*Credit to Metal Pen for the original story and thank you for letting me adopt it*
Hey everyone sorry for being a little late with this update, it took a little longer than I expected but here's the chapter!
Chapter 11 – Sanctuary
A thick fog fell deep over the vast canvas of lush green meadows that emulated the sparkling mirth in the eyes of the Son of Poseidon. Such a title that he'd long forgotten about himself. It had only been mere hours since he'd pushed himself out of a Welsh shoreline and onto foreign soil.
Percy didn't want Artemis to be caught up in the political sham that he was about to be in the midst of himself. He hated it, or at least he hated the concept of it. This would be the first time that he'd actually be included in any kind of debate between Dragons and it all sounded so boring to him, yet he knew that at the slightest indication the whole meeting could turn into a bloodbath.
Artemis was immortal but she could still be killed and forced to reform over time, that kind of thing was something that he didn't want to force her to go through. It was better that he'd left her behind for this one.
"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice you trying to sneak out of my camp? Because I barely did, I just expected you to try and do this." A voice like velvet reached his ears, made his breath hitch and his heart skip a few beats. It wasn't a fear of punishment that made his heart stop, it was him becoming more acclimated to his situation with the knowledge that she cared enough to follow him.
"I'm good, but not good enough to pull a fast one over Lady Artemis. I would have been a fool to think I could have done that, so no, I didn't, but I did expect to lose you in the few hours I spent under the oceans." Percy admitted with a slight shrug before he continued his march over the vast green landscapes of the Welsh country. He didn't know specifically where Ddraig would be, but the scent from that many Ancient Dragons all in one location was undeniable.
"Let's go then, those Dragons won't figure this out on their own." Artemis sighed lightly as she fell into step behind Percy who hadn't slowed even slightly when Artemis had appeared. She followed in silence, staring at the back of his head as she wondered what might be going through his mind. He was on a mission and nothing was going to get in his way, that much was clear when he had turned into the emotional equivalent of a potato when she'd tried talking to him the previous night during her hunt. The whole time he'd been so flat out stuck in his thoughts that he'd not given a second to think about how he'd subconsciously pushed Artemis away. It was all because of the name that Dragon had mentioned, she knew it was.
The two of them kept walking until they found a truly unusual sight waiting for them. There was a burrow in the face of a large hill, nothing too inconspicuous, except for the large Dragon grazing casually next to the hole. It was black for the most part, but the neck started to tint all the way to it's fully purple head. Deep white eyes sat in contrast to the purple scales of the head. When they approached, the Dragon slowly lifted it's head and gave them an analytical gaze.
"Greetings little Dragon." A deep rich voice breathed out in what sounded like a muffled yawn. Artemis guessed that most of the Dragons all grouped together in here needed little reason to do anything until a general direction for their coven of sorts was all decided.
"Hello Dragon that is half the size of my true form." Percy answered with a humored smile on show. The Dragon huffed some billowing smoke out of it's nose as it pushed itself onto it's feet, standing proud with it's hind legs still resting against the ground.
"It's not the size of the Dragon that counts, it's how skilled the Dragon is." It announced proudly. Percy was unsure, but it didn't seem like this Dragon was actually one of the Ancients, just a random Dragon that had decided to flock towards the masses of higher ups.
"Yeah, I know, that's how I'm able to kill Ancient Dragons when I'm still stuck in this Human form, because I'm more skilled than half of you." Percy grinned. Artemis watched as he baited this guard with a flash of his sharp canines that hung lower than the rest. It was a good reminder to the Goddess that he was in fact a completely different person to the one that he had been before he'd gone missing.
"Hmpf. The other Dragon Hunter said the same thing. You two are cocky younglings." The Dragon announced, slowly returning to it's previous grazing position, obviously pretty intent on paying Percy much less attention from here on out. Artemis wondered whether other Dragons could feel Percy's power. It was something that Artemis herself desperately wanted to understand, that being exactly where he ranked among the other Ancient Dragons.
"The other Dragon Hunter? Is she here right now?" Percy's grin dropped and his arms folded impatiently. He granted the Dragon a gaze out of the corner of his eyes, not that the Dragon knew as it had already devoted itself to returning to slumber.
"She IS. You've arrived later than we expected and started the meeting. You may enter, along with your plus one." Percy hadn't even waited for the Dragon to tell him, he'd entered almost straight away with Artemis trailing behind him, her body shimmering in the darkness of the cave. It didn't really make a difference to the two of them who had superior eyesight.
They kept walking until they were in a grand cavern that took the breath away from Artemis as she stood wide eyed and looking at all of the different perches around, each with huge Dragons all atop them. There was a long platform of rock that extended from the entrance with a woman standing at the end, she seemed to have been in an intense argument with a hole of darkness at the opposite end of the cavern.
"Ah, he arrives." A voice echoed all around them, making the caverns very foundations shake. Following the voice, a head larger than each of the other Ancient Dragons pushed out of the darkness, showing himself somewhat.
"Greetings Ddraig." Percy announced with a small bow. As he bent forwards he placed an arm on Artemis' shoulder and prompted her to do the same. He knew that Gods didn't do well when they had to be formal with other immortals but the problem was that Percy would have preferred a diplomatic approach than anything else, so it would be better to impress them first time around.
