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Babs Seed's Guide to Surviving Greek Mythology
1. This Guy With A Sword Saves Me From A Baker
Look, I really didn’t ask for any of this.
Sure, it’s kind of cool now, thinking about it. I mean, what part about it wouldn’t be cool? You’re walking down the street one day and bam , you know all those myths about Greek gods and goddesses? Yeah, no, they’re one hundred percent real. They live high up in a palace that moves with western civilisation, currently residing over the Empire State.
You must also think though, The Empire State Building? What? I don’t see any floating city of the gods. You’re crazy! And the gods live on Mount Olympus. There aren’t any mountains within two hours of Manhattan!
Think again. They’re there, all right, and they shoot lightning at you if you get too annoying. Mmhm, I’m serious.
Alright, fine, you got me, I’m only half joking. But that’s just the least of the craziness. You’ve heard of heroes like Hercules, Perseus, Theseus and Odysseus, and how they’re all demigods, right? Yeah, demigods. Half human, half god. Usually quite powerful, better equipped than the average mortal, and an annoying knack to attract monsters straight from the pit of Hell… er, Tartarus, actually. Their names all end with the letter ‘S’ too, which is kind of odd.
See where I’m going with this?
No? Well of course not, you’re mortal. If you’re not, then screw you, you’re a god. If you’re feeling like something is up and you feel like you know what I’m talking about, it’s probably too late. You’re a demigod. In that case, you should probably grab the nearest kitchen knife and check your front porch for any empousa . Trust me, an infestation of those things can kill.
I should probably start with the train back to Manhattan after I visited my cousin in Canterlot, because all great stories start with train rides. They’re like, literal transitions from one place to another. And yes, I only said that because someone else said it before me, as most things turn out to be.
I drummed my fingers on my bag, restlessly staring out at the quickly nearing Manhattan skyline. With almost practiced unease, I pulled out my wallet and rifled through some of the bills I would need for the fare back to my Aunt’s place. I’d gone through the motions a million times, but for some reason I felt incredibly uneasy.
I kept checking behind my back, as if someone were boring their eyes into me. I glanced suspiciously at anyone I deemed weird or out of place, and I would give my worst stink eye to anyone I caught looking at me. Everytime someone turned away after making eye contact, I smirked a little, but that was it. This “uncooperative delinquent” was more worried about the feeling in her gut than what others would think.
It was as if something were tugging my insides around and placing them all in the wrong place. Something was wrong, and I doubted it was because of the time of month. That was last week. Today, nah. Feeling in my bag, I felt for my little pocket knife. I had a feeling I might need it, and an even worse feeling that it wouldn’t be enough.
As the train slowed to a stop and jarred a little in place, everyone around me started getting up. Checking I had everything with me since I could be forgetful sometimes, don’t judge, I slung a strap over my shoulder and pursed my lips.
When the song I was listening to on my iPod Nano came to an end (call me sentimental, I like the way they look), the silent transition felt like an eternity. As if with a mind of its own, my head swivelled, falling on a strange girl. Her eyes glinted with a feral ferocity I couldn’t place, and her grin was unsettlingly. She sat there calmly, legs crossed and hands folded. She was staring straight at me when she smiled.
The next song came up and I felt my heartbeat start to match the quick tempo of the bass and drums. Tearing my eyes away, I quickly shoved into the line before I could be left in last place. As soon as I made out of the train car, I walked away as fast as I could without looking to be in a rush.
As I turned a corner, I risked a glance behind me. She was there. Separating the two of us was a large body of other commuters, but it was clear where she was headed. After me. Why? I dunno. Maybe she was an undercover cop who finally found out I stole a packet of gum from a vending machine by reaching into it when I was eight.
I highly doubted it, though.
Knowing that she couldn’t possibly see me anymore, I started running as fast as I could. The people I passed and bumped into as I lay low and darted through gaps and legs gave me looks of annoyance, but I didn’t care. I was being stalked by some random chick. I didn’t want to be the perfect candidate for America’s Next Top Model, or whatever reason she was looking to reach me. The faster I could leave the station, the better.
I reached the stairs and bolted up them, skipping two, even three steps until I broke into the blinding glow of the dying Manhattan sunset. At that point, I looked behind me just to check. Sure enough, there was no sign of her. Almost with a sigh of relief, I leaned on my thighs for a few seconds and caught my breath. Maybe I could grab a little something to eat before I took the cab to my Aunt’s apartment. Throwing my hood up and throwing my gaze around at anyone who seemed to question me, I moved to the nearest bakery.
The chimes jingled as I came in, the bustling monotone and roar of golden-hour traffic coming to a muted silence as all I could hear was the hum of several heat lamps. Smiling, I took my headphones out, letting them hang from my shirt, and I walked forward to peruse the selections.
This particular croissant was looking pretty good.
Ah yes, croissants. What did you expect? Some random junk food that would probably pack on another ten pounds of disgusting, frozen-for-ten-days meat that had been cooked in a vat of grease? No thanks. At least, not when I knew there was a bakery. Croissants are good, bro. They’ve got this crustiness I just, oomph. And sometimes, the glazed ones or drizzled ones are amazing enough to make me want to cry.
Of course, I’m a bad girl, so I don’t cry. Don’t hate, appreciate.
I guess I’m not that bad, but there was this one time where I basically pushed my cousin’s friends apart just because I wanted to look cool. Totally not cool, in retrospect. I ended up apologising to Applejack for that later, but she gave me this look of disappointment. Still sits with me today, I guess. Like a heavy weight on my heart. Ugh. I hate myself.
“What would you be having today, dear?” the cashier asked. I glanced up from my musings and widened my eyes a little.
“Oh, uh,” I stuttered. Pointing to this one plump croissant that looked particularly tasty with a light drizzle of chocolate, I looked back up. “This one, please.”
“Will that be all?” she asked, smiling sweetly. It was a little disarming, but I smiled back. I couldn’t help the feeling that I’d seen that smile somewhere before, though.
“Yep,” I said.
“That’ll be two drachma.”
As I reached for my wallet, I stopped. Drachma? What in god’s name was that? Pulling my wallet out, I clutched it a little tightly.
I looked up at her, frowning. “Excuse me, but drachma? What?”
A flash of darkness swept across her features. Before I could even register the look, she smiled again. “Oh, I’m sorry, you must’ve misheard me. I said ‘that’ll be two dollars’.”
Eyeing her a little warily, I handed the change over and made sure to watch as she stuffed my prize into a little white paper bag and handed it to me. Reaching for it, I took it tentatively before backing up slowly. When I decided it was an okay deal, I turned tail and pushed the door open.
“Have a good day, Babs! I’ll be seeing you soon enough.”
I waved mindlessly and rushed to the street, not wanting to stay in the presence of a weird baker any longer than I had to. Waving for the next taxi, I tapped my foot restlessly against the pavement, several people bumping into me as they rushed to their next destination. For me, I just tried to clear my head of all the weirdness that had just happened in the span of half an hour. Surely, it was all just a big fat coincidence, right? It wasn’t just the summer heat messing with my brain?
But what the heck was up with that baker? She was nice, but weird. Very weird. And I almost felt sleepy in her shop, like the smell of baked goods would be enough to woo me unconscious. And that girl on the train, the one who had been looking for her… it hit me. They both smiled the same way at me. On the train. Over the counter. It was as if they knew something about me.
At that moment, an icy hand of gripping fear wrapped my heart. I had never told the baker my name.
I turned around to look into the shop I had left moments before, only to see two people conversing quickly. One was the baker. One was the girl. Before I knew it, they both smiled as if sharing a joke, before the baker turned toward me and nodded with this glint in her eyes. It felt dangerous. It felt deadly. The girl turned to me as well, and I gulped. This was not good.
