Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.
I was happy with just being a shaman with some godly lineage.
If you are reading this because you found this appear one day, I advise you to find somewhere to hind.
Believe whatever lie your Mom or dad told you about birth and try to lead a life that you find normal.
Being a half-blood is dangerous.
It's scary.
Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.
That is why I prefer to be a shaman, as they only do stuff like that every 500 years, and the next one is in like 494 years, so I'm okay for a while.
Now if you're a normal kid reading this, I must ask how.
It took me, the patch tripe, a son of Hades and a clear-sighted mortal (More on that later) to make this.
But read, think it's fiction.
I envy you for believing that none of this had ever happened.
But if you feel something stirring within you, I have to tell you to stop reading right now.
Because they will come for you.
So don't say that I didn't warn you.
Let me introduce myself; my name is Percy Jackson.
Now I bet you're wondering why I call myself a shaman; let me tell you how I found that I was one.
It was the year I turned five, so 1999, one year before a shaman tournament, but I was in no way going to compete.
And if I remember right, it was around Christmas.
My mother and I were walking thou New York to do our Christmas shopping, and the place that Mom worked at paid her well, I think, but it only pays in the middle of the month.
I was dressed in jeans and a blue shirt with a jacket, scarf and hat.
Before I go on, let me tell you about my Mom.
Her name is Sally Jackson, and she is the most wonderful woman in the world.
And that is why the best people in the world, like Mom, have the worse luck.
You see, when she was five, her parents died in a plane crash on the way back from Japan.
Then she was raised by her uncle, who didn't care much about her.
She had told me she wanted to be a novelist, and I wanted her to go for it as she was amazing at stories, so she spent high school working to save enough money to go to a college with a good creative writing program.
Her uncle then got cancer, so Mom had to quit school in her senior year to look after him.
After he died, she was left with bearly enough money to get by, no diploma and no family.
Then she met my dad.
You see, they weren't married.
Even if he did want to marry her, she told me.
One day I found out how true that was when I found a ring made from coral.
Don't ask me how I know that; I do.
He was rich, so he helped her ensure she could get by before he had to go off on a journey across the Atlantic.
But he never comes back.
Lost at sea, she told me.
Not dead.
Lost at sea.
She worked at a candy shop, which, I said, pays her well, and took night classes so that she could get her diploma and raise me on her own.
She never got mad or complained.
Not once.
And I know that I was not an easy kid.
I mean, I was almost kicked out of the school that I was in, and I knew I was only back for a small while before Mom sent me to another school for the year.
But I was happy that I was with her.
We both went to different shops around New York to find the presents we would like.
And I picked a giant shark plush toy the size of me, "What are you going to name them," Mom asked me as we left the store and walked over to the next store we were looking for something for Mom.
She had brown hair with some grey streaks in her hair.
I know I did to her, but I will never think she looks old.
She, like me, was dressed in blue jeans with a blouse on, a puffy jacket and a scarf around her neck.
"Darcy," Percy said as Mom smiled at me before I saw something out of the corner of my eye; I saw two people with unusual clothes walk by.
The first was a tall man with a muscular build, braided black hair, and two large bangs hung over each side of his face that looked to shadow his Myrtle green eyes.
Next to him was a little girl that looked to be his daughter as she had long, messy light blond hair with a single braid in front of her left ear and pale blue eyes.
Both of them had tanned skin and were wearing Native American cloaks, with the man having a red headband with what I think are eagle feathers with a white pattern while the girl had tied a patterned red bandana around her head.
And once more, they both had silver plates on their chest resembling an eagle.
They walked passed us as we walked into the store, where Mom got herself something.
The girl looked over at me for a second before speaking to the man, but I also saw something that shocked me, but I did not hear what she said.
On the man's right shoulder, he had a bald eagle; around his right arm had a snake wrapped around it and a tortoise on his left shoulder and then at his feet were a buffalo and coyote.
The girl had a falcon on her left shoulder, a wolf at her feet, an Ox, a snake on her arm, and a turtle.
I then blinked, and then they were gone, and the man and girl walked away.
If now, then I would have known that they both would have been the ones that would have introduced me to my new world.
Mom and I moved through the mall as Mom looked around for what she wanted for Christmas.
But my mind was constantly flooded by the two people with those disappearing animals.
