Chapter 8: An Intruder In The Night
(Author's Note)
Hey everyone! What's this? A second chapter in one weekend? Yeah it's shorter than normal but it serves as the start of the pick up for this story. Things will start to get intense in the next chapter and it'll get so insane in ch10 and ch11 that I fear that some of you may just have a heart attack or go catatonic. But enough of that ominous foreshadowing, I have a few things to say before we get to the chapter.
I'll be putting out summaries for the next two PJ Pertemis stories that I have planned later on towards the end of this story so you can all vote on them in a Review or PM. Just for clarification, whichever story wins WON'T be next, as I'm doing a How To Train Your Dragon Story next, but the winner will follow after that. More details to come.
I asked this at the bottom as well, but would you guys be interested if I started a YT channel and made a few videos about characters, abilities, storylines, monsters, stuff like that? And maybe even a death match of sorts where I pit the main characters and some powerful side characters against each other in a fight to the death? I have no experience doing YT but my brother has a microphone I might be able to borrow and he might be able to give me some pointers. If any of you have a YT channel and would like to work together on them, let me know, I'd love to work together on this. I have no solid plans yet, this is just an idea I've had for awhile. More info is at the bottom.
Thanks for all of the Reviews last chapter. Can we beat 10 this time? I know we can, I believe in you guys. Have a great day and I'll see you at the bottom.
Chapter 8: An Intruder In The Night
(June 1, 2011 - Unknown Location)
Two figures, a man and a woman, slept peacefully next to each other in a darkened, shadowy room. The couple were gently intertwined, hinting that the woman had fallen asleep in the man's soft embrace. He laid on his side, like her. His tanned, toned arms were gently wrapped around her middle, reveling in keeping her as close as possible, even whilst asleep. Her long mane of soft blonde hair laid out on the pillow, tickling his nose whenever he moved in his sleep. But he did not wake, for his dreams had been clearer of visions of his past as of late. So he continued to sleep softly, the love of his life in his arms as they dreamed, unaware that a knife was being used to force the latch of their door to unlock.
A tall, muscular and fit figure clad head to toe in darkness silently stalked into the room, making sure to use it's years of training to keep it's breath and feet silent as it made its way to the bed and the sleeping couple and bringing the blade to point at the sleeping man.
The man on the bed woke silently when an outside force caused him to wake, but kept ever still in his bed not knowing what woke him until he heard the barely audible sound of feet walking behind him. The man, moving as slow as possible as to not be noticed, snaked his out of sight arm under his lover's pillow to reach for the dagger he knew she kept there but found it blocked by the weight of her head. His gut telling him that he had little time until an attack, the man sent a quick prayer to whoever was listening and with a quick motion threw his partner from the bed away from the intruder -causing her let out a undignified shriek as she fell to the floor with a 'thud'-, reached under her pillow, grabbed the dagger and turned around to block an incoming dagger from his attacker.
"Eeep!" The woman shrieked as she fell.
'T'ching!' The two blades struck as the man jumped to his feet and tackled his attacker into the wall. 'Thud!' The wall of the apartment shook as the large intruder was slammed into the wall.
The woman started to climb to knees, calling to her partner only to be interrupted by his shout. "Wha-?"
"Stay down, Annabeth! Someone's-aaack!" Percy yelled as the attacker used the brief distraction to strike him in the neck with outstretched fingers, causing him to gag before being thrown against the heavy wooden headboard of the bed.
Pulling back his arm, Percy launched his fist at his mystery attacker and felt his opponent's nose crumble from the strike and sent the figure stumbling back. "Who are you?!" Percy yelled to the large figure as it climbed to its feet, brandishing a long, slightly glowing curved dagger.
"Percy?" Annabeth called from her spot sat on the floor on the other side of the bed, trying to make out what was going on in the darkness around her. "What's happening?"
"Someone broke in," He answered as he dodged a swipe of the blade and countered with his own but found it hard to keep away in the limited space between the bed and wall. "Stay down!"
