Chapter 3 ~ Damsels and Goddesses

Percy trotted into the temple in his wolf form, past the few praying inhabitants of Elis who, as always, gave him an exceedingly curious look. It had been quite a long day. After his training with Chiron, Percy had been quite tired and hungry anyway, but then the accident at the construction site had intervened. At least the whole thing had something positive, because he had met Hecate. His mother had mentioned her several times in passing and Percy agreed with her that she seemed to be relatively nice so far. She hadn't been as stuck up and arrogant as most deities were, or at least as much as he was told since Percy didn't have the opportunity to meet a lot of them.

After a while, during which the two goddesses, Percy and Helios had talked, Percy agreed to visit Hecate the next day and have some tests done on himself. He, like everyone else, was after all curious how his unusual powers could come about, because Artemis alone, should she really be his birth mother, could not be the reason for his invulnerability and his wolf form. Hecate had offered them her help, though more out of personal curiosity, and since the only other option was to go to Artemis and question her, Percy had agreed.

They had already considered a few times whether they should confront Artemis directly with their theories, but in the end had decided against it, because they could not guess how she would react and with a goddess with Artemis' reputation, they did not want to risk it. After all, she was known to despise men and had already shown in the past how mercilessly she could be. Would she be happy to learn of Percy and embrace him with motherly love? Or would she treat him as she treated all other men and see him rather as a stain on her honor? Would she perhaps even go so far as to kill him or, should this not be possible, keep him captive to preserve her secret? They just didn't know and didn't want to risk it, since even Helios and Selene, with all their abilities, didn't want to get in a mess with her and thus automatically the rest of the Olympians.

Percy was jolted out of his thoughts when the silver gleam from his mother's statue caught his eye.

"My real mother," thought Percy as he looked up at the statue of Selene, which was slowly glowing more intensely silver now that it was getting dark and the moon chariot would soon be pulled across the sky by her, spreading a hint of moonlight throughout the temple. A feeling of safety and security filled Percy, as if she took him in her arms, as she always liked to do, telling him that she loved him. In those moments, no one could touch him, because he knew that she would always take care of him.

The young but unusually large wolf strode past the statue in two priests to his place at the side of the statue. There were some pillows and blankets spread out for him, which offered him a very comfortable place, from which he also liked to watch the people praying at the feet of the image of his mother for protection in the night. One of the priests who maintained the temple and worked there recognized him and quickly hurried off, only to return a short time later with a bowl full of meat. He placed it on the ground in front of Percy's nose and said with his head bowed, "Your food, oh great silver-eyed wolf. I hope it will please my goddess's chosen one."

Percy rolled his eyes in exasperation. Ever since his mother had dipped him in moonlight for all to see and levitated him just to top it off, the priests and not just a few other people who came to pray and make offerings treated him that way. Although he admitted that "Silver-Eyed Wolf" had something cool about it, he had tried to prevent the rest of the submissive behavior. This had only proved somewhat difficult when he had tried to convey this message without words in the form of a wolf. The result had been frightened priests who thought he was unhappy and had given him more pillows and food, while Percy had banged his head against the wall in frustration.

At some point, Percy had given up and described the problem to his mother, but she was no help either, finding the whole situation far too amusing and not lifting a finger. Now he just endured all the talk, but allowed himself a joke with the priests now and then.

Percy stepped forward and critically eyed the meat presented to him, while the priest before him still stood with his head bowed in front of the somewhat elevated area that was Percy's place. In the background, two slightly younger priestesses, who had not been working in the temple for long, were watching what was happening and briefly interrupted their task of cleaning the temple. Percy tilted his head, bent his head down to the level of the priest's head in front of him and showed his teeth. He then opened his mouth and licked the priest across the face with his tongue.

He jerked back and promptly fell on his butt. Percy let out a sound that was the wolf version of a laugh and settled down on his pillow while the priest first stammered unintelligibly, then got up and hurried out of the room. As soon as the doors for this area slammed shut behind him, the two young priestesses burst into giggles. They threw their brooms aside and hurried to Percy's side. They took a few pieces of meat from the bowl and began to feed it to him.

