AN: Hi! Just some notices before the story starts (feel free to just start reading the story without reading this).

Later on, I will probably be doing guess the parent* (for the main characters), so comment if you think you know who it is! After the characters get claimed, I will also reveal what the names of the characters mean. I hope you like it!

Before I start the actual story, I just want to explain something: I know that the chapters from Coral's PoV aren't very funny, but I'm doing this on purpose - the reason being that Coral is quite a serious character, and making funny comments about her situation would be OOC for her. In 'The Blood of Olympus', Nico and Reyna's chapters weren't that funny either. The proper 'funniness' starts in Chapter 3. Also, I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit too long. The next ones will be shorter, I promise.

PS. The letters on the chapter names are the first letters of the names of the narrators. C is for Coral, the others will be revealed at the start of their chapters.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own PJO or HoO. I do own the plot, Coral, Willow, and my OCs in other chapters.

*If you just want to find out the godly parents of the characters, and everything about them without waiting, check my profile page - I have biographies of the different characters on there. However, I don't advise this. There are MAJOR spoilers there which might ruin some moments in the plot.

I. I take a glowing dagger to school

Coral

You can ask me any question about my life so far. As long as it's not about my family.

My name? Coral Typhoon. My age? 15. The day I ran away from home because of a tsunami? I can't really remember - I don't want to. I was only ten when that happened, when my life changed forever.

I can still remember the day of the tsunami, five years ago; the bed I slept in, not knowing that it was the last time I would ever sleep there; my dreams that night - a woman, standing in ruins that looked a vaguely like they were once a castle, but a castle completely submerged. A woman who had strange hair which floated in the water that seemed to look almost like the tentacles of a jellyfish. I could hear her speak, almost telepathically; Go. Leave. It is coming. You are not safe here any longer. You must leave now! I didn't realise what those dreams meant that night, until it was already too late. I remember slowly waking up to the sound of something a little like thunder, except lower and much, much louder. I still regret not waking faster, not taking into account what my dream meant earlier, not giving myself time to warn my family - well, my dad. I never knew my mum. She left me when I was very small, or at least that's what I was told. I still remember looking up onto dark, cold water, far away at first, but getting closer so fast that soon it was right on top of me; attempting to run, but my legs not working; trying to scream instead, but getting a mouthful of water. I can still remember trying to breathe, but failing, and blacking out; waking up after somehow surviving the tsunami, but seeing nothing around me, except the ruins of my house. I thought I heard the same voice in my dream, saying, I warned you. I might have imagined it.

'Well, it looks like someone has forgotten how to sit.' A girl's voice jolted me out of my memories. I felt my back hurting, and found myself on the floor, next to a chair I was sitting in a moment ago. The girl who had just spoken had mid-length blonde hair with blue highlights and murky green eyes.

'Stop it,' I said.

'Stop what?' Said another, with curly brown hair and blue eyes, in a fake sweet voice.

'Don't play nice with me,' I mumbled, annoyed.

'Sorry, what was that?' The girl said. Ever since my best friend Willow had accidentally splashed permanent salmon-pink paint on my hair in art, Chloe, Melissa and Emma had been teasing me about 'dyeing' my hair pink. As if I'd ever even wanted to have my hair painted. It wasn't even properly pink. And if that wasn't enough, they laughed whenever I got lost in the memories of my past, when they didn't even know what had happened to me.

Just then, a teacher turned and looked in our direction. The three girls looked at me with hatred. 'We will get you, Coral Typhoon,' the third, who hadn't spoken yet, whispered. 'You cannot hide forever...' There was something strange about the way she said it. It's not like I was surprised by the words - it's not that I expected them to be nice - but the way the girl said it... this time, she said it like she actually meant it, like she was going to do something much worse than tripping me up when I was walking to the front of the class. I headed towards my next lesson.

