AN: So i still can't figure out how to do a line break to clearly separate paragraphs, so bear with me please, im sorry :((
to the guest review: yes, percy is 6, almost 7, whereas annabeth is already 7 at this point. thalia has revealed that she is almost 12. and im not gonna spoil anything else :))
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights go to Rick Riordan
The sound of metal against metal rang out in the clearing, as two people faced off against each other. Well, more accurately, as a young teenager faced off an even younger child.
"No, remember, you've got to hold the knife like this, so you don't get disarmed easily," she explained, demonstrating the grip, before handing the knife back. He copied what she had done, holding the knife with his wrist locked and square, blade in an angled up position. As they were about to start again, a bleat drew their concentration from each, to a goat at the edge of the clearing.
Thalia dropped her ready stance, relaxing her grip on the spear as it changed back into the can of mace. She walked towards the goat, leaving Percy. He looked at her, uncertainty written all over his face.
"You're back," she breathed, reaching out to touch the goat. It backed away from her, bleating again, before turning around and disappearing into the bush. How a goat like that could seamlessly merge into the thicket, Percy didn't know.
"Umm, Thalia? What was that? What did you mean, you're back?" She turned on him, eyes wide. He took a step back, hands up, unsure how to proceed.
"Thalia?" Apprehensive, he raised an arm, waving it in front of her. It seemed to snap her out of the daze she was in. Blinking a few times, she shook her head before walking back towards the safe house, moving the door and entering wordlessly. Sheathing his knife, he trailed after her, unsure of what to do.
He was welcomed with the sight of her packing her bag, stuffing it with supplies, including one of those boxes of cake that she had explained was ambrosia, food of the gods.
"Thalia, what's going on?" Halting her frantic actions, she finally acknowledged him, before letting out a sigh.
"Perce, did I tell you why I was in New York?"
"No?"
"I've been following her for months from Los Angeles. She led me to New York, and then disappeared a couple weeks ago." He stared at her.
"Her?"
"Her name's Amaltheia. She's a sign from Zeus, I know it. She has to be," Thalia looked away, voice becoming more unsure.
"I need to keep following her, sorry. I know this is sudden, but I have to. My dad could be telling me something," her face was set, the conviction clear. She truly believed that her father was communicating with her through the goat.
"Can I come with you? I don't want to be on my own," she looked at him, doubtful, even as he clapped his hands together in a pleading way.
"We'd be travelling across the country, and we won't always be safe and fine. There's a chance of dying, Percy." Her tone was dead serious, trying to convey the severity of what he was asking.
"I don't care, I'll probably die on my own. Take me with you," he pleaded, enlarging his eyes as much as he could. It had worked time and time again, there was no reason for it to fail now.
She broke eye contact, refusing to be persuaded, resuming her packing, though not as frantic before.
"If you promise to do as I say, then yes, you can come," shoulders slumping a little as she caved, reaching to the side, handing Joel's backpack to him. Beaming, he pumped a fist before accepting the bag and filling it with the same things she had.
"I promise, I promise," smiling from ear to ear as he rolled up his sleeping bag.
-Line Break-
Once they were ready to set out, they exited the safe house, Percy eyeing it skeptically as Thalia moved the woven brambles back into place. He wondered if the wind would be strong enough to move it. His unasked question was answered when Thalia somehow hooked it to a few discreetly hidden metal hooks in the ground, anchoring it in place.
She dusted her hands on her jeans as she stood, scanning the area for a particular mythical goat.
Percy squinted as he followed her gaze as it locked onto a white speck in the distance. No way that the goat had gotten there so quickly in half an hour.
He turned to Thalia, but she was already walking away, following the same route she had taken to get to the hideout, in the direction of the subway station. When they had finally emerged back into a civilised area, he was jogging to keep up with her quick pace.
Before he could open his mouth to even voice his question, she told him they had to somehow reach where the goat was last time they saw it. It had appeared to be heading south, meaning they had to go south. When he asked how she had gotten from Los Angeles to New York, she just shrugged before pulling out the multiple wallets and purses he had seen from the night she had found him, almost a week ago.
