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Josh's P.O.V
After I told them my story, they seemed to understand. I cried less now, since they now understand.
"Now, where to?" I asked.
"Let's go back to Mount Othyrs." Mary suggested. "I want to talk to my father."
"Okay then." Hippolyta said, and she held both me and Mary and melted through the earth.
We shot up the earth and we were back on Mount Othyrs, except that we were beside Atlas's burden.
Atlas saw Mary. "Hey daughter, coming to train?"
"Yes." Mary said. I noticed that Mary didn't kneel on one knee when she bear the burden. Mary just bear the Titan's curse with ease. She didn't even tremble or make stuttered speech.
Mary's P.O.V
I was used to it. I remembered the longest time I held the sky was 10 months. I was aiming for one year, but I was on the verge of having one of my muscles melt from the immense weight.
I wondered how long Hippolyta or Josh can hold the sky, but it's obvious that Josh cannot hold it for more than a few days since he is such a short little boy.
I looked down at the little Josh. "Josh? You want to hold it?"
"Umm... no thanks." Josh said. "It's too heavy for me."
Yeah right... I thought. He can even hold the moon, which was a million times heavier than this, but he cannot even hold the sky.
"Oh, okay." I told him.
I pushed the sky up and down, like when I was lifting a set of weights.
Hippolyta and Josh stared at me with shock as to how I made the Titan's Curse like a toy.
"It's..." I waited for a while. "Nothing."
Josh gaped at me. "You're not serious, are you?" Josh asked. "The weight of the sky? Meant nothing to you???"
"Yes, Josh." I told him. "I've been training for ages to achieve this feat. That is why I was able to hold it for 10 months."
Next stop: Holding the weight of the Moon.
Joshy here had some experience on holding the moon. He told me that his whole body becomes listless and out of energy. He also told me that he broke nearly all of his bones during the process (except the skull).
I was just taking my time holding this so called Titan's Curse. It didn't feel like a curse at all. Just more methods of exercising.
I really wished that I was the one who'll hold the weight of the moon, but at the time, I was holding the sky. I really wanted to know how holding the moon feels like.
I could feel my hand muscles increasing in radius. My muscles swelled to more immense sizes. My legs muscles also swells up to even more massive sizes. My stomach muscles also grows with it. I wished that my body will become normal, but when they do.... I would not be able to hold the sky for such a long time.
So I was happy with the way I am now, since I am now immensely strong. Now, for the next challenge: The weight of the Moon.
I'm not sure whether Artemis agrees with me holding her weight, but if she agrees, then I would increase my training.
I kinda remembered when I asked Hippolyta about making a huge 10 tonne boulder and drop it to me, and progressingly increasing the weight in my training. The weight of the sky isn't like that. The weight stays constant, and does not change. However, it is very heavy.
I really wished that Josh would accompany me in holding the burden, but he is too small and is most likely not able to hold it.
Atlas came up behind me, and took my burden. I knelt for a moment, and stood up again. I stretched my legs and my arms, to relieve the lactic acid from my muscles.
I decided to take a walk on the beach, but it is so far from here. So Hippolyta decided to go for a faster route. She melted through the earth and appeared on the beach.
I recognised this beach. I used to go to this very beach whenever our class had a field trip!
I walked towards the white sand, and played with the sands.
Meanwhile, Josh decided that he will jump into the open ocean and started to swim.
Josh's P.O.V
This is my first time in this year I went to swim. I dived in, and I decided to count how long I can hold my breath underwater.
As I held my breath, I swam gently down towards the coral reef. I literally smiled, since the coral reefs were clean, the color of freshly reef.
I lost track of time while holding my breath, because I was having so much fun.
I checked my stopwatch. It turns out that already 8 minutes. I decided that it is time for me to surface.
I slowly came up to the surface of the sea, and came up gasping and coughing.
Mary approached me. "Josh! Are you okay?"
