Prologue:
Being a half-blood sucks, basically.
Did I want to be a half-blood? No. Did I choose to be chased by monsters every day of my life? Absolutely not. I never asked to be a half-blood. I just wanted to be a normal human teenager who went to a normal teenager school. But no. I had to have ADHD and Dyslexia. I'm not stupid. I never wanted to be different. So why me?
First, let me tell you about half-bloods. Half-bloods are half-human, half-god. Yeah, you probably think I'm insane and want to drag me to a mental institute, but unfortunately, my brain functions are relatively normal. The gods are really a bit racy. Saying this, my father is probably going to zap me into ash, but it's true. The gods come to cities in America, yes, the gods are still alive. And thriving. Alive and definitely thriving. The entrance to their secret lair, Mount Olympus, is all the way on the 500th floor of the Empire State Building. But, like I was saying before, the gods come to America and have kids with mortal men or women, then us, the demi-gods, or half-bloods, are born. And that's where I come in. Anyway, let me tell you how all this got started.
Chapter One:
I meet a goat?
It was a relatively normal morning. The sky was pure blue, with the occasional cloud lazing past. The sun hurt my eyes, toasting anything that was stupid enough to be outside. My mom was still in bed. She'd been sad for a long time, longer than I can even remember. I'd been taking care of myself, and her, for a while now. She usually never got out of bed, and I usually never saw her. That was all right with me. I'd rather be on my own, anyway. I made sure to make a nice breakfast for her, this morning it was pancakes, eggs, and one huge, lovely golden waffle. If it wasn't hers, I think I would've eaten it myself. I sat the tray that held her food on the table, but after a moment of deliberation I took it into her room. Slowly, I eased the door open and set the tray on my mother's dresser. As always, she was sleeping, her face unlined and serene. Her chest rose and fell on a regular pattern, and for some reason, I was relieved that she was still alive. The room was dark and unusually clean for a comatose woman's bedroom. My father had made her this way, somehow, I figured. He had left. I hadn't had a father...ever. He'd took off before I was even born! The jerk. It was his fault. All his fault. The doorknob almost broke as I squeezed it with all my strength, pushing my anger away. I stared at my mother for a second more before shutting the door quickly and slinging my bag over my shoulder. I slipped out of my house, locking the door behind me, unaware that I wouldn't set foot in it again for a long time.
I sat at the very back of the bus, almost hiding behind my backpack. I sat alone. I liked it better that way. I could think better, and nobody bothered to talk to me. Kids screamed, threw things, and basically ignored every word the bus driver shouted at them. Just a normal day. Why would I have any reason to think it wasn't?The bus lurched to a halt in front of Barrone 'Academy', looking as gloomy as ever, looming above me in it's ugly way. I grimaced, standing and zipping my book back into my bag. We filed out of the bus(not quietly, I'll tell you that), the other kids fanning out to join their stupid cliques. I shuffled over to my usual spot on the bench in front of the school and sat down. Next to me was a scrawny white kid with a wispy echo of a beard and earphones in his ears, who was paying no attention to me at all, but I was studying him like he was a frog on a table in Biology. He wasn't anything special, though. The bell rang and I stood, watching the kid sprint toward the school doors. I wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary, but his run was a bit lopsided, like he was crippled in one leg or something. I idly wondered what was wrong with him, but it didn't matter much. Suddenly an old lady hobbled up to me, smiling fiercely. Her teeth looked strangely sharp and yellow, and she dragged a yapping dog across the sidewalk. The dog itself was puny, so I wasn't bothered by the nosy old woman holding it's leash.
"Hello, dearie!" The creepy lady croaked at me, still baring her teeth at me. I glanced behind me, then turned to look at her, pointing at myself. "Well, of course I'm talking to you! Who else is here?" She questioned me slyly, her puny pup still barking at me, as if I were a mailman and he'd like to chase me around. I made a face at the lady's dog and gathered my stuff. The dog growled menacingly. I would have been scared if it wasn't the size of a squirrel.
"Well, lady, I have to get going, so it was nice talking to you, I guess." I said, and the lady almost snarled.
"Don't speak like that to me, half-blood. You can't hide for long. Shiro can't keep you in the dark for much longer!" She cackled, then hobbled down the hallway, dragging her annoying dog behind her. I stared after her, wondering what the heck she was blabbering about and how she'd escaped the asylum. Shaking my head, I jogged inside. One minute until the bell.
