Astrea didn't know why she was being attacked by so many demons? I mean, sure she was the host of an egyptian sky goddess, but come on, three minions of chaos in one day was a bit excessive. She was currently running from one of the seven arrows of sekhmet, aka she was running from a eight foot tall something that had the body of a human, the head of a ram and had a wooden tulip shaped bowl on it's head. Oh yea, and Astrea couldn't forget that she was unable to touch it for fear of getting a deadly disease. When in these kind of situations Astrea would normally rely on her friends in the thirty-fifth nome to help. They had a good system after all, she would be their eyes and they would do all the fighting. Occasionally she would give some advice on how to formulate a plan and occasionally she would have to create a portal for them to escape through. This afternoon had been one of those instances in which her friends had needed an escape portal, though she had blown it, big time. Not only had it taken her a while to open the portal but her portal had also separated them and landed her in New York instead. She had no clue where anyone else had landed and gods she would be in trouble when she got home. For now though she had to worry about escaping this alive.
Astrea ran through the alleyways of some big city and looked around trying to gage her assets, this was a little difficult seeing as how she was being chased by a demon of chaos. For now though she was just running blindly and turning corners just for the sake of getting out of the demons eyesight. She rounded yet another said corners to find she had exited the alley and had entered one of the busy street in New York city. It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the brightness of the sun, though Astrea didn't let this stop her. She ran past cars and angry pedestrians, she ran past expensive stores and roadside peddlers, she ran past a mother who was trying to calm her child and a girl with bleached blond hair. Astrea could hear the noises of a busy city as she past, though what she didn't expect was to hear those noises turn into the screams of people near death.
Astrea risked a glance behind and saw that the people, the mortals, were looking at the demon. Astrea didn't know what they saw through their duat distorted vision but whatever it was it certainly looked frightening. Astrea used this confusion to her advantage and jumped behind a hotdog stand. She used her few minutes to take out her wand and to contact anything that might be able to help.
"Holy fudge-nuggets." Said a girl with bleached blond hair, cowering behind the hotdog stand with her.
"I know right." replied the guy to her right. He was holding up a smart phone and recording the minion of chaos, "This weird ram headed thing is so gonna make the news."
Of course he would think of the news while...Wait.
"What do you mean ram headed?" Astrea asked hesitantly
"The thing that's eating up cars and right in front of us." The guy stated and looked at her as if she were the crazy one.
"You mean" Astrea said, trying to be calm, "That you can see the minion of the Sekhmet? That's impossible."
"Is that what it's called?" The guy asked, barely heard above the chaos that was now New York.
Suddenly the demon stuck it's head in the air and sniffed, then he looked straight at the hot dog cart. Astrea hoped beyond hope that it was just because weird ram headed demons like hot dogs. Unfortunately Astrea didn't have much luck since the minion of chaos walked over and lifted the cart above his head. The ram headed man then decided to shake the cart, causing all of those delicious hot dogs to cascade down into his mouth. After watching that gruesome sight Astrea didn't need much of a push to keep running.
She ran past more tall buildings, cowering people and a good many animals hiding in the alleys. Feeling a surge of hope Astrea realized her hastily thought out plan might just work, she just had to buy a little more time. Out of instinct she turned around to face the minion of chaos and shot her hand out into a sort of upside down gun pose.
"A'MEX" she shouted and its hieroglyphs floated into the air. Astrea had hastily picked the word for burning and found it was quite effective as the ram headed thing began to let loose bloodcurdling screams. Astrea felt herself slightly drained by this act but knew that she could keep going, after all she was the host of the sky goddess.
For her next trick, Astrea took the chalk out of her bag and began to draw a protective circle. She then put her Sons of Horus on the cardinal points and quickly muttered the words to activate the shield. The circle glowed red not a second too soon as the demon overcame his burning sensation and came racing forward, promptly slamming into the shield. Astrea muttered a sigh of relief and faced the monster yet again. Now she had time to think, to properly cast spells and to….. Crap.
