AN: No, High Tide is not replacing Riptide. Tbrucks, thanks for owning up to your actions. I know some people get irritated when I do the gibberish placeholder thing, but I do that because if I create a story with the pre-typed chapter, sometimes it just disappears. So I do the gibberish, post the document as the first chapter in the story, then type the real first chapter and replace the document. LilBumkin, thanks for defending me, but I would prefer if my reviews stay a civil place. I don't mind cussing, but when I get an email for every review posted, it gets annoying. Especially if an argument breaks out. So if you are going to do something like that, just PM them. Toodles!
Friday afternoon, I was sitting by the canoe lake with Grover, resting after a near-death experience with the climbing wall. I had dodged a falling rock, throwing myself three feet left, straight into the path of a lava stream. I had dodged that too, but by falling off the wall and slamming to the ground. My shirt still had smoking holes in it and my arm hair was burnt, making me smell pretty gross. Grover, of course, had scaled the monstrosity like a mountain goat, standing at the top in under five seconds it felt like, although it was more like three minutes.
We sat quietly, watching the naiads weave baskets. Until I got up the courage to ask Grover how his conversation with Mr. D had gone, when I had woken up.
His face had turned an interesting shade, sort of paling and turning green at the same time, resulting in a yellowy sick look. "It was fine. Great, actually." He answered.
"So your career is still on track?" I asked, turning to face him.
"Chiron told you that I want a searcher's license?" He looked at me nervously.
"Well, no. But he did tell me that you had big plans. And in order to do those plans, you needed a keeper's credit for successfully escorting a demigod to Camp. Did you get the credit?" I replied.
He sighed. "Mr. D suspended judgement. He said that I hadn't failed or passed with you yet, and my previous assignment didn't go well. He said that if I go on a quest with you and we return alive and mostly intact, then the he might consider the credit complete. Or he'll make me go get another demigod. Who knows." He shrugged, looking a little depressed.
"That's not so bad, is it?" I asked.
"Blaa-ha-ha-! He might as well have put me on stable duty. The chances of you receiving a quest..." He trailed off. "And even if you were awarded a quest, why would you take me?"
"Of course I'd take you! You're my best friend! Plus, I mean, you've got useful skills, right? What can satyrs do?" I answered.
"Well, satyrs are a lot more agile than humans, as you just saw." He chuckled. "We can smell monsters and demigods, and often notice gods or other immortals before a human would. We don't walk too well, so pretty much everyone of us pretends to be a cripple of some sort while needing to blend in. But we run fast. Satyrs know woodland magic, which we can use through playing our pipes, but I'm not so good at that. I don't know how to use any weapons, so there's that. We can speak to animals, and dryads respond better to us than to demigods. And most of us have some talent as empaths. Other than that, not much." He sighed. "Basket weaving. Must be nice to have a useful skill." He looked forlornly down at the dryads.
"Well, those are useful talents. Lost in the woods? Whistle up a path. If you can't, talk to a dryad. Or an animal of practically any kind. Worried about monsters? Bring a satyr, they've practically got radar. Need to scale a cliff to get something you need? Send the satyr." I answered, trying to sound sincere, which I was.
He just looked more miserable, so I changed the subject. We talked about canoeing, archery, and swordplay for a while, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it. We debated the pros and cons of being a demigod of the Olympian Twelve, and a few of the more important minor gods. that lead up to me asking about the four empty cabins.
"Well, number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis. She swore an oath to Zeus to be an eternal maiden because she thinks males are practically animals, so she has no kids. If Zeus released her from her oath, she could have some though. Her Hunters stay there when they need to. And if she didn't have one, she would be pretty mad." He said, glancing at it nervously.
"Okay, that makes sense. So the three at the end, are those the Big Three?" I replied.
Grover tensed. I could tell we were getting onto a topic he was touchy about. "No." He sighed. "Number Two is Hera's. She's the goddess of marriage, so it would be against her domain to go running around having demigods. Zeus does that much more often. The cabin's an honorary thing. When we say Big Three, we mean the three godly sons of Kronos." He explained.
"That makes sense too. So the Big Three are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades?" I double checked.
