Linked Demigods (HIATUS)

Chapter 3: The Shortest Side-Quest Ever

Time's POV

When Annabeth and Grover left, Percy glanced uneasily at me.

"Somethings off," I said softly.

Percy nodded, discreetly glancing at the lady and her dog. Oh. Oh.

The dog jumped down, yapping at us.

"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here. "

"Doggie!" said a little boy. "Look, a doggie!"

His parents pulled him back. 

"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist. "

"Um, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?" Percy asked, nervous.

"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make. "

She revealed her...monsterness. The Chimera barked and barked, and grew by the second. Soon enough, it was roaring, the size of a lion. Percy was shaking.

"I am here to test you both, Percy Jackson, and the Hero of Time! Be honoured!" The lady said, introducing herself. 

Behind me, suddenly a lion leapt out. From what Annabeth told me...

"The N Lion thing?" I wondered. "Alright. Let's try this."

The first thing I did was test for weaknesses. Unfortunately, after a while of not doing any damage, I realised I hate to destroy it from the inside. Time seemed to freeze as I searched in my inventory. There. 

At one point, it roared, mouth wide open. I tossed a bomb in, and the mouth closed. In a couple of seconds, the lion exploded, leaving behind a golden coat, which I placed in my inventory. I turned, just to see Echina and the Chimera.

Where was Percy? Why did I not see him fall off? I was an idiot.

Echina cackled, and the Chimera and her disappeared. There was no time to loose. I ran to find the others.

I saw Percy, Annabeth and Grover just in time to hear the part of the story that I missed.

"Hi Time," Percy said. "How did you do with that lion?"

I shrugged, "Nothing a bomb couldn't fix,"

The group choked.

"A bomb?!" Grover exclaimed.

"...Yeah? I have plenty, do you want some-" I began, but got cut off.

"No!" Annabeth said. "Let's just...uh...get back to the train."

~~~

Percy's POV

The more I got to know Time, the weirder it got. He seemed so...mysterious at times, with abilities and items I wasn't sure that a normal warrior should have. Time said he had to deal with something, which is why he was outside while we were inside.

"You kids have money to pay for it?" the waiter asked.

"Yep," Time appeared. "I do. They're with me."

The waiter nodded, and Time sat with us. However, another voice stopped the waiter.

"It's on me."

He slid into our booth, crushing us all. Time sat wearily next to me.

The biker looked straight at Time.

"So, you're Hylia's, aren't you?" he said.

"Hylia?" I questioned.

Time looked down. "Yes. I'm one of Hylia's."

"Ah. And you're one of Seaweed's, right?" Ares asked me.

 I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe. I wanted to rip this guys head off. "Whats it to you?"

"Uh...Percy-" Time said, but the biker raised a hand to stop him.

"That's fine. I'm Ares," Ares said.

The waiter came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.

Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.

She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these arent. . . "

Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"

The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.

"You cant do that," I told Ares. "You cant just threaten people with a knife. "

Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Dont you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor. "

"So, a side-quest." Time said.

"Sort of. You consider this a side-quest too, right?" Ares asked, "This whole bolt thing."

"Yup," Time answered. "I'm just waiting to go back home. Anyway, what's the quest?"

Time had that notebook out again. Every single time we get to a good stage in our quest, he notes something down. Now, however, he's on a brand new page.

"Its nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little...date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me. " Ares said.

"Quest estimation time...short," Time muttered under his breath as he wrote. He sighed, "Sure, it can be done. "

I looked at him, "We don't have to do anything for him-"

"We should." Time said firmly. "And that's final."

"You'll do it just like that?"

"Yeah, why not?" Time answered.

"True. To be expected of someone such as you," Ares sighed. "The water park's location should appear in your notebook. I'll even arrange a ride west for you after."

"We'll do it," Time said. "Thanks,"

~~~

"What were you thinking?!" Time said. "You can't refuse a god! Or a quest, for that matter."

"What?! You can refuse that offer. Especially from that...Ares..." I muttered the last part. "Okay, maybe I acted rashly. But you immediately accepted! We have a time limit! It's like you don't understand what 'time limit' means!"

"...Of course I know what it means," Time said. "You have no idea. However, I always accept quests. I've been on many, and one important one hinged on a time limit, which I had a method to survive. That won't work as well here. We have to do the quest to get the ride west anyway."

I hated it when he acted like an adult.

It was sunset by the time we arrived at the waterpark, which Time had found by the map on his notebook. It was supposedly called 'Waterland'. The main gate was padlocked with barbed wire. Grover flew over the top, and then Time took out something he called a 'Longshot', which attached to a target on the other side. He dropped to the ground, fine. Annabeth and I had to go the old-fashioned way, which took much longer.

I could tell Annabeth was looking at Time with even more suspicion. I agreed, not that I was going to say that. He seemed to be holding something back from us. We found a souvenir shop, which we all changed in. 

When we returned, Time was using the longshot to grab the items inside. He dropped passed them to us just as a trigger was activated. However, it didn't even effect us.

"Let's go," Time said.

I nodded. "And we need to have a little talk with Ares."