Thank you to my beta, Nellis Daughter of Athena. You would not be able to understand this story without her.

Disclaimers: I do not own Percy Jackson or The Princess Bride.

Dreams

(Prologue)

I remember my dreams from before I knew who I was. They always started in nothingness. And then I would hear the noises, screams of pain, owls, shouts of triumph, and the voice that said. "I claim you." I would look around in the darkness, wanting to see the speaker and afraid that I might.

Family Secrets

'My dad is going to kill me if I'm late,' that was the only thought in my head as I rushed through the streets of Seattle. My name is Katalina Markos. I'm thirteen years old, and I was going to be late. I was going to be late to pick up my little sister Sophia. I'm in advanced classes in school and she has a music class at the YMCA after her school. So I have to go pick her up because she is eleven and our dad won't let her ride on the bus by herself so I have to get her. I've only been able to since my birthday a week ago. Before I had to go to the Y and wait with her until Dad got there. So I was running late because I got to talking to a couple of friends about how this boy in my class, Danny Brooks, wouldn't leave me alone. And then I remembered that I had to get Sophia. So there I was running down the street and I wasn't looking where I was going and I crashed right into someone. Luckily for me they didn't seem to care.

"Ya okay?" It was a girl who looked couple years older then me. She had short dark chocolate- colored hair with purple streaks in it. She grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.

"I'm fine, are you?" I said stooping to get my books. The girl nodded and leaned over to help.

"Here ya go," she said dumping two notebooks into my open bag. The girl smiled and walked off down the way I came. 'She seemed nice' I said to myself heading back down the street. Then I remembered Sophia again. 'Crap' was then the only thought in my head.

"I'm sorry," I said for the fifteenth time, I'd been counting. "Please, please, please don't tell Dad," I said unlocking the door.

"Don't worry, Dad has a meeting tonight he won't be home 'til late," Sophia sighed. We didn't get to see much of our dad. And our mom left before Sophia was born. She sent her to live with me and Dad when she was a year old because mom couldn't take care of her. Mom lives in San Francisco now. Sophia gets to see her sometimes but for some reason I don't, Dad won't let me.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked her. Sophia shrugged.

"Watch a movie?"

"Sure, I'll make supper. What do you want?" I headed for our kitchen.

"Spaghetti." She called over her shoulder as she headed for the home theater. (Our dad is really rich.)

Spaghetti is a favorite meal of ours. When we were little and before Dad worked so much. We would all sit down for supper and Sophia and I would make patterns with the noodles before we put the sauce on. Now it was just me and Sophia. Thirty minutes later we both were eating bowls of spaghetti and watching The Princess Bride, one of our favorite movies. We can probably quote the whole thing between us. Yes we are geeks.

By the time we finished eating it was about eight. I paused the movie to go get my pajamas. I got up to my room and was looking through the drawers for my favorite pair of sweats when I heard a crashing noise and my sister screaming. I grabbed my old baseball bat from fifth grade and ran downstairs. When I got to the home theater the first thing I saw was a huge lion standing over my sister. It was to big to be real, and so I basically lost it, and started banging it around the head and neck. After a minute or two, I vaguely noticed that somebody was telling me to stop. Finally Sophia took the bat away from me, and I calmed down.

"Wha'...what happened?" I asked looking around the room. The lion was lying still on the floor.

"Well, you went upstairs. And I thought I heard something outside so I went to look out the window." Sophia pointed towards the now nonexistent wall.

"Let me guess," I said looking from the wall to the giant lion on the floor. "That thing came through the wall and..." I looked at Sophia.

"It looked around and...Well... It, it sniffed around and looked upstairs. Like it wanted...you." Sophia looked up at me wide-eyed. "It did want you." Both me and Sophia spun around at the sound of the new voice. Standing next to the lion was a girl in a old leather jacket that looked to big for her. It took me a minute to recognize her.

"You're the girl I ran into on the street," I said surprised. "How did you get in here? Or more importantly, how did you find me?" I stared at her. She looked at me like I was stupid.

"There's a hole the size of a hell hound in your wall," She said slowly. "An' I took your wallet," She said as an after thought.

"You what?!" I gasped thinking back to when I ran into her. "When...how..." I couldn't think straight, fear was starting to kick in. "What's a hell hound?" Sophia spoke for the first time since the girl showed up. Both of us stared at her. I guess we had forgotten about her.

"It's a great big dog." She said grinning broadly at us. "I'll tell you more if you come with me." I looked at her suspiciously.

"Why would we do that? I asked.

