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: Hi, everyone! Hope you are well! Today's chapter is a pt. 1 of 2, maybe 3? Idk, I wasn't sure if I was gonna go this route, but I think I need to. A very heavy thank you to the people of the Theoi Project website, because although I don't agree with some of their interpretations, the website is amazing. Seriously, seriously amazing.

Anyways, hope you enjoy. Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

Βάρβαρος – Foreigner

Ἣκιστα – Not at all

Ξενία – Hospitality, usually concerning the traditions between a guest and their host

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 39: We Find Unexpected Sanctuary Pt. 1~

"Percy!"

I knew I was dreaming.

That was a good thing, I supposed. It meant I wasn't dead. As long as I was dreaming, I was alive, and breathing. Things could be worse.

Katie was sitting at her loom, desperately unraveling her wedding train, when the boulder rolled aside and the Cyclops bellowed, "Aha!"

She nearly jumped out of her skin. "Dearest!" she exclaimed. "I didn't hear you come! You were so quiet!"

"Unraveling!" Polyphemus roared. "So that's your problem!"

"No! I mean, if you would just give me a moment to – "

"Come!" Polyphemus grabbed Katie around the waist and half-carried, half-dragged her through the tunnels of the cave. Katie tried to struggle, but it was of no use. She got carted along like she was a rag doll, with her veil tilting over her head, threatening to come off.

The Cyclops pulled her into a warehouse-sized cavern covered with sheep junk. There was a wool blanket covering a giant La-Z-Boy recliner, far bigger than what I thought the company made, and an old television set covered in wool pieces discarded during the shearing process. Crude bookshelves were loaded with sheep collectibles: coffee mugs with sheep printed on them or made to look like sheep faces, plaster figurines of sheep, sheep board games, and picture books and action figures – Polyphemus was a Flash Gordon fan, it seemed, which tracked with how outdated he was. Anyways, the floor was littered with piles of sheep bones, and other bones that didn't look like sheep ones – they were too long, too nimble.

I swallowed.

They were the bones of mortals. Humans, like us.

Polyphemus set Katie down long enough to move another huge boulder. Daylight streamed into the cave, illuminating Katie as she tried to run away. He picked her back up easily, carrying her out into the sunlight.

He dragged her onto a hilltop overlooking the most beautiful island I'd ever seen – and only, besides Manhattan Island and the ones scattered around Long Island. It was kind of shaped like a saddle, only one which had been cut by an axe. Lush green hills were on either side and a wide valley was in the middle, cut in half by a deep chasm that was spanned by a rope bridge. Beautiful streams rolled to the edge and dropped off into rainbow-colored waterfalls. Parrots fluttered in the trees. Pink and purple flowers bloomed on the bushes. Hundreds of sheep grazed in the meadows, their wool glinting strangely like copper and silver coins.

At the center of the island, right next to the rope bridge, was a twisted oak tree with something glittering in its lowest bough.

The Golden Fleece.

I could feel its power radiating across the island, despite the fact that I was dreaming and my body wasn't tangible. It felt warm, like sunshine on a cloudy day, or a hand clapped to your forehead after you'd gotten a brain freeze. It was making the grass on the island greener, the flowers more beautiful.

Katie gasped.

"Yes," Polyphemus said proudly. He pointed with his other hand. "See over there? Fleece is the prize of my collection! Stole it from heroes long ago, and ever since, everything is better! Sometimes satyrs come, they make for a good meal. But sheep are bigger, and their coats – "

He scooped up a wicked set of bronze shears.

Now I was the one gasping, even though I couldn't do anything, but all Polyphemus did was pick up the nearest sheep like it was a stuffed animal and shaved off its wool. He handed the fluffy mass to Katie.

"Take that! Put it on spinning wheel!" he told her proudly. "Magic. Cannot be unraveled."

"Oh, thank you – "

"No worry, honey pie!" He grinned. "I know you bad weaver. It's why you unravel, to make things perfect." He patted her head gently like she was a bird, or a rabbit about to be renamed George. Because of it, he missed the terrified look on her face. "Thread from this will fix your problems. Can't be bad with magic thread. Finish train by tomorrow!"

"Isn't that...thoughtful of you!" she managed.

Polyphemus laughed. "Yes! Good husband for good wife!"

"But, dear," she said, digging her hands into the wool nervously. "What if someone were to – what if they attacked this island. Your...our home?" She abruptly looked straight over at me, like this was a question entirely for my benefit. "What would keep them from marching right up to the cave?"

