Disclaimer: I, Twilit Bakery (My real name) do henceforth declare that I own neither Percy Jackson and the Olympians (or the related titles) nor Harry Potter, I do not own any characters that you recognize, I do not own any of the references that I make, I only own the surface that I write this on, and an accumulating mound of debt from my college life.
Now that the boring part of this is over with, I hope you take some of your time after reading this to review! I am not perfect, and have a rather poor memory so if you think I messed something up feel free to leave a review about it, if you have any suggestions I would appreciate them!
Later that day
Bianca POV
Bianca thought Penny was a little weird.
She showed up this morning without any luggage, and proceeded to invade Bianca's personal space on multiple occasions, shaking her awake in the morning and then hugging her right out of the shower, she continued this pattern through the day, linking arms and holding hands with Bianca as they walked, sitting a little closer than normal when they sat down, and playing with her hair when she had nothing else to do. It made Bianca feel a little uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything about it as it didn't look like Penny was doing it intentionally.
It was a little weird, but Bianca just assumed she was a 'touchy' person. She seemed pretty harmless… an emphasis on seemed. It was rather strange, but Bianca felt like she was missing something like there was a piece of the puzzle that she couldn't see.
So she started watching Penny a little more closely. She noticed little things at first, how Penny moved almost silently, unintentionally startling Bianca a couple of times. Penny was also very strong, not like superhuman levels of strength, but there were a couple of moments through the day where Penny thoughtlessly picked her up, (like when she won Sorry!) and while Bianca knew she was pretty light, she wasn't that light. Bianca also noticed how she brushed her nails together when she thought, and that she seemed to twitch slightly when someone passed close behind her. This was all a little weird, but it was ultimately topped by the final fact. Penny seemed to like how she smelled… a lot. She had mentioned it offhandedly before, but it was very different experiencing it firsthand. Bianca couldn't smell anything herself, but apparently, Penny could because every chance she got she would hug Bianca, inhaling deeply as she did. It was weird and made Bianca a little uncomfortable, but it was well worth it to see the cute smile that crawled across Penny's face afterward.
The strangest thing about today though had to be the looks that Dr. Thorn gave them. Whenever they changed locations, (like this morning, when they moved from the library to the cafeteria for lunch) Dr. Thorn followed them, not closely behind or anything too obvious, but he seemed to follow them throughout the day, whenever Bianca looked over at him he always seemed to be doing something else, but she knew that he was following them, which filled her with anxiety. The weirdest thing was how he looked at Penny like he was confused by her presence.
But if you ignored that small fact the day went pretty well, Penny was a fun person, even if she confused Bianca a lot. Nico evidently shared her opinion, quickly becoming more comfortable with Penny's presence as they spent time together.
Right now they were back in the library, teaching Penny how to play Monopoly, she caught on fast, but not fast enough as Bianca was gaining properties at a rapid pace, Nico not far behind.
They had been playing for a while; Bianca and Nico dominating the economy as Penny struggled to hang on with her few properties when the librarian came over. "You kids best clean up if you're going to be going to be getting to the dance on time."
"What dance?" Three voices rang in confusion, each glancing towards the other before looking back at the older woman.
"The winter dance of course! Dr. Thorn made an announcement about it this morning." The librarian said, her eyes glazing over slightly as she spoke.
Bianca watched as Penny narrowed her eyes slightly, before snapping her fingers "Dr. Thorn gave us permission to skip the dance." She said, blatantly lying to her.
To Bianca's surprise, the librarian accepted Penny's statement, walking back to her desk and continuing her work.
Penny turned back to the game, not noticing the siblings' looks at her as she took her turn.
"Penny," Bianca asked cautiously, "What was that?"
"Yeah, I don't remember talking to Dr. Thorn today." Nico helpfully chimed in.
Penny looked at them both in surprise, narrowing her eyes slightly in thought.
They watched her for a little while before Penelope snapped her fingers again, saying: "You guys don't remember? We talked to Dr. Thorn during breakfast."
