Chapter 9: Horizons: always stretching further
Hi~
Immalive!
I swear i've got chapters planned out, but pparently actually Writing is just. So. Slow.
But it's here now!
Do you ever have a moment when you know, you just know, that this is not going to be a good day?
As I parried a lightning-fast strike from a maw of five-foot-long fangs to the side with the muscles in both arms burning at the strain, dodging out the way of shrapnel from the stone bank obliterated by the crushing jaw strength and the shifting coils of this snake monster as long as a subway train, I realised todays was going to be one of those days .
My stupidly optimistic plans for a fun, casual treasure hunt were probably still twitching in their death throes somewhere in the toxic miasma of the thing's breath.
And it had started out so promisingly!
We'd made good time getting to Lake Ontario after breakfast, only stopping once on the way at Scranton to pick up some more non-perishable foods and get my ear pierced for the magic mini mirror thing (the dramatic bursting-into-purple-flames thing had happened again and had made Piper twitch when my left ear suddenly started leaking purple fire, but the lady holding the needle didn't seem to notice anything at all off about the situation and smiled with a compliment how little I'd bled. At least the hole seemed to be permanent).
The weather was good and there were a few people out and about enjoying the sun, so we quickly got general directions to the island specified by Mom's contact and drive over the water to it.
Little Galloo island and we started wandering around, looking for... something.
There were tall, awkward looking cranes with red faces standing around to the North, where the wide-open grassland petered out into a long, sandy spit. The beach bit was nice except for the weirdly mean-looking birds.
It wasn't until we started looking in the foresty bit that the day completely went to Hades.
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Percy... couldn't seem to sense them.
We'd just started casing the woodland area of the island, looking for anything that might possibly be a soul-flame empowered, organised crime information dead-drop, when... singing started up.
Sort-of singing anyway- like if human voices could sound like traditional Love Flutes, mellow wood notes carrying straight from the past across grassy plains and over towering canyons. I couldn't make out words, but the tune was... innately familiar, like Katoptris in my hand or the creaking of wood and low mechanical humming of the Argo II, like the chatter of the McLean extended family gathered together on balmy summer evenings.
Like home .
So, there was distinctly supernatural sounds coming from the shadows of the trees that I -and not the seasoned, scarred and skilled living legend of a demigod beside me, only me- could sense. Great.
I'd kind of thought I was going crazy, but when I told Percy about it, he believed me straight off, which meant there was probably more explanations than ' somehow ticked off Mr D '.
And once he'd realised there was something happening that was hidden from him, his face darkened, eyes swirling with storm clouds tinted violet. He gave me a choice: we could follow the music to its source and confront it, or head back to the mainland, call Sally and ask her to set up contact between us and her informant somewhere else.
What he didn't say but we both knew was that that would take time , time where we would be stumbling around blind in a whole new world that was ready and willing to kill us, one that we couldn't escape, hide from or fight without getting this information to know how. We need to learn about our Flames as soon as possible, how to use them and how to control them, both for ourselves and in regards to the... Family Percy had acquired.
With my own experience being thrown headfirst into the Greek world so very, very fresh I knew we couldn't afford to be ignorant.
Leo and I had just been a pair 'troubled' kids in a dead-end delinquent 'school' on a field trip one day and suddenly dropped into an entirely new culture with magic and gods and monsters and told to deal with it. We'd been shown entirely new aspects of ourselves -that we were children of gods - and then realised that they didn't really… want us. They didn't drop by to see how we were doing and get to know us. They gave us 'prophecies' and pushed us into 'quests' but then didn't help us survive against the monsters that half the time they created . They didn't really care. And we got told that things were better now than they had been.
Right before they pushed us into fighting a war . Unkillable enemies with millennia of experience, unmatchable power, whole entire armies and grudges to match.
People died.
They died for their homes, but they died fighting the war of their parents none the less. The ones that didn't even turn up for the funerals.
Annabeth died. Smart, experienced Annabeth, who was seventeen and a legend.
Maybe she'd be alive if we had done better. If we'd researched our enemies more, looked for way to get an advantage, worked together better, something-.
