A Cat Problem

A slim stream flowed through the shades of towering trees, the soft crash of water filling Percy’s ears. Sunlight poked through the gaps in the leaves, gleaming on Riptide’s edge, its bronze sheen reflecting against the water.

Percy slowly trudged by the stream, peering through the huddle of trunks, straining his ears

A flash of silver caught his eye and he spun, the riptide cleaving the silver arrow in two. Its pieces fell on the ground near his feet and he looked up in the branches, a grin spreading across his face. 

“Fancy meeting you here, Thals. I thought pine trees couldn’t be here in this region.” 

Thalia leaped down the branches, the sunlight catching upon the silver tiara nestled in her black hair. “How long have you kept that one in your bank, Fishy?”

“For a while, I guess.” Percy leaned against the tree, fist-bumping Thalia, frowning as she swept her braid over her shoulder. “You know? You’re really starting to copy Zoe’s look now. The tiara, the bow, the hair… She’d be very smug right now.”

Thalia raised her middle finger and Percy barked out a laugh.

“What’re you doing here, Kelpy?” Thalia scowled. “I thought you were supposed to be in New Rome, attending College.”

“Semester ended last week. Thank the gods. Even with all of the demigod-oriented stuff they have, it is worse than Hades to sit through a lecture. I would know. I’ve been to the underworld like ten times now. And exams are even worse.”

Thalia shuddered slightly. “Better you than me. I would never sit through another exam and I am glad for it.”

“Not all of us get to join the hunt.”

“Artemis has offered it to you. She says you’d make a lovely maiden… or maybe not now.” She waggled her eyebrows and Percy rolled his eyes.

“Real mature, Thunderbug. Real mature.” Percy snorted. “Now, what are you doing here?”

“I asked you that first,” Thalia said. “But I think we both know what we’re here for. The Nemean Lion.”

Percy’s head snapped toward her. “Wait, the monster’s the Nemean Lion?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No! Grover said there’s a monster that is scaring Nymphs and spirits here and he needed it taken care of. He didn’t tell me what monster it was. If I had known, I’d have bought some astronaut food. And archers.”

“I am an archer,” Thalia said and Percy raised an eyebrow, eyeing the broken pieces of arrows at his feet. Thalia scowled. “I may be better with my spear, but I know archery too. I am blessed by Artemis, remember?”

“I’ve seen you use a bow a grand total of three times. And none in actual battle. Also, would you use a bow rather than your spear against the Nemean Lion? Please.”

Thalia shrugged. “Fair, I suppose.”

Percy’s eye drifted over her shoulder, spotting three deep claw marks on a trunk, a sick feeling churning in his gut. “I think we’re nearby. The claw marks…”

“I saw them too. Then, I heard your footsteps and went up in the tree.” Thalia scrutinized him. “Next time you’re on a hunt, try to be quieter. You’re incredibly noisy and you’ll scare the prey away.”

“Funny. I thought being noisy attracts monsters to me. If they don’t know I’m already here, that is. For them, I am a feast, or so I’m told.”

“And with both of us here, we would be attracting any monster with half a mind.” A smirk curled on her lips. “Including the Nemean lion. So, we might not even need to find it. Just wait for it to come to us.”

“Yep. Annabeth told me to stick close to the stream or a lake in case the trouble’s too much. That’s what I’m doing.”

“Where’s she?”

“On Olympus, designing a palace for some god. She’s been on it for the past month, taking weekly trips there.” He sighed. “Why do gods even need palaces? Do they even sleep?”

“I’ve never seen Lady Artemis sleep. But she drives the moon chariot at night, so I can’t even be sure. And I’m not asking her either.”

The leaves rustled behind them and they whirled around, squinting in the distance.

“How hard should it be to spot a bull-sized lion with golden fur?” Percy muttered. “What do we do when it comes? My plan was just to wing it and stab the monster, honestly. But this one has invulnerable skin. Or that it really was a threat.” 

“If you knew what you were facing, you’d still wing the fuck out of it. With you, the plans always go out of the window.”

“In my defense, no plan survives the enemy. And most of the time, the situation gets horribly worse as we get into it.”

“Of course.” Thalia snorted. “I planned to trap it with a net arrow— which does exactly what it says on the label. I’m not too sure if it’ll work, but it should. Lady Artemis is leading a different hunt right now and told me that when I come here, I’d find the help I need. Which, I suppose, is you.”

“Nice to have the vote of confidence. But how do you plan to kill it?”

“It has invulnerable skin, not shockproof skin. So I planned to trap it in the net and shock it to death.” Tendrils of electricity flitted between her fingertips and she grinned. “With you here, I can get it wet too. If not that, we can force it to roar in pain and kill it like we did before.”

Percy glanced at the stream flowing past them and nodded.

“We still need to wait till the Lion shows up though,” Thalia said. “Any ideas—”

“Oh, I don’t think we’d have to wait for long.” Percy spotted a flash of gold in the distance, on the other side of the stream. “He has already found us. Get onto a tree and trap it in a net. I’ll distract it and keep it occupied.”

