Chapter Text
Percy held back the curses that were forming in his mind and put on his hospitable mask. He bowed before the empousai, keeping an eye on them, as did Ethan. “Greetings. We have come in peace and do not mean any harm. We apologize for having interrupted your ritual and, if you’ll allow us, we’ll leave you alone so you can continue,” Percy said, his voice polite and apologetic.
The empousai eyed them warily. “What brought you here, demigods? You interrupted a sacred ritual.”
Keeping his face friendly, Percy mentally made faces. “I heard noises coming from the forest,” Ethan said. “Being so close to Camp Half-Blood, I was worried about the camp’s safety, so I decided to investigate whether someone or something managed to pass through the barrier.”
“Foolish demigods,” the empousa at the front said. “Your explanations are nigh. The sacred goddess and titaness, Lady Hecate, is our mistress and she informed Chiron of our ritual here. These grounds hold great power, as is befitting of a ritual for the great goddess.”
“And we apologize for that!,” Percy said, an uneasy feeling in his gut. Ethan squirmed a bit at his side, trying not to sink down to his knees again. “We didn’t know you’d have a ritual here - just that we weren’t supposed to come - and we apologize. Is there something we can do to make up for our rudeness?”
The empousa frowned. “You - Chiron made sure to have the demigods informed of our ritual so we absolutely would not be interrupted.”
“They must have come here to stop us,” another empousa said.
“Are these two not Perseus Jackson and Ethan Nakamura?,” yet another supplied.
“That must mean they want to steal the power of the ritual to overthrow Lady Hecate!”
The empousa who seemed to be the leader bared her fangs. “Quiet, everyone!” Immediately, the others quieted down, instead eyeing the demigods. Still looking aggressive, the leader turned back towards Percy. “Do you realize that you challenge Lady Hecate herself by interrupting?”
Percy held up his hands, trying to appease her, while Ethan, as usual, kept his mouth shut. “We didn’t mean to, we swear! Back when I was twelve, as you surely know, I had a bout with the god of war himself. I know the gods’ strength, and I know going against them like this is foolish. I was a spy in the Titan army - do you really think I would risk something like angering a titaness?”
Still looking suspicious, the empousai collectively looked at them as if they planned to tear the two apart with just their eyes, trying to unravel the mystery of their appearance.
Their scrutinous gazes kept going on for minutes. Percy stood in front of them. He’d had to do this often, under the eyes of the lord of time who could make minutes seem like hours and seconds like an eternity. Slowly, he reached for Ethan’s hand after noticing his slight shivering and, after seeing that the empousai permitted the action, took Ethan’s hand and squeezed it. They didn’t meet each others’ eyes, still fixated on the women before them, but Percy could feel the tension slowly leaving Ethan’s body.
The forest around them was quiet, as if it was holding its breath, as if it was watching and waiting for the outcome. The wind softly rustled the leaves above them while the sun sent its rays shining through the foliage, lighting up the ground with patches of light. Percy didn’t exactly like that, as if by coincidence, they were highlighting Ethan’s and his throats and chests where their hearts would be, but he resolved himself to enjoy the warmth they brought instead of cursing about Apollo.
The leader finally acted again. “Ethan Nakamura.” Percy squeezed the hand a fraction harder. “You said you came here because you heard a suspicious noise coming from the forest. Is that true?”
Ethan visibly tried not to gulp. “Yes.”
“If it was not your intention to interrupt the Mormolykeian ritual, what else do you think the noise could have been?,” she asked, her gaze still piercing.
“I thought that a remnant of the Titan Army might have slipped through the barrier one way or the other.” Ethan gulped. “I knew we were not supposed to go too deeply into the forest, so I assumed the ritual couldn’t have been the cause because I figured that whatever might be going on in here couldn’t be this loud.”
Following this, the mormolykeiai - who, thinking about it, did look a bit like vampires - were silent for another few seconds that seemed to stretch forever until finally, their leader spoke up again, turning towards her sisters. “Does any one of you have objections? I believe Ethan Nakamura’s reasoning.”
One of the mormolykeiai raised her claw. “However, I do not. If they had supposedly heard sounds coming from the forest and followed them until they found us, should we not have heard these sounds as well?”
Murmurs erupted from the rows. “A valid question,” the leader said and turned back towards Ethan. Ethan shrank a bit and his hand got a bit sweatier. “What is your answer, demigod?”
Ethan took in a breath, deep, and slightly shivering. “I lost the sounds after a while and decided to follow nevertheless in hopes of finding the source. Then I heard clunks and investigated. That was when Percy caught up and we were about to leave when you spotted us.”
The leader nodded. “Is that answer satisfying?”
The mormolykeia wrinkled her nose. “There is also the issue of Percy Jackson still having Anaklusmos in his hand.”
Percy tilted his head. “If I’d wanted to attack you, I could’ve done so many times over, and not just with Riptide. Let alone with the two of us together. And there’s still the fact that we don’t want to get on the bad side of your mistress.”