"You gave him quite a scare, huh?" one asked, giggling as Percy devoured the meat. This was also something Selene found strange, since Percy only ate his meat raw when he was a wolf, and even preferred it that way. Percy nudged her hand with his nose in response, eliciting another giggle. While he now ate the meat from the other priestess' hand, they both began to stroke him over the fur and cuddle his belly.

"His fur is so nice and soft," cooed one and Percy gave an almost proud snort as he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep in the arms of the two priestesses. "Uncle Helios would be proud," was the last thought that wandered through Percy's mind before he entered the realm of Hypnos and Morpheus.

"Help!" a high-pitched voice called, and Percy blinked in confusion as someone shook him.

"Help, please great wolf, can you help me?" a child's voice called out and the desperation in it, made Percy finally wake up.

He scrambled to his feet and looked around. It was already nighttime judging by the dark sky outside. The two priestesses from before were probably no longer in the temple, but had gone home. Finally, Percy looked at the figure in front of him. It was a little girl, probably about seven years old, with unusual blond hair and intelligent gray eyes. She was wearing a simple brown chiton.

"What does she want from me? Doesn't look like one of the street kids to me, her clothes are too clean for that," Percy thought, staring at the young girl with an intense gaze.

Seeing that she had his attention, she began to quickly explain "There are monsters out there, outside the city wall! I was outside playing in one of the trees in our backyard and saw them chasing a woman. I went to father and he told me to get help while he was going to alert some guards, but I don't think they can do anything about the monsters. There were so many and I thought to myself, you are big and strong aren't you? I saw once how fast you can run and you can surely help, right? I mean, everyone always says you're Selene's chosen one and the protector of the city."

Percy looked puzzled and tilted his head. The words had fired out of the little kid in front of him, but now she had stopped and facepalmed. "Oh by the gods, you can't understand me at all. Damn what was I thinking?" she muttered and was about to run back out the door when Percy finally got his thoughts in order. "Focus! Someone needs help!" he reminded himself and sprinted off.

The girl screamed in fright as he leaped over her and ran at high speed through the temple and then out the main entrance. He sniffed the air with his nose raised and noticed a smell that was a mixture of ashes, rotten meat and wet dog. "Hellhounds," Percy immediately knew and started sprinting in the direction the smell came from. His four legs carried him swiftly through the almost empty, dark streets until he reached the direction of the southern gate of the city of Elis.

"Now that I think about it," he asked himself, while the gate was already coming into view "What was that girl doing outside on a tree at this hour? Certainly not playing. She should have been asleep long ago. Was she perhaps running away from something?"

His train of thoughts was interrupted when he arrived in front of the city gate and noticed a problem: It was already closed due to the late hour and there was no guard far and wide in sight. But then Percy heard a gasp and then a woman's frightened cry from the other side of the gate and knew he had to find a way outside.

He looked to the side and saw a staircase leading up to the wall and immediately jumped up the few stairs. A growl sounded from the other side and then a bloodcurdling scream, this time that of a man. Once at the top of the wall, Percy's sharp eyes easily saw through the dark night, aided by the bright moonlight. Below him were several people surrounded by five hellhounds.

There was a woman with scraped knees, visible because of her torn traveling tunic, as well as two members of the city guard, armed with simple bronze swords. Two others were already dead on the ground, mangled beyond recognition, their bellies ripped open and organs spilled on the ground by sharp claws and throats slashed by teeth as long as fingers. A torn arm was lying next to one of the corpses that were drenched in a growing pool of blood, the mortal weapon, useless against the hellhounds, still lying in the hand.

The hellhounds already had blood dripping from their mouths and one of the two remaining guards had a bleeding injury on his side. They stood together with the woman back to back, while the hellhounds slowly surrounded them. The woman sobbed desperately and cried "Oh gods help us!" and at that very moment Percy let out a howl piercing the blood-scented night air.

The hellhounds jerked their heads up just as Percy jumped off the wall. The hellhound that was directly below him didn't stand a chance and was torn apart at the belly by Percy's sharp claws. It let out a final whimper before becoming a mass of shadow and disappearing. The other hellhounds let out a growl and let of the woman and the two guards, who breathed a sigh of relief but seemed to be in shock.

