One

The dragon charged, and for once Zander wasn't the target.

His friend Nick, who had appeared out of nowhere a moment before, just seemed to keep getting the way, which irked Zander. Irked? Was that even a word? Zander thought it was one, so, yeah, it… irked… him. Nick dodged the beast and both the beast and teenager were heading straight toward Zander.

"Can you not try to get me trampled, Grainer?" Zander murmured, annoyed that he had to dodge the scaly thing due to Nick's horrific attempt at attacking it.

"That's not possible." Nick replied weakly, his eyes were wide with fear. Nick was terrified of fire, and this dragon was full of fire and it intent was on attacking Nick.

Nick ran beside Zander with only a small knife in hand, but Nick held it out like a five foot sword. It was more than obvious that Nick wasn't much of a fighter. He can't even handle a knife right. Yup, that was Nick and yet he seemed to take company with some of the most danger attracting demigod out there. He is a freaking idiot, Zander thought.

Zander saw his chance, the dragon was too busy chasing Nick; Zander charged at the monster, hoping to end its life quickly. Zander heard a sharp crack, an unmistakable sound meaning that his spear had broken. The half that had broken when it came in contact with the monster's scaly armor, was stuck there in-between two very large scales. He cursed loudly and rolled out of the way.

Blasted monster, stupid luck, rotten humidity, cruse that crazy cow lady. If you could call the Queen of the Heavens a 'crazy cow lady,' like that'd stop Zander it was the only thing he could call her that wasn't too insulting. He was already on her bad side, it's always been that way, and he knew it. Especially, after that time when his step-dad took him and Galen to some zoo when he was six, and a few peacocks escaped their cage just to chase Zander into the little girl's- okay, that's not the point.

Having been covered in sticky sweat from the afternoon sun and the humidity, stuck with a partner who was afraid of television none-of-less dragons, plus having to fight Dragon-Breathe and Roasty-Toasty the soon the be died dragons, (who were just not dying right) these thing were not helping his temper. He's been chasing these two stupid dragons all morning, and it was really starting to get on his nerves. After this, Zander decided, he was never visiting Florida again.

The two dragons had broke into a mall only minutes before they split up and were now going opposite ways. Somehow the dragons were working together, it just wasn't natural. Most of the time dragons fought each other for territory, prey, Toaster-Studdles, you name it. But these two, they were working together, it disturbed Zander, to add to that they seemed to be trying to go somewhere particular.

Zander had an idea, but he wasn't sure about it. Ister Longwood, a satyr, had contacted the Camp a few weeks ago; he said there was a demigod that he needed help getting to Camp. Luckily, Zander was just about to visit his mom over in Georgia. He frowned, Ma didn't have long.

Dragon-Breathe screeched loudly, its two heads held high, the tip of Zander's broken spear, which was stuck between two scales, glittered bright bronze in the fluorescent lights of the mall. The humans milled around, looking at the dragon only to blink and walk away a funny dazed look plastered to their faces.

Zander smirked; the Mist was an amazing thing. It's saved his sorry butt more than a few thousand times this week. He got out a second spear from his bag, saving his flashlight for last and charged at the dragon's backside.

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Atalanta was having a great day until she set the mall on fire. Mom had planned this trip for weeks, "It'll be just the two of us," Mom had promised her over the phone one night. Mom had gone so far as to ask Grammy to watch her young son for the day. Mom was looking forward to spending the day with her daughter and Atalanta hasn't seen Mom for, at least, five months between Mom's job and Atalanta's boarding school…

Atalanta looked around the store, to the right a small group of teenage girls were looking at a Homecoming dress. Atalanta wasn't going to Poinciana Academy's Homecoming dance. She doesn't dance, period. Of course, Mom wanted her to look at dresses in hopes she would change her mind, which is why she was standing in middle of a sea of glittery costumes.

"Atty, look at this one!" Mom pushed her way through a blockade of gowns.

Atalanta regretted looking at the dress. It made her stomach roll with distaste.

"There is no way that you're going to get me in that. I'm sorry, Mom, just no." Atalanta said waving her hand at the puffy thing.

Mom pouted. As usual Mom won. Atalanta groaned before grabbing the dress from her mom and stomping into a tiny dressing room.

.