I stood up, "Yes, I'm okay...." I froze when I saw Mary's changed figure. She is even more ripped and bulky than ever before. I think she needs timeout on her training. She's training too much.
"Come on." I told my friends. "Let's go back to Camp Half-blood."
"What for?" Mary asked. "Who's there to sacrifice?"
Those words hit me. I remembered the 3rd and 4th line of the prophecy. They refer to a sacrifice should be made or Hippolyta and Mary will stay in gigantic proportions.
"Never mind that." I told them. "Let's have some fun!"
"Yay!!" Hippolyta and Mary hugged each other, and released them from the hug. "What should we do now?" Hippolyta asked.
"Now, we shall train until we drop." I suggested. "I want to be strong like you."
"Sure..." Mary's voice trailed off, and stared at me for a few seconds, before resuming what she's going to say. "Let's go."
"I know a good place." Hippolyta told us. Then, she grabbed me, Annabeth and Mary and melted through the earth and we shot up the earth.
I looked around. This is a hill, a mountain with a field of grass. I wondered why Hippolyta brought me here, what is it to train for?
Just then, Hippolyta made a giant boulder from the earth, and as she did that, a giant boulder is on her right hand. I wondered why she made that boulder?
As I watched, the boulder grew bigger and bigger until it's the size of a cargo plane. Then, Hippolyta dropped it to Mary's back. Mary seems to have no problem holding the boulder. I wondered if she didn't even make the effort to hold it.
"Josh?" Hippolyta asked. "You want to train?"
"Sure," I told her.
Hippolyta made a boulder from her hands. The boulder gets bigger each time, but this time until the size of a 500 pound bull. Hippolyta dropped it onto me, and I staggered, but I held the boulder in my hands and shoulder.
"More?" Hippolyta asked.
Mary nodded, while I shook my head.
Hippolyta made the boulder in Mary's shoulder to become more heavy, and it is increasing in radius as well as diameter. The boulder in Mary's shoulder had reached 60 meters in radius, but she is still strong. She made a slightly shaky effort to bring the boulder back up.
I fought the urge to sank on my knees. I was standing, but my legs are already trembling. As Hippolyta added more weight to the boulders, I sank to kneeling on one knee. As the weight increased, I began to sweat more.
"E-eeeenough..." I told Hippolyta.
She listened, and put down her hands. The weight stopped increasing, and I felt that I was getting stronger too. I asked Hippolyta to make the boulders go away, and she did. With a wave of her hand, she made the boulders on my shoulders disappear, and I fell on my knees.
I huffed and puffed and gritted my teeth while on my knees. I managed to keep on my knees for a while to recover my strength, and I stood up.
Mary's boulder had reached the size of 4 titanics, and still she is able to do it. However, she seems to be losing it.
She seems to be shaking, and it looks like she needs help.
It turned out to be true when I approached her. Mary's body is trembling from the boulder. Hippolyta thought that she is strong enough to do it. I could tell it's about 750-900 tons.
"Mary, I'll hold it for a moment. You go stretch." I told her.
"No Josh." Mary told me. "The weight will kill you."
"No Mary." I insisted. "You need a rest. I will hold it."
Mary smiled at me. I braced myself and knelt on one knee. I touched the huge boulder as Mary slowly bring it down so I can hold it. When Mary dropped it on me, I felt like I was crushed by a thousand ships.
My whole little body is on fire. My whole little body is trembling. My vision turned fuzzy. I shouldn't have taken the boulder.
"H-h-h-Hipp..." I managed.
"Josh?" A voice said from above.
I looked at the direction of the voice. It's Mary. Her muscles had grown even bigger again. I wondered when she will stop growing her muscles, because it seems that she can grow an unlimited amount of muscles.
I know it's only a few minutes I'm trapped in this boulder. This is supposed to be just training, but why is it so heavy?
Mary looked at me with remorse, and lifted the boulder.
