Chapter Text
Look, I didn’t ask for any of this. And I don’t mean just being a Half-Blood. While that’s scary, and is more likely to get me killed than any disease or anything, it often pales in comparison to other things.
Trust me, if you think you may be one of us, run. Because things are going to be a lot more difficult from here on out.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
~*~*~
I shoved my hands into my pockets, trying to ignore whatever lecture Mr. Brunner was giving. Technically I wasn’t supposed to be on this field trip. I was supposed to be at home with my mom. But, despite her best efforts, I’m pretty terrible at doing what I’m supposed to. Especially if it gets me out of the house for a little bit longer.
So here I was, at the MET, with a bunch of classmates who don’t even know I exist.
As Mr. Brunner was explaining the story of Kronos, I felt eyes on me. I turned around anxiously. Subconsciously pulling my sleeves over my hands just in case the person staring had seen the bruises. I'd thought I’d gotten good at hiding them, maybe not.
The only person behind me was Mrs. Dodds. She was an older teacher, you know, the ones who wear the old cardigans and crap. Of course overtop those cardigans she wore a leather jacket. Because she, for some reason, thought she pulled it off. She. Did. Not.
To be honest I’d always gotten a weird feeling from Mrs. Dodds. When I tried to explain it to Grover, my best friend, he had just anxiously shook his head, telling me I was paranoid.
Before I could even puzzle out why I was being stared at, Mr. Brunner called on me.
“Percy Jackson?”
I blinked, “Um, sorry, what was the question?” I mumbled, rubbing my arm, a nervous habit.
Mr. Brunner gave me a sympathetic smile, “I asked if you knew what Kronos did with his children.”
I looked up at the statue, letting my brain think for a moment, “He swallowed them, right?”
“Good, can you tell us what happened next?”
The bruises on my arm burned from my hand brushing against them, “Rhea had another son, Zeus, right? A- and he escaped and tricked Kronos into eating something that caused him to vomit the others up?”
A girl, Nancy Bobofit, muttered to one of her freak friends, “Fucking teachers pet, that one.”
I winced, rubbing my arm again.
“Very good, Percy. Miss Bobofit, care to tell us why we need to learn this in real life?” Mr. Brunner had a smirk on his face, having clearly heard her comment.
Nancy fumbled, stuttering a few poor excuses.
“Thank you, Nancy, but that doesn’t answer the question. Percy, do you know the answer?”
I winced, feeling the whole class turn to me.
I forced my thoughts on the topic, glancing back at the statue. ADHD is a real curse sometimes. Eventually I gave my answer, “E-even the small things we don’t think about matter. Like the whole war with the gods wouldn’t have happened if Kronos had realized Rhea had given him a rock to swallow.”
My eyes downcast I didn’t see the proud smile on Mr. Brunner’s face. Though I heard the pride in his voice as he spoke, “Very good Perseus.”
The eyes watching me burned. As the rest of the class moved on I stayed put, trying to calm my breathing.
“Percy!” I heard Grover yell.
I turned around, shocked, he wasn’t on this trip.
Anxiety was in his voice, more than usual as he ran towards me, “We need to go!”
I stepped back, “G-go? Go where?”
Then I heard her, “Now, now, Honey. You don’t need to worry about that.”
Mrs. Dodds. I felt claws rake my back as I was thrown away from the Kronos scene.
Grover yelled, though I couldn’t hear him.
I’d been cut before, thrown even, but that paled against Mrs. Dodds.
Speaking of, I glanced up at where I had thought I would see the same old lady. Nope. In her place stood a winged monster.
My mind flashed back to an old lecture Mr. Brunner had given. The Furries, servants of Hades.
“Honey, did you really think you could get away with it?” She growled, shoving Grover aside.
My vision was swimming, “Get- get away with what?”
Mrs. Dodds growled, lunging towards me again, “We are not so easily fooled, Half-Blood.”
She scratched my arm, sleeve coming off. Shit, that left all the bruises on that arm uncovered.
Grover ran towards us again, a clip clopping sound followed him. No came from him. My best friend had goat legs.
Okay, no, this had to be a hallucination. Simply my mind playing tricks due to the pain.
“Die Honey!” Mrs. Dodds hissed.
I managed to roll away from her blow. Unfortunately she shattered about 3 different Greek statues.
“What ho’ Percy!” Mr. Brunner yelled,
Instinctively I caught a pen in my hand, “What? What the hell am I supposed to do with a pen!”
The cap fell off, and a sword appeared in my hand. So that’s what I’m meant to do with a pen.
Mrs. Dodds lunged forward, accidentally impaling herself on the sword in my shaking hands.
She turned into a shower of golden dust. My knees buckled sending me to the floor. The last thing I heard before losing consciousness was Grover’s panicked yells, telling me to stay awake.
I woke up in an ambulance. Okay, that’s weird off the bat. My arm was bandaged, I assumed my torso was as well. Well shit, there’s all the bruises and scars I covered.
My eyes slipped closed again. Too heavy to attempt to lift.
I was vaguely aware of Grover’s concerned voice. The noise was pretty difficult to discern.
And… oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.
That was her voice.
“I’m so sorry, what did he do this time?” Sally said, voice blatant with disapproval.
If I was able to wince at the time, I did.
“Well ma’am, due to witnesses we have strong reason to believe he had no part in the destruction. He simply tried to avoid getting attacked by the culprit.” A man’s voice explained.
