Chapter 4: A Nightmare

[Percy's Pov]

I've never seen Annabeth in a more distraught state; nor do I ever want to see her like this again. The closest would be at Siren's island, when I had to rip her away from her most wanted desires.

She was sobbing like a child─it was really painful to watch, and I couldn't even remember what I said to comfort her as I tried my best to do so.

Thankfully, Annabeth did pull herself together in roughly ten minutes or so. She sniveled and pressed down on her eyes several times, before realizing that she was sitting on my lap, and quickly pushed me away.

"Annabeth."

"I'm fine. I was just…Thalia would be ok. We just need to rescue her in time."

"Yeah. Yeah, she is tuff; she'll be fine."

Annabeth nodded and took a final deep breath to calm herself down, then turned to the 'hunters'. I still had no idea what she exactly meant by 'hunters', but one of them was definitely a god, and we were not dead yet so I'd assume they were at least not our enemies.

And speak of which, a group of the girls including the goddess came over to us. I saw Grover being led towards a campsite that somehow they set up while I had my back turned.

Annabeth quickly knelt down and pulled me alongside with her. I followed suit; some gods get picky with being respected and all that, and the goddess─whoever she was─was looking very pissed off at something.

She still kept a mildly straight face as she waved off out bow, and we stood up.

"There is no need for those at the moment; I must say I am deeply sorry for…"

She glanced over at the cliff where Thalia fell over.

"…letting my sister fall. Also for your hand."

"What─oh."

Annabeth clutched her hand with an arrow wound, and a slightest bit of frown appeared on her forehead. The girl with a circlet glared at Annabeth as if that was somehow unforgivable.

She must've sensed my displeasure, as she turned her glare towards me, which became a glower.

"Get your face straight, boy."

"As soon as you do."

The girl was about to snarl a retort, but the goddess held out her hand and she held her tongue. The goddess then took Annabeth's wounded hand, and with a shimmer of silver light it got healed completely in seconds.

"The least I could do for your troubles; I'd like to talk more, but sadly I must answer to my father above for 'direct interference'."

"Your father?"

I asked out bluntly.

The goddess nodded and pointed upwards at the sky. A thick storm of thunder clouds were brewing over, covering over the moon ominously. The cloud itself looked like a stern frowning face.

Then I connected that she called Thalia her 'sister', and she seemed to have a lot to do with moon, which finally gave me an idea to who she was.

"Erm…Lady, Artemis?"

"Yes, young Perseus. And I am afraid I'll have to leave you at the hands of my hunters for now; Zoë─"

Artemis then turned to the circlet girl.

"─They are my guests for tonight. No maiming or harming. Treat their wound and allow them to rest."

"Yes, m'lady."

Zoë wasn't very pleased. Neither was the other hunters that came along.

Artemis sighed, then walked over to the edge of the cliff.

For a second I thought she would jump off as well, but then a flash of lightning stuck over her and she disappeared, only a rumble of thunder left behind. The brewing clouds parted away, and the moonlight shone down on the cliff again.

It was an absolute mess; grounds were turned up inside out, rocks and pebbles littered the floor and giant craters were present here and there.

Zoë looked up at the moon with a concerned expression for a while, before stiffening her jaw as she looked down at us.

"You two, follow me. And you─"

She pointed a finger at my chest.

"Stay away from the hunters."

[David's Pov]

I'm in a love-hate relationship with sleeping.

If I don't, my times being awake becomes miserable. But when I do, I dream stuffs that I'd rather forget, and my times being awake becomes miserable anyway.

So either way I guess it is lose-lose for me. Just like everything else in my life. Except for ma.

But today was a notch up the rest, and definitely worse by comparison.

I was 'existing' in a void of darkness. I use the word 'existing' because I couldn't tell if I was standing, sitting, or lying down.

As I stared into the void, voice of three different old ladies echoed from far away.

"…The boy has no string tied to it. None shall no his life or death…"
"…But a man without a string, it's no better than a sail without a map. A chariot without a rein…"
"…His fate we may not know, but rest assured, his will be the worst upon worst…"

Before I can fathom what was that all about, I was suddenly crushed by an invisible force.

Something I can't make out the form of, but could surely feel with my entire body.

My bones rattled and broke like twigs. The broken shafts penetrating out of my body, ripping apart my flesh and skin from the inside. The pain was unbearably horrifying, but I couldn't scream, or even take a gasp of breath─the force pushing me down was so great, so heavy that my lungs couldn't expand under it.

