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Zoe, Percy, and Thalia exited the vehicle in which they'd travelled since the damn dam. They had crossed a vast stretch of land in so short a time, enough that Percy half wondered if they'd been aided or if Zoe had gone far beyond the speed limit that the average person was kept to. The mist, perhaps, would see to it that they remained hidden. That or she'd gotten very lucky that there hadn't been a cop minding them.
"Why's the dirt look red?" Thalia asked, kicking at the particularly hard ground beneath their feet after they'd pulled over, her boot causing a bit of dust to rise as a result. "It's not nearly as green either. This place looks horrible."
"All nature varies based on where you are. It is the beauty of the world," Zoe remarked as she knelt down, her knees brushing the ground — not that she seemed to mind dirtying her garments or skin — and one hand outstretched.
Slowly, and out from under a nearby bush, came an animal. It was a rabbit, and its fur had ensured that it remained very well hidden. Well, to him and Thalia, that was. Somehow, Zoe had seen it in an instant. The poor thing looked hungry and skittish of the two beyond Zoe, but its curiosity and her way with animals ensured that it edged ever closer to her.
Percy, cautiously and as best he could, edged closer to watch the moment Zoe shared with the rabbit. Much to his surprise, as he did so, it reacted with nought but a quick glance his way before it took another few hops closer to Zoe, the girl reaching for something in her pockets and slowly bringing the item, whatever it was, closer to the animal.
Seconds ticked by and then, when her hand was fully open, the rabbit dove forward and toward it with a ravenous, gluttonous nature. It didn't seem to mind that Zoe was a humanoid, a natural predator of its kind — a Hunter one could say. The rabbit, wary-looking and emaciated, gorged itself as best it could so quickly that Zoe's hand was forcibly moved to and from and the contents therein were spilt upon the ground.
Zoe's smile was serene bordering on bliss when her free hand stroked softly, so softly, the back of the rabbit as it fed. Not even a Princess in most of the movies he'd ever sat through could do what she'd done on this trip.
"Percy, Thalia," Zoe whispered, her tone the softest and most girlish he'd heard since he'd met her. "Do as I do if you so wish to feel the softness of an animal, wild and free. I find there is little and less quite as soft and sweet."
That definitely doesn't sound like any hunter I know… but I'm not going to pass up the chance to say I've pet a wild rabbit, Percy thought as he did as Zoe said, still mesmerised in a way by her voice and the picture she'd painted before him.
Thus, Percy edged closer until he too was crouching on the ground. He was beside Zoe, enough so that their legs were touching, and as she had done, he outstretched a hand whilst the creature, small and starving, fed. Thalia remained watchful, in fact, she moved away so as to recline against the truck, clearly wishing she hadn't been woken up for the sake of nature and to observe the city of San Francisco before them.
She didn't know what she was missing. Percy's hand went closer and closer to the rabbit's back, until, upon reaching it, Zoe retracted hers as he made to stroke the creature's side. It felt thicker in portions and softer in others, but altogether, as she'd said, it was a wondrous feeling.
One that went on for nearly a minute or so before the food dried up and the creature, with one last look at the two kind strangers, tore off until it reached a stream or tributary thereof. Zoe and Percy rose from the ground shortly thereafter, the former wiping her hand upon the dry, dust-covered dirt to remove the remnants of bunny saliva.
"You know not what you miss," Zoe admonished Thalia as she started towards the vehicle with her eyes set upon the mountain in the distance. "Time runs short for us, the path ahead and our fates creep toward us. You would be wise to appreciate the world whilst you can."
"It's Percy or I that aren't going to make it. Our father's, the prophecy — I'd rather spend my time eating my favourite snacks, drinking the best drinks and looking for cool things people left behind than petting wild animals that might have the flu," Thalia responded back, a bit of a bite to her tone.
Zoe's face had an emotion he wasn't confident he could read, flash across it after the words in which Thalia spoke. He had always been quite horrible when it came to doing so. "If that is what you think, you are free to do so," Zoe turned to Percy. "Aid me shortly, Percy Jackson. The vehicle hungers and you are more familiar with shopping for its sustenance than I."
Percy initially felt confusion in response to her words, and then realisation dawned on him. She meant the truck needed gas, and she wasn't quite as comfortable as he would be when it came to stopping at a gas station to fuel it. Briefly, he wondered why the Gods and Goddesses above couldn't just give it an endless supply of gas or figure something else out for it to run, but then he shrugged. He wasn't a deity of any type, just a demi-god, so he wasn't really sure what they could… but surely it couldn't be that difficult.
"Of course," he responded, and at such words, Zoe returned to the driver's seat, their destination, the mountain.
Well. The gas station, but that didn't quite have the same epic quality that 'the mountain' and the connotations thereof did.
"I'll get the pump," Percy said as the truck came to a slow, rolling stop at the station, the mountain closer and all but looming over them. Zoe and Thalia, meanwhile, acknowledged him each in their own way as he disembarked the vehicle.
Percy thought they might have something to say to him when Thalia's window made a noise, the thing going down an inch or so, but when no words came and it didn't continue to descend, he shrugged. She'd probably done it by accident without realising it. That wouldn't be the first time, and he didn't think it'd be the last.