Without warning the silent figure threw a small knife towards Annabeth, the daughter of Athena only being saved by Percy's superhuman reflexes due to the boost from the Curse of Achilles. He turned to find the figure swinging the large dagger at him. Assuming that the blade would shatter as soon as it struck his chest, Percy wasn't weary of the blade at let it get closer to his body than he would have ever before, which turned out to be just the plan of his attacker because without warning the tall figure swiped the dagger at Percy and sliced a horizontal streak across his bare chest.
"Aaah!"
Percy grit his teeth in pain as he grabbed the wrist of his attacker and promptly twisted it until the blade was dropped with a shattering sound. Summoning what strength he had at the moment, Percy threw himself at his attacker and slammed the figure into the wall again, but this time embedding the attacker a few inches into the wall and causing paint and debris to fall to the carpet.
After stepping back from his attacker that was currently unmoving sitting in the wall, Percy unceremoniously dropped to his knees, clenching his chest to find, to his utter surprise and horror, his fingers covered in crimson liquid. "Ah, shit…" Percy muttered as his eyes grew heavy and his body went weak.
"Percy?" Annabeth yelled as she made her way to him, keeping a wary eye on the unmoving figure embedded in the wall. "What's wrong?"
"Poison…" He weakly let out through chattering teeth, blood filling his mouth before dumping the crimson liquid on the floor. Annabeth cupped his face as violent spasms shook his body, causing the son of Poseidon to jerk in her arms.
"Percy!" She cried as her love shook on the floor, the long, bloody streak on his chest bubbling as emitting wispy, dark flames danced over the sinister wound. "Oh gods… Percy!" More red liquid dripped from his nose, ears and eyes relentlessly without signs of slowing. Annabeth sent her eyes to the ceiling as she grabbed the bed sheet and tried to use it to stop the bleeding. "Mom! Apollo!" She cried to the ceiling. "Help! Poseidon! Someone help!"
The silent intruder began to stir, pulling itself from the wall slowly and almost robotically reaching down to the floor to pick up the glowing, shattered and dripping dagger. "No! Stay back!" Annabeth roared as she grabbed the dagger Percy borrowed from under her pillow and pointed it at the attacker. "Take one more step and I will kill you!"
The figure was unfazed as it silently marched towards them, the large dagger in front of them. Annabeth desperately moved Percy behind her as the intruder stalked closer to them, finding it hard to move his more substantial weight. "I said stay back!" She yelled as the man crept closer. "Do you have any idea who we are?" She brandished her dagger at the figure but was ignored. "Do you expect to get out of this camp alive?"
And as if the Fates themselves had decided to intervene right at that moment, their door flew open and a broad shouldered figure tore through the doorway and launched a shimmering spear at the attacker, knocking it back and pinning the figure into the wall through the shoulder, causing the attacker to let out a breathless, muted cry.
Annabeth didn't waste any time and turned to point her dagger at the newcomer only for the light to come on and to find a tall, muscular girl dressed in a pair of pajama shorts with skulls on them and a large, loose fitting muscle tank top. Annabeth blinked, making sure she wasn't seeing things before commanding her friend over. "Clarisse?" She asked questioningly before motioning her over. "Percy's dying!"
Clarisse's hard face dropped as she made her way to her knees next to the daughter of Athena. "Dying?" She asked, appropriately confused as she looked over Percy. "But he's invulnerable- ah… fuck…" She forced out as she saw the nearly foot long, bubbling and smoking crimson streak on Percy's chest.
A second later another person tore into the room, Clarisse's boyfriend, Chris. He took one look around the room and was beside the two girls within a second. "What happened?" He looked to the groaning figure impaled to the wall with Clarisse's electric spear. "Who's that?"
"Doesn't matter right now," Clarisse took command immediately, knowing that Annabeth wasn't in the right state of mind. "Sound the alarm, the camp is under attack! Get Will and every healer we have right now!" With a nod her boyfriend shot out of the room and took off down the hall, yelling so loud that the entire apartment complex of adult demigods woke up.
Not even half a minute later DJ, the eldest member of camp as well as a son of Apollo who lived down the hall ran into the room and dropped beside the two girls as they pressed the blood-stained bed sheets into the large wound. "By the gods…" DJ muttered as he began working, pouring some Nectar on the wound, just as Leonidas entered the room with wide eyes, followed by Will and a few members of his cabin before they quickly got to work.