Maybe I should explain myself going to school, as I ran away from my home. For five years, I had just moved around. I was running nearly all the time, not to a particular location, just away - away from all the strange things, away from my memories. Once I saw a giant blue humanoid-like shape. After that, I could swear I had seen a woman with hair on fire with strange legs. Another time, I saw a faint outline of someone looking not quite solid who had shadowy black wings, and after that... Well, you get the point. Strange things come to me.

One day, when I thought I had seen somebody with one eye, I stumbled into a male teacher. After asking if I was ok, he asked me if I went to school, since it was in the middle of a school day and I was on the road, and I said no. He said that I had to go, and that I could go here, and since it was a state school, there would be no fees (I told the teacher I didn't have any parents). So I started.

'Hey, Coral,' someone said. I turned and saw my friend Willow running towards me, her long brown hair flying behind her, carrying a large potted willow tree in a pot, the way she always does. It was really getting big. Don't ask why she carries it - I have no idea. 'You ok?'

'I'm fine, I guess,' I replied. She must have seen my expression, because she asked, 'Are Chloe and the others giving you trouble again?' Willow looked towards the three girls, now laughing. I nodded.

'I'm sorry about that.' Willow said.

'It's fine,' I told her. Until two weeks ago, they had usually picked on Willow and ignored me. Last Monday, just after she had splashed the paint on me, Chloe had teased Willow about being clumsy. That was my breaking point. I went up to her and said, 'It's not her fault she did that. You keep being mean to her, again and again. Stop it!'

'Why should I?' Chloe had asked.

'Oh look, it's the girl with pink hair,' Melissa had said, half to me and half to the other girls. 'Ugh, your hair is, like, so totally lame!'

I wanted to shout that I didn't even care what I looked like, but her look told me that if I kept talking bad things would happen - like my pencil case going missing and appearing in the bin two weeks later. It's happened before. I stayed quiet.

Emma had said nothing, but there was mean laughter in her eyes. From that day on, they had started picking on me instead of Willow, especially since the paint was still in my hair now.

'It's not your fault.'

'I wish,'

'Look, you might be the one that they originally teased, but not anymore. It's my fight now.' I told Willow. I hoped it would cheer her up, but instead it made her even sadder. I changed the subject.

'So, um, how's your willow tree?'

'About as good as me.'

'Oh... How old is it?'

'15, like me. It stared growing when I was born.'

'So is it like a birthday present or something?'

'Kind of.'

'Is that why you carry it around all the time?'

'Partly.'

'What are the other reasons?' I asked.

'You'll find out later.' Willow told me. Then she mumbled under her breath something that sounded like 'If you don't die first,' but I was sure I had misheard her. Why would I die so soon? I wondered whether it had to do with the strange creatures I kept seeing, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind. They probably were hallucinations, or my brain tricking me. I did have dyslexia and ADHD, after all. But still...

I left it. There was no point in worrying about something that wasn't going to happen. Willow must have sensed my worry, because she said, 'Hey, it's fine, ok? Don't worry about the other reasons.'

Willow looked pretty worried to me, but I decided not to bring that up.

'And remember, all students must remember their sports kit tomorrow,' my PE teacher, Mrs Takimos, said. It was the end of our double sports lesson, and I (like pretty much everybody else) was out of breath. 'Tomorrow is sports day. I would appreciate it if certain people - ' she looked pointedly at me, '- would bother to show up at this event.' Ok, long story short - last winter, I hadn't shown up at some tournament thing. Everybody thought I was lying when I said that a man I met on the way had two heads had tried to attack me, but I wasn't. Well, I think that had happened. It could have been my eyes playing tricks on me, but it had seemed so... well, real. At any rate, no-one believed me, and I got into trouble, since everyone knew I didn't want to go anyway.

Just then, the school bell rang, signalling the end of the school day. I walked to the school gates, ignoring Chloe, Melissa and Emma sneering at me behind my back, but heard someone shouting my name. I turned to see Willow running after me. I waited, but not for long, since she was running and caught up to me quickly. 'Coral?' She asked, 'Would you mind if I walked home with you?'