"... of the Hunt were fond of men, but I guess he's not quite a man yet, huh?" Thalia asked, her voice growing louder as Percy pushed the pump into the vehicle and activated it. They'd gotten collectively lucky when the place wasn't card only or pay first.
"I know what you intend to start," Zoe's voice answered, and in it, annoyance easily picked upon. "Percy is young, 'tis true, nary one from Camp Half-Blood is not. You as well are but an errant child, and yet I would call you woman as much as him, man. Of all upon this quest, however, it would be he whom I would call a hero."
"Like him, huh?"
Percy found himself edging closer to the cracked down even if he knew he shouldn't. It was wrong, but maybe Thalia hadn't done it as an accident. Maybe she'd done it on purpose, especially since she was speaking so loudly to Zoe, who answered in a louder, aggravated tone of voice.
No answer came. He thought Zoe might have turned to ignore Thalia, and then he heard a sigh, followed shortly thereafter by more words.
"Percy Jackson is so very different to those with whom I've met throughout my centuries of life. When first I saw him, I thought he might prove to be more of the same ilk as Hercules, for it was he who first I armed with his 'Riptide' as he has called it. I have acknowledged the falseness of said comparison. Percy is without evil or wrath, selfishness or wickedness. Would that I name any man friend, it would be he, for no other will ever prove worthy of the title," Thalia made to speak, but Zoe spoke louder, her voice strict, and with an edge. "That will be all the amusement which I offer you, Thalia Grace. I grow weary of your incessant teasing. It is beyond you to try and form a union between him and I."
Whilst, admittedly, he hadn't thought about any type of union with Zoe throughout the quest… well, maybe aside from recognising her as pretty beautiful, the thought struck him. Zoe hadn't quite hated him for quite some time, not since after he'd tried to sacrifice himself, and especially not after he'd given that Lion's pelt away.
Still, she was right. It wasn't like he'd ever have any sort of chance with her. It wasn't possible. The Hunt, Artemis, and even she herself would all be against it; those alone were adversaries that he'd never be able to overcome even if his Wise Girl was on one side of him and his best friend Grover was on the other.
Percy began to daydream, his thoughts running rampant as he thought of Zoe's incredible acknowledgement of him and the turnabout of her opinion about him. He had heard from her words that were similar, but they hadn't been that impassioned or favourable. Not to that degree.
It was so strange, so jarring even, that it took the door opening and Thalia kicking him twice over for him to realise they were nearly at the 'full' indicator of the truck and he hadn't slowed up thus far. Thus, with a quick jerk and dribbles of gas falling to the ground below, he yanked out the pump and returned it whence it belonged. He paid shortly thereafter, only echoing a soft 'thanks' to the very confused-looking man at the register.
When he returned back to the vehicle, his mind still somewhat in shock, he paused. The truck was still present, Thalia and Zoe were pointedly avoiding conversation based on the look of things, but neither aspect was one with which he focused on.
No, that would be the large crowd forming in a nearby ally, dark, dirty-looking and likely rank-smelling. Were it nought for the familiar man at the head of it — man being loosely used — Percy wouldn't have paid it half as much attention as he had. But he recognised the man, the one that had changed much and more. Doctor Thorn, and behind him, minions of a kind Percy wasn't certain about.
They looked to be men. Dirty, dangerous men the likes of which he imagined wouldn't be remotely as foolish as the skeletons, on account of their status as men, to harm them… it would mean so much more.
Percy looked between the crowd, which was fifty or so feet away, and the vehicle, which was twenty at the most. The decision was easy, and at a sprint, Percy started towards it. From out of the corner of his vision, he could make out a few of the more anxious-looking followers of Doctor Thorn start after him, but he made it to the truck far before they made it to him.
"Go, drive!" Percy all but yelled as he slid into the backseat of the truck, not minding the dirty, empty wrappers as he usually might. "Hurry!" he urged when Zoe made to move sans the expeditious nature he knew to be necessary.
She shot a look over her shoulder at him, likely curious or not approving of his tone, and as her eyes widened a fraction, so to did her hands find the keys with certainty as the ignition sounded and the engine of the truck roared to life. Seconds later, the men were gone from any form of vision and the vehicle in which they sat was barreling down the streets of San Francisco.
Percy's relief was palpable, and finally, he could flick Thalia on the arm in disapproval of the conditions she'd left in the back. She was just lucky that Zoe began to grill him instantly about what had just occurred, otherwise, he'd have given her quite the scolding about cleanliness.
He would have made his mom and Annabeth proud. Both of them.
"Wait," Zoe said with furrowed brows. "It was Thorn, the man with whom we fought moons ago at the head of this rabble?"
Percy nodded, and when he remembered that he was no longer seated beside her, he vocalised his answer for her benefit rather than think that she'd look back to see him. "Yeah," he said. "I'm not sure if they were just things that looked like men, or if they were really just men, but I know they were following after him."
"That bodes ill for us, for I imagine 'tis not the last we shall see of him, nor the last encounter in which awaits us as we move ever onwards…" Thalia's finger drummed upon the steering wheel, and then, she spoke again. "Here forth I declare not one of us who remain will separate. It shan't be done, least of all for words that matter as much as the whipping of the wind."
