Looking up at the sky, he could only hope that campers would come soon and pick these two up before trouble found them.
He found them for a reason, after all.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Persia sprinted through the forest, her twin karambits drawn and held tightly as monsters emerged all around the hunt.
They were nearing Arizona now. Monster packs were growing larger and more frequent…and no one knew why.
Artemis was getting annoyed and concerned. Monster packs were rarely a good thing-10 monsters were enough to kill the average demigod with ease. She could defend herself, just as any other hunter, but most of the new campers would have died.
And there were over a hundred in this clearing…against 6 hunters.
Luckily, they had 1 goddess too.
Zoë, Atlanta and Naomi were busy shooting. Thalia had Aegis and her spear out, and was stabbing at monsters that charged towards the seven maidens. She joined the fray, entering the deadly dance besides thalia. Elsewhere, Artemis and Jacqueline were slaying monsters by the dozens, the demigod son-turned-daughter of Zeus slashed and stabbed, showing her fighting skills as she attacked the monsters like a maniac.
Thalia on the other hand jabbed and swiped mercilessly at the monster horde. Silver arrows sprouted from their limbs and cut right through their flimsy sets of armor as they screamed and began disintegration go to golden dust.
Monster corpses piled up all around the hunters, who used the disintegrating bodies as cover as they pushed forth. She felt the familiar rush of adrenaline as she charged in, dual knives flashing as her curved blades tore open the necks of monsters and clashed through their armor like it was paper. Around her, monsters screeched, howled and roared, wounds spouting golden sand as they fell, slowly disintegrating into golden dust.
"PERSIA!" Thalia yelled over the chaos, "SHOULD WE PULL BACK TO MILADY?"
"NO, NOT YET!" She yelled back, her blades crossing as she slashed the head of a dracaenae off it's neck. "WE'LL PULL IF THEY SWARM US! BACK IS SECURE, WE CAN HOLD!"
"GOTCHA!" Thalia replied, stabbing her spear clean through a hellhound's maw as she slammed Aegis into another's face. Persia debated on whether she should call all hellhounds to fight for her like she did last time, but she could only see a meager few. They'd get simply massacred if they did-better to just order them to flee.
That's exactly what she did.
"HELLHOUNDS!" She screamed, and Thalia looked at her in panic before realizing that every hellhound in the pack had reacted, "FLEE!"
Her cousin watched, slightly amazed, as every single hellhound turned and disappeared into the shadows.
The distraction was long enough for an Arrow to be sent straight at Thalia.
"THALIA!" She shrieked, sprinting towards her cousin at breakneck speed. Her cousin raised her shield, but it was far too ,ow to deflect the arrow. It would at most change it's trajectory…
Which would cause her to be shot through the head rather than her heart.
She knew she had a choice here.
She either acted as a human shield, or risked her cousin dying.
She knew what choice she should make.
Changing direction, she leapt in front of the arrow and felt it slam into her side. A wave of pain hit her as she sailed past her horrified cousin and landed on the ground, but she immediately got back up and slashed at the nearest monsters as she broke the shaft in half, tossing the other end aside. "Thalia, back up towards Milady! We're going to be overwhelmed!"
True to her words, the monsters had used the opportunity to relentlessly press an offensive against the two girls. Mentally yelling at herself for making Thalia distracted, she slowly backtracked towards the main group. Silver arrows sent by Atlanta, Naomi and Zoë were sailing past their ears and into the packs of monsters, while her twin blades crossed and jabbed and slashed. Monsters fell left and right, but more kept coming into the area.
Zoë, Atlanta and Naomi had resorted to clambering up a tree and firing from their taller positions, while avoiding most melee combat, as the four on the ground grouped together and began unleashing death and destruction. Lightning arced from Thalia's spear into the pack of monsters as she jabbed and swiped at the horde. Her shield was still stunning the monsters who saw it, but it was getting less and less effective…
As if the monsters had been used to seeing the shield…or even worse, medusa herself.
She gritted her teeth as she lunged forwards, stabbing a hellhound in it's neck. This one radiated a different aura from the others, and also looked…off. Like bits of dirt clung to it's skin, and fur grew out of the earth that was wrapped onto it.
Some distance in the forest, the trees shook and the ground vibrated. Heavy footfalls stomped towards them as the four fighting on the ground tightened their ring…well, square.
"Something feels wrong!" Artemis yelled over the chaos of the melee, "It feels like some things more powerful than an average monster is headed right for us!"
"What does it feel like?" She asked, her knives spinning and dancing as she held the monsters ar bay.
"It feels ancient, more ancient than us!" Artemis replied, stabbing her hunting knife into the head of dracaenae and letting it fall to the ground, disintegrating as it went.
She groaned. Great, just yet another ancient deity pissed at her and her only, so pissed that some random mythical monster was now after her.
