I gasped out for breath, shooting straight up in Medusa's bed.
Piper, who looked like she had gotten up a long time ago, was sitting in one of the chairs nearby. She was munching on a bag of sour cream and onion chips. "Well, finally," She called out.
Piper tossed me my bag. I caught it, lifting it up and down a few times. Why did it feel heavier?
"I stocked up some food and drinks from down there. I figured you'd want to get a move on."
"Good call. How long have you been up?" "A few hours. Also, I'm, like, 90% sure this place is haunted," Piper looked up at the ceiling. "I had the weirdest dreams...I also, uh, may or may not have gone downstairs and used her credit card to get two train tickets west."
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and threw the blankets off, sitting on the side of the bed. Deciding not to think too hard about why a monster from the myths would need a credit card, I said, "Piper, demigods aren't supposed to use the internet. It sends up a gigantic flare. The monsters probably have a good idea of where to find us."
Piper rolled her eyes as she hefted her bag over her shoulder. "Did you have a better idea?"
"Uh…we could steal her car?" Piper snorted. "Do you know how to drive?"
"Uh…"
"Besides, we'd have to worry about gas and all that, too."
"That's…a fair point. I didn't think about that."
"Guess we're just going to have to get moving, then," Piper patted the edge of the bed. I noticed her leg was wrapped in gauze. She knew first aid, too? Not bad, Piper.
"Let's go."
A couple of minutes passed as I brushed my teeth and got ready, and we went off in search of the Amtrak station from last night. I looked back as the gnome emporium disappeared behind the trees. It was like the forest itself swallowed it back up.
I hoped no weary travelers made their way over there ever again. The station itself wasn't that far away. Maybe a half a mile, give or take.
Piper remained silent the entire trip, which was fine by me.
We boarded the train with no problem. I'm sure we must've looked weird—two slightly dirty-looking kids, boarding a cross-country train—but no one said a word. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I got on the train, and almost had to do a double-take. The baby fat had almost all but melted off of my face.
My cheekbones looked higher. My nose suddenly didn't look so big. If I had to guess, I looked less like I was twelve and more like I was fourteen! We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, and past amber waves of grain.
Between my ability to create almost any food and Piper's charmspeak, we were able to keep mostly to ourselves for the entirety of the trip. We weren't attacked at all, but I didn't relax. It kind of felt like we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity. [
Mana Detection] wasn't going to level itself. I bumped it up to three more levels just by actively using it, and now, I could keep a passive version of the skill employed at all times. It wasn't perfect; it wouldn't tell me how much mana a person had, but it did alert me when a new presence popped up.
You'd be surprised how many monsters just existed out in the world. I know some of it had to do with the fact that both of us were demigods, and that Piper used the internet, but still. At every station, they were just there; waiting, plotting. That friendly-looking stray on the stairs? Yeah, a hellhound ready to bite my head off. The vendor selling cotton candy with a smile plastered on his face?
A telekhine, with his cart full of swords and daggers. These monsters were different from the ones I'd encountered back home. They were smart and deliberate. They'd blend right in with the rest of the crowd, hoping to catch a demigod lacking, and I couldn't help but wonder how many of them had succeeded. Still, though, I couldn't help but wonder about what Luke said.
Why were all these monsters just allowed to be out and about? Medusa's eye was interesting, too. I hadn't gotten the chance to experiment with it too much, but based on what I could tell, the rules weren't as simple as I thought. It didn't just turn any living thing into a statue, it also turned any organic tissue into stone.
For example, when I looked at some of the monsters in the crowd outside of the train and focused on their legs, I could see them get gray and brittle. It wasn't as immediate of a reaction as I'd originally hoped for, but it was a start. Not to mention, it was a little harder to concentrate that hard, but it was beneficial enough to at least learn the basics of the eye. Every advantage is worth chasing down—and, who knows, maybe it'll end up saving my life someday.
At first, the past few days had been a nice break. Ever since I became a demigod, all I'd been doing was train, train, train, and then run, run, run. With my mom missing, I never got to fully relax, even when I felt like I was relaxing.
Now, though… On the train, all I did was talk to Piper, sleep, and eat. It was fun at first, but I was getting antsy. Plus, the train didn't have a shower, and even though Piper was being nice about it, I was pretty sure I was starting to smell kind of funky. At least Piper was good company. I'd never had many friends growing up because of all the moving around I did, so having someone to talk to who actually seemed like they wanted to talk to me was a welcome change.
I could see Piper switching back and forth between pacing the length of the train and looking out the windows.
"Restless?" I asked. She whipped around.
"Really? Yes, I'm restless. Percy, we've been on this train for days."
