Golden Green

Ch. 11

Percy Jackson and the Olympians belong to Rick Riordan. All credit to him.

 That night was not the best. We camped in the woods almost a hundred yards off the main road where Percy thought local teenagers used the land for parties.

I made a small shelter of low hanging tree branches for the five of us to try and keep us warm with the blankets we found in Auntie M's but we didn't dare start a fire and risk attracting anything else.

The ground was littered with flattened hissing cans and fast food rappers. We were planning to sleep in shifts but I stopped Percy from walking patrol so we could all talk.

"I'd like to talk about the night before if that is okay." Everyone was silent but no one objected so I proceeded. "I never intended on growing into what I was that night, I had never done anything like that before so I can't explain that but I can explain what I said that night."

Annabeth cleared her throat and looked me in the eyes for the first time since. "Can we ask questions throughout so we can get everything answered?" Annabeth asked. I nodded yes to her and the boys. It seemed to make it less tense in the shelter after. "Well what happened in your time since you seem to know about some myths but not others?"

"I was a part of one of the first established cities, soon before Athens, Thebes, Argos, and Corinth. The city was meek and humble, nothing special, our patron goddess was Hera which was only one of the few gods alive then. Titans, Giants, Hundred-Handed ones, Cyclopes, the twelve titans, the six children of Cronos, Aphrodite,and even Gaea and Uranus were not myths to us but only distant memories from some of our elders. The gods had freshly beaten the titans and things were nice for them, but us humans had it rough. Eventually the argument that led to Prometheus getting repeatedly attacked by that bird transpired and soon cities began to spring and with his streak of giving us mortals special treatment didn't help. Two generations before me was were the humans who lived in caves without fire. That generation and their children received fire from Prometheus and when they all grew up cities were around. Some may say otherwise but it took Zeus a while to get his head out of the clouds and notice human settlements. The blind eyes of the gods to us meant there was no divine intervention when monsters attacked."

"You said your city was destroyed," Percy said, sinking deeper into his blanket. "Why and by who?"

"Well, my city was not the only one to spring up before major cities in your history, others did too and my time was not peaceful. Monsters and people were not so different and all walked the earth together anyway. Humans took from humans for their gain and prosperity of their people. My city had never grown to power but held on instead of getting torn down for only a little more than a dozen years, then something came along. A single little tree sprouting on the outskirts of the city, housing a little boy that was neither nymph nor human."

Grover had big eyes and gasped like the child that we all were. "You," Grover connected. "But I thought nature spirits came from Pan."

"That is the case, but I am rather different. Satyr's and nymphs grew up with Zeus on Mount Ida so Pan was around for a while to make them. My father was some sort of powerful force of nature that Demeter met. They created me in some way we all don't want to know probably." Percy gagged, Grover shivered, and Annabeth rolled her eyes. "My heart tree was there on the edge of the city where monsters often came from. The citizens of my city thought that I was a nymph or whatever but I was brushed off many of their shoulders because I was so unlikely to survive by that end of the city. I just lived most of my life as a self sustained farmer. Some of the nicer people traded me for whatever I grew. I hid in my tree whenever the city guards fought monsters near me. During a pretty battle where I couldn't get to my tree and monsters were starting to break into the city, I killed my first hellhound straight out of the Fields of Punishment with only my hands when I was thirteen years old. I was strong for some reason and healed really well and fast like a plant and this caught my city's eye. I'm sure they thought they could fight monsters with a monster of their own but I didn't pay attention to that, I just didn't want to be alone anymore, and I still don't like being alone. The night I left you all, I cried for the first time in thousands of years because I do care for you all and the camp as a new family I needed and wanted."