After we were done, we were walking thru the central park when we both heard a loud crash from not that far away.
Mom and I turned around to see a bipedal demonic lion and bull with two twisting horns that grew from his forehead.
His upper body was covered in bright red scales, while the lower part comprised two half-human, half-bull legs.
Mom and I started to run away, with Mom practically pulling my arm as we ran through Central Park with the creature following us.
It loved the hunt.
We moved thou a large patch of trees, hoping to lose it.
And we thought that we did.
It then jumped before us, forming a creator when it landed, sending us away.
Me and Mom scrambled to get to our feet as the creature took a deep breath, but a beam of energy hit it before it stumbled back.
I looked over to where it had come from and saw something moving through the air.
As I narrowed my eyes, I saw that it was the man I had seen earlier.
"Mom, it's him," I said, pointing into the sky.
Mom looked over to see what I was seeing.
He had amour over him, and it was slightly see thou.
Then I heard the sound of grass being stepped on as I turned to see the girl with him running under him.
And she was running on all fours.
"And is she," Mom asked me as I nodded, "He didn't tell me about this," I heard Mom mutter under her breath as I looked at her as the man saw us.
"Alumi, cover them," He called out as the girl started to run faster; I saw that she had something covering her.
It looked like a wolf.
But not just any wolf; it was the wolf she had by her side earlier.
She ran around the creature before skidding in front of Mom and me and then clasped both hands together and with one hand having the pinky pointed out along with the mixed finger with the thumb tucked under the two other fingers with the other hand doing almost the same at the pinky and index fingers touched and the thoub was resting on the knuckle if the other hand while the middle and ring fingers resting on the other fingers, "Confinement Barrier," She called out with a slight growl.
A purplish dome formed around the creature as the girl stood in front of the beast, with the man gliding down before landing as he walked over to Mom and me.
"Good evening," He said to us as he walked over, but he kept an eye on the creature, "So you can see him," He told him as we looked at the beast.
Mom and I nodded at him as we looked at the creature.
I then turned to him, "Him," I asked him as I looked at the beast.
It started thrashing in the energy dome, but the man did nothing.
"This is Ifrit," He said as Mom looked shocked and scared, "But do not worry, me and my daughter are here to send him back to his home," He told them as he looked at us before his eyes widened.
"Oh, My name is Silva, and this is my daughter, Alumi Niumbirch," Silva said as he held an arm out to indicate him and the girl.
I took a good look at her, and I could feel my cheeks heating up slightly as I looked at her before I heard laughing. I looked around before setting on Silva's shoulder guard, which looked like an eagle's head, and he could see it was laughing.
"Oh, watch out, Silva, the little godling has a thing for the little chicky," The shoulder guard.
Silva looked over to me and gained a small smile before looking at my Mom, "So why is his godly parent," He asked as I could feel my shot wide.
"What," I asked her as she winched.
"All I can say is that he's a sea god," She said as Silva looked at me as I took in the information, "And I didn't want Percy to know," She said as I looked at her.
"Why," I asked her as my mind returned to some things that had happened.
"Children of the sea, sky and the underworld are the most powerful, and they attack monsters like Ifit," Silva told me as I looked at him, "And I have a feel I know what you would have planned," He said to a mom who nodded.
"Yes, I am going around New York trying to find someone with a smell that can cover Percy's so that I can keep him with me for longer," Mom said as I looked at her with a smile.
Silva looked at her before looking back at Alumi and seemed to be thinking before a loud crack could be heard; we all turned to Ifit to see that it was punching the dome as cracks formed, and then all of a sudden, a sensation washed over me as I ran ignoring Mom and Silva and did the same things with my hands that Alumi was doing with her's.
Around the purplish dome, a cyan formed as it mixed with the purple one; the cracks that Ifit started to become fixed as Alumi and I looked at each other and then in-sink, our hands changed.
I had no clue what I was doing.
But I let my body flow.
We joined our fingers together and cured our thumbs as I heard Silva behind me, "Amazing."
As both of us tented, our hands writing and strange symbols started to form over the dome.
But it felt too easy.
And I was proven correct as if it raised his fist, covered in blue flames, before he punched the dome and broke it.
The force of the bomb exploding sent both of me and Alumi skidding back as I fell over.