First through fourth hours were completely uneventful. Extreme boredom and an uneasy restlessness filled one whole notebook with doodles I hadn't even realized I'd been drawing. There were drawings of a dragon curled around a tree, smoke puffing out of it's nose, a climbing wall on fire, even a terrifying old woman with bat wings and snakes for hair. Shaking my head, I shut the notebook and trooped off to lunch. I sat at an empty table next to the window, gazing at the sky outside. I was thinking about my jerk of a dad. I had a very vague recollection of him. Tall, powerful. Quick-to-anger. Rash, and regal. With warm eyes but a rare smile.
"Hey. You thinking about your dad?" I looked up so fast I'm surprised I didn't get whiplash. Seated comfortably in front of me was the scrawny kid from this morning.
"Yeah...how do you know about my dad?" I asked him, narrowing my eyes and watching as he nibbled halfheartedly on a corner of his pizza.
"I just figured. You looked a little out of it. I'm Jasper Wiseseed." He concluded, cramming a huge spoonful of pudding into his mouth. I nodded distantly at him, watching a weird dark shadow behind a tree. It didn't seem like it was going to move any time soon, but I kept an eye on it.
"Oh." Was my intelligent reply.
"I didn't catch your name," He said, staring at his milk carton almost longingly. I took my eyes off of the strange shadow, which I knew was a bad idea, to stare at him. He was conversing with me as if I was his friend.
"...Sam."
He laughed, but it seriously sounded like a bleat. Who the heck was this kid? I guess I was looking at him weirdly(honestly, who wouldn't?), because he turned a bright red and looked out the window. Suddenly, he leaped out of his seat, stepping back awkwardly just as the window exploded. I was tossed to the ground, my stomach churning. I heard a snarl, but I didn't dare look up. Unfortunately, instead, I was hauled onto my feet by Jasper, and then we were running. Something was behind us, slithering across the floor like a snake, but I was way to afraid to look.
"Why are we running?" I gasped, but Jasper only ran faster. Or should I say galloped faster. The kid must have been half-donkey or something. Nobody else seemed to have seen the creature, and when we burst out the cafeteria doors, the police officer guarding them only stared at us dully and watched us run without really showing any interest.
"No questions, just run!" He replied, steering us into the band room. "Mr. Shiro!" He hollered, and I recognized the name from when the creepy old lady had said it. 'Shiro can't keep you in the dark for much longer!' I remembered her saying, while Jasper locked the doors behind us. "That'll only hold her for a little. We have to hurry!" He wheezed, his hair matted with sweat.
"Dude, seriously! What were we even running from? How did you get out of the asylum?" I screeched at him, my fury swelling as he let out a long sigh.
"Scythian dracaena." The voice I heard was definitely not Jasper's. It was like a hiss, dry and sharp in my ears. Jasper and I spun around. What I saw was by no means normal. The top half of the monster was a woman, with straight black hair. The bottom half was made up of two green snake tails, looking similar to tree trunks. Oddly, the tails wavered in and out of sight, one minute normal legs, the next, tails. The dracaena's eye's glinted. "You cannot hide from me, half-blood. I have found you." She lunged, baring a set of wicked looking fangs. I stood there, frozen in place, and when a glowing blade sprouted from the dracaena's chest, I thought I was going to die, then and there. The snake-woman hissed with an air of finality, and exploded into a pile of golden sand, which disintegrated into the air. I fell to my knees, mumbling weakly. Snake-women, creepy old women with annoying dogs, random kids talking to me who seemed to have some weird relation to donkeys...my head spun. They were all connected, weren't they? Well, I guess God had a sense of humor.
"Come, child," Mr. Shiro lifted me effortlessly by one of my arms, depositing me on a plastic chair in the corner of the band room. The chair felt so real compared to what I had just seen.
"I was...I just..." I muttered, and I had a good reason to not be able to form a complete sentence. Mr. Shiro pulled Jasper towards the opposite corner of the room where they began to talk frantically, Jasper waving his arms dramatically. I didn't know how I hadn't noticed it before, but Mr. Shiro had a long sword, glowing gold, at his side.
"Samantha." I shuddered, hearing the full use of my name.
"What...what the heck was that? Why was it chasing me? Why did it call me a 'half-blood? What the heck is a 'half-blood'? Oh, holy Jesus. I've died, haven't I?" I blubbered incoherently, watching with a feeling of dread as he sheathed his sword in a scabbard that hung off his belt.
"That, my young demi-god, was a dracaena. They're quite hissy snake women." He chuckled absently, and Jasper let out a nervous laugh, sounding suspiciously like a bleat.
"What's a demi-god? Whatever it is, get it the heck away from me." I shivered, remembering the dracaena's fangs.
