Hey there, just another chapter for you guys, hope you enjoy. Yeah again I don't own anything.
Perseus drifted through his mind, voices and memories mixing together. Occasionally he would wake enough to see the girl watching him, tending to his fever with a wet cloth, or sometimes simply talking to him, babbling in a language he could not perceive. When he drifted back to unawareness, his head was filled with images of soaring towers, halls full of shields and swords, and a throne that reached high above the ground. But all were empty, not a single person stirred throughout the building. Even though he was dreaming, every step he took seemed to echo around the city, bouncing and forth in his head. He was a wanderer, an intruder in the realm of forgotten kings.
"Perseus." The voice was feminine, yet powerful, and Perseus felt the royalty of the speaker. He spun round to face the voice. Tall and muscular the woman was garbed in steel and leather, a sword resting on her hip, and a shield on her back. The metal was brightly polished and clean, yet glinted strangely in the light of the two suns. Dark, earthen hair ran down her shoulders, matched in colour by her strangely happy eyes.
"Where am I, who are you." The woman smiled fondly, but shook her head.
"You seek answers that are forbidden to you until your time in the realm of the living is done. When your earthly span is finished, then you shall walk these halls once more, but then they shall be full of joyous celebration. Then, then shall you know me. But for now you must return. Your gods will have need of you." Walking over to him, the woman laid a hand on his shoulder, tenderly, almost as if she were trying to memorise the touch. "Go. And may the Allfather watch over your path."
Perseus opened his eyes slowly, glancing round. The ruddy glow of the stone walls immediately told him he was in the forge again. Now that he had more time, he was actually able to appreciate the architecture of the building properly. Built like many ancient Greek buildings, pillars and arches running along the sides supported the room, and each pillar itself was a work of art, intricately carved with images and plans of machines such as the fabled Talos, weapons of war, and strange mechanical spheres. A single balcony overlooked the entire forge. Pulling himself up into a sitting position, he realised that he was exceptionally light at the moment. Glancing down it was obvious why. Someone had removed his armour, probably to try and check for any injuries. Judging by the strapping and the discomfort in his chest, Perseus reckoned he had two, maybe three broken ribs. He spotted Annabeth and Frederic, both asleep against the wall of the forge, and stacked beside them was his armour. Grunting, Perseus hauled himself to his feet, and half stumbled, half walked across to grab his gear pouch. The pouch itself had been a gift from Hecate, a thank you for helping some of her blessed mortals start their school, right on top of a dragons den, and the enchantment on it made it so that it could carry much more than it looked like, and yet remain the same weight. There were limits, of course, too much weight and the bag would break, so Perseus had to be cautious with how much he attempted to put in it.
Rummaging through it, Perseus pulled out some ambrosia and nectar, followed by his travelling clothes. He then picked up his armour and began slotting it into the bag, chainmail, breastplate, greave and helmet. Quickly taking a swig form of the godly drink Perseus began to get dressed. His traveling gear was designed to provide three basic functions. It was meant for protection, flexibility or manoeuvrability, and comfort. Leather trousers and tough calf length boots covered his legs. He wore a thin shirt that was loose at the collar, and covered it with a thick, tough, sleeveless jacket that hung over his thighs. To add warmth to the outfit, he also wore a long open jacket that finished halfway down his calves. All of this was in either muddy greens or browns that folded together, however despite the colour, the clothes could easily be seen as fine quality craftsmanship.
Reattaching the pouch to his belt, he replaced his dagger sheathes, one by each boot and two at his belt. As he went to buckle his last dagger, he glanced across at Annabeth. She was going to have to be able to fight mortals, and that spear would only be useful as a quarterstaff. Deciding to giver her the dagger, he quickly laid it aside. He then grabbed his two swords from where they had been leaning. As he had expected, Anaklusmos had not been damaged at all, the celestial bronze still as perfect as the day he had been given it. His mortal blade, however, had nicks a plenty, and scratches along its length. Sighing, he reached into his bag, grabbed out whetstone and a polishing cloth, and set to work, waiting for the two dreamers to wake.