Thalia gave a nod and rushed up a tree as Percy spun his sword, stepping into the stream. He knelt down and seized the flow, feeling it ebb through his veins, as he mentally scaled the water.

“Hey, Kitty, Kitty!” Percy hollered. 

The Nemean lion turned, its golden tail slapping against its hind legs. The next second, a burst of water shot from the stream, slamming into the lion’s face, drenching it.

An enraged roar tore through the forest, reverberating through the water as the lion lunged. He seized hold of the stream, the water moving with his blade. It slammed into the Nemean Lion like a tidal wave, smashing it onto the shore.

The Nemean Lion rolled to its feet, and snarled, springing at Percy. 

Percy curved like the tide, and the lion soared above him, splashing into the water. A guttural growl rumbled through the golden body as it whirled around, its golden eyes boring into Percy, as it bared its fangs.

“Hey, Kitty. Remember me?” 

The Lion shut its mouth, its six-inch long claws sliding out of its paws. 

“Guess you do,” Percy muttered. “That means you’re smarter than most monsters. So, not very good for me”

A paw swiped at him and he slid away, slipping past it, like water between boulders. His sword flashed, bouncing off the golden fur, sending the beast stumbling back.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a silver flash and a shadow fell over the lion, as a silver net expanded in the sky. The lion leaped away, the edge of the net bouncing off its fur, and pooling into the water. 

“Shit,” Percy muttered as the lion bounded onto the shore, racing toward the tree Thalia was perched on, and slammed into it like a bull.

Thalia jumped off, somersaulting in the air, and shooting another arrow. As she landed on her feet, the arrow sunk into the tree’s trunk and exploded, sending the lion reeling, its roar rattling against Percy’s ears.

“Fuck. Missed twice.” 

Thalia’s bow and quiver disappeared, her Aegis spiraling onto her arm as she flicked her mace of canister open, which elongated into a spear. The lion reared its head back and snarled, lashing its paw out at Thalia.

The claws skittered off Medusa’s face, and a bolt of electricity cracked down its wet skin.

“Do you have another one of those nets?” Percy yelled over the lion’s roar. “Cause we’re only irritating it and that’s not a great idea.”

“Nope. We only have one of each special arrows. I have an extra exploding one, but I don’t think it’ll do jack shit to this—” The Nemean lion lunged at her shield. “thing!”

The Nemean lion sent Thalia sprawling and she rolled across the mud, scrambling back to her feet. Electricity cracked over her spear, gathering on its tip.

“HOLD!” Percy drew on the tide and called to the storm. The water in the stream rose and covered the lion, swirling around it, like a globe. “NOW!”

Thalia thrust her spear and a bolt of lightning tore through the air, meeting the water, and it burst in a flash of white, steam rolling in the air.

Golden dust splattered on the soil, a golden pelt tumbling amidst it, a faint roar ringing in the air. Thalia stumbled back, waving the steam away, kicking the golden dust off her sneakers.

“Gross.” Thalia wrinkled her nose. “I’d have thought that I got used to this by now, but nope.”

Thalia wiped her brow, the electricity fading from her spear as she leaned on it like a staff. Percy let the water recede into the stream. He bent down, picking up the golden pelt from the ground. It shimmered in the sunlight, unnaturally warm under his fingers.

“Well,” Percy said, flipping it over his shoulder with a smirk. “Souvenir?”

Thalia snorted. “You’re going to walk around with that thing draped over you? You’ll look like a tacky Roman emperor.”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Better than letting it rot here. Besides, I think it’ll look good on Blackjack. He loves dramatic flair.”

Thalia rolled her eyes but smirked. “Your flying horse is as much of a show-off as you are.”

Percy grinned, then glanced at the golden dust shimmering in the air. “I’ll give Grover the all-clear. The nymphs can come back now.”

Thalia nodded, her expression softening slightly. “They’ll be relieved. The Lion’s been terrorizing them for weeks.”

“Right.” Percy nodded. “Are you staying here, or heading back to the Hunt?”

“I’ve got a rendezvous point to meet Lady Artemis,” Thalia said, adjusting her tiara. “But first, I need a hot meal. I’ve been tracking this thing for hours and you just stumbled into me like a lucky bastard.”

“I know a place nearby,” Percy snorted, sheathing Riptide. “Come on. I’ll buy you dinner. You can tell me a story or two.”

Thalia smirked, falling into step beside him. “And you can whine about how much college sucks.”

“Deal.”

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AND… DONE! Hope you all liked the story!

As promised, here’s the PJO one-shot, after a decently long time. I did do a Marvel fic before this one shot— A Christmas special short-piece. Do give it a read if you haven’t, alongside the other chapters.

Now, for the update schedule, the next update will be Black Dawn, which is already in the process of being completed. I intend to update it on the weekend. It’ll be followed by LoSP.

This year, I’ll be continuing with the short-pieces in the same vein as last year. Do check out my whole collection of Special Stories, including the side stories for LoSP and the spicy pieces!

 A huge thank you to Tulayb for betaing the chapter.

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Stay Happy! Stay Safe! Keep Smiling! Keep Reading!

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