But Alumi managed to say upright.
Well, as much upright as you can be when on all fours.
"The Cursed Blue Flames," Silva said as I looked at him with a raised brow.
"The what," I asked him as I got to my feet Ifit looked over at us and gathered flames in his mouth that looked like a mix between the blue flames and normal flames.
"The Cursed Blue Flames that belong to my brother," someone said as I looked over to see a woman with a long blue fishtail, light blue hair that reached her waist, and a large bust.
She has blue eyes that seem to have no pupils, and she wears a revealing dark blue bikini top connected to armoured arms that look covered in barnacles.
Her head also has a circlet, three piercings on her tail, a golden belt at her waist, and light blue crystal earrings.
I felt a connection with her for some reason, and I still don't understand my connection with her.
"Undine," Silva said as he looked at the mermaid, "What brings a Kami-class out to New York," He asked her as a dome of water formed around Ifit.
"I am currently looking for my siblings," She told him as she looked at the dome.
Silva looked back at the dome, then back at the mermaid, "Will you aid us in sending Ifit back to Hell or sealing him away," Silva asked her as she looked at him.
"No," She told him as she shook her head and turned away as I looked at her.
"Why," I asked her as she turned to me.
Her face became soft as she looked at me.
It must be because I'm the son of a sea god.
I did not know.
Still don't.
"Because I must find my siblings, young wave," She told me as I nodded.
"What if I offer my help to you in doing that," I asked as steam started to rise from the water dome.
Silva turned to me with wide eyes while Mom looked shocked and happy.
"Oh, and how will you help me," Unidne asked me as she swam around the air around me.
"Every time you feel a connection with one of your siblings, we will follow it until we find them," I told her as I followed her with my head.
"And you want me to be your guardian ghost until we find them," She asked as, for some reason, I nodded.
I could feel her blue eyes look into me as if she could see my soul before I felt a wave of power rise up as she nodded and swam thou the air over to me, "Very well, I agree to this deal for the moment as we can finalist after defeat Ifit," She told me.
I nodded and stood before her as we all heard a mighty roar as the water evaporated, and the mermaid and I looked ready as if it looked at us.
"Percy called out Undine's name, then said spirit ball before pushing the orb she becomes into your chest," Silva told me as I nodded and held out my hand.
"Undine Spirit Ball," I said as Unine's form was overtaken by water, and then a tiny navy ball that looked like her head formed in my hand, and she had a Barnicle-like crown.
I then pushed the ball into my chest, and for some reason, I called out, "Soul Integration."
I looked up at Ifit, who was running at me as.
I could feel the water in the air around me as I drew it in.
I held my hands out as the water formed around them, making blades.
I moved around Ifit as I cut at his heel, sending a blast of water up his body.
I saw a reflection in the water.
It was mine, and my left eye had turned from green to blue.
"Watch out, Percy, he's going to strike," I heard Undine in my head as I nodded and jumped back just in time as Ifit roared out flames that flooded that area before me.
"Hydo Pump," I called out as from my hands, two blasts of water shot out and hit the flames, and once the flames were put out, the jets of water hit Ifit.
"Push forward," Undine said as I did just that; as I ran forward, before long, I was not running; I was skating on the water.
I jumped over Ifit and sprayed him with another Hydro Pump as I landed and moved across the grass.
I kept my eyes on Ifit as I could feel my mother's and that Silva would be doing something before I heard the grass crunch next to me to Alumi on all fours.
"You just going to stand around, fish boy," She asked him as she growled at Ifit.
"That goes for you to fang face," I told her as I formed the water blades again and skated over to Ifit with Alumi.
Mom must have been freaking out by seeing her little boy fighting the fire demon.
"Alumi, Percy, detract him, and I'll get the sealing ready," Silva told us as I nodded to him, and Alumi and I attacked it and then ran away.
I would spray him with water, and Alumi would kick him, and we were doing that as both of us used any opening that Ifit was giving us, and we would then strike him.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Silva had made a sign with his hands.
His hand were together with the thumbs together, knuckle to knuckle, with his pinky and index fingers while his middle and ring fingers touched.
He had opened his mouth, but Ifit picked Alumi out of the air, and then she was thrown at her father as I looked at them.
