the story of thalia grace.

thalia

( hunter of artemis, mistress of thunder )

disclaimer: not mine.

It was easy getting home and packing without my mom seeing. She was still knocked out in her room.

I changed into fresh clothes: my Green Day t-shirt, jeans, and high-tops. I packed my backpack quickly. I stole some money from my mom's wallet. I felt kind of guilty, but convinced myself that I was taking away money that she would otherwise use for more alcohol. If anything, I was doing her a favor.

I counted the money, $136 in all. This should last me a while. I thought.

I went over to the cabinets and packed some food, mostly stuff that would last a while: beef jerky, a package of crackers, some dried fruit.

I slipped my canister into my pocket and made sure I was wearing my bracelet. I would no doubt run into monsters sometime or another, and I needed these things to protect myself.

I put on my jacket and slung my bag over my shoulder. I considered leaving my mom a note, but decided against it. She wouldn't hardly notice if I was gone or not, except that the house might get dirtier without me to pick up.

I opened the door and locked it behind me.

Here goes nothing.

I blinked awake to bright yellow sunshine. I yawned and stretched. Ugh. I thought as I stood up.

Last night's sleep had not been very pleasant. I had walked until what I figured to be about 4:00 AM before I decided to stop for the night. I had slept on an out-of-the-way concrete bench at a small park near the edge of town.

I walked down the street to a bus stop. The bus came, and I hopped on. I paid the fare, then sat down near the front. I needed to be able to get out quickly if there happened to be a monster on the bus.

I rode to the end of the line, and then hopped off. I was at the very edge of town, near some railroad tracks. I walked along them, not caring where they led. I just had to get away from here.

I walked until I felt like I couldn't take another step. There was a small wood at the edge of the tracks. I went in a ways before setting up camp in a small grove.

I built a small fire pit, and then lit a fire with a lighter I had brought with me. I took a sleeping bag out of my backpack and unrolled it.

I had just crawled in before I heard some rustling in the bushes. I jumped up, opening my canister and tapping my bracelet. In seconds, I had a spear and a shield.

I walked cautiously towards the bushes, holding my shield in front of my and raising my spear into attack position.

I heard growling, and an enormous dog jumped out of the bushes. I yelped and jumped back. It looked like a rottweiler, but it wasn't. The face was a little more smashed, and the eyes were glowing red. Yep, definitely a monster.

It growled again before leaping at me. It pushed me to the ground, knocking my spear from my hand as it went. I reached for it, but the dog was on top of me now, snapping at my neck. The only thing standing between its mouth and my throat was my shield, which I held onto with all my strength.

Just as it was about to knock my shield out of my hands, I heard a sickening noise. Thlick. Suddenly there was a bronze knife sticking out of the dog's side. The dog whimpered before exploding into yellow dust.

I jumped up, holding my shield in front of me. "Where are you? Show yourself!" I circled, looking around the clearing. I grabbed my spear as I shouted again, "That knife didn't throw itself… come out!"

I heard rustling in the bushes behind me. I spun around as a boy emerged from the bushes. I held up my shield defensively and made sure I had my spear ready.

He looked about my age, maybe a little older. He had tussled blonde hair, upturned eyes, and a mischievous smile. He reminded me of Peter Pan.

He held his hands up in a defensive position, and he was cowering a little, not coming very close, but slowly making his way around the clearing, keeping a safe distance from me.

I had already figured out that my shield had some magic power. It probably had something to do with the monster on the front.

"Put the shield down… I'm not gonna hurt you."

I ignored his request. I had learned not to trust anybody. "Who are you?"

He smiled. "Luke Castellan. Who are you?"

"Thalia."

He slowly crossed the clearing to his knife. He cleaned it on a patch of wet grass by his feet and then slipped it into a scabbard fastened to the inside of his jacket. "No last name?"

What is a last name, exactly? All it was to me was a reminder of a life I was determined to leave behind. But I didn't tell him any of that. I had just met the guy. So I answered, "Not one you need to know."

He nodded, smiling at me. Why exactly was this guy so happy? It made me sick! Here I was, fighting for my life, and he saved me… why should this have made him happy? Proud of himself, maybe, but happy? This guy was weird.

I studied him for a moment more before asking, "Why'd you help me, anyways? I'm a complete stranger to you."

He shrugged. "I don't know… maybe because we're not too different, you and I."

"How do you know we're not different? We just met three seconds ago, under very strange circumstances."

"Exactly. The circumstances tell it all. Not many get attacked by monsters and actually see them. You're a half-blood."

I tipped my head to the side. "A what?"

"You know, a half-blood… half human, half… wait, you don't know any of this?"

The truth was, I did know some of it. I could very easily tell him about the whole empousa episode, and about my drunk mother saying that Zeus "gave me" to her. But I still didn't trust him.

