Hi, sorry this took so long to get out but I've been busy. But I'm back now! I don't know how quick the updates are going to be at first, but I'd say the next update (at the latest) is five days away. Anyway, here's the first chapter of The Golden Age, enjoy!

I'll spare you the Tartarus story, but man was it hard to get out of there. I mean sure I fought for the Olympians during the Titan and Giant wars, helped reclaim the oracle from Python and killed countless monsters and sent them to Tartarus but haven't they ever heard of letting bygones be bygones?

I mean, I had to fight through endless monsters after re-spawning – as if that wasn't bad enough – and crawl out of hell, literally. I lost count of how many times I died down there, but I do know that I never want to check back in, the view sucks and so do the guests. Some monsters never change, maybe I'll tell you that story another time but for now that's not the important one.

I'll start off from when I managed to get out of Tartarus. I found myself in the weirdest spot: underwater.

Yup, I had to squeeze out through a small opening only to find myself underwater. Thankfully I'm a good swimmer, sadly the water was very polluted. The water was green, more like slime then water. I managed to get to the surface before realising I was in a lake of sorts, I swam to shore and collapsed, gasping and trying to wipe the green muck off of me. I officially looked like an alien from the movies I had seen before dying, glowing red eyes and completely green. My contacts had gotten destroyed in Tartarus.

Why is the water so polluted? I wondered. I mean I knew pollution was getting out of hand before I died but the pollution wasn't that bad when I left it. Just how long had I been gone for?

I flopped back on the grass, spreading my arms and taking a deep breath of the sweet air. I ripped up a handful of dirt and grass, letting it run through my fingers and curling the toes of my shoeless foot into the grass. Oh, I had missed this so much, just being able to relax and to smell non-poisonous air and step on not glass chipped ground, this was my Elysium.

I opened my eyes and stared up at the sky, it was nighttime, but man were the stars bright, and the moon . . . after the red light of Tartarus this seemed so bright it hurt my eyes. Still, the stars weren't as bright as I remembered them being.

I headed upstream, hoping to find the source for the pollution and civilization, maybe even a satyr to lead me to camp.

Camp, oh man, what if they moved it? Where was the heart of western civilization now? How many years has it been since I was killed in Python? Did they even remember me?

I knew Hailey had defeated Python somehow, the monsters in Tartarus had complained severely over that. I just didn't know how she had managed to defeat him, and depending on if she was killed in the fight or how long I had been gone for I might just never know.

I pushed those thoughts away, hoping at least for a stroke of good luck. I prayed to the Fates for good luck, I mean I think I deserved some good luck after everything I've went through.

After about an hour of walking I saw a big building, a treatment center of sorts, one that dumped all of its waste into the stream. No wonder the water was so polluted. It sickened me, after knowing satyrs that loved nature and Pan's death this was too much. I really hoped the rest of the world wasn't like this, a garbage dump.

I walked around the building, following the chain link fence until I found a dirt road heading through the forest. I followed the dirt road all night long before slipping into the trees to not be seen when the cars started coming about an hour or so till dawn. They weren't flying or completely technical so I had hope that I hadn't been in Tartarus for too long.

I walked all night long, but it still took me until noon to find a town. Man, that plant had really been in the middle of nowhere.

I looked down at my clothes and the gunk covering me and I sighed. I figured that if I walked around like this I'd get arrested or freak people out. I had no clothes to change into and I wasn't going to steal, I was going to figure out where I was and how to get to camp legally.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, summoning the mist for a first time in a long time. I let it cloak me from head to toe, imagining myself in jeans and a plain white shirt, with my old light grey eyes and not covered in green gunk and smelling like a sewer. After ten excruciating minutes I managed, already tired and realising how rusty I was with my mist manipulating skills.

I strolled into the town, looking for a restaurant or something so I could find out where I was, how far I was from New York (hopefully it wasn't too far), the date and hopefully the year. I wandered the little town but there was no sign of a restaurant or motel or anything, I guess it was too small. Eventually I just tapped a man on the shoulder and smiled, politely asking him for the date.

