The Vow (Percy Jackson x Reader)

C h a p t e r F o u r

[ E c h i d n a  B i t c h e s ]

We headed back to Miniapolis café. Percy and Leo looked exhausted. I decided to treat them with some food and drink. Leo ordered ice blended banana shake and Percy ordered iced blue ocean juice – something that I would never order.

"I can't believe I just met another demi-god." Percy started with a huge smile. "Did you come from Camp Jupiter?" asked Percy.

"What?" I gave them a confused look. "What is a demi-god and what is Camp Jupiter – is that like a planetarium?"

Percy and Leo stared at each other. It was like they never thought that question would slip out of my mouth. "How old are you, Phoebe?"

"I'm 18."

"Just like me." Percy muttered. "How could you survive from monsters?"

"You mean those metallic birds?" Percy nodded. "They just attacked me this morning."

"Just this morning?" Leo squealed. "How about the other morning before this morning?"

"Well, no monsters had ever attacked me before this day." I said innocently but Percy and Leo didn't give me an understanding facial expression. They were shocked, their eyes almost came out of their place and their jaw drop was unusually big. "You guys will never close your mouth if you stay in that position."

Leo and Percy closed their mouths immediately. "But how'd you learn to attack those monsters? And you even have a weapon too."

"Actually someone gave me this dagger. I just met him in the train on the way here." Now Percy looked more confused. "Look guys, I don't know what happened okay? Everything changed so drastically in the past two days. Mitchell showed up and everything started to change."

Now Percy's eyes were on Mitchell. "You guys have to come with us."

"Where to?"

"Camp Half-Blood."

...

It was 5 p.m. and the sky darkened. I started to feel a little sleepy. We didn't talk much while we were in the bus. Leo sat together with Mitchell, they played pat-a-cake – I guess Leo was good with kids. Meanwhile me and Percy sat together. It was hard to talk about something when you and the person who talked to you didn't really understand what situation we faced. I kept looking out the window, trying my best to enjoy the view.

"So, you had a normal life before this day?" asked Percy.

"Um, yeah, pretty much," I said, facing him. "I went to school, studied, and socialized with other people. I can't say that was normal either because since birth I can see ghosts, monsters, and what was the thing you said? Demi?"

"Demi-god."

"Yeah, demi-god. Sometimes I saw them fighting monsters and other weird creatures. I wanted to help, but my mom told me I shouldn't react with that kind of stuff. I guess that's why monsters never attacked me before."

Percy nodded a little, but he wasn't really sure. "Monsters track us not based on eye sight, but based on smell. Something must've covered your smell..." Percy's eyes widen. "Do you live with sti – argh, that is too personal."

"With what?"

"Before I went to Camp Half-Blood, my mom and I lived with this stinky man. At first, I didn't know why my mom could bear with that man but now I understand. She did that to cover my smell from monsters."

"That makes sense." I nodded. "But I'm not sure who had covered my smell. I had a neighbor that smelled like unwashed socks, but he died two years ago. So, it mustn't have been him."

"We'll get the explanation later at the camp. You'll meet the camp director, Mr. D and Chiron."

"Okay." I looked out the window again. I saw a little house on the hill, with three grannies sitting on the porch. My heart beat got faster. It was just like in my dream. I couldn't hear a thing other than those cutting sounds. They held big socks each. One of them took out a thread, then one of the granny brought a scissor toward the thread. The cutting sounds got louder. The thread had broken off. I felt like my heart beat stopped.

"Phoebe..."

"Phoebe..."

"Huh, yeah?"

"You okay?" asked Percy.

"No." I breathed out. My heart flustered. "What are the grannies doing?"

"What grannies?" he confused. I pointed out of the window. Percy's eyes searched around the hill, but it seemed like he couldn't see what I saw. "Were there three grannies?" I nodded. "They have socks in their lap?" I nodded again. "Shit." He cursed.

Just after Percy said that. A car drove right beside our bus. There were a bunch of girls inside the car. One of them opened the car window, she looked pretty but then I saw something weird. She had a tail.

"Leo, get ready." Said Percy. Leo looked out from the window. "That's Echidna. Everybody calm, we are almost there."

Suddenly, the bus stopped.

"What happened?" another passenger asked.

"I don't know." Said the driver. "I'm going to check it up a bit." He stood up and went out of the bus.

"We have to get down right now." Leo took Mitchell and ran.

"Phoebe, come on!" I nodded. We ran to the forest right before Echidnas decided to go after us.

We ran through the woods with the leaves crunching under us giving away our position. The forest was really dark. I couldn't make a difference between bushes and small trees. The only thing I could see was Percy's back. It was like my guide to know where the real path was. I thought Percy knows this forest very well.

I saw a huge tree in front of us. Something was wrapping the tree body. I thought it was a stack of cable, but I was wrong, it was a sleeping dragon.

"Peleus!" screamed Percy. The dragon woke up. He roared, but it wasn't just the dragon. The Echidnas roared too, they already turned into full form with tails and bodies like a snake. Peleus attacked one of them, but there were still more.

"Leo, bring Mitchell inside!" Percy yelled.

Percy and I got busy with Echidnas. Apparently all echidna were girls. They all had long black hair, sharp fangs, and smelly breath. One of them attacked me, I used my dagger to shield myself from her attack. She was too strong to handle then she wagged her tail until I got slammed into a tree.

"Phoebe!!" I heard Percy yell my name. I felt dizzy, blood poured from my forehead.

"Don't hurt my sister!" screamed Mitchell from afar.

What the hell? Mitchell? I tried to stand up but my head was spinning around. I held the tree branch beside me to rely on.

"Mitchell! Run!" that was all I could do. Percy couldn't get any closer to Mitchell because he had his own fight, same condition with Leo. Mitchell decided to run toward me with his own thought.

"What a nice young brother." Said echidna. She licked her own lips. "Let me kill you first."

"NOOO!!!"

She opened her mouth, fire balls came out. She raised her hand, lifted every stone and tree branches that were on the ground. No, no, no, please do not let it be like in my dream. I pushed myself to stand up. Pain scattered in my body. I tried to run toward Mitchell.

"Mitchell!!" Percy killed the other echidna, so did Leo. We all tried to reach Mitchell. But we were too late. There was a massive explosion that made us crash away. Something hit the nape of my neck and everything was pitch black.