The repetitive grinding of the whetstone was, to most soldiers, a calming and soothing practise. It was something you did at the end of every battle, a ritual to thank the blade for helping you to survive. It also gave soldiers a time to think, and Perseus was no different. After his battle with Python and the dream or vision that came afterwards, he needed to sort out his head. What was that place? Who was the woman? Many of the things she had said had not made sense to him, and unless the stories were incredibly inaccurate, that was not the underworld, so why would he go there when he died? As the questions ran through his head, Perseus eventually came to realise he had no answers, and no knowledge to create answers. Sighing once more, Perseus set himself to more immediate problems. Firstly, he had no clue where Lady Artemis and her Hunt were gathered, but that could be solved with a quick Iris Message. Secondly, while the girl looked like she was no stranger to conflict, there was a difference between surviving a monster attack, and being able to fight, Perseus figured that if the trip was likely to take more than a few days he could train her a bit before they reached the hunt. Problems mean solutions was a phrase that Poseidon was very fond of at the moment, and Perseus agreed, to an extent. He personally preferred the phrase, 'there are no problems, only opportunities'. Perseus found that phrase was useful as away to keep moral high, and as a tool to change the perception of an issue. Negative viewpoints often led to negative solutions.
Perseus switched from the whetstone to the polishing cloth, fining the edge and trying to wear out the scratches on the fuller. A groan made him look up from the sword, though he kept polishing. Annabeth looked at him startled that he was awake, before frowning. "What are you wearing?" Perseus smiled slightly, it was unlikely she realised how much like an Aphrodite child she just sounded like.
"Traveling gear." Glancing around the room, Annabeth noticed his armour was missing.
"What happened to the rest of your gear?" Perseus smiled again, and simply gestured down at his pouch. She frowned again. "There is no way your breastplate would fit into that bag." This time Perseus' smile was more of a smirk,
"Its bigger on the inside. I did a favour for Hecate a while back and she gave me this. She said something about separate dimensions." Annabeths' eyes immediately lit up as she thought about the concept. Seeing this Perseus couldn't help but groan inside, there would be no end to her questions now.
"Anyway, I hope you're ready to set off, we'll be leaving soon." Seeing Annabeths' sad glance at her father, Perseus quickly clapped her on the shoulder, "Don't worry, we're not leaving yet, so you have some time to properly say goodbye. I'm going to head up to the surface and try and contact lady Artemis." Giving a sad smile, Annabeth nodded and turned around. Suddenly Perseus called out again, "Sorry, before I head up, I need to give this to you." He said, grabbing the dagger from beside him. Noticing her he confused glance at the dagger before she looked sideways at the spear he had given her, through her father, he clarified, "Divine weapons, such as that celestial bronze spear cannot harm mortal, in the same way that mortal weapons cannot harm immortals. We however are lucky; both can harm us." Nodding in understanding, Annabeth quickly thanked Perseus before turning back to her father.
Perseus decided to quickly look round the forge and up on the mezzanine to see if there was anything that might be of use. The ground floor was covered with broken weapons, shields and bits of armour, but nothing was really salvageable. On the mezzanine, however, Perseus found several things of use, including a couple of Drachma, a few Celestial bronze knives, one of which folded into its handle, and a small shield which Perseus thought would work well for Annabeth. Heading back down to the entrance, he picked up his own shield and slung it onto his back before starting up through the tunnel.
Outside the forge, the air was much cooler, pleasantly so. Using the same method as he used back in England, Perseus created another rainbow "Iris, O' goddess, please accept this, my offering, and show me the Lady Artemis." He called, throwing a drachma into the mist. The air shimmered, and the image of Artemis slowly formed. Glancing into the projection, Artemis showed no surprise, instead nodding in recognition. "Perseus. I trust the serpent is dead."
