A thousand thoughts raced through my head as Brody dragged me through the forest, occasionally glancing behind us before trudging ahead. Finally, after what felt like hours, I had enough. I yanked my arm free from Brody's grip, planting my feet firmly.

"Brody,stop! This is crazy! I just met you this morning! Before today, the weirdest thing that I had ever seen was a platypus! Then you show up and all of a sudden there's monsters and super powers and gods… What the heck is going on?! I need some answers, man! And not just 'Hey dude, the gods are real! Now let's go run away to somewhere' " I yelled, Brody instantly shushing me and looking around in a panic. After he made sure I hadn't just attracted an entire pack of giant, man-eating wolves, he looked over at me sadly; like I had some horrible fate awaiting me that I didn't even know about. He sighed, taking a seat on a nearby rock, and gesturing for me to do the same. After I sat down, Brody drew in a long breath; I could tell that things were about to get real.

"Alright, bro; the Roman gods… they're all real. Have been since ancient have all of the power that you read about in the myths… just sometimes in a little bit different ways. The monsters from those "myths"; they're also real. Super dangerous creatures, dude. And they're out for one thing: blood" Brody explained.

"Like the Werewolf that almost ate us for lunch?" I questioned, Brody nodding.

"Well, if you wanna get technical and junk it was a Crocotta. But yeah. Most importantly, demigods- the children of gods and mortals- they're real too. They live among humans, many times not even knowing what they are until it's too late." Brody finished, looking over at me sorrowfully. I swallowed the dry lump that had formed in my throat, taking off my rubber band and fidgeting with it madly.

"So, my mom…" I started to ask if she was goddess, but by now that question seemed stupid to ask. I had just run at speeds no mortal human should ever be able to; I definitely wasn't normal. Honestly, in one twisted way it made me feel relieved; At least I knew there was a reason that I never felt like I fit in at school.

"Who was she?" I asked, but Brody shook his head.

"Impossible to tell, dude; at least until she claims you. That usually happens around your age too, man; that's when your scent grows strongest." Brody said. Almost against my will, I sniffed my armpit. I mean, sure I smelled like B.O. and monster dust, but other than that I didn't really smell anything different. Brody actually laughed, his dolphin-pitched squeaks echoing through the forest.

"Man, Dak you are hilarious! You can't smell the difference, but monsters and some other creatures can. Trust me, bro; the smell is there. And I haven't smelled one this powerful since I was last at Camp." He said, scratching at the little hairs that barely sprouted on his chin.

"Wait, Camp? What Camp? Like… like summer Camp?" I asked, now completely confused. What in the world did some crummy Summer Camp have to do with gods and goat men.

"Yeah… something like that. We'll be safe there, lil' homie." He promised, and somehow, despite the insanity of it all, I felt a tinge of hope that maybe he was right.

"Are-are there others there? Like… like me?" I asked hesitantly. Brody looked over his shoulder and smiled at me reassuringly.

"Oh yeah, bro; there's other demis there; but I must admit, I've never met a demigod who could do the things you do." He explained, reaching out and grabbing a tin can off of the ground.

"Righteous! Nature's finest!" He exclaimed, taking me by complete surprise as he took a huge bite out of the can. In all the action and excitement, I had almost completely forgotten that Brody was actually a goat-boy.

"Are there other satyrs there too?" I asked, Brody nodding vigorously.

"Oh yeah, there's plenty of fauns there! Some of them are even my cousins!" He said, bits of tin falling from his mouth as he spoke. Suddenly, something dawned on me.

"Brody, if this Camp is so safe and secure; why in the world were you at Edgewater Prep?" I asked. His expression seemed to harden, making him look almost ominous, which is really hard to do with bits of tin in your goatee. He cleared his throat, and for the first time I noticed that he had a leather satchel slung around one of his shoulders. He gripped in tighter the minute I asked, and I could tell something was up.

"Well, broski; the thing is… What I was actually doing was… I was…" He stuttered, looking like a goat in headlights. My eyes narrowed; I wasn't in the mood to be lied to. That seemed to make Brody even more uncomfortable, beads of sweat visible on his forehead as he stood there stuttering.

"Brody… I just fought a giant Cortec..Corsect… werewolf thing with you! I could have died! And now you're standing here hiding something from me?" I demanded, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back, Brody practically bursting at the seams.

"I was searching for something!" He squealed. For a minute, neither one of us said anything. I mean, that really didn't explain much, and Brody must have been able to tell by the look on my face that I still didn't understand.

"I was sent on a mission to find a very… special object; one the gods have been pursuing for a very long time, man." He continued, looking around suspiciously before reaching into his bag and pulling out the leather journal I had seen him writing in. He flipped through its tattered pages, and I caught glimpses of sketches and letters from an alphabet I couldn't identify, until Brody stopped about a fourth of the way through the massive book, to the last entry; his entry.

