Welcome everyone to chapter 10!
Percy gets to have his turn trying to explain his demigod-type world to clueless others and does a surprisingly okay job!
Also: Murtagh Muttered. Try saying it out loud 5 times fast! (It's fun :D)
I hope you enjoy and let's get right into this!
Percy briefly surveyed the scene in front of him
There were packs of hellhounds everywhere, each ganging up on a small and desperate group of fighters. Dracaena were present as well, engaging the elves in equally matched combat. The elves couldn't hurt the monsters but they were also fast enough to avoid the dracaena's strikes
"Percy! We can't keep going forever and only a few of us can hurt them!" Eragon called to the half-blood, slashing through two monsters at once. At that moment the elves broke, retreating one by one into the forest and the main hall.
'We have to fall back!' Saphira told them, blow-torching a griffin out of the sky.
"All of you, run!" Percy yelled.
"We're not going to leave you with these creatures!" Eragon argued.
"Trust me. You'll want to." He said, eyes darkening. With that.
"What's happening?" Arya asked as the wind began to pick up.
"Let's go!" Murtagh called as Thorn flew towards the great hall, burning monsters with his fire.
Eragon and Saphira ran after the two followed by Arya and Firnen. Taking a glance over his shoulder Eragon was shocked to see a tornado behind them, forming around Percy. He stumbled a bit as he took in the scene behind him: monsters shot themselves at Percy, threw spears, and blew fire but it all was deflected by the forming tornado. Saphira's tail wrapped around Eragon's waist and she pulled him along. Eragon frowned as he felt the air getting drier. When the group entered the main hall, they heard a loud roaring sound from outside but it didn't sound like the monsters. He looked out and was amazed at what he saw.
Percy was controlling a massive amount of water, which was spinning around him, lashing out at any monster stupid enough to come close. He stood in the center of the giant ring of water with a concentrated focus of determination on his face.
"How…?! He is not even using the ancient language!" Arya said in shock. "Or if he is, he is using it mentally which in a situation like that would be extremely dangerous. And where did he get the water from?"
Quickly tiring of getting soaked and stabbed, the monsters retreated into the forest. The elves who had taken shelter in the hall slowly came out of hiding. Walking a little closer, Eragon saw that Percy was lying on the grass. His breathing was a little faster than normal and he had a tired smile on his face.
"How did you do that?" Eragon asked in amazement, walking over to the demigod.
"A nice little talent of mine." Percy chuckled modestly.
"Hardly 'little.'" Muttered Murtagh. "Where did you get the water from? The largest source close to here is a stream in the forest."
"Um, I sort of made it. The largest source in a forest like this is actually water vapor. What do you think clouds are made of? Just water clumped together to form fluffy white things in the sky. There's water in the air." Percy told them, gesturing all around them. "So I just gathered a bunch of the vapor together and, voila! Water!"
'Who was controlling those creatures?' Thorn asked mentally.
"We were told that an evil primordial god wanted to essentially take over our worlds," Eragon explained.
"So basically my average Tuesday," Percy said, sitting up
"A god?" Arya asked, somewhat skeptical
"One of a bunch, actually," Percy replied. "But they're different from any gods you have here if you have any." Arya looked at him oddly for a second, then turned back to Eragon.
"Did you manage to speak with Amira?" She asked. Eragon gave a relieved smile
"Yes, I did. She is fine." Eragon told her, hiding a grin when he saw Murtagh rub his jaw. "She told me what had happened after she disappeared. She is where Percy is from."
"Specifically, she's on Earth." The demigod interjected, holing up a finger, still sitting on the ground. "More specifically, she's in New York. Even more specifically, she's at Camp Half-Blood. And it's safe there." Arya sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness. I was so worried."
"She's fine," Percy assured her, standing up with a small groan. "Camp Half-Blood is surrounded by protective barriers which keep any and everything bad out. There are a bunch of other people like me there too. It's sorta like a training camp, where we learn to fight and control our powers so we can stay alive in the regular world. I don't really know very much about Amira but even if something happened, one thing I do know that she is strong. Physically and magically. So I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself."
"She can," Murtagh assured. He rubbed his jaw again. "And you weren't wrong about her being strong."
"I'm willing to guess there's a story for that?" Percy grinned. Murtagh winced.
