What will I do now? Percy thought. If only I had something strange occur that could drive the plot forward in the most convenient and timely part where I, the main character, am at a loss at what to do...
Suddenly, a bright light flashed in front of him. He averted his eyes instinctively, thinking it was an immortal showing his or her true form. Not that it would matter. I mean, what you think the MC can die? Lol. #PlotArmour.
*clears throat* so anyway, when the light died like the inspiration in this fandom a few years ago, Percy stared at the being. He had never seen anyone like it. Running through the list of gods, goddesses or Titans, he couldn't place that being's face anywhere. He couldn't even tell if it was a male or a female. It looked, timeless and pure.
"Perseus Jackson," it called, its voice echoey and similar to a choir speaking in concord beauty (Totally didn't thesaurus that). "You wish to know your answer to the question that lies in your mind. To do so, you must find The Tome Of Creation."
"Why?" He asked, feeling more relaxed seeing as it wasn't a threat, even though there was absolutely no earlier description to show that Percy had initially assumed it was dangerous.
"Because Macguffins are amazing. Oh wait, you mean - Right, uhh because it holds the answer you seek."
"I know, you just said that."
"Shh! I'm trying to extend the word count and this conversation so it looks mildly of importance!"
"Oh, okay. Where do I find the Tome?"
Normally, this is the part where the person would drop some vague, cryptic hints that causes the protagonist to go on a long journey to uncover more hints that eventually leads to his final destination. But because this is a short story and I'm lazy, how about we just tell it to him straight?
"At the bottom of the lake at your Camp."
See, now would be a great time to end the chapter on a cliffhanger, but sometimes it has no point if the last line was not threatening at all. Just because it sounded so dramatic and gives the protag the next place to go, there is little to no need to end it here, unless it actually is dangerous or has implications that are important that your readers understand it. Ah s*** this is becoming less satire. Moving on.
"Oh ok, thanks."
"Yep. See you." And with that, it disappeared into thin air. Percy couldn't help but notice that it did not disappear with a blinding flash, which meant that it couldn't have been a god. So what was it?
Percy decided to forget it and concentrate on his current task. Going back to camp. A bolt of fear coursed through him at the thought. They're probably still angry at me, for what happened to Mastodon.
Wait a moment, shouldn't we have dedicated some time to show Percy's grief and his feelings over what had happened that forced him to leave camp? After all, it was quite a shocking and unexpected event. In fact, it was the exact event that caused our protagonist to exit his world of comfort and forced him into this story's plot. He should be feeling all kinds of emotions now, wouldn't he? Whatevs, just say he was too much in shock.
Percy sucked in a breath and walked to the entrance of camp.