Amy woke up at her bed in Detroit. It was the middle of her schools Christmas break. In fact today was Christmas. She wasn't as excited as most kids would be. This was because Christmas for Amy was never really good for her.
One because Amy's mother never gave her gifts. Well one gift per Christmas. Each year it was a book. Amy's mom refused to believe that Amy was dyslexic. Even if she wasn't dyslexic, her ADHD gave her the attention span of a hamster.
At camp they don't celebrate birthdays. Of course her father never gave her anything, he never got the chance. He just realized she was his daughter six months ago, but that is a long story. By the way Amy's dad is Hades, the god of the Underworld.
Amy figured Archie was doing nothing too, so she just got dressed into her jeans, boots and T-shirt with a hoddie. She made sure to tuck her rod that morphed into a sword into her boot. She had a hair tie in her room, without bothering to brush it out she pulled it back into a ponytail.
When Amy opened her door it was surprising but there was a black portal a foot in front of the door. She had no idea what to do, so she just walked into it.
Amy found herself in her father's palace. She stood in front of two thrones. The first one was made out of bones and on it sat her father. To his right sat on a silver throne sat a woman, everything about her seemed washed out. The woman stared daggers at her. Amy presumed this most be Persephone. The two gods were in giant human form so they were about twenty feet high.
"Amy, good you here." Hades said. Something seemed wrong. He still wore black jeans and a black T-shirt.
"Father, is something wrong?" Amy asked.
"If you must know, girl, Hades' helm is missing." Persephone said.
"Someone stole it?" Amy asked.
Persephone rolled her eyes, "Of course you imbecile."
"Persephone, you will not speak that way to my daughter." Hades said.
"Don't remind me who she is." Persephone said.
"Um, father, can we get back to the helm?" Amy asked.
"A demigod stole it, you must retrieve it." Hades said.
"That is it? How do I find this demigod?" Amy asked.
Hades stared at Persephone. Persephone groaned and snapped her fingers. A potted carnation popped up at Amy's feet. "The flower will point towards the thief."
"Okay, I will be back soon, hopefully." Amy said. She picked up the flower and headed outside the palace. Right away the flower pointed towards the right, heading towards the Fields of Asphodel, so Amy headed that way. The shades were just standing around like normal, like nothing was wrong. After a while the flower pointed left.
Amy looked up and was amazed. It was the most beautiful place Amy had ever seen. It was obviously Elysium, thankfully the thief went this way and not towards the fields of Punishment. After a while Amy saw some more shades. These shades actually seemed more solid. This is where heroes went when they died. Some heroes seemed a bit familiar as she was walking she could of sworn she saw George Washington. There was a lone tree, and leaning up against it was a young man. He seemed maybe twenty, but there was no way to tell how long he was here. But he looked a lot like Hades. He had short black hair, and ripped black jeans. He had tousled black hair and brown eyes.
He seemed to notice her and walked over to her. "You are not dead."
"Nope, I am on a quest." Amy said.
"Are you a demigod?" the man asked.
"Yes. I probably don't have time to stay long. Hades' Helm of Darkness was stolen." Amy said.
"Is he you father?" the man asked.
"Yeah. Well enjoy afterlife." Amy said.
"I did not get you name." the man said.
"Amy, and you are?" Amy asked.
"I was a child of Hades myself. My name is Nico di Angelo." the man said.
"I think I've heard of you." Amy said.
"Really, that surprising me." Nico said.
"If it is no awkward, how long have you been dead?" Amy asked.
"About ten or so years." Nico said.
"You never chose rebirth?" Amy asked.
"I'm happy here. I had enough pain in my first life, I don't want to take the chances of it happening again. Just one thing makes me want to try for the Isle of the Bless" Nico said.
"Okay, see you I guess." Amy said.
"Stay safe. By the way I saw the thief head towards the Styx." Nico said.
"Thanks." Amy said. She turned and walked away. Shortly the flower turned towards the right.
Amy did not notice at first but she heard rushing water, like a river. Amy looked up and saw a dark river. It seemed that it was polluted by seventy, twenty-five gallon barrels of oil was dumped in it. Somehow Amy knew it was the River Styx.
