Honestly, when the demon chicken ladies swooped down from the sky and started trying to eat me, I wasn't that surprised. My name is Ruby, and my mother is the greek goddess Demeter. I had known, because my father had told me. My father was a big grain farmer, he sold the grain that went into bread and cereal products all across America. Ever since that day, when he had told me about her mom, my life had been a series of disasters.

It had gotten to the point where I had had to run away from my father's farm in Nebraska, continually heading east, constantly pursued by all sorts of monsters, from giant smelly men to women with snake legs. And now, the chicken ladies, which I remembered were called Harpies.

I had been driving a stolen car through the open fields of Ohio, following some instinct to go to the Northeast, when I first heard the screeching. Not even looking back, knowing it was some monster, I floored the gas pedal accelerating to dangerous speeds, heading towards a small town, a small collection of houses, buildings and a distant church. As I sped by, I barely had time to read the sign next to the road: "Welcome to Tiro".

Then three Harpies landed on the car, a small sedan, one on the hood, one on the roof, and one clinging to the driver's side door. Despite having fought worse odds than this before, like when the snake women cornered me in an alley in Illinois, I hadn't exactly done any of that while going 90 miles per hour on a small town road. So when three Harpies landed on the car, one right in front of me, I did the natural thing; I swerved.

The car went into a ditch, flipping over and over, crushing one Harpy, but the others managed to flap away. Unfortunately for me, the car hit a tree, which, though quite painful for me, at least stopped the car from barreling through what appeared to be a farmers market. A farmers market! I thought. Some compulsion told me I needed to get there, but when I unbuckled my seatbelt, I fell to the roof of the car, now the floor, and realised that, in fact, I had not escaped unharmed from my 90 mph joyride into a tree.

My head felt as heavy as a bowling ball thanks to a nasty gash on my forehead, and my chest was on fire. Broken ribs, most likely. Still, I managed to stagger out of the wreck, heading towards the nearest booth, some guy selling "Ohio's Best Watermelons" he looked like he was about to say something, probably "why is a 14 year old girl crashing a car near our farmers market" but before he could, one of the harpies dive bombed me.

I ducked, and the harpy got a face full of Ohio's Best Watermelons. The mortal ran away screaming about "crazed drunk teens". It was one of the things I still didn't understand about mortals. How could anyone mistake a lady with wings for arms and talons for feet as a teen is beyond me.

The two harpies circled over the booth, occasionally swooping down to try and grab me, calling out to me.

"Come out tasty demigod" one cackled, tearing another watermelon to shreds, while the other one made a shrieking sound that I was sure would attract even more monsters. I had no weapons, the stand was going to collapse soon, and the only thing around me were a bunch of dissected watermelons spilling juice and seeds everywhere.

Wait, the seeds. I remembered how I had fought the snake women in illinois, throwing rotten fruits at them from nearby trashcans. When the fruits had hit them, strange things had happened. One had collapsed, apple blossoms sprouting all over her, the other had been encased in a giant banana peel, which ate her like a venus fly trap.

I picked up a handful of melon seeds. They sat in my palm, covered in juice, but the small black seeds didn't seem any different. Still, with no other hope, I waited until the Harpies swooped down, then threw the seeds, also sending a silent prayer to Demeter.

The seeds hit the harpies right before they would've grabbed me. They stuck fast to the monsters, glowing with green, gold, and brown light: the colors of nature. In fast forward, the seeds sprouted, vines growing and wrapping around both harpies, pinning their wings, and they dropped to the ground, the vines still growing, until the harpies looked like very overgrown lumps.

"Oh! Thank the gods!" said a voice. I looked over, seeing a guy, maybe high school age, who, oddly, was wearing heavy pants even in the heat. No wit, those weren't pants, it was fur, and looking closely, I could see little horns poking out of his curly hair.

"My name is Silvanos, I was sent here to take you someplace safe" he said. he looked around nervously, as if expecting more monsters. I honestly did expect more, but I didn't want to worry about that now.

"What are you?" probably not the nicest, or most logical thing to say, but seeing as this was the first monster to not kill me on sight, I felt it was ok to ask. He looked around nervously.

"There's no time, Follow me." he muttered something in another language, though somehow I knew he had said something along the lines of 'stupid flying beasts'. I thought he meant the harpies, but after leading me to the other side of the town, I saw what he actually was talking about.

Standing nervously on the side of the road, were two beautiful pegasi, one beautiful white, the other back as night. One had no rider, the white one, however, the other had another person, a demigod most likely, sitting in the saddle.

He was handsome, in a "messy" way. His black hair was out of control, but his eyes, sea green, almost shone with good humor. To complete the effect, he was wearing an orange shirt and blue jeans that clashed horribly with his hair and eyes.

The mounted guy spoke, with an easy confidence. "How did it go Sil? First extraction go ok?" then the guy noticed me.

The goat guy turned to look at me, a gash on my head, arms around my chest. For my part, I could barely breathe. The town wasn't large, but the walk had drained me. I tuned out their voices, the pain becoming overwhelming. The last thing I remember before passing out was being fed something that tasted like my dad's homemade bread.