"The moment I met you,
I held my breath.
And you've been taking
it away ever since,
Nico di Angelo."
[ NICO DI ANGELO x MALE OC ]
[ PERCY JACKSON SERIES ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES ]
cover by @humaneity !
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
0019. | I'VE COME TOO FAR TO LOSE TO A COWARD
Vela's back crunched when he woke up. Sleeping on a rock floor really didn't agree with him but he sat up anyway. His stomach felt like it was eating itself with nerves.
Meria was awake next to him, playing with celestial bronze ring - Vela's celestial bronze ring. "Woah!" He shot up, grabbing the ring back from her before it shot out and decapitated her. That definitely would be difficult to explain to Naris.
Meria giggled anyway, pulling on his shoelaces instead, her claws fiddling awkwardly like she couldn't get a proper grip. "She wasn't always like that." He jumped hearing Naris's tired voice.
"What happened?" Vela knew it was obviously a personal story but Naris seemed to be in the mood for sharing. He watched Meria get distracted by a flying moth.
"We used to get training on how to phase. Lycaon said it was important for us to show no pain, that is was representative of our strength. But then he started having dreams." She said. "A visitor in his head telling him to change our traditions... to show our strength differently."
"The Titans." Vela guessed grimly.
"No." She said. "Something older."
Vela frowned. It was times like these when he hated having a block in his mind. "What's older than the Titans?"
Naris wrinkled her nose, staring at the ground with distaste. "The visitor told him that we had to learn how to phase on our own. That the pups weren't allowed help or training or practice. Those strong enough to survive may join the pack. Those who were 'deficient' in their transitions are taken by Adrian."
"Yeah, who is that guy?" Vela remembered Naris mistaking him for him when he found Meria.
"Lycaon's beta."
Vela raised an eyebrow. "And his name is Adrian...?" He scoffed in disbelief. An almighty beta called Adrian. That was like finding out Kronos had a secret alias called Steve. It didn't sound very Grecian.
Naris rolled her eyes like she had read his mind. "There used to be Æschylus. But he was shameful and Lycaon sentenced him to the cliff."
"The cliff?"
She sighed. "Out there, outside is the temple of wolves that Lycaon rules from. After a few earthquakes, the ground cracked from underneath it and turned the hill the temple is on into a cliff. That's where Lycaon executes his criminals, he pushes them off of the edge."
