Per cy/sephone Jackson and the lightning thief
I do not own the Percy Jackson series.
Until the battle with Mrs. Dodds the story is mostly from the book before beginning to change, but still follows the book.
The information about kitsune is from the internet, and a few things of my own creation for this story.
This chapter was typed on a computer, instead of a tablet.
Chapter 3: My mom(Sally) finds out, and Grover loses his pants
When we got off the bus, Grover made a beeline for the restroom, while I grabbed my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.
"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First." I told the driver.
A word about my human mother, before you meet her.
Her name is Sally Jackson, and she's the best mortal in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he die, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.
The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.
I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. Mom (Sally) doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.
See they weren't married, which with what I now suspect, makes sense. though I would need to talk to her to be sure. She said that he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic ocean on some important journey, and he never came back.
Lost at sea, my mom (Sally) tole me, Not dead, she said, Lost at sea, which probably indicates Poseidon as my dad, though I would have to ask to be sure.
She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got ma. Not even once, but I knew I wasn't an easy kid.
Finally she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it is the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. And that was when I was in my human form. My fox form couldn't stand to be near him. Though it was helpful in that when I wanted to be my fox form, I went out onto the streets pretending to be either a dog or a cat with a combination of size changing and the mist, which although I had to watch out for animal control, did allow me to find three girls in bad situations, and get the m to the hunt, after asking mom (Hestia) for directions. I wonder how they are doing. I do know that if it wouldn't mean leaving mom (Sally) then I'd spend all my time as a fox just to stay away from Smelly Gabe. The guy is horrid. If it wasn't for mom (Hestia) asking me not too, I would've killed him when she tried to visit in her nine year old form, when I was nine, and Gabe was drunk enough to mistake her for me, and made mom (Hestia) cry, before she could even enter the house. She left afterwards, and didn't even get to meet mom (Sally). Honestly it's because of people like him that if my human form was female, and it didn't mean leaving my mom (Sally) I'd ask to join the hunt.
I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom (Sally) would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.
Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar. "So, you're home."
"Where's my mom?"
"Working," He said. "You got any cash?"
That was it. No welcome back. Good to see you, how has your life been for the last six months...?
Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp. As if that made him handsome or something.
He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our 'Guy's Secret.' meaning, if I told my mom (Sally:), he would punch my lights out.
"I don't have any cash." I told him, thankful I bought lunch before getting on the bus, and made sure to keep only the exact change needed for the cab.
He raised a greasy eyebrow.
"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven back in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"
Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on Gabe." he said. "The kid just got here."
"Am I right?" Gabe repeated
Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.
"Sorry." I said turning my pockets inside out, showing they were empty. "I also got lunch, which took the rest of my money."
"Your report card came, brain boy!" He shouted after me as I went down the hall. "I wouldn't act so snooty if I were you!"
I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During School months, it was Gabe's 'study'. He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet leaving his muddy boots, on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.
Suddenly a chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something- was looking for me right now.
Then I heard my mom's (Sally) voice "Percy?"
My mother (Sally) can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.
"Oh Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"
Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: Chocolate, Licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of 'free samples.' The way she always did when I came home.
We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the Blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that, but was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?
I was really, really, glad to see her.
From the other room, Gabe yelled. "Hey, Sally - How about some bean dip, huh?"
I gritted my teeth.
My mom (Sally) is the nicest mortal lady in the world [mom (Hestia) is the nicest immortal lady in the world]. She could have been married to someone who truly cared about her, not to someone like Gabe.
For her sake I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about being expelled. I lasted almost the whole year this time. I made some new friends, did pretty well in Latin. I liked Yancy Academy, I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.
Until that trip to the museum...
"What?" my mom (Sally) asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets "Did something scare you?"
"No, mom." I replied. "I wasn't scared, just confused. I'll tell you later when I figure things out."
I was too. The fates may have shook me up, but due to my other form, I have two life threads tied together, and the fates only cut one, which the kitsune side knew was not mine, which I trusted as it is better at sensing things like that. So I was not scared, just a combination of confused over why they cut someone else's life thread in front of me, and shook up at actually seeing the fates. But I didn't want to tell her anywhere near smelly Gabe. I didn't want even a slight chance of him overhearing us.
She pursed her lips. She knew I wasn't telling her something, but she didn't push me.
"I have a surprise for you." She said. "We're going to the beach."
My eyes widened. "Montauk?"
"Three nights-same cabin."
"When?"
She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."
I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.
Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled. "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"
I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's (Sally) eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for al little while, and once she was ready we would be out of there.
"I was on my way honey." She told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."
Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"
"I knew it." I muttered. "He won't let us go."
"Of course he will." My mom (Sally) said "Your step father is just worried about money, that's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'l make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour Cream. The works."
Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip... it comes out of your clothes budget right?"
"Yes, honey." My mother (Sally) said.
"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back?"
"We'll be very careful."
Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."
Maybe if I change into my other form. I thought, and set your soft spot on fire.
But my mom's (Sally) eyes warned me not to make him mad.
"I'm sorry." I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."
Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.
"Yeah, whatever." He decided.
He went back to his game.
"thank you Percy." my mom (Sally) said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever has you confused. Okay?"
An hour later we were ready to leave.
Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's (Sally) bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more importantly, his '78 Camaro- for the whole weekend.
"Not a scratch on this car. brain boy." He warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."
Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find away to blame me.
Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building. I got so mad that I repeated something mom (Hestia) once showed me. A hand gesture that was a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. I didn't stay long enough to find out why it worked. I got in the car and asked my mom (Sally) to step on it
Our rental cabin was on the south shore, at the tip of Long Island. A little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There's always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.
