Chapter 3
Percy's head was aching like he was run over by a train. His head was all groggy. After slowly having his senses returned to him, he finally opened his eyes and saw.. he was NOT with his mother but instead lying on the ground which seemed to be full of dried leaves and small plants?
Percy looked around confused and realised he was in some sort of thick forest with huge trees. These trees were not your normal trees though, their trunks were a shade of dark purple in colour and their leaves resembled the midnight black.
But before Percy could let his thoughts linger any longer on them, quite a few realisations hit him all at once. His Mom… she was gone, that was not a dream. Tears started to fall out of his eyes as he imagined his last moments with her. She was gone, his loving mother who baked him the world's most delicious cookies was gone. Those guys were real, they killed his mother, they made her suffer. He was uncontrollably sobbing by now.
Sally was everything to Percy, she was not only his mother but his teacher and his friend. The other kids did not like playing with him because of his disabilities but his mom never let that put him in down, she became his friend, she played with him. Losing her felt like losing the world to Percy.
Whilst crying and remembering his mother, Percy's thoughts drifted to those men and how he had started glowing along with his necklace and how he had seen them get consumed by fire and then just disappear. For some reason, somehow he just knew that the vile men who killed his mother got the punishment they deserved. He couldn't explain that feeling but he just knew somewhere deep in his heart.
After having dealt with his thoughts and emotions a bit, though still shedding a tear or two, he started looking around into his surroundings thinking about where he was and what to do next.
He seemed to be in some kind of weird forest with peculiar trees all alone, not to mention he was handicapped and couldn't walk.
Suddenly he felt a hand tap him on his shoulder from behind and being the brave five year old that he is, he shrieked "aaaaa whaaa".
He turned around to see a girl who must have been the prettiest girl Percy had ever met. His position must have looked pretty funny because her beautiful face, with no spots and defects and pale skin broke out into a grin on seeing him get spooked.
"Close your mouth or you'll swallow spiders" She replied in a soft but teasing voice that enthralled him before he realised that he had his mouth wide open looking at her and that he didn't like the idea of swallowing spiders or getting embarrassed in front of pretty girls. He closed his mouth pretty quickly after that.
He observed the girl and noted that she looked to be roughly around 16 years old and had the curves that any female model would yearn for, she was wearing the most bad-ass armour set he had ever seen. It appeared to be made of a dark coloured metal that covered almost her entire body, just leaving a few areas bare around her legs and on her stomach, ultimately making her look badass. Percy also realised that the metal her armour was made of, looked remarkably similar to the metal his necklace was made from.
Before it could become anymore awkward, he finally spoke up, "So umm.. uhh who are you? And do you know where are we? And how can I get to manhattan?" and as an afterthought he added "oh and cool armour! Is it for some show?".
An understanding look passed on her face, she spoke up softly in her angelic voice "My name is Alyssa. Percy we are in-" Before she could continue, she was interrupted by a suspicious Percy "Ho-how do you know my name? I have never even seen you"
Sighing, Alyssa continued, "Yes.. Percy.. I will explain everything if you don't interrupt me again, let me speak. So-" again she was interrupted "okay fine, but I won't take any chocolate from you or go into a van with yo-" before he could finish that sentence, he saw his necklace glow and a piece of metal formed around his mouth effectively silencing him and spooking the shit out of him.
"There, now I won't be interrupted.. so as I was saying, Percy you know Sally was not your birth mother. She adopted you, your real mother though was a very powerful person, she wanted to be there for you and she wanted to raise you but err.. certain circumstances prevented that and she had to hide you on Earth to save you from.. uh something… Percy what I'm telling you will change your life completely from now. The entire world of mythology - gods, monsters, heroes.. all of it is real. Your mother, I cannot tell you who she was but she contained power that others couldn't dream of achieving… I cannot tell you much of what happened but in the end, I was appointed to protect you, teach you and take care of you."
