Finding Her Way Home

Kristen Reed walked groggily up to the side of a building and collapsed, her legs giving out. She needed rest but she had to keep moving, she couldn't afford to stay in one place for very long. I can't sleep! I don't have the time! Her brain argued. To bad! Her body said and she blacked out.

She dreamed of course, extremely vividly every since she left her home in Oregon days ago, in fact she dreamed of that night right now. She was running home from gymnastics class after a horrifying experience. She told her aunt and cousin who were like a mother and sister to her, how her gymnastics coach had gotten a new assistant and how the lady had turned into a horrible snake woman who had tried to kill her, she had fled and barley made it away alive. Her cousin thought she was crazy but her aunt sighed heavily.

"Your father said this would happen." Her aunt said.

"My father?" She asked. Her father had died when Kristen was very young and left her with her aunt. She barley remembered him.

"He said that if anything happened to him that I needed to take care you and that once you were old enough strange things would start to happen and when they did then I needed to send you to New York. Because there was a camp there and it had something to do with your mother…"

"New York? My Mother?" Kristen was trying to put the puzzle together but it was hopeless, there were too many missing pieces. Her mother had left her father as soon as she had been born. That was what she had been told at least.

"You should leave right away. I'll buy you a plane ticket and you'll go to New York tonight. Your father said something about Manhattan and that help will find you once you get there." And so she had gone. She packed her bags and got on a plane, with no further explanation, not even with a plan once she got to Manhattan completely on her own. She flew out of Portland to Indiana, from Indiana she got on a connect flight to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From there she was supposed to take one more plane to Manhattan. But that didn't happen. There was a guard who had turned into a horrible giant and tried to kill her. She had caused a distraction using the baggage claim area and gotten away but she had missed her plane.

She knew that she still had to find her way to Manhattan, all she had with her was her carry-on with some books her cell phone and her wallet. She asked for directions and started walking, she car pooled when she could. She did that for days, running from monsters when she was on foot and catching the occasional nap when she was lucky enough to get a ride from a stranger or find a bus. She used her money only for food but it was quickly running out.

She was in Staten Island, and had just run from what she assumed was a Cyclops from Greek mythology since it only had one eye. She had been noticing that most of the creatures that attacked her resembled things of Greek mythology. But that was crazy, they were only myths. Even if they were real why would they be so intent on only killing her? She ran things through her head as she sprinted. How long had it been since she last slept? Ate? Rested? She couldn't remember. Her thoughts were starting to get fuzzy as she ran down the city street. She couldn't run anymore. She slowed to a walk but her legs couldn't take it anymore, she collapsed.

Kristen woke up once she had played through her memories. She was still groggy but she could tell it was now night. She sighed when she realized that her backpack had been stolen, but got up and started walking again. Kristen hoped that whoever the help was supposed to be that they would find her soon.

After walking all night and half a day she was starting to feel faint, her stomach had begun hurting from hunger long ago. She had crossed into Jersey City and was using a map to find her way to Manhattan, but she was keeping an eye out for anything to eat. She noticed a waitress who had her back to her and she walked over and plucked a large soft pretzel off her tray and walked away without the woman noticing. She looked down at it guiltily, she didn't like stealing but she didn't have much of a choice.

"Impressive. Are you a daughter of Hermes?" A guy who looked a little older than Kristen asked as he walked up to her. She looked at him warily; he walked strangely, and had a scraggly goatee. But more importantly she didn't have any idea what he was talking about.

"What?" Kristen asked him.

"I can tell you're a Half-Blood. What are you doing away from camp?" He asked her

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Grover. Why are you away from camp?" He asked her. Then she remembered what her aunt had said about a camp, but Kristen wasn't sure if she could trust this guy. He didn't seem like a monster, but she didn't want to risk letting her guard down. Then she thought about the help that was supposed to find her.

"What camp?" She asked Grover.

"You mean you haven't been to camp?" Grover asked then looked her over, and she realized that she hadn't showered or changed her clothes for days, she must look homeless. "How long have you been on your own?"