I collapsed instantly, exhausted from the pain and the weight. That took almost all of my energy, but I could feel my muscles growing slightly bigger.
I breathed heavily, and pressed my hand against my face. After a while, I put my hand on the ground to help myself get up. My legs tremble a little as I tried to stand up. As I watched, Mary's boulder began to shrink as Hippolyta made the boulder to shrink down to regular size.
Just then, a figure appeared in a form of dove. I could tell who it is by just looking at the dove figure.
"Aphrodite..." I gaped.
Aphrodite looked at me. "Oh, close your mouth, Joshy. You know that I don't like boys that have their mouth open."
"Sorry." I muttered.
"The reason why I'm here is that I am going to tell Josh here, that My curse will be happening shortly. Until then, bye bye!"
And she evaporated into mist.
My heart pounded. My face paled. I remembered that my mother had talked to me about the Aphrodite Curse for numerous of times, but I stubbornly forget it.
She told me that I had this curse, and sometime in my life it's going to activate. She told me that the curse was to sob endlessly. I always dreaded this moment, and it's probably too late to stop it.
I felt my eyes tearing up. Oh No! Please! Not now!! I have two female friends that may laugh at me when they saw me sobbing. I fought the urge to cry, but it's useless. The curse had taken place, and it's too late to stop it.
I felt tears streaming down my cheeks. Hippolyta and Mary stared at me in shock.
I hide my face from Hippolyta and Mary as tears streamed down my cheeks.
Mary's P.O.V
I don't know what had happened, but after Aphrodite told Josh about the curse Aphrodite bestowed on Josh, Josh started to cry for no reason.
"Josh?" I approached him. He turned towards me and sobbed into my shirt. I held him tightly. "Josh? What's wrong?"
"It's..." He sobbed. "It's the curse."
"The curse?" I asked, perplexed. "What curse? The curse from Aphrodite?"
He nodded, but refrains from making eye-contact with me.
I really wanted to know what is the curse about, but I think it's time to leave him alone for now.
Josh's P.O.V
I wished they would understand that my curse is to sob endlessly. I was made like this because of something one of my great grandparents does, and I got the curse.
I sobbed violently on my hands. I felt Hippolyta carry me in her hands and I sobbed into her hands.
I wished I don't have to do this so called curse and enjoy my time, but I have to bear the burden because if I didn't, I will have passed to someone else, and I felt guilty of that.
I sobbed onto Hippolyta's shirt. She allowed me to sob endlessly since she is my friend.
Hippolyta's P.O.V
I took a bus, and me, Mary, Annabeth and Josh got on the bus. Josh is still crying. He didn't want to tell me why he's crying.
Mary decided to take the wheel, and she drove us back to Camp Half-blood.
....
As time passes on, Josh couldn't stop his crying, no matter how hard we tried. His shirt soaked from the tears that's streaming down his cheeks and literally, my shirt can become soaked too.
Josh kept muttering to himself. Some of the words I can manage to decipher were: "Please.... no more." "Stop this curse, please!" "Aphrodite, PLEASE STOP!!!"
He needs to be brought to the infirmary straight away, and finally, we arrived at Camp Half-Blood.
Chiron saw from the distance, that Josh had been crying. Chiron galloped in full speed towards us. "What happened?" He asked.
I looked at the crying Josh, and back to Chiron. "I don't know. Aphrodite just came to tell him about Aphrodite's curse. After Aphrodite left, Josh just cried miserably."
I brought the crying Josh into Chiron, and for a moment, he looked frantic. His eyes looked like he was shell-shocked.
He then started sobbing uncontrollably again, and Chiron sighed in exasperation. "Bring him to the infirmary." Chiron said.
So, me and Mary rushed Josh into the infirmary. His condition is unknown as of now, but we believe that it's because of Aphrodite's curse affecting him.
Will hurriedly attend the infirmary, and looked at the crying Josh.