"A demi-god, young one. Half god, half human. Half-blood. Whatever you prefer to call yourself." He answered slowly, as if he was talking to a kid. I snarled.
"Dude, seriously. Do I look like a god to you?" I probably didn't. "That was a rhetorical question, by the way. But I think I would know if I was a demi-god." His face softened.
"No, you wouldn't. The Mist, which shields the eyes of the demi-gods until they turn 13, would have protected you from knowing. To keep you safe, young one." Jasper was chewing on a corner of a music stand, his teeth slicing through the metal as if it were bread. "Have you ever seen something others would think was crazy? Ever done something you shouldn't have been able to do?" I snorted sarcastically, but I remembered the time I'd fallen out of the tree trying to get my remote-controlled plane. I was sure I was going to die, but I just floated to the ground, landing safely on my feet.
"Yeah. Jasper." He looked up as he heard his name, and I made a face at him. He meekly went back to chewing on his music stand. I stood, even though my legs felt like jelly and my head felt like it was exploding.
"I am also a demi-god. Or a half-blood." Shiro said softly, and I turned on him right away. I couldn't believe the guy! I hadn't even known him before today, and he had already ruined my day!
"That's what that snake-lady called me-"
"Dracaena." He corrected me, and Jasper looked at me apologetically.
"But I'm not! I'm not a god! I can't do anything special!" I forged on, lying through my teeth but really angry now. Who was this guy? Who the heck did he think he was? I wasn't a half human, and I definitely wasn't a god.
"You have ADHD, yes? And Dyslexia? You've been kicked out of multiple schools? Strange, bordering on inhuman things chase after you? People avoid you like the plague?" I winced. That pretty much summed up my life, except the multiple schools part. I'd been at Barrone for over five years now. Fifth grade to tenth. But what about my drawings? What could they mean? Would he know? What if it was bad? What if my drawings were telling me something? Clenching my teeth, I glared up at the old guy. He had day-old stubble which patterned his face, and rimless glasses which were perched on the end of his short nose. He had a short crop of dark hair, streaked with gray, and eyes the color of dirt. He wore a pair of obviously recently iron chinos and a white dress shirt, tucked into his pants. He smelled like oranges and lavender, which was weird for a guy. Maybe the guy knew a little about what he was talking about, but I wasn't about to go with him. For all I knew, he could be a rapist. He didn't look like one to me, though. But I wasn't be quick to trust. He could be anything.
"So?" I mumbled, my anger slowly draining as my adrenaline rush faded.
"Sure signs that you are, indeed, a demi-god. You see, your brain is hardwired for battle. ADHD keeps you on your toes, saves your life in a fight. You analyze your opponent's next move, where they're going to place their foot, where they're going to move their arm, how they're going to attack next, and so on. Your brain is also wired to read Greek, not English. So you see, you truly are a demi-god." I floundered for something to say for a moment, but I came up with nothing. I felt my brain bang against my head in an effort to escape, and it felt like there was someone playing the Bongos in my head. It wasn't pleasant, I can tell you that.
"What about you, Wiseseed? Are you a half-blood?" I asked him, dodging the question slyly. If I do say so myself, quite suavely,too.
"No, sorry Sam. I'm a satyr." He started to pull of his shoes, but where his feet should have been, there were hooves. Like, horse hooves. He slid out of his pants, next. My first instinct was to look away, and fast.
"Woah, Wiseseed! We're not that familiar! I don't think we'll ever be, but that's not-" He huffed at me and tugged the legs of his jeans off of his hooves. What I saw were no way even closely related to human legs. What I saw were the shaggy hindquarters of a donkey.
"You're a donkey, Wiseseed?" I screeched, eying his hooves. He brayed-yes, he brayed-and stomped his foo-I mean hoof.
"I'm a satyr!" He cried, like a kid having a fit, "A goat! Not a donkey!" Mr. Shiro, so quiet I had almost forgotten him, laughed.
"You'll get used to it, Samantha."
"Seriously, dude. My name's Sam." I griped, grimacing again at the full use of my name, who no one called me by.
"Right. I'm sorry. Well, we best be off to Camp Half-Blood, then. More dracaena will attack. It seems as if they're looking for you already, and this will get worse if we stand around. Jasper, get my Pegasus. Be quick about it, then!" He said, sounding a bit annoyed. But he had no reason to be! I was the one who should have been annoyed. Jerk.
"I'm not going to your Camp, you old man. I'm staying right here." I crossed my arms, thankful I wasn't scared easily. Shiro shot me a look that could probably make a grown man pee his pants. The look said 'You better come with me, unless you want to end up pushing daisies.' I almost laughed.