I shot a hand out as a bubble of water formed, catching both Silva and Alumi and saving them from getting hurt.
"Percy, from the seal he did, I know what he was going to do, and you have enough power, so I'll guide you thru it," Unine told me as I spun around and did as she said.
"For he who calls the name of man," I started saying as Ifit turned to me as nine symbols began to form on the ground around the demon, "Although this chant has just began," I continued to chant as I saw one more symbol more ap under me, "For the demon who walks across the land," the symbols started to glow a cyan colour, "I call the nine that I command," after I said that part the nine symbols around Ifit turned into pillars of energy, "For I am a shepherd but herd not sheep," the tops of the pillars started to gain shapes of something I could not work out, well that was until the following line, "I awake the dragons from their sleep," and as I said that they turned into snake-like dragons as they looked down at Ifit, "I ask you now seal this beast," the dragons descended down with their energy fangs on full display, "So it's evil shall not be unleashed," they then started to spiral around the fire demon who was spewing flame out of his mouth, both normal and the cursed flames, "I would call your name," one of the dragon bit into Ifit's arm as another into his leg, "But you nine are the same," beaneath Ifit cyan energy started to form and it looked like a sea, "Now know that whatever happens," I said as I felt that the chant was almost over as the dragons had taken Ifit into the air, "I call on the Nine Phantom Dragons," I finished chanting as the dragons dove into the sea of energy.
And they were dragging Ifit with them before the symbols vanished.
I felt as Undine left my body, and I turned to her, "Thank you," I said as I smiled at her.
"Your welcome young wave," Undine told me as Silva, Alumi, and Mom walked over.
Silva and Alumi walked over, and Mom ran around and swept me into a bear hug.
"That was amazing skills you have," Silva told me as I looked at him, and Mom let go of me as she smiled at him.
"I'm Sally Jackson, and as you know, this is Percy Jackson," Mom told Silva and Alumi.
Silva nodded while Alumi scoffed, "So what, he managed to use Soul Integration with a Kami-class," She said as Silva looked down at her with a fond smile.
"It's not just that he used two techniques that normally take years to perform," Silva said as amazement washed over me, "You have skills to be a shaman," Silva said as confusion replaced the amazement.
"A what," I asked as the amour over Silva faded and the animals I saw before formed around him and the wolf with Alumi.
"It's someone who uses spirits to aid them in everyday life, bring back things that need bringing back or fighting alongside," Silva told him before he then turned to Mom, "And if we begin his lessons now, we can make something that can hide him from monsters and gods that do not know he exists," Silva said as Mom looked amazed before she smiled a bright smile before she turned to me.
"Do you want to do that, learn to be a shaman," She asked me as I looked over to Undine before I nodded.
Silva opened his mouth before a large blue light formed above us, and as we looked up.
It was a giant blue fireball that was heading down at us.
"It seems Ifit wanted to give us a final far well," Alumi said as she looked up; she saw the fireball; she ran up and held her hand out with her thumbs and index fingers touching "with our fingers spread to form a triangle with her thumbs and index fingers.
And I did what she was doing as the fireball approached us.
"Try not to run away from the flames, fish boy," Alumi told me as she looked up as the fireball got closer.
"And what not help a little puppy like you," I told her as we held our hands out.
After a small white fireball entered our hands, I felt the heat from the blue flames waling by the skin.
I saw out of the corner of my eye that Alumi had shifted her hands as one of her hands faced backwards with the thumbs touching the index fingers, forming a rectangle.
And I did the same.
The fireball stopped in the air as it started to form two spirals that spun down to our rectangles to create two small fire balls.
"What are they doing," Mom asks Silva, who walks over to us.
"Something that is needed to do," Silva said as flames were getting pulled into the balls in our hands, "It's called curse consumption," He told Mom as I turned to him.
But I was still focusing on the flames.
"Don't worry, it's only called that, as when the flames form a really small ball, you eat it, and then after a few days, it is gone," Silva told me as I nodded.
I turned back to see that the flames were almost split into the two bottles, and it made a pellet of fire that just hovered in the rectangle I had formed.
I saw that Alumi took the pellet she had formed in her hands and then ate it, and I did the same.
It tasted a little spicy as it went down, as I felt it warm up my body.