'Um, sure, but I'm warning you, it's not a proper house. Mine got destroyed by a tsunami, with my... my family still inside...' The memory of it almost made me cry. 'There's this underground place I found that for some reasons has weapons in it, but it's a good temporary home.'

'Oh, Coral... I'm sorry about your house and family... my gods, I didn't know.'

My gods? 'It's fine,' I mumbled, even though I still felt really, really sad. It was the first time I had told anyone about the tsunami. 'Just... please can we not talk about it?'

We walked in silence for a few minutes. Suddenly Willow tensed.

'Willow, what- '

'Shh' She looked around, seemed to have spotted something, and pulled me behind a wall. I couldn't see what was going on, but I thought I heard a reptilian voice saying something - no, three reptilian voices. I couldn't make out the words exactly, but it sounded like one of the voices saying something like, 'Do not get impatient. We need to wait for the right moment to ssssstrike, when that- ' The voice paused, and I could see the thing's shadow's head looking around, '- that ssssstupid dryad isssss not with her.' Dryad? I wondered if I'd heard correctly, or who they were talking about. I looked at Willow, but she just shook her head. She looked a bit embarrassed, but only for a bit, so I figured it was just my imagination.

'You'd better make it that time me sssssoon, otherwissse we will do it without you.' Said another voice.

'Yessss, quickly. I want to kill thisssss demigod.' Said the third voice. Then I heard the sounds of something slithering away.

'What about demigods and dryads?' I asked Willow. 'Who are they talking about?' Willow didn't reply. Her face was white with shock. I was pretty shaken up too. I couldn't let go of the fact that the voices sounded vaguely familiar to me, although I couldn't quite place them. I remembered Willow muttering something about me not dying before I found out about her tree, and wondered if they were talking about me. But... demigod? Dryad? What were they talking about?

Willow still looked pale, but she managed too say, 'To your underground place. Now.' I was confused, but I didn't object. If it had anything to do with those reptilian things, I wanted to find out about them. I led her to it.

When we went in, the first thing that Willow looked at was the collection of weapons, which I found weird because Willow had made it clear that she didn't like fighting. Instead of moving away, she ran her hands over them, carefully, and asked me, 'Where did you even get these?'

'I told you, I don't know. They were just here,' I replied.

'This is... this is Celestial Bronze, Coral.'

'Celestial what?'

'Celestial Bronze. It can kill mons- never mind.'

'Wait. What do you mean? You were going to say monsters, weren't you. Explain.'

Willow's cheeks flushed. 'I'm not supposed to tell you. The more you know, more things will try to- I just can't tell you, even if I want to, ok? Sorry. Just... just bring one of those weapons with you to sports day tomorrow.'

'Are you crazy?!' I exclaimed. 'Everyone will notice! Why would I bring one of these -' I gestured at the weird collection of bronze swords, daggers and arrows '- to school?'

Willow turned away and murmured somethingabout mist. Ok, I might have been a bit mean towards Willow, but I was confused. Willow always acts like a normal person, and suddenly she tells me that she knows about monsters (whatever she meant) and weapons and stuff. And, after she reveals that she knows about those, she doesn't tell me things that might help me survive. What person does that, even if it is to help you?

That night, I had a bad dream. A voice, from somewhere below the earth, laughed. It sounded like it was echoing off stone walls, but not from one place - it seemed like it was echoing everywhere, or... it was coming from everywhere.

Then my dream changed. My dream-self was standing underwater. The sea floor was littered with the remains of something that had once been a gigantic building - or buildings, I couldn't be sure. The ruins seemed to glow a little in the dark sea around them.

I saw a vague figure of a woman standing not far from me. There was a small amount of light around her. Then I realised that the light was coming from her; her skin was glowing, like the ruins. The woman turned to face me. I was sure that I'd seen her somewhere before, but I couldn't remember when or how. Her bright eyes met mine.

'You have done well so far, Coral Typhoon.' The woman said, but I got the feeling that by doing well she meant something more like still being alive. 'However, if you are going to survive what awaits you, you must learn to control and use your powers.'

