Hey Readers. This chapter was suprisingly hard to write, though I managed it, and look, it turned out to be one of my longest. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading. I am not Rick Riordan, and therefore do not own Percy Jackson.
"25 FRANKS! Robbery, nothing higher than 15 surely!" The loud voice jolted Annabeth back into the world of the living for the second time that morning. Perseus had insisted on dragging her into the market square to help with supplies, though as of yet she had done little that a pack mule could not. She almost laughed at Perseus's indignant expression, knowing that money was no object to him. Earlier that morning she had asked how he hoped to pay for the gear they would need, and had found out that helping gods is apparently a very well paid job, and that he had an account that rivalled the national budget his brother had to deal with. In fact, he said, he'd had to bail out William a couple of times. At the moment, Perseus was attempting to purchase the horses for their trip, and as usual, had picked out the finest horses the stall owner had. Both horses were large, powerful animals, with coats that had obviously been well groomed. The smaller of the two was a light brown colour, almost blonde, which darkened as it approached the hooves. It carried itself quite calmly, and moved with a peaceful kind of precision. The larger horse was clearly younger and more excitable, having reared and bowed flamboyantly the moment it realised Perseus was a son of the sea god. Its coat seemed to fit perfectly with Perseus colour scheme, being almost entirely pitch black, apart from a few white streaks that ran along his torso and legs. The animals were beautiful, and Perseus would have gladly paid any price, had the merchant not insinuated he had a reputation to keep up. Perseus had almost laughed at that point, but instead agreed to haggle harshly and curse the storeowners name at every chance he got, for which the man was strangely grateful.
"20 franks, and I'll go no lower." The storeowner cried vehemently. Grumbling something about greedy horse merchants, Perseus eventually gave in to the demands. Walking up to each of the horses he now owned, Perseus stroked each one gently, murmuring instructions in their ears. As Perseus turned and walked out of the stables, the owner quickly called out from behind him,
"Wait, you forgot to take the horses with you!" Perseus simply spun round, still walking backwards,
"They'll follow." The storeowner looked at Perseus as if he were crazy, before shaking his head and turning back.
As Perseus kept walking, he heard a loud crash, followed by a low moan of pain. He turned round again to see that the man had somehow gone through the stable wall, and was lying in the wreckage. He glanced at the two horses, who looked back at him, somehow managing to put innocent faces on, widening their eyes and shaking their heads. Perseus sighed again, "Come on you two, before you break anyone else." He spun to face Annabeth, gesturing for her to come over. Stroking the nose of the blonde horse, Perseus gradually replaced his hand with Annabeths, before realising he was still holding her other hand and releasing quickly, though strangely reluctantly. Annabeths eyes flashed slightly, revealing an emotion that Perseus couldn't quite place. Trying to break the now awkward moment, he quickly began to speak, "Her name is Roheryn, the horse I mean." He stammered out. Annabeth grinned at that, seemingly enjoying his pain.
"I figured you were talking about the horse, unless you were re naming me." Perseus shot her a quick glare, before smiling back slightly,
"You're not making this easy for me." Annabeth laughed,
"I am never going to make things easy for you seaweed brain." Perseus frowned, surprised by the new nickname,
"Seaweed brain?" Annabeth smirked,
"Why not? Your father is the god of the seas, and if you come out with statements like that then the name fits." Perseus frowned, knowing he was being insulted, but at the same time knowing that he didn't care.
"Well, I'll just have to find one for you, wisegirl." Annabeth laughed again
"That's supposed to be a insult? You truly are a seaweed brain." Perseus smirked,
"Well I needed to have one flaw at least, and if I'm not great at nicknames then at least you're better than me at something." Annabeth gaped at him, but before she could yell a comeback, he had already walked off with his horse, which, she realised, he never told her the name of.
She found him again in a leather store, and by the looks of it, he had bought enough leather for a set of clothes and two saddles. Noticing that she had arrived he waved her over to help him go through the list. "So we've managed to get the horses, the saddles, and emergency rations. Was there anything else that we needed to buy?" Annabeth frowned, thinking back to what they had decided.
"You were going to equip me with my own weapons so that you could have your knife back, and I think you made a comment about some protective clothing. That is what all the leather is for correct?"
"Yeah, I just need to step into a tailors to get him to make it, and I'll be heading over to the forge to see if I can get you some knives."
"What will I be doing?" Annabeth queried, realising he hadn't mentioned her at all.
"You will be taking care of the horses, getting to know Roheryn. You two need to be comfortable with each other if we are going to be traveling at speed." Annabeth nodded at that, seeing the logic in the statement.
