Chapter 8: Killer quest

All characters belong to Nintendo or Rick Riordan.

Breakfast was light and quick, followed up by a small briefing from Zelda, who looked even more anxious than usual. The Princess moved back and forth between their bags of equipment, scowling and poking at different stuffs, and then turned back to frowning at her Sheikah Slate. Link left her alone to her inspecting and poking, and Percy wisely followed his example.

They didn't pack much, only a few sets of cloths all stuffed in one backpack, a tight pouch of gems called 'Rupees' which was the land's currency. In another pouch secured by Link's horse, Epona's, saddle were several glass bottles, each contained a brightly colored liquid. 'Elixirs', Link called them; they were for battling the desert heat and other unforgiving weather conditions. Apparently, they could also give temporary energy boosts like a can of Red Bull, which was pretty neat.

Much to Zelda's dismay, her royal steed Nayru was still too injured to travel, so instead she taken another horse from the castle's stable. The grey stallion, whose name was Chie, was standing next to Epona and Silk, idly watching their owners.

The trio was dressed for traveling. Percy was given a greyish brown hooded cape in addition to his new sea green tunic and beige pants. Riptide was nested in his belt pouch right next to his water canteen.

Link had a dark blue cape over his blue tunic, covering parts of his sword and shield, even though it was pretty useless seeing that those weapons were bigger than Link himself. The swordsman had also brought with him a white and blue bow with a large quiver stocked with a colorful, mismatched collection of arrows.

Zelda had ditched her royal blue suit in favor of a simpler, less flashy red and green tunic with an ashen grey cloak, which was a smart move in Percy's opinion; the bright blue blue suit could attract way too much attention.

Like Link, the Princess also carried a bow and quiver, but her bow was smaller and wooden and it was decorated with several colorful beads.

The Princess caught his eyes and gave him a small smile, tapping the bow: "You like it? It's a gift from the Ritos. Link has been giving me lessons."

"Cool." Commented Percy.

"Do you shoot?" Zelda asked.

"Nah," The demigod shook his head, laughing slightly, "I suck at archery. One time, I managed to miss a target that was less than fifteen feet away from me and nearly skewered a guy who was twenty feet away from the target. After that, nobody let me near a bow anymore."

The Hylian inclined her head with a smile that resembled a smirk, "I'll keep that in mind…" She turned and raised her voice a little, making sure Link heard her, "Alright, I think that's everything we need for this trip. Worst comes to worst, we'll improvise."

That sounded like a solid plan to Percy, seeing that his life as a demigod rarely ever stuck to any well-laid plans or as a matter of facts, any plans at all.

Showing Percy her Slate, Zelda ran her finger along a white line, "We'll stick to the path here, it should take us straight to Gerudo Desert. I heard that there's a new market place somewhere in this area so we could refill our supplies there."

"Sounds good enough for me." Percy grinned, "Is there anything else I need to know before we go?"

"Yes," Link cut in, "there could me monsters on the way, so always keep an eye out."

Well, now it was sounding more and more like an average demigod's field trip by the seconds.

"What kind of monsters?" He asked.

Link grimaced slightly: "Bokoblins, Moblins,"-

-"What?" Percy choked. And he thought Greeks had funny names.

"I know," Zelda jumped in, snorting, "I don't know what were they thinking when they called them that."

The Half-blood laughed: "Gods, I actually felt bad for the guys!"

Link sighed: "I know the names are dumb, and to be honest, they're not that much of a threat either. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to be careful."

"Aye aye, Captain." Percy joked.

The blond Hylian grimaced, fighting back a grin: "Whatever, let just go, we're wasting daylight."

His request didn't leave much space for argument, so the trio shouldered their backpacks, and five minutes later, they were on their way.

The scenery was as beautiful as always. Growing up in Manhattan, his natural surrounding was all concrete buildings and skyscrapers. Everywhere he looked there were traces of constructions and over-civilization.

Hyrule was nothing like that. The Kingdom was a land of evergreen spreading in every direction. Wildlife was blossoming and bursting everywhere. The air was perfectly fresh and free of that smoky smell back in the cities. The atmosphere was peaceful and undisturbed, very thing was quiet except for the sound of horse hooves pounding on the dirt path, his own steady breathing, the occasional bird chirping and tree rustling in the wind. Grover would absolutely fall in love with this place.

He thought about the death of the god Pan in the cave under the Labyrinth and wondered what Hyrule would be like a few thousand years later, when civilization started to rise, when they invented technology and machines started to be developed. He knew that was inevasible, but sill, it never hurts to hope.