I was intimidated, but I managed to say, 'What powers?'

The glowing woman looked at me, as if I already knew. 'For now, all you need to know is to trust your instincts. Your friend... what's her name again?'

'Willow.'

'Yes, her. Follow her advice. She knows what she's doing.'

'So you mean I should take a weapon to school.' I muttered.

'I know her plan seems crazy, but don't forget that crazy can sometimes be good. She knows about people like you.'

'People like me? What - what do you mean?' I asked. However, the woman's voice was already getting fainter.

'Just remember to...' she called, but my dream rippled and changed again before she could finish her sentence.

Then my dream changed.

A storm was raging, and I was standing right in the centre of it. Lightning flashed, and strong winds pushed me around like a raft in fifteen-metre high waves. I could almost feel the energy around me buzzing through me, like the aftermath of an electric shock. Through the sheets of pouring rain, I could make out the outline of three girls and one boy. Three of the people were buffeted, like me, by the wind, just a small leaf in that howling storm, but the third girl seemed unaffected, though it was clear that the lighting and the rain still bothered her. They were running towards me, trying to push through the hail and shouting something, but I couldn't quite make it out. I tried to wave to them, to go to them, to let them know any way I could that I was there, but I was frozen where I stood. What were they saying? I managed to make out one word - quest. Then my dream went black.

'Coral!' Said a voice.

I opened my eyes and sat bolt upright, only to hit my head on something.

'Ow! Coral, it's two in the morning. I've been trying to get you up for hours! Are you okay?'

'I... I guess I dozed off. Sorry.' I said, and got up.

'Coral! For eight hours?!'

I stood up and scowled when I looked at Willow again, because she was still holding a bronze knife.

'You're not seriously still thinking about me taking a weapon to school, are you?'

Willow looked at me sternly. I sighed, but I remembered the woman's warning - to follow Willow's advice. Still, I didn't like her idea.

'Willow, even if I did bring it with me, we have to get on a train to go to the sports fields, and the metal detectors would go off. And that's only if everyone is blind and doesn't see the huge knife hanging off my belt,' I complained. She took a deep breath.

'Coral,' Willow tugged nervously at one of her long, wispy strands of hair, 'I promise I'll explain everything. All the arrangements have been made, and soon we'll be safe. Just trust me. You need some sort of weapon. Otherwise we might never be safe.' Willow didn't say what we were both thinking - that by never be safe she meant die. I stared at her, but there was something in her voice that convinced me she wasn't lying. She was telling the truth. Or at least what she believed was the truth.

'Fine.' I reluctantly took the dagger from Willows hand. It was light, and Willow gave me a sheath.'Strap this to your right trainer.' she instructed. I did so and slipped the dagger in. Willow looked at it doubtfully. 'A little small, but hopefully enough,' Willow lay down and the exit before I had a chance to ask her a question that had been nagging me since she first wanted me to take one of the weapons. Enough... but for what?

I drifted off to sleep again, and this time I had no dreams.

The next day, Wednesday, was Sports Day, just like Mrs Takimos had said. I had assumed that Willow had stayed the night, - the underground hideout/home was easily big enough for three people, even with a willow tree taking up a quarter of the space - but it was still a bit of a surprise when I woke up just next to her, rubbing her eyes but already in her sports clothes.

'Hi, Coral,' she said wearily.

'What time is it?' I asked her. Willow checked a watch.

'Two past seven.' She replied. 'Did you remember the knife?'

I groaned. I was planning to forget on purpose, but now she's asked, so I couldn't do that. 'Yes.' I mumbled.

'Good,' said Willow. 'Is there any breakfast?'

'Not really. Well, if you're desperate, there's this brownie-like thing, and this apple juice-like thing, but I've never tried them.'

'No!' Willow exclaimed, a little bit too quickly. Then she paused and regained her composure. 'Actually, thinking about it... maybe you should take those to school as well.'

