EDIT: THIS STORY WAS WRITTEN BACK IN 2011, WHEN "THE LOST HERO" FIRST CAME OUT. THEREFORE I HADNO KNOWLEDGE OF THE BOOKS THAT FOLLOWED SO PLEASE DON'T SAY THAT I GOT CONTENT WRONG :)

January, 14th 2011

I don't own any of the characters, so hail Rick Riordan! :D

Beta for this Chapter: Fanless

A/N: Please READ THIS!

Here is my first chapter. But don't expect more any time soon, I have some stress atm and just wanted to check out if the story would find any attention at all in this community and I should even continue writing xD

First things first though: ENGLISH IS NOT MY NATIVE LANGUAGE! German woman here. I wrote it for practice and so most of you can read it. So please, don't be too hard on me because of the writing style T_T I know the style probably isn't the best and my sentences could be more varied and stuff...just tell me if it gets too bad to bear, I'll try my best xP

Since this is stated now...as I said, this is the chapter to be put up as a test. I already have some chapters in storage but they are getting longer and longer...*sigh* I just have too much on my mind ^^" Tell me what you think please, I need it. Is it too long? Too many descriptions? More of them? More thoughts, does it confuse you somehow? PLEASE, I need advice from other people! D:

Chapter I

Percy

When he woke, his whole body felt numb. It was strange because it seemed to have hit his head as well. A headache hammered in the back of his head as if some construction workers were trying to construct a building in it without having any idea what they were doing— because every five seconds, the building collapsed and the pain increased.

Although he was awake, he didn't feel tempted to open his eyes at all. Something was wrong here— but what?

Okay, maybe he should first find out where he was. His hands were lying on some stone floor. Oh well, someone dropped him on the floor then, sweet.

Maybe he fell? That would explain the builders in his head. And his nose was filled with something smelling like furry animal. He couldn't possibly guess what animal, but the scent was everywhere throughout the room. And he had smelled it before.

Before…yeah, where did he come from anyway? When did he fall asleep— or pass out— and where … — Heck! What was this? Who was he? He honestly did not know! That fact struck him so hard that he clenched his fists automatically.

His head was empty. Filled with darkness and pain alone. When he tried to think of something from his past, a wall of nothingness hit him like a car crashing into him at full speed. So confusing. So wrong. There had to be a way for him to remember…anything! But it should be more than the nothingness that was inside of his head now, he couldn't live with his head like this, that was just … impossible.

As the boy tried to concentrate on his surroundings even more, desperate in the process of his realization, he suddenly heard a voice. Realizing that his head was still somewhat numb and his muscles tired, he tried to listen to the voice and get an idea as to what was going on. It sounded to him like the middle of a conversation, but he could swear it had been silent a long time before he concentrated.

"Are you sure about this?" The deep, wise voice echoed from the stonewalls of the room they were in. He could swear that there was a kind of pain he knew in this voice, had heard somewhere before but again couldn't figure out where and in what situation. But then there was also a tone that made the young man shiver slightly. Like he or she wouldn't hesitate to kill someone that disobeyed him (or her?).

"Yes, there is no other way, I assure you. You should leave here as soon as he wakes up; my powers don't last much longer and this has to be done," another voice replied. In opposition to the first voice this one was higher, obviously female, and seemed to be far away like speaking through a long tunnel— strange.

"If you say so I will take him in. If he passes the test, that is." The first voice didn't seem to be pleased with the decision of the second one, but sounded like it had no choice but to obey.

"Oh, I bet he will. Let me tell you, Percy's powerful. But don't ask, there's no telling you more than this, it could ruin everything. Farewell, Lupa, sent Jason a hint, he could use one that's not from me."

And with these words, everything went even darker.

Percy? Right, perhaps she meant him? That could be possible; he was sure he'd heard that before, though maybe it could be his imagination. His eyes closed the whole time, Percy realized that the second voice or the person it belonged to must have had a candle in her hands or something because now it seemed like the room or whatever he was in was completely dark.

But before he could even think about opening his eyes to check out his surroundings, assuming that the other person had left as well, a noise right before his face made him recoil. A smell reached his nose that was now even stronger. It smelled like an animal, but not stinky: it was a pleasant smell, in a strange way.

A shadow emerged above his head and he felt a stare that couldn't possibly be from a human being. Oh gods, what— "Whoa there!" He tried to jump to his feet: that sniffing sound and the scent— he knew now, it smelled like a dog— was far too close for comfort.

Instead of landing on his feet like he intended to do, he stumbled backwards and his eyes widened in shock. The young man found himself against some strange, crumbling wall full of ivy and staring at a wolf bigger than he'd ever seen. As far as he knew, that was, which didn't mean much.

It looked at him with eyes that seemed to have seen many things, things he couldn't even imagine. Silver like very expensive trinkets, these eyes were fixed at him, staring holes into his body. The fur of the creature was of a warm brown, though her gaze seemed far the opposite from warm, and maybe he was having hallucinations again, but it seemed as if the fur was glowing.

And strangely, it wasn't shocked about Percy's reaction to its sniffing him. Its expression without emotion, it lifted its head and looked down at him as if he was meat that wasn't even worth eating.

"Oh, so you're already awake. Here, drink that, young hero, it'll regenerate your strength. When you're finished, follow me."

The voice— the first one, the boy with no memories noticed— came from the she-wolf, but she didn't move her mouth at all. But that wasn't the only thing that startled the young man; the second was that she called him 'young hero'. Was he one? Did he do something good? And if yes, what? Because he didn't know a thing. Argh! Now he was having some serious issues: wolves can't talk, right? But he wasn't as shocked as he probably should have been.

