A/N: Hey guys, this document is now over 100 pages long, wow. Thanks for all your support in getting the story so far :)
"So Reyna becomes the seventh! Interesting idea, I have to admit I was dreading having to wait for the end of BOO before going back to Middle Earth, this makes more sense. Is Percy going back to ME straight away or does Hera (?) have a different plan.
How long has she been 'dead' in Middle Earth?
Really love the hint towars Percy's cult, interested to see her reaction: would Glorfy be a Percy stan? lol
Bit of constructive criticism: The language choices in the final section are a bit messy - you use 'massive/mass) 3 times close together. The visual of enemies pouring out of the mountain is a bit overused but still doesn't feel likke its hitting home as much as it could.
You get the point across well enough but if you choose to revisit this section when the story is complete, it could be much better.
I hopw that doesnt sound mean, I'm exited to read more when you're ready. xx :)" -Springpony. Thank you, I was trying to figure out a way to make this story more interesting, she wont be going back immediately, but relatively soon! As for everything, I guess you'll have to see ;)
"PERCY IS COMING BACK!"-Falconress. Indeed she is, although maybe a chapter or two down the road! Thanks for reading :)
"Wait a minute, why is Ecthelion killing Gothmog when she already did it?" -Guest. When Gothmog fell into the crack that Percy made he fell back into the cesspits under the thangorodrim. Very injured, but not dead, I figured that it would be incredibly hard to kill the greatest of the balrogs. Thanks for reading :)
"So, she turns up just in time to join up in the War of Wrath.
And the likeness of Riptide?
Did Fingolfin make like his son Turgon and give Percy the House of Riptide?" -Guest. She might ;) The people with riptide on their shields were members of her former unit, plus other noldor who had seen or heard of her being martyred. Thanks for reading!
"Hrm... which battle is that supposed to be? I don't remember light/vapor figures in the Silmarillion. And I can't figure out where this is happening, though I feel like I should recognize the three peaks thing. And the tower.
Thanx for the quick update!
The Percy turning into water vapor thing is very interesting. Good idea!
I didn't know Riptide would glow enough that you could see by it. Interesting." Angelmermaid4574. That was the first battle of the war of the wrath, Artemis was watching it happen from one of the towers of Barad Eithel, the three peaks are the thangorodrim :) The wispy figures were the Valar, but they were being distorted as they were being observed through dust and smoke! Thank you so much :)
"I'm just hoping we don't have to wait too long to return to middle earth." -MaskofMirth. Haha I know, I'm super excited to write more Arda as well! Luckily, its coming very soon, thanks for reading :)
"Also, who's the narrator in the last part?
I just noticed during this reread that they refer to Percy in the third person.
I thought Reyna took Percy's place in the quest so she could go to Middle Earth?... Oh, I got it. Artemis is getting visions of Middle Earth."-Guest. Yep! Sorry about that, I probably should've made it more obvious, thanks for reading :)
"I adore your writing, i check almost dayly for an update... As you know i'm more a fan of the lord of the rings storyline so I love that you added some, though i long to see het fight orcs once more (maybe she could use her water powers?)"-JessSlytherin. Thank you so much! And don't worry, it's definitely coming :)
Well, I think I'm going to start replying to most reviews by PM, doing it this way is taking up quite a bit of room. I'll answer anything clarifying the story publicly but otherwise I figure it would be best for me to do that system at this point. Alright, onto the story! Oh and special thanks to Springpony for alerting me to a couple of now fixed errors in the chapter :)
I reassembled myself into a large white canvas tent, the inside was covered in furs and hunting trophies, a rather odd assembly of furniture, but Arty likes it so who was I to question the aesthetic.
Before I had too much of an opportunity to study the room I was hit with a blinding pain, red hot streaks of glutamate shot up my arm and into my shoulder. I looked down at my right hand to see that it was on backwards; oh.
The offending body part was soon dissolved and reassembled, and I was feeling much better.
How hadn't I noticed that for the first couple of seconds, I haven't a clue. The art of teleportation by turning yourself into a cloud was obviously imperfect, so mishaps like that occurred when I wasn't as focused as I should be.
Well, now I could go back to appreciating the massive polar bear rug on the floor, the only question was where was Artemis, I mean she had asked me to come here.
My internal question was swiftly answered when a slim pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist.
Well, there she is. "Hey Percy." She murmured in my ear. I involuntarily shuddered at the warm air on the back of my neck.
Without answering I spun around and hugged my favorite goddess, all my problems seemed to melt away for just that moment, and I was perfectly content.
"Percy, I hate to ruin the moment, but had a dream." Oh no. We sat down on the bed in the corner of the tent and she filled me in on everything that she had seen.
Which was really not good, the Valar showing up meant Morgoth had really upped his game so to speak, likely reaching levels of domination and terror that he hadn't before.
