A/N
Sorry for the lack of updates. If you didn't know, I had surgery last Friday and I'm still recovering. I should be back to normal soonish, but I don't like to give 'status updates' without an actual upload, so I just did another Spooder chapter since it was easier.
[Line Break]
The time before a quest tended to make the camp a bit tense.
Usually, it was for preparation, picking both supplies and people, and choosing carefully what to take and whom to take to trust your back to.
It was a known fact that for the majority of quests, not everyone made it back alive.
Glory and riches await you, but only for those that could grasp them.
The campers had been brought up with a reverence for quests. It was their purpose, the reason they trained, to one day venture out and let their name be passed down in legends.
At least, that's what they had been told and made to believe since the first day they stepped into the camp.
When a new quest was announced, it sent a fervor through all of them. Likewise, when it was announced that the questers had already been confirmed, a lot of them were not particularly happy that they hadn't had a chance themselves.
Jealously or otherwise, they felt it was unfair.
But for the most part, their reverence was still retained.
All for two of the campers.
"Did you get a bite yet?"
"Only a nibble."
Percy and Arachne were sitting on the dock, fishing, while everyone else was worrying over a quest that the vast majority of them weren't even going to partake in.
Mordred sat not far away; rather, she also had a pole propped up, but she was lying down, resting her eyes with her head supported by her hands.
Mr. Blueberry was sleeping nearby as well.
"Because of your dad, you can feel the fish, right?" Arachne asked.
"If I focus, I sort of can? Like, I can feel them swimming through the water." Percy responded. "I can talk to fish too; I found that out recently."
"...Are you able to ask them to bite the hook?"
Percy blinked, not having thought of that. He focused on a fish he found near his hook. "Hey, can you put that metal thing in front of you?"
Arachne could tell she wasn't talking to her.
Immediately, his fishing pole bobbed, and he jerked it before reeling it in. It was a good-sized fish, all things considered, but…
"I feel kind of shitty if I do it that way. Kind of feels like cheating?" Percy scratched his head.
"Yeah, it's not a fair thing to cheat an animal you capture unless you're desperate." Arachne nodded. "It's a neat thing, though."
Percy grinned. "Yeah, it's pretty cool."
"There you guys are!"
Both Percy and Arachne recognized the voice.
Annabeth came all but running over. "Do you have any idea how long we've been looking for you?"
Both of them just shrugged.
"We're heading out on the Quest soon! Where's your stuff?"
"What stuff?" Percy asked.
"For the quest!" Annabeth held back the scream in her head. She was already stressed, but seeing them not even ready made her almost lose her temper. "You need supplies! We have no idea what we're going to face out there!"
"I got here like three days ago, and I literally brought only the clothes on my back." Percy responded. "What exactly do you expect me to bring?"
Annabeth faltered because it was a reasonable response, even if it wasn't something she wanted to hear.
"Do they not give you supplies for the quest?" Arachne asked in confusion.
"Well, no…..they expect us to prepare ourselves." She answered.
"That's dumb." Arachne scoffed. "Someone stole Zeus's thingy, and he won't even give everyone basic camping supplies to go find it?"
The sky above rumbled slightly as Annabeth unconsciously trembled. "Don't just say his name like that!"
Arachne scoffed again. "Dumb, dumb, dumb."
Annabeth cautiously looked up at the sky and breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't boom again. "You can't just…you need to be more respectful to the gods." She hissed under her breath.
"Wasting your breath, kid." Mordred spoke up without even opening her eyes. "She grew up throwing her spear at any god in the vicinity. She's kicked Odin in the balls on multiple occasions."
Annabeth's face contorted oddly, but she found herself speechless looking at her half-sister.
Arachne grinned. "He wouldn't give me his spear."
That answered nothing for her and just deepened her confusion towards her half-sister.
"Don't worry, Percy. I got plenty of stuff I can share. My Da always told me to have more than I would need in case I lose something or have someone with me." Arachne nodded to herself.
Mordred just snorted. "Your dad is a hoarder, and he passed that on to you."
Annabeth wanted to input, but she recalled how her strange half-sister had that 'space' of hers that could store things inside.
"Just…meet at the Big House in ten minutes; we're getting ready to leave." Annabeth sighed, finally walking away.
"She sounded stressed. Is a Quest that big of a deal?" Percy put his fishing pole down. "I mean, besides the obvious, like…big deal about it. Is it dangerous? Should I be worried?"
