"And where do you think you're going, son?"
"Nowhere," I answered.
My father, who had released by arm after pulling me away from the elevator, raised an eyebrow. "Really? And where is that?"
I bit my lip, the anger I felt towards the gods and especially my dad was agonizing. It felt like something was burning inside me, and then by total panic everything just blurted out. "I don't know … all I know is that I'm leaving this building." I said, my voice shacking a bit for some reason. "… And again, I don't need any protection from you or any of the other gods. How can you at all agree to this terrible 'solution'?"
My dad was looking at me intensely, but I wasn't done yet. "Or maybe you just don't care about me, is that the case? Oh, right, you don't, I'm just a demigod, wasn't it what you said –?"
"Ow-" I screamed when my father suddenly grabbed my arm again. His grip was painfully tight, and he pulled me closer to himself. I looked at the god scared, and his own sea-green eyes met mine.
"Listen to me now, young man!" My dad spoke in a deadly-calm tone. "I agreed to this solution, just because I care about you. I can promise you that there were many other suggestions that were much, much worse!"
I bowed my head a bit before my dad continued.
"Also, may I add, that running out of the throne room was the dumbest thing you could have done. Zeus would have struck you down with his lightning bolt if I hadn't been there to stop him."
I looked away not feeling comfortable looking at my father's eyes right now. Running away was perhaps not the smartest move I could have done in that moment.
"Look at me, son" Poseidon said, letting go of my arm to my relief. But I just couldn't look at him, I don't know why, but I just couldn't.
But then my dad placed his index finger under my chin and tilted my head back up for me to look at him. His eyes that before were filled with anger and rage, were now affectionate and loving. "Perseus, I care so much about you, and never, never, never believe otherwise. You understand?" I nodded quietly. "And remember this, I wouldn't do anything that isn't for your own good, son." He said and smiled.
I was about to response, but then the elevators door opened with a soft pling. Both my dad and me looked up and saw a nymph step out of the elevator. She was dressed in a plain white dress and some sky-blue sandals, but what freaked me out was that instead of having a normal face, the nymph had a head of an eagle. And not any eagle, it was the same eagle that Zeus had patted in the throne room during the meeting. The nymph bowed down when the eagle eyes fell on my dad. "Lord Poseidon, Zeus wishes you and your son to come back and join the meeting again."
Poseidon looked a bit suspicious at the eagle-headed-nymph, before nodding. "Of course, we'll be right there."
The nymph nodded back, and then suddenly transformed into the golden eagle and before I knew it was gone.
I sighed, but then my dad took my hand and started to drag me towards the elevator. "Come on, son! There is not much left of the meeting, most of it is just about things that you don't have to worry much about."
What, I though panicking, I can't go back there. Zeus is seriously going to kill me if I return. My dad that was still dragging me towards the elevator turned a bit around, with an encouraging smile. "And of course, after the meeting you come with me to Atlantis, and Percy, there is no discussion there." He said the last part in a strict voice, but then suddenly I got an idea, and I stopped abruptly.
My dad seemed to not be surprised by the fact that I stopped, although he thought I stopped because I wanted to refuse going with him to Atlantis. "Percy, I said no discussion – "
"No no, dad! It's nothing like that. I just … I just thought that since I'm staying with you for the next few months, I need to get my stuff from home." My father seemed to be about to deny me, but then I hurried to add that he himself had said that the meeting wasn't about something important for me.
Poseidon looked away a bit, looking like he was thinking about something, but then he let out a sigh. "Fine, there is a taxi waiting for you outside."
"What?" I looked surprised at my dad "How did you –?"
"I have to go, Percy." My dad interrupted me. "Your uncle isn't very patient. But Percy, as soon as you are finished packing … your stuff … you have to go to anywhere there is some kind of water and call my name and I will be there."
With that my dad vanished before I could ask him anything else.
My dad was right when he said that there was a taxi waiting for me outside. What he didn't tell me was what waited for me inside. Because it wasn't a normal taxi – or it was from the outside – but wow, it was beautiful inside. The seats were fitted with some kind of luxurious-looking blue leather and it also had a little bar in the middle of it all, which looked like it was stocked with various different types of delicious sodas.
"G'day, Perce!" said someone loudly once I had sat down in the seat closest to the right door.
I turned around quickly when I heard my name – or 'Perce', but it was close enough I guess – yelled through the car. And there in the driver seat sat a man in his mid-60s, wearing a red fishing jumpsuit and yellow raincoat over it. On the other front seat beside the man was a fishing rod that the man had leaned against the front door glass. I will not be particularly surprised if he is a fisher.
"Hi," I said a bit unsure.
"You know it's so, so, so nice to finally meet you in person you know, perce. Your father has told me so, so, so much great things about you."
"You know my dad?"
"Of course, I know him," the man said in a loud voice again, sounding offended, before starting to drive. "he is the most powerful, kindest, smartest god in the entire world. And even if he sometimes does something wrong, he always makes it right again, unlike other stupid, stupid, stupid gods."
