The Legend of Percy: Book 1 - Finding Purpose

1. (Return to) Omashu (Places Not to Be)

A/N: Important for the story and my comfort. Some ages have been changed. Azula and Ty Lee are 16, Mai and Zuko are 17. Percy remains 17 from the end of HoO (although the timeline didn't make too much sense). The rest of the characters are the same.

A boy drifted down a river, sitting just below the surface. His raven hair with a couple strands of almost hidden grey seems to glow in his unconscious state. The coolness of the water and the water itself soothing his aching muscles and head. As he floated he got closer and closer to the end of a river until finally, his head hit a rock on the shore. Jolted awake, he held his head as he sat on the exceedingly dry riverbed.

"Annabeth...."

Percy sat, his knees curled up into his chest as he cried. Hearing her last words to him over and over in his head. 'Live....live for me, please Percy. I love you, and I'll see you again'

He cried, cried until his eyes wouldn't let him anymore. Then he sat, heartbreaking sobbing sounds ringing through the desolate valley.

Taking a few hours to console himself, he decided to figure out where he was. Taking stock he looked down at his ripped jeans and almost completely worn through camp shirt. After making sure to drink some water before he left, Percy began trekking along the floor of the valley. The barren landscape seemed to undulate on for as far as he could see. The walk soon became boring as his fingers kept fiddling with Riptide in his pocket. The trusty sword giving him some semblance of comfort in his loneliness.

After a few days of walking, he finally saw black smoke start to rise in the distance, usually indicative of some kind of civilisation. Percy had been on the verge of turning back and using the river to navigate the land before he saw that, realising what a kelp for brains decision that was about two days into his journey. In those days it had taken all of his willpower to push out all the negative emotions that were weighing him down. All the memories that were on the tip of his tongue that if he knew the extent of it, would surely destroy him internally.

He increased his pace as he begun to see the dark columns in greater detail. The need for food was not lost on him after seemingly going at least one full day without it, if not longer. As he strode up to the towering mass of grey structures, he felt an instinctive sense of unease that grew with every step. The gigantic red banner hanging over the city gates that he could see from the valley floor, ominously waving in the wind not aiding in his attempts at comfort.

That was when he saw it, something that made him do a double take. Flying down from the sky was a white fluffy creature with horns and.....six legs? Was he dreaming? Where on earth was he? Acknowledging his instincts he hid behind a boulder as the animal descended below the sightlines of the city built precariously atop the rocky plateau. Following them with every bit of stealth he wasn't known for, the animal led him to a circular hole in the side of the mountain. A sewer looking hole that Percy could tell there was water and a whole lot of other things just sitting behind.

That was when he saw the first people he'd seen since he'd woken up. Blessing everything that he wasn't completely alone in the barren wasteland, even with the city right there, he felt thankful. Despite everything in his life pushing him to not trust easily, he always felt like he could tell character apart after being a part of his world and all that came with it for so long. And these people seemed like regular mortals, albeit not American mortals.

Climbing up the side of the near vertical cliff face felt like a breeze. Well, not much can terrify you about that after his Tartarus experience. He felt a shudder leave his body at that memory but contained it in order to listen in from around the bend in the rock.

Sure enough, the monk looking boy with a blue arrow on his head (what was that about by the way?) opened up the pipe and sewage came spilling out sending the animal, whatever it was, flying away in disgust. The three children that he could now make out clearly made there way into the tunnel. Two Inuit looking kids, a boy and a girl, looking no older than sixteen and fourteen respectively. The monk kid looked like he was 10, although he wasn't exactly sure. The bald head threw him off a bit. Now he wasn't known for his intellect but that's not saying he wasn't at least intuitively smart. He was wondering why these kids were sneaking around in sewers but he was distinctly aware that it had at least something to do with the red banner hanging not a hundred feet above all of them. The red looked so evil, and something about it was rubbing him the wrong way. Granted he always had a predisposition to blue. His mother made sure of that in the best way possible and he loved it. Oh the blue food, the heaven. Now missing food even more, and becoming increasingly homesick he decided to shove that train of thought to the side. The fire symbol however, was a bad sign.