Leslie tried to hold back her tears as she looked into her mother's eyes. She didn't have any time, and she wanted a proper goodbye, and she didn't know how both factors would work. Her mother's face looked worried. "Leslie…" she began, but was interrupted by a hug from the thirteen year old girl. The tears she had been holding back for weeks finally began to spill out, right on her mother's shoulder. "Honey, tell me what's wrong. You need to tell me what's been bothering you for so long," her mother said as she stroked the girls back. There was a rumbling coming from outside. Leslie jerked out of her mother's arms at the sound, and said through sobs, "Mom..." Another boom. Leslie began to back away from her mother, towards the back door. "I need you to stay safe. And the little one. Make sure he remembers me" The next roar resounded through the house, and it was coming from the front door. She needed to get out. Now. Leslie looked at her mom's speechless face, then at the room that held her little brother, and then faced the door.

"Dont. Follow. Me," she said in the strictest voice she could come up with.

"Leslie!" her mom pleaded, sobbing. "Leslie where are you going?!"

But her shouts were met with the void, because the girl was up the window and out the house in seconds.

Leslie ran through the trees, and was nearly killed by a flying log that whizzed past her ear. Too frightened to look back, she ran even faster. She didn't know who was following her, but her mind was telling her that it wasn't a who at all. It was a what. Whichever one it was, she didn't want to know. She needed to get to that shack. The shack that the boy with blonde hair had told her about. It should be coming up around here, if she had followed his directions correctly. But where was here? Leslie brought her legs to a stop, even though her mind kept telling them to move. She looked around, but found nothing out of the ordinary. And suddenly, she saw it; as if it had appeared from thin air. Thats impossible. Stop getting crazy thoughts in your head. Hesitantly, she walked towards the small building.

It looked old, and the once yellow paint was peeling off. The floorboards beneath her creaked as she opened the fragile door. Inside, the blonde haired boy sat on a what looked like a ten year old sofa. His head popped up. "You're here!" he smiled, but it seemed forced. He seemed to be in his late teenage years, and was wearing an orange t-shirt, but she was unable to see what it said. The boy's piercing blue eyes analyzed her through his gold eye glasses. "Leslie, right?" He stood up. "C'mon, lets go. We have no time."

"Wait, wait, who are you? Just because I came here doesn't mean I'll follow you."

"Did you tell your family not to follow you?"

"Um… Yes."

"No one knows you're here?"

"No!"

"Then lets go," he sounded exasperated.

Leslie began to say something snotty back, but before anything even came out of her mouth she heard something strike the shed's door.

"There's no time! Come on!" The blonde boy grabbed her hand and led her to the back of the shed and out a door that looked even older than the one in the front.

After that, all she remembered was running. The blonde kid had told her to follow, so she did. She had no choice honestly, because the thing chasing them was as close as ever, and often threw things at them. "Duck!" he yelled. Leslie ducked, and saw a tree trunk whiz over her head. How could he have known that was coming? And how could the thing following them be able to throw tree trunks? Leslie was frightened, more than she had ever been before. Leslie wondered why she had chose to listen to the blonde boy who had one day just shown up in front of her school, but then again, she had nothing to lose anyway. She never fit in, anywhere. She had changed schools a couple of times, and her mom was always angry with her because of her failure at school. And she was always with her new husband, because Leslie's father had "left her all alone one night." The girl was alone, and so thats why she had agreed to follow the boy who told her that he can take her to a place in which everyone was like her. She didn't really understand what he meant, but she had had such a terrible day at school that it didn't matter. Now she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

Leslie had gotten so into her thoughts that she didn't realize when the boy had stopped, and slammed right into him. "Sorry!" she said, embarrassed. And hurt; it was like she ran into a brick wall. That boy probably was at the gym 24/7. But he wasn't looking at her, he was looking ahead, at a bush; his eyebrows furrowed. "Stand back," he said, and she did, because at that point his voice was full of so much authority it frightened her. And then he pulled out a sword. Yes, a sword. Leslie was staring at him with her mouth hanging open. A SWORD? She was definitely following a psycho. He was so doing something illegal. But what happened next was even weirder. A person, no a goat; SOMETHING jumped out of the bushes, holding a golf club, screaming, "Take that you evil monster!" The thing fell onto the floor in front of the blonde boy, and his sword went down. Probably, this thing was friendly, part of the psycho boy's team or something.

