Chapter Three : Everything Changes
Two years later... (Percy is 12 now)
It had been two years since he first saw her and ever since then he kept seeing her more and more frequently, she always appeared in the waves and stayed there for as long as he could keep himself from blinking...
Finally, after two years of hiding this Percy decided it was time to share this with his father, he knew that this wasn't normal, lately, he had been seeing a lot of unexplainable things, water jumping out of the pool, really large dogs with red eyes, mermaids, more water jumping out of the pool... it was time to face the truth... he was going crazy and as long as he hid this it was only going to get worse, he needed help.
It was his 12th birthday so like always, his father was here to visit them. Percy walked the length of the beach until he found his dad sitting on a chair and enjoying the sea breeze, the only person who loved the seas more than him was his father.
"Hey dad... um.. there's something I need to tell you," he said as he plopped down on the chair beside his dad.
"Oh hey Percy," his father said looking up, "What's wrong son? you look worried..."
"Erm... I don't know how to say this... but I think I might be going crazy..." Percy said, looking down at the sand near his feet, not being able to meet his father's eyes.
He felt his father's hand on his shoulder, "Why do you say that Percy?" he asked.
"I er.. I have been hiding things from you for a while... I am seeing things... ah... for five years to be exact... I am sorry but I was just so scared dad, but I can't! I just can't take it anymore, I don't want to go mad." Percy cried with frustration.
"Look at me Percy, it's fine I promise... now tell me what you have been seeing," Poseidon asked.
"Lately it's been weird things like water behaving strangely whenever I am excited or scared, or strange creatures in the ocean, like mermaids and stuff, also weird dogs with red eyes, kinda like hellhounds, I think all those greek mythologies have gone into my head and messed something up," Percy said.
Poseidon nodded in understanding, he had already expected this, it looked like his son had overgrown the limits of the enchanted necklace he had gifted him was starting to subconsciously control the water around him, and the hellhounds made sense too, Percy was an extremely strong demigod so it was only natural that they were attracted towards him, the only reason he wasn't getting attacked until now was because he had stationed invisible Atlantian warriors around the beach and the house to guard his family. Now Poseidon just needed to find a way to explain this to his son without revealing the whole divinity part of the story.
But before he could say anything Percy seemed to gather his courage and said something else.
"And dad there is more... I have also been seeing a Lady..." he said with embarrassment, he was aware of how weird this sounded.
Now this took Poseidon by surprise, he had not been expecting this, "A woman?" he asked.
"Yes... it started when I was seven, that's when I first saw her, erm... It's difficult to explain- It was like when you see random shapes in the clouds, that's how her face appeared to me, only it was everywhere, in the sands, clouds, waters, reflections, everywhere... It's like the entire world is made of her... I don't know how to describe it, it's just so crazy..." he said with frustration apparent in his voice.
Now Poseidon was starting to get worried, being a demigod it was natural that Percy saw weird things but seeing a face like this was not normal, even by demigod standards...
"I was ten when I saw her in real life." Percy continued, "she appeared in the waves, since then I have been seeing her more and more frequently."
"In the waves?" his father asked in confirmation, was it a sea Nymph or Neriad who was trying to drive his son crazy?!
"Percy can you please describe how the woman looks like?" he asked, if this was indeed a Neriad or Nymph then he would have them found and punished for hurting his son.
Percy nodded and looked towards the sea, "Hm... well to get this out of the way, first of all, she is beautiful, like really really beautiful, she is tall and glows like both the moon and the sun at the same time and yet not exactly... she glows ethereally like a form of energy that is from outside the universe... her skin is perfect and actually, everything about her is perfect, her eyes are a mixture of gold and silver that glow so brightly that it looks like they would pierce through the universe, her hair is darker than the darkest dark, so dark that it looks like it is sucking the light from its surroundings, the world bends around her, like ripples from a sonic boom, she wears a red dress with golden patterns, and she holds a crystal dagger that has a purple(ish) glow in her left hand." he finished describing, looking lost in his own thoughts.
All the color drained from Poseidon's face on hearing what Percy said, he had heard that description before, every Olympian had, it was written in the ancient texts, texts so old that even the earliest titans were born billions of years after it... how could it be possible, how was Percy seeing her? No, it shouldn't be possible...
"Um... Son, why don't you go and rest for a bit, I'll explain everything later, don't worry, it will all make sense soon, well perhaps not all, but you will get your answers," he said as he nervously stood up.
"Dad wait! does that mean I am not crazy? do you know what's happening?" he asked.
"I know what's happening to you Percy, I will tell you everything soon, just be patient for a few days," he said, feeling guilty for leaving his son without an explanation.
"Um ok, dad..." Percy accepted half-heartedly.
A few hours later, The city of Atlantis.
"What do you think this means sister?" Poseidon asked fidgeting nervously as he finished retelling Percy's story.
Hestia looked just as shocked as he was when she heard what Poseidon said. She was the only goddess whom he trusted enough to reveal this, she was also the only goddess who knew of Percy's existence.
She thought silently for a few minutes before saying "that might explain how you can meet Percy despite the ancient laws forbidding it... but why would she be interested in him? why would she show herself to him when no one has seen her for billions of years? this doesn't make any sense."
"These are exactly the questions that are plaguing me, what could she possibly want from my son? why take such a personal interest in him? what if what she wants hurts him? I would be powerless to do anything to help my son..." Poseidon said sadly, he was not used to feeling so powerless.
"I cannot imagine what she could want from him brother... but whatever it is, we would be powerless to do anything but observe, she is the creator, she will always get what she wants," Hestia said sadly.
"So what do I do now?" the Lord of the Seas asked.
