Hey guys it's been ages and I'm sorry.I hope you've all been well and all that aaaand I also hope you've all watched the Witcher on Netflix which does the series and game justice... finally Netflix.I've been really busy lately with GCSE mocks coming up but another chapter should be out sooner than this one was. Enjoy and tell me what you liked.
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The last week had been terrible, a fucking disaster in Percy's expert questing experience.
It had started off badly and that's what started the feeling of foreboding off. Camp half-blood had been slaughtered in the capture the flag tournament between them and the hunters.
And it ended as most things with him and Thalia involved ended, with a massive fight. Then the old hag mummy from the attic had taken a stroll down to the woods and a quest had been delivered by her in possibly the most exhausting way possible. (Grover and Percy had to carry her back to the big house.) About finding the now captured Artemis, and then the hunters had gone ballistic and after virtually grabbing Grover and Thalia, (at Chiron's insistence) they we're gone before evening drew in.
The hunters that had left on the quest were the Nightshade girl (hated Percy), Phoebe (hated Percy and the eagle) and another girl that hated him but wasn't really a talker or an outstanding personality so her name was less than useful at the minute.
Determined to find Annabeth at whatever the cost and hoping the quest was a way to do that Percy had followed behind them on Blackjack. Mr D chose the opportune moment to make his life hell and appear trying to stop him before letting him go. (He wasn't really 100% on why though, but Mr D was quirky like that)
And long story short he has walked in on some scary arse skeletons being created to hunt the others down via planting dragon teeth, they caught his scent. He caught up with the others and the camp half-blood van was rammed of the road by A HUGE lion.
Which knocked Thalia and Grover unconscious from the collision. It was only thanks to a huge truck smashing into the brute and sending it on the express route to Tartarus that the rest of them were not lunch. So the now bleeding and bruised the group dragged themselves into the closest services station and collapsed as one.
"We need to move." Zoe said abruptly staring at the poor bastard wiping down his car with such hate and suspicion the guy would probably die. Percy did mentally wonder why she was being so aggressive to a man she had never met based on one unpleasant experience that happened literally ages ago. And how keeping a grudge that long wasn't just unhealthy it had clearly ingrained itself into her personality so that she actually relied on that hate subconsciously. Else her entire mind lose its structure and realised her life was just 2000 years of some next level hypocrisy and crudely structured sexism. That was then encouraged by everyone else around her also based on short and singular occasions. (For the most part)
Instead of speaking his mind, (that was Annabeth's job, as well as all this high-level thinking) Percy nodded and stood with a significant amount of difficulty. He was battered and bruised but they had a job to do, Thalia and Grover were out but they still had time to find a way to travel.
It took a few hours of scouting from the hunters to determine that there was a train station that luckily stood only a few miles from where they were. Fortune favours the bold after all. (Took it long enough)
By midnight they had dragged Grover and Thalia to the train yard which was falsely advertised as a station by the extra hunter who's name evaded Percy. The pain of lugging them there had taken all the wind from Percy's sails, he also had a sneaking suspicion that if the eagle had helped in the search of transport... Well they would of gotten to it a lot quicker.
But no the bird had remained sat on Percy's shoulder looking on almost contentedly as the hunters raced between various forms of transport. This sentiment was also shared by the hunters who looked as pissed as ever, just the anger was for once not directed at him. Only their pride stopped them from throttling the majestic creature who, was definitely messing with them this entire time as it had not helped at all. He (hoping the bird was a he) was more of an extravagant or expensive paper weight now, not all an eagle was cracked up to be.
Percy was confused about where the heroic drive had gone from the daring, life risking save it pulled off. And that it had obviously been replaced by laziness or complete indifference. It was even more confusing that Phoebe avoided the bird and would mutter that nothing ever good comes from an eagle bearer. Which then pissed Thalia off, making the whole bird relationship thing more complicated and stranger than ever.