"It's not a good one." He confessed sadly. "She has the right to be mad at me and I understand if she will be forever."
"You didn't have a choice. It wasn't your fault." Eragon told his (half)brother as he placed a hand on his shoulder. Murtagh shook his head.
"I still did it." He muttered.
"Did what?" Percy wondered.
"Nothing," Eragon said, avoiding the topic. "It is in the past."
"Um… okay. So, what are we supposed to do now?"
"We should follow the creatures and find where they came from."
Murtagh shook his head.
"We don't know how intelligent these monsters are. We could walk straight into an ambush."
"They're usually not very smart," Percy explained. "My experience with them shows that they can't do much more than attack or run."
"Be that as it may, whoever's leading them may be slightly smarter," Arya added.
Most the time there isn't anyone controlling the monsters." Percy told them. "They sort of just attack whenever they see anyone who can see them and they think is a threat."
"What do you mean, 'anyone who can see them'? Are you saying that not everyone can see those creatures?" Eragon asked. Percy nodded his head side to side.
"Sort of. There's this thing call the Mist and it makes it so normal mortals can't see any monsters or magical creatures. So someone like me would see a huge hellhound while a regular human might see a big dog."
"Explain what you mean by 'someone like you' and 'regular human'?" Arya asked. Percy ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath from his mouth. Usually, he left the explaining to Annabeth.
"How do I explain this…" He muttered. "Okay. So where I come from, Earth, there are gods. Actual living gods. And sometimes they'd have kids with regular humans and when those kids are born, they're half-god and half-regular mortal. We're called demigods or half-bloods. Like me: I'm a son of Poseidon, the god of horses and earthquakes and the ocean. That's how I did that trick a few minutes ago. Anyway, since we're half-god we can see monsters and other things from mythology that other people can't. The Mist hides all the magic-y stuff from normal humans because their minds wouldn't be able to handle it. Capiche'?" Percy said. By the time he was finished, Eragon, Arya, and Murtagh's eyes were wide.
"How do you expect us to believe that?" Arya asked after a minute. Percy shrugged and stood up.
"I don't, actually. I'm just telling you how it is. It's up to you whether or not to believe me. So!" Percy rubbed his hands together. "Let's go find some monsters, shall we?"
=Earth=
"So to summarize, you need to borrow the Syllabine books from the Romans and get a prophecy to defeat Tartarus," Grover announced.
"Is Tartarus not a place? How can it be a 'he' or come to take control of this world?" Amira questioned, feeling a lot happier after talking with Eragon. Though she already missed her teacher.
"Tartarus is a place and a person," Annabeth clarified. "Tartarus the person is the embodiment of Tartarus the place and now he wants to take over the world."
"I am going to guess that is a bad thing?" Amira guessed after clearing her throat.
"Very. Lord of the Pit, one of the most powerful primordial gods ever, and a generally evil guy." Grover said.
"Just making sure," Amira said simply, although she looked a bit less confident now.
"So…. I've never actually tried but can you add people to an IM call? You know, like skype?" Annabeth asked Grover.
"What is Skype?" Amira wondered.
"Tell you later," Grover responded. "Anyway, you're planning on calling Frank?"
"No, he's here at Camp Half-Blood. Reyna's over at Camp Jupiter though so she'll have access to the Syllabine books.
"So, how would we do this? Do you have another drachma?" Grover asked. When Annabeth nodded and pulled out a coin, Grover said, "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow. Can you show us Reyna… uh… Leader of New Rome?"
After a long moment, the connection was made and the three saw Reyna, who was currently overlooking the teardown of one of the War Game forts.
"Reyna? We have a problem," Annabeth said, catching the praetor's attention.
"Annabeth. What's wrong?" She asked, turning around.
"Tartarus is coming for the upper world and we need to stop him. Hades has already been given the boot."
"He… wait what?" Reyna looked worried and confused but also like she was trying to decide whether or not to believe Annabeth.
"We need a quest but Apollo's currently not available. We need Syllabine books." Annabeth explained.
"Ella and Rachel have already begun to help with re-writing the books but they're nowhere near being completed. We could always end with them up not having them written down yet or they might have been burned. Still… I guess it's worth a shot. We'll go over what we have." The Roman said.
"Should they head over to New Rome?" Grover asked.
