Chapter 10 (3,188 words)
Soft fingers brushed through my hair. The sweet humming of a nonsense tune drifted through the air, and the light babbling of a lazy river told me I was home. There was no pain here, on the banks of the river, no suffering, no idea of death. I kept my eyes closed for a while longer. I knew I was in a dream, and I knew I was with my mother. It was only with her and her blessing that that constant, —burning, always burning— pain that spiked with every heartbeat faded completely. More completely than when I was with Hestia, more completely than when I tried to forget it was there, drowned by the everyday little joyful things I tried to fuel myself with; its absence was like being submerged in cool water after a long day out in the sun training. When I finally opened my eyes, I was greeted by the cool, blessed darkness of the Underworld, the sweet, calming smell of the River Lethe wafting in from my right. My mother in all but blood, with whom I shared my hair, had my head in her lap, soft, pale eyes peering down at me, the tuneless song coming to a gentle stop.
"What trouble has brought you to me this time, my little πῦρ," she asked.
I sighed heavily through my nose as I replied, "Some kind of weird monster attacked us on our quest."
My mother hummed as she brushed some of my hair over my ear, a feather-soft touch at my temple. She frowned as she saw my memories.
"Yes indeed, that is a rather strange monster." She looked troubled. "In fact, it does not look like a Greek monster. Nor does it bleed and die like one. Troubling."
She glanced into the horizon to where my father should be, the opposite wall of the titanic cavern not even visible.
"Hmm, I will have to ask your father about this. Perhaps, in his… Interactions with the mortals that… Find their way to his river, he may have gained some knowledge of this," she said. I grunted a reply and closed my eyes again, relaxing into her touch, blessed cool and painless. She sighed and ran her fingers through my hair again. We spent what felt like an eternity like that, my thoughts calm and restful. I felt when she played with a strand of my hair, inspecting it, and sighing mournfully as she dropped it.
"I am sorry, my little πῦρ. Our time is up. You must go to your friends once more."
I groaned in despair as I opened my eyes. I saw she had a troubled look on her face, and tears threatened to break through the corners of my eyes. The thought of going back, back to that constant —burning, always burning— ebbing and flowing pain, my heartbeat like a ticking clock to keep track of the tides of that damned river running in my veins… But I couldn't cry. Not yet. I had to help my friends, help them save the world, save my mom. Squeezing my eyes shut, I nodded and braced myself. It was always worse, coming back from here, like jumping back into arctic waters after having dried off and sat next to a cozy fire.
"I am proud of you, my son," I heard my mother say before I felt her take her hands off my head. "Hurry to your father. He has a gift you will be needing soon." And then I was drifting, drifting…
The shrill fluting of reed pipes and a woman giggling, reminiscent of soft wind brushing through the leaves of a tree in spring bloom, were what I awoke to. I was laying in my sleeping bag on top of some seriously soft grass, early morning sunlight streaming down from the treetops at the edge of the somewhat charred clearing, opposite the creepy old house. Even as I looked around, I saw new grass shoots sprout from the burnt soil, and the tree branches above me swayed in joy.
"So that's why you're not allowed in Capture the Flag, huh?" I turned to look at Percy, seated next to Annabeth, eating an energy bar. I saw Grover a little further off into the clearing, blowing his reed pipes and dancing with a beautiful, green-haired woman. Annabeth looked up from my book.
"Yeah, he tends to get a bit… Explosive, when he gets hurt," she said, a teasing grin under concerned eyes. I chuckled and groaned as I propped myself up on an arm, leaving my chest bare to the wind as my sleeping bag fell to my waist. As usual, I had no scars, my skin as unmarred as the day I was born. I checked my arms and torso for the usual signs of loss of control, and finding none, reached into my bag and pulled out my small, hard-cased first aid kit to retrieve a hand-held mirror. I studied my eyes, and while the veins around my pupils pulsed with dim light, I was fairly certain I wouldn't have an 'episode' anytime soon. I sighed as I swept my hair back and tied it into a ponytail using one of the spare leather hairbands I packed.
"Did my boots survive at least?" I asked as I pulled a bottle of water and an energy bar out of my bag.
"Nope," Percy replied, chewing his food loudly.
"Ugh, those were my favourite pair too," I groaned. "How long was I out?"
"Only one night," Annabeth replied, trying to hide behind my book. I grumbled.
"Ok, not too bad, I guess. Annabeth, I'm gonna get some clothes and get changed, so don't look. Percy, make sure Annabeth doesn't look." I ignored Annabeth's indignant sputtering and Percy's laughter as I flipped over, crawled like a worm a little ways away with my bag, and took my clothes out. Swiftly changing into a camp t-shirt, cargo shorts (ever so useful for the endless nasty little pocketses), and some classic Greek sandals (they were the only pair of extra footwear I could fit into my bag), I packed everything back up and turned to my friends. Percy and Annabeth were turned away, facing Grover and the woman, who I guessed was the local dryad that got pissed off from my burning the forest. I noticed the monster we'd fought had decomposed almost completely, pearl white bones gleaming in the sunlight, the roots of a large maple tree growing through it. I turned back to my friends and noticed Grover and the dryad had stopped dancing, and most of the burn scars in the grass were gone. Soon, everyone was seated and packed up, though the dryad was glaring at me.