"Coach!" The blonde boy yelled, happily. (wow thats something new). The thing instantly jumped off the ground, the golf club in his hand. "HIYAA- oh Jason! It's you!" If Leslie's mouth was already hanging open, it gaped even wider. The "Coach", looked pretty normal from the top. He was hearing a baseball cap, and an orange polo, with a whistle around his neck. But as she looked down, the normalities ended. The man didn't have human legs. He had, furry legs, and hooves. Kinda like a horse. No, a goat. Goats are furrier. "Jason, why are you out here? Its not safe. You need someone like me to protect you!" Jason chuckled. "Coach, meet Leslie. I'm bringing her to camp." The goat-man looked at Leslie, but turned back to Jason, uninterested. "It's a satyr's job to bring a newbie to camp, not yours!"

" I know, but I was passing that town on my way back to camp, so I decided to bring her along as well. Chiron knows, Coach."

The goat man let out a frustrated bleat like a goat. "Fine then. C'mon we're almost there anyway. I need to protect you from enemies, you know."

Smiling, Jason said, "Sure thing Coach. Whatever you say."

The goat man began to walk ahead, and Jason was about to follow, but seemed to remember that Leslie was there.

"You coming?" he asked.

Until now, Leslie had no choice but to follow, because of the psycho that was chasing them. She wondered if the thing was still back there, but then again, this boy and that goat man didn't seem too normal either. She was sandwiched between two crazies.

"No."

The goat man turned around now, and stared.

"Listen," Jason began.

"I'm not going back. There is no way I'm following you psychos into the middle of the forest."

"I know its all confusing, okay? Once we get to safety, we'll talk it out," Jason actually sounded sincere.

But Leslie still shook her head.

The goat man came forward. "Listen up," he said. "You remember that thing chasing you? I bet you didn't see it, right? It was throwing trees or houses or something so big that if it hit you, you'll be dead. You wanna die?!"

She shook her head, tears stinging her eyes.

"You think you can fight that thing yourself?!"

She shook her head again.

"Then follow us. Because we psychos know how to."

She followed.

The rest of the day included walking, running if the thing was relatively close to them, hiding behind trees if Jason deemed they couldn't out run it in this given moment. She didn't talk to either of the two the whole day. They had taken a rest stop, and she had gotten a granola bar to eat from the goat man, who was eating tin cans and stuff instead. The entire time they were sitting, he was bragging about how he was the only genius who had thought of bringing food, they would've died without him, blah blah blah. Even though she wasn't talking to the goat man or Jason, she did find them quite interesting. The goat man would pull out his golf club everytime he heard anything, even if it was a rabbit running past, ready to "save them even if it means dying." Jason seemed more trained, and knew exactly what he was doing. Him and the goat man seemed to have quite a history together, because whenever they weren't running, he would always begin his sentences with "Remember Jason…" They had passed through a small town, and had stalked up on junk food, and gotten a chance to use the bathroom. She was the only one with money on her, just ten dollars, but it was enough. She bought herself a new t-shirt because her clothes were gross. The other two followed suit and soon, all three were dressed as New Jersey tourists.

When they entered another forest, Leslie was told that this would be the last one, and they were almost to their camp. And that this would have the most "monsters" so she'd better be ready to run for her life. As if she hadn't done enough of that already. They had been trekking through the forest, listening to the goat-man's stories when suddenly Jason yanked her hand and yelled "RUN!" The three of them began running, and they heard footsteps behind them, but they didn't sound like any human's footsteps. Leslie was scared. They maneuvered through the trees, while boulders and trees were being thrown at them. Jason made sure Leslie stayed right in front of him, meanwhile telling her where to go. Panting, they finally reached a clearing, and Leslie saw a hill with a tree on top. "GO GO GO!" The goat man yelled, so she assumed they were supposed to go up the hill. She kept running as fast as her thin legs could take her, and soon realized that the goat man and Jason weren't there. "Leslie don't stop!" She heard Jason yell, which obviously made her stop and turn around. A little bit away from her, Jason was standing with his sword up, surrounded by three giant looking things. They were a couple feet taller than him, and two of them had only one eye. They looked pretty strong, and their attention had been on Jason until, it seemed, Leslie turned around. One of them tried to grab Jason, but he jumped out of the way and sliced the things hand off with his sword. Howling, the one eyed beast staggered back, which gave Jason an open opportunity, and he struck the beast on the side, making the thing turn into dust. Wait what? The monster turned into dust? Where did it go? How did it turn into dust? Leslie put her thoughts aside and focused back on Jason.

