Perseus Jackson: Titan of The Hunt

CH17: Monotony

Percy)

After several initially eventful months on Orthrys as everyone got used to their newfound freedom and their discovery of what the modern world had to offer. Soon to me however came the inevitable monotony of boredom caused by hanging around a bunch of time old Titans, who it turned out I had nothing in common with as I swiftly found out.

The only things I had in common with them was fighting and training but even that was limited with how many of them bothered. The only Titans who actually did any physical training were myself, Iapetus when he was actually on Orthrys and not hanging out with Hades in the underworld. My now somewhat rival Lelantos, as well unsurprisingly Atlas, once the Titan of Endurance and Strength was released. Now it was almost most surprisingly to myself I had struck up a semi-amiable relationship with those two after our obviously rocky starts of trying to kill one another.

Unfortunately, there were also times in this period when the reality of my situation felt so overbearing that I attempted some actions that I would regret later... but I don't want to talk about those dark times.

For the first few weeks after I arrived, I had been struggling with my flying. No matter how hard I tried or what I did, I just couldn't control all the wings at once. A pair would miss a synchronised flap and always collide with another set and I would end up on the floor or in a wall. In one unfortunately memorable occasion I ended up ploughing a trench through one of the Hesperides new flower beds using nothing but my face.

So it was much to my surprise, when the former Titan of the Air approached me and started to coach me on the finer points of their control. Despite his still wounded state, even considered it painful to watch me struggle after watching me extract half a dozen rose bushes out of my hair, clothes and feathers. After all, there was not much for him to do in the palace either now. He had lost his domains and so too had little to do other than feel sorry for himself, which made me feel regretful. Sure, it was not my fault he had instigated our duel. However, he had since profusely apologized for his rashness to me and his parents. Which was admittedly funny to watch as the four-thousand-year-old Titan was scorned like a child.

After a few weeks of his training regime, I was now able to fly somewhat gracefully and with little effort whereas before a few minutes of frantic flapping left me exhausted. Under his instruction I could now multi-task and once he was healed, we began to spar in mid-air using blunted weapons. Neither of us wanted to be in the state we were in before again.

Once I felt competent enough, I offered him a challenge of who was the faster and proposed a race to LA and back to the palace. If I won, he had to fly around the palace proclaiming my victory to everyone he met, if he won, I offered him the sky domain back as I didn't feel comfortable with it. Sure, the wings were nice and offered me another tactic advantage in a fight both as a means of mobility and even as an impromptu shield. I wish I had them during the battle of the skies above Olympus rather than taking pot-shots with a cannon. Perhaps it was maybe due my heritage, I was a child of the sea and not the sky so the domain felt like it was just not for me. The last thing I wanted was for a certain Olympian to think I was stepping on his toes.

Of course, the ex-Titan eagerly accepted the proposition as what did he have to lose, other than perhaps a little of what was left his broken pride.

Truthfully the statistics spoke on my behalf, I had a higher top speed in a straight line which would have been in my favour over a long distance but he was more agile as he had less bulky frame. As a result of having little to do, on top of this training I had begun spending a lot more time in my chamber working out and swimming. As a result, I was swiftly becoming bulking out in muscle to match my increased height.

However, despite this the race was rigged from the start. Once we set off from the palace roof in a neck and neck sprint for a few miles, I eventually disappeared from his view behind a cloud. For a few minutes I waited for him to carry on before I simply turned about and landed. Laying on the roof in the shade I waited for him to return, two hours later sweating and wheezing in exhaustion. It was clear that Lelantos had pulled out all the stops in an effort to beat me. Initially he seemed gloomy to see me already back despite his best efforts but I lied and said I got lost and came back as I knew I would not be able to catch up with him. As such I crowned him the winner and he was welcomed back as a proper Titan again once the council was made aware of the wager.