Chapter 105: Damit, stop crying!

(Percy POV)

Having to scale a mountain, plus as little communication as possible creates a recipe for the most depressing climb of my life.

I truly hope Zeus doesn't smite me for making such a bad joke on his territory.

"How much longer until we get there?" asked Magnus,

"By my calculations, I'd say about 2 days," answered Sam.

When we had woken up(which was not timed, we were awoken to screaming goats), Thor rushed us to gather all that we needed and to get a move on to retrieve his hammer, talking about how he "Had a show to catch up on."

By the time we had reached the cliff, the sun was beginning to rise. I had decided it would've been easier to climb the mountain that led to Geirrod's fortress via plant than spend the rest of the day slipping on the mountain's steep face.

I knelt down and touched the soil, closed my eyes and tried to feel the earth underneath me.

"Please help me." I whispered while I tried to send my power into the ground, hoping to summon vines. Unlike my water or fire powers, Demeter's domain didn't obey me naturally. I just had to hope the plants liked me.

In front of my eyes a giant vine broke through the soil, it was as thick as the one that had caught me when I was falling down the sky. It was even taller than the one that had caught me and went all the way up the sky.

Though it made me feel a bit silly, I touched the base of the vine and whispered a thank you.

"That's amazing," Magnus said,

"Yeah," I replied, "No need to thank me."

"You're right, Percy." Sam responded, "There IS no need to thank you," Then she began to climb.

Honestly, I was beginning to wonder what it was she had against me. Though, in retrospect, both me and Magnus had made her lost her job, so I guess it's understandable.

We got hitched (so to speak) and began to climb up the giant vine.

Climbing the vine wasn't hard, or at least for me. Everytime my hand would slip a smaller vine would sprout from the base and catch me right in time, even without me using my powers.

Everytime I made sure to thank the vine.

"...So, the plan is to take Herod by surprise by sneaking into his house, claiming guest rights before his daughters can kill us, steal back Thor's hammer, then get the hell out of there?" asked Magnus, bringing me back into the present.

"Exactly," said Sam, "If we claim guest rights, they are bound by Giant law to treat us as guests, and that means no chopping us up into stew."

"I didn't know you had a sense of humor." I said, puzzled.

"There's a lot you don't know about me," said Sam in response.

"Mind enlightening me?" I asked.

"I hate to interrupt your lover's feud," said Blitzen, "But there's just one problem."

"We are not a couple!" We both shouted in unison.

Ignoring us, Blitzen said, "Claiming guests rights doesn't prevent the Giants from 'accidentally' trying to kill us." He emphasized the word 'accidentally' with air quotes.

"Guest right?" I mused.

Sam shot me a look (from below me) that said, everybody knows this, then she explained. "Guest right. Once we enter someone's home we can't kill someone or be killed by the owners. Otherwise…" Sam shuddered. "If you break those rules we get bad karma."

It seemed a bit random to me, though It would've been nice to have guest right when I entered Nyx's house. Would've saved me a lot of troubles.

Hearthstone nodded his head as if to emphasize Sam's point.

I imagine he would be using ASL if it wouldn't mean he had to use his hands, in which case he would plummet to his death. And we couldn't have that, could we?

"That would be problematic," said Magnus, "Have any ideas, Sam?"

"Well, we would have to just avoid their attempts, most of which are truly obvious," said Sam,

"Though, one of us may have a problem." She said, looking directly at me.

Honestly, how could Magnus stand her? Even with what had happened to her, going as far to criticize me at every turn seems like overdoing it.

She reminds me a bit of Annabeth, who used to, and still does, make fun at my every mistake.

Be calm, Percy. I tell myself, Just pull a Nyx and ignore the annoying until it subsides.

It seemed to work, as everything returned to normal while we continued to climb up our individual vines.

"So we have a plan," said Blitzen

"Mhm," said Magnus

At this point, we had been climbing for about a few hours, judging by how the sun stood overhead of us.

"We should stop when it gets dark," suggested Sam.

"For once, I agree."

For a brief second, our eyes met in understanding that whatever we had between each other would have to be put away for now for the sake of the team.

After that, we continued to climb in silence, except for Blitzen, Hearthstone and Magnus.

They seemed to go through entire conversations simply by looking at each other.

I guess that's the type of bond you form when you spend years with another. I thought to myself.