Sally gave an annoyed hum, “Why am I here then?”
The man coughed awkwardly, “Due to the extent of his injuries it’s customary to contact the parent.”
She scoffed, “Just bring him to the apartment when this mess is over with.”
I heard hooves walk against the metal floor. Hooves? Did they have a horse in here?
“Perrrcyy.” Grover bleated anxiously.
Oh he was right next to me. Oh the clopping on the metal was coming from him. OH the goat feet were real.
I groaned, “What the fuckkk.”
At least it won a chuckle from Grover.
“Are you alrrright?”
He was doing that hold the r thing again. And oh my God I’m an idiot. It’s because he was half goat. He was a satyr.
“Half dead but perfectly fine, how are you?” I muttered, pulling myself up, bad idea.
My vision shook, and I started to lean forward, and thank God, Grover helped me sit.
He shuffled nervously, I mean, more nervous than usual. Look, I love the guy, but he is anxiety’s playground.
“I’m sorrry. Satyrrrs arrree supposed to be prrrotectorrrs. I’m the worrrst satyrrr everrr.” He cried,
I winced, “Well, that’s not true, you stuck around to make sure I wasn’t on my way to Hades.”
He laughed despite himself, running his hand over his face as if he were asking the gods for patience. And to be fair, he probably was.
Mr. Brunner rolled his wheelchair up the ramp just then. Looking behind him anxiously.
“We don't have much time.” Mr. Brunner stressed,
Grover paled, “Something else is coming? The Kindly One just passed.”
“Kindly One?” I choked out, “Mrs. Dodds, she was really a fur—”
Mr. Brunner cut me off, “Names have power, Perseus. But yes, Mrs. Dodds was a monster.”
The satyr shivered, “If more are coming, we have to go now.”
I looked around anxiously, “Why are they coming after me in the first place? I’m hardly the most important person.”
Brunner winced, looking away for a quick moment, “We will explain soon, Perseus. But we must get to camp before the latest monster comes for you.”
I nodded, turning towards Grover to get up. I was, very shaky is an understatement, shaky standing. My knees threatened to give out again. Grover held most of my weight as we walked out of the ambulance. Much to the ambulance workers worry/stress/heart attacks. Oops my bad guys.
Brunner led us to a large truck with the words Delphi Strawberries painted on the side.
I was too tired to care.
Until, of course, Mr. Brunner stood up.
Okay.. yup I definitely lost it. Too many punches, I must’ve damaged my head. Mr. Brunner was paralyzed. He couldn’t stand up. I looked again.
Oh God he had a horse butt.
Okay, Grover is a goat and Mr. Brunner is a horse. Look, I’m from New York, I’m used to weird. But oh God this was weird.
Grover handed me what looked like a smashed cookie and instructed me to eat it. I grimaced but if satyrs and centaurs and furries are real I don’t care anymore. It tasted like sawdust but the world felt clearer, my back and arm weren’t, well, useless.
“What is..” I trailed off.
Grover smiled, still looked more like a grimace though, “Ambrosia, food of the gods. It heals demigods.”
I blinked, catching on the tone in his voice, “What?”
Brunner shook his head, “We will explain in due time, but for now your ignorance is our best chance.”
“You're a centaur, Grover’s a satyr, and you just gave me ambrosia to heal me, ambrosia heals demigods. I may struggle in school but I’m not an idiot.” I deadpanned.
Brunner sighed, though he didn’t explain. I imagine he was pretty set on keeping to his initial plan.
The van stopped.
Grover grew paler, “We aren’t at camp yet, are we?”
No one responded. The van bounced then flipped.
“Fuckkk!” I yelled as I landed on what was the roof of the van.
Brunner managed to knock the door out, allowing us escape.
I felt fine, scraped up and wanting to cuss out the world for being shitty, but fine. Grover on the other hand was out cold.
“Mother of..” I muttered checking the satyrs pulse.
“Foood.” He moaned, and that’s how I knew he’d be fine.
“Perseus, you must get to the top of that hill.” Mr. Brunner instructed.
I glanced up, a pine tree sat on an otherwise barren hill.
“Okay.. but what about you and Grover?” I gestured to the half dead half-goat I was holding up. Mr. Brunner didn’t say anything, “I am not going without you.”
The ground shook. The Minotaur.
Most would think, oh scary maybe I should run. Um nope. That’s not what I did. It was even stupider than you could imagine.
I took another look at Grover, Mr. Brunner who was going to force me up that hill and fend off the freak. And I sprinted towards it.
I was fucking sick of these things already. My whole life I’ve been treated like shit, and I am not letting some random fucker kill the two people who have told me otherwise.
If I was a demigod, fine, then I’m going to start by brutally murdering this bull man.
The Minotaur charged. I heard Mr. Brunner yell at me. Well that’s not out of the ordinary.
Just before it was too late I jumped out of the way, grabbing the bull’s horn. It damn near pulled my arm out of the socket though. I jumped over it’s back, strengthening my grip on the horn.
An idea popped into my head. A bad one, as per the usual, but an idea nonetheless.
I twisted the horn, heard a satisfying crack, and just before the idiot could throw me off I plunged it into his head
Just like Mrs. Dodds the Minotaur turned to dust. Which meant that I got to fall and break my arm on the ground. Not exaggerating, that’s exactly what happened.
I managed to stay conscious to hear a girl’s voice, “He’s the one, he has to be.”