"Brother?" Leonidas' face went pale as Percy coughed up some more blood before promptly passing out.
oooOooo
"The person who broke in was an Ares camper." Clarisse reported to a man laid out on a stretcher, his girlfriend sat on a chair next to him, their hands intertwined. "...It was Avery."
Percy's eyes widened slowly, a result of his current weakened state. "Avery?" He asked with shock, he had known and gotten along with Avery for years. "Are you sure?"
Clarisse nodded slowly, jutting her thumb to point at another stretcher on the other side of the room, a young man laid unmoving on it dressed in all black clothes, a ski mask laid beside the man on a chair. He was flanked by two guards in full armor as he slept. "Unfortunately. He was conscious but completely unresponsive when we took him in, he wouldn't respond to any questions and his eyes wouldn't track movement, so Clovis put him to sleep so we could work on him safely." She muttered, dropping her hand and letting it hit the bare skin of her thigh, still dressed in nothing but her pajama shorts, rather revealing muscle tank top and not a stitch more, not having had the time to stop by her apartment next to Percy and Annabeth's to grab clothes as they carried Percy's unconscious body to the Big House. "We ripped the mask from his face as Leonidas removed my spear from his shoulder."
"I hope he wasn't too careful." Annabeth muttered under her breath. "Bastard deserves much worse."
They were on the bottom floor of the Big House in the newly remodeled infirmary. It wasn't even an hour until dawn yet but the large room was filled with a half a dozen Apollo campers as they tended to the two new patients along with the still injured demigods. The small apartment complex that the adult demigods lived in became chaotic within a few short minutes as it seemed that every person in camp had heard the news that Percy and Annabeth's apartment had been broken into and that the son of Poseidon was now in the infirmary. Clarisse had taken charge and had ordered that every non-essential camper be escorted to the amphitheater so that Jason, Sherman and several of the Council members could keep an eye on them just in case anyone had tried to escape or try to attack Percy again. So far nobody had tried anything.
Percy let out a cry through gritted teeth, his wound stinging under the bandages. "How… how was I hurt?" Percy asked the two girls, wondering how on earth his supposedly invulnerable skin had been sliced open.
"Ice from the river Styx." Nico spoke up suddenly, walking up to the three flanked by Katie from Demeter and Lou Ellen from Hecate, the second girl having a focused expression on her face as she held her palms open, an orb of swirling liquid inside of a glass container floating an inch or so above her hands. Nico held up the blade that cut Percy with thick gloves used by the Hephaestus kids in the forges. "The blade is made out of Stygian Iron, the only divine metal known to be able to destroy the essence of whatever it kills, be it mortal or immortal. Human, demigod, god or Titan." He explained evenly, pausing to gesture to a sword of the same material attached to his belt. "It's the rarest divine metal and can only be found and created in the Underworld." His face grew tight. "There's no way that some Ares camper obtained this dagger by himself, only children of Hades or Pluto are even supposed to be able to wield it."
"And the Ice from the Styx was what cut him?" Clarisse asked, crossing her muscular arms over her chest.
Nico nodded. "Yeah, best I figured that the only thing capable to counteract the Curse of Achilles would be ice Styxian Ice." He looked over the cured blade. "I've never even heard of Stygian Iron and Styxian Ice being combined, I thought it was impossible." He brought his eyes up to Percy slowly. "Whoever made this knew what they were doing."
"But how did it poison him?" Clarisse asked. "Some kind of dark magic?"
"It was this." Katie stepped forward and gestured to the hovering orb of glass over Lou's open palms. "Gardenia, Lou and I found poison mixed in with the Styxian Ice and managed to extract all of it from the Ice so Lou could contain it."
Annabeth eyed the glass orb warily. "Are you sure that's safe to be carrying around, Lou?" She asked the daughter of Hecate.
Lou nodded carefully, being sure to not move the orb too much. "I'm sure." She confirmed. "A simple little containment charm like this? I could do it in my sleep."
"What kind of poison is it?" Percy asked, sitting up a little in his bed.
