Just a heads up, this is my first story ever, and I wanted to let you know that I will accept criticism, but please if you dislike my story either don't read it, or tell me what you think I can improve excluding ANY crude language. Thanks guys!
- awesomelilshortie
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or The Heroes of Olympus
Chapter One: Meet Thalassa Lidano
Thalassa's POV
I awoke to the familiar buzz of my alarm clock and groaned when I realized what day it was. The first day of summer break. I know what your thinking, I should be happy on the first day of summer break. Yes, I was happy that it was summer break, but I still dreaded the day because it was June first, and the first day of every month my mom gets rid of all the previous month's clothing and takes me on a huge shopping spree. You see, my mom is a former model and a fashion designer. she insists that I wear all of her new designs, and that we live in a three story mansion. Don't get me wrong, she's a really nice person, but sometimes popular culture takes over her life.
Anyways, on with the story. I trudged down to the kitchen to grab some cereal, and found that my mom was making pancakes instead of having Rose (our cook\maid person) cook her up some breakfast. It was strange, I'd never really seen my mom cook before, well not since I was really little.
"where's rose?" I asked my mom,
She turned around, her beautiful blonde hair whipping over her shoulder, cascading down her back in long soft curls. I know this sounds weird, but I was actually jealous of my 37 year old mother. In my opinion, I looked nothing like her, My frizzy waist length black hair was of no comparison to my mother's perfect blonde curls. The only thing I liked about myself was my eyes, they were (are) a deep sea green color. I liked them because they were mine. Nobody else had eyes the same as me, well no one that I had met anyway.
"I gave her the day off" my mother said in her singsong voice,
"why would you do that?" I was starting to get curious. I didn't think rose had had a day off for at least half a year.
"Well, instead of the shopping trip, I've decided to take you to the ranch!" She looked uneasy (like scared uneasy) for a moment and then masked her worry with a wide smile.
"Really mom?" I asked excitedly, and she nodded. I hadn't been to my uncle Henry's ranch for years. It wasn't really a big ranch with tons of horses or anything, just a big horse barn (with about 10 horses in it) about a kilometer away from a little farmhouse. I know it doesn't really sound all that fun, but it's basically my favorite place on earth (other than the ocean) and I'll snatch up any chance to go there. The only problem with going there is that it's about an hour away from Manhattan, where I live, and to a severely ADHD teenager, the drive seems like a whole lot more than an hour.
After freezing in shock for a few minutes, I dashed up the stairs and into my bedroom. I threw on my riding clothes and tossed a few things in a suit case and flew (not literally) back down the stairs (tripping once) and sprinted out the door.
"Lacy!", My mom called after me, "slow down!" Oh, sorry for not mentioning my name before. My real name is Thalassa Ladino, but I'd prefer to be called lacy.
The ride to the ranch seemed to take forever. By the time we were halfway there I had probably asked my mom the question "Are we there yet?" about 30 times. Now, I know you probably thinking, an hour is like nothing, but you also haven't tried being an extremely excited ADHD teenager trapped in a small space. After what seemed like hours, I saw a sign that said "olgn alsdni, 3 smlei" it took me a while to decipher the words, given the fact that I have dyslexia, but after a minute i unscrambled the words, and they had actually said "Long Island, 3 miles". That pretty much made my excitement go through the roof.
About ten minutes later, we were pulling up the long driveway to uncle Henry's house. Before the car even came to a complete stop, I had jumped out of the car and sprinted up the porch and inside the house without bothering to knock on the door, "Auntie connie! I'm ho-ome" I called.
I could tell that my aunt was in the kitchen because I could smell her pies baking in the oven. I flounced into the kitchen to find my aunt lifting a blueberry pie out of the oven. Auntie Connie was 42 years old at the time, she was a small lady with chestnut brown hair, graying a little bit at the roots, she had wrinkles around her eyes, but that's because she can't help but smile every moment of the day. As soon as I walked in, she dropped the pie on the counter and smiled warmly. She opened her arms and I ran into them. After all, she had been the one that took care of me when my mom had to go to Europe or some other place for work, she was like a second mother to me, and I hadn't seen her for almost 3 years.
