Yay! It's Christmas! Well, for me in my country, it is. Anyway, Merry Christmas! God bless you all! I'm sorry that I haven't been updating. Reasons are at the end of this chapter! Anyway, this hasn't been read over by my Beta Reader. I'm on a writing frenzy right now so the third chapter should be up soon, if I decide not to have it read over again. Oh, BTW it's short. I know. But the third chapter should make up for it. I was supposed to end it longer but the next scene just doesn't seem to fit this chapter so I separated from this chapter and put it in the next one. Anyway, read on! Hope you like it!

-Eve E

xxx

We Fall To Our Deaths

~Kyrie~

"KYRIE!" I could hear screaming but my own scream piercing the air was drowning everything else. I could hear the wind in my ears as I fell and in my head, I was cursing that stupid black-haired girl—Dawn—to the deepest pit of Tartarus.

She never did think anything through like Derek had told me but whereas he was amused, I was definitely not and who could blame me? She was the very reason I was falling to my death. I closed my eyes and prayed to the gods to save me. I would not die without killing Dawn first!

Suddenly, the wind died and I could feel someone's arms around me. I opened my eyes and Derek sighed in relief. The brunette anime girl looked over at me—concerned—but her eyes flicked back to Dawn again. I stared at Derek and he set me down.

"You okay, Kyrie?" He asked. "Of course," I said stiffly. I straightened myself and looked back at him again. "Thank you for catching me," I murmured, trying to hide my embarrassment. I disliked having owing or depending on others. It made me feel weak and I was definitely not weak!

"No problem. I guess everyone is falling to their deaths today." He commented and then tacked on with an afterthought, "Besides, I owe you. You saved me so I've got your back. Right?" Derek gave me a crooked smile and the corners of my lips went up into a smile. "Sure," I replied uncertainly.

"Guys, I don't know about you two but don't you think we should help Dawnie out? I feel pretty bad just leaving her to fend off a Cyclops the size of a three story building alone." Kitty remarked from on our left.

I cursed. As much I disliked Dawn at the moment, I had forgotten that we had left her to fight that monster all alone without training or anything and the guilt was like a wave crashing over me. Whether she accidentally made the Cyclops drop me or not, she had tried to save me either way and it wasn't as if she had meant to do that.

I whistled loudly and three Pegasi appeared in the sky. One of them was a white and bronze Pegasus, named Cantrielle. The second was black with a gold mane, tail, and wings—I recognized him to be Zero. The last was Derek's Pegasus—a dark gray steed with white wings, a white tail, and a white mane—named Storm Front.

I hooked myself onto Zero, Derek climbed up on his, and the anime-ish girl scrambled up onto Cantrielle looking excited. We ascended just as the Cyclops swatted Dawn and my Pegasus, Asterisk. They tried to dodge but the Cyclopes had learned its lesson because he caught them in his hand and hurled them away.

Asterisk tried to slow herself and get airborne. She extended her wings and slowed herself down but Dawn wasn't so lucky. The black-haired girl couldn't fly, nor could she stop herself in mid-air like a Pegasus could.

She flew passed us and miraculously, she caught hold of my arm and swung herself onto Zero's back. He neighed in approval and I looked back at her. There was a long scratch across her left cheek and scratches along her arms but besides that, she didn't seem anymore injured than Derek.

"I never got the chance to apologize for being stupid and accidentally almost getting you killed." Dawn said over the howling of the wind and the Cyclops that Derek and the anime girl were fighting. I shook my head. "Next time—if you want to do something stupid—make sure no one else has to die because of it, will you?" I reply, but my tone warmer than before.

Then, I jumped off Zero's back and landed on Asterisk's back instead. "That Pegasus, Zero, he's yours now. He seems to like you more than he likes anyone else." I tell her before passing her. I catch the smile she throws at me before I look away and pull out the silver chain from under my shirt.

I press down on the lock and key charms on it and a bow and quiver materializes in my hands and on my back. I notch an arrow into the bow's string and aim it at the Cyclops' eye. Derek is stabbing at his eye. "Kitty Kat, watch out!" He yells at the anime girl, who nods and touches a pink wristband she's wearing.

The Cyclopes swings out his arm but a shield spirals out of it and I recognize it easily. It's Ivy Rose, a legendary shield of Demeter. But I wasn't paying it that much attention because I was too busy watching Kitty Kat hold up the shield and block the Cyclops' arm. 'It won't work!' I wanted to shout but before I could open my mouth to tell her, spikes slide out unnoticeably and sunk themselves into the Cyclops' arm.

The monster wailed in pain and wrenched its arm away from Kitty Kat's shield. The once silver roses were yellow, absorbing the color of the yellow monster dust they turned into when their essences get sent to Tartarus.

Dawn and Zero soared over my head, almost nicking me with Zero's hoof. She sent me a cheeky grin before she pulled out a knife and stabbed the Cyclops in the eye. "We need to get out of here. It'll take much more than this to kill it." Dawn yelled. Kitty Kat and Derek nodded and even I had to agree.

"Let's take the pegasi and fly to Camp Half-Blood." Derek suggested, looking at me. "We're in San Francisco and Camp Half-Blood is in Long Island. Do you really think we're going to make it? It's on the other side of the country!" I protest, shooting the Cyclopes in the eye with a golden feather arrow.

"Do we have another choice?!" Derek defends, looking impatient. "This is why we should have a child of Hades here so we could shadow travel out of here!" I snap, irritated. I fire another arrow at the Cyclops but in my frustration, it misses by feet.

"Then Iris-message one! Oh wait! You can't because we don't have a rainbow or any drachmas!" Derek argues. He's actually looking annoyed for once in his life! "Wow! I've actually pissed off the laid-back, King of Calm Derek Summers! I completely deserve a round of applause!" I reply sardonically.

"Stop being so stuck-up, Kyrie! Our first priority is to get them back safe! I don't care if it'll take ages for us to get back! What matters is that we get BACK!" He yelled back. Both of our pegasi were looking anxious and nervous.

"ENOUGH! ARGUING ISN'T GOING TO HELP ANYTHING!" Kitty Kat shouts and I can tell she never gets mad because Dawn and Derek go silent. The sight of the cute, dense little anime girl angry scared me more than I wanted to admit. I closed my mouth and looked away.

That's the biggest mistake. We forget that behind us is a giant Cyclops and it takes that opportunity to snatch up both Dawn and Kitty Kat. Dawn is cursing and Kitty Kat looks like she wants to bite its hand but she thinks better of it. Dawn hisses and tugs at the belt around her waist until it comes off. When it lands in her palm, it transforms into a long whip, crackling with electricity.

"PUT ME DOWN, YOU ANNOYING IDIOT OF A CYCLOPS! PUT ME DOWN NOW!" She snaps and it does drop her, down, down, down, right onto Zero's back. Kitty Kat, on the other hand, isn't so lucky. The Cyclops throws her at Derek and Storm Front and she tumbles into them, heavy enough to take them with her. Storm Front rights himself and Derek and Kitty—her fall slowing down—bounces right off of the Pegasus and lands onto a car's hood just a few feet down, groaning.

Dawn is hitting her whip against the Cyclopes, managing to feebly hold him back while Derek goes to check on Kitty Kat. I ride towards her again, soaring up to fire arrow after arrow into the Cyclops' eye which doesn't seem to do much good anymore. Dawn turns back and we both quickly glance at Derek and Kitty Kat, who seems shaken but not seriously hurt.

Derek climbs back onto Storm Front's back and Kitty Kat pulls herself onto Cantrielle's. "We need to get out of here!" Dawn shouts, dodging a car—thrown by our lovely little enemy—that soars right above her head. "Get to the San Francisco Bridge! It's not too far from here by air. We'll think of something there!" Derek yells back and Kitty Kat gives me puppy-dog eyes that I can't say 'no' to.

