𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘
𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒐𝒔

❛ pain is riveting
      don't you agree? ❜

                        𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒 , 𝖂hen you thought of a Cylops island, you probably had the same idea as Aurora. Probably a dark dingy island murky with dark mist making it ominous. Probably littered with skulls and ragged bones on the shoreline—with a cliche sign that said 'NO VISITORS ALLOWED' written in blood and a bloody handprint smeared on it.

                         Never in her wildest dreams did she think what her eyes laid on was considered a Cyclops island. It resembled the view of when her father took her to the Bahamas for her tenth birthday, with green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches.

                         As they sailed toward the shore, Annabeth—who followed Aurora up deck after she called her—breathed in the sweet air. "The Fleece," she said.

                         Percy nodded.

                         Aurora couldn't see the Fleece yet, but she could definitely feel its power.

                         "If we take it away, will the island die?"

                         Annabeth shook her head. "It'll fade. Go back to what it would be normally, whatever that is."

                         In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was the massive oak tree Percy had claimed he'd seen in his dreams. Something gold glittered in its branches.

                         "This is too easy," Percy said. "We could just hike up there and take it?"

                         Aurora's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms in suspicion, "That's odd. There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon o—"

                         That's when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves. Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air. A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer had been was a pile of clean white bones.

                         The three demigods exchanged looks.

                         Aurora gaped, "That was brutal."

                         "They're like piranhas," Percy said. "Piranhas with wool. How will we—"

                         "Guys!" Annabeth gasped, grabbing their arms. "Look."

                         She pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run aground . . . the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham. They decided there was no way they could get past the man-eating sheep.

                         Annabeth wanted to sneak up the path invisibly and grab the Fleece, but in the end, Aurora convinced her that something would go wrong. The sheep would smell her. Another guardian would appear. Something. And if that happened, Aurora and Percy would be too far away to help. Besides, their first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat—assuming they'd gotten past the sheep.

                         They moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the backside of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a good two hundred feet. Percy figured the ship was less likely to be seen there. The cliffs looked climbable, barely—about as difficult as the lava wall back at camp. At least it was free of sheep.

                         Aurora secretly hoped that Polyphemus did not also keep carnivorous mountain goats.

                         They rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made their way up, very slowly. Annabeth went first because she was the better climber and Aurora followed. They only came close to dying six or seven times, which Percy thought was pretty good. Aurora had to admit, she thought so too.

                         Once, Percy lost his grip and he found himself dangling by one hand from a ledge fifty feet above the rocky surf. But he found another handhold and kept climbing. A minute later Aurora hit a slippery patch of moss and her foot slipped. Fortunately, she found something else to put it against. Unfortunately, that something was Percy's face.

                         "Sorry, ocean eyes!" she exclaimed. "I didn't mea—"

                         Annabeth had accidentally kicked her in her shoulder, making Percy laugh. Aurora narrowed her eyes and kicked the boy a little harder causing him to yelp and apologize.

                         Finally, Aurora almost thanked the gods as her fingers felt like molten lead as her arm muscles were shaking from exhaustion, she hauled herself over the top of the cliff and collapsed after Annabeth whom too was sprawled out on the ground in pure exhaustion.

                         Thud!

                         "Ugh," Percy said from behind her.

                         "Ouch," moaned Annabeth.

                         "Ow," Aurora groaned.

                         "Garrr!" bellowed another voice.

                         Aurora's eyes widen as she turned to look at Percy, "That wasn't you was it?"

                         "Why would it be me?"

                         "That's what you sound li—"

                         Annabeth clamped a hand over her best friend's mouth. She pointed.

                         The ledge they were sitting on was narrower than they'd realized. It dropped off on the opposite side, and that's where the voice was coming from-right below them.

                         "You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed.

                         "Challenge me!" A girl's voice bellowed, "Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"

                         It only took a second for Aurora to realize who was yelling. At the sound of Clarisse's voice she almost facepalmed. The other lifeboat they had saw on the shoreline was likely her doing—alongside her own capture.

