Percy Jackson Son of Hearth and Sea: The Lightning Thief
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!
*dramatic music plays* HELLOOOO EVERYBODYYYY! IIII'M BAAAACK!
*crowd cheers* Riptide! Riptide! Riptide!
It has been such a long time, but I have done it! I have updated chapters 6-13. There aren't many changes in 6-11, but they are still somewhat important changes. So what are you waiting for?! GO! GO! GO! Read them, before you read the chapter below. Yes, that is correct. The chapter below. I have made another chapter for all you wonderful, amazing, awesome, incredible, readers, followers and favoriters. You guys are seriously the best and thank you so much for your support. I will not be posting everyday. Instead I will be posting on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's. Quick chapters with good quality content. For now though I hope you enjoy this chapter, leave a Review to tell me what you think and if you really like it, Follow and Favorite.
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING! Except some plot points.
Chapter 14:
The three of us had been running for miles. We had no money, no food, and no Oreo's.
We finally came to a stop. Breathing heavily and drenched in rainwater and sweat.
Grover collapsed onto his back, complaining about losing a bag of tin cans.
Annabeth bent over, with her hands on her knees.
I just stood up, with my hands on my hips.
We were all greedily taking in huge gulps of air, trying to regain control of our breathing.
"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked after a minute of heavy breathing.
I wanted to say, No, I just lost a perfectly perfect box of Oreo's. Instead I nodded my head and said, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."
She straightened and her eyes blazing with an intense fury. "Good."
Before I knew what was happening, something struck me across the face, knocking me down to the floor. I wished I had complained about losing the box of Oreo's.
"What the Hades were you thinking Percy?!" Annabeth screamed at me. "Were you trying to get us killed?"
I only now realized that Annabeth had just punched me in the face. I groaned, while slowly getting up. "I'm sorry, but what did you want me to do? Let the Furies kill us?" I asked now standing up, cradling my jaw.
"I would have come up with a plan," she said.
"Your plan was taking too long," I said, my irritation with her increasing. Grover was watching the two of us like a tennis match.
"Well you didn't have to-"
"Enough!" I yelled, my frustration with her almost reaching it's peak. "Why are you so mad about it?"
"Don't you get it? We could have died!"
"But we didn't," I said frustrated with her stubbornness. "We're alive, so get over it and stop complaining."
She looked like she wanted to say something but she just sighed and said, "We should keep going."
Together we continued walking in the same direction we were running in silence. Annabeth was walking ahead with me behind her, and Grover behind me.
After a few more minutes of silence and walking, Annabeth stepped into line next to me. "Look I ..." Her voice faltered. "I'm grateful for what you did back there."
"I'd honestly do it all over again."
"It's just that ..." she continued, not seeming to notice what I had said. "If we died, besides that it would totally suck for us. This quest would be over, the world would be in total chaos and I'd never get to see the real world."
The thunderstorm had finally stopped, and now we were in almost total darkness. The city behind us only a faint glow. I could barely see Annabeth, except for a glint of blonde hair.
She continued, "And you're pretty lucky, being able to train in the real world." She started rushing her words like she was afraid someone would stop her. "At camp you train and train, and that's cool and all, but out here in the real world, where all the monsters are. This is where you know whether you're good or not."
She tried to sound confident, but I could hear the doubt in her voice.
"I wouldn't say lucky, more like privileged," I said. "But you're pretty good with that knife."
"You think so?" She asked hopefully.
"Anyone that can spear tackle and wrestle with a Fury, is pretty awesome in my book."
It was almost pitch black, but I could still see the bright smile on her face.
"Sorry about what I did earlier," she said.
I shrugged. "It's fine, I honestly deserved it."
She looked like she was about to say something, but she was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. Of course, it was his reed pipes, I mused. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"
He puffed a few notes that still sounded like Hilary Duff.
Instead of finding a path, I walked face first straight into a tree.
Grover blushed and tried apologizing and Annabeth laughed at me.
I grumbled about mean friends and lit a fireball in my hand, illuminating the area around us. We only walked for a few meters before I noticed something unusual.
I sniffed the air and asked, "Can you guys smell that?"
Grover and Annabeth started sniffing the air too.
"Yeah," Grover said. "It smells like-"
"Cheeseburgers," Annabeth finished dreamily.