Besides, maybe he could enlighten me even more. I wanted to understand what I knew before I told him about it.

So I just shrugged.

He sighed. "Let me tell you, then. You know the Greek gods, right? Well, they're still around. And, like in the myths, they still have kids with mortals. That's what we are – half bloods, half Greek god, half human. My father is Hermes, god of thieves and travelers.

"Because of my heritage, I have a distinct scent, one that monsters are always on the lookout for. I thought that hellhound was after me, but the way it attacked you…" His voice trailed off, and he looked deep in thought. "You must be a half-blood. You have to be."

I believed him. I actually believed him. I don't know what it was; I mean, he sounded absolutely crazy. But, hey, I wasn't exactly that far behind him…

So you know what I did? I closed my shield and put my spear away.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Hmph. About time."

"Listen," I said as I put my spear in my backpack, "I trust you. But only because you know things – things about all this 'half-blood' stuff. But give me one reason not to trust you, and I'm outta here."

He nodded. "I understand." He looked at the fire longingly. "Um… you mind if I sit?"

"Fine."

He sat down heavily. He crossed his legs Indian-style and put his hands under his chin, resting his elbows on his knees. I sat down across from him, on the other side of the small fire.

"So… do you have any idea at all who your parent might be?" he asked.

"Well…" I didn't want to tell this boy about my mom. About how she had said something about Zeus, but was drunk at the time. I didn't want to tell him about that empousa, and how I had almost become vampire food. But… I sighed. He seemed genuinely interested, like he really wanted to help me. He might use the information to help me.

"Well… my mom said something about Zeus giving me to her." I said vaguely and slowly. "And there was this empousa-"

"Wait. Did you say empousa?"

I nodded. "Why?"

"Oh, never mind. Did she say anything?"
"Yeah… she said something like, 'You cannot hide forever, daughter of Zeus!'"

Luke was really excited now. "This is incredible! I thought people like you didn't exist anymore! Not after World War II!"

"Wait. What?"

"Well, turns out World War II was caused by half-bloods like you. So, the gods made a pact not to sire any of your kind anymore. But apparently Zeus broke the pact!" He jumped up, doing a little dance. "Ha ha! This is amazing!"

"Wait… 'half-bloods like me'? 'My kind'? What do you mean by that?"

He sat down again. "Children of the 'Big Three'. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. The three most powerful gods of the Olympians." He settled back onto his hands and looked at me thoughtfully. "Normally I wouldn't believe you, but if an empousa said it…" He lay down on the ground, his hands resting behind his head. "I'd believe her."

We sat there in silence for a moment, both of us taking it all in. "You know," he said, startling me. He sat up and looked at me. "We could help each other. I know more about the gods than you do, and you're more powerful than me. We can make it. Together, we can make it. Without that stupid camp to help us."

I raised an eyebrow. "Wait, now there's a camp?"

He nodded. "Yep. Camp Half-Blood. It's where us demigods go for training and the like. But we don't need them. We can make it on our own just fine."

"But why don't you want to go to camp? We might do a lot better with training."

He sighed and shook his head. "Because when you go to camp, you stay at camp. They don't just train you and then let you loose. You train for the rest of your life. Unless you're lucky enough to get a quest. But those are rare. Only the best campers get those. But after the quest, life goes back to normal, and it's back to mock sword fights and chariot races."

I sat for a moment, considering this. What he said made sense. We could learn from experience, and have more knowledge about monsters and the outside world than any camper. And with each other to watch our backs… it made perfect sense. We could live a life of adventure, without ever having anybody telling us what to do.

I smiled at the thought of Peter Pan. He really was like him…

I nodded. "Makes sense." I held out my hand over the fire. "Team?"

He nodded and shook my hand firmly. "Team. I swear on the River Styx that from here on out, I'll watch your back. We'll be teammates 'till the end." Thunder rumbled above.

I figured I'd better do the same. "And I swear on the River Styx that from here on out, I'll watch your back. We will be teammates until the end." Thunder rumbled once more.

Luke smiled. "Well, we'd better get some rest. I'll take first watch and wake you in a few hours."

I frowned. "Are you sure you don't want me to take first watch? You look tired." The real reason I didn't want him to take watch though, was because I still didn't really trust him. After all, I had just met him less than an hour ago. But, he swore on the River Styx…

He laughed and shook his head. "You're the one who was just in a scrape with a hellhound, not me. I've got enough energy to last me a while. You, your eyelids are already closing."

I frowned again, but he was right. I was very tired. So I reluctantly agreed, slipping into my sleeping bag and lying down. I watched as Luke propped his backpack up behind him as a support and settled down to watch the clearing.

As I closed my eyes, I thought about how nice it would be to have someone watching out for me in this crazy, monster filled world. I smiled. Even if my teammate was Peter Pan.