I didn't want this. I never wanted any of this. I just wanted to find him. My father.

"RUN!"

"I'M TRYING!"

"TRY HARDER!"

"DON'T PUSH ME!"

"COME ON GROVER, OR WE'RE NOT GONNA LIVE LONG ENOUGH FOR ME TO PUSH YOU!"

"DUCK!"

I fell to the ground a split second before a tree trunk flew over my head. It crashed into another tree, which fell over, and knocked over its neighboring sycamore. I wiped my face off, grabbed Grover and Aria's hands, and dragged them along with me.

"Oh great, more monsters. And I'm covered in dirt too!" she complained.

"Come on Aria, you've got to move faster than that!" Grover squeaked, looking past my right shoulder. She looked so small; even though she's four inches taller than me, she was breathing harder than I was.

I glanced back, my eyes narrowing to see through the trees in the darkness, and saw the silhouette of what looked like a giant bull, only the thing was, it was on two legs, which were tiny in comparison to his huge front legs, or… arms. I pulled harder.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" I panted.

"It's a Minotaur. Don't even THINK about trying to fight it off. There's only ONE person I know to have defeated it with no training, and it was ONLY on PURE. LUCK."

"WHO WAS THAT?" Aria yelled.

"Percy Jackson." He said dreamily. His tone was weird…

"Who the HELL is that?"

"That's not important! Just keep running! I can see the hill!" Grover pointed.

"There'd better be something awesome on the other side of that hill; otherwise we are so going to die." Aria stated blatantly.

We slid to a stop at the base, and started climbing the steep-as-fuck hill as fast as our feet would carry us. Well, Aria and my feet, his hooves. See, Grover isn't quite human, at least on the lower half of his body he isn't. On the top half, he looks human, but below he's got goat legs, because, well, he's a Satyr. At first I thought he was a Faun, but he corrected me right there and said that he was A SATYR, because he's GREEK, not ROMAN. I apologized quickly for my unseemingly RUDE mistake.

"Grover! It's gaining on us!" Aria squealed in fright.

"I know! Just keep going!"

"I don't know if- AAAH! LET ME GO!"

It had a hold on my leg, and was pulling me down.

"Hali! No!" Aria spun around, and tried to reach for me, but Grover pulled her back. I looked at him in confused horror, thinking he was going to leave me behind, but then Grover reached into his pouch and pulled out what looked like a flute.

"GROVER! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR PRETTY FAIRY MUSIC! HELP ME!" He ignored my screams, and started playing something that sounded vaguely like Bach, but I wasn't sure, because it was slurred together in his rush. It must have done something, because the Minotaur let go of my leg, and I scrambled back up to Grover.

"Well would you look at that, my father was right. Music really does solve everything." Aria said.

"Uh... thanks." I mumbled.

"No problem. Move!"

We were almost at the top, and I could see a large tree on the crest, with something in its branches that was glittering in the moonlight. I was mesmerized for one second too long, because before I knew it, I was slammed in the back with what felt like a semi truck, and was flying right for the shiny, shiny tree. I could hear Aria cursing behind me; "Hali! Dammit, it's like she's got a target on her back or something." I landed on the top of the tree, and slid down ungracefully through the branches before landing on something hard and scaly.

I felt something hot pouring down my face, and realized that I had a cut on my forehead, as well as other places. I ignored them, for the large scaly thing began to move and shudder. I was thrown off, and landed hard on the ground, knocking the wind out of me. The thing stood up, and I realized that I had landed on the back of a… dragon. If I had any breath in me, I would have screamed.

It looked at me, and it looked angry that I had woken it. It bared its teeth, and roared at me, reeling up and slamming one of its huge feet on me, bruising me further. I winced as I felt the definite crack of one of my ribs. *Inhale* or maybe two… I was about to get blasted when Grover ran up behind me with his hands in the air.

"No, Peleus! She's a camper! Relax! Umm… Look! A tasty Minotaur! Go get him!" Grover was pointing at the Minotaur, waving for Peleus to do something, but he just snorted, curled up around the tree once more, and fell asleep again.

"Some guard dragon you are." Grover muttered angrily. I looked at the Minotaur, and saw that it was staring at me, but just stood there.

"Grover, why's it just standing there?" I asked, my words slurred by exhaustion and fright.

"Because it knows we've beaten it." He grinned at me, fatigue clear on his face.

"And how'd we do that?"

"We crossed the boundary." He replied, looking over my wounds.

"What boundary?" I pointedly looked on the ground for something resembling a line, half expecting it to be in neon yellow, a sign flashing that read 'THE BOUNDARY'.

"The boundary that means we made it. It protects us."

"Made it where? Protects us from what?" I questioned. I was getting annoyed, but probably didn't look it from lack of energy. Aria stroked my hair.

"Hali, you probably shouldn't talk anymore. Don't move, you've broken some ribs. Just lie still, okay?" I nodded and looked to see her glaring at the dragon. "I'm really starting to hate dragons." She stated somewhat maliciously.