The arrow of Sekhmet had somehow realized that these people around him could be used as a type of bait to get her out of the circle. This much was obviously clear, the only part that didn't make sense though was the fact the monster could see them, for humans have a measly scent that is easily covered up by the mist like duat. Yet here the beast was, prowling around and looking at all of the innocent mortals with a gleam of hunger in his eyes. At least the mortals had found their senses and hidden behind whatever they could, though Astrea could sense that it wouldn't last long.
Astrea looked longingly at her circle of protection and knew that she had to do the right thing, the annoyingly stupid thing but the right thing no less. Therefore, just as the monster had found some innocent mortal to prey on she jumped out of her magic circle and shouted, "Hey ugly"
After seeing that mark of bravery most people would think Astrea was a brave person and, though they wouldn't be completely wrong, Astrea would point out many unknown facts: she is fourteen years old, she has cried in every romantic sappy movie she has ever seen and has never fought anything alone before. Sure she would watch as her friends fought lesser demons but she had never actually fought one herself, let alone an Arrow of Sekhmet. Therefore when this major demon turned it's beady eyes toward her she nearly peed her pants and ran crying back into her safety circle. Though, when she glanced at the face of the woman she just saved, when she saw the appreciation and admiration in that face, she found a bit of extra courage. She nodded at the woman to get into the circle of protection before she shouted back to the demon.
"Yea you." Astrea said pointing to the ram headed demon. She quickly tried to think of something cool to say, something like Carter and Sadie Kane would say. Though all she could think to insult was his ram headedness, for everything else about him was truly terrifying. Therefore she relied, "I bet after I defeat your sorry little but you'll be in a baaaaaaa-d mood."
Astrea couldn't believe it, she had said a sheep pun. Why oh why had the world cursed her with never ending moments of embarrassment? Ironically, it was with that thought that the monster picked her up and hung her upside down like he had the hotdog cart.
"Set me down you ignorant sheep!" She complained while thrashing back and forth. "I'm not a hotdog!"
Astrea probably would have died in the next couple seconds had a pigeon not flown by and made her realize the amount of animals that were surrounding this area, animals that had answered her cry for help. Using the Animal Charming abilities Astrea had developed she called upon them and yelled, "Attack this wolly bad guy." Within seconds the Arrow of Sekhmet had disappeared under the hundreds of birds, cats, dogs, rats and bugs that attacked him. When the animals dispersed, the demon had vanished, leaving only a poor host behind.
Astrea walked over to the man, feeling a little woozy from her over use of power. The man looked around, as if in a daze and glanced up at her.
"Who are you?" The man questioned.
"I'm a friend." She responded easily, thinking it would be safer if no one knew her name. She helped the man to his feet and lead him over to the huddling group of people who had taken shelter in her circle. The mortals seemed confused when the host man could enter, some even fled, though most realized that this man was innocent and helped him walk around. Astrea explained to them that this man did nothing wrong and was taken advantage of, though that was it.
She left rather quickly though, for she saw that people were already starting to record the damage and Astrea didn't want to be there when they got over their shock. She knew she didn't have enough energy for a portal, for she had fought three different monsters today and was running on empty. So she stumbled along the banks of the Hudson River until she came to a hotel. She gave them enough money for one night in a crappy basement room, it was the safest room monster wise, and traveled down a flight of steps. When she finally got to her room all she had energy to do was take her magician pillow out of her bag and lay down on the lumpy bed before passing out.
Just some random dude
Thanks so much for the review! I really appreciate it and love to hear that type of feedback. I definitely plan on fleshing out Kass' backstory and will add his first view of camp half blood in there too. I think I may introduce more characters before I get back to him though, I hope you grow to like the new characters as much as I do. This story takes place a few months or so after the war against Gaea. Therefore people have relaxed a bit even though the war is still fresh in their minds. Thanks again!