She was right. I could smell the many smells of food I haven't eaten in soooo long. It was the excellent smell of fried, greasy, excellent food. I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I was five. I may have had cookies in the Hunt and similar food at Yancy, but not once I had a delicious double cheeseburger. Plus, I was starving.
We followed the smell.
Through the thick of the trees, I could see some light up ahead, coming from a neon sign.
We kept walking until we came to a deserted two-lane road. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for some movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the delicious smell.
The open building was one of those stores that sold things for people's gardens. Things like garden gnomes, flamingos, wooden Indians and stone grizzly bears. The main building was a long low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sigh was impossible for me to read, because if there is anything that's worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.
"What the f* does that say?" I demanded.
"Language, Percy!" Annabeth scolded.
I blushed deeply. "Sorry, quod irrumabo, ut non dicam?" I said.
Annabeth stared at me completely confused. I just grinned, thankful for my Latin classes.
Grover translated: "It says, Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
"Oh."
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.
We crossed the street still following the smell of hamburgers.
"Hey …" Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
"Snack bar," I said wistfully.
"Snack bar," Annabeth agreed.
"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."
We ignored him. I could feel some kind of pull, in the back of my head, telling me that I should not be here, but there was something blocking it, like a thick veil of fog.
The front lot was a forest of statues: stone animals, stone children, even a stone satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"Blaa-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
We stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat," he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.
"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are … looking at me."
Once again, we ignored him.
Annabeth knocked on the door and called out, "Hello?!"
There was no answer.
"Nobody's here," Grover said. "Let's just go."
"Hey, it's unlocked." Annabeth said.
Sure enough, the door to the warehouse was unlocked and we walked in. Grover doing so reluctantly.
The warehouse was stocked with even more statuary. People wearing a variety of different outfits, different poses and different expressions. All the statues were life-size which I found a little bit strange, but I was too intoxicated in the smell of food to care.
"Hello?!" I called out. Once again there was no answer.
"Percy!" Grover admonished.
I just shrugged my shoulders at him.
After a few more seconds of silence Grover said, "See there's nobody here. Let's just-"
"Hello, children," a voice interrupted, making Grover yelp. I looked in front of me to see a tall Middle Eastern looking woman. She looked Middle Eastern because her entire body was covered in a black gown, showing nothing but elegant coffee colored hands that looked fairly old. "What are you doing here all alone?" She asked, her voice also having a Middle Eastern accent.
"Umm … hello ma'am," I said. "Sorry for barging in, but we're lost and we smelt food coming from here."
"Oh, you poor dears," she said. "Yes, there is food here. I am Aunty Em, please follow me." She then turned around and started walking towards the back of the warehouse, her long black gown slithering behind her. We followed her past all the different statues, I looked closely at them and was astounded by the detail that went into them. They looked so life-like. There was a problem with them though, a lot of them had an expression of fear on their face.
"Do you make these statues yourself?" I asked her.
Aunty Em turned around to face us and said, "Yes, but it was not always just me." Her voice was soothing and soft like velvet.
"What happened?" Annabeth asked.
Aunty Em stiffened, like Annabeth had just done something wrong, but relaxed just as quickly. "It is a tragic story," she said. "You see, I once had a … a boyfriend and a woman was jealous of me. She was determined to break us apart, and caused a terrible accident. I had two sisters who stayed by me, but they had passed on, leaving me alone with a terrible price, so I create my statues to keep me company."
The story sounded very familiar but her melodic voice and the smell of food was clouding my mind.
I looked over to Annabeth, to see her eyebrows furrowed together, like she was thinking about Aunty Em's story.
We finally arrived at the back of the warehouse, there were various kinds of snack machines like, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser.
You may be wondering how I know of these machines if I've been living with the Hunt for practically all my life. The answer is simple. Tracy Theff, daughter of Hermes.
She was my main teacher in the Hunt and my closest friend after Zoë. She was very persistent on making sure I knew all the different snack machines.
"Please, sit," Aunty Em told us, gesturing towards the metal picnic benches.
We sat down and Aunty Em walked back to the fast-food counter, but I finally noticed there was something strange with the way she walked, like she was hovering. I looked down to the part of her gown that was trailing behind her and noticed that the end flicked every now and then like ... like a tail.
