The ride to camp was very weird, for Grover and Mom that is, for me? It was hallarious. While I did tell Mom that I knew about the Greek world and that I had become a monster, I had apparently forgotten to tell her how I knew. Which resulted in her thinking Grover had told me.
Grover thought she had told me and I was there, sitting like a chaos gremlin, enjoying the confused silence from Grover.
I bet he was questioning why I was as silent as I was right now. Then he asked:
"Percy? Why are you so silent? Your mother and I talked before and your usually not like this. No, forget that. Percy, we spent the last few months as roommates and your current behavior is a bit unsettling."
At which I replied with the best answer I could come up with.
" And what about you? My best friend forgot to tell me he was half goat!"
" That's incredibly rude. Most Satyrs would trample you for calling us donk... Wait, did you just say goat?"
" Yeah. Did you really think I would mistake a donk with a goat?"
"I mean, yeah. Kind of? It's just most newly realiser demigods mistake a satyr with a half Goat or something."
"But Grover, I'm not newly realized? I have known for some time now. Honestly, I knew even before you started sharing the dorm with me."
At this he stared at me, shocked.
"But your scent never changed! How is that possible?"
And here my mother interrupted us.
"Percy had the ability to control how much of his scent is actually released. And also. Shouldn't you have evacuated him as soon as that fury appeared? I thought as a seeker you had the job to bring demigods to camp as soon as you find them?"
Grover was now overwhelmed with the information and reprimand he was getting. Well, not a reprimand exactly, but this was the extend Mom's reprimands usually gave. Though if someone were to do something extremely stupid as in risking someone else's life, some form of punishment, usually in the form of no blue sweets was dished out.
Mom had the talent of a real mother. Punishment when it was really necessary but not to an extend that harmed the punished in any way. And when it wasn't really something that should be, then the thing that usually awaited me was a cone of ice-cream.
Obviously Grover hadn't known my mother for a while, because he barely reacted. He only said:
"Sorry Mrs. Jackson, but Chiron gave me orders. I couldn't just ignore what he said. Even if I wanted to."
"Tgen next time, just ask the person affected by his decision. If they disagree with him or the one that gave the orders then you should do as you should."
Grover took a few seconds, staring in the rear view mirror to make eye contact with my mother.
"So Grover, what was that about Mrs. Dodds not existing?" this startled him.
"Percy! You remember her!? Wait, that means you remember the sword, too. Can you give it back to Chiron? He seems to miss it."
Mom looked at me through the mirror. Disappointment slowly appearing on her face. And naturally I defended my self and explained my reasoning.
"Chiron wanted me to give away the only weapon I had, while also not acknowledging that there was a possibility of further attacks. Besides, the sword wasn't his and had should have been returned to the original owner instead. And Mom! I told you that already."
Mom just grinned at me.
Oh, she's going to get it when this is all over. But first, she had to bring me to camp.
I hoped this time that stupid bull wasn't going to try and kill her. If Lord Hades were to save her or hold her hostage though, that would be appreciated since I didn't want to end up like the Di Angelo siblings.
Speaking of the Underworld, wasn't I a member of it? I am certain that this wasn't something I had imagined.
[Host! You still need to choose the three skills to help you during your quest this summer.]
Oh, the system had sent me another message, the ride to camp was currently calm so let's not wait to long and chose already. Who knows what will happen if I don't. Chances are that I will either get random skills that I couldn't use or explain or just get no skills at all.
I thought for a moment before I decided to go with Human Form for skill 1. No use of losing my cover as a normal, relatively so, demigod.
Skill 2 would be Curse Devour a skill I only recently got but it will be immensely helpful for this quest as I will not only encounter Medusa, giving me the chance to help her as someone should have already, and it will help me get rid of Ares curse. One that he will undoubtedly give me again.
