Hey everyone,

I'd like to announce that although some myths contradict with others, I may need to change the order in which historical myths took place to be able to fit the characters I want into the story.

Although the setting is ancient Greece, I will make the characters talk in English and informally, as if they were regular boys/men or girls/women in the modern world. It makes writing this a little bit easier, and the characters more relaxed than if they talked formally all the time.

I would like all of you avid readers to vote for the poll. That's right, there is a poll up on my profile page regarding this story. It is regarding pairings. I have figured out a couple of ways that Percy might be able to pair up with someone fairly soon through this story, even if getting to know them is a little short. It will be a quick process in terms of the chapters as I jump from the end of the Argonautica right into the Trojan War if you as the readers choose a girl that is available in the ancient times. If the modern girls are chosen, then it will be a different story. Either way, vote vote vote! Vote, vote, vote!

Just a note about copying and pasting author's notes...in the past, I have had readers who did not read the author's notes until later chapters. I just want to keep reminding. If you have already seen the author's notes, you can just skip them and go straight to reading the story. Thank you.

With best regards,
SharkAttack719

Chapter 8

Through the Euxine

Percy knew their trip would be dangerous. He didn't expect it to involve boxing matches, deaths, exiled men and metal birds.

As soon as the Argo passed through the Symplegades, Tiphys made a wrong turn. He knew the helmsman had caught a minor flu or something of that sort, but he didn't expect the man to lose his sense of direction. Ancaeus helped them get back onto track when they suddenly neared a small kingdom.

At the beach, Jason saw men with bows and flaming arrows pointing at the direction of the ship. He ordered immediately for the Argo to beach and see what the commotion was. There had been no mention of another pit stop on the other side of the Symplegades.

So, abiding by Jason's rules, the Argo was beached and everyone got off. The soldiers grunted and led them back to the city after taking their weapons away, where they expected to meet a king of some sort in the palace. Instead of going straight to the palace, the soldiers let them down a dirt road back to some sort of arena where the Argonauts saw a giant of a man beating up skinny-looking people. Percy made a sour face. Even as the king, he had no right to kill innocent people like that. He saw the mountain-man grab the skinny man's neck and the skinny man's head, then with a sickening crunch, they became a head and a headless body.

"I need someone to box," the man grunted. "Beating up lawbreakers isn't fun enough anymore."

"My king!" the lead soldier called. "We have many men here! You will be able to fight them all if you wish."

The king turned around to see the Argonauts approach, all of them looking at the man with wary eyes. Percy wondered if the man was sent from the Underworld to torture his own men for eternity. Then he wondered if this was how barbarians acted. It was a possibility that the kingdom was overrun by barbarians after the city had been sacked.

The king grinned. "Welcome strangers. I am king Amycus of the Bebryces, a mighty tribe of the east."

Percy couldn't resist. "You're king? More like some peasant who beats people weaker than him up to make himself feel better."

Amycus growled, and a soldier turned to Percy. The soldier smacked the hilt of his sword against Percy's head, knocking the twelve-year-old boy to the ground. Percy's head rang and vibrated like brass bells.

"Hey, don't hit him like that," Jason snarled.

"This is my land!" shouted the king. "He will get the punishment he deserves for insulting the mighty king of the Bebryces."

"Mighty king of the Bebryces, my proktos," the son of Aeson said with gritted teeth. "You don't know about anything, my king. Kill your own people like that. I bet that they only pissed you off, not lawbreakers."

"Insulting the king IS AGAINST THE LAW!" Amycus bellowed. "I should kill you as well, but I care little for you. You look as weak as that little twelve-year-old boy over there. You should go hide in shame you little nuisance. You would be doing the gods a favor. All I care for is the champion of you, the sea-wanderers. I demand that you fight me in a boxing match."

"You don't even know who we are," Jason growled.

"I DON'T CARE!" He walked up to the bold, young man and grabbed him by his collar. He closed his hands on Jason's neck, suffocating him. "You will shut up or I will grab you again and snap your neck. Or maybe I should do to you what I did to him." He pointed at the headless body.

As Jason was thrown to the ground, Percy was roughly picked up by Amycus' soldiers and pushed back into the crowd of Argonauts. Many were knocked over and they all glared at the soldier, who in turn ignored them. As Percy got up, he heard the Dioscuri (That's Castor and Polydeuces if you don't recognize the name.) muttering to one another.

"Let me challenge him, Castor," Polydeuces said.

