An Old Son

I tapped my cane around to find my way through the forest. Leaves would grow where my cane touched the soft soil ground. I slowly made my way through the forest, making sure not to trip on any roots along my way. My eyes closed and I continued through the forest not knowing where I am headed, only knowing that I want to wonder.

After a few miles of wandering, I started to hear the noise of battle. Monsters fighting with demi-gods. Or humans fighting amongst each other. I couldn't tell, all I knew were the shouts of pain caused by battle. But after some more wondering I smelled the scent of monster dust in the wind.

When smelling the monster dust, I started to head a little off, not wanting any part to get in contact with any of the demi-gods. I left that life long ago. I only help people if ordered by mother or a favor that I owe. I continued through the forest, gently tapping my cane on roots causing new plants to sprout along the roots of those trees giving me vision that I no longer have.

The soft crunch of leaves brings me comfort as I journey along to the unknown. After another half-mile of peace, a cyclops felt the need to get into my way. I didn't feel the need to learn the looks of my foe other than his race. The cyclops tried to jump at me, but when he got close to me an old blind man the tree's roots came alive.

Their roots grabbed the ankle of this cyclops and the smaller roots connected to it started to enter his calves and snake around under his skin like worms. Slowly causing him to die an agonizing death as they trailed around the insides of his body.

I left the area before I could witness more of the screams of pain of the cyclops that wanted to eat me. Then I continued on with my branch of a cane tapping on trees and roots causing more plants to sprout around the forest. I walked around a mile from where the cyclops died and started to rest. The trees came around me in a protective manner and I fell asleep. I woke up in a rush as I found bows pointed at me from a few teen girls.

"State your purpose for being in this forest." "I am merely a wanderer in these woods." "Liar," She shouted back at me. I could only shake my head at the anger and rashness of this child. "I will tell you again I am only a wanderer and don't mean any harm." Another girl showed up in the woods and she also pointed her bow at me.

"What is your name wanderer," and the word wanderer was spoken with so much contempt and venom, that I was unsure of my response for a while till she repeated herself in a harsher tone. "Oh, my name is John. Just John." "Okay John follow us and see Lady Artemis to see what to do with you." I held out my hand to be lead, but none of them took it. I could only have a generic area of where they were, not an exact location. So, it was better for me to be led around.

 After a few minutes of me holding my hand out one of the finally took the message and took my hand. She tried to drag me at a fast pace, but I made sure to make her go rather slow and take my time getting there. This angered her as she continuously pulled harder and harder the longer I was talking. "Lets go, we have to see Lady Artemis." I shook my head and continued at a slow and jolly pace.

We got there and the one that took my hand was pulling hard enough to rip a normal mans arm out of the socket, and continued to do so till we reached a camp where I was dragged to a tent. I slowly made my way through the camp site with more girls pulling out their bows and aiming their arrows at me. A poor defenseless old man.

Anyway, I entered the tent and found a little girl with a deer in her lap, who she was petting at the time. "So, you are the one that my hunters have been talking about," she said in a confident but gentle tone. "Yes madam, I do believe that it is the case as some of them are rather rude to me while I was in the camp." She raised her eyebrow as if I could see it. But I don't think she realized that I am a blind mad. But the staff and how I still haven't opened my eyes should have given it away.

"Open your eyes," she asked in a commanding tone. Not seeing an issue with showing my eyes I opened them, for my milky eyes to be shown to her showing that I am in face at blind man and cannot see. "And why were you wondering the forest at this time of night?" "Did your hunters not tell you?" "Tell me what." "That I am a wanderer."

Her face went from thinking her hunters didn't tell her something important to a deadpan. "And what do you want me to do with that information." "I want you to take me to camp half-blood." "Why would I do that? We're in Washington! Olympic National Park to be specific." "Oh, so all the way across the country. I could have sworn that I was in Florida, how did I reach here???" the old man said with confusion on his face.

"How did you get lost? It's 3,000 miles away." "Um, I took a little walk in the wrong direction." "So, you started to walk in the wrong direction and instead of walking 1,100 miles you walked 3,000 miles." "I must've taken a wrong turn, er turns somewhere." Her face started to heat up and turned carmine. "You stupid man. How did you take that many wrong turns?" "I don't know, but I did." Her face started to calm down and the color started to go down.

