To insert name here- welcome back! But there were only three chapters on Alvie's story when you were last on here? How long were you gone then? You can't spoil House of Hades for me as I've finished it a few days ago.
And hello to ThatFanWarrior- it's not bad you want to make a fanfiction out of my fanfiction- I'm honoured! Those ideas are great- THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'll see what I can do with them!
To Very Lazy- it says 'NO CHICKENS' because I was talking to someone on the PM thingy and they insisted I put have the four legacies and a chicken on the quest. I compromised by putting a chicken in the chapter instead of having the chicken go on the quest.
I think that was all the guest reviews… if I missed one, gimme a shout!
And I think somebody asked for a bunny instead of a chicken… Has anyone seen that Monty Python film where they came across an adorable albino rabbit and they're all 'oh, it's a rabbit. We'll be fine' and then the rabbit goes nuts and bloodthirsty and kills the majority of them? I can't remember which one that way…
ANYWAY-
Alvie studied the knife his mother had given him. It was an exact copy of her knife, but weighted differently so it balanced in his hand. He looked at it from all angles.
"What's the matter?" Crystal asked him. She wasn't in a good mood, unhappy with him going on this quest.
"Nothing. New knife." He mumbled, slipping it into the holster in his sleeve. He was going to have to get used to the extra weight on his arm. He looked at his brother and cousins. Alokia and Elsie were equipped with knives, swords and their bows and quivers, all disguised in their packs, in magic disguises such as watches or bracelets or hidden in their sleeves. Max's axes shrunk into thin, bronze sticks, rounded into points at the ends. These were concealed in his pockets and he had three in total. His watch turned into a shield and also had knives in his pack and a sword in his bedroll.
They were all set to go, with the basic demigod travelling kits of godly food and drink, spare clothes, drachma, money, etc. etc.
Alokia met Alvie's gaze and gave a nervous smile. Alvie had heard her and Elsie talking earlier, reciting the prophecies to each other and comparing notes. Alvie had blocked them out, noticing his hands were shaking. He hadn't had a 'psychic attack' since he had carved that picture into the wall- it had been covered up. He didn't want to trigger one.
"You'll be OK, won't you?" Crystal asked, straightening his cap. It was Max's old cap and he had given it to Alvie as a sorry gift, even though he had a lot of apologising to make. Alvie nodded. "You come back to me or I'll have to find you and kill you myself, OK?" Alvie blinked at her. "Not a word." She warned, hugging him. He returned the hug timidly.
"Hey, he'll be OK. He's got Elsie watching his back." Elsie frowned at Max. "It's a compliment. I can do those."
"Oh, really?" Elsie asked sarcastically. "I didn't know Max self-pompous Jackson could do anything as nice as compliments." Max glowered.
"OK, break it up." Percy called. He and Louisa were walking towards them, leading two pegasi each. "Right, you know the plan, I hope?"
"Seaweed Brain knows my plan?" Annabeth mocked a look of surprise.
"I'm not a total kelp head."
"Could've fooled me."
"Break it up." Alvie muttered. Percy and Annabeth blinked at him.
"Crystal, you've done something to my Alvie." Annabeth looked at Crystal. Crystal smiled sweetly. "What have you done to my Alvie?"
"Wait, why is he your Alvie?" Percy protested. "He's my Alvie."
"Stop playing favourites and focus." Max cut across. "I don't know the plan."
"It would help if you turned up on time." Elsie grumbled. Percy and Louisa cleared their throats pointedly in unison. Max and Elsie glared at each other.
"Alvie, are you sure it's a good idea to send these two?"
"Love and friendship be put to the test." Alvie recited. "Yep."
"This kid gets weirder every day." Louisa muttered. She whistled sharply and shortly, gesturing for her pegasi to move towards Elsie and Alokia. "Right, that's Speck and Fleck. Twin brothers 'n' they asked for you two specifically."
"Aw, are we that lovely?" Elsie smiled, patting Fleck's neck. They were about eleven hands high, one pure white with flecks of grey in his coat. Speck was jet black, a speck of white on his forehead.
Speck whickered as his brother pawed the ground.
