Drowning in the Siren's Song -II

Chapter 2

The following days were... listless. 

He'd spent so long fighting and learning and battling and thinking and strategizing, that even feeling depressed felt like a chore. Something which never took effort drained everything out of him.
Continuously seeing the grey skies fly past didn't help. After being surrounded by rich earthy tones, grey was a color which looked no less than boring.

Sitting on Blackjack's back, he did have a good view. Gliding clouds tinged with rare colors and the frequent sightings of the tiny world below them showed him unworldly beauty, but he preferred the earth to the sky. The solidness of the soil could never compare to the uncertainty of the winds. Even though there were people like Jason who took comfort in the largeness of the sky, Percy, being a prince of the sea, could never.

His journey towards the Wolf House had been filled with burning passion and the flaming desire to learn. He had been chased by the reality he had been running from. But now that he had escaped the eyes of the Greek gods successfully and had exhausted his purpose for running, he started to understand how futile his fears were. 

Even after all that learning and escaping, he was still somehow going to end up confronting the gods, wasn't he? It were times like these when he could do nothing but blame his age. Now he had no immediate goal in front of him, his only motivation being a placid want to see the nature spirits and hunters. 

His way back home seemed excruciatingly slow.

Of course it could just be his ADHD brain trying to make him suffer or the exclusive demigod nightmares preventing him from getting sleep, but minutes on Blackjack's back felt like hours. It was only after he finished counting the feathers on his shoulders that they'd reached somewhere above a city where the bustling human noise could be faintly heard.

And just like how humans break when pushed to a breaking point, Percy decided to make the extremely spontaneous decision to make an extremely spontaneous decision.

....And he immediately regretted it. 

The smoky air clogged his chest and the concrete ground seemed to burn his feet. Even the sunlight felt different. While he was used to seeing a sea of green, all he saw now were burning colors. Only when he squinted his eyes tight could he see a speck of a green which he hoped was a tree.

He had taken a U-turn from where his life was, geographically.

The city was chaotic and dry. There were too many people, too many cars, too much of movement. It was sucking the life out of him both literally and figuratively. The nature in him was screaming and his spirit was breaking.

He really had thought it was a good idea to attempt to get used to 'human' life but now he wanted nothing more than to leave. For a person blessed by nature spirits and Pan, and who was a child of water, the city was far more hellish than what the underworld could be.

Percy had learnt to make calculated decisions. Properly thought of with backup plans. His whole life had revolved around thinking things through to stay safe. He had realized early on that making offhand decisions could very well put him in jeopardy. His days of making choices on whims were over, and yet there he was, regretting a decision which landed him in a situation which he completely dreaded. He did exactly what he had trained himself not to do. 

But as much as he regretted it, he was aware how much it could help him. Just staying in a place with more humans would do him good. If he didn't want to be involved with gods, then being with mortals was his safety net, even if it was crudely built.

Maybe it was a subconscious decision he made when he first ran away from Gabe, but he had always thought if nothing worked out, he would have to go back to his old life. He had extremely faint memories of what his life was then, but he still considered it a safety net even though it was far from 'safe'. 

If he could not adjust to the world of myths and monsters, he would go back to the world of humans.

He was prone to avoiding it though. The most he'd have contact with in the mortal world was the small town at the edge of the nature reserve and exchanging chits between rangers and Delilah. But now he needed a good, big dose of mortals.

It was time to put his training to the test. The hunters had told him several stories and taught him enough to make him feel confident. Not to mention the fact that he had the mist as backup. If anything went wrong, all he needed was a 'snap'.

While thinking of the mist, Percy quickly located the nearest water source, groaning loudly when he realized it was quite the walk away. It had been a very long time since he'd last Iris-called the hunters and he figured it would be best to let them know that there was a delay in schedule. 

After debating against summoning water himself and disrupting the 'planned' system of the city, he quickly began his journey towards what he assumed was a fountain. 

He had sent off Blackjack to where he wanted, not being sure of what he would appear as to the mortals. Breathing in the foul air made him want to whistle to him, but the hesitant curiosity for humans prevented him from emitting the sound. 

As he walked more and more, his confidence also grew likewise. By the time he was a leap away from a wheezing fountain, he was staring openly everywhere, too absorbed in his fascination to notice his own odd behavior. 

Since he was in a new place, might as well learn everything he could, right?