"We've been awaiting you, little one. What kept you?" Ddraig's thunderous voice reached out to them.
"I just swam over three and a half thousand miles in a few hours, when you get someone who can do that faster than me then I'll come up with a better answer." Percy told them with a smug grin. He walked forwards, doing his best to ignore the woman who's gaze was fixed on him like he was the only thing in the world.
She wore an almost identical long brown coat to that of Percy's, except where Percy had once had bandages, his chest was bare and on show, the three fresh claw marks from Azazel had healed and were now nothing more than pale skin among the tanned outline of his body. His trident tattoo was on show where his coat was hanging loose around his shoulders. That crystal pendant filled with two souls was swinging happily with every step.
"You did what?" The woman asked in shock. She stood with her arms folded over a crisp white shirt that neatly tucked into leather trousers. She had the first few buttons near her neck undone, revealing that she too had a few scars to bear from her fights. She had long straight black hair that had been pulled back into a tight pony tail that fell down her back.
Artemis couldn't help but feel jealous, this woman standing at the edge of the rocky plateau among the Dragons was astoundingly beautiful. She'd no doubt be confident in entering a competition of beauty with Aphrodite, and possibly winning. The way that her piercing amber eyes were firmly fixed on Percy made Artemis almost seethe, and she didn't even have any real right to feel that way about Percy, she was a virgin Goddess after all, charged with ensuring his mission succeeded, there was nothing that she was supposed to be more than a body guard.
Percy granted the woman a solid gaze over a few seconds before he turned his attention back to Ddraig, fully ignoring her in the process. Artemis found herself subconsciously smirk at that.
"I've had a lot to do and not a whole lot of time to do it, so you know, there's always that." Percy shrugged. He mindlessly ran a finger and thumb across the glowing pendant
"He marches in without a care in the world, wearing the souls of the fallen without any thought to the disrespect he throws at us, what kind of person does he think he is!?" The Dragon on Ddraig's right side announced heavily. The thick spines along his body seemed to be solidly flaming with each and every word.
"I'm a Demigod, I'm a Prince of the Sea, the three times savior of Olympus, I've defeated Gods, monsters, toppled the Titan Lord, assured the continued sleep of Gaea, and stopped multiple wars between armies of Demigods, I could go on, but I won't... But I could." Percy's smug grin never once faltered from it's place.
"You list those hollow achievements like they make you untouchable in our sanctuary!" The Hell Dragon bellowed. He leaped from his perch, changing from Dragon to man before he even reached the rocky plateau. When he did he was only a few inches smaller than Percy, not that it mattered greatly as it seemed the son of Poseidon hadn't flinched or faltered even slightly.
An elongated talon ran it's course straight towards Percy's stomach, but right at the last second his body turned into a blur. The next thing that anyone realized, he was stood with a knee firmly planted in the stomach belonging to the Human form of the Hell Dragon.
"Percy, Azyat, enough!" Ddraig demanded, shaking the cavern once again. Reluctantly the Hell Dragon returned to his perch, somewhat humbled by the shocking force that was delivered to his abdomen. Not even he would deny that he'd be feeling that for quite some time.
The white Dragon that they'd met the previous day had found the whole ordeal entirely hilarious. "I have already come to a decision based on what I've seen. Icewyre." Ddraig's order seemed cryptic to Percy and Artemis. The woman next to Percy just huffed, it seemed that the debate they'd been having before Percy had arrived was now not going her way.
The Heavenly Dragon was the one who shifted into Human form as he strode towards Percy, "Sorry dude, this is totally going to hurt." He said with a slight grimace. Percy had been about to question his words, but before he could a beam of solid light smashed through the pendant with the souls and right through his heart, leaving the body of the new Ancient Dragon to fall to the floor.
"Percy!" Artemis shouted before sprinting straight over to him.
"Relax, he'll be fine." The Heavenly Dragon mumbled before returning to his perch. Idle chatter filled the room from the other Dragons that were gathered.
Artemis watched in amazement as the wound began to heal before her very eyes before he finally pulled himself back to his feet. "Truly immortal but Gods damn that sucked ass. Why do we still feel pain? What the Hades did you just do to me?" Percy asked, looking at the skin above his heart. One side still had half of the trident tattoo but the other half was pale and scarred with fragments of blue glass dotted around. Icewyre had fused the pendant of souls to his heart, at least that was what it looked like.
"With your collection of souls now forming a well inside your own heart, you'll get magnificently stronger with each soul you collect. You cannot kill most of us as you are, not while the corruption runs through us like a flood of molten malice. I see only the two of you Dragon Hunters working together to be able to find the one responsible for tainting our minds. You who are now slaves to the curse of Pandora's box... Good luck younglings." Ddraig's voice faded away as did his head. He was moving further down into his deep burrow.
"Artemis, we shall leave them respectfully. Tomorrow the hunt begins." Percy announced, looking deep into Artemis' silver eyes. The Goddess understood what he was telling her. She also got the feeling that he'd just experienced something incredibly painful and probably wanted a few minutes to himself.
"Not so fast Dragon boy, I want a few words with you." That voice immediately put Percy on high alert. Everything about her was drowning out his senses and it was making him itch just beneath the skin. Who the fuck was she!?