Logan:
"That will be thirty, ma'am ."
Christina paid the driver.
She had forced us into a cab with Griffin protesting in some language that sounded suspiciously like Ancient Greek.
"Christina! You're going to get us all killed!" he had protested before being shoved into the cab.
"No I won't Griffin and you know that because of my mom," she had answered. "Also I'm skilled."
"Ooook," I cut in. "So whose your parent Christina anyways?"
She ignored me, maybe lost in thought or just overlooking me on purpose.
"Christina?"
Silence.
"Christina? Do you hear me?"
More silence.
"Christina?" I replied starting to get ticked off.
More dead silence.
"CHRISTINA!" I went to go shake her, but before I could touch her, her hand shot out of no where and grabbed my wrist, tightening her grip so hard that it went numb in seconds.
"What?" she growled, her grip tightening even more. However, what was even worse was her nails that were beginning to dig into my skin.
"Ow…ow ow ow!" I protested, squirming around as I tried to wiggle my hand out of her grasp, making the pain worse.
"What do you want?" she demanded.
"OUCH! To know, ow, who your parent, ow, is?" I said wincing at the pain (yeah, I know, I sound like a little baby. But if you knew how tight her grip and in addition, her nails, then yes, you would be wincing like me).
"Its…none…of…your…business," she answered trying to keep her voice under control. She loosened her grasp, and gazed out the window, muttering something like, "They always have to ask…monsters attack…battle skill…why don't they ever care?" She paused for a second, and continued doing the exact same thing. This time she murmured, "Tour at camp…battle training…archery…no before that…Tree-jumping class even though I made that up…hmmm…oh yeah…teaching a class I think."
Christina kept up her murmuring to herself until we had reached the Williamsburg Bridge.
"Here," she told the taxi driver.
"Are you sure? I thought you wanted to go to Long Island Sound? If you want to be dropped off here, I can give your change back since it would only be half the price of the Long Island Sound price?" the taxi driver asked surprised.
"Yes I'm sure. We just decided that we wanted to walk now. And you can keep the change," replied Christina. She hurried us out of the cab, shutting the door quickly behind her before the taxi driver could ask anymore questions. She watched as the taxi peeled away from the curb in a cloud of exhaustion.
"Lets go Christina. We shouldn't just stand here because we need to get a move on and besides, you promised that you would explain everything to Logan.
Christina looked back and nodded.
"I guess so," was her only reply. As we walked across the bridge, Christina began to explain.
"Being a demigod is dangerous, Logan. In which it can get you killed. Once you know you're one, your aura or scent, becomes more powerful and vicious monster will attack you," she started. "Especially if you're what I am, but I'll assure you that you're not."
"Like the Boogie-man and second-grade monsters? Or the hydra-minotaur kind of monsters."
"Names are powerful Logan. But, yes, the hydra-minotaur type of monsters," she answered.
I shivered even though I wasn't cold. I imagined myself, bold and strong, standing up to a hoard of monsters. Suddenly, another image, only scary this time, flashed through my mind. There I was, lying on the ground, bleeding my life out as monsters surrounded me, licking their lips because they were hungry for a tasty demigod.
I pushed that image away from my mind and focused on what else Christina was saying.
"Now listen, there is a camp called Camp-Half Blood that is protected by magical borders. Mortals can't see because of the Mist which blocks them from seeing what we see."
"The Mist?" I inquired.
"A boundary that kind of separates what we see and what the mortals perceive. Like if a hellhound were to attack us, mortals would see just a really large, slobbering, nasty dog attacking us. Now on rare occasions, some mortals are born to see through the Mist. And I think your mom can Logan. But that's beside the point. The Mist is just a boundary, separating what we see and what mortals are going to see."
"Oh right. Now the rest of this?" I said.
"Yeah. Camp Half-Blood is the only safest haven between heaven and earth for a demigod. At Camp Half-Blood, you learn to battle, do archery, survive in the real world and much more. Sometimes, demigods undertake quests even thought that hasn't happened in a long time. But lets not go into that. Like I was saying, when you go out into the real world, that proves whether you're any good or not. If your parent is not that powerful like Aphrodite, Demeter et cetera, then neither is your aura. So monsters will most likely leave you alone. However, if you're the daughter of Athena, Ares, Poseidon, Zeus et cetera too, then your aura is more attractive to monsters," she explained.