"Just how. I'm still amazed that you were able to get that lost." "Well, I am a blind man. That might have something to do with it." Looking shameful that she had forgotten the fact because shortly after she saw his eyes he had closed them again.

"Well, I'll point you in the right direction." And we exited the tent, and she physically pointed my body in the direction of the long island. After about fifteen feet of walking, I found a flower that was struggling in the grass. It was drooping, so I tapped it with my cane, causing me to rotate about 45° from where I was. Keep in mind that I am fifteen feet from the camp site, so the hunters can see every move that I am making, and Artemis was watching me because she slammed her hand at the back of my head.

"Why did you turn?" "The flower." I say while pointing my cane at the flower who had just come back to life. Her eyes softened and I continued to walk in the wrong direction. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me back from the direction in the forest I was going to go. She pulled me back to the original direction. I started walking again.

In the direction that she sent me off in. After that I found a little black bear that needed saving. I couldn't do anything to help the bear other than to wrap the little thing in calendula and other healing plants, which was the best I could do. Then I continued on my way tapping my cane around me.

And I continued throughout the country with the hunters of Artemis following me. I reached camp half-blood after about 6 weeks of walking I reached long island. And before I entered camp half-blood I turned around. I grinned, then spoke, "Thank you for your escort, but I think I can handle it from here as I touched the dying pine tree. My hand started to turn purple, and a sickening sizzling noise started to come from my hand.

My hand started to hurt quite badly, so I removed it from the tree. I felt the hand that touched the tree started to bubble and shake from blisters that were forming. As they popped the blisters started to spread. Without hesitation a root came out of the ground and cut off my arm. It fell to the ground and grew into a cuscata but grew till it was able to wrap around the base of the pine tree. Causing the base to be covered in white stringy root things.

Then, a branch burst out of my arm. Then the bark started to fall off which felt like peeling a giant scab off and having it drenched in acid. "Aaaaah," I screamed never being able to get used to this pain. After my scream of bloody murder, the campers on patrol came to see me, me, an eyeless old man screaming for some reason.

I fell face first leaning over my cane for support and ended up falling into camper's hands. They took me to the nursery. I awoke the next day, the sun shining onto my face. A teen came to me, "Oh, you're awake. I didn't expect you to wake for another day at least," he said to me. I Groggily got up from the bed. The blond-haired kid tried to hold me down to the bed for me to get more rest, but I am old man that has almost reached my time.

There is no need for such concern. He looked at me with pity and I chuckled. "How can you laugh?" "You a little young man compared to me, an old soul. And I can't help but laugh at the pity you are giving me for some reason that I can't comprehend."

"Tantalus who has replaced Chiron and is running the camp into the ground." "Is that what you are worried about. Some random sinner from Tartarus is making amess of the camp. That's it? When I was your age, I had to kill the members of the big three."

He looked at me in fear and shock. "Why would you kill them?" "Okay look kid this was around WW2. Hades' kids started the war and Zeus' and Poseidon's children also got involved making it get a little messy. So Zues told a group of demi-gods that I happened to be apart of to start to kill our own because they were too powerful."

"Bu-bu, they-" "Did you think that they died on their own? No, Zeus had to get a group of demi-gods to kill our own due to ancient laws of non-interference or some other bullshit," I say in a hateful yet tragic tone of voice. After having this epiphany, he looked at me in even more pity then before. "Yeah, now you know who I am and what I have done. So, about Tantalus, what's his deal. Like what's he done?"

"There have been some incidents with his rage. He takes it out on the campers. Some attempted rape on both genders. Then some torcher of everyone." "And why haven't you killed the guy?" "We can't because he is the camp director that was chosen by Lord Zeus himself." "So?" "Well, he'll smite us or curse us if we don't do as he wants like from the myths or something worse." "Wait, you fear the big sky fart because he'll curse or kill you? Being a demi-god has those risks. I mean even living to thirty is a huge win."

The little demi-god seemed to be getting his courage back till a man in a leopard print shirt came in with a drunken walk. "And who is the newest *hic* camper?" He asked with a drunken tone.

