This fanfiction is a rework of a previous title: "The Silver Son"
Warning: Profanities
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and The Olympians series and its extended universe.
1st Arc: The Silver Boy
Chapter 1: Not a good day
Today was not a good day. Not in the very least.
My stomach growled.
I guess it was not a wise decision to only have a hotdog for breakfast. A worse decision to only have a single mars bar for lunch. And a much worse decision, to only have a nap for dinner. But hey, when you're a runaway living on the street, you take what you can get.
I mean, not like I don't have enough to buy a proper meal... but I only have been living on the street for a month now, and I need to save what little money I have on me from busking to get by. At least, until I get a decent source of income.
But then again, not like anyone would hire a 15 years old with no training or GED. At least, not one that wouldn't have me selling ass or drugs. You know, people said that in these days and age, all you need to make money is your phone and an internet connection. Call me a cynic, but I think that's a bunch of bull. I heard back then, people like me would go off and join a carnie or something.
Ahh… I got sidetracked, didn't I?
Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you with my complaints. My foster father used to tell me that I shouldn't complain too much. He said, a lot of people have it worse than me. Which, I guess… he got a point. But I still don't understand why I can't complain about my misfortune on account of others. It's not like their life will get better if I stop whining about mine.
I slapped my face with both hands.
"What the fuck am I even doing?" I chuckled. "Out here talking to myself. Alone at a park, in the middle of the night."
That last part really hit me.
I wish I could've had a life like most people my age. I wish I could've just gone back. Back to the warm breakfast. Back to school. Back to the Saturday movie night.
But hey, I made my decision. No use in crying about it now.
I look at the clock at the town park. It's 2:34 AM. I walked around for a bit until I found a clean enough bench to spend the rest of the night on. It's getting harder for me to find a place to sleep these days. What we all the anti-homeless infrastructure.
I sat down, putting down the guitar and backpack I've been carrying around all day. I brushed off the dust off the bench.
"I guess it's the park bench again tonight." I stretched my body, preparing myself for the back pain that will surely come with the sunrise.
I lay on my side, and close my eyes.
That's when I felt the ground shakes.
"Earthquake!" was my first thought.
But I quickly brushed it off. It was brief; probably lasted for less than a second. And being in an open space like a park is one of the safer places to be during an earthquake, anyway.
I shifted my body as I try to sleep again.
The ground shook once more. This time, it was followed by a low snarl.
I grunted. As I said, I didn't have a good day. I just wanted to go to sleep so it can end as soon as possible.
I slowly opened my eyes to see what was making that sound. My guess was a stray dog. But what I saw before me instead, made me jolted up straight away.
There was a man, built like a bodybuilder on steroids, standing about 10 feet tall, right in front of me. His skin was dark grey.
He snarled, showing his sharp teeth that are definitely in need of some dental work.
Seconds passed by, and the two of us haven't moved a muscle.
I don't know what the fuck I should do in this situation. Hell, I'm not even sure whether I'm really seeing this shit, or if it's just one of those sleep paralysis demons.
The figure in front of me let out a loud roar. If I thought I was dreaming, the wet, warm air hitting my face definitely woke me up. He rose his giant fist up.
My first thought was, "Oh shit".
My second thought was, "I should've known it wasn't an earthquake. Earthquake doesn't happen at the Bronx!"
And my final thought was, "Run!"
I quickly grabbed my bag and guitar, and sprint away from the giant.
As I do, I heard pieces of wood crushing behind me. The creature just destroyed my bed with his bare hand.
I ran toward the nearby woods. And I run, and run, and run. I didn't even need to look back to check if the beast was still trailing behind me. I could still hear it clearly, the loud thumping sounds of his gigantic feet, and the cracking sounds of the branches he trampled through.
My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, and I could feel myself losing pace as my feet got heavier and heavier. I'm not a couch potato by any means, but sadly, I am no track runner either. I knew I can't outrun this monster forever.
"I knew I shouldn't have that mars bar for lunch," I cursed. "I need to come up with an idea, a good one!" I mentally screamed at myself.
I turned my head left and right, trying to find a way to juke this giant. Alas, my brain betrayed me once again, and I failed to come up with any good idea.
As if things weren't dire enough for me yet, I tripped on a root of a tree and face-planted to the ground.
I quickly turned my body around. And there he was, looming in front of me.
"Wha-what the fuck do you want from me, man?! I have no cash!" I plead.
The grey giant doesn't seem to register anything I said. He once again raised his fist up and quickly hurled it down towards me.
I was just barely able to dodge it by rolling to my right.
