Taking up a high vantage position within the leaves of a tree, I looked through my binoculars to see what my friends were doing. Luke was invisible from sight, as I had given him my invisibility cloak. However, I could still see where he was as his steps still flattened the grass. The demigod was heading towards the giant tree, from the side opposite to where Ladon was lying to avoid the monster from smelling him. However, the Hesperides were still near the tree, and they could possibly notice Luke.
But that's where Thalia came in. The punk girl walks towards the Hesperides, fully visible and getting their attention. Whilst they may be the children of Atlas, they were not actively hostile to demigods unless they were aiming to steal the apples of immortality. Thalia raises her hands in a sign of peace, so in return the Hesperides tell the alert Ladon to stand down. With the dragon attentive, Luke stopped in his tracks, not daring to make a move.
"I come in peace!" Thalia declares, in a more formal tone that contrasts her usual casual and rough speech, "I wish to meet the Titan that holds the sky, Atlas, Bearer of the Heavens, and fallen King of the West." Yeah, I was the one who told her to say those things. I doubt she'd have come up with something like that, and whilst Atlas may be a Titan, he definitely had the ego of a god.
The Hesperides look to one another, as if they could read each other's minds. One of the girls step forward, "We will ask our father. Do not dare move." Another girl leaves the pack, and begins running up the mountain, presumably to the peak, where the sky seemed to swirl down. I have to say, whilst I saw a depiction of Mount Othrys in the graphic novels, seeing it in the flesh with my very own eyes was awe-inducing. Nebulae seem to float around the twisted skies like jellyfish in an endless ocean, stars blinked in and out existence as if trying to run away, and the sky itself was mixed between night and day, despite it being 3 in the afternoon.
After several minutes of waiting, the Hesperid that went up the mountain had returned, clearly out of breath. However, she quickly recovered, and began to speak. "Our father shall see thee, Thalia Grace." Interesting. Thalia never said her name. It was clearly suspicious from the Hesperid, but I had told Thalia to be on constant guard. Plus she was capable enough to take care of herself.
As Thalia and the Daughters of Atlas walk up the mountain, Ladon rests on the grass once more, relaxing after his hefty lunch. Luke takes his chance, and rushes to the tree. Ladon opens an eye, as if noticing something, but closes it once more. Luke lets out a sigh of relief, and begins to scale the tree.
As both Luke and Thalia begin to reach new heights, an odd thought comes to my mind. At the end of this year, Thalia will turn 16. Just like in the Titan's Curse book. And that means Olympus will want to convene, presumably with her in the room. For the past few years, I've been thinking of what to exactly do with Thalia. She's not the target of the prophecy, and I do still believe the prophecy has a hand in the world despite fate not working properly due to my existence. And the Gods will still not risk it either. So the gods will have a few options. One option is to kill Thalia, but there's no way that Zeus, the big hypocrite, would allow that. Another is to make her a god. I don't know how Thalia would react to that, but she's not one to follow expectations like that. She could also join the Hunters, but she hasn't developed that fondness or respect for Zoe that convinced her to join.
And that is why I have my own option for, which I think she'll take.
I snap myself out of those thoughts, and pay attention to Luke. Turning my binoculars to infrared vision, I could see the warmth of his footprints that he'd left as he climbed the tree. Right now, he was more or less three quarters of the way up. Good. And now to check up on Thalia.
From my Inventory, Icarus flies out, though thankfully without any added flair, "Icarus, go to the sky and try to tell me what Thalia is doing. If you can't see, then don't try and get closer" I tell him. He swoops into the air, past the clouds, making sure to not be too loud, and resist the urge to sing. Thankfully, all I needed for a stealthy phoenix was roast chicken. Was that cannibalism? Eh, it doesn't really matter.
A few minutes pass by, and suddenly I hear the rumbling of thunder. Fuuuuuuck.
Icarus immediately swoops down, though I could easily guess what he'd tell me, "Dad! It's Aunt Thalia! She was talking to the man holding the sky, and then she suddenly got angry!" Damn it Thalia! I literally spoonfed you lines to use if you got angry or something. Fuck. Knowing my luck, Atlas somehow knew about Thalia's backstory, and threw it at her face.
And as a cherry on top, Ladon decided to get up from his resting spot, stretching his back as he let loose a light growl. He suddenly starts sniffing. And his heads twisted towards the tree behind him, where Luke was probably halfway to pissing himself.
