Alright, the quest has been called last chapter. Now it's time for the quest to begin. Sorry for keeping you all waiting. A lot has been happening lately and it's been overwhelming. I'm still struggling with it all. I'm still gonna write, I'm just in yet another hole right now. I'll get over it though, I always do eventually. Anyways, here's the next chapter with many events from the novel altered. Hope you all like it.
Sometimes Brothers Suck
Clarisse's POV
Here we are, the next morning. The next morning with Percy and me just sitting together in front of the small fire Percy set up in his cabin, drinking some hot chocolate Percy made, and enjoying the peace we finally have for ourselves. The best part about this was that Percy wasn't forced to go on yet another quest. Percy gets to be away from it. As for those who are going on the quest, well, from what Percy said, only four out of five went on this quest. Thalia, Annabeth, Grover, and Zoe all went. As for the fifth member Phoebe, well, from what we were told during breakfast, Phoebe wasn't feeling well for some reason. She seemed fine yesterday and now all of a sudden, today she's feeling really sick. It was very suspicious to say the least. I personally would think that this might actually be the work of the Stoll brothers pulling some prank on her. Percy doesn't think that though. He doesn't think that the Stoll brothers would go as far as try to prank a hunter of Artemis. He doesn't know them better than I do, but I have to admit he does have a good point. They would really have to have a death wish to prank a hunter. Oh well, it's not our quest, so we don't have much to care about really.
"You okay Clarisse? You seem kinda exhausted." Percy noticed.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just didn't get enough sleep last night." I answered.
"Did us making love not affect you as much as it did me?" Percy joked.
"Oh no, it affected me alright. I just had a hard time sleep because a certain child was being a naughty little thing, moving all around me." I joked rubbing my belly.
"That little boy or girl must not want you to sleep for whatever reason." Percy noted while bringing me closer to him.
"Indeed." I agreed.
This baby truly has been a naughty little thing lately. Constantly moving and kicking around inside of me. I can imagine him or her being a very strong swimmer just like his or her daddy.
"It'll be a strong swimmer." I said.
"And it'll be a great and remarkable fighter, just like it's mommy." Percy.
"You know, I still can't believe that this is happening." I admitted.
"That makes two of us. We both were clearly not really prepared for anything like this for our lives, especially this soon. But it just goes to show you how interesting Fate can make our lives." Percy said kissing my head.
It truly is hard to believe that our lives could take such a huge U-turn. Looking back, it's so hard to believe who I am today. Back then, I wanted to be the best in all of camp and I lived to make Percy's life a living hell. But now, now here I am, dating him, carrying his baby, and preparing to have an unexpected family with him. This baby has really changed our lives. And in just two or three months from now, we're going to officially be parents. As I looked back at it all, everything that happened ever since I first met Percy, I looked up at him. And it just amazed me how I felt about him. Before I couldn't stand him. Now, now I just can't get enough of him. His messy jet black hair, his beautiful sea green eyes, his leaned figure, his luscious tanned skin, and his heart made out of pure love. Why I decided to make him feel terrible about himself is beyond me. His very presence is more than enough to make me feel something that I've never felt before in my entire life. I don't really know what it is, or maybe I do. I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that Percy has affected me so much and I don't want him to take any of it back.
"Percy?" I asked.
"Yeah?" He responded turning his head to mine.
Before I had the chance to say anything, there was a big boom that sounded in the distance. Percy and I both turned to the door shocked and startled by the sudden boom. Percy got up and opened the door to see what was going on. I got up to follow him. When we looked out, we saw everyone else, campers and hunters alike, moving out to where that boom came from which seemed to have come from the direction of the beach.
"Stay here." Percy said.
"What? Wait Percy, you can't go." I said.
"They need my help Clarisse. Without me, camp's in serious shit. And you need to stay here so nothing bad happens to you or the baby." Percy said.
"Please don't leave me." I pleaded with tears beginning to form in my eyes.
"You know I don't want to be away from you. But the camp needs my help." Percy said.
How I wish that wasn't true right now. I didn't want Percy to go out there. I wanted him to be by my side still. But he was right. If he doesn't help defend the camp, then who or whatever is attacking us will launch a massacre on us. So knowing what had to be done, I brought Percy in for a heated kiss. I wanted him to have a sign of luck to go with him. I didn't think he was really gonna have much trouble, especially since he's been trained by my father for the past few months. But I still didn't like that he had to leave me.
