I am very much tempted to hold the next chapter hostage unless you review.
It is, after all, the start of the last book. The story is coming to a close, my friends. But the series may not.
Enjoy.
It took me a while, but I got used to having one arm. Once I got past the point of the phantom pains, it was actually a lot easier to adapt to.
Of course, now I had to focus on getting back into fighting condition. Calypso, my hostess and the woman who saved me, was surprisingly helpful with this. She knew her way around a sword, and I wasn't the first one armed, half blind demigod to land on her cursed shore.
Speaking of my eye, it had become a very pale blue-green color, reminiscent of ice, yet with the color of the sea mixed in. It was glowing, too, and I couldn't exactly ask why; Chryos was still out of it after making sure I wasn't flat-out incinerated by the volcano I'd erupted.
Oh yeah. Part of Dad's powers, the ability to cause earthquakes and storms.
It'd been a while since I woke up, and I was almost certain that everyone at Camp thought I was dead.
The thought made me grimace. Claire and Ali were going to kill me.
After saying my goodbyes to Calypso, and thanking her for healing me, I left Ogygia with a heavier heart. I was no stranger to breaking the hearts of women, as I used to do it all the time. However, Calypso had absolutely nobody to turn to. I was the first mortal she'd seen in a millennia, for fuck's sake!
I'd left her a bag of drachmae to use to Iris Message her family and Mistress, but it still wore on my conscience that I was leaving.
Part of me reasoned that I was enchanted. That staying for however long I did on Ogygia had fucked with my brain. That part, coincidentally, was also the part at was absolutely terrified of what Claire and Ali would do to me when I got back.
So as I waved my healer goodbye, I swore to myself I'd get her out of her imprisonment. She could at least go to Artemis, if all else failed her. Her sister was there, and Artemis was her Mistress, so it stood to reason she'd be reasonably safe and happy with them.
I fell asleep on the raft after I directed it towards Long Island, not wanting the trip to drag on like it would if I were awake.
Dreams suck. That was my thought as I stood in front of a hazy door. It swung open when I moved my hand, and I stepped inside, my eyes darting everywhere, looking for a clue as to where I was.
As far as I knew, I was in a cave. There were paintings hung on the walls, and a red-head was sitting in the middle of the cave, humming as she painted another picture.
The painting was captivating. It was of a man with golden hair and eyes as gold as the sands of time locked in combat with another man, one with black hair and heterochromatic eyes. One eye was an icy blue-green, and the other was sea-green.
I paled as an eerie green mist rolled into the cave.
"A half-blood of the eldest gods shall reach sixteen against all odds, and see the world in endless sleep. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze," came the raspy voice I'd come to associate with the Oracle of Delphi. The red-head turned, and looked directly at me, and though I was well aware I wasn't actually THERE, I freaked out.
My mini panic attack ejected me from my dream as I rolled off the raft in reality, and splashed into the cool ocean.
Camp Half-blood was a welcome sight after I was sailing on the ocean for gods know how long.
Unfortunately, I was correct with my previous assumption. The Camp was holding me a funeral, from what I could see.
Silently I willed the water to rush me forward, and I left the raft on the water as I rode a wave into my pyre. The fire quenched immediately, and I squatted atop the smoldering sticks as I waited for the smoke to clear.
When it did, I spoke up.
"Rule number one of funerals. The deceased should be in attendance first," I said. A bolt of lightning slammed into my chest, sending me spiraling off the smoldering pyre and into a tree. A shield bashed into my skull, and I was, in laymen's terms, knocked the fuck out.
I woke up in the infirmary to see two sets of eyes glowering at me.
One pair was rust colored, and the other was electric blue.
"I don't suppose you'll let me explain, first," I asked, my own voice sounding pathetic to me.
Ali cracked her knuckles, and Claire's spear crackled to life.
So I explained as fast as I could without losing them.
For my troubles, I gained a fist to the nose and another in the jaw.
My head was spinning as Ali went onto a rant, and Claire vanished.
It was when she returned with Lady Artemis that my ears stopped ringing long enough to give me a fighting chance.
"You have ten seconds to start running, Perseus Jackson," she said. I felt my body shrink, and two bony protrusions came out of my head. I mentally swore, and hopped off as fast as only a demigod-turned-jackalope could.
It was a very long process, but I managed to get my girls to forgive me. Artemis wasn't mad at me anymore, but she was still giving me the silent treatment. Though, that had lessened when I informed her of my plan to get Zeus to free Calypso so she could join her.
I still wasn't allowed outside for another month.
Mom had panicked, and understandably so. I'd not exactly been in too much contact after Annabeth. I, did, however, manage to convince her it was best I didn't leave my demigod stench all over her new house. She'd published one of her books, and met an English teacher for Goode High, Paul Blowfish or something.
