Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: I'm baaaaaack! Sorry for the 3-month hiatus y'all, my bad. Mental health be doing its thing lol. But I'm back, and hopefully I'll be back for a while. Cross your fingers.
I changed the pigeons to crows for no real reason. Well, I mean, I looked up the Stymphalian birds and apparently they're more like birds of prey than they are pigeons, so I have some research backing me up, but yeah. Also, long chapter, hurray!
As always, hope you enjoy, and I'll see you next week,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
κλέος – Glory
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 33: Demon Crows Attack~
The next few days went...mostly okay.
Dolops wasn't that bad of a guy. He was like a serious, more brooding version of Chiron, with an added dose of being several thousand years behind the times since he and Chiron's family had lived almost exclusively on Mount Pelion in Greece ever since before the birth of Pirithous. You know, the friend/lover of Theseus...okay, so maybe you don't.
Anyways, he wasn't awful. He was stricter than Chiron, which made him insistent on Callie and I practicing archery despite our parentage. When she somehow shot an arrow that went sailing towards his face, her being just as bad I was, he caught it in midair, looking nonplussed. "I do not expect either of you to be as good as Paris, Philoctetes, or Teucer," he said. "But I do expect you to be able to shoot without almost killing one of your companions."
I was tempted to tell him how much of a fat chance that was. I didn't, but boy was I tempted.
Other than archery, Callie took to camp well. We did the same activities together due to us being part of the same cabin. She wasn't as good at sword-fighting as I had been back when I had first started out, but was decent at using a dagger. She quickly learned how to scale the climbing wall, which felt pretty unfair to me when I still struggled with it at times, but I reminded myself that just because we were half-siblings it didn't mean that we would be good or bad at the same things. She made some friends outside of me, too, in the forms of Drew and Laurel, Silena's half-sisters.
Speaking of Silena, she apologized to me the next day. She approached me after breakfast with red-rimmed eyes and a runny nose. "I'm sorry, Percy," she said. "I shouldn't have yelled at you."
I shook my head. "Don't worry about it, I understand."
"No, I shouldn't have said those things. They were awful," she repeated. "I just – I just – "
Before she could break down into tears again, I pulled her into a hug. "I get it, being betrayed by your friends and boyfriend sucks," I whispered into her ear, unable to stop myself from thinking how well I actually did get it. "But you're my best friend, Silly. I'm here for you, I promise."
With the help of Silena and her half-siblings, I was able to ride a pegasus for the first time. The mare that I flew on, a light brown horse named Cinnamon, wasn't the Pegasus, my half-brother, the only one immortal winged horse born out of the severed head of Medusa. He still wandered free somewhere in the skies, but over the eons had sired so many children that they were all named after him as a species.
The idea of flying made me nervous, Zeus' warning to me last summer about entering his domain ringing in my mind. But it seemed there was some sort of neutral territory in riding one of the descendants of my half-brother, because I didn't feel like I was going to be struck down by lightning at any point. Cinnamon, too, reassured me, because for some reason I could understand her whinnies. "See, I didn't let you get killed," she said at the end of our session once we'd landed, neighing. "I'm good at what I do."
I laughed. "Thanks."
Naturally, this caused all of the other campers around me – the children of Aphrodite, plus a few more. Callie wasn't among them, still out riding herself – to look at me strangely. "Percy, who are you talking to?" Silena asked me warily.
I gestured to Cinnamon. "Apparently, I can talk to pegasi. Still don't know if the same is true for regular horses."
"It is," said Cinnamon.
"...Okay, I guess it is," I corrected myself. The other campers continued to stare at me, while Silena rolled her eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Your father is the god of horses, is he not? I don't understand why you didn't figure this out on your own, little foal."
"Hey, I am not a foal!"
"Says you."
Drew, who was the second person closest to me after Silena, cackled at that.
When Callie landed, she was similarly flabbergasted. "Percy, why didn't you tell me we can talk to horses?" she exclaimed, waving her arms around wildly.
"Because I didn't know?"
"How could you not know this?"
"Uh..."
Of course, my good feelings couldn't last for long. Each evening, I had border patrol, and I sat on top of Half-Blood Hill, next to Thalia's dying tree. I watched dryads come and go, singing to her, bringing her a variety of old healing amulets and other such things that they put at her base or on her sturdier branches. Each time, for a while her pine needles seemed to get fuller. The flowers on the hill smelled a little sweeter, the grass looked greener. But their attempts never lasted for long, as soon the sickness crept back into the air. The whole hill seemed to be infected, dying from the poison that had sunk into Thalia's roots. The longer I sat there, the angrier I got.