It looked worst on her than it did on the hanger. Atalanta groaned, at the same time she heard a knock on her door.

"Baby, are you going to let me see it on you?" Mom's voice came from the other side of the ply-board door.

Atalanta gingerly opened the door, Mom smiled as soon as she walked out. Atalanta looked down, the dress was a sickly pink colored, silky puff-ball that barely reached her knees and it got even worse. Someone must have sneezed sparkles all over it, she decided.

"It looks so pretty on you. I don't understand why you aren't going to the dance, like everyone else." But Atalanta wasn't listening to Mom anymore; instead she was looking at a man just outside the store.

She knew that man, she saw him every day. It was the janitor from her school, the one who she swore was stalking her. And she thought she had once seen him eat an empty soda can, she threw out at lunch, one day. He was well built, even though he was barely five feet tall, with wiry muscles that were half covered with a green T-shirt that said "Buck off!" and under it was a cartoon picture of two mountain goats fighting each other. He wore his usual black bucket hat that covered his wiry hair. The long, baggy pants were weird because it was almost 90 degrees outside. What was even weirder was that he was staring above her, his expression one of confusion. It was like he was trying to make her head combust.

When he caught her staring, he waved at her like they were good friends, and walked away. Atalanta hadn't noticed it before but he had a strange limp. Atalanta stared after him, completely ignoring her mother.

There a flash of green and gold, Atalanta thought she saw a large lizard-critter run up the escalator. Half a second later she heard a blood churning scream. Atalanta half leapt out of her skin, she looked wildly at Mom. Mom had turned toward the noise as well, Mom took a step forward like she was going find out what had made that noise.

Atalanta looked back at where the school's janitor had stood earlier. He was back and now had company with him, two teenage boys around fifteen or sixteen. Atalanta frowned; one of the teenagers held a large black flashlight, holding it like it was a weapon, in his hands. The other boy was taller than the flashlight guy; he had rich brown skin covered by a bright orange T-shirt. The boy, the one with the flashlight, snapped his fingers and everyone in the store went back into motion. Atalanta swore she felt a breeze.

"-so what do think, Atty?" Mom's nickname for her brought Atalanta attention back to the matter at hand. That stupid dress was still on her.

"I'm going to change." Atalanta started to turn back to the changing room when something caught her eye. Or lack of. "Hey, Mom, did you hear that?" She asked looking to where the janitor and his friends were standing only moments before.

"Hear what?" Mom looked in the same direction that her daughter had, "I don't understand, was I suppose to hear something?"

"There was this scream…" Atalanta's voice trailed off. She didn't see the boys or the strange can eating janitor anywhere. It was like they had disappeared.

Atalanta slipped on her dark green and a yellow tennis shoes, she got the feeling that she would need them soon. Something was going to go wrong, she could feel it. In moments like this things always went wrong.

"Atalanta, are you felling alright? " That was the first time Mom had called her by her name, not "Atty" or "baby" but her actual name. It's been a while since she heard her name coming from Mom's lips, not since she got kicked out of her last school in the spring. "You're not coming down with something are you? Do you want me to take you home?" Mom started to shoot of questions when she was nervous. Mom stepped forward to touch her daughter's forehead, but Atalanta stepped back.

The windows to the store shattered with an earth rattling crash! In flew the train that took little kids for rides though the mall for seventy-five cents. No, Atalanta thought squinting at it, a giant reptile. The lizard was covered in bright green, the color of acid, and gold scales, with two heads and a whole bunch of teeth, like a chainsaw, that were the size of Atalanta's hands. One of the giant heads roared, its dragon breathe smelt like microwaved fertilizer, which smells pretty gross. All four of its glossy gold eyes looked right at her; both of their mouths spurted out white fire like it was water, and the neon dresses in front of the dragon crackled with pale flames.

The people in the store started to scream, some ran around in circles, well a clever employee tried to direct everyone into the backroom where the fire escape was. Not that a fire exit would help anyone.

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Mom was tugging at Atalanta, and telling her to move and get out of the store. But something told Atalanta, she wasn't sure what, that the dragon was here for her. Atalanta did what anyone else would do, after realizing this, she pulled away from the safety of Mom and hid behind a rack of lacey dresses. She could hear the dragon move toward her, and Mom shouts her name so loud her voice crackled: "Atty! Atalanta!"

