P

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It seemed the only normal and consistent thing about Percy's entire situation was the fact that his feet hurt. His feet hurt at the beginning of his adventure, they hurt an hour into his adventure, and they hurt now.

Everything else was either constantly changing or was made with help from Percy's unknown enemy: the rain varied in depth, the wind varied in speed, the path was made by those carnivorous wind tigers, and his enemy, whoever he/she was, was most definitely not normal to be able to conjure up this storm, but a little water and wind never hurt the son of Poseidon-mostly because he was the son of Poseidon. If anything, the lightning was what he feared most out of the environment.

Finally, after traveling through wilderness for what seemed like days of excruciating hunger, he finally reached what he thought was the top of the mountain. It seemed like a pretty reasonable conclusion as he marched through the marshy ground. Before him was an open clearing surrounded by the dense jungle, and the oxygen supply was down drastically from a few minutes ago. If Percy strained his eyes hard enough, he could see past the tree-line and find some of the other mountain-tops of the Andes. As normal as these circumstances were, whoever this snake-man was, he made it all not normal by keeping the weather he was throwing around out of this sacred circle that just so happened to be the top of the mountain.

Percy looked to the sky and saw there was a giant gaping hole in the blanket of dark, gray cumulonimbus clouds; it was exactly like being in the eye of a Category 5 hurricane. The son of Poseidon had been in enough of those to actually know what it looked like and felt like: the overwhelming feeling of breathlessness. It was such a natural beauty that no matter who you are, you would have to take a moment to marvel in the glory of it all.

Now, for some reason, the moment lacked that natural feeling. Of course, all hurricanes weren't natural. They were all his father's creation, but this one still did not feel right at all. And as Percy looked out into the open clearing of grass, he saw the source of his trip to the Andes Mountain.

There was a frail looking, Hindi man sitting in the tall grass of the clearing. How he'd seen him? A gust of wind ripped through the area, creating the path that revealed the man sitting straight ahead of Percy under a tall sequoia tree. So many questions arose: how did Percy know it was a sequoia and were there even sequoias in the Andes mountains? And how had he not noticed the towering tree before? Sometimes, the teen wondered what it would have been like to have a working, completely functional brain.

The old man just sat there, almost peering into Percy's soul as he sipped into a small, ornate tea cup. Percy watched his black, beady eyes study him from head to toe as he cautiously made his way forward even though every voice in his head told him that it was a reckless notion, but if his enemy went through the trouble of leading him to this spot, what was the point of killing him quickly?

Once Percy got to a certain point, the unknown man set down his cup, and straightened out his monk-type robes. He wore nothing underneath, however, and Percy had to fight the urge to stare at his protruding rib cage and practically deflated stomach. He instead decided to focus on the rest of whatever else he could see as a weakness. Sweat dropped slowly down the side of his bald head, and for the first time, Percy realized it was slightly stuffy but not enough for sweat. Was the old man tired?

His eyes squeezed together, as if trying to focus on the demigod that approached him was giving him some difficulty. The wrinkles in the corner of his eyes and around his mouth gave Percy the impression the naga was made of leather. That was a viable option mostly because he was, in fact, a naga. Despite this fact, Percy couldn't help but notice the bifocals that covered his two eyes, his two thin arms and two huge hands, and his thin legs and two feet. The image was almost identical to Ghandi, now that Percy thought about it.

Percy didn't know much about the man, but he did have a faint idea of his image and this was it to a "t". However, the man before him had the eyes of a snake, and although his eye-lids did not close horizontally, his black pupils pierced Percy just the same.

Finally, reaching the very front of the naga, the path that was created from the flattened tall grass now behind him closed in on itself, leaving Percy and the old guy alone in a small flattened circle underneath a giant sequoia.

