Percy's POV
"Your friend won't be waking for quite sometime, I apologise for that." - Clio
"What!?" My ears still ringing from the earlier screech, seeing her mouth something and then floating towards me with an echoing silence she holds out her hand, visibly taking a breath then blowing out some kind of dust between all of us. With the pain in my ears subsiding I slowly regain my hearing again, although I'm dizzy as hell still.
"I said he won't be getting up anytime soon, if you cannot carry him for your journey I can suggest you leaving him here with me if you desire it." She speaks out while the previous sword she was holding dissipates into the fog
"I'll be able to carry him without a problem" Athena calls out while approaching us two
"Ah, the child with cursed hair. It's a pleasure to meet once again" - Clio
"Cursed? My gift has been very helpful in my life" Athena awkwardly tries to defend herself
"Has it? Have you never been a victim of it's own will? Do the curses you all carry not have some sort of payment in exchange? I do believe that was the result of the Bound one's doing"
"I mean-I guess...but I've grown accept it since it's a part of me"
"If that's what you've lead yourselves to believe, so be it."
"Uh, Miss Queen?" I nervously call her attention
"Unruly one, call me Clio"
"My name is Percy, but back to my question. Why are you out here alone?"
"I'm not alone...this place has ties to realm my sisters have been sealed off into, around you and everything you touch. Is just a piece of imagination made up by the sleeping underworld"
"Sleeping?"
"It's ruler...hasn't been the same since the day the world opened. He placed a curse upon any who fall in the alignment of Megalo, a person who's become a slave to their own power and wishes to ascended further than their intended race."
"This shit is way too much at once and I quite literally just got my eardrums exploded so ignore me for the time being, I'm gonna go check on Thomas" Adam states while nearly pulling his hair out in stress, causing me to cringe at the thought of him hurting himself.
"I have to agree with Adam, but unlike him I thirst for this type of historical accuracy compared to the diluted shit in the books at our pack. I have so many questions-" Athena nearly mouth-watering at the chance for knowledge gets cut off by Clio
"Many questions, but I will not answer them all. I do this for the sake of my neutrality among the gods so forgive me. I'll allow you all one god related question each however."
"I guess I'll go first then...Thomas or whatever that was mentioned pure blood of the Bound one. What was he referring to" - Percy
"He was referring to you, next" - Clio
"WAIT! OKAY OKAY LET ME WORD IT MORE FAIRLY" I scream out making her giggle at my agitation, "I'll allow it, but note for the future of your questions that I will word my answer in accordance to what you ask" She smiles but with a rather fake tone to it
"What the hell is the Bound one that we keep reading and hearing about? much less me being a pure blood?"
"Reading? Oh, those books still remain intact after so long...my what a cryptic man he was. The formally or to be more correct, once again Bound God who fooled the one humans know as, The Hero. You're a direct descendent of his bloodline. As to how, you'll be able to ask the sole living elder of your kind who hasn't been a complete narcissist in telling the story of Old. I'm aware she still walks this earth, resisting death with each passing day. Next." Clio speaks out while her transparent eyes wandering my body unsettling me as I can't tell what part of me she's focusing on.
"Mind if I go first?" Athena asks Yasmine who's holding her ears, needing to heal them from the screech. But she just nods, still able to hear luckily.
"I apologise for your friend once again, I'll see if I can do something for her once you've completed your question."
"You mentioned Megalo being the people who lose control of their gifts and succumb to power. What would cause someone to pay a price so great they lose their life for the sake of that power?"
"An uprising is the best way I can put it, the world senses that along with the disappearances of the gods that there needs to be a new leader, one that can stand on top and challenge them. Nature itself is unbalancing and changing the rules, giving these mortals with diluted blood the chance at ascending. But they do that in certain failure, only those with a strong connection to the first bloodlines can contain something such as the power of a God. Laughable honestly, the weak attempts of these insects simply fuelling beasts of the underworld." Her tone growing cold and more sinister as she continues explaining.
"Two more questions, Girl in the back"
"Where can I get a huge slab of meat to eat" Yasmine plainly states
"There's animals in the forest, hunt" - Clio
"Yasmine" - Percy
"Ya?"
