"Percy Jackson," I shook her hand.
"So, Percy, who's your parent?"
"Pos—the water guy," I said, before grimacing for a second. I forgot that I wasn't being protected by the camp borders anymore. "Hold on. We can't talk about this while we're out here. Names have power. Talking about our parents like that is like shooting up a flare for monsters."
She nodded at me, biting her lip. "Hey, is it cool if I nap? I'm kind of tired."
"No problem. I'll wake you up in a few," I cut her off. I didn't mind the silence one bit. Plus, I wanted to relax my body and mind, as well. I had a feeling that my little Poseidon slip-up was going to attract something big, and I wanted to be fully, you know, mentally there for it.
"Thanks."
A couple of hours later, I shook her awake. "We're somewhere in New Jersey," I informed her as I slung my backpack over my shoulder. I think we were in Rutherford, to be exact. I knew there was a train station somewhere nearby, but we needed to find a place to stay, first. I remembered this town from when I was really little. My mom used to have some family that lived here, but they ended up moving out. Hm. Let's see if I remember where some stuff is. We both stepped off the bus. I did a quick scan of the area. No monsters yet.
"Any clue what we're doing now?" She mumbled in a sleepy voice, leaning on me slightly as we walked towards the exit of the bus station.
"Piper," I snapped my fingers a few times to wake her up, not that I completely minded her leaning on me like that. "You have to be alert. We could be killed."
"Yeah, yeah," Piper grumbled, rubbing her eyes as we walked by another one of the bus stops. I looked around and caught a man sitting behind a circular desk in the middle of the station with a gigantic neon question mark on top of him. Help desk. Cool. I walked over to the man behind the help desk. "Hey, my uh, girlfriend and I are looking for a place to stay tonight. Are there any hotels nearby?"
The man made a tsk noise. "Sorry kiddo. We have some big business convention in town, so all the hotels are overbooked."
Piper came forward. I narrowed my eyes—I could see a small concentration of mana forming in her mouth. "Oh, please? We've just been traveling for so long. Are you sure there isn't any place to stay, just for the night?" Ah. That must be that charmspeak ability I read on her page. The man's eyes glazed over.
Wow. That actually seemed like a more useful power than I originally gave it credit for.
"Well, there is one place. Aunty Em's, I think it's called. Down the street. It's some Middle Eastern lady who always welcomes visitors. Has a whole fast-food restaurant-style grill and stuff back there, too."
My stomach growled. Fried, greasy, excellent food. I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymphprepared barbecue. I needed a double cheeseburger. "Thanks," I said to the man, and we both started walking out of the bus station and down the road. The road stretched on ahead of us, long and winding.
It was the kind of path that seemed to blur the line between civilization and wilderness. Piper and I walked side by side, neither of us saying much, the silence comfortable. As I stared at the path ahead, I tried to figure out what was bothering me so much about being back in Rutherford. Something about this place felt…off.
The road cut through a dense patch of woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the trees forming an almost protective canopy overhead. Shadows danced across the dirt path, shifting with the occasional breeze that rustled through the leaves. Behind us, the glow of New York City spilled over the horizon, painting the night sky with a hazy yellow hue that seemed to battle against the darkness. And then there was the Hudson.
The smell hit me in waves—stale, brackish water mixed with the faintest tinge of industrial waste. It was the kind of smell that burrowed into your senses and refused to leave, no matter how hard you tried to ignore it. Piper wrinkled her nose at one particularly strong gust, muttering something under her breath that I didn't quite catch. We eventually paused along a bend in the path, where the woods opened to give us a clear view of the river.
The water was sluggish, dark, and murky, reflecting the faint outlines of steamboats that tugged slowly along the surface. Their lights blinked faintly in the distance, the sound of their engines a low hum that blended into the nighttime chorus of crickets and rustling leaves.
Piper sat down on a nearby rock, brushing dirt off her jeans and letting out a small sigh. She leaned back, her eyes following the slow, deliberate movements of the boats as they glided through the water. For a moment, she looked almost peaceful, the faint glow of the city lighting her silhouette like a painting. I took the opportunity to stop, too.
With a flick of my hand, I opened my [Inventory]. The familiar glowing grid appeared in front of me, and I reached in, pulling out the Minotaur horn. Its surface gleamed faintly in the dim light, the ridges and curves smooth under my fingertips. It was heavier than it looked. Holding the horn made my chest tighten with a mix of emotions— pride, sure, but also unease. It felt like more than just a trophy. It felt like a warning, a reminder of how quickly things could go wrong.
"Hey, Piper," I called, getting her attention. She turned to look at me, and I tossed her the horn. "I don't know if you have a weapon yet, so I figured I'd give you this one. Not the best, but, uh, should poke a few holes here and there."
"I don't have a weapon," She admitted, holding up the horn in the dim light provided by a barely functioning streetlight. I couldn't tell if she was disgusted or awed by it. Probably a little bit of both. "Thanks."
"No problemo."
"Hey, Percy," Piper asked, not a moment later. She pulled her knees into her chest, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," I replied, walking over to her. The summer night was in full swing, and a couple of fireflies buzzed overhead as I plopped myself down on the coarse grass, right next to her.