"I ain't translatin' that." She supervised Elsie and Alokia securing their packs to the pegasi before they mounted. Max's Pegasus- a tan, twelve hands high mare called Feather- was growing restless, fighting against Percy, who was trying to calm her down. The other Pegasus was slightly smaller than her, a soft grey and named Smoke, stood calmly by Alvie, who was strapping his pack to the Pegasus with Crystal's help- well, a little help from her. She wanted a Pegasus for her next birthday.
Alvie glanced at his brother, who was watching Feather nervously. Alvie focused slightly and he could see a pale blue about his brother, indicating his nervousness and the slight upset and hurt he felt at the Pegasus freaking out. There was an underlying, angry red though that ebbed at the blue, slowly diminishing it.
Shaking his head, Alvie looked at Crystal. She was staring up at Smoke and Alvie could see a mellow yellow about her, her simple happiness at such a majestic creature.
He had been seeing colours about people a lot lately. He had meant to research it, but with all the books to read and preparing for the quest, he hadn't had any time. He didn't dare tell anybody in case they thought he was crazy. Well, crazier. Most of the time, he didn't see the colours right away- he had to focus to see them. But other times, if the emotions of a person were so strong, he would see the colours straight away. Shades of deep orange and red were angry. Dark green was jealous while light green was amused or happy. Any shade of yellow was happy, as far as he could figure out. Blues were often sad.
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Alvie managed to pull himself up onto Smoke's back, glancing down at Crystal. She looked in half a mind to sit behind him and come on this quest, but if Joy found out that Nico had let her out of his sight, she was sure to go on a killing spree- Nico at the top of her list.
Crystal sighed.
"You get to go on a really cool quest and I have to stay here and train." She sulked.
"I take it you haven't heard about Mom and Dad's quests then?"
"Bits and pieces. Why?"
"They'd probably put you off quests."
"For how long?" Alvie shrugged. "Quests can't be that bad. I mean, yeah, OK, there's that ever impending doom feeling, but you get cool demigod weapons and powers and then you get to kill monsters and- What?" She demanded. Alvie was staring at her bemusedly, as if he couldn't quite understand what she was saying. Or he did understand, but had no idea why she was saying that. "Don't give me that look." She ordered. Alvie's expression flickered and he tried for an easy smile, but he still looked nervous. Crystal laughed and briefly grasped his hand tightly. "I've got to go back to my ever exciting training now, but I'll talk to you later, considering you're not kicking monster butt."
"Woo! Did it!" They looked round and saw Percy and Louisa had calmed Feather. Max still looked nervous about the Pegasus, but at least she wasn't bucking and trying to bolt. Percy secured Max's pack to the Pegasus and Max carefully climbed onto the Pegasus's back. Alvie saw a deeper blue about him, noticing his tense shoulders, as if fearing Feather would tip him off.
Percy stood in front of the Pegasus, folding his arms. There was a sunshine yellow glow about him as he smiled. "Right, no tipping Max off at any point. He won't hurt you." Feather whinnied and shook her head. Max tensed. "Look, I'll give you apples for a week if you're good." Feather whickered happily and nuzzled Percy's chest. Percy laughed and petted the Pegasus. "Good girl." He looked at Max. "You can stop panicking now."
"I… wasn't panicking…" Max protested quietly. A spark of black tainted the blue and Alvie figured he was lying.
Rubbing at his eyes, Alvie turned back to Crystal.
"Are you OK?" She asked. "You keep staring at people and then you get that look."
"What look?"
"Like you're trying to figure something out." Crystal studied him for a few seconds. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Smoke skittered below him and unfurled his wings slightly.
"Smoke, no." Louisa demanded. "Crystal, ya might wanna back up a bit." Crystal stepped back. Louisa pointed to about ten feet away. "He's got bigger wings than that, girly."
"Can't I go?"
"No." Nico suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Joy will have my head if you went."
"But…" Crystal looked back at the pegasi. "I want one." Nico chuckled.
"Well, the stables are always looking for volunteers."
"Really?" Crystal smiled. "I like this place even more now."
"OK, you all know the plan, right Maximus?"
"Shut up, Dad."
"You go in a that way direction," Percy pointed northeast, "Until the pegasi get an idea as to where they're going."
"Wait, how do the pegasi know where to go?" Elsie asked.