" know the story. They defeated their father and drew lots for their main domains." He answered.
"Zeus got the sky. Poseidon the sea, and Hades the Underworld."
"Yep." He popped the p.
"Hades doesn't have a cabin here, does he?" I asked.
"No. And if he did, it most likely wouldn't be pretty. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus either. He pretty much just does his own thing down in the Underworld." He confirmed.
"Okay. I can't think of any of Hades' kids who were super famous in the myths, but Zeus and Poseidon both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths."
"Yeah, they did. About seventy years ago, they swore to not have demigods anymore. They were too powerful, they affected the course of history too often. World War two was basically a fight between Zeus', Poseidon's, and Hades' kids, with Zeus' and Poseidon's teaming up to defeat Hades'. Zeus forced the other two to swear on the Styx to not have any more demigod children."
Thunder boomed in the distance. "The strongest oath." I said. Grover nodded. "So they've all kept their word?" I asked.
"No. About seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was a tv actress with a big eighties hairdo, and he just couldn't help himself. When their kid was born, a little girl named Thalia..." He trailed off, staring into the distance. "The Styx is serious about promises. When a mortal swears a styx oath, they'll most likely die if they break it. Not necessarily just drop dead, but the Styx'll get even. Immortals get off easy on that, cause, you know, their immortal. The Styx has to do something else to punish them. In this case, it chose to apply the death penalty to Thalia." He looked depressed just talking about it.
"That's not fair! It isn't Thalia's fault Zeus broke the oath." I protested.
"While that is true, the Styx wasn't punishing Thalia for existing, it was punishing Zeus by taking away his daughter. And even if it hadn't, her life wouldn't be pleasant. The more powerful the godly parent, usually the demigod is proportionally powerful. The more powerful the demigod, the stronger their scent. When you have a strong scent, monsters are attracted to you. They test you, challenge your strength. There are four main levels of scent strength that don't have anything to do with your parent. When a demigod is born, they have a scent, weak, because they are weak. As they grow, so does the scent. When they learn they are a demigod, but they don't know their parent, that's the first threshold. When they learn their parent but haven't been claimed is the second one. And then claimed demigods have the strongest scent, but it continues to grow as their strength does. Then for scent based on parent, you've got minor gods and nature spirits. Those demigods could live in the mortal realm year-round and never get attacked by monsters. Mostly. Then you've got children of the Olympian Twelve and Hades. The twelve's kids get attacked by monsters at least once a year in the mortal realm, and that's based on their parent and their strength levels. Then you've got the six kids of Kronos, which include Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera. Hestia and Hera don't have demigod kids ever. Demeter rarely favors a child so heavily as to attract attention to them. Most of them have some minor control with plants, like a satyr's woodland magic. They grow well and sometimes the kids can control them. Powerful Demeter children are more rare, but they can be terrifying. Then the Big Three cause the most problems, get attacked the most often. Even the weakest demigod of the Big Three will most likely get attacked more often than any of the other Twelve's kids." He answered, staring at me.
"Oh. So even if the Styx hadn't attacked her, she most likely would have just lived in camp her whole life." I replied.
"Percy, the Styx didn't directly attack her. It rarely considers an oath that important. It just led monsters to her, called attention to her at her weakest and most vulnerable moments. And when Hades found out, he sicced more monsters on her. Hellhounds, all three Kindly Ones, Cyclopes. Other things. Thalia made it all the way to the top of that hill." He pointed off in the distance, at the pine tree. "She was accompanied by two other demigods and the satyr assigned as her protector. He had orders to get her to Camp at all haste. He was supposed to leave the other two behind, where they most likely would've had an easier time of it, but he couldn't. On that hill, Thalia told the satyr to go, take the other two to safety. He didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't get them all killed. Thalia stayed behind and held off the group long enough for them to get to safety. She suffered a mortal wound. As she lay there dying, her father took pity on her and turned into the tree that anchors the camp protections. Her spirit still protects us. That's why we call it Half-Blood Hill."