Oh, so this man knew about the gods.
"But how did you know I needed to be picked up?" I asked interested.
"Well, your old man" – I guess he meant my dad, but I have never in my life heard someone call my dad an old man. "told me."
"He did?" I raised an eyebrow, when did my dad have time to do that?
"Yeah, or I fell asleep while fishing, and not long after that I woke up in this good-looking car with this little paper on the steering wheel…" the man said before he pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket and gave it to me. I looked down at the paper and read it quietly for myself.
Dear, Aldric
Drive my son to his home, and make sure he gets there safely.
- Poseidon
On the other side of the paper was my home address and I also noticed that the edges of the paper were adorned with some beautiful small drawings of some fish and some seashells. It was very simple, but still I thought it was very pretty.
"Can I keep it?" I asked quietly, looking up at Aldric who had been looking at me through the rear-view mirror before he chuckled. "Of course, you can have it."
I looked down at the paper again, reading the neat handwriting again. I don't really know why – or it's maybe because he had written it – but I felt closer to my father when I held this silly piece of paper. Which again, for some reason made me feel safe.
"How did you meet my dad?" I asked actually wondering.
"I met him a long, long, long time ago." He said sounding slightly hoarse now. "The ship I was the captain of, was stuck in a storm. And let me tell me you, buddy, I have never seen such a strong storm in my whole life at sea. It lasted for many, many, many days and it never got weaker – not even for an hour or two. The waves were so, so, so high that you could no longer see the sky and the winds were so, so, so strong that they pushed people overboard as if they were some kind of dolls. Soon I was the only one on the ship, the others had drowned or starved to death. But then when I thought it was better to just give up on life too, your father came out of the water. He was so, so, so handsome and so, so, so kind and helped me find my way home from the storm."
Did this man know that my father technically was the god of storms and was most likely the reason for the storm to begin with? But of course, I didn't tell him. I didn't want him to be mad, since I had more questions to ask him.
"Do you often meet my father?"
"Not as much as before," Aldric admitted. "But we often fish together when he is free from his responsibilities as a god."
I was about to respond something like cool, must be nice… Which would maybe sound a bit rude, but I couldn't help feeling jealous of the man. My father didn't have time to hang out with me – his son – but he did have time to go fishing with some old dude, he had saved from a storm that he most likely had made himself.
But I didn't want the man to know how I felt so I turned around and looked out of the window, when I heard thunder rolling in and rain starting to hit the roof and the windows of the car. Wow, I wonder what's happening on Olympus… why is Zeus angry so suddently? But Aldric seeing my worried face looking out of the window started to speak again.
"You know, your father and I hung out a lot after you were born." Aldric coughed, before he continued. "He told me about how he often visited you, but that was when you were still a baby, so I doubt you remember much from him then."
"He visited me when I was a baby?"
"Oh yes!" he laughed before adding; "Quite often, I can tell you. He also told me about your mom, how much he loved her and that he had a feeling that she was the queen among women. Wasn't her name Sandy …?"
"Sally" I corrected him.
"Oh yeah, you right!" he exclaimed happily. "Sally, Sally, Sally, his dear Sally. He often talked about how he wanted to build her a palace under the sea in honour of her, so he could protect her from any harm."
It was nice to hear that my father cared about my mother and me, but I was starting to feel a bit tired, so I leaned my head against the window of the car sleepy.
Aldric after some time seemed to understand that I was no longer in the mood to talk, so he just turned on an old-fashion song on the radio and focused on driving while humming to the song loudly.
I looked at the different buildings we passed by, some of which I had lots of memories from. Like my favourite restaurant, where my mother's friend was a waitress. And OMG she was nice, like I-will-give-you-a-free-piece-of-pie-type-of-nice. Or the store where mom bought my favourite shoes in, although those shoes were later unfortunately destroyed in a quest, that kinda sucked to be honest. We also passed the store that had the best blue soda ever (like ever!), not even the soda on Camp half-blood could compare. My mother used to buy me a bottle of it every time I got sick, to make me feel better. To sum it all up, my mom was/is the best mom ever!
Wait mom! I had forgotten about her! How am I going to explain this whole situation to her? I sat up slightly looking out of the window again, we weren't that far away from the apartment, but I need more time to think about how to tell this whole thing to mom. How am I supposed to tell her that she might not be able to see her own son for some months? I looked at the small clothing store we passed by, it was only some minutes away from my house if you were walking, but with the car …
"Aldric?!" I almost yelled at him.
"Yes?" he said looking confused.
"Stop the car!" I ordered, and to my surprise he did.
"Why?" he said, once the car had stopped.
"I need to walk a bit … to ease my nerves, you know…" I said getting out of the car. "It isn't that far from home anyways."
"Your father told me to drive you all the way home." Aldric yelled rolling down his window, once I had closed the door.
"I know, Aldric, but I really need to walk right now" I yelled back. "But thanks for driving me this far."
"Wait, Perce!" he shouted, also getting out of the car, but it was too late I was already gone.