"September 3rd miss." He replied, looking a bit confused.

"Thank you." I said, smiling again before walking away. So satyrs should be scouring schools for half-bloods now, if I can find a half-blood I can find a satyr, easy right? However, I couldn't sense any demigod auroras in that town so I moved on, letting the mist fall when I was out of sight.

I travelled for two days before stumbling onto another town, this one bigger and it had a hotel. I was getting tired of the green gunk on me, and the smell was getting worse by the day but I didn't want to pollute any more streams by cleaning up there so I sucked it up.

I wrapped the mist around me again, setting off into the town to hopefully find out the year or where I was. After twenty minutes of searching I found a motel and I walked in with a smile, having already thought up a good lie. "Hi." I said, greeting the secretary. "Um, I'm a little lost, I'm on a road trip with my friends and we got lost, could you tell me where I am?"

The woman smiled. "Of course." She said sweetly. "You're in Georgia. Are you looking for Atlanta? It's about a half-hour North of here, you can't miss it, just get on the interstate."

"Thank you miss." I said with a smile, she smiled back at me and I glanced at the logbook on the desk to see the date. The last person to have checked out was Cecilia Jones on September 4th, 2073.

I had been in Tartarus for almost sixty years.

. . .

I walked to Atlanta in a daze, surprised by how much the world hadn't changed, yet how much it had at the same time. They were subtle details, hardly noticeable unless you were really looking. The air was thicker then I remembered, more polluted, the stars and moon weren't as bright and there were more planes flying overhead and cars driving by, a bigger population.

It took me a while to walk to Atlanta and I lost track of the time, in too much of a daze to pay attention. I was tempted to go wolf mode but I wanted to see the city, see how much it changed.

I walked into the city with the mist wrapped around me and I saw more buildings, bigger buildings and hospitals, better security systems and technology that blew my mind. But no flying cars or robot servants, I can't say that wasn't disappointing.

I saw a billboard on the screen talking about how much the cure for a few types of cancer costed and how they needed more donations to cure the rest of them. There was another about gold investments for life and another about different car insurances. It all seemed so sophisticated, so high-tech.

I just couldn't process it all, I had to get out of the city. It was all too much, too confusing. I managed to swallow my panic attack until I got out of the city and into the woods. Here is where I felt safe and at home, at least this hadn't changed.

I curled up in a ball and just sat there, my fingertip brushing up against the old tattoo I had gotten for Raymond and Jessica. I missed them so much it hurt and I had to blink away tears.

"I miss you guys." I whispered softly. "I hope you're happy in Elysium, or that you found each other again if you tried for rebirth. Wherever you are, I hope you're happy."

I moved my fingers to the raven tattoo and sighed. "Daniel, I wish I could have seen you again. You must have gotten Elysium for what you've done. I hope you're happy, even if you tried for rebirth, whatever you choose, I hope you're safe and happy. Hopefully Asclepius can make a cure and I can see you soon."

I stood up and took a deep breath, I could sightsee later, right now I wanted to get to camp and find out where Asclepius was so I could go get that potential cure. I didn't want to be immortal anymore, I just wanted to live a full life with my friends, I didn't want to be alone forever, I didn't want to go back to Tartarus when I died, I wanted Elysium or even the fields of Asphodel.

I closed my eyes and morphed into a wolf, figuring that this was the quickest way to travel and sprinting through the trees and heading straight for New York, using the map I had committed to memory a long time ago. Excitement coursed through me, giving me the strength to run.

I don't know how long it took me to get to New York, how many hours or days or even weeks, but I followed the cars and I morphed back into a human right outside of the city, almost forgetting the mist in my haste to get to camp, to see if it was still there.

I sprinted through the city, taking the direct route to camp. Of course it had changed along with the city, but for the most part it looked the same, only the buildings looked newer, there were solar panels on the roofs and people working on attaching more.