'Are you crazy?' I exclaimed, but, again, I remembered the woman's warning. Also, Willow had this way of asking me to do things which I just can't say no to. I put them in my school bag.

Somehow, nobody noticed the dagger strapped to my right trainer. That was the good part. The bad part was that it kept making me trip over. Since no one else noticed it, everyone kept staring at me.

'Why are you tripping over like that?' Somebody asked me. I ignored them and kept walking.

'You'll never be able to run in the races like that.' Another person noted.

'I'm not doing the races,' I grumbled. 'I'm only doing the javelin throw.' I turned away.

Even Mrs Takimos noticed it. 'Coral, you need to stop stumbling like that.' She looked at me. 'Are you all right?'

My face felt hot. 'I'm fine.' I muttered.

'Are you sure? I'm worried about you.'

You're worried about the school's reputation, I thought, but I said, 'Yeah, I'm sure.'

The only person who didn't seem any different was Willow. I guess that made sense, since Willow was the one who told me to take the dagger to school in the first place.

'How come nobody else notices the-' I stopped myself and checked if anyone was listening. '-The dagger?' I continued.

Willow looked at me sheepishly. 'I already told you. I can't say.' She said in a small voice.

Melissa, Chloe and Emma also seemed different, but not in the way I expected. Instead of teasing me about falling over all the time, they kept shooting venomous looks towards my shoe as if they actually realised the dagger was there. Emma fixed me with a cold stare. I looked towards them, hoping to get Willow's attention, but she didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong.

'What are you looking at?' She asked me. I started to reply, 'Well-,' I nodded towards the direction where the three girls were standing, but they seemed to have disappeared. '-oh.'

'There's... nothing there, Coral. Are you feeling alright?'

'I- Sorry, I just thought I saw Chloe, Melissa and Emma acting strangely over there, but... never mind. They're gone.'

Willow seemed to tense. 'Maybe You should be careful from now on. If something like that happens again, let me know.'

I looked back. Sure enough, there was nobody there, but I couldn't shake the feeling of unseen eyes.

During the races, I sat next to Willow. She was doing the 200 meters, and she asked me hold her tree, but other than that we were both spectating. Willow seemed to know what she was doing - plus after the paint incident I tended to go with her a lot, since nobody else really stopped to talk to me much - so I tried to stay near her as much as possible.

I don't know when I noticed that something was wrong.

Maybe it was when Willow didn't return from her race. Usually that would've been fine, since Willow is late for a lot of things, but it just so happened that Emma was in the race, too, and she hadn't returned either. Everyone else had come back, but not those two. Worse, Chloe and Melissa seemed to have gone, too, even though they weren't racing. So, even though I knew I wasn't supposed to, I tiptoed down the stands, Willow's tree forgotten.

I caught sight of Melissa and Chloe a few steps below me. They seemed to be heading to a little room below the stands, which I never would've noticed if not for them. I got some glances from other students, but the teachers were looking at the events, so they didn't notice me. They didn't even notice that Willow hadn't returned. Nevertheless, I didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention, so I stayed as quiet as I could.

Below me, Chloe and Melissa didn't seem to care. When anyone, teacher or otherwise, looked at them, they just glared back at them. As they got closer to the hidden room, they got faster, so I did too - until I heard a voice.

'-doesn't know anything about demigods and monsters, I promise!'

Willow's voice.

The same, hissing voice I had heard last night replied, 'Then how come she hassss Celessssstial Bronzssse to defeat usssss?'

'I promise, she doesn't kno-'

'Anssssswer usssss, dryad, otherwisssse the demigod will die.'

There it was again. Demigod. Dryad. Celestial Bronze. I couldn't help myself. I risked a look. Willow was standing in the middle of the room, in front of Melissa and Chloe, and a... thing. There was no other word to explain it. It looked like the shadow Willow and I had seen the other day, except it was real. And it was standing right in front of me.

Luckily, the creature didn't notice me - its attention was focused entirely on Willow. But Willow did. She turned her head around to me, and there was an expression of relief on her face. Unfortunately, this made the creature look right where I was. I darted behind the door just in time.

