(A/N: This is a story about Kai, Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia and their adventures getting to camp half-blood. Starting from the day Kai met Thalia leading up to their final arrival at camp. And Thalia's last stand. This story will mainly be told from Kai's POV.)
Prologue-
A New Family
Theme song: Young By: Hollywood undead
"We are young, we have heart
born in this world as it all falls apart
we are strong we don't belong
born in this world as it all falls apart"
[PART 1 | Daughter of Zeus]
FCPREMIX By: The Fall of Troy
"I know that you really wanna go,
My mind is runnin' outta gas just relax,
And recap, and relapse.
Tonight, my bodies jumpin' and I,
Go through the motions and I'm leaving on this journey,
Maybe someday I'll come running home to you."
Nikai Laskaris's POV.
I sat in the front of the band's van, half-engaging in the conversation, half-staring out of the window pretending to be interested in the bleak landscape. Tonight we were doing a benefit at central park. I had a lot on my mind personally, mainly running into that half-blood earlier. She was clearly on the run, she wanted me to come but I abandoned her selfishly. I had no desire to be involved in that world again. She had probably been abandoned countless times before, I was just one of the many who had. That guilt snapped at me constantly.
"Hey! KAI!" Jared snapped as he waved a lanky, tan, Californian-hand in front of my face.
"What?" I asked tiredly.
"We're here!" He shouted excitedly as he leapt out from the back of the van. Zavier, our male vocalist and base player was the one who drove, he's the unofficial leader of the band. I was the lead vocalist and group proclaimed good looking one of the band. My name's Nikai Laskaris, half-blood, half human half titan. I look fifteen, was cursed with immortality at the age of twelve and was born around the late B.C.E's. Complicated, I know. I hoped out of the van and followed the others on stage. We were starting with the song, Break by Three days grace. As Zavier introduced the band and I walked up to the microphone and began singing the song.
"Tonight, my head is spinning!
I need, something to take me up!
I've tried but nothing is working,
I won't stop I won't say I've had enough!
TONIGHT! I START THE FIRE! TONIGHT…I BREAK AWAY!" Zavier and I sang the chorus, as we sang I was surprised and filled with hope upon seeing that half-blood from earlier. She had her black hair tied in a messy pony tail with a ragged black jacket and grey tee. She had electric blue eyes that I recognized…she was a daughter of Zeus. Which I found interesting, seeing as the oath was still in tact. Meaning, Zeus broke the oath. Heh, this would be like a Degrassi Godly-special. I had been thinking about, and had found a resolve. After this I was quitting the band and going with the girl. As much as I despised the life of a half-blood, I had to admit, I missed it. It was the only place I belonged. We ended with the song F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X. by The Fall of Troy.
"Slow down this is slippin' through my mind,
This conversation has run out of time!
Honey I know you know what I mean,
And that's the one thing that you soon will find." I sang…
"I know that you really wanna go,
My mind is runnin' outta gas
Just relax, and recap, and relapse.
Tonight, my bodies jumpin' and I,
Go through the motions and I'm
Leaving on this journey.
Maybe someday I'll come running home to you!" As Zavier went in with the chorus…
"I don't wanna see the day
My words cannot make it safe!" While I came in with the background vocals…
"Come running home! Come running home!" Zavier continued to sing the main part…
"Her heart in my hands, it's too bad, no regrets!"
We sang the next part together, "I don't wanna see the day, her tears are falling on my grave!"
I did the back up vocals again, "Come running home! Come running home!"
He finished the lyrics, "This is my one chance, to take back, no regrets!"
I sang the next verse, "Let's go, I just wanna let you know, this situation leaves me outta breath! We'll drive till the love that's in your eyes, drops to the ground, unravels like a thread! I know that you really wanna go, I only think about her, must get to her, cannot lose her. You know that I will not reconcile, life support systems and my mind on rewind and rewind and rewind!" We finished with the chorus and the crowd erupted in cheers. We waved goodnight as we headed off stage I dropped the news to the band.
"My parents are moving across country, I've got to quit the band." I dropped the bomb, as they started at me with jaws dropped. They talked about it while I stood there hoping the half-blood hadn't gotten away. I said goodbye giving out hugs as I ran out into the crowd, ignoring the people calling my name from behind I looked and found the girl from earlier as I all but tackled her to the ground.
"Hey! It's you from earlier!" She called as I nodded out of breath. I gasped for air for a few seconds before finally saying.
"I've made up my mind, I'll come with you. The name's Nikai, Nikai Laskaris, you can call me Kai." I told her offering her my hand…
"Thalia, Thalia Grace…daughter of-" She said grinning, she seemed extremely happy to finally have an ally.
"Zeus. I can tell. Let's just say you remind me of one of my old friends." I told her, "You look a lot alike."
"We'll fight the monsters together, k?" I said as she nodded still grinning.
I later found out she was ten and had run away only months ago. I also learned she had a little brother, who was taken…
We spent a 6 months alone before we ran into Luke for the first time…
[PART 2 | Son of Hermes]
Follow By: Breaking Benjamin
"I'll follow you if you follow me
I don't know why you lie so clean
I'll break right through the irony"
"Whoa!" I shouted rolling to the side, evading the literal line of fire that was flowing from the dragon's mouth. I turned to Thalia as she gave me the thumbs up. I ran at it, it fired again, as she ran from the back with her shield, Aegis on her left while her right hand held her spear in middle stance.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She shouting running up from behind the dragon whipped it's head around but not nearly fast enough as she drilled the spear through it's chest. It exploded into magical golden dust leaving Thalia and I, sweaty, bloody, and hungry as Hades. Yet, still smiling like idiots who couldn't hold their beer. Or more, like kids who won their first fighting against the school yard bully. We knocked fists and plopped onto the ground discussing tonight's dinner.
"We've been taking advantage of Wal-Marts for a week, wanna switch to Safe-Way?" I questioned her as we walked in the ally's. Even though I may have lost the luxuries of showers, real meals, and a soft bed, I loved this life more than anything. Being on the run again, yes, again. Was oddly satisfying in some odd way. Not giving a shit about anything, that high I got from fighting for my life on a daily basis, all of it was oddly satisfying. And call me crazy, I wouldn't blame you, but I loved this life.
"Hey, it's your birthday, you decide what we have for dinner tonight." I said smirking. I had just remembered that today was her birthday, December 22nd and it was colder than frozen crap.
"Kay, let's go for Dunkin Donuts." Thalia suggested, okay, I know stealing is wrong and all. But it was simple survival. You do what ya gotta do…right?
"Okay, let's go." We found it on a corner it was pretty bare inside at the moment. It was a perfect set up. The man at the counter was munching on what looked like a classic glazed & sprinkled donut while talking on his cell phone. "Okay…go!"
I froze the place in time as she went in quickly gathered a few and ran out. I unfroze the place and the guy continued on with his miserable mortal life of selling donuts. When suddenly a bunch of monster came out of no where. From dracaenas to Cyclopes.