"The item I'm looking for; we fauns have been secretly searching for it for centuries; the gods thought it was lost forever, but when my great-great-great grandfather told them that he could smell something peculiar and powerful, they granted him permission to go on a quest to find and retrieve this ancient object." He said, pointing to the top of the page. The coordinates for Edgewater Prep were listed at the very top, as was a detailed report of the school, of the "powerful aura" there, and of me.

"What exactly is this… item?" I asked curiously. Brody simply shrugged, flipping backwards through the pages until he came to a stop on a hand drawn map of the USA, with lines drawn across it in purples and blues and reds, connecting points here and there, but in general not really leading anywhere.

"We have no idea dude; but the gods call it κιβώτιο." He said.

"The Box?" I asked, shocking myself that I actually understood what he had said. Brody nodded, looking off into the distance as he continued.

"Not even they know much about it; but it smells different than any other monster or demigod… or even the gods. And…" He said, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a necklace I hadn't noticed he was wearing. It was a plain leather band, with a very old looking key hanging from it. It looked to be made of a black metal, but when I looked closer it almost looked like color was… shifting around; like it was made of metallic black smoke.

"We know that this key is somehow connected to it. My great-great grandfather found this key while he was searching for the item." He said proudly.

"What ended up happening to him?" I gestured to the journal entry which looked unfinished. Brody deflated a bit, tucking the key back under his shirt.

"He… he never made it back. He died protecting this key and its secrets." He explained. I shook my head in confusion, walking side-by-side through the forest with him as we talked.

"But, I thought you said that the gods and the satyrs were the only ones who know about the Kibotio?" I asked. Again, Brody's expression grew dark, and I felt as though he were almost a different person entirely.

"When the gods found out about this ancient item, their first instinct was to send out their demigod children to aid the fauns in their search for it. For a while, they seemed to be making excellent progress; the fauns were able to track the Kibotio while the demigods were able to fight off the powerful monsters that seemed attracted to it as well." He explained. I must have looked shocked, because Brody raised an eyebrow at me with a tiny smile.

"Well, what happened?" I asked. Brody's smile vanished almost instantly. He swallowed hard before continuing.

"Something… changed the demigods... they killed the fauns they were searching with, and stole all of their research; Well," Brody corrected, patting his satchel. "Almost all of it. My great grandpa managed to give this final journal to a nymph before he was caught…. And never seen again." He ended sadly. I didn't really know what to say, but after a moment of silence I finally worked up the courage.

"What ended up happening to these… rouge demigods?" I asked in wonder. Brody simply shrugged in response.

"No one really knows." He admitted. For a minute, I just sat there thinking about what he had told me, but something didn't add up in my head.

"But… what does any of this have to do with me? Or you being at Edgewater?" I questioned, Brody looking quite embarrassed when I asked.

"Well… here's the thing bro; sometimes, my nose doesn't really… work all that well. I could have sworn I was smelling the Kibotio. It wasn't until I actually met you I realized it… was actually you I was smelling." He admitted. I was about to say something sarcastic and probably rude, but Brody suddenly stopped, gesturing for me to do the same. He looked like he could hear something that I couldn't.

"Someone's coming this way." He whispered. I could feel my heart beginning to race once again as the reality of the past 3 hours finally started sinking in; this was my life now. Constantly running from monsters who probably wanted to eat me. And my only companion was a bohemian goat-boy. At first I thought that maybe it was a false alarm… that is until I heard the thwip of a bow being fired. Once again everything seemed like it was going in slow motion. I turned around just in time to see an arrow suspended in the air, and a gothic looking girl standing up behind a bush. I didn't waste any time, jogging over to the slow-moving arrow and taking it out of the air, snapping it in half and tossing it towards the ground. The minute it left my hands, the 2 halves hung in the air just like the arrow had, slowly drifting downwards. I ran over to the girl, taking the bow out of her hands and running back over to Brody. Time seemed to flow normally, the shattered arrow hitting the ground and the girl seeming to just realize her bow was missing. It was actually getting easier and easier to pull off that little trick; I felt much less tired than the past few times.

"What… how did… What?" The girl asked, clearly confused, annoyed, and angry. She hopped out from the bush she was hiding behind, about 20 other girls seeming to just materialize out of nowhere. She glanced over at Brody, immediately holding her hand up. The other girls froze in place.

"Hang on, ladies; this one's a satyr." The girl said, gesturing to Brody before locking her eyes onto me. I raised an eyebrow curiously, staring right back at her. Look, I've been pushed around by plenty of people in my life; I knew how to stand my ground. The girl scoffed, turning to the rest of her group.

"And this one's clearly a demigod." She said, walking straight past me like I didn't even exist.

"Sup? The name's Brody. You must be one of the Hunters, right? Totally wicked!" He exclaimed. The girl didn't really react, simply eyeing Brody up and down, like she was trying to figure out how useful he could possibly be.

