Chapter 2

A Choice

The boy started to wake up after a while from the best sleep he had in days and began to look around. He was startled at first when he woke up in the middle of the woods but then remembered what happened last night and started to look for the man who he found sitting at the fire poking at it with a stick with his back to the boy. The boy was about to sneak away but was stopped when he heard the man say

"So you're finally awake huh?" The boy froze at this and turned to face the man who was staring back at him. After a moment of awkward silence of just staring at each other the man said

"So, my name is Jason, Jason Nakao. What's your name?" The boy continued to stare for a bit taking in the man's appearance noticing the "man" looked more like he was 16 rather than fully grown. He wore a black t-shirt and jeans with black running shoes and a grey hoodie (honestly enough black on him?) Next to him was a large grey and silver backpack. He had glasses and was clearly at least part Asian as you could see from his eyes, eyes that seemed clouded with various emotions like different storms fighting each other.

The boy was wearing worn down meaning a t-shirt and a pair of jeans both of which were slightly torn and he was covered in various scars. The most noticeable was the one that went over his right eye which gave the small boy a menacing look. You could tell he was starving and malnourished but was still alright for the most part and had very little fat on him.

Once he had a good enough look at the stranger and felt he wouldn't heard him the boy meekly squeaked

"My name is Percy. Are you the one who saved me from that thing last night?"

"Yeah, but I have to ask, what was a kid like you doing out at night alone, being chased by a hellhound of all things? Shouldn't you be at your home?" Jason asked only to be met by another moment of silence from Percy who finally answered

"I don't have a home anymore, my step-father killed my mom so I ran away a couple days ago." He said and then remembered something Jason just said,

"You called that thing a hellhound, what was it?" he asked but got no answer, he glanced at Jason and saw that he had tensed up in anger after he said his backstory.

Jason himself was furious that such a young and innocent boy had to go through so much at such a young age, more so that he still has a lot of tragedy in his future that he will have to face in time. He then realized that he hadn't answered Percy's question and quickly composed himself.

"A hellhound is a monster from the old Greek myths. Think of a bear fused with a dog. They come from the fields of punishment in the underworld and usually hate people… except if they're food." He said with a slight chuckle before he continued

"Percy you said you lived with your mom before she died, right?"

Percy nodded.

"And you never met your father right?"

Percy nodded again.

"Well I don't know how else to say this so I'm just going to be blunt here. You are a Demigod." He said with a sigh at the end. This confused Percy because he had no idea what that meant, something Jason saw and corrected.

"A demigod is the child of a mortal and a god, the Greek gods are still around and still having kids with mortals and from the looks of it you are one of them. A child of Poseidon judging by your hair and eyes." He paused and took a breath,

"The monsters from those times are still around too and usually attack the god's children when they find them, any questions so far?" He stopped to ask Percy, not wanting to lose him. Percy nodded

"If my dad's a god why didn't he help me when I was stuck with my step-father or when I was chased by the monsters?" Jason's mood visibly darkened as he sighed at this question, the one he was hoping to avoid for a while.

"I should've known you would ask that question, well I suppose you should know. There are apparently a set of ancient rules set in place that the gods must follow. Supposedly one of these rules is that the gods cannot interact with their children or interfere in mortal affairs. Basically they're children have to fend for themselves and usually end up dying. I've never seen the rules so I can't really argue them but I really think they are crap."

He finished, only then realizing that he had raised his voice and started to catch fire while he was ranting, scaring Percy a bit.

"Sorry about that I lost control for second there, point is that Poseidon wasn't allowed to help you, no matter how much he might have wanted to." He concluded, muttering the last part sarcastically, although Percy didn't notice.

"Anyway I need you to make a choice right now." Jason stated leaving Percy slightly confused as he also tried to take everything in.

"What choice?" Percy timidly asked.

"We need to figure out where you're going to go, now there are three options; 1) I can leave you at an orphanage or a foster home," Percy literally cringed at that thought, "ok so that's a no. 2) I can leave you at a camp nearby with other demigods where they will watch after you and train you to fight" Percy started to give that option some thought but kept listening for the third choice "or 3) you could stay with me and I could take care of you and train you to fight better than the camp could, not to gloat or anything but they aren't too good at their job."

Percy was surprised at his last offer. He hadn't expected Jason to offer to take care of him. He started to weigh his choices, he obviously didn't want to go to an orphanage.

The camp sounded nice but he wouldn't know anyone there and he wasn't exactly social, and from the way Jason made it sound he would have a better chance of living with the third choice. Jason seemed pretty nice and like he said could probably help him more than the camp could. And if anything he could run for the camp if things didn't work out. "I'll stay with you Jason."