Prologue
One step after the other. My legs were tiring and I was getting out of breath. The leaves made a soft "crunch" sound as my feet hit them, and the crisp autumn air was light. The sun was peeking through the trees, warming the air. It would have been peaceful, except for one thing: I was running for my life. From what? Well, I did not know if I was seeing correctly, but whatever was chasing me was much worse than the monsters under someone's bed. With their fangs and red eyes, they looked even scarier than the monsters that I know of. And that is not a good thing.
The monsters I have met have all been different from each other, ranging from this half-lion thing to what I'm facing now, and they have all been saying the same thing, or relatively the same thing. They all call me a half=blood or something about being god-like, and have only one objective: to kill me. How do I get away, you may ask? Well, I just run, and when they get out of my sight, I never see them again. Of course, that is not normal, especially for me, but I am definitely not complaining, because that has been the deciding factor between life and death.
But this thing has not been as easy. She was quick, and I can barely outrun her. My legs were aching and I just wish that she would disappear. Obviously, though, it can never be that easy, because this is my life, and nothing ever comes easy.
Suddenly, I heard her howl. It was a wretched, cackly howl that nearly made my ears bleed and caused me to crumble to the ground with my hands over my ears. I looked behind me and saw the most peculiar thing. The she-monster was sinking into the ground, almost as if the tree roots had enough of her and decided to bury her underneath them. Only when she went completely under did the howling stop. I cautiously stood up, a little light-headed. When my eyes adjusted, I realized that I had guessed correctly. The tree roots were slowly moving back to where they were originally.
"You're welcome." I spun around, almost tripping in the process due to the soreness in my legs. In front of my stood a small girl, looking to be no older than fourteen, and has light amber hair with a petite, elfish face. She was wearing an emerald green cloth dress that rose over just one shoulder, cutting off at the shoulder and light brown sandals that strapped up past her ankles. She would have looked like a normal human, except her eyes were a lighter green that normal, closely resembling the leaves on the trees.
"Um, thanks," I cautiously muttered. My guard was still high, and anyone who was not human was definitely on my radar of things to watch out for. "What are you?"
"Ugh, your eyes are just a shade off from a human's and you get asked what you are instead of who you are," the girl scoffed.
"Sorry, it's just I haven't had contact with humans for a while, and no ordinary human could control tree roots," I explained, my voice still a little scratchy from not speaking regularly. Although my voice is hoarse, the girl could still understand me.
"Well, I'm a dryad. Tree nymph. Whatever you want to call me. And that's my tree over there," she pointed towards the tree that buried whatever was chasing me. "The name's Aspen."
"Wait, dryad? What?" I asked.
"Don't you know anything about Greek mythology? Well, in my case it would be Greek not-at-all-mythology."
"I have been on my own since I was eight. I didn't have much to study Greek mytholology from, or whatever you call it."
"What do you mean?" A gentler, more curious look rose upon Aspen's face.
"My parents brought me camping when I was eight years old, and let's just say that I've been running from monsters ever since. I'm fifteen now." I looked off into the other trees, not feeling comfortable with my past. Before Aspen could say anything, I looked at her and asked, "what was that thing that was chasing me?"
Aspen hesitated for a moment before explaining, "that was an empousa. Red eyes, fangs, and those unsanitary donkey and metal legs."
"And she's a part of this Greek stuff?"
"Most definitely. I'm surprised that you're not dead yet. You should be lucky that you stumbled across my tree."
"Yeah, thank you again for that. So, what do I do? You obviously know a lot more about this stuff that I do."
"What's your name?"
"Daria."
"Well, Daria, just go north a couple of miles and there will be a hill. Go over that hill and then you will see a large house. Chiron should be on the deck. Just don't get too scared of Peleus. He only attacks if you're a monster or if you have bad intentions."
"Chiron? Peleus? Who are they?" I asked, but my question was never answered as Aspen burst into nothing, leaving behind a shower of leaves.
"Well, guess I ought to be heading off then," I grumbled to myself before trekking through the forest and on my way to my destination.