I knew in an instant what I had to do, my friends in Arda needed me, much more than I was needed here, the other demigods would be able to handle the giants just fine.
"Percy, you should go, but I need you to help me with something first." How did she know exactly what I was thinking about?
Oh, forgot that gods could read minds for a second. I looked at Artemis with an eyebrow raised.
"You know I don't remember inviting you into my head." She blushed and broke eye contact.
"Well, you weren't talking too much, so I figured I'd get my answers unconventionally." She responded, her head down slightly.
"Hm, fair enough, what do we need to do."
"Shh, that can wait till tomorrow." She hushed and grabbed my shoulder, gently laying me down on the bed.
With that she hopped under the covers and patted next to her invitingly, an expectant look upon her rather cute face.
Who was I to deny a mighty goddess's wishes? With that thought in mind, I laid down next to her.
She giggled at my slightly uncomfortable position. "Are you going to sleep out there without any blankets all night?" Gesturing to my current pose on top of the woolen covers. I huffed in mock indignation.
"Well maybe if you didn't always steal them I might try."
"Oh fine I promise I won't tonight, after all, I might not see your or a couple months again." The playful mood had suddenly turned rather somber and the smiles melted away from both of our faces in seconds.
I wordlessly slid under the covers rolled on my side to face Artemis. Tears were weling up in her big silver eyes and her shoulders were slumped into the mattress.
I tentatively reached out and wiped a stray tear running down her cheek away before leaning in for a chaste kiss.
"I'm sorry, I wish I could stay for longer." I whispered in her ear after she leaned her head into the crook of my neck.
I savored every moment of this warm embrace, even though my shirt was slightly damp from all the tears, who knew when I would get another one?
Artemis's big plan had been to kill a giant, kinda made sense seeing as we were at war with them at the moment, but I was expecting something a little crazier.
Fortunately, This seemed like it would be as intense as it would be getting. She was hopping through tree branches like a really graceful monkey, while I was just walking, I would probably break my neck if I tried to swing between branches.
Polybotes was somewhere around here, we just didn't know the exact location.
Although it was probably in one of the caves riddled through the dense pine forest, British Colombia was weird like that, you could be in the thickest forest you've ever walked through, then stumble into a big hole in the ground.
Although I'm sure this would have been a beautiful feature had we been going for a cute little walk, it was now quite troublesome, seeing as we were, you know, hunting a giant.
I was slightly confused why the bane of my father was hiding out in the woods, but I don't know, maybe he was a nature guy; although he did seem more focused on killing me when I first met him.
I guess it did make a little bit of sense though, we were near the ocean so maybe he just needed a bit of land to carry out some sort of nefarious plan.
I took another cautious step into the brush in front of me, only for my foot to find dead air. I barely had time to say "Oh shit!" Before I tumbled down into the rocky crevasse.
I wish I could say that I regained my balance, or arrested my fall, or at least fell gracefully. But none of that happened.
I was bouncing like a rubber ball down a hard granite slope, which really didn't feel good. Man I wish that the curse of Achilles stopped my bones from getting all beaten up.
I slowed down as the slope evened out and came to a stop, crumpled in a pretty uncomfortable position.
The chamber that I now found myself in was absolutely huge, the roof stretched up for had to be at least fifty feet tall, at least as far as I could tell, most of the cave wasnt illuminated by the light coming in from above.
I looked up to where I had fallen to see a long stretch of sharp rock incline until the point where light poured into the cave.
Well, might as well get out now, I didn't really want to meet any of the blind salamanders or something that probably lived here.
The cave rumbled, small chunks of rock fell from the ceiling and walls, that's weird I guess, maybe a small earthquake?
The rumbling continued for a couple more seconds, then stopped; I turned back to look at the room again to see if I could find the source of the vibrations only to see a really really big salamander.
Or not a salamander, rather a massive scaly leg, looks like I found the giant.
My theory was confirmed when I rolled to the side to avoid a deadly looking bronze trident that was now embedded in the stone where I was standing.
"Wow, I come to visit, and you're not going to even offer me tea or something?" I shouted up at the giant whilst jumping backwards to avoid another swing of his three-pronged weapon.
"Insolent little demi-god, I should've killed you the first time." Well yeah, you probably should've I thought as sliced through a basilisk that had fallen out of his hair.
If facing a massive angry dude was bad enough, you also had to deal with his highly poisonous pets.
The giant swung wide, going right over my head and far behind me, perfect.
I ran forward towards his unprotected legs, he recovered faster than I expected, sending the trident hurling towards me again; I was forced to change plans and I slid between his legs like a baseball player, slashing his right ankle and paying very close care to not look up.
I was just starting to wonder where Artemis was when the twang of a bowstring filled the chamber and a silver arrow sprouted from the giants shoulder.
I had just stood back up from my rather cool assault, and now he was even more distracted.
