When he opened his eyes again, she was leaning over him, peering at his face. Her eyes were open, cascading and deeper than oceans, swallowing him whole and overtaking his mind. Before he could dissolve again, she closed her eyes and shuffled away, churning up clods of dirt and stone. He blinked.

"Are you well?" She murmured.

"Yes," he replied, his voice barely a whisper.

There was a thought, wriggling through his head again, like worms in rain, but he just as quickly buried it. He blinked again, rising slowly as she motioned to him. Her cloak, thick and smelling of musk and earth, melted seamlessly into the ground on which she arose.

His muscles ached and pulled as he moved, as if he was a machine without oil. She stood there, unblinking and unseeing, yet watching him all the same. His head hurt, aching from the bones within his flesh. He followed her again, not really sure where they were going as the dirt opened and closed behind them quickly, as if they were a bubble travelling through soil.

Eventually, they appeared in an open cavern, and she instructed him to sit. He did, staring aimlessly as she knelt by the pool.

"Drink," she commanded.

The glass appeared before him, and he sluggishly took it, drinking without hesitation. It was thick, like fresh mud, and it slid down his throat slowly. He did not gag. He did not get sick.

She was almost smiling, and he was sure that she did this a lot. Her face turned impassive, and she reached out, touching his arm, and her skin was cool and rough, sending chills down his spine.

"Are you ready?" She inquired.

Her voice was smooth like water, dripping into his ears and making his head go fuzzy. He mutely nodded, and she took him to the stone. He laid down, closing his eyes. There was a feeling of danger, something terrible and incredibly fatal, and he was sure that it was right there, something was wrong, it must be, but he slipped away too quickly.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

He opened his eyes. Her eyes were closed, and her face was smooth like stone, and her cloak a tumbling river of dirt and stones. When she walked to him, pebbles clattered to the ground from her hair, yet she didn't seem surprised by this. When she opened her mouth, he immediately obeyed.

"Stand."

He felt slow, like the ground was tugging at him. His eyes were half-lidded.

She seemed pleased, almost smiling. Why didn't she smile?

"Drink."

There was a glass, appearing before him like magic. It was thick and disgusting looking, like pure mud. He drank.

It twisted its way down his throat, and he felt like he was swallowing a thick slug. He did not get sick.

Tired again, he laid down before she spoke, and she watched him silently. The feeling of danger, this was wrong, he needed to leave-

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"I….d-d-don't...understand." He stumbled over words.

She looked bored, offering him the glass again. "Drink."

He felt terribly frustrated. "W-wh-"

"Drink," she said again, this time she seemed angrier.

She was like a stone angel, cold and hard, but holding an ethereal beauty all the same. Dirt cascaded down her back, and for a moment, her shadow seemed to curl toward him.

"I said drink." Her tone was warning, but he still did not understand. She was like a person, but she was made from the earth. Stony eyes, and rocky skin, with dusty hair that let loose a clatter of pebbles when she moved. Dirt for a cloak, and she melted in with the ground beneath her.

He had this feeling, that all of this wasn't really, and he became terrified. He wanted to scream, and she was looking terrifying now, but he could not open his mouth. Her command of drink seemed all the more impossible.

She took him by the chin, tilting his head upwards as she forced his mouth open and the drink sloughed down his throat. He felt it move towards his stomach, and he felt sick. He tried to swallow, but his mouth watered and he was gagging, but it was stuck in his esophagus.

She was angry, more pebbles falling from her hair.

He tried to stop, but suddenly it slid into his airway, he could not breathe-

There was pain in his chest, he inhaled mud, and his lungs felt heavy, he was choking on it. She laughed bitterly above him.

"Swallow, child."

He was burning, twitchy, trying so hard to inhale, but it would not come. There was pain, his diaphragm jerking to breathe, but there was no air. The mud was trickling from his mouth, his nose, and everything was blocked. He was fading, his head burning in pain.

He needed to breathe. He could not breathe. He could not breathe.

He was clawing at his throat, reaching for the mud, but he could not. He coughed, but nothing moved. He was dying, he needed to breathe.

She continued to laugh.

"Breathe, child."

He could not breathe.

After eternity, black spots swirled in front of him, and he was overtaken by darkness.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Oil spilled from him, oozing from his bloodstream. There was light, and after so much darkness, he cowered from it. A mirage of noise clogged his ears, like the mud that was in his throat. As if a reminder, he vomited the dirt from his throat, and it spilled from his mouth and nose. The noises were louder this time, and the light hurt his eyes, so he squinted against its harshness. Hands were touching him, holding him, and he felt oddly out of place. He could not see in the light, as it burned his skin. He could not remember a time when he had last been in the light, it must have been long ago.

As it turned out, his eyes began to adapt to the light. He could not move his body, not without the soothing commands of the woman who poured mud down his throat. As the noise began to distinguish into voices, he was sure that it was her who had saved him. She was taking him back to his stone.

But the thing beneath him was soft, and he sunk into it uncomfortably. He opened his eyes the tiniest fraction, seeing shapes and figures move about. They opened his mouth, and he gladly took the liquid in his throat. This tasted sweet, so sweet and pure that he agged, even as it slid easily into his stomach.

He felt energized, and the sluggishness in his flesh oozed with the oil. He forced his eyes open, breathing the sweet air that invaded his lungs. There was a sparkle of gold, and he saw eyes blue like the sky, gazing at him. A person so pure and light, yet he was afraid. This was new to him.