Deciding to ignore all eagle related issues and questions for the minute (Why was it here, why had it followed Percy after he left camp, was it a spy? Ect..) Percy knelt beside Grover and flicked him in the nose, after only a brief cry of "Artemis' tin cans!" all life abandoned him and he fell back into slumbers embrace. Deciding to ignore exactly what the phrase was referring to. Percy tried again, this time after a long groaning bleat the satyr's eyes opened and he blinked a few times.
"Peeeeercthy," he slurred, "Wherhes th vaan?"
"About 3 miles that way." Percy replied pointing towards where they had come from, "Now be quiet we're waiting to catch a lift on a train west."
"Cooool" Grover collapsed back into a light sleep that would be easy to wake him from, with a but of help from 'tin cans'.
Instead of touching Thalia whilst she slept (way to die) Percy decided to leave it as late as possible until he had to wake her. That was a problem for future Percy. It was getting late so Zoe took charge and made everyone else sleep whilst she waited for a train to pass by so they could catch a lift.
For once Percy was happy to be bossed around -mainly because it reminded him of Annabeth (and he was really tired)- So he joined Thalia on the ground and slept beside her, his eyes sliding shut until he could barely make out Zoe's figure leant against an old coal carrier that had rusted so badly it looked like a massive date.
As it turns out trains are pretty common when your looking for one, so no one actually got much sleep. It had barely been two hours before a huge train had smashed through their peaceful sleep on the comfy slate chips.
Phoebe was the one on the train shift when she spotted it rumbling towards them quickly. Percy had actually seen too many trains apart from the subway, naturally this meant that the first thought as Phoebe kicked Percy in the shin to wake him up was; "Ow, FUCK!" and then "These types of trains actually exist?"
Which considering he was faced with the very personification of 'american cross country transport train' was a very rational. It looked like every movie in a train yard ever and was quite literally panting as it dragged itself towards them. Now in actuality there were quite a few trainyards in New York but Percy had never been the most observant person ever and this thing looked like a death-trap. Even the driver looked bored and Percy could tell from a good 50 meters away that he was not paying any attention to the track before him.
As quickly as possible everyone rose looking incredibly pissed off. Grover and Thalia looked more confused though, because of course they had no idea what was going on. But somehow with a little help from the three hunters screaming, "Get on the train!" they figured out what to do.
The train was getting nearer when everyone was ready to leap inside one of the open carriages. They all looked like they should be sealed but clearly the hinges had long rusted off and no one could be bothered to replace the now lost doors.
When the train got close enough everyone barrelled towards one open carriage. Zoe, Phoebe and the other one easily leaped up and Thalia joined them seconds later. The wind began to howl as the force of the train pushed it out as Percy jumped as high as he could.
Sadly that actually wasn't very high and he clipped his shin before roughly landing on cold metal. He barely got out a groan before hearing a shriek behind him. Apparently slate wasn't best on hooves and Grover had tripped on the sharp stone. In his struggle to get up Grover bleat loudly and scattered more stones around him.
Heaving himself up the goat began to scrabble, first it got him nowhere but as his attempts got more frantically started to move. Percy could only look back as Grover tried to cover more ground, screaming encouragement all the while. After a few scary seconds of bleating the tired Grover made a messy leap and landed roughly on top of Thalia who had been screaming with Percy.
Thalia sharply punched Grover off and the goat boy had gone red in the face, whilst massaging a site arm of course. The hunters looked on disapprovingly at the position the two were originally in and most likely the clumsy mounting by Percy seconds earlier. The two half-blood campers in the trailer had a very strong urge to beat the shit out of the high and mighty bitch squad. Demigods weren't as graceful as hunters and neither were satyrs, and there was nothing wrong with that.
And yes, demigods also had pretty messy quests, but so what? They got the job done... 57 percent of the time at least, that was the highest amount of successful quests since Hercules went on his repentance rampage. Therefore, the rate was something to be proud of, fuck the hunters.
Neither Thalia nor Percy decided to push the matter of the obnoxious, but also subtle looks down the hunter's noses that were aimed at them. Grover didn't even notice the looks and was just happy to be in the strangely barren carriage, instead of being left behind.