"Oh that is was Nico meant." Amy said.
Sure enough the flower was pointing across the river.
"Great." Amy said. She sat down on the ground. "There is no way I can swim across, there are no bridges." Then she remembered something from Camp and Latin class.
Amy stood up and gave her best taxicab whistle. It took a few moments but a boat came into view. The boat looked like an Italian gondola boat you see in Venice. A man walked off the boat and stood on the shore.
"Hello there." Amy said walking up to him.
"What, I am very busy." The man asked. He was a good 6 and a half feet. Though he was a bit skinny but looked like he had good biceps. He wore a black cloak that covered him from head to toe, so Amy couldn't really make out his face. But she knew who he was.
"Charon, I need a ride." Amy said.
"You are on the Afterlife side already." Charon said.
"I know I need to get to the other side." Amy said.
"Wait, you are not dead?" Charon asked.
"No." Amy said.
"Why are you here?" Charon asked.
"I am on a mission. Hades' Helm of Darkness has been stolen. Did you help another demigod across." Amy said.
"Maybe." Charon said, he rubbed his fingers together like he wanted money.
Amy grabbed him by the collar and pulled his face down so he was eye to eye with her.
"Hey! I can convince Lord Hades to give you eternal punishment." Charon said.
"He won't punish me." Amy said.
"Why is that?" Charon asked.
"I am his daughter, now give me passage to the other shore of the Styx." Amy said.
"Oh, you won't mention this incident to him will you?" Charon asked nervously.
"If you give me passage both ways I won't say a word." Amy said letting him go.
"Get on board." Charon said.
Amy climbed on board and Charon got on after her. He rowed her across the river. When Amy neared the shore she saw misty forms waiting for Charon to take them across.
"Why didn't you bring them across?" Amy asked.
"They had no money for passage." Charon said.
When Amy got off she counted five shades that needed passage. One was a six year-old girl, another was a baby boy who could only have been eighteen months. Amy checked her pockets and found six golden drachmas. Amy smiled and handed one to each of the five shades. The little boy gave her a smile, he had a few teeth. He toddled over to Charon and handed him the coin. When Amy handed the coin to the girl. She looked like she wanted to cry with relief and thankfulness.
"Thank you." the girl said.
"I hope you have good luck with the judges." Amy said.
"Maybe mom will help me." she said.
"Your mom?" Amy asked.
"My mom is Athena." The girl said.
Amy wanted to cry this little girl was a demigod. She died so young. "Tell you what, my dad is Hades, I will make sure you end up in Elysium." Amy said.
"My name is Rebecca!" she said.
"My name is Amy." Amy said.
Rebecca gave Amy a grin, one of her front teeth was missing. She walked up to Charon and got on the boat.
"See them safely across Charon, be back here in an hour or so." Amy said.
Charon rowed the five shades across. Amy couldn't help but smile. She helped five shades across, hopefully those two kids ended up in Elysium.
Amy noticed the flower was pointing backwards so she turned around, with her back to the River Styx and head off to find the thief.
Amy's mind wandered, she wondered who the thief was. Persephone said the thief was a demigod, but who was he.
Amy came to a cave and saw a figure standing in the mist. Amy set the flower down and drew her sword. "Alright thief, come on out with the Helm of Darkness. Come quietly and no one will get hurt."
The person came out of the mist and Amy gasped. It was Jessie Brown, the bully from school.
"Amy, what are you doing here?" he sneered.
"Give me back the Helm." Amy said.
"What is it to you?" Jessie asked.
"Hades is my father." Amy said.
"Your father is Pluto?" Jessie said.
"No, Hades! His Greek form." Amy said.
"Oh, yes a Greek demigod, fun." Jessie said.
"Who are you?" Amy asked.
"I'm the son of Mars." Jessie said.
"A Roman? Look just hand over the Helm of Darkness." Amy said.
"Why don't you come over here and make me." Jessie said. He drew a wickedly long golden sword from its sheath.
Amy and Jessie fought for maybe a minute. Amy was already drenched in sweat and tired. "Guess that is what I get for getting into a sword fight with a child of the war god." Amy thought.
Jessie was still going on strong, Amy knew she couldn't hold out much longer.
