🦅 Carter Kane & Percy Jackson 🌊

Percy Jackson|Scorpions and More Sand

     After the Chicken Warrior/Wave manifest, we settled down for the night in what we could find of Carter's boat.
Annabeth was staring into her blade of her dagger, watching the reflection of the stars. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I had learned a while ago that she worked through her own problems pretty well.
"N'dah." Carter said, holding an ivory stick up around the ruins of the boat. A hieroglyph floated above the shredded wood, then faded.
"What was that?" I asked suspiciously.
"Don't worry, man," he replied, "It's the Egyptian word for, 'protect'."
I relaxed a little bit, "From monsters and stuff like that?"
"Yeah, pretty much." he yawned and collapsed into the sand, grumbling something about sand getting everywhere.
I was coming to trust him a lot more now. He had saved Annabeth and I when those wacko magicians attacked, and provided us with shelter. Sort of.
My eyes drooped, and I felt myself drifting off to sleep . . .
  ***
I was standing in a huge, triangular building. My first thought was, Why am I not in our campsite? Then a noticed how light I felt, how the air seemed to pass right through me, Dream visions.
The floor was a polished obsidian, decorated with specks of red, like drops of blood. In the center of the room was a throne, and a podium where a key sat. I wandered forward and looked at the key. It was a random key you would probably find on your key chain, nothing special.
     "Perseus Jackson, we meet again," a voice suddenly thundered through the pyramid shaped room.
     Even though this was a dream, I felt a shiver run down my back. I knew that voice. I . . . remembered it. It couldn't be-
     "Kronos?" I asked, looking around the room, trying to pinpoint the voice.
     "Yes, child of Poseidon. I am here, after everything, I am back," a sudden force pushed me backwards. I didn't know how, but dream or no dream, I felt a pressure on my throat.
     Just in front of me, the image of a man formed. Not body of Luke. But something a little more terrifying. He had copper armor ringed with red, and claws so sharp, I swear if I looked at them, they would cut me without even touching them.
     "Perseus," he growled, "You have ruined my conquest for the last time. You have no one to save you now."
     I managed to choke out, "How are you- here?"
     Kronos laughed, "You think it was easy, child? I had to scavenge across the lands of Tartarus. Come to the Doors of Death and free myself, regaining my strength and power."
     I felt my neck getting crushed under his grip, "And you, sitting in your Camp, being congratulated by the gods, like a hero."
     "PERCY! WAKE UP!"
                                  ***
     I jerked my head up and gasped for breath, "Kronos!"
     Annabeth and Carter stared down at me from the sand, "What are you talking about, Seaweed Brain?"
     I quickly explained what had happened in my dream. As I explained, I could feel drips of blood beading down my neck from where Kronos had grabbed me.
     I wiped the blood away, "I don't know how he's here, or how he got in my dream, but we gotta stop him."
     Carter considered, "Where did you say you saw him again?"
     "In a triangular room, like a- pyramid . . . " I trailed off.
     Carter's face soon drained, "There was a throne, there was red, t-there was Kronos?"
     Annabeth looked at me, like I had just told her a firework was about to explode in my head, "Percy, do you know- what this means?"
I looked back and forth between them, "That the lord of evil had risen again?"
"Not just that," Carter grumbled, "Set's working with Kronos."
The desert went silent like a blanket had covered the sands. The two gods of evil were now working together? Now that wasn't good. Set, the god that Carter had fought, Kronos, the god I had fought. Who could ask for a better day?
     "What do we do?" I asked, breaking the silence.
     Annabeth let out a long breath, "We gotta team up and defeat both of them. This should work if we work together."
     "I guess," Carter agreed, "But I have to find my sister. She might be- " he didn't have to finish the thought.
     I stood up and brushed off my clothes, "So how are we going to find the pyramid, and how do we even know it's by the Nile?"
     Carter shrugged, "Gotta start somewhere, right?"
                             ***
     It was at high noon by the time we ran into the giant scorpion. I was just about to call a break, when the sand around us started to move on its own.
     Annabeth moved towards me and grabbed her knives, "What, was that?"
     Carter unsheathed his twisted sword thing, "I don't know, but it can't be good."
     Then, right in front of us jumped a bony scorpion. It was black and had armor over its entire body. Its tail was a thick barb dripping with green poison. Oh, and it was as big as a horse.
     I cursed in ancient Greek, "What in the name of Hera is that?"
     Carter sounded unsure, "I have no idea, but it might be from Set's doing . . . "
     Annabeth had backed away from it, her eyes wide, "That's almost as bad as spiders."
     The scorpion hissed and clicked its stinger against its back, watching us like, Oh look, a couple of wandering tourists. Dinner's served early.
     "Distract it!" Carter yelled, running around the scorpion in a wide arc.
     Like he was in charge. I ran up to the scorpion and raked my sword against its pinchers/face whatever. It hissed in fury and smashed its stinger forward, barley missing my arm.
     Annabeth yelped, "Percy, look out for the poison!"
     Carter yelled a command word in Egyptian, "Maw!"
     I was wondering what the heck that was, until almost ten gallons of water splashed out of nonexistence.
Taking the chance, I used my willpower to guide the water into a swirling whirlpool in mid air.
The scorpion looked from me to the water and lunged with blinding speed. I threw my hands forward, and the water jetted at the scorpion, pushing it a few feet away.
While it was off its balance, I jumped at it. Unfortunately, Carter did the same and we both crashed into each other as the scorpion got away.
I groaned and rubbed me head, "What were you doing? I had it!"
"Sorry, I thought you were still using the water," Carter mumbled, "Besides, I said keep it destructed, not jump at it."
My hand clenched, "Next time, stay out of my way. And you can't just give orders to us like that. We're not your soldiers to boss around." I knew I was being harsh, but I was hot, tired, and frustrated with Carter for messing things up.
We glared at each other for a minute until Annabeth came over, "Stop arguing, guys. We got to figure out a way to the Nile."
     I got up from the sand and didn't look at Carter, "Then let's go. We don't have much time."