Hello people! AN at the end as always. Enjoy!
T.I.

Chapter IV

The girl never stopped, even when she spotted him, and when her eyes met his Percy felt some sort of tension building, making his body taut and ready to react to any sort of situation that might occur. But, behind all of the readiness and anticipation, Percy also felt something else. A sort of connection he couldn't explain. Like the safety you feel when you walk around with a friend or parent, a sort of bond. As her eyes finally let him go, his stare was finally free to arrange her image.

She wore a purple blouse and simple blue jeans, slightly ripped around her knees. Her hair was the color of the night and her eyes like shiny obsidian, ready to cut with a stare. Percy never knew he could think in such a poetic way, but didn't ponder on it for too long. Maybe those history lessons with Mark made him feel a little old fashioned. Extremely old fashioned.

The next thing Percy noticed was her supple light caramel skin and her rather athletic build if her jeans didn't lie to him. A runner, perhaps. But the weirdest thing that occurred to him was the air around her. An invisible wall of concrete. He felt like if he'd try to get anywhere near her he would be blocked mid-step by a force field that would shut him out. Just who was this girl? Percy wondered.

She got ever closer to him, close enough for him to reach a hand, and even talk to her. The girl, sparing him another glance now that she was closer, went around him and continued walking. Passing him and heading towards the streets above, leaving Percy alone with the view of the calm ocean and the golden setting sun. Talk about anti-climactic.

Percy turned around and watched her continue walking, her steps feeling almost deliberate to him. Her silhouette fading away.

Thus far Percy felt rather content with his life. Apart from some minor problems and annoyances his life was rather peaceful. It could've certainly been worse. He had a mother that loved him, a home and a nice room, and he was finally getting into a subject at school that he found bearable and even interesting, especially with the added mystery of his random and odd teacher. Percy felt happy.

But of course that fate has a way of messing up Percy's life whenever he felt too good, or things were going too much in his way.

It was getting dark, and Percy was still sitting on a large rock on the edge of the ocean, trying to piece together the strange occurrences that were constantly creeping up on him lately. It was the last day of the month, and the full moon greeted him as it started to rise on horizon, washing Percy and the surrounding beach with a soft calming light.

As his thought ran again and again in his head, Percy failed to notice the ever rising moon reach the pinnacle of the highest point of the zenith, but at the moment it did, what happened next sure did get his undivided attention.

His thought ran from Mark to the mysterious girl that he saw, when the waves began to pick up. At first gently and over time. Small waves that lapped at the rock got a little more violent, adding speed and beginning to crash harder against the rocks, sending drops of sea water all around.

The droplets that hit Percy seemed to have severed his line of thought, and got him back to reality. And that was the moment he saw just how close the moon was. It was unnerving and spectacular for him at the same time. The moon, now seeming so large that it almost covered the sky, lit the area in an intense light. Percy wondered if people were taking photos, and then remembered that it might be the lesser information he needed to know right now.

The waves grew ever more violent, now becoming as tall as Percy and hitting the shore like a sucker punch to the face, which made Percy move back even more, running from the large rocky platform towards the relative safety of the beach.

Percy thought he might be dreaming again, so he pinched himself and yep, definitely real life. Another large wave crashed, taking a large chunk of the rock with it. Percy was starting to get a bit scared, if not panicked.

In the horizon he saw an even larger wave coming, intimidating and stronger than the ones before it, and he knew that if he was anywhere near the beach when it hit he was done for. No more genius Latin teachers of intimidating-yet-somehow-cute obsidian eyed girls for him. And so he began running like his life depended on it. Because they really depended on it at the current situation.

Percy was no Olympic runner, but he was in an okay shape and could outrun a few people if he really tried. As he ran he felt that weird feeling he got whenever adrenaline was pumping throughout his body. As if he was faster, stronger, sharper and all around better when he was in this state. He felt like he could take on a truck head on and make it out alive. A good thing too, because just as he had the thought, the wave hit him straight on like a ton of bricks.

At first it felt as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders as the massive torrent of water hit him. And as the wave drew him back, he tumbled across the sandy floor, making him disoriented and confused, as well as painfully aware that he received several bruises in the process. Definitely no dream then. Not cool, ocean.

The shore got further and further away, and Percy tried to hold whatever breath was left in his body inside of his lunges as he didn't really feel like drowning at the moment. He tried his best to use his body to swim away back towards the shore, but a current only drew him further and further away, towards the depths.

Percy was now in full panic mode. He was having trouble holding his breath any longer, and he had no idea how far he was from the shore already, as the strange current took him away.

