I am breathing quickly, in, out, in, out. I want to look behind me, but I do not want to face whatever is making that horrible growling sound. I hear Winston shout from behind:

"BECCA, RUN! RUN STRAIGHT UP THAT HILL, PAST THE TREE!" His voice grows smaller as I start to sprint. I am about to pass the gigantic evergreen tree at the top of the hill when I hear Winston's scream- well, it's more like a gurgled "MMMMBEEEEEEEEHHHH!"

I turn and gasp. Instead of Winston's usual crooked human legs, he seems to have grown a pair of... goat legs, maybe? He sprints up the hill with pure determination in his eyes. The creature behind him is running too, but it is not nearly quick enough to catch the no longer crippled Winston.

But then Winston trips. He stumbles to the ground, and the beast looms over him. I cannot help but rush to the foot of the hill again to help my friend. "GET AWAY!" I yell at the monster. He swats me like I am a gnat, and I land about fifteen feet away, hitting my head on a tree. The last thing I remember is a horn blaring, just before a feathered arrow appears in the creature's chest with a "Fhwip". I hit my head too hard when the monster smacked me. It hurts so much, I black out.

I wake to an old man in a wheelchair holding a spoon to my mouth. He is feeding me yellow jelly cubes. The cubes taste like my father's homemade pesto, or at least what I remember it to be like. I haven't exactly had it recently, seeing as how my dad is dead and all. I've never known who my mom was.

"Well, hello," the old man says. "Glad to see you're awake, Becca. That was a quick recovery."

I blink confusedly. "Who the heck are you, and where the HECK AM I?"

"To answer your questions, I am Chiron, and-"

"Chiron, as in the centaur that trained all those Greek heroes? That's a stupid name."

Chiron laughs, "Actually, I am the centaur that trained all those Greek heroes. I am that exact stupidly-named character."

"You are a handicapped old geezer, not a majestic horse-man that doesn't exist." I pop another pesto cube into my mouth.

Another man that I didn't notice before chuckles from the corner. "Just you wait and see, Rebecca Edgens," he says, casually brushing his black hair out of his green eyes. "Oh, by the way, I'm Percy, head of the Poseidon cabin."

At this point, I am thoroughly confused. I am about to ask another question when Chiron rises out of his chair. An entire horse body rises with him, and suddenly Chiron is a full-on centaur, towering over me and almost touching the eleven-foot ceiling.