"It protects us from that." Grover pointed to the Minotaur, who regarded him angrily. "We made it to Camp Half-Blood." I looked down the hill, and saw lights on, and a lot of cabin looking buildings. There was also one larger building away from the rest, but I didn't know what that meant. I saw the ocean was near the cabins, which I was strangely excited about. There was one other open place which looked like a really big, really old pavilion with no roof. I saw a stream of little lights headed in our direction, and Grover waved at them excitedly.

"Come ON guys! I've got to show you someone! Hurry up! And bring a healer!" He yelled. The procession didn't take very long to get to the crest after that was said. I didn't really pay attention to the conversation, or the people who introduced themselves to me. I was starting to get very drowsy, so I sat on the ground, hugging my knees. I did hear this, however;

"She looks so much like him, it's insane. She's gotta be related to him somehow."

"She looks pale. How much did she get hurt, Grover?"

"I couldn't really tell. I'm not a healer, you know. Anyway, I'm thinking she's gotta be a daughter of Poseidon." Poseidon? I thought. Isn't that like, one of those Greek gods? "No, she hasn't been claimed." I then heard Aria;

"Daughter of Poseidon? You mean one of those gods you were talking about earlier?" she voiced my thoughts, "You mean you weren't lying? Wonderful. That's just… great. Guess I'm not 'claimed' either." What are they talking about, 'claimed'. Grover continued what he was saying before Aria had stepped in.

"She's a really fast runner, too. She outran me, dude. I know, totally weird. Anyway, we should probably get her down to the camp. What're we gonna do about this guy?" I figured Grover was talking about the Minotaur who was probably still standing there. I didn't hear what they decided, because I was picked up by someone, and they began carrying me down the hill.

"I can walk you know." I coughed, trying to sound authoritative. I opened my eyes a smidge to see who it was; a guy with black hair, black clothes, and sad eyes. He still smiled at me, though, so I wasn't sure if his eyes were just like that, or if that was his main emotion. I tilted my head to glance at Aria, who stayed behind, looking reluctant that she wasn't with me. I closed my eyes again.

"You're not gonna put me down, are you?" I asked.

"Nope." Was his simple reply.

"Alright then. Might as well introduce myself. I'm Hali Jasem. Nice to meet you."

"Nico Di Angelo. Likewise."

"Your name sounds Italian. Am I right?" I questioned. I was trying to get an answer that was more than one word.

"Yep." Didn't work. "Yours?"

"My first name is Greek, my last name is Arabic. My mother was from Syria, and my father from Greece. Don't ask me how they communicated because I have no idea." I replied, my eyes still closed.

"Siblings?" He inquired. I looked at him.

"One. Lukman." As soon as I said that, I got a blinding headache, and then a vision came to me. My twin brother, who has been missing for a month, was in a dark place, his clothes ripped, his hair dirty and disheveled, and he was on his knees. His hands were in chains, and they were hanging above him, his head tilted forward. Suddenly, like he knew I could see him, his head snapped up, and I almost screamed. His face was bruised, covered in dirt, his blue eyes looked black, and there was blood running down the side of his head.

"Hali." He whispered. "Help me, Hali. They're going to kill me. Help me, please." His eyes widened. He looked sharply to the left, and then back at me. "They're coming…"

"Lukman!" I cried, rolling out of Nico's arms. I fell to my knees, screeching in pain, loss, and desperation.

"What happened?!" Grover yelled.

"I don't know!" Answered Nico. "She was telling me about her brother, and then her eyes went blank for a second. Then she started screaming, and fell!"

"What's going on? Why is she screaming?" Aria started yelling at Grover, which wasn't making my headache any better. "Damn it, goat boy! Let me help! You keep treating me like I can't do anything!" Her voice was getting fainter, so I guessed Grover was dragging her off, literally.

I couldn't make it go away. The pain was killing me. My head felt like it was going to implode, and explode at the same time. I couldn't breathe, taking oxygen in with struggled gasps. "Lukman!" I shrieked. "I need – to find – Lukman!" I scrambled clumsily to my feet, and then fell sideways. I felt arms around me, and, straining, twisted my head to see Nico had caught me. His eyes were wide, and he was looking at me like he was worried I was going to break.

"Let me go. Please," I cried. "I need to… f-find my… brother. You have to… to let me go find him. H-he needs my help. They're going to k-kill him."

"Who's gonna kill him?" Someone said, I wasn't really sure who.

"I don't… know. He wouldn't tell me." I replied, still striving for breath, my eyes beginning to droop. It didn't make any sense. We always told each other everything, always. I felt tears running down my face, mixing with the blood already there.

The pain in my head was beginning to dull to a throb, and I regrettably exerted myself to keep my eyelids open, and sagged heavily into Nico. Then someone came up behind him and began to talk to Grover in hushed tones. Nico laid me on the ground gingerly. I opened my eyes one last time, and saw his face. Lukman, the way he should look. Only it wasn't Lukman. This person was too old to be him, by at least ten years; his voice was too deep and his hair was different. His eyes, however, were exactly like Lukman's, and like mine.

"Who are you?" I demanded, though it must have sounded meek.

"Percy Jackson."

Then I passed out.