Gulping loudly, Percy noticed that the piece of metal preventing him from speaking was gone but he didn't know what to say. He stayed silent and processed Alyssa's words for a minute. "w-what are you saying? Please don't joke around right now, how can the gods and monsters be real? Why have I never seen them before? And what is this about my mom? How can you even protect me, you look like you are 16!" Percy started in a small voice but his voice was near shouting at the end.
"Percy calm down, I am not lying or joking. You could not see any monsters or gods because of the way your mother has locked your powers and normal mortals cannot see them because of a powerful magical veil – the mist which makes them appear as something ordinary to mortals. And I might look 16 but don't let that fool you, I have powers beyond many can even comprehend and have trained for thousands of years." Alyssa replied in a calm manner, trying to calm Percy down. But she knew this wasn't enough for Percy so she said "and a proof that this all is real exists right on your chest. Your necklace. From your mother and it contains a fragment of your powers. Put both your hands around it and try to imagine a locked door, and then break through that door. Use your will, will the door into breaking."
"-but I-" Percy tried to say.
But Alyssa was having none of it. Putting her arms around his cheeks, she interrupted "Just do it Percy, this is going to help you".
Percy relented and put his arms around his necklace. He closed his eyes and tries to do what Alyssa said. But its not easy clearing your thoughts when you are on an emotional rollercoaster, all he could think about after closing his eyes was about how his mom is no longer with him and just like that, tears started to fall from his eyes.
Alyssa saw this and embraced Percy, she understood how difficult it must be for a five year old to go through this but she also knew Percy was no ordinary five year old and she knew if anyone could do it, its him.
With Alyssa's soothing touch, Percy slowly calmed down and pushed the thoughts of his mother out of his mind. He started imagining a closed door like Alyssa said. As soon as he did though, he felt a strange feeling encompass him. He opened his eyes to a shocking site, the locked door he imagined, was not so imaginary anymore. He was in front of it. He looked around and saw he was in a dreamland-like area with nothing but darkness surrounding him and the door.
Getting over the fact that his imagination literally turned real, he started trying to open the door. Nope. It was locked, locked really good. He tried to push it as hard as he could but it didn't budge. It didn't help that we was slumped down on the ground since he was handicapped after all and couldn't walk.
He tried for hours, using his flail arms to try and force the door open but the door didn't budge even a little. He finally started to give up, thinking of how useless he was. He couldn't save his mother from those people, and now he couldn't even open a door, heck he couldn't even walk away and try to escape because of his legs. He focused on how helpless he was when his mother suffered. These thoughts suddenly ignited a fire within him, rage similar to what Percy felt earlier filled him. He didn't ever want to be helpless like that again, his thoughts fuelled his rage and before he knew anything, his necklace glowed again and the door that he had spent hours trying to force open just blew apart.
Before Percy could marvel on this, a bright light started filling out from the now unlocked door and engulfed him and his surroundings. When Percy could finally see again, he was back in the real word – or what he thought was the real world – in front of Alyssa.
"I-I was in some weird place with a door, what was that, I broke the door somehow. What's happening?" He asked her, slightly relieved that he was with a familiar-ish face.
Chuckling quietly after seeing his face, Alyssa replied "You did it Percy! You unlocked a sliver of your true self. Have you seen yourself?"
"Wha-" was all Percy could say before he finally saw himself. To sum it all up, he looked even more badass then Alyssa, he was wearing armour made from the same metal that his necklace was made from. It was up till his neck and seemed to be so comfortable that he didn't even notice any discomfort with it. It had cool designs with different dark shades of black. But what took his breath away was the fact that he was… standing. He could feel his legs. He could feel the weight of his body on his legs and he could feel his toes moving with his will. This was an amazing feeling for him, being paralysed from the waist down his entire life, he had never experienced what walking felt like and the doctors had told them that he would never be able to walk.
"How is this possible?" asked a astonished Percy.
"Like I said Percy, you are no ordinary child and your birth mother was quite powerful" Alyssa replied in a soothing voice, also happy after seeing his reaction. For the next few minutes, Alyssa just stood by looking and waiting as Percy jumped and ran around the area, full of energy on trying out his newly fixed legs.