It looks like I'll have to intervene after all. "Icarus. Go keep an eye on Thalia. Help her out if things get sour for her." I tell Icarus, as I get up from where I was sitting. Stashing my binoculars within my Inventory, I brought out my bow (Or rather, Zoe's bow) and took a deep breath. Fuck. I really wish I put a few extra points into Luck.
Icarus squawks in surprise, "Are you crazy dad?! I can't let you fight that… that thing by yourself! You'll be destroyed!" Geez. I'm so grateful for having a companion that doesn't believe in me.
I stroke my kid's feathers, smiling at his concern, "It's okay Icarus. Thalia will need your help more than I do. And if things don't work out with me, I have a vial of your tears in my inventory" Of course, the vial wouldn't work, since Ladon's breath was a curse, not a healable poison. But Icarus didn't need to know.
Listening to my words, Icarus reluctantly flew off, ready to help Thalia should she need it.
I continue with my preparation by activating my Sharpshot skill, followed by coating an arrow in light. Alongside that, I also activated two skills I had gotten after all these years of training my Archery skill. Firstly, was Critical Shot, and Double Trouble.
Critical Shot made arrows give double damage, whilst Double Trouble made it so that a single arrow would split into two arrows that would each deal the damage of one arrow. Together both skills were pretty strong, even if the cooldown was pretty annoying.
Along with my bow, I equip my Hydra Scale Chestplate, which should hopefully give me some defence Ladon's poison (Though I highly doubt that it would even stand a chance), my Swift Boots, a Celestial Bronze Greaves I got from Camp to guard my legs, and most importantly, the Furies Gauntlet, which were very good because of it's added damage effect. I'm sure the Empath effect it has would be useful… one day.
Fully ready, I draw back the bow string, and fire the arrow. Two shining lights shoot out the bow, and at outstanding speeds they reach Ladon, who had noticed the arrows due to his many snake-like heads. But when arrows move to pierce the dragon… they bounce off. Fuck.
Whilst the arrows hadn't hurt the dragon, Ladon was clearly pissed off. All I had done was make myself a target. Eh, whatever works, am I right. Improvising was peak planning for any protagonist. "Hey, trash-breath! Mind if I take some of your little apples?" Naturally, that really set the dragon off, as the Apples of Immortality were really his only reason for existence. The beast begins to stomp towards me, anger on its numerous faces. I glance at the giant apple tree. Judging by the rustling of tree leaves, Luke had made it near the top, but he still had quite a bit till he could get the apples.
Closer and closer, the giant beast came. I frown as I realise that I wasn't fast enough to outrun the giant lizard by myself. Well, I have a solution to that at the very least. I turn to my right, and begin running for my life. I jumped into the air, and called out to Nimbus from my Inventory, and within a second, the golden cloud was beneath my feet, and I was in the sky.
Ladon lets out a guttural roar as his heads twist with one another as they try to bite me out of the skies. Nimbus manages to dodge each attempt the heads made, as we circled around the ancient dragon.
We bob and weave around the necks of the monster, and I don't bother with trying to attack it. I'm still not at that level yet
And then suddenly, Ladon did something that I hadn't expected at all. He flew.
My mind seemed to stutter as his leathery wings flap in the air. I thought he was one of those land dragons that couldn't fly! Where the fuck has he been hiding those wings?!
Realising how beyond disadvantaged I was, I decided to go with a backup plan I made, though I was hoping not to use it because of the sheer MP cost.
"Open, Gate of the Ram! Aries!" I shouted, when a brilliant golden key appeared in my hands. Besides me, on top of Nimbus, glowing light particles gather together and form a figure. A pinkish smoke appears, and covers the light, and when the smoke dissipates, what stands next to me is a seemingly regular girl. Well, if you don't count her vibrant pink hair, and the literal curled horns attached to her skull. The entity next to me wore a white sheepskin tunic, with fluff lined at the ends, and had pastel pink tights that had white boots over it. Her hair was short and went down to the bottom of her chin, but the ends of her hair were curled, giving the illusion of wool balls.
This was Aries, a celestial spirit and one of the 12 golden keys.
"G-Good M-morning G-g-Gill!" She stuttered out, completely ignoring the giant dragon coming after us. Odd. She must've said morning instead of afternoon because of
Oh yeah, she was incredibly shy to a fault. At least she didn't call me Master or Lord like Horologium. I look at the MP, and frown. It was already down by 1500, and if a minute passes, I'll lose 5000 MP, which means I was losing about 83 MP per second. Thus I would only be able to use Aries for a brief amount of time. Probably only one attack if I still wanted to be able to use any magical attacks.