"Probably a good idea. You may have to enter the underworld to face Tartarus and according to Nico, that's here in LA. Are you planning to bring the rest of the seven with you?"
"And Nico but he's too weak to shadow travel us all to Camp Jupiter even with Hazel's help. Percy's gone again so it'll be just us eight. So I guess a road trip with Festus is in order." Annabeth announced.
"But will he be able to carry that many people?" Grover asked. "Everyone together would be pretty heavy."
"Well... Arion and Mrs. O'Leary could take a few passengers each and Blackjack can take me. I'll probably just have to bribe him with doughnuts. Maybe Leo can... give Festus some jet engines or something. We'll figure it out." Annabeth told him.
Throughout the exchange, Amira had only been half-listening. She had sat on the ground, leaning against the fountain, and was just letting her mind wander. She thought over what had happened: she was beyond happy to have been able to talk with Eragon again (even if Murtagh's appearance flared her anger for a moment) but she wasn't completely sure what was happening. She did know that in order to return to Alagaesia and get Percy back to Earth then she had to help. However, the demigods seemed very worried that Tartarus was coming. If he was as powerful as they made him seem…
Amira was worried that she might not even make it home. If she failed to stop this 'Tartarus' then this world could be destroyed as well as her's. Also, when she contacted Eragon and Percy they had to leave in a hurry so she worried that not everything was alright in Alagaesia. Next to her, Annabeth cut the connection to her call and nudged Amira,
"C' mon. We have somewhere we need to go." She told the Rider. Amira looked up, a little startled
"Oh, alright." She stood up from her place on the grass. "Where are we going?"
"It's time you met a few certain someones. Someones who can take us cross-country."
Amira wasn't sure what she had been expecting. But what she wasn't expecting was a giant dog, a horse with wings, and another horse that moved incredibly fast. From what Annabeth said, there was still one more ride on the way as well.
The other demigods of The Seven had been gathered and told what had happened. They all remembered Percy and Annabeth's description of Tartarus and had called up their respective rides. Amira had seen some pretty weird things but this was new and at first, she could only stare in slight shock.
"That horse has wings," She said numbly. Annabeth turned to the purple-eyed Rider from where she had been feeding the winged horse a glazed doughnut.
"Amira, meet Blackjack. He's actually Percy's pegasus but since he's not here right now…" Annabeth trailed off. Amira looked down for a moment. She still felt terrible that Percy had gone through the portal instead of her. Then she noticed a glint in the distance in the sky.
"Is that… a dragon?" She asked as it got closer
'Balenda?' She called out mentally, praying and hoping beyond hope. But when she reached out she felt a mind different than any other she had before. 'That is not Balenda.' She thought to herself. 'But… that is the strangest mind I have ever touched.' It had a metallic feel to it.
"What is that? It does not feel like a living mind but at the same time… it is alive." Amira asked no one in particular.
"Amira, meet my boy!" Leo announced, appearing next to the Rider. "The fellow savior of the world and protector of Camp Half-Blood. I give you: Festus the Bronze Dragon!"
"You made a metal dragon? And it is alive?"
"Well, I didn't make him at first but then he got shredded by lasers so I made him a new body. So yeah, I kinda did."
"By… lasers?"
"Yeah, at King Midas's mansion. Me, Pipes and Jason were—"
"King who?"
"Anyway," Annabeth interrupted them as Festus touched down, landing with a 'thump'. "We'd better get going."
Amira watched as everyone mounted their respective mounts; Piper joining Hazel on Arion and Annabeth taking off on Blackjack. Her expression turned again to shock when she saw Frank turn into a giant eagle and Jason take off from the ground. Leo climbed up onto Festus and looked down to see her standing a bit uncomfortably.
"Hey, Amira? Wanna ride with me?" He asked, reaching his hand down. Amira hesitated for a moment, not completely sure about riding a dragon made of metal. She grabbed Leo's hand anyway and let him help her up behind him. She slid her arms around Leo's waist, drawing a blush to his cheeks.
"To California we go!" Leo exclaimed. Festus roared and shot off the ground.
And with that, the group flew away from the sunrise.
And that concludes the tenth chapter of A Strange and Different Land!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you chose to continue the story. Please feel free to leave a review. Criticism, advise, complements or corrections are welcome.
Have a good one and I'll see you later!