If there's one thing I've learned in my years, it's that there are a few guidelines for flying through windows, and those guidelines flew out the window faster than we did when we jumped out of it. Jumping through windows is never the smartest thing to do, but hey, I never said I was smart, did I?
"Thalia! Monster! Behind you!" I shouted with a half-eaten doughnut hanging from my slightly agape mouth like a hook.
"Aye-aye Captain Kai!" She shouted back thrusting her spear through the monster. While I took down another, out of nowhere came a flash of celestial bronze and a glimpse of wild blonde hair. He was well built and looked lean and athletic as he swiftly took care of the last monster.
"Damn…" Thalia muttered.
"Hey…my name's Luke." He said jolting around holding a hand out in a friendly gesture. His eyes were glinted and he had that classic sarcastic-Hermes smile.
"Son of Hermes…" I stated, "Hola." I said jeering my head in a greeting.
"Thought you might be a little more grateful, I just saved your lives after all." He said cockily. I smirked in return.
"Bullshit, who said we needed saving?' I retorted back.
"Well, you were surrounded by monsters, 2 against 5, sue a guy for caring." he said back shrugging like it was an every day sport, jumping into danger and slicing up monsters. Which I guess it was for us.
"Don't worry yourself, we're fine, and perfectly content." I replied taking another bite out of my half-eaten doughnut.
"Just trying to be friendly," he said backing off a bit.
"For all I know you could be a raving lunatic who just so happens to own a sword, see through the mist, and be a demigod." I retorted standing my ground.
"Says the girl with glaze all around her mouth, holding a sword, and has cuts all over her body." He said in response. I smirked, this kid had spunk. I'd give him that.
"Touché, let's start over. My name's Kai Laskaris, daughter of Kronos and Selene, long story involving sexual content and a lot of magical titan and godly crap that I don't feel like explaining." I introduced myself shoving my hand out.
"Lovely," he said, "Luke Castellan, son of the most selfish god of them all, Hermes. I'm 12." He had tussled blondish hair and blue eyes bit those sneaky features that all kids of Hermes had. He had a very athletic build for his age, flat muscles and a lean figure, his clothes were ragged, which wasn't unusual for the regular runaway kid.
"Thalia Grace. Daughter of Zeus." Thalia said, she had grown over the years, and now stood about 4'11.
"So, why don't we stick together, we have a larger chance of surviving that way." He offered.
"Let's leave it up to fate, eh?" I replied holding out a drachma, "Gods, you're in, Empire state building and we walk." I flipped the coin and stared down at the result.
"Welcome aboard comrade." Thalia said nodding acceptingly.
"Guess your in," I said, "but listen, attempt to steal anything of mine and you'll find yourself hanging upside down in your boxers from the Eiffel Tower, got it?" I threatened. He recoiled but nodded grinning.
"Come on, we're going to head to our nearest camp site. We have a few bases around here." I told him grinning, "we'll have more clothes once the next Goodwill truck comes in." Like I said, we did what we had to survive. I had a lot of money in the bank but it was mainly all drachma's. The little money I had in there was for an emergency if I ever got mortally wounded and needed a hospital, but that was extremely unlikely. I was after all, semi-immortal.
[PART 3 | Daughter of Athena]
Move along By: All American Rejects
"When all you got to keep is strong
Move along move along like I know ya do
And even when your hope is gone
Move along, move along just to make it through"
The dark ally of brick surrounded us, we were currently in a place called Richmond Ironworks. Whatever. The point was, we were currently searching for something, we weren't sure what quite yet, but we had sensed something around this area. And being the naturally curious children we were, we have to stake it out. We crouched down in the shadows under the light of a full moon.
Luke was crouched down low holding the bronze knife, we were all firmly pressed against the wall. While I wielded my sword, Amyntas and next to me, was Thalia holding her spear and scary-as-shit shield. I felt a sort of energy within me, the full moon did that to me, I felt like an animal of the hunt.
"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.
Luke nodded. "Something's down here, I sense it."
"I just find it weird we're actually seeking out something instead of it finding us. Clearly our badass reputation precedes us." I sniggered as they muffled some laughs. In the years we've been together, we'd connected as a family. Thalia immediately took a liking to Luke, it took a while for me to fully trust him, but that's just the way I was.
I heard a distant rumble like someone had tripped over a piece of metal. Clearly this thing didn't have built in night vision. We crept foreword a bit more. We crouched behind some old crates stacked on a loading dock. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered and I knew something was behind it.
I nodded as we all went, Luke ripped away the tin, and a little girl flew at him, with my amazing battle instincts though I brought up my leg in a kick, as the hammer scattered from her little hands. She couldn't have been older than maybe seven she was wearing flannel pajamas and had a fierce look.
"No more monsters! Go away!" she fought and kicked.
"Gods, I'm fighting a seven year old girl, way to make me feel like the bad guy!" I shouted sarcastically to no one in particular.
"K, weapons down, because I'm 100% sure that if a police comes around that corner we'll be sent to juvie for assaulting a minor." I told them as we all put down our weapons.
"Look, we're not gonna hurt you…" I said, studying her, gray eyes, smart features…Athena defiantly.
"Hey, it's all right, I'm Thalia, the mistress of sarcasm over there, is Kai, and this is Luke." Thalia said.
"Monsters!" she shouted.
"No," Luke promised, "but we know all about the monsters. We fight them too."
"She's a kid of Athena, another kid who's finally realized they're better off without parents." I told them as I stared back at the girl. "We're demigods like you."
"Where's you family?" Luke asked.
"My family hates me!" She spat, "they don't want me. I ran away."
"Join the club." I muttered. "What's your name kid?" I asked.
"Annabeth."
"Nice name. I'll tell you what, Annabeth, you're pretty fierce, we could use a fighter like you." I said.
"Wait! You flipped a coin for me, yet you just let her join!" Luke shouted exasperated at me.
"You were a cocky kid with an attitude! This is a total different situation." I retorted.
"Oh please!" he shouted I laughed.
"Listen kid, why don't you come with us, we could use you on the team." I said. Her intelligent gray eyes widened.
"Really?" She asked.
"Oh yeah," Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapons? This is celestial bronze, works a lot better on monsters."
"But if anyone asks, say you found it in the dump, you don't normally see seven year olds carrying around knives." I said smirking at the kid.
"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained. "They don't usually reach the power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. But if you really are a child of Athena, I'll bet you're pretty clever."
"I am!" Annabeth said looking at us all with admiration.
"We'd better be going. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."
"You're…you're not going to take me back to my family?" She said. "Promise?" I grinned.
"Kid, we are your family now. You're part of our family now, we won't fail you like our families did us. Got it?" I said confidently, "I promise."
"Now let's go, I'm dying for a taco." I muttered. But things didn't happen exactly as I wanted it, basically, a bunch of monsters came out of no where and decided it would be fun to attack us.
"Thalia, you take Annabeth and get me some Taco's Luke and I'll meet you guys back at the camp site!" I shouted, mainly I just REALLY wanted my tacos… They scattered away heading north where we last saw a Taco Bell. Meanwhile Luke and I crouched in a battle-ready formation of sort.
