When Perseus came to, he noticed he was bound with chains, and rolls his eyes with annoyance. He could easily break them, but decided against that course of action. He looks around at his surroundings, noticing all of the silver.
"Great, I'm in the camp of the man haters." Perseus says with irritation. He sits up and and easily breaks the celestial bronze chains, due to being stronger than Heracles and Atlas combined.
Perseus stands and exits the tent, much to the surprise of the Hunters who are present. He looks around in curiosity. Suddenly twenty arrows were nocked and aimed at him. He freezes, feeling the godly energy in the air.
He raises his hands to show he means no harm, "Where am I, and why am I here?" He asks curiously.
"You are in the camp of the Hunters of Artemis, boy." Said a girl with the looks of Persian royalty and a silver tiara-like circlet on her head. Perseus nods understanding his situation now.
"Is that supposed to worry me? I could take you all down in an hour, tops." He says, trying to pinpoint which of the girls is Artemis. His gaze flicks from every girl, eventually landing on an auburn haired, and silver eyed girl who is trembling with rage at the pure disrespect and confidence coming from Perseus more than the other girls. He smirks, knowing that he has identified her.
"Another arrogant and prideful boy. And he thinks he thinks he can take down the greatest fighting force the Greek Pantheon has?" Artemis scoffs as she speaks up.
"No need for hostility, Artemis. I was hoping we could settle this between us, god to goddess. I won't fight unless it is in self-defense." Perseus responds, while raising his hands to show he is unarmed.
"You are no god I recognize, boy. But I do sense divinity on you similar to my father, Zeus. Perhaps a minor god? Or an immortal son of Zeus?" Artemis muses out loud.
Perseus looks offended, "I assure you, I am no son of that man whore you call King, nor am I on of your so called minor gods. I know for a fact that Thanatos and Nemesis are on par with an Olympian in pure power due to being children of a primordial. To be specific, Nyx, the primordial of the Night." He replies with a miffed tone. Artemis hides a smirk before composing herself.
"If not a minor god, or an immortalized son of Zeus, who are you?" She asks confused and irritated and irritated.
"I am Perseus, son of Thor and Sif, adopted son of Sally Jackson, and defeater of Surtúr." Perseus states proudly while standing tall and confident, with a kingly presence oozing from him. His eyes turn into glowing electric blue orbs of power with an occasional flickering of lightning. A breeze blows through, making his cape flow majestically like the mortal comic book superhero Superman. The Hunters look on in barely concealed awe, while Artemis herself just narrows her eyes.
"You lie. The Norse faded millennia ago." She states while aiming her bow at him, while the Hunters look unsure of what to do.
"I assure you, I speak the truth. I swear it on the Styx, and to Vár herself. If I lie, may both strike me down where I stand." He exclaims boldly with both arms spread. The thunder of the Styx booms, and Perseus glows an ominous gray color.
When Artemis sees nothing happened to Perseus after a few minutes, she relaxes but doesn't lower her bow.
"How are you here? Your pantheon withdrew from the mortal world." Artemis questions.
At this, Perseus gains a sad look. "I was sent here as an infant as Asgard was attacked and being overrun. My parents sent me here, and even now, my parents and brethren are barely holding off the enemy waiting for me to make my triumphant return."
Artemis didn't know how to react to this, so she just remains silent, as do her Hunters.
"Well, it is getting late, and I must return to my adoptive mother. But... Where exactly am I?" Perseus asks with a light blush and an embarrassed tone.
"Well, you are in Susquehanna State Park in Maryland." Artemis informs him after the Hunters control their laughter.
"I see... Could I stay here until morning? I shall tell you of my tale over the campfire." Perseus asks.
Artemis being intrigued by the boy, nods and decides to let him stay because he will give her more information.
"Excellent! Now, I have to ask you to swear on the Styx to not reveal anything about me to anyone until I decide to reveal myself." Perseus states.
The Persian girl from before bristles, "Do you not trust us boy?" She asks angrily.
"Peace, Zoë, it is... Understandable that he doesn't want to be revealed to Olympus quite yet." Artemis states calmly to the newly named Zoë.
"As you wish, milady." Zoë grits out.
Artemis swears the oath, and the Hunters with the added addition of Perseus head to the campfire for Perseus to tell them his tale. However, little did Perseus know, is that alot more time has passed than he realized while he was in Muspelheim. It has been 2 years, and Sally has been worried and looking for him ever since he disappeared.
