24. Rescue Operation

Last Chapter-

He disappeared out of the room, leaving only the scent of the sea.

What they didn't know is that it will be a long time before any of them could see him in person again.

Percy / Rimor's pov

Percy mist travelled out of the apartment into a random alley. He swayed slightly but steadied himself by grabbing the wall. Seeing Nico and Leo had been... unexpected.

He had definitely missed them; they were part of his family but seeing them just then brought up bad memories. He may act like he's moving on but he knows deep down he never wants to see all of the ones that had betrayed him ever again.

He knows he would be able to handle it. His nightmares had only recently stopped completely. He felt so vulnerable with them and their betrayals stung even if they might have been slightly influenced.

Although Nico and Leo were a few of the ones who didn't betray him, it still hurt when he remembered about camp. The memories he had fought to repress had come terrifyingly close to overflowing. So, he got out of there as fast as he could without causing suspicion.

He slowly slid down the wall and brought up his knees as he curled into a ball. He didn't know how long he stayed that way, lost in his thoughts.

Suddenly he heard footsteps coming closer in the alley. He dived behind a trashcan to observe what was happening. A black blur jumped past the trashcan followed by two burly men. One was short and muscular while the other was lean. They were both mean-looking and the shorter had a scar going down his chin. The men cornered the animal which looked like a black cat but different.

"We have to get this nasty little fella back to its filthy cage with all the others. The boss was not happy that it escaped," the shorter one said.

"This little kitty is going to get us a lot of fortune. Aren't you kitty? Yes, you are, yes you are," the other one cooed at the cat which growled in response.

Percy felt disgusted at the two men who were clearly animal poachers. He didn't know what was so special about the cat. "It must be a rare breed," he thinks

The men were continuously goading the cat and laughing at it. It hissed and growled every time they came to a step forward. Percy slowly came up behind them, summoned his twin knives using his watch, and struck both of them with the hilt on their heads.

The men staggered and fell unconscious to the ground. He would've faced them head-on but he didn't want them to know his face since he wasn't going to kill them even though he'd love to.

He slowly approached the cat. He couldn't see much of its features in the dark along with the fact that it had black fur. He could see its piercing violet eyes though and a scar that ran along with its foreleg and he noticed an injury on its paw.

It backed away till its tail hit the wall and growled viciously. That was the time that Percy noticed its very sharp teeth. He bent down to its height and offered his hand. "I won't hurt you. I just want to help you," he said softly.

For a moment the cat just stared at him as if judging his worth. It then slowly limped forward and rubbed its cheek against his palm. Percy smiled and carefully took out a healing potion from his backpack and gently poured it on the injury.

The cat hissed slightly as the liquid poured onto its injury. The wound slowly encased into itself and closed fully as if it was ever there leaving only a small cut.

The feline then licked his palm once and ran to the entrance of the alley and gestured with its head to him to follow. He grabbed his backpack and ran to where it stood silently and looked at what it was gesturing. It was a long circus truck parked inconspicuously where no one would pay it any attention.

"That must be where the other animals those goons were talking about are being kept" he muttered to himself.

He turned to the feline and asked, "Do you want to come with me free them, or do you want to stay here?"

The cat only rubbed its whiskers on his legs. "Okay then." He gently picked up the cat and mist travelled to the alley behind the truck. He put the feline down and put on his cloak just in case he's spotted.

He sprinted to the truck's end and opened the door which was surprisingly unlocked.

He silently jumped inside and closed the door, only keeping it slightly open. He then brought an organic light bulb that looked like a glowing fruit. The sight in front of him horrified him, there were all types of animals in cages both big and small.

One cage had an underfed albino lion and another had two zebras along with a rare polka-dotted zebra. One cage that was tied to the ceiling contained all kinds of different birds. One was a glass cage that had a tired looking mole type of creature except it was fatter with a long snout and a pocket in its stomach. It looked like it had lost all its hope. All the animals looked like that. As he went a little deeper, he came across a very large cage containing three majestic looking horses and this was what shocked him the most- a Pegasus.

This made him wonder if the poachers were actually mortals or not. As soon as the Pegasus and the horses saw him, they started neighing excitedly.

Lord, free us.

Lord free us.

Save us, Lord.

Help us.

"Calm down, please you'll alert the other poachers," he hissed at them in his mind.

They stopped making noise and the Pegasus came forward.

Help us, Lord. These humans have captured us for a long time. We have been kept in these cages for a week.

"Are these humans' mortals or are they ... half-bloods?" he whispered the last word.

From what I've seen they are mortals. They think I am some horse. The Pegasus snorted sounding offended at the word horse. Though one man who only visited once was staring creepily at my wings. Don't think he's a half-blood though. He added as an afterthought.

Percy let out a sigh of relief and cast a concerning glance over the other caged animals. "What's your name?" he asked while petting his mane.

Jack, milord.

" Please don't call me, Lord. How long have the others been here?"

Jack completely ignored his first statement. Hard to say, Lord. The lion has been here at least for a month. The birds were put here indefinitely, the zebras were passed around for a while. They came from Kenya. The niffler, it's weird, it was caught in Britain.

