Author's Note:

Absences? I do those a lot don't I?

Exams and exam study will do that to you, believe it or not.

But believe me, I haven't been shying from my FanFiction duties.

Just, um… for this story I have. I had a lot of good ideas for FanFics I've been planning and I wanted to get them down.

But for you guys, it was not without reward. If you want to see some of the major plans I've been having, you can go see those right now. On my stories list, you'll see something called "On the Matter of Teasers". In it, are four prelude kinda things for stories I've been planning.

For those of you who have already read it, you'll want to go back and re-read it anyway. It's been updated. The first two have more, and there are two entirely new entries.

Now, which stories?

The Glorious Dead. That one where Percy aims for Isles of the Blest, follow him across three lifetimes, stuff like that.

A new one that I haven't told you about, called Darkness Returns: Prisons of the Fallen. Not much in the prelude though. Just setting the scene.

Now, before I get onto the second two, I have to let you know, that I have been restraining myself a little with this story, and I will for the first two here. Holding back on the language and the violence for the sake of keeping it T-Rated.

For the following two, I will do no such thing. They're just the type of stories that will benefit more from the writer having the freedom to do what they want with them. More foul language and violence / gore will be expected. Consequently, they will be M-Rated.

Not because of lemons. Not in the slightest. I just want that to be clear.

No lemons.

Now, their rating may disappoint some of you, because they are two you all already know of.

The first is Dream Eater. The one where Percy becomes a monster.

The second, is Danger Actual. Now, plans for this one have changed a little. I scraped the cyborg honey badger (unfortunately), and I know what the proper story arc will vaguely be like. And fair warning, this story will contain three major OCs alongside Percy and Thalia. One a little bit more major than the other two.

Now, thank you so much for your patience. On with the story.

Chapter 18

A Day in the Life

Thankfully, the campers didn't stare for too long.

Dinner was served sooner rather than later, and Percy went wide-eyed when it was plated up in front of him. Roast beef, potatoes, carrots and gravy. And apparently, a cup that filled itself with whatever you wanted.

He vaguely remembered mumbling something along the lines of, "I think I'm in love…"

But before he could dig in, Grover had told him about this sacrifice thing they had to do. Throw a chunk of your food into this fire, because 'the gods like the smell'. Percy did it, but he cried a little on the inside.

Rest in peace potatoes, you will be sorely missed.

But, honestly, Percy forgot about that when the go-ahead was given. Best food he'd ever had, without a doubt. At least from memory. The orphanages and foster homes he'd been to never had a particularly good menu.

As for drinks, he picked up the cup, a goblet the others had called it, and thought iced coffee.

Probably not the greatest thing to be drinking at this time.

Once the greatest dinner of all time was over, the entire camp got up and went to this great big bonfire. They started a sing along that Percy absolutely refused to join in on.

But, then there was the fire itself. It was big and tall, warm, and actually changed colours. Going from regular orange to a bright, intense and wonderful red, to a shimmering white and silver.

Percy leaned back, the fire warm, the light beautiful, and his stomach full.

Yeah, I guess I could get used to this.

Waking up in a regular bed was still a little unnerving, if not damn comfortable. Percy looked out the window onto the camp. The sun was just a few minutes away from rising, by his guess.

Immediately after getting dressed into his still-torn jacket and still-dirty cargo pants, he discovered a bathroom and laundry hybrid room directly across from him. He peeked inside. There didn't seem to be any sign of reservation. And he doubted a half-horse man would use a regular shower.

Dare I dream to shower where no homeless kid has showered before?

Upon, closer inspection of the room, there was indeed a hot tap for the shower, and an 'occupied' sign to hang on the door. And one of the foster homes thought it prudent to teach him how to use a washing machine.

Yes, yes I do dream.

Percy had thrown most of his clothes into the washing machine, waited in his bed for about ten minutes, and then threw them in a dryer while he hopped into the shower.

Ah, haven't felt this clean since… I actually can't remember.

By the time Percy had walked outside, the sun had well and truly risen, and there were a few campers milling about.

It hadn't taken Percy long to notice the patterns in their appearances. There were always a group of kids with upturned noses and a mischievous glint in their brown eyes. There were the bigger kids with dark brown hair who glared at other campers while laughing with their own. There were a few with grey eyes, blonde hair, tanned skin and a lack of any outwardly shown emotion.

Percy wouldn't have any problems assessing each of the respective groups over the next few days.

Still not having seen the whole place, Percy wandered around the place, going directions he hadn't had the time to go the day before. He found himself on a sandy beach, overlooking a wide bay of crystal clear blue water.

The spectacular view, the gentle breeze, and the prospect of a home had Percy feeling… content. For the first time in a while, he felt like he could finally slow down a little, think ahead of time. When living on the streets, you'd only think as far as the next few days, survival your top priority.

