Chapter 3: I Get Pissed Off

Percy's POV

This whole thing of the bow choosing me and not the other way around sounded suspiciously similar to Harry Potter. My eyes darted around trying to locate where and whom the voice came from. The girl stood there in awe and I realized that I had still not found out her name. "What is your name?"

She looked at me, "Alicia Roberts, current Apollo cabin counsellor. You must be new here, claimed or not?"

I shook my head and held out a hand, "Neither. The name's Percy Jackson, I'm a mortal, descended from Jason according to Chiron."

She raised an eyebrow and shook my hand, "You're a mortal? Have you by any chance been cursed?"

"What kind of curse?"

"The kind of curse you receive from bathing in a particular river." She explained and I rolled my eyes.

"That river? Yea, I can still feel it even though that was when I was about one years old. And how many times do I have to tell people that it has been nothing but a blessing to me? Would you consider it a curse to have a blessing protect you from fatality?" I was starting to get annoyed by people's insistence on calling it a curse. I can see why Styx was apparently so miserable if everyone considers her blessing a curse to have. From me she got nothing but respect. She didn't receive enough of it. The gods were known to swear on her river but they never payed the price when they broke the oath. They are meant to spend one year without ambrosia, nectar or air and they were not supposed to be allowed to attend festivities. In short if your name happened to be Zeus and you obeyed that, your life would suck.

The girl shrugged, "Everyone calls it a curse. But what I'm really concerned with is that bow. It was the first and best bow lady Artemis ever crafted. She prefers to use the one which Selene gave to her and was literally made from moonlight. Artemis was never quite able to replicate Selene's craftsmanship but that bow is the closest bow in craftsmanship to the bow Selene gave her. While the one Artemis uses is made completely from solid moonlight, that bow has a core of solid moonlight. The arrows which come with it, are cast from solid moonlight and according to legend the arrows are indestructible and a single shot can blow an entire house to pieces. Whenever they are used the mortals mistake them for meteors or meteorites but in this case the 'meteorites' were never found. I'd say the ones Artemis has could tear down a large town. Zeus's Master Bolt is on a whole different level; it would make Artemis's arrows look like candle fires in comparison in comparison."

"How do you know so much about this?" I inquired.

"I'm the daughter of the god of archery. This stuff interests me." I nodded and looked down at the pendant.

Reluctantly, I tugged it and my body filled with that familiar sense of joy as the energy ran through my body. Once again the bow began to glow brightly to look like a miniature crescent moon. A quiver appeared on my back and I drew one of the arrows to examine it. The arrow looked like it was silver but felt almost ghostly to hold. The fletchings were wispy trails of moonlight that would look like fire if colored orange.

"What if they are lost?"

"They should be enchanted to return to the owner's quiver. It wouldn't be very wise to make an indestructible arrow that could cause devastation that could be fired back at you." She had a point.

I refused to take it. That kind of power would do me no good. I strode back to the rack it was originally on and placed it down carefully before unslinging the quiver and dropping it beside the rack.

Once again I felt the energy drain and it was almost as if the bow was begging for me to take it. Deep in my mind I could barely hear a voice screaming:

Take me! Take me!

I shook it off as my imagination and picked the simple bow and quiver that I had dropped off the floor.

Alicia gave me a questioning look, "You really aren't going to take it?"

I shook my head but said nothing more as I looked for Luke.

I found Luke searching through piles of armor, trying to find something. I snuck up behind him and grabbed his shoulder hard; causing him to yelp and fall the ground.

I laughed mirthfully at the spectacle as he complained, "That's not funny!"

Winking at him I just replied, "It is to me."

That was when I looked around the current section of the armory. There was a lot of armor.

Luke started rummaging through the armor; tossing pieces behind him. Then one thing caught my eye. He tossed a belt lined with throwing knives over his should and it hit the ground with a thud. I picked it up and it suddenly shrank down to be perfect for me. Godly magic… I will never get used to it. Grinning, I strapped the knives around my waist.

Luke found a muscle cuirass that looked about small enough for me and handed it over. Now don't judge me or anything, but a seven year old wearing a muscle cuirass looks weird. However it perfectly covered up my blessing's fail-point so I took it. I examined it for a second before nodding and putting it on. Ok, to be honest, it didn't look that bad but if I were out in the city I wouldn't be seen dead wearing it.

"It good?" Luke asked.

I shifted it around a bit before grinning, "Perfect."

"Cool, lets go, capture the flag is after dinner apparently." Luke said, grabbing my arm to lead me out.

"Capture the flag?"

"Yea, just don't kill anyone." He grinned mischievously but that stopped me. Looking around, I saw a bunch of quivers labeled 'blunt' in one corner so I ran over there and shouldered one before returning to Luke.

"What do you need all those arrows for?"

"Sharp ones because I'm running away and blunt ones for capture the flag." I pulled out a blunt arrow and examined it. Its quality was decent and the arrowhead was mortal steel. If I sharpened them and coated them in an anti-rusting agent then they would become quite useful for hunting when I ran away.

"You're leaving? Why? Its safe here?" He sounded disappointed.

"I don't belong here. I'm not a demigod. I'm not even a legacy for that matter."

"Of course you belong here! You have pure ancient blood! What even is a legacy?" He questioned.