I loved the place.
We'd been going since I was a baby. My mom (Sally) even longer, and I knew it was so special to her since it was where she'd met my dad.
As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry, and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.
We got there at sunset. opened all the windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jellybeans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom (Sally) had brought from work.
I guess I should explain the blue food.
See, Gabe had once told my mom (Sally) there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed really small at the time, But ever since. my mom(Sally) went out of her way to eat blue. She cooked blue birthday cakes, mixed blueberry smoothies, she bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano- was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.
When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom (Sally) told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.
Eventually I decided to have that talk with her.
"Mom?" I asked cautiously, which she must have sensed as she looked over at me in concern. "Is my dad Poseidon?"
In the light from the fire I saw her face pale. "How...How did you know?" she eventually asked.
"During the trip to the museum." I started looking into the fire. "I was attacked. It's not the first time, but it was the first time I was attacked when I was human. Afterwards I started paying attention to things around my human body, and discovered my connection to water, hence why I asked about Poseidon."
My mom looked at me confused. "What do you mean when you were human?"
I grimaced. "Please don't be mad, but when I was eight I went on a field trip with my school to a forest. While there I found an injured four tailed Kitsune called Kyu. She was dying, even though she would eventually reform she had one final regret. That she could not give a necklace of protection to a child she had been visiting. Since the necklace was enchanted so that only she and the girl could touch it. I asked if there was a way I could deliver it, and the only way she knew was to give me the ability to change forms from human male to an exact copy of her body, a female four tailed kitsune. After I agreed she gave me the ability, and directions. Afterwards, I turned to go back to the class when I met Hestia, Greek goddess of the Hearth. She was friends with Kyu and as thanks for what I did for her wanted to help me. Because Kitsunes, at least those not in Japan, are hunted by demigods, and the hunters of Artemis, due to being kitsune, as well as monsters due to the fact that kitsune not from Japn have the ability to reform like monsters, but have souls like humans. She gave me protection by adopting my other form as her first born demigod daughter. Which unconsciously at least protects me from other demigods, by marking me as safe. So as a human I am Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, thought I did not know that until just now. While as a fox I am Persephone Jackson, daughter of Hestia. Though I always consider myself your daughter as well." I finished staring into the fire.
"Can I see?" Mom (Sally) asked her voice shaking.
"Sure." I nodded as I changed.
Once I was done she said. "Your big."
"This is my full size." I replied before shrinking down to the size of a house cat. "But I can control my size from full size to the size of a black rover ant which is about one millimeter long. Are you mad at me?"
"No." She said picking me up, and placing me on her lap. "A bit disappointed you hid this from me, but not mad."
"Sorry." I replied. "I didn't want to scare you, or make you think I was replacing you, and because of Gabe's scent I thought my human form was mortal."
"At least that worked." Sally sighed, as she started petting me, which oddly felt nice. "But at least now I know I don't have to stay with him for your protection. Now tell me about this form.":
"Okay mom." I replied before telling her about my abilities and some things I've done in this form."
Afterwards she sighed, and said. "Since they are hunting your human form now, I guess you'll have to go to that summer camp Poseidon told me about then."
"Camp Half-blood." I replied. "You know I would never leave you forever, right mom? I'll always come back."
"Thanks." She said. "Well you should be safe for one night, so we'll go tomorrow morning so you can be well rested okay?"
"Okay. mom." I said.
"Now, time for bed." She said as she put me down.
I nodded and changed back and said. "Good night."
"Good night." She replied. "and remember, no matter what form you are, you will always be my child.
"thanks." I said.
That night I had a vivid dream.
It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse, and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horses muzzle with it's huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.
I ran torward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, ikt's beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes , and I screamed NO!
I woke with a start.
Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.
With the next thunderclap, my mom (Sally) woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said "Hurricane!"
I knew this had to be Poseidon and Zeus fighting, but since mom (Hestia) is too busy trying to calm them for me to Iris message her, and has been since the winter solstice meeting for some reason, I don't know what it is about. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hairs stand on end.
Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice, -someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.
My mothers (Sally) sprung out of bed in her nightgown, and threw open the lock.
Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain, but he had lost his pants, proving he was a satyr.
"Searching all night." He gasped. "What were you thinking?"
My mother loked at me in terror, scared what his arrival meant.
"Percy!" she said shouting to be heard over the rain. "We can't wait until morning anymore, we're leaving now."
I nodded as I finished getting dressed. "Got it."
She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said. "Get to the car. Both of you. GO!"
Me and Grover ran for the camaro, as mom (Sally) followed and we drove off.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. The pairing poll is now closed with Artemis winning. There is also another poll I have up for when the gods, (and campers) will find out about Percy's Kitsune form, either after the Minotaur battle, on the tour of camp, or on the quest. Please vote with your answer. It will last until the new years. Also like I mentioned last two chapters after every cannon book Persephone will have earned another tail meaning after the battle against Kronos she will automatically be a goddess. Since kitsune with nine tails are said to be able to manipulate time, she will be the goddess of Foxes and Time, as well as others which I need your help for. In your review please leave a list of domains and a number between four and ten, this will be the number of total domains Persephone will have, and the list will be used to pick the last domain titles as a poll. And I still need your reviews with this since so far only one person has replied for this, and I need to know what others think, However if no one else replies by the next chapter then I will go with what they sent.
My other story Ash's Secret will take longer to get out since it is a movie chapter, and I need to look up information on the plot, Mostly the minor information, but still it will take awhile.
Please read and review, Thank you.