                         Aurora had to admit, out of the two girls ( herself and Clarisse ) Clarisse definitely takes the cake in impulsivity. The girl never thought her actions through, always jumping on the scene with a battle cry that echoed in the atmosphere, mainly in the name of her father.

                         Aurora didn't think she was that impulsive . . . Right?

                         A tug on her wrist broke her thoughts—Percy. He gestured to the edge as if telling her to go ahead. In which she complied. When she looked down she noticed they were right above the entrance of the Cyclops's cave. Below them stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over a pot of boiling water.

"Hmm," Polyphemus pondered. "Eat loud mouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?"

Aurora shook her head, "Loudmouth is an understatement."

Polyphemus turned to Grover, who backed up and almost tripped over his completed bridal train. "Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps—"

"Did you say bride?" Clarisse demanded. "Who—Grover?"

Next to Aurora, Annabeth muttered, "Shut up. She has to shut up."

Polyphemus glowered, "What 'Grover'?"

"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.

Aurora cursed, "She's blowing his cover! She'll get him killed!"

"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"

Polyphemus's eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly. The Cyclops was an even more horrible sight than Percy had described him to be. Partly because his rancid smell was now up close and personal. Partly because he was dressed in his wedding outfit, a crude kilt and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedoes, as if he'd skinned an entire wedding party.

"What satyr?" asked Polyphemus. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"

"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse. "That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"

Aurora gritted her teeth together about to lunge at Clarisse, but it was too late. All she could do was watch as Polyphemus turned and ripped off Grover's wedding veil-revealing his curly hair, his scruffy adolescent beard, his tiny horns. Polyphemus breathed heavily, trying to contain his anger.

"I don't see very well," he growled. "Not since many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in eye. But YOU'RE-NO-LADYCYCLOPS!"

Aurora made a mental note to take a swing at Clarisse when this was all over for putting her best friend in trouble.

The Cyclops grabbed Grover's dress and tore it away. Underneath, the old Grover reappeared in his jeans and T-shirt. He yelped and ducked as the monster swiped over his head.

"Stop!" Grover pleaded. "Don't eat me raw! I—I have a good recipe!"

Percy reached for his sword and Aurora brought her wrist up to her lips, but Annabeth hissed, "Wait!"

Polyphemus was hesitating, a boulder in his hand, ready to smash his would-be bride.

"Recipe?" he asked Grover.

"Oh y—yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things. It'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangos right now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait here."

The monster pondered this. "Grilled satyr with mango chutney," Polyphemus mused. He looked back at Clarisse, still hanging over the pot of boiling water. "You a satyr, too?"

"No, you overgrown pile of dung!" she yelled. "I'm a girl! The daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can rip your arms off!"

"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus repeated.

"And stuff them down your throat!"

"You got spunk."

"Let me down!"

Polyphemus snatched up Grover as if he were a wayward puppy, "Have to graze sheep now. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"

"But . . .  you're still getting married?" Grover sounded hurt. "Who's the bride?"

Polyphemus looked toward the boiling pot.

Clarisse made a strangled sound, "Oh, no! You can't be serious. I'm not—"

                         Aurora almost burst out laughing if it weren't for Percy who clamped a hand over her mouth and sent her pointed look. She only rolled her eyes and shrugged as if saying: Fine, I'll play nice.

At the look Percy removed his hand from her mouth, but kept it near her.

Before Aurora, Annabeth, and Percy could do anything, Polyphemus plucked Clarisse off the rope like she was a ripe apple, and tossed her and Grover deep into the cave. "Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for big event!"

Then the Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep-smaller than the man-eaters flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted some on the back and called them by name-Beltbuster, Tammany, Lockhart, etc.

When the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway as easily as Aurora would close a refrigerator door, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside.

"Mangos," Polyphemus grumbled to himself. "What are mangos?"

He strolled off down the mountain in his baby-blue groom's outfit, leaving them alone with a pot of boiling water and a wide boulder.

