"Are you sure he's alive?"
"Sure, I mean his chest is moving up and down."
"I guess but will he wake up soon? It's been 2 days."
"Quiet now! It looks like he's getting up"
Percy groaned as he opened his eyes. Blinded by the light, he slammed them shut in the hope to block out the pain that came upon the sudden exposure to the brightness. A cool towel came from the side and was placed on his head while the lights were dimming down.
"Relax, child, you are in good hands. You have been resting for a while now." A deep voice came from his side.
"How long?" Percy croaked.
"2 days lad"
Percy's sight adjusted to the levels of light inside the room. As his sight returned, Percy was able to make out where he was. Percy appeared to be in some medical room, cabinets lining the upper areas on the walls. With some drawers below them most likely holding more medical supplies. A white veil around the bed could be pulled to provide some privacy for the injured.
Percy looked around the room and was able to make out the figures in the room with him. A short girl with a long white dress and red accents. A girl similar to the one that Aidios showed him earlier sat on a chair near the corner of the room. Only this girl was different from the princess. Alfin had long golden blonde hair that was wavy whereas this girl had long blonde hair that fell to the floor. Her eyes are a deep crimson instead of the soft blue like Alfin's. Percy also felt waves of power coming off of her, similar to a minor god or goddess.
"What is your name my boy?" That deep voice from before belonged to an older gentleman who sat at Percy's right.
"Per-Percy Jackson" Percy coughed out his throat, sounding terrible after a few days of no use.
"I'll get you some water, I'll be right back." The older man left the room and closed the door in search of some water.
"You crashed through my roof." The crimson-eyed girl stated as she rose from the chair.
"Umm sorry, my ride didn't have any power steering." Percy joked as she came closer to his side.
"You owe me a roof." She told him as she looked him over.
Feeling awkward, Percy looked at his body to see they patched him up well enough. A lot of bandages covered his torso and arms, and a patch went over his shoulder.
"Thanks for patching me up, umm I don't know your name." Percy thanked in an awkward tone.
"Silly mortals, you think you can just ask for my name as if you have earned the right." She laughed.
As the crazy girl kept laughing, the door opened again to reveal the older man. He came back with some water and another girl, this one with glasses, following behind him.
"Here load some water for your throat." The older man passed Percy the cup.
"Grandmother, stop embarrassing everyone and act like you're the elder for once." The girl from behind the older man lectured.
"Oh, Emma my dear I can act in any way-"
"Rose my dear you still are only four feet it looks more comical than scary to see a young kid trying to scare a teenager." The older man cut who Percy now could name Rose.
Percy had enough of everyone acting like he didn't have questions. With a lot of pain in his body, Percy stood up from the bed. Everyone in the room looked at the boy who just woke up, it took them a second to realize what was happening. Both the older man and girl with glasses ran towards Percy as he started to topple over.
"Easy there lad, you're still injured and need some rest." The older man spoke as he grabbed onto Percy.
"Water, I need water…big water." Percy groaned out as he felt a wave of pain wash over him.
"The water can wait, my boy, you need to get back into bed."
"Wait…Emma got him the cup of water from the bedside he left it there." Rose commanded.
"Grandmother now is not the time, he's starting to bleed on the floor." The girl with glasses exclaimed and pulled out some gauze from the drawer on the side wall.
"He needs water right, we will give him the water. Now Emma give him the glass." Rose said as she started to sit back in her chair and crossed her arms.
Emma turned around and grabbed the water from the desk next to the bed. She passed it over to Percy who took the cup and dumped it all over his body. As the water covered him, Percy felt some of his smaller cuts start to heal and a little burst of energy filled him.
"Much better, thank you." Percy smiled gratefully.
The three in the room all stared at him which caused Percy to start to freak out a bit. Rose sat on her chair with a smirk on her face as she confirmed her theory. Emma and the older man both stared at him in confusion.
"Artius please go fetch our friend here more glasses of water, I will not have him jumping in the pond outside." Rose told the older man.
"Yes right away." Artius left the room to get more water.
"Now what is your name child and where do you come from?" Rose asked with a flash of crimson in her eyes.
Percy suddenly felt compelled to answer her questions and he decided to give the whole honest truth. "Percy Jackson. I grew up in New York City and was brought here by the Goddess Aidios."
Rose's eyes widened in shock for a moment before they settled back into the neutral state they were in before. Percy looked ahead and wished for the veil to cover him from them as he didn't know how these strangers would react to that information.
"I see, she is playing her games again. What did she tell you, let me guess the world needed saving." Rose questioned with a knowing tone in her voice.
"I was dying…she stopped me from dying. She asked me for help and said I was the best choice." Percy answered.
Rose moved away and allowed Emma who was behind her throughout this to move to Percy's side. Emma took the cloth that Percy was given before and placed it off onto the side so it can be cleaned later. Percy turned to look at this girl who gave off the same type of power that came from Rose when he looked more closely. Waves of power came off of her and it took Percy a second to pull himself away from staring at her.