I cursed.
Like I said, I did not have a good day. But I could never in a million years have thought that it would end like this. But I knew one thing: I'm not going down without a fight. Not after all that I've been through.
I grabbed my guitar and, with all my power, swung it towards his skull.
And lo and behold… it shattered to pieces the moment it touched his head.
The giant growled to what sounded like a laugh at my meek attempt to fight back. He holds me down by my chest with his left hand. His right hand raises up to the air.
I took a deep breath, a task that I found to be difficult with his giant hand pressing on me. I tried to reach out around me; trying to find something I can use to get out of this situation. I just barely managed to reach for a big piece of wood from what used to be my guitar. And with all the strength I have left in me, I thrust the sharp end of the wood towards his head.
But my attack never reached him.
Just before I land my strike, a bunch of arrows flew over my head, piercing the thick skin of the giant in front of me. He screamed in agony, but the arrows kept coming. There must've been at least 10 arrows stuck in his body before the last one planted itself right in its head. He gave a sharp cry before collapsing to the ground with a loud thud.
With his hand no longer holding my chest, I was able to gasp for air. I stare at his motionless body as my chest went up and down, my mouth agape, and my lips trembled. My eyes turned wide when I saw the body slowly disintegrate into dust.
"HOLY SHIT!" I screamed. I put my hand on my forehead, trying to calm myself and grasp what was going on.
"HO-HOLY SHIT!" I screamed again as I found myself failing to do so.
"You better watch that foul mouth of yours, boy!" a small figure with red hair landed in front of me.
What…
While I'm still trying to process what was happening before my eyes, a bunch of girls, none of which could have been older than 17, jumped down from the trees and landed around me. Everything happened so fast, that by the time I finally managed to collect my thought, I was already circled by about a dozen teenage girls. All of them donning white-silver hunting attire, pointing their bow and arrows at me from every direction.
I blinked several times. "What the actual fuck is going on tonight…?"
One girl came up to me, she has shoulder-length, spiky, black hair, and was wearing a silver tiara. Her blue eyes light up in the midst of the dark woods. I must've been distracted by that last detail for way too long, for the next thing I know, I felt a tip of an arrow touching my forehead.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here, boy?" she asked.
Like I said, today was not a good day.
After a moment of bewilderment, I forced out a chuckle, "What am I doing here?! Oh, you know, just running in the woods, in the middle of the night, being chased by this fuckin… TERMINATOR?! And ohmygod, what happened to his body?! you people just killed a man! What the fuck, what the fuck!"
My outburst earned me a kick in the nut.
"Ugh!" I groaned in agony as I limped over to my side. "That… that is… a direct violation of the bro-code," I said with a wry voice, trying to endure the pain in my crotch.
Ignoring my obvious state of pain, the black-haired girl grabbed me by the collar and pulled me up from the ground.
"I'll ask once again, WHO. ARE. YOU?!" she screamed at my face.
That… ticked me off.
"Who am I? who am I?! Who are YOU?! Damn, I was the one who was having a bad day here! I was chased by a fuckin monster straight out of Lord of the Rings, I broke my guitar, and now I can't-" I didn't get to finish my sentence, as, after one look at her electric eyes, I was smart enough to know that I should answer her question if I want to survive the night.
So, I took a deep breath, and gave her a straight answer, "My name is Aiden, Aiden Alexander".
"And, who's your Godly parent?" She asked me again as she let go of my collar and let me drop ass-first onto the hard ground.
"Ouch!... Godly… what? You mean like Al Pacino or something? What the hell are you talking about?!" I said, annoyed.
The girl sighed, "I think we found a new half-blood Milady"
Just after she said that last sentence, one more girl jumped down from a tree and landed next to her.
"Honestly, how many of you are up there?" I said in confusion as I look around and above me.
The last girl to join the mob was no older than the others. She has raven hair that was tied into a ponytail. But one thing that sets her out among the others is her hunting armor. It was nothing like any fabric that I've ever seen. It was as if she was wearing silvers in the form of silk, if that even makes sense.
But her eyes are what caught me off-guard. She has a pair of silver-grey eyes. Just like-
"He doesn't know anything?" Her words snapped me from my train of thought.
"No, it doesn't appear so, Lady Artemis. But he obviously can see through the mist, and I can sense that he is a half-blood. Though... he is too old to not be aware of this fact." Replied the black-haired girl.
"Artemis? That's a kick-ass name… it's like the Greek Goddess of the moon," I thought to myself.
"That's because I am, boy," she said. Her tone was sharp. It carries a sense of arrogance that is clearly bigger than her own body.