'What are you looking at?' Hissed the creature.

I didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention, so I stayed as quiet as I could.

'Umm... nothing?' Willow's lie was unconvincing. The creature didn't believe her.

'I sssssmell demigod,' said the thing. 'Ssssshe isssss near.' It looked around the room, and when it saw nothing, it went towards the door - to me. It got closer, went out of the door... and stared me straight in the face. And, as scared as I was, I couldn't help remembering that there were three shadows.

'There ssssshe issssss!' Said the creature. Now that it was up close, I could see it more clearly. It was... like a snake, but human. Its skin was greenish, and instead of a one snake tail, it had two of them.

Then it dragged me inside.

'Coral? Why did you come?' Asked Willow. 'I mean, it's really nice of you, and thank you, but -you're going to get yourself killed.'

I was still so shocked at the creatures that the only thing I could say was, 'What are those... things?'

'They're dracaenae. Scythian dracaenae.'

'Scythian what?'

'Dra- never mind. They're like snake-women, but with two tails.'

'Yeah, I think I can see that.'

'I know, it's just - sorry. This is my first time seeing them. Juniper told me about them, but...'

'Juniper? Who's that?'

'A friend.'

Then I heard a hissing noise from the corner.

'Willow-'

Not just that corner. The other corner too. 'We should maybe get out...' Then I saw that the Scythian whatever-it-was-called was in front of the door.

'Coral, get your dagger out. Now.'

'It's not mine. I can't even use it.'

'Well, you can't use anything else, either, and that's the best you have.'

I got it out grudgingly. Too slowly. The dracaena pounced and took the dagger. Seeing it there, I bolted towards the door, but it was blocked by another dracaena. I heard a hissing noise behind me. One was there as well. But how did it turn into three? Unless...

I looked around. Sure enough, Chloe and Melissa were gone.

'Why thank you, Coral Typhoon. We will havvvve ssssso much fun!' One of them smiled evilly.

'Coral!' Willow shouted.

'Willow, I'm sorry-' I started.

'Why did you pick it up so slowly? It's because you didn't want to take it out, wasn't it?! Why didn't you trust me, just that one time?'

'It isn't that-'

'Now we're stuck here, with a monster holding Celestial Bronze, not to mention the other ones, and it's going to kill us.'

'But...' I couldn't believe I was hearing this. 'You would have died anyway. I was trying to help.'

Yet again, I was interrupted. 'It's not me I'm worried about, Coral. I came here to protect you. I volunteered instead of a normal satyr, but now- ' I had no idea of what was going on or what I was supposed to do, and Willow was angry at me for reasons I couldn't explain,but I was not going to just stand there and die, like she apparently thought I was. I wasn't useless. And I snapped.

'How is any of this my fault? You keep saying things, impossible things, and not explaining them because they would apparently put me in danger, and now, here I am, in danger, and you're shouting at me because I don't get the things I don't even understand. You might get the things you're saying, sure, but this is my first time in a situation like this, and let me ask you this question; if you had no idea what was going on, and you were in this situation without knowing anything about your - your world - would you take a real dagger out of your shoe and stab someone who might just be acting? And now you're mentioning satyrs and dracaenae, mythical creatures, and I've heard talking about dryads and demigods too, don't mistake me. Willow, I know you did your best, but can you just tell me what on earth is happening?'

I didn't know who was more surprised; Willow or me. I'd never argued with her before, let alone shouted at her. Willow's eyes filled with tears. She could try, but she couldn't really stay angry for long.

'Willow... I'm so sorry - I didn't mean to hurt you- ' She turned away. 'Please, Willow, if I could only understand...'

'It's fine.' Willow said, although I knew it wasn't. But I didn't want to upset her more by telling her that it wasn't. 'I know I should explain more, and, I promise, if I can later, I will. But... you do realise we're still surrounded?'

'Yesssss, we are ssssstill here,' a dracaena said. 'And we will not wait any longer to eliminate you.'