"You and I...we figured out about, well, all of this demigod stuff more or less around the same time, right?" Piper questioned, the glittering lights of the boats reflecting off of her eyes.
"Yeah, I think so. In the grand scheme of things, I found out some things before, at school, but it all became crystal clear when I got to camp about a week ago," I answered truthfully, a little confused about where she was going with that line of questioning.
Piper hummed, "How are you so, I don't know, okay with all of it?"
"Well, I guess okay is kind of a subjective term," I said, shrugging. "I don't know if my definition of okay is really okay, but I mean, it's sort of all I can do if that makes sense. I don't have a choice on whether or not I'm okay with all of it. I just have to be."
"Why?" Piper said, resting her chin on her knees. "Why is it that you're forced to accept this life given to you? Aren't you a little bit resentful at your dad for leaving you to this life?"
"Well, that's just the way things are," I said after a few moments of silence. "I'd love to be normal, and be back at my old boarding school, only worrying about bullies, or my next exam, or something. That just isn't how things work, though. One day you're worried about homework, the next day you have two Elder Gods on your tail."
Piper's jaw dropped, "Wait, what? The Elder Gods? You said your dad is, well, the water guy, so..."
"Yep. My uncles from up top and down under are 'baying for my blood,' as some might say," I replied, quoting Chiron. "That's why I was so surprised when the Kindly Ones approached me on the bus and told me that your mother requested that I bring you along. No offense, but joining me on a quest like this seems kind of stupid. There's, like, an 80% chance we're going to die tomorrow."
"See, that's what I mean!" Piper said, her voice getting louder. "How is that fair? Neither of us asked to be put in these horrible situations! How are two twelve-year-olds supposed to go across the country with three gods after them?"
"A third god?" I said slowly, my brain firing into overtime. "The uh, the God of War," Piper said lamely, leaning back and skipping some rocks. The stones splashed off somewhere in the distance. "He's got some beef with my mom, or something."
"So he wants to capture you, get your mom to do some stuff," I guessed, to which Piper nodded sadly.
"Well, hey, it happens."
"It happens?" Piper repeated incredulously. She ran her thumb over the Minotaur's horn and frowned. "How are you so accepting of this?"
"I have no other choice," I replied, "In this world, with the fate that was given to me, fighting would only hurt the ones I love. It's my job to make sure they're protected in the end, you know? To do that, I'll just keep moving forward."
Piper was stunned, "How long would you do that? How long would you live your life like that? You can't do it forever."
"Well, forever is really far away," I said, standing up.
"We need to get through tomorrow first, don't we? Come on. We've been in the same place for a while. We can't let our scent concentrate in one area for too long." I offered her my hand. We walked in silence down the road for a while, our shoes crunching against the gravel. I felt a little on edge.
This part of New Jersey just didn't sit with me right. I was a city boy through and through. I liked the tall skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of cars. I hated places like this. Not only was it completely silent except for the occasional animal cry, but it was also beginning to get dark, too. The city was never this dark, even in the middle of the night. Rutherford, though? It was like you'd taken the moon out of the sky.
Not to mention, I couldn't help but think back to my mom's relatives —the more I thought about that whole situation, the more I got the sense that I was misremembering something. A few more minutes passed, and the road changed. Now, the two of us were on a deserted two-lane road that cut through the trees. On the other side, rested a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business—with a bright neon sign. I could hear the neon humming from here. "Must be it."
Piper made a small hum. I shook my head, and we walked towards the shop. It wasn't quite the fast-food restaurant I'd been hoping for, but for now, it would have to do. Honestly, it was more like one of those weird roadside shops that sold lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that.
You know, the ones you always see on those teen shows. The ones where they meet the stereotypical tribal lady who gives them some advice that changes their lives. I wonder if we'd meet one too. Maybe she'd look at my hands and read my fortune. I glanced at Piper, who was staring at the Indians intensely. Oh, right.
All of a sudden, I felt a little guilty for thinking like that. This was her culture, being pretty horribly misappropriated. I'd be more than a little mad, too. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving as if they were about to get their picture taken.
As I kept looking around, Piper knocked on the door. The door creaked open and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman—at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled.
Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old but wellmanicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.
Wait, how did she get to the door so fast? It was, like, two in the morning for Zeus' sake! Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too.
She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?" Piper took over. I could tell she was using charmspeak again.
"Oh, this is my boyfriend, and we're just looking for a place to stay. The man at the help desk near the bus stop said he said you take visitors."
"Oh, my dears," The woman said, aghast. Her hand rested on her neck, "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em."
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Boom—didn't see that coming, huh? Piper using charmspeak at the bus station, Percy basically trauma-dumping his philosophy on fate at age twelve 😭, and then, of course, we walk right into Aunty Em's. If you know the canon, you know this is about to get crazy 👀. Let me know in the comments/review—I love hearing your takes on these scenes!
And hey, don't forget to toss me a Power Stone ⚡—every single one helps keep the story moving up. Remember, every 300 stones = one bonus chapter.
If you're enjoying the ride and want early access (plus some extras),an would like to support me further, here's my Patreon: patreon.com/ AureliusDBlack (just erase the space before my name). Your support means the world and keeps me grinding out chapters 🙏.
P.S. Oh, and for those wondering—who's Aunty Em? Come along and find out