Son Of The Cup Bearer {Percy Jackson x Ejen Ali}

Viktor, What Are You Doing

What the hell does he honestly think he's doing?

Viktor has been known to do some pretty weird stuff, but him being found on the rooftop thirty feet above ground was on a whole new region of weird. Sure, Ali had kept quiet when Viktor does odd things like snatching his phone when he was about to make a call (Ali had suspected he had a fear of phone calls), wanting to always stick with Ali no matter where they went (Ali assumed it was his nervousness), but never had he seen Viktor do anything more amazing other than being the top student of the class. 

Otherwise, Viktor was almost as lame as Ali (yes, the great disgrace Ali) himself. Maybe even worse, due to him having some sort of leg injury that required him for eternity to use crutches. Just when Ali thought he was the most pathetic one; that was why Ali had befriended the poor lad.

Ah, he should not be talking about this. You're probably confused what is going on. Let's skip it quick to the introduction:

This wimp of a person who will be mainly narrating this story is Ali bin Ghazali, son of the famous city developer Dr Ghazali. Ali is also known as the lousiest student to ever exist and the most favourite punching bag of bullies of all sorts. Even eight year old kids would stop by just to lend him a punch. 

He would have gladly explained all the bad things that has happened in his life but that would've made an entirely independent book: The One and Only Loser Ali. And also, his friend was on the edge (literally) of dying.

But as serious as it was, Ali could not believe his eyes - since his eyes has a tendency to play tricks on him. Like how once he thought he received a C to find that he had actually been blessed with a F.

As he watched, the dark-haired boy backed to the edge of the rooftop, his back against nothing but thirty feet of a hundred percent chance of turning into a Viktor-omelette. Ali didn't know what the hell he was doing up there, but his best friend seemed to have his eyes fixed on something Ali couldn't see from this angle down below.

And he just noticed something odd: Viktor was for once moving without his signature pair of crutches.

"Viktor Ong! Come down here right this instance!" the tall, skeleton-like principal himself demanded in a stern voice. 

He was also gathered amongst the crowd of muttering students snapping pictures of Viktor. Ali wondered if they were to upload this video online, what would be their caption? Only in SRT Cyberaya 1 or Nerd commits suicide, RIP? Either way, Ali knew he cannot allow this to happen. But how he was supposed to stop it was another issue; about a hundred gadgets were pointed at his best friend's bottom.

Then, a voice that crawled on Ali's very skin itself seemed to hiss from the rooftop, where Viktor's eyes seemed to be directed. The voice sounded like a snake hissing and trying to talk at the same time - if they could talk.

"You have nowhere to run, ssscrawny sssatyr. Tell usss where he isss." 

Never had Ali heard that voice before, but it sounded up to no good. Neither does Ali have any idea what a sssatyr is. Was it a pirate's insult? If so, whoever it was, Ali was about to make them pay. No one insults Viktor until he has to climb a rooftop.

So Ali did the most stupidest thing he can think of. 

He sprinted for the building, pushing students aside as he did, ignoring their protesting screams behind him. He can deal with being beaten up later, but now he had a friend to save. 

Ali wasn't an athletic person, but suddenly he found out he could go up five floors in less than two minutes and, with a deafening crash, burst through a door and found himself facing-

What in the world are those?

With their backs against him were what appeared to be two humanoid-like reptilian creatures with flowing long black hair that reached their (Ali's mind went haywire) bottom of a snake. From there on, it split into two smaller - but still large - trunks of green scales. In fact, to Ali's utter horror, their entire skin from their faces to tails were made of overlapping green scales. His stomach twisted, as though about to throw up. Ali himself felt his head spinning.

Though, as Ali stared, paralyzed to the spot, the two snake-like ladies advanced ever so slightly, pointing (ABORT ABORT ABORT) two very sharp silver spears in Viktor's direction.

"Can we jussst kill him already? He won't talk," the lady on the right hissed at her partner.

"Do you smell that?" The other sniffed, shifting her reptilian trunks in such a weird way it got Ali's attention instead, to turn around.

"BAAA alright, alright, I'll talk!" Viktor bleated, his voice strained. Wait, did he just- bleated? 

With much difficulty, Ali tore his eyes away from the shifting snake-lady's legs to face Viktor, who was just only visible between the tiny gap between the two ladies. Just then, his eyes met Viktor's, and Ali swore, there was some kind of fake-like fear in his eyes.

It was then he realised, Viktor was playing for time. 

But even if he did, what was Ali supposed to do? Kill the snakes? Nuh-uh. Their spears look like they can penetrate through an elephant's hide, and that is seriously overkill.

"Tell usss the truth, goat, or we'll eat you for dinner," the first lady hissed.

"I suppose you'll still eat me even if I speak?" 

The second snake-lady's trunks curled and uncurled indecisively, as though she was trying to pace around on a single spot. 

"Hmmm goat meat isss good. I guessss we will." She bared her fangs in a very beautiful way - in the sense that you are about to be shredded to bits.

"I'll tell you everything if you just let me throw my yoyo away."

The second snake-lady laughed, while the other grinned (at least she had the sense to not bare her fangs) and said, "Do your worssst, sssatyr."

From the back of his pants, Viktor pulled out a beige-coloured leather yoyo decorated with flickering lights of green within it. Without so much as a casual twirl, he sent it flying to Ali's direction with a kick of his foot. But it was also then, that the snake-ladies realise something was off with the yoyo. They hissed painfully as it shot past them, both of them jumping to either side as though the yoyo had just burnt them.

Instinctively, Ali caught the biege yoyo in his hands. It felt rough, yet smooth and familiar in his grip, even if it looks totally brand new. Its scale-like alignment did scare him a little though, seeing as there were two snake-ladies around. 

As beautiful as the yoyo was, Ali did not have much time to marvel over the beauty of his new toy when the said snake-ladies turned in his direction, their scaly faces breaking into wide carnivorous smiles of glee, which Ali was sure not because of his great catch.

But because they had just found their prey.