Skill 3 was a bit more tricky. I already had everything I needed for the quest and my passives will all be active regardless of the system lock down. The inventory will be available too. So everything I have that isn't an active skill or a domain I wasn't connected to through my bloodline, would be unavailable for me. I decided that skill 3 would be Forge, as it would allow me to craft a new weapon form myself. One that i could use in front of the campers without having to worry about them questioning where I got it from.
[Thank you Host. You will get a list of everything you have access to once you enter the camp. I hope you have a good journey.]
Thank you system. Ah, where was I?
There was a loud bellowing noise somewhere behind the car, only interrupted by the lightningstrikes almost hitting the car. Mom managed to evade most of them by sheer luck but eventually luck failed her and by extension, us.
The lightningbolt stuck the hood of the car, the motor shut of and the automatic break system engaged, locking the front tires down, making us spin and fip as we were crashing down the road.
We landed in the ditch, the drivers side doors were in the muddied dirt, pressed against it even.
We tried to get out of the car, but it was not as easy as we had hoped.
Grover was unconscious, Mom had a head injury but I was unharmed. Probably due to the nature of my race, a Wicker might be well versed in many things but our bodies were stronger than most demigods unless said demigod originated from titans or gods of physical strength.
I pushed myself up, unharmed as I was and pressed myself against the belt I was still hanging in. Good belt.
I dragged my foot towards me, pulled it closer and then kicked against the heck window. It shattered in an instand. I unbuckled myself, then Grover and dragged him out of the car.
Mom was unresponsive, but I didn't have the time to unbuckle her and get her out of the car as I heard the Minotaur coming closer.
Instead I prayed to Hades, asking him to take and bring her to safety as quickly as he could.
He didn't react and then, the minotaur found the car.
He got faster and faster as he ran towards us. I threw Grover to the side. I didn't care much about him right now. There was a fucking bull heading towards my mother.
I wanted to turn him to metal, as my improved version of Petrification does, but I knew I couldn't. The gods were watching and if I did, I would derail everything.
That didn't mean I was entirely useless.
There were still my subordinates and familiars that the system didn't block. Even my Sovereign of the Undead was still in effect.
I called for one of the undead, giant wolves I had made. I had decided to call them Carrion Hunters. He was a smaller one. Only as big as a car or regular bear. His name was Break Even. He was part of the undead/Chimera faction lead by Abraxas.
Once I had called him the shadows within the forest stirred before, like a violent explosion, the wolf charged out of the shadows alongside small fractions of more shadows.
He broke through the treeline within seconds with enough speed and weight behind his charge, that he causally threw the minotaur across the street.
A neet little thing to know about Break Even and their race as Carrion Hunter, they weren't as obviously undead as others of my creation. Their eyes were black with black mist dispersing from them. Their teeth, one of their most deadly weapon were black, too. They were full of different venom and diseases. One bit and the thing was going to die regardless of what the did to prevent that.
Break Even chased after the minotaur, grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him into the forest he had come from.
Soon as loud snap was heard from within it and I felt the form of the minotaur become a part of the undead I could summon.
Break Even disappeared back into the shadows and I stood there, to my luck, completely baffled by what had happend.
I had not expected him to be as aggressive as he had been, much less as effective. But atleast the suprise I was showing on my face might make the gods watching think I was not somehow involved in the wolves sudden appearance.
I turned to the car just as I saw a golden glow fading. At first I thought it had been a trick of my eyesight but when I ran to get my mother out of the car, she was gone.
Fucking late he was that uncle of mine. If he had been only a few seconds faster to react, I wouldn't have had to call for Break Even.
I walked slowly towards Grover and picked him up before throwing him over my shoulder.
Then I slowly began to climb half blood hill, towards the border of Thalia tree.
Soon I crossed the border without any more disturbances in the form of monsters. The sudden appearance and disappearance of Break Even might have chased them away.
I walked towards the big house close to the strawberry fields. Then, just as I had reached the verandah of it, the system displayed a notification.
[Time for your summer at camp half blood host. Please brace yourself for unconsciousness.]
What?
And with that the system turned of my lights.