Chapter 5, Zeus demands his Bolt
The Next Day, Big House, Camp Half-Blood ~
Percy groggily opened the door to the Big House. Chiron requested that he wake up early and come to the Big House alone before he sent Percy off to sleep last night. As Percy walked towards Chiron's office he thought he heard the floorboards creak behind him, Percy had an idea on why the boards may have creaked but decided to let Chiron deal with her.
Percy knocked on the door of Chiron's office.
"Ah, Percy! Come in my boy!" The old centaur's voice rang through the thick oak wood door.
"Hey Chiron, I think a certain magic hat is currently being used to listen in on what you want to tell me." Percy whispered towards the centaur whose form was being hidden in his wheelchair as he entered the office. Chiron sighed before he wheeled over to the door and placed a hand upon the old wooden door as he formed a barrier of what looked like mist that would somehow block out sound. At least Percy assumed so.
"So what was so important you needed me to come alone?" Percy asked quizzically as he took a seat. Chiron let out a deep sigh as he wheeled himself back behind his desk. Percy watched as the centuries old trainer of heroes sunk back into his wheelchair before Chiron started to speak.
"I'm sure you've noticed the strange weather so I'll cut to the chase. Lord Zeus' Master Bolt has gone missing, stolen if you will, and he believes your father, Lord Posedion, ordered you to do so." Chiron spoke bluntly. Percy was aghast, his uncle blamed him? He only just learned about this world! However, before either of them could speak the smell of the sea filled the air. In a cloud of mist a letter appeared in front of Percy.
Percy stared at Chiron in shock before he picked up the sea green envelope and opened it to pull out a letter the color of sea foam. The letter read one sentence;
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
As Percy read the letter he held only one thought, his father believed in him. His father was essentially telling him that even though the King of the Gods basically seeks to smite him down, as long as Percy faces any adversity with pure will he cannot fail. Percy also realized that while Poseidon cannot interfere directly, the Lord of the Seas is not against giving him a motivational quote.
"Well Percy, I think you should speak with the Oracle. She will be able to give you a guide for your quest." Chiron stated as he slowly stood and emerged his lower half from his magical wheelchair. "I shall show you the way to the attic my boy, and deal with our attempted eavesdropper."
Percy laughed as he followed the old centaur to the drop down stairs that lead to the attic. Leaving Chiron to deal with Annabeth, Percy climbed the stairs and coughed as dust filled his lungs.
The attic was dusty. Really dusty.
Percy looked around and saw what looked like a few trophies that he figured must be attributed to older Demigods.
A stuffed drakon head, a wooden Xiphos with a name carved into the blade that read Liam Scott, The Sun's Blade in Ancient Greek were just a few of what was located upon the shelves.
'I wonder who Liam Scott is?' Percy wondered to himself before he froze and laid his eyes upon the form of what he could only assume was the Oracle.
The shriveled body of a woman sat on a stool against the wall. The clothes the corpse wore looked like a hippie sundress.
The corpse moved as a venomous green mist filled the room before Percy could investigate the supposed dead body.
"I am the Oracle of Delphi, Prophetess of Phoebus Apollo, Slayer of the Mighty Python. Approach Seeker, and ask your Fate." The Oracle hissed out as that mist seeped out of her mouth and her eye sockets glowed.
"How do I retrieve the King's Bolt?" Percy gulped out in slight fear. The Oracle stood up as that venomous green mist started forming into a large snake that opened its maw and the Oracle's voice seeped out of it.
You shall go west, and face the God who has turned,
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned,
The betrayal of a friend is not as it seems,
Yet you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.
The spectral image of the Python hissed before slowly seeping back into the Oracle until just the head of the snake was left, yet Percy did not notice this nor hear that the snake hissed out a line of a different prophecy, for Percy was too stuck in his head trying to decipher the prophecy he was just given.
And the child entombed to Fate, fails to rage against the Dying Light.
Percy shook himself out of his thoughts as the green mist slowly dissipated and he turned around and headed back downstairs to speak with Chiron once more.
Same Time, The Arena, Camp Half-Blood ~
Tom stood in the middle of the arena facing off against an automaton that fought and looked like a hoplite. Behind Tom was the remains of the other two training automata that he defeated within the last 45 minutes. Not that he even noticed these facts. Tom was fighting on pure autopilot as he was stuck in his head reminiscing on his dead grandfather.
He thought back to when he was just a little kid, about 5 or 6, when his mother, Samanatha Lee-Badawi told him she had to find his father and left for Egypt, his fathers homeland, and left Tom in the care of his uncle Ramses "Rami'' Badawi. Tom thought back to when his grandfather first started teaching him Arabic with his broken english.