Realization finally hit me.
Aunty Em is a monster, and this is a monster's lair.
I wasn't sure what monster she was though, because I was still trying to fight the trance she had put me in.
Aunty Em came back with trays heaped with cheeseburgers and fries and a box of Oreo's. Before she could set them down I stood up and said, "We should leave."
Aunty Em stopped and I couldn't tell with the veil covering her face, but I guess she was surprised. Grover and Annabeth understood immediately and stood up as well.
"Yeah," Annabeth said. "The orphanage will be looking for us."
"Right," Grover said, playing along with our act. "The headmaster will have our heads if we don't get back."
As we were saying our excuses we were slowly walking backwards away from whatever kind of monster Aunty Em was.
"But my dears," she said, placing the food on the table. "You can't leave, you haven't eaten anything yet." Her voice sounded sincere, but I knew that it was just her tricks to try and convince us to stay. "At least stay for a photo, so I can create a statue of you."
I resisted against whatever magic she was using and tried to remember what monster she was. "I'm sorry, ma'am," I said. "But we really must be going."
I tried to remember where the story she told me came from. Two sisters, a bad woman, a boyfriend and an accident.
Aunty Em said, "You both have such beautiful eyes. It has been so long since I have seen eyes like those."
Annabeth and I glanced at each other. Her name was becoming clear and the trance she was trying to keep on me was fading.
Her name wasn't Aunty 'Em', it's Aunty 'M'. The 'M' stands for something. Who was it?
Medea?
Madonna?
Moana?
Come on, Percy! Think!
Monster lady said, "I can't see your eyes very well, behind this cursed veil." She started unwrapping her veil.
Her name finally came to me, when I remembered all the statues around me and their horrified faces. She was, "Medusa!" I cried.
"Run!" Annabeth yelled.
We all turned and ran, just before Medusa could completely take off her veil. She wailed in rage behind us, and I resisted the urge to turn around.
We were thirty feet from the exit when Grover yelled, "Duck!"
We all hit the deck and seconds later, a statue of a woman flew over our heads and straight into the doors of the warehouse and blowing them open.
The three of us got to our feet as fast as we could and bolted towards the now open doors. I pushed Grover and Annabeth ahead of me and just before I could reach the doors, something caught me by my ankle and tripped me over, and as soon as I hit the ground it started pulling me.
"Percy!" Grover and Annabeth cried.
"Keep going!" I yelled to them. I knew they must have not liked it, but I could hear them running off.
Suddenly I was being lifted into the air by my leg. I shut my eyes, not risking looking at the gorgon and becoming a statue.
I could hear Medusa cackling softly beside me and the sound of her hair snakes hissing.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard Grover yelling, "Maia!" Meaning that he was kick-starting his flying sneakers.
"Why must you help those foolish Olympians Percy?" Medusa asked, her voice sounding nothing like a monster's. "Why would you help those who curse and punish others without remorse, like Athena has done to me, like Zeus and Hades have done to you? Do not be their pawn Percy, join me as one of my statues, and you will suffer less pain.
She was evil, she had killed thousands of innocents, but her words were true. Not the statue part. But why I was helping the gods.
Before I could come up with an answer, there was a loud buzzing sound coming from somewhere off to my side.
"Incoming!" Grover yelled, his voice coming from the same direction as the noise, I realized he was using his flying shoes, to do … I'm not exactly sure, my eyes are still closed.
As he came closer there was a loud THWACK!
It sounded like someone hitting a tree, but then whatever was holding me let go of my ankle and made me fall to the ground.
Medusa roared in rage. "You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection."
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
I opened my eyes and unsheathed my sword. I brought it up and angled it so I could see behind me. I really wish I hadn't, in the reflection was Medusa, and she was hideous. Her head was a cluster of snakes, made to look like hair, her body was still in its black gown but her hands were now warty and bronze talons were visible, where her legs should have been, was a tail around seven feet long, and her voice was horrible and hideous, I can't even describe it.
As quick as I could, I ran to a cluster of statues and hid in them. I angled my sword again and spotted Grover holding a tree branch and was coming down for another pass. His face was twitching and his eyes were shut, I realized he was using his nose and ears alone to find her.