Lupa, as the second voice had called her, pointed on a bottle sitting at the stone floor next to the spot he had just been laying. Where had he heard that name before? It just wasn't coming back to him.

"Don't drink too much, though. Two sips should be enough."

Still confused and uneasy on his feet, the boy walked over to the bottle, uncapped it and drank a bit. As soon as the liquid hit his tongue, he felt better and the taste … Well, he couldn't quite describe it.

It was something he really liked. Why did the word chocolate chip cookie pop into his mind? And blueberries, okay, blueberry chocolate chip cookies? He ate that? When? Where? Something tingled in his head and he had to lower the bottle and lift his hand to it. Shit, that hurt.

A picture was trying to come to him, but his mind seemed to block it out. Like some crazy defense wall inside his brain, or something. What was wrong with him? This wasn't normal.

As the she-wolf was about to leave the room, he shouted something to stop her. "Wait! Why am I here and who am I?"

She indeed stopped in her tracks, but didn't turn around. "I'll tell you more when you pass the test. At least as much as I know."

Then she left, and the young and confused one was alone with a plastic bottle full of muffin juice. No, nectar, a voice said inside his head suddenly— and just as suddenly it was gone, silence again.

"Nectar…" he whispered, and stared at his hands holding the bottle. Where did that come from?

Then, filled with sudden determination, he drank another sip from it and jumped, testing his muscles out. It worked well, so he dropped the closed bottle to the floor and ran after the wolf. If he couldn't find out what was up and who he was by standing there and thinking, he might as well do that test the wolf was talking about.

While running, he looked around the building more carefully. Nobody was here, but it seemed like an abandoned place anyway. The walls were crumbling and it must once have been a big and beautiful house, but that seemed long ago. Now there was a mysterious feeling to this place that gave him a shiver down his spine and got him running faster.

The walls were plastered with ivy and there were holes in it all over the place. Some of the holes looked like faces of ghosts or even monsters. They stared down at Percy and the boy didn't like the look on their faces very much. There was fog wandering the ground like it was alive, trying to grab his feet and keep him from running away. Through the holes, sunlight lit the ground, and because of the fog in the air the light left a trail in midair.

Percy rushed through the room at high speed, noticing that he could run pretty fast and long, since he didn't get tired at all. Just away from here. Yeah, good plan, he thought and looked away from the black hole in the back of the room that seemed to lead even farther inside the building. That thing gave him a bad feeling somehow. And was it just his imagination or was the ground trembling?

It was a deep sound, rumbling through the building and making his stomach ache. He ignored it and soon reached the she-wolf, who was waiting outside. She looked at him as if checking his fitness and nodded slightly. "Very well, climb on my back. We're getting out of here."

It was strange that she offered this because she had such a royal feeling to her that Percy could've sworn she was something more than just a wolf, even if she wasn't actually able to talk. Before she departed, her golden eyes glanced behind her in the direction of the house and seemed somewhat worried; but she shook it off as soon as Percy noticed her stare. He just nodded slowly and climbed up the she-wolf's back, slightly gripping her fur when she started to run into the forest around them. Somehow he was afraid of hurting her, sure that she would immediately kill him for it. From the outside, the house behind them seemed even spookier.

Lupa ran fast, and Percy clung very tight to her, though he tried not to grip too firmly. Oh gods, who did this to his mind? And why did he always put "god" in plural automatically? Yes, he felt better after drinking that 'nectar' but still, his head did hurt pretty badly. Like …yeah, like someone knocked him on the head hard and repeatedly until he fell unconscious, then opened his brain and took it out, sewed his head together brutally and left him on the ground to rot. His whole life— He must've had a life! It was there, he could feel it. But no … still, he knew nothing. And if he was a normal guy, why wasn't he shocked by the taste of that liquid, by the strange voice that seemed to glow somehow or by the she-wolf talking? That wasn't exactly normal, right? But it didn't knock him off his feet at all.

As he was still thinking about this, the she-wolf suddenly stopped. Feeling uneasy sitting on the royal wolf's back, the boy slid off immediately and looked around. Was this where the test would be held? They were just standing in the middle of a clearing...

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was surrounded by other wolves. They looked hungry, and he didn't like that look in their eyes. Not good. No, not really. And then it got worse.

"Now, young demigod. Show me if you are worthy of training in the Roman legion. My brethren are hungry. If you fail, we'll have a nice dinner. Do you still want to risk it?"

He gulped and took a deep breath. Trying to get all the questions out of his mind that came up with what Lupa said, he nodded, slowly but surely. As he did, Percy looked directly into her eyes for the first time.

That was a mistake. He felt like they pulled him in, controlled him and showed him crazy, impossible things, things that could never actually happen. Lupa now grinned— that looked strange, something between baring her teeth and showing them for a smile— and nodded to the right as if he was to follow her. When they reached the trees and walked past a few, tall ones of assorted types, he was sure that someone once taught him which names they had and what their leaves could do or something.

Oak, lark, beech … but when he tried to remember the face of his teacher, again, his headache got worse and he let it go. After a few steps he had to stop suddenly: blinking once, he realized that he stood at the edge of some huge— very, very huge— abyss. Below him he saw even more woods and a lake right below him at the very bottom of the abyss. Which was, like…a thousand feet away.

What now? Did she want him to jump? If yes, then why didn't he panic? Looking at the lake he felt better, yeah, just by looking at it.

That was strange. Also not very normal. Right? Any normal person would yelp and get themselves as far away from this place as fast as possible, because if you jumped off this thing …anyone'd be dead meat for sure. But Lupa nodded again as if she was reading his thoughts, her expression gleeful.

"Yes, that's right. You are jumping. And if not, you're being eaten. So, what do you choose?"

A/N: Hope you liked it :3 PLEASE review :)