Chapter 2

I stared down the mouth of the monster, in what seemed like slow motion, contemplating my life, as one does.

I thought about the little things that lead me here, to this moment.

Maybe if I had slept in today, I wouldn't be here, I thought.

But here I was looking down the worms throat that was filled with teeth. Had to be at least a thousand.

"Well I should probably do something." I thought to myself.

I simply snapped my fingers, and closed my eyes, hoping I wasn't too late.

Nothing.

I suppose I wasn't, as it had been a good ten seconds and I was still alive.

I slowly opened my eyes to see the massive worm, lifeless, and decomposing quickly.

And not too far behind it was a massive 20 foot tall Odontotyrannos (A/N: For those wondering, the beast who guarded Orcus's cave, no real natural way to explain) and in its mouth was the head of the killer worm.

I got up from the ground and dusted myself off, noticing a bit of blood on my arm. I simply wiped it off before putting away my scythe.

I looked up to see the worm, completely gone leaving behind only it's three foot long fangs.

I choose to ignore the teeth, as I already had plenty of "souvenirs".

I finally made my way over to my "big friend", who was now busily chewing on his worm tooth.

The beast immediately stood to attention as soon as it noticed me approaching.

"You are dismissed." I said. "And yes, you can take the bone with you."

The big beast gave off a happy yip, how with a horse snout is unknown to me, and turned into a small blue wisp.

The wish flew around the air, before flying straight into my chest.

Before you freak out, let me explain.

As you already know, I am the son of Thanatos. And right now I currently have a very important under-worldly relic in me known as the stone of souls. I had been born with the stone, but had just found out last year.

What is the stone of souls, you may ask? Well in the words of Deimos, "It is sort of like a prison, or some sort of cage. And inside resides the worst souls of the most dangerous creatures."

And after a year of training, I've learned how to control (some of) these spirits, and make them serve me, though some gave more trouble than others.

And over the past year or so, I've been hunting down some of the scariest Greek monsters imaginable, and adding them to my collection, the big beast that had saved me being one of the tamer ones, believe it or not.

"Shame." I thought to myself. If I had plaid my cards right, I could have added the giant worm to my collection.

But there was no point in getting mad over something that could've been.

I made my way back the path I had come from, traversing the ruined earth the worm had left.

Though I was kinda mad at Deimos for sending me here without warning, I wasn't going to leave without these worm eggs.

I had almost died for them.

I picked up as many worm eggs as I could, and stuffed them in my bag. It was crazy to think these things that I could almost fit into one hand would becomes five times my height.

As soon as I had collected all the eggs I looked up at the sky.

"You know, I wouldn't mind a ride!" I yelled out.

I waited...

One second...Two seconds...

Nothing.

"Guess not." I mumbled as I made my way out of the ditch. "Guess I'm walking." I said as I trudged down what was left of the the forest path, wishing for company.

*Twenty Minutes Later*

I walked through the front door of my house, unlocked as usual. Wasn't too much to worry about when you lived with a god.

I made my towards the kitchen to find Deimos munching on fruity pebbles as usual watching something on his phone. And of course at his feet was our 7 foot long pet, a hippogriff.

"Your back, I see." He said, keeping his eyes on his phone.

I threw my bag filled with the worm eggs in his lap.

"Your eggs." I said stoically.

"Wow, you actually brought them back. I kinda forgot about them." He said,, eyes still on his phone.

"What do you mean you forgot? I risked my life for those, you know?" I said.

"Yeah yeah, but did you kill the skolex?" He asked, looking up for the first time. "Or did you capture it."

"Skolex? You mean the giant worm?" I asked.

"More commonly known as the Indus worm, but yes, the giant worm. So what did you do with it?" He said going back to his phone."

"I had to kill it, it was too dangerous, but I could've gotten it if I had known it was gonna be there." I said slyly.

"I guess, doesn't really matter though, cause that one wasn't even full size." He replied.

The fact that the twenty foot beast wasn't "full size" gave me chills.

