Perseus the Conqueror

Chapter 19

Percy POV

After several hours of mind melting boredom, my body finally caught up with my mind and woke up. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes, was Jackie in human form, looking down on me. I found myself on an oversized bed made of- on second thought I don't think I'll get into that.

I was on my back while Jackie was kneeling next to me. As my eyes fluttered open, I saw hers widen in happiness.

Before I knew what was happening, she was sobbing into my chest, "I'm so glad you're awake! It's been so long."

I focused on my arms, and was happy to find out that they worked. I carefully wrapped my arms around the sobbing Hellhound girl.

As she sobbed I rubbed her back, letting her get it all out. "I'm sorry Jackie. And I'm sorry you had to go through what you did. I can never thank you and Zoe enough. "

Her head was still buried in my chest, but her crying suddenly stopped. She looked up at me and I saw that her red eyes were filled with rage. "You're damn right you can't! Who do you think you are slipping into a pain induced coma for ten years?"

I was stunned. I couldn't believe that she would say something like that and I was really confused. But everything became clear when her glare was broken by her own laughter.

"I'm just kidding Percy! Don't tell me that Goliath knocked the humor out of you." she managed through her laughter. But she soon got over the joke at my expense, and looked at me with a twinkle in her eye and a serious expression, "I would do it all again, anything for my king."

That sent a shiver up my spine. For a moment we just stared into each other's eyes, not saying anything.

Slowly however, I found being pulled toward her by an invisible force, as did she.

Our faces were inches apart, I could feel her surprisingly sweet smelling breath on my face.

I looked deep into her pitch black eyes, and I knew with absolute certainty that she meant every word she said. As dark as they were, Jackie's eyes were like an open book, telling me everything about her, and I had a feeling in that moment, that my eyes were the same way.

Our lips were centimeters apart, when suddenly the door to the hut burst open to reveal a red skinned giant.

I was about to grab my sword to defend Jackie, but two things stopped me. One: Zoe was following closely behind the giant with no fear, which told me it might be a bad idea to attack the guy two: I had no idea where 'Conqueror' was.

Jackie put a hand on my tensed shoulder to get my attention. I turned to see her face as red as the giant's, reminding me what we were just doing a moment before. My face soon followed suit.

As embarrassed as she was, she managed to say: "That is Damasen, he is the one who healed your wounds and brought you out of your coma. You don't have to worry about him. "

At the mention of my wounds, I winced at the memory of how I got them. I looked down at my body to see that it was covered in light scars from all the places I was hurt. It was a pleasant surprise, I thought I would look much worse afterwards, but I suppose that Chaos wasn't lying when he called this guy a healer.

I looked at Jackie, who was still red. However she was avoiding looking me in the eye. I nodded understanding. It seemed that little moment we just had was going to have to wait until later.

I was broken out of my thoughts by an outburst from Damasen across the room. I was so deep in thought I hadn't noticed they were conversing until Damasen yelled, "YOU THINK I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!" Then in a much calmer voice: "Of course I would like to leave this place Zoe. But I am cursed. As long as the drakon reforms and attacks, I will have no choice but to fight it."