Percy turned confused, "Niffler?"

He felt a jab on his leg, he looked down to see the black feline shake her head towards the glass cage containing the mole-like creature. "Oh."

Woah, the tiger cub looks attached to you, Lord.

Percy felt so confused. "Tiger cub? What?"

Jack neighed which sounded a lot like laughter. The black feline next to you is a rare melanistic tiger. She is very protective and doesn't let any humans get close.

Percy suddenly felt very stupid. He had grown attached to the feline even if they had met very recently. A tiger had to live in the wilderness and stay with its family. Being a rare breed of tigers made it all the more important for her to stay safe ...in the wilderness.

He felt saddened at that prospect but he reminded himself that it was the right thing to do along with freeing the others.

He remembered the time when he had done something similar in his first quest. At that time, Grover was able to give them the blessing of the wild to find their way home but right now, there was no satyr to do that so he'll have to take them back individually.

This was definitely going to drain him. 'Good thing I have a lot of energy replenishing potions then,' he thought.

It was a tedious task, getting everyone to pass their home address to Jack and then mist traveling each of them there. The zebras helped out and so did the other horses since those were the only animals with whom he could communicate.

The niffler (what kind of animal is that?) Was he asleep when the school tried to teach him about them? It seemed that the only one who could understand a whiff of what it was saying was Jack. None of the others could understand it at all. They kept saying it was different.

He kept trying to make it come out of the cage but it just sat there with its dull beady eyes. It was seriously starting to creep him out.

Just then the doors of the truck flew open and he came face to face with three burly men, two of which he had rendered unconscious while protecting the black tiger and had visible knots on their heads and were looking quite angry.

Percy knew that he could probably defeat them, but it would cause a scene that he did not want. Then something unexpected happened, something that he would remember in the future with amusement.

The niffler got on his feet quicker than he could say 'Blue cookies' and jumped on his head using it to propel it into the air, its beady eyes red with rage, and landed on one of the thugs' faces and clawed at it.

"Aarrggh!" he screamed in pain as the claws of the li8ttle mole dug into his face and tried and failed to get it off.

The other guy tries to help him but the niffler was faster it dug its claws out and jumped on him punching him on the head which surprisingly made him stumble and fall.

"Oomph! Get off! You stinking rat!"

The third man just stood there glancing between his friends and him. So, Percy decided to help him. He grabbed a pebble from his bag and threw it with deadly accuracy and hit him on his forehead, creating a bump and knocking him unconscious.

Percy then sprinted over to them to see a fantastic sight. The niffler was sitting on the man unconscious on the left and a shiny coin in its claws. He couldn't have been prouder and a bit frightened.

"Good job, buddy," he told the small niffler. "They so had it coming."

He then grabbed the creature to keep it from running away and mist travelled to Britain and let it go when it started getting excited. He waved goodbye and mist travelled back to the truck.

He continued getting all of the animals back to their habitats. He took breaks in the middle and talked to all of them. Something he learned was that Jack has a very weird sense of humour and that the black tiger cub had lost her parents when they resisted capture and was never given an actual name. So, he gave her the name Skia which meant shadow in Greek. He thought it was cool and she did not object at least Jack didn't tell him if she did. He had also officially adopted her though how he would get her to Mori would be troublesome.

At last, it was Jack's turn to leave the wretched truck as all the other animals had been brought to safety except for Skia who stuck with him. "You ready for freedom once again?" he asked the excited Pegasus.

Oh yeah. These wings were made to fly baby! He exclaimed as he extended his wings.

"Are you sure you don't want me to mist travel you?" Percy asked again.

Don't worry, milord. I will fine to go on my own from here. Besides I am going to Camp Half-Blood. I heard gossip in the stables that you were most likely to never return there.

Percy's mood dropped but he forces a small smile onto his face but a real one grew as he remembered the excessive gossip the Pegasus participated in. All the secrets they learned while in the air. He remembered his loyal friend Blackjack. One of the things he had always regretted was that he could never tell him goodbye before he left. An idea pops into his head.

He summoned a bag full of a dozen donuts. "Hey Jack, I have a dear friend in Camp Half-Blood. He's a Pegasus named Blackjack. Would mind giving him this bag and giving a message?" he pleaded.

No problem Lord.

Percy shook his head at 'Lord' and fondly recalled the times Blackjack had refused to stop calling him boss. "Tell him that boss misses him and that I am sorry I left him there but it was good for him. Oh, and if you ever happen across another demigod daughter of Poseidon named Arya tell her hi from Percy," he tells him.

Jack agreed to pass on the messages and donuts and flew off into the distance while Percy watched the dot in the sky become smaller as the distance lengthens. The purr and nuzzling of Skia against his legs made him gently scoop her up as they watched the horizon together.

"Someday we'll come back," he told her softly. She let a sound of agreement as he burrowed in his chest. 'The compass teleporter probably should be able to teleport us both to Mori,' he thought.

He put in the coordinates and in a soft flash of light they were on Mori. Skia looked very green. She hopped down from his arms and puked her guts and stared at her surroundings. She observed the forest region and looked at him in approval.

"Welcome to your new home, Skia." He grinned.