"Please come back to me." I whispered.
"I will. I promise." Percy said and then left to fight whatever it is he has to fight.
'Be safe Percy. We need you. I need you.' I thought to myself.
Percy's POV
I hated leaving Clarisse, but I have to help defend the camp. As long as Clarisse remains in the cabin, she should be safe. At least, that's what I'm hoping. Anyways, I left to run with everyone else. We were all heading to the scene of the event. When we got there, we saw a big hole in the ground. It was a hole that was about the size of the cabins here in camp. There was also some smoke and fire on the edges of the hole. Judging by the looks of the hole, it looked like something came down from the sky and landed here, making this hole. Everyone came over to it, but tried to keep a safe distance from it. No one could see what it was that made the hole. There was nothing to see in the hole but utter blackness. I couldn't see anything in there, but I had a very strong and bad feeling about this. I had Riptide out and ready like how everyone else had their weapons out and ready. I looked around and found that whatever it is, it came straight out of the sky. I seriously doubted that this was something from one of the gods. I was so lost in my thoughts, that it wasn't until the very last second did I finally pick up a sudden new vibration in the air. It was then that I finally heard a very slight and quiet growl come from the hole. That was when I knew that this was the beginning of a tough fight.
"EVERYBODY, GET BACK!" I shouted.
And at that, fire came out of the hole like it's a volcano erupting lava. And then, out came six chimeras and we were attacked by them. They all attacked us and a lot of us were caught off guard. The chimeras started attacking and they were on a killing rampage. They were roaming all throughout camp burning everything and everyone. Everyone tried charging at them. But it was pretty hard. Among them was also a man. I couldn't tell who it was, but he looked a little familiar to me somehow. I just wondered who he was and why he was here right now. He just stood where he was and watched while the chimeras attack us. One of the chimeras was attacked by the Hunt. The Hunt launched a lot of arrows at one of them. The chimera was injured, but it didn't go down. By the looks of it, the Hunt only succeeded in pissing that thing off. Another was being shot at by the Apollo cabin. The case of that one is pretty much just like the one being shot at by the Hunt. Chiron and Mr. D were going head to head with another one. Most of everyone else was either running for their lives, or fighting two of the other ones. One of them was apparently mine to kill and mine to kill alone. Once again, time for me to put my training to another test. The chimera began its charge at me. Me, I charged as well. And at the very last second, the second it pounced to sink its teeth and claws into my body, I ducked and dropped to slide underneath it and raised my sword so that so it would slice into the chimera. When I got back up, the chimera was cloven in two and then two piles of dust. I looked around and saw that the Chimera that was attacked by the Hunt had launched itself at the Hunt. And it was also getting help from one of the other chimeras. I went to go help them since they seemed to be having so much trouble.
"HELP ME!" Sophie shouted.
Sophie was just standing where she stood, scared to death and paralyzed with fear. The chimera had broken through the Hunt's defense line, which lead them to be scattered and divided. One of the chimera seemed to have found Sophie and looked like it was gonna go in for a kill.
"HELP!" Sophie cried.
The chimera launched itself at her.
"NO!" I screamed as I came in between then and took the attack for Sophie.
It's claws just seeped into my back and deep into my flesh. I guess it was kinda like how Padme was clawed by the Nexu in Star Wars Attack of the Clones.
"Percy!" Sophie screamed.
I fell to the ground on my hands and knees. The pain I felt in my back was killing me. One of the bad things about some Chimeras is that they can be very poisonous. Their claws and teeth can sometimes carry some pretty dangerous venom in them. I just hope that the one that attacked me didn't. Though I didn't really think it'd mater too much with how painful the claw alone was. Sophie rushed up to me and hugged me and tried to help me up. She tried to get me out of here, but I was too big and heavy for her. I looked up and saw that the chimera was attacking again. Only this time, it tried to burn us. It was breathing fire to try and kill us. I was lucky that there was a lot of snow around. Using my powers, I used my powers to shield us from the fire with a wall of water. Fire is powerful, but Water is just as strong against it. The water shield was able to protect us perfectly. Then I used as much strength as I could muster and used that wall of water to trap the chimera in a sphere of water. The chimera tried to break free and escape, but to no avail. I had the thing trapped and I wasn't going to let it out. It squirmed and it squirmed, until it couldn't breathe anymore and vaporized into a pile of soaked dust. Finishing that chimera off, I felt a huge amount of my energy slip away from me. I felt like I just ran like a mile or something.