Wait a minute, did she just read my mind?
"Thalia, please explain it to him." She said again.
"Of course, Lady Artemis." The black-haired girl, whose name turns out to be Thalia, turned towards me.
"So here is the thing. Do you know about the Greek Gods and Goddesses, along with the mythology?" she asked.
"A bit… I guess… nothing that most people don't know…" I answered, uncertain.
"Well, every single thing about it is true and very real," she said bluntly.
There was a moment of silence until I said, "Okay wha…?"
"Did you lose your hearing, boy?!" said a ginger girl with an annoyed tone.
Thalia pointed her index finger at me, "And YOU are a half-blood, a cross-bred child of a God, or Goddess, and a mortal being" she continued.
Look, if I was not just being chased by a 10-foot man and witnessed a bunch of young girls dressed in silver killed a giant with nothing but arrows with my own eyes, I might think that these girls are on drugs. Hell, I was considering the fact that maybe someone laced my drink or something. But this whole thing… feels… awfully right. I felt like there was this part of my mind that kept telling me that these girls were telling the truth. Or maybe, it was me that wants them to have been telling me the truth.
I tried to process everything she said, "And… so that means that man was…"
"A Laistrygonian Giant," Thalia said.
"And it was a FEMALE Laistrygonian" said the red-haired girl, "Typical, seeing a figure of strength and just assuming that it was male," she continued.
"A layster-what?! Shit man, how the fuck is she saying that like any of this is normal? And why the fuck am I not more freaked out right now?!"
I don't know what has gotten into me, but I chose to believe them.
"Now." She broke the silence, "If you understand, I suggest you go to Camp Half-Blood. It's a lot safer there. No monster is going to go after you, and you can have proper combat training. Because trust me, that giant won't be the last to come after you if choose to stay here." She continued.
"Camp Half-Blood? I'm not just guessing by the name here, but also seeing where this is going. Is it safe for me to assume that that's the place where half-blood is supposed to go?" I asked.
"That's right, and they should've sent a Satyr to pick you up already" and of course, a place called 'Camp Half-Blood' has satyrs. And why the hell I need combat traini- ah, the monster, okay.
"Okay then… I guess" I said. "I guess every place is better than here…"
A small frown appeared on Artemis' face.
"Don't you have any family you should inform about your departure?" She asked me. I frowned at the question.
"No." I simply stated.
The Goddess still gazes at me as if she was expecting more.
I sighed, "What? I just don't have anyone I need to ask permission to." I quickly said.
I really hope she's not going to push the subject further. Goddess or not, she's a stranger. And I don't want to talk about it, anyway.
I noticed she flinched at my remark. It came as quickly as it went, but it was there. I wasn't sure what to make out of that.
"Watch your tone, boy," the redhead growled.
I pretend I didn't hear her. A task that proved to be increasingly more difficult with every line she said.
Artemis looked away to the denser part of the forest. "By the look of it, I don't think anyone's going to come to get you, kid. Well, except more monsters." She said.
"What? How come? She said a satyr was supposed to pick me up," Does this mean I need to get to that place myself?
"Satyrs usually come to get half-bloods when they are about to be attacked by monsters. At the latest that is. Or, when they turned 13. Seeing that I can't sense any of them nearby, and seeing that you're clearly not 13… I guess it's safe to assume that you're on your own"
"For real? That doesn't seem very professional of them" Just after I said that, I noticed the ginger was about to throw another remark my way. Figured that I've had it with her shit, I decided that it'll be best for me to just be on my way.
"Well, I guess I'll try to find my path there on my own then. Can you at least tell me where it is?" I sighed as I brushed the dust and dirt off my pants.
It crossed my mind to just ask them to take me there, but I don't think I can stand another second with this mob.
"It's on Half-Blood Hill, Farm Road 3.141, Long Island. It's around the north shore of Long Island. The place is charmed, so you'll get drawn to it the closer you are to the place." answered Thalia.
Well, that's convenient.
And of course, a place to train Half-Blood is called 'Camp Half-Blood', and is located on 'Half-Blood Hill'. Wonder who got paid to name these places. Anyway, it's in freaking New York? I guess with all the economic crisis Greece has these days, they can't afford a place to train half-bloods.
"I guess… this is it then, thanks for saving my ass back there," I said as I bid my farewell.
And thus, I began my journey… to Long Island that is, which is only like 50 miles from where I am right now…
Yeah, today was not a good day.
Thank you for reading. Please leave a review on what do you think so far.
See you next chapter