I felt guilty, hollow, somehow. Thalia had died to protect her friends, and I had barely survived the encounter with the Minotaur, and my mom was either dead or missing. I wondered, if I had chosen differently, stuck with Grover, would my mother still be alive?
"Grover?" I asked.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"Demigods go on quests to the Underworld sometimes, right?" I checked.
"Sometimes. Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini. Some others." he answered.
"Has anybody ever succeeded in returning somebody to life?" I asked.
"Never. Orpheus came the closest, but he failed too." He was staring at me, as if I'd suddenly grown a second head.
"He played music so beautiful the stones of the earth opened a brand new path into the Underworld, where his music and his love made Persephone persuade her husband give him a chance." I said, remembering when we'd gone over that in Latin.
"Yeah. Hades told him that if he could leave the Underworld in the faith that his love would be behind him as he traveled and alive when he returned, closing the tunnel with music behind him, she would be allowed to stay alive in the mortal realm until she next died. He almost made it, but he turned to check, saw the face of his love, and then she disappeared back into the Underworld." Grover finished the story. "Percy... You're not seriously thinking..." He trailed off, staring down at the lake.
"No, no. I know I have no chance right now to do anything like that." I assured him, but I knew that I would train and train, however necessary, until I could bully, trick, or convince Hades to give me a similar deal.
Grover studied me wearily and warily. I knew that I hadn't convinced him that I'd dropped the Underworld idea, especially now that I knew that satyrs were empaths.
"So satyrs are always assigned to a specific demigod?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"No. That's actually rare. Most satyrs are assigned to a school or summer camp, where we blend into either the teachers or students and search out demigods. Sometimes we alert Chiron of especially strong demigods. That's rare as well, but he likes to keep an eye on the ones that could cause huge problems. And even rarer he comes to a school or summer camp himself to check out a potential demigod." He explained.
I don't think he knew it, but he had basically just told me I was a super-demigod. "And you found me. And Chiron made a house call, as he called it. Chiron said you thought I might be something special." And then I had to go say something like that, tell him your innermost thoughts and feelings, why don't you Percy.
He looked trapped. "Well, you might be. But if you were, you know, Big Three or anything like that, you'd probably never ever get a quest, and then I'd never get my license. You're most likely just a strong child of a minor god, or maybe even one of the other Twelve. Like Nemesis, goddess of revenge or something." he answered quietly, glancing away from me.
I got the feeling he was either lying to my face or reassuring himself more than me.
That night during dinner, everyone was a lot more hyper than usual. I remembered that today was Capture the Flag, the first of my time here. I'd been here under a week, and already I was hyped.
Once everyone had finished eating, we all stood at the sides of the pavilion with our allies. Chiron clapped his hands, the tables floating together and being covered in armor and weapons. Clarisse and two of her siblings ran in, all three already dressed in armor. Clarisse carried a six-foot tall pole with a long red banner with a boar's head impaled on a spear woven on it into the pavilion. From the other side, Annabeth and two of her siblings ran in, also dressed in armor. Annabeth carried a similar flag, except hers was gray and had an owl perched in an olive tree embroidered in the middle.
I turned to Luke, who was standing directly beside me. "So those are the flags?" I confirmed.
"Yep." He popped the p just like Grover had.
"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" I asked.
"Not always, but often. Whoever's cabin captures the flag leads the next event, and Ares and Athena are the best at battle strategy." He replied.
"So they win more often?" I asked with a chuckle.
"Yeah." He admitted, looking a little ashamed.
"So if we get one, what do we do? Repaint it?" I asked.
He chuckled and said "You'll see. First we have to get ahold of one."
"Who are we teamed with?" I asked.
"We've made an alliance with Athena. Tonight we get the flag from Ares. And you will be helping." He gave me a sly grin, the slanting light of the soon-to-be setting sun making him look a little evil.
The teams were called, like everyone wasn't already standing with their allies. We were with Athena and Apollo, which was the second biggest cabin at camp. Ares had literally everyone else, so the two kids in Dionysus, the Demeter kids, who were good with plants and the outdoors, but weren't very aggressive, Hephaestus, which consisted of four burly kids that were huge and bulky from working in the forge most of the time. and Aphrodite, who would almost certainly do nothing the entire time besides sit by the stream and stare at their reflections and gossip. Ares themselves consisted of twelve of the biggest, meanest kids currently on Long Island or probably anywhere else.