I strained to keep myself from getting squashed into a meaty soup; as tempting as death was at the moment, for some reason I knew I couldn't just let go. I had to keep it up. Even if all of my bones splinter into thousands of pieces─

Then, with a terrorizing 'pop', everything went black.

I woke up with a startle; I could see a dim gas light hanging at the ceiling of a silvery tent and a gush of relief filled inside; at the very end, I was mostly certain that my eyes got punctuated from the pressure.

As I slowly returned to earth, I was also greeted by a very unpleasant pain at my back. It was as if someone was twisting it with a hot pincer. I gritted my teeth to not groan out and took a look around my surroundings.

It was a small tent made of silver fabric. An old fashioned heater was present at the corner of it, and the air was cozy and warm thanks to that. Apart from it nothing was particularly note-worthy, except for a small table with a shelf that held some herbs and medical equipment like bandages and salves and stuffs.

I was about to move out, just to see where the hell I was, but a clank of metal prevented me from moving off my bed. My right arm was cuffed against a post of the bed.

"…Alright."

There were some kids at the dormitory who'd play a prank that had a similar idea. They mostly used their most unwashed underwear to disgust the victim, but the point was that whoever brought me here clearly didn't want me to leave.

So I decided not to.

I'm not really thrilled at following orders, especially from strangers, but these people─whoever they are─was kind enough to heal me. Anyway, my back was still throbbing and my body was exhausted, so I doubted I'd make it far out of this tent.

10 minutes or so has passed when the entrance flap was lifted, and a girl with a silver circlet on her forehead entered the tent. Her eyes went slightly wide when she saw me sitting on the bed, but it quickly changed back into a stony expression as she sat down on a wooden chair besides the table.

I never took a romantic interest in any of the girls I happened to walk across. They were mostly juvenile delinquents, whom I didn't want to get involved either male or female.

But the girl that enter the tent was…well, very gorgeous. She had soft chocolate brown eyes, a slightly upturned nose and a copper-colored skin. Her dark hair was braided neatly by the circlet, and they looked smoother than the silk tent around us.

I nearly ended up staring at her like an idiot. Instead, I fixed my eyes on the entrance flap, from where several other people also filed in: Underwood, Percy and the blonde girl, and the young girl that got shot at the leg.

"How is your leg?"

"Oh, it's fine now. Thanks for…"

She trailed off, ending her sentence in an inaudible mumble as the girl with a circlet was giving her a stern look. I had no idea what was that about, but I turned my attention to Percy and his…gang?

Maybe 'friends' was a better word to describe their relationship, even though I didn't actually knew them very well. Finally, it was time to get the answers I wanted.

"Who are you people?"

"We-" The blonde girl opened her mouth. "-are half-bloods. And you are one of us."

I blinked at her. She had a stern face as well, but I could tell that she had recently been crying. Then I realized Thalia was missing among the group, but I decided not to ask about that right now.

"I am half Asian, if that's what you mean?"

"No, of course not; you are half god."

"God?"

I recalled that she also muttered about my father being Ares…when that symbol appeared over my head.

"By that you mean the Greek gods? Like, the Olympians?"

"Yes."

"But they are myths."

"No, they are not. They are very much real; and the 'myths' are also something that had happened 3 millennials ago."

"Ok, give me a sec."

I frowned to myself as I massaged my forehead.

My back was still stinging with pain so it was hard to collect my thoughts, and the things this blondie was saying was something hard to take in at the best of my days.

Then, Percy spoke up with a sort of a sympathetic look.

"I know it's hard to believe, but gods are still around. They're immortal. And whenever they have kids with regular humans, kids like us, well…Our lives are dangerous."

"Because of monsters? Like Dr. Thorn?"

Percy nodded.

So that wasn't some sort of imagination. All those crazy things happened for real. Dr. Thorn was a monster. The Greek gods are real, and my father is Ares…

"Alright."

I nodded. All three kids looked surprised at this, even the girl with a circlet raised her eyebrow out of surprise, with only the young huntress looking somewhat impressed.

"Y, you believe all that? Just like that?"

Underwood asked and I shrugged my shoulder, only to regret it instantly as they required moving my back muscles.

"Well, I saw what I saw. I can't deny that, can I?"

"Simple-minded."

The circlet girl spat out at random. We all looked at her, but she in turn glared at all of us, as if she was the only rational person in the tent.

Ok…she's in a bad mood. Would be best not to cross path with her.

Now that I accepted that Greek gods, and the myths were real…I honestly felt excited.

