on, she just knew what he was saying was true.
"Then why are you eating it?" Thalia reflexively drops the cube back in the Tupperware like it burnt her.
"Ambrosia is useful in moderation." Luke started, rolling the split cube in between his fingers. "It can heal minor injury and most, though not all, major ones too. But the catch is, eat too much of it and you die. Painfully."
"So I gathered." Thalia set the container back in the bag.
Luke hesitated, the ambrosia cube a couple inches away from his lips. "Ugh, this is going to be pretty bad. Can you help me back up? It'd be better if I were standing."
Thalia wonders for a moment what the ambrosia cubes taste like as she helps him standing. She thinks they must taste a little like cough syrup with the way he's scowling at the cube.
But as soon as it passes his lips and he swallows, she realizes the real reason why as his broken ribs crunch back into place, each one eliciting a pained gasp from him. That's all that's on his face right now; pain. No, more like agony.
"You okay?" She asks idly. They both know the question didn't even need to be asked; the answer was obvious.
"No, but I will be. Normally ambrosia's actually very pleasant to eat. But with broken bones it tends to h broken bones it tends to hurt a bit. " He answers, experimentally flexing his newly-repaired chest. All of the sudden, he lets out a short laugh.
"What?" What could possibly be funny?
"It's just, I think this is the first conversation we've had where you haven't insulted or screamed at me. I should get hurt more often." Thalia opens her mouth to retort but something stops her. Maybe it's the little whisper in the back of her head…the one that acknowledges that he got hurt. That he tried to protect her when the giant was falling earlier when he could have just as easily saved his own skin. So instead she just shrugs like it's no big deal, covering her reaction with nonchalance.
"Perhaps." She answers. Then she frowns. "I suppose you want this back." She says, grasping her dagger by the tang of the blade and holding out the handle for him to take. It went against everything she believed in to give her weapon away like this, but she still felt inclined to stick with their deal.
Something about fighting with him tonight had changed something. She'd gained respect for him. She wasn't quite as inclined to just run off at the earliest date possible. Not after he put himself at risk on her account. Not when he'd hurt himself further after being injured because of her.
Luke regarded her for a moment. "Keep it. You're damn handy with that dagger."
Thalia shook her head. "That wasn't our deal. I take it from you without a weapon or trickery, I keep it. Remember?"
Luke chuckled. "I never thought YOU'D be the one being such a stickler to that deal but fine by me. You're sure?" He paused his hand and watched her carefully. She nodded slightly and he took the dagger back. He had that look again. The one that really ticked her off. Smug, like she'd done exactly what he'd wanted. What he'd expected.
"Hey don't make this out to be something it's not. I still don't like you." Thalia said bluntly. And then she swallowed her pride. "But I do trust you. Gods help me I trust you."
"And I don't like you either." Luke answered with a slow nod. "But I respect you. And I trust you too."
"Good. Let's keep it that way. This is a partnership out of need, not want. The moment you become more trouble than you're worth to me I'm gone. I'll split so fast your head'll spin."
"Alright. Thanks for all the happy talk." Luke says cheekily. "It's great to know where we stand. Now if you don't excuse me, it's your shift and I'm going to bed." Luke started to get up and walk away.
"Hey! It was still your shift! You woke me up prematurely!" Thalia protests.
"Yeah, but now it's your shift." Luke says.
"But-"
"Too bad, so sad."
…Thalia really hates him.
Until Next time,
~Crisi