This time Katie's face dropped slightly. "Hemlock." She answered, eyeing the swirling mass of liquid. "It's an ancient poison that was used to kill condemned prisoners in Greece." She seemed to weight her next words carefully, taking a few seconds to continue. "We, Nico, Gardenia, Lou and I talked about it, and… with the level of concentration the poison was at, combined with the sophisticated combination of the Stygian Iron, Styxian Ice and Hemlock poison… there's no way that this dagger was made by a demigod."
"Meaning that a god had to make the dagger and give it to Avery." Nico finished, causing the other three to go silent as they took it in. A god had given Avery the dagger… Meaning that Zeus and Ares were trying to kill Percy again.
"Call the Council." Percy said suddenly, looking towards Clarisse. "Tell them what happened but order them to keep it to themselves. We need to figure out what to do."
"What you're gonna do is lay back down and get some rest." Will ordered suddenly, walking up the the small group. "You nearly died, Percy." He stressed the word, pushing Percy's shoulder to make him lay down. "The Council can talk without you. Right now, you need to rest, the Nectar, Ambrosia and antidote have done their job, luckily Lou was able to extract the poison from your bloodstream and used her mother's magic to heal you, but getting up and moving around right now can cause any unseen poison to attack your heart again."
Percy nodded stiffly, letting out a breath. "Fine, but I want every camper assembled at the amphitheater at noon so we can tell them what happened." Percy relented as he laid back into his pillow and let Annabeth put a blanket over him. He faced Clarisse. "Let the campers go back to their cabins, the sun's not even up yet. Let them sleep. But set up some sentries you trust around camp. I want to know if anyone tries anything."
"I'm on it, Percy." Clarisse nodded before gesturing for the rest of the group to follow her out of the Big House, leaving Percy and Annabeth to try to get as much sleep as they can in the infirmary.
oooOooo
(AN: Please follow me on Twitter)
oooOooo
(Later that afternoon - Amphitheater)
The entire camp was assembled in the stone seat of the amphitheater, circled around the stone floor quietly waiting for someone to tell them what was going on. The Council members, bar Clarisse and Percy, were all sat on wooden benches behind the wooden podium set up for the aforementioned son of Poseidon. Several of the oldest and strongest Ares guards were stationed at the base of the stage as well as flanking the Council members, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the campers and made them even more curious as to what was going on.
A minute later Percy made his way onto the stage, flanked by Clarisse adorned in her full armor but carrying her boar-tusk helmet in her left hand as her right held her electric spear. If the campers weren't nervous before, they were now. After getting the crowd to quiet down, Percy started. "Thank you everyone for following the directions of your cabin leaders and assembling here. I'm sure that you all have questions, but as the Council is still investigating what happened, we cannot give you all of the information at this time." Several voices broke out at this, Percy putting a hand up to silence them.
"Early this morning," He went on with stride, ignoring the claims of unfairness. "Annabeth and I's apartment was broken into… The person, who we will not be naming yet, attempted to kill me."
This time the entire crowd of demigods broke into shouts, all asking who it was, if it was a Monster or a million other things. Clarisse slammed the butt of her spear against the stone stage, silencing the crowd. "Shut up, the lot of ya!" She yelled over the crowd, narrowing her eyes at them. "Go ahead, Prissy." She nodded to Percy.
He nodded in thanks and faced the crowd. "I want all of you to know that I am fine, and so is Annabeth." He pointed to his girlfriend that sat among the first row of stone seats around the stage. "Luckily Clarisse arrived in time to fight off the intruder and call the healers." His voice turned more serious, dropping a little in tone. "Camp Half-Blood is under attack by an as of yet unknown enemy. With the gods still silent and Chiron not here we must do as we have done before and protect our home, be it from mortal or immortal threat." He glanced up to the sky as a low, almost inaudible rumble went off above them. Percy not knowing if anyone besides maybe Jason being able to detect it. Zeus, it seemed, was listening and did not appreciate his words.
"As of now, the threat level of camp is being raised from gamma to beta." He told the camp seriously. The camp had five threat levels based off of the level of danger ranging from the bottom, epsilon, then increased in danger with delta, gamma, beta and alpha. With alpha being the highest threat level and only ever being used during times of engaged war like during The battle of Manhattan and the Titan Wars. Percy continued to talk to the campers, unaware of two of the Ares guards nearest them as they started to slowly make their way towards Percy and Clarisse, that is, until one of the Ares campers lunged at the pair, her sword raised at Percy's back.
