Yay! I finally have time to write this story that I have a feeling I wasn't the only one really excited about. I took a break for a while, focusing on soccer and high school, and now I'm back to bring you this story. This, obviously, stars the children from No Regrets a few thirteen years later. I'll still have some Thalico and a little Percabeth thrown in here for the heck of it, but they're not the main characters.

So, without further ado, here's the first chapter! I hope you guys are kind enough to review.

Disclaimer: The only things I own in this story are the kids of Rick's characters.

Rowans pov

The first time it happened, I was six.

It was Halloween night; I guess you could say the perfect night for this type of thing. This was my first year in elementary school which meant I could FINALLY go to the fall festival they have. All the older kids in my neighborhood always talked about going in there costumes, riding every ride five times, and, especially, the hay ride.

Since Aunt Annie was about to have a baby, my mom decided to stay with her at the Jacksons. So dad, Maya, Uncle Percy and I stood in line at the hayride that night with about 30 other disguised kids, anticipating what might happen on it this year.

"I bet you'll pee your pants," Maya whispered meanly to me as we approached the ticket desk. That night, she was dressed as Snow White, perfect for her black, curly hair and piercing grey eyes. But maybe not so perfect for her personality, mean and heartless.

I shrugged, "If there's anyone who's going to pee their pants, it's you."

The ride was taking place in the huge forest behind the school. According to the other kids, a farmer from nearby loaned his tractor and a trailer to the school. After putting some hay in the back to sit on, kids loaded up and were taken along the paths in the forest. It sounded fun in the daylight, standing in my neighborhood, but now it just seemed creepy.

Once the next group came back, talking about how crazy it was, a man dressed in a hoodie and jeans ushered the four of us to the now empty trailer. My dad helped me and Maya up then, once we were safely sitting down, the two men climbed on board and sat on each side of us. A mom and her two children joined us, too, along with a teenage couple.

My dad turned towards us with a smile on his face, "Are you two ready?"

We both nodded but I knew he knew we were scared. Percy laughed, "I promise, these things are the bomb."

I smiled but, as soon as the tractor started up and a creepy laugh came from the guy driving, I grimaced and cuddled closer to my dad. He put his arm around me and said, referring to my costume "Oh, c'mon, pirates aren't scared of anything."

"Well I'm not a real pirate dad," I replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He chuckled and pulled me closer as we went deeper and deeper in the woods.

As it went on, it wasn't as scary as I thought. Yeah, it was dark, the trees were casting some pretty strange shadows, and the guy driving was a creeper, but I was really enjoying myself.

That is, until my night was completely ruined.

We were about to turn around and go back when something, I'm still not too sure what it was, jumped in front of the tractor. Naturally, the driver pressed on his breaks, thinking it was an animal. We all slung forward, another kid falling out of his seat and onto the bottom of the trailer.

Everyone looked ahead to see what had caused the disruption. Something was there, standing in the headlights. It looked like a dragon up top but it also looked something like a goat around the torso. Something also rather disturbing about it was the fact it was staring straight at me, breathing fiery breaths like it was about to charge.

My dad said something under his breath I couldn't understand then looked me dead in the eye, "STAY. Don't. Move. At. All."

He and Percy shared a look then they both bolted off the trailer. Everyone was screaming, even the driver as the two guys came into view. At that point, I was freaking out so much on the inside, I couldn't even move on the outside. Maya scooted closer to me, whimpering as our dads took weapons out of nowhere and started circling around the thing.

I could only guess this was a monster attack. I heard lecture after lecture about these things but I had never really expected it to happen one day. Now, here I was, stuck watching my dad kill something that wanted to kill us.

I held Mayas hand as Percy stuck his sword through the monsters chest and it disintegrated. Everyone's screams muffled and all was quiet in the woods. They both jumped back on the hayride and told the guy to drive on.

The next summer was me and Mayas first year at camp as the youngest campers to ever be allowed.

Today, eight years later, I know more about that moment than ever. It's kinda like listening to a song you use to love when you were younger. You turn it on and hear all the hidden meanings squished into the words. It's almost disgusting to think you use to burst out this song in your car seat when you heard it on the radio. Now, I can read what happened that night like the back of my hand. The weapons, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, were always there, hidden on the guys we believed could never harm a soul. The people on the ride who I thought could see everything really just saw what they wanted to believe. And being a demigod meant more than just descending from the gods; it meant dealing with things like that on a weekly basis.