“Taxi!” I cried quickly, glancing behind me. I watched the baker twist the sign to CLOSED and they both nodded to one another. I waved my hand frantically. “TAXI!”
They opened the door. I bolted into the street. Running to the nearest taxi, I tore the door open and glared at the passenger in the back seat. I growled menacingly. “Get out.” The man complied, clutching his work bag for dear life as he stumbled out. I slammed the door as I sat down and thrust a wad of cash into the driver’s face. “Get me to Brooklyn!”
The driver grumbled. “What about the money for-”
“I’ll pay for the other guy’s travel, just get me out of here and quick! I’ll pay you more!”
He didn’t need any more incentive. Before I knew it, he was doing his best to manoeuvre out of his current lane, getting out of the current traffic. I glanced nervously out the side of my window and bit my lip as I saw the two ladies staring at me from the edge of the sidewalk. I breathed heavily, trying to stare them down and see what they were planning on doing.
They started wading towards me.
Several cars swerved around them, trying to miss the crazy pedestrians walking into the street. People who were on the sidewalk started pointing. Somehow, they didn’t get hit. Then again, I somehow didn’t get hit, but that was because I chose a moment where everything had stopped for a second. Now, cars were moving, I was moving, and the crazy ladies were starting to reach me. They were only two cars away, at best. I locked my door.
“Hurry!”
“I’m trying!” The driver slammed a horn before glancing back quickly. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but this traffic is busier than the usual!”
I gritted my teeth. They were one car away. They would be on me any second.
Just when they smiled at me, like I was just another customer, the car lurched forward and we started speeding away, weaving in and out of cars on the road. I could’ve sworn heard scratching noises from the side of the car, as if a set of claws had tore through the metal. I was just glad that I was making it out of there. That place was honestly freaky.
I threw my earbuds on just as a song came on singing about how crazy the world is compared to their imagination. I only smiled to myself, the irony of the situation getting to me. Two weird woman deciding suddenly deciding it was okay to just pounce on a teenager like me? I mean, I know I look like a punk, but you could at least respect me as I am. Most people do.
The baker seemed so nice though, and the girl could’ve been like any other passing person. What made them special? The fact that they tried to grab me? Or maybe their smiles? They both seemed to have nothing wrong with them, yet they tried ganging up on me like I had stolen from them. Being reminded of the pastry I still clutched in my hand, I was reluctant to really eat it. What if they had put something in it? It was a possibility I wasn’t risking at the moment.
Unfortunately, the same moment was suddenly filled with screaming and shouting when our cab swerved around the baker in the street, staring us down with no intent on moving. The driver yelled something and honked before the baker jumped into our evasive path. The driver, not expecting this, jerked his wheel and we went rolling.
I blacked out. I know I blacked out, too, because I came to with a severe headache and the feeling of a bruise forming on the side of my head. The world wavered around me, and I almost felt like throwing up. Sluggishly stuffing my hand into my bag, I felt for my knife. When I knew my grip had tightened around it, I felt for the door. After what felt like an eternity, I tried opening it.
It didn’t budge.
I growled in frustration. Eyeing the door to see what might be wrong, I blinked a few times. The whole door was basically crumpled. The edge where the door would’ve separated from the car completely was crumpled against my seat. Glancing to the other side, I noticed it seemed intact. I somewhat dragged myself over, trying my best to ignore the unconscious taxi cab driver.
Trying the door, I almost sighed in relief when it opened. It was short lived.
A pair of strong hands grabbed my wrists tightly, forcing me to drop my knife. Woozy, beat up, apprehensive and with a million thoughts racing through my head, I became dead weight. I couldn’t think. I just… this was all so crazy. What the hay was happening?
I heard laughing. Giggling. Two voices conversing excitedly. My head swam. Was this the end? Would I be kidnapped? Murdered? Would I just disappear off the face of the earth? Would anyone care about me?
“-and then we can bake several of her parts into high quality pastries!”
“Stop it! Stop with the baking! Seriously, what is with you and baked goods? We can just kill her now and roast her over a fire, simple. No need to spend hours making several baker’s dozens of stylised donuts and crepes!”
The baker pouted. “Come on, it doesn’t take that long. I can make good muffins in half an hour. I added some of the ingredients from her, that would be thirty minutes well spent!”
Train girl sighed. “No. Fire. Roast meat. Five minutes. So simple!”
“But that isn’t any fun. Where’s the creativity? Just let me have at her for a few minutes!”
As the two women argued, I tried to shake the fuzziness from my head. It was like trying to ride a bike through two feet of water going uphill. I was making progress, but it was painful. It was brutal, to be honest. Here I am, being held by my arms and being argued over by two cannibals as I blinked the bright lights away. Who said real life was crazy? No, this is insanity.
When I almost felt back in tip top shape, it seemed they had finally resolved their whole ordeal. They were calming down now, with a lot more sighing going on than I was comfortable with. They both looked down at me, when they realised I was starting to become more lucid.
“Well, that’s no good,” train girl said. “She’s waking up more.”
“It’s funner that way,” the baker said. “It just means we can have more fun splitting her in half.”
“S-splitting in half?” I mumbled worriedly.
The train girl smiled. “Oh yes, we’re splitting you up. One side for me, one side for Leila. All because she wants to spend time turning you into some sort of bread.”
“Not like you have the mind for it, Jilly,” Leila the baker retorted.
Jilly shrugged, smiling immediately afterward with sharp teeth that worried my immensely. “And then, after that, we can trace her scent to all the other demigods from her school. Oh, how exotic they all smell, just from her jacket! I can’t wait.”
Wait. Demi-what-nows? All the other demigods? What the hay?
“Wait, what.” I managed to push words out clearly, and they both giggled a little bit.
“Oh, of course,” Jilly laughed, “This makes it even better! Haha!”
“That’s odd,” Leila muttered, “She’s fifteen, a daughter of the Big Three and doesn’t know who she is?”
“Don’t question it, Leila,” Jilly snapped. “We can’t give too much away to her in case she escapes. Wouldn’t want our employer to know that we planned on eating her before we could give her to ‘em-”
At that moment, a large glowing bronze-ish sword impaled the lady in the chest.
Jilly stared down at the sword as if it were something unexpected, squeaking a little when the sword left her and all she had was a large gash in her abdomen that went from front to back. “Ow,” she said. “That hurt a lot.”
Before my very eyes, one of my arms was set free as Train Girl disappeared into golden dust, crumbling until she was nothing. In her wake was a boy wearing a swim-team sweater and sweats, looking particularly annoyed. In his hands was a leaf-shaped sword that seemed to radiate power, and he regarded me with frowning sea-green eyes.
“You okay?” he asked. “Empousa didn’t hurt you?”
“Empousa? ” I asked.
“Yeah, part bronze leg, part goat, kinda weird looking after you get past the Mist. No?”
I shook my head.
The boy studied me for a second before pursing his lips and turning to Leila the Baker. “Let go of her and I might just let you go free,” he said. I felt a chill go down my spine.
“Promise?” Leila said. “I have a bakery I need to run and pay for, I can’t do that while I’m in Tartarus.”
Sword Boy looked at Leila and shrugged. “I got nothing against bakeries, but you’re a pretty freaky monster that was just talking about eating one of my kind. That sits a little wrong with me.”
Nodding for a second, I felt the empousa’s grip on me slacken a little before she dropped it completely and bolted for the nearest alley. Me and the boy watched as she disappeared, the boy looking particularly torn between what looked to be confusion and disappointment. After another moment, he winced and looked down at me, offering a hand. I took it, and before I knew it, I was leaning on him, the world swirling around me threateningly.
“Woah there, you’re going to need to munch on this or else you’re going to pass out. Can’t have that.”
I was offered a couple squares of an odd cracker snack thing, and I frowned a little. “What? What’s this?”
