AN: After MUCH thought on my part, I have officially decided the pairing is...a harem. Here are its current members.
Nancy and Thalia.
You thought I'd have more? Well no. The Harem is going to be limited to 4 or 5 girls, and that is it. I honestly came up with this decision as I started writing this chapter. Yeah I know, surprising, but it's all I've got.
But enough with that, let's get on with the story!
Chapter 4: Come To Me; Cursed Spear!
The group tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. Willow had no clue how his mother could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas the entire time.
Every time there was a flash of lightning, Willow looked at Grover sitting next to him in the backseat and wondered if his insanity was playing up, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one that Percy remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.
"How is it you and mother know each other?" Willow demanded.
Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind them. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you." He turned his gaze to Willow and his eyes widened. "Perce...what's with your eyes?"
"I'm not Percy," he told Grover firmly. "My name is Willow."
"So Percy was telling the truth about that," Sally's voice came from the front. "You are awake. Hello son."
Willow nodded politely, "Mother. Sorry we had to speak again in such unsavoury circumstances."
Sally smiled sadly, "It's alright. I'm glad your okay."
"Time out," Grover said hastily. "What is going on here? What do you mean your name is Willow, and what does Sally mean by awake?"
The psychotic half of Percy Jackson tilted his head, wondering what the best way to explain things would be, before shaking his head. "Now is not the time," he decided. "What do you mean by 'watching you'?"
"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."
"And you are a satyr?" Willow raised an eyebrow. "From Latin class? The myths are true?"
"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"
"Willow," he said stubbornly. "And we knew Mrs. Dodds was real. Why on Earth where you trying to hide it?"
"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realise who you are."
Willow rolled his eyes at Grover. "Oh yes, because hiding it has done soooo well thus far," he muttered bitterly.
The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind them, closer than before. Whatever was chasing them was still on their trail.
"Willow," Sally spoke up again, "we have too much to explain, and nowhere near enough time. We have to get you to safety."
"From the monsters," he guessed. "But who is after me?"
"Oh, nobody much," Grover said. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."
"Grover!"
"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"
Amber eyes narrowed and Willow frowned. Lord of the Dead...was Grover referring to Hades? His father? But that didn't make sense. Why would his father try to kill him?
Sally made a hard left. They swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.
"Where are we going?" Willow asked.
"The summer camp I told you about." Sally's voice was tight; she was trying for his sake not to be scared. "The safe place I told you about."
"The place you've been avoiding sending me to," Willow corrected, before holding his head in mild pain. It appeared Percy was starting to come out of his shock. 'At ease Percy,' he thought calmly to his sane half. 'I'm in control now. I'm trying to understand things, just take it easy until I figure things out.'
'A-alright,' Percy agreed, though hesitantly.
"Please, dear," she begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."
"Because some old ladies cut some-" Willow stopped as he remembered one of the myths. "Those were..."
"The Fates," Grover finished. "Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."
"You just said you," Willow said accusingly.
"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"
"You meant 'you.' As in me."
"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."
"Boys!" Sally said.
"Sorry mother," Willow mumbled.
She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and Willow got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind them in the storm.
Willow stared out the back of the window. "What the hell was that?"
"We're almost there," Sally whispered desperately, ignoring the question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."
Neither Willow nor Percy knew exactly where 'there' was, but they figured if they got 'there', then they'd be safe. That sounded good.
Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. Percy thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. His limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill him. If Willow hadn't woken up...
'Percy,' Willow warned. 'Stop.'
Then he thought about Mr. Brunner...and the sword he had thrown. Before Willow could berate Percy again, his hair stood on its end. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling 'BOOM!', and then the car exploded.
Willow felt weightless, like he was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at once.
He pulled his forehead off the driver's seat. "Fuck, that hurt," he hissed in pain.
"Percy!" Sally shouted, out of instinct since she knew he was Willow.
"I'm fine..."
Willow was quick to shake off the daze. They weren't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. They'd swerved into a ditch. The driver's side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.
Lightning. That was the only explanation. They'd been blasted right off the road. Next to Willow in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"
He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Percy managed to wrestle back control from Willow, amber turning to green, as he shook his best friend. 'No!' he yelled mentally. 'Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!'
Then he groaned "Food," and Percy knew his friend was okay.
"Percy," his mother said, "we have to..." Her voice faltered.
He looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, he saw a figure lumbering toward them on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made Percy's skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.
Percy swallowed. Hard. "Who is-"
"Percy," Sally whispered, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."
Sally threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. Percy tried his own. Stuck too. He looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.
"Climb out the passenger's side!" his mother told him. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"
"What?"
Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof he saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.
"That's the property line," she told him. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"Mom, you're coming too."
Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.
'Do not leave her behind!' Willow hissed at Percy.
"No!" Percy shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."
"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.
The man with the blanket on his head kept going towards them, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, Percy realised he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swing-ing at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head...was his head. And the points that looked like horns...
"He doesn't want us," Sally told Percy. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."
"But..."
"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."
Percy got angry, then mad at his mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward them slowly and deliberately like...like a bull.
'Minotaur...' Willow whispered, remembering the Greek Myth.
Percy climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."
"I told you-"
"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."
He didn't wait for her answer. he scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but he couldn't have carried him very far if Sally hadn't come to his aid. Together, they draped Grover's arms over their shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.
Glancing back, Percy finally got his first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear- bright white Fruit of the Looms- which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black and white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
Now what Willow said made sense. He too could recall the myth now where this bull-man appeared. Party of Percy screamed it wasn't real, but Willow was there to say it was.
"Pasiphae's son," Sally whispered in fear. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."
"But he's the Min-"
"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."
The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.