They tried for what seemed like hours, but it was no good. The boulder wouldn't move. They yelled into the cracks, tapped on the rock, did everything they could think of to get a signal to Grover, but if he heard them, they couldn't tell.

Even if by some miracle they managed to kill Polyphemus, it wouldn't do them any good. Grover and Clarisse would die inside that sealed cave. The only way to move the rock was to have the Cyclops do it.

Aurora stood idly by scanning the boulder head to toe, front to back, to get a sizable diameter of the large rock. Using the diameter and her interconnected math, she'd be able to calculate the exact weight of the boulder—no scale needed.

It was a trick she learned from her father, whom she terribly missed.

With her calculation, the boulder was about ten and a half ton considering the length, width, and diameter.

And now the question is, How to move it?

Aurora brushed her palm over her the smooth surface, dust now accumulating on her hand to which she merely patted away.

"I have a plan," she turned to the others who stared at her. "But you might not like it."

She explained to them her plan. She'd lure in Polyphemus, and as he neared closer Nate would logically sense the danger she was in and come out. Not only helping them defeat the Cyclops but also having Nate move the boulder. Killing two birds with one stone really.

And as she could already tell, they weren't happy.

"There's a million things that could go wrong with that, Rory!" Annabeth argued. "The last time Nate appeared in Circe's island, he was over exerted. They did something to him that could very well still be affecting him now!"

"He was weak!" Percy agreed. "There's no telling his health now."

                         Aurora stood up and brushed off the dirt from her jeans, her eyes still locked on the boulder that held one of her best friends inside. It was their only option—a logical one at that.

"Daggers!" She said into her gold bangle. Watching with determination as her dagger formed before her eyes.

She was not taking no for an answer, and for a second both Annabeth and Percy could very well tell her mind was made up. No ounce of pusillanimity was detected if you were to take a glance in her eyes—instead they were embers, lighting up the darkness in the hope of finding her triumph.

She only sent them fleeting glances before turning her attention towards Polyphemus in the distance. His heavy footsteps sending tremors through the soil, reaching them with delay.

"I believe in Nate," she said as she looked again at the Cyclops away from them. "And you both should believe in me. That's all that matters"

As she said this, her eyes momentarily locked with Percy's and one look was all it took for him to soften up and take a step back. His mind temporarily returning to a time where they were biding their farewells to one another—a year younger, where they deemed one another too important to lose. Too important to forget.

He looked at her and glanced at Annabeth who was looking at the scene before her with furrowed eyes, "I believe in you, pretty girl. I mean it. That means I'd prefer if you didn't die."

Annabeth only frowned but nodded, "Fine, but we do this the Athena way."

There they constructed a plan. Annabeth would be their initial bait, leading the sheep away by her scent. Not to far away, just to ensure if anything were to happen Nate would still have time to save her no less. While Annabeth is doing that, Aurora would soon turn into the distraction. She'll turn Polyphemus' attention onto her—ultimately leading Nate to come out. All while Percy will be next to the boulder, sticking close to the shadows waiting as Aurora / Nate bait the Cylclops into removing the boulder sealing their friends in.

"Hey! . . . You!" Aurora stuttered a bit as she planted her feet firmly on the ground. "Shrek!"

                         "Who said that? What is Shrek?" Polyphemus bellowed.

                         "I did!" Aurora stepped out from the shadows a fierce look on her face. "And you sure as hell look like Shrek!"

                         "I'm not shrek! I'm Polyphemus!"

                         "Fine then, Humpty Dumpty! Bring it on!"

                         Polyphemus bellowed furiously grabbed the nearest tree—roots and all before throwing it at her.

                         She could only watch ( almost in slow motion ) how close it was getting to her—and in that moment, she prayed to her mother that Nate appeared because there was no way she'd survive the blow.

                         . . . Then her body went numb.

                         She couldn't hear the commotion behind her, only felt the same goosebumps arise like every other time Nate took control of her body.

                         Much like before, she couldn't move—her body frozen as if encrusted with ice for a solid ten minutes. She could only make out the noises. Polyphemus' roar, she could feel through the earth. A minute later, Annabeth's abrupt yelp was heard followed by another—this one more deep and angry, Nate, she knew.