I scanned the area, in abandoned yards with a bunch of ware houses you have a pretty free range. I jumped and sliced through the hellhounds leg. It toppled over as Luke stabbed it in the heart. Another one came out of nowhere, Luke went from behind and sliced but what he didn't see was the monster behind him! Whenever I fought, time naturally slowed for my enemies. But even with the more time I did have, he was too far away! DAMMIT!
Suddenly out of nowhere the girl came and sliced the hellhound, it was a perfect distraction as I got over there and beheaded it. "Nice work kid!" I shouted as we ran far away…
We must've run miles before we finally collapsed taking in deep breaths.
"…so I'm guessing you weren't able to get my tacos?" I asked Thalia as she rolled her eyes.
[Part 4 | Monster attacks]
Jump By: Simple Plan
"Don't wanna think about tomorrow
I just don't care tonight
I just wanna jump
Don't wanna think about my sorrow"
"WHOA!" I shouted as I caught myself from running straight off the cliff's edge. We were in a bit of a tight spot right now, when you have a hydra in front of you and you and your 3 friends are cornered at the edge of a cliff, yeah, I'd call that a tight spot. Especially when the crashing waves beneath you are owned by none other than Poseidon who didn't exactly "like" Thalia or I. We discovered that when we were jet skiing away from an angry minor goddess… Our lives weren't exactly normal.
"I always imagined myself dying a bit more heroically." I said aloud.
"Yes, and dying against the hydra isn't heroic enough for you Kai?" Luke said skeptically.
"No, the falling to my death from a cliff then being drowned by Poseidon doesn't sound like a heroic death." I told him, water activities, or sky activities, both of which were a big no-no for me. Sailing, Poseidon could drown me. Surfing, Poseidon could create a huge tsunami and kill me. Wind surfing, Zeus could strike me down while Poseidon made sure I STAYED down. Fishing…slimy fish slapping my face with their tails. Hmm…yeah, I'll keep my feet firmly placed on the ground.
"Here's your chance to kiss me Kai, after all, I might die and never have had my first kiss, wouldn't that be sad." Luke said flirtatiously. I laughed at the randomness of that comment. Luke and I had a bit of a flirting sort of thing going on here. What do you expect though, he's a 14 year old boy, that's his excuse. Mine is that I'm stuck in a 13 year old's body. We were both adolescents…
"Yeah, not gonna happen, because we're getting out of this alive." I said, THINK KAI THINK DAMMIT! Option 1.) Jump and hope to survive (not likely); Option 2.) Get killed by the hydra and have a slightly more heroic death as a result; Option 3.) Go mad apeshit and pull a psycho-bitch act; Option 4.) Sit and think a little longer until I'm burnt to a crisp; Option 5.) Think a bit more… I went with option 5.
I thought about it, the chemical mixture was oxygen, fuel, the chain reaction together made heat which in turn started a fire. The problem was we had no fire… Now there were many ways of dealing with a hydra, the easiest would be to cut off all the heads and smelt them with fire. That option was out due to the lack of fire. So I decided to come up with a new plan involving my powers, a crap load of adrenaline, and the maximum strength of all of us together. Then that failed too…
"Okay, who wants to go for a swim?" Thalia asked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think I would need swim trunks to raid a McDonalds." Luke said, yes, this adventure had all begun with a McDonalds…
"You can swim in your boxers." I retorted thinking about more options.
"I'm not wearing boxers." He retorted, Annabeth, Thalia and I all turned to scowl at him.
"Charming…" I said sarcastically as I asked Thalia if she could fly, she stared at me for a few seconds wondering if I was crazy, then said no. We were backed up to the VERY edge of the cliff at this point. I knew my only option, it was extremely risky and involved me nearly dying in 4 different ways, but what the Hades! You do what you gotta do right? I could run away but I never liked that option, because it would mean using a bunch of my powers and leaving my friends to die.
"Okay, Thalia, I need you to pray the hardest you've every prayed, because I don't want to be struck down by lightening. In all reality, we all need to pray, to Poseidon and Zeus because I'm about to go cliff diving. Wish me luck kids." I said sarcastically as their eyes all widened and they stared at me questioning whether I was serious or not, they found their answer in my face as I launched myself at the hydra, we, together, went falling down the cliff. You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes when you die? Yeah, well that's a bunch of bullshit. When you're falling from a cliff to your oh-so-un-heroic-death all you're thinking is, "Crap. Crap. Crappity crap-crap! I should've listened to Luke and not gone to McDonalds!" Well, that's what I was thinking the whole time. Then you realize you're falling faster than you thought, you get a massive crap load of adrenaline, a sort of high when you realize the rush and excitement flowing through you. Then you remember you're dying and it's back to the Crappity-crap-crap.
Then, I remembered my plan and as I hit the water I focused creating a sort of time-warp, propelling myself back in time to the point of me still being on the cliff, but it was only me who went back in time. I found myself on dry land, still cold as crap, and slightly in a high. Then I found myself quickly blacking out. Due to the massive power-overload. I was a DECENDENT of Kronos, I was not the titan of time himself. I could not completely over rule the nature of time without consequence…
"KAI!" Was all I heard before the world went black…
…
"Hey…guess I'm alive." I muttered sitting up.
"And damn lucky to be." Luke's voice said as I saw they were all around me and we were in one of our camp outs. I scanned the camp for some food while Luke slept, Annabeth and Thalia were already sleeping, and I'd been sleeping for over a day. I found a half eaten bag of chips and shoved them down my throat.
I stood watch over the camp while the others slept we were currently somewhere in northern Delaware according to Luke. He always knew where we were, but I guess that was part of being a son of Hermes. The sun was rising over the Atlantic. We were currently in a cave on the cove of gods knew where. I stared out at the pacific enjoying this small peaceful moment, it was a small moment that didn't last longer than 3 minutes due to the giant crab that was impending towards us.
"YO People! Might want to wake up!" I shouted at the others as they jolted up with the usual, ready-to-fight-for-our-lives approach. Their hair was wild and the looks in their eyes were all the same: defensive.
"Who wants crab for breakfast?" I hollered pointing out the giant orange crab.
"Let's go!" Luke shouted, it was HUGE. I'm not talking "buy at your local fish market for 25$" crab, I'm talking Godzilla size crab. It's pinchers were threatening and looked like they could snap any of us in half in a heartbeat. Sure, it was scarier looking than Aphrodite when Ares forgets their weekly anniversary but it wasn't the looks that made me gag, it was the smell! Think of a dirty kitty litter that hadn't been cleaned in over a millennia mixed with rotten eggs, and whatever else you could find in your local dump, imagine that smell, then multiply it by a million and you might come close to what I was smelling. It was walking sideways like your average crab but that was the only average thing about it.
"Damn it reeks!" Thalia shouted with a gagging expression.