One of the hellhounds became impatient and started to pounce on Percy, but the wolf with two tails was faster. He ducked and dove under the hellhound's leap. In one leap he was at another hellhound and took him by surprise. His teeth found the hellhound's throat and tore it out. His next target was the one that had jumped over him. Percy had to dodge two other hellhounds and jumped toward him. The hellhound jumped towards him for the second time and hit him in mid-air. Percy had managed to drag his claws across his opponent's snout, but the hellhound held up surprisingly well. The two rolled across the floor and battled for dominance until Percy finally got the upper hand and pinned him to the ground. The hellhound fought back fiercely, but another bite to the throat sent him back to Tartarus.

Before Percy could turn his attention to the other two, he felt the teeth on the back of his neck as the penultimate hellhound surprised him and bit him as hard as it could. The creature was a good bit larger than Percy, not one of the enormous specimens of hellhounds that were larger than rhinos, but still large. The jaws closed around Percy's neck with great force and the young wolf grunted in irritation. He tried to free himself, but the hellhound did not let go and from this position it was difficult to get at the beast with the claws. Percy looked around from his uncomfortable lounging position and his eyes fell on the other and last hellhound.

This one was just beginning to turn back to the two guards and the woman, who stood frozen in fear a few feet away.

"By the gods, what are you still doing here? You could have left long ago! Well, at least they are protecting the woman..." thought Percy. He tried to escape harder, but the hellhound only increased the power of his jaws, even if it seemed confused by now, since his teeth couldn't penetrate his target. As it turned out, this was to be Percy's very means of escape, as the Hellhound bit down so hard that several teeth broke off from its mouth with a bloodcurdling CRACK.

The Hellhound howled in pain and let go of Percy. He whirled around and took his chance to slam his claws into the monster's chest. This hellhound also melted into shadows. The last hellhound of the pack saw the death of his comrades and backed away from the three humans. It turned and ran toward the nearby trees when it realized it had no chance against Percy alone. More hellhounds would not have changed that, of course.

Percy glanced briefly at the two men and the woman to make sure they were no longer in danger. Then he ran after the fleeing hellhound at a full sprint, determined not to let the monster escape. He caught up in a few seconds and tackled the monster in the side and against a tree. The hellhound lashed out desperately at Percy's face, but it couldn't make a scratch. It growled and opened its mouth to bite Percy, but Percy was faster.

Percy's head shot forward with his jaws open. For a second, it looked like the two creatures were about to kiss. But then Percy's fangs closed around the hellhound's tongue. It howled in pain and reflexively jerked its head back while Percy simultaneously pulled in the opposite direction. In a fountain of monster blood, the hellhound's tongue was torn out along with parts of its throat. Percy spat out the tongue and watched as the Hellhound writhed in pain, fell over, twitched briefly, and then finally melted into a mass of shadows.

Percy turned and slowly trotted back to the three survivors of the attack. He was a little out of breath. When he finally reached them, the two city guards fell to their knees and the woman did the same a moment later.

"Oh my gods, not this again..." thought Percy and the people in front of him saw him roll his silver eyes. The woman looked a bit confused and shocked, after all it's not every day you meet a magical wolf with black fur and two tails.

"Thank you, oh great wolf, for saving our lives!" said one guard and the other nodded in agreement. The woman also managed a smile now that she was sure there was no danger to her from the silver-eyed wolf.

"I too thank you and owe you my life. And that of my unborn child," the woman said, placing a hand on her belly.

"What is the name of my rescuer?" she asked the guards, but they just shrugged their shoulders.

While the woman hesitantly held out a hand and stroked Percy's jet-black fur, one of the guards said, "No one knows. He just showed up here one day and laid down in the temple. He didn't hurt anyone, but animals are still not allowed in the temple and some priests tried to force him out. But then, before the eyes of all present, silver light fell on him, like that of the moon. He began to rise and float, right in front of the statue of Selene. It looked like she was holding him herself. Since then he has been held in honor by all and considered the chosen one of our goddess."

The woman seemed amazed and looked at Percy as she continued to stroke him and Percy was content to let her continue. For one thing, it seemed to put the woman at ease and for another, there was no reason why Percy should pass up a good belly rub from an admittedly good looking woman.

"My brother was there that day at the temple. He told me himself. Ha! Now I clearly have a better story for him," the guard said with a grin, which quickly turned into a grimace.