Luke had done this, I reminded myself. I loved him, but he had poisoned Thalia and I both. And now she was dying, my favorite place in the entire world was dying, and I felt like I was too. He had betrayed us, and I hadn't been able to save him.
It wasn't fair.
None of this was fair.
I had another dream about Katie.
This time, she was wearing a wedding dress. It fit her alright, although it was not a dress I would ever imagine her wearing. The bottom of it was in tatters. A veil covered her face.
She was sitting in a dark cave, lit only by torches. There was a cot in one corner and an old-fashioned loom in the other, where she was sitting. A length of white cloth half-woven was on its frame.
She didn't notice me at first. But then, all of a sudden, she turned around and, seeing my dream-self, let out a yelp. "Percy!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
My dream-self was slow to respond. I was still looking around, taking in the stalactite ceiling, the stench of sheep and goats, the growling and grumbling and bleating sounds that seemed to echo behind a boulder the size of a large archway, which was blocking the room's exit, as if there was a much larger cavern behind it.
"Percy!" Katie tried again.
I blinked. "Um..." Belatedly, I realized there was an energy in the room, like another person was present besides us. No, not present. Making me present. It had been in my last dream involving Katie, I thought. I hadn't noticed it before. But now that I did, I knew who it was. "I think your mom sent me here."
A rush of warmth spread through my body. Bingo.
Katie, unlike what I expected, looked relieved. Her shoulders slumped, ever so fractionally. "Mom sent you? Oh, thank – "
From behind the boulder, a monstrous voice yelled, "Honeypie! Are you done yet?"
Katie flinched, her back straightening. Without turning around, she called out, "Not yet! Give me a few more days!"
"Bah! Hasn't it been two weeks yet?"
"No, dearest. Just five days. That leaves twelve more to go."
The monster was silent. I imagined him trying to do the math but failing, because he sounded exceptionally stupid. Sure enough: "Alright, but hurry! I want to see you under that veil!"
Katie looked like she wanted to scream. "Percy, you have to help me!" she begged, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm stuck in this cave! It's on an island in the sea."
"Where?" I couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know, exactly. I went to Florida and turned left."
I spluttered. "What? How did you – ?"
"When Thalia got poisoned, I left camp," Katie said. "To look for the one thing that could cure her. He has it, Percy. I tried getting it, but then he found me out. I almost got away from him, but he caught up with me in St. Augustine. I'm trapped."
"Wait, wait, wait," I said, holding up my hand. "You ran off to find a way to cure Thalia?"
The news suddenly made my shoulders feel a lot lighter. Katie hadn't betrayed the gods after all?
"Uh, yeah. What did you think I did? Joined Luke?" she returned.
I winced. "I'm...going to elect not to answer that question."
She gaped at me. "Percy!"
Abruptly, Demeter's energy pulsated. There were no words, but the message was clear: I was running out of time.
"Okay, I'll come rescue you," I spoke. "Where are you?"
"The Sea of Monsters! Where else would I be?"
"The sea of what?"
"I told you, I don't exactly know where!" she hissed. "Just get here as fast as you can, please, Percy. I told Polyphemus to give me two weeks to finish off the bridal train. He's half-blind from the last time somebody poked his eye out, he doesn't see me undoing my work. But it's not gonna matter in twelve days..."
She didn't finish the rest of her sentence, but I knew what she meant.
I swallowed. "Wait, one last thing: what did you mean by 'it?'"
Katie frowned. "What, you mean you don't know? It's from the story of Jason and the Argonauts, Percy. It's the Golden – "
"Honeypie!" the monster bellowed. "Dinnertime! Yummy, yummy sheep meat!"
Revulsion swept across Katie's face. She got to her feet. "I've gotta go, Percy. Find me!"
"I will!" I was shouting now, but my voice was getting fainter by the second. My vision was tunneling. "I promise you! I'll find you – "
" – Katie!"
I sat up in bed. My chest was heaving. Light was beginning to seep into the cabin from the windows. It was early morning.
From the bed across from mine, Callie sleepily lifted her head from her pillow. "...Percy?" she mumbled. "What's goin' on?"
