Author's Note:
Content warning: Graphic descriptions of violence. (okay, not as bad as it could be, because then I'd throw up, but it's still gory)
I would say just skip this chapter, except that it's important plot wise. Skip to the end author's notes for a quick summary if you don't want to read it.
I'll also add line breaks around the worst of it, so you can skip that part. I'm trying to make this as accessible as possible, but it is very important, otherwise I wouldn't write it.
Less important, but there's also some ~bad language~ (mostly because of the aforementioned gore; it's also included in the line breaks)
THAT BEING SAID I will not be switching the rating to M, as 1) this shouldn't come up again in an subsequent chapter, 2) I'm making as many accommodations as I can for people to be able to easily skip it, and 3) I'm a squeamish teen and I was able to write it, so it is of my honest opinion that teens are able to read it.
Also, this is longer than normal! That's fun.
Cheers!
justapercyjacksonfan
Chapter 10
"What do you want?" Jess ventured
"So many things." It hissed. "The question is, how much can you give us?"
"A bunch of frozen corn if we don't get a straight answer." Caleb put in
A different grain spirit spoke up. "Gaea may have failed us, but the creator made a greater promise! Nothing will kill our crops again! We will have fields unimaginable if we-" The lead grain spirit tackled the one who was talking. There was a flurry of cash crops flying everywhere as the rest cheered, jeered, and egged the fight on. Eventually, the attacker emerged victorious and threatened its brethren.
"Not one word! You were all told not to say one word of the plan. Let it slip and you'll end up like Barley!"
There was a smattering of hisses of what Caleb thought might be agreement before the attention was turned back to him and Jess. Her forehead had a deep crease in it, and her eyes were narrowed as she studied the monsters.
"What are you?"
"Karpoi! The most feared of all monsters!" The rest of them all started repeating, and cries of "Karpoi, karpoi!" filled in the air before inevitably dying back down.
"Mighty karpoi, you still haven't answered what you want of us. Is this not a parley? Our goals are clear. We want the safe return of our companions and safe passage out of your field. We cannot compromise until we know your wishes." Jess said, choosing her words carefully.
"Yes mighty. We are mighty. And what we want...well, we want one of you."
"What?" Jess and Caleb blurted out at the same time
"We want one of the four of you. We are monsters of our word! Trade one of yourselves for these-" He gestured toward Ian and Jo with a hiss, "or chose one to be returned, and you may leave in peace. However." He bared his fangs. "If you attack, there is no deal. We will not hesitate to capture or kill as many as we like."
"Mighty karpoi, if we could discuss amongst ourselves?" Caleb requested
"Two minutes." the leader said, after a brief consideration.
The daughter of Nemesis and son of Khione put their heads together. "We can't give anybody up. We're already down a person."
"That might be what they're trying to do." Jess suggested. "If we aren't together, the prophecy has no chance to happen. And they said they were hired by someone."
"Right now it doesn't matter why, we just need to get out of this situation."
"Here's what I have for weaknesses. The power dynamic of the group is easily tipped, and they like watching a fight. They're cowardly, because they only attack where they have the obvious advantage in both numbers and location. They're overly confident because of that."
"Any ideas what to do with that?"
"Maybe agree, and insist they walk us to the edge of the field to ensure no foul play. Then they have to take their hostage with. Once we're outside of this stupid corn, we can get the hostage back?"
"Better than my plan of nothing. Who's the hostage?"
"...Jo?"
"Not a chance."
"I know, I know she's your sister. But I think it might be our best chance. I want Ian to be freed to incite madness in them."
"Jess, I'm not letting them hold onto Jo. What if we don't manage to free her?" He could feel his voice getting tighter. He was not going to lose his sister. "Maybe she could escape them, but she's the youngest one here, she wouldn't survive on her own."
"Counter-offer then. Who do you want to leave behind?"
"I don't know! Gods, I wish Bri was here."
"I know. But we aren't going to get her back unless we get out of this situation."