Soon, as the monster horde thinned, the beasts which had caused the horrendous ruckus finally emerged. Seven gigantic, earthen beasts lu,Bernd out of the forest, trees bending or crashing down around them as they stomped forwards. The humanoid monsters trudged forwards, the rocks that made up their bodies grinding together as they moaned and groaned. Earthen skulls with two hollow holes for eyes looked back and forth amongst the grouped hunters, as their earthen limbs raised and lowered irregularly, somethings smashing into monsters standing in their way.
She had never seen anything like these giant lumbering beasts.
But apparently her lover had.
"Earthborn," she breathed, her eyes wide with determination and…fear?
"Don't let them touch you with their hands…or whatever those are." Artemis said firmly, looking at the group, "contact with the ends of their limbs are fatal. One touch and your soul will be sucked into their bodies, your soul mercilessly devoured and potentially destroyed the longer you remain within the earthborn's shell…until you become one yourself."
"Gaia's creations," Zoë said with distaste as she notched an arrow. "Stab them through the joints in their torso. Thou can only kill if the soul within their bodies escape."
A silver arrow soared from Zoë's bow and straight into a crack on the torso of an earthborn. Another fired from Naomi's found it's arrowhead buried deep into the hollow hole of the earthborn's skull. Fracturing, green energy dissipated and a silvery mist escaped the crash as the earthborn crumbled into a mass of rocks on the ground.
"Alright, let's bash some rocks!" Thalia yelled and she smiled. "Only you, Thalia!" She remarked, running after her cousin as electricity arced from Thalia's spear. An Earthborn exploded into fragments as multiple arrows forced its torso cracks open, while Thalia's lightning finished the job. Leaping up, she cut an earthborn's right upper limb off, and grinned as she danced around the lumbering beast, jabbing at the cracks in its legs and arms until it fell apart, unable to contain the damage.
Silver arrows kept flying into the lumbering piles of rocks as Jacqueline also joined the fray, along with her new patron, dancing and weaving in and out between one earthborn's legs. A massive thud signaled that the earthborn's legs had been torn apart by the damage, and she turned her twin blades back onto an incoming earthborn. Silver arrows soared past her ans she leapt up, scaling up the earthborn's legs before plunging her twin knives into it's torso. Leaping off in time, she tucked herself into a ball and barrel rolled away, narrowly missing a few rocks that made up the earthborn she had just slain.
Thalia had by now ran out of earthborns to bash, and was busy engaging the rest of the monsters. The last earthborn on the field crashed down, scattering into rocks as Artemis and Jacqueline ran to join Thalia's side. Seeing as their main threat was now gone, she decided to test out her powers.
Concentrating, the edge of Darkness lit on fire, the crimson-orange flames licking at the handle. On Shadow's edge, a shimmering layer of icicles appeared. She grinned, before charging into the fray. She was going to have some fun after all.
Better test her powers and become accustomed to them before she got into an even bigger fight.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Coach Hedge was slightly annoyed as he saw the blonde boy sitting besides that Piper girl.
They had caused him enough trouble already. He'd already had to fend off at least 20 different monsters the week they were here.
It was just like they popped out of nowhere, to be quite frank. One day the school was demigod-free. The next…two 15 year old teenagers popped out of nowhere.
The fact that they appeared out of nowhere wasn't of the greatest concern. There was an even greater problem.
Their appearance was surrounded heavily by the mist.
The moment they appeared, they and the kids around them were under the impression they had been here for months. They interacted like old buddies, bullying, teasing, but there was this sort of oddness to it.
And the air smelled of mist manipulation.
He had reported this to Camp right away, and had stayed on the two teenager's tails ever since. The Piper girl kept having these odd looks as if she was remembering something, before returning to normal all of the sudden.
When he heard that they were going on a "field trip" to the Grand Canyon, he instantly knew something was up. That Nico kid was supposed to show up…and he'd be failing his duties if he couldn't protect demigods.
So, he volunteered to lead the field trip.
And was greeted with this.
He watched as the blonde kid stirred, getting off piper's shoulders.
He looked at his facial expression. Panic, confusion, etched into his chiseled and handsome features. His faded purple shirt seemed to have something written on it at one point, but he didn't know what it could've been.
Oh well. He'd better report this new development to camp.
He watched as the two demigods interacted with the blonde. They seemed to suddenly have knowledge of him too, but it was clear he didn't.
Whoever was behind this must have a good reason to attempt…whatever the fuck this is.
Grumbling, he looked out of the window as the barren landscape sped past.
Hopefully his efforts would suffice to help protect these three demigods.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
He didn't know who he was, where he was, or what even was going on in the first place.
He'd woken up on a bus, apparently had amnesia out of the blue, had this pretty girl called Piper as his girlfriend, and this elvish kid called Leo as his friend. They apparently went to this wilderness school, which he was pretty sure it was wrong-
He knew some other place.
Hills. Beautiful architecture. A river. A city. Soldiers in armor.
As soon as those thoughts appeared, they stared out of his grasp once again. He nearly bashed his head against the glass door in frustration.
