Of all the dumb luck in the world, Kally was sure she had the worst.
Her whole life had been one disaster after another, seemingly with no point or reason – just random catastrophes. Worse still was the fact that she was sure her bad luck was all in her head.
There was no way she could have actually seen what she had seen in the last three years. Old ladies who had seemed kind had turned into weird creatures with animal bodies that began to attack her. A seemingly harmless kitten on the street had become a giant lion with impenetrable fur and a pair of snakes for a tail. Once, Kally had tried to steal from a Bargain Mart and the two salesladies had turned out to be snake headed freaks with wings. One of them seemed to be trying to give Kally free samples while her sister screeched 'Kill her!' Kally was still unsure if she had been talking to her or her sister.
Just last summer she had even seen masses of strange monsters heading towards the Empire State building. There were enormous blue giants that seemed to freeze the very ground they walked on. Strange seal/human/dog hybrids had dolloped along behind the giants, crying out about some army they had to defeat. Women with snakes for legs and suited in full bronze coloured armour were amongst the strange group too. Kally had really thought she'd lost the plot when she'd seen beautiful girls in cheerleading uniforms with blazing hair (literally, their hair was on fire), red eyes, and mismatching legs that seemed to belong to a robot and a donkey.
None of that could have possibly been real. Living on the streets of New York for all those years had taken its toll on her mind. She knew none of it could possibly be real. But…
What about the girl and the boy? a little voice in her head squeaked. It was almost as though the small voice was afraid of mentioning the strange girl that Kally had encountered. Truthfully, she wished it hadn't. She still wasn't entirely convinced that she wasn't just another monster, another image in her mind. The girl was what made her think that maybe she wasn't crazy; maybe it could all be real.
It was three years ago, not long after Kally had left her home and the monsters had started attacking. She was sixteen, she was alone, and she was scared, but she never thought about going home. She never let that thought seep into her mind, and if it ever did slip through her defences, she pushed it away immediately. There was no home for her anymore.
She huddled against a wall in the alleyway she had set up camp in. She had moved around a lot to try and keep the monsters from finding her, but they always caught up in the end.
In the quickly fading light, she used some matches to start a fire with some old newspapers and curled up in the sleeping bag she'd nicked from a camping store.
Stealing wasn't her favourite thing to do, but if it meant the difference between life and death, she was willing to do it. Several times she had stolen things that had saved her life. Not just food and a sleeping bag, but the knife that she now carried with her at all times. The blade appeared to be made out of bronze or something, so she didn't think it would do much in the way of actually protecting her. However, the blade turned the monsters that attacked her into dust, literally, so she wasn't complaining.
Kally was just about to settle down and sleep when she heard a grunt from around the corner. A gruff voice that was definitely a girl's groaned in frustration.
'Chris, please,' she pleaded with someone. Her voice was surprisingly gentle for someone who seemed so rough before. 'Help me out a little. I can't carry you all on my own.'
A boy's voice mumbled something unintelligible and the girl sighed. 'Yes, I know, I know. Come on, we're nearly there. We just have to get out onto the main street and hail a cab. But I'm gonna need you to help me okay?'
More muffled speech from the boy, and she swore the girl started sobbing. 'Chris, please!'
A moment later, they appeared from around the corner. The girl was quite large, and nothing spectacular to look at. She had stringy brown hair that seemed burned off in places, a pudgy face, and an exhausted expression. She was lugging a boy, who must have been Chris, with one arm draped over her shoulder but he was sagging to the ground, not helping the girl in the slightest. He seemed to stumble over his own feet even though he wasn't walking. They both wore full bronze armour over orange t-shirts and jeans.
They both seemed a bit worse for wear, Kally thought. They had scratches all over their faces and arms, and the girl looked like she wanted to collapse. It seemed she was carrying on out of pure determination and stubbornness. The boy's eyes kept crossing over and rolling about in his head like he was unconscious, but he kept mumbling something about a chamber and a labyrinth.
The girl looked up and saw Kally staring at them. The girl gave her the once over, looking at her with disdain. She didn't seem the type to respect a homeless person.
To Kally's surprise, the girl staggered over to her with the boy over her shoulder and collapsed by her fire.
'Can you help us?' she demanded, panting.
Kally stared at the two people by her fire; one angry looking girl and a boy who looked even crazier than Kally felt. She had to help them.
'I don't know.' Kally told her truthfully. 'It's not like I have a lot to offer.'
'Please,' the girl's voice cracked. She started sobbing and she glanced at the boy, Chris, rolling around on the concrete. 'Please, we just need some rest and maybe some food. Then we'll leave in the morning.'
