The Ring Of Chaos
Chapter 3: The Orphanage
The newborn baby soon was brought to the orphanage. A man from the hospital was carrying the young baby. The man sighed as he rang the doorbell to the orphanage. He looked up at the sign above the door and read it inside his head. It said "Aunt Hestia's Orphanage, All Are Welcome." The man waited a little longer before an older lady answered the door.
She had bright brown eyes with an orange tint to them. It looked as if there were flames dancing in her eyes. The flames looked peaceful and made the man full of hope.
"Well what do we have here?" Asked the lady.
"Well I'm from a nearby hospital and this baby was just born a week ago after the mother was in a terrorist attack and they both were fine, but complications occurred and the mother died. There is no father on record and the woman didn't have a single family member that could take care of him. So, we all decided to bring him here because we hear that you are the best orphanage in town and you really take care of the kids well." Explain the man.
"Well that's for sure." Said the woman, "We do our best at raising these poor orphans into becoming the best they can be as if they have a family of their own."
"By the way, my name is Hestia, I own this orphanage."
"It's very nice to meet you Hestia, I know that we've brought this child to the right place the moment I saw you. And my name is Kevin." The man said.
"It was very nice meeting you too Kevin. Now, before you leave please tell me this boy's name." The woman said with a warming smile.
"Well… you see the mother died without being able to talk to any of us… we were never able to pick a name for a child that isn't ours… We were actually hoping you would be able help us with that." Kevin said looking a little embarrassed.
"Well of course I can help, but I think that you should be the one who ultimately decides his name. After all, you are the one who brought him to my orphanage and you seem to like him very much Kevin. And besides you are the one who delivered him, son of Apollo."
"Was it really that easy to tell?" Kevin whined at Hestia.
"I knew you were coming before you rang the door bell actually. You see as gods we can do things like that." Hestia replied back to him with a smile. "And another thing, how did you know to bring him here, as only demigods are allowed to be raised here?"
Kevin was not sure how to reply, because he himself did not know. He just felt something was different about this one. He didn't have the feel of a demigod, but somehow he just knew that he belonged here. He wondered who his father was and why he had trouble of telling who it is.
"Well you are right Kevin. He does belong here, that much I can tell. As for the father, even I cannot tell. To me it feels as if he is part immortal, but I cannot sense any sort of power within him except for the percentage of his blood that is immortal. From what I can tell, he will develop much faster than any other boy his age." Hestia replied as if she just read his mind, "And for the record I just did read your mind."
(Six month old Percy)
Within the first month Hestia and Kevin came up with a name for the mysterious child. She decided that his name would be Perseus. Perseus, or Percy for short, grew quickly in the care of the orphanage. He never showed any signs of power from any god, but something did happen that was strange. The day after little Perseus was brought in a ring appeared on his finger. It was a magic ring, Hestia could tell. The ring would not come off at all. The ring grew steadily as the boy and his fingers grew. She felt like she has seen this ring before somewhere, but for the life of her she could not remember.
(Three year old Percy)
Artemis Pov
I've been rather bored today as the hunters and I are resting in a valley near a lake surrounded by trees. I haven't seen a single monster since we got here, so I have decided to go visit my favorite aunt at her orphanage.
"Zoe I'm going to be gone for a while, so you are in charge until I get back." I said to my lieutenant.
"Yes milady. I shall do my best." Zoe said to me with an excited look on her face.
I began to smile as I read her mind at all the things that she had been planning on doing with her sisters later tonight, but she could now do much sooner as she was in charge.
"Don't have to much fun now Zoe." I teased as Zoe closed her eyes and I flashed out.
I appeared in central park, not far from my destination. I could smell the pollution in the air, and I could hear the roaring traffic all around me. I crinkled my nose in disgust at the mortals. I would much rather be in nature surrounded by trees, grass and wildlife than such a busy city. Well aunt Hestia doesn't mind it so I can deal with it. I sighed as I began my walk to Hestia's orphanage. The only ones who can see it are those that have a connection to the Greek world such as gods, demigods, and mortal parents of demigods.
It was not long after I started my walk and I was already having problems with disgusting men trying to get their hands on me. Soon approached the 20th male that decided he would try to make his move on me, as soon as he looked at me I could already tell his intentions. I read his mind and found out he was planning on kidnapping me using a knife and rape me in his van behind a dumpster in a nearby alley. He sprang up from behind me as I passed him and held the knife up to my throat and threatened to kill me if I didn't let him have his way with me. I frowned at this and raised my foot and kicked him in the stomach to get him off of me. He fell down, but quickly got up and ran at me. I simply moved out of the way and used my right leg to trip him. Again the man fell down, but he got up a little more slowly this time and ran back at me again. I have had enough of this male I decided. As he got close to me I punched him in the stomach to make him lose his breath and then I kicked him in his crotch. As he bent over in pain I then kneed him in the face, effectively knocking him out. After my little show, the males got the idea that they shouldn't mess with me and they left me alone.
I then smiled as I got the most wondrous idea. I tied him up with some rope I summoned and flashed him to the hunters' location with a note that said he tried to kidnap and rape me and they could do as they pleased to him. I grinned to myself as I thought of what the girls would do once they found him.