It was only now that Percy began to realise how miserable he'd been. He was always too busy to worry about emotions, feelings.

Now… well, now he still kind of had to survive, and the pressure was there, but not as great as it once had been. He had a time frame of exactly how long he had to prepare, and this time he could do it in relative safety. One year till Thalia turned sixteen, and this business would be resolved one way or another.

That thought brought an uncomfortable question to the forefront of his mind.

Exactly… exactly what's going to happen to me once this is all over?

He'd pledged his allegiance (as little as he felt it was worth) to a race of gods he knew nearly nothing about. They'd accepted, and sent him to where their demigods went. Percy does his part to help resolve things, and then…

Would they kick him out if he was no longer needed? Let him stay? Reward him? Or maybe do nothing at all.

Though apparently he did have a place in this world, according to Apollo. The 'first male oracle' he said. Percy honestly had no clue as to what that entailed. What would be the responsibilities? The benefits? What was the catch?

It was something Percy planned to learn about as soon as possible. He needed to know whether he'd actually want something like that.

This train of thought was leading to very uncomfortable places.

Why did he agree to help the Olympians anyway? Because truth be told, he didn't all together care that much about them. Maybe he did it for the demigods? Percy just felt that back at that meeting of deities, there was something hidden in a little corner of his heart, nagging him to help them out, and he had no clue what it was.

After a few minutes of wandering about the camp, Percy came across something that sparked his interest. A few circular straw targets sat in a neat row down the end of what obviously was a quite large archery range. Roughly thirty targets lined up at the end of thirty lanes.

Percy never really thought about bows and arrows, but the idea had always seemed kind of cool. Being able to hit a target from a hundred meters away without any kind of help from technology.

He hesitantly picked up a bow from on one of the lanes. It was light in hand, and bigger than he expected, just a head or two smaller than he was. Percy pulled back on the string experimentally. It was harder then he would've thought, but still manageable.

From a brown leather quiver on the ground, he drew a wooden arrow with a blunted metal tip. At the opposite end was a clothesline peg-like notch that loosely fitted onto the string.

Before he could think about pulling drawing the shot, a horn sounded off nearby, similar to the dinner horn he'd heard last night.

That caught his attention.

Maybe it's time to go hunt the highly elusive breakfast?

It was indeed breakfast time, though the pancakes served weren't elusive in the slightest. Usually food does a better job of avoiding him.

While he ate he saw few kids from this one table sizing him up. The table itself was just a little bit overcrowded, and half of the kids had the same mischievous-elf like features he'd seen before. They reminded Percy of kids who stole for the fun and the thrill of it.

Maybe the 'Hermes Kids' Thalia mentioned?

In any case, Percy would pay extra attention to his pockets near them. Besides while they stole for fun, Percy had stolen because he had to. And in his experience, thieves who were forced to be thieves were better than those who burgled because they could.

Though two kids over there caught his attention in particular. Twins by the look of it. They were vaguely giving him the same look, but were a little better at hiding it. Percy saw all of this out of the corner of his eye.

Might need to be extra careful around them.

What he lacked in brawn and fighting experience, he made up for in observation and subtlety.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Percy didn't go back to the archery range, and still hadn't found the nerve to join in on any practise sessions. And as far as he was aware, most of the demigods around Camp didn't know he was regular mortal. Only Annabeth, Grover, Thalia (who he hadn't seen anyway all day) and Bianca knew, and she was still back at Olympus.

But, right before the end of it, the day suddenly became eventful. Imagine his surprise when he walked into his room to find a Hunter's silver long bow on his bed.

Lying next to it was a note, the words written in silver ink, and the paper brown and a little torn, looked like it was used in ancient times.

Perseus Jackson

Wait, how many people did he tell my last name?

I thank you in your assistance in freeing me, but that is not the purpose of this letter.

Zoë was the longest standing lieutenant I ever had, and she was a personal friend. It was some time ago that she asked me a favour. She wanted me give Ékleipsi to anyone who could, and I quote 'prove her wrong'.

I'm not sure if she was serious or not at the time, but she choose you in her final moments nonetheless. She chose to trust you. I still am not completely sure on why you have agreed to assist us, or if you have any ulterior motives, but I made a promise to a friend.

You dashed Zoë's worst fears. It would be best if you didn't confirm mine.

For all our sakes, don't disappoint.

Artemis, Patron of the Hunt

Well, that explains it I guess.

So she'd given him her knife and her bow. And for the life of him he couldn't work out why. She'd lived for a few millennia, and she'd only known him for a week, and she didn't him like him for the first half of it.

Percy admired the bow. It was beautiful, just a little shorter than the Camp bows he'd seen before, and the silver glow lit up the room just a little bit. It came with a quiver of silver arrows to boot. He leaned them against the wall, and set the knife down on a bedside table.

Hmph. Guess I'm learning archery then.