"Um…" Percy glanced at his sister, who was talking to her Pegasus, who had randomly turned up- "Why ain't you in the stables, Storm?"
Percy shrugged, looking back at his niece. "Dad said they would, so it's easier to go with that." Elsie just nodded. Percy called for everyone gathered to move way back as the pegasi unfurled their wings.
They were in the sky in no time. Alvie was partially sure Crystal was shouting a farewell after him, but it was hard to be certain as the wind whistled and the beat of Smoke's wings pounded in his ears.
Alvie closed his eyes at the dizzying heights they reached. When he found out that they were travelling by pegasi, he had panicked slightly. He had kept his expression as neutral as possible as he didn't want to chicken out in front of the others, especially if this was his quest, but flying- heights… not his thing.
He heard Elsie cheer and their ascent slowed, Smoke's wings slowing into occasional flaps to keep them airborne. Alvie opened his eyes and saw that they were flying just below the cloud line, the pegasi smooth and gracefully flyers.
He refused to look down, looking straight ahead into the mass of swirling white clouds. He had no idea where they going, but it probably had something to do with that cavern he had seen in his sleep last night.
Before he realised what had happened, he slumped against Smoke's neck, asleep.
He was back in the cavern. The ragged walls shone haphazardly with the dancing Greek fire in the circular hearth in the centre of the cavern. The fire was the only source of light, extending about five metres in every direction. He stood in the mouth of a tunnel, the coldness behind him pulsing against his back. He sensed rather than saw four or five more tunnels breaking off from this cavern, all leading in different directions, all with different traps and tricks. Only one seemed relatively safe of these, but the air from it was thick and putrid, making Alvie's head spin.
The ceiling of the cavern was lost to the enormous swell of darkness, but Alvie sensed it was way up, too far away to see, even with enough light.
The air of this cavern was colder than that of the tunnel air pressing against his back. It smelt of something rank, almost… evil, if Alvie could describe something as smelling evil. There was that smell of human body odour, of wood and other items burning in the fire and then dampness and something that smelt like raw, bloody meat.
He couldn't see anybody, but there was that feeling of someone watching him. Looking around, Alvie couldn't see anybody, but he heard their sudden, booming laughter and then something slammed into his side.
And then he was falling.
Opening his eyes, Alvie saw the clouds zip past him, the wind roaring in his ears. Out of sheer panic, he didn't extend his arms to try and slow his descent, tumbling and turning as he fell.
A dark shape passed under him and he was back on Smoke's back. The Pegasus whickered apologetically. Alvie patted the creature's neck, breathing hard. The others clustered around him, shouting questions that he couldn't hear. He couldn't quell this panic and the fact that he was over fifteen hundred feet in the air didn't help.
Max shouted at him again and the ringing in Alvie's ears suddenly vanished, as if someone had thrown a switch. He looked at his brother.
"Are you OK?" Max called, flying as close as he could. Alvie nodded weakly. "Dammit, Smoke!" The accused Pegasus neighed mournfully, his ears lying flat against his head.
"N-no, d-d-don't blame… don't blame him…" Max looked at Alvie as if he was crazy. "I…" Alvie wanted to tell him about the cavern, but he couldn't figure out how. "I… fidget…" Alvie settled with. Max shot him a disbelievingly look, but there was a layer of relief that his brother hadn't fallen nearly two thousand feet to his death.
Alvie felt drowsiness wash over him again, realising his 'psychic side' wanted to share something. After the close call, he didn't really want to fall asleep again.
Stupidly, he looked down. The landscape below him was like one of those mats you got that had roads and buildings on and you could drive toy cars over, but loads bigger and so, so far down there…
Alvie bought his Kindle from his bag and started reading, attempting to keep himself awake and distracted from the heights. He kept a tight hold on the gadget- if he dropped this, Percy would have his head. It had taken Percy 'ages'- about a month- to save up and go out and get this for Alvie's birthday.
That'll do. I'm so sorry for not updating, but the last two nights… ugh, my brain felt ready to shoot itself; it was being so stupid…
Um... Percy Jackson or Harry Potter? And I gave some clues in this chapter that hopefully I'll remember to use- AthenaGirl823 and Irisa0816, you can't guess 'cos you helped with the prophecies and that's cheating :D