Sons of the Big Three

Blessed

Disclaimer: I own a bass guitar. I own a laptop. I own a LoL account. But I don’t own Percy Jackson.

Nick’s POV

We spend another three days trekking across country and navigating through cities. Much to Will’s delight, there were cheeseburgers the rest of the way through, every place we stopped by knowing what a cheeseburger was.

I asked Will why he couldn’t just shadow travel us to LA, and he replied by saying that if he did he would not only not have enough strength to determine where we would land, but it would also kill him, so we decided that walking there was a better option.

I have to say that I’ve grown to the cat that Will found on that day after we had eaten at the place with no cheeseburgers, which I had found hilarious. While I was suspicious at first, it became apparent that the cat was no danger to us, even there was something different about it. Now it became a welcome companion, and we valued her gladly, since she, while lazy like other cats at times, also provided a keener sense of smell and hearing.

We had been suggesting names for it, but Will refused most of them. ‘I want to find the right name,’ he admitted on night when we had set up camp and he was sitting crossed legged, his cat asleep on his head. ‘I’ll let you know when I think of it. Now, I’ll take first watch, so you guys get some sleep.’

The reason Will took first watch was simple; he was something of a night owl and an early riser, so reduced sleep wasn’t really a problem for him. I took the last watch because I was the cook, and would usually prepare breakfast if I could. We had started to reduce the amount we spent with the mortal money, but we still had a lot of it.

This morning I was awoken by Desmond, who was shaking my shoulder. ‘It’s your turn now Nick.’ He said. ‘Come on, get up so I can go back to sleep.’

I yawned and looked at him. He had circles under his eyes. ‘Anything happen?’ I asked him as I slowly stood, stretching as the chill hit me, and I shivered.

He nodded. ‘There were Cyclopes and hellhounds who attacked and you slept through it all,’ he said straight faced, but gave it away as he grinned. I gave him a look and he shook his head. ‘No, there was a single hellhound, but it’s gone now.’

I nodded and he went back to his own sleeping bag. I sighed and headed towards the fire, where I would have the greatest chance of seeing something if I stayed focus, and drew my bow.

I only used a bow when I had to, because while I wasn’t bad at it, I wasn’t good either, which made sense as I spent most of my time in the arena fighting. I suppose if I had managed to train more my skills could have shown, but my adequate shooting skills would mean I would be able to get off a shot or two before having to draw Tempest.

There was a cough from behind and I whirled, arrow nocked and pointed straight at the man in front of me. ‘Hey,’ the guy complained. He looked like a college freshman that was also a model. He had sandy hair, a pair of sunglasses on his face, a wide grin that nearly blinded me, and wore casual clothes. ‘If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead already.’

I frowned. ‘Who are you?’

His smile grew wider, which made me wince. ‘I am Apollo, the god of prophecies.’

I dropped my weapon and bowed, but he laughed. ‘Relax, Nick. I just wanted to talk to you, and to give you something.’

I looked at him curiously. ‘What do you want?’

He chuckled. ‘Straight to the point, just like your brother I see. I do have some reasons to come here. The first is that this quest of yours is only the beginning.’