Percy
"We'd let you choose what you want to train with, but we only have knives right now, so you know…" I trailed off, smiling apologetically at Marc.
He looked at the knife in his hand and sighed doubtfully. "I just don't feel like it's a very useful to defend myself, it's so small." I shrugged, patting his shoulder.
"I know some people who use knives very well for defending themselves, just have to be quick"
He nodded uncertainly and raised the knife in the defensive stance we'd shown him. I told Nico to teach him some blocks and test his reflexes. "Just, you know, try not to hit him." I had added, smirking a little bit.
I watched them train, calling out small bits of advice that I'd heard Annabeth mutter to herself while sparring with me sometimes. That was really paying off now, but it'd be nice to get some other weapons for people. If we found an Apollo kid it'd be annoying not to have a bow and arrow for them, those kids were already natural talents with bows, not giving them one to hone their skills would make this a poor place to train.
Besides, I'd be a lot more useful training people to use swords. So would Nico.
"So" Nico said, taking a break, "Think anyone will show up today like Marc did?"
I shrugged, "I dunno, just hope no one shows up whose parent wants to murder me, I'm not sure how that would go"
Nico chuckled, "Treat them how you treat everyone else and I'm pretty sure they'll refuse to hurt you"
"Anyways, I'm gonna walk through the town a bit, see what I find. You guys can hang out here and stuff, keep training, talk, just don't kill one another." I gave a pointed look at Nico before walking away, he scoffed.
"Your lack of faith hurts me"
-LineBreak-
The park was nice, no doubt. I was a little sad there were no dryads or satyrs around to talk to in it, maybe they were shy, maybe they were busy. I didn't know. I just took the moment to relax, eventually, a monster would show up, and I'd find out if any of the younger teens in the area were demigods. It was a really, dumb plan on paper. Oh, just use yourself as bait and hope someone else can see the monster for what it is so you can find them!
But hey, when you aren't afraid of any monster anymore, you can afford to be stupid a little more often than before. It's fun.
The only problem was, a lot of monsters didn't want to get close to me anymore, so I had to wait for the really dumb ones or the really cocky ones.
Lucky for me, a few of those decided to show up, just not in the way I had expected.
A few girls who seemed to be around my age came up to me and introduced themselves, smiling and trying to flirt with me. I turned them down politely, not realizing how stupid I was being, I of all people should have figured out what they really were, I had enough experience with them in the past.
"Well, I think you should give it a shot, never know when something unfortunate might happen to you" the one girl, I think her name was Kathi, said.
Come to think of it, the preppy names should have given it away.
"what?" I replied dumbly.
No doubt I would have died right there if our chat not been interrupted by another girl, who seemed to be around sixteen.
"Hey, dude, you should uh, come with me, right now, I need your help" she said, an urgent tone to her voice. I didn't know what her problem was, or why she was coming to me about it, but I wasn't going to be an ass to her.
"Umm, what do you need help with?" I asked, turning to her.
She glanced nervously between me and the girls talking to me, "Uhh, just, something, come and I'll explain."
I raised an eyebrow at her, "If you want to tell me something, you're going to have to be a lot more blunt. I'm not good with this coded talk."
She grumbled at me, "Blunt, huh?" and then punched one of the girls talking to me right in the nose. The girl reeled back, and then hissed, along with her two friends. The other girl glared at me, "They're going to kill you, is that blunt enough? Now let's go before they succeed!" I turned and followed her, since she didn't give me a chance to protest, and I didn't want to lose sight of her, she was obviously a demigod.
She slowed down as she got into a clearing in the park, letting out a sigh.
"You know what those are?" I asked, staring at her intently.
"Demon girls is my best bet." She muttered, before turning to me, "Why?" she asked, narrowing her eyes, "Do YOU know what they are?"
I nodded, "Empousai, Greek 'demon girls' to build on your assumption."
"So… all the things that try to kill me are Greek?" she asked quizzically. I smirked, "Basically, Greek mythology is real, the Gods and all the other stuff is real and alive now."