Right now, they were standing at the entrance of the Grand Canyon's glass bridge. The curved, transparent bridge reflected the sunlight off of it's glass paneling. The sky was clear, no clouds were in sight, and he had this funny gut feeling where everything was gonna go wrong.
Dylan, who was nearby, felt off to him. It was just like there was this…upsetting feeling that just made his skin crawl as he looked at that boy's features, the way he carried himself, the way he seemingly drifted on his feet from place to place…
"Alright kids! Hold on tight to your worksheets and head out there! Remember, no pushing or I'll bash your head in!"
That was coach hedge, their chaperone for the field trip. For some reason, he carried a baseball bat wherever he went.
Cheery guy, this coach hedge was.
It was terrifying how he held a baseball bat though. He was pretty sure it wasn't allowed…but again he felt like he'd seen weirder things and lived to tell the tale.
Sighing, he trudged outside, leo by his side, aimlessly fidgeting.
Behind them, he could feel a pair of eyes burning into his back. He was sure it was that funny coach person who was leading them on this trip.
Sure enough, when he turned, there he was. Standing there, glaring at him as if he wasn't supposed to be here, baseball bad menacingly swung over his shoulder. Ignoring the glare, he turned to talk to Leo, still very annoyed by the fact that his mind was blank.
"Leo. I don't know if you know this, but…I really don't remember anything. It's-"
"You're not pranking me and Piper? You really…don't?" Leo's voice sounded almost broken, and sad.
"Yeah, Leo, I don't! And…I'm guessing your memories are somehow fake." Leo's eyes widened.
"But-We've known you for four months-"
"Then what's my name? What do I like? What's my birthday?"
"Your name-Jason, I already told you-"
"Last name."
"Hmm…" Leo appeared to be deep in thought, before frowning. "That's odd. I swear I remember it…wait a second…"
"Leo, face it. It's fake, everything you know about me is fake. I don't know how, but it is."
Leo looked crestfallen, before he looked at piper. "Man…She's gonna be so sad when she learns that whatever you had was just…fake."
He sighed. "I know…the worst part is I really don't know how I can fix this."
They both looked past the railing over to the canyon. The massive canyon stood there proudly, dusty red rocks that proudly made up the canyon wall lit up by the harsh sun bearing down on everything and everyone.
"Listen," He finally said, "I'm gonna go to coach. If you don't really know who I am, he shouldn't too."
"What's he gonna do," Leo scoffed, "wack you over the head with a baseball bat?"
"Maybe," He said, his tone mildly serious, and Leo looked at him as if he was crazy. "Well…it's your choice anyway. You go on ahead."
As he left Leo's side and walked towards Coach hedge, he missed the evil smirk Dylan sent his way.
"Coach." He said, catching the man's attention. I don't know exactly what is going on, but-"
"That's good," Coach said, "Me neither."
Relief flooded through his system. "Thank gods." He didn't know why he said that, but he pressed on, "So you don't know me?"
Coach looked him up and down. "Nope, never seen you before today." He said, and Jason was ready to cry out in relief.
He didn't notice the wind picking up. Coach did.
"Thank fuck," he said, "I don't know what the hell is going on either. Can you help me?"
Coach was silent for a few moments, before he shook his head. "Look, cupcake. I want to, but I don't know how. Like I said, I didn't know you even existed till today-"
A wrapper shuffled past his foot, and Coach's eyes widened. "-Besides, it seems like we have trouble."
Coach picked up his megaphone as the wind picked up. His skin suddenly felt cold and numb as the sky rapidly darkened.
"And I still don't have a clue who I am other than my first name," He muttered, before staring up at the clouds.
"Where did these clouds come from?" He muttered out loud.
Kids all around the skywalk were also tossing glances at the sky, anxious and slightly creeped out.
"Alright, cupcakes! Listen up here! We're cutting this short thanks to the weather-"
The wind picked up even further. Some kids fell off their balance as heavy gusts of winds slammed into them. Worksheets went flying as panicked and confused yells sounded all over the place.
The skywalk began to groan.
"ALRIGHT! LISTEN UP, CUPCAKES! WE'RE ENDING THIS TRIP EARLY!" Ice began falling from the sky, and the hailstones struck the skywalk with loud and hollow clangs every time one hit.
"GET EVERYTHING AND GET BACK INSIDE, NOW!"
The skywalk groaned as kids began to run and scramble back inside. He, Leo and Piper somehow grouped together and followed behind Dylan as he made his way to the glass doors, coach hedge following close behind-
The doors slammed shut as Dylan turned his back on them.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Leo asked, annoyed, but Dylan just smirked. "Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Just…mundane business."
With that, Dylan somehow transformed into a tornado of winds and air with a wispy human form, blasting them all back. "Curses!" Coach…cursed, as he raised his bat and charged.
Dylan simply dodged him, an irritating smirk on his cursed as he ran headfirst into the glass door. His Rasta cap dropped off, revealing a head of curly hair and…horns.
That grew out of his head.
