This wasn't right, Jason's mind was stubbornly insisting to itself now with no outlet. A fawn would never do something like look after a kid so long, it wasn't in their nature!
"Jason?" Thalia touched him gently on the shoulder. He looked up, pleading with his stomach not to throw up on her.
"That's not normal," he just wished someone would agree with him.
"I'm sorry, I thought you knew about all this, you haven't seemed that put off by this," she needlessly tipped her head towards Magnus, who was having a rapid fire conversation with Hearthstone.
"An elf? A dwarf! Really? Any other secrets Hearth, are you secretly not deaf?"
Hearth looked exhausted and the others were watching the show in mild fascination, but Thalia kept her focus on him as she offered the book.
"Um," he swallowed and truly in that moment wanted to admit his memory loss to her. He didn't feel threatened by her, he felt desperate and alone and staring into her blue eyes made him more sure than ever she was the key to helping him figure out why he was in the same boat as Percy.
Percy wasn't in his most patient mood for his indecision though as he called over, "hey, what's the hold up?" For once he'd taken this news in stride better than anyone. There was a tingling sensation at the base of his skull, if he concentrated hard enough he'd swear he could see meadows in the distance, actually hear Grover's voice, but it was like trying to draw a picture with a pen out of ink. The outline was there but would never solidify and only made his eyes sting the harder he tried to focus. A memory...or something else? He needed to know more, now.
Jason swallowed and took the book and kept telling himself he'd feel better the more of this they got through. Even if the names sounded strange, it wasn't so off putting it had been unhelpful, and surely this camp would have answers for him as well as Percy. "My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting," he told.
"Well, if the secret answer to this was you being a conquistador, I can't say I approve," Alex finally dragged her eyes away from Magnus now crossing his arms and glaring across the room, a sure sign to his friend he was done talking for now. She was extremely curious to see if she could start learning this new language, but focused back on the problem at hand.
Nico pressed his lips together to stop himself spouting the fun fact Posideon was big on bull sacrifices and maybe Sally somehow did this to ask for a blessing of Posideon before she took him there, while Will and Thalia were already making faces about how not fun hearing of the Minotaur was going to be.
...
Alex had had a few instances of sleeping outside as an animal to keep warm to know that lingering smell and agreed. It wasn't bad persay, but distinctive enough you don't forget.
...
Thalia was very intrigued by that, wondering how exactly Sally had kept Percy off so many monster's radars for so long. By the time she'd been twelve she'd been dealing with an attack a week, how had this mortal found a way around it? Was someone keeping her up to date, about Grover and possibly other monsters nearby? Her first thought went to Chiron, but he wouldn't have been testing Percy when Sally knew for certain what he was. Her only thought was Poseidon still sending her messages in dreams, though it seemed unlikely as the Gods weren't known for keeping in contact with their mortal lovers once they'd moved on.
...
"Is there a major difference?" Magnus uncrossed his arms and looked to Hearth for help.
He shrugged, a pretty universal translation, and then signed, 'not my department.'
"Judging from his reaction, I'm sure he'd say yes," Alex told him, finding it pretty funny the guy couldn't hold a grudge for long. Then her eyes widened as she remembered these Greek kids obviously knew something more about Brunner, was he a satyr too?
Those in the know repressed their uneasy answers. Yes, there were plenty of different half-animal half-human creaturs in mythology, hardly any of them besides a select handful existed for a good reason.
...
-"Fawns," Jason slipped up in saying, even though the correct word had been right in front of him. His tongue had just supplied the word, like a fill in the blanks. "S-satyrs," he corrected quickly as Nico gave him a sideways look and tried to hastily continue.
They all knew he used Roman names by now so it wasn't that much stranger, but they still had no clue why. Child of Athena, Will and Thalia had long since guessed. Perhaps with a mortal parent who had a fondness for the Pantheon and so learned them all backwards, but still caught the Goddes of wisdom's attention at any rate.
...
"The one's I'd like to meet," Alex chuckled while Jason just looked all the more distressed. Stayrs, fawns, it felt like he was trying to describe Jupiter, ah, Zues as a kind and loving father despite every popular depiction showing him otherwise; like trying to see double in his head and still look through it to just read the sentences. His headache was increasing by the word.
...
Percy sheepishly closed his mouth, he'd been about to echo that very same question even if he knew he still wouldn't get an answer.
...
"We should get Grover miffed more often," Thalia chuckled, "he's usually not this sarcastic in life or death situations."
"I should be worried by how casual you make that sound," Percy told her.
...
"That woman could be the goddess of motherhood if Leto didn't already have the job," Will nodded in approval.
...