But off to her right she saw red glowing eyes. It was some sort of monster, but Amy couldn't see it. But it came closer and it was one of the strangest, scariest monster Amy has ever seen. It had a lion's body with rust color fur. But instead of paws it had horse hooves. Its head like a mixture between a wolf and horse, having pointy ears and a long snout. Its tail was like a bullwhip. The creepiest thing was the mouth, black lips the looked disturbingly like human lips. It opened its mouth but instead of fangs, or even teeth it had horse shoe shaped plates of bone. Amy recognized the monster from her Latin book it was a leucrota.
The leucrota growled and it galloped/ran towards them. Amy didn't know what to do, but Jessie didn't seem to notice it. Amy thought it was going to attack her, but instead it bit its mouth into Jessie's leg.
Jessie cried out with pain, apparently the leucrota had more jaw strength then a crocodile. Amy took this time to grab the Helm out of his hands and though it next to the plant.
Amy managed to also disarm him with a sword trick Nicholas, her boyfriend back at camp, had shown her. Once that was done she grabbed his hands and pulled them behind his back.
"Now let's get you back to my father's palace." Amy said.
"Get this off my leg!" Jessie cried out.
"Um, leucrota, release him." Amy said.
Strangely the leucrota obliged to her command.
Amy called out hoping they could hear her, "Furies. I got a prisoner for you."
It took exactly thirty seconds for the three Furies to show up. Amy gave them the short version of the story and two of them grabbed Jessie by the arms and the last one grabbed the helm.
"Tell my father I will be back shortly." Amy tolled them.
"Will do." the lead Fury said.
Amy started heading back towards the Styx, then noticed the leucrota was following her.
"Are you following me?" Amy asked.
"Yes." it replied.
Amy nearly jumped back five feet. "You can speak." Amy said.
"All leucrota can mimic human speech." the leucrota replied. The voice it spoke in was a teenage boy, maybe fifteen or sixteen.
"Okay. You got a name I can call you other than 'leucrota'?" Amy asked.
The leucrota seemed to think, "You can call me Achilles."
"Achilles, like the Greek hero, who was mostly invincible?" Amy asked.
"Yes." Achilles said.
"Why?" Amy asked.
"Because no weapon of any metal can harm me." Achilles said.
"O-h-h-h-h-kay." Amy said. "I need to get back to my father's palace."
Without the flower to guide her Amy had trouble finding the way, but managed to find the Styx, as promised Charon was waiting there for her.
"Charon can you take me back across?" Amy asked.
"You need to pay for the leucrota." Charon said.
Achilles growled. "No problem I still have another coin." Amy said, handing Charon the last gold drachma.
"All aboard." Charon said.
On the other side of the Styx, Amy and Achilles started heading towards Hades' palace. They were almost there when Amy heard a voice from a cave off to the right.
Amy headed towards that way the cave slanted downhill. All of the sudden it opened up into a huge open room. There was a huge pit directly in front of her. Amy gasped, this was the place from her dream she had three months ago.
"Good you're here." said the voice.
"I already told you I won't help you!" Amy yelled.
"Come down." the voice said.
Amy felt a tugging sensation, like a wind trying to drag her in. Amy started to slide. If it wasn't for Achilles she would have been dragged in
Achilles had grabbed the back her sweater and shirt and started dragging her back up the cave. After about twenty feet, Amy got more sense in her legs and turned and ran out of the cave, Achilles close behind her. When she reached the mouth of the cave she ran ten more feet before stopping and sitting.
Achilles curled up next to her.
"Thank you." Amy told him.
"You should have known better." Achilles said.
"Well excuse me. My ADHD makes me do stupid things sometimes." Amy said.
He was silent for about fifteen seconds. "Sorry I shouldn't have said that."
Achilles said.
"It's fine, let's just get to the palace." Amy said. She stood up and started towards the palace.
When Amy entered the throne room Hades and Persephone still sat there, still in giant form, which was a bit uneasy.
"You have returned, good. The Furies told me what happened. You did well." Hades said. His Helm of Darkness was sitting on the armrest of his throne.
"Thank you father." Amy said, with a slight bow.
Persephone refused to make eye contact with her.
