Son of the Moon
Chapter six
-Percy-
-Greyhound Bus-
"Hey Percy," Amanda asked as they rode west to Denver with a stop in St. Louis "what's was it like growing up in the hunt?".
At the question even Clarisse had turned to look at him expectantly and so, sighing, he began the story.
"Well I was taken to be a part of the hunt when I was about eight months and my birth mother was killed by a Cyclops." he began, saddening at the memory of his first mother's death as it still haunted his nightmares at times. "Well Mom was hunting that Cyclops and after I killed it with my water powers she had promised my birth mother that she would take me in and raise me.".
"I'm sorry about your mother Percy." Amanda said softly as she wrapped an arm around him as Clarisse did the same on the other side.
Taking in a shaky breath he nodded his thanks and continued "Well Mom introduced me to the Hunt and the first ones to meet me were my two favorite big sisters Zoe and Phoebe or, as I usually call them, Ze and Phe-Phe.".
"Favorites," Amanda said surprised "I bet the rest of the hunt doesn't like that. And what about us?".
"You two are more like my triplet sisters than my older sisters," he said shrugging "and Ze and Phe-Phe spent more time with me than the other hunters did, Phe-Phe even used to sneak me out to do small hunting missions at times while Ze was one of my trainers. My Mom taught me how to use my bow but Ze taught me to use my sword. The rest of the hunt understands that I have a closer bond with Ze and Phe-Phe than with the rest of them but I love all of my sisters and would die and kill to protect them.".
"So do you have any good stories from your time in the hunt?" Clarisse asked curious.
He gave her a shark like grin at the question, "Oh yeah. One time another one of my Sisters Christy, a daughter of Apollo, and I were in a small town buying supplies and as we were leaving the store a local gang decided they were tough enough to mug us and tried waving a knife in my face to scare us.".
"What did you do?" Amanda asked curious while Clarisse looked giddy at the possibility of a fight story.
He gave her another shark like grin "I kicked him in the family jewels.".
Both girls winced chuckling "That had to hurt." Clarisse said laughing.
"I'm pretty sure I felt one of them pop." he chuckled while both girls went green at the thought.
"Okay too much information." Amanda said disgusted.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly "well after that Amanda picked up a nearby two by four, they were mortal so our arrows and knifes were useless on them, and just started chasing them around trying to hit them with it while the first idiot was crying on the ground. It looked like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon.".
Clarisse and Amanda were doubled over laughing at his story at this point picturing the scene "So what happened after that?" Clarisse asked once she got her breath back.
"Well after that we brought the supplies back to camp and we told my Mom the story and, well let's just say she wasn't happy. She grabbed two of my other sisters, Elizabeth and Rebecca, and went back to town the next day with me and Christy. They tracked down the gang again and then my Mom, Elizabeth, and Rebecca started beating them up for it and when they were finished tapped them upside down to the flagpole outside the town police station.". Amanda and Clarisse roared with laughter at what they were hearing which drew some odd looks from the other passengers on the bus. "But I haven't even gotten to the best part yet," he said grinning his shark like grin which was mirrored by the two girls "Ze and Phe-Phe had been away on a small hunting mission for a couple days so they missed this. When they got back and found out that someone had threatened me and they didn't get to beat them up they were pissed. So they broke into the holding cells for the gang, the police had been after them for a while, and beat them up again before leaving them even more hurt in their cells."
"You got any more stories Percy?" Clarisse begged out of breath "These are hilarious!".
Throwing an arm around each of their shoulders he grinned and said "My dear sisters, I haven't even scratched the surface yet.".
-St. Louis-
"So then Mom takes the dumbass that kept trying to force Ze to date him and turned him into a jackelope and let me give him to my pet wolf to play with!" he said telling another story to Clarisse and Amanda as they rode to St. Louis.
"Alright everybody," the driver said stopping the bus "We're at St. Louis so here's your stop. Next bus leaves in three hours.".
"Hey do you guys want to do something that will really piss of that Athena brat that tried to bogart our quest?" he asked Clarisse and Amanda as they got off of the Greyhound Bus.
"Go on Perce." Amanda said grinning.
"Well you know how she is always raving about architecture and how she wants to see a bunch of different buildings and monuments?" he asked them.
"Yeah," Clarisse said getting an inkling to where this was going.