                         After Nate's yell, a loud crash echoed their vicinity. Likely the boulder getting thrown.

                         "Who are you!? Why are you so shiny!?"

                         "None of your concern, idiot. Now leave, or I will not hesitate to burn you to a crisp."

                         "I'm not an idiot!"

                         "Your idiocy says otherwise."

                         Suddenly a flash of blonde hair appeared from Aurora's peripheral, and suddenly she was staring into her best friends stormy eyes.

                         "Rory!" She placed her hands on Aurora's face, she was worried. Aurora could always tell when her best friend was. "Nate! What's happening to her?"

                         Aurora didn't know what was happening, how could she? Her body was frozen, including her eyes as they stared at a patch of grass in front of her. She was practically clueless to what her best friend was talking about . . .

                         Until the pain hit her.

                         An excruciating pain erupted in her head, worse than anything she's ever felt before—far worse than any other times Nate had protected her. It blossomed like a rose to the tip of her head slowly inching to spread around her body. As if someone took a piece of hellfire and engulfed her body.

                         The worst part—she couldn't even scream.

                         Her mouth was screwed shut from her frozen state. So screaming or squirming was out of the question.

                         She wanted to claw at her skin, shed from the pain now inching towards her eyes. Surely, this was worse than death—almost like hades himself wanted to show her how the chamber of chaos truly worked, being something she'd read about a couple days ago in the search for clues about Elysium.

                         The Chamber of Chaos, otherwise known as, the place of the damned was created for eternal torture. This was a place for the cruelest and evilest of souls, where they'd spend the rest of eternity being dismantled and assembled in ways far too grueling to even imagine. It made The Fields of Punishment look like sunshine and rainbows.

                         It was made a millennium ago, the time frame not certain, but Aurora had a hunch it was likely the time when Elysium ruled the sky—like Chiron had told her.

                         "The power!" Nate's voice rushed out from behind her. "It's too much for her!"

                         Annabeth's hands began to tremble in fear, "It's okay, Rory," she tried to assure before looking behind Aurora's shoulder likely towards Nate and glancing back at her friend. Within a second, she whipped out her knife and gave her a final glance, "I have a plan."

                         She ran off, and all Aurora could do was watch in pain.

                         "I've got it!" Annabeth yelled. "You need to leave! You'll kill Aurora!"

                         Polyphemus delivered a nasty roar.

                         "I'll be fine! Hurry!"

                         It was then that Aurora was able to move her body again, but at the cost of agonizing pain. It was lighter than before—which she was grateful for, but it still had her face plant on the ground as her body convulsed with severe agony.

                         Gods, Did she hate when Nate took over.

                         Suddenly, an explosion echoed through the cave, followed by a scream It was Annabeth crying out in fear.

                        Aurora groaned as she tried to sit up to protect her friend. Only to widen her eyes in surprise.

                         Polyphemus was holding her from her legs, dangling her as if she was a toy.

                         And in that moment, even as pain flooded her senses.

                         Aurora saw red.

— NAT TALKS!

so guys! what do y'all think of nate? what do you think about nate and aurora's relationship?

also, I do try to make this book as original as possible, especially bcs on some fanfics we read the same thing as other fics, so I deviate a lot when it comes to my books just because of course it'll be similar to the Percy Jackson series plot wise, I just wanted to ensure you don't get bored or feel like you see the same thing over and over again. That's why the Aphrodite children are gifted with aura abilities. That's why I created the Elysium storyline.

hopefully that's something you enjoy! and thank you for being here!!!

❛ allure me. ❜ ༢ ͎۪۫ ༊*·˚ ╱
❪ the prodigy, 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 book. ❫
༢ ͎۪۫ ༊ ❛ ©CELESTIALAPHRODITE 2023. ❜ ¨. ༢ ͎۪۫ ｡𖤐
❪ 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 ❫ ©CELESTIALAPHRODITE, 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅.