Chapter 6

Percy's POV (3rd), December 25th

It was Christmas Day, a time of joy and happiness for many people around the world, but not Percy. Percy and his new faithful companion Zoë have been chased by a swarm of monsters since they first awoke. Since coming to the forest, monsters have flocked towards Percy's scent like moths to a flame.

Seeing a clearing ahead where he could fight the small horde behind him, he whistled towards Zoë, telling her to run to safety. He could never forgive himself if his beloved new companion got hurt because monsters thought he tasted nice.

Percy reached the clearing, turned around, and made note of the monsters he was facing, their numbers were immense, but what else was new. He uncapped Anaklusmos and got into a fighting stance, waiting for the monsters to catch up, his Nemean Lion pelt billowing in the wind.

The first monster to break through the tree line was one he recognized all too well: the Minotaur. Why won't he just stay dead? It hasn't even been a year since he last killed him. Soon more monsters followed most prominently were rouge cyclops, dracaena and hell hounds. There was at least fifty monsters in total, which would've made any mere demigod cry for their mommy, but Percy wasn't any mere demigod. Thousands of monsters have fallen to his blade and thousands more will fall before he is finished.

Percy looked to the Minotaur once more, taking note of his horns, he needed to watch for them, they were as strong as mortal steel and as sharp as a sword. The Minotaur, who was never one for patience, charged Percy with a blood curling roar, his axe raised as if he was going to cleave Percy in half. As The Minotaur brought his axe down, Perseus expertly rolled out of its way, getting up with inhuman speed, and stabbed his foe in the neck. The Minotaur let out a shocked roar before dissolving into golden dust.

Not waiting for his enemy to make the first move, Perseus took Time's March off of his back, and launched it into the horde of monsters watching, the spear cut through the necks of two cyclops, and the head of a hell hound before landing in the dirt. Percy held out his hand and his spear flew back to his hand. Capping Riptide, he put his trusty pen/sword back in his pocket, brandishing his spear, and charged.

The monsters met his charge with full force, but they were like sheep to be slaughtered. Percy was a blur moving between monsters' ranks, stabbing a hell hound before turning and slamming the butt of his spear into the face of a cyclops. He turned to punch a dracaena in the face while bringing his pelt around his side, protecting him from an arrow that would've pierced his lung. He slashed another cyclops in the eye, which let out a scream of pain before dissolving into an all too familiar golden dust. Perseus turned and caught the blade of a sword on the shaft of his spear before kicking the suprised dracaena in the chest and thrusting his spear into her gut.

This continued for another ten minutes, with Percy moving through the monsters' ranks like a hot knife through butter. There were two remaining dracaena who tried to slither away, Percy threw his spear at one and whistled at the other. At the sound of his whistle, Zoë came bounding out of the woods, running at speeds nearing 50mph, which are unheard of for any regular wolf, and ripped the throat of the last monster.

Percy took a second to catch his breath, and looked at the remains of the monster army that had been chasing him. A glint in the snow caught his eye and he went to investigate; upon reaching it he was pleasantly surprised. Waiting in the snow were the horns of the Minotaur. Perseus sent Zoë ahead to their current camp site, and maybe find an animal to kill before he caught up with her.

Over the last few months some things have changed, mostly due to Zoë. He now had a sleeping bag he would use, opting to sleep with Zoë, often laying on top of her. Zoë herself had changed too, growing around six inches in size and putting on more muscle. She was now around fifty three inches at shoulder height, seven feet in length and weighed over 150lbs of pure muscle. Not even wolves in Lupa's pack are not anywhere near her height, weight or speed, and she is still growing.

Percy walked into his miniature camp, Minotaur horns in hand with a small smile on his face, he knew exactly what he'd use these for. For now though, it's time to have breakfast. He whistled for Zoë, who came sprinting back to camp, a hare carcass in her jaws. Percy grinned wide at the sight, knowing he wouldn't have to go hunting, "Good girl Zoë." At the comment, Zoë started barking loudly, each bark resembling a gunshot, while licking Perseus' face. Percy just chuckled lightly and started preparing the meat for Zoë and himself. While cooking, Percy would toss random pieces of meat to Zoë, who took it as a game and started diving for them, eliciting a laugh from Percy when she would miss.

Soon after they were finished eating, Perseus sat down next to a tree, layed against the bark, and got to work with the Minotaur horns. Zoë eventually came over and layed her head down on his lap and soon fell asleep.

It took Percy nearly an hour to carve out the general shape into the horns, he felt the weight of each, and nodded, satisfied they were both perfectly balanced. He reached into his backpack, carful not to wake Zoë, pulled out a whetstone, and started sharpening his future weapons.

It wasn't until three hours later that he would finally put the whetstone down. During that time he and Zoë had gone out and hunted for lunch, they had found a plump bison that would serve as their lunch and a pretty nice sacrifice to Artemis and Poseidon. Thanking the gods was always necessary, and out in the wilderness, if you don't sacrifice to Artemis you're basically asking to be killed for disrespect.

When Percy finished sharpening the horns, he smiled, they would be perfect throwing knives, which he desperately needed. While he could always throw his spear, it wasn't the best thing to do in the middle of battle, a throwing knife on the other hand was about as good as you could get. The only thing that could one-up them is Sciron's dual pistols, and if what he heard from Jason was true, those were the coolest things in existence.

Percy got some string from his bag and started wrapping it tightly around the handle of his new knives, giving them a firm grip. He finished wrapping one and cut the string with the other and repeated this process a second time.

He looked at his finished product, satisfied with his work, but still felt as if something was missing, a certain defining feature. He decided to take the rest of the day to work on engraving the blades, adding a pattern resembling waves crashing in the sea. Percy looked at the finished product in pride, it was absolutely breathtaking. He reached into his bag, pulling out a leg holster and an anklet sheathe. He saw these one day when stealing his sleeping bag and immediately took them as well. Perseus had decided an anklet holster would be better so he could have a concealed weapon and a knife easily accessible in a crouched position.

Perseus looked up at the sky and saw that it was around 8:00 PM, that had taken way longer than he expected, he really needs to start getting a better feel of time; for some reason, he felt as if that would happen whether he wanted it or not.

It was times like this, walking through the woods, with nobody but Zoë where he really reflected on his life. Sometimes he would find himself thinking about his friends from camp, but he wouldn't go back there. It was all too fresh, and besides, he liked it here. His life has always been a never ending war ever since he found out he was a demigod, even after the wars, he never had any peace in his life. But out here, there were no oracles, no wars, no gods assigning him impossible quests every other week. Only him and Zoë, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Percy was broken out of his thoughts when Zoë suddenly started sniffing the air, which usually indicated there was either an animal or monster nearby, judging from Zoe's relaxed stance, it was an animal. Soon enough she started bounding through the forest, at speeds even I couldn't keep up with. I soon caught up to her, only to find her with her teeth in the neck of a moose. I walked up to Zoë and started scratching her behind the ear, "Good job girl, let's get him cleaned up and then we can eat." Zoë started yapping happily, obviously loving all the praise she getting today, along with the petting.

After eating Percy had spent the rest of the night looking at the stars, Zoë laying on top of him and taking in the peacefulness of the night. This was his life now, and Percy wouldn't change for anything.