"So what do those campers do them?" I asked confusingly.
"Oh, they're year-rounders. Sometimes they only come for breaks because they can manage in the real world. But we mostly have year-rounders," she answered.
"Now that makes sense," I replied. "What are you Christina?"
"Me? Well I have to be a year-rounder. Even though I keep telling Chiron that I can manage in the real world, he insists that I have to be a year-rounder because of my parents," she confirmed.
"Then why aren't you at camp if you're a year-rounder?" I asked confused again.
Christina's face darkened which kind of freak me out. I mean, yeah, I've seen people get mad before including her, but when she does it, she makes it look twice as bad and scary.
"That-doesn't-matter. Its none of your business," she said trying to control her anger and tone of voice.
I nodded and decided to leave her alone before she would cause anymore painful-nail clawing agony. I turned toward Griffin who hadn't talked in awhile.
"Whose your parent Griffin," I asked finally.
"Oh, um, well I really don't have a parent that's a god. I'm a, well-,"
"Lets just say that he's not a demigod," cut in Christina.
"I thought you weren't talking to me anymore. Besides," I said hastily before she could open her mouth and retaliate, "if he's not a demigod, then he's a mortal and if he's a mortal he can't see Camp-Half Blood let alone enter, right?"
"Logan, he wouldn't be traveling with us to Camp-Half Blood or even be listening to us if he was mortal smart one. But he's not either one. He's a, well, lets just say, half-goat and half-human."
That sounds familiar, I thought. I racked my brains, trying to remember the word that went with that definition. Finally I came across it and nearly yelped.
"Oh my gosh! You-you're a satyr!" I stammered.
"Shhhh! Not so loud because of them," Christina whispered motioning her head towards the mortals around us. I mean sure, some of them were walking around with a IPods, talking on cell phones or with one another but I didn't think that New Yorkers would listen to a couple of kids' conversation.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm still your best friend even though I'm different. But yes Logan, I'm a satyr. I have to dress like a human in order to pass like a human. And do you know what satyrs do?"
I thought for a second. I shook my head.
"A satyr will go out into the real world and look for demigods. When a satyr thinks it had found one, they stay and keep tabs on them until they are quite sure that they are a demigod and are ready for camp. Then they have to escort the demigod to camp safely before its too late," he said.
"Too late for what?" I asked.
"Before a monster or a hoard of them kill the demigod," he answered without trouble.
"Oh."
There was an uneasy silence for a few seconds.
"There's one other thing about monster too," Christina piped in.
"What?" I demanded.
"You can't kill a monster. You can only expel them for sometime. If your lucky, you can expel them for a whole lifetime which is rare," she replied, smirking (for a I-don't-know-why reason. There's nothing to smirk about really).
"Well that clears everything up. I guess your saying that the same monster will keep coming back to kill you?" I asked glumly.
"No, not technically," she chuckled. "Monsters just pop up whenever they sense a demigod."
"Even if you don't know you're one," I snorted.
"No. Like I said, your scent becomes stronger when you know you're a demigod, attracting monsters. So if you know you're a demigod, more monster will attack. The less you know the better, and the less amount of monsters you will have to deal with."
"Oh now I see where you're going with this. Do satyrs attract monster too?" I immediately regretted that as soon as it came out of my mouth (blame my ADHD). I should've known the answer after all this information I was being told. It was an automatic answer of-
"No."
What I didn't know was why. But Griffin answer my unvoiced question.
"Satyrs don't attrace monsters because they're not part god, so it won't count," reasoned Christina.
"Yeah," I drawled, scratching my head. "I kind of figured that."
"Then why'd you ask?" snapped Griffin who looked offended.
"Well, um, I kind of blurted it out," I blushed. Off to my right, Christina laughed which hadn't happen for a long tine. The last time she laughed was when she was helping me that one time.
"Griffin, be nice. He's just finding out he's a demigod."