The first part of the morning was uneventful to a degree which Percy might consider boring. Following Link's advice from before, the young demigod kept a keen eye on their surrounding all the way, but all he saw was trees, trees and more trees. He had been riding for so long it actually began to hurt and his ADHD was beginning to drive him insane. So it was a relief when Zelda slowed down and declared a lunch break.

They stopped under a patch of trees and dismounted. As Zelda secured the horses to the nearest tree, Link and Percy scoured the area for tree branches. Seeing that they were particularly surrounded by trees, it wasn't hard. They got back with their arm full and set up a fire. Zelda pulled out a small pot from a backpack while Link rummaged through his bag of supplies.

"What do you want to eat?" The blond asked, poking the fire. Percy raised his eyebrows. Not only he knows how to fight, but Link can also cook? That's pretty impressive.

He swallowed the urge to ask for blue pancake and said instead: "Anything really, I'm not picky." He thought for a second and added, "Anything but seafood."

"How about something light? Like vegetable?" Zelda suggested.

"Sure," Percy said, fighting down a grimace as his regret rose, "Like I said, I'm not picky." He echoed.

Link offered them a small smile before pulling out several carrots and mushrooms from the bag and began cooking. Percy had to admit, the blond knew what he was doing and he did it fast. And dam, he didn't think carrots could ever taste this good. Now he could finally understand how Piper managed to survive as a vegetarian.

Link inhaled his food almost as quick as he could cook them while Zelda took on a more… moderate pace. The Princess took her time flicking through her Sheikah Slate for a moment before showing it to the group.

"We're currently here." She said, pointing at a white arrow on the screen. Not that Percy needed the explanation; the map on the Slate was exactly like a GPS, and he told her just that.

"A what?" She asked, puzzled.

"A GPS," He said, "It's like that," He waved at the brown tablet, "You tell it where you want to go and it tells you which the shortest route was."

"That's amazing!" The Hylian exclaimed, completely forgot what she was saying with her slate, "How exactly does that work?" She demanded, sounding just like Annabeth when she was determined to learn something. The comparison sent a pang through his gut.

"I, uh," He swallowed, looking away, "I dunno."

"You don't know?" Zelda asked incredulously. Yup, she definitely sounded like Annabeth, "How could you not know something as wonderful as that?" She halted, seemingly realizing how uncomfortable she was making him, "Sorry, I just thought that such a technological breakthrough like that should be considered… worth the time to study. I mean, don't you want to know how everything around you works?"

Percy tapped his index finger against the fabric of his pants. It's funny really; he had never given it that much thought. But then again, his life was so far consisted of life or death situations and crazy gods with serious family issues, he didn't exactly had time to think much about anything.

He recalled having a conversation long ago with his mom. He remembered her saying 'when there were too much of something, people started taking it for granted'. The teen was little back then, and the sentence held little interest in him. Now, looking back at the world, he couldn't agree more, and he wasn't about to lie about that.

"I've never given it that much thought." He admitted, "The thing is… comparing to your world, mine world's technology is much more advance than yours. So, a GPS is honestly not that much of a big deal there. Beside, as a demigod, coming in contact with technology is never a good idea; they act as a monster magnet to us."

"Your world has monsters, too?" Link asked.

Percy grimaced: "Loads of them. They actively hunt demigods like me. Apparently, we demigods have a significant smell to the monsters; the more powerful a demigod, the stronger the smell, the more monsters they attracted. That's why we have to learn to fight."

Zelda bit her lip and asked hesitantly: "You said your parent is a god, right? Don't gods supposed to, I don't know, protect you?"

The Half-blood stood up and pulled out Riptide. Uncapping the pen, Percy gave his sword a light flip before turning back to Zelda, who flinched slightly under his gaze.

"The gods back at our world, they're not like that," He grimaced, "They don't pay attention to you, especially if you're their kids. I never knew who my dad was until he needed me to save his ass. My girlfriend, Annabeth, ran away from home when she was seven and her godly mom never cared whether she lives or dies. And there are countless other cases like those."

The Hylians didn't say anything, and Percy took it as a sign to continue. Heck, he had told them too much already, why not tell them everything?

"Then Greek had always had serious family issues, even long before the gods came to be." He grinned a little, trying to lighten up the mood, "It's a long story."

Zelda glanced at Link, who shrugged, and said: "We have time."

"Alright, you said three goddesses shaped your world, right?" Zelda nodded.

"Well, nobody was really sure how my world came to be, but according to the Ancient Greek, before the world existed, there was just this big mass of nothingness called Chaos. Then one day, Chaos must have felt too lonely or something, because he decided to create the first two being ever: the sky, Ouranos, and the earth, Gaia." His face scrunched up at he spoke out his not-so-beloved great-grandma.