“Ambrosia. You know, food of the gods? Doesn’t work on mortals, but it definitely helps heal us.”
I took them and regarded him for a second, unsure. “Us.” With that, I popped the squares into my mouth and immediately felt a rush, as if a pressure had been released from my head. My thinking was sharper already, and my headache lessened to a throb. And the taste… wow, it tasted just like the baklava my Aunt’s made on special occasions. Just sweetness and… this was crazy.
“Why does it taste like-”
“Your favourite food?” the boy offered. “It just kinda does. Never really questioned it. Now, if you’re feeling good enough, you can stop leaning on me. There might be more monsters coming soon, and I can’t fight them with a demigod falling asleep on me. Not when you can be useful too.”
“W-wait,” I said. “What? What the hay is going on? I mean, who were those people? Why’d you murder the- the lady? Why do you have sword?”
He furrowed his brows for a moment before shrugging. “I guess you have a lot of questions, but I’ll have to answer them later. Do you hear that?”
I cocked my head to the side, not quite sure what he was talking about.
“Rumbles. Foot stomps. Something a little big is coming. We need to get you moving and to Camp Half-Blood, it’s the safest place for people like us. Don’t worry, just follow my lead.” As he darted away, I struggled to catch up, a million questions rushing through my mind. I picked the easiest off the top of my head.
“Wait!” I yelled again. “What’s your name!?”
He stopped jogging enough for me to catch up before he grinned widely. “Right. Of course.” He promptly thrust a hand out for me to shake, and I grabbed it. His hand was equal measures rigid and gentle and I could feel a few callouses, Other than that, all I could see was his bright smile and mischievous eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I was probably blushing, and he shook my hand.
“Hi, I’m Percy Jackson.”
Author's Note
Let the trolling and Percabeth begin.
Babs Seed's Guide to Surviving Greek Mythology
2. I Pull A Jason Grace (Who Is This Guy?)
Note to self: if a good looking guy asks you if you want to live, don’t go with him.
In all fairness though, you probably should go with him, for sure if they mention someplace called Camp Half-Blood , and especially if his name is Percy Jackson. It could mean life or death concerning who exactly you may turn out to be. Don’t worry about me, though. I’m just a bit bitter about the situation I was in. Honestly, who wouldn’t be? But that’s besides the point I’m trying to make.
I stumbled after Percy, trying to keep up as my head throbbed and a monster boomed somewhere behind us. He yelled something back to me, but it sounded like his voice was travelling through a waterfall hitting sheets of glass. Suffice it to say, my mind was freezing over. I wondered if it was shock. In any case, I really was in no condition to be moving. The taste of baklava still danced on my mouth from the ambrosia I was given, but the effect was fading, and I was beginning to feel some of the injuries I had sustained.
I also had the weirdest feeling that the bruise on my head was healing quickly, but it was probably just the bruise on my head giving me weird hallucinations. The feeling of a hand grabbing me brought me back to reality.
Percy looked at me, more concerned than annoyed at this point. “Hey, you okay? I’m not sure I should give you more ambrosia, you might burn up.”
“Burn up?” I muttered. “That would be fun.”
Percy grinned. “Looks like there’s still hope for you after all. But I can’t have you falling behind. Whatever’s coming, it’s coming fast, and we need to hurry.”
“Why hurry when we can just die?” I said. “Better than my miserable life.”
“Don’t say that,” Percy said, frowning. “I didn’t save the world twice over just to have another demigod die because of me. You’re going to be fine. We just need to get to camp.”
There was that word again. Demigod . Half human, half god. Finally, the memory came to me. I could vaguely remember learning the word when I was taking Drama, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand why he was calling me that. I couldn’t be a demigod. I was nobody special. The most I could do was cut my hair and look badass while no one thought to question me. Ah, when times were much simpler.
“What is this camp?”
Percy shook his head, pulling me along with him. “I already told you. Now come on, we need to move .”
I couldn’t really argue, since I could hear the loud roars from where we stood. It rumbled the ground, and it seemed to me that with every footstep, the earth shook. I had the strangest feeling the tremors I felt were stronger than the ones Percy felt, but it must’ve been just my imagination. Then again, everything happening could’ve been my imagination, and I could actually be dying in a car seat back at the cab.
I decided to go with the reality where I was living.
As I finally felt my mind clear up on it’s own, I shook my head. “Wait, how did you know I was in trouble? That seemed awfully convenient that you’d find me-”
Boom!
The faint sound of something exploding cut me off as we both stopped. I gulped. “Th-that you’d find me when you did.”
He shrugged. “Your cab crashed a few blocks from my apartment, but I could hear the squealing tires and crash just fine. Grabbed my sword, ran out the door, found you in the hand of two empousa. Nothing much to it.”
No, I thought, Just some crazy coincidence.
“‘Sides,” he said, gesturing his sword toward a car a hundred feet away, “That means we don’t have to worry about transportation. I can drive you to camp.” He stared forward for a few seconds before wincing, as if remembering something that was painfully familiar. “On second thought, scratch that. We might just end up crashing and burning.”
The only correct response was a solid “Huh?”
He shook his head. “We’ll have to find another way to get there. I have a bad feeling about all this.”
“No schist,” I murmured. With that, we ran past what must’ve been his apartment complex and his Prius, the latter of which mysteriously had what looked to be horse hooves dented in the roof. Questioning the credibility of his excuse not to drive to wherever this camp was, I grumbled to myself but didn’t outright say anything. It was obvious he knew more about what he was doing than I did.
Didn’t mean I couldn’t complain.
“Look, do you want to die? Like, really?” Percy said. “Because let me tell ya, dying isn’t fun.”
He said that as if he’d died before. I didn’t really think, or want to question him further. “No, I guess not really,” I said, “But this seriously sucks. Are you sure we shouldn’t have just taken your car?”
“You might as well be asking whether I want to be stuck in a metal cage of death. Don’t worry, I’ve called for backup.”
“Backup?” I asked. As far as I knew, I hadn’t seen him whip any sort of cellphone out or anything, and he had been running with me this whole time. “What kind of backup?”
He just grinned this really annoying grin, telling me he knew something I didn’t. What a frustrating character. “You’ll see. You’re sure to like it.”
I raised a speculative eyebrow at him. “Uh-huh. I don’t suppose some sort of flying horse will come and save us, hm? How about some magical seapony that can survive on land? Maybe a storm cloud?”
He laughed nervously. “Could be.”
His answer didn’t comfort me. In fact, it worried me, because it implied that any of those things could be real. Either way, I wasn’t prepared for such a mind-blowing revelation, so I grabbed the idea and threw it off a cliff. It was for the best. “Just don’t tell me there’s some sort of kraken swimming around in the ocean. That would be freaky as he-”
Whatever I was going to end up saying was suddenly cut off as Percy shoved me to the ground and a car flew past us, tumbling past the sidewalk and into the nearby park. After it rolled a few times, I watched it come to a crashing halt against a tree before someone stumbled woozily out of it and, the car burst into flames.
“Friggin A.” Percy seemed to mumble as he picked himself up, “I’m going to murder that monster.”
Friggin A? Must be serious. I dusted myself off a little, but stopped in my tracks as I turned to look at what Percy was seeing. There, standing in the middle of the street and hounding on cars that were ramming into him with screeching tires, was a large mishmash of animals that could’ve been a snake, a lion, a lizard, or a goat. It breathed fire at oncoming traffic and spit acid at cars that crashed into it from behind.
I shrieked, stumbling backward. “What in the world is that?”
“A chimera,” Percy said darkly. “I haven’t seen one of those things since I was twelve.”
“Twelve?” I asked, because twelve. Twelve . Who the heck encounters a chimera at the age of twelve, much less the chimera in the first place? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
“Yeah, and then I fell six-hundred feet into the Mississippi. It’s pretty funny, now that I think about it.”