Despite a voice sounding suspiciously like his mom's telling him it wasn't right to steal from people, he agreed. He wasn't one to judge when he had pickpocketed his own fair share of people in the past couple weeks.
They walked through the streets of New York, heading towards the Grand Central Station where they could hopefully purchase tickets.
-Line Break-
As they paid for the two tickets, the clerk eyed them suspiciously. To be fair, any reasonable adult would be slightly skeptical of a young teenager and child duo paying for cross country tickets without any sign of adult supervision. And to make matters worse, they both didn't look the cleanest; clothes rumpled and dirt smeared, small twigs and leaves in various places.
"So, is it just you two then?" He asked as Thalia handed him a few hundred dollar bills, hand already reaching for the two tickets.
"Nah, our dad's meeting us on the platform. We're coming from mom's," she added as he quirked his eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. Thalia smiled innocently, trying to sell the "good-girl-looking-after-her-little-brother" idea as she nudged Percy's foot with hers.
"Yea mister, my mom let me play in the park, and I even have a stick!" He jumped up and down, unable to see the top of the counter. Thalia warily stepped back as he started waving his knife around in the air, eyeing it as she added on to Percy's lie.
"We were wrestling in the park earlier, and we kinda need to go see our dad so, can we have the tickets please?" Grunting, the clerk slid the change and two tickets forward through the little dome opening in his window. He watched as they walked away; something about those two just rubbed him the wrong way. Their eyes for one, he had never seen any like them. And the boy seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't recall where he'd seen him before. Shrugging, he called for the next customer.
-Line Break-
After a day of catching two different trains and several busses, Percy was exhausted from all the travelling. The food they had packed in their bags would last them a couple days tops before they would need to stock up again. As they looked for a decent place to sleep for the night, he felt chills run down his spine. Someone was watching him. He scanned his surroundings, there didn't seem to be anyone that particularly stood out. Hades, there weren't even that many people out and about.
He quickened his pace to catch up to Thalia who was still walking slightly ahead of him and tugged on her sleeve.
"Thalia, I think someone's watching us," he said, nervously looking around again. She surveyed their surroundings as well, not spotting anything out of the ordinary.
"Always trust your instincts. For now, just keep an eye out whilst I find a place for us tonight," she ruffled his hair before continuing forward, peering down an alley to their left. Almost instantly she fell back as a black mastiff burst from the shadows, glaring down at her with blood red eyes.
"Percy, it's a hellhound! Get back!" Even from her place on the ground with the monster standing over her, she waved at him to leave, keeping her eyes trained on the jaws. It was clear that it would snap its jaws down any second, and he would be next.
Frozen to the spot, Percy watched the slobber slowly drip down from the gaping maw, once again reaching out with his senses for that familiar feeling. Help, something, anything. He found it, the same strange feeling of liquid in his grip, although a lot thinner this time.
He tugged, half expecting for maybe the hellhound to move, but his eyes widened when the saliva suddenly stopped its descent, moving in the same direction as his hand. Yanking his hand in the other direction, a smirk grew as the liquid followed.
He could work with this.
The hellhound tensed, preparing to chow down on the demigod snack in front of it, when it's eyes widened; confused as to what the floating strands of liquid in front of it were. Thalia opened her eyes when the pain she had expected didn't come, gazing up at the floating saliva before grinning as she expanded her spear and stabbed it into the paw closest to her.
The monster yelped as it stumbled back, leaning heavily on its other limbs. Its mouth suddenly started opening and closing and it gave a confused grunt as it backed up, spittle flying everywhere as the jaws continued snapping together. Rising, Thalia glanced back at Percy, eyes widening as she watched his hands clamping up and down together. Turning back, she watched as the hellhound's mouth copied his actions.
