Luke and Thalia

The Dragon's Cave

Luke

I'm Luke, son of Hermes. Yeah, you might think that's great, and you might think that's so awesome. Well, it's not! It's terrible! The gods don't care about their kids, and they forget them and leave them to battle monsters and probably die doing it. If you don't believe me, ask any other demigod. They'll tell you what I told you.

I used to live with my mom, but she went all crazy so I ran away from home. I haven't had much luck yet on my journey. First, pretty much everybody refused to help me, except some mortals who didn't know how I felt. Second, I'm always running into monsters and sometimes I can barely get away from them. And third, the very worst, is the gods try to make my journey even harder than it already is.

Up ahead, I see something that looks like a cavern or a fissure or something. It could make some good shelter, whatever it was, that is, if no monsters had made it their home before me. Something probably had. Should I try to defeat the thing that lived there? Maybe. Was it worth maybe getting seriously injured? Probably not. I was already worn out from fighting that last monster. Still, I was desperate for a place to rest. I had been walking for what felt like forever.

I creep up to the cave. I can see what it is better now. It's a simple cave that looks abandoned. I peek my head in. No one seemed to be there. Definitely hiding. One moment, I might be there, all alone, then the next, this monster is there with me, trying to kill me. I go in a little more.

I call out, "Hello? Anybody here?" I hear some hissing. But no answer other than the wind. Then I hear something that sounds like some struggling and swords moving. I know I have to help, so I walk in completely with my celestial bronze sword at the ready.

Inside, I see a girl and a dragon fighting. The monster seems to be winning. Neither of them notices me. If they had, they paid no attention to me.

I know instantly that I have to help the girl, even though I don't know her. It would be the right thing to do, and if I didn't, maybe when I'm older I'll regret not having helped her. So I jump into action and attack more fiercely than I ever had before.

The girl stares at me, looking surprised, as if I had just fallen from the sky. The dragon is surprised too. It takes a few large steps back, completely crushing the whole back of the cave. In those seconds when the dragon had stopped fighting, the girl throws her spear at the monster's neck. She must have really good aim, I thought, because she hit the dragon's neck, right smack in the middle.

The dragon dropped faster than a pin could hit the floor.

I'm so happy; I have to hug the girl. She says, "Get off of me!"

I stop hugging her and smile sheepishly. "Uh, sorry. So, um, who are you?"

The girl says, "Why do you want to know?"

"Well, we both just saved each other, so I just thought we should get to know each other…but if you don't want me to know your name…"

The girl answers, "I'm Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. Who are you?"

I say, "I'm Luke Castellan, son of Hermes." I try to hide my excitement that I had finally found someone that was like me! A demigod!

Considering the way that Thalia was smiling right now, she probably felt the same way.

We stare at each other until I break the silence and say, "Want to pair up and be a team?"

Thalia thinks it over, and then says, "Why not? We could split the work we have to do."

I'm smiling a huge smile now. The girl is too. "That sounds great."

And we walk side by side out of the cave.

The End… of Luke's story

The Dragon's Cave

Thalia

I'm Thalia, and I am not normal. You might think, "How are you not normal? You seem perfectly normal!"

Well, let me name some reasons why I'm not normal. For starters, I'm a daughter of Zeus, the god of the Heavens and all that. You don't believe me, do you? I can prove it by shocking you with my lightning power! Second, well, uh… um… I guess that's about it, but it's reason enough, isn't it?

Anyway, I ran away from home for reasons I don't want to talk about. If you really want to hear the reasons, read the first chapter. Don't try to make me in this chapter.

Right now, I'm following a goat that's definitely something Zeus sent to help me. Stop thinking I'm crazy! I am not making this up! Now, stop interrupting!

Anyway, the goat leads me towards some big cave or something. I keep following it until it disappears and I'm standing right next to the cave. My instincts told me that I shouldn't go inside the cave, but that just made it more tempting to go into the cave.

So I go inside the cave. Bad idea.

At first, I can't see much except a couple of fallen rocks, but as I walk into the cave more, I see a tail. Not like a puppy's tail, but a long, long, tail, like 5 feet long, about as tall as me. Then, I see sharp claws and a horrifying looking face.

The creature finally steps out into sight completely. It was a dragon. I knew that because of the tail, and the fire coming from its mouth. A fire-breathing dragon!

A fire-breathing dragon is horrifying, horrifying, horrifying, and HORRIFYING!

Horrifying, I tell you!

The dragon had already seen me, so I can't get out of the cave. That left only one option. I have to fight it.

Not exactly great. It was more like, oh, what's that word? Oh, yeah. Maybe… DREADFUL? Yep. That's the word I was looking for!

I grab my spear and knives. The dragon is ready before me (well, it makes sense that he would be ready before me. The dragon doesn't even need to get ready. It just needs to blow). It blows out a breath of fire. I jump onto a small boulder just in time.

The dragon is furious that he didn't kill me. I slice his leg, but it only makes a little cut.

Then, a boy comes. I ignore him. No time to look at him. Gotta keep fighting.

Then, the boy does something I least expected him to do. He flies through the air and attacks the dragon with his sword. That gave me some time. I shoot the monster's neck with my spear. It lands right in the middle of the dragon's neck. I wasn't expecting that. I thought it would miss completely. But judging from the boy's face, he probably thinks I'm an expert spear-thrower now.

Oh well. I wasn't about to say that I wasn't.

We look at each other, and then the boy hugs me! Ugh!

"Get of off me!" I say disgustedly.

He stops hugging me and says, "Sorry… " And smiles sheepishly. "Uh... so who are you?" He asks.

"Why do you want to know?" I ask him.

"Well, we both just saved each other, so I just thought we should get to know each other…but if you don't want me to know your name…" His voice trails off.

"I'm Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus. Who are you?" I reply.

"I'm Luke Castellan, son of Hermes." He says excitedly.

Wait. Did he just say that he was a son of Hermes? Oh gods. This can't be happening. Another demigod?

I was actually smiling at Luke, and it was hard to believe that a few minutes ago, he had been a complete stranger.

We smile at each other. Then Luke says, "Want to pair up and be a team?"

Us? Be a team? We barely knew each other. On the other hand, I could use some help with stuff. And it would be nice to have someone who understands me with me.

I finally say, "Why not? We could split the work we need to do."

The boy's smiling so much now, his face looks like it's going to crack. But compared to me, that face was nothing. I'm smiling so huge, my mouth is 2/3 of my face.

The boy says, "That sounds great."

Then we walk out of the cave together.

The End