A/N: It's time for some Godless Stones! With some Finnish mythology thrown in and stuff.. Yeah, I'm bad at author notes... Normally people would even put disclaimer here but I don't get the point really. I meam... This is fanfiction. Meanin that the world and majority of the characters belong to someone else right? FF is for stories like that and then there's fictionpress for original stories... I don't get people.

Chapter 3: In which we get a new friend and find home

"This gotta be a joke…" I muttered as I looked at the bookshelves of the ornithology section in the biology hall of the New York Public Library. The shelves were high, very high, and a top of each was a bird statue. Each statue was different but they all were owls. And because they all were statues, one couldn't really tell them apart. They were stone! With no colors! There was no way in Hades that we would find the stone even if we knew which bird to look for. And great, I was beginning to use the same expletives then rest of the demigods… But back to my point, this task was impossib-…

"Found it!" Luna's voice echoed in the quiet hall. I turned to look in the direction of the voice. She was sitting atop of one of the shelves that had books about birds in southern Europe which not so coincidentally includes Greece. Of course. And she was sitting next to a statue about her size but from my point of view it looked almost bird sized. See! That's how high the shelves were. And I did not want to know how she got up there. Probably climbed. I've heard from my mother how Luna used to climb into bookshelves when she was two or three. Yeah, she probably climbed. And these shelves were much steadier and sturdier then the ones at home.

"How did you know it was that one?" I pointed at the owl statue that Luna was hugging. There was three other statues too, one for each corner of the shelf.

"Because this is a Minerva owl." She stated like it was obvious. Okay… An owl named after the Roman counterpart of Pallas Athene… That makes sense. The Godless Stones were as much for the Romans as they were for the Greek so naturally the goddess herself would guard the stone in a sense. But that didn't explain how my sister recognized the owl. So I asked her.

"I'm been a bit obsessed with owls when I was younger… Blame Harry Potter books." She grinned. Well, that explained a lot. She reached then for the owl's left eye and plucked something out of it. From my point of view the statue didn't seem to change much but I was very well aware that Luna had something on her palm. She held it against the light streaming in from the windows and we watched as the prism bended the light into a rainbow on the floor in front of me.

"Pallas Athene's Clear Thought. A clear quartz. Gives a knowledge of languages to the user and helps to keep one's calm when solving riddles and forming plans. I think this might be handy eventually…" She mused before pocketing the stone and getting on her feet. She was about to climb down when something caught my eye.

"Matte!" I said, slipping in Japanese. Luna froze, her feet already touching the wood of the next shelf.

"What is it, Clay?"

"Is it just me… or are all the statues looking at us?" I was looking up at the owls on the bookshelf opposite the one the Stone was found from. They were staring right at me and Luna. Even the Minerva owl was with its left eye closed now.

"I guess… this won't be as easy as we thought…Statues… How nice. Don't blink. Don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink. Good luck." My sister laughed nervously and climbed back up on the shelf. "Run!"

And I ran. We headed for the door that seemed to be entirely too far. I weaved around the shelves and tried to find my way while Luna run on top of the shelves, jumping from one to other. Behind us the stone owls had come to life.

"No use! We gotta fight!" I yelled at her.

"How? You are the only one with a weapon!" She shouted back, dodging an aerial attack from a barn owl and almost falling off from the shelf.

"Improvise! I cover for you!" I took my bow and notched an arrow. My eyes followed the once stony birds flying about and ready to dive at us and scratch and peck us to death. I took an aim when one owl was a bit too close to Luna.

The arrow flew through the air and hit the owl in the chest. It turned back into stone and fell on the floor where it cracked into pieces. Apparently these would be relatively easy to kill but still could drown us in masses.

While making my deductions, I failed to notice another owl approaching me until it was too late. I tried to shoot it down but it was too close already. So I did what anyone else would've done in my situation. I covered my head and hoped the worst would be over soon.

But the pain never came. Instead I heard slashing sound and more stone crumbling. I looked up behind my arms and saw Luna standing in front of me. And she had a long silver sword in her hand and it looked like she'd come down from the shelf by jumping in the back of one of the owls and crashed it atop of the one trying to kill me. Oh and she had also cut half yet another owl.

"You okay?" Luna asked without looking at me. She was glaring at the rest of the owls that didn't feel like attacking at the moment.

"Yeah… But I have two questions…" I took my second arrow and notched it, ready for the next wave of attacks. "One, where did you get the sword? Two, are you sure that you are not a demigod too?"

"One, it is the Lady Sky." She replied and I noticed that the sword, which was not Greek by the way, had a Lapis Lazuli between the blade and the handle and seemed to have some golden flecks all around it just like the stone used to have. "And two, yes. I'm certain. My sword is guiding my hand at the moment."

"Okay. Good to know that you have my back." No other words were needed. While Luna rushed towards the remaining birds, I let my arrows fly in a quick succession. There was something satisfying in seeing them hitting the targets and turning the owls back into stone. I never missed my target. Ten years of practice had ensured it, not my new heritage. And I wouldn't let anyone claim otherwise.

After fifteen minutes the only owl remaining was the Minerva owl. The rest of the guardians were dust now. I took my last arrow and aimed it up high at an almost impossible angle. Luna was behind me, nursing the few wounds she'd received in the combat. But before I could release the arrow, the owl disappeared in a flash of light. With a huff, I lowered my tsuru.

"It probably went back to Athene." Luna concluded. "Which means we need to get out of here."

"We've got three stones altogether so she can't track us down, right?" I confirmed. She just glanced at me.

"That's what you concluded from the book but yes, I believe so." She made a motion as if to drop her sword on the floor but it vanished into her ring as soon as her fingers weren't touching the handle anymore. I collected all of my arrows regardless of their state and noticed that the remains of the statues were grumbling further into finer dust.