"Indeed milady, Python is dead and the spoils are in my possession." Perseus hesitated a second before continuing, "Lady Artemis, when I arrive, I will be bringing with me a young girl to join your hunt so it make take me longer to reach you than it normally would." Artemis frowned for a second, before nodding, very well, that is acceptable."
"Where should we meet you?" Artemis looked away from the screen for a second, having a brief conversation with her lieutenant responding.
"You should meet us in Amiens, we will wait for three days after we arrive there, before we move on to Brussels." Perseus paused before nodding,
"Very well milady, we shall approach Amiens along the main road from Cambrai, that way if we miss the dead line our paths should cross anyway."
Artemis nodded slightly before waving a hand through the mist, severing the connection.
A cough alerted Perseus to Annabeths' presence behind him. Spinning round slowly, he began talking, "You ready to go?" A slight glare was all the sarcastic
Answer Perseus needed, would I be here if I wasn't? It seemed to say.
"Ok, ok, jeez. We're heading for the Cambrai road to Amiens." The girl nodded.
"I heard." Perseus flashed here a quick smirk,
"Ok wisegirl, let's go then." Perseus immediately set of at a fast jog, leaving the startled girl behind. He wasn't running fast for him, and the idea was that he was slow enough that she could catch him, but fast enough that it would take a while.
As predicted, the girl eventually caught up to him, heaving for air and sweat dripping down her forehead, Perseus, in contrast, had barely started breathing heavily, and there was not a trace of sweat of his brow. He slowed down slightly to allow her to catch her breath but kept moving, trying to test out her stamina. She was doing well, most of the soldiers couldn't keep up with him for long, as his body naturally hydrated itself, and sweat simply evaporated off, both due to his powers. It also helped that he had been training since was seven. Jumping over a fallen log, Perseus could hear Annabeth slowly climbing over it before following him. By the time the sun was directly above them, the pair had managed to reach the main road. Sitting down at the roadside, Perseus took a drag from his flask of nectar, before crunching down some 'godly golden fudge' as he called it. Realising Annabeth only had water and mortal food he quickly chucked a square over, along with his flask. Annabeth grunted gratefully, still catching her breath. Deciding to be kind, Perseus gave a quick wave of his hand to get rid of the sweat drenching Annabeths body. Taking out the rough map he had been given, Perseus moved over to sit next to Annabeth. Laying it out, Perseus pointed at it. "From my working, we are here, if we keep moving, we should make it to Signy-le-petit within a couple of hours. Then we follow this road along ant it will bring us to the Cambrai to Amiens road."
"Why not continue straight through here?" Annabeth asked, "why are we stopping in Signy-le-petit?"
"Because we can get horses from there to speed up the journey." Annabeth smiled at that, relieved that they would be able to stop running.
"Lets do it then." She said, standing up again. The Ambrosia and nectar were useful for that as they returned energy quickly. Standing up himself, Perseus realised he hadn't actually given Annabeth her shield, and reached into his pack to rectify that.
"Here, before we go any further, this is for you, I found it in the forge." Annabeth managed to look both grateful and annoyed at the same time.
"Oh come on, really? I'm already carrying this dead weight spear, now I have to carry a spear!"
"Look, just strap this over your shoulder," He said demonstrating with his own, "then slot your spear into the gap provided." Annabeth tried it and while it was slightly uncomfortably, it was much less annoying than having to hold it in her hand. Slightly satisfied she stretched before looking back cheekily at Perseus.
"Catch me if you can!" and then she ran off, leaving Perseus a good 20 meters behind before he decided to set off. Running full tilt after her, he caught up with a matter of seconds, smirking at her as he passed in front.
"You know, people always say that cheaters never prosper." In response, Annabeth maturely and reasonably stuck her tongue out at him.