Such a thought made me think of Camp Half-Blood, and all the friends I had left there. From all their faith in me, and from all the experiences we had shared together, good or bad.

Hell, they were the entire reason I chose to go back.

'Indeed they are.' said Chaos

'I didn't know you were eavesdropping,' I replied, 'Where were you when I was facing Nidhogg?'

'Told you, I passed out.'

Suddenly I heard a second voice, 'I'm back!'

'Lyssa?' I almost gasped, 'You're back too?'

Lyssa smirked, 'Yes I am.' She let out a stifled yawn, 'Just checked up on your friends at camp.'

'And?' I asked feeling a bit nervous.

Lyssa chuckled, 'Nyx played around with their memories and the mist. They think that you're neither missing or death. But they are doing quite fine and they hope you come back soon. Or they fin your body so they can get closure.'

Even though the way Lyssa phrased it was disturbing as Hel, I was glad they were doing fine.

Just the mention of that made my face brighten up.

"Someone looks happy." said Magnus, wrenching me from my thoughts.

"It surprises me to see you smiling, you rarely do," said Sam,

"Well, when I think about my friends and my home, I can't but feel happy knowing they're safe and sound." I replied

"That's understandable," said Sam, "Actually, I'd like to offer you my apologies. Perhaps I may have gone too far with, some, of the things I've said."

"It's fine," I said, relieved.

"After all, even I can admit that my charm rubs off the wrong way sometimes, but it always corrects itself."

"Are you always so prideful?" asked Sam.

"Yeah." I said.

We both shared a little chuckle over that.

"Guys," said Magnus, "It's getting dark."

I looked over to where he was pointing and saw that the sun was setting.

"I guess we should start setting up camp." I said.

"Yeah," Both Magnus and Sam agreed.

"But where?" Magnus asked.

His question was answered as Blitzen pointed over to a small cave and said "There!"

The cave looked like it was dug into the face of the mountain forcefully with its jagged edges.

However, it was big enough to house all of us for a night.

I doubt it would be comfortable, though.

"That's a great choice of hotel service, Blitzen," Magnus said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey kid, it's either that or these vines, and I'm pretty sure we don't want to live like the Sewerside Squad."

At that, him, Magnus, and Hearthstone, albeit silent, all laughed as if they had just shared a joke.

"That joke sounded really dirty," I said, gaining yet another round of laughter from the three as I chuckled.

Sam just silently shook her head, but I saw the inkling of a smile playing on her lips as well.

"Whelp, let's get going," I said, as I brought up one arm, fingers sprawled out in front of me as I willed the vines to extend over toward the cave.

When I was done, I signaled for everyone to follow me over to the cave, and we made our way over toward our resting spot.

Inside the cave, it was pitch dark, yet the texture of the cave seemed to be damp as if it had recently rained.

"Anyone have any ideas how we're going to make a fire?" I asked.

"Leave that to me!" said Blitzen, excitedly.

Though I couldn't see what he was doing, it seemed to involve a lot of racket, a few swear words, and a massive amount of thrashing around.

"Is he always like this when he's motivated?" I questioned Magnus.

"Always," He responded, "You should see him when he is actually trying."

"That's scary." I whispered.

When he was done, we had a makeshift fire burning in the center of the cave, shedding much needed light onto our surroundings.

On the walls, there were depictions of Giants: there was one of a Giant hunting, one uprooting trees, and another shaving his-well, I'll leave that to your imagination.

"Well, we should get some sleep," suggested Sam.

I agree. Signed Hearthstone, and this time, he was the first to lay down on the hard stone and, somehow, fall to sleep.

"How does he do that?" I asked.

"Well, we are used to living on the street." Blitzen said.

"Yeah," agreed Magnus, "We've had to sleep in the most bizarre places sometimes. Compared to that, sleeping in a cave is nothing."

"Speaking of, I'm about to turn in as well." said Blitzen as he followed Hearthstone's example and laid down on the hardened surface of the cave.

"I guess that's our cue to follow suite," said Sam, "Well, goodnight you two."

"Night." said Magnus.

"Goodnight," I said, "And Sam, I'm sorry we were lost your job in Valhalla."

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, "I know you really adored your job as a Valkyrie."

"Oh, Percy," said Sam, returning to a sitting position, "It's either your fault nor Magnus's."

