Alright, so for 13 years of my life I always thought I was a normal girl, small, athletic, smart and original. I was Arianna Morgan, completely human, but I was always looking for something extraordinary because otherwise everything was a little boring. My little town was full of either old people or troublesome teenagers in the middle of the a Welsh country side. It took a while to get to the big shops, so we had to settle for a little tesco and a small corner shop. There were three parks but they're very small and always full of smoking teenagers, so I tend to stay away. Wales can be a very rainy place, even in the summer. I lived a thousand lives in the books I've read, and in school I tend to be quiet and quick with my work, spending the rest of the lesson staring outside and daydreaming.
In the summer holidays, I went on holidays to California for a couple of weeks with some friends and one of their families (they had a holiday house near a beach and the house was big enough for seven of us- they're rich). I'd been at the beach for the day and we planned to have a small bonfire and watch the stars for the night.
After spending a few hours messing around, I sat down to watch the sun set. It was only me and a my 6 other friends on the beach. It had been like this for a while, almost as if everyone was avoiding us. I didn't notice at first when a boy stumbled on to the beach, his clothes ripped and frayed with grazes over his knees and arms. When I saw him in the corner of my eye, I turned to look closer at him. His face was coated in dirt and dust and a nasty pink bruise was clear around his left eye. I was quite surprised when he walked straight towards me, a wary but tired look in his eye. He sat (more like collapsed really) a few yards away from me, and hhe looked out towards the horizon, a far away look in his eye. My friends hadn't yet noticed him. I was unsure what to do, whether to introduce myself or get up an walk away, so I just offered him the bag of popcorn I'd been munching at. He looked up wearily at me, as if deciding whether I'd poisoned them or not. I could see the hungry look in his eyes, so after seemingly weighing the possibilities, I gestured for him to take the bag and he did so with a small, grateful smile. After only a few minutes he'd demolished the popcorn, not leaving a single crumb left as if he hadn't eaten for days, and with his red top hanging off of his lanky body, I wouldn't be surprised. After handing him an unopened bottle of water, I decided I'd better introduce myself.
"Hey, I'm Ari by the way"
"Aidan" he replied simply. I waited to see if he'd say anything else and after a few minutes of silence I decided to carry on.
"So, uh, do you live around here?" I asked.
"No" he replied.
Great conversation.
"How did you get the bruise?" I asked innocently. He looked at me with a sideways glance before replying;
"I got in a few fights" he said.
"You're really good at this conversation thing" I decided to point out sarcastically. A smile pulled at his lips and he chuckled quietly.
"Sorry, I'm just a bit distracted and tired. I also haven't spoke with another person for two weeks"
"Huh, how come?". Aidan's smile slowly left and his stance became a little guarded, his back tensing up and his head lifting slightly. I decided not to press on after a minute of silence, instead grabbing two apples out of my bag and passing one to him. A smile appeared on his lips again and I looked closer at his face. He was tanned with sandy untamed hair, as if he just got out of bed, but he still managed to look good. With the dirt around his face, his electric blue eyes became extremely startling, twinkling in the setting sunlight. After sitting in a comfortable silence while we ate our apples,we threw the cores in the bushes behind us. I decided to ask the questions that had been tugging at my mind for ten minutes.
"Why haven't you talked to anyone for a while? Where's your family?" I asked. Again his body became tense and guarded and he looked at me - I had my legs crossed and I was sitting in a baggy light top and shorts, my bikini strap showing where my sleeve rested on my upper arm. I looked at him expectantly for what felt like forever when he turned back to the horizon with a sigh.
"I live with my mum, my dad left just before I was born. Never heard from him since, I don't even know his name. I'm not sure if I even want to know him. My mother never really dated so I don't have siblings but we look after my little cousin often and I look after her as if she's my sister. My mum became more distant from me as I got older, muttering every now and then that I look like my dad. I think the memory became too painful for her. Her painting became really dark, she normally makes bright pictures of the landscape or whatever. So after my thirteenth birthday a few months ago I felt like I needed to get away. I've been on the road for about two months, living in the forest an alleyways not to draw attention. I just felt like I needed to get away from anything. You probably think I'm completely stupid for it-"
"No, you have your reasons" I cut across him "I don't know you well enough to judge". He looked at me again, his smile still lighting up his Tenerife sea eyes.