"Wifey scared! So cute! No worry. Polyphemus has state-of-the-art security system. Have to get through my pets."

"Pets?"

The only creatures in sight were the sheep, still grazing peacefully in the meadows.

He pounded his fist against the nearest rock, which cracked and split in half. "Then they have to get through me!" he growled. But when he saw how Katie flinched back, he softened. "Good asking. Three more days, as reward. You want perfect train, yes?"

Dazed, she nodded.

"Now, come." He picked her up. "Back to cave."

Katie looked about ready to cry – so close to freedom, but so hopelessly far. I didn't blame her for not trying to escape outright then. She wouldn't have had a chance. Tears welled up in her eyes as the boulder door sealed shut, one of her hands outstretched towards me, sealing her once again in the Cyclops' cave.

I came to slowly after that.

I was aware that, whatever had happened to me since I'd last been conscious, the memories of Bianca swimming after me coming to me before I was even half-awake, I was now on land. I was laying on a bed which was stiffer and harder than what I was used to, even at camp. Birds trilled in the distance with the rising of the sun. Three sets of breath were above me, tickling my nose.

When I cracked my eyes open, to my immediate surprise, I saw that there were three children standing above me, all of them ten or younger. They all had brown hair, the two girls' done up in braids and the boy's cropped short. Their eyes were gold, like the sun, and their ears were slightly bigger than what the average person's would be.

"What the – ?" I said.

The three kids giggled before I could even finish my train of thought. They all ran out of the room I was in as I sat up, rubbing at my head. The room was like the ones you saw in diagrams of ancient Greek houses: wooden floors, a bed that was more like a cot, soft blue walls. The windows were openings in the wall, not with glass panes or anything like that, although they did have wooden slats that operated as blinds, from the looks of it.

I swung my left leg over the bed, and instinctively moved to do the same thing with my right.

"Oh, good! You're awake! Your friend was just wondering about you," a feminine voice in heavily accented English spoke from the doorway. I looked up and saw that the speaker was a woman in her early thirties or so. She had the same brown hair, the same golden eyes and larger ears. I assumed she was the mom of the kids. She was wearing a chiton that was dyed purple, with a purple ribbon keeping her hair, done in an elaborate bun, in place. As she saw what I was doing, she tutted. "I would be careful. Your leg took much healing. You βάρβαροι have strange bones."

I felt my eyebrows go together. "Excuse me?"

"Βάρβαροι," she repeated, enunciating each syllable clearly. But that wasn't what I had been referring to. "You may be a son of the Sea, but you do not speak the language properly. You are not a native." As I continued to stare at her stupidly, she huffed. "Are you going to sit there all day?"

Tentatively, I pulled the blanket that had been over me off of my leg. Half-expecting it to have still been a mangled mess from the crushing, even with what this strange lady was saying, I was shocked when I saw it looked like it hadn't been injured at all. Granted, when I got to my feet, it did feel a little...weird. Unsteady. But as I stepped forwards, it was perfectly fine to walk on.

Not even the children of Apollo at Camp could fix a crushed leg that fast, assuming that the hunch I was beginning to have about us – Bianca and I – not being here for long was true.

I casted my gaze upwards, back at the lady. "...Who are you?" I asked.

Were she and her children gods? I didn't think so. They didn't look like them, although they did look strange. They didn't feel like them.

She merely smiled at me. "My name is Euthymia." Then she gestured for me to walk out of the room. "Come, come! I made breakfast. Your friend is already eating."

My brief time of knowing I was a demigod had taught me better than to trust strange women, even if they seemed nice. Medusa, hello? Need I say more?

Yet, I still didn't stop myself from following after her, wincing when my leg gave a painful twinge. The similarities of this house to an Ancient Greek one continued: on the other side of the doorway was an outdoor hallway, facing a courtyard. The three kids were playing in the courtyard with a ball, laughing and chasing it around with an even younger fourth. Geez, how many kids did this lady have?

Euthymia led me into another room on the first floor, the kitchen. There Bianca was sitting at the table, dressed in her normal clothes – which made me realize that I wasn't, wearing a white chiton unlike the purple of all of Euthymia's family besides herself, with the necklace Luke had given me on the Princess Andromeda hanging from my neck. Bianca was eating a mixture of marinated olives, fresh grapes, pita bread, and soft goat cheese. Her face brightened as she saw me, and she stood up from the table.

"Percy!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Percy, thank the gods you're alright!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said, waving my hands in a calming gesture.

