Mom was Not Happy when she got the call.
"It was to my understanding that you wouldn't be going and searching my son out, Chiron." She bit out, looking unimpressed.
Mom had driven in the second she heard what had happened, and I wasn't even able to convince her to wait until tomorrow morning. Chiron and Grover had both been dragged into what is probably the most teacher-bashing Parent-Teacher-Student talk ever, and I won't lie and say that I wasn't enjoying this a little bit.
"Ms Jackson," Chiron tried to soothe. "Your son has an incredible amount of power, and I only came because it is so noteworthy. The Kindly One's attack was a coincidence, I assure you."
"He's never been attacked before now- why did you let it stay around for so long? I know you are a perfectly capable archer, you could have dealt with it yourself." Mom raised a single eyebrow, and Chiron broke out in a sweat.
I agreed with her; why didn't they try to protect me? Satyrs are supposed to be protectors, but Grover, well, as much as I like him I have to admit he's been pretty useless.
"The Kindly One was sent by a god; as a fellow immortal, I couldn't interfere." Chiron said calmly, albeit slightly nervously. Of course he is, I am fully aware that that isn't an official law. The law in truth states that 'Interference with mortal or amortal lives when you are not their parent, their patron, or the overseer of their domain is done exclusively at the discretion of your king.' That law is often misquoted and misapplied, leading to basically no immortals interfering with mortal lives after the tragedy of the Trojan War, but Chiron is the Trainer of Heroes, and as I am a hero he is allowed to interfere with my life.
"Perhaps we should discuss Percy's enrollment at Camp Half-Blood now that monsters have picked up his scent?"
Mom glowered at him. "He's finishing the school year."
"Uh, yes Ms Jackson but-"
"I don't care. Percy will finish his year at Yancy and then I will drive him to Camp myself for this summer."
"This summer?" Grover nervously spoke up.
"Well, if he doesn't like Camp, then I am not going to force him to go there." Mom said.
Chiron looked like he was going to say something, but thought better of it. "Yes Ma'am, I'll make sure the documents are all filed for his stay this summer."
"Good," Mom nodded, then turned to me. "Try not to get attacked again before Summer starts."
"Yes mom," I grinned mischievously. "Have fun and don't die: got it!"
Mom didn't even bother to admonish me.
oOo
The last two months of school were… Interesting.
In my defensive, how was I supposed to know you're not supposed to test the limit of a Mist formed Pre-Algebra teacher?
My previous assignments, grades, and even class photographs involving Mrs Dodds have all turned into red squiggles, and in an attempt to see whether the Mist could cover the old works I showed Mrs Kerr them, and her smile was really tight as she asked me in monotone to read out what was troubling me. And when I mentioned things we learned with Mrs Dodds and things she did, Mrs Kerr twitched and ticced really violently. During class, I called her Mrs Dodds and accidentally tripped her up; making her talk about owning a motorcycle; and next thing I knew she was seizing on the floor and the paramedics were called.
A new teacher came in the next day, fully mortal and nothing mist-y about her, and Chiron lectured me about messing with magic I don't understand.
Oops.
I got a B- in Maths this year, and I think that's fair considering I traumatised my entire class by stressing out our Mist-Teacher so much she died right in front of us.
In other news, I got an A+ in Latin with Chiron's very harsh marking, so I'm happy.
Happy-ish.
I got expelled again. I don't have a defense.
I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. When my English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. Triton once called Nereis that, so I knew it was a good one.
The headmaster sent my mom a letter that week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.
Fine. Athena was going to make me switch schools next year anyways, and at least we can pick a non-boarding school so I can be with mom more.
Grover and I hung out a lot more too, now with the lies about him being a satyr behind us, we could bond a lot more. We were both in the school orchestra, and in the Enviro Club, so we talked more.
"Bet I can grow a bean plant better than you!"
I didn't grow a better bean stalk, but we did have beanstalk vines all over the room, which was a fun thing to explain to the room inspector when they came around.