I was alive with a nervous energy which coursed through my veins. "Nothing you need to worry about," I quickly decided. Don't get me wrong, Callie was my sister and only five months younger than me, but she hadn't even known she was a demigod for an entire week. This wasn't something I should be bothering her with. "Go back to sleep, Callie."
She didn't bother trying to protest me. "'Kay," she replied, letting her face fall back onto her pillow. She was out like a light.
I got out of bed, changing my clothes and putting on my shoes before walking outside. The morning breeze felt good against my skin, damp from sweat. It was daylight now, even if only just, so I didn't have to worry about the harpies coming after me. I could walk around the camp as I pleased, which was fully what I intended to do.
My thoughts were going a mile a minute. Katie was in trouble; I had to save her. But I had no idea what she'd been searching for, outside of whatever it was, it could heal Thalia and it was gold. Oh, and it was part of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. But all I could remember about him was what had happened after his quest. He'd married Medea and gone to Corinth with her, only to betray her in order to marry the princess of the land. In revenge, Medea had killed the princess, her father, and her and Jason's children...
By the time the conch horn for breakfast blew, I still didn't have my answer. Begrudgingly, I changed the track of my feet, heading over to the dining pavilion.
Callie gazed me at me concernedly as I sat down across from her, but she didn't say anything. For this, I was grateful; I let one of the nymphs place a plate heaping with food in front of me, then I ate it as quickly as I could after sacrificing some of it to the gods. I didn't have time to truly enjoy it.
Unexpectedly, though, when I was almost done with my plate, Dolops pounded one of his hoofs on the marble floor. The entire pavilion fell silent, all eyes turning to him. "Campers," he announced. "It has come to my attention that you all have a...tradition, of sorts. Therefore, I have decided that tonight, you will have one of your Capture the Flag games."
Most of the kids in the pavilion began to cheer.
I, meanwhile, slouched down in my seat.
Oh, no, no, no...
Callie frowned at me.
"I have been informed that the cabin who currently holds the laurels is Cabin Six, Athena's Cabin," Dolops continued. Several of the blonde-haired kids at the respective table cheered, while Annabeth looked smug. "I trust you all know what to do with those bearings."
I resisted the urge to groan. I didn't have time for this! I was supposed to be figuring out how to save Katie, not teaching Callie how to play Capture the Flag or making –
Wait a minute.
Finishing off the last bites on my plate, I stood up. I nearly tripped over my own two feet as I headed off to the table I had in mind.
"Percy!" Callie shouted after me.
I ignored her.
"Chase," I said, stopping in front of the girl in question.
At her table, all the conversation died. It wasn't a secret how much she disliked me, or I, her.
Annabeth turned around in her seat, her stormy grey eyes gleaming sharp with annoyance and curiosity alike. Outside of our ancient Greek lessons, I always gave her a wide berth. "What do you want, Jackson?"
The way she said the words made getting my request out almost painful. I know, I know, she's younger than me, but man, she was such an annoying brat. Sometimes, I couldn't help but wonder how Luke had ever managed to put up with her, even though logically I knew she probably didn't become so bad until after they'd arrived at camp. After Thalia had died.
"Chase," I said. "I need a favor."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "What are you offering?"
"I'll side with you during Capture the Flag tonight."
"You've never sided against my cabin before."
"We both know why that is." Luke.
I could practically see the wheels turning in the daughter of Athena's mind. She was debating if giving me what I wanted would be worth it or not. She was right, she'd never gone up against me before, and although I'd never outright won us an entire game like Luke had, I was a powerhouse in my own right. Plus, I wasn't the only one in my cabin anymore. Callie was another prime teammate to have, too, especially since I had a feeling the Hermes cabin wouldn't be siding with her anymore. Travis and Connor had never taken a liking to her the same way Luke had.
After a quick, silent debate with her half-siblings, Annabeth turned back to me. "Fine, what's the favor?"
"In the story of Jason and the Argonauts, they're trying to get a golden...something. What is it?"
Some of the other Cabin Six kids started to snicker.
The edges of Annabeth's mouth curved upwards. "That's your favor?"
I scowled. "Just answer the question."
She did as told. "Fleece. It's the Golden Fleece, Seaweed Brain." An inkling of why I was wanting to know this stuff appeared in her eyes. "Why are you so curious about the Golden Fleece?"