"I take it that you're trying to get this one," She said, gesturing over at me.

"To Camp." She said. The way she said 'this one', like I was some kind of pet, really got under my skin.

"Um, excuse me Emo, this one has a name." I stated firmly, instantly regretting opening my fat mouth as she turned around and glared at me. I tried not to let it show, but she was quite intimidating, especially considering the fact that she looked to be a few years older than me. She glared at me so hard I thought that my head was going to pop off, but eventually she stopped, decided to just scowl at me instead. Suddenly, all of the girls parted like the Red Sea, one of them walking through the opening and right up to me. She looked to be about my age, and was maybe a little bit taller than I was. Her auburn hair waved around a bit in the wind, framing her face perfectly. Her eyes were a very stunning silver color, like the color of the full moon on a clear summer's night. She eyed me up and down, and I couldn't help but stare at her.

"Um… hi. Wow… you have… very pretty eyes; what color are they, like a grey? Or white? I can't really tell, but they're cool."I admitted. ADHD brain strikes again; if I think a girl is cute, my brain just shuts down any filter I might have had. All of the girls reached for their bows, grumbling about me "insulting their lady" and a few comments about "chauvinist pigs" being thrown into the mix for good measure. For a second, the silver-eyed girl's eyes glowed bright silver, her jaw locking a bit tighter as she stood to her full height, definitely having about a fourth of an inch on me. She held up her hand, and all of the bows immediately went back to the girls' sides. I glanced over at Brody, who was waving me off. He mouthed something to me, but to me it looked like "All the miss.", which just confused me even more. I looked back at the girl once more, but by then she had seemed to calm down a little bit.

"You are brave to speak to me in such a manner, boy." She said, saying "boy" like it were some personal insult. For a second, I completely forgot how scary she had just looked a few seconds ago; I mean, she looked like she was just a kid like me.

"Oh, sorry if I offended you; sometimes my mouth works quicker than my brain. My name's Dakota, but my friends call me Dak." I said, sticking out my hand. She stared at it for a moment, and I could have sworn I saw a tiny smirk playing at the corner of her mouth, but it vanished just as quickly as she took my hand softly.

"Artemis" She announced. I smirked widely, shaking her hand and letting it go.

"Wow… Artemis. That's a really cool- holy shiznit." I deadpanned. Artemis; that's what Brody had been mouthing to me.

"You mean… THE Artemis? Like… goddess of the moon and eternal maiden huntress?" I asked. The girl raised an eyebrow at me like 'are you REALLY that dense?'

"I'm so sorry if I offended you; I had no idea that you were… wait, why is a 2000 year old goddess still 13? Did you not age past 13? Is that why you're a maiden? Are all the Olypian gods teenagers? Do your arrows seriously never miss? Do you really have a moon chariot?" I asked, questions just spilling out of my mouth. This is what happens when I panic; an impromptu game of 220 questions. For a moment, she just stared at me emotionlessly, and I thought for sure that she was going to annihilate me right there, but after what felt like an eternity, she simply rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I can take on any form I desire, and this form is the average age of my Huntresses. Yes, I aged past 13. No, that is not why I am a maiden; I am a maiden because men are pigs. No, all the Olympians are not teenagers… though I swear they all act like it sometimes. My arrows always hit their targets and yes; I have a moon chariot." She answered. I kind of just stood there, blinking and taking it all in.

"Wow… That's awesome!" I said excitedly. I couldn't help but smile; I mean, I was literally talking to a freaking goddess; how cool is that?! Artemis turned to Brody, who had pulled out another can and was chomping away.

"Satyr; I take it you were escorting… Dak to Camp Half-Blood?" She asked. My smile grew even more when she said Dak; I assumed that meant we were friends.

"Yes, my lady!"He said, but with his mouth full of tin it sounded like "Bess my Bladey" She looked back at me for a second, then to her hunters.

"We were headed that direction anyways; we'll make sure you make it there safely." She said, Brody looking extremely relieved.

"Thanks so much, Artemis! I mean, Lady Artemis?" I asked. I had no idea how to address a goddess, and I kept forgetting that she even WAS a goddess because she looked so much like Tracy Collins, this girl from Edgewater I totally had a crush on. Again, it looked like Artemis was trying not to smirk, and did an extremely good job at it.

"Let's get moving." She insisted, looking over her shoulder at me and smirking.

"Try not to slow us down." She said, and I actually laughed.

"Ouch! That's kind of harsh… my lady." I insisted. I smirked deviously, closing my eyes and concentrating on that familiar feeling. Time slowed down and I surged ahead of everyone, leaving them in the dust by about 30 yards before stopping and standing there, arms spread jokingly.

"Try and keep up, your highness!" I called playfully, taking off through the forest once again.