I saw her rearing back her tail to strike him.
"Grover, watch out! She has a tail!" I called out to him.
"A tail?!' Grover asked incredulously. Just to prove my point, Medusa slammed Grover with her tail and sent him flying straight into a statue of a bear. He landed with a painful, "Oomph!" and then the bear statue toppled over and smashed across the ground. Grover was sprawled across the debris, thankfully on his front, and groaning in pain.
Medusa started looking around for me and I quickly put my sword down, not wanting to be seen.
"Where are you, Percy?" Medusa asked. She started slithering off to one direction, and I quickly tip-toed my way in the opposite direction.
When I reached another cluster of statuary, I heard Annabeth's voice beside me, "Percy!"
I jumped and almost let out a yelp. "Don't do that," I said clutching my chest.
"You have to cut her head off," she whispered.
"That's going to be a little hard," I whispered back. "She has a freaking tail!"
"You'll have to use both your swords," she told me.
"What? Why?" I asked.
"You won't be able to use your bow, you would never take her down with just arrows, and you wouldn't be able to get enough shots on her without being killed. You'll need one sword for a reflection and the other," she then made a slicing motion with her hand across her throat.
"How'd you know about my bow?" I asked her. I don't remember ever using it at Camp Half-Blood, or mentioning about it to her.
She stammered a bit and said, "Oh, I, uhhh, I remember you using it, in the Capture the flag game."
I furrowed my eyebrows together, confused at why she had stumbled on her words, but figured it wasn't important right now.
I pulled Riptide out of my pocket and uncapped it, the three-foot-long bronze sword shimmering into existence. I looked at the reflection in both of my swords and found it was easier to see on Riptide.
"How am I going to get close?" I asked.
She just grinned and said, "Leave that to me." She then put her Yankee's cap back on her head and turned invisible.
I waited for several seconds. Then I heard Medusa's hissing snakes coming closer to the cluster of statues I was sitting by. I heard her stop and start inching towards my position. The hissing of her snake hair getting louder.
I held my breath, shut my eyes, and turned the other way of where she was coming.
Before she could reach me, there was the sound of something smashing coming from behind Medusa.
I heard her retreat back and start her way towards the sound. I let out a small breath of relief and readied myself.
I lifted up Riptide in my left hand and angled it so I could see Medusa in the reflection. I slowly got up, not wanting to risk making any sounds, keeping my other sword by my side at the ready.
Medusa was still looking around the area of where the noise was coming from.
I started to walk slowly backwards towards her, picking up my pace as I got closer to her.
It didn't go as I planned.
I was so focused on her head, that I had forgotten about watching out for her tail. It had wrapped around me, pinning my arm with my sword, that has yet to be named, to my side but keeping my arm with Riptide free. Medusa cackled as I was lifted up.
I shut my eyes as I was lifted off the ground and took a wild swing to where I could hear the hissing of her snakes.
She must have moved away, because my sword only met with air. Before I could take another swing, she grabbed my arm and yanked Riptide out of my grasp and letting it fall to the floor.
"Open your eyes, son of Poseidon," Medusa crooned. "Accept your fate."
I got angry at being called the son of Poseidon. During my time at Camp Half-Blood, that's who I was classified as because he was an Olympian and she wasn't. I was put in the cabin of a god who never noticed or acknowledged me for twelve years, and when he finally did, he needed me to do his dirty work. I was raised by Hestia, but no one seemed to acknowledge that fact.
"Help me destroy the girl," she continued in her soothing voice. "Help me kill the daughter to your father's enemy, the woman who turned me into a monster."
I was absolutely livid now. Not only was she addressing me as Poseidon's son, but now she expected me to kill Annabeth because our parents were enemies.
"You know what lady?!" I yelled at her. "Athena may have turned you super ugly, but you were the one who became a monster."
Medusa growled as the snakes on her head hissed even louder.
"And another thing!" I yelled, shutting her up. "I'm the son of HESTIA!"
As soon as I said that, I lifted up my free arm and let loose a ball of fire at her.
She screamed in agony, her tail losing it's grip and letting me go.
I landed on the ground on my hands and knees, I felt Riptide appear back in my left pocket. I opened my eyes and took a glance to where Medusa was wailing, being careful not to look at her face.