Grandpa Rami taught him so much and now he's gone. The man Tom viewed as a role model is gone.
The grief and rage Tom felt was immeasurable and the only thing he could do to help the pain was throw himself into his training with Clarisse and Tom started to blame himself for not noticing the drakon rushing towards the truck.
Thanks to the grueling training Clarisse put him through in order to become better with the shamshir gifted to him by the Fate of Death, which he decided to title after the Fate by giving it the name Akamptos or Inflexible in Ancient Greek.
Tom was broken out of his thought process by clapping behind him. He shook his head as he turned around and saw Clarisse clapping. He looked around him to see the three automata the Hephaestus Cabin built in shambles around him.
"Good work Tom, I see you have all but mastered that curved sword of yours. What are you doing up so early?" She asked him as he started to clean up the broken robots.
"Just needed to expand some energy." Tom lied as he hefted an arm he had chopped off one of the robots. He heard Clarisse sigh behind him before he turned around and saw her pick up an automaton by the torso and lug it over to the small shed they are kept in when they need repairs.
For the next 5 minutes the two worked in relative silence to clean the arena. Afterwords Clarisse put her hand on Tom's shoulder before she started to speak.
"If you ever want to talk about what happened with your gramps, let me kno—." She was cut off before she could finish speaking as one of the Hermes Kids walked in with a confident look on her face.
"Hey Tom, care for a spar?" The Demigoddess asked the unclaimed Demigod, who Tom recognized her as Jennifer Barnes or Jen as she wanted him to call her. Ever since he started training with Clarisse Jen had been wanting to spar with him even though she lost every time. She was slowly getting better each time they spared and kept promising that she would beat him next time.
Clarisse sighed at being interrupted as Tom nodded towards the girl he was growing increasingly fond of and accepted her offer to spar. Not that he would admit he was starting to like Jen especially because he knew Clarisse, a girl that he was starting to consider as his sister, didn't like Jen for some reason.
Jen drew her short sword and got into a basic battle stance as a gust of wind blew in, lightly blowing through her dark blonde hair, as Tom took his own comfortable stance. Tom knew this would be an easy fight. Jen was good, but not that good. She was quick though and she used that to her advantage.
Jen dashed towards him with her sword slashing quickly from the left which Tom parried easily. She followed up with a kick to his knee and tried to land a cut in his chest only for Tom to block, lock his leg behind her right knee that she overextended, and throw her backwards onto her ass. Tom leveled Akamptos on the base of her neck.
"Yield?" Tom asked Jen as if he didn't end the fight in a few seconds.
"I yield." She grumbled out and stood. Clarisse was laughing her ass off in the background as Tom returned his blade to its charm form before they were once again interrupted by Chiron this time.
"Ah, Tom. Just who I was looking for, I need you to come with me to the Big House. And Jennifer, if you could get Luke for me that would be great." Chiron said as he strided away with Tom following behind him.
- The Big House, Camp Half-Blood ~
Percy paced as he waited for Chiron to collect the two people he picked to join him on his search for the Master Bolt. HIs pacing was interrupted by the blonde girl with stormy gray eyes.
"Hey Percy?" Annabeth asked from her place on the couch in the living room.
"Yes Annabeth?" Percy responded as his grip on the pen in his hand loosened.
"I'm sorry about what happened during the capture the flag game, I don't know why I was so mean to you." She muttered out as Percy pocketed his pen.
"Oh, it's alright. I'm over it already." Percy responded before walking over the three backpacks Chiron had packed and double checking they were all set to go. Which they were because Chiron was the one who packed them. He threw on his green army jacket as the front door of the Big House opened and Chiron trotted in with Tom and Luke behind him.
With the looks on his two friends' faces, it was clear that they were thinking about if they really wanted to go on a quest with him.
"Hey guys, we're just waiting on one more than we can leave." Percy spoke to them as he handed them their backpacks. Tom and Luke shared a look of curiosity but accepted their bags easily enough. Before either of them could speak, Grover walked in with his own backpack on and a walking stick in his hand.
"I thought I said you could only bring two with you Percy." Chiron exasperated. Percy shot him a look before speaking.
"I know, but you know what is at stake with this quest. We can't risk failure so having two other fighters along with a tracker is a great idea." Percy responded as Chiron sighed and nodded as he pointed out that Argus would take them to the bus station.
The group of 4 said their goodbyes before they walked out behind Argus as Percy told them of the prophecy.
Ye-Olde-Erebus, signing off.