Mordred let out a grunt as she got up onto her feet. "Honestly, don't worry too much about it. Stick near the brat and you should be fine. It'll be a good experience for you, though. If worse comes to worse, that dumbass can call one of her parents if she gets into trouble with something even she can't handle."
"I ain't calling Mum or Da!" Arachne puffed her cheeks.
Mordred rolled her eyes. "Come on, brat, I'm going to head out."
"Aww, big sis." Arachne pouted. "Are you sure you don't want to come? You don't have to do anything; just come with…"
Mordred playfully punched Arachne's shoulder. "You're the one who wanted to come here to play around. Me being here kind of defeats the purpose."
"Fine, hug." Arachne held her arms open.
Mordred rolled her eyes but relented nonetheless. "I won't tell your parents what you've been up to, at least the details. Just try not to be like your dad and cause trouble for a lark."
"No promises."
[Line Break]
"Percy and Arachne, I'm glad you two can make it." Chiron greeted the duo as they joined everyone else at the big house.
Annabeth, Luke, and even Zoë were there.
Zoë began glaring at her the moment she walked into the building. "Art thou truly bringing thy beast along on a quest?!" She pointed at Mr. Blueberry, who floated—swam—right behind them.
"He's my best friend; of course he's coming." Arachne huffed, crossing her arms.
"Moooo!" The Ophiotaurus agreed.
"Alright kids, no dismissing the Blueberry; he's coming with." Dionysus walked into the room.
Arachne smiled smugly.
"I hope you've all prepared." Chiron looked over them. "This is by no means a simple quest." He swept his gaze over all of them. "To prevent war, the Symbol of the King of Gods must be returned before the Winter Solstice."
"Question." Arachne raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"Do I get a reward if I return it?"
"...I'm sure that Lord Zeus will be most gracious with the rewards given." He cleared his throat. "Now, you all will journey west from the Camp."
"West where?" Percy asked.
"West."
"....."
"Don't try hurting yourself thinking about it too much, fish boy." Dionysus spoke up. "The Fates will guide your steps."
"Then what if we go east?" Arachne asked.
"Then I would enjoy a good show." He snorted.
"Enough!" Zoë scowled. "Thou wilt follow along without complaint. You and the boy will follow my orders as we complete this quest."
Arachne and Percy shared a look, and both of them scrunched their noses.
"Go fuck yourself." Arachne raised her middle finger. "You're not the boss of me."
Zoë's face went bright red. "Listen here, you—"
Percy popped the pen in his hand, and it quickly turned into a sword.
Arachne took out her spear and pointed it at her.
Zoë paused because she could see that they were serious.
"Woah, woah, guys!" Luke got between them. "Can we not fight among ourselves before we even start the quest?"
"Children." Chiron said in a stern voice. "Put your weapons down. You are in the presence of a god; behave yourselves."
"Oh no, don't stop on my account." Mr. D waved his hand. "I give my permission and encouragement to keep going. If someone doesn't get skewered by a spear by the end of today, I'll consider this quest a boring one."
"Zoë, you're not leading this question." Chiron shot her a look.
"Chiron." "Zoë," the woman said in a low voice. "Dost thou expect me to listen to the orders of these children?"
"You can just not come." Arachne rolled her eyes.
"I am ordered by my goddess to keep an eye on you." Zoë glared at her again. "Thy experience is lacking. It is only logical that I should take leadership."
"No one even wants you here." Arachne pointed out.
Zoë's nostrils flared at the brazen disrespect. But in the same vein, she sort of had a point. At the end of the day, Arachne and Percy were the ones who 'accepted' the question, and it was tradition for the Quester to choose who accompanies them.
Granted, Chiron was being authoritative here, dictating who was going, but that didn't mean that Zoë could use that as an excuse to usurp control.
Chiron let out a long sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew that this was going to end in a headache. "Zoë, you're being allowed to accompany them as a courtesy. This isn't your quest."
The huntress scowled but didn't argue.
"Arachne, Percy. You both…or rather one of you, is the Quester, so you both can choose who's in charge."
"I have no idea what I'm doing." Percy said honestly.
"And I don't really care about the quest." Arachne said as well.
Chiron resisted the urge to facepalm.
"Just…please complete the quest and try not to kill each other."
"Fine." Arachne grumbled.
Chiron let out a long breath. "Annabeth, I think I can trust you with these." He handed over a pair of slippers with wings on them. "A gift from Lord Hermes for the purpose of completing the quest."