"where have you been for the last three years?" she asked expectantly,
"I've been busy with school, and, well, everything." I answered. I hadn't really thought about why I had stayed away for so long, but I guess that the real reason was that the last time I had been there, I was with Naomi. Naomi was my best friend when I was twelve. Then she had just disappeared. My aunt and uncle Had adopted her, and we had grown very close because of my constant visits. When she disappeared, I basically shut down. My grades dropped, I was taken over by a feeling of apathy for almost two years, but in the last year, I just rebelled. I started doing what I wanted, skipping classes, hanging out with the wrong people, I was lost. I was wrong to stay away from . ranch, I really needed the support from my aunt and uncle but as I said, I just couldn't find myself.
Auntie Connie didn't really look convinced, but she said "well I'm glad you're here now, cause we've got a whole lot of catching up to do..."
For about an hour I sat at the kitchen table, listening to my aunt babble on and on about life, sometimes asking me questions, about school and my plans after high school. Mostly I just nodded and said hmmm, or yeah. After a while my ADHD started to kick in, and I told my aunt that I was going to visit the horses. I slipped through the kitchen door, and as I passed the parlor, I couldn't help but overhear my uncle Henry say "...You shouldn't have come here." I hovered by the doorway, eavesdropping. I kept listening and heard my mother say "I wanted to be closer, it's getting hard to hide her. I've seen them following her around."
They were obviously talking about me. But who would follow me around? Of course there are lots of pervs hanging around Manhattan, but I could tell that's not what she meant. I recalled the look of worry on her face earlier that morning, what would she want to be closer to anyway? Why? I think we're already close enough to Uncle Henry, so I couldn't help but ponder the snippet of their conversation as I walked to the barn.
The flies were almost overwhelming as I entered the barn, but I didn't really care. I walked towards the stalls where the horses were kept and saw the most beautiful horse I had seen in my life. It was a dapple grey Friesian Mare, an extremely rare horse, and possibly one of the most beautiful horses I had ever seen. I stuck my hand out to stroke the horse's muzzle, and very much to my surprise, it spoke to me.
Have you got any popsicles?
I just stood there, shocked. I mean, I knew I wasn't really right in the head, but I swear, the horse had just talked to me.
Well, are you going to answer me?
"are You actually talking?" I asked,
You can hear me, can't you?
"just a second." I said, then sprinted back to the house. I burst into the kitchen where my aunt had started making lunch. "Do you have any popsicles?"
"Yeah, they're in the freezer..." I grabbed two then ran out of the house and back to the barn before she could ask me why I wanted popsicles.
When I got to the barn, I said, "Are these what you're looking for?" I held one out to her, and she ate it in less than two seconds.
So, are you going to take me for a ride? It's been so long since I've had a chance to stretch my legs.
I still thought i was going crazy, but I saddled her up and led her outside to the field. Before I realized what was happening, the mare bolted away from me about seven meter. I took a step towards her, and she took a step away. She started to literally prance in circles around me, it took me a minute to realize that she was actually teasing me. It was kind of funny at first, but after a while it was starting to irritate me. I just couldn't catch her!
Finally I yelled in exasperation, "Could you please just cooperate?!"
The horse seemed to laugh, which is weird because horses don't really laugh, but she came towards me and let me mount her.
I'm only letting you ride me because you gave me popsicles. She grumbled once I was on her back.
"So I'll ask you this since you can talk...What's your name?"
My name is Aloise. Um sorry if this is off topic, but can we go faster? (A/N this name is pronounced ah loo eezah)
"You just read my thoughts." i leaned down against the mare's neck as she accelerated. Even though she didn't look fast, she was extremely nimble and light footed. I completely lost track of time as I rode her. It was like I was free from all of the stress and pressure in my life, and for the first time since Naomi disappeared, I was truly happy.
