The Last Myth
Chapter 1
I have seen it . .
I ran away from the memories,they hurt me.
My name is Allison Fenn.
I am a survivor.
It all began on that rainy Thursday night.
I am always running, maybe it's time to stop.
I ran away from my mum, my family and my home. They probably think i am dead-but it's for their own safety.
It has been me and my sister, Heather, for two years now. She was only eight years old when we left (I was 12) yet she rarely complained about our situation. She didn't seem to mind, unlike me. I grumbled and moaned almost every day, scowling at our troubles.
'Living on the streets-how could it get worse?', I used to groan, but that was before the monsters began attacking us again, before we learnt who we really were, before Camp Viridi.
Once again we were running. Our hands were firmly clasped together, trembling. This monster was stronger than the others. Heather's forehead had become sticky with blood and her green eyes were wide with fear, staring from her pale, sunken face. The rain was now battering our clothes and mocking our feeble efforts to run on the slippery concrete, down the alleyway.
.THUD.
It was getting closer. The moon's light guided us through the rubbish bins and litter, till we reached the end. We had no choice but to fight. I glanced down at Heather, who was now curled up into a ball, sobbing.
My hands drifted to my sides, where my two golden broadswords hung. I would have to face this monster, even if it seemed to radiate death.
Suddenly my vision turned fuzzy. My anger swelled up inside me, ready to explode. I returned my swords to their sheaths and ran right towards the creature.
What happened next was a blur. I was tearing at its clay-like flesh, dodging its clawed hands and (somehow) scratching at its eyes, which were on its head, 30 feet above the ground.
It roared in pain, thrashing about, lunging at me with its large meaty hands. If it caught me I'd be squashed like a bug-and that didn't sound very appealing.
Weaving through its chubby fingers, i twirled and rolled, still high up in the air. Every couple of second I'd dart, at full speed, towards its torso, ripping through its skin with my talons, covering them in its ink-like blood.
Wait a minute. Talons?!
I glanced down and, sure enough there they were. Dumbfounded, i just floated there for a second staring in awe. But i stayed still for a second to long, and an almighty blow struck me on the head.
A wave of fatigue washed over me. I was falling, down, down, down right onto the concrete.
How am i still alive? I should've died from falling from that height. My hands were like a bird's claws, what just happened?
Still, in shock, i glanced down at my hands. They were back to normal.
A high pitched scream sliced through my thoughts.
Heather! Oh my god, i need to help her!
Slightly dazed, i stood up and raced towards where i last saw her. She was gone. Frantically i scanned the area, determined to find her.
A giant shadow loomed over me. In my stupidity i didn't attack it as soon as i reached the ground. I slipped my hands to my side and spun around, piecing the monsters' ankle. To my surprise, a cheerful voice yelled," Tiiiiiiiimber!"
What? Who's there?
But before i could ask who was talking, i had to jump out of the way to dodge the falling monster.
Coughing from the dust, i jumped back up and-right before my eyes stood two people:Heather and a boy who seemed to be my age. We stared at each other, our identical forest-green eyes tensed. Behind him, the monster shattered into ash. The rain had ceased and the early morning sun peeked from behind the horizon.
As if he was unsettled by the awkward silence, the boy held out his hand and said," My name's Logan, and you are?"
My head was still numb from the fall, so instead of replying i just stared at him.
As i already mentioned, he had strangely similar vibrant green eyes to me and my sister. His auburn hair made him look like he'd just woken up:it was slightly spiky and jutted out all over the place. His skin was rather pale with a handful of freckles, near his left eye. He wore an emerald hoodie, with faded writing on(I could just make out the words:(Camp Viridi) and ripped jeans, that were very faded.
To me he seemed like a troublemaker, because if his dress style didn't give it away, his smile did. His two front teeth were crooked and his lips seemed to curl uncertainly at the corners.
I glanced at Heather, who seemed wary of Logan. The blood had stopped flowing from the gash in her forehead and the dried blood had mostly been wiped off. Her eyes shifted back and forth, from me to him and her hands were rubbing the corner of her tattered grey t-shirt, like they always did when she was nervous. She looked so innocent and weak with her torn outfit and worn trainers, staring wistfully at me.
Trembling, I shook his hand and said, in the bravest voice I could muster," My name's Allison Fenn and that is my sister, Heather"
When I pointed at her, he turned around and his eyes widened.
"Sister? Well, there haven't been sibling at camp for years!"
He looked at me, glanced down at my weapons, swallowed and frowned," You do know about Camp, right?"
"Excuse me?" I mumbled, wondering what this camp was. Why he was so surprised at the fact we were sisters? I mean we had the same coloured eyes, similar body structure and I just looked like a stronger, taller, fiercer version of her.
(Well, I had shoulder-length titian* hair and she had Peruvian brown hair tied into a lopsided ponytail, but we still looked kinda similar.)
Logan sighed," Well this is gonna be even more difficult than I expected."
Confused, I studied him. He kept staring at us and mumbling under his breath.
I put my hand on his shoulder and said, gently," What is this camp you think we know about? Should we somehow know?"
He bit his lip and gestured for us to follow him out of the alleyway. Then he started talking.
"My guess is that you two ran away from because monsters started attacking your family, but only you guys could see them. Yes or no?"
"Yes.' I wasn't going to tell this boy I'd just met our about 'family'. I could almost see his disgust as I pictured telling him. Heather stood at my side, I wondered if she could remember why I agreed to take her with me. If she did, she'd want to keep it a secret too.
"Okay. I won't pressure you to tell me the whole story-most of the campers have experienced something similar to each other. It gets boring eventually."
"Where did your sword go?" As usual my swords were hanging at my sides but his was...gone.
"Oh. That. When I don't want to use it, it goes into my necklace."