"Nice costume, coach!" Leo absently yelled, and Piper, he and Coach gave him a scowl.
"It's not a costume!" Coach.
"Leo, can you be more serious?" Piper.
But he felt like something else was going on.
He had seen these types of horns before.
But where?
He didn't know.
"Begone, storm spirit!" Coach bellowed, but Dylan-no, that thing, merely chuckled. "Pesky satyr. You'll feel my wrath soon enough."
Sliding sideways to avoid Coach's bat, he grinned as he grabbed the scruff of his shirt. "What the-" he yelped, before realizing the storm spirit was dragging him away. "SPIRIT! RELEASE HIM!" He heard coach yell, but the spirit kept dragging him away.
A hollow laughter came from the spirit. "We only need him. No one else. Move along, satyr."
However, that response seemed to have set Coach off. "THESE DEMIGODS ARE UNDER MY PROTECTION! NOW-"
He didn't get to finish.
Storm spirits suddenly descended from the clouds, howling and shrieking in fury as they swarmed the group. Dylan bega dragging him off, but somehow he broke free. His shirt tore and he sprinted forwards, back to leo and Piper's side. Coach was fending off the spirits with his bat, but they were beginning to realize that the spirits were just toying with him.
After al, all the spirits were still alive.
A loud crack of thunder suddenly roared across The Valley. Before he knew what was happening, bright light blurred his vision and he could see nothing except white.
He was struck by lightning, he realized.
But…oddly enough, the electricity re-energised him. It gave him strength and kick-started something within him.
He didn't feel any pain…at all.
As the light subdued, he saw the faces of his friends.
Leo's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. His mouth was wide open, and mirth and joy replaced the shock in his eyes. "Man, you survived a lightning strike!"
Piper didn't look all that happy…and were coach's eyes narrowed?
Before he could think anything of it, an annoyed growl behind him made him turn around. Dylan stood there, lightning crackling in the sky behind him, as the spirit stared at him, eyes narrowed and annoyed.
"Great. Just another child of Zeus. No matter, you'll die like the rest."
He felt slight discomfort at the word, but he brushed it off, Leo and Piper though widened their eyes.
"I-I'm not…I'm…Jason. Only jason."
The spirit sneered. "Well then, if you say so."
A flick of his wispy hand, and the storm spirits charged.
Venti, the word popped into his mind.
His hand subconsciously drifted into his pocket, and he felt something cold and hard. It was round, yet the feeling soothed him. Pulling it out, a golden goin rested in his palm.
Dylan smirked. "What is that petty coin gonna do?"
He flicked the coin up and caught a handle midair. A golden sword rested in his hand, and he smirked as Dylan paled.
"Need a penny for your thoughts?"
Dylan's features turned into an ugly scowl as he roared. "GET THEM!"
Before any of the venti could resume what they were doing though, a silvery streak flew past him and into the half-solid form of a venti, which dissolved into wind and dust. Other venti stopped in their tracks and stared at the disturbance.
He turned to see a group of seven girls, standing at the end of the bridge. Hailstones kept raining down on them, but they didn't seem to care.
One of them, with lightning blue eyes all too similar to his, as well as a lithe stature and spikey, cropped black hair, stared at him. She seemed familiar…
A girl with black hair, along with sea-green and crimson eyes grinned. "Are we late to the party?" She asked, and the girl next to her with auburn hair and yellowish-silver eyes nodded.
"Well?" She asked, and all seven of them grinned. "Let's join in the fun!"
Amazed, he watched as Weapons appeared in their hands and they attacked.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Persia charged, her twin karambits in her hands as she charged towards the group of storm spirits. She remembered hearing about them from Annabitch's mouth. Anemoi Thuellai, they were called.
That, or her dyslexia was acting up.
She noticed that most of the hunter's arrows went though them like they were…well, nothing. That blonde kid who survived lightning had taken out one with his sword, but it was pure luck since the spirit attempted to solidify to grab onto the Cherokee girl. The elvish Latino boy was busy chasing them off with his hands, but coach hedge was there to protect him.
That was, until he got sent off the skywalk.
She returned her focus onto trying to search for Nico. Where was that damn death boy when they needed him to just pop out?
She slashed two storm spirits in the neck at the correct timing, and both dissolved into wind and dust as she forged onwards. Fighting with storm spirits like these were annoying- They could deal damage to her but she couldn't damage…well, air.
Well, she thought, two evil gas bags down. Only fifty something more to go
Zoë got a lucky shot off of one, and she grinned at Zoë before moving on with the horde. The spirits were beginning to panic, attacking anyone and anything instead of coordinated strikes against one of them. The initial storm spirit who struck Blondie with lightning was attempting to grab him-that was, until it spotted the Latino boy and Cherokee girl standing off to the side, huddled away and attempting to enter the Grand Canyon museum.