"The drunk god?" I asked in a confused tone. He squinted at me with his drunk bloodshot eyes. Then as if he forgot about asking my name, he jumped onto one of the beds and started to snore. After the god fell onto the bed, I got up out of the bed and took my cane from the bed post. I left the little hospital and started to walk amongst the strawberry fields with satyrs using their pipe flutes to makes them go crazy.

I started to brush my cane on the side of the plants between each step which caused the ones that I touched. To grow strawberries if they weren't there and if they were they would become a delicious red.

My journey continued throughout this sanctuary for half-bloods. When finished looking throughout the fields I checked the cabins. I could get a vision of the cabins looking like shity summer camp cabins from the roots running through underneath each of them. It made me sad that the gods didn't take better care of their kids after all they would be sending them on stupid quests for no reason the least, they could do is give their kids a good place to live.

And this ended up being my routine for the next week. Then at about 11 am lots of campers shouted about how Percy Jackson is dead, and we should prepare for war against some kid named Luke. I continued to walk throughout the fields. That's when the glass like barrier that remained was smashed through by group after group of monsters and other demi-gods.

Monsters grabbed and smashed and melted through demi-gods while demi-gods used their weapons to slice and slash through the monsters and fellow demi-gods. Satyrs used their flutes to cause roots to come from the ground. Dryads and Naiads came from trees and the lake and started causing more mayhem in the battle.

Mr. D and Tantalus watched from the porch of the big house like it was a show. I couldn't tell what the hell was happening or who was on what side other than the monsters were not good, so more roots and branches came down and started to kill the monsters that came. The hydra started to shoot out acid and one of the dumber kids cut off the heads causing it to grow another pair back.

Roots from me came from my feet and entered the body of the hydra, slowly infecting it with my roots. They snaked around the veins and blood absorbing it till it turned to dust. The kid who cut it's head off thought it was him as the neck that he cut the head off from was moving around strangely then it turned to dust.

But didn't have much time to celebrate as more monsters continued to come in. More roots came from the ground and naiads attacked with smaller waves repeatedly, that continued and ended up looking like a tsunami. The roots from my feet started to absorb the water and grew a giant sunflower that started to shoot out a giant yellow laser from it. 

Hitting the monsters and wiping out some of the incoming wave that includes a few packs of cyclops, the minotaur, and some snake people. The demi-gods and monsters started to look around the battlefield to find who was the one that created the giant sunflower that shot a giant laser. But with the water that was in abundance from the naiads allowed me to shoot again, killing more monsters.

But each time I used the sunflower it cost extreme amounts of energy, as well as it sucks out the humidity out of the soil. Which is why I only do it if there is a water source that is stable near by or there is enough humidity in the soil. I fell to my knees after doing the laser move. My cane dove into the ground saving my knees from dying at the force of my fall.

I was done with my participation in this battle right now. Or till I get my lost energy back. The battle continued about evenly until I heard a giant explosion. The titan of Heat, Light and Power Hyperion showed up and started to tilt the odds.

I got up slowly and pulled my old bones for another battle. Grabbing my cane, I leaned heavily on it as I moved towards the titan of light. After a stroll I made it to the spot where Hyperion was wreaking havoc. He wasn't killing demi-gods as it wasn't allowed except for those that have challenged him because of the ancient laws.

The first attack came from me slamming my cane into the ground. As a result, lots of roots came from the ground. I started to use my own blood vessels to wrap around the feet to lock him it and he tore them, so I added and made them thicker, so it was more difficult for him to break them. Then they continued up his body and started to move him toward the pine tree.

I started to wrap around his neck, and he pulled and tore my blood vessel roots, which continued to wrap around his neck repeatedly. This continued until his neck was at the base of the tree where the cuscata was. My body started to slowly move towards him as my blood vessels continued to wrap and trap him to the tree.

I reached him and gave him a hug then my body slowly started to turn into bark entrapping his body and merging it with the sick cursed tree. Slowly we merged into the tree and the monsters were taken out and the rogue demi-gods as well. I slowly merged into the tree with the titan and my last words are, "Goodbye Mother," With a single tear running down my face. 

When we both finished merging with the tree the barrier which was becoming flakey and worthless shot out with a golden glow. The barrier was nourished with the very essence of the titan. As a result ruining the attack on camp half-blood.