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I was back in the cave with Lara. She was running her fingers over the shell necklace she wore.
"Are you alright?"
I turned to see Medusa coming over, stiffness in my joints.
"Oh... yes... I just... I miss home."
"Were they not cruel to you? Were you not abandoned there? Why would you wish to go back to such a place?"
Lara shook her head, "No not- it's not them."
She studied the wall. "The villagers, they didn't like me... but the tutor that took care of me was kind. He came to the village when my mom died and took care of me. He taught me a lot but... he was away when... when the accident happened."
Medusa settled beside her, "I see, where did the tutor come from?"
"He said my father sent him. I was never sure if that was the truth, but he made sure I was safe and encouraged me to do what I wished. He was kind, unlike the villagers. They always treated me like I was something to be pitied at best, hated at worst."
Medusa snarled, "Ridiculous humans. Just because you can't see doesn't make you any lesser than them. Your father shouldn't have abandoned you to their cruelty."
"I think he did his best," Lara murmured. "He left me this necklace and sent me the tutor. I was never uncared for, and I never wanted for anything."
She scoffed, "The bare minimum."
]"I never minded," Lara insisted. "If my mother spoke the truth then he's a God, and surely very busy. Despite that he still made sure I was safe and cared for. He couldn't have foreseen the villagers reactions to the incident."
Medusa stared at her doubtfully. "If you say so."
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The next afternoon, June 13th (seven days before the solstice), our train rolled into Denver.
We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, a bit after our stop at Kansas City. We hadn't taken a shower since Camp Half-Blood.
Thankfully with my waterskin we'd managed some careful maneuvering in the bathrooms and managed to clean off the grime. I'd gotten pretty clean in the bubble of purity in the lake.
I ended up lending Annabeth one of the shirts Triton gave me, one of the flowy ones. It was loose enough to fit her despite her being a few inches taller than me. Grover was using my extra camp shirt and I was wearing one of the clasped shirts.
"We should try to contact Khiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
I nodded, reluctant. I don't like Khiron all that much, but he was basically the head of the camp.
"How will we do that?" In the sea we used scale-line, or messenger shells, or some people could afford higher quality enchanted mirrors for communication. What did the land Godly world use?
"You'll see."
We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, I didn't like it.
It felt too hot and reminded me of the Khimaira. It made me tired too, I felt all dried out.
The Rocky Mountains towered over us, they made me think of the dream I had, with the different figures made of swirling currents, and brilliant light, and burning pain. The Mountains remind me of the figures that were tall and steady.
I still wondered why I dreamed that. Who were all of Them?
Pontus was the swirling currents, They'd referred to Him as that. It must've been a scene from a long time ago, Pontus has been asleep for thousands of years but no one knew why. Those other beings though... the way some of them eyed Pontus.
Were they-
Did they-
"Ahah!" Annabeth cried victoriously.
She led us to an empty do-it-yourself car wash.
We veered towards the stall farthest from the street, keeping an eye out for patrol cars.
We'd already had to duck around twice to keep out of their sight. I knew we looked suspicious, especially now that we were at a car wash with no cars.
"What are we doing?" This seemed like a sea method, using water.
"It's seventy-five-cents," he grumbled. "I have two quarters left, Percy?"
I pulled out a quarter, "Here."
"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do this with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good and my arm gets tired of pumping."
I stared baffled. What were they doing? If they needed water why didn't they just ask me to use my waterskin? Did it need fresh water?
I made a note to learn how to separate salt from the water as I questioned them.
"What are you doing?"
He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."
I blinked, wait, did he mean... "Iris-messaging?"
"Yeah," he looked at me a bit surprised. "You know about it?"
"Uh yeah, we do it in the sea too. You just gotta reflect the light right to make rainbows, or use a rainbow stone."
"What's a rainbow stone?" Annabeth asked.
"It's an enchanted stone, made to refract light to make a rainbow, I had one in my dorm, remember Grover?"
He frowned in thought, "Um, you had a lot of sparkly things."
"Well yeah, I had the star globe, and the sparkly lights, and a few other things, but I kept the rainbow stone out. It's the black stone with the splashes of color."
