I Befriend a Legend
The rest of the week was uneventful. After meeting the head councilor in the most unconventional way possible, we got cleaned up and helped all the wounded to the infirmary. Then we went to bed where I had my first nightmare since arriving at camp. All day everyone had told me how much demigod dreams suck, but I didn't believe that they were any worse than regular dreams. Of course I was wrong. My dream started out in a meadow, and in the meadow was a huge pool. Then I noticed the beautiful woman sitting at the edge of the pool staring down into the pool while combing her hair. It was a light golden brown just like mine, but then the sky darkened and a man appeared, molding himself out of shadows. With a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I realized this was the same Italian guy that killed my uncle. The same guy that had ruined my life. Then the woman looked up in fear, apparently knowing what was about to happened.
"I will not help you and you will fail, Soulless One." she rasped. The man had grasped her roughly around her neck, choking her.
"Well, I guess we'll have to change that, won't we?" His smile was sinister. "Besides, making you cooperate is so much more...FUN, than offering your help willingly." The shadows began to gather around him again. Before she was gone she uttered three words that chilled my bones.
"Save me, Jack."
I awoke in a cold sweat and checked the clock on the wall. It was 4:30 a.m. I decided to sneak out rather than stay in bed and think about the mind numbing dream I just had. I went to the arena to practice with Wrath. But when I got there I realized that I wasn't the only one with that idea, because in the arena hacking away at a dummy was head councilor Percy Jackson. I was about to turn away when he called out to me.
"Couldn't sleep either, eh?" He asked still facing the dummy.
"No. I didn't believe anybody when they told about the dreams."
"Demigod dreams suck." He nodded smiling. "I understand, just don't make a habit out of it." I agreed.
After a few moments of silence he spoke, "Do you want to talk about it?"
At first I was hesitant, but then I decided that I could trust this guy, so I told him my dream. When I was done, he let out a breath.
"Wow," he seemed a bit stunned, "I guess this means you'll be getting a quest soon." he saw me tense up. "Don't be afraid. I won't lie to you it sounds pretty bad. But the good news is that you probably won't have to worry about this for a week or so."
Even though he said that, I knew that there was no way I would be able to get it off my mind. I would need some serious distractions. Who was the lady? Why was that insane guy kidnapping her? Or even the most important question. Why was the vision sent to me? Why did she want me to save her? The stress and pressure of knowing that I was going to have to save her from the same guy that killed my Uncle Greg was starting to give me a headache.
"Do you want a private sword fighting lesson?" I had almost forgotten he was there.
"Are you any good?" He scoffed at my question
"Am I any good." he mumbled. "Get up. I'm going to show you a couple moves before you go on your quest." I decided to go for it. I switched Wrath to sword form and stood up. He pulled a ball point pen out of his pocket and uncapped it. It turned into a 3 foot long celestial bronze sword.
"Whoa," I said in amazement, "does it have a name?" I asked.
"Riptide." He responded. "This sword has seen a lot of battles,"
then he added quietly, "and a lot of death. Anyway, the first thing I'm going to show you is a basic disarming maneuver." I was excited to say the least, but just as he was about to explain the technique I got that oh so familiar red hazy headache. I saw how the technique played out and it kind of felt like when you stay in a pool too long and your extremities start to get all wrinkly because of your body absorbing the water, only it happened inside my head. Without any water. When the sensation was gone, I noticed how I felt slightly drained, and Percy had his hand on my shoulder asking if I was okay.
"I'm fine," I told him.
"Okay. Well, did you get any of what I said?"he asked slightly worried.
"I-I think so." I stammered.
"Good. Well then lets give it a shot, shall we?" We were both surprised when I executed the move perfectly. "How did you... you know what never mind. With the world we live in, I'm not surprised that you have some sort of crazy unexplainable power that I've never seen a child of Ares have. Alright next I'm going to show you a proper feint." Almost instantly the vision came, and just like last time I sort of absorbed the information or what was happening with the same results. Me doing the move perfectly without so much as a blink, but I could tell that it was slowly draining me.
