Cold Blades of Truth (A Percy Jackson RP)

Shuda looked up, groggily as if snapping out of a daze. His eyebrows quickly furrowed, and his eyes darkened. "Do you really think I need you to take care of me? I can take care of myself, thanks." he said, his voice coated with sarcasm.

Priscilla looked away. The young girl looked hurt. "Good," she said, softly. "I'm glad I can leave." She put on her backpack and ran toward the tunnel. She turned to look at him. "By the way, man. You're a dick." Then she turned around and dashed down the tunnel.

Shuda rolled his eyes, irritated. He sighed, and gently ran his fingers over the his wound, his fingers barely skimming the surface of his skin, yet sending bolts of pain ringing up his body. He winced, before dropping his hand.

Priscilla ran down the path, following the tracks.

(Bumpalicious )

(Idk what to post )

(( Sheba's kidnappers ))

(Ok.....Torchic!!! Assistance!!)

(( hey. Can Hepheastus pay Shuda a visit? ))

(I don't see why not. All I know is that Tor has to be on to play Sheba's kidnapper.)

(Sure. I've got serious WB right now, so I won't RP a lot on here. And I'm chilling with my buddy.)

(( Cool ))

Shuda tilted his head back, with his teeth gritted for the umpteenth time to stop himself from crying out. He tried to ignore the pain, but failed. He held his breath, sucking in air, and got a blast of the icy atmosphere. He coughed, and titled his head back, panting lightly.

Not for the first time Shuda wished he had a fire. And he knew he could make one, but was oddly reluctant. It was a curse that followed him, and it had lied dormant for several years now, why awaken it? And yet....it was so cold. And he was alone. Surely no one would see him, no one would call him a freak. No one would curse his very existence.

Before he could even finish his thoughts, a small fire was blazing above his hand. Forgetting his reluctance to use his power, Shuda huddled closer to the flame, drawing his hand in close to his chest. The fire did not burn him, it never did, unless he wanted it to. Yet it was still a curse, Shuda knew this like he knew grass was green.

Shuda felt stronger as the warmth quickly spread throughout his body. And he shakily started flexing his different body parts, testing if they were strong enough. The wound crossed from under his right shoulder to just above his navel. An ugly red mark.

Shuda glanced down, craning his neck, he looked at the burns traversing over the wound. He ad burned the skin to stop the bleeding, otherwise surely he would be dead of blood-loss by now.

(( Hehaestus will appear in my next post. and two things: 1) No one saw Shuda use fire before and 2) Haru carried off Phobos's sword with him ))

Priscilla stumbled through the darkness, her mind grasped around the eerie thought of losing her friends. She had pondered this before, and she knew that one thing was certain to happen: Sooner or later, one or more of her companions would die. Her greatest fear, the thought of losing the people she loved, was upon her, smirking with an undoubted pleasure, just waiting for the right moment to butt in it's evil head where it was least wanted. She shivered at this thought, and hugged her chest as she walked.
She kept thinking, until she realized her birthday was coming up soon. She'd be thirteen the next day, and she didn't feel the least bit better. What if one of my friends die on my birthday? That would be terrible! she thought, wrapping her leather jacket tighter around her. She kept on her wild search.

(I'm guessing Jaxal's passed out in the cave. I'm too lazy to rp him right now)

Shuda stared down at the fire, held securely by his hands. And once again his thoughts flitted to his curse. Why did it have to be me? Why was I cursed? Why did Hephaestus do this? Curse me? Was it my mother? Did she not love him after he planted his evil seeds inside of her? Did she betray him? And he answered, by cursing me, and killing her? Shuda's eyes clouded with confusion and anger. but his thoughts were cut short by a voice.

"It's not a curse." Shuda looked up at the voice. Standing there, was a huge lump of a man. His shoulders were at different heights, and a huge, bulging, misshapen, head sat atop his shoulders. A wild brown beard with sparks of flame dancing inside of it, grew from his chin, hiding a misshapen jaw. His right leg was trapped inside of a steel brace. His body was muscular from long labor, and he wore a jumpsuit smeared with grime and oil. The word Hephaestus was embroided over the chest pocket. "It's a blessing."

"He-Hephaestus?" Shuda gaped, shocked. A god, a god was here. "Y-you? Why-" Suddenly his voice filled with rage from his thoughts and his eyebrows furrowed as he scowled. "I hate you."

Hephaestus sighed. "I feared as much." he rumbled and walked a step closer. "I'm not the best with living organisms, but I'm not a nincompoop." he paused, and looked down at Shuda. "I thought you would hate me, despise me, and I was right."

Shuda narrowed his eyes, wishing Hephaestus would stop walking towards him, that he would stop coming closer. "You killed my mother, and cursed me. I would be crazy if I didn't hate you." he snarled.

