Attention all readers:
This is a book based in a world where each individual from the Percy Jackson series doesn't exist (Although, Thalia's tree exists, without Thalia. Not strange at all), except the Gods and Chiron of course, meaning you will not see any characters from that particular book series. This also means that the main prophecy won't happen. Remember this while reading, also, important 'minor' gods, such as death, life, water, fire etc. if they have a huge contribution to the world then they are much more powerful. Okay, just wanted to clear some things up. Let's begin.
A New Beginning
Hi. My name's Nekros. Or at least it used to be. No, my name's N, Son of Thanatos, the God of Death. Yes, yes, the God of Death, you don't need to act so surprised. Ugh… my head is splitting. I can barely think. But, that doesn't matter right now. After 15 years of asking, they finally gave me a book and a pen. Right now, I need to tell you my story. The story of how the agent and the son of Death, died.
I woke up on my rocky bed. The air was crisp and cool, as you would expect from the underworld. Especially my father's domain, the Realm of Thanatos. This place is full of the souls that escaped the underworld. The ones that I had to drag back. Being the Agent of Death is a full-time job.
My main duty is to track down escaped souls and bring them back here so that my father, Thanatos, can bring them back to Hades, Lord of the Dead. Life's pretty boring down here. Scratch that, life's really boring here. The underworld is how you expect it to be: harsh, barren, and full of the dead. But, in my father's realm, it's a bit different. The entire place is filled with mountains of grey rock reaching towards the ceiling. Yeah, I said ceiling. This place doesn't have a sky. Kinda sad really. Unlike most of my kind, I grew up with my godly parent. You may think that's weird, being raised by Death. You may think he's destructive. But really, he is one of the kindest gods. Death isn't evil, it's just another cycle in life.
Thanatos appeared in front of me.
"Father," I said, kneeling as if he were a king. Which to me, he was. Thanatos has a beautiful face. He just looks like a stronger version of Eros, or Cupid as you may know him. I won't give you many details since one day you'll see him yourself.
He smiled warmly. "My boy, stand up, brush your teeth and your wings. You look as if you had a rough night."
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I have black wings. They're pretty cool. But, these beautiful feathers would soon not be a part of my life. I stood up. I have great respect for my dad. "Of course Father, may I ask? Is today the day?"
I swear I saw a gleam of pride in his eyes.
"Straight to the point." He said, chuckling. "You remind me of myself when I was merely 1,500 years old. Get ready. Today is the day."
I lit my fire pit with a flint and steel brought to me by my father and grabbed my torch, setting it ablaze. I placed the large torch next to a small, broken piece of glass I used as a mirror. Looking into it, I saw a 14-year-old boy with grey skin, jet black, messy hair, brown eyes, staring back at me. He was also wearing an eyepatch over his left eye socket. Don't ask. I had torn up black jeans, a black shirt, and a black, plaid, ragged-looking zipped up sweater - they were very nearly the only clothing I owned. (It gets pretty cold down here, also, Zeus Almighty, I never realized how much black I wore up until now). That tattered-up 14-year-old was me.
With the light my torch provided I brushed my teeth, then tried my best with my hair. Lastly, I tended to my black, angelic wings. I had picked up my torch and began to walk out of my cave when Thanatos appeared in front of me.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
With a determined face, I said. "Of course."
"It won't be easy going or living in the overworld."
"I've been on plenty of missions down here father," I said. "I can deal with a couple of living beings."
He nodded. "Good."
I smiled at him, "I'm so excited."
I've been waiting fourteen years for this. Living in the overworld will be a blast! I was most excited about the fact that I finally got to go to The Oasis. Before I knew what was happening, a dark mist surrounded me and I blacked out. Once I woke, I saw grass. Grass! Haven't seen that in a while, I thought to myself.
I looked around at a lush, green world. Then, I looked at the beaming sun above me and determined it was most likely somewhere around two p.m. Something felt off. I was lighter. My wings were gone. It would seem my appearance changed considering which plane of existence I'm on. Which is weird, even for me.
I looked around at the Overworld and noticed a road travelling north and south, with a bunch of trees surrounding it - like a forest. This location should be close to The Oasis so… here I go! It took only a few hours of walking to get there.
That's a big tree, I thought as I walked past a giant sycamore. THAT'S A BIG HOUSE! It was a giant yellow house. It looked like one of those old-timey houses. What do they call them? Queen Anne style? Yeah, that felt right. It even had a turrent. Cool. There were a few boarded windows at the top, which I presumed was the attic. I felt a presence there. An undead creature living in the overworld. But, this one was different. This one was unusual. This one, I couldn't place.
I thought nothing more of it as I walked up to the house's wrap-around porch and knocked on the door. To my dismay, no one answered. After a few minutes of waiting, I turned the doorknob and walked inside. No one was there.
"Strange," I murmured aloud.
"Everything's strange around here!" A voice called, coming out of nowhere.
I jumped and turned around, meeting a young woman. She was about my age with blue eyes, blonde hair and wearing… a flower crown? She had on a blue shirt that said The Oasis and blue jeans that were ripped at the knees.
Clearing my throat in embarrassment, I asked, "Um, who's the owner of this establishment?"
"Oh, he left for something!" She said excitedly. "So, who're you? You've got to be new since I've never seen you here before."
"Oh," I said, a bit taken aback, as I've never had an actual conversation with another living person. "I'm… N. Who're you?"
"Kayla," she said. "Daughter of Asclepius. God of Healing and medicine. I have a job here in the Main House for others who need healing."