Castor shook his head. "No, brother. You know very well what Amycus could do to you."

"This is not about my safety," the son of Zeus growled. "This is about the lack of respect Amycus gives us. He needs to be taught a lesson. I do not mean to bring this up, but I am the son of Zeus, while you are not. I am able to handle myself, Castor."

"And I am the son of a Spartan king," the other brother retorted. "The fiercest fighters in all of Greece, the Spartans are."

"After the Myrmidons," replied Polydeuces.

"Whatever, but what if you die, brother? What then?"

"Then you challenge him."

"You know as well as I do that that is a horrible idea. The Argonauts cannot lose two members just to teach someone a lesson, even if the man is horrible enough to deserve eternal punishment."

Polydeuces exhaled slowly. "I must do this. It is the only way we will be able to get off of this land."

Percy turned his attention back to Amycus. "Who is your champion? Who is the leader of your group?"

He saw Polydeuces emerge out of the crowd next to Jason, who was breathing heavily, trying to take in as much air as he could. "I am, king Amycus. I accept your challenge of a boxing match."

The king turned to Polydeuces and grinned. "My, my. Look who we have here. I really don't care, so let us get to the boxing match. Into the ring, my boy."

The stupid thing about Amycus' soldiers was that they abandoned their positions guarding the Argonauts and went to one side of the arena to watch the boxing match. They also left the Argonauts' weapons lying on the ground over five paces away from the nearest soldier. When Amycus led Polydeuces into the arena, and everyone was focused in on the match, Percy led Jason, Theseus and Atalanta to sneak around to grab the weapons back for the Argonauts. Since Percy was the smallest of the crew, he was the one picking up the weapons and dropping them another five paces towards the Argonauts.

It was a slow process, but Percy managed to complete it while watching the match.

Immediately after the boxing match started, Amycus came at Polydeuces with all of the strength he had...which was a lot considering the man was at least two heads taller than his opponent. The son of Zeus had to use his speed and quickness to avoid getting punched straight in the face. Agility was also necessary.

Atalanta tapped Percy's shoulder and whispered, "You and I are going to take cover. When Polydeuces wins, Amycus' soldiers will charge him. We have to let arrows fly to temporarily scare them. Then Jason and Theseus will lead the rest of the crew in to drive them back to the city."

"Wait, we're going to take cover?"

"No, I meant we are going to cover them."

Percy raised a mischievous eyebrow at Atalanta and smirked. "How do you know Polydeuces will win? Are you his soul mate?"

Her face went red, though out of embarrassment or anger was unclear to the son of Poseidon. "He needs to. I am not indicating anything else besides that he needs to win, otherwise we will not be able to escape without suffering some severe damages to the Argo."

"All right, all right." He put his hands up in surrender. "I respect your wishes, Lady Atalanta."

"Good, now stay sharp."

Then she left him alone to watch the boxing match.

Amycus was strong and had very hard punches. The only problem for him was that...that was all he had. He had no skill other than punching people's heads until they bled brain parts. Polydeuces, on the other hand, had a lot of skill. He would dash in and out, jabbing quick but hard punches to Amycus' face, which only made the king's anger grow.

Amycus snarled and raised both fists up. He stepped forward and smashed his hands down to crush Polydeuces. Unfortunately for him, the son of Zeus had simply dodged to the side and delivered hard blows to Amycus' left cheek.

Percy heard unnerving shuffling from Amycus' soldiers. He brought an arrow out and nocked it, but tried to make it so that they wouldn't notice him. When the shuffling seemed to cease, he turned his attention back to Amycus and Polydeuces.

Amycus managed to land a blow on Polydeuces, knocking the latter to the ground. The king's soldiers cheered as Amycus went up to deliver the final blow. Luckily, the son of Zeus regained his wits and rolled to the side, just as Amycus tried stepping on him.

Polydeuces growled. "You call that boxing? When one goes down in boxing, the other waits for the first to get up. You disregard the rules completely."

"My land, my rules," replied the cocky king.

"So be it," Polydeuces sneered. Then he stepped forward and delivered a huge blow to Amycus' gut.

The king doubled over clutching his stomach. Polydeuces took that to his advantage. He drove an uppercut into Amycus' face, making Amycus recoil up, clutching his face. Not being able to see, he did not sense Polydeuces' fist until it made contact with his cheek, sending a tooth flying out of the mountain-man's mouth. As Percy watched Polydeuces, he swore that the son of Zeus glowed golden, his eyes seemingly crackling with electricity.