"A few days." She answered wearily, her voice cracking. She blinked back tears and realized that she really needed to trust Grover. She had been ripped from her home and all that she knew, and was completely on her own. She needed a friend.

"Come on I'll take you to camp." He said and hailed a taxi. He opened the door for her but she hesitated, she wasn't stupid. She knew he could be a monster that would later try to kill her but he didn't seem like the other monsters, they wouldn't talk to her very much at all before trying to kill her, so she got in cab. Grover told an address to the taxi driver and off he went. Kristen studied Grover trying to figure out more about him. "So, what do you know?" He asked her.

"A few days ago I was attacked and my aunt sent me to New York, she said something about a camp and help finding me once I got here… I've been on my own since, and strange things keep attacking me…" She told him.

"That would be because you're a Half-Blood, also known as Demigods. " Grover told her.

"Half-Blood?" She asked

"How should I explain it…Well you know the Greek Gods and Mythology? Well their all real."

"Why does that make me a 'Half-Blood'?"

"Well sometimes the Gods fall in love with Humans and they have kids… So either your mom or dad was a god, and that makes you half god, thus the name Half-Blood." He explained. "Once you reach a certain age monsters start to try to kill you and were going to the only safe place on earth for kids like you." He said

"Like me? Not like you?" She asked and he nodded "Then how do you know about all this?"

"Well, I'm a satyr." He told her. Kristen racked her brain trying to remember all the information she knew about Greek mythology.

"Half goat, half man." She decided and studied him carefully. He sighed and slipped off one of his shoes, where his foot should have there was a hoof and her eyes widened. "So it's true…this is actually happening… this is now my reality." she said a bit dazed running her hand through her hair.

"Don't worry you're not alone, there-"He stopped abruptly and looked out of the back window "Oh no." He said weakly. Kristen slowly turned her head to see what he was looking at and her heart rate quickened. About six half humanoid half bat ladies with leathery wings were in hot pursuit of their cab. "Well I think we're close enough to camp now…" Grover contemplated, Kristen looked around. They seemed to be in the middle of no-where traveling down a dirt road. A large hill was coming into view. "Here's good!" Grover shouted at the diver then opened the glass window threw in some money and grabbed Kristen's hand, dragging her out of the car before it fully stopped and started sprinting, dragging Kristen along with him. The bat ladies seemed not to care about the taxi and continued to fly after Grover and Kristen.

"What are those?" Kristen shouted as they ran towards the hill.

"Keres they-"Grover was about to answer completely but was cut off by one of the Keres.

"We will feast on your deaths!" The lead Kere screeched at them.

"They will that." Grover said and Kristen put on another burst of speed, Grover had lost his shoes quite a while back and both his hooves were exposed. They were almost to the hill, but the Keres were quickly gaining. At the top of the hill there was a large pine tree, on its lowest branch there seemed to be a sparkling golden bath matt hanging and there was a large pile of cables piled around the base of the trunk.

"PELEUS!" Grover shouted at the tree and the cables moved. Kristen blinked and suddenly it wasn't a pile cables. It was a huge coppery scaled dragon. He lifted his large head up and the ground shook slightly as he stood up. Kristen slowed down but Grover just kept running like the dragon was nothing, so she followed. "Get to the other side of the tree! Don't stop!" Grover yelled to her as they raced up the hill. A large blue farmhouse came into view and she assumed that was where they were going. The dragon that she figured was Peleus, lumbered past them and roared at the Keres. A couple of them disintegrated into golden dust from the sheer ferocity of it, and Kristen was almost knocked off her feet. She looked over her shoulder and saw Peleus snap two more Keres out of the sky and golden dust glittered his jaw. The last two had the common sense to turn and flee. Peleus didn't give chase, he just lazily laid back down around the tree like nothing had happened, Grover slowed to a walk breathing heavily and Kristen made her way over to him.

"Welcome to camp half blood. What did you say your name was again?" He asked her between gasps.

"I didn't." She told him breathing hard. They walked up to the porch of the large blue house. "I'm Kristen Reed, pleasure to meet you." She said with a small smile and held out her hand.

Dont Own anything...Please review and tell me what you think! ~ Thanks for reading