Silva looked at Alumi and me before turning to me, "I will report to my superiors, and then I will begin to teach you," Silva said as I nodded before seeing a flicker of flames.
"Father," Alumi said as we all turned to her and found that she had a tiny flicker of the Cursed Blue Flames on her finger.
Like a candle.
We all looked at it; she looked at Silva, "Are you sure that it's going to disperse," She asked him as Mom fainted.
After that, I started my life as a Shaman, with Alumi visiting now and then and the following year, when Silva died in the shaman tournament, Alumi moved in with Mom and me, and she aided in my training to be a shaman.
Now, after five years of training, I'm twelve years old, and until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.
And Alumi was also going to the same school as me.
Now are we troubled kids.
Yes.
On both accounts.
You see when I said early that I was a half-blood, I had started to move into that world around last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan.
With twenty-five mental case kids, two shaman, someone that smelled like a goat and two teachers on a yellow bus heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to have a look at ancient Greek Roman art and equipment.
To some, it sounded like torture, as were most of the trips that Yancy did.
But thankfully Mr Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip.
So I had a little hope.
Mr Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair.
He had thinning hair, a scruffy beard, and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.
You wouldn't think that he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.
He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher who could not put his class to sleep.
And so I prayed to the Great Spirit that this field trip would be okay.
But it seemed that with my luck, it was not to be.
You see, bad things happen to me when I'm on field trips.
Take the last three years, for example.
Last year we had gone to the Saratoga battlefield, and a ghost of a son of Ares had integrated himself with a Revolutionary War cannon.
And as I was standing the closest to it when it fired, I got blamed when the bus exploded.
I was expelled.
The year before that, we went to the Marine World shark pool, and from what Unidne told me, one of the sharks told me the lever.
I hit the wrong one, and we all dipped in the water.
And that was when I discovered I could understand sharks and all sea life.
But I was still expelled.
And the year before that, I gained a second spirit so when Uninde finds her siblings, I would not be without a guardian ghost.
He was a Japanese spirit who was a master of ice magic, which I could use when we Soul Integrate.
He was a tall man with teal-green hair that reached his lower back and was dressed in a pale blue kimono so that in the end, both me and Alumi were fighting a demon with the help of the spirit.
The demon was defeated, and people were saved.
We got exposed.
And I could go on, but let's get back to the main focus, shall we.
Both I and Alumi were hoping for this trip to be good.
We were determined that it would be.
Now when we were on the bus, going thru the city, I had to put up with Nancy Bobofit, this freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my male best friend, Grover, in the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.
I said male because Alumi noted she is the favourite female best friend, and if I dare say otherwise, I will find myself sleeping outside on the roof in a little dog house.
So I agreed with her.
Now back to Grover.
He's an easy target because he was scrawny and cried when he got frustrated.
And he was the student that smiled like a goat, and if you're wondering how I know, that is thanks to both Platinum Fang and Silver Tail.
Platinum Fang is the name of Alumi's wolf spirit, and Silver Tail is the coyote who had belonged to Silva but was now with Alumi, so she would always have a part of her father with her and out of her five original spirits, she kept only Platinum Fang as the others wanted to pass on.
Anyway, Grover must have been held back a few years as he had the start of a wispy beard on his chin.
And on top of that, he could not walk tight, so he had a note excusing him from PE for life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs, and it looked like every step he took hurt.
But do not let that fool you.
When it was enchilada day in the cafeteria, he would become an Olympic athlete running the six hundred meters.
Anywho, Nancy Bobosit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair because she knew that both me and Alumi could do nothing about it.
The headmaster had threatened us with death-by-in-school suspension if anything went wrong.
"I'm going to kill her," Alumi said as Grover looked at her and tried to calm her down.
"No, don't; it's okay I like peanut butter," He told us as Alumi looked at him deadpan.
He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch as it sailed past my eyes as I looked at him.
I let out a breath before I muttered, "That's it," I said as I started to get up, but Grover had pulled me back to my seat.
"You're both already on probation," He reminded us as we tried to calm down, "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."
And after walking with Alumi and a few others.
I wish me and Alumi could have decked Nancy right then and then, as death-by-in-school suspension would have compared to the mess that I was going to be unknowingly dragged into.
Mr Brunner led the museun tour.
He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, post marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.