"... And there I was, fighting my way through hoards of fire giants to reach their king and first fire giant in creation, Surtúr. With my strength and abilities, I cut my way to his throne. And let me tell you, his true height can make your Titans look like ants in comparison. So there I was, facing off against him. And the honorable king he is, Surtúr decided to shrink to the height of a normal man but taller than average. And on an unspoken agreement, we charged each other, my body flowing with electricity, and after what felt like hours of intense fighting, I managed to shatter his blade and make him yield. After which, he told me I was a worthy opponent and the shard of Mjolnir he was guarding flew and merged with my blade. After which I left using my pendant, and you know the rest." Perseus wraps up his tale and leans back onto the log he was sitting against and pulls out his sword. He looks at it confused at why it looks different from before.It was now a deep blue instead of the previous silver color. He assumes it's from the shard of Mjolnir that combined with the blade. Suddenly he senses a familiar presence. He stands and summons his shield and gets into a ready stance. The Hunters and Artemis seeing this, ready themselves for combat as well.
"No, stand down. These monsters can only be felled by Uru. They are draugr at that." Perseus warns. The Hunters begrudgingly stand down while Perseus skillfully wields the two-handed sword with one hand and his shield in the other.
From the brush, twenty draugr shamble out. The leader locks eyes with Perseus and grunts out a warning in Old Norse, "Vér gefþúr einn khance til surrender, ok vér munu gefþúr swiftr andlát. Leggjniðrr þinn arms." to which Perseus translated to: We give you one chance to surrender, and we will give you a swift death. Lay down your arms.
Perseus replied in Old Norse, "Ef þú viljminnr weapons, kompryr þau fran minn kaldr, dauðr korpse!" If you want my weapons, come pry them from my cold, dead corpse!
And with that, Perseus launches into combat with a mighty battle cry and sword raised, "FOR ASGARD AND VALHALLA!" His voice booms like thunder, and he clashes with the draugr plowing through them with ease. A massive bolt of lightning falls from the heavens and strikes Perseus, and after it does he has lightning constantly flickering off of his body and his eyes turn into pure lightning.
As he finishes off the last of them, he spots the leader trying to flee in terror. Perseus sheaths his sword on his back after kicking a draugr off the blade and draws his bow, nocks an arrow, aims and lets the arrow fly. The arrow hits it's mark and then some, going right through the draugr's skull and embedding in a tree. After the leader has fallen, the corpses turn into ash and ember. He spits on the ground and mutters in Old Norse, "Kowarð." Coward.
He turns back to face the Hunters and sees them all with varying degrees of shock on their faces at his battle prowess. Even Artemis herself looked impressed and knew that if Perseus were to cross blades with both Ares and Athena, Perseus would come out victorious. Perseus brushes some ash off his armor and sits down and leans against a tree, and dozes off.
While Perseus slept, it gave Artemis the opportunity to think back to something Perseus said at the beginning of his tale, about Heimdall's horn and how it echoes through all of the Nine Realms when blown.
Mini Flashback:
Artemis had been at the annual Winter Solstice meeting toning out the bickering of her siblings and her father and uncles. It was during said meeting that a loud and clear blast of a hunting horn sounded through the throne room, cutting off the arguments.
Zeus was first to speak up, "Athena, what was that?"
"I don't know father. All I know is that it sounded like a horn." Athena replied.
About twenty minutes later, a huge chunk of metal crashed into the center of the throne room, crackling with electricity. Hephaestus was most intrigued, but none of the gods could approach the hunk of metal without being blasted away.
Artemis muses to herself, "Knowing what I know now, it seems almost certain that was the Horn of Heimdall being blown, and the hunk of metal is most likely a piece of Mjolnir." She mutters quietly before heading to her tent.
The next day, Perseus bids farewell to Artemis and her Hunters, having earned their respect. Perseus thrusts a hand towards the sky and thinks of his home, and his open air arena. With a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, Perseus vanishes from the Hunter's camp and reappears in his arena.
The first thing he does is go looking for Sally and assure her he is fine. When he walks into the kitchen, he sees Sally crying while looking at pictures of him.
"Mom, what's wrong?" He asks concerned.
Sally whirls around, "Percy, is that you? Are you really here?" She asks in disbelief. When he nods, she pulls him into a bone crushing hug.
"Mom, what's going on? I was only gone for three days at the most." He says confused.
Sally looks at him, "Percy it's been two years." She informs him in a solemn tone.
"What?!?" Perseus cries in disbelief.
AN: And here is the long awaited update! I'm sorry it took so long, but I had a bit of writers block and I was doing some research for this chapter. And now I am on vacation, so it'll be another while before the next update, and please keep in mind that I only write in my free time.
Also, another poll: Who do you want the main ship to be?
Pertemis
Or
Perlia?
Also do you want a third ship with Percy?
Yes
Or
No?
If you decide on a third ship, your choices will be in the next chapter.
Thank you for reading! As always, constructive criticism is welcome and I always am eager to hear your opinions, thoughts, and ideas.