She seemed to be waiting for an explanation of what it had to do with her, so I went on, "I'm assuming you're a Demigod like me, as in, one of your parents is a God, but you could just be clear sighted"
"Well I never knew my dad, does that mean I'm a demigod?" she asked, and I just nodded. "Probably."
"Well uh, there's someone you'll want to meet then." She said, before whistling.
A young boy, maybe eleven, dropped out of one of the trees above us swiftly, looking between the girl and I, perplexed. "Who's he?" he asked the girl.
"He's like us, apparently we're Demigods."
"Yes" a voice growled, "Wonderful Demigods for us to kill. It will bring us fame for killing this one" the empousai came out of the bushes, pointing at me. "We've been watching the other two for days, poor things can't even defend themselves"
I uncapped Riptide and pointed it at the one talking, "Luckily, I can."
"Whoa!" the boy shouted, "He's got a sword!"
The girl looked a little frightened, but wasn't backing away, "Jake, maybe you should go back into the tree." She said, her voice like steel.
The kid decided not to question it and jumped back up, grabbing a branch and hauling himself into the tree swiftly.
I pulled the knife I'd brought with me out of my belt loop and handed it to her, "You'll probably need that" I said, turning to face the monsters again.
"Alright ladies, who's first?" I feigned excitement, opening my arms welcomingly.
The first empousai lunged at me stupidly and I sliced her in half before she could even try and stab me. I didn't think they'd actually fall for that one, empousai generally seemed a little brighter than that.
"We do not fear you, Jackson" the other two she-demons hissed and lunged at me together. I used Riptide to parry their attacks and back away as the girl with me circled around hesitantly. I swung at the empousai she was closer to, making the monster jump back within distance of the girl. I grinned at her and turned to the last one as the girl stabbed into the monsters back with her knife, turning it to dust.
"Not looking so good now, is it Kathi?" I taunted as me and the other girl advanced on the last empousai. She backed away slowly, growling. "I will avenge my sisters!" she howled, lunging at the girl. She dove to the side, landing on her stomach, and I stabbed the monster as she tried to cut my arm.
I walked over and offered a hand, helping the girl up. "Thanks" she muttered, looking around.
"Jake," she called, "You can come back down now!"
The boy dropped back out of the trees, landing on his hands and feet while grinning wildly.
"That was so cool!"
I grinned at him, but made sure not to encourage him on it, "Yea, but those things are dangerous. Not so cool, really"
"They didn't seem so dangerous to you!" he retorted, his eyes still wide in wonder. I smirked at his enthusiasm, "I've been doing this since I was twelve buddy, trust me, it's not all that great"
He shrugged, "Looked pretty cool." He mumbled, looking down at his shoes.
The girl stepped forward, now that I wasn't distracted by the Empousai I got a proper look at her. She was fairly tall, but shorter than me, with a strong build, short brown hair that looked like it was cut by safety scissors and dark hazel eyes.
"I'm Tessa" she said, nodding at me. "We've been on the run from these monsters for months, any chance you can help us out?"
I smirked, "You're in luck, I was sitting in the park waiting for a monster to come attack me specifically so I could find out who were Demigods"
She looked taken aback, "Why?"
"Cause I have a camp in a forest near this town and I'm looking for demigods to give shelter to, train, and generally help." I said, "I don't really have anything else to do, I'm in exile"
Tessa raised an eyebrow, but Jake was the one who voiced the question.
"Why are you in exile?" I just shrugged, putting away Riptide.
"Zeus thinks I'm a threat even though I've fought two wars for him, so he tried to execute me, a few other Gods support the idea of me dying, for their own reasons. The majority don't, some have even helped me out"
"My cousin Nico saved me, and we wound up here. If you want to come check out our camp, follow me." I said, grinning and waving them to follow me as I started to walk back towards the edge of the forest. They followed, with Jake getting a piggy back ride from Tessa. They definitely weren't related, since Jake had spikey blonde hair and light brown eyes, but Tessa obviously saw him as her little brother and was protective and caring of him.
"So uh, who's your parent?" Tessa asked, walking alongside me as we neared the camp. "Poseidon" I said, grinning, "And Nico's dad is Hades, so basically Zeus wants to kill his only two nephews"
"Harsh" she muttered, looking at me sympathetically.
