Anisa ran, her marathon-runner's legs surprisingly still in shape. Her last race was three years ago. A hydra chased her, which wasn't all that uncommon. Except that the tow truck she had used to run over its mate was demolished and she had no other weapon. Sucks for me, she thought grimly.

The fifteen-almost-sixteen-year-old ran up the steep hill, hoping for a vantage point. Instead, she ran backwards into a tree, causing her to see stars. The hydra spat acid, landing on her bare foot, and Anisa yowled in pain. She stumbled backwards into- a person? Yes, most definitely a human. The person pushed her back onto her feet and shoved a glowing knife into her hands. The blade flickered with blue fire, yet Anisa felt no pain. She'd probably pay for it later.

Anisa, naturally, chopped off a head. That was the best thing to do with hydras, right? Its acidic blood sprayed her clothes, singeing holes into the tattered tee-shirt and burning the knee of her jeans.

The other person was whirling around, stabbing the hydra repeatedly in a pattern Anisa couldn't understand. She realized the person was trying to get at its heart and joined in. Anisa got a lucky lunge; the hydra dissolved into crumbling yellow dust. She spat out chunks of hydra powder and gagged. She vomited in a nearby bush, unable to control the impulse.

When she staggered back over, the other person looked at her in a scrutinizing manner. "Who are you?"

Anisa started to see black spots. "A... A... I think I'm going to faint." With that, she keeled over and passed out.

/*\

Anisa woke with a bandaged foot, hands wrapped in clean white gauze, a glass of what looked like apple juice, and no clue where she was. She was lying in bed and three people had gathered around her, two girls and one boy. That made her nauseous all over again; her claustrophobia was very intense. She swallowed the bile in her throat and did her best not to bolt from the spot.

"She's awake," a redheaded girl said with curiosity. "Who are you?"

"Why do you care?" Anisa spat. A year of living on the streets made her all too cautious.

A boy with straight black hair that stuck out at all angles put on a calm expression. The bed-headed boy said, "Hey, it's okay, we're all friends here. We're just trying to help."

A sense of security washed over Anisa. "Okay, I guess. Who are you all?"

The redheaded girl smiled. "I'm Rachel Dare."

"Peter Catos," the bed-headed boy nodded.

"Annabeth Chase, but you already know me." Annabeth stared at Anisa, as if expecting her to know every little detail about where she was. "I gave you that flaming knife? I took that back, by the way."

"Oh," Anisa managed. "Yeah."

"And who are you?" Peter prompted.

"Anisa," she sputtered, reluctant to give out any information about herself. "Look, I don't know where I am or why that hydra attacked me. Can someone please explain?"

Rachel gave the other two a look that clearly said that she would take care of it; Annabeth and Peter left the room, and Anisa took a sip of the apple juice. She recoiled at the taste; it wasn't apple juice, it couldn't be, not when the flavor was of her mom's homemade brownies.

"Okay, this is probably going to come as a shock to you," Rachel sighed. "Greek gods are real."

"That's not too hard to swallow. Not after that hydra." Anisa bit her lip and glanced at her bandaged foot.

Rachel nodded and smiled. "Good, good. Because you're a daughter of one."

That threw Anisa for a loop. "Sorry. What?"

"You're a child of a Greek god," Rachel repeated slowly.

Anisa snorted. "Yeah right. What Greek god would want me as a kid?"

Rachel shrugged. "You should find out sometime soon. How old are you?"

"Almost sixteen. Why?"

"You should have been brought to Camp last year," Rachel frowned. "They swore on the River Styx."

"The gods?" Anisa guessed. "What did they swear on the River Styx?"

"That they would all claim their children by the time they were thirteen. Any child not claimed yet who were thirteen or older should have gotten claimed. But you would have been almost fifteen when that happened… and you're just coming here now."

Anisa shrugged. "Don't blame me. Eh… who's your godly parent? And, um, Annabeth and Peter?"

"Annabeth is a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Peter is a son of Disdain, the goddess of emotion." Rachel replied. "I'm actually mortal. Oracle of Delphi. Blessed by Apollo, I guess you could say." This must have been a sore spot, because her face slackened into an emotion Anisa couldn't quite place.

Anisa found the word she was looking for. Wistful. "That's awesome! Apollo's really cool! Um… what's an Oracle?"

Rachel cracked a smile. "I start spitting green smoke and I give prophecies that happen to tell the future."

Anisa stared for a few moments, and then regained her composure. "Okay. Sure. Smoke-spewing fortune-teller. Great. Where am I?"

"Camp Half-Blood. Long Island Sound, New York."

Anisa choked on her own spit. "New York? I was in some forest in Sacramento and poof, I'm across the country? That's not possible!"

The Oracle shrugged. "Could be that some god took you across the country."

Anisa cursed under her breath. "That explains the hydras. Look, I have people I need to get back to." She was the leader of a small band of misfits who lived on the street with her. One of which was her brother, the youngest of the group. "How can I get back?"

"You might not be able to for a while," Rachel sighed. "Traveling across the country takes a while. Add that to the fact that you need training and that monsters attack every five minutes? You're going to have to wait. Besides, you might like it here!" Rachel brightened at the thought.

"Is there a way I can contact my brother?" Anisa pushed back a strand of curly red hair that had strayed into her face.

"Yeah, sure." Rachel held up a large gold coin. "What's his name?"

"Markos Bloom," Anisa reluctantly supplied.

Rachel tossed the coin onto the floor, where a rainbow from the sun in the window was. The coin sank gently into the ground and Rachel intoned, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept our offering. Show us Markos Bloom."

An image of the forest they'd been staying in appeared, and a boy with curly auburn hair ran as though all hell was after him. He quite similar to Anisa, a fact people often noted. The differences were clearly visible, though: he had shorter, darker hair; a more masculine face in general; his pale skin had no freckles; and his eyes were a deep chocolate brown, as compared to Anisa's striking brown-purple, which had a copper ring around the edge.

Markos paused at a small clearing in the woods to catch his breath and see what was behind him. Markos shrieked in pure terror and Anisa caught a glimpse of the creature stalking her little brother. It was a bat-like hag, human sized, and uglier than anything Anisa had ever seen. It held a fiery whip and growled menacingly, a sound that chilled Anisa to the bones. The whip flicked out, around Markos's arm, and he screamed in pain and horror. He fell to his knees before a golden light enveloped him and the creature. The light faded, leaving the clearing completely empty.