"What is your horses name? It's just you never told me earlier." Perseus blinked,
"Didn't I, I must have forgotten." Annabeth shook her head in exasperation,
"Seaweed brain."
"Hey, it was a easy mistake to make, anyone could have done it!" Annabeth glared at him, still not having been told the name.
"Oh right, yeah, his name is Kaydin." Annabeth let out a sigh,
"Thank you, finally." Suddenly a gruff voice called them back to reality,
"If you don't mind, I'm trying to run a business here, not a couples stand." Both of them immediately blushed, and turned to stammer out apologies and objections to being called a couple, at which point the man simply grunted, "Could have fooled me." Still blushing furiously, both quickly made their way out of the store.
"Right well, I'll meet you back at the horses shall I?" Annabeth shrugged awkwardly,
"Yeah sounds like a plan." Nodding again, Perseus quickly clapped her on the shoulder, before walking off. Smiling slightly, Annabeth walked off to care for the horses.
The buzz of the market gradually dulled as Perseus wandered the streets of the town in search of the forge. He had already managed to see a tailor, and after some arguing over the stitching's and design, had managed to persuade the older man that the design would actually work. It took a further fifteen minutes haggling to actually settle on a price that the man agreed with. Perseus had then been told that he was to return in the middle of the afternoon, and under no illusions that were he to return earlier, it would spell trouble for him.
The soft scent of ash and metal warned Perseus he was getting close to the smithy, and the clanging of iron simply served to confirm the direction. As he turned into one of the narrower streets to cut across to the smithy, he was suddenly pulled into a darker doorway. In an immediate reaction, Perseus quickly dug for the knife in his belt, only to find it was gone, as were the ones in his boots, coat, and in the small of his back. Unexpectedly, this simply caused Perseus to calm down, before he broke into a small smile. "There are easier ways to get my attention cousin, ones less dangerous for your health too." Hermes grinned at him, handing him back his knives.
"Oh we both know you would never harm me. Besides, this might be our last conversation, you know, seeing as you are joining the worst group of man haters the world has ever seen. My step sister is not very forgiving." Perseus gave a slight chuckle.
"Is that why you came? Early condolences and to get my last words." Hermes smirked, shaking his head slightly.
"No, I actually came to help you as much as I can." Perseus frowned slightly,
"I appreciate the thought, but I'm not sure that the Hunters will be too fond of practical jokes." Hermes gave him a quick glare,
"That is not all I'm good at you know, In this form, I am the patron of all sportsmen and athletes, and as Mercury," At this point his form shimmered, growing slightly taller, older and he started to gesture vigorously with his hands, "I am the god of financial gain, commerce and eloquence. With my blessing, all attributes related to my domains will increase in proficiency, you will be faster, stronger, more agile, and with a silver tongue like mine, you may even get the ladies of Artemis to like you. Perseus was surprised, and it showed. His eyes widened by a fraction and his left eyebrow twitched.
"Not to seem dense, but why would you give me your blessing?" Hermes smiled slightly,
"I like you Perseus, you shall do great things for Olympus and the world. What is more, I never got the chance to properly thank-you for saving my son."
"I remember your boy, he was a good lad, fast on his feet, too fast with his hands." Hermes smirked slightly and shrugged.
"What can you do, children of mine always have been prone to thievery. Anyway, do you accept my blessing, and that of Mercury? Do you consent to be our representative in the world" Feeling the situation demanded formality; Perseus took a knee and bowed his head.
"I do milord." Hermes nodded, also caught up in the import of the moment.
"Then I and my counterpart do bestow our blessings upon you and name you our champion." A bright golden light burned through Perseus' body, causing pain to wrack through his body for less than a second. When he stood, it appeared there had been no cosmetic changes caused by the blessing, but if you knew him well enough, you could see the slight differences from before, his smile being slightly crooked, in a mischievous way, and a new light-hearted twinkle in his eyes.
"Thank you Lord Hermes, and Lord Mercury. Khaîre." Perseus moved across the room to walk back into the open street before he turned back with a sheepish look on his face, "Hermes, would you mind telling Apollo that I apologize for losing my temper earlier, I really don't know why I couldn't handle that calmer." Hermes gave a quick grin,
"I'm sure he'll understand, he was hitting on your girl." Blood immediately rushed to Perseus's cheeks, and he was about to start yelling at the hysterically laughing god when Hermes disappeared, leaving behind nothing but the echo of his laugh. Sighing heavily, Perseus turned and stepped out the door of a building that disappeared the moment he left.