It was decided quickly that Percy, Phoebe, Zoe and Grover would sleep whilst Thalia (who had been unconscious) and the other Hunter would stay on watch. Although for what no one was particularly sure. Percy thought a watch on a moving train was pointless but he was overruled.
It had also been decided that since they were heading to San Francisco that they would remain on the train (which was heading west) as far as it was going to the California. The mini van had been knocked off the road by the lion in Kentucky and they were still well within Kentucky borders.
It was indeed a long journey and for the next couple days nothing eventful happened, the eagle had disappeared for about half a day before returning with a rather large dead deer. Which it had feasted on messily in front of everyone, much to Grover's immense distaste. He had actually started telling the bird to stop until he received a reply which was, 'the most disgusting use of language itself ever in existence'.
So he was essentially told to fuck off by a bird, which in actuality was saying back to him something along the lines of, "Fuck off you disgusting vegetarian goat, come near my deer and I'll go and hunt an entire family of goats and knot their intestines into your curly leg hair."
Which left Grover scarred and sitting on the other side of the carriage.
The train had stopped once during the trip and had dropped off large amounts of coal, they had plenty to eat and drink since they had managed to salvage quite a bit. The real shit of the journey was the actual shitting, which was as uncomfortable and terrifying as it sounds, (they went out of the door between the storage carriages and did their business between the two in the open, rushing air.) because the hunters had kicked up the mother of all fusses.
And the other nightmare of the journey was how boring rural farms and small towns were. Sure, it was magnificent to see the mountains in the far distance and miles of farmland, but after about five minutes that got boring and there was nothing else to do. And small talk with present company was impossible.
If Percy or even Thalia could have played or interacted with the eagle (the lack of a name had earned its name 'eagle') the journey might of gotten better but nothing, absolutely fucking nothing. The bird wouldn't cry at them it wouldn't even blink as it quietly observed them. It just sat, waited, ate and sat.
For the first time in years Percy would rather die than do anything else, ADHD and waiting was a bad mix and dangled the 'great outdoors' as something potentially interesting in from of him. He was losing his mind and Thalia was feeling the same way. Tensions built further when it became clear to the Hunters as well that they were losing it as Thalia started to give out electric shocks like sweets on Halloween and the water in their water bottles was beginning to churn like an unruly ocean.
The first significant change came in the journey when all the field and grassland slowly turned to sand, mountains became dunes and winding streams and rivers became dust. The somehow now roasting sun was ferocious during the midday height and the very metal carriage itself began to heat up unpleasantly, Grover's fur was becoming matted and damp with sweat.
Before everything got too hot to bear Thalia's leather jacket was gone as quickly as she could peel it off, the leather trousers were beyond help. Everyone else shed layers like a snake after that although Percy didn't dare remove any more than his hoody and shoes due to Nightshade's gaze.
Grover on the other hand completely stripped cause 'it's the way nature intended' or some other bullshit. But even then, he did have a shag carpet on his legs so slack would have to be cut.
The next morning and they were still deep in the desert but only this time Percy couldn't take it. He had been still for days, his entire body wanted to go full Gump and just sprint out that damned carriage door hole. He had to get out, he would rather be tortured by the worst Tartarus has to offer than sit still for one more damned hour.
At the crack of dawn his wish came true, a cry echoed from the distance. It was high pitched and feminine but clearly some form of animal, the noise instantly made the bird of prey eyes spring open. Fully alert in seconds it soared out the carriage just as Zoe's opened, the hunters all were instantly woken by the cry this time as it got nearer and louder.
Arrows were notched in bows before long as the maidens of Artemis knew what they would soon be facing. Phoebe kicked both demigods in the chest as they were curled on the floor whilst shaking Grover's shoulder with minimum respect for his sleep.
Unfortunately, Percy was a slow waker and not a morning person so when he looked up finally at the screaming and shrieks of some definitely not human creatures he was met by a battle.
