Hope you had just as wonderful a Christmas as I did. to top it off, here is another present! Once again, reviews would be nice as they are a moral boost to my writing. But if you would like to just enjoy it, that is fine by me. Happy Holidays to all.

I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters.

Salty water

Huf huf huf

Swish swish

Huf huf huf huf

Snap swish swish snap

Huf huf huf

Mel ran through the wheat fields that surrounded Guymon Oklahoma, running from his latest foster home, tears threatening to drench his face. But he refused to give in to weakness. He was strong, strong enough to live in the wild when he needed to. But thinking about his latest foster home ate away at his strength until he collapsed on the side of a road and choked back a sob.

He was alone.

He was alone on the side of the road far away from the chaos of the Johnson's house, filled to the brim with foster children who ignored him and made his life miserable.

The Johnsons were not that bad, it was the fact that they were trying to raise eleven, no, scratch that, now ten children of varying ages who caused trouble at every turn. Mel was tormented by these ten other children for the four months he had tried to endure them. Some had teased him for who he was, some had attacked him for who he was, and some just flat out ignored him.

They had targeted him out of all of everyone in the house because of the unusual things that would follow him. The salty springs that would well up in him footsteps, storms that would whip up when he became angry. And the creatures that seemed to find him where ever he went. He was attacked by a flock of eagles once, and they nearly carried him away before his parents came out and fended them off.

It wasn't just this house that gad made his life miserable. Out of the twelve foster home Mel had been to, he had run away from eleven. The house before the Johnsons was the only house he was forced to move from. Adam's house.

As Mel lay down in the damp ditch, he stared at the stars that Mel had taught him. Out here in Oklahoma, you could see hundreds, almost thousands of stars, spilled across the sky like a spilt bucket of shards of glass. His favorite constellation was one that had appeared three years again one night as he sat on the roof of his newest prison/foster home. It looked vaguely like a girl, arm outstretched holding a bow. It calmed him for some reason. He called her lucida venatrix, bright huntress.

Adam had taught him this bit of Latin two years after he had observed her in the night sky. Adam was the greatest foster parent Mel had ever had. It was just me, no other children to ruin his perfect relationship with his foster father. Adam had accepted him for who he was and not for the disasters that followed him.

Mel almost didn't notice the low growl that came from the wheat around him he was so absorbed in his thoughts. But the second time it was the unmistakable growl of a canine. Mel sat up, looking around cautiously for the sound. His eyes squinted as he strained to look at the red glow raising above the wheat behind him. It was dim, but was getting bigger and brighter as it noticeably moved towards him. Mel decided that the red swirling colors were not good and started to jog down the road. When he saw that it was defiantly following him, he broke into a run.

He ran and ran, but the thing continued to follow him. Mel's lungs burned and his heart pounded from the running, and after almost a mile he was near collapse. As he stumbled and fell, he glanced back and saw the monster finally.

It was a dog, a gigantic red mutt, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling in its head. A snarl escaped from it's crocked teeth and Mel could feel to hot stale breath brush his face. It made his insides squirm and him blood boil with infection. He grew scared. This thing could kill him. In the distance he could hear the roar if a car engine, but it was much to far away to help. 'Never use your gifts unless you need them' Adam had once said.

Mel searched deep down for his gifts, gifts he had not used in four months, and brought them violently to the surface. As the dog began to lunge at him, the earth shook with so much that it lost it's balance and fell. Mel could feel the effects of the powers eating away at his heath, but he ignored the warning signs. He raised a hand towards the dog and the earth trembled more. But this time it was not a spastic quake, it was a full blown earthquake. The ground broke and crumbled, and the dog yelped as the earth below it shattered.

Then the earth collapsed into a hole, dragging down the creature and Mel. He went careening down the side of the hole until he reached the bottom fifteen feet down. He yelped and then yelled as he landed on his arm and heard an explosive crack emanating from it. The pain almost made him black out, but he took a deep breath and the pain reduced from excruciating to painful.

He looked up and saw that the creature was still there. Mel was almost drained of energy from his gift, and sat there defenseless as the monster hobbled towards him, a deep gash in its muzzle making it look more angry. Then he smelled something, a smell that accompanied a fresh storm. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck and he threw his good arm over his face not a moment to soon. An explosion ripped the bottom of the hole, throwing Mel against the wall and singeing his skin.

He looked up dazed, and saw no sign of the monster only a black mark where it had been standing. He looked at the top of the pit to see a girl with spiky black hair clambering down the side of the hole followed by an older boy who looked almost exactly like him.

He was losing his concentration, because next thing he knew they were bending over him asking him questions. He could not discern what they were saying, nodding mutely to whatever they wanted. The boy gingerly touched his damaged arm, and Mel nearly fainted from the pain that roared through his body. His abdomen was also hurt now that he concentrated. The girl picked him up, making sure that she avoided his arm, and carried him up to a weird bus/RV thing.

Mel was dimly aware of people around him, looking at him, taking off his sticky, wet bloody clothes and him laying on a bed in only his underwear. He blinked in and out of thought, swimming just below the surface of rational thought. He was fed a food that tasted like the pasta that Adam used to make for him. Finally he drifted into sleep, feeling his body mending already as he ceased to comprehend reality and was visited by dreams.

When I awoke, the first thing I could think of was why was I in bed?

I was clad only in my underwear, tucked under some sheets exactly like how Adam would tuck me in. Thinking of Adam drove a wave of sorrow through my mind, but I had to think of more important things, like where was I?

