Percy POV

After my chat with Chaos, it was time to get on the move again. Before he shimmered out of view, Chaos had pointed me to the shore of the River Phlethagon, which apparently I needed to drink from. Yay me.

I took off at a jog; I didn't feel like wasting time. I headed through the plains of knives, again careful to avoid the latter. The way I was going, I eventually spied an orange glow over the horizon. I assumed that that would be the river of fire.

As I looked up I saw that what I had been thinking was a cloudy red sky, was actually a red cavern ceiling, thousands of feet up into the air. It seemed to only be lit by the orange glow over the horizon, which I doubted was a sunrise. I also noticed that the ceiling seemed to be riddled with holes like the one Annabeth and I fell out of. I shuddered at the thought of more holes like in Arachne's lair.

As I approached the glow, I noticed something else: I wasn't tired at all from the running. I had been running for around 30 minutes, and I hadn't broken a sweat. I was seriously confused when something else confused me more.

"It's the hellhound power you dummy!" Said a voice inside my head.

"What the-! Chaos tell me that's you and not some other weirdo in my mind." I asked, seriously worried.

"Of course it's me Percy!" I sighed in relief "I am still able to talk to you telepathically, and unless you want to spend a century in Tartarus with no one to talk to, then you will deal with it."

I decided to get over it.

I thought about what he said. Being the idiot that I am, I forgot to try any of my new powers. Because derp.

What were my new abilities? I know one is hellhound endurance. I looked at my now godlike physique and remembered enhanced strength. What else? Oh right: super senses and shadow travel. I didn't want to focus on shadow travel until I was out of Tartarus I didn't know how that would work.

I decided to try out super senses, I focused on my smell, and my nose cringed, as suddenly I could smell all of Tartarus. I decided to stop with the senses for now.

I remember there being one more. What was it? And then it came to me.

"Chaos!"

"Yo what up homie!"

Ignoring his weird antics, I continued, "How do I turn into a Hellhound?"

He seemed to chuckle in my head, which was a weird feeling, "I am surprised it took you this long to ask! Just concentrate on the image of a hellhound in your mind, and it should do the trick!"

I concentrated, holding a picture of a hellhound in my head. At first nothing happened. I looked around unimpressed "Well that's just—Gah!"

I was cut off by the fact that I was now sprouting black fur all over my body. I felt my muscles stretching and twisting. My bones grew and rearranged themselves. I had to fall on all fours to avoid falling on my face. I felt my ears shift up on my head, and a tail sprouted over my backside. Overall: not the best feeling.

The real fun began however, when I began to increase in size. I kept growing taller and taller until I was twice the size of Mrs. O'Leary.

When all was said and done, I was about 15 feet tall on all fours. I was a gigantic black Labrador.

I'll be honest; it felt really good to be a hellhound. I felt so much stronger in this form than in my regular one. I tried moving forward, and was surprised to find it easy. It was just like being on all fours in a human form, only you can't get up.

I also felt full of energy. I was practically shaking. I took off in a sprint in a random direction. I couldn't focus enough to know where. I felt so great! I started picking up speed as I ran. I quickly passed the top speed of an average dog. Then a car, then a train.

I was going so fast I was having trouble keeping up with the scenery around me. Of course I did what any normal person would do in this situation: I stuck my tongue out and let it be free. I had never felt so exhilarated.

After a couple minutes of this, I managed to rein my excitement in. I looked around, sniffing the air, against my prior judgment, to find that I had way better control of my senses in this form. I could hear monsters in every direction, miles away.

I turned my head as far around as I could to see my tail wagging happily. Apparently it just acted out my mood, I hadn't even realized I was doing it.

I ran my now very long tongue along my now very sharp teeth. I should probably find all of this weird, but I just couldn't help but think it was awesome. I was always a dog person, but this is taking it to a different level.

I felt the urge to laugh out loud in excitement, and I so I did. After a few seconds, I realized that I was indeed laughing out of the mouth of a canine, albeit a large one.

"I can talk?" I said, answering my own question.

"Alright, that answers that. Next question: how do I turn human again? Chaos" I asked, directing the question at the quirky creator.

"Just imagine your human form again. Duh" he said as if it was obvious. Which it was. But I wasn't going to tell him that.

I imagined my own body, and I began to shrink, snap, and shape back into my handsome self. When the transformation was complete, I got off my hands and knees and brushed my pants off, which I was surprised to find still intact. How were they not shredded? Did they just meld into the transformation?

"Hey you still have pants. I would just accept it." Chaos said.

Fair point.

I looked around, realizing I had gotten a little out of hand there. To my relief I could still see the orange glow of the river. Unfortunately it was short lived as I heard a low growl behind me.

I turned to see an average sized hellhound, which meant one as big as a horse, one hundred feet away. I sighed, preparing for a fight, when the growling suddenly stopped.

The hellhound's formerly vicious appearance was replaced with one of curiosity.

It cocked its head to the side, before cautiously taking a step forward.

"Hey Percy." Chaos piped up.

"What?" I replied, sword at the ready.

"You are the hellhound king remember. It is going to recognize it, so put your sword away."

I did a mental face palm. I have been doing this a lot today haven't I? Well considering my situation I think a few slips are a bit justified

I put my sword away. At the sight, the sight, the hellhound seemed to become even more confused. It continued to approach me with caution. When it was only 10 feet away from me, I decided to do what I usually do when I meet new dogs: I held out my hand for it to sniff. And when it did, the reaction was not what I expected.

As soon as it smelled me it literally jumped five feet up in the air. When it landed, it scrambled a few feet away from me and lowered its head down to the ground in submission. What it did next however, surprised me even more.