"That's cool-can mine do that?"
" haven't got a necklace yet and there's two of them."
"Hmmph."
We walked in silence for a bit, until I heard a voice.
Follow him. He will lead you to where I'm stronger. I will awake.
Confused, I span around. Behind me was just the dark alleyway.
"Are you okay?"
"Didn't you hear it?"
'Hear what?"
"That voice."
"No, I didn't. Are you sure your okay? You've gone very pale."
A small stream of blood came from my mouth, then it abruptly stopped. Weird. When I rubbed it off, it didn't stain my hand, it just faded away.
I blinked as we got out of the alleyway.
I looked at Logan, his face looked troubled.
"Interesting" Logan said as we crossed the empty road.
Where is he taking us?
"So, what is Camp Viridi?"
"It's a place for people like us. We can't just see the monsters, we can do other things. For instance, this…"
I faced him, he clicked his fingers, and in his place was… an otter. I am not joking, i swear. Heather squeaked in surprise. Bewildered, i stood there, gawping at Logan the Somehow-Magically-Transforming-Otter.
Before me or Heather could do anything, he was back to his grinning self.
"What did y-"
"Shape-shifting," Logan interrupted" You guys could do it to, if you learn how."
"How do you know?"
"Your eyes, we all have green eyes. Only 2% of the population do, quite strange, isn't it?"
"Can you chose what you turn into?"
"No, we all have si-oh, here's the bus"
A rundown, double-decker bus drove into the bus bay. To Logan's surprise, me and Heather were really excited:the last time we got on a bus was about 3 years ago. Anytime we wanted to go anywhere, nowadays, we'd have to walk because we never had any money.
As we got on the bus, instead of giving the bus driver money, Logan bent towards him, whispered something into his ear and waked to a three seater.
"What did you say to the bus driver to allow you to just get on without paying?"
"New recruits." He yawned" That means you guys."
Heather, who had been completely silent since the attack, piped up and said," Hey, Logan?"
"Mmhm?"
"What else can you transform into?"
"Every green eyed' person can change into six different animals, but not just any animals. You see each type has a different colour:light green is woodland, dark green is rainforest, light blue is underwater, dark blue is a mixture of on the water and under the water, white is flying, yellow is desert, grey is cold places like Antarctica and-"
"Blah, blah, blah. You talk too much, just tell me what you can do!" complained Heather.
I had to hold my breath so i didn't burst out laughing at the discomfort on Logan's face.
"Fine. I have a dark blue amulet, and i can turn into a sea lion, a dolphin, a manta ray, a clown fish, an otter and a turtle."
"A turtle-how cute! Do it, do it, do it, do it!" squeaked Heather in joy, jumping up and down.
"No." grumbled Logan as he slumped down in his seat. I tapped his shoulder and said," Where do you get your amulet?"
"From the tree at the middle of camp- Iacosew -it's made of hundreds of gems. When someone new comes, at the end of their first day we take them down to the tree, then they glow a certain colour for a couple of seconds and an amulet with that colour floats down from the tree into their hands."
"Eye-hack-cold-stew?"
"No, Eyes-a-o-ci"
"Anyway is that where they get the magical powers?" I guessed.
"No"
"What?"
"They've always had the shape shifting powers, ever since they were born. The amulet just keeps them under control."
Unsure of how to continue the conversation, I gazed out the window, watching the trees and hills roll by. We had left the city about ten minutes ago. I'd never seen such a beautiful place-the countryside was spectacular. We were used to dull, towering heaps of bricks and miserable pavements, with the occasional rubbish-free spot.
I sighed. It was all so mesmerising. The way the sun glinted through the bottle-green leaves;the gentle swaying of tawny trees in the wind;the vibrant rainbow of flowers in the fields. It was beautiful.
Seconds turned to minutes, time seemed irrelevant as i out into the distance, hypnotised by the countryside's magnificence. Before i knew it, we were at our stop.
"C'mon, hurry up. You can't stare out the window all day" said Logan.
"Fine." I mumbled in return.
As we left the bus and stepped out onto the dusty path, i glanced back at where the bus was, well should've been. Wierdly it was gone, with no tyre traces, no evidence it had even been there.
"Where is t-"
"Bus? What bus?" Logan smiled," The bus driver was a shape-shifter, he doesn't leave any clues he was here. Some people say he's on the run"He winked.
"Look, sis! A camp! Is it our camp?" squealed Heather
"Yeah, that's where we're gonna go."
I squinted at the campsite. From here it looked like a circle of tents around a large oak tree, with a massive woodland nearby and a beach. It didn't look like much.
Obviously seeing my quizzical look, Logan said cheerfully," Don't worry, from here it looks terrible but that's just Shadows messing with your head. When we get to the bottom of the hill, it gets waaay better, trust me,"
Smiling, i nodded and chased after Heather as she tumbled down the hill.
It only took five minutes to get there and wow, did it look cool.
Before me was a large marble archway engraved with the words:Camp Virdi.
My eyes widened with pleasure-this place looked like a home.
Panting, Logan caught up to us.
"Like it?"
"Yeah, this place looks amazing with the beautiful trees and the sun shining and the happy people and the marble archway-it looks beautiful!"
"What she said" I pointed at my little sister, who was shaking from excitement.
"You guys haven't even seen the rest of the camp" muttered a very confused Logan.
"I can't wait." I smiled.
Almost immediately after we walked through the arch, a happy voice yelled,
" APPLES, YOU GOT NEW PEOPLE!"
Logan replied," Shut up, Birdbrain!"
A smiling boy jumped down from the tree branches and landed at Logan's feet.
"Welcome to Camp Viridi," the boy said," I'm Max Leydon, the very irritating friend of Logan Appel here"