"'Cuz I can explain that dream you've been havin' every night since your birthday." She said turning to go back through the wall. "And you didn't kill that Nemean Lion, It's just stunned." She headed out the wall. Sophia and I looked at each other.

"Do you think she's lying?" Sophia asked. I shrugged. I was about to say I did, because I know that the Nemean Lion was from Greek mythology and therefore not real, when the lion started to move. We didn't stick around any longer.

"So who are you?" I asked her as we all walked down the street. We rode the bus until the girl told us to get off. We had asked her who she was more then once but she just said that we couldn't talk safely until we were alone. I guess the streets of Seattle at nine at night are as alone as we're gonna get 'cuz she turns to talk to me.

"I'm Charlie Walker, your cousin." She said quietly.

"We don't have cousins," I said looking a Sophia. "Our parents both are the only kids in they're families."

Charlie grinned at us. "I'm talking about your mom's family" She said looking at me. "You two aren't full blood sisters, just half-sisters. You, Katalina, have a different mother then Sophia. My dad is your mom's half-brother." Sophia and I looked at each other.

"But how...why...?" was all Sophia could say.

"I'll tell you everything when we get there," Charlie said pointing up the street. On the corner was a old two-story building. The sign was hard for me to read, (I have dyslexia.) but Charlie read it aloud for me, almost like she knew I couldn't. "It says 'Safe Haven'," she said pointing to the big sign.

"And the Greek around the door says 'safe for demigods, free of dreams' come on." Charlie looked around the street, waited for it to be clear and hurried across. She walked up to the door and said something. I don't know if it was to fast for me to understand or what, but I know I had no clue what she was saying. Somebody on the other side of the door must have said something back that she didn't like because the next thing she said was loud and angry. "Anoixei tin porta sas theous-kataramenos ilithios!" For some reason I could understand that, that meant 'open the door you gods-cursed idiot!' Who ever was inside the door chuckled and opened it. Charlie grabbed Sophia's arm and pulled her inside. I followed them into what seemed to be a long hallway. Sophia was looking through a open door, and Charlie was talking to a boy about a year or two older then her. He glanced over at me and nodded hello. I walked over to them, pulling Sophia along.

"Who are you people?" I asked a little annoyed.

The boy grinned at me. "Claimed?" He asked. It took me a minute to realize he wasn't talking to me. He was asking Charlie a question.

"Claimed... Sorta, she got the dream about a week ago, on her birthday as usual. Of course you know that already. Anyway, she never contacted Danny Brooks; obviously Chiron was worried and sent me. She doesn't seem to know anything." The boy nodded through the whole thing. I wondered how he was supposed to know about my dream. But before I could ask I thought of something else.

"Hey! I know Danny Brooks, he goes to my school, he's been asking me out all year! You mean he's with you?" I asked thinking about the skinny, limping, creepy, Danny. Ever since he started watching me at the beginning of the year I'd tried to stay away from him. But it was like he was obsessed. I never told anybody about it, now I was thinking maybe that hadn't been very smart.

The boy sighed. "My name is Mark Daniels; I run this safe house with my sister Tara. You go with her and sleep. Tomorrow everything will be explained." Mark nodded at a small girl that had come through the door. She looked like him in the eyes. Both of them had black eyes. But that was where the similarities ended. Mark was tall and well built, his hair was almost white. His sister was short and slight; her hair was a dark as her eyes.

Charlie nodded to us. "Go with her, nobody will hurt you here." I nodded. I realized I was beginning to trust Charlie. I wondered if she told the truth though. Something about the way she looked told me no. But still, nobody would lie about the things she had told us. I smiled at her and put my arm around Sophia's shoulder.

"Come," Tara said quietly. We followed her through a door at the end of the hall. As we left I turned to look at her one last time. She was hugging Mark and her back was to us and I could see that it was shaking. I guess because she had been so happy through the whole night, it took me a minute to see that she was crying. It made me scared that someone so happy and brave was crying that hard. Something bad must have happened.

Tara turned to look too. She sighed. "The life of a half-blood is always sad and lonely. Some don't take it as well as others, Charlie is one of them. It is weak of her but she can't help it, just as my brother can't." I looked at her curiously.

"Why aren't you that way? And what's a half-blood?"

Tara looked at me with her dark, endless eyes. "I never had anyone there for me before, how can I miss what I never had? As for your other question, it will be answered tomorrow." She turned away and kept walking. As I followed her I thought about what she said, about not missing what you never had. I had always missed my mother.

A/N: Can anyone guess who Charlie, Katalina, Mark and Tara's parents are? The Greek Charlie speaks is romanized off of Google Translate. It really does mean what Katalina thinks it does.