Chapter 3 - Realization

I turned around and ran as fast as I could possibly run. I never looked back once.

Eventually, I caught up to Barrow, who was strolling casually on the sidewalk. When he heard my footsteps behind him, he turned around.

"Hey! What's wrong?" he asked when he saw my face.

I stopped. "T-There's some kind of giant m-monster behind us!" I yelled.

Barrow's eyes widened. "Shoot! I hoped they wouldn't attack now! Follow me!" And Barrow ran off. I decided it would be best to follow him, so that's what I did.

We ran and we ran, until we eventually came to some sort of hut, covered by branches and leaves, a bit far into the forest next to my town.

Barrow ran right inside of it, but I hesitated. I had no idea what this place was. But Barrow stuck his head out of the door, and said, "Come on!" I looked back, and saw the top of the monster's head peeking over the houses slightly. I took a deep breath, then ran inside.

It was amazing. From the outside, the hut looked about three feet high, but now, when I was inside of it, it was five feet high.

"Wow," I whispered.

"Yeah. But ignore that for now. Take this!" Barrow handed me a small, yellowish-color ring. I hesitated putting it on. For some reason, I had always been afraid of wearing rings. I guess I was afraid that they wouldn't come off.

Barrow seemed to sense that I didn't want to put it on.

"It's fine, it won't get stuck on your finger. You'll be able to take it off whenever you want," Barrow said.

I raised an eyebrow at him, then slipped the ring on my right middle-finger. Instantly, the ring transformed into a sword, the same color as the ring. But the ring was still on my finger. I opened up my hand, letting my grip of the sword go away, but the sword stayed attached to the ring.

"Celestial Bronze," Barrow said. "This sword is actually pretty cool. It will always return to the ring whenever you want, just by thinking it. And if you will the ring to become the sword, it'll appear. Also, you can make the sword detach itself by willing it, too."

I understood what Barrow was saying. I even knew what Celestial Bronze was. I had read about when I was younger. My mom had given me some Greek mythology books, saying how I should learn them. I knew everything about the gods and goddess, and a lot about the heroes.

But then I thought, If Celestial Bronze was real, then what about all the other myths I had read about?

Barrow raised an eyebrow at me. "You do realize that you're going to have to kill this monster, the Minotaur, right?"

So the Minotaur was real. But… why was I just trusting Barrow like this? I barely knew him. And then the full force of the fact that I had to kill this monster by myself, with no training. I stared at Barrow.

"No… No, this has to be a mistake. I can't kill the Minotaur… Wait, wait, wait," I said, "If this is the Minotaur from all the myths, then shouldn't he be dead, or trapped in the Labyrinth?"

"Monsters cannot die, Daphne. Their essences returns to Tartarus, but eventually they can reform," Barrow explained.

I shrugged. I had a feeling that I should listen to him. That this was going to play an important role in my life. "Fine. Okay. I'll try to kill the Minotaur. But if I die, I'm blaming it on you."

"Suit yourself."

I took a deep breath, then ran over to the Minotaur.

"Hey! Ugly!" I yelled. Luckily, it got the Minotaur's attention. Unluckily, it got the Minotaur's attention.

The Minotaur bellowed, then ran over to fight me. I side-stepped, and pushed the point of my blade into the Minotaur's side. But it only made him angry. He slowed down to a stop, then turned toward me. I guessed he was using his nose to find me, since his head was up in the air. He turned his head toward me, and charged.

I easily side-stepped again, but this time, I took of running. I tried to stay away from any houses, since I didn't want anyone paying a lot of money for repairs. I looked behind me, and saw the Minotaur beginning to charge again. And then I did something stupid. I turned around, and ran over the Minotaur's side. As I ran past him, a shoved my sword out to my side, so that as I ran past the Minotaur, my sword sliced through his side.

Afterward, I looked back once again, and saw the Minotaur becoming dust. Then, the dust fell to the ground, and the wind swept it away.

I trudged back over to Barrow, who looked shocked, yet strangely happy.

"Wow. You… you just killed the Minotaur. All by yourself…" Barrow mumbled.

"Yeah," I scowled, "it was so fun."

"No! No, I didn't mean it like that. Just… ah, nevermind," Barrow said. "Okay. Now, we head to Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp Half-Blood? What's that?" I asked.

"It's a place that people like who, half-bloods, I mean, go to train," Barrow explained.

"What's a half-blood?"

"It's a child of a god or goddess, also called a demigod," Barrow said. "You are a demigod."

"Then… then who's my parent?" I asked Barrow.

"We don't know yet. You'll be claimed eventually," Barrow said.

I figured that "claimed" just means that parent is saying "Hey! This one's mine!"

"Okay," I said, "so where's this Camp Half-Blood?"

"New York," Barrow replied. "Or more specifically, Manhattan.

"Okay. Not too far," I said. I lived in northern New Jersey, so it wasn't that far.

"We should head out, like, now," Barrow warned.

I shrugged, signing for Barrow to lead the way.

We walked out of the hut, and headed for Manhattan.