I won't make the same mistakes again.
I never wanted to feel so lost and helpless as that day in the Grand Canyon when my classmates turned into sentient storms and 'my boyfriend' looked at me as stranger. Like that day on Olympus, watching a friend and hero die.
There wasn't really a choice.
So we set off to face the music.
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Piper took point, leading us through the forest to the source of the music she could apparently hear. Watching her, I could see her eyes flicking about occasionally, like she was tracking movement when all I could see was trees, bushes and slightly shifty shadows that I would usually put down to my jacked-up paranoia.
She kept me updated on what was going on- flashes of colour, bursts of bright laughter and such-like. Singing and the
Once she told me about it, I started to get the sense of things myself- hazy, indistinct shapes darting through the undergrowth around us, echoes of thrumming drums outside of my own heartbeat.
It was… strange. And worrying. Like nothing I could guess at the identity of ( not that I was ever much good at that, that was always Annabeth 's bit )
When we cleared the trees, we were on the other side of the island at the base of a small cliff overlooking the reedy marsh bank and the salty waters of Lake Ontario.
Stopping at the bank, I scanned the area. To me, there wasn't really anything that stood out, Piper was focused on the tree-line, following the movement of something, but other than that- there.
A flicker of colour on the cliff-face, purplish navy against washed out blue-grey rock. I stepped out onto the water towards it.
And something burst out of the lake.
Piper whirled round and shouted, drawing her blades. I uncapped Riptide but-
I couldn't see it- The water was displaced and there was something there and I couldn't see it.
" Piper! What is this thing?!"
The entity lunged at her, I pulled up to surge around it, trying to hold it in place. I could feel it but- staring harder, pressure behind my eyes building as a blurry mass of faded colours, like looking through fogged glass.
"It's- I think it's an Uktena?! " a - coil? Leg? Wing?- limb broke out from my grip a struck towards her, she darted out the way, casting a shimmering blanket of tranquilizing Flame over the thing and coughed a bit, maybe she swallowed wrong? "I used to hear stories, but they're not- but I suppose the Greek myths are real so why not-"
The thing was definitely sentient, whatever an Uktena was, and was slowly pushing against my water barriers, pressing relentlessly outwards and doing something that at once destabilized my control of the water, ate away at it like it was evaporating it and also making it… heavier? Sluggish, almost like Piper's Rain-water-ice-structures. I grit my teeth and clenched my fists, the water should be holding it, I should have full control over it. But it was like the thing was just straight up bypassing my control, in a way I'd never encountered before and couldn't directly fight against. "Piper! What is it. "
"Sorry, okay, so think really big rainbow snake with spots and wings and antlers and a glowing diamond in the centre of its head! The Uktena, it's-" she coughed again, but I couldn't think about that because the pressure in my head gave way and suddenly I saw it.
Just like she said, it was a massive snake, twice as long as a subway carriage and covered in diamond scales shimmering with rainbow in the sunlight with an underbelly of flecked black fire opals, all under a leopard-spot pattern like Mr D's shirts and just as eye-wateringly shape-disrupting. Most of it was still underwater, but a good twenty feet was held up in the air by a pair of huge golden wings.
It hissed and lunged again, spewing more of the crimson red miasma I could now see around us with every breath. Piper was coughing from it, but as a waft of it curled towards me, it- it touched my skin a flinched back " cough - it's - cough- got toxic breath and blood, um, weaknesses, weaknesses, the heart! -cough- "
Suddenly, it drew back into itself and coiled tightly, then slammed against my barriers and broke them-!
Then a six-foot-wide shimmering crystal snake face was lunging at mine, wicked sharp fangs bared and dripping crimson liquid flame that burned pits in the marsh plants worse than acid and four huge antlers/horns of different colours back like a halo of deadly sharp thorns ready to impale me if I jumped… but unfortunately for disco snake, I've been here before.
