Continuing on with my fanfic. Just started it today on a whim. ^^ Cause I've been suffering from writer's block later and hopefully this'll get me started again… So since I actually live in Canada (eh?) I don't know much about New York – in fact I'll be visit New York for the first time in a few days! If anyone can help me understand the area, it would be great. :D Criticism welcome and appreciated, so enjoy. :)
By the way, to those curious, this takes place about a year after The Lat Olympian.
PJ&O characters don't belong to me… all Rick Riordan's creations… But my plot and my characters belong to me.
Chapter Two: Donkey Boy is Insulted
"Lena is sick, so she'll have to stay home from school today," I heard my mother say to my brother. "Your uniform's not straight."
"She's been sick for two weeks!" That was true. My mom put me on house arrest a week ago. I was longing for fresh air, and a chance to go outside. "And she never goes to school anyway," Justin said. "And she doesn't look sick. Look! She's faking, mom, she's only pretending to be asleep –"
"Eat your breakfast," she sighed. "You're going to be late for school."
"Not fair!" Justin shrieked. "Not fair! You never yell at her when does bad stuff! I want to stay home too!" My ears were bleeding. I tugged the pillow from under my head and clamped it on top of my ears. "See? She just moved! She just moved!" His voice's volume lowered as he raged his way down the stairs.
To sum it up, my brother was a spoiled bratty genius when he wanted to be.
I could hear my sister practicing her violin in her room. Turning eleven next week, she played so many different instruments, I won't bother listing them. Right now, she was playing some Vivaldi piece.
"Breakfast, Jordan!" Mom yelled up to her.
The notes broke off suddenly as Jordan obediently put down her violin in exchange for cereal.
Ten minutes later, I listened to the sound of the car engine started up and the tires rolling down the driveway. Birds chirps, traffic honks in the distance, someone's footsteps to my front door…
Ding dong. I peeked out the window to see who it was. Some man with a package and a UPS uniform. I saw him tapping his foot impatiently on the porch. Okay, dude, you're in rush. I reached for my long robe and slipped it on while stuffing my feet into some bunny slippers.
Running downstairs while yelling, "Coming!" I realized my hair was a mess and sighed. Whatever. His fault he interrupted my supposed slumber. I opened the door. "Who's the package for – whoa." I slammed the door in his face as my heart pounded in my chest. Oh. My. God. I took off my slippers and flung them behind me. Running shoes… where are they? Aha. Right here. My hands shook as I put them on.
I wasn't about to run out in broad daylight with only a bathrobe on, so I searched in the closet for something acceptable.
One earthquake-like tremble later, I decided I could do with my bathrobe. Glass littered the ground, and one piece stabbed itself into my arm. The monster was trying to knock down my front door, and I couldn't do anything about that. I tried to forget the image of the one-eyed creature – a Cyclops – and flung open the kitchen window which led to the backyard. Then I could climb the fence and get the hell out of here.
I had one leg over and then other still on the kitchen counter when I heard Mrs. O'Leary's loud barks. What are they doing here?
"Lena!" Percy shouted at me. "Get out."
"I am, in case you haven't noticed," I cried. "Um, remember those monsters I told you about? There's one at my front door! So if you could take out your sword and – oomph!" I landed on stomach after an awkward flop through the window.
"Already on it," Percy said and ran towards the front. "Get over the fence, there's a taxi waiting for you."
"Wait, I wasn't serious you know…" I looked back at the house and thought of all my possessions in there – things that actually meant something for me. Then the house jerked again and I decided hey, I wanted my life over anything else anytime.
I grabbed one of the lawn chairs and set it beside the fence. Using it as a foothold, I was over the fence with only a few bruises and a nasty cut from the glass shard.
I was across the backyard and onto the front within seconds. A car beeped and I saw the taxi to my left. I opened the back door and a boy was already sitting there, drinking from a coke can – no chewing on it – with a cap on his head.
"Percy told me to come here," I explained. "You know Percy right?"
He stared fearfully at me. My appearance wasn't exactly the best and right now it was likely he was staring at my crow's nest of black hair. "Y – Yeah, I know Percy, we're like best buds," he bleated. "You see, I don't escort demigods most of the time, but Percy wanted a favour, and well we're best buds – I just told you that. What happened back there? Percy's not telling me through our link…"
"A Cyclops is trying to rip down my front door," I summarized.
He laughed nervously. "Cyclops, huh? You know, Cyclopes are bad monsters, but I know a friendly one…" We watched through the glass window as my house shook once more. Then the roaring stopped and it was calm. "Okay, I think Percy's done his job. Pick him up, Argus. My name's Grover."
"Lena." I saw through the mirror that Argus had more than two eyes on his face. Creepy much to have a monster driving your cab? But I guessed that if Grover trusted him, then I could too.
"Okay, Lena, listen. We're taking you to Camp Half-Blood, right now, because we can't have anymore monsters knocking on your door."
"Can I get my stuff?" I asked timidly.
"Sorry about that, but two demigods in this place, it's definitely risky," Grover said and finished his coke can.
I gaped. "Do you um, eat coke cans all the time?
