Chapter 3: Selfless (I)
Luke was on guard duty. Thalia, Annabeth, and the boy they saved slept by the fire. The moon in the night sky was as bright as it was yesterday, and his mind still flashed with events that happened the previous night.
It all started with them camping in the middle of their way to James River, and Thalia had just woken up for her turn of guard duty.
Just then, explosions erupted somewhere on the other side of the woods. They were so terrible that even though they were far away, the explosions still lit up the night like day everywhere, producing shockwaves that not only knocked them but even many trees in the surroundings were destroyed.
Luke literally thought the Gods were fighting there. He wanted to immediately run away with Thalia and Annabeth as far as possible.
But Amalthea, Zeus' glowing nectar-dispensing goat, appeared before them again, looking at them with those unnerving eyes. The goat had been guiding Thalia throughout her journey, even leading them to the mansion of Haylcon Green where they nearly died, but at least Thalia got herself a new and powerful shield.
This time, Amalthea stepped up her guidance. She wanted to lead them to sure death. She was directing them towards the explosions.
Luke had enough of the goat; it wasn't just he and Thalia now, they had Annabeth to worry about. Thalia recognised that too, but she hesitated in the face of her father's guidance. She still had so much faith in her father that she seemed to be actually considering following the goat.
Thankfully, the explosions abruptly stopped as the moon shone again through the clouds with brilliance. The fight seemed to have ended, and the goat was directing them with even more urgency.
Thalia made the difficult decision for them, and Luke hated it, but as always, Thalia got her way. He lifted Annabeth on his back, much to her protests, and followed Thalia towards the sight of explosions cautiously.
The sight was even more terrible than Luke had expected. Nothing was left there except soot-covered remains and scorched earth, nothing but a boy, trembling and shaking on the ground. The goat stood before the boy, calling out to them. They immediately rushed to the boy, who was in such a terrible state that made Luke's gut twist.
The boy was a demigod, like them. Luke could immediately tell, probably not much older than Annabeth.
As fast as possible, Luke took out a bottle of nectar and poured them in small amounts on all of boy's wounds, especially on his fingers where the skin was completely burnt off.
Nectar was the drink of the Gods. It could be used by Demigods for healing if they drank them in small amounts, but considering the boy was unconscious, Luke had to make do and apply it directly to the boy's wounds temporarily. There was something even more effective than Nectar; it was Ambrosia, the food of the gods, but again the boy was unconscious.
Luke's heart was pounding against his ears as he awaited. Only when the boy's face started to regain some of its colour and his wounds started to slightly heal, Luke dared to let out a sigh of relief.
Afterwards, they didn't waste time. It was already too dangerous that they stayed here this long. The commotion that happened here wasn't only bound to attract other monsters in the vicinity but also mortals as well. He suspected the entire Richmond should be on alert at that moment. The explosions were just that huge.
Thalia helped him lift the boy on his back carefully while she grabbed the hands of Annabeth as they all left sight as fast as they could. Thankfully, their journey was without any problems, though they saw numerous helicopters and even a jet zooming past them, but none noticed them.
They only stopped after they reached the woods in the south of Richmond, far away from all that happened. As Thalia and Annabeth began remaking their camp, Luke placed the boy on top of the sleeping bag, whose situation seemed neither worsening nor improving. He had to do something. Then he got an dangerous idea.
Luke started a hearth and took out a pot as well as a bar of ammonia and a bottle of nectar. He placed the pot on the fire while breaking down the bar of ambrosia into pieces. He then poured water into the pot until it was full, and then added some pieces of Ambrosia and a few drops of Nectar. In the end, he started mixing them all together into one.
Luke had absolutely no idea whether he would succeed, but he prayed to Hermes to lend some of his alchemy know-how again. The pot didn't immediately blast in his face for daring to tamper with the foods and drinks of gods, so he continued with all of his concentration. In the end, the nectar and ambrosia mixed perfectly, forming a golden liquid that literally shone on his face.
Luke succeeded. He didn't allow himself to feel happiness as he grabbed the hot divine pot with scraps of cloth, taking it to the boy carefully.
While he was preparing his concoction, Thalia and Annabeth seemed to have finished setting up their camp. Now Thalia knelt before the boy, removing his clothes slowly to check for more injuries. Annabeth sat at the edge of the camp, taking the guard duty for the first time with an understanding and heaviness that made his gut twist again.
Thalia turned to him as he neared with the divine concoction. Her face was slightly pale from whatever she found on the boy, and it made his heart drop to the worst possibilities. None of it turned out to be true, but it was something worse than that. The boy's body was covered in scars, but what was truly terrible about it was that many of them didn't resemble wounds they had gotten from fighting monsters. Luke and Thalia tactically didn't discuss the scars; they were thankful that Annabeth was away.
Luke placed the divine pot in front of the boy while Thalia went to take out bandages. Before applying it to the boy, Luke tested his new concoction on himself just in case. He scooped up the glowing liquid and dropped a single drop carefully on the wound on his leg that he suffered while running here. As soon as the glowing drop fell on the wound, it began to glow as well for a moment, then Luke felt a slight pain fade away. The wound had healed instantly, leaving no scars. In fact, the regenerated skin there looked even more hale and healthy. The new concoction was even more potent in healing than Ambrosia and Nectar.
Luke scooped up more on the spoon and started applying the divine liquid to the boy. He was still as cautious as possible, observing the effects on the wounds and scars, so he didn't apply more than what was necessary. The boy was healing but not as instantly as Luke. The wounds on him were deeper and more severe. Luke worried that they may be able to heal his physical wounds but not the mental ones…..he couldn't imagine the mental state the boy was in after everything he seemed to have been through, but he had faith in him. They were demigods, after all.
Thalia bandaged his hand and finger meticulously as burned wounds healed under the coating of divine concoction. Even scars on his body faded away.The divine concoction worked wonders on the boy; Luke was sure it was healing even the internal injuries the boy may have suffered. His crimson eyes began returning to normal as well as injuries in his ears faded, all healing as the glowing liquid was applied around and on them.
As Luke and Thalia finished, the boy's state recovered. It was then that Luke allowed himself to feel happiness. He and Thalia leaned against each other as they sat next to the boy, finally catching a moment of relief together.
With relief came the questions Luke had been ignoring. Who was this boy? What was he fighting against that caused this much destruction? How did he survive? Those scars, those were inflicted by someone else, surely. Was he abused? Whose child was he? And how did they let something like this happen!? Just what had this boy been through? Too many questions but answers had to wait until the boy woke up.
But even after a whole day, the boy still hadn't woken up.
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