The Sea's Daughter: The Lightning Thief.
Chapter 4: How Melinda Met Sally.
Melinda had perched herself on a ledge outside the Jackson's apartment, thankful she could see inside, yet no one seemed to see her. She had arrived not long after Percy it seemed and her brother was currently in a conversation which someone called Gabe – she was pretty sure this was his step-father.
He was a sad excuse of a man, and his very presence made her want to scratch his eyes out.
Gabe was a less...well over weight was the only thing he didn't have in common with her uncle. Well, besides the gambling habit and low hygiene. Her uncle had at least been obsessed enough about normal to be put together every day.
She couldn't be sure who was worse by the point of the men passing gas in harmony. The window was opened a bit, and she cursed her enhanced sense of smell.
"I hope you lose," Percy muttered, walking off to where she was sure his room must be.
"Don't get to cocky brain boy, your report card came!" Gabe yelled after her brother and she felt her claws dig into the ledge she was perched on.
Her pale eyes – in animagus form her eyes were a much paler green, probably because gyrfalcons didn't have bright green eyes that couldn't choose between sea and emerald.
Looking around her she wondered where Grover was, she'd been here for nearly five minutes and still no sign of the protector.
Her eyes caught sight of a woman soon after, wearing a uniform from a local sweet shop and looking to be in a hurry.
She was average height, probably in her middle thirties, maybe early thirties, with long dark chocolate brown hair and light colored eyes.
Seconds later she saw the woman once more, closer up as she entered the Jackson apartment. Smiling mentally she realized this must be Sally Jackson, her brother's mother.
Melinda nearly left her post to go around back where she could be closer to Percy and his mother in case something happened, but decided against it.
She'd never known her mother in life but she was aware that some things deserved privacy, and she knew he hadn't seen his mother for a long time now.
Instead she stayed were she was and glared daggers at Gabe, wondering how stupid the man had to be not to see the large white bird outside the window.
She was sure even Sally saw her when she came back through to make some sort of chip dip.
She didn't move from her spot for about an hour, and finally she saw mother and son leave for Montauk – she'd been able to catch that in a conversation before they left.
Flying behind them, Melinda tried to give them all the privacy she could on the beach – which she had to admit was beautiful. She learned a lot though from what her bird ears caught despite her attempts to not eavesdrop.
Sally had apparently met Poseidon on this beach nearly thirteen years before, and Percy looked nearly clone like to their father. Black messy hair, tan, bright sea green eyes.
She already knew that though, she'd met her father enough to recognize how much her brother resembled him.
Soon even Melinda had nodded off from her perch on the cabin roof and it was only when the storm began, and she heard Grover stomping towards the cabin that she woke with a jump start.
"Melinda!" Grover called, looking around wildly for her and she leaped form her perch and transformed when she was close to the sandy ground.
She landed a few inches in front of the pants-less satyr, startling a loud bay from his throat as he leaped back a foot.
"Don't do that!" he snapped, holding his chest.
Melinda stood up straight, stretching her stiff muscles from being in animagus form so long.
"Sorry," she said, for once realizing she was being drenched by the rain.
That in itself was surprising, seeing as she usually didn't get wet. She figured it was simply the fact she wasn't concentrating on staying dry and it was rain, and a lot of it. Thinking of drying her off Melinda was instantly dry and the rain seemed to hit her but didn't get her wet.
"Is someone behind you?" Melinda asked, looking behind Grover who jumped.
"Styx, it's him. The Minotaur. We've got to get Percy now!" Grover said and Melinda nodded.
"Come one," Melinda said, grabbing Grover's wrist and running for the cabin.
Once there both began banging on the door which was opened a minute later by Sally, who looked fully aware that something was terribly wrong.
"Ms. Melinda, Grover?" Percy asked from beside his mother, his green eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"
"We don't have time for explanations," Melinda said. "Sally, I'm Melinda Potter, Daughter of Poseidon. We have to go now!"
She cried this all over the thunder and lightning which had picked up but Sally heard the beautiful British girl in front of her with clear ears. She gasped, looking at her as if finally seeing the similarities between Poseidon, and Percy in her eyes and tan features.
Percy had wide eyes, looking between his mother and teacher with confusion and then his eyes fell on Grover's legs and he became even more shocked, his jaw dropping momentarily.