Flying forwards, the Storm spirit blasted the latino boy aside as he grabbed the Cherokee girl. "She'll have to do!" It shrieked, and dodged silver arrows as it dragged the Cherokee girl away. A rift opened up behind them, and storm spirits began getting sucked into the rift. The rain and sleet fell harder than ever before, and the glass bridge beneath them began to crack as it shuddered violently.
"NO!" Blondie yelled, and she saw Gleeson hedge batting furiously at storm spirits. The girl was hopelessly out of reach though, and she didn't have much choice.
She grabbed her necklace pendant and pulled, before she threw the flaming butterfly knife that had appeared towards the spirit.
The knife missed, but the spirit was visibly shaken, dropping the Cherokee girl in the process…
Just beyond the railing of the glass bridge.
She watched in horror as the girl began to fall, her eyes wide open as she screamed in horror.
By some miracle, the girl grabbed hold of the railing while falling past, her body brutally slamming against the glass panels as a yelp escaped her lips. She sprinted forwards, attempting to help the girl, but the glass was beginning to crack, and the rail guard was slowly bending due to the force of the gales being blown up around them.
Blondie was still fighting the storm spirits, and Latino elf was being useless as he scrambled towards the baseball bat, dodging storm spirits as they charged him. The hunters and Artemis fired, their arrows soaring through the storm spirits with a force large enough to disrupt their forms momentarily and cause them to halt their advances. Thalia was slowly making her way over, but she knew none of them could help now.
It had to be her.
Reaching a hand over the railing, she grabbed onto the girl's hanging arm, attempting to pull her back up. The glass paneling cracked even further under the stress, and she prayed that they would hope.
Unfortunately, Tyche wasn't on her side today.
With a deafening crack, the Glass paneling gave way and the railing bent as the glass turned into fragments and deformed, with particularly large shards stabbing her in her thighs and legs. With all her might, she hauled the girl over the edge of the railing and onto the glass floor.
Which promptly began cracking as well.
"GO, GO, GO!" She yelled, shoving the girl off the cracking floor panel as she attempted to sprint, yet only managing a slow hobble, her footfalls creating horrible cracking sounds on the glass panels as they cracked, spiderwebs spreading all over the transparent floor. Thalia was standing close to the edge of the panel she was on, reaching out a desperate hand. Storm spirits were unleashing their full vengeance onto them bridge before disappearing into the rift, and she knew that the bridge would sooner or later crack under the stress.
She noticed coach hedge still fighting with a few storm spirits, and was seemingly losing. Blonde boy was attempting to help, but had to leap over the railing as the girl she had just rescued flew over the railing again, being blown off her feet by three storm spirits before they too flew into the rift.
She questioned why she had used such a great effort to save the girl if her destiny was to fall off the bridge anyway.
Damn the fates!
The glass beneath her cracked even more as she tried to increase her pace. She noticed Artemis inching closer, rapidly firing off arrows as she tried to approach. The blonde dude was somehow flying back up, with the girl in his arms. Coach hedge was definitely losing, silver arrows flying all around the place-
Then the glass beneath her broke.
With a deafening shatter, the glass gave way and she lost her balance-and footing. Falling backwards, her head smashed against the steel and concrete lining of the class bridge as she began to fall. Sharp pain cutting into the back of her head immediately dulled all of her senses, and her vision immediately swam and dimmed, while her limbs felt cold and unresponsive as she felt her grip loosen.
Numbly, she was barely awake of something falling with her and a pair of arms wrapping around her torso before everything went black.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Thalia screamed as she reached forwards to grab Persia.
She failed.
A sickening thud sounded over the howling wind and breaking glass as Persia fell backwards, limp. She watched as Persia began to fall down, picking up speed.
The height from the bridge down to the canyon floor was dizzying, but she forced herself to look.
She remembered how she could control winds when Luke was around. When they were still on the run.
She wanted to throw up, her vision swimming and spinning as Persia grew smaller and smaller.
She felt helpless.
She felt her heart clench as she watched her forbidden love plummet down towards the canyon floor.
Artemis was running over now, but the storm spirits were refusing to let her close, unleashing their winds and shoving her back as she howled and screamed in pain and anger.
A slight tug in her gut told her to jump.
She watched as Persia's limp body continued to plummet. A painful wrench in her heart was becoming even more unbearable. She had to do something. She should do something.
But she didn't know if she could.
- - - flashback - - -
"Come on! You got this!" Luke encouraged as he stood next to her, standing atop the radio tower. The wind blew against their faces as she took a step forwards, sinking slightly down but remaining in the air.
She took another.
And another.
She felt the tug in her gut intensify, the wind beneather her solidifying and pushing her up. She opened her eyes to fid luke staring at her in amazement.
"You can fly."
She smiled.
— - - Timeskip - - —
She stood atop the radio tower again, her breathing hitched as she stared down towards the ground. The normally soothing height seemed daunting as she stared down towards the ground.
For once, she realized how tall the radio tower was, how insignificant everything was when she was this tall.
Luke was next to her, concern on his face. "Thalia, thalia. You can do this. Believe in yourself."