The forge was not difficult to find, as the noise and smell got progressively louder and stronger. As was typical of the smiths at the time, the larger man wore a simple leather apron, leaving his arms bare and free to move. The walls of the smithy were lined with different weapons, swords, daggers, axes, and stacks of arrows. When Perseus walked into the heated chamber, the smith had just removed a glowing axe blade from the anvil, and was about to drop it into a barrel of water. The moment he lowered the blade in, clouds of hissing white steam arose from the vat. Glancing up, the smith gave Perseus a quick once over,
"There'll be nothing up to your standard of gear ere sir, you'll need a much larger town for a proper fancy weapon." Perseus grinned at the man,
"I've found small town smiths tend to make much more practical and hardy equipment than guilders in Paris." The smithy looked at him, as though judging the honesty of his statement. Seeming to find no falsehood, the man nodded slightly.
"What can I do for you then sir?"
"I need a hunting knife set, two Saxe knives would be preferable." Nodding the man stood up, leaving the axe-blade in the water. He walked quickly over to the workbench, clearing some paper and leather out of the way. He picked up a few different knives, but obviously unsatisfied, he put them all back down. Standing straight for a moment, he turned to Perseus.
"I have a set of higher class weapons that I could go through, but they're going to cost you extra, many of them being some my best work." Perseus nodded amicably,
"If they're going to be keeping me alive then I really don't mind how much I have to pay." Pleased with the answer, the smith bent down to haul a moderately large chest out from under the bench. The different items clanged loudly into each other as he rummaged trough the case, before pulling out two knives, both with scabbards. He quickly walked over to where Perseus had been standing, unwilling to intrude into the man's workspace. The smith quickly handed them to Perseus, and it was easy to see they were designed to be used as a set. They were not matching, as one was a Saxe knife, thick and long as his forearm, and with only one edge. There was not an obvious cross-guard, but the hilt thickened above where one held it. The other was clearly a heftier weapon, only slightly shorter than a short sword. The blade was thick and double-edged, and it had a cross-guard slightly wider than Perseus' fist. They were, however, definitely a pair, as both had a thick leather-bound hilt, gripped with thin wire, and a pommel stone that was engraved with the same images, a great hind, bounding through a forest. Perseus quickly tested the weight and balance of both, swinging and stopping them quickly. He quickly flipped one of them, catching it by the blade before flipping it back to its hilt. Nodding in satisfaction, Perseus glanced at the smith.
"How much will these cost me?" The man looked at the knives and Perseus, calculating an appropriate price.
"Eight Franks is fair I think." Perseus nodded, it was a reasonable price, generous in fact. Digging into the pouch at his side he quickly counted out nine.
"That ought to be enough. Thank you for the weapons and your time." Perseus called before walking back out into the street.
"Hey Sir, did you bring apples? The pretty lady doesn't have any apples, so I though you might." Perseus laughed as the over excited horse ran over to him, almost knocking him over with his nose.
"No Kaydin, I didn't bring any apples." Noticing the still hopeful look in the horses' eyes, Perseus relented, "Ok, I might, MIGHT, have brought some apples, but only if you stop calling me sir." Kaydin immediately began to nod his head happily,
"You're the best, Lord." Perseus groaned frustrated. Was there some huge joke among horses that they all had to give him authority names? Cuffing Kaydin gently on his neck, he then moved over to Annabeth, who was busy stroking Roheryns' back, but was looking over at him.
"So do you like her?" Perseus called out. Both Annabeth and Roheryn immediately began to not their heads vigorously.
"Yes she's absolutely amazing, It's beautiful to ride on her." Annabeth replied, almost at the same time as Roheryn whinnied out.
"She is a very kind rider, doesn't saw at the reins or dig her heels in to hard." Despite having had to listen to both responses at the same time, Perseus managed to understand both. He chuckled slightly at Annabeths' questioning face.
"She says you're a good rider, that you don't saw at the reins or dig your heels in." Annabeth nodded, a smile forming on her face as she began to stroke the horse again. Kaydin came over to Perseus again, nudging at his hand. Realising he wouldn't be able to stop the hungry horse, Perseus laughed, reaching into his pouch to pull out a few chunks of bribery powder.
"Here you go Kaydin. Honestly, you're as bad a Blackjack, and he's a Pegasus." Kaydin whinnied, and Perseus was sure he was simply trying to hide a laugh
"Ah get gone with you, you'll get fat if you eat to many." Kaydin did a slight shrug with his entire fore body.