"A legacy is someone who is defended from a god but isn't the direct child. I am but a mortal; I should not be here. Besides, I prefer to be free and hunting for my food than caged up and being given my food." I told Luke who nodded understandingly.

"Ok then… Well, you'll be staying in my fathers cabin tonight and I won't tell anyone that you don't plan to stay." He spat the word father as if not even all the vermin and critters on the planet were as bad as it before he smirked, "You might want to watch out, my siblings are a bunch of thieves."

"Noted."

We exited the armory just as the conch horn was blown. I figured that signaled dinner because from looking at the position of the sun it was around six o'clock. Annabeth was standing outside, leaning on the wall, dejectedly. When she saw us, her stormy eyes lit up, "Luke, Percy, what was that horn for?"

"Dinner." I replied bluntly as Luke nodded his agreement. I pulled off the muscle cuirass that I was wearing and replaced my green military style parka.

"Hey Perce, why do you wear that, it is summer?" Luke asked.

"It may be unnecessary to wear it now, in the summer, but I have no wish to lose it before winter comes. You know; because of my plans." I explained.

Luke said no more as he nodded. I held the bag and the chest plate as we headed to Hermes's cabin to drop off the stuff we picked up. Wondering where my golden toothpick was, I reached into my pocket and felt the coin. Once again I examined it and wondered how it got into my pocket in the first place. It was by no means a perfectly stamped coin and reminded me of the coins of the ancient days that my parents were so fond of. It seemed to glow with power and something told me that if I did not have the curse of Achilles, it would pass right through my hand. Thats when I noticed, my dad always held the javelin with a glove ever since he got it. It usually wasn't the greatest idea to fight with a glove on your hand but something told me that it was the only way for him to hold it.

"Hey Luke, do these 'Magical metals' by any chance not affect mortals?" I asked as we approached the dining pavilion.

"Yea, a celestial bronze sword will pass right through a mortal…" Luke affirmed.

"Hmm… I'm guessing I can only be affected by those weapons because the Styx burns away your mortality in all but one place. I guess that means celestial bronze can bounce off everywhere on my body but the one place where mortality is intact, and on that one place it'll probably just pass through me? So in short I'm probably still mortal, right?" I randomly blurted.

"Uh… one of the most jumbled sentences you've ever said but yea, you're probably right. I wouldn't test it though, we can't have you dying while testing your theory." I glared at him jokingly for calling my sentence jumbled.

As we entered the dining pavilion I looked around and Luke gestured for me to follow him. As soon as we entered the entire pavilion fell silent and a bunch of people who looked like Annabeth clones but older dragged her off to a different table. Luke and I made our way over to a table that was completely packed up.

"Hey Luke! That guy claimed or unclaimed?" A guy from the table who looked like an older version of Luke called out.

Luke replied, "Uh. He's a mortal."

Cue whispers.

"What's he doing here then!" A guy that had a mean look to her face yelled from another table.

"He bears the curse of Achilles. I bet he could easily take half of your lot on Leotard!" Alicia shouted back at the hard-ass guy (now known as Leotard). Cue more frantic whisperings.

"My name is Leonard! I doubt he could even take on the weakest of my lot Alleyway!" He screamed back at her indignantly

Oh thats right. Who names their kid Leotard? Alicia shot back at the guy, "Alleyway? What the hell kind of insult is that?"

"It's your name Alleyway!"

I growled, "Listen Leotard! If your table is so good in combat then prove it! I'm seven years old and I bet not even your entire group could stop me in a fight! How many drachmas you want to bet?"

"Oh yea punk? Its on! I'll cast my entire lot in! Five-hundred drachmas! I doubt you have that much anyway!" He snarled, standing up. Leonard was about six foot five in height but that didn't really intimidate me; after all I have faced off with twenty feet tall cyclopes before.

"Then I'll cast my entire lot in too! Half a mil' in drachmas, half a mil' in denarii and thirty mil' bucks!" I threw the bag to the ground that I refused to part with in a cabin full of thieves. There were a couple gasps at the wager I willing to risk and a few disbelieving snorts. A couple people were just asking each other about what denarii were.

The guy just chuckled, "I think you need to get your head checked kiddo! Thats a single bag! You can't put that much money in there!"

I raised an eyebrow before picking the bag up and unzipping it before dumping its entire contents on the floor. Stacks of US dollars and thousands of drachmas and denarii continually flowed out; proving my point. I stopped so that I wouldn't have to spend too much longer refilling it.

I looked at the guy with a dead serious expression, "Get the point? I doubt this entire camp has enough to make this bet against me. If you win then you would be set for life. If you lose… well, lets just say you'll have a debt bigger than Greece has right now."

At that moment a burst of light appeared in the centre of the pavilion and we all looked away. When light died down and we turned back a guy stepped forward wearing Spartan hoplite uniform. He radiated what seemed to be a blood-red aura that made you angry instantly. "Listen punk! My son may not have enough to take that wager but I will on one condition! I will fight with my children! It should… how should I put it, even out the fight a bit."

I cocked my head sideways a bit before saying, "You know what? Bring it on!"

Everyone looked at me as if I was insane and the kids who had challenged me — now identified as children of Ares — looked a bit doubtful at the fact that I was confidently glaring down their father. Ares then disappeared into another flash of light and everyone stared at me as if I was insane. The tension had built so thick that everyone had completely forgot to bow to Ares while he was here.

Thats when I though… what did I just do?