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: Shorter chapter, but I liked how this was in the original compared to the book, so there. Also, now that I'm more knowledgable in Greek culture, I switched out the name of the bulla for the term below. I'm not 100% convinced it's the most accurate word for what I'm going for, but the dictionaries could not convince me that the other gazillion terms they listed were better, lol!

As always, hope you enjoy!

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

(P.S.: If you're annoyed with the ancient Greek, except for the 'I swear to gods' phrases it's mostly going to clear up within the next 4 or so chapters. Don't fret: I'm not going to force you to become ancient Greek scholars, although imo it's one of the most beautiful languages in the entire world. Just saying!)

Ἒνδεσμα – Amulet

Ἡ μῆνις τῆς θαλάσσης – The rage of the sea

Μὰ Κρονίδην – By the son of Kronos/I swear to the son of Kronos

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 4: I Teach Myself Bullfighting~

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed at the windshield. I don't know how my mom could see anything – because I definitely couldn't – but nevertheless, she kept her foot on the gas.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Katie sitting next to me in the backseat with something akin to numbed shock. Not only were the vines still wrapped her legs and arms, but they were moving, too. Like, every time she breathed, the leaves on the vines fluttered on their own accord, and it was tripping me the fuck out.

All I could think to say was, "So...how long have those been around?"

In the next flash of lightning, I saw a blush finish making its way across her face. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "It just...it happens when I get stressed. Comes with being a daughter of...with being my mother's daughter and all."

"You don't have to apologize dear," my mom said from the front. "It happens to the best of us."

"Wait," I said, recognizing that tone in my mom's voice, the one she only used if... "You guys know each other?"

Katie bit her lip nervously, before shaking her head. "Not exactly. I mean, we've never met in person. But Chi – Mr. Brunner told her that I would be coming to watch you before the beginning of the school year."

"Mr. Brunner?" I asked, trying to imagine my Latin teacher doing exactly that. It was hard. Mr. Brunner had always struck me as the type who wouldn't hurt a fly. "What does he have to do with this? And what do you mean, watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you," Katie said, and I didn't know whether to be angry or annoyed at how she sideline past my first two questions. "Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend, Percy. I am your friend. Promise."

I didn't really know what else to say to that, so instead, I tried another question, "What's your mother got to do with all of this? I mean, you told me that she wasn't in the picture and you'd been living with other relatives ever since your father."

"I am," she said, then sighed. "I...Percy...oh, fine. I'm a daughter of Demeter. You happy?"

I blinked. "Demeter? Like the Greek goddess?"

"The one and only."

"But she's a myth! She isn't real!" I protested.

Suddenly, Katie started to laugh. Hysterically. "Percy, you fought with a monster, stole a sword which can transform into a pen, and met Ananke, the primordial goddess of fate herself! What else could possibly explain all of that?"

"Then why – "

"Did we hide it from you? To protect you. Because the less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract."

The weird bellowing nose rose up again from somewhere behind us, closer than before. Blankly, I realized that whatever was making the noise was following us, and it was running after us a lot faster than could ever be possible.

"Percy," my mom said. "There's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Oh, nobody much," Katie snorted. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his bloodthirstiest minions."

"Katie!"

"Sorry, Ms. Jackson. Could you drive faster please?"

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I didn't have enough of an imagination for it to be.

"Wait," I said as my mom made a hard left, swerving us onto a narrower road. "Why isn't it after you, Katie?"

"Percy, this isn't the time for – " my mom began, but Katie stopped her.

"No, it's fine, Ms. Jackson," she said, before she pulled out a strange, bulky locket from underneath her shirt. "You see this, Percy? This is an ἒνδεσμα. It acts as a semi-good form of protection. Some kids make them at the place where we're going."

"And just where are we going?"

"The place that I told you about," my mom spoke up, her voice tight – like she was trying not to be scared, for my sake. "The place your father wanted to send you to."

"Aka, the place you didn't want me to go to?"

"Please, Percy," my mother begged. I could just barely see her wide, blue eyes in the mirror when another strike of lightning occurred. They were dark now, dark like the bottom of the sea. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in grave danger."

My mom then pulled the wheel hard to the right, which allowed me to get a glimpse of the figure she'd swerved to avoid: a dark, fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

My heart began to hammer inside my chest. Or maybe it had already been doing that and I only just now noticed; I didn't know. "What was that?"

"We're almost there," my mom whispered, ignoring my question. "Just another mile. Please. Please. Please."

I didn't really know where this place that my dad wanted to send me was – wait, if Katie had been sent to this place and she really was a daughter of Demeter, did that mean my dad was a – but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, waiting for us to arrive.