She took the leap of faith, jumping off the tower. She felt the wind bend and harnessed under her will, but it felt…foreign. Frightening.
Forcing her eyes open, she looked at luke and forced a smile onto her face. "I'm fine, see? I'm-"
She made the mistake of looking down.
Her control over the winds buckled, and she fell some distance down. Her heart pounded and she painfully clenched her fists, managing to regain her powers over wind once again. But…it felt even worse, it felt unnatural.
For once, she was scared of being in the sky, in her father's domain.
And she was afraid of the consequence that would follow as she looked up at luke, focusing on him as she levitated back up and landing next to him.
"You alright?" Luke asked, concern in his eyes as he looked her over.
"I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah…let's just get off this as soon as possible."
She couldn't stop the involuntary shudder that ran through her body as she stared out into the horizon.
— — - flashback end - — —
She knew she was being held back by her own fears.
But she couldn't-Just looking down at the canyon from a safer place made her feel dizzy and afraid.
But if she didn't use her abilities, she was gonna lose a close friend. A sibling of sorts…And her secret crush.
The hunt was going to lose a big sister.
Zoë was going to lose a close confidant she had grown close to and respected.
And Artemis…
How could she forget about her patron?
She steeled her nerves. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed the hunt making their way over to her as the satyr Persia had referred to as 'coach hedge' lift up into the air, the Anemoi Thuellai screaming something incoherent as it flew into the rift. The blonde boy who looked very, very familiar was sprawled out on the glass bridge, struggling to get up as he was evidently drained. He obviously was going to be of no help, since he was so drained. Jacqueline…well, she wouldn't be here if she wasn't disowned and didn't have any powers. The latino boy and Cherokee girl were attempting to help The blonde boy up…
Well, the Cherokee girl was.
The latino boy held the satyr's bat in his scrawny arms, swinging madly at antsy ting and everything. Obviously he wasn't helping, but it reminded her of…Annabitch.
The thought of her former friend stung her. Looking down at Persia's form, now nearly one-third of the way down the canyon, she clenched her fists tightly.
One of her last friends was now on her way to meet her end.
Was she really going to stand aside and let her fear hinder her actions and take away her final connection to her life?
Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. Rain and hail fell harder and thicker than ever, plastering strands of hair to her face, obscuring Persia from her view.
She wasn't needed anymore in the hunt, she knew it. She didn't have an identity in the hunt, as Zoë had returned. She didn't need to protect the hunters, as they had greater skill and cohesion after the war.
She simply didn't belong.
She didn't belong in the hunt. She didn't belong at camp.
She didn't belong in life.
And now, the final thread connecting her to her will to live was getting evermore closer to the razor sharp edge of the fates' damned scissors.
She made her choice.
Steeling her nerves, she clenched her fists tightly, ignoring the cuts that she opened up in the insides of her palm. Artemis had now broken free from the horrid gale, and was running towards the broken panel' seemingly about to jump in.
She knew Artemis wouldn't make it in if the goddess used her body as a cushion, Persia would most likely die, one way or the other.
She didn't want that.
If Persia died, there'd be no reason for her to live as well.
Shooting a look at her patron, she watched as Artemis' pale yellow eyes widened, before she opened her mouth to yell at her.
She shut her eyes, desperately shoving her fears aside as she took a step forwards and leapt down.
Fear struck her heart, remembering how the wind roared in her ears as she fell from the top of the mall on that fateful day.
Clawing at the meager strips of her power, she desperately tried to control the wind. A slight tugging in her gut intensified quickly, and she could begin to feel the wind and air around her bending to her will. Letting out a yell, she finally unleashed her full power, feeling the wind halt and stop around her, submitting to her control.
For once, her heart didn't feel fear or terror as she opened her eyes and looked down towards the canyon floor. The rain still battered her, but she could feel the winds shifting, directing the water and ice away from her. "Persia," she muttered, and noticed a figure plummeting rapidly towards the canyon floor below her. Pushing and twisting the air, she managed to shoot downwards and quickly catch up to Persia's limp form.
Persia was, not surprisingly, dry, though some bruises were on her arms and neck. The back of head was bleeding from a cut, and she could feel brushing forming under the skin. Wrapping her hands around her friend's limp form, she willed the winds to slow her down. The canyon floor was rapidly approaching, and she tried to pour every once of her power into willing the wind to halt.
Unfortunately, they weren't enough.
Still traveling at a higher than normal speed, both of them hit the bottom of the canyon. In a desperate last attempt to soften the blow, she forced the winds to push both of them towards the river that flowed at the bottom.
All she managed to do was to send both of them saying sideways as they smashed into the ground.
Her head bashed against a rock at the bottom, and a sharp pin cut into her temple as a cut opened and immediately began to bleed. Her head felt woozy, and her vision darkened as she tried moving over to Persia who had landed on her side, with the back of her parka facing her.
She failed.
Feeling the strength leave her limbs, she gave up the struggle and allowed the darkness to consume her.