We walked out of the library and slipped into the subway once again to get back to our motel. On the way Luna took the newly acquired Godless Stone from her pocket and showed it to me. It was clear, almost see-through and was neatly honed so it reflected sunlight on the building walls around us. And on it was carved a delicate and soft-looking feather.

"It's beautiful." I stated.

"Yes, it is…" Luna agreed and was about to say more when we heard a weird noise from somewhere on our right. There was a shady-looking street with dumpsters and other litter. It smelled of urine and sewage. I really didn't fancy going in there but then we heard the noise again. It was like a horse… Sort of. Hard to say since there was an annoying echo.

"Let's go." I told Luna. She just nodded and followed me towards the noise. We dodged the shady piles of smelly stuff and puddles of something that I rather not thought about. I led us deeper into the alley, one of my used arrows already notched. If anything it could serve as a distraction were we to meet any dangerous people.

The neighing became louder as we rounded the last corner. My hand drew the string of my tsuru tighter on an instinct when I came face to face with the sight. It was a beautiful black horse. So dark in color that he almost looked dark blue. The horse's reins were tangled on some barbed wire on a fence and had been trying to tug himself free. That much I could see on one glance.

"Vetehishevonen!" Luna gasped next to me, the Finnish name of Kelpie coming from her lips. "Someone has tried to rein him but he managed to escape."

"Rein… Oh, right!" I remembered now. The only way to tame vetehishevonen was to put him in reins but even then the horse would try and escape and make his new master's life a miserable as possible.

"We gotta help it." Luna told me and began walking towards the mythical horse. I kept my tsuru drawn in the case the horse would try to hurt her. But the horse stood still, his black eyes staring straight at us.

"Be careful. Those guys like to eat people too. Except for the liver." I muttered as she called for her sword again so she could cut the reins free from the wire.

"I would be more worried about his dragging me to the water." She quipped lightly and snick, the reins were free and intact still. The Kelpie remained standing and looking at us before nuzzling Luna cheek. My sister laughed. "That tickles. And you are very welcome."

I lowered my tsuru finally and walked towards the pair. The black eyes snapped to look at me before looking away from the street. A couple of other head gestures later I concluded that the Kelpie wanted us to climb on his back. When I voice the thought, Luna looked up at me in shock with some fear mixed in.

"I don't think Kuroto will hurt us. We helped him after all." I told her.

"Kuroto?" Luna repeated.

"Yeah… After my mentor." I smiled and grabbed the reins. With the help of some abandoned wooden crates, we managed to clamber to the horse's back. I was holding tightly Luna who had the reins for now. I didn't want to take any risk of losing her one way or another. And as soon as we were steady, Kuroto broke into gallop at breakneck speed.

We raced through the streets of New York City. Time seemed to slow down around us. We passed the suburban areas too until a forest was seen. Where was this water horse taking us? But the question was answered soon as Kuroto slowed down and finally came to stop at small clearing with an old Japanese styled house in there. I slid off the horse's back and helped Luna down too. I looked up at Kuroto.

"Why do you show this place for us?" I asked him. As an answer he just nudged me on the back and towards the house. Exchanging a glance with Luna, we made our way towards the porch. I took off my shoes before opening the rice paper door and stepping in. A living room greeted me. Tatamis were on the floor and a low table in the middle of the room. I walked through the room and opened the next door that led to the corridor. The whole house was somewhat eerie, like it was abandoned. But it still was in pristine condition. True, there was layers of dust but there was no water damage or mold. I liked the place. Next to me Luna was looking around too.

"Do you think we could live in here?" She asked.

"Yeah… I guess that's the reason Kuroto brought us here. We helped him and he helped us in return."

"I think this house is magical." She stated then.

"I think so too." I'd found a little box from the shelf of the living room and opened it carefully. An amber was sitting in there. Amber like an ember… They'd found Hestia's Hearth. A stone that protected home from monsters and preserved the place like it's remembered in fondest memories. "The previous owners probably left in hurry… Or then they died out there."

"Maybe…" Luna had taken a peek into the box too. "But I don't think they'd mind if we were to make this our home."

"Yeah… Home…" I smiled at her. The word rang pleasantly in my mind. We had found a place to stay. Maybe now we could start relaxing finally.

A/N: You know you can review too... By the way... Do you know how weird it is that I already have plans for as far as after the HoO saga but I have only a vague idea what happens there... And before I explain some things I also encourage you to send me pairing suggestions. This is my first fic where I'll take romance somewhat more seriously but it still won't be the main concern. The pairings can be hetero, slash, femslash or even threesomes. No explict content will appear though or even mature. And I'd rather try to avoid lovetriangles. Onesided love is acceptable though.

1. Vetehishevonen: Or jokihevonen(river horse) is a term for Kelpie. I'm not sure how much the mythologies coincidence with each other but I'll stick into the Finnish version.

2. Finnish: Once again I put this on here. Better late than never. This one is about the pronounciation because both Clay and Luna will slip up in this department when it comes to Greek deities. We are quite literal in pronounciation to be honest. We have A and E and I, not 'ei' and 'ii' and 'ai'. It's hard to explain but basically it's similar to how Japanese pronounce their language. For example Chiron will be Kheiron when they say it and Hephaestos is Hefaistos. But I try to info you more about these when they appear. Okay? :)

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Right now I'll keep writing the fifth chapter. It's harder than I thought... But I think it'll be just fine. But now I'm thinking if I should start adding other PoV's too, like Luna's and some of the gods. At first I thought to keep this strictly with Clay's because the PJO books stick to Percy too.