"Shaped kinda long and the ends curving up?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, that's a rainbow stone?"
"Yes, Grover. That's a rainbow stone."
"You'll have to show me when we get back to camp," Annabeth declared as Grover turned on the nozzle.
"Okay, but just curious. Why are we using the spray nozzle when I could just make a mist with water from my waterskin?"
They both stopped and stared for a long moment.
"Er... that... Okay how much water does that bag have?"
I shrugged, "It's connected to the ocean, so... how much water is in the ocean?"
She stared for a long moment, her gaze flicking to the bag, then back to me. "Riiiiigggghhhhtt."
I stared, she stared back.
"Well..." She said. "We'll keep that in mind for future reference. But we already have the nozzle out, so... Drachma?"
I handed her a Drachma.
She raised the coin over her head. "O Goddess accept our offering."
She tossed it in, "Half-Blood Hill."
The misty rainbow cleared to show the strawberry fields and the Long Island Sound in the distance. It seemed to be viewing the porch of the Big House.
In front of us was a familiar figure, sandy-blond hair, shorts and an orange tank top with a bronze sword in hand, he was staring intently down at something in the meadow.
"Luke!" I called.
He turned, eye's wide.
"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the Gods! Are you guys okay?"
"We're... uh... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was straightening the flowy shirt I'd lent her, brushing the loose strands out of her face. "We though—Khiron—I mean—"
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything alright? Is Grover okay?"
"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle to the side so Luke could see him. "What kind of problems?"
A big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. The music was so loud the pavement was shaking.
"Khiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled.
"I'll take care of it!" Annabeth yelled back, looking relieved to get away, her face rather red. "Grover, come on!"
"What?" Grover said. "But—"
"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" She ordered.
Grover muttered about girls being impossible to understand but handed me the nozzle and followed Annabeth.
I curled my fingers and made the water arc in a way that meant I didn't have to hold it awkwardly to keep talking to Luke.
"Khiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted so I could hear. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Somehow word got out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff. We're not sure how—probably the same scumbag that summoned the hellhound—"
"Wow," I said. "That person really needs to be caught. They're endangering their friends and family. I can't imagine what kind of horrible person would do that."
Luke twitched and nodded, "Yeah, but it's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Demeter, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena and Hephaestus are siding with Zeus. Dionysus and Hermes are neutral right now."
The fact that Clarisse's cabin was supporting Poseidon, my Metua, was... shocking honestly. They didn't like me, but they still supported him.
In the next stall, Annabeth and some guy were arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased dramatically.
"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Khiron will be sorry he missed you."
I took a deep breath, then told Luke what had happened so far. About the Erinyes attacking, how we escaped from Medusa, how I faced the Khimaira. I didn't tell him about any dreams except the dream with the pit, but I did tell him about meeting the Nereid.
My dreams were mine, I wasn't gonna share them.
I didn't realize how long it took until the spray machine beeped, letting me know there was only one-minute left.
"I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help you much from here but listen... it had to be Hades who took the Master Bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning the field trip and saw him."
"The Gods can't take each other's Godly weapons directly, and the Erinyes seemed to be looking for something."
"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still... Hades has the Helm of Darkness. How else could anyone sneak into the throne room and steal the Master Bolt? You'd have to be invisible."
I stared at him, did he just imply...
I thought of Annabeth, she wouldn't.
It wasn't just that she was my friend, it was that... She wanted so badly to help the world, she wouldn't risk a war just for a quest. Besides, you needed to be more than invisible to get the Bolt, you'd need to be a master thief.
Stealing from the Gods required more than one trick.
Luke seemed to realize what he said.
"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."
I frowned, my stomach twisting, something seemed off. I stared at him in confusion, it wasn't... he didn't really say she wouldn't do it, what was he doing?
The music stopped, a man screamed in terror and car doors slammed. The Lincoln peeled out of the car wash suddenly.
"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."
"Oh..." I didn't know what was up, but something was off, "Yeah, they've... they've come in handy."