Soon after, I arrived to Aunt Hestia's place. I knocked on the door and waited patiently for my aunt to answer the door. Finally the door opened and it was not Hestia as I had expected. Instead it was a very small child with short black hair and bright blue eyes. He had fairly tan skin and wore a blue shirt with a pair of blue jeans with small holes in the knee.
I gave a big smile as I bent down and spoke to the toddler.
"Hello there little one. What is your name?" I asked him
"My name is Percy! I am three years old and my birthday was yesterday!" The child excitedly said to me with a very cute lisp. "What's your name?"
"It's very nice to meet you Percy. My name is Artemis." I said.
"That's a really pretty name…" He said shyly. "It's really pretty, just like you are!"
I laughed at the boy's remarks as he then ran away with a big blush on his face. I smiled as I walked throughout the halls of the orphanage that Hestia ran all by herself, trying to find her. Finally I came to a room with all of the kids sitting in a circle around Hestia as she told them all a story. I knew this one well. She was retelling the Trojan War. Now, this was a very bloody and deadly war, but the way she told it made it sound so much better. All of the kids were listening intently and were all very interested in the story.
"Alright kids, story time is over. Now you all know what comes next…" Hestia announced.
"Nap time!" All the kids shouted as they ran to get their mats to sleep on. By this time Hestia had finally noticed my presence, and walked over to me.
"What brings you here Artemis, I thought you would be with your hunters?" She asked me.
"Well actually it has been rather boring lately. We haven't seen any monsters in a while and I figured that I could spend some quality time with my favorite aunt!" I told her with a big smile. "I haven't seen you in a while and I thought it would be a nice time to visit."
"It's very nice to see you to Artemis. I'm glad you came. I was thinking, maybe you could help me out with something since you get out a lot more than I do and maybe you could find out some information about something for me." She told me.
I was thinking that of course I could help her find out whatever it is, after all she is a very busy woman and how hard could finding information be?
"Well, you see there is this young three year old here at the orphanage, and his name is Percy." Hestia told me as I remembered the kid that talked to me when I first got here. "I have no idea whose child he is, what kind of powers he has, and I can't even sense that he is a demigod. But he has to be a demigod because otherwise he would not have been able to enter and stay here at the orphanage. The only distinctive thing about him is that he has a ring on his finger that just appeared on him one day and it stays with him. It doesn't go away and it grows with him, just like any other body part."
This surely was peculiar. I have never heard of such a thing in my life as this, and I have lived for quite a long time. What sort of god or goddess can have children that do not have a scent? I will inquire about this later on Olympus.
"Of course I will help you Hestia. This does sound pretty strange. I have never heard of such a thing, and the next time I go to Olympus I shall ask my brother and a few others if they have any knowledge about this."
"Thank you so much Artemis. It is not a necessity that you get this to me as soon as possible, but try to find out sooner rather than later. If this child ends up someone important, I would like to protect him before anything can harm him." Hestia said to me.
"This has been quite a visit Aunt Hestia. I promise that I will look for answers about this child and this ring, but before I leave I must ask, can I see this child and his ring?" I asked my aunt.
"Well right now he is taking his nap, and he is in the other room. If he's sleeping I would be happy to show you the ring. It might prove useful to see what you are looking for before you look for it."
Later on that day
Ugh! I have been thinking and thinking and thinking all day. I cannot find a single reference to that ring no matter where I look. I know the ring looks familiar. I know I have seen it before. All of a sudden it dawns on me… I should talk to Athena. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, she is the smartest person I know and she should be able to offer some use to me. I stood up from my current spot on the ground of a quiet forest and flashed to Olympus, outside of Athena's temple. Quickly, I ran up to the door and knocked. I thought to myself that if anyone knew what this ring is, it would be Athena.
I was dragged away from my thoughts as the door opened to reveal Athena in her casual clothes.
"What would you be doing here Artemis? I wasn't expecting to see you here." Athena asked me with surprise.
"Well I am here because I require some information on something that I cannot find anything about and I thought that you might be able to help me out a little bit." I explained.
"I will see what I can do. Come on in, you can sit on the couch and then we can talk about this and I'll see if I know anything about this or if I have any books that talk about this." She said to me as she let me in.
I walked into her temple and in the first room there was some chairs, a table, and a couch in the middle of the room. I sat down on the couch and Athena sat down across from me at one of the chairs. I then proceeded to explain to her what I had experienced today and what I wanted to know. I explained the ring and how it looked familiar and I gave her a description of it. Athena quickly jumped out of her seat and ran into another room. I just sat there wondering where she went when she came running back into the room with a big book.
She quickly flipped the book open to a page that had a picture on it.
"Is this the ring that you saw on that boy?" She asked me.
I looked at the picture and it was exactly the same as the ring that was on the boy. I nodded to her and she gasped. She showed me the description of the ring and all I could do was stare with my mouth wide open in shock.
The Ring Of Fate. Also known as the Ring Of Chaos. This ring was made by Chaos herself and is said to hold the power to defy fate itself. The ring was lost many ages ago when lady Chaos fled from the new world controlled by the Titans when Kronos killed his father taking control of the world. Upon leaving, she announced a prophecy:
"When the world is at war, with new enemies on the rise, a hero shall answer the call. With the Ring Of Fate at his side, he must face the challenges set before him. In the end he will ultimately fail and the world shall fall.
This is the end of the the third chapter, and please make sure to inform me of any mistakes and feel free to make any suggestions by reviewing.