"Luke, go for the left legs, Thalia go for the right legs, I'll distract it, Annabeth, take it from the belly with your knife there's a knick in it's armor if you can get to it we'll take care of the rest!" I barked orders, I couldn't remember the last time I'd faced this ugly thing but it sure was ugly…
Luke slid on his knees into the surf of the crashing waves while the crab whipped around and attempted it claw it, I quickly maneuvered around blocking with my sword in a skilled parry. Thalia went down and chopped off it's far back leg while Luke dodged swerving to the side to avoid getting stabbed through. Jumping to the side, I narrowly avoid getting snapped in half but I grabbed on hitching a ride as I grabbed onto the fur on the side of it's pincher, the crab threw me on top of his shell as I ran towards it's eyes and drilled them out stabbing them with my sword. It let out a sort of sound between a hiss and a clicking noise, I couldn't tell due to the foam spilling from it's furry mouth.
"Now Annabeth!" I shouted as she ran under it and quickly found the knick stabbing her knife into it. The wound wasn't deep but it did the trick as it exploded into a sort of golden dust leaving us wet from salt water and sweat. What a wonderful morning huh?
"What's the plan now?" Thalia asked out of breath.
"There's a local pool across from the coffee shop, we'll shower there, change, and get some coffee." I announced just as out of breath as she was. They all nodded.
"Nice job Annabeth, you found the knick quickly." Luke complimented her I nodded.
"You did great." I acknowledged she grinned with satisfaction. Her seven year old features were bright even though she herself was a mess. I looked toward Thalia and grinned, it really felt like a family. I've never really had a family before, but for some reason, I felt that this was what a family was.
We traveled up the beach and scaled the rock wall as we ran across the train tracks and headed up to a wood-like area. It was some sort of local park I guess, there were small kids on the swings and mothers pushing the kids on the swings as they laughed and cheered. I looked at my friends and saw they all had sort of longing looks on their faces… I guess they've never really ever had those sort of moments in life.
"Hey, after the coffee, why don't we come back here and hang out a little, after all, we don't have anything better to do." I said playfully they all nodded, still a bit tired. We walked towards the pool and climbed over the fences into the communal bathroom, the showers were warm and provided a bit of warmth while we changed into a clean pair of clothes. The outfits were casual and basic, jeans, tee's, shoes, and a jacket. They didn't provide much armor but they did provide comfort and we were able to move around easily when we fought off the monsters. We headed across the street for some coffee and food, we had a bit of money and we got a large scone and a large coffee we all shared it.
After that we all headed back to the park and played, Annabeth immediately ran towards the swings and we joined her. It was a simple time, we just laughed and played like any other kids. I thought about where we should go from here, I met Thalia in California, Luke in Texas, and Annabeth in Virginia, now we were in Delaware. Where were we going? I half wondered whether I should lead them to Camp Half-Blood.
It was safer and probably more responsible but, I knew for a fact Luke hated the Gods, as did Thalia, and Annabeth sort of followed their lead. I didn't want to leave them either, it would be safer for them though. I didn't want to though, because I wouldn't be able to stay at Camp Half-Blood, I didn't belong there.
"Where are we going now?" Luke asked as we sat in the comfortable chairs.
"I don't know, don't we just head wherever we want?" I said stating it more like a comment. Annabeth shared a chair with Thalia, while Annabeth was holding the architectural wonders book that we got for her, like I said, we didn't have much but we did have little things.
"C'mon guys, we can't stay here for too much longer." I said as we all headed out. It wasn't long though before we were attacked by a pack of hellhounds. We were still tired from the last attack… There ain't no rest for the heroes I guess.
"Plan?" Thalia shouted as we stared in horror at the pack of snarling hellhounds.
"Well, we could fight, and die because we're already exhausted or we could run and we might have a larger percentage of survival." I said as we jotted off down the streets… But damn they were fast, I'm not sure what the mortals saw but it sure as Hades wasn't good because they stared at us with open mouths and wide eyes. Run. Run. Run. They were snarling, growling, and yapping behind us.
"C'mon, we've got to hurry!" I shouted as I spotted a few motorbikes. "Jump on!" I shouted as I quickly explained about the clutch and throttle. Thalia and I jumped onto a black Suzuki while Luke and Annabeth took a silver Yamaha. We then drove off and into the forest terrain leaving the streets behind us.
The hellhounds kept up pretty well but they couldn't run forever. The terrain was pretty flat so that was nice, we lost the first 2 eventually but the first one was much faster. There were about 20 of them and that was a major problem. It was nearing night fall and we were approaching our safe house.
But one of them leapt and tackled me and Thalia to the ground while the bike went up in flames and a big "boom" thus destroying the small safe house we had. Luke and Annabeth screeched to a stop while I jumped up in action right away… Thalia wasn't as fast and one of the hellhounds sunk it's teeth into her leg shaking her like a rag doll. She screamed as I bounded up and sliced it's head.
By now though the other hellhounds had caught up and we were surrounded with no way out. They were all grouped around us looking as vicious as ever. They had black wild and messy fur with bright angry red eyes. Thalia was bleeding all over the ground and the others looked exhausted. What I'd give to be a God right now. Luke sliced up another while Annabeth stabbed another's legs, it went down with a crash and I stabbed it as a finish. There were still fifteen of them left. Thalia needed to get out of danger here…
Luke was my best fighter right now, but Annabeth didn't know how to drive a motorbike. Our only option was to fight right now. Dodging a claw, I sliced it off and cut off it's muzzle as it exploded into dust. Luke and Annabeth took down another one and barely avoided getting turned into dog chow by another while I took down that one. Twelve more. I was sweating and the others looked as if they were about to pass out. I didn't blame them. The forest dirt looked like the most comfortable bed in the world right now. I struggled to move, my limbs felt heavy and tired as we took down some more with a series of stabs and cuts.
"Damn, I won't let it end this pathetically." I muttered to myself as Thalia came to consciousness and struggled up. There were seven more left. She took down one while Luke sliced open one of their bellies and Annabeth put one to sleep. I killed another and slashed through 2 more. One left! I felt a sudden final jolt of adrenalin as we took down the last one together… and all collapsed on the ground.
"What I would give to have a coffee right now…" I mumbled before falling to my knees. Thalia was passed out, Annabeth was half passed out, and Luke was about to pass out. I gave them all some nectar and ambrosia. Thalia a bit more, I studied her leg, she needed major help, the wound was deep and was bleeding heavily. I took off a scarf and wrapped it around her leg fastening it the best I could.
"I know what we have to do, we have to get her to my house, we can rest there…" Luke said fiercely.
"I thought you swore you'd never go back there." I said.
"This doesn't count, this is really bad for Thalia isn't it?" He asked I stared down at the wound and fed her a bit more ambrosia. She was in a cold sweat and the wound was still bleeding. I nodded.
"We can't be too far now from my mothers…" He said dutifully as I nodded and hoisted Annabeth on my back. Luke carried Thalia as we stumbled into the night drowsy and about to collapse from exhaustion. Two hours later we were all running through the forest…
Annabeth nearly tripped over her oversized army jacket while Luke caught her hand and took her hand.