Dad had forgiven me, but he gave me a stern warning to not blow up any more volcanos. I, of course, swore to TRY to never do it again.
I learned that Ali and Claire had found Daedalus, only for him to tell them Luke had the string. While trying to get out, they ended up in Alcatraz, where the monster Kampê was holding some godly sword-smith in a cell. They freed him, and he was working with Dad and Tyson in Atlantis.
I'd also been replaced in my absence by a man that had no blood. I knew he had no blood, because I felt almost no water in his body whatsoever. His name was Quintus, a son of Athena, and he was a better swordsman than I was, if only by grace of experience. He was, after all, older than me.
Quintus and I often fought after classes, allowing my skill with my preferred weapons to grow massively. I was absolute shit with a bow, though. When I tried it, I'd somehow put an arrow in one of Chiron's tail curlers, despite aiming far away, and in the total opposite direction.
I blamed that the training arrows were bouncy, and unreliable for somebody with my skill at a bow.
Apollo cabin got a laugh out of it, and above us, the sun quivered, also laughing at me.
I walked away, sulking about my lack of skill with that one weapon.
(Time Skip, two months)
I jerked awake when I heard the horns blare in alarm. I leapt off the roof of my cabin, a sword of ice forming in my hand before I even hit the ground.
Those horns were only blown when an army was approaching camp.
Apollo Cabin, and anyone else who could use a bow accurately, were hidden behind a phalanx that consisted of Ares Cabin, me, Ali, Hephaestus Cabin, and Hermes Cabin, while Athena Cabin directed us to the weak points in the enemy formation. We would the break those weak points, and divide and conquer.
That was the plan, at least. No plan survives contact with the enemy, though.
The monster army was sizable. A few hundred of them, not even a thousand. Our own forces numbered somewhere around three hundred. However, we had the children of Ares, who were a force to be reckoned with when they got into the flow of the battle. We had two of four children of the Big Three. They had the quantitative advantage; we, however, had the quality.
The sound of bows being readied made my attention snap to the battlefield, and I raised my sword.
"FIRE," I yelled as I dropped it. A veritable hail of arrows cut down almost a hundred monsters at once. The dust they exploded into hid the charging phalanx from view, but the sound of several voices shouting a fearsome battle-cry was impossible to hide.
The second my feet stepped past the wards of the camp, an earthquake sent the monsters stumbling. My sword became a blur as I carved a path into the army, quickly making my way to the center.
I rolled to the side to avoid the massive axe of the Minotaur, and stabbed it in the gut. It exploded into dust, just as the Hydra spat a gout of fire at me. I forced a shield of ice into being, negating the heat. Steam rose from where fire met ice, and I was able to cut through even more monsters because of that.
The Hydra blew more fire at me, this time hitting a bright red Drakon, killing it. I led the Hydra through the battlefield, and would chop a head off when I could. The Hydra burned it's self trying to kill me, and the irony made me want to giggle.
But I was on the battlefield. Giggling could wait.
I cut a pair of Drachnae in two, and bifurcated another, before the war horns blared louder.
My blood ran cold as I saw the camp slowly being overrun by monsters. Chryos must have noticed, because he woke up, and I was pulled out of control.
Chryos became a whirlwind of death as he marched towards the camp. His very anger turned most monsters to ice, if they weren't killed as he cut them down. The camp borders fell, and he swore in Greek, before ten icy lances rose around him, and were shattered in mid air.
The sea of monsters became an ocean of monster dust, and Chryos smirked at his handiwork.
A poisoned scimitar melted the wall beside him, and he threw his sword at the offender.
The head in Kampê's waist was hit, and the monster screamed in rage and agony. Chryos pulled a Nemean Dagger from his thigh and rushed the monster.
Her attention waned, and He knew it.
As she turned her head to see another Demigod that attacked her, Chryos stabbed her in the head. She exploded into dust, and Chryos grinned.
He looked at the Labyrinth's entrance, and frowned.
Monsters were pouring from it, and even the new arrival of the girls in silver was useless.
Chryos felt a hand touch his arm, and turned to see Quintus, who seemed to have aged considerably.
"I am Daedalus. The Labyrinth is tied to my life force. Kill me, and save your camp," he said. Chronos scowled.
"Make your peace," he said after some silence.
Daedalus nodded, and Chryos gave him a few minutes, when the man nodded again.
The Nemean Dagger struck true, and the immortal son of Athena died a painless death. Beneath their feet, the ground began to shake as the Labyrinth was destroyed.
Chryos grinned and leapt back into the fray, helping the demigods finish off the remains of the monster army.
CUT!
Sorry for the low quality, I'm tired and literally am half asleep as I finish this.
r&r. It makes me happy.