A Dragon's Life For Me [HTTYD/PJ Crossover]

Chapter 5: Burning and Burnt

Percy spent his time traveling after Valka left. Alternating through air and sea, he went from island to island to learn about the environment in this world. He found human villages, dragon nests, different plants and animals. Slowly, a mental map was constructed bit by bit in his mind using the sun as his guide on the cardinal directions and the general temperature or weather of the place. It was a bit hard remembering everything, but his previous experiences as a son of Poseidon when it came to navigating the sea made it a bit easier. The islands and larger land masses tend to differ in some way, and Percy had to learn to adjust for survival, but there was one thing he made sure to do every time he found a new island.

To burn a sacrifice to get the attention of any divine being.

So far, he wasn't having any luck. He had hoped that in burning a sacrifice in different locations, he might eventually do it with a local deity that happened to be nearby and hear him. After which, maybe he can strike a deal that can restore him to his human body.

He had gotten the idea after he witnessed some sort of celebration in a small human settlement, more like a tribe that traveled around like him than a more permanent village. A bonfire burned in a clearing, surrounded by the dancing bodies of people. Their voices rose up to him, something that sounded like singing and praying at the same time, and he was reminded of the times he burned something to sacrifice it to the gods.

With the light from the fire limiting their sight, and the moonless night swallowing his light blue scales to dark, he went undetected as he circled closer. Laughter and singing filled the night, and he can't help but find it nostalgic. He remembered the multi-colored bonfire back home and the singing of silly songs by kids and teenagers, with a few adults. There were s'mores, and he snorted when he thought of when Nico started impaling marshmallows through femur bones.

That kid... Nico had better made sure those bones were clean. Percy had actually tried one himself.

He sighed, amused and sad, and banked left, gliding away and continued on to the other side of the mountain.

The morning after that was his first attempt at contacting any divine beings. There was no reaction, and it left Percy in a bit of a slump for a while. With how much of his life had been messed around by gods or by the things they had done in the past before he was even born, you would think that getting purposely the attention of one, especially when it's possible that he might contact another pantheon entirely, was something that he wouldn't want.

But he had no other options. He was a dragon without even his connection to the sea as a child of Poseidon left to him. Powerless. And a goddess had done this to him, so maybe another god might be able to help him, or at least provide guidance.

But despite the failure, he continued doing it whenever he had a chance. Before long, it became a bit of a tradition for him, something to do as a way of anchoring himself. With the constantly changing landscape, with no actual home for him, having a constant habit was a bit comforting. After a while he would sometimes pray to his father.

The first time he did, he actually had a dream the following night. He was only left with the vaguest of ideas on what it was about, but something in his gut told him that it wasn't a normal dream. Percy remembered a voice calling out to him, questioning and familiar.

The dream was too unclear to tell if it was a demigod dream, showing Percy that someone was trying to reach him, or it was simply his subconscious' wishful thinking, but he held on to hope.

It was the only thing he had at this point.

The time of his travels were marked by counting 30 days as one month. Though, sometimes he lost count and ended up guessing an approximate day of the month, so who knows how much time had actually passed.