Percy Jackson: The Cursed Hero

Funeral of a Loved One

Eighteen Years Later...

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Dealing with my parents death was one thing. Being betrayed by my friends and family is another. But I never wanted to say goodbye to someone I cared so much about like Zoë.

After three months of her staying with me, she admitted that she loved me. At first, I didn't know if I could love again because Annabeth had abandoned me when everything got bad. But knowing that, I knew that I had to move on. So I actually started dating Zoë, and after that we got married. I had to forge a ring made out of different metals from various weapons, with the words "Forever & Always" on the inside. For a long time, she was so happy as well as I.

But eighteen years after that, she had died from a very high fever during the winter season at the age of just thirty two. There was nothing I could've done for her, except be there for her. I knew she was mortal, and she had the toughness from the Titan side of her family, but nothing could help the fever. She kept going for days after she got it, but eventually she gave out.

So there I was, standing in front of one of the birch trees that she marked with her hands: a gold highlighted hand mark on the silver birch wood. I knelt in front of the tree, and placed my forehead against the trunk, placing my hand next to her handprint. It had been only two days since she died, but the big pang of pain struck hard as ever. I loved her more than I did Annabeth in all those years I've known Zoë, and I was never going to find someone as wonderful and amazing as Zoë ever again.

I stood up, unhooked her axe (known now as Leviathan) from my back and swung the blade right into the wood, creating a huge dent in the wood. I swung the blade again, and this time the whole tree gave in and fell to the ground with a loud THUD! as dirt and snow wafted into the air due to the impact.

I nodded to myself. That's the last of them, I thought to myself. I was about to grab the tree, until I noticed the wrappings around my left wrist slacken and unwrapped themselves. That made me stop in my tracks. It had been almost two decades since I last used the Blades of Chaos, and it never once entered my mind until only a few days ago. These were the same wrappings from that day, and I had never took them off. They were still bloodstained and all, but it had been a permanent reminder of what happened to me and what I had become.

I shook my head, getting rid of those dark thoughts in my head. I then started to tighten the wrappings around my left wrist, but before I was about to do that-

"Found some in the clearing nearby," my daughter Lyra said, as she came into view carrying a few green leaves with white berries on them.

Lyra Jackson, my ten year old daughter who was born after Zoë turned twenty two. She looked just like Zoë was back when she was in her teens: same dark hair, the same facial structure and the same look Zoë had on her face whenever life was tough for her. The only difference was that she was more thinner and less muscular than Zoë was, and her eyes were a blazing fiery sea green, just like mine. She wore leather and fur clothing, and was at a height where the top of her head was level with my chest. I was 6'4, so you've got a good idea of how tall she was.

I nodded at her, before going back to wrapping my wrist back up again. "Get in the boat, Lyra."

Lyra looked as if she wanted to say something, but nodded and walked away, carefully placing the collected leaves and berries into her pouch.

It was always conflicting to me when she was first born. She came into this world two weeks early, and I was so worried that she wouldn't make it past the harsh elements of the world today, but Zoë never doubted her for a second. She grew up to be quite the hunter next to Zoë, who taught her everything she knew about the wilds. She even taught Lyra a few languages she learnt also, particularly Greek and Latin. She grew sick at one point, but that was only temporary. However, I still kept a distance from her, mainly because I didn't trust myself around her due to her showing signs of actually inheriting my powers as a demigod. That, and I was afraid that she would learn the truth about me.