Somehow or for some reason that he couldn't quite explain, Percy imagined that the latter part was meant for Thalia and the 'secret' conversation she'd forced Zoe to have with her while Percy — who was meant to go in with Zoe — went in alone to pay for the truck's gas. When she snickered and Zoe shot an expression of wistfulness betwixt him and her, he imagined that he was right.
He supposed he'd just tell himself he was, really.
"What's the plan then? Are we still just going to go straight for the mountain?" Percy asked. He wasn't sure if it was the right call anymore, not if Thorn was here with a small army.
"Be our circumstances as they may, our goal is without change and 'tis the only path we possess. Thou art without fear, Percy Jackson, and that is known to t— me," Zoe corrected lest she continues to speak in a manner that was older; she'd been doing so good up until then too, what, with not getting back into the old English and all. "We shan't have come this far for him to send us away as a cowed dog."
"Yeah, Percy. The quest only has one of us going out, remember? That means you've got a two-thirds chance of survival. Not bad, if you ask me," Thalia added, earning a glare from Zoe filled with heat and an eyes-closed huff from Percy himself.
That wasn't what anybody needed to hear, and it certainly stopped short any further conversing as Zoe drove them closer still to the mountain ahead, only now, in silence.
"We're finally at the base of it," Thalia said, finally, the slightest hint of awe in her voice as she leaned forward in the passenger seat to get a better view of the tall, imposing mountain. One that would very soon spell the final, waning moments of their quest. "It's pretty cool, I guess," she added when she noticed Percy briefly look her over in the rearview mirror.
Pretty cool, sure, Percy thought as he pulled himself forward so that he was as close to the other two as he could be.
"As we continue… I know for certain, rather, that ahead shall lie a trial, of some sort. I request, nay, I beseech the pair of you that I, be left to handle it. Allow me to do so, and I will ascertain the path ahead safely. Do we have an accord?" Zoe looked betwixt him and Thalia then, her eyes stressing an importance that truly did lie ahead of a type he wasn't certain of.
Suddenly, a creeping sensation of nervousness found itself back in the bowels of Percy. It wouldn't impede his rescue of Annabeth by any means, but there was a queerness, a strangeness… if Zoe was anxious or otherwise worrisome, what was in store for them?
"Sure. If you want to do the dangerous stuff or the talking, either's fine with me so long as we're all out alright — I'd like the chance to bash a few people too if you don't mind. Percy's been showing me up too much," Thalia punched him in the shoulder playfully then, winking in the rearview mirror at him.
Zoe frowned as her eyes danced betwixt them again, enough so that minor creases formed across her otherwise beautiful visage. Rather, he meant, her pretty-ish face.
Suddenly, and very near to their car, a burst of lightning struck. One that was so close that the hair on Percy's arms and the back of his neck rose to meet it. The thunderous roar that followed thereafter alerted him that it wasn't a trick of the mind, and the scorched earth nought but feet from their truck confirmed it if it needed confirming.
It didn't.
"Out!" Zoe ordered, and the doors of the truck were flung open by the youths.
More lightning was visible. Percy could see it, he could. It felt as if he was watching something happen in slow-motion, like it was a movie, as the streak of light came ever downwards as he fled away from the vehicle, one that had seen them through so much.
And then it exploded. It was a fiery, metal-filled explosion that somehow managed to leave him whole and in one piece without so much as a scratch. He looked over at Zoe, who also seemed to be fine, albeit covered in dust and thicket from whence she'd dove for cover.
"Tha—" Percy only just started saying the name of their other companion, Thalia, and then he heard the girl cursing at the sky above, at her father. She was cursing him with words he'd not yet heard her use, and it was vicious-sounding with her anger well-known.
Percy understood just why that was. Zeus had tried to take her out, as it were. It was his lightning, for who elses could it be? He'd missed a shot, something that was uncommon or maybe it'd been a warning. He didn't know. Percy only knew that she was pissed off and he sort of backed her.
At least she was alive and well, he supposed.
"Are you well, Percy? Are you without more metal in your body?"
He blinked at the questions from Zoe, and again at her proximity to him. He'd nearly forgotten how silently she could home, and how quickly as well. In the few seconds that he'd been worrying about Thalia's safety, she had straightened herself up, dusted her clothing off from the dirt of the ground, and made her way over to him keeping only a foot between them.
If that wasn't enough, she'd joked with him. He didn't want to correct her by saying it was lead, the bullets. No, he'd not ruin her little teasing jest. Teasing joke. Gods, she was getting him to speak weirdly now too.
"I'm alright. Just a bit sore from running and diving on this ground. Seriously, why's it so dry and rough?" he huffed, dusted himself off, and gestured across the flaming reck of their vehicle, where Thalia was still cursing the sky. "It's probably pointless to search that for anything that might be useful, but we probably should go and get her before another bolt comes down, shouldn't we?"
"You speak nought but the truth. We would be wise to retrieve Thalia and continue henceforth upon our feet," Zoe agreed, nodding for him to follow her as she made her way over to the angry Thalia, whose face and attention were directed solely at the sky above.
She didn't even seem to take notice of a few scratches, one of which seemed pretty bad if looks were anything to go off of.