Punch after punch after punch, the king Amycus still stood, but everyone could tell that this was the end. Polydeuces was beginning to power up now, his body ever so golden and eyes so blue. He ended up hitting Amycus' temple, sending the king stumbling before a devastating and fatal uppercut was delivered, the crack of Amycus' neck heard even from where Percy was.

Stunned silence filled the arena for two seconds before Amycus' soldiers bellowed with rage. "You killed our king!" one screamed, before they all pulled out their swords and spears, and then charged at Polydeuces.

Before they could advance five paces, three men were downed by arrows, one courtesy of Percy and two courtesy of Atalanta. The arrows kept flying as the Argonauts charged at the Bebrycian soldiers. The sudden attack threw the Bebrycians into confusion and before they knew what was happening, the Argonauts slaughtered them all.

"Back to the Argo!" Jason commanded. Theseus took the lead, like usual, leading most back to the ship. Percy, Atalanta and Jason stayed behind to help Castor and Polydeuces.

"You did good back there," Jason told Polydeuces. "At the end you were literally glowing golden."

"Help from Athena," the son of Zeus panted. "She's the shrewd companion of heroes. Said she gave me a little help, and so did my father."

"That's great," his twin brother said. "But we need to get back to the ship. You in good shape to run? Or I can carry you on my back."

"I can run, just like training, Castor." Both of the twins grinned, which made Percy feel a little better that they could remember better times in a situation like this.

Immediately, once reaching the Argo, everyone, including Atalanta and Percy, helped get the ship out of Bithynia as fast as they could, advancing on with the Quest for the Golden Fleece. Rowing with some sort of renewed effort, the Argonauts were out at sea again for another day before taking a rest in nearby lands called Mariandyne.

Death was inevitable in a quest like this. The Argonauts were bound to be attacked by monsters one day. Today was that day.

It started out regularly, Percy training with his hunting and water powers. They had set up camp alongside a small creek that Percy practiced with. He stopped the stream from flowing, making the water evaporate into water vapour and then he made the creek overflow by stopping it at a certain spot. He realized he was endangering the lives of the fish who lived in the creek, but he thought it cool to be able to control the creek.

Then he went to the Euxine Sea to practice more of his water powers.

He stepped into the ocean, which made his body surge with power. He morphed a blob of water into a sword and made the water solidify. He knew that it would be hard to maintain the solid-like state on land, so he wanted to do it in the water where the power of the ocean would help fuel his body's strength.

From point on, he just practiced sword fighting, whirling around like a maniac or even a demon to attack the air around him. Then Percy summoned his own miniature storm, a vortex of wind and water swirling around him. Like with all his powers, the cyclone fed off the water, seemingly drawing all of its power from the liquid.

Once he got the miniature storm going comfortably, he made a bold move. Percy stepped out of the water, keeping the storm going. He could feel the energy rush drain from him and the power needed to keep the storm going sapping even more energy from him. He wildly swung at the air around him, pretending that there were enemies that he was toppling.

When he felt his energy droop down into near unconsciousness (which happened quite quickly), into exhaustion, he collapsed on the ground making the storm around him disappear. Breathing heavily, he sat on the ground in silence, just staring out at the ocean.

At that very moment, Jason and Theseus emerged out of the forest looking as pale as ever.

"Close all tents but the lunch tent," Jason ordered. "We need to get packing, quickly."

Theseus immediately rushed to the nearest tent and began disassembling it. Most were confused as to why the two men were so panicked that they sat there staring at them for at least ten seconds before Jason shouted, "This is a matter of life or death. Let's go! Go!"

Everyone jumped up and began helping disassemble tents. There were a lot of them, but in the end, all of the tents would make it on board. The Argonauts had a quick snack for lunch before that tent was taken down as well. A man named Idmon was doing it.

As Percy helped him stuff the tent into its cover, he saw Ancaeus approach Jason. "Sir, Tiphys is not doing well. He would not even get up for the past few hours. I fear that he may be passing on."

Percy went wide-eyed. He had forgotten about Tiphys, who he thought would recover from that "minor flu." Apparently, it had gotten worse and was threatening to take his life away from him.

The trees behind them began rustling, and the ground began rumbling, as if a giant were coming to charge at them.

Theseus gave Jason a worried look.

