When My Mother Beat an Immortal
Percy POV.
We moved.
Yeah, that sounds great. Right?
A nice house with a fairly large backyard. And the incredible number of four bedrooms. A dining room, a kitchen, and even a workshop. That would have been unthinkable in the past, but now… now we have money. I mean, quite a lot of money. Thanks to my master. Even though it is really not easy to exchange that much gold, it was enough for us to move somewhere quieter. More our own. No noisy neighbors… or well, I guess you could say we are the noisy neighbors. And it really does not help much when you have an anvil in the middle of the dining room.
You might be wondering why the hell you would have something like that in a small apartment. Well… that is another thing that changed in my life, aside from all the other things that had already changed, obviously. And that is that now I have a companion. A disciple.
I glanced to the side as I set down the box that held some of my things, staring at a guy slightly taller than me and quite a bit more robust. He had more boxes in his arms, filled with rather eye catching things. But what stood out the most was his eye. Yes, his eye. Just one. I mean… a cyclops.
He looked at me for a moment and put on a kind of silly smile that, for some reason, always caused me a slight annoyance whenever he did it.
Meanwhile, my master. The most powerful being I know, the one who even stood up to Zeus himself, was currently arguing with my mother. An argument that, in reality, had been going on for quite a while. Even before we moved.
"They have to go to school. There is no doubt about that. Do you really want two children of school age to just spend their entire lives training and hitting metal all day? What about college, about their future?" my mother said, standing straight in front of Miraak, as if she did not even fear that this man could kill a normal person with a single breath.
And he really can. His breaths are… something else.
"Woman, do you know who you are talking to?" Miraak said, somewhat amused. The truth is, when he cannot win an argument with my mother, he always ends up saying the same thing. With that intimidating air that really makes your skin crawl.
But my mother, unmoved, remained standing right in front of him, without fear. Which was surprising, because I would already be apologizing. I would not even dare raise my voice at my master. That would only mean my death. Or a beating. Luckily, it almost always ends up being the second.
"I do not care who you are, or if you are a Viking god, a Norse god, or whatever. They will go to school like normal people. They can train in their free time. You always say that knowledge is power, and that Percy, in that regard, is the weakest. Then all the more reason for him to go to school," my mother said calmly.
That hurt a little. My mother is supposed to be defending me… right? Because, honestly, it does not feel like it.
The fact that I still struggle with reading is not my fault. It is my ancestry's fault.
"And if they do not go to school, then you teach them yourself. You are their master, right? And you have vast knowledge," she added, staring at him directly.
My master's face, which at this point looked like that of a king being insulted, shifted its gaze from Sally, then to me, and then to that new disciple named Tyson.
"Do whatever you want," he said, before turning into mist and disappearing right in front of my mother.
Wait.
Does that mean my mother won?
Maybe my sense of power levels is a bit messed up, but now I am wondering if my mother is stronger than Zeus.
As I watched my mother's victorious smile, proud and happy, I pushed those silly thoughts out of my head.
It seems I am going to school.
I do not know whether to feel happy or not. From a good point of view, I will not have to endure that Spartan… no, Norse, training all day long. On the bad side, a school full of teenagers.
"Great," was the only thing I could say.
Deep down, I was really hoping my master would win the argument. I mean, I literally saw him swallow a lightning bolt. Apparently, he is weak against my mother.
"Your training will be twice as harsh to make up for the time wasted on that thing called school," a voice suddenly echoed. Something that only Tyson and I heard, apparently.
For a moment I considered calling for help from my mother, but inside I felt that would be the last thing I should do. So all that is left is to suffer.
Double great.
I looked back at Tyson for a moment and let out a sigh, remembering how suddenly he had entered our lives. The smell of hot metal still seemed stuck in my memory, even now.
…
Flashback.
Percy stepped out of the taxi with a genuinely cheerful smile, regardless of what had happened at the camp in the end. Luke's betrayal. The attempt on his life. The fact that he let the campers who joined Luke's revolt escape. Or… well, it seems there were a lot of "ors."
Percy stepped down and looked toward the building while he took in the smell of his home. The smoke from passing cars. The garbage in the streets. The hot dog stand on the corner.
"Home, sweet home," he said as he ran toward the entrance without hesitation.
As he walked through the building's hallways, straight toward his apartment, Percy began to hear a pounding sound that grew louder and louder the closer he got. He could hear annoyed neighbors shouting and grumbling from inside their apartments.
And before Percy realized it, he was standing right in front of the door from which all that noise seemed to be coming.
He stared at the door for a moment, as well as the number on it. Right. It was his apartment. And the noise was coming from right there.
Percy turned around and saw several people sprawled on the floor, unconscious. If he remembered correctly, one of them was the annoying neighbor next door. The one who always complained about the slightest bit of noise. The one Gabe seemed a little afraid of, since he was a massive biker bear of a man, nothing less. The only person capable of making Gabe shut up when he got too unbearable.
Although, well, it was obvious Gabe would not be afraid of that man anymore.
Judging by how he was lying there, it was clear someone had hit him in the chin. And by the mark, it looked like it had been done with a finger. And there was only one person capable of doing something like that.
Percy opened the door.
The heat hit him head on, making him step back half a pace almost by reflex.
The second thing was the sound of metal being struck, sparks flying everywhere. He also noticed the carpet was partially burned. The same carpet his mother had punished him over several times when he came out of the shower wet and did not dry himself properly.
Then he lifted his gaze.
He saw his master, Miraak, standing with his arms crossed, watching a somewhat tall young man hammering red hot metal over an anvil.
"Enough," Miraak said, stopping him.
He stepped closer and took the glowing sword that was being forged. He examined it for a moment before shaking his head.
"You still have a long way to go," he said, before snapping it in half and tossing it back into the furnace to be melted down again.
Percy, who genuinely did not know how to start speaking, remained frozen there, his throat dry and his body tensing without him even realizing it. He looked at the young man, who had only one eye. He did not even react to draw a sword. He was a cyclops. Percy was too shocked by the sight of his apartment wall completely blackened by the furnace, and by how the entire place was an absolute mess. Pieces of metal everywhere, burned objects, remnants of firewood… firewood?
"Master, I am back," Percy said, still unable to leave his state of surprise.
Miraak glanced at him slightly, nodded, and ignored him again, making the young man pull another piece of red hot metal from the furnace to strike it again with the hammer.
At that moment, hurried footsteps could be heard approaching the apartment. The door burst open and Sally rushed in with an expression of complete confusion, worry, and panic.
"The building manager called me and told me that…," she began, but she froze just like her son when she saw all the chaos and destruction. The metals, the burned objects, the wall, the carpet… and then, Miraak.
And well, it could be said that it was the first time Percy ever saw an immortal get scolded by his mother.
Somehow, he himself ended up standing next to his master and the new boy, whom Miraak introduced as his new apprentice, all three of them being scolded at the same time.
It really seemed easier to face monsters and gods than an angry mother.
…
…
Author's note:
Well, we are starting the second arc in a somewhat fun way, haha. I hope you like it.
Now yes, as you already know, it is time to begin with the book The Sea of Monsters. I stopped almost at the end of the book. The reason? I also started rereading Harry Potter… again. But I have all the ideas clear.
Another thing I have been doing is watching the series, which is honestly great and has many changes made by Riordan himself, apparently. Changes that give it a different touch that I like quite a lot.
Now I do not know whether to base myself strictly on the books or add things from the series. I will most likely do both.