"Thalia," Percy said, speaking before Zoe might. "We should get going. If he throws another while we're standing still like this, I don't imagine it'll end as well — come on, Zoe knows the way. We can take a bit of a walk."
"I'm still standing here!" Thalia called to the sky as she patted her chest and stomped her feet. Seconds ticked by, seconds in which she and the other two — Percy and Zoe — continued to stand near her, and seconds in which no further bolts were thrown.
There seemed to be only the three of them and the fiery heat and illumination from their vehicle.
Thalia huffed, sneering, and then she turned on her heels. "Go, then. Lead the way, Zoe. The sooner we're done with this, the sooner I can have words with my father."
Percy so very badly wished to exchange a look with Zoe, but he didn't. Instead, with a nod, strained as it was, Zoe led the trio that they made on foot. That anxiousness or strangeness that had been prevalent in her actions still remained, of that, Percy was certain as her steps were louder and her head moved with her eyes rather than scanning nought but straight ahead.
He would have to figure out what was happening with her. He needed to help her.
Their progress up the mountain was slow, so very slow. Without the truck it had grown tedious, fast. That wasn't even mentioning the slow desire for water that had begun to make itself known in the back of his mind. In their vehicle, they'd had all the food and drink they might want, and now, they had not but a few scant snacks that lay tucked away in their pockets and a bottle of water between them.
They'd been walking for fifteen minutes, admittedly that wasn't a very long time, but he couldn't make out any sort of end in sight.
"Ahead, and soon, we reach the shortcut I aim to take for us to reach the end of the journey," came Zoe's voice from a few steps ahead. "Remember what I said. Leave all discussion to me, for I am familiar with those with whom we shall soon speak as well as the dangers should we speak words the likes of which they find to be wrong."
Percy glanced over at Thalia, and with a roll of her eyes, she nodded. "We remember," Percy then vocalised for Zoe's benefit. "We'll leave the talking and guiding to you, but if there's a fight, we're by your side."
"If a fight there is to be ahead, the foe would be beyond our trio. It would be wise to flee back whence we came, or press onward at great haste, whichever is closer," Zoe said, and as they ascended further, a path, finally, made itself wholly visible to Percy. It was ahead as she'd said, and looked lush and green.
Green the likeness of which he was familiar with, finally.
It seemed as if those last minutes of climbing until they were at the entrance took hours to pass, but eventually, the three had reached the entrance and stood outside of it. Zoe seemed hesitant, her hand lingering at the curtain of vines that was a sure sign of their entrance, and with one last look back at the others, she nodded, and entered.
Percy was quick to follow after her, lest they get separated, and he could feel Thalia hot on his heels.
What Percy saw upon entering after Zoe, aside from the girl herself, was a wondrous, lush grove. One in which nature seemed to flourish despite the conditions of the outside world and the sweltering heat thereof.
"We must move quickly," was all that Zoe said when Thalia made it to his side, and then, with a hand grasping at each of the two, Zoe urged them onward; her grasp was firm and strange-feeling.
She had so very rarely gone so far as to touch him, and that only heightened his anxiousness, though it failed to match hers.
"Why are we rushing through? There could be traps or stuff lying in wait for us — wait, I thought you said you'd have to do the talking?" Thalia's two questions went unanswered as Zoe ushered them through the lushness that was the Garden of, well, wherever or whatever this garden was.
As a result of the lack of attention she was paid, Thalia huffed but got the message nonetheless. Wherever they were and whatever it was that Zoe was hoping to avoid, took precedence over the answering of her inquisitive nature.
Percy, whilst Thalia was asking questions and focusing on their guide, scanned their surrounding ceaselessly. He wasn't comfortable with wherever they were and wouldn't be until they were out of the location. Still, he'd admit the place was beautiful with scents that called to him and a tree a good distance away that seemed more pristine than any other; the pools of water here and there, with blooming flowers and the scent thereof floating around, were pretty great.
If only he'd had a camera on him, his mom and Annabeth would both have likely appreciated the view… Gods, but Grover. Grover would have melted! Man, Percy could imagine how excited his friend would be if he were here, the only thing missing was the ny—
Percy stopped being dragged, or rather, Zoe stopped dragging him as she came to a halt.
"I had imagined we'd be discovered. Remember the words in which I spoke," and then, following those words, Zoe spoke to the creatures, creatures that seemed to be Nymphs of a most beautiful nature that emerged from surrounding thickets and gigantic flowers. "Sisters, it is I."
"Sister?" one of the Nymphs asked in a melodic tone of voice as she giggled and shook her head, even that action, damning as it might be, was made to be beautiful and awe-inspiring. "Nay, you are no sister of ours. Never again."
"No sister of ours," echoed the others as they appeared, their heads nodding as they circled the group like a crescent, preventing them from edging forward.
Again, the 'lead' Nymph spoke. "Turn, turn back. There is nought but trouble and a fight with our father that you shan't win. You and your companions should turn around."
A noise of protest arose from a few of the others, eyes, piercing, enthralling… filled with desire and intentions he imagined he'd like not, focused on him. "Leave the man — he will dance with us. Dance and make merry."