"And that he can die from monster attacking every three feet?" exaggerated Griffin.
"Griffin," I joked, "You're now scaring me. And that's not intentionally something positive I had on my mind."
"Ha-ha."
"Well Logan, there it is. Camp Half-Blood Hill," piped in Christina.
"Whaaat?" I questioned.
"Oh just come and look for yourself," she grumbled. I walked up next to her with Griffin following, not realizing that we had been walking up a hill. Griffin seemed to be sniffing out something but I didn't really want to find out what it was. I took one look at the valley that was lain in front of me and I lost my breath completely.
"Whoa. That's so…so…beautiful." The words felt strange in mouth. However, that's not what caught my attention the most. What really caught my attention was-
"The beach. Oh my gosh. Its so…wow," I breathed.
"It's so calm looking I guess," she finished.
"No…well…yeah. It's so calm looking," I stuttered. Suddenly there was a low, but yet vicious growl behind me. Christina and I spun around to see a massive, black dog the size of a rhino with lava red eyes.
"Is that a hellhound? If so, then mortals won't see a really large dog. They're going to see a really large wolf the size of a rhino charging us."
"Shut up and don't move…a muscle," murmured Christina.
"Then why are you talking?" I asked.
"And you're the one to talk. You know what I mean," she hissed.
"Christina I don't think this is time for talking," said Griffin. "We should just run since were close to the borders. And besides, this will be easy. I'll get Logan to safety and you can kill the hellhound or out-run it since you're the best swordsperson, runner and everything else at camp."
Now you're probably figuring, things couldn't just get any worse. Wrong. As if on cue, three more massive hellhounds emerged from the shadows. I mean like literally, I could have sworn up and down all day, insisting that they had materialized right then and there out of those dark, creepy shadows.
"Maybe this won't be as easy as I thought it would," whimpered Griffin.
"Yeah, well…DUH! Besides Griffin, you can't out-run a hellhound. They're as quick as lightning. Even if you could, they could just shadow-travel and appear in your path… BAM!" Griffin jumped as Christina snapped her finges to show how fast and the hellhounds snarled. "Just like that within a matter of seconds, clawing at your throat."
"Good point," he faltered. "Now what? I don't want to be goat steak!"
"That's just disgusting Griffin. How about we go with Plan B?" she said.
"And what does that happen to be?" he asked nervously, now beginning to chew on his fingernails.
"Mmmm. How about the human-sandwich strategy? So that we can keep him safe?" she asked.
Griffin whimpered. "Man, I hate that name for it. We better ask for the name to be changed. But okay. I guess it will work."
"Or you can just run and get help while I protect him," she added.
"How about I'll do both plans. If Plan B gets out of hand, I'll run for help."
"Fine. Or, if you just want to save the trouble for me, maybe you can run right now while I handle them and protect Logan," she insisted.
"But-," he never got time to finish his sentence because then somewhere off to my left, a growl sounded. Three more emerged from the shadows…again. Now there were seven massive hellhounds that were about to rip me and Christina to shreds and turn Griffin into a nice t-bone of goat steak on a BBQ. Lovely and quite repelling at the same time.
"Run," Christina whispered. "I'll make a distraction."
"Okay," cried Griffin quietly. Christina then reached into her pocket and pulled out something gold that I then realized later was a key. As soon as she had brought it out of her pocket, it began to morph into a bronze sword. All the hellhounds growled hesitantly.
"Go now while you can Griffin," she urged. He hesitated too, and then finally made up his mind while the hellhounds were distracted who were now eyeing the sword warily as Christina moved it back and forth. Griffin looked at me, nodded and tore off running, well more like waddling and galloping. He made it to the border and crossed it now screaming for help. I then focused back on Christina who was now done hypnotizing the hellhounds.
"Put your back up against mines," she said. "This will keep you from being attacked on both sides."
I pushed my back up against hers and felt something I had never felt before. I could feel power radiating off of her, coursing through her muscles and to her brain, preparing her for any sudden movement. Suddenly, the first hellhound jumped and in quick, easy swipe, Christina brought her sword up, slashing through its body and turning it to dust that rained upon us in a dusty, liquid-like feeling substance.