"Long story short, they fell in love and have a bunch of kids called the Titans. They had a second and a third set of kids called the Cyclops and the Hundred-hand Ones, but those kids were… misshaped. So Ouranos, tossed them into the deepest pit of Hell, Tartarus," A waver entered Percy's voice as he choked out the name of the Pit.

"Angered, Gaia plotted her husband's demise with one of her Titan son, Kronos, the Titan of time. They succeeded, and Kronos became the King of the world. He married Rhea, and had six kids, three girls and three boys, who were the gods. Kronos feared that his children would usurp him like he did with his father, so he ate his children."

Percy paused and glanced at Link and Zelda. The former had a small look of disbelief on his face, while the later looked slightly sick.

"But his wife managed to save one of his sons, Zeus, and hid him away. When Zeus grown up, he came back, rescued his siblings, chopped his father to pierces and tossed him into Tartarus. The three sons rolled dice and Zeus became god of the sky and lightning, my dad, Poseidon won the ocean and Hades got the Underworld, the land of the dead. The gods built their new palace upon Mount Olympus, that's why they're often called the Olympians."

"Over the centuries, there are more and more gods joining the fray, but there're twelve most well-known one: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades is The Big Three; the three oldest goddesses Hera, goddess of Marriage and a royal pain in the ass, Demeter, goddess of crops and harvest, Hestia, goddess of the hearth who later willingly gave up her spot for Dionysus, god of wine."

"There's Athena, goddess of wisdom and war craft; Artemis, eternal maiden and goddess of the hunt; her twin brother, Apollo, god of the sun and music, even though his Haikus are awful; Ares, god of war; Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty; Hephaestus, god of volcano and blacksmith," Counting on his fingers, Percy smiled, "and a hundred more gods which I can't remember."

Link's mouth was slightly apart, visibly struggling to keep up with the stream of information. Zelda had taken out her leather book and was furiously taking notes.

"That's a lot to take in." The Princess admitted, "Your world truly is fascinating."

"Yeah, and there's still a lot more." Percy chuckled, "Maybe I'll tell you more some other time."

"I'll be looking forward to it." The blonde said, completely serious.

After that, without much left to say, the trio packed up, and continued their trip. They made it about twenty minutes before they caught sight of their first trouble.

It was just a small silhouette in the distance, but Link immediately tense up and pulled his horse to an abrupt halt, prompting Zelda and Percy to stop as well.

"What's wrong?" Zelda asked as they dismounted, but Percy had already known the answer. He had seen that expression Link was wearing too many time, and it could only mean some bad news.

"Monster?" He guessed, glancing at the black dot pacing back and forth in the middle of the wheat field.

"A Lynel." The swordsman said. The name meant nothing to Percy, but Zelda let out a small gasp.

"A Lynel?" She repeated in disbelief, "I thought there was no Lynel in this area?"

"There wasn't supposed to be any." Link grunted.

"Guys," Percy piped in, "what's a Lynel?"

"One of the most fearsome monsters in Hyrule." Link mumbled, "It's not the strongest or the fastest there is, but its intelligent and weapons skill made it dangerous."

"There are very few Lynels on Hyrule," Zelda muttered, "however, that number had been increasing significantly over the last few months. We're afraid that-" She stopped abruptly and looked away for a flicker of second, "-that someone might get hurt!"

Percy frowned. He was pretty sure the Princess was about to say something else, but she didn't gave him much time to ponder over it. Turning to Link, she grabbed his arm and asked: "Link, we can't left it roaming around here like that; someone might stumbled upon it!"

Link wordlessly nodded and pulled out his sword, Percy followed suit and uncapped Riptide.

"So," he asked, "What's the plan?"

The blond Hylian didn't even stop to think: "Lynels have extreme hearing, so there's no point trying to sneak upon it. We outnumbered it, so that's an advantage. Attack simultaneously, confuse it, and bring it down."

"Okay, you take the left, I take the right?"

Link grinned and nodded. Turning to Zelda, he said: "Please stay here, Princess."

With that, the two swordsmen separated and slowly circle the beast. As they inched closer, the shape of the Lynel quickly became clearer. The great beast reminded Percy of those monstrous centaurs at the Giant War. It had the backside of a horse, the body of a man, and the head which resembled a misshaped lion with rusty red mane.

Like any centaurs, the beast carried a vicious looking bow with a quiver stocked full of bright yellow arrows. It also had a metal club which Percy had no desire of coming in contact with. Those hooves looked like they could leave footprints on solid rock, and those fangs could honestly scare a drakon away.

