Perseus the Conqueror

Chapter 6

30 years in Tartarus later

Percy POV

I crept forward, staying low to the ground. I made sure not to make a single sound as I stalked my prey. I was in my hellhound form as I stayed in the shadow of a boulder, looking past it at the creature I was hunting.

It was really a miracle that I had gotten as far as I had without alerting the creature. I was, of course, twice the size of a tank. Lucky for me I have had thirty years to train.

The creature turned its head away from me; this was my chance. I quickly and quietly slipped from behind the boulder and advanced toward the unaware beast. Once I was close enough I pounced with out a sound. I used my paws to flip it on its back. It let out a yelp of surprise as I opened my jaws and went straight for its vulnerable throat.

And then I stopped, hovering over its neck.

"Got you!" I boasted gleefully.

"Indeed you did sir." Replied a very surprised Jackie.

I got up off of the shaken hellhound as she shook all over to regain her composure. "Congratulations my king, after 30 years of trying you finally managed to take me by surprise. I am so proud."

"Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a slow learner. And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Percy, I may be your king but you are my trainer. It is weird enough that every other hellhound in the bloody cosmos does it, but you are my friend."

It was true. In the thirty years I have been in this hellhole, Jackie had been my closest confidante, an advisor of sorts. I had told her of all my adventures. So I liked to think we were pretty tight.

Jackie however seemed caught off guard by the statement, "F-friend?'

"Of course. Why is that so confusing?"

"It's just that, in all of the years where Salvador was king, he never called anyone friend. It was a miracle if he didn't call you dirt. The only one who was anything close to a friend, was Sophia." She made sure put venom in her tone as she mentioned the former queen, and I couldn't blame her.

After she lost her place as queen, she was not a good sport about it. She is physically harmless, but her bark is way worse than her bite. She never shuts up trying to make me miserable out of spite. It was her idea that I had to undergo hellhound training. Although it would probably pay out in the end, it was still annoying.

This was a really big moment for me, I had mastered all the other aspects of being a hellhound: endurance, strength, night vision, reflexes, and fighting in hellhound form; I even figured shadow travel out, I could travel all over the Pit as long as I don't go anywhere I haven't been. All that was left was stealth, which was never my cup of tea. For Chaos' sake the last two times I tried to be sneaky it was Mt St. Helens and The Princess Andromeda, and both times ended with me being blown up. All right the second one may have been planned, but still.

I changed back to my human form. I hadn't changed a lot in the thirty years, thanks to my partial immortality, but my old clothes were ratty and torn. The only reason they didn't smell is their weekly wash in the Phlethagon. I was hesitant to try it at first, but before long I couldn't take the smell, so I tried washing them in the flaming river. I was relieved to see they did not burn.

Jackie and I were training in the Plains of a Thousand Knives, as I liked to call them. Why? Because it sounds awesome, that's why.

"Come on My k—I mean Percy. Let us go back to the lair." Jackie said. I nodded, and we turned to leave, before a loud roar froze both of us in our tracks.