"Not too much further." He coached as I nodded from the rear. Thalia was using me as support and she was still in pretty bad condition the nectar had helped quite a bit but she still needed better medical attention. We scrambled to a ridge and looked down towards a white Colonial house.
"All right, I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here." He said breathing hard in gasps. As were we.
"Are you sure? If she catches you-" I began.
"We don't have a choice!" He growled. "We've got to treat Thalia's leg!"
"Th-This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement.
"It WAS my house, it's dead to me now," He muttered, "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency-"
"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"
"NO!" Luke quickly shouted. Annabeth shrank back from him as though his anger scared her. Luke had told me about his mother and I trusted him so I agreed to stay out here.
"I…I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back-" Suddenly a brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods and we covered out eyes immediately while a large scary voice boomed, "You shouldn't have come here!"
Hermes.
[Part 5 | Something to prove]
Reckless By: Papa Roach
"I'm walking on broken glass
From the wreckage of my past
I'm locked up in a cage
Cause I'm a prisoner of my ways"
Luke had an angered look on his face while we stood in May Castellan's kitchen. It was lit by candles and the ambiance was scary and sort of eerie. In the living room Luke and Hermes stood while the candles flickered over the fireplace but other than that, there was no light. Ms. Castellan was bandaging Thalia's leg while we stood around and waited. Annabeth was playing with a Medusa beanbag toy. I stood leaning against the wall peering through the window, tensed, ready for any attack by a monster…
"Come have some cookies dear," Ms. Castellan said to me.
"It's alright, I'll keep watch from the monsters." I responded with my best pleasant smile. This place was weird, I wanted to get out of here. This was creepy and I felt tense and defensive.
"Oh, don't worry, the monsters are no threat. They sit outside all day they'd never hurt me." She replied I looked at Thalia as we shared a look of concern. I thought about Luke living with this woman alone, I could understand why he ran away…it would be scary and threatening. Ms. Castellan continued to chatter aimlessly as she poured more Kool-Aid for us. Annabeth wandered towards me.
"C-Can we go now Kai?" She asked as she held up a burnt cookie.
"We'll go soon…" I muttered, "why don't you get some sleep over there." I said pointing towards a chair.
"I-I don't like it here." She mumbled.
"Neither do I-" I began when a loud shout from the living room came.
"-THEN YOU DON'T CARE!" Luke yelled the talking stopped immediately.
"Luke?" Ms. Castellan called, "Is that you? Is my boy alright?" He turned but I saw the tears trickling down form his blue eyes down to his cheek.
"I'm fine. I have a new family. I don't need either of you." He said hoarsely.
"I'm your father!" Hermes insisted taking a step towards him.
"A father is supposed to be around. I've never even met you. Kai, Annabeth, Thalia, let's go. We're leaving." Luke said all the while glaring at his father.
"My boy, don't go!" May Castellan called, "I have your lunch ready!"
We followed Luke out the door. While Hermes held May back…
…
"We'll stay here for the night." I muttered as we entered a motel room. While Thalia and Annabeth fell asleep immediately falling into the two beds Luke plopped down on another bed and pretended to be asleep.
"Hey…Luke…I know you're not asleep." I said approaching him.
"I hate him. I hate him." He muttered to himself over and over. I sat down on the other side of the large bed. The silence was different and lonely. I sat there and listened to him mutter that over and over to himself. I could relate to how he felt about his father. As for his mother, I wasn't sure… I never knew my mother either… Kronos I sure as Hades didn't like at all.
"Kai…I hate them all." He said angrily I nodded, "Kiss me." He said.
"Luke…I'm not going to-" I began.
"Please." He said staring over at me with pleading eyes. I didn't know why. Maybe I felt sorry for him. Maybe I wanted to. I leaned forward and placed my lips upon his and then backed away to see him smiling. It wasn't a lonely sort of smile, it was smile, a genuine smile. As we laid there next to eachother in silence.
"M-My mother, she's always had those fits, her eyes would glow and she'd tell me I was in danger, that I had a terrible fate…that I was going to die young. She'd shake me and tell me those things over and over… Never once. Not even once did my so called "father" help me." Luke told me, "I would hide in the closets to avoid her finding me. How could he have just left me! Why? Everyday I was scared she'd find me… Imagine having the one person who's supposed to love you, to care about you, to protect you, tell you that your going to die, that you have a terrible fate. It's why I ran away…" He told me. I nodded.
"Like I told you, I'm old. Well, to begin, I was never exactly… 'Daddy's little girl' originally I was the result of him and Selene, the titan of the moon. As for that story, that probably involves a lot of spiritual power and Titanly seduction that my father never cared to tell me about. I'm guessing Peitho the goddess of seduction had something to do with it. Either way, Kronos quickly found I was rebellious and had my own ethics he saw this as a threat and like I said earlier, he acted on fear and sealed my soul within time…as the Titan of time, he has the power to do that. Thanatos found me and being the god of mortality he found me and gave me mortality freeing my soul from the time warp by transferring it into the form of a thirteen year old mortal girl. As I am now, you see, he gave me that mortality in a human form but the immortality I was granted at birth still has it's effect, I can't ever die…He gave me physical mortality not spiritual mortality. All in exchange for helping him pull a prank on his twin, Hypnos."
"Wow, guess all Titans and Gods are one in the same…" He muttered.
"I go along with my life…" I replied, "…in truth, this is the closest thing I've ever truly come to a family. You three are all I really have…"
"Same." He replied.
…
"Dammit Luke!" I shouted angrily pushing the boy. "Stop acting like you have something to prove and being so reckless! You could've gotten Annabeth killed! You could've gotten us all killed!"
"I'm not acting reckless! AND I DO HAVE SOMETHING TO PROVE! You don't understand Kai!" He retorted loudly. As we stood head-to-head glaring at eachother. Ever since that night he's acting reckless and stupid, what he doesn't get is that he's endangering Thalia and Annabeth's lives.
"Maybe I don't understand! But what I DO understand is that if you continue acting like this, you'll get us all killed!" I shouted back. "What the hell's wrong with you? If you're pissed fine! If you're sad, fine! But stop acting like an idiot and getting yourself half killed all the time! You're not getting that everything you're doing is affecting US! Affecting our FAMILY! Getting us nearly killed all the time!"
He was leaned up against a brick wall from where I pushed him.
"STOP IT!" Annabeth shouted standing between us. "You two shouldn't fight! Y-You're supposed to get along, that's what families do!" She insisted as I recoiled…Luke winced as Thalia stood up.
"Annabeth's right, you two need to stop fighting all the time." Thalia said. I nodded.
"I-I'm sorry Luke." I muttered holding out a hand. He sat there for a second before grabbing it and hoisting himself up to my level. He nodded as well as Thalia and Annabeth stood there standing up watching us waiting for us to say something to eachother. He finally opened his mouth.
"I-I'm sorry too. I-I don't know…never mind." He muttered as we headed towards out nearest safe house.
