Goal reached: 90 Power Stones First goal of the week achieved.
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Here, as promised, comes the first bonus chapter of the week: Chapter 19 Instead of answering immediately I sat down on the ground, without even looking at her, completely exhausted.
This made her bristle, clearly not used to not getting answers to the questions she asked.
“I asked, who are you?” I finally looked up at her, locking eyes with her.
The girl reminded me a lot of a younger-looking blonde Alexandra Daddario.
I decided I had made her wait long enough to point out her rude welcome.
“I’m William, the guy who brought back your satyr there.” Pointing at the unconscious Grover, I then gestured towards the unconscious Percy.
“The one is Percy, the one Grover is supposed to protect.
Instead we had to fight a minotaur while he lay unconscious, leading to Sally, Percy’s mum, getting taken by some god.
So you will have to excuse my current foul mood, which did not improve with being met by weapons and questions upon entering the place people like us are supposed to be safe.” The people around Annabeth, a few children of different ages, looked both astonished and chastised.
“I very much doubt that,” Annabeth said.
Clearly not believing we killed the Minotaur, so I just pulled the horn from my back while keeping eye contact with her.
She looked down, shocked, then away, a slight blush on her cheeks.
“How about you get those two to the infirmary if you have one.
You there!” I pointed to one of the older ones, a big guy with a lot of muscles.
“Yeah?” he answered, looking surprised.
“What is your name?” I simply asked, keeping my eyes locked with his.
“Charles, Charles Beckendorf.” I held out the Minotaur horn toward him.
“Make sure Percy gets this when he wakes up.
He was the one to kill the blasted thing.” Charles nodded and took the horn, weighing in his hand and seeming to wonder what he could make from it.
After Percy and Grover had been carried away to have their injuries treated, I was led toward the large farmhouse in the middle of the camp.
I was surprised when, who I assumed was Annabeth, was the one who stayed to guide me.
I thought she would go with Percy, like it had been hinted at in canon.
In the end I just shrugged and asked.
“So what is your name and who is your parent?” She answered proudly.
“My name is Annabeth, and Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, is my mother.” I kept walking but nodded.
She took a glance at me again.
“You’re British.
How come you are here?” We reached the farmhouse and I answered just as I opened the door.
“I was split up with my mum, and ended up being found by Sally, Percy’s mum.
There are always monsters that look to hunt those like us, pushing us in directions we never thought we would take.” I gave no outright lies, but it was far from the truth.
Inside the building was a centaur and a man, both weirdly dressed for the times, one of them giving off immense pressure that was not quite magic.
The man had a can of Coke and was playing a game with the centaur.
As I stepped toward them I bowed slightly to the man.
“It’s an honour to meet you, my Lord.” Dionysus looked up at me, surprised.
“A Brit all the way in our camp, and one who knows how to address me?
Curious.” He turned toward Annabeth.
“Girl, did you tell him who I was?” She shook her head, looking curiously at me.
“Well, it does not matter much all you pesky things are everywhere, no matter where I look there are humans… I’m off Chiron, get this…” He trailed off, looking at me to interject.
“William.” “Right, get this Gillian introduced to camp.” Dionysus then dissolved into grape-scented mist.
Chiron smiled kindly toward me.
“I was told what you did for Percy and Grover, thank you for getting them here safely.
I’m sorry, but I don’t have much time right now.
Annabeth can answer any question you might have and get you settled in a cabin.
Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, William.” I was completely exhausted so I asked Annabeth to simply take me somewhere to let me sleep, it was in the middle of the night after all.
“Well, where you sleep depends on your godly parent.
Do you know yours?” Annabeth asked.
I just shook my head without emotion, just wanting to lie down.
“Then you will have to take a bed in Hermes cabin, I’ll try to wake Luke up so he can get you a bed.” We stopped before a weathered wooden cabin, more worn than most of the others I’d seen.
Annabeth entered quietly and soon came back with a blonde young man.
I saw her blush slightly in the moonlight from around him.
He seemed freshly awake and still a bit out of it, but he mustered a smile.
“Hello there, I’m Luke, nice to meet you.
The best I can get you for tonight is a hammock, we can set you up with something better tomorrow.
“Nice to meet you, Luke, sorry for being the reason you are out of bed this hour.
I’ll gladly take the hammock, I’m exhausted, anything would do right now.” I nodded goodbye to Annabeth and followed Luke inside to my hammock.