The son of Aeson nodded and turned to Ancaeus. "We have a larger problem to deal with. In terms of steering the ship, I am sure you will be able to handle the job on your own. You will just need a small helping hand. I am sure Percy will be willing to help."

Percy was ready to protest and say that he wanted to practice his water powers rather than help navigate the Argo, but the rumbling grew loud and the trees rustled and cracked. Fearful eyes turned to the forest before Atalanta shouted from the boat, "Watch out!"

Jason, Theseus and Ancaeus turned to run, but Idmon was too slow to react and Percy was petrified. Out of the forest emerged a giant boar that charged at the two slow-pokes. Percy dove to the side as Idmon, who was carrying the tent was sent flying. The son of Poseidon scrambled away as the boar reared like a horse and squealed. It turned its eyes to Percy and charged.

Then son of Poseidon just managed to avoid being turned into a dead carcass. As the boar tried stopping, an arrow sprouted from its butt. Percy looked up at the boat and saw Atalanta shooting at the boar.

"Hurry!" she urged. "Get to the boat!"

Percy got up and scrambled towards the boat. He climbed up the hull and leaped over the gunwales. He grabbed his bow and took aim at the boar. He let some arrows fly and nailed the beast in its eye. He grinned at Atalanta. "My aim is getting better and better every day."

"Yes it is," she smiled. "I'm proud of you."

They were still smiling until a worried shout came from Jason and Theseus, who were helping tend to Idmon's body that had been thrown aside. "He's dying! We can't leave. We must give him a burial! Try killing the boar."

"No," shouted Atlanta. "Get on the boat. We cannot kill this as easily as you would think. We will give them a proper burial up ahead. If he dies on the Argo, he has to be buried at the next stop, the nearest land."

Jason grimaced when he looked down at Idmon, who looked to be breathing. Then he picked the man up and told Theseus to grab the tent. They ran for the Argo. Some of the crew helped them load the cargo on and to quickly burst away, Percy controlled the waves so that it would suck them back into the water. The Argonauts turned the Argo around before Percy summoned a large wave that sent the ship speeding across the waters. The son of Poseidon, now extremely exhausted, flopped to the deck like a fish.

"Percy! Are you okay?" Atalanta asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just used too much energy."

Percy sat up and crawled slowly over to Idmon, who was whispering something that was inaudible to him. As he crawled closer, he realized Idmon was saying, "I saw my death, but I joined the quest anyways. I'm sorry, Jason."

"You were a seer," Jason gasped. "You could...you knew..."

Idmon slowly nodded. "Tiphys. Where is he? He...he..."

Then the second seer they ever knew stopped moving, the wounds he'd sustained internal. Jason closed the man's eyes before someone rushed to the top deck. He had a panicked look on his face. Percy recognized him as Peleus.

"Tiphys," the son of Aeacus said, catching his breath. "He...he's stopped breathing. He's dead."

Death had taken its toll on the Argonauts, most feeling wary of what was to come ahead when dealing with obtaining the Golden Fleece. Most figured that it would be a huge challenge and something that would be near impossible. Jason thought somewhat of the opposite. He thought positively, that the quest would be a success. He was willing to sacrifice for the sake of the quest and tried raising the spirits of the other Argonauts.

They had stopped just down the beach and buried Tiphys and Idmon, giving them elaborate ceremonies. Everyone gave them some sort of prayer in the afterlife, hoping Hades would judge them fairly. Most heroes would enter Elysium, they knew.

The departure from Mariandyne was long, a lot of men even more tired than they already were. Percy himself was feeling worn out, the feeling of knowing more things and becoming more mature starting to become natural. He knew that even though he was only two years older, he wasn't as "fun" as he was when he was younger. At the time, he'd wondered why Jason had changed so much. Now he knew why.

"The more you know in life, the tougher it becomes living it," he told Atalanta. "Especially when you're so young and you learn of things that you shouldn't know."

"In this world, yes," the daughter of Iasus agreed. "I am not certain if there is another world of some sort, but if there was, I wonder if it differs from us."

"Differs how?"

Atalanta exhaled and looked down. "I have come to think of a lot of things since we left on this quest. That was a year and a half ago. Meleager, my thoughts of him may be disappearing, though I can still remember his face and name. I no longer have that necklace. I lost it. In a way, I would like to start my life anew, a life without danger. A life where it is easier to keep yourself warm and fed. Like a machine of some sort that helps with cooking and things like that."

"A machine?"

