The Lost Goddess

Chapter 74-Pearl Flame

We pass more people on our walk down the alleyway, they all smell terrible, but none held that Nereus smell, my eyes and nose pick him up, I point over to a man sitting alone, already standing out since the rest of the homeless were gathered together to try and stay warm and give each other protection, something no one here had, he was sitting in front of a small fire that was made just for one, eating a can of beans hungrily with a plastic spoon, his own smell giving himself away. He didn't notice us, for his stomach was more what he was worried about, Luke tilts his body towars mine, whispering in my ear, my neck feeling his warm breath kiss my shoulder "I got this" he tells me, I show the slightest bit of worry, he takes my hand and kisses it softly, showing such bravery and assurance, he walks away, leaving me in my worried state, my eyes frantically looking around to check no one had the drop on us, he stalks closer, the man ignoring him "Nereus?" Luke's soft violin plays into the cold rain. Nereus stops eating and put down his, now empty, can of beans "who's asking?" He snaps "we are" I answer, revealing myself to him, Luke follows me buy pulling his hood off, Nereus only huffs, my eyes are suddenly enchanted by him, watching him as he sat up to a sitting position, my eyes saw he had something up his sleeve, he sees me staring, but my eyes still stick to their stare "what you want?" He asks, Luke answers for me "we want to know-" Luke gets cut off. For Nereus pushes him against the wall and makes a mad dash for me, pushing me also against the wall, my ears feeling a sharp pain come to my back from the impact, my hand rubbed circles around my hurting back, the pain worse as I tried to get up alone, Luke sees my struggling and immediately comes over, leans me his arms for support "son of a-" I cut myself off, we start dashing for Nereus, he ran down the alleyway, throwing trashcans in our way. But our running never ceases and our closeness to him never falters, making us right on his tail, I jump, landing on his back, I take his arm and use my own momentum to swing my body, causing him to loose balance and fall to the ground, with me on top and holding the upper hand, I quickly take out my dagger and place it's sharp blade under his chin, my legs holding his down and my body pressure against his making sure he couldn't escape. And he soon realises that, which compells him to stop struggling after awhile, his eyes were wide and confused, as are Luke's, this is something I see when he runs over to me "ok! Ok! I won't run! I'll give you whatever you want!" Nereus yells with panic in his voice, this like music to my ears "we want answers, no riddles and no secrets" I tell him, putting more pressure om my dagger to show his a threat as to what would happen if he did any of those things, he sighs in defeat. "Fine" he huffs, acting like a child "what is it you want to know?" He asks "the Ophiotaurus, where is it?" Luke asks, he starts laughing to that, my eyes find Luke's, his reading mine easily, what the Hades is he laughing about?, My eyes ask, don't know, ask him, he eyes tell me while he shrugs, showing just a much confusion as I did "give us the answer, Nereus" I growl "it's been closer than you thought, it's been following that son of Poseidon and his friends" he tells us. My heart stops beating when I hear the name for some reason, and it wasn't because I was going to kill him, it was because of something else, a new kind of nervous butterfly springing to life in my stomach "Percy Jackson?" I ask "ya, I think that's his name, oh and that Thalia girl is with him too, she's the daughter of Zeus, she could have the power to summon the monster you want" he tells us "he's right, maybe we can get her to switch" Luke plots, mumbling softly to me. I only nod, I was about to say something but, I was interrupted "can I get up now?" Nereus asks rudely, I roll my eyes at his childlike behavior, but lower my dagger, slowly rising off of him but making sure he had nowhere to go, my hand holding his dirty bathrobe collar and my dagger still in hand, he dusts himself off, though, he was already dirty "is this how you treat every god?" He asks "shut up, I don't need to show any kind of respect towards you" I snap. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to respect your elders?" He asks, my hand on his collar tightens and my dagger goes back to his throat, his eyes wide, my eyes staring into his like knives "she's gone, just as you will be from this earth, so watch your tongue" I snap, I know I can't kill a god, but I can still try, he talked about my mother, I didn't even know where she was and it was still a touchy subject with me, but, Nereus's face doesn't faze, he only grins his yellow disgusting teeth at me. "Maybe to the untrained eye" he grins, what in the world is he talking about? Untrained eye?, My mind questions, upon seeing me confused face, Nereus turns away from me and looks upon Luke "Lord ot time completing the old prophecy, huh?" He mocks, Luke doesn't answer, only glares harshly at the god on his knees, I just stand there, confused as to what they were talking about "what prophecy, Luke?" I ask the both of them since they were the ones talking about this prophecy. "So, she doesn't know her own prophecy, huh?, Kronos taking full advantage here, I see, tell me girly" he starts, dodging and completely avoiding my question "what you're name?" He asks, his eyes locking with mine, my head screams, yells and does anything to try to tell me that I shouldn't answer, my gut almost making me want to not answer at all, but something deeper than my gut told me to answer, so, hesitantly I tell him my full name, not knowing the consequences "Pearl, Pearl Flame".