After a few moments of awkward silence and thunder booming outside of the open area, the man motioned for Percy to sit down, which he did do, but reluctantly. The old man held up his ornate pitcher of tea and an extra tea cup, but Percy silently declined, which seemed to strike something in the old guy sitting in front of him, "You know, if you want to try and stop me from ripping you apart, accepting my herbal tea is a kind gesture to start with." His voice wasn't deep, but rather just as you'd expect an old man's voice to sound. Except in his speech, Percy felt as if the air had gotten heavier with pressure. He exerted power in his voice and he spoke with a rich accent, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I won't rip you apart." The tall grass around Percy started to move as he heard the rustle of the overgrowth, instinctively, he reached for Riptide, believing this to be a sneak attack, but his enemy talked him down, "Calm down, calm down. It's just my pets..." Just as he uttered the words, two entities entered the area on each side of Percy.

They were entities because Percy couldn't see them, but he felt a slight breeze on both of his sides along with a low growl. Then, before he knew it, the two entities slowly revealed themselves to be the tigers Bisha and Ishmael. Percy watched as at first their heads appeared and then their sleek, white fur spread all the way to the tip of their tails.

The two tigers crossed paths and then took their respective sides of their master, whatever his name was.

"Welcome back, Bisha, "He nodded to his left, "Ishmael, "he nodded to his right, "I hope you enjoyed yourselves?"

There was a series of low growls before Bisha answered, "We were having fun before that bean stalk right there interrupted our hunt..."
Ishmael licked his lips, "This one tricked us and ran off with our food-"
"Tapestry-"
"Food. We lost his scent so we decided to explore a little while you waited for the guest...Other than the setbacks we had, it was very relaxing to be out and about in nature again."

Percy heard every word they had said, and he gathered up enough clues to firmly believe that they might have been talking about him.

Bisha and Ishmael did a yawn and laid their heads on their paws, beckoning their owner to pet them and scratch behind their ears, which he gladly obliged to, "Shame your game was interrupted by our guest, and I apologize for his lack of manners. He wouldn't even accept my tea..." The man slightly protruded his lips outward in an attempt for a pout.

Ishmael's ears perked as he slightly raised his head a little, "What is it with you Greeks?" His voice-over type voice reverberated through the quiet area, "First, you crazy wind god wouldn't accept our tea, and now the son of Poseidon will not?" He stopped talking long enough for him to turn his head slightly to the left, "Did you put something different in the brew, Bisha?"
The female tiger gave a low growl, "Of course not! It's the same brew I've used for the past few centuries or so."
Percy heard Ishmael muttering, if a tiger could possibly do that, "...Then I fully understand why no one is drinking the tea."

Bisha apparently heard him just as well as Percy because she snapped at him, " What was that, you brute?"
Ishamael rolled his eyes and growled, "Here we go again..."

Before Bisha could ask him what he meant, the naga shouted, "No! We are not doing this again. The last time you two argued, our peace meeting with Aeolus ended up with him running through the mountains for his life. I do not intend for it to turn out the same way."

Bisha looked up as apologetically as a tiger could possibly look at her master, "Even though it was his fault?"

" Yes, even though it was his fault." The two tigers growled again, giving up their fight as their master continuously scratched behind their ears.

Even though it seemed as though they had dropped the subject, Percy couldn't help but ask for an explanation, "So...how did that last meeting go?"
The naga gave an almost sideways frown, "Ah...well, it started out exactly as this one has been going, all the way to the fight between my two friends here, " He momentarily picked up his hands from the tigers' heads to signal that they were who he was talking about, "It was at that point Aeolus decided to pass his judgement on them, something about, 'Your friends seem a lot more like wild animals." Percy felt like his breath had been taken away by how accurate his voice impersonation of Aeolus was. Spot on, in fact.

"Suffice to say, Bisha and Ishmael did not take kindly to this. One thing led to another, and I'm sure you know what happened in the end." He took a sip from the same tea cup he set down earlier and came away from the drink looking pleased, "Good, it's still hot."

Percy almost felt his face flush with embarrassment from actually being related to Aeolus. He basically picked a fight he couldn't win and then used Percy as a scapegoat then a way to escape. The son of Poseidon would have felt used if he weren't used to it. With this guy, however much of an enemy he was, he didn't feel like he would lie to him or trick him in any way so he decided to relax a little, "Well, I apologize for both Aeolus's and my own rude behavior, Mr...?"