"Hey Aries," I quickly said, "No time to chat, can you use your magic on that dragon's left wing?" Noticing the sense of urgency in my voice. Whilst the Celestial Spirit may have a timid personality, she was still a somewhat experienced combatant. She reaches her palms out, causing pink glow to surround both hands.
"Wool Magic!" She chants, "100% Fluffy-Fluffy Wool!" Suddenly, from her hands, a flood of pink wool rushes out, shooting towards the dragon's wing. The tsunami of wool engulfs the wing, and I'm pretty sure every single head that belonged to Ladon was looking in shock and utter surprise. Hell, I'm pretty sure Luke gasped in shock at the scene.
Meanwhile, I was trying hard not to laugh. Ahh, I love stupidly named attacks, truly a genre.
Ladon flaps his wings once more, however, he finds himself unable to. No matter how much the dragon tried, his left wing was too heavy to move. And considering he weighed the same as several houses, and was hundreds of feet in the sky, Ladon began to crash right down to the ground, to the foot of the rocky mountain. The cry the ancient dragon unleashes makes me feel a little pity.
That was, until I realised he wasn't crying, judging from the noxious looking purple gas emitting from its jaws. The bastard was trying to poison me! However, I still had a good gap of time and opportunity before the gas could reach me.
I thank Aries for her work, and send her back to the Spirit Realm she came from. I should probably get her a strawberry shortcake as thanks. I look at my Player Profile. I had lost about 3000 MP from summoning her, and a further 200 MP from using those Archery skills earlier. However, I still had well over half my total MP.
Ladon was lying on the ground on his side. His biggest (and most likely primary) face was also to his side, meaning I didn't have a clean shot inside his mouth. But thankfully, I had another skill that I had gained from training with a bow. Redirection, a skill that allows me to alter the trajectory of an arrow to whatever direction I wanted, without having any loss of velocity or force. At its current level, I could only redirect an arrow once after firing it. But that was all I needed.
From my Inventory, I take out an arrow, some tape, and a vial containing… fire. Greek Fire to be specific. I tape the vial to the arrow, and whilst normally it would hinder the speed of the arrow, since I was aiming straight down, the vial would actually increase the arrows terminal velocity.
I fire the arrow, and watch it soar down straight to Ladon, with a vial of dancing fire attached to its shaft. I look at the arrow with intensity, making sure to use Redirection at the right moment. And soon it reaches the maw of Ladon's largest head, and right then I strike, making the arrow do a perfect 90 degree trajectory change, and the last I see of it, it was charging into the throat of Ladon. In retrospect, Zoe would probably be pissed at me should she ever find out I did this, and I really did not need another reason for the immortal huntress to kill me.
A moment passes, before hell unleashes upon Ladon's mouth, and just like I had hoped, all the heads had stopped emitting gas, and began to scream. I did feel bad, but maybe he shouldn't have tried to poison me. I wait as the poison breath dissipates, and the grass it descends upon turns black, and ugly. The Garden of the Hesperides was in ruins, it's only last source of pride being the giant tree with golden apples. Well… soon it'll just be a giant tree.
I descend to the bottom of the tree, doing my best to ignore Ladon's choir of screams. I look around, trying to spot Luke, until I feel someone tapping my back. Turning around, a grin comes onto my face, as I see Luke relatively unharmed, holding a large sack over his shoulders. He rests his hand on my shoulder, and with a sigh of relief, "I'm so glad you're okay."
"Come on Luke," I laugh, "Do you really think a pesky dragon could beat me?" I would absolutely not blame him.
"Hey, it's happened before" Luke looks at Ladon, "Is… Is the dragon dead?"
I shake my head, "No, but I'm pretty sure it'll have one hell of a scar."
Luke takes off the sack, and with a devilish grin, he opens it up, "Look what I got!" His voice was way more cheerier than it had ever been in a long time. I looked down the sack, and I felt blinded by what I was staring at.
"You did it. You fucking did what Heracles never could!" I exclaim in shock. We succeeded in the quest. And now Luke's fate would be permanently altered. And hopefully, for the better.
"Do not be hasty, halfblood" I froze, and turned around to the female voice behind me. There they were, the three Hesperides, all looking at me with anger and disgust. And held captive by them was Thalia, and though most of her body was unharmed, her legs… were bleeding. What the fuck? "Lest you desire for thy friend to be killed?"
Luke was the first to react, "What the fuck did you to Thalia!" He had dropped the bag, and was holding his sword, Harpe, tightly. Fury was evident on his face. And also on mine.