"Anything goes," he explained and took off his cap. "Look at my horns! They're getting bigger, I'm telling you." Pride was in his voice. He stamped his feet several times, except the sound was more of a clop clop. I looked down. Hooves. And very hairy legs.
We pulled up to my house. Percy got into the cab. I moved to the middle to give him room. He closed the door and flipped the pen. "That was actually pretty fast," he mused.
"You believed me when I told you about the monsters… because you fight them everyday," I guessed.
"Not everyday." He paused. "Okay, probably everyday. We're taking you to Camp Half-Blood."
"The camp for special people," I recalled. "As in people who can slay monsters and donkey boys."
"I'm not a donkey boy! That is just mean. I'm half goat." Grover protested. "Never ever say that to a satyr unless you want to be trampled on. Or if you're best buds with the satyr you're talking to." He sniffed several times.
"Satyr." Cyclops. Satyr. Greek mythology.
"And Camp Half-Blood is for demigods," Grover said. "As in half-god, and half-human. Congratulations Lena, you're a demigod!"
I stared at the stretch of road in front of us. The air freshener swung back and forth. "So. You're saying that either Mom or Dad isn't my actual parent."
"You got your human half from your mom," Percy said. "She knows you're a demigod."
"Then why didn't she tell me?" The words were spoken with the softest tone. I felt betrayed. Lied to. For pretty much my entire life. "And who's my dad?"
"A god," Percy said. "We don't know who yet. It can be Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus, Dionysus, or Ares – hopefully not – or one of the minor gods. Or maybe you're a child of the Big Three." Doubt. "But probably not because they only just lifted that vow they made after World War Two."
"Big Three? Vow? Um, please remember I only just found out that I'm half human."
"The Big Three – Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades – made a promise to each other that they wouldn't have children with mortals ever again, because their demigods are too powerful. But they only recently decided to forget about it, so it's unlikely you're a daughter of one of the Big Three."
I ran this through my head. "So you're saying that I'm a daughter of my mom and some Greek god – and Greek mythology is not mythology."
"Yeah. Monsters exist and so do the gods. And the Titans." Grover stopped here and exchanged a knowing glance with Percy. "In fact we were at war with them just a bit less than a year ago. But we won."
"Okay. But what about science?"
"Science is made of theories humans invent to explain things they don't understand," Percy said. "So forget about that."
"Sweet. And this camp we're going to? Camp Half-Blood. It's like a summer sanctuary for demigods?"
"You could say that," Percy said. "It's a place where monsters can't attack us, unless they've been put there for training. We have to train and learn how to defend ourselves, otherwise you'd die out here in the real world. In fact, there's still a chance you might die, so take this." He took out a dagger from a backpack by his feet and handed me a dagger. "It's not the best, but it's the only one small enough to fit in my bag. It's made of celestial bronze, which will kill just about every monster you encounter. But it won't hurt mortals."
I gripped the dagger by the hilt. "Anything else I should know?"
"Yeah, actually a whole bunch," Percy said. "But you usually learn along the way."
For the next hour, they gave me a rundown of the war and camp activities. I'd sunk down low in my seat in dread. What if my parent didn't ever claim me? What if I wasn't good enough to kill a monster or…
"You'll do fine," Percy said. "With your tough personality, there's no need to worry."
I sighed.
"We'll have to get off here, the camp's just over the hill." Percy got out. I followed him as he slung a backpack strap over his shoulder.
"Later Argus!" Grover yelled and slammed the door. "He doesn't talk much," he sighed. "Come on now, don't lag behind –"
"Empousai," Percy said suddenly. "Two of them."
"They have to show up now," Grover moaned. "Run, Lena, run to that big Christmas tree! You know, with the dragon curled around it. We'll be right behind you."
"Dragon –?"
"Run!"
I sprinted, which wasn't easy to do so in a bathrobe. At first I was sure I'd make it, the tree wasn't far away at all, but that was before an empousai jumped in front of me and knocked me down, just as I was below the tree. I got my first close-up of an empousai, and it wasn't pleasant.
All I could think of was a vampire satyr with a metal leg. She lunged at my neck, but I kicked her away, keeping her distracted with her pain loud enough to take out my dagger from the bathrobe pocket. She attacked again, but I sliced the dagger across her face and shut my eyes. I didn't want to see her face bleeding. But when I opened my eyes again, there was nothing left.
Applause and whistles filled the air. At first I thought the watching spectators were cheering for me, but all their attention was focused instead on Percy who'd just killed the empousai which a stab to her stomach. No one saw me. I was under the shadow of the tree.
On unstable legs, I gripped the dagger and crossed the border. Grover was the only one there, and he patted me on the back. "Nice job for your first monster."
Percy wiped the locks of hair from his forehead and joined the giant group of excited campers. From this angle, I saw him hug Annabeth, the girl from his picture.
"You all right?" Percy asked me as he walked over.
"Fine. I killed the other one."
Annabeth hugged me. "Hi Lena, Percy told me about you. You might want to get changed. Lunch is in twenty minutes. And welcome. You're going to love it here.
I'm no good at describing fight scenes. D: and the ending's kind of rushed. Sorry about that.
until next time. ~^^~
