The Legend of Percy: Book 1 - Finding Purpose

9. Serpent's Pass (I Steal the Snake's Lunch...People?)

It had been three days. A rather boring three days for Percy. Since jumping into the lake, he'd managed to build a bit more of a home for him inside the cave, giving himself a wooden structure over the firepit to help cook things and the beginnings of a frame for a bed.

Riptide was coming in quite handily. It had already helped him kill what looked to be a boar crossed with a porcupine, which he absolutely didn't mind killing. He didn't particularly know what was rare and what wasn't, but he didn't like Ares that much, so one of his sacred animals, that was desecrated by a porcupine, apparently, wasn't too much weight on his conscience.

He'd also spent a bit of time de-quilling the animal's fur for a little bit of bedding that sat in a tucked away corner of his new cave home. A corner that his ostrich horse was occupying. It was still unnamed, although some names did pop into his head. Dasher? Hmm. Or maybe it could be Greek, remind me of home. He'd ask the entertainingly rude animal at some point.

Arion was also a possibility. With her mouth, it made perfect sense. The ostrich horse was female though. He'd figured that out in a...not so enjoyable way. That was an uncomfortable waking up experience. It's lighter brown feathers probably could've been an indication, although Percy didn't know if his world's facts could be applied to this one. And at some point, in those few days, a male had stumbled upon their campsite. It had some not so favourable things to say to his new friend.

That was when he'd learnt not to get on the wrong side of his honorary steed. Those talons made for some thick gashes along the side of the other ostrich horse. Percy's companion was impressively built, and quite comfortably lived up to the comparison of both the animals from his home. That was mildly disconcerting for him.

The ostrich horse had said its name from the farm was Hei Jieke. Apparently, she didn't like that name. Dasher, dasher just might do. Like the reindeer. Still not sure though. Hei was what he'd been calling her in the meantime, although it could've been equally construed as 'hey'.

Despite that fact, and the tangent in his head that it caused, the meat of the, Percy laughed to himself boar-q-pine, what if that's what they actually called it, had only lasted him a day and a bit. And it wasn't the nicest of foods. Granted he wasn't the best of chefs, but with a bit of trial and error, the destroy and charred meat soon became more well-cooked.

He planned on using the meat to attract all manner of things. It might not work as bait for fish, and he definitely didn't want to go there just yet, but he also could see if he could maybe get some smaller foraging animal.

Percy had laid some snare traps, courtesy of his time catching up with Thalia. Hunter training was quite useful. Again, his limited knowledge of the wilderness in this land was proving to be a rather large set back.

But that was when he first saw it. He'd always felt the extremely large presence that dwelled just outside his new home. Just over the rise of a rocky outcrop, he saw the flick of an extremely long tail.

Now, whilst it still was something his father would've thrown back (because he only caught the big ones and not the babies), it was still rather large. And Percy being Percy, well, he just absolutely had to investigate.

It hadn't seemed overly hostile when he'd been in the water, although he guessed that might've been because he didn't exactly smell of the regular folk here. No, he hoped more than anything that his natural sea-ishness would help him. But he did get a rather off feeling. An aggressive emotion boiled under the surface of the water.

So he did what any normal, sane person would do. Percy just ran to the top of the outcrop and dove. For the second time, he sliced into the lake of a serpent.