"Well this is by far the most peculiar training session I have ever had the pleasure of having. Trust me when I say that that means something." He tacked on when he saw my incredulous look, which left me wondering what this guy has seen in his day.
"Okay now I'm going to show you some combo moves to practice." But he didn't move, and the vision didn't come.
"Well?" he prompted.
"Well what?" I countered.
"Aren't you going to do the whole vision learning thing?"
"I can't really control it." I admitted. He thought for a minute and sat down. I sat down with him.
"Hmmm. I've got it!" he exclaimed. "You see how any kind of combat is going to play out, right?" I nodded. "Well maybe you can only see it if it's going to happen. Does that make sense?"
"Not really." I replied
"Look at this way," he explained, " If you're about to get into a fight, you'll see it right? Well if you think you're about to fight you won't see it because there's no intention of a fight." I was starting to see what he was talking about.
"So when you said you were going to show me some combo moves just now..."
"I had no actual intention of showing you the moves. I just assumed you'd automatically get the vision, but apparently that wasn't the case." he finished. Then he stood up and pulled me up too. "Okay, now I'm going to show you some combo moves to practice." This time the vision came and I saw the combos and was noticeably weaker when it had gone. And just like before, I could duplicate everything I had seen perfectly. This went on for another thirty minutes before Percy decided he'd "taught" me enough for one night, but before I left he had one more thing he wanted to try.
" Would you be up for a friendly sparring match before bed?" he asked.
I thought about it for a second, "sure."
" Okay... Begin!" then the vision came and I saw him sweeping at my legs. Then I felt my legs get kicked out from under me. When my eyesight returned there was a sword at my throat, and Percy offered me a hand.
"Thanks Councilor Jackson. Why didn't you wait for my vision to finish?"
"First call me Percy. Councilor Jackson makes me feel old. Second, if I had waited for your vision to finish I probably would've lost. So, I attacked while you were still out and also the enemy won't wait for your vision to finish either. It seems we've found a weak point in your powers. You need to train yourself to react without thinking. Once you'll be almost unstoppable. Come on I'll take you back to you cabin." We walked in silence for a little bit before I decided to break the silence.
"So who gave you the sword?" I asked.
"Initially it was a gift from my dad, but Chiron was the one who gave it to me."
"Who's your dad?" I asked hesitantly.
"Poseidon, god of the sea." he replied. Whoa this guy was a child of the big three. Then his eyes lit up, "You want to see something cool?" he asked.
"Yeah." he took out his pen/sword and chucked it as far as he could. I stood there opened mouthed his audacity to just throw away an awesome sword like that. But then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen. The. Exact. Same. Pen.
" Whoa," I exclaimed, "How did you do that?"
"It has an enchantment on it that makes it come back to my pocket in pen form whenever it gets separated from me."
"How far does it have to be?"
"Usually no more than a few feet. If you want yours to do that too, just talk to the senior councilor for the Hecate cabin and I'm sure she'd be willing to whip something up. Also," he pulled out a slip of paper and scribbled some stuff on it, and handed it to me, "take this down to the forge tomorrow and tell them it's a personal favor. Back in my day there weren't a lot of these but these days all you need are a couple of drachmas or a few dollars."
"So," It felt kind of weird asking this next question, "What was your first quest like?" He chuckled.
"That is another story for another sleepless night." I was a little disappointed but I understood. It was past curfew. "See you around Jack..."
"Myrmidon. And thanks for the training and what not."
"No problem." I heard him mumble as he walked off. "Myrmidon. Where have I heard that name before? Better ask Annabeth."
I stepped back into the cabin that night feeling a whole lot better than before. Maybe my first quest wouldn't be all that bad. As my head hit the pillow for the second time, I made a mental note to ask somebody about this Percy guy.