"I thought you were gonna die," she babbled, and this was really unlike her. She was the brooding one, Nico was the one who talked all the time. I must've spooked her more than I'd thought. "I thought we both were gonna die. Your leg, all the blood, swimming for hours – "

"But we're fine, right?" I interjected. "Everything's okay?"

Abashed, her face flushing, she nodded.

I sat down with her at the table. My leg was healed, but standing on it for too long was irritating the fuck out of me for some reason. Euthymia smiled. "Please, help yourself," she said. "Food, drink." She pointed at a pitcher of a dark purple drink. Since everything else here seemed archaic, I instantly assumed was a watered-down wine. "The sooner you eat, the better."

I warily stared at the food instead.

"Percy," Bianca mumbled. "She isn't a – "

"No, I understand," Euthymia spoke. She looked at me. "You think I, my children, are monsters, because we do not look like you. I assure you, we are human. Men."

I tried not to squirm in my seat. "Erm..."

"I swear it," she promised. "I swear on the River Styx, my family and I are of the human race, we do not mean you harm, and we will not hurt you."

Thunder boomed.

...Well, I guess that decided it, since she was still alive and all.

I grabbed a cluster of grapes and put them on the ceramic plate in front of me. "Who are you?" I asked again, reaching for the pita bread and cheese next. I was hungry. Ravenous, even. "Where are we? How did we end up here?"

Euthymia opened her mouth to answer. Before she could, there was a squeal from the courtyard. Scowling, she ran out and yelled at her kids in quick, natural Ancient Greek that I wasn't able to make out. Then she came back inside, her youngest clinging to her chiton, and sat down. "I told you, my name is Euthymia. This is my youngest, Melitta." She waved Melitta's arm for her, making the girl laugh. She couldn't have been older than four. "I have seven, total: Cleisthenes, Glaphyra, Herais, Erasmos, Sostrate, Phaedra, and Melitta. Cleisthenes is two years older than you, Glaphyra of your age, Herais two years younger. We are of the Heliades, which is where you are. Your friend, Bianca, carried you here after reaching shore."

"Wait." I stopped eating. "Heliades?"

"Islands of the Sun," she explained. "We are of a race of man different than yours. Like..." She struggled for another example.

"Black people?" I suggested. I didn't really feel comfortable in doing it, but I was trying to get an understanding in what she meant, while also recognizing she came from a very different culture than my own.

She blinked. "Aethiopians? Ἣκιστα. They are of the same race as you. More like..." Her face brightened. "The Gorgades! They are good trade partners." As Bianca and I both continued to gaze at her, she wilted. "Pygmies? Sciritae? Syrbotai? Those are the only ones left besides the Centaurs."

I knew that one. "Oh, like Chiron and Dolops?"

She shook her head. "The half-brothers of the gods are not true Centaurs. They are not the descendants of Ixion and Nephele. Oh, no matter." She let out another huff. "Long time ago, there were many races of men, not just yours. But many battles were fought, many plagues and floods happened. The age of heroes ended. Now there are only seven races left, including the Atlanteans. Yours dwarfs the rest of ours. It is not right, but it is what happened."

"Okay, but where are the Heliades?"

"You're still in the Sea of Monsters, if that's what you're worried about."

Euthymia, Bianca, and I all jumped at the sound of the new voice.

"Cleisthenes!" Euthymia exclaimed.

Her eldest son stormed into the room, glaring at Bianca and I. He looked mostly like the rest of his family. His brown hair was darker, but whether that was from the sun or age was anyone's guess. He pressed a kiss to his mother's forehead when he walked over to her, then picked up a cup and filled it with wine. He brought it over to the counter, which he leaned against, still glowering as he took a sip.

His mother made a face. "Κλεισθένης," she began.

Then followed an argument that neither I nor Bianca were conversationally fluent enough in to pick up on even the gist of. I understood a word or a phrase here and there, like ξενία, but for the most part...well, it was Greek to me. Never thought I would say that, did you?

Finally, Cleisthenes drowned his cup and marched back out of the kitchen, with one last glare.

When he was gone, Euthymia held a hand to her temple. "I am sorry," she said. "My son, Cleisthenes – "

"It's alright," I said.

"No, it is not," she insisted. "He is not being a good host. But he does not like your race. Not ever since one of your men killed his father three years ago. He does not understand the difference between the person and the race. He is young, foolish."

That sounds like a lot of people I know, I thought.

...Including myself.

"Is there any way we could make a rainbow here? Borrow a boat?" I requested.

Euthymia smiled sadly. "I'm afraid that I do not have a boat, Percy. And while I am not afraid to extend to you hospitality, my neighbors will most likely not be of the same thought. They are as distrusting of your race as my son."