"Anyway," Perseus said, walking over to Annabeth, "I stopped off at the tailors on my way back and look what I picked up." With that, Perseus flamboyantly pulled a strange set of leather clothing. Playing along, Annabeth brought her hands up to her face, before gasping in a vapid and overly high voice,
"Oh Perseus," she giggled, "You shouldn't have." Taking the clothes from Perseus, she looked at them curiously, "They're different to anything I've seen before." She said, running a hand along a seam.
"Try them on, and I'll explain the reason for all the differences." Glancing round, Perseus noticed two small flaws in that plan. One- they had nowhere for her to get changed, and Two- they had nowhere for her to get changed. Now Perseus realised that they were technically only one flaw, however he felt it was such a big flaw it deserved to be pointed out twice. In order for the horses to get a proper run around, Annabeth had taken them to a large field that wasn't being used. It was large and spacious, and in any other situation it would have been perfectly beautiful, however there was a distinct and unfortunate lack of trees. Sighing, Perseus realised he would have to set up the tent in order for her to gain some privacy.
It only took a few minutes for the tent to be put up, however Perseus was still waiting, quite a while later, for Annabeth to come out. Eventually, Annabeth crawled out of the small tent, hauling herself to her feet slowly. "That tent," she said pointing her finger accusatorily, "Is the absolute worst place to get changed. You can barely move in there!" Perseus frowned, looking at the tent. It was a bit small, he supposed, and it could be difficult getting changed in there if you weren't used to it. Shrugging slightly he turned back to face Annabeth, who had spent the moment straitening out a few kinks in the tunic. Annabeth sighed again, (she seemed to do that a lot).
"Now, you promised to explain all… this." She said, gesturing at her entire attire, except the shoes.
"Ok," Perseus began, "Starting from the top. These," at this point he gestured to the thick pads of leather that protruded slightly over the edge of her shoulders, and ran inwards to the base of her neck, "Are designed to add some more protection to the shoulder area, which is fairly obvious. The belt across your front is for your shorter; throwing knife like weapons, and the loops on the back will be where your shield clips in. The belt around your waist is designed to hold any longer weapons you might gain, which is why it is reasonably thick. Everything else is simply for protection and usability." Looking at her, the clothes seemed a bit dull, as they were all leather brown, however there were intricacies and unusual features that made it interesting. The upper half consisted of a long tunic that went down to mid thigh, and with full arm length sleeves. The shoulders had a second layer of leather fastened on above them. A thinner belt with leather loops along it ran down her front, and a thicker belt ran around her waist. Her lower half was covered in functional leather trousers, which met and ran into her boots.
"Now," Perseus said, "For the second part of your present today." He quickly dug into his pouch again and drew out a wrapped bundle. Presenting it to her, he murmured, "Happy Birthday Annabeth. While they had been running, they had had a lot of time to talk, and as they were discussing their starkly different childhoods, Annabeth had happened to mention that it had been her birthday the day he had fought Python. This then led, of course, to them discussing their ages, and both were surprised to find out they were the same age. In fact, Annabeth had been born slightly earlier in the same year. Annabeth had, to say the least, bee shocked to find out he was only twenty one, and had remarked that he carried himself with the dignity and import of someone far older.
As she opened the wrapping, she gasped in surprise. Staring up at her were the two daggers that Perseus always carried with him. The two were almost identical, both the length of his forearm, they were single edged hunting knives. The blade had a straight back, a darker, softer metal to allow for flexibility in the blade, while the edge was a harder, brighter steel. The shape of the blade was curious, as it started off wide at the cross-guard, before curving inwards in an arc to bend back outwards, before coming to a point. The cross-guard seemed a part of the blade, the back of the metal curving to sweep underneath the entire blade and form a slit curve. The pommel was smooth, wire wrapped wood. Looking up at Perseus, Annabeth could barely express her gratitude.
"Th… thank-you, I mean, what… what are you going to use?" She managed to choke out. Perseus simply grinned; pulling out the knives he had just bought that day.
"I'll make do with these until I get the chance to use a forge properly, they're fine weapons but a bit awkward for my taste." Annabeth nodded,
"But, why wouldn't you just give me those? Why give me your own knives? You told me you were given these as a reward for reaching Commander in the army."
Perseus shrugged awkwardly,
"You're going to be joining a group of knife wielding, arrow shooting man haters, I thought I should give you something that is going to last a long time, something to remind you that maybe not all men are pigs. Something to remember me by after I'm gone and your still hunting" He seemed sad, yet at the same time slightly hopeful. Annabeth smiled softly at him.
"I think it is unlikely I will need knives to remember you." Perseus looked up at that, giving her a slight grin.