"I think it's time young Perseus went to camp half-blood, I don't know what his destiny is, but if Chaos herself is involved with his life it's safe to say he is going to have an extraordinary life," Hestia said.
Poseidon smiled sadly, "Yes... I just hope it's the good kind of extraordinary, I have never seen a demigod with so much potential before, even Heracles' aura didn't come any close to his. And even at the age of twelve, he can already hold his ground against my most loyal lieutenant Isidore, an Atlantian warrior with more than a thousand years of experience. But I worry what the fates have in store for him, every great hero has to face his trials..."
"I am sure he would face the bravely" Hestia said, "and for what its worth I am glad you found Sally, I have never seen you as happy as you been in the past 13 years..." Hestia said with a smile.
"Thank you, Hestia, Now I should return to my son... I am sure he has many questions that need to be answered." Poseidon said and flashed out of Atlantis.
Montauk, Long Island, New York 7 PM
Percy stepped outside the taxi and closed the door behind him, he was visiting a Greek Artifacts exhibition near the huge strawberry farms of Montauk, he had read about the exhibition In a flyer that he found on the beach, according to the flyer the exhibition should be just around the corner, he walked down the empty streets for a few minutes before he reached the place indicated in the flyer.
"Hmmm this is strange, where is the exhibition?" he said to himself as he himself facing an empty playground with no signs of any exhibition nearby, he was just about to turn and leave when from the corner of his eyes he saw a pair of blood-red eyes glaring at him, the creature jumped in his direction and sensing the danger, Percy threw himself away from where he was standing, rolled on the ground a couple of times and stood up in his sparring stance, unfortunately, he had no sword on him right now, what sort of weirdo would bring a sword with him in a taxi?
He looked around nervously as more pairs of red eyes started appearing in the darkness, "Hellhounds" Percy whispered recognizing the 'mythical' beast, "How the heck is this possible, Hellhounds aren't real Percy, snap out of it!" he reprimanded himself, thinking that he was hallucinating again, he closed his eyes and shook his head hoping that things would return to normal but when he opened his eyes they were still there, glaring at him.
One of them charged towards him and he was forced to duck beneath the beast, sensing another hound approaching he spun around and gave a powerful kick on the snout of the beast, the third hellhound lunged towards him and he was forced to dodged to save himself from being mauled, his training came into full effect as he defended himself from the onslaught, unfortunately, he knew that without a weapon he could only last for so long before being overwhelmed... it was then that he noticed that his necklace was starting to become warmer and warmer, soon it started burning his skin, seething with pain Percy pulled the miniature trident off his neck, as soon as his hands touched the mini trident, it stopped burning, instead it hummed in his hands before magically elongating into a full-sized trident, immense power flowed into him like floodgates of power had been opened.
"Wha-" before he had time ponder too much another hellhound jumped for the kill, acting on his instincts, he swung the trident in an arc and decapitated the hellhound before it could hit him, instead of falling on the ground the beast exploded into golden dust, pumped with adrenaline Percy swung the trident again before charging forward and impaling a beast, slipping into full combat mode, one by one he took out all the hellhounds with unearthly grace.
Just when he thought it was over he heard a loud bellowing noise as a seven feet tall minotaur stepped out of the shadows followed by a dozen more hellhounds.
"I am toast..." Percy whispered as he saw the mythical monster charge towards him, using the trident Percy blocked the axe, to his immense surprise, he managed to push the minotaur away from him, where was all this power coming from? sadly before he could think about that too much the rest of the hellhounds decided to attack him, forcing him to defend himself from the feral beasts again, he was barely managing to keep up with the hellhounds when the minotaur charged again, Percy was barely able to raise his trident in time to block the blow, he was sent crashing into a wall behind him and he felt something cold wetting his head, he didn't need to check to realize that he was bleeding, seeing the Minotaur come in for another attack he raised his trident to block the axe and felt his arms buckle in protest, he screamed in pain as he felt his muscles tear from the weight, the hellhounds didn't let the Minotaur have him all for himself and lunged at his feet.
Percy screamed in agony as he felt their sharp fangs sink into his legs, he tried to kick them away but with the Minotaur attacking him there was little he could do without exposing himself to the heavy axe that was raining down on him.
His arms felt like they were on fire and he felt his bones fracturing, 'I am going to die...' he realized as he felt his arms giving in.
Suddenly he felt a very fimiliar presence in his mind, which was weird because he never had any presence in the head before, 'I believe in you Perseus' he heard a beautiful voice say inide his head, the voice raised his spirits and he felt oddly energised, somebody believed in him... and for some reason he flet like he could never fail that 'somebody', with renewed energy Percy growled and thrusted his trident forward, he parried the oncoming attacks, and slashed with all his might, his powerful attack immidately disintegrating half of the hellhounds who were unlucky enough to fall in its way, he screamed with rage and felt the ground beneath him start shaking, jets of water started erupting from the surface and like a volcano, hundereds of gallons of water broke through the ground and crashed into the minotaur like a speeding locomotive, the water wrapped around Percy and he felt invincible, he felt the liquid energize ever cell in his body and he felt like his muscles could lift ten times the weight than would be normally possible, he fought like a man possessed, slashing and hacking as he pulverised all the hellhounds in mere seconds, before the minotaur could recover from the water volcano, Percy lept into the air, a stream of water propelling him, he landed on the minotaur, raised his trident and thrusted it forward, impaling the monster in the heart, the monster screamed in pain before disintegrating into golden dust.
The battle was over, he had won...
Percy fell on his knees as he felt the blood loss starting to catch up with him, he felt the trident shrink back into his hands, 'You fought bravely young hero' was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.