Wolf Girl

Blissful Lies

Chapter 26

When they lost sight of Tantalus Leah used the remnants of his scent to track him down, speeding across the forest floor. Percy watched the world around him as trees came up slowly, only to seem warped with speed as they passed by his peripheral vision. Leah's running motion was smooth, fluid like water as she used previous motion to spring into the next. Her paws were powerful hammers and they struck the earth with great strength, yet her muscles absorbed the impact and used the force to drive forward.

Percy studied they way she ran with childlike wonder, the beauty of nature and the majestic power of strength.

He himself felt stronger than he ever had before, pure unrestrained energy hummed just beneath his fingertips. He felt as if it would absorb him if he used it, his own power drowning him as his human body could not handle the strength.

The world had never looked clearer. It was as if he had been looking through dirty glasses his whole life. Every color was vibrant, every detail astounding. How beautiful the world was!

He smiled, a brief fleeting smile before he remembered. He remembered Seth, he remembered his joyous attitude about the world. Seth had always seen the world as he saw it now, beautiful. He hadn't needed any change, no unlocking of some hidden power, he had just seen the good in the bad. To many times Percy found himself looking at the bad, it almost seemed like human nature to find the worst in things. A strange evil game where people compete with each other to find out who has it worse, who deserves more pity. As if by playing victim, he can be shrouded in a light of righteousness and therefore justify any action done in return.

But who is to decide what is righteous judgment and what is wrong. The worlds judgment brings no good in the end, hate leads to hate, destruction breeds only more destruction.

Gods, what was he going to tell Leah... when would he tell her. He should do it soon, she deserved to know, but it's such a hard thing to say and they're in the middle of a battle and she could be distracted by emotion...

And...

and excuses.

If Percy was on the other side of the situation he would want to know, he would need to know.

He prepared himself to say the words that would change Leah's life forever. But how does one prepare themselves for that? Perhaps it would be better to live in lies, blissfully unaware. The truth was too painful to face, much easier to forget about the whole ordeal, he'd think about it later.

No, that wouldn't be fair to Leah.

"Hey... Leah." Percy said softly. "I've—I've got some bad news.."

If Leah even heard him she didn't respond. She just kept moving forward, running without stop like a machine.

"It's about-" Percy took a shuddering deep breath. But before he could speak again he noticed something at the edge of his vision. "Hey! There he is!"

Leah was running towards the middle of a clearing, one open spot in the middle of the dark and misty forest. In the center of the clearing there was a crystal, a little over knee hight and in dull white color. It pulled on him, the crystal, even from this distance he could feel it slowly goading him into its warm embrace. He had to get away from it, he knew what it was, what it would do.

Next to the crystal stood Tantalus, his body as still as the rock to his right. In his hand he held a sleek black pistol, and it was pointed right at them. His arm was steady and his eye was trained through the sight, locked on their moving bodies.

For some strange reason Leah kept running forward, straight for the danger, almost as if she couldn't see it.

"Stop! Get in cover!" Percy yelled.