Words with nought but compliments his way were flung at Percy as the group of Nymphs edged closer. He blinked, his mind feeling… troublesome, but when he noticed the eyes of Zoe, searching and as enthrallingly beautiful as those of her sisters, as she'd called them, it was as if he noticed her for the first time. Truly noticed her.
Zoe was as much a beauty as any of the Nymphs near them. More so, when he considered her newfound personality. No, that wasn't right. Her true personality had been revealed as her true beauty had just been.
Once he got over the beauty of her looks and dealt away with the wondrous nature of her eyes, he took notice of the frown that marred her otherwise imperceivably perfect looks. She seemed farther from happy than he'd seen in a very long time, and as the words of her sisters continued to accost them, the frown thereof deepened.
"Percy Jackson is my companion, and he will go where I go. None of you that stand here and cower in the grove shall keep him, nay, I'll not allow that," Zoe took a purposeful step forward, toward the lead Nypmh that had spoken and bid them to leave whence they'd come. "We make to move past you, sister. Atlas will not stop us, nary a person might, for we make to finish our quest and all who might impede our progress will be ushered away with."
The eldest Nymph took a step back, and her head shot elsewhere, looking away from Zoe even as she spoke. "Forward? No. No, you will turn back whence you came. You'd live and survive and be allowed to thrive. Continue your existence."
"Turn back and choose to live," one Nymph called as she edged closer to Percy.
Another spoke, making him turn his head so as to watch her as she too moved closer to him. "You're not strong enough to best our Father," she said, a hand outstretched and beckoning for Percy. "So brave. So cute. Dance with us, Percy Jackson — dance with us."
"Dance with us," others agreed, echoing the Nymph's words all the while Zoe and the eldest — mayhaps not — the one in charge, spoke to one another further.
Words were exchanged and there was nary a change afterwards. Zoe had nought but edged forward another few paces, and after forcing back the Nymph of a sister that made to stop her, a line in the sand so to say, appeared to have been crossed.
"Another step and Ladon will be roused to handle your intrusion," the Nymph said, threat lacing her words as she raised her nose, victorious and smug.
Those words from the Nymph that commanded the others gave reason for Zoe to pause, and a look of deep thought flashed across her face for a scant few seconds… and back she stepped, her feet carrying her quickly back to Percy and Thalia. Looks were shot at the Nymphs that had dared to approach the two, and they were fearsome and spoke of violence lest they withdraw; they did, unsurprisingly.
"Should Ladon be roused, you each must make for the exit posthaste. I shan't have a word of disagreement betwixt the pair of you, for nary a soul between us might best the creature," Zoe stressed, her eyes pointedly on Percy. "All that we might prove able to do, would be to exit beyond the reach of its protection."
"So we just have to get out of this… garden?" Thalia asked, her eyes moving beyond Zoe and searching out the aforementioned exit that was a fair distance away from them. Enough so that Percy sans knowing what the creature was that awaited them wasn't certain if the task was meant to be difficult or not.
He did take notice that it would take them very near to the tree, the one that had stuck out earlier. Maybe he remembered something subconsciously about it, maybe not, but he didn't like it. There was something strange.
Maybe Annabeth has said something about this very place. I wouldn't remember. When she gets too into history and reading, I'll nod and smile since she enjoys it so much.
"Percy," Zoe said, her voice rousing him from his thoughts, errant and wandering as they had been.
"Zoe," he returned, blinking at the girl. By the gods, he'd been crazy not to recognise her beauty now that he'd seen her and compared her to the Nymphs that had them surrounded; she was a sight beyond that of anybody he'd seen before save for maybe Aphrodite.
And she definitely had the aforementioned Goddess beat when it came to personality.
"I will hear you say that you'll not make for the part of the hero should trouble arise," Zoe said, her voice filled to the brim with authority as her eyes, piercing and serious, nearly bore through him.
Percy grinned in response to the seriousness of her expression and held his arms out on either side. "Me?" he asked before he shook his head, fighting to keep his grin only a grin. "I'll make sure I do exactly as you tell me to."
Zoe didn't seem as if she totally believed him, which surprised him, but she huffed and turned on her heels. Once more, she moved to stand before the eldest sister, and this time, sans a look that spoke of uncertainty. "We move beyond you, sister. If what we are to fight is as fierce as you claim, then we'll perish and 'twill be all that happens."
The Nymph, startled-looking and troubled based on the furrowing of her brow, took two steps back as Zoe took the same number forward, cautious, wary and most certainly, ready for a conflict of some type. Percy had sought out Riptide not more than a second after he registered the nervousness upon her face. It boded ill for him if she seemed paranoid of their surroundings; it would have been wise of him to ask what a 'Ladon' was.
Around their trio, the other Nymphs began to wail or tremble as they fell back into the brush nearby.
"You're nought but a fool," the lead Nymph said, anger lacing her tone as she spoke venomously to Zoe. "Kin of ours, you shan't ever be again. No. You are crazy to force my hand, and crazy if you think you three might best — Ladon!"
When the creature's name was yelled at the end of the Nymph's sentence, and the aforementioned Nymph melted away as the others had, away from Zoe, Thalia and him, he nearly used the time right then to ask Zoe what Ladon was or what it might be capable of.
It needn't be that way, however, for out from near the tree to them, came a thunderous noise as a creature emerged from shadow and thicket.