After he finally settled down a bit, Percy asked her "So what now Aly? How do I get to Manhattan and what will I do now? My mother-Sally is gone..?" His voice turning sombre by the end.
Raising her eyebrow at the nickname but getting an understanding and comforting face towards the end, Alyssa replied "I will take care of you Percy, you must become strong like your birth-mother was, you have to train. And as for your other question, we can't go back to Manhattan, well partly because the Olympian gods will hunt you down and mainly because.. we are in another dimension. Percy welcome to the time dimension-"
A slightly shocked Percy replied "Train? Stronger? And why would the gods hunt me? And what do you mean ANOTHER DIMENSION? Are you okay?"
Chuckling again, Alyssa replied "Yes Percy, you need to train to become stronger. Because of your mother, some people might try to hurt you and your power is also the reason the Olympian gods will try to capture you. And as for proving this is another dimension, have you ever seen trees like these ones on Earth? If that's not convincing then flick your right wrist and see your hand."
Percy did as Alyssa instructed, he flicked his right wrist so that his palm was now facing upwards and woa- weird looking numbers were floating above his wrist in a hologram-like projection. The numbers were 9999:99:9:99:99:99. Before Percy could ask further, Alyssa started speaking.
"Time dimension is a weird place Percy, here people don't use money as currency, instead they use time as currency. The timer on your wrist shows the amount of time someone has left. Thought, this system cannot overpower your mother's powers and hence you seem to have bugged their system and have unlimited time. The time format is like this - years then weeks then days then hours then minutes then seconds." Said Alyssa in a teaching voice.
Shocked for like the thousandth time today, Percy asked "What ? that's so stupid. What if someone runs out of time? And how do people get more time? I guess the part about me having unlimited time is cool though."
Sighing, Alyssa replied "Well, if someone runs out of time, they die… people in this dimension are different from humans. They age up to 25 years of age then they stop aging. Their clocks don't show up until 25 and when it does, they get a free year of time on starting. People earn more time by working for the king and getting paid in minimal wages in the form of time."
Horrified by the cruel system, Percy asked " So rich people can live forever? And the poor have to suffer just to live? Who made this stupid system. And how do people transfer time?"
Thinking, Alyssa said "well I guess yeah, if you have enough time then you can live forever here. Some things just cannot be changed, this is the rule of this dimension, it is how it is. And as for transferring time, I think people just have to hold hands, their hand up top the other persons if they want to take their time and down the others hand if they want to give time."
"But this is so cruel… how much time do you have Aly?"
Hesitatingly, Alyssa flicked her wrist and showed her time. 0000:00:0:00:1:34
Percy gasped and spoke in a worried voice. "Whaa, Aly why do you have such less time. And why didn't you tell me?"
Hesitating yet again she replied "Well, I'm not the son of –" she quickly stopped herself from revealing anything and continued "I mean, I am not above the rules of this dimension Percy, only you are. And I would have told you but I was busy explaining everything to you."
Percy noticed her change of words but did not comment on it. Instead he quickly grabbed her hand and put it on top of his in a hold. A whirring sound was heard as the time started flowing from his wrist into hers. But oddly enough, he noticed his time was not going down, he guessed he had to thank his birth mother for that. "Don't scare me like that Aly, now I only have you left…" He spoke in a soft voice, reminding Alyssa that however extraordinary he may be, he's still a five year old. Breaking out of her stupor, Alyssa hugged Percy, stopping the time transfer after seeing it hit 10 years and a few weeks. "I am sorry Percy, but don't worry.. I'll never leave you. Like I said, I'll take care of you Perce."
After staying in the hug for a minute and after making sure Alyssa had got enough time, he finally asked her "soo what now Aly?"
Smirking a bit, Aly said "Now we train.."
And wrap! 2.6k words! Not bad I guess…
So how was the chapter? A bit slow progressing. Also anyone get the reference of the time system? Percy's gonna be here a while, develop a few unique powers.
Alyssa is going to be a really important OC in the future.