"It's simply the way things worked out." She said, staring up at the ceiling, longingly.

"But-" I started.

"We can talk about it later," Sam interrupted me, a little smile on her face, "Though, thank you for caring for my well-being."

With that, she turned on her side and began to snore.

"Well…" started Magnus, "This is awkward."

"You're telling me."

"Well, 'night Percy." said Magnus.

"Goodnight," I responded.

...

I awoke in the middle of the night, how'd I know it was the middle of the night? No particular reason. The fire Blitzen had made had gone out and it was entirely dark. I heard my friends snoring peacefully. For a second I wondered what had woken me up. I summoned a small fireball and let it float on the palm of my hand. Finally, being able to see I saw...nothing out of the ordinary.

I was about to shut down my fireball and go back to sleep when I heard it.

Sobbing, soft sobbing.

I frowned and turned around, wondering if one of my friends had a nightmare. But after a second look I saw they were just doing fine. Yet, I still heard the sobbing sound.

It was a low sound, almost unbearable.

As the sound became louder it turned from sobbing into wailing, it was getting louder and louder. At this point I could hear it was a woman who was crying, though I had no idea who it was or where it came from.

Apparently the wailing had woken up Sam because she began to stir in her sleep, which woken up Magnus in turn. Sam's eyes shot open, and she flew upward in one fluid motion. Grabbing her axe, scanning the cave all within one second. Magnus was a little slower, he muttered, "Stop crying." before he shot right up realizing something was wrong. He reached for his pendant and Jack appeared.

He twisted a few times through the air, as if he was looking around.

"What's going on?" Jack and Magnus asked in unison.

"Ssssttt!" I put my fingers on my lip and gestured them to stay silent.

Magnus slowly rose from the ground and glanced around.

Hearth and Blitzen were still sleeping peacefully, for a quick second I wondered if I should wake them up but there was no real threat we had to face.

"What's that crying?" Magnus whispered nervously.

The wailing had started to get louder and slowly turned into straight up shrieking, It was not pain or something, just pure sadness.

I gestured at the end of the cave. "I think it's outside."

Slowly the three of us made our way towards the exit of the cave, the crying was getting louder and it was almost a pain to hear it.

When we reached the exit of the cave we still found nothing, but now I could trace the sound. It was coming from below us.

I frowned and leaned over the edge of the plateau we were standing on.

Sam and Magnus followed me, Magnus gasped at what he saw while Sam only turned really pale.

On the base of our beanstalk there stood a woman.

Even though she was too far away to be seen I could make out all the details.

The woman was surrounded by blood-red mist that swirled around her but never touched her. The woman was supernaturally beautifully, mostly. She had pale hair that shimmered like wildfire. It was long and it looked like the wind ruffled through her hair. She had a grayish skin and wore a silvery shroud over red or green dresses.

A second later she glanced up, right into my eyes. I have no idea how she could've seen me from so far away but she did see me.

She had red eyes with tears streaming out of her face, then I looked again and saw her eyes were not red naturally but from crying. They were inflamed, the tears had strapped away flesh on her face like a river would create a canyon.

When she met my gaze she let out a terrifying shriek, one filled with so much sadness it made me sick to the bone. Her expression towards me wasn't hostile, just pure sadness.

"Who is that?" Magnus asked, "A Norse monster?"

Sam shook her head, not taking her eyes away from the crying woman. "No, I have no idea what it is. She is definitely not Norse."

Magnus turned to me, "Is she Greek."

Without looking at him I said, "Definitely not."

"Is it dangerous?" Sam asked, "Should we kill it?"

'No!' Chaos almost yelled, 'She's harmless.'

I frowned, 'You know who she is, or what?'

Chaos gave me a sad look, 'Yes, and she's not dangerous. Her crying is harmless.'

"She's not harmful," I told my friends.

As I said it the creature started sobbing again, scraping her fingernails at her face.

"How'd you know?" Sam asked skeptically.

"Just a feeling," I lied.

'Go back to sleep Percy.' Chaos said with a depressed tone.

I pulled my gaze away from the creature and turned towards my friend, "We should get some sleep."

I noticed how broken I sounded.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked, "I can just swoop down and kill her."

"Just go to sleep." I told them and went back into the cave.

As I went deeper into the cave the crying just followed me. Only stopping to shriek from time to time.

I didn't sleep well that night.

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