It's not every day that you see a giant eagle shrouded in lightning. Even less so that you see a seventeen-year-old boy fighting it. But then again, most people aren't connected to ancient gods. You want to know what I'm talking about…fine, beginning it is. I would assume that what I would start with is the "incident" at the golden gate bridge.

My family and I were in San Francisco, for a holiday. The air was flowing past the glamorous bridge and rippling my clothes. The city sound was slightly annoying but that's America, I guess. Every person we talked to looked at us weird, I guess they don't get Australians very often. As another person walked off on us, I turned to my twin brother, Photios.

"You're putting them off with your shirt" I joked and he just scowled.

His shirt said "EPIC FAIL" with an arrow pointing to the left. Personally I think that the arrow would have suited more pointing upwards. My mother was still talking to my stepfather, probably deciding what to do next, when a tall boy with curly brown hair, brown eyes and crutches came up to us.

"Are you Melanthios?" he asked, clearly looking at me.

"Um, yeah, why? Who are you?" I replied.

He sized me up then looked at my brother. He looked him in the eyes then appeared to decide something.

"My name is Grover. Who's the clone?" he asked.

"That's my twin brother," I said "If you know me how do you not know him?"

Grover suddenly looked just as confused as the rest of us. That was questionable in itself, but when he appeared to recognise my mother, that was just crazy. My mother then got interrupted as Grover proceeded to talk to her.

"Nico says that it will begin soon," He said "We need to take him to camp A.S.A.P"

She appeared to look puzzled for a moment, and then looked grim.

"What about Photios?" She asked "Wouldn't he have to go also?"

"I don't know anything about that one," Grover said, "We wont be taking him"

"Oh…then…take Melanthios. I don't want him to hurt anyone. He'll be safer with you."

"Melanthios, pack your bags you're coming to camp" Grover said as he turned to me. "Only pack the essentials. Clothes, toiletries, anything you need, maybe a few sentimental items."

My heart fell. Camp. Outside. Ugh, I'd much rather stay. I turned to my mother and she nodded. Every one except her looked blank. I still wasn't sure what was happening, but I had a feeling that I was leaving. For a long time.

"Why should I go with you?" I asked, "What's so special about me? Wouldn't you rather take Photios? He's always been better. He's always been first"

"Because we can't take him." He said, "We have certain people we need to take. He's got something else going on with him."

I felt confused, and crushed. My mother was telling me to leave my family, in the middle of San Francisco, with some boy I didn't even know. Forced to leave people I had been with since birth. I made a decision.

"We will go to the hotel and discuss this," I said sternly, demanding my own choice, "There I will decide wether I want to go or not"

Grover reluctantly nodded, as to approve my settlement. He looked around and noticed everyone on the bridge had left then his eyes widened.

"We have to go, now!" He said.

I heard a sound in the distance. Like a high pitched screech, and the smell of smoke filled the air. I saw a light in the distance, through the fog, but it wasn't in the west. The sun had almost slipped under the horizon anyway. The light got brighter, and came closer. Grover looked frightened, so frightened in fact that he seemed to forget he needed crutches as he dropped them as he backed away. His shoes fell off and they showed the hooves he had been hiding. I admit, I recoiled when I saw them. His jeans started coming off and I started to look away before I realised that beneath them was not bare skin, but woolly fur.

"What the bloody hell is this?" I yelled, "What are you? What is that?"

I pointed to the light in the distance, rapidly closing on the bridge. I saw it start to take shape and it appeared to be a massive lizard, shrouded in light. It looked directly into my eyes and they narrowed. I stood still as a statue as his eyes bored through mine, straight into my mind. I turned to Grover, and he was without pants. But that didn't matter as he had sheep legs.

"What's with the sheep legs?" I asked as if that was the only abnormal thing about this situation.

He glared at me for a second before replying.

"They're goat legs. I'm a Satyr. And you need a weapon." He said, pulling a sword out from the pair of jeans that he had left on the floor.

I grabbed the sword and pulled it in front of my face. It was an odd bronze colour, and surprisingly more uncomfortable to hold than I had expected it to be. I looked at him quizzically and he just looked at the monster and nodded. The bronze weapon in my hand, I turned towards my shocked family, like I was expecting them to tell me something like "That's too dangerous" or "you'll be killed" but nothing came from their mouths. I stared at Grover in disbelief, and he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You do know how to use that, right?" He asked.

As I watched the creature advance I shook my head slowly. Grover sighed again and pulled out a set of reed pipes then ensued to play a tune that sounded oddly like "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. I waited for a few seconds expecting something to happen. Nothing. At all. I looked at him and he held up five fingers. 4. 3. 2. 1. CRACK! The ground opened up on the opposite end of the bridge to the reptile. I looked at Grover and he laughed…bleated actually, and shook his head. A boy, a few years younger than me, with pale skin and dark hair, came running up to us. He looked at me and asked, "Is this the one? The one we are looking for?" Grover nodded in reply. The boy radiated nauseating energy. He turned to my family and told them to run, to get away from the bridge, but to stay in the city. Grover just watched as the creature advanced, illuminating the darkness around it.

"What is that by the way?" I finally asked.

The boy answered me, "It's a salamander. They're commonly found in more volcanic areas but it seems someone has transported one here just for us."

"Salamander as in giant flaming lizard?" I questioned.

"Precisely" he said.

That's when it started shooting fireballs.