We had fun, and I guess that's what's important.
oOo
Mom was waiting with the Camaro to pick us up.
"You boys ready?" She asked, popping the trunk.
"Yep," I replied. "One bag of my essentials, one suitcase to drop off home, and one small suitcase full of Camp stuff."
Grover frowned, "Why did you split it up?"
I shrugged, "Security? Military people always keep a Bug-Out-Bag in case they need to make a quick getaway, and I think that's a good principle for a demigod to have."
Grover muttered something about Athena kids under his breath, but I didn't pay much attention as I helped mom with my bags.
"Grover, do you have any bags?" Mom asked the nervous satyr.
"No ma'am," He shook his head. "Chiron took my things with him on ahead."
I slipped into the backseat, and put my bag on my lap. "So what's the Camp's infrastructure like?"
"What?" Grover stared at me.
"Well, this is a summer camp, right? How many cabins are there? What are the activities? What do you do on festivals and holidays? Am I allowed to take extra days off for specific holidays? What are the accommodations like? Do you have dedicated prayer and temple areas?"
Grover just stared. "I- What?"
A sudden sinking feeling took in my gut. "You know, Olivia told me a bit about Camp, but she wasn't, uh, very in-depth about it. Please tell me you practice Hellenic Polytheism at Camp."
Grover blinked, "What's Helen-nick Poly-thee-sum?"
I turned to mom, horrified. "Please tell me I don't actually have to go."
Mom winced, "Sorry Perce."
I groaned, letting my head hit the window. This is going to be a long few weeks.
oOo
Mom yelped, and my eyes flew open.
I opened my mouth to ask her what's wrong, and instead of a lungful of noxious smoke.
"Out!" Mom yelled, opening the door.
Coughing, eyes streaming tears, I stumbled out after her. I fell to my knees on the sidewalks, struggling to breathe and hacking my lungs out. My lungs were already unfit for air- I'm a child of the Sea, my gills may not be visible most of the time, but they're still there and they mean that any task beyond the expected average mortal human lungs are capable causes a complete system shutdown- the bad air was horrible on my lungs.
Mom quickly came to my side, patting my back and trying to soothe me. "It's okay baby, you're good." Stealthy, she shoved a water bottle under my nose that I quickly downed.
Grover wasn't paying attention to us though, staring wide-eyed and pale at something across the road. His nose was twitching.
I followed his gaze to a fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks.
The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
They were looking right at me.
Oh Philola.
"The Moirai," Mom whispered.
"Do we run?" I asked, terrified. I could feel my fangs slowly appearing, fear settling into my bones. This isn't good.
"No," Mom replied. "Nobody can outrun Fate."
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.
The Fates were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.
No.
Mom screamed, grabbing me and clutching me to her chest. My ears rang. Did that- did that just happen? Did they just…
"Get back in the car!" Mom pulled me to my feet, "We have to go! Now!"
"Ms Jackson-" Grover began, but mom interrupted him with a snarl. "Percy will not die!"
The car was fine and working perfectly again- it didn't take a genius to realise that the Fates had messed with the car on purpose.
I stumbled inside on shaky legs. I just saw my own death. I just saw my own fate. Oh Pontus, I'm going to die.
I'd grown almost resigned to immortal life, especially with the constant insistence by Triton and Athena that I would be a god, and the idea that I wouldn't… It's strange to think about. It's a numbing dread, making my head spiral and thoughts darken, like a tornado at midnight. An unseen threat, but when you can hear the whistling danger from miles away. Death. I am mortal. I am mortal.
A hysterical giggle left my lips. I am going to die.
"Percy? Percy!" Grover looked at me alarmed.
"I'm okay, I-" I broke into giggles again. "I'm okay."
"Right," he looked at me skeptically.
Mom was muttering something under her breath, and I vaguely recognised it as a prayer in Halmaheran. "Hyidi mou, taloavi prostatnus..." She's asking help from Hermes, and I quickly echoed it with a plea to Triton.
