Nothing is mine.
Slightly short one featuring Percy messing around in a pond!
And You Will Go On...
'Do you really have to leave?' Ganna floated among the lilypads, her dress of dark pondweed trailing past her bare toes. 'I don't mind if you stay…'
'I can't stay.' The words tasted bitter on Percy's tongue and somewhere in the pit of his stomach sharp, cold waves clashed. 'I'm sorry.'
But never sorry enough. He closed his eyes, feeling his heart drifting down through dark waters to rest upon the rocks beneath all the weight of the waves. How could I be?
'Would you stay for just a little bit longer?' Ganna whispered. 'Please, my lord.'
Percy sighed. 'For a little bit.' He mustered a smile. 'I need to think of a better way to sense out monsters. Lamia could shape-shift, if she'd ambushed me instead of trying to trick me, I might have been, well, actually not in that much trouble, because I'm extremely scratch-resistant, but she might have ruined another t-shirt. That would have been pretty upsetting.'
'Thank you,' Ganna mumbled, turning pink beneath her mask of black silt. 'It has been so long since anyone spoke to me, I don't want you to leave me again.'
But I have to. I have to. The crushing cold black depths pressed down upon his heart, grinding it away like a small stone worn away into a single grain of sand. If I don't keep going, I'll fall.
'Do you mind if I try something?' Percy pulled his rucksack over his shoulders. 'With your waters?'
She shook her head.
'Thanks, Ganna.'
Let's see. He rested one hand on the surface of the dark pond, sending little tremors across the still surface. Can I feel anything this way?
The pond hung in his grasp, like a drop of water caught in the cup of his palm, heavy, quiet, thick with weeds and silt and leaves.
'No, that didn't quite work.' Percy lifted his hand from the water, releasing Ganna's pond from his grip.
She shivered, floating toward him through the water with wide deep green eyes.
Is there some way to use the sea to sense what's around me, Dad? Percy glanced up at the fading moon and a small smile crept across his face. I bet you'd think of a way, Zoë.
The sea is always with you, Percy. His dad's voice came in a soft wash, like the thin rush of white foam over the sand. But I am the god of the waters, too. The sea is my domain, as the sky is Zeus's and the underworld Hades's, but earth and Olympus belong to us in equal measure. And all the waters of this world find their way to the sea eventually.
'But the water is in the pond.'
His dad's laughter broke over him like the tide crashing over his feet. All waters, my son. The dew, the mist, every drop. I am many things, just as you will be should take up the challenge of Tamalpais's spire. Perhaps if you reach for them, you will know all they touch just as you do with the rivers and streams.
'My lord?' Ganna rose from among the lilies, her dress of dark pondweed dripping water.
'I have a new idea.' Percy dragged half-formed thoughts together. 'Can I?'
'Anything you wish,' she whispered. 'You are a prince of the sea, a little drop of water like me is yours to do with as you will.'
He took hold of her waters, breathing in the slow wash of the tide, picturing the faint white mist that curled from puddles beneath the sun and tugging at the top of the pond. A cool breeze swept over him and a fine cloud of water spread out across the park.
A confusing echo of impressions against every drop flooded his thoughts, as if he pressed countless fingertips against a thousand different things. Ganna squirmed at the heart of it, a small splash of dark water, weeds and thick silt within his soft cloud.
Percy blinked, wrestling with all the shapes and senses around him. 'This is very confusing.' He took a long deep breath, sucking in the slow dwindling of the tide and released it in the crash of the next, letting everything but the impression of Ganna fade. 'I think you might have to be a god to do that properly, there's just… too much.'
But I can sense Ganna. That's enough to help with monsters and demi-gods.
Percy held the fog out there, skimming more from the pond to feed the fine cloud of water as its edges bled away beneath the sun.
Molten silver sliced through his mist, burning it away like lightning flashing through the rain.
That's not a demi-god. Percy swallowed hard. Or a monster.
He scanned the park, peering across the green grass toward the cedar trees and out over the sea. 'Aphrodite?'
'You sense my presence and ask for Aphrodite instead?'
Percy twisted about on his heel and Ganna fled into the pond with a small squeak.
Artemis stood above him on the bank, a gentle smile on her lips, her eyes soft and silver as the stars. The breath slipped from his lips, lost in the fierce tingle of a thousand hot needles prickling across the point between his shoulder blades.
'Perseus?' She took a step forward, her long dark hair fluttering over the white linen chiton.
The sea shrank back into a small knot in the pit of his stomach. 'She likes to pop up and mess with me,' he confessed. 'When I felt you appear, I assumed it was her coming to rub salt in the wound over having to leave Ganna behind.' Percy glanced back at the nymph peeking out from beneath the green lily pads. 'Could you help her? She's very lonely without her sisters, and, maybe, maybe she could find some new ones?'
Bright pride flickered through Artemis's silver eyes and his heart soared, scooped from the sea and swept up amidst the stars. 'I can offer her a choice, but…'
'She has to choose well,' he whispered. 'I know.'
'And you, Perseus.' Amaranth-red bled into Artemis's eyes and her pale chiton shivered into dark brown hunting leathers. 'If you wish to hunt the beasts of the wild, even monsters, it would be wise to pray.' A sharp smile flashed across her face. 'Else you will keep stealing my fun.'
Percy gulped. 'Sorry.'
'Your prayers and offerings have been absent for a time now—' her deep-red eyes swept over him '—when once they were frequent. For what reason do you now spurn me, Perseus?'
'Er… I didn't want to offend you?' A little heat crept onto his cheeks. 'I was talking to Zoë, instead. She always showed me what to do… before.' Anxious waves churned within him as her amaranth-red irises pierced through him. 'I know she was showing me what you showed her, my lady, but I didn't want to—' his voice shrank to a whisper and the handprint over his spine tingled and burnt '—disappoint.'
Bright silver burst through the red in her eyes as she stepped forward, resting her hand upon his shoulder, and Percy held his breath. 'I am not offended by your prayers, Perseus. You stray into my domains more often now than when you ever prayed to me before, do you think I would not grant you aid if you asked?'
'Sorry?' He patted his rucksack and mustered a grin. 'Would you like a very fashionable snake-skin cape as an apology for me being stupid all the time? I don't know what to do with it, really, but I guess I kind of hunted her down, so it should be yours.'
The corner of Artemis's mouth twitched and Lamia's spoil floated from nothing to hang over the slim fingers of her other hand, melting away into silver flame. 'I accept your gift, Perseus. But do not dread disappointing me or Zoë too deeply; you have proven time and again how you keep your promises and I am every bit as proud of you as I have been of any of my own companions. I do not believe you have it in your heart to disappoint us.'
A thick hot lump swelled in Percy's throat and his heart soared, trembling like a drop of steaming water clinging to the tip of a tap. 'I should return to camp, my lady.' He fought the soft smooth swell of yearning as it swept through him, wrestling against the tug of its tide. 'It's the best that boys can do, apparently.'
A flash of humour flickered through the swirling molten silver of Artemis's eyes. 'My goodwill goes with you, Perseus. Stay standing strong. Even all the weight of the world will not break you if you do not let it.'
I will. I won't fall. He fled her soft proud smile with a fluttering heart, blinking back the fierce sting of tears, waving a farewell to Ganna as he stumbled and slipped in the wet grass. I won't fall.
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linktr . ee / mjbradley