"What do you need these eggs for anyways?" I asked, curious.

"They make a great omelet." Said Deimos casually. Over the years he had gotten me hooked on Greek monster cuisines, sadly, so I wasn't to upset.

"Whatever, but couldn't you at least have sent Icarus to pick me up? I know you heard me." I asked referring to the golden/brown hippogriff at his feet, who chose to ignore me.

"What can I say, I guess he just likes me more." Said Deimos with a smile as Icarus snuggled closer with his feet.

Unlike his late mother, Icarus wasn't as majestic as the myths made hippogriffs out to be, something I believe is related to the fact that Deimos more or less raised him.

I don't know what it was, but Icarus has always preferred Deimos over me.

Which that alone didn't bother me to much (though Deimos loves to say it did), but in cases such as this, where I needed Icarus for a ride or assistance in battle, he would much rather stay by Deimos's side.

Times like these made me miss Wylo.

"Whatever, Deimos, I'm going to my room to take a nap, try and be quiet, at least." I said making my way over to my room.

"Uhh I'll try." He replied, letting me know he was going to be as loud as possible.

"At least save me some omelet." I called back.

No response.

With a sigh I closed my door and jumped on my bed, too lazy to switch my clothes.

Despite living here for a year, I hadn't changed my room very much. I first thought I should paint it all black and hang up some heavy metal posters, or something to really embrace my heritage, but quickly talked myself out if it.

All I had really done to customize was add a nice little rack where I could keep my arm.

Ahh, yess, my arm. I had promised to explain.

But there wasn't too much to explain, in all honesty. Simply put, last year, when I had just found out about my demigod heritage, I was involved in a very important battle. In said battle I had severely damaged my left arm, and to keep me alive, Deimos had cut it off.

Though it doesn't sound great, it really did save my life.

But obviously, an arm was very essential when being a demigod, so Deimos had called in one of his godly friends to create me a "magical" arm.

Besides the fact it didn't look too normal, the arm wasn't too great for battle, only everyday activities.

But after enough training, it worked just fine.

But of course, nothing is free.

As it turns out, Deimos's "godly friend" was none other than the Olympian god Hephaestus.

And even though Deimos was a god, Hephaestus was an Olympian, a whole other level. And he wasn't too happy to give Deimos a free gift on the spot, but apparently he had convinced him to hand it over.

But as I said, nothing is free. Very shortly after I had acquired this arm, Hephaestus had told Deimos that we were in his debt. And because we were both completely broke, we had to repay the Olympian with materials.

So in between training sessions, me and Deimos were out in the Greek world, hunting down powerful monsters in order to harvest their spoils to return to Hephaestus.

Which proved to be quite difficult, despite a god by my side. I had still yet to make one of these beasts part of my collection, something hope to accomplish.

And though I had never met the god, he certainly seemed to not like us based off the things he had sent us to do. Many occasions nearly ended with my death, and though Deimos couldn't die, he had come pretty damn close.

But even after a year, Deimos had said that we weren't even halfway through our debt.

But I didn't mind too much, as I really don't have much more going for me. Without these adventures with Deimos, I would have nothing in life.

Even though he sometimes got me in bad situations, I was grateful for Deimos. Though we were casual with each other, Deimos was a god, a quite respected one two, and I was a demigod.

I know some other gods, including Phobos, Deimos's brother, found it weird that Deimos was so hospitable with me.

I don't know what it was but long ago, in Ancient Greece, Deimos along with his brother, had done something that made them quite respected for minor gods.

But despite all this Deimos continued to stick with me, and eventually Phobos warmed up to the idea of a demigod friend.

And with their help, I was able to steer clear from...him.

But these thoughts were too much to think about after a long day of "work."

With my eyes getting heavy, I placed my arm on my rack, and laid back down, deciding to get some sleep.

And it wasn't too long until I fell into a deep slumber.

And to my utmost surprise, I was met with dreams for the very first time in months.

And they weren't very pleasant.