'Please, please help us.' I thought, 'Please let us arrive at Camp safely.'
Nothing happened. No warmth or gentle curl of power, or sweet smell of comfort. Nothing.
We're alone.
oOo
We tore through the streets and along country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. I didn't know how my mom was able to do this in the city, but she kept her foot on the gas.
Somehow, we ran into no traffic, and I think Hermes may have something to do with it. I sent him a silent thanks. He may not be able to be here with us, but he can help from a distance.
Mom had driven right past the apartment, telling me that our best chance was Camp because it's an official neutral zone according to godly law.
"It's what?" Grover asked, confused.
"Under section 12 (a) in the Interpantheon Treaty of 1066: No Official Home, Hearth nor Shelter of a Child of Godly Decent may be attacked by a divine being. Camp Half-Blood is one recognised Hearth." I told him offhandedly. "Mom's got a copy at home."
A copy that Athena gave her so she could work out the loopholes for me. Mom put it on top of the cabinets where Hermes couldn't reach because he kept stealing it, and Triton used to laugh when he started hopping to try and grab it, completely forgetting that he's a god. Athena used to shake her head and call her brother an idiot, and he would shoot back that she's just unnecessarily tall, completely missing the point.
My heart panged. I miss them.
A sudden turn brought my thoughts to the present, and I realised that this was the road to Montauk.
"Mom?" I asked.
"Camp's just a few more miles baby," She replied, staring straight ahead.
"Mom!" I yelled, and she did a heartstopping swerve into a side road. "Thioi'ara road works!" She cried out.
"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" Grover yelled out in Greek, and my heart jumped to my throat as my mind automatically translated the words.
Thunder rumbled.
My eyes widened as a sudden sheet of rain fell on the windshield.
"Oh Pontus!" I turned on Grover, "You just gave our location away!"
"What?!" Grover turned the color of milk.
A bellowing noise rose up somewhere behind us, closer than it should be.
Mom pushed the car to go faster.
"Mom," I whimpered, hand closing around the necklace Triton gave me.
For all my training, all my hours going over the best way to fight and to win, I have never fought a real monster. I've only ever sparred with Triton and sometimes Hermes, (and Athena the few times Triton felt well enough to let us without having flashbacks). Killing Alecto was a fluke, a lucky strike that she allowed me to kill her with. I'm afraid to lose.
"It's going to be okay baby," She said firmly.
I don't believe her. I- I've never not believed her before. I'm scared.
BOOM!
I screamed as lightning struck not a few feet away from the car.
"Mom!" I said, grabbing Grover's hand as he also whimpered. "Aidipas! Teisa!" I called out for my brothers, for Triton who always fusses over my scraped knees and Hermes who was always there with a sweet and good advice, for my aunt, for Athena who always insists that I get the best that I can because I'm worth it. For my family.
Mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.
The hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling BOOM!, and our car exploded.
I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.
I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."
"Percy!" Mom shouted.
"I'm okay... ."
I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.
Lightning. We'd been blasted right off the road.
Why was Uncle doing this? Hunting us down like animals. I didn't do anything! I'm not the thief! I just wanna go home!
Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover! Grover? Grover wake up!"
Grover groaned, eyes fluttering open, and relief flooded through me. He's not dead, just concussed.
"Percy," Mom said, "We have to ..." Her voice faltered.
I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road.
Horror slammed into me. The Minotaur.
"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."
My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.
"Move back!" I told her, and twisted the pendant on my necklace, turning it into a spear that I immediately used to break the glass windows.
"Come on!" I told her, crawling out through the window, then helping her do the same with Grover.
Another flash of lightning, and I saw it: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.
"That's the property line," Mom said, pointing. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"I can't leave you!" I told her, desperate and scared.
Don't leave Meti behind.
Yes, I can't.
