A/N: In the Last chapter, there was a misnomer with the golden deer. It's apparently called the Ceryneian Hind, and not the Cerynitian Hind.
I fixed it this chapter.
....
Nathan had a dream that night. He was back with his mom and dad in their house, at the night of Christmas Eve. He was laying on the sofa with his dad, nestled in a warm blanket while he read him a story from a picture book. His mother was in the kitchen, making them hot chocolate.
The crackling fire in the hearth seemed inviting and the walls were full with decorations. There was a Christmas tree standing in the corner and many many presents rested below it.
The story was about two brothers who went deep into the forest to find a river of gold. They siphoned the river of it's gold everyday, taking more and more each time yet the river never seemed to dry up. They became powerful individuals in their village, transforming it into a bustling metropolis. Yet it was never enough. They wanted more and more, enough that they would never have to take any more again and then some.
One day, when they again went to the river, they found a fool blabbering on and on about how they were taking gold from his river.
The brothers smashed a rock into his head, hitting him to death and took their share of gold. Upon returning the next day, the river had dried up. The magic laid in the hands of the fool, never in the river itself.
Distraught, they went back. Days passed and both married to beautiful women, one with a princess and other with a witch. But the princess was ambitious. She coaxed sweet words into her husband's ears. Eventually, the wealth would dry up. Why not take all of it? Swayed by her words, the first brother took an axe and chopped off his brother's head; taking all of his property.
Seeing all this, the witch cursed him, never to find fulfilment in his life. Afraid of the curse, the man gave all his wealth to the witch and her son, and they kicked the man and the princess out.
One would think the story ended there, but it didn't.
Bitter about his defeat, the man went to a sorcerer that lived in the mountains. The sorcerer agreed to give the man power if he gave him the princess. The man agreed, and the princess became the Sorcerer's property. The sorcerer gave him a powerful bracelet in exchange, one that could whisk anything away into the realm of the dead and whisk the dead into the realm of the living.
Using the bracelet, the man raised an army of the dead and stormed his previous home. He confronted the witch, and with his bracelet, banished her into the ether. He took all the gold back, and lived happily ever after.
The end.
It was a strange story to be sure, even more so considering it was meant for children. And he was not sure what the message was.
Don't be greedy? It'd be so if the story ended at the halfway point, but the greed eventually made the man turn into the most man in the world with immeasurable wealth.
And all things considered, it was quite graphic. Killing other people, lopping off heads, giving away the princess to a horny sorcerer and all. Nathan had the slightest suspicion that this story was, in fact, not meant for children.
But hey, times were different. People in the future had a twisted sense of what children could understand and see.
Nathan's mother brought them hot chocolate and the dream ended there.
Nathan woke up with a start. He looked around his tent, finding nothing unusual. Rubbing his eyes, he wondered why he had gotten such a strange dream. He laid there for some more time, wondering whether there was something deep about it or he was just having a fever dream.
Nathan remembered that in the first book, Percy had often gotten dreams about the future; his father and Zeus' fight, Kronos in the pit of Tartarus and all. But considering that he himself was not a demigod, he found the probability of himself experiencing the same thing low.
It was quite popular at that now that I remember it... that reminds me. Nathan suddenly had a doubtful expression appear over his face. Human faith is what gave rise to gods, but can the same give rise to other things? Like, can a popular enough story become real? Like a historical retcon on the magical side of the world? Food for thought.
Nathan had always assumed Gods were created by humanity's collective belief. It could not be the other way around. There were a lot of creation myths and not all of them were true. And the implication that the world had always had all the gods wasn't very good.
Apollo and Ra charioted the sun across the sky in their respective myths. How? The sun was a floating ball of gas and plasma in space, millions of miles away. There were a lot of examples to draw from but this was the most obvious one.
There was also the fact that if every myth was real, what about those long dead? What about a religion that existed 10,000 years ago that nobody even knows exists?
Those forgotten by belief will be forgotten by the world. That was Nathan's honest opinion. Human faith makes the gods exist. The more they are remembered, the more obvious their presence. Even in the Percy Jackson world, it was pretty clear that humanity's outlook on deities may even give them split personalities, as seen with the Greeks and Romans.
It sounded logical that an absence of belief may make them fade out.
On that note, what even was belief?
Nathan had a pretty clear idea of that too. One didn't need to be devout to believe.