The mormolykeia bared her teeth. “Point taken, demigods.”
Percy nodded and looked back at the leader. “We answered your questions. If there is no need to redeem ourselves, we would like to leave now, so may we?”
“I see no reason to keep you here. You’d only be a hindrance, anyway,” their leader said and Percy and Ethan nodded.
Then, the annoying mormolykeia tensed and, a split second later, the others as well. Percy and Ethan went still themselves before they heard it - the slightest rustle of leaves, and a distant heaving. They turned around and, by a hair, Percy managed to push Ethan out of the way of the fox that just missed Ethan’s arm, therefore only brushing against it with its tail. It came at high speed and flew far, and the mormolykeiai apparently were still slow. The fox crashed into the one who’d doubted them and tore into her arms, sending her screaming as she beat at it with her unharmed one as the other mormolykeiai stood in shock for one or two seconds before rushing in. Before they were able to get a grip on it, however, it jumped away from his prey, having realized it wasn’t its aim, and landed in a few meters’ distance.
The fox had deep black fur safe for the white area around its snout and its red-tipped paws and tail. The fur around its snout was dipped in the blood of the mormolykeia, who was surrounded by her sisters whose claws were glinting in the light. They had assumed a defensive position as to not allow one of them to be hurt again.
“This… That’s the Theumessian fox, isn’t it?,” Ethan gasped.
“How do we beat it?,” Percy asked.
“I don’t know! It was made to never be caught! The only reason why it ended up dead was because of a dog that was said to catch anything, so to resolve the paradox, Zeus turned both of them to stone,” Ethan stammered before he was jumped by the fox again. He and Percy had their swords in their respective hand and stood ready, though the fox was cursedly fast.
Percy moved in a blur, Riptide never even touching a hair of the fox that continued to move with lightning speed. He skipped forward and backward, trying to keep the fox away from Ethan - without success, as Ethan found out as he, too, had to dodge attacks, and more than once, the demigods had to dodge each other, too, as the fox used its speed in an attempt to confuse them into cutting one another.
Percy had more endurance than Ethan in an exchange for a worse defense, so he kept up with relative ease, but he noticed Ethan’s movements slowly become sloppier despite not wearing heavy armour or a shield. A flash of red caught his eye and a whimper, and Percy reached out and searched for the blood in the fox - only for the fox to disappear as sudden as it had appeared.
Panting, Percy went over to Ethan, still keeping his eyes alert on his surroundings while he wound an arm around Ethan, helping him stand up. He noticed Ethan tensing and felt his weight dragging him down, so he looked at him. And froze.
The fox had managed to draw blood - no, rip flesh. Ethan had a gash on his arm. It didn’t look too deep or to big, but there was a lot of blood and the wound looked severe. Similar to Ethan, a sob from the mormolykeia came over and Percy regarded them with a cautious glance. While half of them were still keeping watch, the other half had gathered around their wounded member.
“Demigods, did you bring this cursed fox here?,” one of them asked.
“Why would we?,” Percy said. “Ethan is wounded. Why would I risk that?”
The leader took a look at him and paused. “Go now,” she said gravely. “We need to take care of our own, and you of yours. Know, however, that this will not be without consequences, regardless of your involvement.” She held up her hand as he opened his mouth. “Whether that is fair or not will be neither our nor your decision.”
Percy could do no more than nod. He looked at Ethan and unceremoniously took off his shirt and ripped off stripes with which he tried to bandage Ethan’s arm to stop the bleeding. He’d still have to make his way to camp, so he couldn’t afford to care too much about the mormolykeiai, but he still gave them a glance. “I’ll hurry. If there’s something I can do after Ethan is taken care of, let me know.”
His offer went unanswered, so he glanced to his side where Ethan was holding his arm. The stripes were already soaked and blood was dripping down his arm. Percy frowned. Even a wound like that ought to start healing after some time. Already feeling sick, he closed his eyes, reached out and grasped Ethan’s blood and a wham went through Percy as he could feel the entire life force of Ethan, the seventy percent of water he consisted of, and he clenched his teeth as he felt a rush go through him. Evening out his breath, he concentrated solely on the wound on Ethan’s arm, working on preventing the blood from dripping out further, and when he thought he was able to control it, he opened his eyes again to face Ethan.
It must have only taken him half a minute or so at maximum, but Ethan was visibly tense and his face was pale. “I can feel you,” Ethan said, and Percy flinched at the tiny voice.
Bringing a reassuring smile he didn’t believe in to his face, he tightened his hold. “No worries. Just keeping the blood in you. Now let’s head back. You can walk, right?”
“Uhm, yes,” Ethan said. “My arm is hurt, not my legs.”
“Right,” Percy said. “I just… Need something to ground myself with. Is that okay?”
“Y-Yeah,” Ethan said, shivering a little. Trembling, they made their way back to camp.