Suddenly, he whipped his head around towards the cluster if trees bordering the beach 200 yards away from where we were sitting. His smile completely left his face and the weary and tired look was evident in his eyes. He jumped up pulling a menacing looking pencil out from behind him. He was clearly troubled by a rustling sound coming for the shadows of the trees. Unaware of the danger we were in, I asked "why do you have a pencil?". He looked at me silly saying "it's not a pencil". Now I looked at him silly. I looked again at the pencil, wondering why he would say that. Then the air around it shimmered lightly, and I saw it was actually a bronze dagger. My eyes widened as a hundred questions entered my head, but before I could ask any of them a creature came out of the woods. Aidan gripped the dagger, planting his feet in the ground ready to attack. The creature coming out of the shadows was easily seven feet tall, with bulging muscles and a loin cloth down to his knees around his waist. I tried to look at his face, but it was all fuzzy. I blinked a few times trying to clear my vision, and only when Aidan muttered something like "Minotaur" did his face become clear. A couple hundred yards away, a big, bad, bull headed humanoid stood in front of us, it's beady eyes staring murder at Aidan. I looked around at my friends, they only now seemed to notice the stranger next to me and I could see the confusion on they're eyes as they tried to focus on the monster behind me, but they're eyes kept glazing over and they kept shaking they're head as if whatever they were seeing wasn't possible. They called me, gesturing they were going back and I waved my hand to say 'go on ahead'.
"You should go with them, it isn't safe" Aidan cut accords my thoughts.
"And leave you fight a Minotaur? I don't know if things are different in America, but where I come from, we tend to stick together" not that anything like this happens I said in my head.
"You can see it too? I thought I was crazy! Whenever a monster chased me, no one looked twice at me or the beast behind. They just carried on with they're lives..." Aidan trails off as if in deep thought. Then he came back to the present as the Minotaur stepped towards us. I scrunched my nose - I could smell his rancid, rotten smell from here. Then Bull-face charged.
Aidan pushed me towards the sea, running the other way. The Minotaur didn't even glance at me as he headed straight for Aidan. I'll be honest, I was scared for his life, the stranger I only met less than an hour ago. He quickly side stepped as Bull-face charged, rolling to the side and jumping back up on his feet as if he'd done it a hundred times. The next time the monster charged, he anticipated the move and so he reached out to grab Aidan last minute and flung him across the beach. He landed close to the surf and he didn't move. Without thinking I ran swiftly towards the back of the beast as he started lumbering towards the unconscious body. Again, it didn't even glance at me so I leaped as far I could up his back (which is hard normally, without a figure that turns blurry every now-and-then) and I grabbed on to his thick fur. Holding my breath from his smell, I started to climb up using its matted hair to hold on to. I was near his neck when he seemed to realize I was on his back, so he began to twitch and shake, trying to knock me off. Luckily, I'm used to bucking horses from when I ride so I kept my balance and slowly began climbing again. The higher I got the worse it shook but I managed to reach the top of his head and grabbed on to his horn. I looked down towards Aidan and he'd started to groan and move a little. The Minotaur's attention turned back towards him and in a panic, I pulled with all my might on his horn. I'll be honest, I wasn't heroic and pulled it off first time, but I tried again with whatever strength I had left and it finally snapped in a jagged line. The Minotaur roared in pain and I slipped half way down his back, clutching the horn to my chest. The Minotaur turned its full attention to me, twisting its body so I flung off, landing hard on my shoulder. I groaned in pain but I had other things to think about, so I pushed it out of my mind. I stood up shakily as the Minotaur began to walk towards me. It began to charge and I closed my eyes as it rose above to crush me, and last minute I thrust the horn upwards, feeling it sink into the monsters skin. With my eyes closed, I didn't see where it went, but I had a pretty good idea. Slowly I opened my eyes, but no body lay in front of me, just a layer of gold dust falling on my shoulders before mixing with the white sand. Unsure of what happened to the body, I quickly stumbled towards Aidan who was beginning to stand up. As his eyes focused on me we asked "Are you ok?" at the same time.
"What happened to it?" Asked Aidan, blinking his eyes trying to stay in focus.
"Um, pretty sure I stabbed it and it disappeared somehow after. You got knocked unconscious as you can probably tell, you ok?" I stammered.
"I'm fine, probably got concussion though. I can't believe you just killed that thing"
"Ha, join the club" I laughed nervously. I looked around, unsure of what to do next, when three large birds appeared above us. The sky began to change colour so that only a few streaks of orange and purple lit up the sky. Gripping on to the horn, I wondered if they were more monsters attacking us. They landed on the far side of the beach and then three horses began to gallop towards us, slowing down into a trot. I swear they were just flying... Concentrating on them the air shimmered again and wings protruded from the shoulders of the horses, which I realized we're actually pegasi. In front of me stood three lean pegasi; a chestnut with a light mane, a bay with a dark silky mane and a black one in the middle, standing proudly as its rider dismounted. He walked towards Aidan.
"I'm John Smith, I'm here to take you to a camp that's safe for people like you" he extended his arm to shake Aidan's.
"You mean a place for homeless kids?" He replied without shaking Johns hand. John chuckled slightly, lowering his hand to his side. He looked about seventeen, with big arm muscles and broad shoulders. He had big beefy hands, blistered and grimy as if he did a lot of car repairing. Then a girl from behind stepped up beside him. She had curly blond hair and stormy grey eyes, with an athletic figure and muscular but feminine arms.
"Hey, kid, what's your name?" She asked gently.