"Hey Perce? How're you doing that?" Going to stand beside him, she looked down, waiting for his reply. His only response was to stop the clamping motions, raising his hands and then slamming them down in one swift motion. She watched as the saliva collectively rose, before smashing down on its head, enough to knock it down. Acting quickly, she threw her spear, the aim true as it sunk into the underbelly of the hound. They watched the hellhound slowly melt into shadows, soaking into the pavement before it faded away altogether. Striding over, she grabbed her spear from where it had dropped after the hellhound had faded away, before turning to him expectantly.
"Well?"
"Remember how I told you Smelly Gabe killed my mom and the police wanted me, so I had to run away?" She nodded, waiting for him to continue. He looked down, unable to meet her piercing eyes any longer.
"Well, I may have killed him," he muttered, hand gripping at the hilt of the knife. He hadn't taken it out of the sheath the entirety of the confrontation, something that just occurred to him. She stared at him; this was new information.
"Wanna tell me how?" He looked up at her with tears in his eyes before shaking his head.
"That's okay, you can tell me when you're ready," ruffling his hair, she looked around, before gazing down the alley again.
"Actually, this doesn't look too bad. Wanna just camp out here tonight? I'll take first watch," shrinking her spear, she replaced it in her pocket before leading the way into the alley.
When they were about halfway in, they came across some empty crates, and Thalia started arranging them to form a makeshift bed. She gestured for Percy to climb onto it and watched as he pulled the sleeping bag out, helping him spread it over the crates. She settled herself into the little nook she had made in between an extra crate and the wall of the alley, muttering a prayer to her father for protection.
"Night kiddo."
-Line Break-
They spent the next month following the goat across the country until they found themselves in the nature reserve outside of Charleston. Thalia described the dream she had had the night before to Percy. Apparently, they needed to find some kind of cave in the reserve, and it would lead them to help.
Percy understood that demigod dreams could be prophetic, or messages from the gods, she had explained this to him. Combined with the fact Amaltheia had led them there, there was no room for debate. Percy's doubts about the dream were dispelled when they finally found the opening of a massive cave in the mountainside and saw the goat standing outside.
Upon their arrival, the animal promptly bleated once, before trotting inside the cave. Exchanging glances, they crept forward, senses alert, eyes peeled for any signs of danger. When they reached the mouth of the cave, Thalia reached into her pack and grabbed out the torches they had stolen from some Target, handing one to Percy before switching on her own.
Looking over his shoulder one more time, he followed her in, their torches lighting up a few feet ahead of them. The light of the sun slowly faded away as they headed deeper into the cave until the torches were the only source of light. The darkness seemed to swallow the beams of light as they shone the torches around, trying to see where the goat had gone.
Thalia abruptly froze, switching off her torch, widdly gesturing for Percy to do the same as she held a finger to her lips. He clicked the button and they were immediately encompassed by the darkness. He strained his other senses now that his eyes were useless until he heard it. Footsteps. Very faint, but they were there. And they weren't his or Thalia's. He felt her hand on his arm, slowly pulling him along until he felt the roughness of the cave wall. They stood there, barely breathing, waiting for this mystery person to walk by.
Finally, after waiting for what felt like eternity, they saw light glimmering in the darkness, growing bigger and stronger until it was only a few feet away. Thalia had her spear out in a flash, holding it out towards the newcomer, a silent warning.
They slowly raised their hands, and Percy finally got a look at them. It was a boy, maybe around thirteen or fourteen, with shaggy sandy hair and blue eyes that glinted in the dim light. He had a sharp nose and upturned eyebrows, although they were currently raised.
"Woah, chill, put the spear down. I'm harmless," he said, wriggling his fingers and making the single light source from his torch spin around. Thalia switched her torch back on without lowering her spear and shone it at him, ignoring the way he squinted his eyes at the brightness.
"Who are you?" she demanded, thrusting the spear forward towards him. Percy switched his torch on as well and looked behind the other teenager to see if there was anyone else.
"I'm Luke Castellan and I take it you two are demigods like me?"