'Where will you go?'
The girl bit her lip. She looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't for some reason. 'Home,' she decided on.
'Hm.' Kally thought about that. She had no home. This girl and her friend Chris were sitting in her home, next to a dumpster in an alleyway off Fifth Avenue in New York. She had to help them find some place better than this for their home. 'Okay. But promise me something.'
'What?' The girl's expression said name your price.
'I want to go with you.' She said plainly.
The other girl froze. Obviously Kally had named a price too high, something she could not afford to give. She shook her head.
'I can't. Normal people can't… I mean, people like you can't…' she tried to explain but eventually just stopped. 'No. It's not possible.'
'People like me?' Kally demanded. 'You mean homeless people? You're saying you can't offer me a place in your home because I don't have one of my own?'
'No!' the girl said, surprised. Then she realised how her words must have sounded to Kally. 'Oh, gods no! I didn't mean… no, I just meant that me and Chris… well, we're different. We can't take you where we're going.'
'Why not?'
'It's to do with our parentage,' she said cautiously. 'Our parents aren't quite normal…'
'Yeah, well, join the club,' Kally said, thinking bitterly about her own parents. Well, one parent anyway.
'No, our parents are seriously different. Our dads…' she trailed off.
'Oh, so you guys are siblings?' Kally said, trying to change the subject. They didn't look related but you never know. It wasn't like she looked like her brother in the slightest.
'No, not at all,' the girl waved off her question. She supplied no background information beyond that so Kally was just as confused as she was before.
'What's your name?' Kally asked. 'It's gonna suck if I have to keep calling you "the girl".'
'Huh?' she raised one eyebrow at the last part, but Kally had learned to ignore embarrassment for the most part. She had developed a great poker face. 'The name's Clarisse. And this is Chris, my boyf- uh, my friend.'
She stopped and turned away with a pained look on her face. Obviously it was a touchy subject for her, so Kally decided not press her on it. She had been about to ask about their parents again when Clarisse suddenly leaped up and drew the sword that was clipped to her belt. She glared at a space far above Kally's head and her eyes lit up like a wildfire. Kally turned but all the monsters she'd faced so far could not prepare her for what she saw then.
The monster was at least ten feet tall, with skin that looked sunburnt. He was clad in grey armour that made him seem even bigger than he was. At his waist a curved sword hung, easily as long as Kally's arm. What little hair he had was in tiny stringy clumps down his head, and his face was a nasty grimace. But what was most terrifying about him was the single red eye in the centre of his face.
'Is that a-'
'Cyclops,' Clarisse growled in agreement. 'A Laistrygonian, a breed of cannibal Cyclopes.' Then she turned to Kally as though a thought had suddenly struck her. 'Wait, you can see it?'
'What do you mean? Of course I can see it! He's ten feet tall and bright red! How can I not see it?' Kally shouted back.
Clarisse seemed shocked but she snapped out of it quickly. Kally could see in her eyes that she loved to be in battle, that it was what she was meant to do. She raised her sword and, though they had just met, Kally was pretty sure she knew how to use it with deadly force.
'Do you have a weapon?' she asked, somewhat calm despite the Cyclops in front of her. Kally nodded and pulled out her knife. Clarisse looked at it and then back at Kally. 'You're no mortal, are you? That's celestial bronze, same as my sword. You better be good at using it.'
With that, Clarisse charged the monster, calling out a battle cry all the way. She brought her sword down straight into the monster's knee, and the Cyclops roared and stumbled back a few steps. Clarisse glared at it as if to say bring it on, butt-face! The Cyclops recovered and glared at Clarisse.
'Puny child of Ares!' he bellowed. 'You cannot beat me on your own! I am Panos, leader of my Laistrygonian tribe, mover of the earth and rocks! You Ares kids all think you're so tough, and try and take our kind on alone. Well, it's no wonder Ares children are our favourite snacks!'
He grabbed at Clarisse but she rolled out of the way. 'You want to eat me? First you gotta beat me, skunk breath!'
Panos roared with laughter and grabbed at Clarisse again. She slashed at his hand with her sword and dive rolled towards his leg. She then drove her weapon deep into the monster's side, causing him to bellow in pain.
Unfortunately, he spotted Clarisse, smiling in a self-satisfactory way. He smacked her away with his hand and she went flying against a wall. She landed on the concrete below from two storeys up and groaned, clutching her arm. The Cyclops chuckled.
'You see, child of Ares?' he said. 'You cannot defeat me alone!'
