The wind raced through his hair, and branches raked across his face. The ground came up to meet his steps as he sprinted as fast as he could through the dense forest.
This was a feeling he would never get tired of.
"Perseus!" he heard from behind him. "Get back here!"
Even when he was scared for his life.
He could have kept running for hours, but he knew she would not allow the game to continue that long. She had a bone to pick. And that bone just so happened to belong to him.
He could hear her closing in on him. Despite the danger of the situation, he couldn't contain the grin that spread across his face.
"Time to make this interesting."
He shot into the sky.
There was something to be said about the beauty of the night sky.
The moon glowing down upon humanity. The stars shining with knowledge and hope. The darkness filling in the gaps to wash away the daylight.
As he raced across the stars, he couldn't help but appreciate this beauty.
The constellations glowed and seemed to come alive, greeting their Lord. The stars twinkled just a little brighter than before.
He almost got so caught up in his domain that he failed to notice the moon chasing after him.
"You won't get away from me, Perseus!" It seemed to yell after him.
He ran faster.
"Mom! Help me!" He yelled to seemingly no one.
Alongside him, as he continued to run through that night sky, darkness seemed to coalesce and form a vaguely humanoid shape.
"You brought this upon yourself, Perseus. You should have known better." His mother, Night, told him amusedly.
He groaned, but a smile grew across his face. "Yeah, I guess I did."
His mother smiled at him, still following alongside him as he raced across the night. "Do visit home more, would you? I may see you every night, but your siblings dearly miss you."
"I see half of them on Olympus anyway, and I'm in Hades often enough to see most of the rest." He tried to placate her.
"Yes, but you know some of them do not walk the streets of Olympus or the Underworld. Hemera and Aether, for instance, do not get to see you enough, as when you do visit, they are out doing their own duties."
He sighed, but smiled nonetheless at the thought of seeing some of his siblings that he didn't often get to. "I'll try to visit more, I promise."
Nyx smiled. "Good. Now, I believe she is catching up. You better hurry." She faded back into darkness, which dispersed itself across the night sky.
"Why is she always so fast?" He whispered to himself, looking back at the quickly approaching moon. Hopefully the mortals wouldn't notice what was happening.
"It might be time to switch things up again."
He shot back down to Earth.
Olympus looked as spectacular as ever, with its Greek architecture and buildings made of gold. Even at night, the City of the Gods was bathed in ethereal light.
He quickly made his way through the streets, trying to get lost in the bustling crowds of satyrs, nymphs, and gods. As he passed by a group of market stalls, two hands suddenly appeared on his shoulders and turned him around.
"Whoa there, Percy. You look like you've seen a ghost!" The grinning face of Apollo appeared in his vision.
"Oh, thank gods, it's just you, Apollo."
Apollo put a hand over his chest. "Just me? There is nothing 'just' about me! I'm the one and only Apollo. I'm awesome!"
"You're one and only, alright. Now move, I have to go." He turned his head, looking for any sign of her.
Apollo pouted. "You don't want to join me and Hermes in pranking Ares and Hephaestus? We're each going to pretend to be Aphrodite, then lure them to the same bed and tie them to it. It'll be so funny! We've even got Tyche and Nike on board to make sure it works perfectly."
Dang. That actually did sound pretty funny.
"Sorry, Apollo, but I'm kind of in danger right now." Apollo perked up.
"What'd you do to make her mad now?" Apollo laughed.
Perseus just grinned right back at him.
"Perseus!"
He whipped his head around. The crowds started to drift apart to show an angry, auburn-haired goddess who glowed with silver light. Maybe she was actually upset.
"You better run, man." Apollo said, slowly backing away from him.
"Yep, good idea." He took one last look at his pursuer before he took off.
Maybe the game should come to an end.
He sprinted into camp and came to halt.
Roughly 25 teenage girls looked back at him.
"You've got to help me." He practically begged the girls, who just watched him with amusement.
"Thy reap what thou sow, Perseus." Said the lieutenant, Zoe.
"Yeah, good luck!" Phoebe said.
Atalanta just gave him two thumbs up with a grin.
He garnered similar reactions from the rest of the Hunt.
He just pouted back at them.
All of a sudden, he was flat on his back with a hunting knife pressed against his throat.
Huh. She must've appeared right there instead of running. Maybe she really was angry.
In the background, he heard the girls howling with laughter.
"Now, now, Artemis."
"Give it to me." She said, a dangerous gleam in her bright silver eyes.
"Technically, I killed it, so the prize is mine." Perseus said, a little smugly and with a smirk on his face.
She pressed her hunting knife further up against his throat. "You stole my kill."
"Oops." He grinned up at her. "Besides, I know you won't actually kill me. It'd take months, maybe even years, to reform. You'd miss me."
She kept her knife at his throat. "Would I?"
"Fine, have it your way." He held up his hand, and in it, a horn of the Minotaur appeared.
She snatched it out of his hand and got off of him. "There. Was that so difficult?" She held out her hand to help him up.
He grumbled under his breath, though a smile was on his face. "You enjoyed the game, though. Don't even pretend you didn't."
She grinned at him. "Maybe I did. And if so?"
"Then I'd have to start stealing your kills more often."
She walked up to him until their faces were almost touching. "Don't you dare." She pulled him into a kiss.
He heard the whistling and the laughter from the unit in the background, but he didn't care.
He'd loved his thousands of years of life, and he couldn't wait to live thousands more.