"You'd better have a plan, Derek, or I will gut you like a fish. I swear I will." I call back and we retreat as fast as our Pegasi can take us, flying upwards into the sky and scouting for the San Francisco Bridge as the sun begins to set above us. I can hear the Cyclops' roar of rage but the farther we go, the quieter the sound seems until it's finally gone.

Derek and Dawn are in the lead. Zero—his black body and golden mane—and Dawn—her hair black and bronze, streaked once on the left side of her hair—seem to be a perfect combination of rider and steed. Dawn seemed so comfortable riding with Zero and Zero had shown an instant liking to her, something that he hadn't shown to any other rider he had. Derek seemed to be glad to be riding on Storm Front again as well. The two had always been so close and Storm Front had missed him when he attended the mortal school and always seemed very happy when Derek came back to Camp Half-Blood in the summer.

Dawn finally turned to look at us, changing position so she was sitting backwards on Zero. Kitty Kat then turned to me. "By the way, we didn't really introduce ourselves properly, due to that Cyclops. I'm Caitlyn Adams, but you can call me Kitty or Kitty Kat." She said, smiling at me. Dawn sighed at the brunette's innocence but I could see the affection in her eyes every time she looked at Kitty and I knew she really didn't mind how dense Kitty was.

"Dawn Skylark, giving out sarcastically witty comments and dishing out attitude just to annoy everyone around, at your service," Dawn said, winking at me. "Don't let Dawnie fool you. She's really quite nice when she wants to be." Kitty added, smiling affectionately at her black-haired friend. "I'm not nice," Dawn snapped.

Derek snickered from the front of the group and Dawn glared daggers at his back until he turned around and gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, little sis. You know I didn't mean anything." Derek apologized and Dawn laughed. "You never mean anything negative, Derek." She said, sticking out her tongue at him.

"So, what's the plan?" I ask. Derek scratched the back of his head uncertainly. "Well, you see…" Derek started to say. I sigh. "There isn't one, is there?" I ask, but it isn't really a question. "Don't you have a single drachma on you?" He asks. "No, I don't. Don't you?" I answer. "Not one," Derek sighs. "So, I guess Iris Messaging is out of the question then." I reply. "Start praying, Derek. We'll need some godly powers—" Dawn suddenly gasps and cuts us off. "Guys, I got a bit of a premonition of some sort. We need to turn around and get back to school right now." She says.

"The school will be closed by this time, Dawn. What are you talking about?" Derek says. "I don't think we should be traveling by night but the Cyclops might still be there." Kitty says, looking torn. "We can avoid it. But we need a safe place to stay until the sun rises. Traveling by night is way too dangerous and I have this gut feeling that we need to go back. I can't explain it but let's just wait it out at school and rest there before we do anything else." Dawn answers, pleading. "Dawn's right. Turn around. We're going back the way we came." I order.

xxx

When we get back to the school, the Cyclops is gone and we easily fly over the school fence and into the grounds. From there, we hide the Pegasi in one of the huge storage sheds near the fence. Kitty thinks its Pegasi abuse but they're comfortable enough there. The sun is quickly setting on the horizon and we go inside the school building to look for an empty classroom to rest in.

Derek goes to find some pillows and blankets from the teacher's lounge. Kitty goes to the cafeteria to steal some food and Dawn and I scout around for a place to sleep. We settle in the deserted History classroom and Derek volunteers to keep watch while we sleep for a little while. I fall asleep for four hours and it's around nine o'clock when I woke up to relieve Derek's shift.

I knew I checked the clock at midnight and my eyelids were so heavy. I remember taking a small nap and promising I would get up in a little while just so I could rest my eyes for a bit. Suddenly, maybe after a few hours, we were all woken up by the sound of an ear-splitting scream of fear and panic. "KYRIE!"

xxx

I'm sorry I haven't been updating for a while. I've been grounded and then there were exams…and then we had constant family holiday parties which I had to attend. I just got my laptop back a few days ago and I've been busy for the past few days trying to get Christmas shopping done and working on a story as well. Sorry for not updating! Merry Christmas, everyone! God bless you all!

-Eve E