Sammy wasn't used to beautiful girls waking him up, but he wished it happened more often. The girl looked shocked at him when he opened his eyes and immediately handed him a pastry square which he ate, the taste made his eyes bulge, it wasn't lemony like as he was expecting but was instead tasted exactly like his aunt's coffee and nugget cheesecake, only the texture was slightly off, just as surprisingly he felt like a million bucks after eating it, the sores he felt at first evaporated and all the fatigue disappeared like he just drank ten triple expressos. He sat up and remembered everything that had happened up to that point, the manticore, his dad…..

"DAD!" Sammy rushed over to the bed across the room when his aunt stopped him.

"Sammy, I know you want to help but you need to understand that your father is injured, I got all the venom out of his body but it will still take quite some time," his aunt said drearily

"Why can't you feed him one of those lemon bar things?" Sammy retorted.

"Sammy," she began to speak. "That was ambrosia, the food of the gods, it only works on gods and their children" she finished.

"Ugh…. okay…... " Sammy said as he went back to the other bed, he wanted to help his father but he knew his aunt did not lie and he trusted her judgement. He sat down with a huff and looked at the girl he first saw. She had a thin, soft face with a similar milky white complexion, although she had SOME colour in her cheeks when he compared himself to her, he also noticed a small set of freckles on each side of her face with her wavy, cashew colored hair framing her face perfectly. "So… I'm Sammy Fitzgerald, who might you be?" he said kinda awkwardly.

"Astrid Cormelda" she said in a feined tone, Sammy realized she was also worn out so he handed the other half of ambrosia to her, which she grabbed and gobbled quickly with even more colour in her cheeks.

"So while my dad is healing shall we exchange stories?" he gestured

"That sounds good" she replied as the two told each other about themselves, Sammy was quite surprised to hear about her time alone given she was his age -12- he had trouble understanding how she was still mentally stable after all that. She had nothing to say about his life, at least what he remembered for you see, every time Sammy tried to remember anything before six years old he got a headache, it was as if his memories were scrubbed clean with bleach and steel wool, it bothered him.

It was four hours before Sammy's father awoke.

"So…. I guess some explaining is required?" his father laughed at a little, as if this entire ordeal had never happened. His father and aunt (who is not actually his aunt but a close family friend) explained pretty much everything, the greek gods are real and they inhabit and follow whatever country is the strongest western civilization, they also explained about monsters being unable to die.

"How annoying" he and Astrid said in unison. None of this was hard to believe, since Sammy froze a manticore in midair.

"So Sammy…. Now about your mother…." his father began to say. "Yes?" Sammy said as his heart did flips, his mother was a forbidden subject between them, and he had a pretty good idea who she was, as there was only one goddess who was associated with snow. "She's Khione isn't she?" Sammy asked

"That's my boy!" his father yelled triumphantly, "and yes, it's Khione" he finished. "Now Sammy, Astrid," Aunt Esmeralda said, "we have something we need to talk about …" she said as she and Sammy's father both nodded at each other.

"What?" Astrid injured.

"You two can't stay here, you have to, go somewhere…"

"Where could we possibly go?" Sammy said with confusion in his voice.

"Because….. You are not safe here, well, not anymore, the only place you will be safe is Camp Half Blood, it is just a few miles from here, they can protect you, teach you,"

"I can't leave dad!" Sammy yelled.

"Sammy!" his dad said. "I don't want to do this, but I must do what is best for you!" his father said hugging him tightly. Sammy felt tears rolling down his cheeks. "So please, listen to me!"

"Yes father" Sammy said as he hugged his dad. "I will go, you coming with Astrid?"

"Obviously," Astrid said in a annoyed voice.

"Okay then, get some sleep you two, you leave tomorrow" Esmeralda said as she handed the two some blankets and pillows.

Sammy and Astrid had been walking for almost an hour when they saw a hill in the distance with a pine tree at the summit, "now if I were a betting man, Id say that's half blood hill" Sammy said.

"Id bet that" Astrid said in a huff, she had not had enough magic to cast the wind spell on both of them so they traveled on foot, which wasn't an issue due to the constant jokes Sammy had told Astrid, so she had some fun.

"Okay let's go the-" Sammy never finished that sentence as halfway through the sentence a lion's roar echoed throughout the forest. "And THAT'S our cue to run like mad men!" Sammy shouted as he bolted towards the pine tree while grabbing Astrid's hand. Unfortunately the lion was a lot closer than Sammy had thought when the golden lion jumped in front of then, ready to strike.

A/N Hello it's me Aqua, just something to point out, I finally got the mobil app so now I can work on and publish chapters a bit more frequently

With Love,

Aquatics