They ran for a while longer under the bright winter sun, trees crowding in on them at every turn. While the road was relatively straight, the branches of the trees and the gouges in the road meant the pair had to swerve around the road. Suddenly, an arrow buried itself in the ground in front of Perseus, forcing him jump over it. Landing smoothly, Perseus quickly swung his shield onto his arm and moved to draw his sword.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A harsh voice called out behind him. Turning, Perseus kept his hand on the hilt of his sword anyway. Anger rushed up when he saw that Annabeth was being held, a hand pulling at her hair and a knife around her throat. Her spear and shield had been cast to the side but they had not noticed her knife.
"Put your sword and shield on the ground quickly." The same bearded man called. Slowly, Perseus loosened the shield on his arm before letting it drop. He then drew the blade from its sheath and placed it gently on the ground.
"Now kick them over to the side." The man gestured with the hand holding the knife.
Faster than the man could blink, Perseus had drawn one of his knives and thrown it, driving it into the hand holding Annabeths' hair, Perseus quickly dashed forward, grabbing Annabeth and pushing her behind him. Two arrows flashed towards him, and he raised his arm towards them, forming a shield out of water. "Sword." Perseus growled back at Annabeth, and thankfully she understood, pressing the blade into the hand he reached back with. As he clanked round at the men surrounding him, Perseus heard the whisper of metal behind him, and he guessed Annabeth had drawn her knife.
The man who'd spoken, the leader Perseus presumed, began to roar at his men. "Attack you fools!" the men still looked uneasy, seeing the ease with which their 'prey' had taken back their advantage. "Cowards!" the leader called. Scrabbling at his waist, the leader managed to draw an ill cared for blade from his side before charging. As he did so, some few of his men charged alongside him, the majority deciding to see what the outcome of the combat was. Perseus easily caught the leaders thrust on his knife, before hacking quickly at the mans leg, forcing him to jump backwards. Perseus lunged in towards his chest, and the man parried desperately. Turning the parried lung into a spin, Perseus drove his dagger straight into the mans chest. Suddenly, his battle indicts were screaming at him, and Perseus quickly spun slamming his sword against the oncoming axe. As Perseus stumbled backwards, the axe-man saw it as an opportunity to strike again. As he swung, Perseus moved underneath and around the blade, driving his fist into the stomach of the man, before driving his knife through the mans neck.
Glancing round Perseus noticed that Annabeth was holding her own rather well against her opponent, a man of similar size to her wielding a short sword. Unfortunately she hadn't noticed the larger man sneaking up behind her, preparing to cut her down. Reacting quickly, Perseus shifted his grip and threw his knife through the air, sliding perfectly into the chink of armour between the helmet and chain of the man.
While all this happened, Perseus hadn't been paying attention to his own surroundings. As his arm was outstretched from the throw, one of the assailants sliced at Perseus' hand, scoring a dark red line and making Perseus hiss. Anger fuelled his power and he quickly sent a spike of ice through the heart of the offending soldier. Hearing a yell from Annabeth, Perseus spun round to see her drive the hilt of her dagger into the forehead of the man she had been fighting. Looking round Perseus saw that all the other bandits were backing away into the forest. Perseus relaxed, moving his uninjured hand into his pouch to grab his flask of nectar. Unstopping the flask, he dripped the liquid onto the wound, sterilising it. He then grabbed his bandages and roughly wrapped the cut. As he glanced over to Annabeth, he noticed she had a faint scratch across her throat where the knife had been pressed. Moving over to her, he poured some of the godly liquid onto his hand, before moving his hand closer to her neck. She flinched away instinctively, and Perseus stopped, noticing she was shaking. Grabbing her shoulder with his injured hand, Perseus turned her to face into his eyes, just to see her eyes close. Realising she must be struggling with the fight, Perseus gently sat her down, before moving around to gather fire wood.
Please review, they are useful as A. they tell me what I need to improve on & B. they are really encouraging