One… two… five… ten? eleven? nine? Percy had lost count around that mark thanks to the creature or creatures moving, and by the Gods, it was so distracting that he'd not noticed he'd been running along with the others. Not until they skidded to a halt as the beast — a dragon of some kind with dozens upon dozens of heads — blocked the way ahead.
The way out, to safety.
Zoe stepped forward, fearless and bold, and with a hand outstretched toward the creature. "Ladon," she called, her voice softer, gentler and noticeably sweeter. "You recognise me, do you not? 'Tis I, Zoe, a Hesperides like that of my sisters. We seek nought the apples, nay, we seek to pass and allow you to continue your guardianship — we are only close so as to carry on our journey."
The creature gauged Zoe with dozens, hundreds, Gods, Percy didn't know and couldn't count how many eyes. It was a feat for one far more patient and far safer than he was at the moment, but it watched her with nearly every head attached to its body. He couldn't read the visage or body language of dragons, he'd missed that class back in school, unfortunately, but he liked to think the fact they weren't burnt to a crisp had to be indicative of some level of success on account of Zoe's words.
If it wasn't, this Ladon creature was a more patient, calculating beast than most.
Seconds ticked by, seconds in which Zoe, wisely, ushered the two others past her at an incredible degree of slowness. If the creature noticed as it watched them edge further away, it chose not to react, for it remained focused with dog-like happiness or intrigue, on Zoe. There was nary a head that wasn't focused on her, and the few that weren't, of them, the vast majority remained focused upon the tree to its back and a good few dozen feet away.
Its focus was split, and Zoe seemed to count on it as she finally made to move away from it as well.
But, as any creature might do in the blink of an eye, the creature's visages grew vicious-looking and very blatantly, bothered by their presence as the many noses halted the noises of their breaths, deep and searching. Something had been found by them and their actions, something that they did not like; it had to be the scent of him or Thalia, or even Zoe.
Percy wasn't sure just what it was that had caused the creature, Ladon, to snap, but it did. The heads of the creature all went to and from in a fury as they lashed out at the trio, biting and nipping and in some cases, attempting to bludgeon them as they tore off in a dead sprint for the exit of the garden. They cared not for the treasures the creature was guarding, but it seemed as if it had finished tolerating their presence as its heads, long and serpentine atop slender necks, chased them with the beast barely edging closer to them.
Zoe urged them forward. He could see it biting so very close behind her, the teeth, sharp-looking, dangerous, deadly, only barely missing Zoe's flesh as she dodged with all the dexterity a Hunter of Artemis might have. It was leagues beyond his own, and so refined and wasteless that one might think it was a dance of an exotic nature. Percy was awe-struck and were it nought for the danger of portions he couldn't begin to fathom, he would have been rendered still so that he might appreciate the visual it made.
And then time slowed, or it seemed as if it had when one head, horrifying and dangerous as all the others, made it closer to Zoe and accurately judged where next she might dodge when another failed to strike her. Percy watched as the head, calculating and with its maw agape, made to tear into Zoe as she dodged near the location in which it had predicted. As he did so, he recognised there was but one course of action that he might take.
Percy reached out and slowed up despite the danger that was the heads of Ladon as they tried — and failed thus far — to bite him as they were attempting to do to Zoe. He was forced forward, temporarily winded when a great and powerful bludgeoning force hit him, but his goal had been met as his hand grasped Zoe's arm and thus, with a mighty yank with power that he knew not he possessed, he forced her forward.
So forward that she went beyond him and beyond Thalia, and more than out of the way of the head that had made to bite her. The jaws of the head of the beast closed shut with a resounding 'snap' and in the spot, she had been nought but a second, if even that, ago.
And then the three found themselves promptly elsewhere, through the Garden of — he still hadn't gotten the name yet — and away from Ladon. By the Gods, he never thought he'd be quite so happy as to see anything other than one of the most picturesque places he'd ever been before; it was strange. Very, very strange.
"There, ahead, lies the remainder of our quest. Rise, Rise Thalia, Rise Percy, we must make haste. I fear the end is near," Zoe urged without so much as a few seconds passing in which they might catch their breath after the near-death experience they'd all just shared at the hands, or rather, the dozens of heads, of Ladon.
"Wait, wait," Thalia got out as she rested her hands atop her knees and took in greedy gulps of air.
Percy spoke for her when no further words came out. "Zoe," he said as one hand of his searched his back for any signs of an injury. He flinched when he connected with his back across a rather large span, and he figured right then that there was already a nasty bruise forming. He might have even cracked a few ribs. "What was that?"
"Ladon. 'Twas a remnant from my past, before my Lady Artemis took me on and allowed me to join the Hunt. Once, I might have guarded the Garden and tended the trees, the central one most of all, but no longer. 'Tis my job no more, and as you had heard, my sisters claim me not. The remainder of the story is known to you, Percy, and as I have said before, you remain worthy of the weapon that you possess. One that I am glad that you have in your grasp," Zoe moved over to Thalia and looked her over, twisting and turning the smaller girl despite her wiggling and unhappiness. "You are untouched, and as we've just seen, very fast when you wish to be."
"It was a dragon with hundreds of heads!" Thalia exclaimed in her defence.
