12 Chapter 11 Progress and Meeting with a Dove

The day after Thalia died I came out from room, my mom saw something in me change. She didn't say anything. She didn't need to ask anything. The just came close and hugged me. I hugged her back while the tears I thought that was drained last night came pouring out.

Breakfast that day was a quiet affair. After breakfast my mom told me it's okay to not go to school today. I told her that I need to go to school to see Percy then Katie. She gave me an understanding nod.

That morning the shadows I gave Luke, Thalia and Annabeth returned all but Courage, Annabeth's eagle.

After mom brought me to school she gave me a kiss on the forehead and gave me an encouraging nod, I nodded back, and then she left for her job.

I met Percy in class he was about to great me but stopped and asked me what's wrong.

"I'll tell you later along with Katie." I said evenly.

He gave me a nod and returned to his seat.

School ended quickly without me realising it.

I stood up and started walking to where me, Percy and Katie always meet up. Percy silently following behind me.

When Katie arrived she instantly noticed the atmosphere and asked us what's wrong. Percy looked at me signalling Katie that it has something to do with me.

I motioned them to follow me and they quietly followed.

I walked towards deep in the forest where no one will go. Where demigods can let lose.

I was preparing since morning to tell them about Thalia but standing here now makes me want to crawl back to my bed and cry. But I didn't.

I steeled my resolve and told Percy and Katie what happened to Thalia. At first they denied what I said told me to stop joking around. I didn't say anything. Then they became angry and starting losing control of their powers. Trees started to madly growing without stop and the sky begins to darken in response to Katie and Percy's anger.

I summoned my shadows and told them to spread out and try to lessen and control the damages.

30 minutes later Katie and Percy manage to calm down. And began to cry.

I let them. They need to release their grief. I walk closer to them pulled them towards me and I hugged them.

We stayed like that for almost an hour before we decided that we should head home before we worry our parents.

That day something in Percy and Katie change. They're still the same person but Percy now trains much more sometimes to worrying degrees. And Katie did increase her training aswell just not as much as Percy. But she became a bit protective of us. When we face monsters, she berates us when we attack recklessly and not attack recklessly with us like she used to. We let her because we know this is her reaction towards Thalia's death.

It took the three of us 2 and a half months before we could get over Thalia's death. We're not really fully over Thalia's death but enough to not let it affect our daily lives.

A few days after Thalia's death I connected to Courage, the shadow eagle I gave to Annabeth. I saw her in bed crying. I commanded the shadow to get close and comfort her. She started to cry less until she stopped crying.

She looked at the shadow and her eyes widen.

"Ash, is that you?" Annabeth asked.

The shadow nodded.

She hugged the shadow and started to say phrases along the lines of sorries and that it was her fault.

I couldn't speak through the shadow and just commanded the eagle to do its best to comfort her.

A week after that day me, Percy and Katie started secretly sending Annabeth and Luke letters via shadow eagle. We also told them not to tell anyone of our existence,we wanted to suprise the Greek world and take it by storm.

Two years later 9 years old

After we got over Thalia's death we trained even harder than before. And I begged the furies to up my training and teach me new things. Which they did. They taught me how to control mist to be able to fool mortals, which is something I also taught to Katie and Percy.

I can now turn myself into a shadow for 5 hours before reaching my limit. I learned a new move and I called it Shadow Claws. Its basically claws made of shadows that gets a bit larger and heavier every swipe. Another move I learned was Shadows roar, basically it was a breath attack... made of shadows.

My mana capacity has gone up five times and is enough to heal all my shadow atleast 6 times. My proficiency with my daggers, Punish and Judge, has greatly increase now it feels as though these daggers were part of my body or an extra limb.

I can now use shadow travel without easily tiring unlike before that a few shadow travels takes a big chunk of my stamina. But I have neglected it somehow in favor of using Daze who mastered shadow traveling. My Future Sight has improved, before it was 8-13 seconds now it was 10-15 seconds. My shadow limit has now increased, my current shadow limit now was 65 shadows. All in all I have exactly 50 shadows having gained 23 shadows. 6 Empousa,13 Hellhounds and 4 Cyclops. Sparing a few slots incase I found a great shadow candidate.

I didn't really trained that much with my gem powers since I didn't know how to use it in a fight. The only use of it for me was to help Percy and Katie if they had financial problems. Other than that they didn't have any uses.

Manda has evolved and turned into 25 feet in length and 5 feet in width while gaining two horns growing backwards and two large poisonous fangs .I don't know how but other than learning to spit poison he also learned how to breath fire. I didn't question it caused he looked cool. Percy said so too.

Daze also evolved and became a faster and tougher than a normal horse, he can easily run for 100 km/h and with shadows having unlimited stamina while I still have mana, well you can imagine how much me, Percy and Katie abused then heck out of Daze for travelling great distances. A few other shadows of mine evolved aswell the hellhounds now gaining more size and strength along with more teeth. The Cyclops became a few feet taller and gained a few horns. While Empousa gained a few more fangs and longer claws. I think they can now take on their original selves and win.

My shadow possession became stronger. Back then I can only restrain 3 people at best. Now I can easily restrain 8 people and 9 if I tried my best.