Just then, the dragon opened its mouth, ready to snap Atalanta in half. But before the dragon could, she ran past it into another rack of dresses, the dragon had now turned completely around, facing sideways in the crammed store. Dresses had been knocked down in every direction, some were on fire while others weren't.

Atalanta saw that where the door used to be there was a large hole. She took one last look behind her, Mom was being pulled out by a muscled man, probably one of the girl's dads, and another guy was coming toward her.

The dragon inhaled and its nasals enlarged.

Atalanta took two puffy dress off of the rack and threw it them at the heads, blinding the scaly thing for only a few critical seconds. Atalanta sprinted out of the store as fast as she could.

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Apparently, the smoke from the burning dresses had activated the sprinkler system and the fire alarms. Heavy mist poured down from the ceiling, soaking everything and everyone, including Atalanta. The silky fabric from the dress repelled the water, Atalanta made a silent promise to thank her mother for picking out the only water resist dress ever, now if only it wasn't pink…

The dragon raced out of the dress store with its wings, Atalanta hadn't noticed before, spread wide. She turned down a hall, skidding baseball style as one of the dragon's heads roared and the other sprayed out liquid fire. The fire hit its mark, evaporating the puddle where she was just seconds before, hot steam raised off the ground. Seeing that, Atalanta decided not to look back anymore.

Okay, this was not cool. Being chased around the mall by a fire breathing, bad smelling, winged reptile was not on her list of Top 10,000 Things I Want to Do in My Lifetime.

She dove into a vacant Payless Shoe Store, hiding under a register. One of the dragon's green heads reached into the store, its long papery red tongue sticking out of its mouth. Great, now it's smelling me, she thought shivering with disgust.

The dragon narrowed in on her scent, and inspiration hit. Atalanta grabbed a product off the wall and dang it! Atalanta forgot she didn't have pockets, instead she tucked the product into the brightly colored satin belt, praying that it would stay there. By now the dragon had started its way toward her.

Atalanta took off, keeping low so not to be seen, down an aisle filled with plastic high heels, as she ran past she pulled off as many shoes off of the shelves as possible, hoping it would slow the dragon down. This didn't go unnoticed by the massive beast and it jumped after her. The dragon was slower than she was, Atalanta noticed happily; that the dragon was also slowed down by all the shoes. And she took a sharp turn heading back out in to the halls of the mall.

She carefully took out the bottle that she took from the Payless store and squirted the shoe oil across the marble floors. It worked like she hoped; the lizard slipped and skidded all over the flooring, splashing oil and water everywhere.

Sadly, this also made it so the dragon was fast. The dragon slid, heading straight for her, its two head thrashing, and a thick stick stuck out where to the two necks came together. Fire flew out everywhere, burning the walls, floor and ceiling because of the oil.

Atalanta tried to avoid being hit by both the sliding dragon and the fire, but the dragon was faster. During this time she noticed a shadowy figure, and then the whole weigh of the dragon's wing had crashed into her, knocking the breath right out of her. She felt something hard smack into her head and her vision went black.

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When she woke the first thing Atalanta noticed was that the sprinklers had stopped producing water and the cries of fire trucks could be heard from outside the building. It hadn't occurred to Atalanta before, but there was no one else in the building, except for her and the deadly lizard that had trapped her under it's cold wing.

A low growl came from reptile's throat. Atalanta struggled to get out from under the it's wing, but her arm was stuck under a thicker part of its body. The dragon's wing weighed more than she thought was possible for a beast that was believed to fly. Suddenly, the monster fell still, the heavy wing on top of her was even heavier.

"Where did it go?" A deep voice asked. Atalanta rubbed her head with her free arm. Her head really hurt.

"She's under the wing, Zander. Let her out for me. I'll be there in a moment." she heard someone say. He sounded afraid, if she was not mistaken.

"I wasn't talking about the girl. There it is," The first voice mumbled crossly.

Atalanta pulled on her arm, pleading for it to come loose. It didn't budge an inch; she felt pain like needles rush up her arm. Part of the wing was lifted off of her, and she was able move around so she could lie on her stomach. She pulled on her arm a little more, and black dots danced in her vision.

"Here let me help." The person said.