Harpies, that what they were. Winged terrors that were larger than usual Harpy size were smashing into everything inside the carriage, including people. It was clearly a losing war as Phoebe's dagger wasn't swift enough to permanently turn the beasts to dust, whilst Thalia's wild slashing wasn't helping and neither was the countless volleys of arrows the other hunter and Zoe were releasing into monster flesh. There was just too many of them.
In fact, Grover's tactic of cowering in a corner and frantically playing a slightly magical version of California dreaming was probably doing more than the others. After a few minutes of Percy joining the slashing brigade (which made no progress except a few nasty scratches being added to an already large collection.) the group began to fully comprehend the situation.
The train was driving alongside a ledge that overlooked a vast desert, whilst the ledge was only about seven meters high and made of crumbling red rock it was clearly the right height for a Harpy nest – a Harpy nest that they had lured with their own scents and a bloody open carriage that left them exposed.
The war continued until a large screech ricochet across the sky and though the carriage. Past the cloud of Harpies that were swarming like moths, a huge particularly ugly monster soared down toward them.
The Queen Harpy as Percy would later know her as was huge, must of been about eight meters wingspan and that was being modest. It was also, like them, covered in deep scratches and looked very pissed.
Zoe, Thalia and Phoebe (the more intelligent of the group) linked these to the eagle who had clearly either lost the fight against the creature - that was at least four times it's size - or had given up and left. (The group did not know that the latter was true and the bird had left to help these pathetic humans in a more long term way.)
Turns out the Queen was more intelligent than the other harpies and used her huge size to barrel towards the carriage as fast as possible. Tucking her wings in expertly she managed to smash every Demigod, mythical beast and Hunter straight in the chest flinging them out the other side of the open carriage.
It was not a long drop down luckily from the train to the bottom of the ledge and only caused slight discomfort to everyone who landed on sand. For a few seconds nobody moved, they had been too surprised at the sudden movement of the Harpy to make any noise. They just lay and watch the train that was now rolling slowly into the distance, taking with it their only way West quickly; all their food, Percy's shoes, Thalia's favourite leather jacket and a group of very happy looking Harpies.
Thalia was the quickest up, "FUCK, that was my favourite leather jacket you Harpy bastards! I will hunt you down and melt your fucking beaks to make glue!" This screaming continued for a while because no one had the energy to stop her, only when electricity began to cackle did Percy stand and try to help.
"Thalia we need to get moving, we need to get west as quickly as we can." It was Zoe that got there before Percy in directing and he felt slightly put off by the power change but ignored it. He was here to save Annabeth not lead a quest. Nevertheless Percy shook it off and Thalia regained sanity, "We need to move now," Phoebe put in,"I would say we could follow the cliff we fell from, but there's a slight issue ..."
Everyone turned westwards, and there lurking over the horizon was a yellow sun baked mountain. A mountain that completely cut of any hope of following the completely vertical ledge.
The hunter continued, "Going back is not an option either, the ledge runs for miles behind us without any way back up."
Zoe nodded, "Right, we have the only choice of going slightly left around the mountain and hopefully we will find a way to continue west out of this desert."
Grover bleated mournfully, satyrs hated deserts and it was no secret. They called them caves but with less water, hotter and with nowhere to hide behind when monsters attacked. Demigods too usually avoided deserts for the prime reason that a good 99% of all quests that went into deserts completely failed and no one returned alive.
Even Zoe was a bit worried, as she despite her many hunts had only stepped into deserts a few times and never longer than a few nights. Despite all of these very strong senses of foreboding the party ventured out into the barren lands, they were going from the edge of the waterless land right to it's core without intending to.
And so they walked.
Percy was once again in hell. Only this time things were looking alot less promising. It was almost nightfall and they had already lost themselves, at first they were following the mini cliff, until slowly it had faded into the distance without any of them truly noticing. Their senses of direction and basic awareness of their surroundings had also faded along with the silhouette of a massive mountain.
They were completely lost already.
We and they may never know whether they lost their way, possibly due to nature magic; the lull of creatures unknown from deep within mountains of sand, dehydration or just the effect that heat has on the brain. However we do know that whatever it was managed to trick even Grover's sense of direction, much to his shame and embarrassment.