"Oh gods," Sally gasped. "Percy, what happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"
Percy gulped as he turned to his mother and quickly explained about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies. Melinda was sure her brother had never seen his mother in such a panic from the way he was in such a fearful, confused state.
"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" Grover yelled, looking behind him fearfully. "We have to go now, Lin. It's right behind me! Percy, Didn't you tell her?"
Melinda sighed, shaking her head as she heard the sudden shout of the Minotaur mixed with the thunder and crashing of waves and rain.
"Of course he didn't, teenagers never explain things to their parents," Melinda said, and looked at Percy and Sally.
"Trust me, we have to go now," Melinda said and Sally nodded.
She grabbed her purse, tossed Percy his rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. All of you. Go!"
Nodding they all made there way towards the parked Camaro, Melinda pulled up the rear in order to make sure the other three got there in safely.
Once there she got in the passenger seat while Grover and Percy got in the backseat.
She only breathed a sigh of relief when Sally started the car and sped off.
As they sped away from Montauk the blue eyed woman looked at her and smiled.
"By the way, I'm Sally Jackson," she said. "Percy's mother. It's nice to meet you Melinda."
She smiled back.
"Please, call me Mel or Lin."
xXx
Besides the fact his best friend had a goats ass, Percy had to say the most shocking development was Ms. Melinda. She had arrived with Grover, not even wet despite the pouring rain and introducing herself as the daughter of Poseidon.
If he remembered right, Poseidon was the sea god in Mr. Brunner's myths.
"What's going on?" he asked, looking between his friend, mother and former teacher.
"Percy, I am so sorry I didn't tell you all of this before. If I'd only known how badly they wanted to get to you."
"What, who wants to get to me? Mom!"
"Man, don't question it right now. We're being chased by something very bad," Grover said, trying to calm his near hysterical best friend.
Percy shook his head.
"Dude, this is too much. Whose chasing us?"
"No one really, just the lord of the dead and his nastiest minions," Grover said, with a shrug.
Percy felt as if a frog had lodged into his throat.
Ms. Melinda – Melinda he finally decided. After all she wasn't his teacher anymore – turned in her seat and looked at him.
"Percy, I understand you want answers, but now isn't the time. You'll be fine, I promise."
Percy wasn't sure what to think but thinking over the last few days he finally realized how things had happened. That bird he'd seen in the museum had really been there and it really had been wounded protecting him.
It truly had been Melinda who'd been the bird and he'd seen it again when he'd seen those old ladies. Mrs. Dodds had really been trying to kill him! All of it had really happened.
"Where are we going?" he finally asked.
"The summer camp I told you about."
His mothers voice was laced with fear and seemed thick with other emotions he wasn't able to discern.
He blinked back his confusion.
"The place my father wanted me to go, the one you didn't want to send me to?" he asked.
His mother sighed, shaking her head as she floored the gas peddle.
"Please honey, understand that I was only trying to keep you close. Safe. I was wrong though, I should have sent you here years ago."
"Just know your in danger, Percy," Melinda said, looking back at him with sympathetic but understanding eyes.
"In danger? Why, because some old ladies cut yarn?" he asked, though he felt he could trust Melinda he was still in need of answers.
"Those weren't old ladies, not really," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."
He heard Melinda sigh, but he was too busy trying to process the fact his best friend had basically told him he might die – or was going to die.
"Whoa. You said 'you.'"
"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"
"You meant 'you.' As in me."
"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."
"Boys!" his mother and Melinda both exclaimed from the front.
"Both of you stop arguing," Melinda said, "Percy, you are not going to die. Sometimes the fates work in, to be cliché, mysterious ways. Sometimes they just appear to warn you of a death in your future, doesn't always mean you."
"How do you know that?" Percy asked, though it came out more demanding than he intended.
"I was there, you saw me. I talked to them, they assured me it wasn't your life thread," she said, sounding like it was a hard piece of information to admit.
The next thing he new was pain as there was a flash of lightning and the car was flipping.
When it came to a stop the roof was smoking, the whole car was basically smoking. It was then he realized it was lightning that had struck the car.
"Mom, Grover, Melinda?" he called, trying to reposition himself despite the major headache he had and the lump he was sure was growing on his head.
xXx
Melinda groaned as she moved to sit up straight, holding the side of her head which had cracked against the window, making spiderweb like cracks in it.
Blood slowly made it's way down her face from the area close to her temple and her head felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it.