She just hoped everything would be alright.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
A/N: And there we have it ladies and gentlemen! Chapter 18!
So, The hunt reaches Arizona, Jacqueline shows that she has some skill, Jason finally shows up at the infamous Grand Canyon field trip (sadly I don't have a brick), the hunt, Jason and Gleeson Hedge battle venti (Not saying the greek name cuts I'm lazy), while Persia and Thalia fall off a bridge.
How are things going to develop from here? Is Zeus gonna be happy? Is he gonna do anything? And what will happen to Thalia, Persia and Artemis? And the Hunters in general?
And if Jason is on the bridge…Where's Nico?
Just pretend you don't know the answer to that question and I'll give you a blue cookie.
Good readers. *Gives cookies*
Well, you gotta wait and see.
Anyway, thanks for the newly gained support from all of you! I got like 10+ followers on my fic suddenly on FFN, and I'm really, really thankful for your support. We're closing in on 160 followers, and 100k words! If you want to, please follow this story (Favourites can be added later since I think it shows you like my writing style/the plot so far but you're not interested in seeing the overall plot development.)
As for the chaps over on Wattpad, I gotta thank you all for the support too! I know that you all have been adding this to like 50 different reading lists (and I thank you for that, sadly I can't count these like FFN follows)
Though a slightly sad announcement- depending on what's gonna happen tomorrow (Past 8:15AM UTC+8, and yes I just revealed the general region of where I live), I may or may not discontinue the series, go on a hiatus or just have longer gaps between uploads, or hopefully keep my current upload schedule (Updating every 3 days). And hopefully not get depression and anxiety attacks in the process. I'll elaborate more in a dedicated chapter for an author's note no matter what scenario happens tomorrow.
Anyway, review responses. Also, thank you CommanderDuck14 for leaving back-to-back reviews today, Thank you lad!
Regardless-Responses!
Ryan Fowler: Yeah, I initially intended for him to die at the hands of Artemis, but I decided against it. Plus, I'm trying to play into Persia's sympathy towards those who are treated as tools instead of fellow demigods and her vundernable nature as someone who is oriented around family. I'll elaborate on this in later chapters though.
(Basically, being reborn from the hearth strengthens her soft/ familiar (or family idk grammar) side, and so this drives her to make softer decisions that she shouldn't be making.)
Don't worry though-Jacqueline will have a part to play later on, but you won't see her for quite some time, obviously since..well, Persia fell off the skywalk.
Anyway, thanks for the review as always!
CommanderDuck14: Man, you left back to back reviews starting from chapter 13, so…I'll just do my full response in one big part. Though I'll still split the response by chapter, so don't worry abput reading through a massive paragraph.
Also, after reading through your reviews, you mentioned consistent grammar and spelling errors-Yeah, it mostly is due to me not knowing how to spell and autocorrect changing it to something else. I'll have to try and fix this in any rewrite attempt, which is…well, not gonna happen until at least past chapter 30 at this point. Maybe even 50 if we make it that far. Who knows?
Chapter 13: I'm always being mistook to be a british person since I have a british accent and I..well, sometimes type like a Brit. (Stuff like centre, Lads, lassies, etc) I can assure you, I'm not. No british person is insane enough to live in the UTC/GMT+8 Timezone. (It's either china or tropical countries that westerners can't stand).
Anyway, don't worry about being late, and rest assured a rewrite will come along sometime soon. And yeah, I'm aware of the grammar issues…I no longer have any form of beta to proofread my stuff, and honestly I'm not the best at proofreading my own work…until it's published. Yes, I'm built that way and I do not like it. Regardless, thank you for the heads up lad!
Chapter 14: Aww, thank you. I'll be sure to disappoint. (Detect sarcasm, I really hope I'll keep up the standards…though writing from midnight till sometime around 2 in the morning does affect it somewhat.)
Anyway, the beach scene…Yeah, I kinda needed to push it. I can't have an overpowered main character running around rampant, since it kinda makes Persia a Mary Sue/ this fic an unenjoyable read innit? I'll admit, I have no experience dealing with that kind of experience, but I do read a lot and tried my best to portray it well. Hopefully it does meet expectations.
RSS Perlia is indeed setting sail! I know that it may take some time, so hopefully you (and other readers who read this) will bear with me. You can take notes, but I'm not the best writer to learn from to be frank. After all, I've written three fics, and I kinda messed up the first two (The first one was written back in 2020/21, and not at all a good read. The second…had a good start but I fucked myself over by uploading daily, not planning and being a general idiot.).
I'm rambling, so I'll push myself off this tangent I'm on. Don't think that you're discouraging me by asking me to provide a good ending to this fic's interpretation of Perlia. I of course intend to, but hey…reunion in elysium is still a good ending, innit? Not that I'll kill both of them anyway, so it's not a spoiler. I do have some plans for how the relationship goes, some may be longer than others to manifest, but ultimately I only have 1 or 2 plans in which the relationship won't end on a good note. Sooooo….it's most likely gonna still be a happy ending.