"Look out!" Clarisse yelled, throwing Percy off to the side and aiming her spear at the sudden attacker, donning her boar shaped helmet. The entire crowd broke out in panic as the Ares guard launched herself wildly at Clarisse in order to get at Percy.
Then without warning the second Ares guard jumped at Percy sword first, to only find it's blade caught in the hand of a giant man as he appeared in between Percy and his attacker. "Leonidas?" Percy asked with wide eyes as the son of Sparta had leapt from his seat in the first row and caught the blade of the sword in his hand before swiftly snapping said blade in his hand and throwing the Ares camper to the ground and promptly pinning them under his immense weight.
"Lou, put up a barrier!" Clarisse ordered as she too brought her opponent to the ground. "Don't let anyone see in or get through!" Lou Ellen Blackstone of Hecate ran up the the front of the stage, mumbling under her breath before throwing up her hands in an array of signs, causing a tall, swirling mass of darkness to cover the boundaries of the stone stage to prevent any of the campers to see inside and hiding what was happening. Once the barrier was set up, she dropped her hands to her knees in order to catch her breath as Jason ordered that the rest of the Ares guards on the stage to drop their weapons, they did so reluctantly once Clarisse repeated the order.
"What's going on?" Leo asked, rising from his seat as the others did the same, but kept their distance when Clarisse pointed her spear at the crowd of approaching Council leaders just in case any of them tried to attack Percy.
Percy rose to his feet and held up and hand to the group, silencing them. He walked over the the demigod Jason had his sword pointed at and removed her helmet, revealing Joan, another one of Percy's closest friends from Ares. "Joan?" Percy asked in disbelief. "Why would you do this?"
The girl only growled and snapped at him like a feral animal, trying to attack Percy only to be grabbed from behind by Travis and Pollux and tied up by son rope courtesy of Leo's magic toolbelt. "I'm sensing a low level godly presence around us. An aura." Lou Ellen spoke up, walking up to Percy, her face tensed as she waved her hands in the air, seemingly detecting something. "A god was here."
"Any idea who it was?" Piper asked?
"It was my dad." Clarisse spoke up before Lou could answer, stepping up to Percy and looking up to the sky. "I'd recognize that feeling of rage and bloodlust anywhere."
"Ares was trying to kill Percy?" Katie asked, confused. "Why?"
"No idea." Percy lied quickly before anyone could say anything. "But we need to confine the Ares cabin just in case." He looked to Sherman with an apologetic look before turning to a narrowed eyed Clarisse. "I hate to treat your entire cabin as criminals, but if your dad was somehow able to get them to attack us, then we're better safe than sorry."
"Their minds are clouded, milky as if they are not in control." Clovis the son of Hypnos spoke up suddenly. Cautiously waddling over to a Joan that was biting at everything that moved and wildly trying to move despite being tied up. "An outside force is controlling their minds. I can sense the blankness of their minds," He looked to Percy. "It is as if they are sleeping while awake."
"Can you do something about it?" Percy asked the bovine looking boy.
Clovis nodded slowly before dropping to a knee and gently putting his hand against the back of her head as he used his other to snap in front of her face and without warning the raving girl fell into a deep slumber. Once the girl was safely laid on the ground he held his hand an inch or so over her still face and closed his eyes. "I have put her to sleep to help remove the control over her mind, but I cannot promise that she won't still be under control when she wakes." He opened his eyes to look at Percy who was now standing next to him over Joan. "I can help clear the mind of memories, dreams and pain, but I have no idea if I can fight against the power of a god."
"Just do what you can." Percy told him before nodding to the other Ares camper Leonidas still had pinned to the floor. "And put Mark to sleep as well, try to make them forget what happened if you can."
"If he can't make them forget, then I'll do it." Lou offered. "My cabin specializes in this kind of stuff, I can wipe someone's memory in my sleep."