Nico was frowning in concern though, knowing the mortal couldn't get into camp. Thalia and Will had very grim expressions on their face, and he found it hard to believe Sally had just dropped Percy off there and skipped away unharmed from whatever monster was after them. Even though most didn't care for mortals enough to outright attack them, some had a pretty bad habit of killing a few if they were close in the wrong mood, and this was starting up as a recipe for disaster. The camp had surely stepped in to help before it went that way though.
...
Thalia's face was stiff with distaste for what her father had done when he himself had sired two children already by that point. She was physically biting her tongue to stop herself cursing him, lest he hear such a thing.
...
"I am giving him an all you can eat buffet card when I get back," Percy said with a fond, if exasperated smile that was pure relief he was okay.
...
Thalia looked even grimmer than usual, her hand reaching out automatically to touch the tree as she always felt compelled to whenever she passed it even down here. Her father had saved her essence, her life in that tree because of Hades and now here he was, recreating the vicious, endless cycle by sending a beast Percy's very father had a hand in creating.
...
'Run. Hide. Don't trust anyone. I'll find you.' The last words Magnus's mother had yelled to him echoed back in his head now. He sat frozen, a feeling unfamiliar to him, as if he'd somehow been dumped back on the streets of Boston in the middle of winter and felt its full wrath. He crossed his fingers and hoped he would'nt have to see that now mirrored forever in Percy.
...
She can't, those who didn't know, well, realized. No matter how close they got, mortals would never fully be embraced into this life.
...
Grover was lucky he wasn't here or Percy would have shoved an apple in his mouth by now.
...
"I hope your mom has a red jacket handy," Alex said, but the joke fell flat. Sally was a good parent, she didn't deserve to be gouged by a bull like some parents she could name.
...
Magnus swallowed and wished Alex would turn to mockingly point out yes, the animal definitely mattered this time. He wished Percy, Thalia, and Will would all go back to teasing each other and eating kale chips. Instead Jason's voice grew softer at the impossible odds being stacked like this, and only one survivor in front of them.
...
Nico swallowed and couldn't even pretend to drag his eyes away from Percy now, though of course he held no attention to him, focus solely on the book. The hero who would save someone like Nancy if they'd been in trouble, it was no surprise this is how he'd victoriously arrived at camp, probably slinging his best friend over one shoulder and his mom over the other while disintegrating that minotaur with a kill-you-later stare...
...
Jason hesitated and glanced up. "Am I supposed to say them down here then?"
"Already tested that theory," Thalia grimly reminded. "Both Zeus and Krono's names have been invoked and nothing's happened yet. Oceanus promised we'd be safe down here until we were done, and so far that seems to be true."
Jason nodded and turned back, feeling more useless and frustrated by the moment Thalia had clearly known of this danger and kept it to herself.
...
"I'm going to shave his legs," Alex swore, wringing her hands over nothing before she started tapping on her knees for them to reach that stupid tree already.
...
'Just like in the movies,' Hearth signed, he still hated going near cars after seeing how easily combustible those things apparently were.
'Here's hoping someone swoops in to save the day any second now,' Magnus signed back.
...
"The only thing that would have made this moment worth it was if Gabe were in that car," Thalia sneered.
...
"Well, nobody can say the chapter title lied," Will muttered.
...
Percy was sitting on the edge of his seat, the seaweed floating to his tapping feet, shifting his weight and focused so intently on Jason it was making his skin crawl. Enemy, something in the deepest part of his mind snarled, but he disciplined himself with ease and focused on hand to his task.
...
Will swallowed, his heart strumming a faster beat than even his father might string. Michael had died helping Percy defeat this beast the second time, he paid close attention now to how Percy had defeated it then so that he could at least pre-emptively hold that image in his mind if he had to hear about that again.
...
It should have been ridiculous, getting tense and worked up, but not one of them could have claimed they'd step aside and do nothing if they'd seen this. To be forcibly sat around now and forced to listen made them question for the first time if this was help, or punishment.
...
'A mortal worthy of Valhalla,' Hearthstone thought to himself, making a gesture Magnus had never seen, because it wasn't a sign at all. He drew the rune for courage subconsciously on his palm. A diamond with a verticle line cutting it in half and then trailing out the bottom, then adding two more at an angle, like lashes. A symbol he'd never known a parent could represent before.
...
"No!" Percy shouted, jumping to his feet, pulling his pen out at last, but it was useless. He stood there as he witnessed his greatest failure for all to see. He hadn't just failed his mother, he'd gotten her killed.
"Percy," Thalia gently clasped his wrist, forcing him to look at her. A grief stricken across his face she'd never feel, but her friend did not deserve to live in that suspension. "You're mother's okay. I can't explain, I'm sorry, I won't risk hurting you, but she is! You fail to save what matters most, and it prevents the world from chaos."