Hephaestus seemed taken aback. "Kill? Kill Stephanie? Kill your mother?" he paused, his bushy eyebrows furrowed. "Why would I? I did no such thing. I loved her, I loved your mother, more then any god should love a mortal." Hephaestus paused, dropping to one knee. "And you were the proof of our love." he said, looking down at Shuda, one elbow resting on his knee.

"Then why is she dead!?" Shuda roared, in defiance. "You killed her. If you truly loved her, you would have stopped her from dying. Your a god."

Hephaestus sighed. "I loved your mother, and was saddened by her death. But I could do nothing about it, that was not my domain." he paused, and looked Shuda in the eye. "Dark forces are at work, and I can not interfere."

Shuda grunted, and stared down at the flame in his hands, wishing the god would leave. He wanted to hate him, hate his father, and yet the god's voice sounded so sincere he found himself almost believing him. Wanting to believe him. But he couldn't admit that.

Hephaestus looked down at his and Stephanie's son. He was proud of him, how far he had come where other's failed. "I-I" the god hesitated. "I'm sorry, because of me you went through a lot of troubles....." he paused, unsure of how to voice his thoughts, how to make his son believe him, and how to make him learn the truth. "I blessed you; I loved Stephanie more then I loved any other mortal. And to show my love, I wanted our son to grow up strong, I wanted you to be great. I wanted to make Stephanie happy and see you as a healthy young, powerful, boy."

The words struck cords in Shuda's heart that he hadn't even known were there, and he felt his defiance melting away. But resisted, he didn't want to believe the large, misshapen, ugly god besides him. He didn't want to acknowledge his father, so he stared at the ground.

Hephaestus heart sank, he stared at his son, hoping for some response. But it seemed none was forthcoming. His head drooped, and he started to rise, giving up. This was why he preferred his forge. Machines never let him down, and Living organisms were too fragile. No one understood him, no one had in a long time. No one, since Stephanie had....

"I realize you won't believe me. And yet I can't help trying." Hephaestus started. "Your mother once told me that the best way to talk to people was honestly." he paused. "I loved your mother, and would never purposely do her any harm......I would never purposely do you any harm, either. And yet I fear I have. " Hepheastus watched Shuda carefully for any recognition.

But nothing was forthcoming, Hepehastus sighed, defeated, and rose. "I must go now, I have a busy schedule to keep." he stood to his full height and looked down at his son, he took a step back and gathered his godly power to teleport away.

"I believe you." the voice carried to Hephaestus's ears and he looked down at his son, who returned his gaze. Hephaestus smiled, a gentle smile, filled with warmth.

"Thank you." he said, as light started to gather around the god. In a flash of light the god was gone.

But some last words rang in Shuda's head that the god had uttered before he departed. Fire is your friend.... Along with those words, Hephaestus left a parting gift, in the place where the god had kneeled, and within Shuda's reach, was Nectar and Ambrosia.

(( I just rambled on, didn't I? But I think I got Hephaestus's personality down pretty well....))

(Good job, DN )

(thanks)

(Sweet post DN. And now we have healing stuff.)

(Sweet post. You got Heaohustus down to a T. I can't remember making a post that long in a while....It was the spring of 2011....)

(( Thanks. And yeah, lol. Healz for all! ))

A few minutes later, Shuda was up and walking about. He packed the nectar and ambrosia into his backpack, and stuffed other people's forgotten stuff inside of it as well. His wound still hurt, and he couldn't risk anymore Nectar or Ambrosia but he was much better off then before. And could walk, comfortably well.

One of his axe's broke when he had smacked the dragon with it, and he lit the end of it with a quick blast of flame. He strapped the other axe to his back, and started walking down the tunnel with his make-shift torch leading.

In a few minutes, Shuda found Jaxel slumped over in a small alcove. He leaned down, and shook the boy's shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haru saw Katniss and Luna ahead, and quickened his pace. "Hey." he whispered, coming up beside them.

The darkness swirled around Priscilla, taunting her with it's evil glare. She quickened her pace, then began to run. "Guys? Anyone?" she called. She could hear something...breathing. Not realizing that it was her own breathing, she began to shake. "Help!?!!?!" she shrieked, loud enough for the whole cavern to hear.

Seeing that the child of Dionysus wasn't waking, but making sure that he was breathing, Shuda left a square of Ambrosia in his hand, and proceeded onward, when he heard a scream and quickened his pace.

Jaxal blinked several times, lazily staring down at the soft chunk in his hand. He brought it up to his mouth, chewing the soft sweet medicine slowly.

Shuda saw Priscilla and quickly closed the distance between them. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Luna turned her head slightly to glance at Haru and didn't say anything, just looked back at Katniss. She hadn't bothered to sheath her sword yet, and it was hanging a bit loosely in her hand, the point nearly touching the ground.