"You have 5 fucking seconds before I send all three of you down to Tarturus." I growl out in anger. These assholes were fucking mistaken if they thought they could lay a hand on my friend. I wouldn't kill the Hesperides, but I'll take a note out Batman's book and beat them all to an inch of their lives.
"No, you will not, Son of Apollo" The 'leader' of the Hesperides replies, a cold look and uncaring look on her face. "Or else your companion shall perish before you lay a hand on us." I looked carefully. Yes, they had a knife at Thalia's throat. Dammit. "Now, if you desire her back, then return the Apples to us."
"Like hell we will!" Luke snarls at them. He looked as if he would jump at them any second. But I… I lift the bag, opening it partially and stick my hand in to see if all the apples were there. They were.
I close the bag and walk to them, and hand the Apple of Immortality to the Hesperides. The one who had been talking to us opens the bag, and takes out an Apple of Immortality. "Hm. Only one? I expected better from a son of Hermes" Luke, who had been staring at me with a look of betrayal, was now very confused.
"Let her go." I demanded, a cold tone in my voice.
The Hesperid that had been talking to us sneered. "And show you the mercy that you didn't see fit to give our dear Ladon?" Oh no. "Aigle, kill her."
"NO!" I shout, as I begin to move to stop the dagger, but suddenly a familiar song rang through the garden, stopping the executioner's dagger, and even took away my attention. I look up, and see Icarus, diving down from the skies. Fire shrouded his body, and my gauntlets, they were telling me that Icarus was furious.
"LEAVE AUNT THALIA ALONE!" He screamed, though no one apart from me understood him. I noticed that the Hesperid, Aigle, was trying to continue her execution, but she was no match for Icarus's speed, as the phoenix, with bursting flames around his body, charges into Thalia and-
Wait, what?
I did a double take, as Icarus charged into Thalia, and flames engulfed her. Thalia screams, the first thing we had heard come from her mouth since we've seen her, and then a scream from Aigle as she lets go of Thalia, and tries to put out the fire that had been caught on her white robe.
And then, the fire suddenly dissipated, and Thalia was gone.
Had… Icarus killed Thalia?
No.
No.
NO!
None of this would've happened… if it wasn't for the Hesperides.
Anger takes over me, and I charge at the Hesperides. My fist, coated in light, clashes against the leader Hesperid's face. Golden blood sprays out, as she tries to scream but can't. I turn around to the one known as Aigle, and she attempts to sing. The song of the Hesperides is known to make their victims dance till death. But before a single sound could come out, I covered her face with my hands, and using her head as a holding point, I threw her body at the tree. The last one looks at me with utter fear, but she should've thought before trying to kill Thalia. I grabbed her right arm, and twisted it until I heard a crack. She cries, but it doesn't matter. She's a demi-Titan, she'll probably recover from that in a few days. Perhaps a more long term punishment is needed.
I look down at all three of the Hesperides. "You're the reason she's dead." I growl, "So I won't give you death like you deserve, because I've killed once and it ruined me for a long time. So here this. I, Gilgamesh Ashford, as a Son of the Great God Apollo, curse you three with the loss of your voice. No longer will you have the privilege of song, nor will you be able to talk to one another. And your days of forcing people to dance till their death for your petty amusement, are gone."
I look down at the leader of the Hesperides, who tries to shout at me despite the golden blood dripping down her eye, but no sound comes out. "Luke, let's go." I morosely say, grabbing the golden apple and sack off the ground.
As I walked, I made a quick glance at Luke. He was standing there, looking at the three immortals who were trying to shout and scream. But eventually he catches up to me.
"I… Gill was that actually-"
"No, it's just a minor curse taught amongst the Apollo Cabin that lasts for only 4 years. But there isn't a need to tell them." I ball my hands into a tight fist, "They deserve far worse." Thalia is dead. She's actually dead. Fuck that. I'll go to Hades and get her back. I'll fight the Furies again if I have to.
"...What now?" Luke sighs, beyond distraught. No doubt the fool's holding in his emotions show that he doesn't show weakness in front of me. It's times like these I wish Gamer's Mind allowed me to stop my emotions from happening, but I know I'd hate it.
"That's… a very good question" We had the apples, but compared to the loss of Thalia… I didn't give a shit about those damned things.
We walk together in silence. There was nothing to say. Neither of us… we weren't good with emotions. Mainly because of our shit lives.
"LUKE!?"
What.
"GILL?!"
No way.
"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!?"
Immediately, without even talking about the voice, Luke and I ran to the direction it was coming from, with fervent vigour, and a small, bright, inkling of hope.