"Eh, its fine, he's paranoid and stubborn, is all. It's better than Ares, he's just angry with me cause I beat him in a duel when I was younger."
She smirked, "He's the god of war, isn't he? I'd be annoyed too if a kid beat me at my domain"
"I think the worst one is Athena though" I muttered, looking down.
"Why's that?"
"Well, she wants me dead just because she doesn't like me or my dad, from her rivalry with Poseidon over Athens, and I'm dating one of her daughters, probably her favourite daughter."
Tessa laughed a little, "That seems a little extreme, don't you think?" I just smiled, "Well, next time you see her, be sure to tell her that and see what happens to you."
She looked over at me warily, "I think I'll pass."
"Well, here's camp" I said, pointing to the tent and fire in the small clearing near the river.
"It's sort of underwhelming" Tessa muttered, nudging Jake to wake him up, "How many others are there?"
"Two others, Nico and a Son of Hermes who showed up being chased by a monster yesterday."
She whistled, "Not much, explains the small tent."
I chuckled, "We only got here yesterday, cut us some slack, besides, the Tent is enchanted, it's like the one in the Harry Potter movies, except way better."
Nico came out of the tent and saw us, "Oh, hey Percy. Find someone, I see?" he said, almost in a mocking tone as he glanced at me with an amused expression.
"Yea, Tessa, and Jake." I said, pointing to them.
"How old are you guys?" Nico asked, looking at Jake.
"I'm fifteen, Jake is eleven" Jake had woken up some and mumbled an addition, "And three quarters, Tess"
"You seem tired, Jake" I said as Tessa put him down, he nodded. "If you go in the tent there's a room with a bunch of bunks in there if you want to go sleep, maybe you can say hi to Marc"
He just smiled sleepily and headed towards the tent after hugging Tessa and saying goodnight to her. Nico sat down by the fire and I followed suit. Tessa looked between the tent and us indecisively.
"He'll be safe. I'm sure you have a few questions for us, you can check on him after and stuff."
"Just two, really" she said, sitting down.
"Yeah?"
"How can I trust you, and is there any real safe places for Demigods? No offense to your setup here."
Nico snorted, "Don't worry, Percy is a horrible liar, so you should be fine with the trust since you'll know if he's being dishonest." He warmed his hands a little over the flames, "Besides, He's too nice to do anything but help you." I glared at him momentarily before smiling sheepishly and looking down at the fire. "As for your second question" I murmured, "There's a couple of Camps in America for Demigods, one for Greeks and one for Romans. They're both safe."
She nodded, "Guess we can't really get there, then, if they're in America" she muttered.
Nico snickered, shaking his head. "I can get you to either one if you wanted, It's pretty easy."
Tessa raised an eyebrow at him and I cut in, "He's got a teleporting type of power with shadows."
She mouthed a small 'oh' and looked down slightly, "I'm gonna go check on Jake, and sleep, I guess. Thanks for taking us in" She went into the tent, leaving just Nico and I.
"I can't believe your stupid bait plan worked." Nico muttered, grinning at me.
"Stupidity never fails to attract monsters, it's familiar to them." I countered, smirking.
"And here I thought they were familiar with you because you kill them a lot" he got up, still grinning, and headed to the tent. "Might as well call it a night, I'm pretty sure the tent is protected against monsters, by the way. Thought you might want to know." He pulled open the tent flap and went in. I put out the fire and followed. Now there were three demigods with them, they definitely needed to get more weapons, they only had four knives, and Marc had one, with Tessa and Jake they'd only have one left.
I'd have to talk Nico into sneaking to camp to get some stuff, or…
I glanced at the entry to the bunk room with the three demigods. Maybe, one of them would want to go to camp at some point soon, and could get the campers to gather some supplies for Nico so he didn't have to risk going into camp borders. If not to stay, they could at least ask one of them to consider being an envoy.
After all, Marc's dad was the messenger of the gods, maybe he'd be in the spirit of it. I smirked at the thought and headed to my room.