I gulped, staring at him a little. Six-hundred feet? Who was this guy? Another pressing question was, the Chimera from myths was real? HUH!? My mind started spinning again, before Percy grabbed my shoulder.
“Alright, here’s the game plan. I attack and distract the monster, you stay here and wait for backup.”
“What the heck is the backup?” I asked him. Well, I really yelled it more than I did ask it, but the message was passed.
He waved me off before running and shouting behind his back: “You’ll know! Just yell for me!”
He swung his sword before diving right in, yelling at innocent civilians standing around and screaming. They didn’t need another warning. It was almost mesmerising, seeing him dance around the chimera with practiced ease. As if he had done this a million times. The chimer snarled and breathed flames at him, but he rolled out of the way. He really wasn’t trying to kill it, I realised. He was just using himself as a target so others could get away. I could also see his eyes darting cautiously between the rear end and the head of the monster, the way someone would knowing they had made a mistake sometime in the past.
He had said he encountered it before, and he fell six-hundred feet. What made this time any different? I could see him really dancing now, his slashes not quite breaching the chimera’s fur. I could see now that it wasn’t really as big as it should’ve been, and some of its features were rounder than they could’ve been. It was a baby, I realised, or at least, close to one. But Percy didn’t know that.
I thought of people that played with bear cubs in the woods. What was it that happened to them? I… it was on the tip of my tongue. The top of my head. They, they… no, if there was a cub, the mother was always nearby, ready to attack. So if this tiny chimera were a baby, then the mother-
“Percy!” I yelled, but I think it was too late. Another roar pierced the air as Percy turned towards me in confusion before the mother Chimera burst into view on the block, at least twice the size of the baby. Percy realised at that moment he had been battling the baby just as I did, the only difference being? He was in the middle of it all. I wasn’t. With how good he seemed to be, how experienced he showed himself to be, I was sure he could handle on chimera baby-or-not just fine, but two? That was a stretch. A very dangerous stretch. And Percy seemed to realise this at the same time I did.
“Ship biscuits,” I saw Percy mouth, though I was sure he had said something much cruder and inappropriate than that. I then watched as the two chimera nuzzled together before roaring in unison at Percy. He withstood the combined rush of two roars, but I could see he was shaken. They proceeded to split up, flanking Percy on both sides, and I knew he was screwed— Unless I came into the equation.
But what would my weapon be? A stick? What good would a stick do to a chimera? No, I had to find something, and something quick. Percy was depending on me (though I’m sure he would rather admit otherwise). I looked around me, trying to see what could be useful. A glass Coke bottle, rubble, some more rubble, broken street signs, an overturned car, a pawn shop, a comic book store, a—
Wait, a pawn shop? There was usually something good in there, right? Though I’d never actually been in one, I glanced one more time at the Chimerae and muttered “Screw it.” I bolted for the store, throwing the door wide open and yelling at everyone inside to get out because there was a monster outside. When they proceeded to look outside, all they yelled was “Dragons! What the heck?! Ahhhahhahahah!”
I stared at them in confusion as they ran out the door, but I couldn’t waste anymore time. Wondering what normal people saw wasn’t going to help me save a life. Slamming my hands down on the counter with weapons out for display, my eyes were immediately attracted to a wide blade about the length of my forearm among a couple other glowing artifacts, its wicked leaf-shaped blade glinting eagerly in the light of the case. Looking nearby, I grabbed a cane from a tube full of them and whacked it at the glass, breaking it.
I grabbed the blade and the accompanying sheath, stuffing said sheath in my bag before rushing out, my grip on the dagger already feeling snug and at home. I glanced down at it, wondering whether that was just my imagination, but I didn’t dwell. I think all-in-all, I wasted three minutes, but that may’ve been three minutes too long.
Percy was looking tired, and I mean tired . I could see he was struggling, having to dodge two paw swipes and and two breaths of fire as well as two snake tails all at the same time . It was amazing to even know he survived so long. With a whistle, I threw my bag as far behind me as I could and jumped up and down.
“Look at me, I’m a target!” I yelled. That got their attention. Percy also turned toward me, looking grateful but worried. I winked at him. “Come and get me, losers! Your breaths stink worse than a garbage dump!”
Percy yelled “Hey, what are you-”
I waved him off, running straight at the chimera. “Just a distraction, right?” Just as I reached the baby, it raised a paw and I dropped sliding completely underneath the beast. Its wipe reached nothing, but mine did. With a quick swing, as I passed underneath, I was able to cut off the snakehead tail of the baby, the whole thing flopping uselessly before lying limp and disintegrating into golden dust.
The baby roared, and then, so did the mother. They both turned towards me, and I knew I was screwed. They opened their maws, and I braced myself, knowing that being roasted alive would not be fun, but it would be quick all the same. When I felt the rush of air hit me, however, it felt like taking a tanning bed when it was a one-hundred degree day (that’s 38 celsius for you Canadians). Terrible, really really terrible, but not deadly.
My nerves were on fire. No, they actually felt like they were, literally and, well, metaphorically. Opening my eyes, I saw that my sleeves had caught fire, and my pant legs too, and maybe my eyebrows had been singed a little, but otherwise, I was fine. I looked at my hands and gulped, seeing them at least ten shades darker, but I was alive. I was alive.
I was alive? What?
That question seemed to boggle the chimerae too because they both cocked their heads at me, asking with their eyes You’re not dead? I honestly wondered that myself, and I turned to Percy in confusion, who stared at me thoughtfully as if he had seen something like this before.
And that’s when everything hit the fan.
Percy was sent flying by the baby chimera, who had recovered quicker than either of us. He slammed into a wall and crumpled to the ground, his sword clattering to the side as he was dazed beyond all measure. Then I felt a sharp sting in my leg, as if something bit me. Stumbling back in shock, I saw the snake tail from the mommy chimera retreating. I’d been bit, and already, I could feel its effects on me. Then, I too was sent flying back.
I hit the ground hard, wheezing as the air was knocked out of me. I could see stars and spots in my vision, which was never good, and I was sure I had concussion. I felt like giving up, just letting the monsters eat me. Seriously, it would’ve been easier, but I got up anyways. Tears were lining my eyes from the fire that was crawling up my leg, but for some reason I still got up. Why?
Well, maybe it was because of the scream I suddenly heard, and I whipped my head to look for the source. A little boy, who had been spectating in awe, was now cowering behind some broke concrete as the mommy chimera advanced on it’s new target. I could see the mother just a hundred feet away, looking for her boy and suddenly finding him the prize of two chimera; she also screamed.
I couldn’t let anything happen. These monsters were after me. That was for sure. Percy had just come along for the ride. But a little kid? No.
I screamed too. I yelled in pain but I ignored the venom in my veins, running with all the strength I had left to put myself in between the monster and the boy. I threw myself in front of the chimera, yelling something I couldn’t really understand, other than that I knew it was a completely different language than what I knew was english before I did something stupid.
Only after I woke up in the infirmary of the camp would I know what I did.
Percy told me that he had been conscious enough to see me thrust my dagger into the ground in front of the chimera. I had fallen to one knee, the wounded leg crumpling to the ground as I had yelled in frustration and leaned on my blade as if it were a lifeline, and the ground cracked.
Starting from my blade, the ground shifted and broke, rippling out and cracking everything in front of me. The earth began to slide and shift, rumbling so intensely that I had held onto the blade with my whole might, but I knew I was safe. The hard asphalt that would’ve taken a drill to break broke with ease, breaking open like an egg and swallowing the chimera whole. The surrounding buildings shook with the tremors, pieces of plaster and rock raining from the sky. Percy proceeded to take out the distracted chimera before shoving it towards a growing crack in the ground beside him.