"Jess, we are not leaving Jo behind."
Jess looked confused a moment, and blinked a few times, but then nodded. "You're right. We aren't leaving Jo behind."
"...good."
"Demigods! Your time is up! Choose who will be left!"
"Wait, we don't know yet!" Caleb said
"You have had your time! Choose, or the deal is off!"
They were trying to convey thoughts through their eyes, while Caleb verbally pleaded with the monsters to give them a few moments longer.
What do we do?
I don't know, you're the idea person! "Please, just one more minute." he said aloud to the monsters.
Well I don't have a plan! We aren't giving them Jo, and we need Ian, so
Their silent conversation was cut off, as Jess had a look of dawning that was replaced by her planning expression, as her mind shot through the logistics.
"They need persuasion!" the leader crowed. "Oats!"
The karpoi holding Jo flashed its four claws, each an easy three centimeters and then stabbed them into her arm. Blood trickled out of the different puncture wounds. Her eyes widened in shock, and her scream of agony could be heard loud and clear straight through her gag.
Caleb wanted to cry out for her, but it was stuck in his throat as his horrified brain tried to process what had happened. His sister...they had just stabbed his sister...he was going to kill every last one of them, they couldn't do that, THEY COULDN'T HURT HIS SISTER!
Jess's voice cut through the air. "I'm your hostage! Trade me for these two!"
His eyes swiveled to her for a moment, in shock at what she'd just said, before locking back on Jo. She had gone pale, and the blood was coming stronger now that the claws had been removed. She was gasping from the sudden pain, and trying not to reflexively gag and to breathe normally, but if she lost any more blood she was going to go into shock. There was so much, you'd think the angel - no, the demon - grain spirit had ripped out a chunk of her flesh.
"Excellent. Half of the goods are a little worse for wear now, but they're both still very much alive."
"As promise for safe conduct, we demand that you let us wrap her wound so she doesn't bleed out, and that you all accompany us to the edge of the field, so we can be certain you won't double cross us." Jess added quickly.
The leader's eyes narrowed, but he nodded curtly. "I'll allow it. But no more modifying the deal."
"Thank you, mighty karpoi." she dug through her pack, and pulled out nectar, water, and gauze.
"May I approach your captive?"
He nodded again, and she and Caleb rushed to Jo. Jess trickled some nectar over the wound, before handing it to Caleb, who tried to calm Jo down, giving her nectar and water after Jess had poured the latter over her arm as well. It wasn't the wash that it needed, but they needed it bandaged quickly, so it would have to do. Jess tightly wrapped the gauze around the ugly wound. Caleb's heart was in his mouth - it needed to stop bleeding. But the red kept leaking through. Jess had the entire roll of gauze on it, but there were still large red swatches coming. Jo was on the very verge of dropping unconscious, but noises of utter torment still escaped her.
"Caleb, give her more nectar." Jess whispered, her voice shaking.
"We don't want her to explode!"
"We also don't want her to bleed out!" Jess snapped. "If she gets too feverish, we'll stop, but her arm is too bad not to risk it!"
Caleb silently complied, trickling more of the god-drink down her throat. Jess dug through her bag for more bandages, but came up empty.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Jess muttered, repeating the word in panic before taking her knife to the bottom of her orange shirt and hacking it into a crop top. She tied the harvested fabric around the rest of the gauze.
Maybe it was just the darker color of the fabric. Maybe the nectar was finally kicking in. Maybe it was just enough layers, but the blood stopped visibly soaking through. They hadn't wanted Jo to succumb to the shock and fall unconscious, but at this point she had.
Jess sat back, sighing with relief. Ignoring when the karpoi began tying her blood stained hands together. Others cut Ian and Jo's bonds. As soon as the gag was out of his mouth, Ian began firing off a mixture of insults and questions as to Jo's well being. Caleb didn't hear any of them, he just scooped his sister into his arms. She was heavy, but he barely noticed from the adrenaline rush.
