We Both Walk Among the Dead: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Part 6

here's the next part, enjoy :)

           I watched the stars from my position in the tall oak, the nymph sleeping inside. I didn’t think that she would have minded me coming up here, but I was going to have to book it before she woke up in the morning. I wasn’t really in the mood for an angry nymph chasing me around the forest, chucking acorns and branches at me.

               I shivered a little as a cold wind from Boreas, the north wind god, swept the upper branches where I was sitting. I had no doubt that he was busy relaying my location to everyone on Olympus, but I knew that even they couldn’t touch me. It was almost…pleasant, to sit up here and forget about the many gods that could track me at any moment’s notice.

              I focused on the inky black sky, the cold white light of the stars washing over me. There were planets as well, their different coloured lights mixing with the pure white to reveal a whole universe just beyond the atmosphere of this small planet. I had a brief flashback from when I was nine, staring up at the sky through all the hazy pollution of the city. I dreamed that when the gods did find me, and I was killed, I would fly up to join the stars, instead of joining Hades down in the earth.

               Of course, I knew that was impossible, but the thought had calmed me for years. Now I knew that my fate down in the Underworld wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be – at least it was better than the life I had led here on the mere surface of earth. It sometimes seemed weird to me, how we all lived between two worlds. One with the stars and one with the planet.

             I shook myself awake, and peered at the sky. I cursed at myself in my head, realizing that I was starting to go soft from lack of being on the run. Normally, I could run for over 36 hours without sleep, but now that number had lessened to 24. I vowed I would sleep for an hour or two after I was finished and away from this tree, but that meant that I had to finish my reading quickly.

             Tonight, the stars presented the gods’ plans to me. Apollo was going to send the Oracle here at camp a quest, one that was meant for Caleb. We were going to have to leave either tomorrow, or early the morning of the next day. I had been right about only having a little amount of time, and I had to trust myself that I had taught Caleb enough to keep him alive.

            Caleb. I scowled up in the tree, even though the stupid asshole was peacefully sleeping in his cabin back at camp, unaware of the special event about to occur tomorrow. I recalled his performance at capture the flag a few hours ago. He had been good, I have to admit. He was getting better every time he fought, and I hoped that he could keep up his increasing improvement during the quest. When I thought of him in a teacher-student aspect, I felt…proud, strangely, of him. He’d gone through an intensive training in a week, and was ready. Sure, there were a few things I could have taught him more on, but I didn’t think he would have wanted to know them. Or he wouldn’t want me to be the one teaching him.

              My scowl was etched deeper into my face, as I thought of the asshole in a normal relationship. I felt the familiar cold feeling of a certain emotion towards him, now mixed with the heat of anger, but still with the underlining feeling of pride at his improvement. In the tree, I covered my face with my hands, and groaned softly. Ever since that stupid day when he guessed about my father, I hadn’t been able to gain control over my useless emotions. All those years, I had stuffed them away and never released them, but now they refused to go back. Everything I felt, my hatred for him, my approval at his fighting skills and improvement, were mixed. It was all this useless whirlwind of feelings inside me, which I ignored when I was among others, but secretly tried to figure out when I was alone like this.