There was a faint buzzing in his head. A buzzing that had been following him for months now. But somehow, he had grown to like it, because it was there. It was all he had. Kind of pathetic, he knew that. But it was constant, it was there and he had nothing else left. Only a name and a quest.
His name was Percy Jackson and he had to find Camp Jupiter.
That was all the shewolf had been willing to tell him, even though he had a feeling that she knew more than that. But there was no chance of getting more out of her so his only hope to learn more about himself was this camp. Somehow, camp sounded good, it sounded right. It brought him something akin to memories, more like flashes of colors and gestures. Only vague.
People, laughter. Shapes of joyful teenagers and shapes of men. Naked men, tender men. Soft caresses and even softer words, murmured promises of loves. But he never could make out faces or even real images of bodies, not even names. All he had were faint memories of faded dreams.
Oh right, and two crazy women with snake hair, chasing him with snacks and trying to kill him.
Nothing crazy about that, nope. Glaring over his shoulder, he tried to hurry, tried to be faster and swifter, tried to reach this strange camp. Hopefully, he would find protection and safety there.
Safety sounded good. Closing his eyes for only a brief moment, he tried to remember how that felt. Being safe. He had lived on the streets for months now, constantly hunted by the crazy snake-women, without money, protection or companionship. As he opened his eyes again, he fell back onto his behind in shocked surprise as an old lady was suddenly right in front of him. She looked nice, like that sweet granny from the movies that would bake apple pie for everyone. Her hair was pure white and long, put up into a bun, her eyes were kind and her wrinkles only made her look wiser. She smiled softly at him, as though he was her long-lost grandson or something. The thought send a pain through his chest, because somewhere was a grandmother waiting for him. Somewhere was his family, his parents and maybe even siblings and hopefully also friends, worrying and waiting for him to return, wondering what may have happened to him. And for a fleeting second, Percy hoped that this woman would call out to him, tell him how much she had missed him and how she would bring him to his parents and tell him that he was loved.
Because that was all he wanted, even more than reaching this camp or regaining his memories. He wanted to feel loved, to have someone he could trust and rely on, someone to make him feel safe.
"Hello, ma'am", smiled Percy softly. "You should probably move, this isn't a safe place to be..."
"Such a kind young man", chuckled the old woman. "But I'm afraid I can't move. I must have hurt my ankle, stupid old lady I am, can't even walk without hurting herself."
"You shouldn't be that hard on yourself", frowned the son of Poseidon and stepped closer. "Look, I don't have a cellphone, but maybe I can look for help...? I'm Percy."
"You can call me Venny", introduced the woman herself. "I think I saw someone over the hills... If you would just be so kind to carry me there, I'm sure they can call help there."
"I-", started Percy and gulped, looking over his shoulder. "Yeah, sure. Of course."
He couldn't just leave this poor woman here when those snake-women would soon catch up to him. He huffed slightly as Venny climbed onto his back. Closing his eyes and sending a silent prayer that both of them would come out of this alive, he started to run as fast as possible.
"Stop! Who are you?!", called someone as they reached what looked like a door.
Percy frowned confused as he saw the two teenagers guarding a maintenance door. Especially because they were wearing some kind of strange armor, like gladiators from movies. Well, Camp Jupiter did sound Roman, didn't it? The big guy, Asian by the looks of it, came to stand protectively in front of the dark-skinned girl, a bow at the ready.
"I-I'm Percy, Percy Jackson... I just want to bring this lady to safety, okay? There is someone chasing me and she needs medical attention and I-I'm looking for a camp... Lupa send me."
It felt like the right thing to say. Much more Roman than those two wasn't really possible, aside from if Caesar himself would appear in front of him and start babbling Latin. If they knew about Camp Jupiter, they could help him. And if not, they'd just shrug it off, not knowing who Lupa was. By the looks of it, they knew Lupa. They exchanged some glares as though silently talking.
"Look, not to rush you or anything, but there are two crazy ladies with snake hair hunting me and the nice lady doesn't get lighter either, so if you'd just bring me to camp, please?"
"Hazel, you're better beneath the surface, go with them. I'll distract the gorgons.", said the boy.
The girl - Hazel - nodded and motioned for Percy to follow. Everything after it seemed to happen so fast and was so surreal - this whole hidden world, a Roman city and a camp and the giant river, the gorgons still chasing after them and Percy, even though he wasn't sure how, using the river's water to kill them, only leaving two glass viols of blood behind as they got washed away. Then there was this strange babbling from Venny about a decision and something he would lose if he'd cross the river, but crossing the river meant safety. In a way, crossing the river had been a relief to him, because for the very first time that he could remember, he felt pain. It was better than the constant numbness and it eased the buzzing in his head. As did the companionship. Fighting side by side with Hazel and the boy, Frank as he learned from Hazel. This seemed oddly familiar, fighting together with others. Sets of three, whispered a voice in his head. As they crossed the river and Frank handed him the viols of blood, there were people gathered. Romans, by the look of it. Percy was just relieved to finally put Venny down just as a black-haired girl reached them.
"Frank, Hazel. Who are they?", asked the young woman with a skeptical look at him.
"He's been send by Lupa, so he must be a demigod", replied Hazel softly.
But before Percy could even introduce himself, Venny seemed to glow and de-age, turning into a beautiful young woman. "I am Lady Venus, goddess of love. And this is Percy Jackson, son of Neptune, the hero chosen to fight in my name and under my protection. The Champion of Venus."
The moment he started glowing, he knew this was where his life would turn even weirder.