Caleb and Ian walked side by side toward the edge of the field, Caleb carrying Jo. The two dozen or so karpoi were in a loose circle around them, and Jess was in their midst, bound at the hands and shoved along.
Quietly, Caleb murmured what he knew of Jess's plan to Ian. Which was really only that she wanted Ian to drive the karpoi insane. They were just on the edge of the field, when Jess stopped.
One of the karpoi hissed. "Move, hero."
Jess was silent a moment, before giving a meaningful look at Ian. Caleb heard him begin muttering something under his breath, but then Jess spoke, her voice low. "Karpoi. I am the daughter of Nemesis. Perhaps you haven't wronged me, but you have hurt my friend. Children of Nemesis are said not to have any special powers, but you'll find that changes THE MOMENT WE DECLARE VENGEANCE!"
She snapped her bonds in one fluid motion before tackling the karpos who held her knives, yanking the daggers away and flicking off the sheaths. She immediately stabbed them into the unfortunate grain spirit, before jumping back up, slashing, stabbing, and cutting any monster who dared to come close enough.
Ian handed Caleb's staff to him, and Caleb shifted Jo's weight to one arm to take a moment to freeze the ground they stood on, robbing the karpoi of their advantage. Ian finished his muttering, and Caleb saw a purple looking fire in his eyes before the monsters' attacks became disjointed, and they became confused. Some of them attacked each other.
Ian drew his sword to help Jess, but she didn't need any. The daughter of Nemesis was stronger, faster, and more determined than she ever had before, felling every single demon grain spirit on her own. She wasn't even breathing hard when she retrieved the sheaths and put away her daggers.
Wordlessly, she effortlessly took Jo from Caleb and marched into the next patch of trees, leaving the boys to follow. From behind, the reddish grey aura around her that slowly flickered out was obvious. Even more obvious was the fact that far from noticing exploitable flaws, this was her real power from Nemesis.
Author's Note:
If you skipped the whole darn thing:
The karpoi say that they will allow them to safely leave the field if one of the four demigods become a hostage. As Jess and Caleb attempt to figure out what to do (in their two minutes to speak together alone) Caleb accidentally uses whatever-the-Khione-version-of-charmspeak-is to convince Jess that they can't leave Jo in Jess's plan to lure the grain spirits to the edge of the field and leave with all their friends
Because they are taking too long, the karpoi stab Jo four times and she begins bleeding out. As part of the deal, they allow her to be bandaged, but Jo goes into shock and passes out. Her condition is still critical.
After getting the karpoi to the edge, Jess does some Nemesis thing, and is stronger, faster, and more determined and kills all the karpoi (with some help from Ian driving them insane) because she is taking vengeance for her friend
It ends with the four heading into more trees to properly take care of Jo
If you skipped the part in line breaks:
Jo gets brutally stabbed four times. There is a graphic description of Jess and Caleb's frantic attempts to stop her from bleeding out.
Whooo! This is a milestone, right? Having to put a content warning for your writing?
NaNoWriMo kicked my ass. I was only able to get to 40,000 words, but I still feel I owe you all an apology. Because I was so focussed on NaNo, instead of working on the chapter throughout the week, I ended up writing and posting them on Saturday. I don't know if you saw a decline in quality, but if you did, I'm very sorry.
Feel free to interpret, "I wish Bri was here" as a plea to be able to leave her behind, or as, we need her help. (it was intended the second way, but I'm not mad if you read it the first.)
Shoutouts!
LegoPercyJackson No, you're totally right. Bri is unnecessarily abrasive. But, you know. Having to be rescued by her friends might just bring out some ~cHaRaCtEr DeVelOpMeNt~
Also, yes. They're going to Cali, so they'll notice people there, and even before that, we're going to see someone, actually, rather soon.
Oh, and thanks for following, also!
That's all from me!
Have a lovely day!
justapercyjacksonfan