The moment I lay down, I took a moment to acknowledge that this world is far more dangerous than what I thought.
I must remember that the dangers here are of a different level to the Harry Potter world.
I then promptly pass out, exhaustion catching up.
I woke up suddenly, looking up at a kid standing next to my hammock, his hand just next to my pocket.
I turned my head and locked on to his eyes with mine, a cold stare didn’t feel like it should belong to someone looking around ten years old.
The kid, maybe around fourteen, froze, then quickly gave me a charming smile.
“I was just about to wake you.
Luke said you came in late so you could sleep a bit longer than normal.
Well, it is later now.
Annabeth is here to show you around camp and you can begin your training after that.” As he was talking, my mind went back to last night trying to orient itself.
As I recalled the start of the Minotaur fight, Sally being taken, vanishing in that golden light, pain ripped through my chest.
I had to take a deep breath to stop a sob.
I had committed to stopping Sally from being taken.
She was a kind-hearted soul who had helped me upon arrival without any incentive.
A cough broke my thoughts.
“Are you okay, man?” The kid looked a bit worried and a little uncomfortable.
“Yeah, sorry, bad memories.
What’s your name?” I asked, temporarily shaking off the thoughts of Sally.
“My name is Connor Stoll, son of Hermes.
Nice to meet you, William.” “No wonder he was reaching for my pocket.” A thought came, the legendary Stoll brothers were infamous in canon.
“Nice to meet you, Connor.” I said, getting up.
I walked past him toward the door of the cabin and before leaving I turned toward him again and continued.
“If you ever try to steal from me again, I will take something from you that you value far more.” I didn’t raise my voice.
I simply looked at Connor.
For a heartbeat, my eyes didn’t belong to an eight-year-old.
Connor’s smile faltered.
He shivered slightly before his brain seemed to catch up with him, probably reminding himself I looked eight years old and couldn’t possibly do much…
right?
Outside the cabin Annabeth was waiting impatiently.
“Finally!
I thought you would never wake up.
I was instructed to show you the camp.
Follow me,” she said, then walked off without letting me answer.
I jogged after her catching up, I was after all taking up her training time, might as well respect the time she was taking to give me an introduction to camp.
I met her eyes and gave a sincere smile.
“Thank you, for taking the time to show me around.
Whether or not you were instructed, I am still grateful to you for taking time out of your training.” She slowed down slightly with a surprised look.
She hesitated slightly before answering.
“You’re welcome.
I have had a lot of time to train the last many years, a few hours should not matter much.” After that she looked less annoyed and started pointing out cabins as we went, naming a few people that we passed as well.
We soon came upon a field with archery targets.
Annabeth stopped and turned to me.
“Any archery training?” “Not in this life,” I thought before answering.
“Limited, I know the basics, but I doubt I’ll need it.” My comment made her curious.
“Why?” Instead of answering I simply took out one of the three remaining knives I had left and sent it hurling toward the target 50 metres away, hitting it dead centre with enough power for the entire blade to sink through.
She stared at the target before slowly turning back to me.
“How did you do that?
No demigods I know of have those kinds of abilities.
It looks like the telekinesis from movies.” I leaned toward her and whispered.
“Magic.” For the first time ever, when I gave that answer it was taken seriously.
Annabeth’s eyes widened.
She turned back toward where the knife was stuck.
Just then I pulled the knife back to me, making Annabeth take several steps to the side.
The knife just slowed down as it got close and hovered next to me.
“Wow, the pure versatility of that is amazing, imagine fighting monsters with heavenly bronze swords hovering.
What is your maximum range?
How many things can you manipulate at the same time?
Can you use them in a fight?” Annabeth going into strategy mode was fun to see.
She was completely absorbed in thoughts while looking at the hovering knives, then back at me to prompt answers.
I was unsure whether or not to answer, but since I was going to train here she would see it anyway.
I decided to be truthful about my telekinesis, while keeping other stuff hidden.
“That was about my maximum range.
I can send things further using momentum, but to manipulate about 55 metres.
I can lift more than a dozen objects at the same time, but not individually control them.
I can currently use five objects with decent efficiency in a fight manipulating them individually, though far from perfectly.” My answer shocked her.
She instantly realised the pure offensive power of that if used correctly.
“I want you on my team in the next capture the flag.” I laughed at that, and she continued.
“It is a game we play, or more like war exercise.