Sunset was magical. The group was dripping with sweat, every inch of their skin was soaked with precious liquids that they couldn't afford to lose. Even the Hunter's perfect skin was letting moisture though and they only lasted a few hours more than the demigods before mentally turning off as they walked. Sunburn was soon raking at their arms, shoulders and everywhere they had desperately yanked clothes off of. (Thalia's leather anything was gone first yet again. She now wore a thin blanket around her waist as a sun guard and preserving her dignity. The blanket was one that the hunters had used to keep the sun off on the train.)
Grover was the worst off, his legs were matted and his bare chest was heaving. Hooves and sand were arch enemies so every time they had to climb a sand dune he had to crawl up. Sand had ingrained itself into his hair and general body as a whole. He was slowly being absorbed by the desert. It was futile to try and give him shoes and everyone knew it, the sand would simply swallow them as they were unfastened. Percy was given socks to keep the burning sand from well burning.
So when the temperature finally lowered peace reigned across the party. They couldn't see anywhere else to sleep apart from on a sand dune, so that is where they chose to rest. Sleep came quickly for everyone that night, there was nothing to eat or drink or any materials to make a fire from the nights cold grip. So there is nothing much to tell about that night.
Nothing but that even though the cold desert night no one stirred and that their dreams were all of the same nature. Watching a sun graze across a sky only for the moon to only rise half way an then return the way it came. In this desert demigod dreams couldn't reach them, but if that was a good or bad omen no one was sure. Not that they would prioritize dreams over their wake up call in conversation.
In the morning they were woken by the third nameless Hunter crying out in confusion. Remembering the last morning all too well Percy shot awake his pen clutched in his hand, already shifting into a bronze sword. The others ross around him and all drew their weapons. (Grover his panpipes)
"There, there!" the girl cried pointing into the distance, "What.. what.." Percy fumbled out, just feeling the heat hit him like a hammer fresh from a forge. Exhaustion, thirst and hunger came soon after despite his uneasy but deep sleep.
Under furrowed brows and his hand to shade from the god damned sun, Percy made out what the girl was talking about. A small figure moved slowly across dunes, wearily as though it had been moving for years on a great journey.
The figure was a dull yellow colour but was too far away to properly distinguish a gender or even a basic height and age. The quest driven group too was still watching the movement cautiously, all their weapons drawn and ready for action. No one made a sound for a while and continued to watch.
Heat was beginning to get unbearable stood still on burning sand which is why Percy was going to go and recommend an investigation into the figure. He had almost broken the silence when the creature vanished, literally vanished.
One moment it was shuffling and the next it had vanished, dissolved into the sand. Everyone blinked. The disappearance was so sudden, the burrowing into the sand so swift, that there were no cries of shock. They just stood there.
Quickly however they shook themselves off, the sooner they were out of the desert the sooner they could relax. Moving quickly became the next priority and the quest wasn't going to slow down for them so they moved on.
Despite this everyone kept glancing behind them uncomfortably when they thought the others weren't looking. The event had reminded everyone of the unknown land they were currently treading.
After hours more of stumbling in the sun things began to feel wrong. Sand began moving and twirling around them gently and Grover had been neighing involuntarily at what he perceived to be a distant smell of something ungodly. Percy wished now more than ever that they still had an eagle companion to provide air support.
The Hunters, whilst uncomfortable and equally exhausted and thirsty were leading the way. Through the whole meander across the desert they had been in complete charge, they knew what they were doing after all... They were trained for the wilderness.
The first sign of danger was a huge plume of sand that shot up meters to the three hunters left. They were in a narrow gap between dunes so they were walking dead centre between the slopes, vulnerable to attacks from the side.
The plume was meters high but after the sand resided back down Percy was met by the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.
The figure they had seen before was clearly, from up close supposed to be a woman. As could be told from her dusty cracked bare breasts that hung to her knees, her body was short and plumb with a bulbous stomach and thin sickly legs. She... No it did not deserve any humanising factors .. it was about Phoebe's height but seemed miles taller.