Her right arm had been smashed against the side when it flipped and she was pretty sure it was dislocated or really bruised.
She felt her vision clear away and heard her brother call out to each of them. Looking to her side she saw Sally was also getting undistorted but was fine.
From the mirror she could see Grover in the back, blood leaking from his head as well.
"Grover," Percy said, concerned.
"Food," Grover bayed and she smiled, knowing the satyr was just jolted and would be fine.
"We have to get out of here," Melinda muttered.
Sally looked at her and gasped lightly at the blood that matted the right side of her head and face.
"You're bleeding," Sally said, and Percy moved forward hearing this.
"Whose bleeding?" he asked, panicked.
He looked at his mother closely and than her. When he saw her his eyes widened and Melinda shook her head.
She'd take care of herself later, right now she had to get her brother, his mother and Grover to safety.
"Not now, we have to go," she said just as they heard the roar of the Minotaur.
Looking behind them she could see the shape of him coming from the back window and she cursed in Greek, Latin and any language she knew under her breath.
Percy gulped, fearfully looking back where she was staring with the others.
"Who is—"
"Percy," Sally began. "Get out of the car."
Sally tried to get out from her side of the door, but it was obviously jammed in the mud. The same could be said for Percy's side.
Melinda saw him look up at the hole in the roof but she knew it would be impossible to get out through. It was sizzling and smoking to much and the sharp edges would be to dangerous.
Leaning against her door, she pushed it opened with strength that sent her right arm screaming in pain. For a moment she feared it was broken but she'd had a broken arm before, this was mild compared to that.
Than again, her arm had been broken by an angry werewolf, and she had an idea it was shattered by Greyback, not broken.
"Climb out on my side!" Melinda said, moving as quickly as she could out the now open door.
Sally nodded, sighing in relief.
"Yes. Percy—you have to go with Melinda to that big tree," Sally said.
"What?"
"The pine tree, Percy," Melinda said from outside the car. "It's the property line, once we're past it we'll be safe. Now everyone out!"
"Melinda's right, honey. Go with her and don't stop until you reach the door of the big farmhouse past the hill."
Percy looked at his mother in some confusion but mostly shock.
"Mom, I can't leave you."
Her face was pale.
"No – " Sally began but Melinda rolled her eyes and stuck her head back inside the car.
"This is not the time to argue. Sally Jackson, I Melinda Potter give you permission to enter Camp Half-Blood," Melinda said, and Sally looked at her with wide blue eyes which were still sad like the ocean. "Now get your arses out of the car."
"Food!" Grover mumbled a little louder.
"Help me carry him," Percy said and hefted Grover out after his mother had safely exited the car with some help from Melinda.
Melinda groaned as she helped Percy shift Grover out of the car and then Percy got out himself.
The Minotaur kept coming closer to them, grunting and snorting the whole way. Melinda could see Percy's eyes widen and figured he'd probably realized that this wasn't some crazy mortal.
"Go, run," Melinda said, pulling her Pearl from under her shirt and basically ripping it off.
Every watched as she opened her mouth and let a drop fall from the pearl. Once it landed the wounds on her body, the bruises on her arm which hung a bit oddly, and the gash on her head slowly healed.
Leaving only the damage of blood stains and yellowing bruises behind.
Melinda then shoved it into Percy's hands.
"Take this, it'll heal any wounds. Only use a small amount for Grover and unless Sally really needs it don't use it for her. If she does, use an even smaller amount, not even half a drop," she said. "Do you understand?"
Percy nodded, though she wasn't exactly sure.
"What about you?" Percy asked.
"He's not after me," Melinda said, though that probably wasn't completely true. Once he got her scent he would surely go after her. Unless...she shook her head not having time to ponder.
Sally looked at Melinda with what appeared to be guilt, probably because her first priority was Percy. She didn't blame her, if it were her in Sally's shoes she'd be the same.
"Lin is right, he wants you," Sally said, and grabbed one side of Grover, while Percy had the other.
"But Melinda," Percy said, looking at me with a determined glint in his eyes.
The Minotaur was closing in now and she shook her head and allow Tachýs to grow into Trident form – she was good with a sword but her talent was in longer weapons. Spear, staffs and of course Tridents.
Then she twisted her left wrist and Abyss formed on her wrist. She didn't make a habit of fighting with her shield but she knew she'd need it.
