Disclaimer: I don't known the world of PJO nor it's characters.
I may have forgotten to put that in for the previous chapters...
Anyways, enjoy!
T-T
Percy's eyes snapped open.
Much to his surprise, the fire was still burning, but woman from last night was nowhere to be seen, much to his disappointment.
Perhaps, he really did enjoy her company.
Percy inspected his body for anything out-of-ordinary, but the only thing he found was back pain from his sleeping posture. A sense of guilt entered his mind for doubting the woman, but it could not be helped.
A guardian must always be on guard no matter the situation.
It's not like he had done anything bad towards her.
Anyhow, Percy decided to apologize the next time he'd see her.
Whenever that'll be? Percy had no clue.
Percy had no idea who that was or where she came from.
The woman didn't leave any way to contact her.
But eventually he would.
Feeling unusually refreshed, he looked around at his location, and his eyes were drawn to the mountain as he remembered his original task.
The only thing left to do was to snuff out the fire, and Percy could be on his way.
But before that, Percy felt compelled to thank the woman for watching over him.
Even though she was no longer here, it still felt right to do.
And for some strange, the warm embers reminded him of the woman.
Although she probably won't hear it, that wouldn't sway his decision in the slightest.
Before putting out the fire, Percy said his thanks and set off for the mountain.
His mind wandered to yesterday's events to how he saved the mistress.
Percy closed his eyes to try to replicate that pulling sensation he felt back then.
A pull from his gut, his hand outstretched.
Hmm..
Strange...
He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it didn't really feel the same. Something was lacking, that he could tell. But what it lacked, Percy had no clue.
What could it be?
His mind thought back that exact moment he had that sensation.
What was he feeling there?
The moment he dodged the spear and saw that it was aimed straight at the mistress.
Oh that's right.
Unbridled rage.
Pure anger at himself for almost ruining everything he worked so hard for.
Those same thoughts manifested themselves again as he recounted the event.
If he didn't dodge, his mistress would've been fine
If he had reacted in time, it would've been fine.
If only he had dealt with the man faster, that situation would've never happened.
Percy definitely could've subdued him faster if he had focused more, so why didn't he?
There were so many things he could've done differently in retrospect.
He knew it was pointless to think about what ifs, but Percy couldn't help it.
Percy almost failed his job as a guardian.
He felt pathetic even thinking about it.
Percy slapped himself.
Enough wallowing.
Focus.
Whatever happened, happened.
This was his punishment, so he had to treat it like one.
Afterwards, he could learn about that power another time.
T-T
Inside a temple that could only be described as beautiful whether it was the halls, the ceiling, the statues, or the pillars. Beautiful was the only word that could describe it all.
Aphrodite was looking at herself in the mirror.
Suddenly, a foreign feeling invaded her body.
It wasn't a bad sensation though. It was the feeling of being made whole again.
The shock that goes through you when you meet that person.
The flash of lightning in your mind telling you that they are the One.
That person who you can instinctively rely on to always take care of you whether you know it or not.
That feeling of unconditional love and knowing that everything will be okay as long as this person is with me.
Aphrodite let her body relish in the pleasure.
For some reason, the initial feeling began to grow in intensity much to the goddess's pleasure and dismay.
Her desires began to overflow out of her body into a pinkish mist around her, filling the temple she was inside.
Oh primordials~
Aphrodite felt her womanhood throbbing as she remembered that there were other people in her temple.
She quickly teleported them away lest they be affected by the mist and succumb into uncontrollable desire.
The feeling became so overwhelming that she couldn't stop herself from getting wet.
It only stopped after 30 minutes of heaven.
As the goddess of love she was capable of feeling every possible amount of love you could possibly imagine. Good or bad, Aphrodite could feel it all.
Most of the time, the goddess can tune out the feeling as the literal incarnation of love and beauty.
However, there are times when the emotions are too overwhelming and could influence her directly.
The love goddess instantly recognized the feeling despite how long ago she last felt it.
How could she ever forget it?
It was one of the most purest and unfiltered paths of love, and Aphrodite's most favorite form of love.
Soul mates.
The reason why Aphrodite loved soul mates specifically was not because it gave her the most pleasure. (That was an added bonus.) But, it was because this sort of love had no prerequisites.
The amount of times Aphrodite has seen sweet love be blockaded due to worldly matters were in the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of times. She had lived for a long time, so this guess was probably accurate.
Love between a noble and a commoner, prevented by their families, so they run away together and live happily ever after?
Phooey!
Those were just stories.
Such stories don't have a happy ending in the real world, which are exactly why they are stories in the first place.
Those that have good endings are those wealthy enough or powerful enough to support that love.
But, destined lovers?
The "I will follow you to the ends of the world."
The "I will tear down the heavens just to be with you."
The "Even if the world ends I will still be by your side."
Soul mates are the type of lovers with no strings attached.
Usually souls mates know exactly who their other half is just by looking at them. The specifics are vague, but they're bodies will know it instinctually.
Although.
It seemed like this pair of soul mates don't realize it. Admittedly. it was a little strange, but Aphrodite paid it no mind. They were the first pair of soul mates to ever influence her to that degree.
Aphrodite giggled at the limitless amount of possibilities of how the two could fall in love.
Hero saves the damsel?
Maybe they slowly develop feelings for each other?
Opposites attract? Well the opposite can be true as well if they mesh too well with together.
There was one thing Aphrodite was sure of.
She was sure that this love story would definitely be interesting to watch.
Soul mates by themselves were not that rare, it happens quite frequently among mortals.
Demigods were few and far between. It is mainly due to their godly heritage, but since they are still partially mortal it can still happen. Some demigods are unfortunate and simply do not live long enough to find their soul mate in the first place.
Gods? Almost impossible.
Sure gods can fall in love, but soul mates were a different story.
Gods inherently have a trait in their blood that specifically prevents it from happening.
Why that is?
Who knows.
Her girl mode was screaming internally, but first Aphrodite HAD to find out who they were.
At first, Aphrodite thought that the pairing would be demigods, that was the most logically sound conclusion. Soul mates between gods was theoretically possible of she worked with her son Eros to make it happen, but it would be much too difficult to pull off even in theoretical terms. The chances of that soul mates between gods naturally happening was infinitely close to zero without some sort of outside intervention.
It would be a miracle if you even got someone to agree to help in the first place unless they were bored or wanted something outrageous. At that point, why even bother asking for help setting up some soul mates when you could get something much better in return.
The chances of natural-born soul mates that were gods were so low that they might as well not exist, but for some reason her gut feeling argued otherwise.
No matter how powerful a demigod pairing was, it could not possibly influence her, the goddess of love, to that extent. At most, it would only last around five to ten minutes according to her estimates. Thirty minutes was far too long to called it a bit of a stretch.
Aphrodite was about to tear her hair off trying to think about before she realized a few things.
A: That she had kicked everyone out of her temple, and they've been stranded outside for an hour now without an explanation.
B: That her entire temple was still filled with pink mist.
And C: That this mist would be painfully hard to get rid of, considering the symptoms of the mist.
Aphrodite didn't swear often, but this was one of those times.
"FOR THE LOVE OF GAIA'S GREEN EARTH!!!"