"Here you are, sir." Wiseseed bleated meekly, pulling a huge white horse into the room. It was impossibly big, and I was amazed it actually fit in the tiny band room. I had always hated horses, but what made me feel sick to my stomach were the huge white wings, like a dove's, stretching out from the ugly thing's body, as if they were meant to be there. Which they weren't, because horses weren't supposed to have wings.
"Ah, thank you, Jasper. Now, Sam, I suggest you get on before another dracaena comes. I won't be here to save you when it does." Shiro remarked slyly, swinging himself up onto the horse with graceful ease. I shook my head, taking a step away from the huge, ugly creature.
"Sam. Please." Wiseseed begged me with his eyes, but I couldn't get over the little spirals rising up from his mat of dark hair. Horns. Seriously. I knew the kid was different, but...I hadn't even begun to fathom how different. But,sadly, he was winning me over. I'd really rather not run away from another snake-lady, and somehow, it felt like if I didn't go with Shiro, something even worse than the dracaena would be waiting for me behind the band room doors. I sighed.
"Shiro, this better be a fast ride. I hate horses." He nodded solemnly, waving to Jasper as he flicked the reins of the thing. Its wings beat once, twice, and the horse lifted off of the ground, it's feet moving as if it was running. I could feel the muscles under the skin of the thing rolling and moving underneath me, and I felt sick. Horses weren't supposed to have wings. Jasper pressed a button under Shiro's desk, and the ceiling sprang open, happily, as if it was mocking me.
"Wiseseed? You're not coming?" I hollered at Jasper as the horse flapped into the air. I knew I was supposed to be amazed, but the jolting movement of the horse's wings flapping up and down, however small, made my stomach swirl. He gazed up at me with his grass green eyes and yelled,
"I'll meet you there!" The horse flapped and galloped and then we were off, flying into the bright blue sky, straight into the sun, which burned my eyes.
We flew for about half an hour before the horse banked sharply, almost knocking me off of it.
"SHIRO! I TOLD YOU-" I hollered, but I no longer felt Shiro's heat behind me. Stupidly, I turned to look, but he obviously wasn't there.
"Shiro! Shiro, where are you? This isn't funny, old man! Shirooo!" My voice was cracking, but I didn't care. I was a thousand feet up in the air and I was on a horse with wings. My guide was gone, and I had no idea where the heck I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. Breathing fast, I surveyed the whole area around me, my eyes sharp and looking for enemy planes, other pegasi, or maybe something even crazier. Nothing. And then: BAM! A huge, golden dragon with sparkling red eyes swung into sight, flicking a claw at the horse and knocking us sideways again. I needed to get away! I was going to die! I began hyperventilating, my eyes clouded in terror. But I knew I could handle this. "Stay calm, Sam. Stay calm. Breathe. You're not going to die from an asthma attack while fighting a golden dragon on top of a flying horse. You got this." I gasped to myself. What could I use? I felt a hard bump, like a buckle, against my leg, and, switching the reins to one of my hands, I patted the sides of the horse. Saddle bags. Saddle bags on a flying horse...I shook my head. I patted the bags on the other side and then...Something hard? I slid my hand into the bag and drew out a AAA battery.
"NOT FUNNY!" I screeched, shaking the battery angrily. How was a battery supposed to help me? I could swallow it and choke myself to death, therefore dying before being eaten by a dragon...or maybe I could mentally explode the battery and...no. Of course I couldn't. So I tossed it, high and strong, as if it would help any. Which it most likely wouldn't. It clanged loudly against the dragon's foot, and I was surprised I even hit the thing. Oddly, it stuck, although it was hanging haphazardly off of the dragon's claw. "What the heck...?" I murmured, but the dragon swiped at us again and I had to get the holy heck out of there. I tugged the horse's reins, feeling a spark of admiration for the creature which had withstanded blows from the dragon. Abruptly, a huge flash patterned the once blue sky, and fire and smoke and golden sand blew everywhere, landing in my eyes and in my hair. The dragon had suddenly exploded, turning into dust like the snake-lady had. My day had started so normally, too...The horse careened left, unexpectedly, and my legs slipped from under it's wings...and then I was falling.
A/N: Okay! I don't own Percy Jackson, first of all. Rick Riordan does. (Yay~) So...I guess this is after Percy's time. I'm currently reading The Lost Hero, but I'm not finished, so Piper is nonexistent. Well...you know what I mean. I'm excited! This is my second FanFiction. 3 I love it. FanFiction, I mean. Aha! So, constructive criticisms are liked, reviews make me happy, and...well, thanks for reading, I guess~ :D Ja ne, minna!
~HelloMrMoon