I tried to sit up, only laying back down as pain laced my body. I moved my head and saw my arm in an impromptu splint, a combination of arrows and curtains stiffly wound around my arm to keep it still. I also noticed that the hair on my arm was completely burned off, and I could feel the absence of my eyebrows.

"Look who finally decided to grace us with their presence." a female voice said, and I turned my head to the side to see a girl of about thirteen years looking at me. She was pretty, and I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as I remembered my lack of cloths. She must have seen me blush, because she laughed. Her soft black hair flowed down her back, and her eyes sparked like a rare gem.

She got up and left, only to return with the spiky haired girl from before. This girl wore a thin circlet of silver on her head, and her electric blue eyes made me fearful of her. She studied me, then said, "Good morning sleeping beauty. Have a good rest?"

I nodded in response, a bit peeved by the nickname. "What is your name?" she asked me. I decided not to answer. I did not know these people, so it would be best if I stayed quiet. When the girl got no response, she asked again. I continued to refuse to answer, and the girl was getting angry fast. "I will ask one more time twerp, what is you name?" I gulped and opened my mouth to answer knowing it was time to do so, but when I tried to talk only a dry cough came out. I frowned, then tried again, only to achieve the same results.

The dark haired girl realized what was wrong, and grabbed a pad of paper at my bed side and gave it to. She helped me into a sitting position, and my skin burned where she touched it. I could feel a small fever on my brow, but it would go away. On the paper I wrote 'Menelaus' then as an after thought I also wrote 'or just Mel'.

The older girl nodded in satisfaction. "O.K. Mel. Thank you for finally telling us you name. My name is Thalia, and this is Mari. We were the ones who rescued you last night from that thing in the hole. Can you tell us what you were doing there?"

I took the pad back and wrote out 'I was running from the creature when the earth tumbled out from beneath me.' I decided to leave out my gift, seeing as I still did no know anything about these people, nice as they were.

Thalia studied the pad and her eyes narrowed when she looked at me. "Do you have a family?" This question caught me off guard, and I threw up walls to prevent any sign of weakness. I grabbed the pad back and scrawled out 'none. None at all.' I thrust the notepad back at her, anger building up inside me. That was none of her business.

She studied the paper, and said, "Well, you rest some more sour puss and we will talk later."

Both Thalia and Mari left me, and I fell into a restless sleep.

I dreamed that I was with Adam again.

It started like it always did. I was in an old van, trudging down a road to my newest foster home. My mother had died when I was two in an earthquake, and all my life I had only known foster homes. I had no dad. He had died in a fishing accident before I was born, so I was shipped around the country from home to home. This was my tenth home, and I had a feeling that it would not last long.

The social worker drove up to a log house in the middle of the woods. It was by far the largest house I had been to yet. 'more room for more kids' I thought grimly, already plotting my escape. When we stopped, a lone man came out to greet us. He was older, about sixty by my best guess. His salt and pepper hair covered his head. He was fit for an old guy, and he looked like he could easily be my grandfather.

We walked up to him with my luggage, and as far as I could see there were no other children. The man smiled warmly and there were smile wrinkles that rimed his eyes. "You must be Menelaus." he said. I nodded, not sure how I should Should respond. He chuckled good natured. "A shy one, aren't you?" I nodded again. "Well, it's you're house now also, so don't be a stranger and come on in."

We walked into the house together, the social worker trailing behind and giving us our space as the man gave me a tour. The house was dominated by a large central living room with a giant TV and a fire ring in the middle of the room. I pointed to the fire that jovially flickered in the pit and the man answered, "That is the central heating system. The warm air rises and circulates through the house to heat it. The fire always needs wood though, so you will need to learn how to use an ax."

Above the living room was a loft that the man said would be my room. It was enormous, with a queen sized bed, shelves and my own television. It was awesome. I had never had so much space to myself. I placed my meager possessions on the bed and continued on the tour, thinking about my new room.

We saw the kitchen which was filled with food and state of the art appliances. The man said that he had a garden in the summer and that most of the food was from the garden. I tried a tomato and found that it was positively delicious. Next the man showed me his room, which was quite plain, and the basement. It was full of old board games and random stuff. I thought I saw a bow and quiver of arrows sitting next to a bin of swords, but the man led me away before I could get a good look.

We returned to the living room where the social worker had a short discussion with the man. I could hear snippets of conversation. From what I could hear, it sounded a bit like this:

Social worker: You know , Menelaus is what we call a troubled boy. Are you confidant that you will be able to take care of him?

: Oh yes. I am quite confidant that I will be able to adequately take care of young Mel.

SW: You may change you're mind when I show you his records. (she hands a thick manila folder to ) He has ADHD, Dyslexia, and anger management problems. He often attacked the other children in his former foster homes.

Mr.C: As you can see, there are no other children here at present. I also plan on home schooling him so that I can give him the undivided attention that he needs.

SW: One more thing. It seems that strange things happen in the houses that he is staying at. Now, its just a rumor from a coworker, but I would consider it before you take him in.

Mr.C: thank you for that unneeded piece of advice. But I am steadfast in my resolve to adopt the young man you have brought me. Now, lets sign those papers.

Five minutes later, Mr.C was shaking the social workers hand, sealing the deal. We then watched her driving far away from this place. Mr.C turned to me and smiled. "Well, looks like its just you and me. You can call me Adam. Lets get you settled in, O.K?"

I smiled and nodded. This was going to be the best house to date.