For awhile after that things were calm and we got along fine. But there was still that tense atmosphere between us, it wasn't like it was earlier in our adventures. We weren't able to joke around with eachother as easily. Talking to Luke was like walking on thin ice. In front of Annabeth and Thalia we tried to be as calm as usual and act like everything was fine, but I think he sensed it too. I wanted to talk to him about it because I was seriously sick of this whole "act like everything's fine" façade but it was hard…
[Part 6 | Grover Underwood the satyr]
East Coast Anthem By: Good Charlotte
"On the east coast we ride until we die
You know
Well there's a place inside my mind
Yeah a place you'll never find
There's a place inside my mind walk this way"
"Where are we now?" Thalia asked. We were in some sort of area of deserted forest. I felt something. Deep within me, I'm not sure what but it was something involving my mothers domain. The full moon was out and the call within me was unbearable. It was something within me that wouldn't stop. I focused and put a rush of speed. I knew it was getting closer…
"Where are we going Kai?" Annabeth asked.
"I'm not sure, but I sense something…" I muttered as I continued bounding into the forest. They were just following me when I saw a glint of light to my left, I jolted around and headed towards that direction. I had no idea how long I'd been running but I knew I was close…I could just feel it. I imagined whatever was ahead was only feet away in my mind. Energy rushed through me like a raging river ready to burst when we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by girls in silver. And I knew what I had sensed and why…
"Ah, the hunters of Artemis, I knew I had sensed something close to my mothers domain." I muttered, while the girls all had arrows pointed at us. Their bows were drawn and loaded. There was no need to aim at this range for them. I smirked. The white wolves that were normally hostile towards strangers greeted me with a sort of bow that was a very doggish bow. The girls eyes widened at this sight.
"Who are you! How dare a boy enter our camp." One of the girls spat.
"Kai?" Another voice entered, a familiar one.
"Zoë." I stated acknowledging her presence when an even more important one entered into perspective. She was familiar and literally hadn't aged a day, but being a goddess I guess that was expected. Her hair was auburn and her eyes were as piercing and as silver as ever. Her eyes never failed to remind me of two full moons glowing side by side. She wore her usual silver hunters outfit and she looked her usual 12.
"Milady, who IS this? The wolves are-" One of the hunters said hastily.
"An old accomplice, you may lower your arrows." She said keeping her head high. "Kai, please explain, what is this boy doing here?" I hesitated. I had not expected to run into her hunters of all people. If I had known I would've told Luke to stay back at the safe house. I knew how she felt about BOYS.
"It's a long story, but we won't be staying long, he's a friend of mine, all of us have been on a long journey." I told her as she nodded accepting it.
"As long as you won't be here long." She said. "What business do you have here?" She asked me.
"Oh, I was just following a sense and it led me to you guys, I felt it was close to my mothers domain so I followed it. It's of little importance now though." I told her. I saw Thalia and Zoë talking together out around the fire while some other hunters taught Annabeth how to use a bow and arrow. Luke stood apart from the group staring at me with longing eyes, longing to leave that is. I didn't blame him.
I joined the others and saw Thalia glaring at Zoë.
"Hold your arm more like this, and keep your foot there." the hunter named Sarah instructed Annabeth. Annabeth had a fierce determined look upon her face, keeping her lips tight she seemed discouraged to learn how to properly shoot an arrow. She released and the arrow flew to the very outer rim of the target. Meanwhile Thalia and Zoë continued their glaring contest they had.
"Joining Lady Artemis is the greatest honor thou could hope to achieve!" Zoë shouted.
"No, I refuse to leave Annabeth, Kai, and Luke." Thalia said.
"Annabeth and Kai may join as well." Artemis said though she knew full well I wouldn't join.
"I won't leave Luke though." Thalia said.
"That boy shall one day let you down." Zoë retorted hauntingly. That really pissed Thalia off.
"What the Hades do you know? I'm not going to join your stupid anti-boys club!" Thalia shouted.
"You don't know what you're saying!" Another girl shouted in retort.
"Kai, Annabeth, Luke, let's go!" Thalia shouted angrily storming off, Luke followed and seeing Luke leave Annabeth quickly dropped the bow and went along with the two…I sighed.
"Sorry Lady Artemis," I replied following the three into the dense forest.
…
"Guys! Wait up!" I shouted when I spotted them standing unruly still in the middle of a clearing being confronted by a satyr of all things. I wondered whether Camp Half-Blood had been notified of our presence and decided to send one after us. Or perhaps Hermes or Artemis had notified the camp. Either way…
"Who are you satyr?" I asked him approaching.
"M-My name is Groooooover Underwood…junior protector…" He muttered bah-ing in-between sentences while shuffling nervously upon his hooves. I wondered whether this was his first mission, he certainly acted like it and certainly looked it, then again, satyrs age slower than humans.
"Tell me, what are you doing here?" Thalia demanded still not fully over her anger at the little spat back at the camp of the hunters, Annabeth was staring with wonder and curiosity at the satyr though. I assumed she'd never seen a satyr before. Then again, neither had Thalia or Luke.
"I-I've been sent to take you guys safely to camp half-blood." He said still nervously chewing on his orange camp half-blood tee shirt. He was still shuffling on his hooves. He had a red cap though that hid his horns. He wasn't wearing any pants so we could clearly see his furry behind.
"We're not going there." Luke said forcefully. Annabeth clutched onto Luke's pant leg, she was loyal to him and would follow him anywhere. I understood her feelings, this was her family and she was just as protective of it as Luke and I were. She didn't want to lose us and went along with us. Thalia on the other hand I could tell was thinking this over…it would be safer for Annabeth and her and Luke.
"You guys have to come, you'll be safer there! More monsters will come after you guys! You can't defeat them all." Grover persisted but wasn't able to finish convincing us because a giant man/ox in a diaper came at us. The Minotaur. This was just great. Now I told you, Luke and I had been on thin ice for awhile but when it came to fighting and keeping the others safe, we worked together no matter what.
"The Hydra, the Giant Crab, a pack of Hellhounds, now the Minotaur!" I began as Grover cringed with each monster I listed off he finally shouted.
"STOP! Don't say their names!" He shouted as if it pained him. I rolled my eyes.
It heard Grover and I as it bounded towards us with a sort of battle cry that sounded more like an angry burst of sound between a roar and a growl that only IT could've produced. It wielded a double bladed battle axe and ran at us. The ground shook with every step it took leaving behind a print 2 inches deep, but it probably wasn't due to fat but more to muscle. Which was kind of scary if you think about it.
"Erre es korakas, Minotaur!" I shouted angrily as it struck me with a force that felt like I'd been hit by a refrigerator. Basically, it wasn't nice. Luke jumped into action quickly slicing it's arm, it wasn't deep due to the sudden jerk the Minotaur made. It swung around repelling Luke with the blade of it's axe as I stood up. Grover was bahing nervously. Not much help was he? Oh well…it was the usual…
Thalia ran at it with her spear. She struck as I rolled to the side and avoided the flying axe that Thalia has just disarmed the Minotaur with when she jabbed her spear into it's left wrist. I figured it wasn't comfortable. It shook around like a wild animal on steroids while Grover shouted at us to run. I ignored him and persisted to attack the giant monsters. Luke dodged a swipe of it's claws and Thalia jolted to the side as it came running at her. I delivered one Sparta kick to the chest as it flew back and Annabeth ran stabbing her knife into it's chest as it exploded into dust like all the other monsters…
"Adios." I said sarcastically as we high-fived eachother.