I was walking back to my cabin with Maya, my best friend still, after a late July dinner. In ways, she had changed a lot since she was six, but in others, I knew she was the same old Maya Jackson. She still had black, curly hair but it was longer now, almost to her mid back. Her grey eyes seemed to be grayer every time I looked at her. Unfortunately, I'm a short kid, thank you dad, so she almost taller than me, making it me the center of many jokes. She was pretty, too, almost every guy in camp was practically in love with her, but she didn't care about them. The one guy she had trusted with her heart last year had let her down, and she wasn't falling for that crap again.

"So you won't believe what I heard today," she began.

"Probably not, but continue."

After a friendly eye roll, she spoke, "Reese told me Athena's pissed about something and she's plotting to do something about it as we speak."

I couldn't help but be intrigued. Even though it was sad to say, I sorta wanted something to go wrong in the world of demigods. Our parents always talked about the way life was when they were our age, especially about the Titans War. I'm fourteen and I haven't been on one quest yet. True, no one has in years, but it seemed like a thing to try.

"And how would she know this?" I asked. It's not like Reese, the gossip queen daughter of Aphrodite who also happened to be a really good friend of ours, was the most reliable source for this kind of stuff.

Reese shrugged before sighing, "She insist she has her sources. But it makes me wonder. What would she be mad about, enough to make her want to hurt someone?"

Before I could make a smartass remark, she grimaced. I looked up and realized we had made it to the Poseidon cabin, now decorated with junk that looked like it hadn't seen light in years. I gave her a questioningly look. "Bryson decided today would be a GREAT day to clean out under his bed. Gods, he's just like my dad."

She seemed pissed, like so pissed she was going to use that Yankees cap her mom gave her on her last birthday to do some serious damage to her 12 year old uncle. She was like her mom in a lot of ways, according to Percy: OCD, controlling, a genius; but in the end, she's the only person you wanted to be with. So, like any man would, I attempted to calm her down with an apology. Yeah, my mom and dad raised me right.

Instead of giving me a warm smile, she flicked me in the nose. "OWWW!" I complained, rubbing my now throbbing nose. She laughed and ruffled my black, curly hair, even though I tell her I'M the older one at least twice a day, then took the steps two at a time to her cabin.

I walked away, shaking my head, and decided I didn't want to go home quite yet. Veronica, technically my 17 year old aunt, was probably occupying the space with her boyfriend, which was never good to interrupt. So I walked along until I got to the archery fields.

Even though I could throw a pretty mean spear and beat most people when it came to swords, I was the best at archery. I guess it was because of my mom and her huntress past, but I also like to believe it was a gift, just for me. Most of the kids who are as good as me are from the Apollo cabin, so I think of it as a talent.

Tonight, no one was at the range. Perfect. I really needed some time for just me and my bow and arrows. Lately, I had been a little confused, girl wise. Girls seemed to be everywhere in my life. There was the girl in my Greek class that always flirted with me but had a boyfriend. There was the cute girl in my archery class who was awesome, but she doesn't know me that well. Then, there was Mallory.

I grabbed my magical gum container, a gift from my Grandpa Zeus, out of my pocket and took a piece out. Instantly, the little wrapper with the tiny arrow on it transformed into a life size, deadly arrow shaped like a lightning bolt. I then grabbed my bracelet I got from Grandpa Hades, a black band with silver crossbones on it, and pressed on the indention in the back. My bracelet magically changed into a bow, a beautiful one at that with black wood and graffiti related to death carved perfectly down the arch. You could say I was spoiled by my family. I mean, imagine having one mom or dad who was a god. Now imagine having TWO. No comparison, my friend. Not to mention my folks, who would do anything for their only child.

Anyway, I loaded my bow and took a shot, releasing all the pent up energy I had been building up all day. In a second's time, the arrow flew and hit the bulls-eye. Thinking about Mallory's head in the center made it pretty easy to do so.

