It Was 1999. Thalia Was Nine years Old and Jason, her younger brother, Had just turned two. It had been a long day so far; Thalia was watching Jason, despite her young age, while Their mother was nursing a hangover; She had not take Zeus/Jupiter's Second departure very well. Thalia was in the living room of their house, playing with Jason and working on her third grade homework when she could. She heard a strange sound outside though that made her turn her head toward it, it was coming from outside.

Thalia went to check on it and let Jason play with his toys while she was gone, though as soon as she left, his attention turned to the "magical" device that she was using to hold things together, an ordinary stapler. Thalia didn't notice though, She was outside by the time Jason made his way to it. She noticed the noise sounded like running, the dull thud of shoes hitting grass with a crackle of leaves every now and again. When the noise reached her she saw a boy, around her age, circling back around her house. He slowed when he saw her and turned his head to peer behind him, as if he thought he was being followed.

When he saw nothing was there, he sighed in apparent relief,

"Whew, thank Gods I got away, that was almost too close."

She Gave him a strange look and decided to speak up, as he apparently had forgotten she was even there.

"Who are you? Why are you running around my house?" she said plainly, ready to run back inside if he turned out to be dangerous. He turned his attention back to her remembering she was there as soon as she spoke up

"Oh, Hi, I'm Luke Cas-...I'm Luke, Nice to meet you." He smiled and shook her hand. She took into account his messy hair and seemingly elfish facial features. His clothes were torn here and there and dirty to the point that she could barely recognize their original color, since it was stained with mud, and what looked like blood, which made her wonder where it came from since she didn't see any scars on his open body.

"Were you running from someone?" She said to him, giving him a quizzical look. He shook his head and kept his smile

"Not someone, Something, Do you know about Greek myths?" He asked her in return. She nodded, She always liked hearing about Greek Myths and Heroes, Even though she hated most of what she was taught in school, she always loved to listen to those seemingly Ancient stories

"Well, what I was running from, believe it or not, is called a Hippalec..." He struggled with the word a bit, only knowing it from a book he read which didn't help his ADD "A Hippalectryon." He finally managed She cocked her head not knowing what he was talking about. Eventually he thought of how to describe it "Basically it's a Horse-chicken." She giggled at the thought of A big horse with chicken feathers, though didn't question it.

"Why were you running through here?" She asked.

"I had to run around the block and jump your fence just to lose it, Horse-Chickens are fast, on wings and hooves both." She nodded seeing his point and smiled up at him

"I'm Thalia." She said back to him

"Nice to meet you Thalia." He said Back "Is anyone home?" She nodded

"My Mom and my little brother, Jason." She replied

"No Dad?" He said back to her. She shook her head and he changed the question "Do you have one that will be coming?" She she shook her head again. He asked another question "Do you know is name?" She nodded

"I heard him tell my Mom his Name was Zeus." She smiled, liking how his name related to the Ancient Greek Ruler of the Gods. Though Luke looked Amazed, realizing who her father must have really been. He then realized that Thalia and her brother would likely be targets of Powerful monsters

"Say, I know we just met and all but Would you and your brother like to run away with me?" He realized how crazy he sounded though Thalia actually considered it. After a moment of pondering she eventually shook her head,

"No, My Brother's only two, He's too little to run, plus, our Mom keeps talking about this trip we will be taking." She said to him, a little disappointed she couldn't go with him; Even though he seemed dangerous, running from Horse-Chickens that couldn't be real, the idea seemed very fun to her. He nodded but reached into his pocket and handed her a strange gold looking coin, he then wrote something on a piece of paper in what seemed to be Greek, though strangely, she could read it.

"Here, if you change your mind throw this coin into some water and say what's on the paper, I heard it's called Iris Messaging." She nodded and put the coin and paper in her pockets, she then heard Jason inside screaming and crying and looked back and forth between her house and Luke, remembering that she left the stapler around Jason.

"I have to go, good luck, Luke." She said, running back inside.