Bringing Anaklusmos up in an arc, catching the curved fang, ignoring the jarring impact and in a standard parry shoving it to the side into the rocky cliff-face, twisting out of the way of stray rock shrapnel and slashing at the bared neck behind the mane of thorny antlers. Gem-scales cracked and shattered, my blade slicing into flesh- not as deeply as it should have, what- spilling not the golden sand of Greek myth monsters, but a steaming black tar that spread and splashed and burned-
-streams, rivers, lakes, water. Poison, acid, pain and death and misery , chockingdrowningdying, KILLING-
I staggered back, hands shaking, world tilting, that broken black burning void in the pit of my stomach, in the shadows of my soul, throbbed and surged and wrenched up my throat like bile, into my veins like adrenalin, black and purple flames flickering in the corners of my vision and-
" Percy! "
Someone tackled me to the side.
I blinked, and again and again to get rid of the blurry sheen, but there was Piper, stood above me, lunging at the threat alone. The serpent reared and lunged down at her, fangs bared ready while she was darting forward, aiming her blades at one of the widest scales on its black underbelly, plunging both dagger and short sword into flesh up to the hilts, leaving no defence against the gleaming, dripping death.
Then I was there, gripping those oversized fangs with my bare hands, sword lost somewhen in the last lost moments. A surge of violet, in my eyes, on my skin, tight down to the bone, a surge of StrengthWillMineProtect and I slammed its head down away from my Summer Rain, keeping the threat immobilised as she poured her aquamarine Tranquillity along her Celestial Bronze fangs and into its chest.
Eventually, after a long, long moment, it went limp. I let go of the snake's teeth, red poison stinging as slid off my skin like oil, leaving no trace but a trail of fading prickles.
Piper turned around, swaying.
Her skin was ashen.
Her eyes were dazed, dull murky grey-brown.
Her nose and mouth were leaking red.
(No. No, no again, please, please not again)
She grinned tiredly, teeth stained with blood, "Weaknesses; pierce the heart beneath the seventh scale, just like Aganunitsi."
She toppled, I caught her. The- the miasma, burning red and stinging for, like gaseous acid for her, still in the air, dissipating but slowly- too slowly.
I carried her onto the bank out of the cloud of death and set her down on the bank, fumbling in the pockets of my jacket for the thin flask of nectar and wrapped squares of ambrosia.
...it wasn't working.
It wasn't working.
The slight burns around her nose and mouth had healed slightly, but her breathing was still wet and ragged and she still wasn't waking up.
(Oh gods, Lord Apollo please- wait, no, Apollo couldn't answer, he was mortal - Lord Asclepius?! Lady Aceso?! Lady Panacea?! Please, someone, anyone HELP-! )
Maybe it's because the poison's still here?! She was out of the cloud of tinted, tainted air, but maybe there was a curse or something?!
Lying her on her side so she didn't choke on the blood still bubbling up from her lungs, I turned back to the corpse still oozing poison.
Shutting my eyes tightly, I thought about what Mom had told me, about what I'd found when I sank deep into my soul.
Sharphardpaincoldobsidianvengeance
The black flames... no, not for this. They were strong but cold. I needed heat, to incinerate the tainting-poison-threat.
So I reached for those massive gathering clouds of violet, the ones that protected and sustained and harboured the wispy tints of the Soul Flames of my closest kin and kith, of my trusted pack and extended allies, of the associates that claim love and loyalty for the places I would protect with my life if needed.
Grabbing onto that overflowing feeling of PROTECTION, I drew those clouds of power up to the surface, more and more, through my soul, through my bone, my blood, my skin and into the air.
I opened my eyes.
It covered me like a shroud. A mantle and veil and crown and wings all at once, Seething from my clenched fists and steaming from my mouth with every breath. Fluffy and misty, nimbus and strata, lilac and amethyst and royal purple. Violet clouds in every shade and form. All mine.
I cast a sweeping bank over to the caustic red mist, but when it touched it- it thickened.
It ate at my Cloud and made more of itself like it was converting the flame into its own element or-
Propagation.
Cloud Flame. Violet Flame. The property of it is propagation, making more of something.
Piper's wet breath gurgled and rasped behind me. I was making it worse.