Percy was staring at her with shock.
"Go!" she ordered. "I'll be right behind you."
She didn't hear the conversation between mother and son, though she knew Percy had realized who it was after them when she was forced to engage the Minotaur in combat.
She might have used magic, but she knew wand magic would have little effect on a powerful monster as the Minotaur and she had no time.
Not to mention she didn't want to use dark arts around Sally, Percy or Grover. So she stuck with the demigod way of using her weapons and abilities over water and earth.
She'd been practicing sense she'd come to camp but it was still new to her when it came to her earthshaking abilities.
The ability saved her life though when it through the Minotaur off course and allowed her the time to jump to the side to avoid his horns and slash at him with her Trident.
She saw one of his horns fall and him roar him rage as she took off further up the hill.
She wasn't running fast enough though, her weapons weighed her down but the rain weighed her down even more. Or maybe the right term was it made the ground slippery and her luck was just bad enough to cause her to slip and slide on her run up the hill.
She gasped when she felt him behind her and turned, hefting Abyss up to block his remaining horn and while it saved her from being impaled, he was able to swipe her aside with his arm.
It hit her side and threw her. Tachýs flew from her hands and Abyss remained thanks to the strap attached to her arm.
The problem was the fact she hit Thalia's tree with a hard thump and rolled a bit down the hill in a painful daze, her headache returning.
"Melinda!" Percy cried, seeing the Minotaur coming towards her.
Sally had a faraway look in her eyes before she laid Grover on the ground and turned to Percy.
"Please, just listen to me for once Percy," Sally said, brushing his hair back from his face and then she looked at where Melinda was struggling to regain her balance.
"Mom, what?" Percy asked and she gave him a sad look.
"Run past the properly line Percy, get help," she urged and took off back down the hill.
Percy yelled after her but she didn't listen. Melinda was now holding him back with Abyss, scooting back on the slippery wet ground up the hill.
As Sally got to Melinda's side the Minotaur suddenly went flying back like an invisible force had pulled him back. He landed with a grunt on the ground further down the hill and Sally helped Melinda to her feet.
"Ah," Melinda groaned, her hand going to her side. "Broken ribs."
Looking at Sally, Melinda raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Sally frowned and pulled Melinda up the hill with her.
"Helping you," she said, "I can't let you die for us."
Melinda smiled and gasped as Sally suddenly pushed her towards Thalia's tree with more force than she thought possible for the mortal. Her back hit the tree and she gasped as Sally began to lead the Minotaur away.
"Sally!" Melinda cried.
"Keep Percy safe, go!" Sally called back.
Melinda abandoned her weapons in favor of her wand, knowing she couldn't muster enough strength for any wandless or inherited magic at this point.
It had taken more strength than she'd thought to telekineticlly push the Minotaur back. But she'd already been tired and hurt.
Percy was staring in terror a few feet away, and as she raised her wand she realized she wouldn't be able to do anything with it.
The way the Minotaur held Sally up blocked any safe shots at him. She would have to use powerful curses, probably deadly force and darker arts and she couldn't risk hitting Sally.
"Dammit!" Melinda cursed and realizing her only hope was in her powers.
Before she could do more then ready herself to access them, hoping the rain would obey her like other water sources, Sally disappeared in a golden light.
The rest was sort of a blur after that, after the guilt of failing to do something had sunk in. she only came out of it when Percy yelled her name as he began running to the tree with the Minotaur following him.
Gasping she jumped to the side as he backed up against the tree and she allowed Tachýs – which had returned to her finger in ring form – glow and transform into it's Trident form.
Whatever plan Percy had was executed in such a way she was to shocked to do anything but stare as her brother was able to rip the remaining horn off the Minotaur and it ignored her to go after him after he hit the ground.
Letting her Trident and shield disappear she pulled out the Elder wand from the holster on her left arm and fired a bone shattering curse and a gauging curse at the Minotaurs back.
The curses hit, but while he grunted at the bone breaker and his back was ripped open a bit from the gauging curse he kept going.
She was about to fire more when he suddenly became monster dust and she realized her brother had driven the Minotaurs own horn through it's ribcage.
Melinda smiled, collapsing against the tree trunk in relief.
"I think you may have some crazy luck on your side," Melinda muttered as her vision blurred. "Little brother."
She heard Percy calling her as she lost consciousness.
