Chapter 17: How to grow your own army 101
[Annabeth's Pov]
Splitting up was a risky move, but it was a risky move we had to take.
I tried my best to not get distracted by the exhibition around me as I looked around for clues.
No offense to anyone, but in these sort of museums located in big malls only for tourist attractions, they tend to have wrong information just plastered on without actual research. And as a child of Athena, I had to strain myself from bursting into the manager's room and strangle whoever was charged to manage all this.
'Tyrannosaurus was a scavenger dinosaur'
Yeah right, and Triceratops picked off berries from trees with their horns and breathed fire.
I was about to turn my back on this stupid exhibition, but something I saw almost gave me heartache.
"Thorn."
He hadn't noticed me yet. He looked around to check if someone was paying particular attention to him, before scrapping the floor of an exhibited dinosaur fossil and quickly stepping out of the exit of the exhibition.
I put my cap on and followed him.
If I could just get close enough, I'll be able to jump him by sticking the knife in his unsuspecting back head. I suppose his celestial bronze immunity didn't work when he was a human; he needed his red fur for that.
Thorn walked off the hallway until stopping at a door where two security guards were standing by each other. He seemed to be waiting for someone. And then…
"Hehe! Hehe!"
I almost screamed out loud. I knew that laugh.
Oreius, one of Luke's assistants at Princess Andromeda, his very own cruise ship filled with monsters and demigods who turned their backs on the gods. This one got shot in the mouth by rouge party ponies, but that was at last summer. If he was one of those fast regenerates, it wouldn't be too far off for him to have returned.
"Silence, you fool! I don't understand why that puny Hermes kid even hired you, twins. Shows his intellect, I suppose; ha!"
Thorn let out a gruff laugh, his tail flicking under his trench coat.
I balled my fists.
Luke wasn't-he-
-well, he was not dumb. And I hate went people get stuff wrong…that's all.
Oreius stopped laughing at Thorn's command, and I realized that the sack he was holding was moving on its own. Thrashing, screaming, there was someone inside; but I couldn't tell who it was.
"Where is your brother?"
Oreius made whimpering noises and thrust his arms out, in a motion of swinging a sword.
"Bah! Either Perseus Jackson or that blasted Lee, I suppose. He'll survive either of them, with the powers the general has bestowed upon them!"
"You mean the powers I have bestowed upon them."
The door swung open from the inside, startling the guards, and the girl from my dream walked out. Her skin was even paler than I saw, probably because of the sunlight, and she was wearing a simple sleeveless dark-purple dress that twinkled like a night sky.
She turned her head to look at me.
For a second, I thought I was caught red-handed. Her scarlet eyes were wavering slightly like actual fire, and I had a sneaking suspicion that for whatever reason, she could sense my presence.
After a few pauses, she opened her mouth.
"εμφανίζω!"
I only recognized it as current Greek, I think. It was microscopically different from ancient Greek, just enough for our demigod's brains to not instantly decipher the meaning.
It also had a certain power within the words. Magic.
She was a witch, just like Circe.
For a brief second, I thought my cap would fly off my head or something, so I held on to it tightly. But then, to my surprise, the shadow of the door wavered on itself, until a boy rose from it.
"Aww, my dear, lovable Rose-darling; can't a spirit have some peace and tranquility?"
He looked like a younger David. That was it. Probably 9-10? I wasn't sure about that, but I could certainly say that he wasn't a human; a spirit, he called himself, but I also doubted it meant he was a ghost.
He was…more bound to this world, it seemed. Lesser than humans, but more than ghosts.
The girl just rolled her eyes and beckoned both Thorn and Oreius inside. It only occurred that I should've followed them when the door slammed shut in front of my face.
Then I was suddenly pulled downwards by my ankles.
I landed inside a weird place. Somewhere dark, and yet it felt like the light was just around the corner. It was as if I was right below the surface of a pitch-black sea.
"Hey-"
I instantly spun around with my knife and sliced through the young David. That was the good part, I guess? The bad part was, the knife and my hand passed through his neck as if he was a very, very thick mist.
I could feel the resistance and the coldness on my skin, but when the knife passed his neck they reformed from the darkness as nothing happened. Young David frowned at me.
"My gods, you have a temper issue."
"Where am I? Who are you?"
"You are in a shadow. Your shadow, to be particular. And I-"
Young David looked up as if trying to remember a distant memory that he can't get a grasp on.
"-I'm an 'Opacusima'. Shadow spirit, if you will."
"There is no such thing."
Young David raised his eyebrow.
"Really? You have sprits of the lake, trees, lands, even rocks have their sprits. And you have trouble believing there is a one for a shadow?"
"Yes. Because there are no documents about something like that in 3000 years. Mortal or half-blood, nothing says about something like a shadow-spirit."