"Then do it." Percy nodded to the two as Lou bent over the sleeping Joan and started mumbling to herself as Clovis waddled over to Mark, snapping his fingers in front of the camper's face and causing him to fall asleep.
"Remarkable." Leonidas muttered as he watched Clovis as he waved his hand over Mark's sleeping face. "You can cause someone to sleep with just two fingers." He looked to the young man like he was seeing him for the first time, since this was the first time Clovis had ever used his powers in front of him, a true rarity at camp, really. "Your power is immense… you have such potential."
Clovis blinked, taken back by the sudden and weird comment. "Uh, thanks?" He looked back to the demigod he was working on. "People are always doubting the strength of my cabin," He shrugged nonchalantly like it wasn't a big deal. "I could probably make the entire camp sleep if I wanted."
"Astonishing." Leonidas mumbled to himself as he rose to his feet, watching the son of Hypnos with an intense interest.
"What's the plan, Percy?" Jason asked the son of Poseidon.
Percy let out a breath, looking at the group of twenty three other Council members and opened his mouth to speak only for Lou to suddenly interrupt him. "Someone's at the gate of camp." She said quickly, looking to Percy as she held her head with four fingers. "The magical wards I set up are going off."
"Any idea who it is?" He asked worriedly, he was so not in the mood for another attack.
Lou shook her head and looked to the daughter of Iris. "Can you see who it is, Amethyst?"
Said daughter of Iris closed her eyes to concentrate for a few seconds before a light mist appeared before her. The picture was blurry for the first few seconds but quickly became clear. A lithe young girl with a short pixie cut dressed in a silver cloak was standing at the gate. "It's Thalia." She told everyone, Percy walking up to the IM and calling out to his cousin.
"Thalia?" He called to her.
The daughter of Zeus looked around her for a few seconds before finding them through the IM. She looked around Percy and saw the mayhem going on behind him. Two campers were tied up and asleep, Clarisse was in her full armor and a giant, abyss-black wall was formed around them. "...Is this a bad time?"
oooOooo
(AN: Remember to leave a Review,
Let's try to beat 10 this time!)
oooOooo
(June 1, 2011 - A paint-stained cave)
A figure with a frizzy, fiery mane of hair and multi-colored toes stepped back from the coarse cave wall it has been painting on for the last three days without stopping, eating or sleeping. Its tall, slim body shook with extreme tiredness and pain, its piercing emerald eyes barely able to focus as its head swayed to and fro methodically. The purple and golden painted, stony canvas was finally done after nearly two months of constant, methodical work, the figure finally being able to see the victor of that battle in its head.
The figure let its eyes roam over the fierce blotches and streaks of gold scattered over the stony walls. The purple masses that had once been fighting equally for control and victory had finally succumbed to the shimmering gold paint.
At the center of the wall a giant golden figure stood, its body reaching from smoothed stone floor to stalactite covered ceiling. It was enormous in both height and width, its body was clad in shimmering fur and it held two broken pieces of a long, mighty club over its head in victory, one piece in each hand. On top of its head sat a mane of shimmering light that resembled a wild mane of hair. It towered over a fallen figure adorned in flowing, regal purple robes laying on the ground in defeat, two titanic stone pillars on either side on it. An ethereal, glowing aura of soft golden red shown around the victorious figure, making the golden man-beast look like he was stepping out of the breaking dawn.
The duel was over. The golden man-beast had killed the purple giant and would soon be looking for its next opponent.
"Oh no…" The mass of fiery red hair mumbled as it's emerald orbs glanced upwards to the painted stony ceiling above it. The figure stumbled to the wall, grabbed the torch from its holder and held the light up to the ceiling to fully see what it had painted without knowing it. Once the slim figure's eyes landed on the ceiling above it, all of the breath left her lungs as she saw the dazzling display of colors, hues, shapes and figures shown in an endless dance as they battled for victory. The young woman's eyes froze when they saw the same golden man-beast standing over the orange and light green man with the pronged weapon, aiming a killing shot.
The young woman dropped her paint brushes as the ever changing mural danced above her, the two figures fighting to the death. "...I need to warn them…" The girl mumbled under her breath before blinking and realizing the situation and rushing to the entrance of her cave only to be stopped when a soft reddish golden hue -the same color that was surrounding the victorious golden figure on her wall- appeared in front of her and without warning a sudden gust of wind knocked the young woman to her feet.