"Come, let us bury the dead," he said to the other guard, who nodded. The two began their work and the woman sighed. She looked into Percy's silver eyes and said, "Oh, if only I could know your name..."

Percy was just considering surprising her and just telling her his name, when suddenly the moon lit up brilliantly. The guards and the woman gasped and watched as the rays hit the ground a few feet in front of them. Before their astonished eyes, a word appeared in shining silver script on the ground. Perseus.

Percy used the moment of distraction to quickly and quietly disappear while the three examined the words.

When he was already among the trees and out of sight of the three people, the last thing he heard was the woman saying "Perseus. What a beautiful strong name," placing a hand on her slightly larger than normal belly.

Percy disappeared into the forest to find a quiet place for the night and, unbeknownst to him, in the morning everyone in the entire city of Elis would learn the name of their protector and the events of last night.

Percy stood in front of a rock wall. A damn big rock wall in the middle of nowhere. If you had been standing on the top of the cliff, you would have had a great view of several miles of fields full of beautiful flowers, but unfortunately Percy was standing at the bottom looking at a pile of bare stone.

"Am I even in the right place?" he asked aloud, throwing his arms up in frustration. "She told me to meet her here, didn't she?"

He briefly considered changing into his wolf form to scan the surrounding area faster, when suddenly the rock wall in front of him opened up. Silver eyes widened as an entrance opened in the stone. Torches in every color of the rainbow illuminated the cave. Percy looked around the area again, saw no one, and then entered the cave. The way led to a single larger main chamber, with various strange objects.

On one wall he saw a series of cauldrons, each of a different size, with strangely glowing liquids from which bewitching vapors rose. On another side was a huge shelf that went up to the ceiling, filled with books, some of whose writing he recognized, others written in a foreign language. In the middle was a free area with a pattern of strange symbols, which also decorated parts of the walls. Some symbols glowed for a few seconds and went out again, others seemed to do nothing.

On the last wall of the cave, there was an enormous glass vessel. Inside was a misshapen figure in a liquid, something Percy had never seen before. It appeared to be a woman, judging from her uncovered torso, but on her fingers were long claws and one of her legs was that of a hoofed animal unknown to Percy. The other leg was completely missing. In the area around her head, the liquid seemed to be constantly bubbling and Percy could not see her face through the rising bubbles.

In front of the vessel was a table over which a woman with black hair was bent. She was working on what looked like a leg of a metal statue.

"Don't take another step unless you want to be blown up, Percy," Hecate said in a calm voice. Percy froze and stammered, "What?"

Hecate pointed with an elegant finger at one of the symbols on the floor, just below his foot. It pulsed an angry red and Percy didn't dare move his foot even an inch.

"Hecate, could you please make sure I don't explode?"

"All right, you buzzkill."

She waved her hand and the symbol stopped glowing. Percy stared at her for a moment then yelled, "Why on earth would you place something like that in here?"

She just waved her hand carelessly.

"Oh just a security measure for uninvited guests. You never know when the next god will show up at your door because he wants you."

"That's happened before?" asked Percy, shocked and a little worried.

"Do you know who Cherbaron is?" she asked.

"No?"

"Exactly."

"You blew him up?" asked Percy, unconsciously backing away from her a bit.

"Well, less blown up and more torched, but that's just semantics. But lucky for you, you're invited and I'm glad you found your way into my home sweet home," Hecate said with a wide grin.

"Eh, you live in a cave? And what exactly is that?" he asked, pointing to the large glass container.

"Well, this cave is just a laboratory for my experiments. A few inhabitants of Olympus have complained because I've been blowing things up too often in my palace. Seriously, they should mind their own business, it's not like I broke their toys. But they ended up complaining to Zeus about the noise and he ordered me to do my experiments somewhere else. And this, my dear," she said, walking over to the container with the female something in it, "is my latest project. I'm just trying to create my own servants. I just need to somehow prevent their heads from exploding. Somehow they always get too hot from the inside," she muttered.

"Does everything actually explode in your presence?" asked Percy, choosing not to think about where the person for the experiment actually came from.

"With joy? Naturally!" replied Hecate sarcastically and Percy rolled his eyes.

"You meant we could do some tests to find out more about me?" asked Percy to change the subject.

