Not Just Another God ✓

Chapter 20: We get captured by the Golden goose-er rooster

The creature wasn't exactly what I had expected when Hearth had first pointed it out, but I had learned not to judge monsters on the way they looked.

It seemed to be a magnificent, glittering, golden rooster and I resisted the urge to ask it if it had been born from a golden egg.

It eyed us with its beady eyes, seeming to stare past our exterior bodies and stare straight into our souls and I glanced at it nervously, not daring to move.

I could almost feel it poking through my brain, shuffling it's way through my memories and picking up and remembering the ones it wanted to know. I tried to shove it out, but failed as its beak seemed to peck at my brain, making it throb painfully.

Finally, it got out, and my head was mine once more, but I felt the uncanny feeling that the bird has stolen something from me, but the problem is, I couldn't remember what.

I huffed angrily. I hated people, animals, and godly beings thinking they could just poke around in my brain and take things from me with asking.

The bird ruffled its feathers with an almost smug expression on its face, like he wasn't quite finished with us yet. I glanced at Magnus, not knowing what to do.

All at once, Heathstone signed something to Magnus who in turn, opened his mouth to translate, but it was too late.

The bird had started singing.

The melody took me by surprise as it wrapped its bewitching tendrils of a tune around me, freezing me in place and making it unable to move.

It was the most perfectly beautiful tune I had ever heard. Notes flowed together perfectly, like a quickly flowing river.

The tempo, the melody, the harmonies, everything was perfect. It transfixed me in place, and I was powerless to do anything but listen to the song, and at that moment, that was all I wanted to do.

I didn't know the ancient language the bird was singing in, yet somehow I understood every perfect word.

It sang of victories and troubles, and how it rose above to fame becoming one of the most dangerous creatures in Yggdrasil. It sang of longing and love, of peace and joy, and I felt like I was in heaven. If I ever went to Elysium, I would want it to be like this. Perfect and still and harmonious.

The song transported me to a vision, a perfectly created, vibrant place, with high curving trees spreading out their branches and delicate flowers sprinkling the grass.

But then the melody changed.

The tempo began to pick up speed as it became lower and more somber, as dark purple tendril of the tune started to encircle me, trapping me in its power. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't do anything. All I could do was watch.

I saw Bianca getting crushed by Talos, a death I could've prevented, but was too dumb and stupid to do so.

I saw the death of Zoë Nightshade as she jumped in front of an arrow that was about to strike her mistress, then her father shoving her to the side, like she was nothing.

I saw Daedalus's soul getting released, except this time, I saw the pain it cause him, how it was practically torn away from his body.

I saw Beckendorf in the ship's explosion, how he was blown apart violently. I saw the frightened look in Silena's eyes as the drakon spat in her face, and her slow painful death as the poison soaked into her bloodstream.

A deafening scream rang in my ears as Luke stabbed himself, an image I wanted to forget so very badly.

Then Leo. He had always felt left out, the seventh wheel, which ultimately led him to sacrifice himself in order to kill Gaea.

I closed my eyes and tried to shut out the painful images as a tear rolled down my cheek but was unable to do so. The song of Death was too strong. Too many deaths I could've prevented. Too many deaths that I had caused.

But then, the singing halted. I came tumbling down to reality, seeing the rooster engaged in a magical sleep caused by a serious looking Hearthstone, who looked up with a grim expression on his face.

He shook his head at the creature, seeming to tell us that the bird was bad news. Now if only he had told us beforehand.

Magnus, Alex, and Annabeth also seemed to be waking up from horrible enforced visions, but Magnus quickly shook it off and showed us the right way to go, as we ran far away from the cursed singing rooster.

***

"Hey," Annabeth said, walking beside me.

"Hi," I replied, my mind flashing back to the deaths the rooster had reminded me of. I couldn't help it. The stupid song the rooster had sung still rang in my ears, making everything seem ten times more vivid-and terrible.

She took a deep breath, and forced a weak smile.

"It was terrible, wasn't it?" she said, her eyes filling up with pain. I remembered that she, also had witnessed a lot of deaths, though not the same ones I had.

"Mhm," I replied, looking out at the pastel blue sky. I lacked the ability to express everything I wanted to say in words. For now, it was better to stay quiet.

"I-I should've been more alert" she said, "I could've prevented that encounter. But I didn't."

"It wasn't your fault," I said, "I shouldn't have let you come with me."

"Oh, Percy," Annabeth laughed, "I will always be with you, no matter how dangerous it is."

I smiled and walked a little faster in order to catch up with Hearthstone.

"Hey man," I said, "thanks for what you did back then."

A faint glimpse of a smile was visible of his pale face.

He gestured to his ears and tilted his head with a sort of humorous look in his eyes.

"So you didn't hear the rooster's song?" I asked.

He shrugged then pointed to his heart, then his eyes.

He felt it.

"But it didn't effect you fully, did it?"

Hearthstone shook his head, again gesturing to his ears.

One of the few perks of being deaf.

Magnus stopped in the lead, causing Alex, who was behind him to nearly crash into him, which would've knocked Magnus off the tree.

"We're here," Magnus said, resting his hand on the trunk on the tree which still towered sky high above us.

Then, without warning he knocked three times on the trunk, causing the branch to tip like a see-saw and making us all plummet down, hopefully not to our deaths.

A/N: 20th chapter! That means that I'll be going through and doing some editing again. I want to raise the word count to at least 25k, so I'll probably add a whole lot more to the chapters.

Currently, I think that this books is around half way to three quarters of the way finished, so that's good. I really feel like I'm dragging it on a bit, though.

Anyway, hope you have a wonderful week!

Peace?