I jumped up and slashed the back of his right knee with riptide, making him fall to a knee. Artemis kept firing arrows, probably from the top of the cave, which were now appearing all over chinks in the giant's armor.
He wailed in pain, but I underestimated him again, just in time to get caught in the chest by a backswing from the blunt end of his trident, an unintended result in a futile attempt to block the arrows.
I flew against the cave wall and slumped over, trying to catch my breath. I heard Artemis gasp audibly from her perch at the top of the cave, but the reports of arrows hitting armor and skin was evidence that she kept up her pace.
I finally got some air into my lungs, and raised my head to see the giant stalking towards me, murder in his eyes.
My ribs felt like they were on fire, and I let my head drop down again. The pain subsided slightly, but it still felt like I had fallen out of a plane, my right hand palmed the ground desperately in search of riptide as the giant got ever closer.
Finally, the cool metal and worn leather of the hilt greeted my hand like an old friend. But I didn't pull it up just yet, I needed to seem defenseless, kinda like a really risky game of charades.
The giant cackled and Artemis screamed "No!" I suddenly shot my head up, ignoring the burning in my chest to see a trident raised about to post me to the wall like it was a bulletin board.
A silver arrow appeared in the side of his neck and the giant groaned in pain, taking one hand off of the trident to try to rip the arrow out. "You idiot, you don't take the object out of a puncture wound."
His focus suddenly shot back to me and he raised his trident again, ready to finish what he had started.
But it was too late, riptide was spinning through the air as my arm dropped to the floor, my strength totally spent.
I had just enough time to see the xiphos find deep purchase in the giant's sternum before my vision blackened, and I slumped back into the wall.
I woke up in a pretty comfy bed, actually, a really comfy bed. What did I do this time to be laying here and no recollection of what happened prior?
Oh yeah, the giant, the trident, and a hard wall. I laid in the pleasant blackness for a couple more moments, just breathing in and out and finding the humor in how often this seemed to happen.
Funnily enough, my ribs felt like they were not broken anymore, or at least less broken than they were previously.
I opened my eyes to find myself back in Artemis's tent, a fireplace crackled in the corner and a small canvas chair was next to the bed, looks like someone was a little concerned.
My heart warmed at the thought of her sitting there for who knows how long, truly my favorite goddess.
I felt good enough to stand so I threw the sheets off and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I was hit with a little wave of vertigo, but nothing I couldn't handle; or so I thought.
Maybe I should grab a bit more ambrosia; it appeared that Artemis had left a couple cubes on the table next to the bed, perfect.
I popped a cube into my mouth, thoroughly enjoying the taste of blue pancake. I felt a lot better after a couple seconds, and look, I hadn't turned into a crisp; how fortunate.
I tried to stand again, and this time succeeded. The exit to the tent was only a couple of steps away, and I made the quick trip with ease, I pushed aside the canvas flap and stepped outside into a beautiful day.
The sun was shining, birds were chirping in the nearby trees, and hunters were walking around the camp tending to a fire and carrying around small dead animals.
Wait, hunters? Oh fuck. A familiar voice called across the small clearing; "Percy, what are you doing here? And why did you just come out of Artemis's tent?" Oh great.
"Hey Thals, Artemis sent a message that she wanted to talk to me, do you know where she is?"
The spiky haired demigod started to walk over to me. "Yeah, but why were you in her ten- oh whatever. Yeah she's on a walk I think, she'll be back in a bit. It's good to see you though."
"Good to see you Thals." I gave her a quick hug before pulling back. "Well can I do anything to kill the time?"
"Yeah sure, do you want to grab some more firewood?"
"Sounds good!" I finished before turning around and heading into the woods to grab some logs.
A bit turned out to be around an hour and a half, I was seated around the fire with the rest of the hunters, who were telling stories about their times during the american civil war.
Apparently a couple of them had been shooting from a house at the first bull run, effectively turning the battle for the confederates.
The stuff they didn't teach you in history class, Mr. Brunner had really been slacking.
Our little party, or the hunters equivalent of one was interrupted by the return of Artemis.
She walked into camp, looking pretty torn up. Her shoulders were slightly hunched and her eyes were visibly ringed red.
As she approached the fire she straightened out and totally hid her emotions behind a mask of cheerfulness, wow, she was scarily good at that.
The rest of the hunters noticed her and all waved her over to the fire. She saw me sitting at one of the logs, and for the brief moment we made eye contact, her face was tangibly happier, I guess she couldn't hide everything.
I felt a small twinge of pride at being able to cause that reaction in her by just being alive.
I dropped to a knee and said "Milady." To the approaching Goddess.
"Ah, Percy, I have some important matters to discuss. If you would excuse us." She directed to the hunters, I stood, and we walked back over to her tent; the rest of the group now chatting merrily once again.