Percy and Katie also became a lot stronger and made a lot of progress.

Percy being the talented prodigy he was, was able to recreate shadow travel with his mist travel and could perform it back to back for 8 or nine times. His water manipulation has greatly increased aswell he can now create water tentacles, blades and spikes to use in battle and summon large waves. His sword skill has gone through the roof. I could confidently say that Percy can easily be called a master swordsman if he grows enough to fit Riptide.

He could now also turn himself into intangible water for 4 hours before reaching his limits. He can now summon a few rain clouds to make him stronger during battle which helps him a lot. Its specially dangerous when he turns those rain drops into ice spikes. Oh how I pity those poor monsters. Speaking of ice, Percy can now easily create ice from water as easy as breathing. He also increased his proficiency with his Ice make style.

Katie has grown strong aswell. She can now easily grow larges trees as high as 40 feets. Largely grow plants that secretes poison, sleeping powder or paralysing powder. She can now grow dozens of vines with sharp thorns.

She also learned that she can communicate with forest animals which was pretty useful in my opinion. Her prowess with a wooden staff, that she made herself, has drastically improved. I didn't believe her at first but she really learned most of her moves from Donny from TMNT.

She can now also easily control forest and have it assist her in anything she wants.

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It was the middle of summer

Me,Percy and Katie was taking a walk on the park where we first met, celebrating a successful monster hunt by buying sodas, it was then we saw a bunch of cameras and other stuff used for  filming being set up by people we never saw around here before. 'They must be shooting a movie.' I thought.

A few men who looked like bodyguards walked towards us and kindly asked us to leave. Well since they asked nicely we gladly complied. We were a few meters away from the shooting when I felt a power nearby. The same feeling of power I felt when I first met Katie and Percy, when I felt a demigod.

I turned back and tried to locate the source where I felt the presence and saw a little girl with brown hair and a kaleidoscope for eyes? I also then saw a dracaena, disguise as a worker with the mist, stalking her. 'Crapbaskets' I thought.

I needed to move fast. I looked at Percy and Katie and gestured at the girl and dracaena. They looked at where I gestured and gained a look of shock which quickly turned into determination. 'Heh look at that demigods really are natural heroes.'I thought with a smirk.

We started walking back near the film and confronted the guards.

"Hey mister, can we watch the filming?" I asked with all the childish innocence I could muster.

Percy and Katie caught on to what I was doing and joined in on the fun.

"Hey come on would you please let us watch?" Percy said with a grin.

"Come on mister pretty please?" Katie said with her puppy dog eyes, it was super effective.

It was the last straw. They were about to give in until a voice sounded from behind them.

"Well if they're really want to watch that much, let them, there really isn't any harm with kids watching the filming." A man said from behind patting the guards on their back.

A few guards protest saying we might cause some disturbance for the film. The man retorted.

" Well I mean my daughter is about their age and she never once caused trouble so I'm sure they won't aswell." The man assured the guards which caused them to give in and leave to do some other duties as a guard.

The man looked at us and introduced himself.

" How are you kids! My names Tristan McLean, I'm sure you've heard of me." He introduced himself a bit arrogantly.

We looked at each other and shrugged.

"Not really, sorry old man." I said with a bored toned.

An invisible arrow pierced Tristan on the chest.

I'm not really lying here, because demigods and technology doesn't really mix well so no TV for me. But I cannot hide the amusement in my eyes. Which caused Percy and Piper to have mischievous looks as they copied me. 

"Never heard of you gramps." Percy said straightly to Tristan's face which cause another arrow to pierce his chest once more. He started to staggered back.

"I think I know who you are!" Katie said with a look of realization on her face.

This caused Tristan to recover a bit. He looked at Katie with a look of hope. Hope which was throughly crushed.

"You're the weird old geezer kidnapper dad warned me about." Katie said with a bright smile. At every word she said we saw more and more invisible arrow hit Tristan.

That was the last straw.

Tristan was down on his arms and knees with a depressing atmosphere around him while muttering word's like old, gramps, weird, kidnapper and many other things.

"Hahahaha."

We heard a beautiful laugh from behind us. We turned to look and it was the girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

She walked towards Tristan while still laughing.

"Come on dad stop that its almost time for you to film your next scene." She said to Tristan.

This got him out of depression and quickly gained a professional look. He stood up and walked towards the people with camera not before looking at us with a small smile.

" That was great acting kids maybe you can become celebrities in the future." He asked us.

This caused Percy and Katie stop smiling and a look of suprise was sketched in their face.

Unlike them I gained a smile.

"So you knew since the beginning huh, old man?" I asked him.

His smile staggered at the old man remark.

"Of course any great actor can spot an act when they see one." He said with confidence laced with arrogance which caused me to twitch a bit at his arrogance.

Tristan looked at her daughter.

"Hey honey, why dont you play with them while I film, is that alright with you?"He asked his daughter.

She nodded.

" Sure! They seem interesting. " She said.

After she said that Tristan left to shoot his scenes. She turned to look at us and smile mischievously at us.

And that's how we met Piper Mclean.

End