"Mom," I said after a moment, because inside my brain was still screaming at me does this all really mean what I think it means? and I just had to know the answer, regardless of what it would do to me. "If Dad wanted me to go this place, does that mean he's a – "

BOOM!

The sound of the car exploding, along with the blinding flash that accompanied it, stopped me from finishing my sentence.

It was like my brain had suddenly reset in that instance, because not only did I stop thinking about my dad and what had to be the truth about him, but I stopped thinking at all. Period. The only thing I could think about, could recognize, was how weightless I felt – like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

A few moments later, I peeled my forehead off of the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay..." I groaned.

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead, because I wasn't that lucky. The car hadn't really exploded – although it sure as hell came close to, if how the roof had cracked open like an eggshell was anything to go by.

Lightning, I belatedly realized. That was the only explanation for the roof. It was also the only explanation for why we'd swerved into the ditch and why the driver's-side doors were wedged into the mud.

Next to me, Katie groaned. "I'm okay too, Ms. Jackson," she said, although I knew just from the tone of her voice that she really wasn't and was just lying her ass off about it.

"Percy," my mom said. "We have to..."

Her voice faltered.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-splattered windshield, I saw something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and my skin scrawl. It was a figure lumbering towards us on the shoulder of the road – a huge, dark silhouette of a guy, like a football player. Except, he seemed to be holding a blanket over his head, and his top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

I swallowed hard. "Mom, who is – "

"Percy, Katie, get out of the car," my mother said, sounding deadly serious. "Now."

Next to me, Katie groggily opened the passenger door, before she climbed out. Well, more like fell out. She fell her to knees before she stood up and, swayingly, gestured for me to follow her.

Just before I did, though, my mom grabbed my arm. "Percy," she said. "Do you see that big tree?"

"What?"

Another flash of lightning occurred and, through the open car door, I could see what she meant: there was a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my mom told me. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Take Katie with you. Run and don't look back. Don't stop until you reach the door."

I stared at her. "Mom, what are you saying? You're coming with us!"

Her face was pale, and her eyes as sad as when she looked out at the ocean. "Percy, someone has to distract him so that you can get to safety, and Katie is in no condition to do it. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

"We don't have time to argue, Percy. Go. Please."

I got mad then – mad at my mom, at my dad, and at the thing with the horns that was lumbering towards us slowly and deliberately, like...like a bull.

But I also knew that my mom was right. She wouldn't lie to me. So, with a grimace, I climbed out of the car before grabbing Katie around the waist, because I wasn't sure if she could walk on her own and didn't want to risk it. Together, we started stumbling uphill through wet, waist-high grass.

Glancing back, I couldn't see what my mom was doing, it was too dark out, but I was able to get my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, and he looked like something from the cover Muscle Man magazine, what with his bulging biceps, triceps, and all of the other 'ceps on his arms and legs. He also wore no clothes besides a pair of bright white, Fruit of the Loom briefs, which would've been funny, except the top half of his body was terrifying. Because the coarse, brown hair that started at his bellybutton got thicker and thicker as it reached his shoulders...

...Until it reached his neck, which was a thick mass of muscle and fur that led up to his enormous, bull-shaped head, complete with a snout that was about as long as my forearm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and gigantic black-and-white horns that had points I doubted you could get from an electric pencil sharpener.

I suppressed the urge to shudder as I looked at him, because I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories that Mr. Brunner had told us. The story of Theseus and Ariadne and the labyrinth.

"Holy shit," I whispered, terror clawing at the walls of my stomach. "That's the – "

"Shh," Katie whispered back, before she let out a short giggle – yeah, she definitely wasn't okay. "Don't say his name, Percy. Names have power."

"Pasiphaë's son," I said anyways, because if I couldn't say his name, I was going to say the name of his mother. Fuck his mother.

Glancing in front of me, I realized the pine tree was still too far away. Like, it was a hundred yards up hill at least.

Instinctively, I looked behind me again.

Much to my horror, the Minotaur was now hunched over our car, looking in through the windows. Well, not looking exactly. More like snuffling, or nuzzling. Whatever. It didn't really matter.

What did matter was that I couldn't see my mom anywhere. She wasn't running towards us, or even standing several feet away from the car. Which meant...

As if on cue, the Minotaur bellowed in rage. He grabbed the damaged roof of Gabe's Camaro – not a scratch, I couldn't help but remind myself – and completely tore if off, before reaching down into the car and pulling out my mom by her neck.

"No!" I shouted.

But the Minotaur didn't hear me. I watched him squeeze her in his meaty fist, and just as she started to struggle, kicking and pummeling the air, she vanished. Like, straight up disappeared as if she was never there and never had been, not a single trace of her left.

"No!" I screamed again.