"Aidan Lancaster"
"We don't have long to explain the whole thing but, have you ever heard of the Greek myths?"
Aidan thought for a minute, looking between the teenager in front of us and the pegasi behind them. After a moment, he answered;
"Do you mean the Gods like Zeus and Poseidon?"
"Yeah, Zeus is the king of the gods and the God of the sky, Poseidon is the God of the sea, hurricanes and earthquakes -" before the girl continued Aidan cut across "what do you mean by is?" The girl gently smiled before answering.
"I mean they're real. Not just the gods, but also the monsters. The one you just fought-"
"A Minotaur" Aidan interrupted again. The girl didn't seem annoyed, and continued once again.
"- yes, the Minotaur was one of the monsters that roam the earth at the moment. You've probably met a lot more on your journey, and you'll meet many more in the future. So the camp we'll take you to will prepare you" she finished.
"Wait, what has this got to do with me? Why is all this happening to me?!" Aidan asked exasperated. Finally, the youngest boy of the three walked forward. He looked about fifteen, with sandy hair, tanned skin and blue eyes, like Aidan. However, he was much more muscular and his top clung closely to his broad chest.
"Sometimes, the gods come down to the earth on human form. They often have kids with humans, demigods. That's what we are, I'm a son of Apollo, God of Poetry, prophecies and the sun among other things, John's a son of Hephaestus, god of the forge and fire, and Lily is a daughter of Athena-"
"Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy" the girl, Lily, finished.
"I...I don't understand" Aidan said quietly, shaking his head with his eyes closed.
"Aidan, this is about your father" I said gently. I looked up at the demigods in front of me, looking at each one "isn't it?" I directed the question to them. Only now did they seem to notice me as I'd been standing quietly at the side. More specifically, they noticed the horn I was clutching.
"No..." John muttered quietly.
The son of Apollo looked at me with a mixture of awe and shock.
"But you're not a demigod. Chiron said there was one demigod. Who are you?!" Lily said. I was starting to dislike her tone.
"I'm Arianna Morgan" I said, crossing my arms over my chest. The three looked back and forth between each other, clearly they weren't sure what to do. Then Lily looked into my eyes and clicked her fingers, white mist pouring down and surround me. The air shimmered, just liked it does when I concentrate hard on the pegasi or the Minotaur.
"We're just three teenagers on the beach with horses-"
I knew what was coming, she would probably make me forget what happened, so I closed my eyes and started singing as load as I could in my mind, the first song that came through my mind was black magic by little mix, so I concentrated on the words until the song finished in my head before I opened my eyes. The mist has disappeared but I could still see the pegasi and had all my memories. I looked over at Aidan who was standing in shock looking between me and Lily. I decide to break the ice.
"Where do the wings attach?" I asked, looking over at the pegasi.
"Wh-what?" Lily stammered.
"The wings, on the pegasi, where do the attach? Is it attached to the bone or muscle?" I repeated. The three and Aidan looked shocked, although I could see a little smile tug at the corners of his lips.
"How can you still see them? Do you still remember what happened before?" Lily asked.
"Yeah" I replied simply. After a moment of them still looking shocked, I explained "I just closed my eyes and, uh, sang a song in my head so I wouldn't concentrate on you, an here we are" I finished with a smile.
"Here we are" The son of Hephaestus repeated.
"So," Aidan clapped his hand brightly, "what now?"
Lily, the first to come out of the daze of staring at me, looked towards Aidan, now beside me, remembering their mission.
"Um, right, yes. You need to come with us to the camp, I think Chiron might want to meet you" she looked pointedly at me. She walked over to the chestnut and mounted on to her bareback. John jumped on the black and Aidan quickly jumped on the bay who was standing besides me, with his hand outstretched. With a smile, I accepted and leaped on behind him. I felt slight bad because we basically hijacked the son of Apollo's ride, so he had to jump on behind Lily. After everyone was on, we spurred the horses on and galloped across the white sand before lifting up into the sky and soaring across the land. After adjusting my balance and grip around Aidan's waist, a spread my arm into the sky, slightly lifting and lowering it in the sharp wind. We pulled up besides John, who seemed at ease on his strong horse.
"Where are we going exactly?" I yelled over so that he could hear me.
"Long Island in New York" he yelled back.
"But that's on the east coast, it's ages away"
"I know". Well then.
I turned my attention back to Aidan, who was sitting tensely while gripping on to the reins.
"Hey," I said closely to his ear, so that he could hear me, "have you ever ridden a horse before?". He shook his head in response.
"Loosen up in your shoulders, he can feel you tensing. Soften your hands, with your thumb on top and little finger underneath" I said, while adjusting his hands in the reins. His shoulders loosened slightly and he looked over at me.
"You ride?" He called over.
"Yeah, since I was nine" I replied.
I watched the stars above for a long time, before my eyelids felt heavy. Gripping slightly tighter on to Aidan's waist, I leaned against his back and felt myself off.