Mallory might just be the second prettiest girl in the whole camp, only behind Maya. She's a daughter of Nemesis, so she was punk like me, but not too hardcore. She still had the cutest smile and her hazel eyes, that matched her hair almost exactly, always made my heart melt when she laughed. We were only thirteen when she grabbed my heart and took it for the wildest ride of my life. Yes, I realize this is cheesy. I don't know, something about her made me want to give it all to her. Of course, I was too young to actually realize my mistake until it was too late. She was like Lamia, she charmed guys with her beauty and then when they had long past fallen for her, she took an ax to your heart. Time and time again.

So yeah, you could say I was in love with a monster.

Somehow, coming out here always helped me forget things. I mean, sure, I knew when I got back to my cabin I would have seventeen messages from her, begging for forgiveness. I also knew I would have eight messages from my best friend guy friend, Dane, another Nemesis kid, telling me all about the douche bag he saw her with tonight. But when I was out here, it was just me and the stars and this weapon.

Once I had shot enough arrows to where no more would fit on the center, the 10, or the 8 ring, I gave up and decided to head home. Besides, it wouldn't be long before the Harpies would be out and I didn't want to be THAT kid.

So I took all 82 arrows out of the target with the flick of a wrist, opening my gum container and each one carefully sliding back into perfect order. Something the Apollo kids were VERY jealous about at the end of archery class.

Once I had dislodged my bow, I grabbed my Nike bag I had thrown behind me and took my cell phone out of my pocket. Before I even clicked the button at the top to unlock it, I saw I had 19 new text messages and 4 missed phone calls. People are, officially, annoying.

Instead of read each of them and over analyze like I do, I pressed the button on the top and the screen went black. I shoved it back in my bag and decided to take in the night.

It was the beginning of June, meaning I had just got here about a week ago. When I stepped on to the turf in camp last week, it was almost like stepping back into the old Greek times all over again. The cabins were log cabins with small porches on the front. A few, including all of the Big Three and the Hermes cabins, were two to three stories high. There was an arena shaped as a mini coliseum, a courtyard filled with statues of each god and goddess, an amphitheater, a forgery, and even Pegasus stables; anything you could find in an ancient Greece city, you could probably find here. And that's why I loved it here; it really brought me back to my roots.

I walked along, not even paying attention to what was around me. I was more looking above, at the constellations. Every night I looked for my favorite ones which included Hercules and, someone my mom knew, a Huntress named Zoey.

That's when my phone rang.

I sighed and dug through my bag to get it out. I was thinking about excuses I could use to not answer it when I saw the caller ID. MOMMY!

I answered right away, "Hey mom," I greeted. I could feel her smiling through the phone. It's a well known fact I'm her favorite child, even though she doesn't have any more. It was a nightly ritual to talk to her on the phone before I went to bed. I guess it was a little later than I thought.

"Hey Rowan, how are you?" she asked.

I hesitated for a minute. She knew about Mallory, but not all about how she broke my heart and I was in love with her kind of way. As much as I needed to talk to her about it, tonight wasn't the night. It was late, I was tired, and I really didn't want to explain my problems while I was outside, vulnerable to anyone hearing me ranting to my mommy.

So instead, I laughed, "Fine. How are you and dad?"

"Oh doing just fine. Actually, amazing."

I was kinda taken aback. Usually she said fine then would start asking me annoying questions. "Oh? What's so amazing?"

"Well we want to tell you in person so Chiron's allowing you and Dane to come home for the weekend," she said giddily.

Well thanks mother, now I'm curious. We talked a little more about the plans for the weekend, and how she was coming to get both me and my male best friend, before we hung up. By that time, I was already sitting comfortably on my couch while Veronica watched TV beside me.

Once my phone was back in my pocket, Veronica questioned, "What was that about?"

"Well, I know you're going to be thrilled and all, but I'm leaving Saturday morning for the whole weekend."

She looked like I had just told her that she has won Miss America. "Oh my gosh, YES!" she screamed, and then ran to the back of the cabin to her room.

I shook my head. Oh, another day in the life of Rowan Di Angelo.

Wow, that wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. But, hopefully, it was good enough to have you come back for the next chapter. Please review and tell me how I did?