"Don't get so worked up," I sighed, sliding off the seat and standing. I rolled my shoulder. "
I'm with you."
"You are?" Piper repeated. She crossed her arms and cocked her head. "Really?"
"Yes! Really!"
"Mmm, I don't believe that," Piper shook her head, and her braid whittled through the air. She dropped her voice a few octaves, and started moving closer to me, "We have to stay safe, Piper. Your mom is scary, Piper, she'd get mad at me if I let anything happen to you. I wasn't staring at that girl at the coffee kiosk, Piper."
"The girl was cute! I admit that!"
"So, you admit I was right?"
"No," I shook my head. "She was cute, but I was staring at the menu behind her. Papa was hungry." "One, don't call yourself Papa. Ever," Piper wrinkled her nose. "And two, you mean it? You're getting bored on here, too?"
"Yes, I mean it. I need a shower and some sleep in a bed. I think I'm going to need a back brace after all this sitting," I sighed and cracked my back. My eyes drifted toward the map. Annabeth's face rippled across my mind, and an idea took hold.
"We have a layover in St. Louis coming up. How about we take a little break and check out the Gateway Arch? Maybe we could get a hotel, too. You still have Medusa's credit card, right?"
"Yes!" Piper said gleefully, coughing awkwardly as everyone else on the train turned to look at her. She sat back down rather abruptly and whispered, "You're the best!" We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown around noon. The intercom system blared overhead, telling us we had about three hours to burn before we got on our connecting ride to Denver.
"Alright, Piper, let's go check it out." The Arch was about a mile from the train station. The lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling to me personally, but Piper kept telling me interesting facts about how the Native Americans used to live around these parts, and my skills kept leveling up, so I was pretty content with the situation.
- —
[Skill]: Observe
System Denomination]: Active
[Attribute Group]: INT
[Level]: 7
[Description]: Use this skill to scan targets and extract critical intel.
[Leveling]: At [Level 1], this skill, reveals the target's level and basic stats as long as the target is within [10] levels of you. As the skill levels up, you'll unlock deeper insights and uncover hidden details about characters and objects in your world.
At [Level 5], the skill no longer requires manual activation to display basic target information, and it also reveals how much damage you've inflicted in real time.
— - —
Score! I was never ever going to get caught off guard, again. "Come on, Percy," Piper urged, grabbing my arm. She basically ran to the elevator. "Let's go!" A few moments later, we were shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua because none of the guards said a word about it. We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it. The two plates of fried dough with extra sugar I had in the lobby probably didn't help the cause, either.
"No parents?" The lady asked us. "Nah, they're downstairs," I replied, getting a good look at her. She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much that she looked like a blue-jean blimp.
— - —
{Echidna} [The Mother of Monsters]
[LVL]: 60
[HP]: 200,000/200,000
[MP]: 150,000/150,000
[?]
[Info]: Echidna, often called a dracaena (half-woman, halfserpent), was described by Hesiod as a cave-born monster who —alongside her mate Typhon—mothered many of the major and minor monsters in Greek mythology.
Her parentage varies across sources, linking her to entities like Tartarus, Gaea, Phorcys, or Callirhoe. In archaic art, she appears with a woman's face and torso, sometimes winged, and a serpent's body, occasionally with two tails.
— - —
Holy fuck.
I turned to the little chihuahua that was yapping away at me.
— - —
{Chimera} [Legendary Monster]
[LVL]: 70
[HP]: 350,000/350,000
[MP]: N/A
Info]: In the ancient myths, the Chimera was killed by Bellerophon on Pegasus when Bellerophon jammed a lead ball into its mouth. The ball melted, killing it with lead poison and suffocation. The original Chimera died long ago at the hands of the hero Bellerophon, though lesser Chimera still prowl the labyrinth of Crete.
— - —
Oh. Okay, then. Thanks for that, fate.
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And just like that, our peaceful little train ride turned into a ticking time bomb. Echidna and the Chimera? Yeah, that's not exactly the sightseeing tour Percy had in mind.
I wanted this chapter to feel like the calm before the storm—giving Percy and Piper a chance to breathe, bond, and even bicker a little—only to slam straight into a deadly encounter. The danger's real, and the stakes just went up a few hundred levels.
What do you think, readers—should Percy try to fight, flee, or finesse his way out of this one? Drop your thoughts below.
As always, if you enjoyed the chapter, don't forget to leave a review and toss in a power stone. It means the world and keeps me fired up to bring you more twists like this.
If you'd like to support me further, here's my Patreon: patreon.com/ AureliusDBlack (just erase the space before my name)