Chapter 10: The Guardian arrives…in style:
A/N: I'm baaaaack. Who remembers me? No one? Makes sense, I was gone for too long. Anyway, just going straight to the writing. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: the usual characters are Rick Riordan's plot mine. I don't own PJO or HoO
Last time: Percy looked at the open window in the throne room. "Well, here goes nothing."
With that Percy leapt out the window, falling briefly before expanding his wings and shooting off to find the hunt.
Percy's POV:
Flying felt weird. Even though Zeus had given me permission to fly in his domain, the Poseidon side of me still hadn't adjusted to flight. Every time I looked down I could feel the butterflies in my stomach.
I focused on the location of the hunt. As I got closer, I started wondering how to arrive. I went through the various scenarios in my head. The obvious one was to just fly in and land next to Lady Artemis as she introduced me. I immediately disregarded it. The hunt would just see a flying object headed for their mistress and the arrows would descend upon me in a flash. Bad idea as I wasn't sure if Artemis had explained the whole guardian thing yet.
I could just land a few yards away and then walk into the clearing. Boring. Plus the hunt would still fire arrows when they see a male walking into the clearing. I could use the wings as a shield but then they might take me as a threat. Bad idea.
I could just walk in as myself, not Blaze, with my arms in surrender. Again where is the fun in that? Plus it wouldn't look good for me as their guardian to go in surrendering. Ugh, all bad ideas. Why is it so hard to come up with a kick ass entrance? I needed something cool, not over the top, but cool. Maybe a little power show, some fun. I need to show what I can do without seeming boastful. They would get offended easily so I have to show I can handle it. Oh I almost forgot, Thalia is going to get angry real quick so maybe prank her while I'm at it.
I smiled evilly. I had the perfect entrance. I was going to arrive in style. I just had to hope Artemis would stop her hunters from maiming me.
Narrator's POV:
Artemis stood in front of her hunters. She had been informing them on the events of the council meeting prior to her asking for a guardian. She didn't know how to tell them that the Hunt would be getting a male Guardian. It was definitely humiliating for her.
"As you know, we have been attacked more and more by groups of monsters. They are becoming smarter. I will likely be sent on more and more solo scouting missions, and I know you do not like visiting the camp often. So I thought in our best interest to ask the council to provide us with a guardian so that you are adequately protected when I am not around. The council has accepted my request, but the downside is that they have provided us with a male guardian."
There was a shocked silence amongst the hunters. They knew the seriousness of their situation; and if Artemis requested a guardian then things must be bad, but a male guardian was a lot to take in.
As soon as the shock passed, the complaints were voiced by all. Artemis allowed her hunters to moan at the prospect of a male joining the hunt. She knew her hunters trusted her. They were always behind her, supporting her.
Artemis raised her hand and the effect was immediate. All talking stopped.
"He will be with us shortly. He has given an oath and I have accepted it. I will allow him the courtesy to introduce himself to you all. It was..."
She never got to finish. An object coated in fire was headed straight for the clearing. At first she thought it was a meteor, but then the object opened up to reveal a man with wings hurtling towards them. He looked like he was going to crash land right in front of her.
The hunters turned to see what their mistress was looking. As soon as they saw the man, they had their bows out. But they were too slow. The man landed causing a minor tremor to go through the Earth before tucking and rolling. The tremor caused the hunters to drop their bows. He stopped on one knee right in front of Artemis.
The hunters picked up their bows before gathering by their Goddess' side. Once again Artemis raised her hand. This time, the hunters relaxed their stances, but their bows were still clutched tightly. They studied the man in front of them. Recognition passed through their faces.
Blaze stood, well, knelt before Lady Artemis.
Artemis studied the new guardian that was currently knelt before. She gave him an unimpressed look as he looked up at her. "A bit of an exaggerated entrance don't you think? Was it really necessary?"
Her question was met with a brief shrug of his shoulders and a wry smile. Artemis made a motion with her hands signalling Blaze to rise to his feet. She wasn't used to treating males civilly but they needed him and it wouldn't be wise to chase him away as there were certainly worse candidates. He rose to his feet slowly, tucking his wings back into his back.
"Do they know…?"
He looked at Artemis as he left his question hanging. She gave him a brief shake of the head. So she was making him introduce himself. This was definitely going to be interesting. He turned towards the hunters and gave a polite nod of the head.