As soon as we were behind the canvas flap of her tent her facade dropped and she pulled me into a very tight hug. "Percy, you really need to stop almost dying."
"Believe me, I wish I could." I replied, only partially serious.
"Oh I'm so glad you're ok, how are you up?" We unlocked from each other and I nodded towards the bedside table.
"I just ate a little more ambrosia." She looked at me incredulously, like I was joking, when I didn't say 'Got ya' she looked back down at the table to see a pretty large chunk of the godly food missing.
She looked really concerned for what seemed to not be a huge deal.
"But I gave you the maximum amount, how are you not on fire right now?" The last part turned into a murmur and her head shot back up to face me, her eyes intently studying my face.
"Arty, why is this such a big deal? It probably just wore off so I was able to eat more of it."
"It's not a big deal, it just doesn't make sense." Her eyes suddenly got a lot wider than they were before, and she muttered, almost top herself.
"Oh my gods, you're becoming a go-"
"What was that?" I asked, barely able to hear what she said.
"It's nothing big, you were probably right, the effects just wore off in time or something; come on, you should rest."
I decided that it wasn't worth pursuing further and I hopped back into bed, after only being out of it for a couple hours, although I definitely didn't mind, especially if I was sharing it with a certain adorable hunter.
Her soft body curved around my back comfortingly and I was about to slip into Morpheus's realm when I heard the flapping of the tent's entrance. I immediately ducked under the blankets, making myself as small as possible.
I heard Thalia's muffled voice through the quilt. "Sorry to interrupt you Milady, but do you know where Percy went? I wanted to say goodbye before she left."
"Sorry Thalia, she just left a few minutes ago, she was needed back on the Argo. I'll make sure she gets your message though." Artemis replied, the vibrations from her speaking tickling my back.
"Oh ok, goodnight Milady."
"Goodnight Thalia." Artemis said warmly as she shifted slightly.
The sound of the tent flap closing reached my ears, and I couldn't hold back my laughter any longer. 'You are a really good liar." I said, popping my head back out from under the blankets.
'Yeah, and your laugh sounds like a seal; now go to bed." I happily complied as we resumed our original position and my mind turned blank, uninterrupted this time.
I was ready, maybe not mentally, but definitely physically. My armor attached to its tight fit, riptides familiar weight sat in my pocket and my shield was strapped to my back.
Artemis had commented favorably about the silver accents to part of the armor, which I was very pleased about.
After a tearful goodbye I was standing in the middle of the woods not far from the hunters camp, sneaking out wasn't too hard, given that I had the hunters blessing.
The real hard part came now, how would I even get back to Middle Earth. I had a theory on how to get back, but it definitely wasn't reliable.
Earlier in the day I had given Annabeth a whistle, not unlike the one I was given by Daedalus to call me in case the seven needed help; hopefully it would work, but there was only one way to find out, and that involved getting to Middle Earth in the first place.
I cleared my mind and mentally called out. "Hey uh, dude who likes to talk in my head, would you be able to bring me back to Arda?" For a moment nothing happened and I thought that my plan was absolutely screwed, I wouldn't be able to help my friends, Morgoth would kill them all.
All that however, was wiped away when the familiar voice replied. "Of course Persephone, Once again, I cannot express my gratitude for what you have done for me."
"No problem, My lord? You never really told me what to call you."
"Persephone, on Arda, you call no-one 'My lord'" My world suddenly twisted into a ball, trees were distorted and shot out of sight as I rocketed through all encompassing blackness.
Stars reappeared after a few moments and they streaked by as I moved at unimaginable speeds towards a small aperture of light which grew larger by the millisecond.
The circle opened up into a 360 degree view of the world that I was now falling swiftly into.
Dust and sky blended and repelled each other in the blink of an eye until sharp impact upon my back brought me back to my senses.
My world stopped looking like it was a wild acid trip and more like an organized rational universe.
The blue sky and bright sunlight above me was deceptively peaceful, as evidenced by the head of an orc hitting the dirt a foot away from me.
I lifted my head to see myself in the middle of a battle. Elves and orcs were locked in a tight and deadly embrace.
Someone seemed to notice me laying on the ground and they knelt next to me. Their golden armor was covered in splashes of black blood and deep gouges that looked like they nearly split the metal in two.
The elves' oddly familiar voice stated.
"Here, I'll patch you up." They leaned over me to look for injuries and he made eye contact with me through the face gap in my helmet.
The look on his face quickly changed from steady concern to complete and utter surprise. He took a deep, unsteady breath. "Milady?"
A/N: Hey guys, I was actually planning on making her not return this chapter just for a bit more torture, but I wrote for a couple hours straight and made it happen 3
This was actually one of my favorite chapters so far, super long and cute with some funny stuff sprinkled in there, as well as some pretty big hints, I guess I'll see if you caught them. Thank you all so much for your support, until next time.