Disclaimer: I don't own or claim to own Percy Jackson, only the characters and plot.
We met our first monster about an hour into the drive. Adan was flopped over the back seats of the car as Eldon drove along the Roman roads that were apparently invisible to regular mortals. I rolled the word around in my head quietly. 'Mortal'. The thought of being anything less than human was stark and startling to me, and I let a small shudder pass down my spine, clicking my tongue against my teeth the same way I did when I was frustrated or angry. I guess that the emotions that I was feeling was a tangled mess of the two, Frustrated that I didn't have the same amount of control over my powers that Eldon and Adan did, and Angry that my dad hadn't bothered to tell me that I was HALF FREAKING IMMORTAL earlier. Letting out a loud groan, I pressed my hands against my head and smashed my face off the air-bag holder, the realization finally sinking in properly for the first time. Eldon glanced across at me from where he was driving the car.
"It's pretty difficult to get used to, I know." he chuckled slightly. "You should have seen me when I first got to camp- I was an absolute wreck!" I gradually slithered back into a normal sitting position, then opened my mouth to question Eldon, but was unable to say anything as he cursed loudly and slammed his foot into the break, the car skidding to a halt, a loud thud sounding from the back of the car as Adan was thrown from his seat and down onto the floor. There were a few seconds of near silence, the only noise being out breathing and Adan's mutterings from the back as he picked himself up from the ground.
Thud.
The noise sounded from the roof of the car, as if something was stepping on it.
Thud.
Eldon's hands began to spark, slowly picking up his sword from beside his seat.
Thud.
I felt my hands begin to frost up, my heart fluttering in my chest like a caged butterfly.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
We all froze, sitting silently, waiting for the inevitable.
It all happened so fast. There was a sudden, earsplitting screech and a crash of noise, as a winged, scaled female-like creature slammed down onto the front of the car, throwing itself against the windscreen, screeching and slamming it's greenish-black wings against the glass, wiry black hair whipping behind it as it fixed us with dark, bloodshot eyes, its jaws distended as it screamed at us, trying to break into the car. Springing to his feet, Eldon shoved open the tough plastic hatch in the roof of the car and clambered out onto the roof, the creature's attention shifting back to the top of the car as it screeched again and scrabbled up the windscreen, landing back on the roof, where Eldon was standing. Finally having gotten to his feet, Adan also stuck his head out of the hatch, although how calm he seemed about the whole thing was slightly terrifying as he called out to the son of Zeus.
"Hey, bro, having trouble there?" The only response was the sound of feet thudding on the roof of the car and the heavy, ringing clang of metal as his sword slammed into the roof. Reaching up, Adan grabbed something and pulled, the creature's screams increasing in volume as the son of Hades pulled its leg downwards, its body smashing into the metal, thrashing wildly as Eldon swung his sword and detached its head from its body, the entire thing exploding into dust. Sitting curled up in my seat, I glanced up at where the demigod swung back in through the roof and landed in his seat, brushing the golden monster dust off his arms.
"Thanks bro, but I had it covered." Adan laughed disdainfully at Eldon's statement.
"Of course you did. That gods-forsaken thing would have knocked you right off the roof and you know it." Shaking his head to dislodge a peppering of golden flakes, he flopped back down into his seat and folded his arms behind his head, closing his eyes. Allowing myself to uncoil slightly, I brushed off the slight coating of frost that had started to cover my seat, and opened my mouth, only then realizing that my teeth had been clenched together. Dragging my knees up to my chest, I curled up and rested my head against the window of the car as Eldon sparked the engine back into life and continued driving, his eyes fixed straight ahead. I let my eyes close slightly as I sighed in realization.
Eldon and Adan are fighters. They're trained for stuff like this. They know what to do and how to not get killed. But me? I'm a complete stranger! I have no idea what I'm even fighting, never mind how to fight it! I curled myself further into my own protective ball. I'm completely clueless! What am I even doing here. This whole life; it's all so-
"Hey Aiya! It's getting a little chilly in here!" I opened my eyes quickly to find my hair dusted with snowflakes, a light coating of the stuff nestled on Eldon's head too. Smashing my head backwards against my car seat in exasperation, I let out an angry scream, covering my face with my hands and screaming in a muffled tone into the palms of my hands. "Umm, are you okay?" Eldon prodded me in the arm, but I reached out and slapped his had out of the way.
"No, No I'm not okay!" I removed my hands from my face, feeling tears begin to prick in the corners of my eyes. "I'm not ready for any of this! I can't fight harpies or carry a sword or kill things! I just want to go back to being normal, boring Aiya! I don't want to be sitting in the middle of a magic road in a magic car with magic people who are so much better than me at everything! I just want to go back home!" By now, the tears had escaped my eyes and were dripping unattractively down my face, so I smashed my head downwards and into my hands again, doubled over in the seat. A tentative hand reached out and touched me gently on my shoulder. Glancing upwards, I was surprised to see Adan, his hand reaching around my seat to pat my shoulder slightly.
"And you think that we didn't feel the same when we first got to camp?" The son of Hades glanced over at Eldon. "I was terrified to say the least, but we've both been training there since we were 10, so we've got the hang of all the monster fighting stuff. You should have seen me when I saw my first monster. I almost crapped myself." He chuckled awkwardly to me. "Seriously, it's okay to be scared, especially since we're going to have all sorts of stuff that we've never seen before coming after us. Who knows what kind of messed up creatures Asgard is going to throw our way." I couldn't help but find Adan's words soothing, and reached up to wipe my eyes with the back of my hand, before murmuring slightly.
"Thanks..." The only response I received was the sound of Adan flopping back onto the car seats.
It seems that there was only so much of being nice that he could take.
A/N: Wow, I'm so bad at updating... I'm so sorry for being so inactive on fanfiction at the moment! I just have very little motivation, so please bear with me!
Storm