And even if I knew that the spirits of the people from this time period still shocked me how this stuff managed to survive three thousand years.
He gathered us around a four-meter-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age.
I was trying to listen to what he had to say because it was kind of interesting, but everyone around me was talking, and every time I or Alumi would tell them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodds, would give us the evil eye.
Mrs Dodds was this little maths teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old.
She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.
She had come to Yancy halfway through the year when our last maths teacher had a nervous breakdown.
From her first day, Mrs Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.
But when I saw her one day, I did notice she feared me and held the same fear for Alumi.
That was when we both knew that she was not human, as the only being that can sense what we are, are spirits, monsters and gods.
And we hoped that it was the last one I had started wearing after getting that briefly trained by Silva before his passing, prayer beads that have been marked so that I would be hidden from monsters.
But Alumi and I knew it was not to be when I came back from detention one day and joked, saying that I didn't think she was human when Grover looked me dead in the eye and said, "You're absolutely right."
Mr Brunnner kept talking about Greek funeral art.
Finally, Nancy snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up."
But it came out louder than I meant it.
So much so that everyone was laughing at me, and Alumi slapped the back of my head.
Mr Brunner stopped his story.
"Mr Jackson," He said as I turned to him, "Did you have a comment," He asked me.
I could feel my face heating up as I said, "No, sir."
Mr Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele.
"Perhaps you'll us what this picture represents," He asked me as I looked over to the carving.
"That's Kronos eating his kids, right," I asked him as I recognized it.
"Yes," Mr Brunner said, obviously not satisfied, "And he did this because," He asked me.
"Well, Kronos what the king of the Titans, and as he did not trust his kids who were the gods," I said as I racked my brain for the answer and made sure not to mess up Titan and god, "So, um, Kronos ate them, first with Hestia, then went Demeter and Hera before his sons Hades and Poseidon, but the Titan queen Rhea tricked her husband into eating a rock instead of the baby Zeus," I told him as it came to me with Alumi showing a rear smile.
She was the one to 'teach' me this, just in case my godly parent was Greek.
And by 'teach', I mean torture, as I had to do laps with Platinum Fang chasing me around in the body of a chainsaw as she was teaching me, and if I got the answer wrong, she would add more laps.
Mr Brunner indicated me to continue, "And much later when he grew up, Zeus tricked Kronos into trowing up his brothers and sisters-," I said as the girls behind me said 'Ewe', but I ignored them, "And so there was a ten-year war between the gods and the Titans with the gods winning in the end," I finished as I head Alumi sigh.
And that was when I knew I was getting more 'training' from her, and I was sure I had a tear in my eye.
Some snickers from the group behind me with Nancy mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life; like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"
"And why, Mr Jackson," Brunner said, "To paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life," He asked me.
"Busted," Grover muttered as Alumi gained a small smile.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.
At least Nancy got in trouble, too, and Mr Brunner was the only teacher at Yancy who ever caught her saying anything wrong.
He had radar ears.
I thought about his question before I answered, "Because it teaches us that every action has consequences; Kronos was cursed by his father when he killed Ouranous so that his children would, one day, overthrow him and replace him," I said as I saw that Alumi was gaining an air of pride that I had wished that I did not start to answer.
But I did not want to get chased by a chainsaws posses by a wolf spirit, "In his paranoia, Kronos ate his children," I continued saying, "But his wife had hidden baby Zeus from him, and when Zeus grew up, he freed his siblings from Kronos' stomach, and they waged war on him for years and in the end the gods won defeated their father and sliced him into million pieces and threw him in Tartarus, the darkest part of the underworld, thus, ending the rule of the Titans; with the morale of the story is that even gods make mistakes and that no deed goes unpunished."
Mr Brunner beamed at me as he nodded as his favourite student got the answer right, and I showed some of my brains.
Well, the ones I had left from Alumi's 'teaching' methods.
"Full credit, Mr Jackson, that was an excellent explanation," He told me as I smiled back at him, "Now, on that happy note, happy note, it's time for lunch; Mrs Dodds would you lead us back outside," Mr Brunner said.
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other and acting like doofuses.
Grover, Alumi and I were walking with them when Mr Brunner said, "Mr Jackson."
I knew it was coming as I told Alumi and Grover to carry on as I turned to Mr Brunner, "Sir," I asked him.