"Why are you such a know-it-all?" I retorted. All of her siblings except for Malcolm, who was generally a pretty nice and laidback dude, not diehard competitive like the rest of them, glared and/or hissed at me. Yes, actually hissed, in the case of one of them who looked like they were in their edgy preteen phase. "It's none of your business."
Walking back towards my own table, I shoved my hands into my shorts' pocket, wrapping my fingers around the pen form of Riptide. Okay, I thought, I knew what Katie had been searching for, the memory of the story coming back to me with Annabeth's help: a magical sheepskin that could probably heal Thalia and the rest of the camp.
Now I just needed to figure out a plan to save it and her.
"Remember what I told you?"
Callie adjusted her helmet grumpily. "I'm five months younger than you, Percy. I'm not a baby."
Playfully, I whapped her side with the flat end of Riptide, causing her to yelp. "Humor me."
"'Stick to the woods, play defense, and if I get really injured, head towards the creek. The water will heal me,'" she quoted back. She stuck out her tongue. "There, you happy?"
I flashed her a grin. "Yep. I'll see you after the game is over, or whenever. Good luck!"
Without further ado, I ran off into the night, towards the place where I had begrudgingly allowed to place me. It wasn't near the creek, thank the gods; I was playing offense tonight, and was wearing lighter armor than usual because of it. Not the clunky stuff Callie and the rest of the people on defense were wearing.
Around me, the entire forest seemed to be alive. There were no monsters, since we had already been dealing with enough of those, just the campers. On our side were the Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, and Hephaestus cabins; Ares had the others, or Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Hermes. It was split down the middle for a change, at least in terms of cabins. Our side still had more people.
I had missed this, it occurred to me. So often demigods were used to the idea of fighting for our lives, it was nice to have an opportunity where we could fight each other and not have any stakes except κλέος involved. Especially since it was likely it wasn't going to be that way in the future.
Don't think about that, I chided myself. I had more important things to worry about right now.
As the conch horn blew, I ran towards the creek which served as the boundary line. I wasn't as nimble and quick as the Apollo campers, so I watched some of them pass by me and the campers on the opposite side, a combination of Hermes and Ares campers.
Without even thinking about it, I went after a small collection of Ares campers. None of them were Clarisse, but that didn't matter. It was fun kicking their asses, anyways. I was a little rusty from all the time that had passed without me practicing, but me and Luke had spent a lot of time last summer doing one-on-one training. With a strike here and one there, I was able to get their legs out from underneath them in a matter of minutes, causing them to crumple to the ground.
"Fuck you, Jackson," one of them groaned.
With a smirk, I went deeper into the other side of the forest.
I wasn't really playing to win. I wasn't playing to lose, either, to be clear, but my mind was on the plan I was conjuring up. Tonight, I'd decided, I was going to go. Katie couldn't afford for me to wait any longer. I was going to pack a bag, write Callie a letter explaining what was going on and how she needed to stay at camp for her own good, then I was going to consult the Oracle and go. By myself.
Yes, I am aware my plan was kind of stupid. Three people were always supposed to go on a quest. Always. Bad things tended to happen to those who didn't.
But I wasn't going to put anyone else in danger for this. The Sea of Monsters, if I remembered correctly, was a terrifying place. There was Polyphemus the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, and gods knew what else...no way I was putting Silena and somebody else through that.
And I knew Silena would insist on going if I told her what I was planning, which was precisely why I had been avoiding her all day.
Seeing her just outside of my peripheral, I grimaced. Speak of the devil.
Sneaking behind a line of trees, I leaned against one of their trunks, catching my breath. There were a variety of commotions in the night, not unusual. I thought I heard Michael Yew groan and the shout of Clarisse, giving orders. It sounded like my teammates were getting close to the flag. I smiled.
Then, I heard it.
Somebody screamed. It wasn't the "ouch, I just got hurt" scream, more like the "something is killing me!" scream. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I pushed myself away from the tree trunk, tightening my grip on my sword, and focusing my ears to see if the sound came again.
It did, and was followed by several more sounds. The cacophony of crows.
"Shit," I cursed.
I ran towards the sounds. Probably not the best of ideas, but whatever. They took me towards where the Ares cabin had placed their flag, or so I discovered. The guards and two of the campers on my side, Lee Fletcher and one of the Athena kids, were fighting. Except, they weren't fighting each other.
They were fighting...crows?