"Well the St. Louis Arch is right there," he gestured to the giant arch in the distance "why don't we go and take a bunch of pictures to piss her off.".
"I like it," Amanda chuckled "we get a distraction for a few hours and we get to piss of a nuisance.
"Let's go!" he said happily and they looped arms and walked off laughing.
-St. Louis Arch-
"That was actually pretty fun," Clarisse said as they walked towards the elevator to take them down to the bottom floor after they were done on the viewing platform.
"Yeah it was," he said grinning before turning to a family of tourists "you guys can get in the elevator ahead of us.". The family nodded their thanks and entered leaving him, the girls, and an old woman with her Chihuahua on the platform. Then he noticed a forked tongue out of the corner of his eye making him reach for my ring to turn it into a bow at a moment's notice while subtly getting the girls' attention, "Monster." he whispered faintly as they nodded slightly to show they heard. "So what's with the forked tongue Ma'am?" he asked hoping to throw the monster off her guard.
The woman looked at her in surprise before grinning at him and setting her Chihuahua down, "Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you would notice me after all my children you have killed. I have been looking forward to killing you for a long time Moon Child." the monster lady hissed before her lower half turned into a snake's tail and her upper half grew slightly scaly. Her fingernails turned into long black talons and her teeth became fangs as her disguise as a fat old woman melted away showing her to be a young snake woman with blood lust evident in her eyes.
As the woman transformed the Chihuahua followed suit with each bark growing, first to the size of a Doberman the to a lion as with each increase in size his appearance changed. With the first growth spurt it looked like a lion cub but when it grew again its tail exploded outward to show a serpent in its place and a second head, a goat, forced its way through the beast's neck to join the original lion head. "Damn it," he muttered making his bow appear "a chimera. If I get her bet pooch there can you guys take Echidna?" he asked guessing who the woman was.
"On it little bro." Clarisse said readying her spear as it crackled with electricity and Amada drew a pair of knives and they charged the mother of all monsters.
Quickly drawing back his bow he fired an arrow at the neck of the lion head before ducking as the long serpent tail shot forward to try and bite him. Leaping back he shot another arrow but like the first it only went part way through the skin before stopping. Dodging another strike from the tail he dropped his bow as it dissolved and reappeared in ring form on his finger as he drew his sword and lopped of the snake head on its next strike. The beast reared up and roared in pain at losing one of its heads so, taking advantage of the situation, he ran forward and jumped up , using his momentum to kick the two arrows all the way into the necks of the beasts killing it and making it dissolve leaving only the pelt. Catching his breath for a moment he turned to see Clarisse and Amanda using teamwork and beating Echidna. Clarisse was fighting her head on and keeping Echidna's attention focused on her while Amanda would use her speed to run in and get in a quick strike with her knives before going back out of reach. Whenever Echidna tried to focus on Amanda then Clarisse would stab her with her spear. It only took a little more of this routine before Amanda got strong solid blow on the Monster Queen and Clarisse used the opportunity to ram her spear through Echidna's gut, killing the fearsome beast.
Looking at the pelt he folded it up and sent it off with a letter using Hermes delivery service before walking over to his sisters and pulled them into a tight hug. "Well that was fun." Amanda said sarcastically as she got her breath back.
"Yeah it was." Clarisse said happily making him laugh as Amanda face palmed. "What are you guys going to do with the spoils?" he asked gesturing to Echidna's scaly crown that was left behind when she dissolved.
"I'm not sure yet," Clarisse admitted "I'm not even sure who it belongs to."
"I would say both of you." he said shrugging before Amanda seemed to get a sudden idea and whispered it into Clarisse's ear who grinned back.
"Hey Perce," Amanda turned to him grinning "do you have a spare Hermes form?".
Nodding he said "Sure, got one right here." and handed her the form and the two girls sent off the crown before looping their arms with his again and each kissing his cheeks as the said in tandem "Thanks little brother!".
"I'm not little!" he exclaimed making them both laugh.
"Hey Perce," Clarisse asked "what did you do with the Chimera spoils?"
"And what were they?" Amanda added.
"Well the spoils were the pelt and I thought Grandpa could use a nice throw rug." he said grinning as the two girls laughed at the thought of the skin of the mighty and fearsome Chimera becoming a throw rug before they all walked up to the now open elevator and walked down to go back to the bus and get to Denver.