"And I already tried IM'ing," Bianca pitched in. "I wasn't able to get ahold of Clarisse, Alabaster, Silena, or Annabeth."

Panic seized my stomach. "You weren't?"

She started ripping up a piece of pita bread nervously. "No, I wasn't. I don't know what's going on. I was able to talk with Chiron, though."

"What did he say?"

She hesitated.

"Bianca."

"He said we were safe here, and to wait for the others to come get us. I'm sorry." Her voice was small. "I know that's not what you wanted to hear."

I was angry. "Katie might not have that long!" I snapped. I knew she wasn't the one at fault for that, but I couldn't help myself. "I just had a dream about her. She was kidnapped by Polyphemus, the Cyclops. He's given her three more days – three – to finish the wedding train she's been making! After that..." I trailed off.

I didn't even want to talk about that.

It was bad enough that I had gone through it.

"I know," Bianca repeated quietly. "I'm sorry."

I needed air.

Walking out of the kitchen, I went through the courtyard. Erasmos, Sostrade, Phaedra, and Melitta all shouted at me in Ancient Greek, but I ignored them and the Greek shepherd dog that came over to sniff me, its tail wagging. I passed through the gate to the courtyard, presumably left open by Cleisthenes, and closed it behind me.

I already described in detail to you Polyphemus' island, so I won't repeat that process with this one. Besides the sheep, it had the same magical features, with crisp white beaches. The elder two daughters of Euthymia, Glaphyra and Herais, were tending to the vineyard of the family's, which made me presume that was their specialty. They were close enough they looked up at me instinctively, and they smiled and waved. I waved back reluctantly. Cleisthenes was nowhere in sight.

Hobbling over to a rock, my leg beginning to ache more than it didn't, I sat down on it to look out at the ocean. It was such a vivid shade of blue, it reminded me of Callie's eyes. It seemed impossible that such a beautiful ocean, calm with waves gently lapping at the shore, could house so many islands and so many monsters. It seemed impossible that Euthymia and her family, and who knows how many more people I was silently referring to as the "children of the sun"could exist here in peace with those monsters, invisible to them. Invisible to the world.

Did they have demigods here, I wondered? Were they safer than us because they lived here and weren't of the same tribe? That didn't seem fair.

Whatever. It wasn't like the gods weren't known for their hypocrisy.

If it was just me on this island, I wouldn't have any hesitations about diving into the ocean to go find the others, Euthymia's hospitality or not. I didn't think any of them were dead, I had a feeling about it in my gut, but their inability to be contacted by IM...that was unheard of. Not unless there was some sort of other magical interference at hand.

But, I had Bianca with me, and that complicated things. I wasn't going to leave her, but nor did I think I would be able to carry us through the sea for miles with my powers, not without probably knocking myself out the second we reached land. And it went without saying we didn't have the thermos, because I hadn't woken up with it nor I had seen it anywhere in sight. So, we were stuck here.

Sorry, Katie, I thought, although just the act of thinking it made me feel like I was betraying her. I think we're going to be cutting it pretty close with your deadline.

"Βάρβαρος, it is not good for you to be outside."

Cleisthenes was approaching me, his face still twisted up. I could now see what he was doing out here: there were sheep, after all, just the not-magical kind. They followed after him obediently, baa'ing and the bells around their necks ringing. He was holding a lamb in his arms, a shepherd's staff strapped to his back. When he stopped, the sheep stopped and began to graze.

"I can't sit on a rock?"

"Our neighbors – " here, he pointed at two houses, one on either side of theirs. They were far away, but not far enough one wouldn't be able to see me " – are not as kind as my mother. They are not as kind as me. They will kill you, if they see you."

I coughed awkwardly. "Right. Sorry."

Getting to my feet, I moved to walk past him. But then he caught me by arm, and he was tall enough that my forehead would've bumped into his chin.

Now it was my turn to scowl. "Hey, what are you – "

"My mother is a good woman. She is kindhearted, and will never turn a stranger away. But she can also be naïve," he stated. "I am the man of this house, and I will tell you this: I will put up with you out of respect for her. But I know your race, I know your kind. If you hurt her, I will kill you. Understand?"

I didn't bother trying to argue with him about how I wasn't the same type of person who had killed his father, there was no point. I wasn't going to change his mind in three days, or less. "Perfect," I said, and wrenched my arm from his hold.

I didn't look back as I headed towards the house once more.

Word Count: 3,614

Next Chapter Title: We Find Unexpected Sanctuary Pt. 2