Percy Jackson and the Art of Gacha

Traveling the Sea of Monsters with a specific island in mind was very difficult. Not only because the directions and locations of the islands seemed to periodically change, something you wouldn't notice if you were traveling by boat, but also because the night and day constantly shifted and messed with people's heads.

Even I had problems with that. Why was this happening and why had the Odyssey never said something about this?

It was because this entire sea was used to guiding and misleading those inside, making them travel for days and weeks, maybe even years and months, until it had managed to sow discord between the shipmates.

But since we were flying and not under the influence of the sea, we were flying through the different paths other ships were taking, which was why this all was happening.

The first island we reached was abandoned with no humans. But the animals and nature here were flourishing. There were deers and bucks, bigger than anywhere else, probably some extinct or evolved species, birds that followed the same pattern and more.

We decided to rest there as the island seemed peaceful with no threats to our lives visible.

Boy was I wrong.

In the middle of the night, there were sudden screams, scratch sounds on the outside of the train compartments. The scent of blood filled our noses, even though there was no way for it to get in.

At some point during the night I had enough. So I changed into my Rivers' Child form with all three heads on display. Then I stepped out of the compartments, closing the door behind me as fast as possible.

Suddenly everything was silent, then from somewhere in the forests, came a whisper.

And then, the noise exploded.

Everywhere, from every corner came calls, being that raved on and on about something that I couldn't understand.

I walked some distance away from the train, just so that the noise wouldn't wake up the people inside.

I was fully prepared to start a fight with everything on this island, possibly even massacre them, but then I was hit in the back of my head.

It didn't do much though, as I literally had three of them. It just made me turn around and see what I could only described as a modern day wendigo.

It was wearing ripped jeans, for some reason sandals, since it had actual clawed feet instead of hooves and there was something that could only be described a big stick, not even big enough to be called a club.

It swung the stick again, but I managed to block it, breaking it from the impact and then pushed the wendigo into the exposed stomach.

Weirdly to note, it didn't look malnourished or sick.

The world around me cleared up a bit and black mist seemed to lap at my heels, something I had not noticed before.

Then I took a second look at my attacker. He didn't look like a wendigo anymore, more like a very alive and bipedal buck with golden fur.

After that I noticed that the noise around us had cleared up as well. The whispers were still there, but now they had synchronized and they were chanting some thing.

"Come, come new king, father of monsters, come and claim your people.

Come, come our king, child of the sea and heed our call.

Come, come old friend, taker of the abandoned and bring us a new home.

Come and claim us, our new and old king."

Well this was very weird. I had no clue what the meant. Well, I understood some of it. The animals on this island seemed to want me to claim them as mine with the use of my title making clear how they wished for me to do so.

The second part implied that they had somehow managed to either, call me out of the train or managed to bring me to this island.

The third part was more complicated, as it could mean that they wanted me to bring them into the Home-Dimension, or to somehow, turn this island into a home for them. Something I had expected them to already see as their home.

The last part was however realy confusing to me. I understood that they had staked their claim on me as their new king, but what in the gods name did they mean when they called me old king.

The Buck before me had seemingly recovered from the punch I had delivered and was currently trying to stand up.

I grabbed his forearm and pulled him straight.

"Would you like to explain to me why you hit me with that stick of yours?"

"Uhm...i was kind of asked to bring you somewhere on this island and I couldn't think about a way to bring you there. So I figured I would hit you with that stick and go from there."

"Where did you want to bring me? Also what for?" I asked curiously.

"To the temple. We build it for the one propheciesed to claim this land as his, after the lotuseaters had left. And some old ladies informed us that you were the one we were waiting for, then they disappeared.

I'm sorry, I should have just asked."

I just stared at him for a moment, taking in all the information I was just given.

This was the island of the lotuseaters.

There was another prophecy involving me.

And apparently the fates had forgotten to tell me that I was meant to rule an island before I was 12 years old.

Wordlessly I accepted the weirdness my life had just become, and that without Canon having started.

"So where do we have to go? Also, why is it that when I landed, I didn't see a settlement or even traces of your people?"

"But you did. The lotuseaters weren't the only intelligent race on this island, but no one ever realized, not even them, that we, the animals, had not only been sentient, but also been able to take on the form of beastmen."

I did not know what to respond with, but luckily I didn't need to as we came to a halt in front of a temple.

It appeared to be made out of marble, something that shouldn't be here as we were in the middle of the sea of monsters with no source for the marble anywhere on this island.

"This is the temple. It's where you will claim this island as yours."

We walked inside. The temple itself seemed empty with no decorations, statues or anything of the likes.

At the far end of the main room stood a throne. It was, unlike the rest of the building, not made of marble, but rather made out of bones.

Nervously I asked the beastman next to me how those got here.

"The bones for the throne are not human if that's what you are asking. They are gathered and offered by the people of this island. The beings here have a form of immortality. We can die, but we will be reborn from somewhere on this island. Some of us inside the cave system below, sometimes in the trees, but most of the time we come from the earth around the temple.

The bones are ours. When we die, mostly of either birthdefects or of old age, we gather our remains and bring them inside."

"So you are telling me that for some reason, one that I don't want to know about. You made a throne for me, out of your fucking bones!" and here I thought I had already accepted the weirdness of this island.

"Yes we did."