People gave me odd looks when they saw me running by and I heard a few people ask me if I was skipping school. But I ignored them and ran, using the route that Hailey had taken on her first trip to camp (although there were a few new streets and buildings where some old ones had been).

Truthfully I barely glanced at the city in my haste, it took me a few hours to navigate the city and by then it was almost dark out. I kept running, straight down the road I was familiar with and down to the border for camp, I was so giddy I had to resist the urge to skip and laugh. I was so close to getting back to camp and going to try and get the cure. So close to the Golden Age I was promised so long ago.

My only obstacle? The barrier.

I had to slow down when I neared Thalia's pine tree and I stuck out a finger, hesitantly trying to poke the barrier. I sighed when I couldn't go through it, I still needed permission, I guess it was a one-time deal. I sat at the summit, leaning my back on the barrier and keeping watch until morning, or until someone found me. I let the mist fall and I forced myself to stay awake.

I suddenly got nervous, thinking of all the ways this could go wrong.

What if they Asclepius was moved? What if their memories of me were wiped? What if they won't let me in? What if they don't believe me? Can Asclepius even cure me? Oh gods.

I spotted a guy walking down the road, a bag over his shoulder and a sword on his hip, he looked beat up and scratched to pieces, either a runaway that had heard of camp and was coming here for the first time or he had just gotten attacked. I waited for him and waved when he noticed me, he hesitantly waved back and I stood up, still leaning on the barrier.

When he was twenty feet away he froze and grabbed his sword, starring me in the eyes.

"I wouldn't bother." I said, jerking my chin to indicate his stygian iron sword. "Unless it's silver it won't hurt me."

"What do you want?" He asked, glancing behind me at the border, his tone wary and a little threatening.

"Permission to enter camp please." I said, examining him. He looked like he was around my age, about five foot seven with messy black hair and dark eyes, he was pretty pale and he was wearing dark jeans with a dark blue shirt, a skull ring on his finger that looked oddly familiar. I remembered who it belonged to in a flash, Nico di Angelo. I took an experimental sniff and yup, he smelt like death. "Son of Hades or Pluto?" I asked him, cocking my head slightly.

He had been backing up towards the road, probably planning on running to some shadows, but when I guessed his parentage he froze. "Hades." He said, after a slight hesitation. "I'm Greek, not Roman."

I hoped that meant he didn't see me as a threat but I noticed that he was still eyeing me warily, like he was waiting for me to attack. I decided to tease him a little, hanging out with monsters for years in hell isn't fun.

"It's the green stuff isn't it?" I asked him. "Pollution from a lake. Sad what the mortals have done to the earth." I looked at him and cocked my head slightly, he had started moving again and now he was half-way down the hill. "Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, sorry about that. My name is Dianna Ross, it's nice to meet you."

He had frozen again, his dark eyes widening with shock. "Prove it."

It was my turn to be shocked. "Wait, you know about me? Does that mean Hailey . . ?"

I stopped myself, even if she survived then she'd be dead by now, or – at the very least – close to eighty years old.

"Who's your Godly parent?" He said, the first in what I felt was going to be lots of questions about me.

"Hecate." I said, deciding to give him a brief biography since I was tired and hungry and didn't feel like answering all of his questions. "I was bitten by a lycanthrope on my first quest which was with Raymond and Jessica in the 1940's that ended with Hecate wiping everyone's memories of us and the gods making Chiron swear on the Styx not to talk about it."

He scowled and I grinned. "Any more questions?"

"I'll get Chiron out here to judge for himself." He said, looking behind me at the barrier and camp.

I stepped aside and waved my arm for him to pass. "Go ahead." I said with a small grin, trying to hide my nerves. "I don't bite."

So yeah, I kinda rushed her getting to camp but I wanted to just move that part out of the way so I can get this story moving along. Anyway, that's all for now so see ya soon! :)