Just then, I heard Mrs Takimos shout, 'All right, everybody! Everyone in the javelin throw line up!'

And an idea popped into my head.

'I know you wouldn't wait,' I started, 'but wouldn't it seem a little suspicious if Willow and I just - you know, died - in the middle of sports day?'

'And what isssss your point?' A dracaena replied.

'My point is that people will become suspicious of you, and you'll be kicked out.'

'Do you think we want to ssssstay here?'

'No, but what if there are other... demigods... in this school? You won't be able to do anything to them if you're not there.'

The word 'demigods' felt weird coming from my own mouth, and although there probably weren't others in this school (if they existed at all), I still felt guilty - what if there were, and I was putting them in danger? I pushed that thought out of my head. If my plan worked, the dracaenae wouldn't bother anyone again.

'There are none. I cannot sssssmell any more of them.' The draecana insisted, but I could see it hesitating.

'But what if there are? What if your sense of smell, is wrong? What would you do then?'

'Are you sssssaying we ssshould not kill you?' It hissed angrily. It was tempting to say, Yes, please stop attacking us now!, but that wouldn't work. Instead I replied,

'No, I mean that maybe you should wait until maybe after sports day finishes, and then you could say that we died of exhaustion or something.'

'How do we know thisssss isssss not a trick? What if you run away?'

'How could we run away? You're much faster than us, and there are three of you. You have the dagger, so we don't have anything. How could this be a trick?'

Before it could answer, I heard Mrs Takimos shout again, 'I repeat, everyone for the javelin throw line up NOW!'

'I need to run!' I said, and the main dracaena (the one who had been Emma, I think) hissed at the others to let me through - I guess it really wanted to kill more demigods (if there were any at all). I ran out of the door, got my javelin, and ran to the throwing line.

'And finally, Coral has showed up.' Mrs Takimos announced. 'Where were you?' It was embarrassing to be told off in front of everyone, but nobody I knew very well was there, and after today I probably wouldn't come back here at all. Also, if I told the truth, she wouldn't believe me, so I just mumbled, 'Sorry.'

'Well, don't say sorry now. We'll talk about it later. Now, everybody participating, pick up your javelins NOW!'

I did the same as everyone else, but, unlike them, I wasn't doing this to win. I had to carry out my plan - and somehow make it seem like I made a mistake. Then, hopefully, Willow would understand what I was trying to do and carry out the plan from there.

'And throw in THREE...'

I looked behind me to see if the dracaenae were still there.

'TWO...'

I glanced at them again to check if the one who I think had been Emma still had the dagger.

'ONE...'

I got into position, and waited.

'... AND GO!'

While everybody else threw their javelins forward, I threw mine backwards - right at the leader of the dracaenae. It didn't kill it, but it stunned it enough to drop the dagger onto the floor, and right into Willow's hands. Willow looked just as shocked as the dracaena (and, to be honest, as shocked as I was that the first step of the plan actually worked), but ran to me before it could lunge at her.

'Traitor!' One of the dracaenae hissed. 'It wasssss a trap!' I didn't get how they considered us traitors, since we were never on their side anyway, but I decided not to point that out. It could make things worse, and put Willow and I in more trouble than we were already in.

The dracaenae seemed to hesitate to go nearer to us, giving Willow and I a little time to talk. I didn't know why at first, but then I realised that now we had the Celestial Bronze - whatever that was. They had nothing. If we were lucky, this was their first time in a situation like this, as well as ours. But it wouldn't hold them for long.

'What should I do now?' Willow asked me urgently.

'Umm...' I was planning for Willow to take it from there, so I was a bit surprised when she asked me for help. No, not just surprised.

Shocked.

'I was hoping you'd know what to do - I didn't plan any further.' I said sheepishly. 'Please, could you just kill them, because... I don't know if I can. I'm sorry, I know you don't like violence, but you seem like you've been in situations like this before. I haven't.'

