Returned (one-shot)

Vrykolakas

Of all places to wake up, it had to be the woods. Close to night time and surrounded by vicious vampire wolves.

Great way to start the day... Or was it life?

I tried to take my mind off the fact that I was being chased by hungry, deadly dogs that will possibly rip me to shreds with in seconds if they caught me. To be honest I wasn't quite ready to return to the Underworld.

So here I find myself, dodging trees and trying my best not to trip and fall, the barking seemed to get closer. I bet this was a test or some trick of mercy by the Fates. They must be laughing themselves to death at the prospect of a demigod running from a fight. But cut me some slack, I don't even have a weapon.

I don't even know what the correct name for the hellish creatures pursuing me is. I've never seen or heard of them before. They definitely weren't Hellhounds, that's for sure, but I almost wish they were! All I know was they were huge, wolf-like dogs with red eyes, some serious dental problems and a craving for flesh and blood!

I grunted when I bumped into a tree and the dull pain bursted in my shoulder. I made the mistake to look behind me.

There had to be at least five of them and they were closing in, fast!

I urged my feet to run faster. Gods, what I wouldn't give to have a pair of winged shoes right now!

The rhythmic sound of paws pounding the ground seemed abnormally loud in my ears. My mind began to go blank, breathing began to get hard and my heart felt as though it would bruise the inside of my chest.

But I had to keep going. I had to get out of here!

So caught up in my thoughts, I failed to notice the thick root, innocently jutting out of the ground. It snagged my foot and sent me tumbling to the ground. I grunted when I felt my arm bend in an awkward angle. The dogs came to halt, snarling, yapping and howling at each other. I lay completely still and calmed down my heavy breathing. My heart beats echoed in my ears.

Even though I kept my head down and my eyes shut, I could sense them circling. I didn't understand why they didn't just maul me to death already.

I tried to distracted myself from my certain death, any thoughts to take my mind off unchangeable fate.

I broke from my thoughts when I heard a beastly yelp of pain and the fast pace of moving feet. Human feet. I risked a peak and saw a tall man in a black coat, ripped skinny jeans and black combat boots, and this guy was literally slicing through the feral dogs with a bloody flaming sword!

After the first two of their brethren were reduced to dust the others scattered and disappeared into the thick night.

The man turned to look me and held out an arm to help me. To be honest, I never thought I would be so glad to see him again.

"Percy." It came out as an exhausted whisper, as I gripped his forearm and he pulled me up.

"Welcome back from the dead, Luke." He gave me a sad smile, then admired the dust piles he had created. Now looking at him closely, I could see that he had obviously had a growth spurt and there was a bit of stubble framing his jaw. Apart from the bags under his sleep deprived eyes, he looked fairly okay. Except the eyes themselves, his eyes no longer had that spark in them, instead they look pretty dead, to be honest, dead and bored.

I shook the my head to clear my thoughts. Gods know what Percy's been through over the years. Right now, I need answers.

"Soooo... What are you doing here?"

Percy seemed very uninterested in my question as he continued to glare at the piles of gold dust that still hadn't disappeared. He drove a hand in his pocket and pulled out a lighter. I found it quite ironic that the son of a sea god would carry a lighter around. Damn ADHD, always getting off track!

Percy flicked the lighter and threw it on the dust. All it did was create a little bonfire but that seemed enough to satisfy Percy.

He turned to face me, and I stared back, waiting for him to answer my question.

"Hm? Did you say something?"

"Ah, yeah. Not that I'm ungrateful about you saving my ass and all, but what are you doing here?"

Percy seem to consider the question before answering. And when I say consider, I mean think of an excuse. "Ah, well, you know, just in the neighbourhood and you looked like you might of needed a hand..."

"Ah ha." I wasn't convinced. "Okay, so why is your sword on fire?" I gestured to the famous blade, that hung limp by his side. Percy didn't seem at all concerned that it was on fire.

"Vrykolakas!"

"Pardon?"

"You were being chased by Vrykolakas, vampiric wolves from the deepest depth's of Tartarus. Nasty pieces of work, can only be killed by burning their bodies... Or their dust, whichever comes first." The way Percy talked, he sounded as though he was casually discussing the weather. He clicked the hilt of his sword and it retuned to it pen form, placing it in his pocket he looked me in the eyes "so Luke, what do you remember?"

That was a good question. "Well I remember the dagger and the pain, I think there was someone screaming or something-"

"Annabeth." Percy supplied.

"Annabeth. Is she-"

"Oh, yeah, she perfectly fine... I think." He mumbled the last bit so softly that I couldn't hear it.

"What was that?"

"Huh? Oh nothing, Annabeth's fine. So is Thalia, just in case you were wondering."

"Ah ha, that's good. Hey listen, I really am sorry about, well... you know." Percy looked down at his silver watch in concern.

"Yeah, no offence but could you hurry it up, times not on my side and we've got somewhere to be. You were saying something about the knife, what about the Underworld, do remember what happened down there?" I looked at Percy with worry, this was a bit out of character for him. It wasn't like him to be rude.

"Hey, are you alright? And what do you mean by 'we've got somewhere to be'?"

"Dammit, Luke just answer the question!" I put my hands up in surrender. Percy was very out of character, and to be honest, it kind of scared me.

"Okay, okay. Then I was in DOA Recording Studios and Charon took me across the River Styx. After that, I seemed to be waiting a long time for judgement. When I finally got there they were arguing over where to put me and that's when... that's when it started to happen..." At that Percy seemed intrigued.

"What? What started to happen?" There was an demanding urgency in his voice. The sound of authority.

"Ah, I'm not to sure. It was like the sky was falling, I guess. The lighting down there was pretty messed up, one moment it was dark and then it was light. There was absolute chaos, and then I must of blacked or something, I don't remember. All I know is that when I woke up, I was alive again and being chased by those V-ry-ker... things..."

"Vrykolakas." Percy was lost in thought, I imagined that his mind was connecting the dots to some major problem.

"Percy, what's going on? Is there a new prophecy? Is Olympus under threat?"

Percy looked back to me, almost as though he had forgotten I was there. "There hasn't been a prophecy yet, but my instincts tell me that something's going to happen, and we aren't going to like it!"