Carystus

Animals

  When I said big, I meant big. Eye the size of my head big.

   Thais turned around to see what I was staring at and did the reasonable thing- she screamed and jumped out of the way. She’d always hated ravens after she got attacked by a group of flesh-eating ones back on a mission inArabia. I, on the other hand, stretched out my hand slowly and tried to touch it.

  Ravens had always amazed me, even more so after Thais got mauled by them. The raven jerked its head up sharply, much like a horse would, and I let my hand drop to my side slowly. No, if it wanted to be petted it would let me pet it. It cocked its head to the side and examined me with one intelligent, gold flecked eye, and for a second I couldn’t breathe. Then, it shrank down to ‘normal’ size. And jumped on me.

   It was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. A lot heavier than a raven should be. So heavy that I immediately lost my balance and fell flat on my back, the raven digging its claws into my chest as it tried to stay on. Thais ran towards me and tried to pull the raven off, but it simply slashed at her face with a glinting wing, making a surprisingly deep gash across her cheek. Suddenly Percy was there, helping her up. I struggled to move, but I couldn’t. My eyes couldn’t move, much less my body. Suddenly a sharp pain starburst in my head and I could see strands of coloured thread simply floating around. Most went towards a tree, where the fates lived. Oh gods. I was seeing the threads. The raven jumped in front of my face and suddenly I knew, somehow, that it was Apollo. And I knew that somehow, all the gods and goddesses had turned into animals. All this information was given to me through a selection of images, sounds, and smells. I also noticed that the raven-Apollo- was covered in golden threads. He gave me a look of something like pity, no, an apologetic look, and flew away.

   Thais called my name and came in front of me, looked at my face. And in that moment I knew exactly how she would die, felt her pain, heard her screams of agony. Heard the last word she would say-my name, whispered pleadingly- and saw the light leave her eyes. I suddenly realized that Apollo probably saw the world like this, a combination of people’s deaths and threads of life. I noticed a thread wrapped around Thais that swept down and tangled with mine in a delicate pattern. And then I saw it; the string was chafing, fraying all around, and at some places it was paper thin. Thais was dying. Which made no sense-she was immortal. The only way she could die would be through sickness or in combat. Thais stepped back and suddenly I could move. I gasped for air and shot up, shivering. The threads were still there, hanging in front of me. Percy helped me up, and then looked at me. His eyes widened and he backed up, as did Thais.

  “What?” I asked, confused, “What is it?”

Thais’ mouth opened and closed a couple of times and she made a dry croaking noise.

   “C-Carystus. Your eyes…” She whispered in horror.

    “My eyes… what?” I prompted, feeling a bit nervous from the whole thing. Percy led me to a pool of water and I looked into its reflective surface. It took all I had not to run away from my own reflection.

  My skin, naturally pale, had turned a ghastly white, and my eyes had lightened to almost white, the pupils dilating to mere pinpricks. As I watched, my pupils got larger, and the colour returned to my eyes with so much pain that I staggered back a couple of steps. I looked at my hand, amazed to see the colour returning to it.

 “What the Hades happened?” I managed to choke out.

  Percy just shook his head, “I was afraid you where going to go all ‘evil titan’ on us for a second,” he managed.

   I couldn’t help but grin at that remark, and we all walked to see what had happened, even though I already knew. We ran into a cow that mooed at us scoldingly, and I tried not to burst out laughing. Hera. Suddenly my vision blacked out and I stopped walking. It wasn’t like usual-I could still see the threads, more of them actually.

 Percy and Thais stopped as well. Oh shoot. I hadn’t told Thais about the whole Thalia-zapped-me-with-lightning-so-now-I-can’t-see-sometimes thing.

 “What is it now?” Thais growled, frustrated. I smiled apologetically and kept walking, only to almost walk into a post. Percy grabbed my arm and led me away, telling Thais we’d ‘be right back’.

  “Black out?” He guessed, and I nodded, “Have you told her yet, Carystus?” I shook my head.

   “No, I haven’t. And there’s plenty she hasn’t told me,” I added, remembering the fraying thread. My vision snapped on just as Thais came over.

“I just got sent visions from a cow,” She said, “And we-Percy, you, me, and Annabeth- are going on a quest. Now”

A/N: So guys, I'm looking for a cast, so any suggestions for Thais or Carystus? The look around sixteen to seventeenish even though the're alot older.