"Oh, I'm sorry you don't truly know who I am yet. I am Emma Millstein. I tended to your injuries at first but I am not the best with normal medical treatment." Emma smiled at Percy.
"It's okay, you did a great job with it." Percy showed off how well it was to her.
"Mr. Jackson you crashed through a roof so I think 'great' is underselling how good Emma did at patching you up." Rose commented from the side
"Grandmother that's not needed, I only did what you showed me."
"No, she's right you did an amazing job patching me up. I haven't been this injured in a bit of time so I guess I didn't think about my well-being. So thank you Emma for patching me up." Percy quickly cut Emma off.
"Well thank you for the kind words, I wish I could have done more." Emma looked away from Percy.
A loud knock came from the door that drew the attention of all three in the room. Emma stood close to the door and went to open it. As soon as she opened the door Artius came moving back into the room with a large tray of cups. Each of the cups was filled to the brim with water. Percy let out a sigh of happiness at the sight of the water. When Artius walked closer to Percy he grabbed a cup and reached it out to the teenager.
"Your water my boy, make sure you take it slow. Or else you can choke." Artius instructed.
Percy just shrugged and raised the cup and gave a quick thanks to Artius. Rose cleared her throat to get Percy's attention after drinking a few cups of water.
"Well now that you have your water, can you tell us why and how you came here? Aidios doesn't interfere with the world that often." Rose looked toward Percy in expectation.
"Right well, bear with me, she only gave me some knowledge of this world. I'm a demigod and in my world, we are in a war. I was fighting in Tartarus with my girlfriend when I pushed her into the exit and I stayed behind. Aidios took me from the place where I started to lose and was about to die. It's like you said before, she told me this world needed my help." Percy was watched by Rose to see if he was lying.
"I believe you, of course I could just have used my magic to force you to answer." Rose waved her hand in the air as if to wave the idea away.
"Okay well, then what's the next step from here?" Percy raised his eyebrow in inquiry.
"You're gonna tell me what this problem is that Aidios has to drag you out here." Rose demanded.
"A darkness is approaching and she asked me to help the heroes that are destined to rid the world of it." Percy answered.
Looking down Rose thought to herself what the darkness could be. She released out a loud and heavy breath and looked up at Percy.
"You need to learn more about the world, you speak very rough common language here but you can learn. Then we can see if we can get you into Thors with Emma. You'll meet some people there that can help you more with combat and meeting heroes." Rose informed Percy.
Percy nodded and stood up fully from the bed. "I promise you that you won't regret this."
"I better not, we have 8 months to get you ready. Let's begin shall we?" Rose smirked as she walked out the room leading Emma and Artius out.
"My lad. Meet us near the fountain in the front when you're ready to train." Artius instructed.
Percy gave a slight nod and started to get changed into the outfit that was placed out for him. After getting fully changed and taking his time to enjoy standing on his own two feet. Percy walked out of the medical wing he was in and into the front room of a big wooden building. Giving him a feeling that this was like the Big House back home, Percy smiled a little before walking outside to join the trio.
'I promise I will get back home to you guys, I swear it.' Percy thought to himself as he grabbed the door knob on the large oak door.
Percy gave it a slight push and opened it to see a little hidden gem of a village. Houses lined the outside of the center. With a fountain and strange stone pillars in the center. Several villagers walked around the village and gave Percy a strange look as they had never seen him before. Percy smiled and waved, however, there was no response from them.
Seeing the trio he was familiar with, Percy decided it was best to jump into training if he had a short amount of time to get ready for the darkness.
"I see you finally joined us, Percy. I thought you might have gotten lost." Rose said with a teasing tone.
"Sorry I couldn't see you from up near the big house. You're really small from back there." Percy quipped back pointing at the direction of the wooden building.
Rose grumbled something about tall demigods being jerks but Artius stepped forward and drew Percy's attention to him.
"Well lad, let us get you training shall we?" The older man said with a kind smile on his face.
"Percy, the area you will be training in is filled with monsters so be careful." Emma spoke up.
"I promise I will be." Percy smirked. He could take care of some monsters.
Percy walked with the older man to one of the strange structures on the edge of the village. The structure seemed to be somewhat of a focus on a point in the middle of a platform.
"This will bring you to the training area. If you're ready, step on. Make sure you bend your knees for the landing." Artius called out as Percy walked on the platform.
"Wait what?" Percy asked as he stopped in the middle. Suddenly he felt a warm light cover him and blind him for a second.
When the light faded Percy was gone. Leaving nothing but an empty platform. Artius looked at the platform and gave the boy the prayer.
"Let us hope he survives the training, Aidios." Artius prayed to the goddess.
A soft breeze was the only answer he received.
Thanks to TidalMoon2003 for doing the beta work for this chapter.
I have my own discord server with a few other authors some I do beta work for and other authors that like to chill and just talk the link to the server is in my bio and will be placed below.
Link for the server: tNTvnQSCGs