But they weren't just regular crows. They were larger, with evil and beady-looking eyes. Their beaks were made of bronze, and they must've been razor-sharp. All four of the campers were covered in cuts, and Lee...fuck.
Lee didn't have an eye.
Fuck, my brain screeched. Fuck, fuck, fuck...
A good portion of the birds noticed that I was there. They flew at me, a giant swarm of feathers and bronze beaks glittering in the darkness. I slashed some of them out of the air and they exploded into dust and feathers, but more took their place. They pecked at the crook of my neck and my hands, open spaces in my armor. I quickly gained cuts, which oozed out blood.
"Fuck!" I screamed. "What the fuck are these things?"
"Stymphalian birds!" the child of Athena yelled. Her blonde hair was falling in her eyes, but it looked more strawberry colored from the blood dripping into it. "They'll strip everyone to bones if we don't drive them away!"
Lee was trying to shoot the birds with his bow, but at close-range and with only one eye, he wasn't having much luck. I rushed to cover him; the other three had knives or swords, I figured they were fine for the time being. "How do we get rid of them?"
"Noise!" she shouted. "Hercules used brass bells! He scared them away with the most horrible sound he could – !" She cut off as one of the birds dove right for her mouth, flinching away.
Well, I knew one sound that was the most horrible one I had ever heard.
But, no, I wasn't bringing Callie into this. Besides, for all that I knew, the other half of the camp was experiencing the same problems we were.
"Percy!"
I looked around my sword and the Stymphalian horde. "Silena!" Gods, despite my earlier musings, I was glad for her to be here right now. I gestured with my head towards Lee. "Silly, I need you to get Lee out of here!"
"I'm fine," he grunted through clenched teeth.
"You don't have an eye!" I yelled back. Momentarily stopping my fight against the birds, I pushed him towards Silena. "Both of you, go! Find something horrible-sounding in the Big House to fight these guys off with!"
Silena didn't need to be told twice. As the birds flew after her and Lee, she grabbed the son of Apollo by the wrist, pulling him away.
I don't know how much time passed after that. The crows were steadily making work of our armor; with each peck, they succeeded in destroying it a bit further, or as with the daughter of Athena, causing one of her pads to fall off. It exposed the flesh of her right arm, and then she fell to the ground to shield it from their attack. I covered her, locking my jaw and gritting my teeth.
"Why – won't – you – birds – just – leave – us – alone?" Each word was accentuated by me killing a bird, not that it mattered. They just kept coming after us.
In the distance, I thought I heard screams, including a sonic one. It sounded like they had reached the other side of the woods.
Finally, after an eternity, I heard a new noise: it was quiet at first, but it gave the crows pause. They stopped pecking at us, then with screeches of misery, flew away, joining their brethren I hadn't even noticed were taking to the sky as well.
As the sound got closer, I recognized it for what it was: Chiron's favorite CD, the All-Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin, playing from his boombox, violins and a bunch of guys moaning in Italian and all.
"Yeah!" I laughed. "Take that, you assholes!"
"Archers!" Dolops cried out. He appeared from the trees, holding a bow with an arrow poised. "Fire!"
A bunch of Apollo kids came running behind him. They fired at the birds, trying to escape. Within minutes, the ground was littered with dead bronze-beaked crows, their companions having vanished in the dark of night.
The camp was saved, but as I looked at my fellow campers, the aftermath wasn't pretty. Almost everyone was wounded, bleeding from multiple pecks. Lee was standing near Silena and one of his half-siblings, holding a tissue to his empty eye socket. I knew there wasn't anything one of his other siblings, Will Solace, was going to be able to do for it. Once a major body part like that was gone without being able to be attached back, you weren't getting it back, not even with ambrosia. But he seemed to have the worst of the injuries.
I spotted my half-sister in the crowd and rushed over to her. "Callie, are you alright?"
Her face was splattered with a few pecks. "I'm fine," she assured me anyways.
"Campers," Dolops boomed then. I turned around to face him, and saw that his face was dark and thunderous; it almost made him look like Zeus. Then again, not surprising, considering his and Chiron's parentage, as I'd recently found out. "If your wounds are severe enough, head to the Big House for medical attention. If not, go back to your cabins. We will discuss these events in the morning."
...Darn it, and we didn't even have a winner this time for the game. That makes it a tie, I guess?
Word Count: 4,509
Next Chapter Title: The Oracle Loses Her Mind