At that moment, the anger I had felt just a few minutes before returned – only this time, it was ten more times more powerful. Vengeful. I could barely think as it hit me, wave after wave of violent rage crashing against the shores of my mind and burying any and all other emotions in their wake.

I knew what I had to do.

"Katie," I said, before gently sitting her down in the grass. "Stay here. I'll be right back."

She looked up at me, her eyes glassy, dazed. "Percy, what – "

"Stay. Here," I repeated myself, more firmly this time.

Then, I turned around to face the Minotaur, who had gone back to snuffling the car – probably trying to sniff around for me, I couldn't help but think. The thought made me angrier. I tore off my red jacket, before reaching into my jeans' pocket and pulling out the pen-sword. I uncapped it, causing the pen to transform into the bronze sword I had killed Mrs. Dodds with not even a month ago, in all of its bronze glory.

The glittering of it must've caught the Minotaur's eye, as suddenly he turned towards me and roared.

But I wasn't afraid. Fuck, I couldn't even feel anything at all, except for that intense, drowning rage.

Ἡ μῆνις τῆς θαλάσσης, a voice in the back of my mind whispered.

"Hey, Meathead!" I shouted as I marched towards him. "You think you can kill my mom and get away with it? Huh? Huh?"

"Raaaaarrrr!" the monster roared in response, shaking his meaty fists, before he did the very thing that I wanted him to:

He began to charge.

I shook my red jacket with my left hand to goad him on, and tightened the grip I had on the sword with my right. I watched as he ran towards me, his black eyes alight with his own rage, and despite myself, I couldn't help but grin.

Ἡ μῆνις τῆς θαλάσσης, indeed. Whatever the fuck that meant.

Time seemed to slow down.

Because in the next moment, as the Minotaur was upon me, I dropped my jacket and ducked underneath him. At the same time, I lifted up my sword, which ran through his torso – yeah, I know, ouch – like it was butter, just like with Mrs. Dodds.

I came to a sliding halt on the other side of the Minotaur, pleased but also shocked. I couldn't believe that that had gone just as I had planned.

The Minotaur roared in agony, causing me to turn around. I watched him flail and claw at his chest desperately, before he began to disintegrate, again just like with Mrs. Dodds, crumbling into sand, only for the sand to be blown away by the wind.

He was gone.

All of the sudden, the rage I had been experiencing ever since my mom had disappeared and the adrenaline I must've been experiencing for far longer than that, like ever since Katie had arrived at our cabin door earlier or something like that, came crashing down. I felt exhausted, perhaps more exhausted than I had ever felt before in my life, with a weakness in my bones that I wasn't expecting.

After a few moments of catching my breath, I stood up on legs which felt like jelly and walked back cover to Katie, capping my sword and putting the resulting pen in my pocket in the process. She must've passed out sometime while I was fighting the monster, because she was now laying in the grass, her eyes closed.

"Fuck," I breathed.

At least the rain had stopped.

Carefully, I grabbed her first by the torso, then by the legs, and adjusted her so that I was carrying her bridal-style. Thankfully, she wasn't all that heavy, because otherwise I don't think I could've carried her up the hill and down into the valley. And as it was, it was quite a bit difficult. Not to diss her or anything.

Down in the lowlands, the lights of the farmhouse that my mom had been talking about were on. I trudged towards it, weary with both exhaustion and numbed grief, because as far as I knew, I had just seen my mother die right before my eyes. And I was too tired to even dwell on it, much less cry my eyes out about it like I really, really wanted to.

In fact, I couldn't really do much of anything at all, as my mind began to shut down from everything.

The last thing that I remembered was a tall, blonde-haired guy running out of the farmhouse towards me, with a blonde-haired girl trailing behind him. "Μὰ Κρονίδην," he cried, his voice deep...but also caring? I didn't know. Just like I didn't know why what he had just said suddenly made sense to me, like I understood it, while when Katie had said something like it before it had just sounded like gibberish to me. "Hey, kid. Are you alright?"

"No," I managed to croak out.

"Well, you are now," he said, his tone soothing as he gently and slowly maneuvered Katie out of my grasp and into his own before, much to my surprise, he handed her off again to the girl behind him. And being at least an inch or two shorter than me, she carried Katie away like it was no problem at all. "Hey, can you tell me your name?"

Blearily, I looked up at him. Squinted. I couldn't really make out his features because it was too dark, even with the light from the farmhouse, but I was able to recognize his eyes. They were the same eyes that I had seen earlier that night in my dream, I knew. They had to be. They were colored with the same exact icy shade of blue.

"'M Percy. Percy Jackson," I whispered as my knees gave out from underneath me. The guy reached out, catching me in his arms just as I added, "Your eyes are really blue, did you know that?"

And then the world turned black.

Word Count: 3,073

Next Chapter Title: Heaven Is A Place On Earth