"Aw, gross!" I protested. "Does this always happen?"
"No. Sometimes they burst into flames or something else," she murmured.
"Right. This is gross."
I barely finished my sentenced before two hellhounds pounced. Immediately I felt some kind of bump and the next thing I realized, Christina had a silver bow drawn with a sliver arrow too. With great accuracy, she shot one of them and threw her sword like a javelin, at the other one.
"Whoa. Well three down, and four to go," I gulped. How are you going to manage?"
"You'll see. When I say duck, you better duck automatically. You understand?"
I nodded. I didn't need to be told twice. I already had a bad feeling that if I didn't do what she said, I would probably die within a matter of seconds. Sure enough I was correct. Three hellhounds leaped (and by now I was figuring that they had learned their lesson), when Christina yelled, "Duck!" and I did. I looked up in time to see her spin her sword in a head-cut motion. Each hellhound disintegrated leaving a dying growl still hanging in the air. How did she retrieve her sword without even leaving my side.
"Holy moly. That was amazing. But there's still one more," I said.
"Yeah, I know. I can count. I'm not that stupid," she grumbled.
"Hey, I was just saying," I replied as she began to point her arrow. For one scary moment, I thought she was just going to shoot my right then and there. But she didn't. Instead she shot straight up just as the hellhound bunched its muscles, ready to strike. I was going to look up when Christina said the opposite, "Don't look up!" Just as the hellhound leaped, she threw herself into me, knocking me out of the way. I watched as the hellhound landed on the spot clumsily were we had been a split second ago. As it turned to face us again, the arrow Christina had shot came back to earth, piecing the hellhound. However, what surprised me even more was the fact that it didn't disintegrate into dust. Instead of doing that, it burst into flames and was gone.
"That was waaaay to easy," said Christina.
"What the? Why did that hellhound burst into flames and not into dust like the other ones? What do you mean that was waaaay to easy? They could've killed you!" I pestered. Before she could answer, a conch horn sounded and Griffin, a man with a horses half end, and some campers came to greet us.
"Yeah baby! That was totally awesome!" shouted some crazy looking kid. He looked like he had just taken a nap, gotten into a fight with someone, and been burned by something all at the same time. Parts of his arms legs and face were smoking and had soot on them. He had a black eye, a cut on his cheek, a nasty looking gash on his arm and to add to that, his hair was sticking up all over the place. Oh yeah, and he looked like he was on drugs too.
"What happened, Christina? We heard a bunch of howls and Griffin came running saying you needed help. And please tell me why Logan is covered in dust?" asked the half-horse man. I didn't know how he knew my name, but I guess Christina had told before I came to camp.
"How about we explain this inside the border before more monsters attack because of our aura," she answered. The half-horse man nodded and told everyone to get back inside the border and go back to what they were doing. No one moved.
"We want to hear what happened," argued some kid.
"Inside the border," Christina growled.
"Come on everyone," said a girl's voice. "If Christina and Chiron said inside the border first, then get inside the border. You know that all of your scents together attract more monster," finished the girl.
Everybody began to move back into the border quickly. Some of them were muttering among themselves and others were looking at me mysteriously.
"Lillian!" exclaimed Christina. I looked over and saw Christina hugging a girl who was obviously Lillian. When Lillian drew back, I finally got a good look at her. She had blonde hair, startling gray eyes, a deep tan and was wearing owl earrings. But what really caught me attention at first was her gray eyes. No one had gray eyes. This was the first person I had seen in my whole life with gray eyes.
"Logan this is my sister and she is the daughter of Athena," Christina introduced.
"You have a sister?" I asked. "Well then that explains some things about you. You must be the daughter of Athena who is a goddesses of…..of," I stuttered, frowning.
"The goddess of wisdom and battle strategy," completed Christina.
"Yeah. So if you're the daughter of Athena, the goddesses of wisdom and battle strategy, that means your dad is a mortal, huh?" I questioned. I starting to feel pretty good with myself because I thought I had outsmarted her when she dumbfounded me.
"Yes and no."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"None of your business. When you need to know then I'll tell you," she answered in a steely voice.
