ENTRY ONE

PETMA—PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF MYTHICAL ANIMALS

Before you begin, there are a few things I should clear up. I decided to write this journal in order to reveal to the world the true story of Rebecka Durgi, the girl who saved the world as we know it from destruction. There are a lot of different versions of this historic tale, but this journal right here is the only one that tells you the truth. I am Rebecka Durgi, Savior of Earth, and this is my epic adventure. If you don't believe in ghosts or monsters or whales from space, you might want to walk away now because I learned something.

Those things are very, very real.


It was summertime.

. . . I know, I know, I should be more descriptive. How's this then? The sky was a pure cyan color with only a few puffy clouds to blot out the sun's unbearable heat, and the manicured lawn of my backyard had the sharpest, most poke-y sickly-colored grass ever. I'm serious, it scratched at my bare, unprotected legs and curled like thorns beneath my palms. I was only trying to enjoy being forced to go outside, you know? But Mother Nature tried her hardest to make that impossible.

Oh, right. You don't know who I am, do you? I'm Rebecka Durgi, a fourteen-year-old girl with skin so pale I could easily pass of for a vampire on Halloween, short dirty-blonde hair with unevenly cut bangs, and cyan-grey eyes. I had this white shirt with a cute chibi radish on it (love the radish, hate the taste) and beige shorts with lovely pockets for hands. And then there was my awesome black "onyx" baseball cap with the red hourglass symbol of a black widow spider on the front. I love that cap. I also wore white sneakers and a light beige vest. As you can see, my favorite color is beige because it reminds me of camels, which are my favorite animal.

Should I tell you my favorite food?

. . . Nah, that's just giving you too much information.

Anyway, so my parents had forced me to go outside like they do every day. See, I'm home-schooled so there isn't much in my everyday life that includes going outside. Also you have to remember that I'm not an outdoor person and, as much as I love animals and support the preservation of the environment, I can't stand the idea of all those creepy little insects that live outside.

Like deer ticks. Those things are scary. One bite and you're infected with Lyme disease for life, even if your doctor is able to rid you of the actual ticks. One bite.

I looked down at the grass beneath my hand and gingerly wiped my palm on my shorts, not taking any chances.

. . . Yes, I'm paranoid. But you'd be paranoid to if you read all the things I have, and you'd come to this conclusion: Mother Nature is a real nasty lady. At the same time, however, she's a real interesting lady too, and it really is fascinating how connected she makes everything.

Oh dear, one of my science-y rants again. How sad. I pity you.

I was beginning to get bored with sitting in scratchy grass and staring at the side of my neighbor's house, so I stood up. I took a step forward. Wow! I thought to myself, somewhat sarcastically. Real exercise!

I mentally rolled my eyes at myself and walked toward the nearest sidewalk. Once I had reached the stretch of concrete I began walking in no particular direction. I plan things so well. Oh, hey, did you know that the cracks in sidewalks are put there so that—you know what? Forget it, you're probably not interested.

. . . But I'll tell you anyway. They are put there so that when the temperature changes the concrete can expand or contract accordingly instead of breaking or cracking from the pressure.

I'm smirking as I write this because, you know, I feel so smart.

Let's just skip this part because all that happens here is "Rebecka walks" and "Rebecka thinks about her hopes and dreams in life." You know, boring stuff like that. . . . Oh what, you actually want to hear my thoughts? How pathetic. Don't you have your own thoughts to listen to, people? Isn't that enough for you? Did you know tsktsks is the longest word in the English language without any vowels in it, including the semivowels "y" and "w"?

Okay, that last part was random. I apologize.

Hm, so where was I? Oh right, after I walked for roughly six minutes I'd arrived at the steps of a newly-built house in my neighborhood that had yet to be sold. The thing was, the people who ran my neighborhood had to make sure this house was very presentable because, if it wasn't, people wouldn't want to buy it, obviously. Jeez, to I have to explain everything to you people?

Anyway, this meant the house's lawn had the greenest, softest grass in the neighborhood. I promptly sat down at the very edge—you know, so that if someone saw me there I could struggle up onto my feet and say, "Ouch, third time I've fallen today, darn it!"—and relaxed, enjoying the fresh air now that I was sitting on more comfortable grass. The house was located on the very edge of my complex by a grassy meadow with a few trees, so I knew I wouldn't run in to a lot of people.

I don't know how long I sat there—half an hour maybe?—but soon my peaceful day would take an ugly turn. I heard a sound in the distance toward my right. . . . A roar? I shook my head. Probably just a truck, those things were obnoxiously loud.

Another roar-like sound, closer now. I frowned and got up, using a hand to shield my eyes from the sun as I gazed off into the horizon. I couldn't see anything. Then I heard another noise. A shout. Maybe there was a rampaging elephant?

Ha, last I checked, I heard my brain say, elephants didn't live in the United States of America.

What about in zoos? I retorted haughtily.

If my brain had a mouth, it would have smirked. What zoo, dummy? You don't live near a zoo.

Oh shut up, I said, pouting mentally.