Two cabins make the base of each team and recruit other cabins to join them.” “Well, I’m currently part of Hermes cabin since I’m staying there.
I wish you the best in your negotiations.” She gave a quick smile.
“I have to go see Luke.
Which is perfect because he is certain to be at our next location for the introduction to camp.” We soon came upon an open-air arena.
Inside, on the sand floor, demigods and some satyrs were everywhere practicing melee combat.
Some split into pairs, others in one big group that appeared to be practicing together.
At the centre of the group was Luke.
He looked much more awake and present than last night.
He was giving instructions to others as we came up to the group.
Annabeth immediately pulled him aside, interrupting his instructions, to speak with him alone.
The others kept practicing and I walked up to the weapons wracks.
One contained wooden practice swords, spears, and shields.
The next rack held blunted steel weapons and the last, with fewest weapons, contained celestial bronze weapons.
I carefully picked up one of the celestial steel daggers and then tried to lift it with telekinesis.
It felt harder than lifting steel, but far from impossible, in fact it felt very doable.
I picked up another from the wrack, feeling slightly more strain on my magic.
I stopped at three.
Right now that was what I could sustain without running out of magic at a noticeable rate.
Luke and Annabeth had finished their talk.
Instead of heading back toward the group, they headed straight for me.
Luke’s eyes were wide as he took me in standing there with three celestial bronze daggers hovering around me.
I heard him grunt.
“You weren’t joking.” Toward Annabeth, his eyes never leaving the daggers.
“Annabeth told me what you could do.
Seeing it, though, is different, who could your godly parent be for you to be able to do this, Hekate?
Though those children usually have very different styles of magic than yours, much less…” He swallowed lightly.
“Combat oriented.” I gave him a grin, making the daggers start striking individually toward invisible targets.
“How do you think we brought down the Minotaur?
I might not have killed it, since I only had steel knives available, but I could distract it, stagger it and set up an opportunity for the kill.” I said, keeping it factual, without pointing out that Percy might have done it himself if I hadn’t been there.
“How about some practice?
With wooden or blunted swords of course?” I looked at Luke, one eyebrow rising.
He looked toward the daggers.
“Probably a good idea to start with wood.” I laughed.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked, at the same time putting the celestial daggers back and making four wooden swords and three wooden daggers rise from the wrack.
This was what I could currently control individually.
Im sure it would rise quickly as I got used to my new enhanced mind.
In the Minotaur fight it had been surprisingly easy to control those five daggers, even bringing in other objects.
Besides, seven was a magical number.
Luke looked slightly worried, but nodded.
We lined up a few metres from each other while making sure we had room around us.
The others who had been practicing formed a large ring around us, clearly not wanting to miss the spectacle.
Annabeth called out to begin and off we went.
I sent two swords toward his chest angled to stab, while sending two swords to strike his legs.
Meanwhile the three daggers were sent up in the air, disappearing from his immediate view.
He managed to somehow deflect both swords aimed toward his chest while jumping over the two swinging toward his legs.
Just as he landed, he noticed a dagger hovering next to the back of his neck.
Another was hovering between his legs pointing upward and the last was directly above his head pointing downwards, he froze.
Everyone watching froze, Annabeth’s eyes lit up.
She was already analysing possibilities.
I brought the weapons back to hover around me and the tension broke.
Applause came, some shouts and people were yelling questions.
Luke came toward me slowly.
“That was not even a fight.
How can anyone possibly handle that?
I’m good with a sword, excellent in fact, but there was simply nothing I could do.
Not versus seven individual opponents who don’t themselves take up space and don’t follow the laws of physics…” I gave him a smile, but then looked sad again.
“Still none of that mattered versus the Minotaur.
Sally still got taken.
I still failed.
Percy was still hurt.” I turned around and left the area without interacting with anyone else.
My bad mood had come suddenly.
I can’t believe I momentarily forgot everything that had happened.
I decided to go check on Percy.
Percy was still unconscious, not helping my mood.
Grover however was awake, and tried repeatedly to apologise for failing to protect us.
I was still a bit angry with him at his late arrival to the cabin.
I did recognise that that anger was mostly me mirroring what I felt toward myself onto him.
I left soon after, went back to the arena, got a sword and two daggers of celestial bronze and left again, none tried to stop me.
I then found a meadow, built some targets from branches and started to practice to work out some anger.
Every day after I get up, I wash myself off at the Hermes cabin.
