Altered Destinies

A Quest for Death

Ch. 5

Percy sat in the very back of the van as they traveled out of New York and jumped on the interstate heading south. His eyes were closed and his headphones in as thoughts raced through his mind. He was slightly surprised to find himself on a quest with four girls heading to save a man hating goddess who had somehow managed to get captured. The lines of the prophecy ran through his mind as he tried and failed to force them out. In all honesty, he had no fear of death. Most of his friends were dead, the fallen heroes who had trained him during his years in the Underworld. If anything, dying would be more like going home for him. That being said, he wasn't exactly trying to get himself killed. As the last line of the prophecy ran through his mind, he felt himself drifting off to sleep.

Percy felt himself enter into a dream that he immediately knew wasn't normal. It didn't seem like he was in it, he was more like a spectator watching someone else's experience. He saw a large man wearing an old style Greek tunic with a lion's pelt draped over his back like a cape. He was being led by the hand by a girl with dark black hair as they ran through a beautiful garden. It was nighttime and millions of stars littered the night sky. The woman dragged the man behind a bush where they both collapsed breathing heavily from running.

"There is no need to run," the man told her, "I have bested a thousand monsters with my bare hands."

"Not this one, Ladon is too strong. You must go around, up the mountain to my father. It is the only way." The girl told him. The girl sounded concerned, like she cared deeply for the man.

"I don't trust your father." He said.

"You should not, you will have to trick him. But you cannot take the prize directly. You will die." She told him seriously.

The man chuckled, "Then why don't you help me, pretty one?"

This guy was arrogant. Percy could already tell he didn't like him. He also didn't seem to care the same way for the girl as she did for him.

"I….I am afraid. Ladon will stop me. My sisters, if they found out…they would disown me." She said worriedly.

"Then there is nothing for it." The man said, ready to walk away from the girl.

"Wait." She said.

The girl seemed torn about a decision, like she wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing. Percy watched her fingers tremble as she reached up and plucked a long hair pin from her hair.

"If you must fight, take this. It was given to me by my mother Pleione. She was a daughter of the ocean, a sea goddess, the power of the ocean in within it. My immortal power." She said shakily as she breathed on it, causing it to glow faintly.

"Take it." She said. "Make of it a weapon."

The man laughed, "A hairpin. How will this slay Ladon, pretty one?"

"It may not, but it is all I can offer if you insist on being stubborn." She said sadly.

The girl's voice sounded familiar, Percy was sure he had heard it before, recently too.

When she handed him the hair pin, it grew longer until in the man's hand was a gleaming bronze sword.

"It is well-balanced." He told her. "Although I prefer to fight with my bare hands, what shall I name this blade?" He asked.

"Anaklusmos." She said sadly. "The current that takes one by surprise, and before you know it, you have been swept out to sea."

As the man was about to reply, the sound of something very large was heard speeding towards them. When Percy looked up, he saw a monster he never wished to see in person, Ladon, guardian of the Golden Apples of Immortality.