I-
I looked at my Flame. My Flame. My Soul.
No.
This is mine.
I control this.
No matter what where it came from, or what it's called, Flame is fire.
And fire burns.
And the nest-padding, protective, fluffy Cloud roiled, heaving and billowing and burning. Ripping apart the threat like Lupa's finest Hunting Pack. Overwhelming the taint and consuming, hotter and hotter, as unrelenting as a tidal wave.
Until I stood, panting, before a scorched patch of marshland and a monster reduced to shattered crystal rubble, the poison of its breath and blood utterly incinerated.
Cleansed by the Will of my Soul Flame.
I turned back to Piper.
She was breathing slightly quieter.
( From the ambrosia and nectar, from my little temper tantrum or from nearing death? She was still pale and still and dying and there was nothing I could do about it )
My eyes stung and my throat seized even as I desperately tried to think of something- anything.
Then the drumbeat started again.
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I woke up slowly, the distant sound of music drawing me out the silence of sleep and into the waking world, singing, laughter and the gentle thrum of drums.
"The wonder-worker awakened." A bright, musical voice hummed.
I blinked my eyes open, there was a being stood over me. Small, with long hair, golden skin, bright eyes and dressed in simple, traditional garments.
I stared for a single second before quickly lowering my gaze. This person wasn't human, wasn't anything Greek, this was one of the Yunwi Tsundi. A fae-like being straight from Grandpa's stories. I greeted them respectfully, causing them to laugh like a ringing silver bell.
"She who has defeated the Keen-Eyed and won the Ulunsuti has been healed by our favour and may walk with our blessing for this favour she and her companion have done us, in defeat of the fiend and removal of the physical taint."
My mind whirled with questions, but I kept quiet and focused on just dealing with the present situation, politely and respectfully navigating a few brief conversations with a few Yunwi Tsundi and the worried fussing of Percy before I was presented with an actual Ulunsuti wrapped in a soft leather cloth, Percy was given a small briefcase shimmering between matt black plastic and craggy slate grey rock and we were laughingly ushered from the marsh bank where the beings had set up a small camp (where we had fought and defeated an Uktena ).
We got back to Percy's bike, drove over to the mainland and into the forest before we relaxed at all.
Later, we'd heat up some soup and talk about what had gone on today and some of the revelations and changes we would have to consider from here-on out.
But for now, I slumped down against Percy's back, reached out to serene pool of Tranquillity in my soul and let myself breathe.
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In the forests, miles away, the dryads hid within their trees.
A chill shook the air.
A tall, thin shape entered the clearing, each step eerily silent on each of its stretched and bony five-fingered hands, every finger laid down tipped with a blood encrusted talon.
A stained grey deer skull lowered to the trunk of a young oak, its towering, crooked form hunching and twisting down low, exposed ribcage creaking against an emaciated elbow, fetid breath huffing against the wood as the dryad cowered, safe for now in the own roots.
The beast panted the stink of putrid flesh a few breaths longer, then loped away as soundlessly as it appeared.
The only sign of its presence the lingering stench of death and corruption.
The cold of the air receded, but the icy fear in the hearts of the spirits present did not.
It had caught a scent.
The Hunt was on.
Notes:
• NA legends- trying to keep to Cherokee (that would reasonable be expected to interact with Piper) and figures spread across several tribes, such as wendigo stories.
• The Uktena (aka Oniare) with a KHR spin here- the 4 horns are each different colours (blue, red, white, yellow), which here I've linked to Flame element affinities for extra fun- Rain sedative/sluggish water effect, Storm corrosive poison, Sun speed enhancement and flight boost (?) and white to tie it all together without blowing up.
• Little People (Yunwi Tsundi). NA version of faeries/dwarves. Magical, mischievous and generally benevolent unless offended, very musical with song and drums, have healing powers and have lead doctors to herb cures. Usually invisible, sometimes children or glowing lights.
Any creatures of myth, legend and folklore (traditional or urban) anyone finds interesting and would maybe like to see or just express favourites of, just drop a comment in da box :)