Mr Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.
"You must learn the importance of your answer," Mr Brunner told me as I nodded, "When the time arrives, you will have to make the right decision," Mr Brunner added cryptically.
I was confused about what a tyrant rule was to do with me.
I thought he was talking about the test that was coming up, so I replied, "Yes, sir."
As Mr Brunner and I walked out, a statue drew my attention.
It was a girl wearing a brown dress with a shawl covering her hair.
I narrowed my eyes at her as she winced and mouthed 'Chipmunk cheeks' at her before Mr Brunner and I made it outside.
Well, I made it outside first, and I turned to Mr Brunner to find that he was looking at the stele sadly like he'd been at the girl's funeral.
Then he told me to eat my lunch as I turned to where 'Chipmunk cheeks' was, only to find her gone.
The class was gathered outside on the museum's front steps, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.
Overhead, a massive storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.
And I knew it was not global warming, so something had either a god of storms or a storm spirit, as the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas.
We had snow storms like blizzards, flooding and wildfires from lighting.
And if I were being honest, I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.
But with how things are nowadays, no one noticed it.
Some of the guys from my class were pelting pidgins with Lunchables crackers.
Nancy was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's bag, and of course, Mrs Dodds didn't see anything while eating a stake sandwich that looked to still be bleeding.
I, Grover and Alumi sat on the fountain's edge, away from the others.
We thought that if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.
"Detention," Grover asked.
"Nah, Brunner, wouldn't do that to fish face," Alumi said as I shook my head at her with a smile.
"She's right; he just wanted to warn me about the upcoming tests," I told them as they nodded.
None of us said anything for a while.
Then, when I thought he would give me some profound philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple."
I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.
And that was when I knew something was going to happen as even thou I don't like to admit it, I have a massive appetite.
So when something was going to go wrong, my appetite vanished.
I saw that Alumi looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she figured it out as handed Grover my apple.
I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue and thought about my home, only a little ways uptown from where we sat.
I hadn't seen Mom since Christmas, and I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home.
I knew she'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed that I left school.
She'd send me right back to Yancy, and she would remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years, and I was probably going to be kicked out again.
I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.
I could see that Mr Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp.
He ate celery while he read a paperback novel, The Great Gusberry, I think anyway.
A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.
I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy appeared in front of me with her ugly friends; I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.
"Oops," She grinned at me with her crooked teeth.
Her freckles were orange as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
I tried to stay cool.
Really I did
And I tiled to follow what the school counsellor had told me a million times, 'Count to ten; get control of your temper,' But I was so mad my mind went blank.
But a wave roared in my ears.
And that was when I called on my demi-god powers over water as I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me."
Mrs Dodds materialized next to us.
Some of the kids were whispering:
"Did you see-"
"-the water-"
"-like it grabbed her-"
I feel the eyes of Alumi on me as I turned to her with a weak smile.
And all she did was shake her head, and I knew that I was in trouble again.
As soon as Mrs Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs Dodds turned on me.
There was a triumphant fire in her eyes as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.
And so I summoned a Shikigami and had it tell Alumi it went time as the maths teacher walked over, "Now, honey-"
Real sweet, I know.
But it was the words she used when giving me detention or some other punishment.
"I know," I grumbled as I looked at her and held something in my hand, "A month erasing workbooks."
That wasn't the right thing to say.
"Come with me," Mrs Dodds said.
"Wait," Grover yelped out, "It was me; I pushed her," He told Mrs Dodds as Alumi looked at him with dead fish eyes, and I looked at him in shock.
I could not believe he was trying to cover for me; I mean, Mrs Dodds scared Grover to death.
She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled, "I don't think so, Mr Underwood," She told him.
"But," Grover tried, but she cut him off.
"You will stay here," She told him as her eyes glowed red, and Alumi nodded before stealth ing away.
Grover looked at me desperately, but I patted him on the shoulder, "It's okay, man," I told him, "Thanks for trying."
"Honey," Mrs Dodds barked at me, "Now," She said.
Nancy Bobofit smirked.
I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.
I then turned to face Mrs Dodds, but she wasn't there; she was standing at the museum entrance, way to the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.
Okay, something is up, I thought as I climbed the steps after her, and when I was halfway up, I saw Grover, who looked pail, look at Mr Brunner, like he wanted Mr Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr Brunner was absorbed in his novel.