He-it-nodded slowly, before spreading both of his arms wide out.
"Well then, daughter of Athena, how would you explain your situation now? A dream? Hardly. Hallucination? A bit better, but unlikely. No, you need to learn how to believe without logic."
"But that is idiotic!"
"Really? How would one start building upon knowledge without believing in it?"
"I-"
That was a good point. And from a 'David' too. I closed my mouth, but I didn't like it. Young David smiled, and for a moment, he felt like my long-lost older brother that I never had...not counting Luke. But he was different. A lot.
"To answer your displeasure, you'd been right until…4 years ago."
"What?"
"I was created. Rose, the loveable girl you just saw, made a wish to her mother. I take a figure of whoever she may be fond of the most. Like an imaginary friend."
"Imaginary friend?"
He nodded again.
"Now, that is enough chit-chat; I suppose you need to go inside of the room, yes?"
"I do, but-"
"Well then, À plus tard, mademoiselle (See you later, miss)."
Young David clapped his hands once, and my vision was suddenly blinded by a bright light.
I was in a huge round room with a balcony ringing the second level. Exactly 18 mortal guards stood on the balcony, and two Scythian dracaenae was hissing at the porch of the balcony.
But my eyes moved straight past up them to the balcony. There, next to the pale witch Rose, was…
"….Luke…"
I covered my mouth in horror. Witch Rose flashed her flaming eyes towards me, but she quickly turned her eyes back to the ground floor. She had her arms wrapped around Luke; why would she do that? Luke wasn't into girls like─
Never mind.
I turned to Luke. He looked terrible. Even more so than from my dreams.
His skin was pale and his blond hair looked almost gray as if he'd aged ten years in just a few months. The scar down the side of his face was bright red, as though it had recently been reopened.
Next to him, sitting down so that the shadows covered him, was another man. All I could see were his knuckles on the gilded arms of his chair, like a throne.
"Well?" The man in the chair asked. His voice was deep and strong, like the earth itself was talking. It filled the whole room even though he wasn't yelling.
My heart rose to my throat. A Titan. No doubt about it.
And that means he must be…
Dr. Thorn took off his shades. His two-colored eyes glittered with excitement. He made a stiff bow, then spoke in his weird British accent.
"We got the hunter, General."
"Hehe! Hehe!"
Oreius stepped up and held the struggling sack up to the balcony, laughing his weird laugh.
Hunter? Oh no─
The man (I didn't dare to even think of his name) let out a satisfied grunt.
"And the teeth?"
"Right here, General."
Thorn showed one of the teeth he had scrapped up from the exhibition. A mortal guard next to him took it from him after the man nodded again.
"Good. Pamadala."
"My name is Rose, General."
The man only grunted, and Luke grabbed the witch's arm tightly as if to warn her not to provoke him. Why does he even care about her?
Nonetheless, the witch raised her arm and murmured some other enchantment. A small patch of dirt rose from the 1st floor.
"Plant them."
A total of twelve teeth was planted at the patch of dirt on the floor. This was sounding oddly familiar to a story I remember, and if that was happening right now, it can't be good.
But before I can try to stop the process, the man spoke again and I had to hide back in the corner.
"Dinosaur teeth-ha! Those foolish mortals don't even know when they have dragon teeth in their possession. And not just any dragon teeth. These come from the ancient Sybaris herself! They shall do nicely."
Okay, so my speculation was right. I needed to get out. Right now.
The only problem at hand was, how I rescue Luna (I'd assume Zoë wasn't the one captured) without everyone in the room noticing my existence.
The planted teeth were watered with red liquid. After that, from the dirt, a skeletal hand shot out of the ground, grasping at the air. It was joined by similar hands, all twelve of them bursting out.
Soon enough, the first floor of the room had twelve skeleton warriors sniffing the air with their nose holes. As I watched, they started to grow flesh, turning into men, but men with dull gray skin, yellow eyes, and modern clothes—gray muscle shirts, camo pants, and combat boots.
One of them looked straight at me, regarding me coldly, and I knew that no cap of invisibility could fool it.
"Now, the hunter."
"Yes, General. Throw her inside!"
"Hehe! Hehe!"
The sack was ripped open by Oreius's claw, and the muffled voice finally spoke out loud.
"─I go, and I'll skin you─Aah!"
Then she was immediately thrown towards the skeleton warriors.
I took my chance.
It was a very Seaweed Brain-y thing to do, but it was my only option.
I caught Luna in mid-air and bolted straight to the door.
"What is this? Pamadala! Seal the doors!"
"κλειστός!"
An invisible force of something swooshed past my arm, but before it reached the door I managed to burst out of the room. The door swung shut as the magic did its work. I heard Thorn's angry yell and a thump against the door as if he smashed his tail against it.