Leaning on my spear, I slung one of Grover's arms around my shoulders. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."
"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."
"But..."
"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."
No!
"No." I said firmly. "A prince doesn't leave anyone behind."
Triton had told me that once. Twice. Athena had looked away, and Hermes' eyes became distant, but Mom nodded. Mom said that I always had to try.
She swallowed, and we started up the hill.
The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least. I glanced behind me again.
The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows- or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. He'll catch my scent soon.
We picked up the pace.
The Minotaur bellowed in rage. He picked up the Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.
There goes our only escape.
Another bellow of rage, and the Minotaur started tromping uphill.
He'd smelled us.
"Percy… Protect…" Grover murmured, and I shushed him.
The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
He was closing in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.
"Go ahead," I told them, hefting my spear up.
"What?" Mom asked, turning on me.
"Go!" I gathered the falling rain water into a floating sphere for me to use. "I can kill him, go!"
We can. Just be careful.
Mom didn't move, but I shoved her forward.
I pretended I didn't hear her sobs and prayers as I faced the Minotaur again.
I raised my spear, ready to strike. "Let's do this."
He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.
The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. Anger swelled in me instead. This creature can never hurt us. Not as long as I can fight.
Wait. Wait then dodge.
So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The Minotaur stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward mom and Grover.
My heart stopped.
Instinctively, I threw out my water sphere, morphing it into a whip that I wrapped around it's horn and Pulled.
The Minotaur screeched unnaturally as I yanked it down backwards, writhing as the pressure made the horn snap clean off.
"Run!" I told mom, holding up my spear, ready to strike the monster. She stopped at the top crest of the hill, and I think Grover muttered something, because she was suddenly throwing herself across the boundary.
I shouldn't have gotten distracted by mom, because the Minotaur took the opportunity to strike, batting me away with the back of his hand.
I grunted as I was thrown against the big pine tree, hearing the audible crack of my ribs breaking.
Not again! Don't get distracted, that's how you die, even when you think you're safe!
Yes…
I spat out a glob of blood from where I had bit my tongue, and snarled at the Minotaur, fangs out on display.
It roared back.
Charging at me, I lobbied my spear and when it's arms were close enough to grab me, I struck.
Swing.
Swinging my spear in a wide arc, I caught it in the chest, opening a thin yet deep cut that seeped gold dust.
Duck.
I spun out of the way of his remaining horn, then fell on one knee.
Stab.
My spear thrust up into it's belly.
It roared, dying like the beast it was, but it died too slow.
I didn't register the hit until my back was against the ground, and I was rolling down the grassy hill to shouts.
"Percy!" Mom's voice sounded far away and thin… faint…
I coughed, rattling my ribs and nearly making me pass out in pain, and I was too numb to even be surprised when two teeth came away in my hand...
NO! We have to get up! We can't leave them again! Get up!
I wanted to listen, but I was so tired…
I passed out.
A/N
And I'm back with another cliffhanger for y'all! I've got depression and school yet started, so updates may slow to once a fortnight, but I'm trying my best! Also, I read every comment, I do, I'm just slow at replying every comment. Love y'all!
So! As you can see, I'm not following canon at all :D A lot has changed, a lot is still to change, and a lot will stay the same. I'm gonna be switching that 'Light Angst' to just plain 'Angst' cause, uh, whoops? lmao, if it cheers y'all up, I accidentally made the Halmaheran word for 'To Protect' be 'Prostate' but it's pronounced differently! 'Prrro- stat- te' :(
Lore/Translations:
amortal- not fully immortal, aka nymphs, satyrs, hunters, etc
Hellenic Polytheism- Greek Paganism
Philola- Fuck
Moirai- The Fates
Hyidi mou, taloavi prostatnus- My son, please protect us
Thioi'ara- Godsdamn
O Zeu kai alloi theoi- Oh Zeus and all the gods
Aidipas- Brothers
Teisa- Aunt
Meti- Mom