"Please, call me Taka. That is what Bisha and Ishmael call me." Even though his smile seemed sincere enough, Taka surely wasn't his entire name, but they could get to that later, hopefully once they had been able to establish some type of peace agreement. If only Annabeth could see him now, being all diplomatic and whatnot.

"Well, Mr. Taka, I'd really appreciate it if you could pour me some of Bisha's tea? I'd like to see how it tastes myself, " Percy put his best foot forward to get on the elder's good side, and the beaming smile and gleam in his eyes gave the demigod the impression it was going swimmingly so he decided to attempt to push the envelope a little further, "Hopefully we can put together some type of peace agreement to settle this little dispute that's been going on for quite some time."

Percy saw a slight twitch in the naga's hands when he'd said "dispute" signaling he'd pushed it beyond its boundaries. Just great.

But Taka had continued pouring the cup as if nothing happened and then he handed Percy the cup, "Too long...in fact, far too long for this to be a simple dispute." It appeared to Percy that he'd unintentionally poked the wrong animal so now he was on animal control.

"Yes, far too long, which is why the sooner we come together, the sooner this will be over and we can all go home, " Percy took a sip from the cup and a memory of a time from long ago popped into his head causing Percy to blurt out the question, "Bisha, is there eucalyptus in this brew?"

Her eyes seemed to light up, "Why yes! Two leaves of the plant, to be exact. It's the secret ingredient, in fact because not many people use such an unorthodox method, but it has worked for a very long time." Her delighted mood would have been infectious had the memory of Mount Othrys not been tainted by the image of Luke falling off the cliff and being broken into pieces at the bottom.

Snapping out of his stupor, Percy took another sip and allowed Taka to speak, "But surely you do not believe this to be a simple dispute, Perseus? At the very least, this has been a silent war since at least centuries before you, yourself, were born, but now, people are dying every day. Do you dare still call this a 'little dispute'?" Once again, Taka had mimicked a voice perfectly, this time, it was Percy.

Trying to remain calm, Percy simply said, "I only believe that this should be reconciled before anything extremely extreme happens."

The demigod felt Taka's eyes search him up and down for any type of weakness, but in the end, he must have not found anything and proceeded with his next statement, " 'Extremely extreme' eh? If only you knew..." Before Percy could ask what he meant, Taka continued on, "I will give you our terms straight from out king, Vasuki."

Elated that they had gotten this far, Percy eagerly nodded, "Please, go on."

Despite the positive outlook of their situation, Taka's expression still remained grave, "He only asks that the gods deliver the God of the Seas, Poseidon."

With that, a crack broke through Percy's small smile as he began to understand why Taka had not smiled despite the hope for peace: he had known the condition and knew that it was too great to be considered. Even if it wasn't, Percy would never come to the gods with it, knowing that knowing his father, he likely would give himself up in a moment of guilt.

"You know I can't do that, " Percy said as his hand floated towards Riptide, the suspicious movement lightly alerting Taka's two pet tigers.
"Indeed I do. That's why I've been prepared to fight you this entire time, " Bisha and Ishmael began to stir from Taka's sides, licking their lips hungrily, just awaiting the order to attack.
"It doesn't have to be this way..." Still moving very slowly, Percy removed the ball cap pen from his pocket.
"Oh, but, 'from one mythology to another, you must understand I was instructed to so I did go and obey', " The voice he used this time sounded strangely like Chiron, but Percy found it hard to believe so he simply didn't believe it. Taka continued, "But I do suppose since we are now at odds, it is time you know my name..."

The naga stood up and along with him, his fully rested felines who bore their fangs, " My name is Karkotaka, and I'm a Naga king. My screams dictate weather, my sword determines life, and I decide what...or who I spare in my battles."

A.N. I'm sorry to those who have been waiting patiently for the next chapter in the story, but for someone reason, it's taking me a while to come up with this stuff and when I get done, I'm so burnt out, I can't type anything else for any other story so I'm trying to figure out some stuff about moderation.

Oh well, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and if my math is correct...Chiron coming your way!

So...
Kawind OUT!