That was alright as if Mrs Dodds was what I think she was then I had just the thing waiting for her when I got in and when I looked back at the doors to the museum I found that Mrs Dodds was gone.
"What are you going to do, young wave," Undine asked me as I entered the building.
"If she's a god, then Alumi and I will banish her; if she's a demon, then we will do the same," I told the water spirit, who nodded.
Okay, I thought.
She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.
But apparently, that wasn't the plan.
I followed her deeper into the museum.
When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.
Except for us, the gallery was empty.
Mrs Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods, and she was growling.
And I had heard that growling before with Ifit and how she looked at the frieze like she wanted to destroy it.
"you've been giving us problems, honey," She told me.
I did the safe thing but kept a hold of the thing in my hand as I said, "Yes, ma'am."
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket, "Did you think you would get away with it," She said as her eyes turned evil, and I knew she would strike.
"So you decided to show your real colours," I asked as I looked at her; she looked shocked.
"You know what I am," She growled at me as she changed her form.
Her eyes turned to barbecue coals, her fingers stretched and turned to talons, and her jacket melted into large leathery wings.
She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me into ribbons.
And from the 'lessons' Alumi had given me, I knew that this was a Fury that was sent by Hades.
Before she could attack, I used Soul Intergreat with Undide and held out what I had in my hand.
It was a stick of driftwood.
I tucked the driftwood in my pocket as I skated across the floor over to Mrs Dodds as water formed blades around my hand, and before she could get away, Alumi ran behind her as she integrated with Platinum Fang.
She could not get away in time as we both took a swing at her, with Alume using her fingers like claws and me using the water blades.
Then something strange happened.
Mr Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the gallery doorway, holding a pen in his hand.
"What ho, Percy-oh you already," He said as he looked at the golden sand on the floor.
"You knew," I asked him as I pointed the water blade at my favourite teacher with a frown on my face.
He looked at Alumi and me before rolling in, "Yes, I knew that she was a kindly one," He told us as I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Why did you not attack her with your sword then," Alumi said as she pointed at the pen in his hand; it shifted into a sword, and I felt it calling to me.
Mr Brunner looked over to her with a sigh, "I did not want to draw attention to Percy," He said as he looked at me.
"Because I'm a half-blood," I asked him as Undine, and I cancelled the integration.
"You know," He asked me as he looked at Undine.
"Yes, my shaman teacher told me, and all I know is that he is a god of water," I told him as he nodded.
"I see," He muttered as he looked back out the way he came, and I saw Grover, and he walked in.
And I looked like he was walking fine.
"Percy, I must know how much do you know of the godly world," Mr Brunner asked me.
"If you're asking about the weather, then I know that either a god of storms or a storm spirit is mad about something," I told him as he nodded.
"Do you know about the camp," Mr Brunner asked me as I nodded, "I see, and why have you not gone," He asked me with a look that all teachers gave their students when they did something wrong.
"Because I know that my mother is not able to get thru the barrier even though she is a clear-sighted mortal," I said as he winched, "And now that I know that the Fury was after me, I know that they would go after he as well," I told him as he nodded but winched at the name that I used.
"I see," Mr Brunner said as he turned to Alumi, "You are a shaman as well, yes," He asked her as she nodded as Grover looked at me.
"Shaman," He asked me with a confused smile.
I smiled back, knowing that Grover would not do anything wrong, "I'll tell you later," I told him.
"Yes, you could welcome clear-sighted mortals into your camp so that they can help demi-gods out and help bring them to camp," Alumi told him as he nodded as he closed his eyes.
"That is an idea that I have been having for a while," Mr Brunner said as he looked back at me, "Then when school finishes, you must tell your mother this," He told me as I nodded, then he looked at the gallery doorway a perky blond woman with striking grey eyes as she walked over to us.
"Are you ready, my dear," Mr Brunner told her as she nodded, "Alright then, Percy, Alumi, meet Mrs Kerr; she is a daughter of Athena, and she is going to take the place of the Kindly One that was here," Mr Brunner said as he muttered under his breath before nodding.
"Now then, come along; we only have a few seconds before the Mist will start working again," He told us as we nodded and followed him as Undine followed.