Suddenly, Zoe's earlier words of whatsoever lay before them being well beyond their capabilities, made sense. They couldn't have taken that on and won. Not even if Annabeth, Grover and Bianca were all there with them; it was hard to think that even Artemis might do so when he compared the small Goddess to the giant dragon with heads innumerable.
Zoe rose a hand as she moved purposefully toward Percy. "I jest," she said placatingly. "I would not see you harmed anymore than I would see Percy harmed. To run… 'twas the right idea. Now, to me, Percy. I would ensure you were not scraped, bitten or otherwise wounded by Ladon, for if you were, we must seize the initiative as quickly as we can."
Percy didn't like the sound of that one bit, and so he moved, achingly, closer to Zoe. He felt pretty far from great after all of the running and the huge thump he'd taken across his back, but he could manage. He'd been wounded worse before, and even then, he'd come out alright. What was another injury or wound, especially when it was something so minor from a creature that otherwise should have destroyed him?
"Anything?" Percy asked as Zoe started by observing his back, where she'd likely seen him flinch upon touching it. From her spot behind him, as she'd been until he flung her forward, she'd probably bore witness to whatever had struck him too.
"You appear to be without blood seeping down your garments, but I can not claim that you are unscathed lest you wish to pull up your shirt. I witnessed the head strike you and saw you stumble. I would be furious with myself if I am to blame for your doom," Zoe stepped before him and gestured to the edge of his shirt then, a look on her face that he wasn't certain of. "If you feel that you are without blood and wounds beyond the bruise that has likely formed, we will continue. As I have said, above, the end is near. Already the ruins of a palace are visible."
"Atlas' palace?" Thalia asked, recalling the name.
Percy blinked. That's right. Atlas. Hesperides. Zoe was a Nymph like the others and might very well bear the same father that they had. If that was the case, well, it surely meant something. Especially if they'd soon be fighting Atlas. The prophecy rang through his head again, unbidden as it was.
"The palace of Titans, and there, the doom of all Gods. My Lady Artemis is near, I feel her," Zoe then did something that rendered Thalia silent and Percy immobile. Without hearing what his answer might have been, she made her way over to Percy, used a hand to raise his shirt, and very quickly looked over his back. He felt her prod — painfully — and move around, her skin soft and cool, and he felt her breath upon his neck.
But as quickly as that had happened, so too did it leave him as she let his shirt fall back whence it belonged a second before she stepped away.
"Thou art without injury in the way that I had feared," Zoe said quickly as she started towards the last steps of their journey, her legs carrying her at speed. "We near the end, Thalia, Percy. I shan't dare to think it will be without conflict. Ready yourselves."
Percy looked over at Thalia and she returned the look that he shot her. Neither would forget how much Zoe had changed. One of them, any one of the three of them, it seemed, might soon pass as the Prophecy foretold. Percy would be damned if he'd let it happen. He'd fight tooth and nail to keep them alive, to rescue Annabeth, to help Artemis.
There was nothing that could stop him and there was nothing that could stop them. That mantra repeated itself time and time again as he climbed after Zoe with Thalia right behind him. Together, they'd overcome so much and escaped death, Hades' realm, more oft than he would have liked.
What was one last escape from his Uncle, right?
"This place… is rebuilding itself," Thalia echoed aloud, quietly, with a certain level of awe in her tone as they witnessed the ruinous structure begin to undo the state of disrepair it had fallen into.
Percy frowned. That couldn't mean anything good for them. The place was eerie too, very eerie. If there was anywhere that skeletons, zombies, spirits or just about anything else might be laying in wait for them, the ruined, dark and disastrous-looking temple would be the place.
"It is," Zoe confirmed as they continued through the ruins, trusting her to guide their way as she'd done since the start of their journey. "With every stone returned whence it belongs and every pillar that might once more stand to carry the burden of weight, the superiority of the Gods diminishes. Whatsoever they plan to do, the end thereof is near. We cannot delay."
We haven't yet, and we won't, Percy thought in agreement as they continued.
"How much closer can we get? There's not much left of the place, is there?" Thalia asked, her voice quiet as it'd been earlier.
"We shall soon find my Lady Artemis and Annabeth Chase, of that, I am certain. With every step, we grow nearer to them. It is hard to say how I might know as much, 'tis but a feeling, but the ruins grow smaller and the end, closer," Zoe gestured ahead, through an entrance that looked cave-like. "I believe there is where we shall soon come across the end of this journey."
"I would have thought there'd be more of a fight for us to get to where we have. There was that dragon, Ladon, and sure the earlier part of the quest was hard, but there hasn't been anything since. This feels like it's been too easy, doesn't it?" Thalia asked, her question open for either Percy or Zoe for answering.
Percy shook his head. "I'd say it's been pretty hard after taking a bullet and getting clobbered in the back by a dragon's head, but hey, that's just me."
Thalia snorted. "You've had your heroics too. Don't think we've forgotten those — I'd be jealous if I didn't know I could do the same as you. And Thorn, Gods, I wish I could've fought him. We could've won instead of running… I wonder if he'll be up here for us."