"So, we got a plan?" I asked the group as I plopped down onto the new grass.
Annabeth shrugged, saying, "We can buy more bus tickets; we definitely have enough mortal money for that. I think it'd be better to take a train though. If we have to fight monsters every time the bus stopped or we had to take a bathroom break, our chances of survival go way down." She reached into her bag for a pamphlet and scowled. "It's really expensive though," she muttered. "We'll have barely enough for anything else if something happens…"
"I think it's worth the risk," I said, peering over her shoulder to look at the pamphlet. "We'd be in L.A. in two days, leaving us a solid two weeks to get back with the bolt. What do you think Grover, Percy?"
Grover shrugged. "A train is fine. We still have all our supplies, and if a monster boards, I'll be able to smell it."
Percy slumped a bit. "I just want to get to Hades as fast as possible. I need to make sure she's alright."
Annabeth laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Your mom'll be fine, Seaweed Brain," she said. "Almost everything I've ever read about Hades says that he's one of the most honourable Greek gods, so I don't think he'll be too affected by modern belief. And now that he knows you didn't steal the Helm, I'm sure he'll keep her safer than she would be out in the open." Percy looked at her and smiled. "Alright. Alright. Let's go catch a train then!" He said, and we all stood up to leave.
Grover thanked the dryad for helping him fix the forest, and the dryad just giggled and pecked his cheek with a kiss (we had to physically pull a dazed Grover out of the forest). The dryad gave me one last glare, pointing to her eyes and then to me several times while I just smiled apologetically.
'It's not like I can control when I spontaneously combust, lady!' I thought as I sighed and dragged Grover behind me.
We filed into the Amtrak car compartment, settling down for the long trip. Grover still had a dopey smile on his face as I loaded our bags into the overhead and he sat next to Percy, a hand still clutching his reed pipes. A few minutes after the train left the station and we were moving at a good pace, I broke the silence.
"So, what happened while I was out?" I asked.
"Well, we couldn't move while you were unconscious, and it was getting pretty dark," Percy replied. "So Grover decided to start playing on his pipes and heal the forest while we went to sleep. The next morning, we made a deal with the local dryad to give her the spoils of the monster we killed, and she'd teach him a few nature songs and magic."
"Huh, really?" I asked, surprised. "What'd you learn?"
Percy nudged Grover, and his eyes cleared up and he wiped a little drool from his mouth.
"Umm, yeah, she taught me a better plant-growing song, a sleep and distraction song, and a minor weather dance."
"Huh. Neat."
Grover went back to drooling, braying and giggling every now and then as he caressed his pipes…
'Wow, phrasing,' I thought, snickering audibly. Percy watched the landscape roll by, sipping absently from a bottle of water, and me and Annabeth sunk into our books for a while. Eventually, I got impatient and started image training again.
'What was that monster,' I thought as I mimed parrying and riposting with a slash. 'It wasn't Greek. If it was, either Annabeth or I would have identified it. It was also somehow resistant to Celestial Bronze, but not actually unharmed by it like a mortal would be. So it had to have had some kind of divine blood… Could it have been—'
My train of thought was interrupted by a sudden, searing pain in my chest, like a muscle fibre in my heart got caught on one of my ribs. The breath was knocked out of me, and I gasped as I doubled over.
"Gwyn?" I heard Annabeth call to me faintly as I struggled to breathe. All the while, fire was surging through my veins, and it felt like the tips of my fingers and toes got dipped in lava. I pawed at my water skin (it was fire-proof, so it wasn't immolated during my 'episode') and tried to pull the stopper out, but my fingers were slipping and I was burning, always burning once again. I could barely think enough to try to concentrate on controlling it, that damned curse of mine. I struggled to take a deep breath, to centre myself and— I was suddenly doused in water, and finally, finally found a foothold. I clapped my hands in front of my chest, putting as much pressure between my palms, feeling the tensing in my chest and back muscles. I focused on the beating of my heart, like waves on a beach, calming it down from the storm it had been whipping up from within. I heard a shrill, yet somehow soothing, piping in the distance, with a simple rhythm that helped my breathing find purchase. Eventually I found my heartbeat easing with my breath, and I glanced up, seeing it had been Percy who had dumped the contents of his bottle over my head.
"What in Hades happened?" I muttered to myself, reaching into my bag and pulling out my first aid kit for the second time in a day.
"Umm, you started going all glowy again?" Percy said. "Then Grover used one of his new songs, and Annabeth told me to splash my water all over you… You okay man?"
"Yeah, I am now— Thanks by the way guys,"
"No problem."
"But that isn't supposed to happen," I said, pulling my mirror out. "Gods damn it," I cursed when I saw glowing red veins pulsing from the corners of my eyes. They smouldered now, like coals from an overnight fire, and my fingertips pulsed painfully in time with my heart.
Percy and the others just looked kind of freaked out as they stared at me.