It was at that point, Percy felt something strange. A female voice whispered in his ear, almost like a ghost, 'Hurry! If you don't then, you'll suffer the same fate I did! Please, hurry!'
Percy glanced back again.
The bull-man hunched over the car, looking in the windows- or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. Percy wasn't sure why he bothered, since they were only about fifty feet away.
"Food?" Grover moaned.
"Shut it," Percy hissed at him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."
As if on cue, the Minotaur bellowed in rage. He picked up the Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.
"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"
"How do you know all this?"
"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."
"No mom," Percy gasped. "You just-"
Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.
He'd caught their scent.
The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of them.
Sally must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."
He didn't want to split up, but he had the feeling she was right- it was their only chance. He sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on him. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.
'Give me control!' Willow urged. 'Let me slay him!'
Percy didn't need to be told twice. Immediately green shattered into cold amber. Willow pulled out the pen and tossed off the cap, causing the bronze sword to grow into life.
The Minotaur lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at his chest.
Amber eyes narrowed. Willow waved his arm and darkness surrounded them. The bull-man didn't seem to care though, as he kept charging. Willow cursed. He had bad eyesight, which meant the darkness was useless, but maybe he could trick him with sounds. "Do you love?" his voice came from the monster's left.
It didn't even slow down.
"Fuck!" Willow dove out the way at the last second, and the darkness vanished. His power was completely useless to him!
The Minotaur stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward Willow this time, toward Sally, who was setting Grover down in the grass.
They'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side Willow could see a valley, just as Sally had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. He'd never make it.
The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing Sally, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.
"Run, Percy!" she told him. "I can't go any farther. Run!"
But Willow just stood there, his eyes widening as he watched the Minotaur charge at her. She tried to sidestep, as he had done earlier, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air.
"Mother!"
She caught his eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"
Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around Sally's neck, and she dissolved before his eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply...gone.
Willow broke. Percy roared.
They screamed in pure anger. Newfound power burned into their limbs. Willow's left eye changed from amber to a deep, sea green. The eyes fell on the Minotaur, hatred lying within them.
The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.
They wouldn't allow that.
He stripped off his red rain jacket.
"Hey!" they screamed, two voices layered over the other, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"
"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward him, shaking his meaty fists.
They had an idea. Granted it was a stupid idea, but it was better than no idea at all. He put his back to the big pine tree and waved the red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking he'd jump out of the way at the last moment.
But it didn't happen like that.
The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way he tried to dodge.
Time almost seemed to slow down as the dual coloured eyes narrowed.
Their legs tensed. He couldn't jump sideways so he leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and suddenly, his eyes widened as he hung in the air for a little while, watching the creature slam into the tree with a huge amount of impact. He fell to the Earth and landed.
'How did we do that?' Percy and Willow thought as one. The two were currently in perfect synch. They wanted the same thing: the death of this monster.
Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. They wanted to yell at him to shut up, but they couldn't risk giving away their position just yet.
The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. Their eyes narrowed. They wouldn't allow that. "Hey fuck tard!" they yelled, their voices coming out of one mouth. "Your momma is so bitchy, Hitler shot himself to stop putting up with her shit!"
The bull-man screamed in pure rage and turned towards them. He began to paw the ground again, ready to charge. Their legs tensed again. They could feel it. Something about the way they'd hung in the air...it felt familiar to them...
The monster charged.
They jumped straight up again, spring-boarding off his heard and turning in mid air. The sword was on the ground, long forgotten, but they didn't need it. They pulled their arm back and screamed, "Come to me; Cursed Spear!"
Their call was answered.
In their grip, a long, blood red spear materialised. The entire length of the spear, save the blade, had swirling grooves running along it. The bottom end was pointed, and the spear was pointed straight at the Minotaur.
Green and amber glowed. A blood red aura began to surround their body, and they simply hung there in the air. The beast slowly turned and looked for them, unable to find them on the ground. They pulled back the spear as their muscles tightened. The blood red aura gathered at the weapon's tip. Words echoed in their mind.
'The cursed spear able to kill with a single blow...' it was a deep voice, one they couldn't recognise. 'It aims for the heart...avoiding it is impossible...a gift to you...the sea and the darkness...apart forever, but joined right now...you shall destroy this beast...the name of the spear is...'
"GAE BOLG!" they screamed as they threw the spear towards the Minotaur. It looked up, before it roared in agony as the spear pierced its chest. There was a huge explosion that tossed Percy/Willow out of the air, and they landed by Grover.
They looked up in time to see that, in the middle of the explosion, the Minotaur crumbled into sand, blowing away into the wind as the explosion died down, the same way Mrs. Dodds had died.
The monster was gone.
Green fell back into amber as Percy passed out, though Willow wasn't far behind. He watched as the spear- somehow in tact- shot into the air and zigzagged at odd angles towards him. He held out his hand and caught it. It then immediately shrunk, becoming a blood red ring on his middle finger.
The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. He smelled like livestock and his knees were shaking. His head felt like it was splitting open. He was weak and trembling with grief and anger. He'd just seen his mother vanish. He wanted to blow something up- well he already had- but there was Grover, needing his help, so he managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm-house. He was pissed, and he knew that tears were flowing down his cheeks as he did so. He noticed that a few people were getting out of some buildings, before looking at him and Grover with shock. Willow ignored them all.
Willow collapsed on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above him, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at him, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."
Willow coughed as he looked up at them. They looked down as he began to speak, his body feeling terribly weak. He wanted to say just one more thing before he fell into the comfortable darkness. "Fuck...you..." he pleasantly watched the shock come over their faces before his eyes drifted shut and he followed his sane half into unconsciousness.
Done with another chapter!
Like I said, the people in the harem so far are Nancy and Thalia. If you want anyone else please tell me. No more than 4 or 5 so tell me soon. Until next time!