Percy then ran towards me, having to avoid the spider-webbing fractures in the ground as he ran towards me. I was still yelling, he said, when he hugged me and made me let go of my dagger. At that point, the dagger popped out of the ground like it had never been there in the first place, and the ground slowly stopped quaking. All the cracks in the ground started to seal themselves, but the largest of them stayed as they were, unable to heal. The boy stared at us as if we were superheroes, but we knew better.
The mother ran up and snatched the boy away, staring at us with fear as the kid started pointing at us and smiling. Percy let go of me and gripped my shoulders, telling me to stay with him. I could’ve sworn I saw winged horses above me, swirling around as if unsure where to land. I saw Percy yell at one to grab my bag while he took my knife and placed it in my hands, the shadow of a pegasus blocking the sun.
At that point, everything was tunneling and I could feel my mind slipping away.
My mind slipped into oblivion.
Author's Note
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Babs Seed's Guide to Surviving Greek Mythology
3. Demigod Dreams™! Terms And Conditions Apply, Batteries Not Included, Comes With Risk Of Death
So, you would think slipping into a world of unconsciousness after expending my remaining life energy after being bit by a chimera would be uneventful, but nooooo. No one thought to warn me beforehand how crazy my dreams would get. Nobody thought it a good idea to mention it to me.
Then again, I had only acknowledged that my world was, indeed, messed up with mythological gods from Ancient Greek times in the past couple hours or so. I guess it could be forgiven. I don’t really blame anyone. Again.
I first felt myself materialise when I realised I was looking at myself on a bed, a feverish layer of sweat covering every open space on my body. A cool cloth was placed on my forehead, for sure to try and keep my fever down, and a thin blanket was draped over my chest and below. My head shook and muttered incoherent things, and I thought I looked very disgusting.
What? They hadn’t washed me or anything, if you’re wondering. I was clearly dying, and it seemed I was only slowly growing better. Exponentially. Impossibly. Beside my prone body on a bed stand was a glass of a golden liquid, ready for immediate consumption and a nice cosy umbrella to top it off. I was dirty, dusty, quite a bit bloodied, and somewhat charred to look six shades darker. All in all, I was sure my appearance was one of the reasons that chimera had died. I was a nightmare.
That was when I noticed Percy standing a short distance away from me, worriedly eyeing my battered form. He was pacing and wincing, rubbing his temples as if he had a major headache. I suspected that swipe from the chimera did more than bat Percy away. He was muttering something quietly, something I couldn’t make it, when a girl about the same age as him rushed in, hugging Percy tightly.
The girl had blonde hair and piercing grey eyes, one’s that seemed to be able to cut something just from staring at it. She, like Percy, wore an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, though hers was infinite times more clean than the latter, and she directed her gaze straight at Percy. “Percy!” she shouted, crushing him. Percy wheezed something, which made the girl let go promptly. She stepped away, clearing her throat before slapping him. “Don’t do something like that again! The last time you faced the chimera, you almost died!”
Percy pouted, wincing hard before rubbing his face. “Oww. That was six years ago, Annabeth. Plus, I had you with me.”
The girl named Annabeth harrumphed, glaring at Percy. “Yeah, I was definitely there to stop you from falling six-hundred feet.”
“Well, I’m still here,” he murmured, pulling Annabeth close for another hug before kissing her.
Yup, they were a couple. The kiss pretty much sealed the deal, but there were definitely some hints there that they were together. Like the fact that she mentioned he knew the time Percy was attacked by a Chimera. Six years is quite a long time to grow a relationship, and one so close to each other at that. I totally ship them. But there were more pressing matters I should be focusing on, like the fact that I was lying half-dead on a bed.
“It’s a good thing this girl here was there to save my life,” Percy said. His face then fell a bit, looking disappointed. “Even though I was the one saving hers.”
“You did the best you could,” Annabeth assured him, “You brought her here, didn’t you? She’s still alive, though barely, thanks to you.”
He shook his head and rubbed his face. “Doesn’t make it any less true, or terrible. We could’ve both died. I had promised her she would be safe with me. I failed that.”
Annabeth turned around to stare outside the door for a bit before facing Percy again. “Well, Chiron said she should be fine, but she’s sustained a lot of damage. He and Will had some trouble healing her, and Nico said she was on the verge of death a couple times, though none as close as when you brought her here. What even happened?”
Percy gave Annabeth a dark look and both their heads swivelled to look at me. Well, not real me, as I was basically standing right next to them, but they looked to my body on the table.
“It’s… I think we’ve got another thing coming, Annabeth. First Apollo, now this…”
“Can’t you tell me?”
Percy stood silently for a moment longer before closing his eyes. “I think it’s best I share this with Chiron and the councillors.”
Annabeth pursed her lips, her eyebrows furrowed together as her eyes flitted between Percy and me. “Then let’s go. There’s no time to waste.”
With that, they left the room I was in, the world shifted around me, a soft booming in the distance I hadn’t noticed before suddenly growing louder and louder. I looked around in the darkness of my dream, scrambling to find where it was coming from. The answer? Everywhere. I soon realised that it wasn’t a booming, but a group of voices, all whispers, but compounded together sounded like a roar.
I suddenly found myself cowering in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by trees and the clanging sound of chimes waving frantically.
Soon, they said. The pieces shall fall and the demon’s boon shall spread.
Their voices then began to swirl around me, my eyes shaking with every word. I clutched at my ears, screaming as the words began to tear into me.
Come to us!
Come to us!
Finally, I was relieved as the world twisted around me again, but this time, I felt a cold chill creep up my back. I shook from my other dream, but I would soon come to realise this was the worst one yet. I found myself in a dark shaded room, holes and crevices filling every spot in the room, be it the ceiling, floor or walls. At the end of the room sat a wicked throne, gnarled and curved with an odd mixture of what looked like obsidian and roots. A figure sat at the throne, eyes glinting maliciously as they stared down at a kneeling… thing in the middle of the room.
Her bone-chilling voice pierced the air, making me feel like I was inferior in every single way. Like my life had just been drained of all emotion, and all that was left was a husk. “Has it been done?” the person said.
“The chimera have been released, but, ah, a slight hiccup has placed us in a difficult position-”
The woman on the throne interrupted the thing in the middle of the floor, her voice dripping with anger and annoyance. “Perhaps if you had watched who you hired and been more responsible with our pets, they wouldn’t be in Tartarus right now!”
“Th-there’s still more news I h-have to give you, y-your highness.”
I could feel the woman’s snarl from where I hid. I didn’t trust my dream intangibility. I was sure she would still see me even in dream form. “You’d better hope this is good news then, because I was just about ready to send you down myself.”
The thing in the center of the room winced before nodding vigorously. “I-It is! Our agent has been placed, and she will be there shortly, ready to intercept the girl! They will be none the wiser.”
There was a tense silence as a faint buzzing I hadn’t acknowledged before came to a halt, as if the world were holding its breath. A few more moments of unbearable silence passed, and I almost wondered whether she had just fallen asleep in the dark.
“Very well. At least your miserable little suggestion has proven itself to be somewhat effective. For now. Why I even hired you in the first place, I do not remember anymore, but you best hope this works out, because if not…”
The thing in the room gulped. “Y-yes. I understand. Now, about the state of the-”
“Wait.”
I held my breath, suddenly sensing something in the air that electrified it. It made all the hairs on my skin stand, and I began to creep away, not knowing where I was going.
“She’s here. I know it.”
I blinked several times before I found the shadow of a tall being appear at the edge of the wall I had been listening from. At that moment, I was sure I was going to die, before I felt the vision collapsing around me. I ran for the edge of the world, where I saw the setting disappearing. I jumped straight into the void, and found myself finally drifting away, nothing holding me down anymore. Closing my dream eyes, I let my consciousness dissolve into a restless sleep.