Percy could sense a source of water straight ahead; it was probably just a small creek or something, but that could give the son of Poseidon some serious advantage in a fight. The Half-blood knew he had to get closer. Unfortunately, unlike Link, Percy did not have a head full of golden locks to blend in perfectly with the yellow wheat field; his raven black mob of hair stood out like a shore thump in the bright scenery, and the Lynel's keen eyes immediately locked on to him.

The teen felt his blood ran cold as those steely golden eyes met his, and he prepared himself to leap out of the way when the monstrous horse charged forward. Instead, that never came. Link had chosen that precise moment to unleash an arrow at the back of the beast. Percy could hear the whistling of the arrow as it tore through the air and made itself at home at the back of the Lynel's neck. The great beast howled as bright electric current flowed from the arrow tip throughout its body, but it sounded more annoyed than pained.

Great, they had only angered it.

Momentary forgotten about Percy, the Lynel charged toward the blond swordsman. For something so big, it sure was fast. Link dove out of its way, but the beast changed direction just as quickly and swung its club. The hard steel met the blue metal of the Hylian shield with a deafening clang that left Percy's ears ringing.

As the blond kept the monster occupied, the demigod dashed forward the fight. Using his running momentum, he leaped into the air, landed on the beast horse's back and plucked his sword into the back of its neck, right where Link's arrow was.

The beast let loose another earth-shaking howl, but to Percy's surprised and dismay, it didn't die. The beast started buckling widely, and the demigod swore he could felt his brain rattling in his skull. Letting go of Riptide, he grabbed fists full of the Lynel red hair and hung on for dear life as it tried its best to get rid of the unwelcome weight.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Link standing a few feet away, staring at him and the Lynel with shock and worry. But Percy knew the blond couldn't do anything; he couldn't get close enough to use his sword without the risk of getting trample, he could shoot without the risk of accidently hitting Percy. The demigod knew he was on his own.

All the thrashing and screaming was not helping him think, he would have to let go soon, but the teen couldn't find a way safe enough to do that. Chances all, he would totally get turned into a Percy pancake the moment he hit the ground. Frantically, the Half-blood looked around and his eyes landed on the sparkling surface of water.

Of course, the creek!

Using all of his might and his training, Percy gritted his teeth and pulled the Lynel's mane back, making it stumbled and steered it toward the water. Then, he did something incredibly risky and stupid: Using what left of his strength, the demigod somehow managed to plant his feet on the beast buckling back, crouching low and counting.

One, two, three!

He launched himself upward just as the Lynel kicked up, and the momentum sent him flying straight over the beast head, into the water below with a splash.

Once the shock was over, the son of Poseidon could felt all of his sense sharpened and adrenaline rushed through his body. He stood up and faced the Lynel. Link was rushing toward them, but the beast had already bringing its club down on Percy's head. Rolling aside as the weapon hit the spot where he was a second ago, the Half-blood thrust his hand upward, and a jet of water hit the beast square in the face with the force of a sledge hammer. The monster fell back, right onto the glowing blade of Link's sword.

For all its worth, the Lynel went down silently. It dropped onto its knees, its head hung down and disintegrated into black smoke, leaving behind its unused bow, arrows and club. Zelda and Link was walking toward him, the former had a bid smile on her face while the later crouched down and picked something up.

"Your first Lynel." Link said proudly with a smile on his face as he put the object in Percy's palm. It was the Lynel's thick white horn.

"But you killed it, not me." Percy protested.

Link shook his head: "You did all the hard work, you earned it."

"Keep it Percy." Zelda urged, smiling, "Not many people can ride a Lynel that long."

The teen grinned lightly as he looked down at the horn on his hand. He remembered the first spoil of war he had, the Minotaur's broken horn. It didn't felt much like a victory back then, with his mom being kidnapped and all. The circumstance now was much nicer; no one was hurt, his friends was congratulating, and they were all feeling a little giddy after the danger was gone.

"Alright," The Half-blood gave up and stuffed the horn into his pouch, "I'll keep it, but only because you insisted."

Link waved his hand dismissively, "Pft, I won't need it, I have a dozen horns like that at home."

"Geez," Percy jabbed playfully, "show-off much?"

Zelda laughed and pushed both of them lightly, "Alright ladies, you're both pretty. Let's go back before you got into trouble again."

The rest of the day was peaceful. And that night, when they were sitting in the warm light of the fire, Percy couldn't help but felt grateful. Sure, life as a demigod is hard, but he had friends by his side. They still had a long way to go, but everything will be alright.