Chiron's hoof slammed on the marble, interrupting my musing. "Heroes!" He yelled. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The flag must be prominently displayed and have no more than two direct guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but not bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. You may now arm yourselves!"
All the campers raced forward and began strapping on armor and sword-belts. I grabbed the same bow as from training and a quiver of blunt arrows, a sword, and armor which was two sizes too large, but there wasn't anything smaller. Luke tried to get me to take a shield, but it was much too large and I refused to take it. My helmet was also too large, and it bore a blue horsehair plume on top, like the rest of Hermes, Athena, and Apollo cabins. Ares and the others all had red horse-hair plumes.
"BLUE TEAM! FORWARD!" Annabeth yelled.
I managed to catch up to her without tripping over myself. "Hey. What's the plan?"
She ignored me and kept marching.
"Got any magic items I can borrow?" I asked, noticing her hand drift towards her pocket, like she was afraid I had stolen something.
"Watch Clarisse's spear. You do not want to be touched by that thing. Do your job and everything will be fine. Has Luke given you a job?" She finally spoke.
"She speaks! And yeah, he has. Border patrol, whatever that is. Told me earlier." I joked.
"Easy. Stand by the creek and keep the reds away. Leave the rest to us. Athena always has a plan." She sped up, leaving me in the dust.
Even though the sun wasn't down all the way yet, it was dark in the woods. It was warm, making me sweat and my clothes stick to me under the armor. Annabeth and the others abandoned me next to a wide, shallow creek that gurgled over some rocks.
At that exact moment in time, I felt like an idiot, standing there with my sword out, which, due to still being unbalanced, pulled on my arm like it was a bowling ball balanced on a stick, when I held it out. My knives were sheathed, one on my outer thigh and the other on my forearm. High Tide was in my pocket.
Then a conch horn blew in the distance, and blue-plumed allies raced past and bounded through the creek, whooping before disappearing into the trees. "Great. I'll miss all the fun, as usual." I thought.
Behind me, up on a big rock, I heard a low, distinctly canine growl. When I turned and looked, there was nothing there. The growling continued right up until five Ares warriors exploded from the underbrush on the other side of the creek.
"Sorry, Percy!" Clarisse yelled. "Cream the punk!" They charged.
Clarisse wielded a shield and a five-foot spear, it's barbed tip flickering with red light. Her siblings only carried standard issue bronze swords. The first one swung at me, which I dodged by juking to the left. These guys weren't as stupid as the Minotaur, though. They surrounded me, Clarisse striking out with her spear. I managed to deflect it, but it made my arm numb as my body tingled and my hair burned. I smelled ozone.
"Great, just great. The stupid spear is electric." I thought to myself.
One of the others slammed me with the butt of his sword, knocking me into the dirt. They laughed as I crawled to my feet and raised my sword, which Clarisse knocked aside with her spear, sparks flying and hair burning, leaving me with two numb arms.
"Wow. I'm so scared of you, Jackson." Clarisse taunted.
"The flag's nowhere near me, you know that?" I responded wearily.
"We know. We just wanted to test ourselves against the first person to disarm Luke in three years." The one who slammed me said.
Clarisse jabbed forward with her spear again, but I missed this time and got slammed in the ribs, saved by my armor from being shish-kebabbed, but my bones felt like they vibrated with the force and the electricity. Another slashed his sword at me, slicing open my bicep.
Seeing my own blood made me a little dizzy, but I managed to say "No maiming."
"Oops." The guy said sarcastically. "I guess I lost my dessert privileges."
He pushed me into the creek, sending my sword flying downstream. The water made me feel awake, and I stood to greet them as they charged into the creek to get me. I held out my hand, calling to High Tide. The bronze trident appeared in my hand, and I used the pronged end to deflect an overhead slash before slamming the spearlike end into the guy's head so hard his eyes vibrated.