Author's Note
Hey, look, a new PJO tag. Go tell everyone else who writes PJO here and shout at them to put the tag on.
Also, exposition!
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Babs Seed's Guide to Surviving Greek Mythology
4. Some People Need To Learn Bedside Manners
I wanted to die.
Not, like, actually though. I mean, sure, dying might not be fun, but at that moment, it was pretty much the best alternative I could think of. When I woke up, my eyeballs felt like a million drops of hot sauce had been dumped on them, and I don’t mean the weak stuff. I mean like Ghost Peppers dripping their sauce on your eyes while you feel like you’ve swallowed a stale piece of toast whole and pins have been pushed into your temples. That kind of bad.
I did have one moment of great ease. As soon as I yelped and shut my eyes, flailing my arms weakly, a pair of hands grabbed mine gently. I succumbed to their strength, letting them put my arms down before they pressed a straw to my lips. I put my lips to it greedily and began to suck. Maybe I looked kinda stupid then, but I didn’t really care.
Whatever I was drinking, it was amazing. It brought back so many good memories, I just… I couldn’t even think. What it tasted like? Well, that’s even harder to describe. It wasn’t baklava this time, like the ambrosia had been. Against whatever this drink was, ambrosia were like saltine crackers for a snack (but those are actually quite good if you get something like Skyflakes). Then again, ambrosia kind of is like a cracker… I’m getting off topic.
They tasted of croissants, perfectly buttered and flaky, and just the hint of the taste of apple and cinnamon. They were just right, and it was a taste I never thought I would ever be able to have the pleasure of tasting again. Why? Well, these were my mother’s croissants. Why do you think I loved them in the first place? They were of the same stuff my mom was into, but nothing in the world’s bakeries could possibly compete with how my mom made them. Before I knew it, the drink was over, and I felt a million times better as well as a million times more depressed.
“W-what was that?” I asked the figure sitting next to me.
“Nectar,” was the reply, a soft yet apprehensive voice said. “Drink of the gods.”
“It-It tasted like my favourite food too? Just like the ambrosia?”
I heard silence before the clinking of glass on a table broke it. “It does that, yeah.”
Slowly opening my eyes this time, I found myself staring up at a wooden ceiling, of which was adorned a rustic chandelier that had at least six bright light bulbs. My vision swam a little, but it was nothing as painful as it was before. Blinking a few more times, I allowed myself to focus my mind, as I still had a slight pounding in the sides of my head. After I did that, I began to prop myself up, wincing at how sore and stiff my body felt.
I looked to my left and found myself staring at a boy who was as pale as the moonlight outside. He was skinny, almost unhealthily so, and his hair was somewhat long for a boy, and very shaggy. Wearing what looked like a new aviator’s jacket and a skull ring, as well as a shirt that screamed emo, the thing that caught my attention the most were his eyes. I could tell he didn’t know what to make of me, but other than that, there was something there. Like a piece of pain that had compounded into a boulder against a glass table that had been shattered and rebuilt a million times, each time a shard going missing.
“You’re in the Big House,” he said, guessing my next question. I guess all clueless people who wake up in unfamiliar places are predictable, but it still caught me a little off guard. “The infirmary, to be specific.”
I asked the next question on my mind “Who’re you?”
His expression darkened a little, the shadows around him seemingly stretching and writhing. “Names can be dangerous.” I didn’t know what to make of that statement, but I wouldn’t let myself be rejected like that.
“Look,” I said, offering my hand weakly, “I'm Babs Seed. From the Bronx, moved to Brooklyn. Apparently a demigod. No idea what the heck is going on.”
For a second, I thought he would leave me hanging until he sagged in his seat and sighed. The shadows looked like they retreated as he took my hand and looked me in the eye. “Nico di Angelo.”
We shook hands and I went back to lying on my bed. “Cool name.”
He studied me for a second before shaking his head. He muttered something under his breath and sat forward, placing his face in his palms and massaging his temples. He groaned, bringing his face back up to look at me.
“So, am I at Camp Half-Blood then?” I asked him, choosing to stare at the lights instead of him. “You never really said where I was. You just said ‘The Big House’. For all I know, that could be somewhere in the Bahamas.”
“If this were the Bahamas, I would probably have left by now,” Nico said. “I can’t handle tourists.”
I grinned, a soft giggle bubbling from inside me. Maybe this guy wasn’t as bad as he made himself to be. “It’s the locals you have to watch out for.”
“You can say that again.”
We both allowed ourselves a short laugh, one I realised seemed to be unusual for Nico because he coughed and I saw him trying to force his smile back down. Had something bad happened to him, for laughter to be something foreign and unnatural? One of the few questions that crossed my mind to be sure.
“To answer your question,” Nico began, “Yes, we are at Camp Half-Blood. For better or for worse, we’re all stuck here, whether we want to be or not. It’s home for people like us.”
“Demigods, right?”
“Yes.”
I thought about that for a moment. “So we’re all half god?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s my parent?”
Nico remained silent, and if I wasn’t sure he was still there, I was certain he could have melted into the shadows and I would’ve been none the wiser. “You’re… undetermined. That means we don’t know who your mom or dad is-”
“My dad,” I said abruptly. “My mom’s dead.”
He frowned. Well, more than he already was, studying me closely. My mom was gone. That was the end of story. My dad was never there to begin with, and I was fine with that. Sure, it would’ve been awesome. I’ve always wanted a dad. But… my mom was always enough. And then she had to go and disappear from my life, like all the important things I once owned and knew. Like the solidarity of the world before myths destroyed my entire perception of it.
“I’m…” It was clear he had begun to say ‘I’m sorry’, but thought better of it. I sort of understood the sentiment. Especially if he had lost someone close to him too. After enough times, ‘I’m sorry’ became a dull statement that didn’t mean much other than that particular person was feeling sorry for you. If he had gone through the same thing, then kudos to him as well. I wasn’t going to push him either. He cleared his throat. “Well, whatever the case, we don’t know who your godly parent is. You’ll be bunking with Cabin Eleven.”
“Cabin Eleven?” I asked.
“Hermes,” was his reply. When I tried to pry more information out of him, he looked into the distance darkly and said “You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
“Quoting Star Wars, now?”
He didn’t reply.
“Who’s your dad?”
“What’s with the questions?” he snapped. “I don’t need to know anything about you. You don’t need to know anything about me. I’m not your friend.” I was taken aback by the sharpness in his words.
“Yet.” Another voice joined the fray, breaking the tension that had built up between the two of us. Standing at the door was someone who was lean as he was handsome, with blonde hair and gleaming eyes. “Nico, lay off the patient, will ya?”
He pouted under the guy’s gaze. “Come on man, we don’t know anything about her! And from what Percy described—”
“From what Percy described, she’s been through a lot in the short amount of time she’s known she was a demigod. Chill. It’s not like you freaked out this much with Meg, did you?”
Nico tightened his expression. “Apollo was with her. That’s different.”
Blonde Guy shrugged. “She saved Percy’s life. Percy brought her to camp. What’s the difference? He was like a god to you once.”
Nico’s face flushed a furious red, and he glared daggers at the person standing in the doorway. Standing up, he started clutching the hilt to a sword I hadn’t yet noticed from him. “Hey! That was uncalled for.”
“You’re uncalled for.”
At this point, I had no idea what was going on. My eyes were flitting between the two persons like a birdie between to badminton rackets. Nico huffed and stormed up to Blonde Guy, who merely smirked down at him. “You’re insufferable.”
Blonde Guy smiled. “I love you too.”
With that, Nico disappeared in a flurry of darkness, and Blonde Guy sighed. He then walked up to me, checking my bedding before taking the seat Nico had been sitting in just seconds before. I looked at him questioningly, not sure what to make of what had just transpired.