It was... more of a nod.
You exist. Or you have existed in the past.
The Greeks are again the perfect example of the fact. Their culture shaped western civilization into what it is today. The english language contains various words that would be meaningless if not for their association with the Greek myths. Narcissistic. Adonis. Odyssey. Herculean. Achilles' Heel. The effect was so large that the entirety of the Pantheon had shifted to America.
Zeus, Posiedon, Odysseus, Plato, Socrates, Diogenes; their names are spoken aloud and in thought a ton.
More than devoutness, faith pertained to acknowledgement. So long as their culture was remembered in any meaningful way, the gods would last, as would the monsters.
But perhaps the biggest reason for his outlook on the matter of faith and gods would be Neil Gaiman, the creator of Sandman and American Gods in his old world.
Even thought they depend so much on Humans, the gods really don't think anything of them besides ants under their feet. Nathan thought. Well, another reason to punch Zeus, I suppose.
The Gods were capricious and petty. More than that, they were childish and so so human. They relished in carnal pleasures even if it came at the cost of multiple lives. They refuse to pay child support, leaving them in a camp and constantly on the verge of being eaten. They can't stand someone insulting them, even done without motive.
And that made them all the more unlikeable in his eyes. The only greek gods Nathan could tolerate and even appreciate were Hestia, Hades, Persephone and Prometheus. Maybe Herakles too.
After Nathan gathered up all his stuff, he pulled out his bow and Quiver and was on the move.
The Golden Deer had travelled towards the south, so he would naturally follow.
Tracking was also part of the hunt. He only hoped he could find some more weaker monsters to kill in the meantime.
Only he knew how much he needed upgrades.
Nathan felt like he was bursting with energy. Each of his steps carried him farther than he could before, each breath felt like it rejuvenated his body, every movement of his muscles screamed power in more ways than he could have imagined. Never before had he felt so powerful, so energized, so... free.
"Woooooooo!" Arriving next to a cliffside, he spread his arms out and screamed at the top of his lungs. In just a short 10 minutes, he had covered an entire kilometer! In the middle of the forest no less!
"Fuuuu!" He exhaled heavily and looked outside into the trees. The colours seemed more vibrant. Greens were greener, blues were bluer and... well, there wasn't any red to compare, but he was sure it would also be redder.
Nathan lingered there for some time, breathing in the fresh air and was on his way again.
After about an hour of wandering and coming across some coyote that he was able to scare off by firing an arrow at one, he finally found a target.
Nestled in a small alcove between a large boulder and a tree, there stood a familiar golden deer, grazing.
Licking his lower lip, Nathan pulled back the bow string again.
Supernatural ability to 'outrun' arrows. Does that include reaction time too, that lets it dodge even when caught off guard? Or is it an immunity to being hit by ranged weaponry itself? He wondered once again.
His instincts were working on overtime. His senses spread all throughout the trees and outwards, covering a collective diameter of 20 meters around him.
It wasn't enough to sense everything and the farther his senses went, the weaker the feedback; but it was enough.
The Deer was 10 meters away.
With the arrows velocity, it wouldn't even take half a second before the Deer was pierced.
Gripping the bow tightly, he aligned his shot. And he let go.
Fwish!
He felt the hair on his nape stand as a wind blew through the trees with a howl. The Ceryneian Hind's body jerked with a violent motion, twisting it's body as its legs lost strength. The Deer dropped to the ground, the arrow passing harmlessly above it!
Oh, what the fuck... Nathan's eyes twitched in disbelief. Without wasting any time, he dashed out from the trees, his hand already summoning the sword.
Gripping the cold metal, Nathan dashed at the deer with all the strength he could muster!
However, just before he could reach it, a cold gust of wind blew across his face, and the deer was gone.
"... huh." He was speechless.
He thought back to the entire thing. And then, a peculiar detail crossed his mind.
"Must've been the wind."
...
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A/N: Hello dear readers. This fic has finally reached 15,000+ words and is qualified to be shown in the power rankings.
I humbly request everyone to donate stones and get this fic to better rankings!
I'm not sure if how many stones I should be giving bonus chapters at since if I do it too low, I might get burnt our while writing so I'll try to keep a good balance.
If I find it too overwhelming... well, I'll just change it. Better than being burnt out and dropping anyways.
Bonus chapter every 250 stones!