Taking care of one of them, Jason's attention turned towards the second one eyed creature. He came in close and tried to jab at the creature's side, but he didn't notice the third one behind him. "Jason! Behind you!" Leslie yelled, but it was too late. The third creature had grabbed Jason's leg and was now dangling him in the air. The one eyed thing then noticed Leslie, and came running at her. Frightened, her first instinct was to run to the tree, but there was no way she was going to leave Jason and goat man behind. She decided to face the creature. She noticed how they weren't the smartest, and mostly used their hands, so she jumped between the thing's legs. The thing stopped, confused for a second, and bent down to look for her. She jumped onto his back, and pulled on his hair has hard she could. The beast howled, and tried to grab her off his back. Looking for a weak spot, the only thing she could find was the big nasty eye that was bulging out of his skull. She took hold of the beast's neck by wrapping her legs around it, and, with both of her fists, punched the eye with as much strength as she could muster. The creature howled and flung her off his back, his hands now at his eye. She fell hard on the ground, and could've sworn she felt one of her bones snap. After being momentarily dazed, she focused her vision to witness the goat man beating the one eyed monster with his golf club. "Take that you evil thing!" he kept yelling even as the thing disintegrated.

Leslie briefly felt relieved and safe, but then remembered Jason. She instantly got up, despite her aching body, and looked for Jason. Surprisingly, he had managed to get out of the creature's grip and was now standing, battling the thing with his sword. The beast lunged at Jason, but he cleverly dodged the attack by rolling forwards, and then sliced the back of his shin. The creature roared in pain and stumbled as Jason sliced it's other leg as well. As he was collapsing, Jason ran up it's back and stabbed the monster right through it's neck, and then quickly jumped off as it turned to dust. He instantly looked up towards Leslie, and his face showed pure shock as he noticed the pile of dust right next to her. Jason jogged up to where she and the goat man were standing, but as soon as he got there, she felt her knees buckle and then collapsed.

"Woah there, sunshine," the goat man said as he caught her from falling. SUNSHINE? ew ew ew. But she didn't have the energy to say anything.

The goat man and Jason helped her walk up the hill, heading towards the tree. The pine tree was huge, and beautiful, and had some sort of sheepskin hung on it. Circling around the tree was this creature with copper scales, resembling a dragon. She gulped, hoping she wouldn't have to fight this thing too. "Its friendly," Jason said, reading her mind. "His name's Peleus. Guards the tree and the fleece." So it's called the fleece. And it is a dragon. She didn't feel like answering. She was way too confused and tired.

"Since we're doing introductions, my name is Gleeson Hedge! And you will refer to me as Coach! Nice to meet you Leslie!" The goat man said ecstatically, which made her laugh. "Nice to meet you too, Coach."

They crossed the pine tree and the dragon, and were instantly meant by a crowd, consisting of boys and girls of all ages. "Its a newbie!" "Guys look its Jason!" "Its a girl!" "Call Piper!" Jason definitely seemed like he was known throughout camp. "Move out of the way. She needs medical attention immediately. I need someone from the Apollo cabin," he commanded, and everyone instantly listened. This girl stepped forward, assumedly from that cabin he mentioned, and helped her through the crowd and into a big ranch house that was painted sky blue. She was taken to a room that looked like an infirmary and was given a small yellow cube to eat. It tasted like the mint chocolate chip ice cream she would get with her friends from the local Friendly's. Surprisingly, she instantly felt better. "Better?" the girl asked. "Yeah," she replied. "That was like magic." The girl laughed. "What did it taste like?"

"Ice cream. The mint kind."

"Oh cool. I usually taste fries."

"Wait, how can you taste different?"

"Its called ambrosia, and it tastes different to everyone. Usually tastes like someone's favorite food"

Leslie was mind boggled. How come she had never heard of something so cool?

"Anyway," the girl continued. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Nyssa"

"I'm Leslie. Nice to meet you."

"So," Nyssa continued. "You wanna stay here and rest, or take a tour of camp and stuff? It's almost dark anyway. But it's up to you."

Leslie was sick of being so confused, and she wanted answers. And she wasn't even feeling that bad anymore. "Nah, I'd like to look around."

Nyssa smiled. "Cool! C'mon then. First, you need to meet Chiron and Mr. D."