The young woman, otherwise known as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, weakly struggled to her shaking feet just as a shimmering silhouette of a lithe figure stepped out of the radiating rainbow of soft red and golden hues like the morning sky, revealing a tall, regal, enchantingly beautiful woman adorned in a shimmering, flowing dress of thousands of different shades of red, gold, orange, yellow, purple and soft pink that swirled together around her like the clothing was conjured from the very sky. The breathtaking woman hovered over the stone floor with unmoving golden red hued feathery wings that made her appear angelic. Immense, indescribably intense waves of power and light radiated from her very being, causing Rachel to stumble to her knees and cover her eyes to avoid being blinded by the shimmering rainbow of colors that seemed to emanate from the willowy woman.
"I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to interfere, young Oracle." The stunning woman spoke suddenly, her voice melodious, soft, warm and inviting. But Rachel's instinct told her to fear the woman's voice, her voice made Rachel's eyes drop like the calmness of her voice was enough to lure one to sleep.
Without warning the temperature in the cave -that was once a soft, comfortable warm when she entered- turned bone-chilling cold, causing all of the water in the cave to turn to ice and for the very walls and floor to be coated with frost. Rachel shivered unconsciously as her hair stiffened as ice began to freeze her frizzy mane of hair to the frozen, stone floor. The terrifyingly calm woman glided over to face Rachel, the air becoming thick with the strong smell of sweet saffron as the winds picked up around her. "My champion must not be interrupted nor discovered… until the time is right." Her voice was charming and soothing like a lullaby and made Rachel's terrified mind calm as the never ending array of hues emitted from the woman like a kaleidoscope of an enchanting dawn.
"Sleep now, young one…" She purred, her voice silky smooth as Rachel's blinking eyes struggled to remain open. "And when you wake… tell your friend to heed my previous warning. I did not promise to save him a second time should he interfere with my champion… Tell Perseus to not challenge my champion, I have ordered him to do anything to win… and my Leonidas would never fail me."
Then without warning Rachel fell to the cold, frozen earth, asleep.
(Author's Note)
DUN DUN DUNNN! How was that for dramatic? Yeah, I have no problems leaving you all on that cliffhanger. If Uncle Rick could do it with Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus then I can do it here.
The story is going to be picking up now until the climax of the story, man, I can't wait to get there. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, as well as what's going on with the Ares campers, what you think Rachel saw in her vision as well as who the mysterious woman was. If you all don't remember, she appeared in the 3rd Prequel chapter, she was the woman who saved Percy from the Earth Deity and brought him back to life.
Next chapter will be the next and last set of 'Stories of Leonidas'. We'll get to learn who the woman is as well as learn his goals and plans. Don't know when it'll be out as this one went up really early, but give me a lot of Reviews and I'll be motivated to get it out as soon as I finish it.
Fun Fact: Leonidas doesn't have much experience with the other gender except his mother, his first crush Mary and his current girlfriend Emily. Which results in the big guy getting flustered around girls sometimes, such as Mika when they spar or wrestle. He doesn't like girls flirting with him, though, especially daughters of Aphrodite or Hecate, because he's in a relationship and wants to stay faithful as well as doesn't like their ability to control the mind of others.
Question of the day: 'If I created a Youtube Channel and made a few videos discussing different demigods, storylines, abilities, etc would you be interested and watch them?' I've been thinking for a while about starting a YT channel and doing a few videos about Percy Jackson. I like the idea of researching the main cast and several other demigod powerful side characters and putting them against each other in a fight. I won't be able to have animation or show an actual fight or anything, but I'll give descriptions of each person and say where I think they would be in the rankings. I've never made a YT video before and I have no solid plans as of yet, but if some of you'd be interest I just might do it. Don't know when they'll be out as I spend most of my free time on this story and because I don't know what I'm doing. If any of you have a YT channel and experience making videos and would be interested in working together, PM me and let me know. I don't think they'll be very serious, I just want to have some fun as I talk about my favorite characters and series. Let me know.