She turned to the voice but she couldn't see anyone, but she saw that the wing was being tucked away, Atalanta sighed with relief. The teenager came into view, the one with the flashlight she saw earlier, was knelt down beside her. Atalanta twisted around, so that now she could see him better. Her head started buzzing.

She looked at the boy next to her. Yeah, he was defiantly around her age, maybe a year older. He was looking at her; his electric blue eyes sparkled in the dim light. She tried to help the boy find a way to get her arm free, but she kept getting in the way. Instead Atalanta lay back and studied him. He was very handsome, she realized, with a strong chin and wavy black hair that kept getting into his blue eyes.

"Need some help, Zan?" Someone behind her asked.

"Nah, I think I have it… Yup. There you go, miss." The boy had somehow propped some of the body with his flashlight, so that it gave her left arm a little wiggle room. Atalanta was able to pull her arm free, without trouble. She held it close to her chest, she was positive it was sprained or worse.

"You're hurt." The other boy said as he helped her up. Well, duh, she's hurt: a crazed fire breathing lizard with wings had chased her around a mall and almost crushed her flat.

"No, she's lucky she lasted that long and pretty dim-witted. Oil is not the brightest of ideas when you're facing a fire breathing dragon." The boy behind her said. There goes him being handsome, just another good looking jerk. A jerk that implies there are dragons that breathe things other than fire, Atalanta thought. She slightly hoped they breathed something nice like fluffy pillows or flowers, but doubted it.

"Now is not a good time for dragon killing lessons, let's just get her to Camp." The boy with chocolate colored skin said. He turned to her, "I'm Nick, by-the-way, and that moron," Nick jabbed his thumb at the boy with who wanted to give lessons about killing things, "is Zander. Don't talk to him; he'll just try to guilt you into feeling sorry that you survived."

"Camp?" Atalanta questioned. What was he talking about? What camp?

Zander examined the dragon. "It's not completely gone," he said, "it will be soon. I have no doubt about that. Do you want to do the honor Nick? As for your question, Camp is the only place where our kind is safe." Zander told her still looking over the dragon.

Nick mutter a no way.

Xander took his flashlight from off the ground and walked to the other side of the beast, "are you two waiting for grass to grow? Go on! I'll there in a sec."

She heard Nick mutter something about bad cereal, but she didn't hear the rest. "Zander isn't normally this rude; I think he woke up in a thorn bush this morning." Nick walked beside her.

"Oh." She said smartly, looking at the dragon.

Now that it wasn't trying to kill her she thought that it was pretty cool looking. The scales shone different colors of green and a light tint of purple in the light. Its tail and paws looked like it was dipped in a basin of gold paint. One of its heads moved looking at her. Its mouth opened and it spurted out a weak valley of flames. Zander had pulled a long bronze-like knife from somewhere was too a quick sweep at the dragon, it burst into dust. Atalanta turned away, her head was starting to hurt again and she just wanted to lie down.

"I never caught your name, miss." Zander had run ahead of then and was now walking backward so he could face her. She didn't like the way he said 'miss' it was like he was mocking her.

"My name's Atalanta." She said coldly.

"Didn't Atalanta get turned into a lioness? " Zander asked. He tossed his flashlight into the air, catching it each time. Atalanta hoped that he would miss, just once, and that it would fall on his fat head.

"You mean from the Greek myths?" She asked. She had once loved that story as a kid, now it just annoying. Who would go after golden apples when they were racing, even if they were enchanted apples? It reminded her of what her cousin use to do, 'Oh look shiny! Go chase after it, Atalanta, and you might get lucky,' he would say and toss a coin into the ocean. She went after once, but never again not after that.

"Yeah, that." Zander said his eyes narrowed. "We better get you to Longwood your arm isn't looking too good."

Her left arm was turning a strange color and it had started to swell. She loosened her grip on it, hoping it wasn't broke. If it was broke, that would affect her running. Atalanta loved to run, it was her life.

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Zander brought them up a stairwell to metal doors that lead them out of the building and onto a landing. On the deck stood the school's head janitor, the one in the Buck off shirt. "I told you two just to kill the dragons, and I would deal with the girl." He said. Dragons? As in there were or are more than just that one?

"She was almost killed herself out there, Longwood. Do not blame us if you can't get your job right." Zander snapped.