After bringing Aloise back to the barn, I ran back to the house as fast as I could because I had completely lost track of time, and I was getting a little hungry. I went into the the kitchen and checked the clock over the kitchen table. It was 4:30. I had been riding for almost five hours. I threw together a sandwich and walked into the parlor where my mom, aunt and uncle were sitting.
"I can't believe you actually rode her." my uncle said, Surprised, "I've been trying ever since we got her three months ago. I almost broke a rib getting thrown off, and then you rode her on your first try. How did you do it?"
"I don't know, it took some coaxing, but eventually she willingly let me on her back." I replied.
"I'm just surprised you can still walk after riding for four hou-" she was cut off by thunder rumbling loudly. I glanced out the window to see dark grey storm clouds brewing overhead. My mom and uncle Henry glanced around nervously, I didn't get it, it was just a storm.
My uncle chose that moment to say, "Lacy, can I talk to you for a moment please?" I nodded and followed him out to the hall. "Lacy, I've been wanting to give you this for a long time, but there was never a correct time." I glanced down and saw that he was holding a silver necklace with a sea blue stone.
I gasped, "uncle Henry, I don't know how to th-"
he cut me off, "I know this sounds weird, but when you're in trouble, just yank down the stone." then he walked away, Leaving me confused, in the hallway with a necklace in my hands.
I clipped the necklace around my neck, and went back into the parlor to look out the window. Outside the wind was blowing wildly and it was pouring rain. I glanced over to the barn to see the doors wide open. I Walked into the kitchen where my mom was sitting at the table.
"Mom, I'm going to go close the barn doors." I said,
Her face turned white with worry, and she said "Fine, but please Hurry."
I ran out the door and sprinted through the rain towards the barn. I stepped into the barn to hear the horses nickering and neighing wildly. It was pitch dark in the barn because there was no electricity at the moment. I was about to pull the doors shut when I heard a low pitch growling noise. I looked up and saw that about ten meters away from me, there was a huge black dog with terrifying red eyes. It was easily the size of a rhino, and it was staring right at me. A vicious snarl from it's throat, and my trembling hand went to my neck where the necklace was hanging. I yanked the stone down and it broke off into a three foot long bronze sword decorated with blue jewels.
The giant dog chose that moment to charge at me. I side stepped as it ran towards me and did what most people would do naturally. I stabbed it with the sword. The giant dog crumbled to dust and I ran to the horses to see if any of them were hurt.
You should get away from this place. There are many more coming. Aloise's voice startled me,
"and how do you expect me to do that," I said, hopelessly, "i'm sure that they're hiding in the field or something."
I looked over a Aloise's stall to see if she was hurt, but instead, I saw something that I wasn't expecting at all. Aloise was standing in her stall like a normal horse, but the abnormal part was the fact that there were huge wings sprouting from her back. She was a dapple grey Pegasus.
I think I have a solution to your problem. I can take you somewhere safe, where there are no monsters.
"But What about my mom?"
You can deal with that later. The monsters are after you, not your mother. So get on my back.
I reluctantly mounted her back, and as soon as she made sure that I was secure, she leapt of the ground and flew out of the barn and into the pitch black rainy sky.
At first I had thought that it would be extremely scary flying on a horse because (don't tell any body, it's a secret) I'm afrai of heights. But I think it just felt natural because I was riding a horse. Anyways, Aloise flew towards a bunch of strawberry fields that did not seem to be affected by the storm.
We landed on top of a hill with a huge pine tree growing in the center, and as if my night couldn't get any weirder, There was a dragon wrapped around the trunk. At this point, I was completely overwhelmed, I had seen a giant dog, flown on the back of a pegasus and now there was a big scaly beast wrapped around the tree in front of me. So,II couldn't help it, I shrieked loudly, and then passed out next to Aloise.
So what did you guys think about my first chapter? sorry if there's too many random details, please review without using crude language. I'll try and have the next chapter posted by wednesday, and if you guys like this story, I'll try and update twice a week.