Scaly, flaky golden skin that could best be described as pus oozing cornflakes covered in sand, covered every inch of its body. Its mouth was filled with red-yellow jagged teeth and it's eyes were sunken and dripping with thick sandy blood that was as black as night.
The beast howled and gnashed it's teeth at them before lunging at the nearest Hunter, the other girl that Percy had not learned her name.
It was so sudden that everyone was in shock, what was this thing? Was it a monster? Why didn't it act like their monsters? Why did it look so... Their usual monsters were terrible but they never attacked so viciously or like such wild animals. They preferred monologue or a grand gesture, this was animalistic. This was a true monster.
That was the last thing that flashed in Percy's mind as red clouded his vision, warm red. The thing had lunged and raked it's claws across the Hunter's stomach, blood spurted everywhere. She cried out as everyone shifted into battle mode but it was too late, it's claws came back for a second time and tore through her throat and windpipe killing her instantly.
Her body dropped with a dull thump and silence followed after it. Everyone person and thing had been painted red by the ambushed. Zoe and Phoebe had their sister's blood dripping from their mouths and eyes, they were so shell shocked that it was instinct that helped them both loose two arrows at the crone, which had greedily licked the warm juice off her lips and began to move forward.
The celestial silver arrows hit their mark but left no damage behind on her throat. It looked like an attempt at striking leather with a spoon, Grover belated frantically before collapsing in a dead faint. Not from cowardice but from the smell.
The crone stank of sweat, blood and rotting flesh but for Grover's nose that was not the worst. No, it was the reek from the Hunter's exposed stomach and intestines, the fact that he himself recognised the smell of the small meal that they had shared on the train. Monsters were one thing but for any satyr, death and this was too much.
Percy and Thalia had stumbled back at first and had still it fully recovered. Again, the beast lunged this time at Zoe who was barely in a fighting stance. The only reason that the demigods did not again get drenched in Hunter blood was for the blaze of fire that warmed their faces further than the sun already had.
Fire, the thing clearly hated it. At the blast she stumbled back and hissed at the new opponent. And to their amazement they saw the eagle again, perched on top of their saviour's shoulder. Both looked majestic in the sun, framed against a blue sky. The eagle was spreading its wings threateningly and the man dressed in a white robe with the hood up and covered in weapons was levelling a shiny silver sword towards his foe.
Both lunged and time slowed. The eagle leaped and scratched deeply against the things eyes before fully taking flight. The man swiftly dodging a slash that came at him so fast he must have had cat like reflexes, many times faster than even a Hunter's speed. His sword reacted gracefully and slashed at her abdomen, creating a large deep mark that seeped black blood almost instantly.
He slashed even as crouch spinning under her arm to create maximum momentum before brutally thrusting his sword deep into her scabby back. The whole movement was so swift and graceful it would of been hard to fully comprehend without seeing the marks he had made.
Though unholy power the thing kept moving, slashing behind it angrily whilst whipping around. Foaming at the mouth this time and with a gorge that had been cut straight thought it's back and left breast from behind it looked feral.
Choosing to roll and get a shot at the legs the man swiped at the back of it's knees, showing again incredible fluidity and grace. His robe flowed around him creating the image of a bloody hurricane that flashed with silver metal and black blood.
Once it had fallen to it's knees involuntarily it's head was removed by one swift strike and sent quite a distance due to the force behind it.
The dead monster left a legacy of a mutilated girl who's guts were baking in the sun, a shocked adventure party (What was that thing? Why didn't it explode into golden dust? JESUS IS SHE ALIVE? WHAT THE FUCK?!), an unknown man who looked anything but friendly with a hood and a moving white weapons rack was strained with monster blood and a previously lost eagle that had returned with an owner.
They were lost. They were scared. They were disgusted. They were horrified.
They violently threw up all over each other in front of the stranger.
Hope everyone enjoyed, watch the Witcher on Netflix and please review, follow and favourite for more.