"Why"
"I'm hungry, don't get between a bitch and her meal"
"WE JUST ATE!"
"And? I. Am. Hungry"
"Okay, Clio. For the sake of wolf kind, ignore Yasmine's question please" - Percy
"No, next"
"You said these Beasts of the underworld cursed the blood of the Megalo, assuming this only happens once they've failed to ascend or whatever. Who are the beasts" Adam asks while earning Athena's surprised look, she clearly thinks so lowly of his attention span.
"The hierarchy of the underworld is one that even I sometimes fail to recall however: Hades and his wife Persephone. As well as Anubis and his wife, who are bound by the same fate as the rest of the gods and alone they left a very much alive Cerberus who remains there in wait for his masters' to return. Maintaining order with the power left behind by the souls of the dead but, the one who cursed the blood itself however, would be Anubis. This was an action done out of love that even I cannot fault him for."
"So if the Moon goddess was living in the heavens along with whoever the hell else, the ones you just mentioned living in the underworld. Then..." - Adam
"There were Gods reachable within even human hands, living among the world itself. If that's what you're trying to refer to, then yes."
"Well damn that sounds totally fair doesn't it" Yasmine calls out while sitting down and playing with some crunchy leaves under dead trees
"The world wasn't the same back then, nothing comparable to the one you know today. Count yourself lucky."
"Clio, mind if I ask how you know this all? You mentioned your sisters being sealed off, why weren't you" - Percy
"Child, I barely have a physical form if you've noticed. Do you believe aging would be a challenge for me?"
"Good point, but that doesn't answer why you're here and not...well...there" Yasmine points to the floor while shifting her feet knowing that was a pretty sensitive question.
"Because the day the world opened, everything collapsed on itself. It was kill or be killed and I made a deal with Cerberus in order to protect my kind. Now my only problem is while I can get to the underworld rather easy...I cannot enter through the gates as a living soul without his permission. And the dog hasn't been at those gates for quite sometime, worrying me for the worst although"
"We can go!" - Percy
"PERCY WE CAN ABSOLUTELY NOT GO!" Athena smacks my head as I plummet to the ground
"You wholeheartedly deserved that" Adam backs her up, damn siblings.
"I appreciate the offer, however as I said no living thing can go there without his saying. Unless you have an ulterior method that I'm unaware of." - Clio
"No...I'm sorry for immediately jumping to hope, but if we come across-" Athena interrupts me mid sentence
"I don't wanna sound like the overly confident idiot who wants to jump to their death, but...I've heard of a gift that was capable of projection rather than your physical body, although this person was hunted down for the uniqueness of it being able to near enough possess someone" - Athena
"Um, while you do sound crazy. Didn't we just see Thomas go all psychotic on us?" Yasmine blandly tells us, giving us the dreadful realisation of what we need to do if we were to help this lost Queen.
"I refuse to believe they're the same person as this Hero due to the very obvious time gap, but what are the chances two people are born with the same additional gift?" - Athena
"This Hero fucker again? Why is everything tying back to him? Why the fuck isn't he dead yet after supposed Eons have passed? Was he not a mere human?" Adam frantically expresses as he asks question after question
"I apologise for the trouble and I do believe you should continue your venture before attempting to go out of your way for me, but if you're going to look for him then believe me. So long as you have Percy, he's the one who will find you"
"Why me?"
"Call it, a rivalry through ages...and I cannot express this enough Percy, you will die to that abomination."
"Abomination? What happened to the foolish human hero?" Athena asks
"Human history was lost along with it's weak race, he abandoned the world he knew in order to take revenge on another. Now enough with the questions, I'll be here once you've returned from what needs to be done, good luck." Clio fades back into the fog with ease, dematerialising into the surroundings much like her sword.
"Well that was sudden" Yasmine states the obvious
"I mean we were quite literally bombarding her with questions, we got lucky she didn't just kill us out of annoyance." - Adam
"I'm not sure, she seemed happy talking to us. I imagine it gets lonely here, with her people gone and all..." - Percy
"So can we now continue to this pack with the thought that some old posthuman thing is now on our tails to get Percy?" Athena states, unintentionally making me feel sick to the stomach...my death being predicted not helping in the slightest, all I can do is deny fate.