"Yes, something like the fabled Talos, a machine like that except helpful," she said.

Percy knew the legends of Talos, a giant man made of bronze. He was to guard Europa of Crete, circling around the island three times a day. He never wanted to approach Crete as he assumed that the giant machine would crush him like a bug.

"Wouldn't that be great," Percy sighed.

"Yes, it would."

As they sailed on for the rest of the day, Percy became a lookout of some sorts, watching where the boat was heading and shouting positions to Ancaeus, who was busy trying to navigate using the map. It was a little rougher now that Tiphys was gone and couldn't help with direction finding, but Percy knew where they were on the water...roughly...and was able to tell if they were on course or not. He'd always had that power but it seemed more...noticeable now.

Just as nightfall came, half the Argonauts went to bed. The other half stayed and slowly rowed, allowing the wind to do most of the work. The Argo moved slowly, seemingly at a crawling pace, but it would be good enough for now. Percy knew that if they went too fast with such a small crew above deck, it would prove disastrous should they run into trouble.

Percy, who was tired like half of the Argonauts decided to sleep, resting up for the night. He had more dreams, this time about a beautiful island full of white marble buildings and with that enchanted feeling, then about a swirling whirlpool in the water next to giant cliffs, to finally about Zoë, the mysterious Hesperide that Heracles had said he wanted to marry.

He awoke groggily, walking up to the upper deck. He was ready and expecting another dull day full of stupid dangers, but he ended up seeing something he didn't expect. Well, something he maybe should have expected because of all of the crazy things that had happened. Either way, he saw four young men walking with weapons sheathed and bags slung over their backs.

Apparently, so did most of the Argonauts. They called for Jason who ordered them to land at shore to greet the strangers. Jason said he sensed that they were not bad men. Percy had doubts, but they were quickly turned around when he met them.

"Hello, sirs!" Jason called. He leaped off of the Argo. "Might I ask, what are you four doing walking in the middle of nowhere?"

The oldest looking one seemed to push his younger companions back, as if backing away from danger. "Who are you and what do you want with us?"

Jason, surprised at the sudden hostility, stuttered. "Um...well, I am, uh, Jason. I am the leader of the Argonauts. We are headed to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece as a deed for me to gain my throne back from my uncle, who stole it."

"Colchis?" the man suddenly perked up. "I—Do you have food? And medical supplies?"

"Yes, we do," the son of Aeson nodded.

The man looked back at his younger companions, who looked eager to come along. He turned back to Jason and stuck his hand out. "My name is Argos and these are my brothers. We are the sons of the exiled Greek hero Phrixus. We were caught in a shipwreck earlier and washed up ashore. We managed to steal weapons from the Amazons and a few supplies. We have been trying to survive ever since. It has not been going so well."

"Do not worry," Jason assured. "On the Argo, you have nothing to worry about. We will take you in as if you were with us the entire trip. It will all be fine, though there are some risks."

"What are they?"

"I assume you wish to escape Colchis because of the exile of your father, which is sad to hear, knowing that the man was a great hero," Jason said. "In escaping Colchis, there are risks that we may not be able to reach Greece as quickly as you might hope. Are you willing to come with us past Colchis?"

"We want nothing but to get to Greece," Argos said. "We must redeem our father and find out about our step-grandmother, Ino."

"That is great," Jason smiled. "Welcome to the Argo."

Argos looked at the bireme and whistled. "That is a mighty fine vessel there. I have never seen anything that looks so fearsome. This might just be—"

A loud, metallic screech was heard, cutting him off. Percy looked around wildly, watching to see what had made the noise. Then he saw something that chilled his blood. Birds with glowing red eyes were glaring straight at the Argo, as if ready to attack it. They were hidden in the trees, Percy not being able to notice them before. Normally, someone would just pass them off as regular birds, but Percy being able to see the glowing red eyes immediately knew these were monsters.

"Stymphalian birds!" a voice shouted.

Seemingly as a group, the birds launched out of the trees, rising straight up before curving in an arc downwards, like an arrow of some sort.

"Get armor!" Atalanta shouted, just as the birds dive-bombed the Argo, pecking at its occupants. The men on board screamed as the metal birds pecked at their flesh. Percy had one cut his arm, a gash that went from his elbow to halfway up to his shoulder. He bit back a cry of agony, but the birds kept on coming so quickly that he eventually had multiple flesh wounds.