"Percy!" Sophie yelled worrying about me.
"It's alright. I've been through tougher scrapes than this." I said as best as I could, but pain in my back was leaving me to breath heavily and wheeze my words out.
"It's okay Percy. It's okay." Sophie muttered wrapping her arms around my neck and silently cried.
I turned to a sudden sound and that another chimera was brought down by the Hunt and the Apollo cabin. It seemed that the chimera that attacked Chiron and Mr. D was slain too, but Chiron looked pretty messed up from that fight. That meant that there was only two left. They were attacking as much as they could, which was for the most part demigods. I tried to heal myself, but my powers weren't working. I guess that chimera did have venom and it was affecting my body right now. Or maybe that attack and using the amount of strength I already used after it had really sapped much of my life away. Using whatever strength, I had left, I got to a kneeling position.
"They need help." Sophie said.
"Sophie, hand me a bow and arrows." I said.
My archery skills aren't as fierce as my sword skills, but right now swords won't be able to help me. SO archery was going to have to do. Sophie got me what I asked and I readied an arrow at one of the chimeras. It was about to kill someone. But before it could, I launched my arrow and hurled it deep into the lion's head. The snake and the goat turned their attention to me. They looked like they wanted me dead, but luckily it didn't matter. The lion is the main function of the Chimera, and since the lion was already dead, the rest of the monster was stuck. And with that, the other campers attacked was able to kill it. As for the last chimera, well, that one seemed to be the strongest out of them all, since not only it was still alive, but it had a branch through the neck of the lion's neck and it was still attacking. There were also some chains wrapped around the thing. Whatever traps the others threw at it clearly didn't work. I could tell it was hurting and maybe even killing quite a lot of demigods.
"Sophie, run." I said.
"What?" Sophie asked shocked.
"Trust me." I wheezed out.
She just nodded and ran off.
"Hey you! Over here! Come and get me!" I shouted at the chimera, which made it attention come towards me like how I wanted.
"Yeah you, over here! Why not? I'm wide open here!" I exclaimed.
And as I hoped, the chimera took the bait and came charging at me. I didn't exactly have much planned and I didn't really think that the plan I had at the back of my head right now was going to work. But I had no other option. As the chimera pounced, I jumped on its neck and slammed the branch in its neck into the ground. After that, the snake was able to get a bite at my shoulder. I exclaimed in pain, but then just shook it off my best and chopped the snake's head off. At that, the chimera was able to free itself and started running. I was still on the thing's back, so it ended up taking me with it. It wasn't going anywhere; it was just running. Coming in view though was a big boulder with a razor sharp point at the end of it. I saw this as an opportunity. I jumped on the goat's head and stabbed it. The lion head tried to burn me, which it nearly did. I then took the chain and then lassoed the chimera's front legs and then jumped in front of it and let it run above as I landed on my chest. Then I used Riptide to thrust the chain deep into the ground which caused the chimera to trip and go flying over to the boulder. And just as I'd hoped, the boulder point went right through the chimera and killed it. I was happy that was taken care of. I got up and back on my feet and was about to head back to the others. But before I could, something hard hit me on the back of my head I fell to the ground. But before I completely lost conscious, I hear someone's voice. It was the man that came here with the chimera. He was still alive. And he looked like he wasn't harmed by anyone at all. He had some blood on him but I knew it was most likely the blood of those he injured and/or killed since he had no wounds on him.
"Well fought Percy Jackson. It's no wonder why Lord Kronos is interested in you so much. You have fought valiantly, but in vain. Killed my chimera in the end just end up being captured by your own brother. By the great Antaeus." Antaeus said.
And with that, to my misfortune, I drifted away into the black void.
'Be safe Clarisse.' I thought to myself as the blackness had finally completely consumed me.
Hope you all liked. I'm still practicing some things that I write about, which includes fight scenes. I hope they were alright. I'll get the next chapter posted real soon. Oh by the way, have any of you read a fanfiction called "The Perseus Attraction"? I've been trying to read that through some of my spare time. I have to say, it's gotta be one the strangest and most random fanfiction I've ever read in my life. And I thought my brother had some weird ideas when it comes to Percy Jackson.