Ugly Two and Three came at me, I held the trident horizontally and spun, catching their swords and yanking them out of their hands, before slamming Two in the ribs with the butt of the spear hard enough to knock him down. Four didn't even come at me, but Clarisse charged, thrusting her spear at me again and again. I dodged twice and twirled the trident, holding the five-pronged end at the ready. When she thrust again, I turned the trident in my hand, catching the spear between two of the prongs and breaking the shaft. The spear promptly disintegrated, leaving Clarisse unarmed. My trident now flickered with the same red light as her spear had.
"Did I steal her spear's enchantment?" I wondered as she shook her arm.
"Gah! You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" She practically roared.
She would've said worse, but I slammed her in the gut with the butt of the trident, sending her flying out of the water.
I heard yelling and elated shouts as Luke raced out of the trees. He carried the red flag of Ares, and as he bounded through the creek, some of his siblings holding back some of the Athenians that chased after them. A few Apollos were shooting blunted arrows from our side of the creek, nailing the Hephaestus kids that came behind the Athenians again and again.
Clarisse muttered a dazed curse as she staggered to her feet. "A trick!" She shouted at her cabinmates. "It was all a trick!"
As soon as Luke's foot hit the shore on our side, the red banner glowed and turned a light silver, the boar head and spear being replaced by a huge caduceus. The rest of the blue team picked Luke up and began cheering as Chiron cantered out of the woods and blue the horn again.
I was about to go join in the celebration when I heard Annabeth's voice next to me, in the creek. "Not bad, hero. When did you learn to fight like that?" she asked, her invisibility turning off as she pulled off a Yankees cap.
"You set this up. You knew Ares' Cabin would want to test me, so you put me here while you sent Luke around the side." I accused.
She shrugged, like it was no big deal. "Athena always, always has a plan."
"A plan to get me pulverized." I said, keeping my voice hostile, but inside, I knew it was a good tactical decision.
"Well, I came as fast as I could. I was about to help, but..." She trailed off and shrugged. "You didn't need the help." She noticed my wounded arm, I could tell by her facial expressions. "How did you do that?" She asked.
"Sword cut. How else would I have gotten it?" I said sarcastically.
"No. It was a sword cut. Look." She pointed at my arm.
I looked down and raised my arm at the same time, noticing that it seemed to be closing, leaving behind a pale white scar, which, as we watched, also disappeared, leaving the only evidence of the wound my ripped shirtsleeve.
"Step out of the water." She commanded, obviously thinking hard.
"Why?" I wondered.
"Just do it." She ordered.
I did it, immediately sagging. I felt bone tired and both arms were feeling numb again. She caught me as I nearly fell over when my adrenaline left my body.
"Di immortales, I thought...I hoped it would be Zeus." She cursed and muttered.
Before I could ask what she meant, a howl ripped through the forest, much closer than before. The celebrating died immediately, everyone scrambling for their weapons. I turned, and up on the rock where I'd heard the growl before, was a huge, rino-sized black canine with dripping fangs and swirling red eyes.
Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which, only later would I realise I had understood perfectly. "Stand ready! My bow!"
Annabeth let go of me to draw her sword, and I immediately stumbled back into the creek, feeling that rush again. It was staring straight at me. I raised my trident, watching it watch me. She tried to step in front of it, but it leapt straight over her at me, a massive shadow with claws and teeth. I raised the trident, and it tried to turn in midair, but it impaled its own chest on the five-pronged end. It slid all the way down the shaft of the trident, it's claws shredding the practice armor like paper and ripping into my chest and stomach.
At that moment, a thwacking sound like ripping forty pieces of paper at one time could be heard, a cluster of arrows sprouting from its neck. I dropped the trident and collapsed facedown in the creek.
AN: Cliffhanger! You should see your face right now. So there's that action you all were hoping for. High Tide's abilities are already coming in handy. I'll try to update again as soon as I can. be warned, school starts back up in a week for me, so I won't be updating as often, but I am NOT abandoning this fic. I'm not abandoning Breaking Walls either, but I've got a bit of writer's block there while I try to figure out how Harry should fight during the invasion. Toodles for now!
-HpFaN2o0r