"I see you made a friend." Hades said, noting Achilles.
"He helped me catch the thief." Amy said.
"Very well, it is late, you should return back to the mortal world." Hades said.
"How long have I been down here?" Amy asked.
"Six hours." Hades said.
"Six hours!" Amy exclaimed.
"Imbecile." Persephone muttered under her breath, which was hard to do and not having any one know what you said, when you are twenty feet tall.
Hades stared at her. "Sorry." Persephone muttered.
"So it's like three in the afternoon?" Amy asked.
"Precisely." Hades said.
"Well, I guess I better get going." Amy said.
"Goodbye Andromeda." Hades said.
"Good bye father." Amy said.
A black portal like the one from earlier this morning appeared and Amy stepped into it.
Amy stepped into the living room of Archie's house, nearly scaring him out of his mind.
"Amy! Where were you?" Archie asked.
"In the Underworld." Amy said.
"What?" Archie asked.
"Long story." Amy said, and told him the story.
"Wow." Archie said.
"I do just hope those two kids made it into Elysium." Amy said.
"I am sure they will. I am more interested in the man you met there." Archie said.
"My half-brother apparently." Amy said.
"Yeah, what did he mean about one thing made him think about trying for rebirth." Archie said.
"Maybe someone he loved, a girlfriend or a sister did rebirth." Amy said.
"I guess so." Archie said.
"I wonder what happened to Jessie, tormented for the rest of eternity in the Fields of Punishment I suppose." Amy said.
"Well I bet you are starving." Archie said.
Amy didn't realize it but she was, she didn't get breakfast or lunch and now it was 4:30. "Yeah."
"Let's get something to eat." Archie said.
They had a Christmas feast, of McDonald's cheeseburgers, french-fries, soda, and chicken nuggets.
That night had a dream about the Pit again, it trying to recruit her and then drag her in.
When Amy woke up at the foot of her bed curled up, sleeping was a leucrota.
Amy nearly screamed, then she recognized him.
"Achilles?" Amy asked.
Achilles woke up and looked at her, "Good morning."
"What are you doing here?" Amy asked.
"I believe the note is on the desk." Achilles said.
Amy saw there was a slip of paper on her desk, she picked it up and read it. Luckily it was written in Ancient Greek so she could read it.
Amy, I have no magical weapon to give you,
but since you seemed to bond to this,
leucrota I shall let you keep him.
Take care,
Hades.
"Okay." Amy said. "How do I take care of a leucrota?"
"I like meat." Achilles said.
"Okay, I think there is a pound of bacon in the fridge. Let's go." Amy said.
Walking into the kitchen with Achilles trailing behind her, nearly scared Archie more than when she appeared yesterday morning.
"Amy! There is a monster behind you!" Archie screamed.
"Relax, he is my new pet." Amy said.
"What will he eat?" Archie asked.
Amy opened the fridge and brought out the package of bacon and opened it and tossed it into a big bowl. She set the bowl on the floor and Achilles started eating the bacon.
"Meat." Amy said.
"Great. Another $45 a week for food." Archie said.
"I can go a week with out food, and I will be fine eating any rabbits and squirrels I catch." Achilles said.
"Great, he can speak." Archie said.
"I think I will take him for a walk." Amy said.
"That would be nice." Achilles and Archie said at the same time.
Amy found a collar and leash in the closet and attached it Achilles. They walked out the door and down the street.
A woman jogger came up to her. Amy forgot about the fact of, what would the mortals think.
"Awww, cute Husky." she said.
Achilles growled.
"None of that," Amy told him. "Thanks got him for Christmas."
"What is his name?" the woman asked.
"Achilles." Amy said.
"Can I pet him?" she asked.
"He doesn't really like that." Amy said.
"Okay," she said and jogged off.
"Let's go." Amy said.
While walking around the block Amy kept thinking about the prophecy she had gotten from the Oracle, Rachel Dare had given her earlier in the summer, "When the sea is sick,
and lost is the magic. Chose whom to save, or enter the cave. The child of the dead, must save spring from the dread." Amy had a felling that spring meant Persephone and she was not trilled to help her.
Also the Pit, and the voice from it. What was it planing?
Not Quite The End yet.