He was on the verge of passing out when he saw it, and whatever breath he had left in his body was taken away. There - in whatever part of the ocean he was in – sat on the ground near a large coral reef, was a massive, glowing and literally breathtaking woman.

Sitting near a massive coral reef, he saw schools of fish and other aquatic creatures amass around her, swimming near and around her. The clothes she wore seemed to Percy somewhat outdated, like the clothes he saw once in a picture-book about Greece and Rome.

Her skin was white as marble, almost statuesque. On her head there was a crown of some sort, made of… leaves? Percy didn't know for sure. Her weird clothes were white as well, and her eyes were closed. Percy wondered about that. And yet somehow, as the current got him closer to her, and small fish started come towards and swim near him, the woman's closed eyes seemed to be entirely focused on Percy.

The next thing that Percy felt, as soon as the woman "looked" towards him was sheer power. He felt it in every fiber of his being. Whoever this woman was, she wasn't human, and Percy's senses told him to run… or swim, as far away as he could, or he'd die faster than the amount of time it took him to blink. Duly noted.

The woman's mouth, that was about four times bigger than Percy, opened and she began to speak. "Hear me, Perseus Jackson. A great fate lays on your shoulders. The gods count on you for survival. Hear my words, and proceed to your destiny. So proclaims Alethea:" The giant woman said, and Percy understood, although it sounded like English to him, he knew that this couldn't possibly be English. As so he listened to the rest.

"The city eternal again shall rise,
To save your kind from their demise.
The olden crown of golden leaves,
Will seek truth from the one who gives.
The son of the sea it holds at bay,
The sword of the philosopher that leads the way."

As the woman spoke, it seemed to Percy as if all has gone still. As if the world stopped whatever it was in middle of just to listen to this lady giant spit some rhymes that made no sense whatsoever. As the woman finished speaking, Percy finally noticed something else. He was breathing.

Now, that would've been all well and good if he was currently on land, preferably on his bed, and dreaming away another weird dream that involved golden eagles and being drowned. Speaking of, apparently dreams do come true if you really believe. Oh happy day.

But no. He was in the middle of the ocean for all he knew, and he was breathing just as fine. He never got around to contemplate the idea too much, as the woman started glowing ever more radiantly. It got to the level that it was almost blindingly bright, and so Percy covered his eyes, and as he felt a surge of power go through him, he screamed.

When he woke up, Percy was strewn back on the beach. The sounds of gentle waves lapping against the shore made him feel peaceful, yet somewhat anxious after what he just went through. Taking a deep breath, Percy was happy to note that the air was still air, and it filled his lunges fully, just like any normal human being. He looked up towards the sky, to see the same normally sized full moon that always adorned it, and he let out a sigh of relief.

At first Percy thought that it might've just been another dream, and he just fell asleep on the beach after thinking and not noticing it, but then, as he got up and started heading home, he noticed something that definitely wasn't there beforehand.

He first noticed it when he moved his hands in order the clean his now sandy outfit and hair, when his left hand passed in front of his face and he from the periphery of his eye he saw that there was something on his hand.

He thought it was a seaweed, or maybe a shell that somehow got on top of his hand, but as he reached his other hand for it to take it off, Percy felt nothing but the cool skin of his wrist. He turned his left hand toward him so that his inner wrist was facing him, and was again left speechless, a trait that was somehow chasing Percy for a while now.

Adorning the inner side of his left wrist, there was now a drawing of a black trident, with the word S.P.Q.R written below it. Dumbfounded, Percy tried to wash it off with water from the sea, using his shirt as a cloth, but no matter how hard or how long he scrubbed, it just wouldn't get off.

Seeing it was getting rather late, and thinking that soap water might do the trick, Percy got his backpack, that somehow remained dry during the whole tsunami incident and turned on the road, toward his house.

As he walked through the empty and silent streets, save for a few stray cats that were chasing each other around, Percy took another look at the drawing on his wrist. The trident looked simple from afar, but as Percy inspected it under a lamp light that turned on an off every couple of seconds, he could see that the detail was very intricate, though he would need a magnifying glass to figure out exactly what was there.

He then turned to the writing, thinking what it could mean. S.P.Q.R. Percy felt like he knew that acronym from somewhere. And then it hit him. Mark. The first Latin class he had, the talked about it. S.P.Q.R. Senatus Populusque Romanus. The senate and people of Rome.

Percy had some questions for his Latin teacher the next time he saw him, and for once, the questions he had were actually about the subject.

AN:

Another week, another chapter. I'm sorry I can't update more regularly, but exams do take their toll.

The story start picking up a bit, and intriguing developments are to come.

Thank you for your reviews, likes, favorites and support. It means a lot.

See you next time!

AVE,
T.I.