In a scrambled panic, he ran downstairs to the armor room, listening to Atalanta's advice. He grabbed a bunch of armor and threw them right outside the door to the armor room. He went back inside to grab a couple of shields to help protect the Argonauts when something glimmered in front of him.

As the glimmering grew brighter, he shielded his eyes to protect himself from the bright light. After a flash of gold, he brought his arm down from protecting his eyes, and his jaw dropped. In front of him was Athena herself, appearing in what he thought was to help the Argonauts.

"You may be a son of Poseidon, but I am the companion to heroes," the goddess spoke, her voice powerful and strong. "To scare off the birds, you must do to them what Heracles did months ago. Make a lot of noise." A sword and the shield Aegis appeared in her hands. Percy cowered away from the shield, but saw that the goddess was pounding them together, making a clanging noise. "Make noise."

Then the goddess disappeared.

Wild-eyed, he picked up a sword and a shield and hit them together. Like Athena had done, he created this loud clanging noise. Then, he slowly got into a rhythm, pounding the sword and shield together. Once he found his stride, he made his way above deck, stilling pounding the sword and shield together.

All of the Stymphalian birds around him started squawking like crazy, as if they were annoyed by the sound. Around Percy was some sort of sphere of protection, the Stymphalian birds flocking away from him to attack others. When the Argonauts realized what he was doing, they went downstairs to do the same thing.

Eventually, everyone on the Argo began doing it, scaring the Stymphalian birds away. Percy had the lead and did not stop pounding his shield until they could not see any of the metal birds anymore.

"They're gone!" Percy declared.

A cheer came up from the Argonauts, whose cries echoed in the sky before it slowly settled into calmness.

As Argos and his younger brothers were herded onto the ship, many were healed with medical supplies. Percy and the other demigods on the ship simply drank nectar and ate ambrosia to help cure their injuries.

Later that night, while he was staring out at the water, something light fell on his head. He heard it clatter to the deck, where it sat still. In the dark, he could not see the item very well, but when he pulled it out of the shadows of the gunwale, the light of Selene helped him see what had fallen.

It was a hair clip, with a note tied to it, a scroll of papyrus paper.

Percy smiled, opened it and read it:

Dear Perseus,

Hello, Percy. I see that you now have this sword, Anaklusmos. I believe it holds the power of Pleione, the mother of the Hesperides. Do not think I do not know of Heracles' failure, but the son of Zeus giving you this is a treat you should savor. Most sons of Zeus are not that generous, though the first Perseus was all right. I have elicited the help of Ares and Hephaestus to help you turn this sword into a molded sword that contains both mortal bronze and celestial bronze. As a favor to me for this deed, do not die. It is all I ask for, Percy. Use it wisely, something Athena should help you with as you go on quests.

Hello, little runt. Apparently Old Barnacle Beard wants my help in getting this sword molded with bronze and celestial bronze. It is not my kind of thing to do metal casting, more of the job of the god of the forges. Don't get me wrong, I'm dating his wife, but Hephaestus is not so bad for a loser. I enchanted the sword so that it holds all of the power from the Hesperide, plus it can channel all of your powers, like storms and earthquakes. Trust me, though, you don't want to try to make earthquakes yet. You'll probably kill yourself trying to do it. I hear you are an excellent sword fighter. Maybe one day we will see how good you really are. Later, runt.

I do not usually talk to living organisms, so I will keep this brief. I molded your sword with mortal bronze so you can kill mortals. Have fun, I guess.

From,

Poseidon, Ares and Hephaestus.

Although the different paragraphs did not indicate who wrote that part, it was fairly easy to determine who had written it. The first paragraph was my father, the second the war god, and the third was Hephaestus.

He smiled and grabbed the hair clip in a fist, watching as the clip turned into a bronze sword. It did not look much different, but the aura of the weapon was now different. The aura was much darker, two opposing metals fused together. But Percy knew he would need it. He had a feeling that he would be dealing with mortals sooner or later.

"Colchis ahead!" someone shouted.

Percy looked up just as the sun began rising, a palace glimmering in the distance, up a river. He knew that this was the furthest east they would get, the chance that they would get to retrieve the Golden Fleece. This marked the halfway point of the quest, a year and a half.

And Percy was ready for anything that they threw his way.

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

I apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.

Later on, I might actually decide that Percy may have a pairing in this story, so I have started one up about pairings. I will choose what I want, but I would like your opinions on it.

With best regards,
SharkAttack719