Chapter 91: I take a walk in the park

(Percy POV)

I woke up with someone picking in my nose.

"Ouch!' I cried out, and I opened my mouth and heard the sound of a bird flapping its wings.

I got to my feet. The bird flew a few feet away and landed on the ground. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stared into the birds, which I glared at for waking up.

The bird was actually a white dove, I realized.

"Where are we?" I asked as I glanced around and found out I've been sleeping in a park. Or better yet, I was teleported while I slept and woke up in a park.

Great, "Thanks Hel." I muttered but no one responded.

The dove who was now leaping around my feet made a cooing sound.

Snow draped the grass and trees around me, a large swimming pond was frozen. A few people were jogging in the park and gave me an annoyed look as they passed me by.

"Chaos, where are we?" I asked yawning while grabbing the sleeping back and stuffing it into my backpack.

'Percy, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.' Lyssa answered grim.

'We are in Boston common.' Chaos said. 'That's a park.'

The dove flapped his wings, like he tried to get my attention. "What?"

To my surprise the dove actually answered, "Sorry sir but you need to run."

I blinked a few times, "I must be sleeping." I muttered.

'Nope still awake.' Chaos said joyfully.

I glanced skeptically at the dove, "Did you just talk?"

The dove lowered his head, as in a bow. "My name is Thomas!" the dove said.

I blinked a few times, wondering if someone had drugged me, then I realized I just had made a bet with the Goddess of death and a talking dove was immediately less impressive.

"Okay, what are you?" I asked, "Utgard Loki? A god? A magical dove?"

The dove tilted his head, "What? No, I am a dove."

"Doves can't talk." I remarked.

The dove flapped his wings, "How rude!"

Then he stopped flapping his wings, "Also, you should run for your life."

"Wha-"

The pound sprung to life, the sound of cracking ice broke through the air.

I stumbled away from the pound, not daring to look away.

The ice had cracked and the water exploded.

"Definitely run." the dove said as it flew away.

Through the water bursts I could see the outline of a figure in the pound, a man sitting on a horse rose from the water and stepped out of the pound.

The horse stepped onto the grass and the snow around his hoofs melted, the grass underneath turned gray and began to decay.

The horse was bigger than I thought, he was about twice the size of a normal horse, it had a grayish skin and gave off a distinct smell of rotten flesh, as the water and the fog cleared I could see what it really looked like.

It vaguely resembles Horses - its flesh was rotting away and the bones poke through. Yellow blood drips down his legs from their rib cages. It had no teeth—instead, human looking fingernails jut out of their gums, blood and drool dribbling between the cracks. Flies and maggots crawled out of its mouth and dropped onto the floor.

Riding on top of this abomination was a giant, or at least it had the size of one. Its body seemed to be stuck on the horse, like they were stitched together by a kid.

The chest of the man had a big gaping hole. Maggots were eating away the man's flesh. It had two long arms and was wielding a big sword. His head seemed to be humanoid, but I was not sure, it had two glowing eyes and a gaping hole without lips resembles something like a mouth.

It was about 17,5 foot high, towering above me as it made his way towards me.

I knew what kind of creature it was, I was just startled by its size. The creature's name was Nuckelavee, Nótt and I had fought it on the Jotunheimr sea, I tried to recall the facts about it.

It was some kind of Norse demon, and its breath was deadly.

Great, last time Nótt had defeated it by slamming her axe into its chest.

I was pretty sure that I would not defeat it so easily this time, dammit, I miss Nyx.

'Seems like Hel send a gift.' Lyssa said, 'Also a fun fact, it's immune to fire.'

I did the best thing I could do.

I ran.

I turned around and forced the grass around the Nuckelavee to grow and trap it. But as I turned around, I heard the grass snap and I silently cursed.

I dashed away over the concrete path. I heard the Nuckelavee's hooves slam against the concrete as it chased me. As I ran as plan came up, the path led to a circle with a closed carousel. I poured water from the air and let it flow over the path, I heard the Nuckelavee's hooves a few inches away from me and I held my breath. As I approached the carousel, I solidified the water and forced it into ice and dove to the right.

Behind me I heard the Nuckelavee slam into the carousel but I didn't wait, I turned around the corner and ran to the park's exit.

As I ran away, I saw that the Nuckelavee had gotten up. The surrounding trees began to turn gray and began to decay at an impossible speed.

It chased after me, and it would catch up on me within a few seconds.

The exit of the park had a nice decorated gate with in the middle some kind of monument. But the gates were not wide enough for the Nuckelavee, maybe I could escape it.

I glanced around and saw it was only 10 feet away from me.

I dove through the gate and expected to land on the side walk of Beacon Street, instead I crashed onto a pedestrian who was just passing by.

I scrambled to my feet, while muttering excuses, and glanced at the gates, hoping they would keep the Nuckelavee inside.

It didn't.

The Nuckelavee reared in front of the gates, striking it with his hooves while the man on the back slammed his sword down on the iron fences and it began cutting down the fence.

"Percy?" Someone asked, and I realized it was the person I just crashed on.

I turned around, and my eyes met the In front of me a beautiful woman with long blond hair, her sea green eyes pierced into mine with the same surprise as I had, she had a timeless sense around her, like the nymphs at camp.

I vaguely recognized her but I couldn't place it.

She glanced at the Nuckelavee and her eyes widened, "What is that?"

Who ever this person was, she could see through the mist, but who was she? |

"A Nuckelavee," I said while trying to catch my breath, "Run!"

The Nuckelavee had broken down the fence and stepped through the hole it had created, looking at his surroundings like he was about to chose who to kill first.

He was at least as tall as a one story building, cars around us stopped dead in their tracks, the pedestrians, who were a lot smarter than me, had run away. I heard the sound of police cars in the distance.

"I can take it." the woman said as she glanced at the Nuckelavee.

"How in Hades name can you take on that thing?" I asked.

"Look away!" she demanded.

Normally I would not blindly (pun not intended.) obey such a comment but at this point I was pretty desperate.

I closed my eyes, praying that this would work.

I heard the sounds of snake hissing next to my ear, it sounded like an entire nest of snakes had decided to take shelter in my ear. I had the urge to open my eyes and run away, instead I kept them shut.

The hissing died down and nothing happened, I was not cut in half or crushed by the Nuckelavee.

After a few seconds the snake hissing died down. "Open your eyes," the woman said and I followed her instructions.

In front of me stood the Nuckelavee but he was no longer a threat.

The gigantic monster's skin was now gray, like concrete. Actually it was probably concrete.

The Nuckelavee was turned into a stone statue.

I immediately understood who the woman was, I turned around and stared into the eyes of Medusa.

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