We ran up the peak of the hill, and we saw down at the bottom of the valley, shouting to the air, was the punk teenaged Daughter of Zeus. The one we'd seen burn into nothing just a few minutes ago.
As we ran down the hill, in unison Luke and I shouted her name with joy beyond joy, "THALIA!" She looks at us with shock, but it might be how we were running towards her in record speeds, smiling with tears in her eyes.
We both jump and wrap her in a tight hug. "Uh guys, I've only been away from you for like 5 minutes. Ya' don't have to suffocate me to death." Of course, that only made us hug her tighter.
"We thought you died!" Luke explained, as he bent to hug her, which was somewhat difficult since was taller than her. "Dammit Thals! First Gill, now you! Don't blame me if you guys end up thinking I'm dead as well!"
I chuckle, though Thalia was still confused, "What? You guys thought I'm dead? All that happened was… Ooooh, yeah I see what you guys are talking about" We look at her in confusion, "I thought I was totally going to die, but when Icarus set me on fire, I found myself in this place."
Icarus… had saved her?
THAT'S MY FUCKING BOY!
"Where is he?" I ask her. Thalia frees one of her arms from our hug, and points over to Icarus, who was lying down, and thankfully sleeping. I break out of the hug, and lift Icarus off the ground, cradling his sleeping body in arms. Taking a quick look at his stats, they had somehow risen exponentially, "I think I know how he saved you" I say, as Luke and Thalia look at me. "Phoenixes have the ability to teleport using fire, but I didn't think he'd be able to do it so quickly." Knowing Icarus, he's probably a prodigy.
"Hey, Thals, weren't your legs bleeding?" Luke asks Thalia, "Why are you standing?! Take a seat!" Ok, I'm pretty sure Luke will be babying Thalia for the next month or so. And judging by Thalia's annoyed expression, she'll end up shocking him with lightning by the end of the week. Ah, young love.
"It's alright, Luke" She sighs, "Icarus's fire healed me. Those bitches made me dance so fast that my legs began to bleed" Ah, so that's what happened, "Did you guys manage to get the apple?"
Luke grins, as I throw him the sack. Earlier when I had given the Hesperid the sack, I had taken all the apples Luke had stolen apart from one, just in case they had decided to let us leave peacefully. Shame it had to get violent. Of course, I filled the sack back up as soon as we left the garden.
Luke opens the sack, and pours out its content onto the grass, revealing 6 Golden Apples. "These are every single apple I found on the tree, and lucky us, there's enough for 2 for each of us." Oh. Oh shit. Luke was actually going to give us an Apple of Immortality. Not just one, but 2! Bloody hell. This was amazing. I watched him divvy up the apples between us but noticed that he'd given me 3, but I only had one. I gave him a questioning look, and laughed, "I don't need two. One is good enough for the quest. I have no use for a Golden Apple myself. Consider your third one as Icarus's reward." I am so fucking glad he's a good guy now, and not an edgy villain.
Before we even think of going back to Camp, Luke makes the executive decision for us to take a break, and sleep, so we take a taxi to a hotel, and we get a room for two nights. I had a suspicion that he wanted to have a little holiday like I did last year, and frankly I didn't mind at all if he wanted to plagiarise my ideas a little bit.
And as soon as we enter our room, I jump onto the bed, and enter the land of Morpheus so that the author can have a smooth way to end this chapter.
Fourth Wall Breaking skill levelled up (0 - 1)!
…I'll just ignore that.
Author's Notes: KACHOW! Another chapter done. Soon, we shall arrive at Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. We just have a couple of chapters in the way, of course.
I'd also like to say that there is a possibility of me taking a hiatus sometime in early September, as my Second Year of University is about to start, and I'd like to get a swing of things first. However, don't worry. This hiatus will be two weeks at most!
In other news, I've just finished the Batman Arkham trilogy. Honestly, it's one of my favourite trilogies I've had the pleasure of playing. Truly, amazing.
Also, would love to hear what you guys think Gill's idea for Thalia is going to be! Keep in mind that if your idea is better than mine, I'll be upset and delete this fic. (just kidding. My Ego would never allow this fic to be deleted.)
Anyway, here are Gill's stats:
Name: Gilgamesh Ashford
Age: 10
Level: 54
Title: Child of Apollo
HP: 8903/8903
MP: 6149/10509
Stats
Strength: 450
Agility: 500
Endurance: 450
Charisma: 515
Intelligence: 500
Willpower: 500
Luck: 450
Stat Points: 0