"I see," I said, not understanding at all. Why have a healer if, one, most demigods are almost invincible, or two, at least have healing abilities of their own?
"So… what is this place exactly?"
Although I've heard rumors about this place and always wanted to go, I never actually knew what it was about. It was kind of like a myth to me.
"We all call it The Oasis-"
"Well, I knew that." I said.
"-A place for demigods to stay and be safe!" She exclaimed.
"Safe from whom?"
"Monsters." She said, frowning a bit. "They've gotten worse for wear over the years."
"So," she said, suddenly a lot more cheerful. "Who's your godly parent?"
"Godly parent?" I asked.
"Yeah, you somehow got past the barriers so you must be a demigod or a mythological being." Her eyes widened. "Wait… are you a son of Hades? You look the part. We haven't had a child of any of the major Gods here in-"
I cut her off. "No. I'm not a son of Hades. Although he is a good guy, just strict."
"Then… who?" she asked.
"Thanatos."
"You mean… the God of Death?" She asked with a tad bit of fear in her voice.
I nodded.
She smiled. "That's cool! Have you figured out any of your abilities yet?"
"Yeah," I said.
That's strange… not many people say it's cool to be the son of Death. But anyway, although I haven't mentioned it, I have a few abilities. "Umbrakinesis, which is control over darkness. Necromancy, raising the dead. I can suck out a living being's life force and give myself a huge energy boost from it, and lastly, I can sense when someone is about to die or is dying."
Although I didn't mention it, I could touch someone and they die. It's called the Touch of Death. Fortunately, it's not passive, meaning I can control it, but it's also extremely draining. I've almost died from doing it in the past. Also, I didn't really tell her much about my Umbrakinesis... it's... powerful, to say the least. Nonetheless, if I did tell her, I think others would be a bit frightened of me.
"I'm guessing you can heal and stuff?" I asked. "Considering it's literally one of your jobs."
"Yup, usually an Apollo kid would do it but, if no one's around or if it's too severe, naturally I'd be the one to heal him."
There was a strange silence between us before I reluctantly broke it.
"Can we go somewhere a bit less… abandoned?" I asked, looking around the musty, almost creepy place.
Her eyes lit up. "Of course! We have an amazing campfire."
"Then... can we go?" I asked.
She smiled again. "Sure."
She walked out of the Main House, but I didn't move. When she was at the door she looked back at me questionably.
"Well?" she asked, "you coming?"
"Sorry," I said, jolting back to reality and realizing that she was talking to me. "I'm coming."
Once again, I've never really spoken to the living. It's much easier speaking to the dead.
As we walked to the fire pit, I was looking around the place. There were lots of different houses in a strange U shape. I didn't see any details since there were a bunch of Overworldians that I was paying attention to. There were some doing archery, some practicing swordplay, others were singing, and some were… playing the pipes. I looked at the creatures with the pipes and realized that they weren't really human. They had the legs of a goat. Of course, I thought. Satyrs.
"You sure have a lot of creatures here," I said to Kayla as we were sitting down in front of the fire.
"Course we do," She replied, smiling again. "When there are things like monsters out there, a safe haven is like paradise, and almost everyone wants paradise."
"Almost everyone?"
Kayla looked down and lowered her voice. "Some aren't following the gods. They hate them with a burning passion, so inevitably they hate us. So some demigods don't come here. They've even declared war on us at times."
"Then it doesn't seem like much of a 'paradise' to me."
She sighed. "Guess not." She looked up again, suddenly very happy. "Best we can do is our best."
From a distance, I saw a group of people walking up to us, there was one guy and three girls. Kayla smiled as she saw them.
"Hey, guys!" She called cheerfully, waving at them.
The boy nodded. "Hey, Kayla." He turned to me. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh," she said, "This is N. son of-" She turned to me. "Who'd you say your Godly parent was again?"
"Thanatos," I offered.
The boy held out his hand for a shake. "Well, it's nice to meet you N. I'm Nick, son of Nemesis. Glad to see another one of my cousins made it safely to The Oasis."
Nick was tall, about three or four inches taller than me, with black hair, brown eyes, and a pale complexion. He was wearing black ripped jeans, a blue Oasis shirt and a black zip-up jacket.
"Uh," I said, not taking his hand. "I'm sorry but, I have… haphephobia." Did I forget to mention that?
An eyebrow raised from one of the girls. "The fear of human touch?"
I looked at her and nodded.
She had straight black hair, blue eyes, and tanned skin, she was also wearing the Oasis shirt, with blue jeans, and glasses. Nick put his hand down and she spoke again.
"Sorry, didn't introduce myself. Name's Alya, Daughter of Ares. But," she paused. "You can call me Al."
Her friend turned to her. "Since when do you go by that?"
"Right now," Alya said.
I then turned to Alya's friend, she had dirty blonde hair, which was covered by a red beanie, with blue eyes, she was wearing what Alya was but the blue jeans were ripped, she also had studded earrings.
"Name's Ashton." She said, "Daughter of Hermes." She paused. "But don't worry, I rarely steal from friends."
The last person stepped forward and introduced herself. "Hi! I'm Bella. Daughter of Aphrodite."
She was also pale, with blonde hair, and blue eyes. She was also wearing a flower crown with white petaled flowers, but other than that she was wearing the same as the other two girls.
"So..." I said. "What exactly am I supposed to do here?"
They all smiled and looked at each other, then back at me.
"Train." They said in unison.