"Oh, that's right. Come over here please."

Hecate walked over to the table and made the metal leg disappear with a wave of her hand. Nearly an hour of strange experiences followed. Hecate made Percy look into light that, to his amazement, came from a small stick without a flame and caused no heat. She pulled out one of his hairs and threw it into a vial with a mysterious liquid and measured the distance between his eyebrows. She had him change into his wolf form, plucked out another hair and took a sample of his spit. In the end, she also tried to draw his blood, but she couldn't penetrate his skin with a dangerous-looking syringe. Instead, she was satisfied with a look into his nostrils and dribbled his arm with several kinds of fluids.

Another twenty minutes followed, during which Percy watched her scurry around several books and potions, burning one of the hairs at one point and intensely smelling another.

"Okay I got some results," she said, waking Percy who had fallen asleep half standing up against a wall.

She pulled out a scroll and Percy listened intently as she read it aloud.

"Your mother is indeed, as suspected, Artemis."

Percy didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, he was glad that he now knew. On the other hand, he felt unsure and empty in his stomach. Why had she left him? Didn't she want him? Would everything be different if he were a girl?

After a short pause, Hecate continued.

"And your father is ... Lycaon, the first werewolf."

"WHAT? That's impossible! Artemis would never!"

"Hey, I only know what it says here."

"As for your abilities, it can be said that you are immune to most types of physical damage. No blade can hurt you, no poison can kill you, and even if you jumped off Olympus you wouldn't break a bone. My theory is that this is due to the natural immunity of werewolves. On the other hand, you would be vulnerable to silver, which you are not, and fire, which does not kill normal werewolves, but hurts them, does not harm you. This is probably due to Artemis' natural affinity for silver and the divine blood in your veins protects you from the rest. Even curses and spells can't hurt you."

"Wow," Percy breathed. He knew he was strong, but this was a whole different level.

"But, the true form of a god can still turn you to ash so don't get cocky. Also, I don't know yet if you can suffocate, we'll have to find out separately later. Also, as you probably already know, you have considerably sharpened senses."

Percy just nodded and thought about all the possibilities and implications of this result. But most of all, he thought about his parents. Well, his other parents.

"Lycaon and Artemis. How? What if he..." thought Percy, and was brought out of his musings by a figure bursting into the cave.

It was a woman who looked to be in a state of panic.

"Help, please!" she cried and looked at the pair in the cave.

"Demeter?" asked Hecate in suprise.

"Hecate! Please, it's about Persephone! She is missing and I can't find her!" the blonde goddess said desperatly.

"What happened?" asked Hecate.

"I don't know, she was out in the flower fields about two hours ago, but now she's gone. She could be kidnapped! Oh, what could they be doing to her right know?"

Demeter started hyperventilating. Hecate stepped up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder in a calm manner.

"Don't worry. We will try to help you."

"We?" asked Demeter and finally saw the other person in the room. Percy nodded in a greeting.

"Oh, forgive me young man, I didn't see you there. Who are you?"

"I am Percy," he answered.

"Percy, with your nose, maybe you will be able to find her scent!" Hecate said exitedly.

"Oh yeah, good idea!" he said and changed into his wolf form, getting a surprised gasp from Demeter. She caught herself from asking to many questions and waisting precious time as Percy said "Let's go find her." while moving the lips of his wolf form and lead them outside.

They trekked trough the flower fields until Percy caught a scent in his nose. It smelled of a fresh spring breeze and sweet flowers, way more intense than the flowers he was currently standing in. "I've got something," he said and followed the scent. For hours the group walked through the flowers until it got darker and Hecate summoned some torches to illuminate the path.

Finally they reached a huge dark crack in the earth, not very deep, but it looked like it was opened and then closed up again.

"The trail ends here."

Demeter looked at the crack in the earth and reached a conclusion.

"Hades! That bastard! I am going to castrate him, maybe I will ask Artemis for help!" she hissed, not seeing how Percy stiffened at the name of the Goddess of the Hunt. Hecate laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you so much you two! How can I repay you?"

"Don't mention it," said Percy. "I was glad to help."

"Me too," said Hecate and smiled.

"Nonsense, I will find something to reward you. But for now, excuse me, I have a certain god to talk to," she said and vanished in a swirl of flowers.