'I haven't been in them either, only heard about them. Apparently there was this big battle back at camp... something to do with the Labyrinth... almost a quarter of all the satyrs and dryads were killed.'

'Wait. Hold on, Willow. Slow down. What camp? And now you're saying that the Labyrinth is real?'

'I'll explain later, like I promised. It's just that now...'

'Please, Willow. I've never attacked anything before, and forget killing.'

'Are you kidding? You hit that monster right in the chest with that javelin!' She laughed, but took the dagger anyway. At that moment, the dracaenae charged. The laughter left Willow's eyes.

'They'll just get killed not die. They'll just get killed, not die.' She muttered to herself. As they got closer, she closed her eyes, holding the dagger out in front of her. 'They won't die, won't die...'

I looked away for one, two, three seconds - and the next thing I knew I was facing her again, and a pile of dust. And even that didn't stay. It eventually got blown away by the wind.

'What... just happened?' I managed.

'One gone - but two to go.' Willow replied, out of breath. As I looked around, I realised she was right. Their leader may have turned to dust, but the other two dracaenae were still there, their eyes full of malice.

'You'd better go. Until the same thing happens to you.' I told them.

'Coral?' Willow called. 'We should go. Everybody's staring at us.' Sure enough, when I turned around, I saw every person apart from Willow look at us in horror.

'Why are they all looking at us like that?' I asked Willow.

'Well, mortals can't see through the Mist, so they think that we just killed normal students.' She said, matter-of-factly.

'So now they're probably going to call the police.'

'Yeah... but for now, I suggest we- ' She glanced behind her. Mrs Takimos was already on the phone. 'Run!'

Willow started sprinting, and I followed. We were almost at the roadside when Willow stopped and looked around, like she'd forgotten something. She gave the dagger back to me.

'Coral, my tree. I need to get it. If any monster attacks you, use this.'

'Willow! Forget the tree. We need to leave! The dracaenae are still back there, and now I have the dagger; you'll get killed!'

'If I leave my tree there, something will happen to it. And if it does, I'll still die, even if we escape safely.'

'Willow, please, you can get a new one later! Just please wait- ' I called after Willow, but she was already nearly out of sight. I guess it was my turn to wait for her. I waited, one minute, two, five, until Willow finally showed up, carrying her tree ahead of her. I was just about to relax, but then I saw two snake-like figures chasing after Willow, and heard the distant sound of sirens in the distance.

'Willow, please just put the tree down. It's just making you slower.'

'I already told you, if something happens to it, I'll get killed.'

'Willow, you wouldn't try and sacrifice yourself to save your tree, and if it got harmed, you probably wouldn't die of grief. Stop overreacting!'

'Coral, you don't understand. It's not mental or emotional. I mean it literally. If it gets harmed, I get harmed. If it dies, I die.'

'Willow...'

'I said it was a bit like a present. Well, I lied. It isn't just a tree. It's my life force. Did you ever wonder why it was exactly the same age as me? Why I always carried it around, even if it was very inconvenient? Why I was named after a tree and you never even heard my last name?' Now that Willow pointed that out, I realised that I really hadn't known her last name. I hadn't even asked. I felt embarrassed - here I was, thinking she was my best friend, and I didn't know her surname.

'Oh... sorry... I didn't ask...' I said. 'What is it?'

'I don't have one.' She fiddle with her fingers. 'The dracaenae aren't the only creatures from Greek mythology around here, Coral. I- I-' She trailed off.

'Then who are you - what are you?' I asked.

'I... Coral, I'm a dryad.'

AN: First chapter, done.

Can anybody guess Coral's godly parent? I left some hints (if you're stuck, read Coral's dreams again), so are you up for the challenge? If so, feel free to comment in the reviews!

In case anybody's confused about why a dryad is looking after Coral instead of a satyr, the next chapter will explain why. For those of you who are curious towards what Coral's 'hideout' really is, again, your thirst for information will be satisfied in Chapter 2.

Also, for any critics out there, I welcome reviews that will help to improve this fanfic.

Thanks!

-SylviaNightshade