“Will Solace,” he said, stretching his hand out. “Sorry about Nico, he’s always so uptight about everything.”
“He seems nice enough,” I said, shaking his hand. “What was all of that arguing about?”
Will’s smile faltered a little, but he composed himself just as quickly. I noticed this, but I decided it was better to leave it be. It was none of my business. “We bicker a lot. It’s just one of the many things I like about him. But uh… well, he learned something, that’s for sure. Ever since, he’s kinda been on edge.”
“He wasn’t that bad to me.”
Will raised an eyebrow. “No? That’s surprising.”
I chose to stare at the ceiling, trying to focus on not passing out. “He doesn’t seem like a guy who smiles a lot. Or laughs.”
“Things happen to people. By the way, you never told me your name.”
“It’s Babs. Babs Seed.”
“Babs, huh? Doesn’t sound like a common name.”
I huffed, blowing the bangs out of my face. “Yeah, well your name isn’t so stellar either.”
He put up his hands and bowed his head. “Hey, we’re all friends here.”
I glanced at him. “Are we really? I mean, I just met you. And Nico over there didn’t say anything to me about being his friend.”
Will shrugged. “Nico’s always been like that. He hasn’t changed four years. Me, on the other hand… Well, I like to make friends. It’s especially easy when someone’s wounded and you have a guy like me to help you out.”
I took a second to think about that. It was so familiar, trying to talk to him, as if… his name! Will. Percy in my dream had said he had a hard time healing me. Does that mean I was really that close to death? What if I had died? Where would I go?
“Hey,” I croaked. I coughed a little, and he reached to get my glass to fill it with water. “Wait. I need to ask you something.”
He raised an eyebrow, settling back in his chair. “Sure. Why not?”
I breathed in a little shakily before saying “I had dreams. Really weird and scary dreams while I was out. Are those normal?”
He stayed silent for a few moments, contemplating me. After a few more seconds, he nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. One of the many non-fun things of being a demigod. We can get visions of the future, dreams of the past, and we can see things happening right now in other places of the world. It only happens so frequently, but it’s frequently enough.”
“In one of my dreams,” I said, “Percy, he said you had a hard time healing me. That Nico saw I was really close to death.”
He winced, as if to say ‘That was not fun’. He sighed, looking toward the door and the rest of the room before settling on me. “Yeah, you really were near death there. You were pretty roasted up and the poison from that chimera was about to kill you. If you had come any second sooner, we might not’ve-”
“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head. “TMI.”
“Sorry.” He rubbed the nape of his neck and shook his head. “Nico, well, he was kinda just standing guard as me and Chiron healed you. When he looked over was when he saw that you were this close to going to the Underworld. And man, I had to use a lot of supplies on you. I haven’t seen a newbie batter themselves as much as you had. It’s quite impressive, what you did.”
“And what did I do?” I asked.
His eyes lit up a bit, and he grinned. “Well, hotshot, you’re in for quite a story.” He began to relate to me what Percy had said during their council meeting, where he saw me get a dagger and start helping him. He then told me of how I had broken up the earth and protected a kid before passing out from exhaustion and poison. After he had related the story to me, I just blinked at him for a few seconds and allowed myself to sink into my sheets.
“I did all that?”
He shrugged again. It was really starting to annoy me. “Hey, it was all Percy. I personally believe you, since you had several first and second degree burns. You were also a million shades darker this afternoon than you are now. It’s also a demigod thing to heal quicker, plus all the ambrosia and nectar you’ve gotten. Pretty cool.”
“But…” I stuttered. “Why didn’t these kinds of monsters attack me before? Why now?”
“Beats me. Chiron especially was baffled by how old you were. You’re like, sixteen, right?”
“Fifteen,” I corrected. “Going on sixteen.”
“See?” He waved his hands. “Did you know that the most common age for demigods to be attacked is thirteen? And more powerful demigods, like Percy, get attacked even earlier. To hear you do something crazy like that and be as old as you are to not know your true blood… well, that’s pretty crazy.”
“Thirteen?” I asked. “Seriously?”
“Oh yes,” Will said. “But seriously. Being able to crack the earth? You’ve got to be a daughter of the Big Three.”
“The Big Three.” I said the phrase aloud, trying to recall where I’d heard it before. The Big Three… of the Greek Gods? What had that empousa said? ‘Child of the Big Three’? “You mean, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, right?”
Distant thunder crackled. Will winced. “That’s right. Those are the names. Among them, Hades is the closest to controlling the ground like you did. Even though you haven’t been claimed yet, rumours have been flying around the camp, and many people think you’re a daughter of Hades.”
“Seriously?” I asked incredulously, feeling a pressure build up in my head. “Hades could be my dad?”
“Yeah,” Will said. “Why do you think Nico was so uptight?”
“Nico’s a kid of Hades?” I asked, nearly falling out of my bed. “What?”
“Yeah, and my dad’s Apollo.”
I felt the world start spinning around me like crazy, as if someone had just drugged me and told me all of the secrets of the universe. I guess I hadn’t actually been thinking of the implications of being a demigod. I mean, my dad being one of the Greek gods of mythology? And especially one of the most powerful one’s, Hades? That just…
“Hey, you feeling okay?”
I smiled wackily at him, giving him a high pitched ‘mmhmm’ before my head fell and hit the pillow.
I awoke to sunlight piercing the windows in my room, brighter than the candlelight that had somehow blinded me before, but a welcome change. Instead of the murky darkness that had clouded the outside world, I could clearly see rolling hills and a forest in the distance, as well as several house-like structures. Just past everything, I could see the effects of Long Island Sound and the faintest scent of strawberries.
I groaned a little, my neck especially feeling sore. Man, the torque on my neck must've been terrible.
“Oh good, you’re awake.”
I admittedly froze a little, not expecting the somewhat baritone quality of the voice compared to Will and Nico. Twisting my head to look to my left, I saw a man sitting in a wheelchair reading a book. The wooden chair had been pushed aside in favour of his position next to the stand, and he kept reading in spite of addressing me. His hair was long, and his beard was longer, both scraggly enough to be able to climb, and his green eyes flitted from word to word on his book.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” he said. “You can go back to sleep if I bothered you.”
“No no,” I quickly said, smacking my lips thirstily. I propped myself up against the wall my bed stood against. “You’re fine. I just, ugh, I had the craziest thing said to me last night and I… phew.”
“I understand,” he said, a hint of mirth in his voice as he spoke. He put his book down to look at me. “Learning that one of your parents is an Olympian is always taxing on new campers.”
I winced. “So it’s all true then?”
He nodded, pursing his lips. “I’m afraid so, child. You are, for better or for worse, a demigod. I would certainly hope the former, but, as in recent times, one can never be sure.”
With his cryptic words, I coughed a little, swallowing slowly as I felt my throat thicken. “Blech, sorry about that and all, but do you have some water? I’m really thirsty right now.”
He nodded and grabbed the jug of water next to him, pouring a cup and handing it to me. I grabbed it greedily, gulping down the ice-cold beverage. When I finished, the man refilled it once more and I drank it full again. After sighing gratefully, I placed the cup on the nightstand and threw the sheets off of me, throwing my legs off the bed.
“Take your time,” he warned, “You’ve been in that bed for quite a while and I would hate for you to injure yourself so soon after leaving it.”
“Uh, yeah, thanks,” I said. Placing my feet on the wooden floor, I stood up… and immediately felt the world go sideways. The vertigo right then was like turning upside down as I stood up, and I felt my head go woozy. Stumbling against the wall, I bumped into the nightstand and breathed, steadying myself.
“Whoa,” I muttered, breathing deeply until my head cleared. “How long was I out?”
“Almost a week.”
I almost fell again, facing him incredulously. “A week?!”