I always preferred the Greek myths above anything else, not just because they had amazing stories about all kinds of heroes, but also the gods are more human-like, instead of 'I am all your savior' Jesus which made them more believable in my opinion.

"So, you're all half-bloods too?"

"Well, Grover is a satyr."

Underwood─no, Grover kicked off his shoes and displayed his shinning goat hooves.

"That's a real hoof?"

"Yes."

"Can I touch them?"

"Um, no."

Grover shook his head, obviously weirded out by the conversation. I guess that would be equivalent to asking someone if I could touch their feet for some reason, which would be a weird request to make.

"My full name is Perseus Jackson. I'm son of Poseidon."

"Wasn't Perseus son of Zeus?"

"Yes, he was. My mom named me after him because he was the only hero that met a happy end."

Oh, that made sense. Also smart.

Most of the heroes ended in tragedies; that was my one gripe with the Greek Mythology. I'd rather prefer to see my beloved heroes triumph in the end, even if some of them had some…questionable records.

The blonde girl introduced herself as 'Annabeth Chase'. She said she was a child of Athena, which puzzled me quite a bit because she was supposed to be a maiden goddess along with Artemis and Hestia. But when I asked about that, she wrinkled her nose and didn't answer, so I dropped the conversation.

I circled my finger around at everyone.

"So, you all work together to─"

"We do not work together."

Circlet girl snapped again.

"We are hunters of Artemis, boy. We only move about with Lady Artemis to hunt foul beasts; do not associate us with something like thee, or that thing."

She pointed at me and Percy in order and the crossed her arms. She muttered something about this entire thing being a waste of time, but she didn't move out or anything either.

What the hell did she mean by 'that thing'?

Percy was also looking perplexed, but Annabeth poked his ribs with her elbow when he tried to ask about that.

"We came here to hunt down the Manticore. We didn't really expect to meet anyone."

The young huntress filled me in instead. At least she was warm enough to answer, instead of snapping and scowling the entire time.

"So if you two are not together, and the hunters of Artemis is here for Dr. Thorn─err, Manticore, then why are you guys here?"

"Because," Annabeth said. "it is dangerous for a half-blood/demigod to live out alone in the worlds. Monsters will attack you at any given moment. You need training to survive."

"Train? Like the heroes did with Chiron?"

"Yes, actually you will see him when we get there."

"I can see Chiron!?"

She winced as I shouted out.

I winced myself as my back gave a painful throb, but I couldn't care less about the wound at the moment; Chiron! He was the legendary centaur who educated such heroes like Hercules, Achilles and Jason, just to name a few, and I get to see him in person!

"Go where, though?"

"Camp Half-Blood. It's where we get trained."

"And it is safe there?"

"Yes. There is a tree that protects…"

Annabeth's face darkened quickly, and Percy trailed away to take a glance at her. Grover also awkwardly scratched his neck, looking at the tent entrance flap. Even the circlet girl sniffed her nose in a rather somber manner.

I couldn't guess what a tree had to do with them to make them this gloomy all of a sudden.

"So, how do we get there?"

"We need to take a taxi. Or maybe Iris message the camp for a Pegasus."

I was about to exclaim again at the fact that 'Camp Half-blood' had a freaking Pegasus, and Annabeth was so care-free like she was asking for an uber driver or something─but then there was a small gust of wind, and a silver deer pranced into the tent.

Percy stood up looking surprised, his hand jumping over to his pocket. But the deer went straight to Zoë, who didn't bat an eyelash at the sudden entrance of a wild animal and lowered her ear next to it.

"Can she talk to wild animals?"

I whispered to the young huntress, and she nodded looking awed.

"Older hunters can do that. I wish I'd learn how too, but they say that'll take decades to learn. I can only talk to equestrians, and they say my accent is terrible."

Before I could ask further about everything this girl just said, circlet girl nodded and the deer scalloped back out. She turned to me with distaste, as if I was a trash bag she had to get rid of.

"Get up, boy. We're leaving."

"Where are you taking him?"

Annabeth asked, as Zoë stood up.

"To Lady Artemis. She has returned, and wants him for an interrogation."

Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, I'm one of those writers who likes OCs in a sense that, they can be damaged however I want, because they don't have any fans or reputation to uphold.

Like, I can pluck an arm off Percy, or kill off Annabeth without facing serious backlashes, but David? Bah! He can lose both his arms and legs without any repercussion!

Well, at least he is getting off easy in TTC.