I then made a dash towards her, keeping my head down.
Her thrashing tail swung towards me right.
I slashed at it, cutting off a small part doing a quick three-sixty spin and putting my sword into an ice-pick grip, then stabbed my sword into the tail, going straight through and into the ground, pinning it to the floor.
Medusa again screamed in agony.
I put my hand in my left pocket and continued on my way to her head, with my eyes closed.
I had only taken a few steps towards her when I heard her lunging at me.
With lightning speed I pulled Riptide out of my pocket, uncapping the lid with my thumb, and slashed to where her I could hear her head was.
Schlock!
My sword passed through something with that sickening sound. There was the sound of a hiss, like wind rushing out of a cave. The sound of a monster disintegrating. Then there was a thud, right next to my foot. It took all of my willpower not to look. I could feel the snakes tugging at my shoelaces and something wet soaking into my sneaker. The head hadn't disintegrated. It was now a spoil of war, just like in the original story. My namesake, Perseus, had killed Medusa the same way, and her head had remained, but it could still petrify you.
Annabeth then came over, holding Medusa's black veil. "Don't, move." She instructed me.
"I wasn't planning on it."
Then very, very slowly, she crouched down, looking up towards the roof and wrapped Medusa's head in the veil.
As she was doing that, Grover was making his way towards us. His green Rasta cap was hanging off one of his horns and his fake feet had been knocked off, with the flying sneakers fluttering around his head.
"It's all good," Annabeth announced.
"Nice flying G-man," I said to him, when he had made his way over to us.
He grinned bashfully. "It wasn't that great," he said, snatching his sneakers out of the air.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah, how many other satyrs can say that they used magic flying shoes to dive-bomb Medusa and bash her over the head with a tree branch."
He grinned 'goatishly'. "Not many."
"Only one," I clarified.
He smiled proudly at that.
I then pulled my sword out of the gold dust it was stuck in and sheathed it. We then made our way back towards the picnic table.
We ate the food that Medusa had set out for us because she was dead, we were hungry and there was no need to worry about any other sort of traps.
I was still mad with the events that had just happened. On our first day of the quest we were attacked by four of the most powerful monsters in mythology, and we were almost killed by Zeus on the same day. Athena had created this thing because my father had decided to have a little fun time in her temple. All this was the gods fault. This quest, the attacks we received, it's because of them. With every thought I got more and more angry.
Grover must have read my emotions again because he looked at me worriedly. I ignored him and looked at the head we had wrapped in some more wrapping.
What had she said? Do not be the Olympians pawn.
"I'll be right back," I said standing up from my seat.
"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"
I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medisa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworlds billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and put in in my pocket.
In the cash register I found twenty dollars, several drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, with leather pouches attached to each one for coins. I rummaged through the rest of the office until I found one box that was the right size.
I went back to the picnic table, packed the head up and filled out a delivery slip:
The gods
Mount Olympus
600th floor
Empire State Building
New York, NY
Grover and Annabeth's eyes went wide as they read what I wrote. Just to rub salt in the wound I had written it in Ancient Greek.
"They're not going to like that," Grover said. "They'll think you're impertinent."
I continued writing:
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON THE IMPERTINENT
"You don't even know the half of it," I said as I poured a few drachmas into the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package then floated in the air and with a loud pop the package disappeared.
I looked at Grover and Annabeth, daring them to say something against my actqions.
They didn't say anything. They seemed to accept the fact that I had a habit of pissing off the gods.
And damn right I do.
A/N Whoohoo! This was a fun chapter to write. I know some of you may be thinking, "what? This was in the last chapter." It was, but I decided to change it because I felt like I was packing too much stuff into one chapter. I should also let you know that the first two books will be a little bit similar to the original. The major changes will start in the third book, but important points will be in these two books for later books. You also might be wondering about the pairing. Well, that won't come into play until book three and it's going to be a doozie. *grins wickedly* For now, I'm going to leave you wondering who it could possibly be. Also, I still need suggestions for Percy's other sword, PM me or Review some suggestions, doesn't matter if someone's already said it, say it anyway, it just makes my job easier. That's all for now, so as always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, leave a Review and tell me what you think, and if you really like it Follow and Favorite.
Goodbye my Greek geeks. Tide out.