"A-ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY! YOU COULD'VE BEEN BHAAAAAA BHA KI-KILLED!" Grover shouted in hysterics as we stared at him blinking. "YOU SHOULD'VE BHAAAAAA R-RUN!" He continued shouting and bahing at us in his fit of insanity…shout, shout, bah, shout some more.
"DI IMMORTALES!" I shouted, "YOU'RE ACTING LIKE IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF SATYR!" He finally calmed down and stared at me. It was a long moment full of staring and silence. When suddenly, out of nowhere, came swooping down, a Fury. To describe the bat-woman in one word: Ugly. It's leather wings flapped in gusts of winds it's mouth consisted of yellowing teeth and it had bright angry red eyes that I think nearly every monster had.
"Someone's never heard of brushing their teeth." I muttered.
"R-RUN!" Grover shouted once again.
"We can take care of it Grover!" Annabeth said confidently. Then once again, the other two came out of nowhere. I was still confident we could take them…or as confident as I could be… Then a huge gap in the ground opened up and a group of skeleton warriors appeared out of it.
"YOU WILL NOT REACH CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" One of the Fury's screeched.
"WE SHALL MAKE SURE OF THAT DAUGHTER OF ZEUS!" Another shouted.
"YOUR EXISTANCE HAS DEFIED THE OATH AND YOU SHALL DIE FOR THAT!" The last said.
That's the thing about Gods; insults and past dishonorable habits tend to stay fresh in their minds millennia later. Which if you think about it is just totally ridiculous. The oath was that after WWII none of the big three would have anymore children, Thalia here was a defiance of that oath. Hades had never sent the Furies or this many monsters after us before though… He must be having a bad day.
"NOW do we run?" Grover shouted, his voice shrill.
"Y-Yeah!" I shouted as we jolted off into the clearing.
"We need a distraction!" Luke shouted realizing that they were gaining on us extremely quickly.
"Y-Yeah…" I said as I thought. Suddenly out of nowhere a large lightening bolt struck down half the army and a group of hellhounds along with a Fury. Zeus must be trying to help Thalia. I smirked, that was good. At least we had SOMEONE on our side. I looked at Thalia and saw her eyes closed and a thoughtful expression, I could tell…she was praying to her dad… That was definitely a suitable "distraction" it gave us just enough time to highjack a pick up truck and drive away from the clearing.
"This is just great!" Thalia complained sarcastically.
"I KNOW! THE ONLY MORSEL OF FOOD IN THIS CHUNK OF ROLLING METAL IS A HALF EATEN TACO THAT LOOKS LIKE IT'S BEEN SITTING HERE SINCE LAST DECEMBER!" I shouted angrily searching for any piece of food.
"No! The 3 CD's this thing has is Guys In Overalls, The Rednecks and banjos, and Guys in extra-baggy Overalls." She complained as I looked over her shoulder to see if she was serious.
"Damn…" I muttered seeing the cover art on those pieces of crap.
"I guess one man's crap is another guys treasure." Thalia muttered.
We finally ran out of gas somewhere Albany, New York, we were getting closer. To the camp.
[Part 7 | In the end]
In the end By: Linkin Park
"I had to fall
I had to lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter"
The group of Underworld monsters nearly caught us multiple times, but whether it was stealing a minivan or high jacking a group of motorcycles, we continuously evaded them.
"C'mon guys…uh, this way!" Grover insisted we just followed the dude down a dark alley. Which I personally felt was completely unsafe, I felt like a rapist or a burglar was going to jump out at us any second. Good thing Grover was in front of me…I could push him and run away!
"I sense something Grover…it's not good." Luke replied.
"I sense something too." Annabeth agreed. All of our senses were correctly proven when we found ourselves backed against a wall with a monstrous snake woman approaching. She had an ugly human head with a snake-like body and forked tongue that hissed out at us revealing vicious fangs, green scaly skin, and flickering eyes the reminded me of that hungry lizard Thalia and I saw in a Pet Smart a few years ago.
"I am the Echidna! You demigods will never kill me!" She hissed her eyes glowed.
"Does the word Enchilada descend from you?" I asked her tauntingly.
"Do not mock me child!" She snapped jolting her head at me. I rolled my eyes. AGAIN with the "child" thing. I WAS OLDER THAN ZEUS! Still, I was treated like a kid.
"So, all in favor of running?" Grover said hoarsely chattering and bahing.
"I'd advise you to listen to the young satyr." She hissed again.
"Kai let's go!" Luke shouted as we ran at her but she quickly slithered away leaving a creature with the front of a lion. The body and hooves of a goat and it's tale was a ten-foot-long diamondback snake that looked anything but friendly. It had the sort of I-could-totally-beat-your-ass-in-under-a-second glare to it.
"Okay…LiGoNake? Like a Lion a Goat and a Snake?" I offered sarcastically.
"A Chimera you insolent-" the Echidna began.
"You say child and I. Will. Go. Apeshit!" I warned.
"KAI WATCH OUT!" Luke shouted tackling me into a wall as a steady stream of fire came from it's mouth it stopped and the Chimera whipped it's head around to stare at us.
The Chimera snorted a bit of flame from it's ugly nose roared. It tensed and leaned back then pounced and tackled Thalia to the ground, Annabeth attacked stabbing her knife into it's side and leaving a long wound on it's furry body. It roared dastardly and pounced from the wall and towards Annabeth. I tackled it back against the wall and in it's sudden shock, Luke stabbed his sword into the beast as it exploded into a pile of dust. The outraged Echidna screeched a sort of screech that would normally fry your neurons.
THAT was when we decided to run…
…
We ran and hot wired an SUV in the parking lot of a Chevron gas station.
"Where are we going now?" Luke asked as I pointed toward the inn that was close.
"Where are we?" Annabeth asked Luke, who was driving due to the fact I was still searching for food.
"Flatbush, Brooklyn." Luke said automatically knowing.
"The inn up there! We can look in there for some food, but grab the food and go, we have to get to the camp before the monsters catch up." I said as Luke did a horrible parking job. Basically ramming the car into 2 trees and leaving it stretched across the road. Though the road was pretty deserted I didn't worry about anyone accidentally hitting it. The road was windy and wet and smelled like crap.
The yellow mustard colored paint was flaking off slowly, and was turning a mix of mustard yellow and henna brown. The large wrap around porch was flooding through the cracks between boards with water from the rain, and most of the wooden planks were missing. The faded cedar red roof tiles were covered in wet leafs and moss, and a lot of the tiles were hanging off in awkward directions some of them had slipped down and fallen into the gutter. Most of the windows were barely intact…The big elegant door frame was old and cryptic like everything else though the wooden carvings around it probably used to be quite lovely but were now faded and forgotten, there was an old door placed fittingly in the frame.