Kally had a sudden burst of courage. She made a grab at Chris and propped him against the dumpster so that he looked like he was standing on his own. She knew she wouldn't look like much of a threat if it was just her. Then again, she wasn't sure a skinny, half-crazy boy standing next to her would look very intimidating either. But she positioned him as best she could and pulled out his word and gave it to him. Then she drew her knife and shouted out to Panos.
'Hey ugly! Who says she's alone?'
Both Clarisse and the Cyclops turned to look at Kally. Clarisse paled when she saw Chris standing and looking dazed with his sword out, like she was afraid he'd hurt himself – which, in his state of mental disorientation, was quite likely. Panos laughed again.
'A son of Hermes and a daughter of-' he stopped laughing. 'No… It can't be. Not possible!' He started to whine like a child throwing a fit. 'No fair! You cheat girlie, you cheat!'
Kally had no idea what he was talking about, or who Ares and Hermes were, but she gritted her teeth. She hated being called 'girlie'. It was she tried hard not to be.
Suddenly, Kally was no longer afraid of the red Cyclops. She was just angry at him for calling her girlie. She wished the ground would just open up and swallow the stupid monster and send him straight to the bottom of the earth.
To Kally's amazement, exactly that happened. The ground split with a loud crack right around Panos's feet. He wailed and glared at Kally, his grudge with Clarisse forgotten entirely.
'Curse you! I swear this is not the end of me! You haven't seen the last of Panos! I will never forget this, child of- aaaaarrrgh!'
He fell through the fissure in the earth before he could even finish his curse. The ground sealed up again around him as if it were never opened in the first place. There was no evidence that the red Cyclops had ever existed.
Clarisse gaped at her. Even Chris seemed to have come around to real life enough to be amazed at her feat. Kally wasn't even sure it was her that had caused the earth to split, but there didn't seem to be another reason.
'You… you did that?' Clarisse asked, amazed.
'Uh, I think so.' Kally said, frowning in her confusion. 'I'm not entirely sure…'
Kally desperately wanted to change the subject. She didn't like attention. She felt sure her cheeks would have been bright pink if she still got embarrassed. Turns out that was a handy skill to have in these situations.
'He sounded mad,' she said.
'Yeah, well, you just sent him to Tartarus,' Clarisse said, still awed, as she sheathed her blade. 'If he re-forms in your lifetime he's going to have a serious grudge against you. Count on that.'
That didn't sound good. Kally wasn't sure how something like that could just re-form after being swallowed by the earth, but she decided not to question Clarisse. She seemed to know what she was talking about, even if it did sound like crazy-talk.
'Me and Chris better get going,' Clarisse said suddenly.
'Huh? Why?' Kally asked, even more confused. Then she looked at Chris and saw the problem.
He had slumped to the ground again, his temporary sanity lost. He rolled on the concrete, muttering still about curses and 'beware the earth' and that labyrinth again.
'We can't risk attracting any more monsters.' Kally got the feeling that Clarisse didn't just mean to stop them from hurting Chris. Clarisse was afraid of Kally. It amused her almost that this big, terrifying girl who would take on a ten foot Cyclops on her own could be afraid of Kally.
'Your arm's hurt,' Kally noticed when Clarisse winced after trying to shoulder Chris again. 'Here, I'll help you to your taxi.'
They shared Chris between them, one arm of his draped over each of their shoulders, and managed to get him to the main road to a busy section of Manhattan. They hailed a cab and slid Chris in carefully. Kally badly wanted to ask what had happened to him, but she didn't want to upset Clarisse. For a warrior girl, she seemed very fragile.
'Well, see you, I guess,' Kally muttered, not one for goodbyes.
'Yeah,' Clarisse muttered. Obviously she wasn't a very "sappy goodbye" person herself. 'Look. That was some serious stuff back there. I'll talk to Chi- er, my teacher when I get home. I'll tell him about you. If he gives the word, I'll come back for you, okay? And you can come and live with us at camp.'
Kally didn't know where this camp was or who lived there or anything, but it sounded a lot better than the streets of New York. Besides, who wouldn't want to go to a camp to learn how to use celestial bronze swords to fight huge Cyclopes?
'Yeah, sounds good. Don't take too long, okay?'
Clarisse nodded her agreement and slid into the taxi behind Chris. A moment later, they pulled away from the curb and vanished in the traffic of night time Manhattan.
Kally wasn't to know that she wouldn't see them again for years. She wasn't to know that 'camp' was not a place for her.
Because three years later, Kally was still waiting for the boy and the girl that made her believe maybe she wasn't crazy.