As you can see, I have sanity issues.

Sadly, my mindless argument with myself had distracted me from my current situation, and when I finally snapped out of my thoughts I was just in time to see a multi-headed serpent-like creature with four lean-but-powerful legs barreling toward me.

"A-a-a-ah!" I shrieked, "How did that get there?!"

Suddenly a young woman came out of nowhere and threw a small object at the monster. Green flames erupted from the earth and the creature screeched in agony as the fire burned its legs. It tumbled past me and smashed into the house beside me, and the structure collapsed beneath it.

"Oh wow, I hope I don't get sued, 'cause that totally wasn't my fault," I say, too dumbfounded to think of anything better.

I stood there like an idiot as the woman ran swiftly past me, charging at the creature. Its serpent heads hissed at her, and the grass beneath it withered into a dead, brown color. The woman threw another object at the creature, ran up to me, and began dragging me away from the scene.

"Come on," she said, brushing choppy brown hair out of her face, "we've got to get out of here."

That's when the grenade exploded and the odd green fire consumed both the creature and the house.

I frowned. "You just killed that thing."

"Yeah," she said, like it was no big deal. "So?"

"So," I said, pulling my arm away from her tight grasp, "isn't that animal cruelty?"

The woman gave me a strange look, like I'd grown a balloon animal for a head. "Say what?"

I glared into her eyes—funny things, they seemed to change color—and put my hands on my hips. "I said isn't that animal cruelty? That poor hydra—"

"Wait, you know what it is?" the stranger interrupted, sounding startled.

I ignored her. "—was killed in that fire and you burned its legs. Should I be calling PETMA?"

"Pet what?" she asked, confused.

"PETMA," I said, closing my eyes and crossing my arms, chin high (I was going for a haughty look). "People for the ethical treatment of mythological animals."

The woman frowned. "People for the ethical—wait, are you joking about this?"

I picked at a hangnail, unconcerned. "Um duh, this is a dream, right?"

The stranger gave me a skeptical look. "A dream," she repeated.

"Yeah," I said, looking up at her, "a dream. What else could this be?"

The strange woman rolled her kaleidoscope eyes. "Oh, I dunno," she said in a sarcastic tone. "Real life?"

I raised my eyebrows. "I doubt that. Hydras are mythological creatures. And that fire was green. Weird."

The woman laughed so hard I thought she was going to burst. After her bout of laughter ended she wiped away tears from her eyes and held out her hand. "Hi," she said cheerfully, "I'm Piper, Piper McLean."

"Whoa, wait, I'm dreaming about the daughter of a famous actor I don't really know about or care for?" I asked, mostly to myself.

Piper frowned. "Uh, sure." I guess she wasn't too happy to hear I wasn't a fan of her father's acting.

"Hey," I said, raising up my palms, "don't take it personally."

"How could I not?" I heard her mutter under her breath.

I bit my lip impatiently. "Wow, I really wish this dream would end. I mean, the hydra part was pretty cool, but talking to you is really boring. And also, I'm not sure Tristan McLean even has a daughter. Do you exist?"

Piper threw her hands up. "Of course I do! How could this not be real life?"

I chuckled. "Well, there are a lot of things that just happened right now that tell me this can't be real. The only way I'd be able to tell that this wasn't a dream for sure is if I cut myself and fell asleep and then, after I'd wake up, if the cut was still there, then I'd know it is real."

Piper grabbed my arm and pointed to my wrist. "You see that?" she asked sharply, bringing a small cut to my attention.

"Whoa," I said. "That wasn't there before."

The woman bit her lip. "Yeah, I kinda scratched you when I pulled you away from the hydra and the Greek fire grenade. Sorry. Anyway, this is a cut you got in your little 'dream', right?"

"Right," I replied, nodding my head. "But I'd need to fall asleep and then wake up later to see if it's still there, and I'm not much of a napper so—"

"—there's only one way to fix that," Piper finished, fixing a braid in her hair. She smiled sweetly at me and spoke one word. "Sleep."

Then everything went dark.


AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you enjoyed this! I wanted to make Rebecka home-schooled because, I just realized, I haven't seen a single demigod (neither OC nor canon) that is home-schooled, so I decided to change that. Hm, and I made Piper a young woman because I didn't feel like writing about her as the relationship-needy drama queen she is in the books, but I didn't want her to be like, thirty or in her late twenties or something, 'cause then I'd probably have to have her married to Jason Grace and they'd have like a billion kids and I don't like that sort of thing SO I decided not to.

Well that was unnecessarily long.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the first chapter! There will be pretty much zero romance in this story, so if that's what you're looking for I'm sorry, but I think romance ruins the enjoyment of a story. Instead my story will me all about humor and adventure. Cool stuff like that, you know?

IMPORTANT: Oh and I'd re-e-e-e-eally appreciate it if someone could maybe draw Rebecka for me for cover art? *twiddles thumbs hopefully* I'd give you credit in the summary! Just tell me what site and user name you'd like to go under. ;3 Thank you!