"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"
The water shut off, saved by the bell. I didn't bother to make the mist stay as it evaporated.This conversation was making me uncomfortable.
"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"
The mist was gone, and Luke's image faded away.
I didn't know what was up there, but I didn't like the way he was talking, it made me feel bad.
Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded.
"What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"
I didn't know how to explain, how to say he all but accused Annabeth of being the thief and made a parting comment that almost seemed meant to make me distrust Grover.
It reminded me of one of the mermen at one of the event's Triton took me too, the one that tried to turn a few other mers against each other because he wasn't in the group. He failed, but... the way it was said... it was very similar.
Was it purposeful? Or not?
I didn't know.
I pasted a smile on my face for now.
"Not much," my stomach twisted. I didn't know if I could eat, but we needed food. "Let's go find some dinner."
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
We sat at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. Surrounding us were families eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.
It took a few minutes for a waitress to come over and when she did she gave us a once over, raising an eyebrow at my head cover and mine and Annabeth's strange shirts, "Well?"
"We uh, wanted to order, uh," I glanced back at the menu, "A coke for me, Annabeth?"
She opened her mouth to order her drink only to be interrupted by a rumble that shook the whole building.
A motorcycle the size of a small elephant pulled up to the curb.
It's headlight was a glaring red, the gas tank with flames painted on it, and it had a shotgun holster riveted to the sides, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but the leather looked like... looked like, well, Caucasian human skin. It looked like those books I once saw at a museum, bound with human skin.
All conversations ceased, and I coughed at the sudden taste of blood, the taste made me nauseous. I felt daggers at my sides, sharp metal pressing in. I blinked at the sudden surge of buzzing as the blood grew stronger. I felt a sudden surge of anger that felt wrong .
I frowned, and shoved my power out, the buzzing lifted slightly, I shook my head to clear it more. What was this?
The guy on the bike was large, dressed in a dark red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster. He had a hunting knife strapped to his thigh and wore wraparound shades. He was tall and stocky, built like a tank. His face was rugged, cheeks scarred with a sharp jawline.
He looked as if he could take a hammer to the face without flinching.
His expression was hard as he walked in and I could swear I recognized his face from somewhere.
As he walked into the diner the taste of blood grew to be almost overwhelming. A hot, dry wind blew through the place and I bit my tongue as the rage I was feeling surged.
Was that him? Was this a sensation that he made me feel?
I didn't like it.
All the people rose, as if hypnotized, but the biker (who was far more than a biker, this sensation, so overwhelming, it was like Lord D) waved His hand dismissively and they all sat down again, going back to their conversations.
The waitress blinked, shaking her head before turning to us, "What did you want?"
"It's all on me," The biker slid into our booth, crowding Annabeth against the window. "Cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, milkshakes, whatever else they want."
He smiled, sharp and vicious, a shiver went down my spine. The bladed feeling in my sides seemed to press harder.
I shoved more of my power at the buzzing. I couldn't afford to lose my temper right now so I bit back the anger using every lesson Triton drilled into my head.
He raised an eyebrow at us, "Well?"
I swallowed, took a steadying breath, and turned to the waitress, "A coke please."
Annabeth nodded, "I'll have a ginger ale."
"Apple Juice?" Grover mumbled.
"Can we also have three of the fudge brownies?" I asked. Hey if a God was paying might as well take him up on it. It wasn't like we were getting out of it.
The waitress gaped at Him, He glanced back at her, "Are you still here?"
He pointed at her and I felt the buzzing down to my bones as she turned as if spun and marched back towards the kitchen.
The biker turned back, looking at me. I couldn't see His eyes behind the red shades but the blood grew stronger, the buzzing trying to press down on me.
I took another breath and pushed as hard as I could.
He grinned wickedly, "So you're old Seaweed's kid huh?"
I raised my chin, "I don't believe that's what He's known as, but my Metua is Poseidon, yes."
Annabeth shot me a warning look, "Percy, this is—"
The biker raised His hand.
I stared at Him, and it clicked. The taste of blood should've been the giveaway, like Clarisse's spear, but He looked just like His kids. The same sharp features and stocky body, the same smirk.