As for the proper cohort with ranks…kinda plays into my interests, tbh. It really, really bugged me out when dear uncle Rick wrote camp Jupiter with no structure whatsoever. Rome itself was a place with a strict and rigorous military structure, which lead to it's success (and ultimately downfall) in the first place. To see New rome, which should be the continuation of the roman legacy behave like this just really stepped on my nerves a lot. Like, no NCO (non-commissioned officer) structure, no clear command other than the praetors, no military police to regulate the legionnaires…how it survived to this day is a literal miracle. So, I decided to change that.
Also, I just love micromanaging and nitpicking details when it comes to military stuff (especially the roman/napoleonic eras). Sorry :[
Yes, that many ranks and positions will definitely provide a distraction for the readers, and maybe even confuse myself. Still, as you say, it's a great way to cause distraction…and ultimately a development arc. No spoilers, since this will be what happens eventually (logically at least), but it'd be a nice arc to see Persia integrate herself into New Rome by getting used to the system and adapting in a strict and rigorous military structure.
I've written a lot for this part, and I'm sorry for it :/ but I'll tackle the daughters of the underworld- To be completely honest, I kinda messed up. The doors of death are supposed to be chained at this point, and Thanatos is supposed to be captured sometime soon (or perhaps even already, I forgot the timeline), which means the doors should not have appeared in the first place. However, I liked the idea that the doors knew that these two could rise to greatness if given a chance at life again, and so appeared in front of them as a last-ditch attempt.
Anyway, thanks for reaffirming my redemption. I'll be sure to keep improving my skills so that chapters will become longer (thanks to more detail/emotions/character development) and…yeah, that's about it.
Two more responses to go! Hopefully these won't be as long.
Chapter 15: I don't mind the fact that you're taking down notes. Hell, I had to read at least 100+ of the top fica to even understand how to write and push a story. And I still fucked it up in the two previous attempts I've made. (I'm actually considering deleting the first attempt since it's literally just a canon rewrite and offers nothing to the platform…but hey, it's a way to see how much you've grown and improved, innit?)
Since Jake is obedient, and follows his father's orders down to the T, he would. Even if he knows things are objectively wrong, he still does it. (Kinda like how Mark Felton describes the former head of the Gestapo. And yes, I took inspiration from that…if you don't mind how fucked up that sounds.)
And no, I haven't prewritten anything. I did pre write everything when it came to "Semper Fi, Servus Romae", but I realized that won't work when I actually received feedback and reader expectations. Plus, it's annoying knowing that something isn't what the readers want yet still pushing it out. It also wasn't satisfying-for me, I now hate pre writing because it just…doesn't sit right with me. No reader wants to wait for content that's readily available, yet it isn't out because the writer is an idiot. It also doesn't bode well since…well, you feel like your reviews are kinda pointless because the writer has literally written up the next chapter and he/she's probably not changing anything at this point.
Though I'll admit, I have a literal plot train I wrote up one night at like 4 am. It's mostly useless now, but I did kind of pre write, but I also didn't if you get what I mean. I did prewrite a version of the ending through, but that is like 1k words and very vague (like Persia attacks. Persia combat scene. Persia wins. Basically, very rudimentary stuff), soo…yeah.
Anyway, chapter 16…I fucked up lol, now I have an extra 1k or so words on this chapter.
Chapter 16: Honestly I was expecting you to scream at me how unfair Jake's punishment was and how I fucked everything up. I'm genuinely surprised.
Anyway- The gradual progression is going to hopefully remain. I'va had enough of rushed plot lines and stuff like that, and I'm glad I'm also working out well on the ethos progression. Honestly it IS hard. I'm scared that I'll just randomly fuck it up and not know it, so it just makes me constantly on edge. And I agree-it's hard to understand. Harder than math or physics even.
Regardless, thank you for your compliment!
Onto the point of Native American…oh boy.
Yeah I'm not…and honestly it shows. I initially wanted to write that they were on the east coast still, traveling towards the west…and then forgot that Pennsylvania was on the east and made them exist on the west coast. Plus, I have no idea where half the counties and states are. I even had to look up where the Grand Canyon is :skull:
Plus, if the UTC+8 part wasn't a giveaway, yeah I'm a local asian and not an American If I was in good ole 'merica, I wouldn't be failing at grammar so bloody mich, innit?
Anyway-Thanks for the massive review bomb, and I look forward to your review/response…if you even wanna make one.
Anyway chaps, that's it for reviews! Again, if you want to voice your opinions/ pick out my mistakes or just have general feedback, the review section and comments are always open!
(Also, sorry for not replying to that one comment on my chapter on wattpad, I was busy that day ;-;)
Regardless, I'll commit poof now and stop existing. Hopefully everything turns out all good and well for me…but who knows what life has in store for me tomorrow?
Anyway, I'll De-manifest now. Goodbye lads (and lassies!)
-le idiot out