"Fine then."
"Christina. Why don't you show him around and tell him what's going on," said the half-horse man. I had totally forgotten that he was still standing there.
"We've discussed that situation all ready while we walking here," we both said at the same time.
"Ah. Well I had kind of figured that already. That explains the monster dust all over you," he replied looking at me.
"How did you know that monsters attacked us?" I inquired stupidly.
"Well your friend Griffin told me what was happening, we heard a bunch of snarling and howling on the hill, and I've seen for thousands of years to know what monster stuff looks like when they disintegrate. And to add to that, I would've figured by the time you told him he was a demigod, it wouldn't take long for the monsters to pursue him," he chuckled.
"Excuse me again. But who are you?" I demanded, staring at his half that was part horse.
I mean, this half-horse half-guy was starting to freak me out. One, he reminded me of Mr. Johnson and…wait a second…hold up. The scary thing was he looked almost exactly a like Mr. Johnson. And what was even more scarier was two, he started to freak me out more when he said, "I've seen for thousands of years blah blah blah." Now that wasn't possible. No one can live for thousands of years except for the gods. Or unless they had super powers or something like that. But anyways, I couldn't figure out if this guy was a god who was at camp, or if he was just playing with me. I was about to find out.
"I am Chiron or else so called in your school, Mr. Johnson."
"Really? And you're a…a…I don't know what the heck you are," I stammered.
"Perhaps this may make your light bulb above your head go on," he answered. I looked above my head.
"I don't see any light bulb above my head wise and almighty one," I teased. Obviously, he wasn't seeing this as a joke.
"Yes I find that highly amusing. Anyways, I am Chiron the centaur and your teacher Mr. Johnson. However, you may not call me Mr. Johnson or-,"
"What about Mr. Couple Thousand Year Old Man? Or Mr. Centaur Johnson? Or here's something better. How about Mr. Wi-,"
"OR, Mr. Wise and Almighty One," he finished cutting me off with a stern look.
"That was what I was about to say," I grumbled.
"You may only call me Chiron at camp and Mr. Johnson in class, and that's if you ever go back to Billanus Boarding Academy School."
"Oh that sounds really reassuring. So your Chiron," I said. I racked my brains trying to remember because that name was oddly familiar. Then it snapped in my brain.
"Whoa. You're the actual Chiron? Like the Hercules-trainer Chiron? Aren't you suppose to be dead?" I blurted. Chiron looked at me as if I had just marvelously figured out what sword plus monster equals monster dust (depending if the monster hasn't killed you first. If it had, then, well, it would be demigod-dust).
"Why? You expect me to be dead?" he grunted.
"No! I didn't mean that way. I just meant like…that um, in the myths they said you died some heroic death even though you-you're a centaur," I fretted.
"Mmmm. Isn't that what all myths say. But lets move on. The good thing is, you made it to Camp Half-Blood alive and that Christina and Griffin has explained everything to you. Now all you need is to take the tour around camp. Will you do it Christina?" he questioned raising an eyebrow at her.
"Sorry Chiron, but I've got archery lessons with Alethia at three and right now its five to three so, by the time I get to the archery range, it will be about three. Also, will you Iris-message Logan's mom? I told her I would so she knows Logan is safe," she explained.
"Yes, I will. And now I remember you saying something about archery this morning. My brain has been kind of slow and forgetful because of some of the conflicts that are happening between the gods that keep troubling me. Well you better get going. I'll have your sister Lillian take him for the tour. Will you Lillian?"
"Sure thing Chiron. Come on Logan," chuckled Lillian.
"Bye," I said.
"Bye. See you soon," answered Christina. Then she turned, and began running down the hill to meet her friend at the archery range. I looked at Chiron who nodded in reply and with that, I took one last glance out past the border thinking about my mom, before I followed Lillian for the tour.
A/N: Ok so I know my chapters are long because I have a lot of detail but I can't really help it. I'm trying to shorten them but if you have any suggestions on if I should shorten them or not, please review. And I know the beginning of this is really slow. Sorry. But review please and subscribe if you want. More to come. Thanks guys! :)