"S'okay," He said, smirking at me. "I think my little cousin knows me."
"You're Ares, God of War."
"Got it in one, cousin," He said as He took off His shades. His eyes were two pinpoints of burning red, glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."
"She wanted a fight," I said, forcing a smile onto my face. "Accidents happen in fights."
He eyed me for a minute, "That's true enough, I'm not here about my daughter's spear anyways. I heard you were in town and I've got a little proposition for you."
The waitress came back then, heaping trays of food in hand that she deposited in front of us.
Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.
She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..."
He pulled out His knife and started cleaning His fingernails, "Was there a problem, ma'am?"
She stared at the knife, then swallowed and left with the gold.
"You shouldn't threaten people with knives," I pointed out. "And she really can't use the coins, those are Gods' money, not mortal money."
"I am a God, little cousin. Besides, everyone should carry a weapon. Don't think I don't see that knife at your side, it's more dangerous than the one in my hand. It's a dangerous world out there you know, which brings me to my proposition. I've got a little mini quest for you."
"We're on a quest currently Lord Ares," I said carefully, biting back my first instinct to snap at Him. I took another steadying breath, noting how His eyes gleamed as He watched me, "I don't think we have the time to properly devote ourselves to a quest for you currently. If you're able to wait, then we might be able to aid you later."
"Don't worry about it, your reward for doing my little mini-quest will be aid on your big one. A ride, some supplies..."
I pursed my lips and mentally went through the money in my bag, like two-hundred dollars, give or take.
Okay, a ride would be good.
He smirked at my nod, "You just gotta pick up my shield, I left it at an abandoned water park here in town. Was on a little... date with my girlfriend. All you gotta do is fetch it, simple hmm?"
I hummed, this seemed like a trap. Why couldn't He just retrieve it himself? That would take seconds...
"Is it someplace you are unable to retrieve it from? I wouldn't think much could keep you from your shield Lord Ares."
"I just don't have the time, punk, are you gonna accept the quest or not? Or are you only willing to risk yourself when you've got a river nearby?"
I took a slow breath.
"We appreciate the offer," I glanced at Annabeth who nodded. "I do wish to know what kind of supplies you'd be giving us, and how far our ride would go."
"Food, clothes," He leaned forward, His eyes blazing. "Some money. The ride will go all the way to Los Angeles. I'll even throw in a bonus, I'll give you some info on your mom too."
Grover and Annabeth looked at me. I wasn't sure what He could tell me about her, but if it was something I didn't know...
"My mom?"
He smirked, "Got your attention now do I? The water park is a mile west on Delancy. Can't miss it, look for the tunnel of love ride."
I glanced at Grover and Annabeth one more time, they both seemed resigned. "Is whatever interrupted your date a threat?"
He laughed, but it was hollow, He was nervous, "I'm sure you'll figure it out. Don't disappoint me."
I closed my eyes at the sudden surge of buzzing, and when I opened them again Ares was gone, along with the feel of blades and the taste of blood.
I swallowed.
"Not good," Grover muttered. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good at all."
"We have to do this side quest, we'll make it quick. And if it gets us a ride..." I trailed off.
Annabeth nodded grimly, "You don't ignore Gods unless you want some serious bad fortune."
I sipped my shake to clear my senses. "So why would He need us anyways? There's not much that can scare a God."
"Maybe it's something requiring brains," Annabeth said as she picked up the cheeseburger. "Ares has strength, but that's all. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."
"I don't know," I murmured. "He seemed... scared. I'm not sure what could scare the War God to that extent."
Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.
"I guess we'll have to find out."
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Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave a review, they feed my soul.
What did you think of Ares? What did you think of their conversation with Luke? How do you think their side quest will go?
Halmaheran
Metua=Father
Terminology
Khiron=phonetic spelling of Chiron
Scale-line=will be introduced in detail later
Messenger shells=will be introduced in detail later
Enchanted mirrors=self-explanatory but will be introduced in detail later
Khimaira=phonetic spelling of Chimera
Erinyes=The Greek name for the Furies (and original name)