The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 6

That's it, Percy thought as he looked around the giant expanse of sand which stretched as far as his eye could see. I hate Chaos.

He had hated Chaos before, but he now made it official.

It was supposed to be a quick mission: let Chaos teleport them, secondly, enter Void's castle by any means necessary, then, rescue Omega, and finally, Rosaline would teleport them back. 

In typical Percy fashion, they flawlessly messed up on the first step—even though the Creator of the Universe himself teleported them. Instead of appearing outside of Void's walled capital city, Shadeborough, they had appeared in the middle of a large desert with the sun beating down on them.

Psi wasn't happy either. "Are you serious?" he exclaimed. "Why are we in a desert?"

"This has never happened before," Rosaline muttered, more to herself than anything.

"This is his fault!" Psi pointed to Percy.

"Me?" he asked Psi. "I'm just as confused as you are, buddy."

Psi bristled with anger; even though it was so hot that Percy was beginning to sweat in his light T-shirt, Psi refused to lower his hood. "Of all the times Lord Chaos teleports us, this is the time he messes up? When we have a stranger on our team?"

Judging by how Tania and Theon weren't quick to jump to his defense, Percy realized they were slowly being swayed by Psi's feeble argument. 

Rosaline was almost shaking with anger; he could see so much in her eyes as though it was threatening to pour out and attack Psi. "Watch your mouth," she warned him in a low voice. "Percy saved the lives of everybody on Planet Chaos numerous amount of times. Without him, you wouldn't be here." The rage in her eyes swirled into steely determination. "If you say anything negative about him, I will treat it like you insulted me. And I don't think you want to mess with me."

Percy had the feeling Psi was scowling underneath his hood as he looked away. "Fine."

Percy put a hand on Rosaline's shoulder. "You didn't have to do that for me. I can handle antagonizing jerks."

"Like you declared, we're family. And I fight for my family." Rosaline returned Percy's smile before raising her voice so everybody could hear. "Alright team, here's the game plan. Lord Chaos obviously didn't teleport us here because he's a dimwit—although that might've played a part. There's something we have to find out before we can complete our mission—and that won't be possible until we start moving." She hoisted her gear higher onto her shoulders and abruptly started walking.

For a moment, Percy stood still, looking at her, overjoyed. War was a very negative thing, with many consequences for both sides, and all the warriors' mental health was negatively impacted since it was a very tragic and appalling event. But what he realized now was that there was one good aspect:

The creation of a new support group, a new family.

He thought about it with a cheerful smile on his face as he ran to catch up with the group.

~~~

However, tension was thick and tempers shortened as the night began to fall. Percy still had the dumb smile on his face; a few hours of walking wasn't going to drain him mentally nor physically. In fact, the march was more like light exercise than something tiring he had to force himself to do.

On the other hand, Psi had slowly dropped to the back of the group in the hours, and now his breath was shallow and gait wobbly.

Percy couldn't lie to himself; he was concerned. Even though Psi had been very unaccepting and surly ever since the first moment they had met, he couldn't make himself ignore a person in need of help. He kind of reminded Percy of . . .