"What is going on!? Who─"
Luna went quiet when I removed my cap; I had no time to stop and explain to her. I felt around my clothes and was glad to find that nothing was torn out of them.
"Did they get a scent?"
"What?"
"A scent! Anything that they can use to trace you!"
"Um."
Then, to my dismay, Luna held up her half-torn silver scarf.
"Does this count as a scent?"
We are doomed.
I have to tell the others.
There were so many things to tell them about, but the most important thing was that we needed to move away from this place as fast as we could.
But even before I arrived at the main hall, someone yelled out loud from my right.
"Annabeth!"
It was Percy. And somehow, hearing his voice call out my name, calmed down my currently jumpy nerves.
At least until I turned around to the sound of the voice.
He was running towards me, his sword in hand, and he halted to a stop in front of me, completely out of breath
"T, the, Nemean Lion-"
"What?"
I wanted to believe that I misheard him, but when Percy had caught up his breath, a roar of a lion echoed down the hallway.
"-We have a kitty problem."
[Percy's Pov]
The problem arose when a little kid, who was on a tour with his family, had shouted "Kitty!" in delight, and I made the mistake of looking up to where he was pointing.
For the first second, it was a cat.
A golden cat with no strips, pouched on the upper rails with a snarl on its face that matched Zoë Nightshade. Then it started to grow in mass. The rail creaked and bent down, and something larger than a cat landed down with a huge sound.
I am not completely oblivious to Greek Mythology; at least, I knew what that was.
I saw the 'Nemean Lion' before. It was two years ago, and I was on a train to the Underworld with Annabeth and Grover to stop World War III. Long story.
Then, it looked no bigger than a Rhino. Now I see that was the distance playing tricks in my eyes because this one was bigger than a pick-up truck. Its silver claws and gold fur glittered from the sunlight.
I don't know what the mist was showing the mortals, but they weren't seeing a gold cat, because their murmurs quickly grew into shirks and shouts of terror and they started to run away in every direction.
The lion was looking around, not liking the commotion at all, and growled deep down from his throat.
I needed to get that thing's attention before anyone gets hurt.
I uncapped Riptide.
"Here, fur-ball! I need a new jacket in this weather!"
That got its attention.
"ROOOOOOARRRR!"
It sprang at me, one thousand pounds of a monster ready to tear me to shreds. I had no choice but to turn and jump. I heard its claws clatter against the marvel floor, which cracked like an eggshell under its feet as it landed.
I ran back up to the upper side of the exhibition, where people had thankfully vacated the area. The Nemean Lion roared again, pounced up onto a spacecraft model that was perched under the rail, and jumped up to the same floor as I was standing.
It tried to snap my neck off. Or maybe my torso. Judging by the size of its maw, I really couldn't guess nor did I want to give too much thought about it.
I rolled underneath its head and thrust out at the throat, but the blade just bounced off emitting sparks, as if I stabbed Riptide against a thick steel wall.
The massive fur was coming down, so I again rolled out to the side as the lion sat on where I was a second ago. That would've broken all my bones and suffocated me at the same time.
Oh, joy.
It growled in frustration and took a swipe. I ducked, hacked down at the back of its paw.
But again, the blade bounced off without leaving a mark. The Nemean Lion made a long scratch across the 'Age of the Universe', carving out everything up to the creation of the sun.
At least creationism people would like that edition.
It swiped at me again with the other side of the paw. Since it didn't have to defend, it was attacking left and right without bothering to dodge or keep its distance for safety.
I moved back, narrowly avoiding getting pounded into an all-natural kitty treat, and racked my brains to try and remember how Hercules beat it.
…the skin deflected every weapon he had…so he ended up wrestling it and finally choked it to death.
Yeah, forget it. I can't even put my arms around that thing's neck.
I can't kill it. Not alone. I needed help.
As dangerous as it was, I turned my back to the lion and bolted down the hallway.
I heard the lion roar out of fury and pounce right after me, pushing away emergency exit signs and knocking over fire extinguishers. One got trampled beneath its paws and expelled out white foams onto its face.
The Lion roared and stood up in its rear legs, clawing the air as the white foam or dust or whatever was in those things got sprayed onto its eyes.
That was my saving grace. I ran as fast as I could down the hallway, which turned left soon and I took it to see Annabeth holding on to Luna for some reason.
"Annabeth!"
I skidded to a stop right in front of her.
"T, the, Nemean Lion-"
"What?"
The Nemean Lion roared out from behind. It will come here in less than 10 seconds.
"-We have a kitty problem."
I am never doing Annabeth's Pov again; writing in Pov of a smart girl when I'm neither smart or a girl is a pain.
If you have anything to say or ask, never hesitate on PMing or writing a short review!
Toodles!