Longwood shook his head, "I don't know what's gotten into you, boy, but it needs to come out and soon. Since, you got her; I guess I say the dragons are goners."

Zander nodded.

"Yeah, they're out of this world." Nick joked weakly.

"Good." Longwood turned to Atalanta, "I know you have questions. I know you don't know us, but you must come with me to a safe haven."

"What about my mom? Who are you? What about the dragons-" She trailed off suddenly feeling guilty about just remembered her mother.

"She's probably fine. My name is Ister-"

"Easter?" She interrupted. Did his parents hate him?

"Ister Longwood. Not Easter, Easter is a bad name for a goat." Yeah, his parents completely hated him.

"Isn't that a girl's name?" Atalanta muttered softly.

He made a noise that sounded like a goat baying. "No! It is not! Ister is a fine name! Finer than 'Billy!'" He said. Atalanta shrugged, what a weird-o.

She went to step back but instead she swayed, the black spots came back with revenge, everything spun. "Whoa, there! Careful." When Ister saw that she could stand, he ordered- well, told- her to sit down so he examine her. He gave her something gold to drink and a lemon bar looking thing. As she ate the bar, it tasted like Grandma's infamous green-bean pie, as he wrapped her arm up. "Feel any better?" Ister asked.

She felt better. Ready to fight more dragons, okay, maybe only a small lizard. But she was feeling closer to normal, and her arm wasn't bothering her as much anymore. She nodded, and looked around.

Atalanta hadn't noticed the horses before. If there an elevator for large animals somewhere, she hasn't seen it. The three horses stood near the edge of the railing, with something on their backs. A very starched sheet, maybe. The silver-gray horse in middle spread it's, not a sheet but real live, wings. The gray horse whinnied loudly.

"Okay, okay!" Zander muttered trying calm the horse down. "We should get Camp, Longwood." There it was again, that word: Camp.

"Right. I was just about to say that myself. Well, come on, Atalanta." Ister said standing up to his full, five foot, height. Atalanta wondered if he grew that goatee to make him look older.

Zander walked over to the two of them, the silver winged horse following him. He smiled softly at Atalanta, it was a sad smile. "Come on, Lonnie, you can ride with me." He said. Reaching out his hand to help her up, like a gentleman would.

"'Lonnie?'" She asked, getting up on her own. Atalanta was a big girl, she could handle standing up.

"Well, yeah, 'Lonnie' is easier to say." Zander shrugged. "Come here and meet Seagrape the Pegasus. He likes people and eating stuff."

To say the least the horses looked small from a distance, and even by normal standards Seagrape the Pegasus was pretty large. The horses in Florida were normally a little smaller and not as bulky as the three pegasi that stood before her. Seagrape was the largest of the three, there was Rugby a dull brown pegasus, and there was Meatcake a small chestnut mare. Atalanta wondered who named them.

Zander showed her how to get on, it seemed simple but she wasn't sure because of the wings. She tried to get on the way Zander had instructed her to. Confidence coursed through her, she had gotten on horse before, though this one was bigger than the pony at the fair. Atalanta leaped just a little bit, swinging her leg up and over… she slid off and landed on her back with a loud oomph! Nick laughed, Atalanta could swear Seagrape and his buddies were laughing at her too. Zander only rolled his eyes obviously annoyed that she wasn't able to get on the pegasus her first try.

"Let me help." He said, sliding off the back of Seagrape. Zander hooked his hands together and gave her a boost. Atalanta was able to get onto Seagrape without much trouble after that. "Now just don't slide off!" Zander told her as he got ready to get on.

"Can Seagrape handle the two of us?" She asked.

"Guess we'll find out. Scoot back… No! Just a little bit! Okay, that's good. Like I said before don't fall off." Zander instructed. He got on without much trouble.

"Ready?" Nick asked ahead of them.

"Yup. Uh, let's go." Ister ordered.

"How are we going to get down?" Atalanta asked so softly only Zander could hear her.

"You're about of find out. Hold on to me and don't let go." He said and Seagrape took off skyward, his wings spread wide.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this world. Not even the characters: my brother owns most of them.

A/n: I wrote this for my brother right after we moved in June. I decided to post because I have moved away, and I don't get to see him much at all. So this is here, more for him to read than anything else.