"Nay. It will be nary a soul but for one I wish we could avoid fighting, but we cannot. We shall not," Zoe said. "Ahead, and by my Lady Artemis, will be Atlas. A fool, he is not, for betwixt the two of you spells the ruin of the Gods," Zoe paused and turned to look at the two, the trio only feet before the entrance to what appeared to be the final portion of the ruins they'd ascended, or near to the final portions thereof. "It is imperative that should the battle turn against us, the pair of you recover my Lady and your friend, and flee. Whomsoever is alive mustn't be allowed to become a pawn in the hands of those that would see the world turn ruinous as the land upon which we stand."
Zoe didn't wait for Percy or Thalia to respond. With those words said, and a nod given to the both of them, she turned and strode into the cave ahead, confident, her head raised, and her body language showing readiness to do battle.
Percy followed after her. The quest, all of it, had built up to this moment. He was with her, and Thalia was too.
The time for talking and fighting the minions of this Atlas guy was over. Now? Now it was time to battle him, save Annabeth, save Artemis, save the Gods, and save the world. It didn't sound too difficult a thing to accomplish.
Percy, Thalia, and Zoe only needed to walk another ten seconds at the most until the presence of others, was confirmed. Percy heard mention of this being where the sky was held aloft by Zoe, and then he bore witness to her rushing forward as they turned a corner, only to come face to face with;
Artemis. At long last, the Goddess was found and she looked to be in a dire way as the weight of the sky was held up by thin-looking arms. It was clear to any that it was a strain of the most horrible kind, and at once, Percy made to move forward alongside Zoe. Thalia did much the same, following after him, but the three only continued forward for a few seconds before a reason to pause manifested itself.
Luke appeared with Annabeth, and beyond him, another person, a man. He was tall, strong-looking and old, and from him radiated a strength, intelligence and sense of dangerousness that even one as thickheaded as Percy could detect. The man had to be Atlas, and with Luke holding hostage Annabeth, it was clear now just what side he'd fully taken.
Speaking of Annabeth, she looked far from the girl he'd last recalled. There was a streak of white in her hair that stood out against the typical blonde colour of her hair that he'd witnessed time and time again. Her eyes were baggy, she looked thinner than she previously had, and altogether there seemed to be a sense of exhaustion about her.
Percy wished he could rush over to her and grab her. He wished he could pull her away from Luke and Atlas. He didn't. It'd be reckless and it would accomplish nothing.
"You've finally arrived, I see," the older man, Atlas, said with a grandiose gesture around the ruinous room. "In the time it's taken you to get here, I must say, I've had much time to learn of the two of you. Thalia Grace, the daughter of Zeus, the hotheaded, quick to anger and quicker to violence girl, and you, Percy Jackson. Luke did so drone on about you," Atlas' eyes shifted to the third member of the group, and upon doing so, he spoke but a word to her. "Daughter."
Zoe tensed. Percy could make out how her muscles shifted and strained, and how her face morphed into a visage of rage that wasn't unlike that which it'd been earlier when she'd addressed her sisters.
Clearly, she wasn't appreciative of Atlas calling her daughter whereas she'd seemed to hope the other Nymphs would have recognised her as their sister.
"Thou shall take the burden of the heavens once more, and release my Lady Artemis at once. It was your burden to bear in perpetuity," Zoe said, her voice deadly serious and so angry that Percy dared not budge.
He knew that the situation might soon rapidly devolve without so much as a warning given.
"Please. The young, naive goddess volunteered herself to save the younger Demi-God by my side. Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena, as I'm told," Atlas gestured to her then, a smile forming on his face as his hand flicked the bit of white in her hair. "Luke," he then said, gesturing back at the group that had arrived. "Unfortunate as it might be, we find ourselves behind schedule. Deal with those you betrayed and I shall take the time to bond with my daughter."
And like that, with calmly spoken words by a man that radiated danger, the fight began. Luke dropped Annabeth to the ground, the latter letting out a sound of indignation followed by a grunt of pain that had to be contained; the thud she made upon the hard floor wasn't. At that same time that Annabeth fell, Luke charge at Thalia and Percy, and Zoe did much the same at Atlas, as for Percy…
He did something that was foolish, heroic, and that he was certain he'd get chewed out for later. Without so much as a second thought, he dove at Artemis and pushed the Goddess out from under the sky as he bore the weight of it in its entirety.
The pain… was excruciating. It felt as if it might collapse and crush him at any moment, and if it did, there would be precious little that he could do to stop it as the fight began to rage on around him. He felt his back straining, his arms begging for the weight of the heavens to be forgotten, his feet and legs buckling, but not giving way. It felt as if he might truly die with every passing second, and in those seconds as they passed, the longer it went on that he bore the weight of the sky, he nearly longed for the crushing to happen.
Percy opened his eyes, not releasing they had been squeezed shut on account of the weight he bore. Thalia was locked in a fight with Luke, and the opposite of them, Zoe and Artemis did battle with Atlas; the latter was the fight to watch, though he could barely stand doing so.
They moved so quickly, the weight threatened to break his concentration, and then, his eyes darted of their own accord to the body some distance away.
Annabeth.
Her eyes found his and tied as she was, wounded as she was, the quest had been worth it; she'd be safe, soon, and Artemis would be rescued.
It had been worth it.