He nodded. “Your injuries were quite severe. Add to that the chimeric venom you took and the exhaustion you incurred upon yourself by using your powers, your body needed time to heal. When you were put before me, I almost signed you off as a lost cause.”
I coughed. “That bad?”
“Yes.”
“So, if you were one of the people healing me, you must be Chiron?”
He smiled. “That would be me, yes.”
I studied him for a second, my eyes going from the blanket covering his legs to his smiling face, then to his wheelchair and back to his face. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to the Chiron the Centaur, would you?”
That pulled a chuckle out of him, like I just told him the most golden joke in the world. It went on like this for a second longer before he shifted in his wheelchair. “Oh, my dear, I’m closer related than you think.” Just as he said so, as if on cue, a shout could be heard from outside, calling for morning muster. We met eyes. “But perhaps another time.”
I studied him for a little longer. “Wait. What do you mean.”
“Come along, now,” he said, seemingly not having heard her words. “You must get yourself familiar with your new home.” I processed his words as he rolled himself to the door. A million thoughts raced in my head, a good ninety percent of them being questions, but one stood out. New home? What about my old home? My aunt’s still expected me to come home, and if I’d really been out for a whole week…
“Wait!” I cried, and he stopped just before the doorway. He turned to me inquisitively.
“Yes?”
I gulped. “What about my family? I mean, I was supposed to go to my aunt’s place in Brooklyn before I came here.”
I could see his expression twitch as a pondering look crossed his eyes. He sat there for a moment before he looked me in the eye. “I… suppose I can allow you to contact your family, especially if it’s an urgent case like this. We can’t have a mistaken amber alert in our hands. Just be warned, cell phones and any other device that emits a signal immediately sends out your location to any and all monsters nearby.”
I nodded, trying to understand what he had just said. So many things were wrong with what came out of his mouth. He supposed. Amber alert. Cell phones attract monsters. Cell phones attract monsters? What the heck?
His mood brightened considerably as he saw someone I couldn’t see. He smiled, nodded, and waved before he motioned me over. “Come now,” he urged, “We're burning daylight!”
“I’m glad I never got attacked then,” I muttered as I walked over to him. “I’m around computers all the time. Maybe it’s a good thing my phone was about to die on the way here. It’s probably dead now anyways.”
He rolled out onto the porch, where he swivelled to the side, allowing me to step out beside him. As the fly-door closed behind me, I took note of the blonde girl I had seen in my dreams running straight towards us, a smile directed at Chiron whereas she hesitated when her eyes fell on me. She lightly flew up the stairs before coming to a stop.
“Hey, Chiron. How’s that book I gave you?” she said.
Chiron smiled. “Nothing I haven’t read already. Sure, different plot, different characters, but the same story.”
She huffed, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to be smart about it.” They shared a laugh. Finally, the attention turned to me.
“Annabeth, I would like you to meet…” He tapered off as we both realised I never gave my name to him. I held my hand out, and she clasped it firmly. I was surprised by the strength of her grip.
I said my name for what felt like the millionth time. “Babs. Babs Seed. Pleased to meetcha’.”
“Annabeth Chase,” she said. “Good to see you out of a hospital bed.”
I nodded with a weak smile. “Yeah, but it definitely beats dying.”
That got a giggle out of her. “You can say that again.”
“Well,” Chiron said, “Now that the both of you have hit it off so well; Annabeth, I would like you to show Miss Babs Seed around the camp, show her some of the ropes, if you will. Help her get familiar, and then let her take an important call. I assume you’ve already had breakfast?”
“If you call blue milk and a plate of pancakes breakfast, sure.”
He tilted his head to one side, a funny smile adorning his lips. “Is Percy still insisting on you to have blue food as well?”
Annabeth sighed, a conflicted look on her face. Her smile was like it was broken this time, unlike when she had seen Percy in my dreams. Like she was trying to forget something. Kind of like me most days, actually. “Well, it’s definitely helping, what with what happened in California...”
Chiron grabbed her hand, gently patting it. “I understand. Don’t trouble yourself thinking about it too much.”
Annabeth nodded, holding his hands in hers before letting go. “It’s good, Chiron. Really. I’ll be fine.” What she really meant was, she did need to try to forget, but she couldn’t help it. She was still thinking of whatever was bothering her. She nodded towards me, her real smile somewhat struggling to return. “Come on, Babs, I’ll show you around.”
“Take care, Annabeth,” Chiron said in farewell, “And Babs, please refrain from injuring yourself to the point where you come back here again. I would hate for me to have to see you here again.”
“Don’t die, old man,” I called back with a smile. He grinned widely and nodded, allowing for me and Annabeth to take our leave. As we did, the bustling of people around us was steadily growing louder, the promise of breakfast being something irresistible to even the hardest-hearted hungry warrior. Trust me on this. I may be a punk, but I’m usually a very hungry punk. I can never get enough food.
“So,” Annabeth said, “Babs, huh? Not a common name.”
“Never heard anyone called Annabeth either,” I countered. She chuckled at that.
“Touché.”
Seriously though, I get that I might not have a common name, but you didn’t have to go around reminding me every ten seconds. It’s not like I’m the only one with an uncommon name. Heck, Canterlot is filled with people who have weird names. You didn’t see me point out that Percy’s name was uncommon, did you? Nuh-uh, I didn’t think so. Have some respect for odd people, won't cha?...
Though I guess that point’s moot considering how we’re all demigods. At that point, everyone around you is odd, and if everyone is odd, no one is.
“You were out for quite a while, you know,” Annabeth said. “Everyone was getting worried about you. We could feel the tremors from here.”
“The tremors?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes, when Percy said you used your powers. When we first felt it, we thought it was just another giant cyclops roaming near Long Island, but then Percy showed up with you. You know Percy, right?”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “He’s the guy who thought it was a good idea to take on two chimera at once without help.”
“That’s him,” Annabeth confirmed with smile. “What a loser.”
I laughed. “Sounds about right.”
Walking through the camp grounds, I was pleased to find that everything wasn’t as cluttered and claustrophobic as I thought it would be. When you I think of a camp, I think a group of tents bunched together around a small fire, with all these logs situated for you to sit on. This was nothing like that. The Big House, as it had been called by Nico, was standing watch above all the camp, and I could see where it got its name. Its size was comparable to a three story building, and yet, it stretched widely like it were trying to make sure it could accommodate as many people as it could.
I could definitely see how it got its name, as even now, it loomed over me and Annabeth. Everything else was relatively close to said Big House, such as fields of strawberries and what looked like an amphitheatre. Even further, closest to the shores, was a bustling dining pavilion filled with campers, and the cabins Nico had mentioned earlier being just three or four minutes closer. Said cabins weren’t even that tightly packed, which made me very glad. I just hoped that the insides of these cabins weren’t as tight as a tent.
“So,” Annabeth said after a bit of walking, us somewhere in the middle of the camp. “Where to first? I usually go through a routine, but I thought I could mix it up a little. It’s also been a while since I’ve been here and even longer since I’ve given a tour to a greenie.”
Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was the feeling that I was missing something, but my thoughts quickly turned to the weapon I had grabbed a week ago. A glowing bronze dagger that had fit perfectly in my hand, but currently didn’t know the status of.
I asked “Do you have a place where you store your weapons and stuff? Because I want to know what happened to that knife I used.” I could suddenly see Annabeth’s eyes twinkling with a curious glint, her smile giving away the fact that she was suddenly as eager as I was to see my weapon of choice. In all honesty, it scared me a little.
“Your dagger?” Annabeth said, “Well, that’s something I would just love to start with. Great first choice! And with some of my help, you can definitely survive Capture The Flag.”
I gulped. “Survive?”
She smiled. “Oh yes. Because in the real world, you live, or you die.”
Author's Note
Oof.