"Thank you, Chiron." And she looked up and bowed her head. "Thank you, Lord Hermes."
"Ah, no fair. I want flying sandals too!" Arachne pouted.
"I don't think it's a wise idea for you to take to the skies at this time." Chiron looked at her. "The King is…not in a good mood."
"Yeah, Pops might use that as an excuse to throw some lightning." Dionysus added.
"What? You're telling me I'm not allowed to fly?" Arachne asked in confusion.
Mr. D shrugged. "The skies are dear old Father's domain. Unless you use something like a Pegasus that has 'permission,' then he has an excuse to shoot."
"What do you mean, permission?"
"Well, it's a flying horse. It has wings." Dionysus said rather flippantly. "That means it's 'allowed' in the sky."
"A got wings too." Her devil wings popped out from behind her.
The room went silent.
"Cool wings!" Percy was the one to break it.
"A…thank you…" Arachne blushed a little.
"Ahem." Chiron cleared his throat. "Arachne, would you please put away your…wings?"
Dionysus just let out a laugh. "Yeah, Pops is going to get pissed off later, and I'm all for it."
"Question." Percy said this time. "Why isn't Luke using the shoes? Isn't that his dad?"
"I already got a pair." Hermes said casually.
"Speaking of, there's one more gift." Chiron spoke up. "A gift from Lady Athena." It was a pair of glasses; they looked rather plain at first glance. "Annabeth, you take these too."
Arachne crossed her arms with a huff.
"They allow you to see through illusions and the Mist."
"Thank you, Mother." Annabeth said politely.
"Alright, all the boring stuff is out of the way." Dionysus cracked open a fresh can of beer. "For your transportation, I'm lending my car.'
"Lord Dionysus!? Chiron blurted out as his eyes widened.
"I know, I know. It's incredibly selfless of me; I'm a merciful god. If it's not back in one piece, you brats willbe the new car, got it?" Dionysus looked at them.
Chiron was silent.
It was the first time he had ever seen Dionysus let one of the campers use his car. Usually, if they even looked at it, he could have sent them flying into the lake.
He kept it far away from the campers.
He called it his baby.
"And of course, the only person here I can trust with it—"
Zoë perked up.
"The little spider." He tossed the keys to Arachne.
"A will take good care of it." She nodded.
Chiron let out a long-suffering sigh. "Do you know how to drive?"
"A am a good driver!" Arachne puffed up her chest.
For some reason, Chiron had a strange feeling as she said that.
[Line Break]
Ares sat on this throne in quiet contemplation.
The others were there; they were arguing as usual, so it wasn't quite as quiet as he would like, but it was hard to slip away while they were all gathered.
He was in a bit of a dilemma.
There was now a prophecy given, and a quest undertaken to find his father's lightning bolt.
The only problem was that Ares was the one with the lightning bolt.
Frankly, he couldn't even remember why he took it in the first place. He was fairly sure it had something to do with the Hermes kid on the Quest as well.
Was he drunk enough to convince the kid to steal it and not remember in the morning?
The thing is, he usually doesn't drink that much.
Ever since he got that slap of light from when his cabin got sanctified, it felt like his mind had unclouded a bit. Now, it was like he could think more clearly, and his first thought afterwards was why the Tartarus did he steal Pop's Lightningbolt.
Sure, he'd love a nice big war between his father and Barnacle Beard.
But it was phenomenally stupid to do what he did.
It would have come out eventually that he had it on him, and his dad was not the forgiving sort. He didn't want his own version of laying the bricks for Troy's walls.
For the life of him, he just couldn't remember why he took it in the first place.
Which left him in a bit of a pickle.
Now that there was a quest to retrieve it, that meant fate would conspire to reveal the current thief. Which…was him, rather unfortunately.
So, he had to do something.
He needed to get a patsy.
The most obvious thing to do would be to blame Poseidon's brat, but…he seemed close with the girl, and despite everything, Ares liked her. He didn't want to screw her over by association here. And trying to stuff it back in the hands of Hermes' kid would also sort of get her on the right side of his father's lightning too.
He didn't like to owe anyone a favor, but…he may make an exception in this case.
The girl probably would take it off him, no questions asked, and pretend she found it if he asked her to, right?
Well, what's the worst that could happen if he gave it to her?
[Line Break]
A/N
The Spooder Quest begins.
If you want to read 2 chapters ahead of this omake, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name