"We should be going, Lady Artemis will have left Amiens by now, so we need to make that road before sun-up tomorrow if we are to have any chance of meeting her en-route. Annabeth nodded, but before Perseus could move away, she reached a hand to his shoulder, turning him back to her.
"Thank you." Perseus stared at her, before nodding with a small lopsided smile and turning back to his horse.
They took it in turns to sleep as they rode, Perseus tricking Annabeth into sleeping more than he, for he knew she would have tried to do it equally. He knew that he coped reasonably well with very little sleep, as it had been a regular part of his training, and he also knew that she had had no such training. Occasionally, Perseus would bring them to a stop, using his and the horses senses to check the area. The road had long ago lead them from the open fields around Signy-le-Petit, and into the dense forest that covered most of France. The loud hoot of an owl, immediately caused, Kaydin to prick his ears up lazily, though the horses head hung low. Perseus bent over, patting the side of Kaydins' neck, murmuring quietly. "I know bud, I know. I'm sorry to do this too you, but if you keep going then there's an entire barrel of apples waiting for you." Kaydin whinnied lightly,
"I'm not tired, lord, I could go for ages." Perseus smiled and shook his head, again marvelling at the tenacity of horses.
"Poseidon would be proud." Kaydin shook his head slightly,
"He bloody well better be, even Arion would have given up, going all night like this." Perseus patted the horses' head in agreement, before peering off into the moonlit dark.
"Kaydin, are you seeing this." Perseus could feel the horse beneath him stretch forward, trying to see clearer.
"If it is what I think it is, then by Olympus I'm even better than I think I am." Perseus grinned, at his new friends reply.
As they came closer, details, both large and small began to become obvious. The tree line clearly broke up ahead, and the path seemed to suddenly expand out rapidly in either direction. The dust road looked incredibly worn, meaning that it was suddenly turning into a common road to use, unlike the one they were on at the moment. All that added up to one thing. They had reached the intersection. Finally the group broke into the more open air of the highway, Perseus almost laughing in relief that the journey was over. As much as he was 'Practised' in the ways of long distance travel, in a race against time, it didn't make it any more comfortable or pleasant. He gently brought both Kaydin and Roheryn to a stop, before slowly hopping off and walking over to the sleeping form of Annabeth. Deciding that she deserved some sleep, he quickly lifted her off Roheryns back, before laying her down I the soft undergrowth at the side of the road. He then grabbed a blanket from his kit, laying it over the top of her.
Gathering wood quickly, he managed to get a small fire going, fatigue making the use of flint and steel more difficult. Using his usual method, Perseus quickly conjured up a fine mist. "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept this, my offering, and show me the Lady Artemis." Obviously the goddess was tired as well, as it seemed to take a long time for the image to form in the mist. When it did, Artemis was already staring at it, which surprised Perseus. Perhaps Iris had to get permission from Lady Artemis before creating an Iris message in the hunters' camp. Either way, Artemis was quick to act.
"What is it Perseus?" Perseus smiled slightly,
"We've reached the highway, and are about halfway in between, Amiens and Cambrai. We were wondering where you were." Artemis frowned, thinking.
"We got held up slightly leaving Amiens, however we should be at your position an hour after sunrise. I trust you will remain there?" Perseus nodded, and Artemis noticed the male was almost dead on his feet.
"We've had a hard nights ride in order to get here, so I doubt either of us will be able to move before you arrive." Artemis nodded, having heard the praise of other gods in relation to Perseus, and realising that for him to be this tiring, the journey must have been much more taxing than he was letting on.
"Take your rest, we will be with you shortly." Perseus nodded thankfully, before swiping through the Iris message, cutting it off.
Staggering to where Annabeth and the horses had collapsed, Perseus dropped himself into a sitting position, leaning back against a tree. Giving the area another quick once over, Perseus kept his eyes open for a few more seconds, before his head dropped and he slipped into an alert oblivion.
So yeah, bit of a filler chapter, but important for establishing the little things. Yeah, Perseus is Hermes/Mercury's champion, and the fact that he is champion of both is important. How he knows about both Romans and Greeks is also a kind of majorish part in the story. Also its a good idea to realise that Hermes' blessing doesn't really give perseus any powers as such, it just helps him in terms of Hermes' domains. This is something that I am going to keep going, as I don't think that the blessings should all give Perseus awesome powers, a sure fire way of creating a character that is way too over powered I feel. Yes like I said, Annabeth and Percy are the same age, 21.
Again, Reviews are appreciated as a writer, and if you review I can improve my writing. Thank you for reading, and I hope to update soon.