"Hi. I guess I should introduce myself. You all know me as Blaze. I'm here because Lady Artemis requested a guardian. Now I know you guys are lethal fighters, and more than capable of looking out for yourselves, so I'm just here as a safety precaution. I'll probably just stay out of your way and make sure you can do what you usually without being in danger I guess."
He was definitely nervous. He didn't know how they were going to react. This was going to be the hard part. Telling them that he was in fact Percy. Just as he was about to continue talking, Thalia stepped forward. He knew what this was going to be about. She was the Lieutenant; she had to test him on behalf of the hunters. He knew his responses had to be careful. The last thing he wanted to do was offend them.
"So, you're the new guardian huh? What makes you think you are worthy? I know you saved us before, but that was because you caught everyone off guard. Can you do it when confronted head on?"
He knew she was challenging him. He allowed the smallest of smiles to break through. This was Thalia all right. He thought about his answer for a moment.
"I believe I will rise to the challenge. My style of fighting is rather unconventional. I can prove to be a worthy adversary on the battlefield. I hope I will meet your expectations lieutenant. I can be a shock to many when fighting. As I have learnt when training, that when I'm fighting, unpredictability is often your friend. If I don't know what I'm about to do, then my opponent won't have a chance either. You should expect the unexpected when you fight me. Care to find out?"
He was goading her on. He knew exactly what he was doing. Gods he had missed Thalia and their not so little fights. He was subtly challenging her. He knew she was going to fry him when he revealed himself anyway, so might as well give her a little shock first.
Thalia stepped forward, Aegis and her spear materialising in front of her. Artemis looked like she was going to stop the fight before muttering something to herself and shaking her head. The two were about 25 yards away from each other; Thalia with her weapons drawn, and Blaze, just standing still.
Thalia had had enough of waiting and charged. The hunters watched in anticipation. They knew Artemis wouldn't just accept any random person as the guardian. They knew there had to be something about him that caused Artemis to allow him to become the guardian. Maybe it was his ability to avoid being captured by them. Or maybe it was his fighting ability. Either way, they were about to find out.
Blaze stood still as he allowed Thalia to come closer. He was planning something. He wasn't going to fight her at all. There was only one reason for this. If he drew riptide then his identity would be given away instantly and that wasn't the way he wanted to reveal himself. No, there was a better and more fun way to do it.
When Thalia had covered half the distance, he allowed his body to be engulfed in flames. Thalia didn't slow down as she saw the new guardian go up in flames. Then almost as suddenly as the flames ignited, they vanished. The only thing that had changed was that Blaze had his hood up. Thalia was getting closer. Just before she got into striking distance, Blaze removed the hood. This time Thalia stopped dead in her tracks with a look of shock on her face. Many hunters gasped as they tried to understand what they were witnessing.
Blaze was gone. He was no longer standing before them. In his place was…Percy Jackson with his signature lop-sided grin plastered across his face. He started walking forward towards Thalia until he was face to face with her. Thalia was still frozen in shock as she watched Blaze, no Percy or whoever this was, approach her. In the blink of an eye a bronze sword was at her throat.
"Do you yield? Didn't I tell you to expect the unexpected Lieutenant? So…do I meet your expectations Thals? To be honest, I expected a better fight from you Pinecone Face."
Percy removed riptide from her throat before morphing it back into pen form. He turned around to gauge everyone's reaction. Artemis was rolling her eyes at his display. Some of the hunters were rubbing their eyes just to double check that what they'd seen had actually occurred. Lucy had a wide grin on her face as she realised her uncle would be with her in the hunt. She waved at him causing him to smile and wave back.
Then Percy felt himself falling on the ground. He turned around to see Thalia, and she was absolutely pissed. He laughed nervously and starting backing up. Sparks were starting to shoot out of her body. He had suspected her to be angry, just not this angry. He put his hands up in surrender.
"I didn't mean it Thals, I'm sorry. OW!"
His words fell on deaf ears as Thalia sent an arc of electricity straight at Percy. He shot to his feet as he prepared to run. He received a slap as he got to his feet. The assault was going to get worse if Artemis had not intervened by holding back the enraged huntress.
"Where have you been Percy? It's been 5 years," said Thalia as she was let go by Artemis. In response Percy wrapped his arms around her in a short hug.
"It doesn't matter, I'm back now."
A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, no excuses. It's a little shorter than I would've liked but I'm getting used to writing again. I thought it was an appropriate place to end because I'm back now too like Percy, except I wasn't gone for 5 years although it felt that long. How did you like it? Please review and comment-they do really help me. Will hopefully update soon (next couple of weeks already started next chapter).