The line from a prophecy echoed back at him now, unclear and distorted in his terror, but comfort none the less. He forced himself to slowly lower his arms and rasped out, "I need to get back there."
"I agree," she nodded steadily and released him, urging Jason as silently and calmly as she could to keep going.
He wasn't so sure anymore that he should, his confidence dwindling by the word he'd find any answers in wherever this place was. Whatever he'd been searching for, it wasn't there... but if he didn't than somebody else would. If there was one thing he could focus on, it was getting a job done.
...
Percy shuddered and fell back into his seat, bits of it floating to the ground like the tears he would not shed. He looked as pale as any proper corpse would be in the ocean, eyes glassy with disinterest for whatever else had happened. He hadn't even remembered his mother and now he'd already lost her- but no. He would get back to her. He would find some way to make her proud.
...
Nico looked as ashen as Percy as he rubbed his hands together. So often Percy had given him a look of sympathy when the person who'd been witness to his sister's death tried to speak to him. He'd...actually forgotten that for a moment. It came flooding back now, but in a new light somehow. He'd never before appreciated Percy even knew what loss was, not the boy who had everything one could ask for. Percy did know though, even for whatever brief time Sally had been taken before she was returned.
...
Alex chocked, she hadn't realized she'd actually been right. Magnus caught her eye and mouthed, 'good one,' like he thought she'd actually planned that. The stupid look on his face as he faintly blushed and looked away delayed her from responding to the circumstances until it was too late.
...
Thalia smacked him and called him a seaweed brain. She'd stopped doing that after they'd rescued Annabeth together, but the urge to regress and think him nothing but an impulsive idiot overwhelmed her in that moment at this suicidal plan. He'd just seen this wouldn't work for his mom. She was almost glad Annabeth wasn't here for this one, she didn't want to see the look on her friend's face if she realized Percy might not have cared in that moment.
...
Most campers weren't told the story of how Percy had arrived at Camp Half-Blood, because it had given others wild crazy ideas about actually trying this. Several had died in the woods that summer from attempts to recreate such a feat. Will, however, had been there that first day when it had spread like wildfire and exaggerated in all its glory how that horn wound up in Percy's cabin. He held his breath now and murmured a prayer to Apollo that Michael Yew and all the fallen campers from that bridge heard and enjoyed this, no matter how belatedly.
...
Thalia's eyes narrowed. She'd never once wished to be awake trapped in that, but for the first time she did, that her magical protection was more than just a gift from Zeus but a way for her to keep fighting. That her sentient roots could have come up to fell that beast.
...
Jason made a rough gesture with the book, like he was imagining shifting a car into top gear and speeding it off a cliff to stop this thing. Thalia bit her lip and internally thanked this lunatic had never wound up around Percy before this, they'd probably get along too well.
...
The instincts, the reflexes, the raw power and even something as simple as the rain amplifying it all left no one in doubt why Percy Jackson had survived to the age he had now. He was still leaning forward on his beanbag and clenching his jaw as if half his mind were still on that hill now, reliving the moment and forcing himself not to shout at Grover to shut up.
...
Percy's mind finally lit with understanding. Not quite a lightbulb, but more like a flickering flame, dancing and unfed. A kindling of hope as he realized this was how monsters died, but not his mother, she should have been a pile of broken bones at the Minotaur's feet. Something had happened, and he had to remember what.
...
Percy still didn't quite understand how or why, but he still managed an exhale of relief to know for a fact that was true as well. He'd still have his first friend when he got out of this too.
...
"Annabeth," Percy said at once as he finally breathed again. She was younger in this memory than his other when she leaned in to kiss him, but it was her! His hands reached out automatically to hug her as if he were collapsed back on that porch all over again, before he blinked and his arms fell away, realizing he was still trapped in this room and he had a sneaking suspicion she'd punch him for referring to her as a princess no matter the context.
...
"He's your one alright," Thalia said in fond exasperation.
...
Magnus swallowed, looking from Percy to the book and back as some of his unease grew. He'd always been warned not to trust anyone, especially Uncle Randolph, and even if he had wanted to try to find Uncle Fredrick he'd have no way of doing so, not that he'd ever kept in touch all this time. Had this been why, his mother was trying to keep him away from this camp just like Sally had tried to do for Percy? If that even was his cousin at all, he tried to correct himself, but it was a losing thread at this point.
...
"That one's done," Jason said as he held his place on the last page.
"I'll read next," Will offered, bouncing to his feet and offering his hand out with a sunny smile. Jason tensed before uneasily handing the book over and looking to the unseen ceiling above, staving his hand off from clutching his coin yet again. Something had to give, but he didn't know which it would be first. His secret, or his weapon.