I look at the scar left by the Minotaur, in my reflection, every time remembering how I had failed, then leave to train.
I spent three days mostly alone training.
After my anger had worn off, I spent most of the time thinking about how to fight targets like the Minotaur.
I started manipulating my own body using my telekinesis to move faster.
The first attempt actually worked.
I shifted half a metre to my right while remaining on my feet.
I tried again, harder.
The world lurched sideways.
Instead of a graceful dodge, I slammed shoulder-first into the ground, rolling through the grass before coming to a stop.
“…Right.
Less force.” It took most of the three days to get it to function.
I could not fly or anything, but I could move myself sideways.
A day later, I also started making my jumps longer.
Then started trying some acrobatics to increase movement further.
At the end of the three days I could handle the three weapons while using telekinesis to drastically increase my movement.
It was far from perfect, but miles ahead of where I was before I started.
As I was in the middle of training the fourth day, Grover came by in a hurry.
“Percy is awake!
Finally!
He is asking for you!
Hurry!” He ran off and I quickly followed, my weapons floating behind me.
We arrived at the house he and Grover had been kept while healing and quickly entered.
Inside were Percy, Chiron and Annabeth.
They all looked up as we came in.
Annabeth looked a bit sour and said.
“So, finally leaving your seclusion?” I didn’t even look toward her, stepping up to the bed where Percy sat.
“How are you feeling, Percy?” He looked toward me with a helpless expression.
“Is my mom really gone, Will?” “She was taken, not killed, if that is what you thought.
Vanishing in golden light, that is not death.
Whoever sent that Minotaur decided to take her instead of letting her die.
Likely to get you to go after her.” I just laid it all out for him.
Percy looked toward Chiron.
“Who sent the Minotaur?” Chiron shook his head slowly.
“I don’t know Percy.
I suggest, at least for now, that you put it aside and focus on training.
You got lucky with the Minotaur.
If you want to survive long enough to save your mother, you must train first.” Percy stood up and said, with determination.
“Then let’s start the training.” Percy, Grover, Annabeth and I headed straight toward the arena so Percy could begin his training.
I had suggested he start with the sword, despite Annabeth speaking about starting with archery.
I just said I had a feeling the sword would be Percy’s thing based on what I’d seen with the Minotaur.
As we showed up at the arena, my first time since I had taken the weapons we got a lot of eyes.
Some tracked Percy, the newcomer, but most looked at me.
After I had beaten Luke and then left the arena to train on my own, it seemed my reputation had been established.
Some would come by to see me train, despite my meadow being away from camp, my training methods spreading.
Luke came to meet us with a friendly smile.
He stepped up to shake Percy’s hand.
“Ahh, Percy, right?
Nice to meet you.
I heard that you killed the Minotaur.” The compliment seemed to make Percy slightly uncomfortable, he looked toward his feet and answered.
“I just dealt the killing blow.
I would have died if Will had not been there.” Luke nodded, clearly liking that Percy didn’t try to brag.
He threw a glance toward me.
“I believe you, I have seen what he can do, experienced it even.
Still, though, delivering the killing blow to a creature like the Minotaur is no small feat.
Are you here to train?” Percy looked at me as Luke talked, then nodded at the last part.
Luke and Percy moved toward the weapon wracks while Annabeth, Grover and I just hung back, letting them take their time.
A few minutes later Luke and Percy were standing in the ring.
Luke had just shown how to disarm someone and was now setting up a demonstration with Percy.
I tapped Grover’s shoulder.
“What odds will you give me for Percy to win the next exchange?” Grover looked at me, surprised, then laughed and said.
“Versus Luke?
10 to 1.” I smiled and sent a prayer to the gods of canon.
“3 drachmas on Percy.” Grover shook my outstretched hand.
“I won’t turn down free money.” Just then the exchange between Percy and Luke began.
In the beginning Percy is completely on the defensive, but as the fight continues something changes.
He starts anticipating Luke’s attacks and successfully countering them.
Luke, who notices, starts fighting more aggressively.
Percy, who seems to realise he is about to lose, goes in for the disarming technique Luke had just shown.
He catches Luke’s blade near the base, twists with all his weight, and knocks Luke’s sword onto the ground.
Percy, with a surprised expression, then points the tip of the sword towards Luke’s chest.
Everyone is stunned, Grover slowly turns toward me, his mouth hanging open.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS arre131 One of my, if not the, longest chapter.
Hope you enjoy!