"Forgive me my king, I had no idea it was you! Please don't kill me!" said the hellhound in a surprisingly soft and feminine voice.

It was then I remembered that I could communicate with hellhounds now.

I looked at the terrified female hellhound in front of me and couldn't help but think of Mrs. O'Leary. I couldn't help but forgive the creature.

"I will forgive, as long as it doesn't happen again." I said, with a regal confidence that surprised even me.

The female seemed incredibly surprised by this answer. "If I might ask your highness, what is going on? You have the scent of the King, but also one of a demigod. What happened to king Salvador?"

"Well you see I am a demigod. I defeated Salvador in a fight, and was able to receive his domain and powers. My name is Perseus Jackson. I am your new king. Now tell me: what are you called?"

If possible, the hellhound seemed even more confused and bewildered "J-Jackie. King Perseus. I don't mean to be rude, but how did a demigod become the King of Hellhounds? That shouldn't be possible through just defeating him."

I chuckled. "Oh Jackie, get to know me a little, and you'll find that doing impossible things is something I am exceptional at."

Jackie seemed dazed in confusion for a minute before shaking it off and looking at me. "Whatever the case is, whenever a new king is crowned, the hellhounds have ceremony in our lair in Tartarus. I will need to take you there."

A secret lair? I liked this job already. "Alright, lead on."

Jackie turned to leave, but then turned back a little hesitantly, "Not to be rude sir, but would you like to ride on my back? The lair is very far, and I might be a bit too fast for you to keep up." She then cringed like I might hit her or something; she was very surprised when I started to laugh.

"I don't think that will be a problem Jackie." I said, before I started to change to my hellhound form.

The horse-sized hellhound tucked her tail between her legs. She looked up at me as I towered over her. I gave her a toothy grin, "Well? Lead on."

Jackie started to head toward wherever we were going, which also happened to be directly away from the Phlethagon.

"Hey before we go, how far away are we going to be from the Phlethagon?"

Jackie looked confused "Why?"

"I am a only partially immortal, so I will have to drink from it once a week to survive."

"Well the lair is about 3 days away if we run full speed."

"Wow, that far? Well if that is the case, I should probably go drink now while we are close before we head out."

"Very well my king."

We turned toward the glow on the horizon and took off. As it was, I had to slow down so that Jackie could keep up. By the time we arrived at the river, I was doing a jog while she was going full speed to catch up.

The river was not what I expected. When I heard "river of fire" I had thought it was like a river of lava or something. I didn't expect to see a stream of actual fire going across the landscape the flames flickered and cracked like a regular flame, but it still flowed with the current. Just watching I felt like I was on drugs or something, it gave me a headache.

I changed back to human before approaching the river. Jackie stood back, saying something about keeping lookout. I bent over and thought how I was going to do this.

I decided to do the most reckless and impulsive thing and scoop some out with my bare hands. I know, shocking right? I was hoping it was one of those illusion deals where it wouldn't actually feel like fire.

It was not an illusion.

The fire didn't cause any real damage, but it sure felt like it did. I couldn't wait to get this out of my hands so I just downed it as fast as I could. And yeah, that hurt too. I felt like my insides were shriveling from the heat. Somehow I managed to swallow all of it though.

After a few more painful scoops, I stepped away, feeling satisfied, much to my relief. Then I remembered I would have to repeat this once a week for 140 years. Yay me.

I turned to Jackie and said "Alright, its time to go."

Jackie barked in agreement "Yes sir!"

When Jackie had said it would take three days of full speed running to reach the lair, I thought I was going to be bored out of my mind. But luckily as the wind blew through my fur, I found my self in a sort of trance as I ran. It was like I was at peace with everything at the moment.

"Hey Jackie, full disclosure: I'm fairly new at being a hellhound. Could you explain this feeling I have?"

"Of course sir. Us hellhounds were raised in the pit. As you can tell, the pit is a very large place. There fore we had to travel long distances often. Being one of the first natives here, we adapted to this so that when we run for this long, our bodies go into a sort of trance. It's like an autopilot. That way our minds can rest and not have to deal with the boredom of the journey. I would just relax and let it happen."

So I did. It was like I was taking a nap, but I also was conscious enough to not run into walls or fall off cliffs. It was like my body knew the pit better than I did, which it most likely did.

As we ran, I was able to come in and out of my weird unconsciousness state, and witnessed the change in scenery from pointy grasslands to rocky canyons for miles.

Before I knew it, three days of running was over, and Jackie and I were standing in a canyon, facing a large hole in the side of the rock.

We had arrived at the Lair of the Hellhounds

And that is chapter 4!

As you have read, we are getting into Percy's new powers. Tell me what you think of what he has so far.

And again thank you SOOOO much for the reviews. We have 18 now! Before I started doing this I hadn't anticipated how exciting it is every time I see a new review. Please write more, I really want to hear your thoughts. You don't even have to like it. Tell me if you hate it; tell me if it made you gag. I don't care, I am just happy to be here!

Also 50 followers? WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK! Everything is happening so fast I just might faint. Do you want to know how to keep me conscious?

Put in the reviews some suggestions on conquests you want to happen. I am open to many ideas as I have only a few definite ones set in mind. Also I might be mixing the pantheons in this story, so don't limit yourself to Greek Mythology.

I think I might be uploading once every 2 days at this rate. I will try to stick to it, but if I have homework or writers block, I might upload later. I'm going to do my best not to lose interest in the middle of the story and discontinue it, because I absolutely HATE when that happens. But to keep me focused Reviews will really do the trick!

I love you all! See you in chapter 5 with the Hellhound Ceremony!