"Hey, Gwyn?" Grover said shakily. "Is all of your hair supposed to be white? Because not all of it's white." I followed his finger. A strand of black polluted the snowy white that I both hated and loved with equal measure. Hated it because it made me look like an edgy little girl or some edgy fanfic OC that liked anime too much. Loved it because it meant my mother was always with me because it was her blessing that kept the flames at bay.
"Oh shit." My heart dropped when I saw that strand of black. It dropped to my stomach. And dropped even further when I realised what this meant.
"Okay Gwyn, I think we deserve an explanation," Annabeth said, arms crossed. "Why 'Oh shit?' Huh? Is burning a forest down going to be something we do every time we fight a monster? Are you going to combust one day while we're all sleeping? 'Cause, that's a good way to end the world right now."
I slumped back into my seat. "You're right. I need to explain. I'm sorry I didn't before, but it was too personal and I thought it was under control." I took control of the water pooled at our feet. I needed something to keep myself busy while I explained. "So, I'm pretty sure Annabeth and Grover know this, but my father is my godly parent," I said as I absently played with the ball of water. "His name is Phlegethon. He's a river god, and a fairly unique one at that. He's one of the five rivers in the Underworld; the river of fire and punishment. He's also one of the main torturers on the Fields of Punishment; he burns his prisoners alive and heals them after with the same water. What a lot of people don't know, is that he's really old. Like, so old, not a lot of people know for sure where he comes from; I don't think even he knows. He's also been in a relationship with Lethe for a very long time, and, unlike most other Greek gods, has remained consistently faithful to her. In fact, I even read an interpretation of him that was married to Styx!" I chuckled at that memory. It was a very romantic interpretation, almost Romeo and Juliet-like, but honestly pretty accurate to Lethe's and Phlegethon's relationship. "So anyway, because of that, I'm his first-ever demigod child, and no one knew what would happen. Fast-forward a few years after I was born, and my powers came in. Turns out, being the only living child of Phlegethon meant I got the undiluted power of all the literal hell-fire running through my veins. And since I was just a kid, I had no idea how to control it. What you saw in the forest? Yeah, imagine that, except all over my body." I saw my friend's faces pale.
"But… How? How could you survive?" Annabeth asked softly.
"You already know how. You've seen it in action," I replied, smiling wryly.
"So, you were just, burning up and healing back again? Continuously?"
I nodded. "Yeah. At least, that's what my mom told me. I don't actually remember. Which brings me to, well, this," I said, twirling a lock of my hair around my finger. "My mom prayed to whoever could hear, and Lethe and Phlegethon showed up. Unfortunately, Phlegethon couldn't actually take away my 'blessings', and he couldn't give me more. He was able to make my mother immune to the flames, but that's it. Lethe, however, was able to give me a blessing: she bathed me in her waters, and somehow put out that first fire. If she hadn't, I would've been stuck in a loop of burning and healing until I died of old age. She also managed to make it so that if I did start going up in flames again, I could pray to her, and she would put them out. It also made me forget about everything before that day, but oh well. Win some, lose some." I sighed as I twisted my ball of water over my hand, letting the refreshing cool liquid somewhat dampen the pulsing at the tips of my fingers. "Anyway, my mom told me that before then, my hair was black. We figure that Lethe's blessing turned it white, and if it's turning back, well…"
"The blessing is running out," Percy said grimly. I nodded.
"But wait, that doesn't make any sense," Annabeth muttered. "Blessings and curses on that level don't just fade. They can't be destroyed or taken back." We all turned to her. "I don't think the blessing is fading. I think you're growing stronger. You said you started training more, right?"
"Yeah."
Annabeth nodded. "Well, I think you've gotten more powerful. Your body is probably adapting to your growth. You also said you have to meet your dad, right? Well, I think he's probably making some kind of, of focus, I guess. A gift to keep you in control, now that you're getting stronger."
I hummed in thought. It made sense, and the idea had crossed my mind before. But now that I knew Lethe's blessing wouldn't be enough, I was sure. It was a relief, honestly, knowing that I could be saved.
"Alright. So, I guess I'll need to step up my meditation training then, huh?" I said, a thin smile on my face.
"Will that help?" Annabeth asked.
"It should," I replied, shrugging. "I've definitely got more control now. Before I started meditating as part of my training, I wouldn't even dream of doing what I did on the bus with the Furies."
With that, we settled in for the first leg of our train journey, Percy snuggled up in his corner, Grover chewing on a can absentmindedly, no doubt daydreaming about a certain dryad, and Annabeth seated crosslegged in her place, reading her book. I took the time to dive into my meditation more intensively, and soon enough, we had reached our first stop: St. Louis.
AN: Hello again. Apologies for the wait. Here is a new chapter. I hope you enjoy. Just a notice, my update schedule is likely to remain inconsistent. Also, I would also like to stick a disclaimer here: I have not done as much research into Greek or any other mythology I might use as I would like. I will likely take many liberties with the source material. Apologies for that.
Anyway, I just want to note that I was not sure how to end this chapter, which is why it may seem... off. Oh well.
Thank you once again for reading and commenting. If you have any suggestions or whatever, feel free to review. I hope you have a wonderful week. Until next time.