The person spoke to him, calling him names that he struggled to remember. Another person, or more, a monster of a man and horse, clashed together and hazardly sewn. This creature has brown eyes, not the same like his woman, but in the same nature, and he was drawn to him immediately. If only he could move. He felt glued to the place where they had laid him.

There was someone else, a woman, but not like his woman. She was different. No more eyes like void, like something he would lose himself in, but steely grey, like mountain stone. They blocked his entrance, and he was confused. She was close to him, she was touching him, not cold and stone-like, but warm and soft. She was speaking, too, yet he wasn't sure what she was saying. She continued to repeated similar words, and he was confused.

Eventually, they seemed to realize that he would not move or respond, so they murmured among themselves. Slowly, like puzzle pieces falling into place, the words surfaced from memory, and he was able to recognize aspects of their speech. Just as slowly, he was able to twitch his muscles to shift slightly. Nothing drastic, nothing extraordinary, but he was amazed to be able to move without commands.

As time passed, he could finally move. The creature and woman had left, leaving him with the blue-eyes man that seemed partial to ignoring him. Every so often he'd slide a glance his way, but for the most part, he was left alone. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he needed to get back to his stone before she found him again. He was sure she was going to be very angry once she discovered that he was gone. He should be sleeping.

He decided to get up and leave. He swung his legs over the edge of his soft-stone once the blue-eyed man was occupied, and got up slowly. His body ached and some of his joints popped as he stood. Warily, he crept out the door. Immediately, the blue-eyed man seemed to notice him again and gave a shout. With a tendril of fear curling around his stomach, he ran down into the field. There were people, dressed in orange and staring as he ran.

The woman from before darted out as well, yelling at him, but he did not want to stop. He ran until he reached the ocean, prepared to sink into the waves and disappear, but suddenly a large wave rose in front of him, and he stopped quickly, falling into the sand. The wave deposited a man on the beach, with dark hair and ocean eyes. He held out his hand to him, and spoke in the words of his earth woman, which he now differed from the language the creature, blue-eyed man and other woman were speaking in.

"Calm down, Perseus."

He breathed hard, as he had not run in a while, and when the water reached out and touched him, he was strong again. He finally gathered up the courage to speak.

"Who are you? Where is she?"

The ocean man seemed sad. "She is not here anymore."

He was confused. There was no woman to listen to, no one to drink him to sleep. No mud in his throat, no stone to sleep. He did not understand.

"No. Tell me where she is."

THe ocean man shook his head, reaching out to him, but he flinched away. The ocean man seemed sad, but all he cared about was finding her. He needed her, like the birds needed the sky.

"You are safe here. She held you there for a long time, but you are safe here. No one will harm you."

"She did not harm me. She is safe."

He shook his head. "She is not safe, Perseus."

He opened his mouth to ask who that was when it settled in his mind. He was Perseus. That was his name. Memories of people, calling him by that name flooded his head, and he knew this ocean man was someone important to him.

"Who are you?

"I am Poseidon, your father."

Father. Father seemed familiar, he needed to understand.

"Who is she?"

"She is Gaea, goddess of the earth."

And then he understood. The taking, the hiding, drinking mud to sleep and cowering from light so they were not found. But now he was in the light, now he was found. He did not understand what was to happen next. The memories of before the earth was jumbled, and muddled in his brain. He wasn't sure why, but he knew that it was from her. She, the woman who commanded him to drink, had taken him from the light. But he still wanted her. He still wanted to listen to her voice and fall asleep to her drinks of earth, mud and dirt.

Poseidon seemed to realize that he was thinking, and he placed his watery hand on his shoulder. This time, he did not flinch. Eventually, he stopped thinking. The light was warm, and he could hear the people behind them murmuring the other language. He knew that these were his people, and they were family to him, but he wasn't sure why, at least not yet.

He blinked. "They will not hurt me?"

"No," Poseidon said. "They will protect you."

"From what?"

"Her."

He was quiet again. "Yes."

Poseidon reached out to touch him once more, and he was once again filled with power, before the ocean man dissolved into the salty sea, washing away in a thundering wave. He watched it churn around his legs before receding, and he was certainly aware of he crowd behind him, and the creature now by his side.

"Percy," it said warily.

He swallowed, trying to speak in their tongue, "Y-y...yes?"

The word came out slow, and awkward on his lips, but the horse creature understood.

"We're going back now."

He nodded, and walked with the man, watching him for any signs of threat. They took him to another place, a large structure painted light blue, and they settled him in a room. He stared blankly as they asked if he was hungry, and he was very confused.

"I...d-do…" he paused, searching for words. "...not…e-eat."

He flushed at his halted speech, and hated himself for not being able to form the words. It was the other woman, the grey-eyes one, who did not seem to mind. She said ok, and had someone go get food. In the meantime, she sat with him and talked.

"Where did she take you?"

"Dirt, crumbling and caved in dirt. I slept on a stone and she fed me mud to make me sleep."

The woman did not seem to understand, but the grape-smelling man standing in the hall did. He chuckled and translated his words to the grey-eyed woman, who seemed oddly disturbed.

"Mud? She fed you mud?"

He nodded. He ate the food they brought him slowly, as the flavor overwhelmed him. She asked him what he remembered, and he shook his head. She then asked him to explain, and he looked at the grape man for help. The man motioned for him to continue, and he flushed with gratitude.

"I remember dirt, and stone."

The man translated again, and she seemed sad now. "I'm sorry," she said.

He was confused. "W-why?"

"It must have been terrible," she said softly. "And so uncomfortable."

He shook his head no. After so much time, she left him, and closed his to dream.