As we approached it the house it's self was surrounded by dead tree's and covered in leafs with thin vines that looked as if they had been painted delicately into every crack and wrapped around every corner. The faded white paint now turning a shade of grey on the small white picket fence looked like it was dripping off as each rain drop rolled down the side. The fence surrounded a small garden, the garden was every shade and hue of brown imaginable, the flowers were dead, frozen, or suffocated by the cold winter air… The house had a strange sort of calling, as I soon found my self drawn into it…
"C'mon, food, and go." I reminded them, but more reminding myself.
"I-I've got to use the bathroom." Annabeth muttered as Thalia and her went off in search for a bathroom. Grover was chewing on a can he had found in the car. While Luke rung the tiny bell on the counter. We waited as I hit the thing over and over. It felt as if half an hour had passed already.
"I didn't think any girl could take this long in the bathroom." Luke said as I glared at him.
"What?" He shouted as I rolled my eyes.
"It's been thirty minutes." He muttered as I looked down at my watch…
"I'll go find them…" I told him as he nodded. The halls were all neatly decorated in a sort of eerie fashion. Nothing was amiss, everything was perfectly straightened and perfectly placed. I wondered if the owner had some sort of OCD. The halls were long and scary… What literally made me jump was when I heard a distant scream. It sounded like Thalia! Crap! I ran the opposite way and tried to hear where it was coming from! Suddenly I realized I was completely lost… This house I could've sworn looked much smaller from the outside.
"LUKE!" I shouted, no response. I waited and soon heard another voice.
"Kai!" A calling…well…called as I followed it I found myself in a pitch black room. I went on defense immediately. I tensed up everything was pitch dark, I couldn't see anything…suddenly I felt a smack and everything went dark, well, basically, I passed out…
…
Warmth…I felt warmth trickling up towards me. Everything was blurry as I slowly began making shapes. I realized what was beneath me was…a fire…I looked to my left to see a knocked out Luke, Grover and Thalia hanging from the ceiling looking like smoked hams. I found myself tied up as well. Damn.
"K-Kai?" Luke mumbled staring at me.
"Good morning sunshine…" I retorted with a sarcastic tone, "So mister one-eye. Sure you want to eat us? Seems like your putting on the pounds pretty heavily." It glared at us. They say a Cyclops's brain is the size of a walnut, this one was clearly smarter because it knew how to form full sentences.
"I eat you!" He snapped, or as full of a sentence as you can consider that.
"Charming, you have time to cook yet you don't have time to learn full sentences?" I taunted.
"Kai! Shut up!" Grover grunted.
"Hey! It's a free country, and as long as I have my freedom of speech, no one's going to shut me up!" I retorted, but I didn't have my freedom of speech at this point because the guy then decided to gag us. Normally when I'm in a screwed up position such as this; I would say something witty and sarcastic that usually bought me enough time to figure out a plan, but this time I was gagged and hung over a fire.
The only one who wasn't here was Annabeth. Either she was…
1.) Eaten already
2.) Still using the bathroom
3.) Finding a way to save us at this moment.
And being the optimistic person I am, I was going to go with 3.
It was out of know where when Annabeth appeared. But she suddenly froze when the giant spoke.
"Now Annabeth, don't you worry. I love you. You can stay here with me. You can stay forever!" It was a voice that belonged to an older maybe early 40's guy. I assumed it was Annabeth's father but she shook off her surprise and ran with a cry and stabbed her knife in the Cyclops's foot. Now, I assume that being a giant Cyclops and being stabbed in the foot with a knife would feel like being a regular human stepping on one of those Gods damned LEGO bricks. Now, personally, I found stepping on LEGO bricks extremely agonizing. This giant seemed to react in the same way.
It let out a startled roar as it fell back.
She ran towards me and cut off my ropes and the gag. "Bravo!" I shouted as I grabbed my sword and sliced down Grover and Luke while Annabeth took down Thalia. "C'mon guys! We gotta go!" I shouted.
We ran out of there like Hephaestus himself was after us with hot iron. But what greeted us outside was not a pretty site, mainly it consisted of the Furies, 2 packs of hellhounds, and a shit load of skeleton warriors. Basically all the monsters that had been after us for so friggen long.
So…we ran…
…
"C'mon!" Grover shouted, his shout was encored by a series of bahs. We were just at the tip of the hill. There was a large farm road that he had to cross. Annabeth stumbled and was quickly attacked by a hellhound which Luke swiftly killed with a stab to the underbelly.
"GO! YOU GUYS GO I'LL HOLD THEM OFF!" I shouted. If I was going to die, this seemed an honorable enough death…
"No…NO! Kai, you go with Luke and Annabeth, I'll hold them off. They…They've been after me! It's all because of me! If there's anyone who should stay behind it's me!" She shouted as I shook my head.
"No, I've been alive long enough!" I argued.
"I-I'll stay, I'm the protector!" Grover insisted.
"Yeah! So protect Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia and get over the damn hill!" I shouted.
"I'm staying!" Thalia shouted absolutely determined. The fierce look in her eyes reminded me of Zeus for some reason as I nodded. It was painful as I watched her hold off the monsters…things felt so slow. I thought back from the time I met her in California to the time we met Luke in our doughnut raid…then we met Annabeth…all of those memories…I held them close to me as I saw a distant golden glow.
And in the place where Thalia had just laid dying, was a pine tree…
I felt like this was how it was supposed to end. Even though I hated leaving her back there, I knew, this was how it had to be. The soft glow dispersed leaving behind Thalia's pine…I guess Zeus took mercy on her daughter… Tears streaked down my dirt covered face and holding onto Luke and Annabeth I felt free to cry… We cried together… She was part of our family…and that would never change…
…
Later the boundary was created and we were safe.
"You guys will be safe here…I-It's time for me to leave." I told them.
"WHAT? You can't just leave! W-We're a family." Luke said.
"This place is designed for the safety of Demigods and to train and teach them how to survive, I'm not a demigod, I know how to survive. I'm fine without this place. Besides, you two belong here, I've been selfish keeping you Thalia and Annabeth away from here. I guess I just wanted to keep the small family I'd built. But it's time for me to go. Maybe if I hadn't been so selfish with Thalia you guys, she would've been alive." I told them keeping a straight face.
"That's not true! I don't want to be here!" Luke shouted at me.
"I-I don't want you to go…" Annabeth muttered.
I let a small smile…
"I don't belong here…you'll be safe here guys…I have to leave…there's something I need to do." I told them as they stared at me with longing eyes…
That was the end…as I stood at the top of the hill staring at the pine.
"Good bye Thalia. Keep them safe." I said smirking…as I walked away…
I didn't look back.
(A/N: Sorry if it was totally and completely anticlimactic, I'm not good with great endings, matter of fact, I completely and utterly suck at them to be frank. Anyways! I'll be continuing the story plot with The Lightening Thief and all of those stories!)
The Half-Blood Runaways