Bianca felt a fog drift over her mind before she shook it off, her black eyes narrowed at Penny, who started to sweat a little.
"Penny… Did you just try to… hypnotize us?" Bianca asked incredulously, glancing over at Nico who was still shaking off his confusion.
Penelope started muttering under her breath, as her eyes darted between Bianca and Nico quickly.
"Clear-sighted? No, can't see through mist… Monsters? No, that's silly… Hmm, that leaves Demigods…" She trailed off her eyes glazing slightly in thought.
"Penny, are you feeling okay?" Nico said, surprised by the serious look on Penny's face.
"Hm? Oh yeah, I'm alright, just thinking." Penny replied, her eyes looking at the pair seriously as she asked: "What do you two know about greek mythology?"
Bianca was a little confused by the sudden question, while Nico jumped a couple of energy levels.
"You mean like Zeus, and Hades, and Hercu-?"
"Quiet!" Penny whisper-yelled, clapping a hand on Nico's mouth as thunder rumbled softly in the distance. "Gods how could I have been so foolish!"
'Gods' Bianca noticed idly, watching as Penny inhaled deeply, her eyes flaring as she did so.
"Okay, we need to start moving now. Here's what we're going to do," Penny said, taking a few calming breaths. "I need you two to come with me, we're going to be packing quickly, and leaving." She said, pulling Bianca and Nico from their seats as she pulled them towards the girls' dorms. Muttering something about their 'scent' the whole way.
"What?! Penny, what's going on with you?!" Bianca asked, concerned with the fearful look in Penny's eyes.
"Let's get your stuff ready to go, then I'll explain this, but we need to be ready to go before then alright?" Penny replied, keeping a hand on the siblings as they moved towards Bianca's room. Bianca packed quickly in silence, gathering her few belongings in a bag before they started towards Nico's room.
Bianca watched as Penny sat on Nico's bed taking a few breaths to calm herself. Bianca stepped closer to her and sat down, hugging her slightly as Penny calmed down.
"Okay, so we're here, can you explain what's going on now?" Bianca asked softly, Nico sitting on Penny's other side, but not as close.
"Okay… umm… where to start…" Penny said, her mind working quickly as she thought.
"The beginning is always a good idea," Nico said jokingly, clearly worried about Penny's uncharacteristic seriousness.
"The beginning… okay." Penny breathed, her voice trailing off a little before strengthening. "Greek gods are real, all those myths about the gods, the monsters and everything in between? It's all real, and I think you two are demigods." She said, unsure of how to continue.
"Wait-wait-wait," Bianca said quickly, "What? Are you serious? There's no way any of that is true if it was, why haven't we heard about it before?"
"There's this… veil, I guess called the Mist, that hides most of mythology from people's eyes, you can only really see through it if you are already aware that it exists." Penny rushed out, hugging Bianca tightly as she spoke, "Gods, this isn't how I imagined this day going…"
Nico spoke up from his place on Penny's left, "You mean like Mythomagic? Sweet! What are the gods like? Does Zeus really throw lightning? Wait… didn't he marry his sister? If that's true that's just disgusting." He declared, his face scrunching up at the thought.
Thunder boomed through the clear sky as Penny glared a little at Nico. "Okay first, don't name-drop any of the gods… or the monsters… actually just don't say the name of anything in greek mythology unless you are 100% sure it's on your side, and let's just say that the big guy? King of the gods and all? He's definitely not on your side." She looked Nico in the eyes, seeing his obvious skepticism she continued, "Seriously, names have power and saying the name of someone like that is like a little itch in the back of their mind, they know where you are and the gist of what you said. Did you hear that thunder?" She asked, seeing Nico nod his head. "That was him acknowledging the fact that you said his name."
Nico's eyes widened in awe, opening his mouth before Penny's glare cut him off.
"Don't say it again Nico! It's bad enough when you aren't aware that you're invoking a major deity, don't poke at him unless you are prepared for the consequences." She finished warningly, stopping her glare at Nico's reluctant nod.
"Anyways… where was I?" Penny asked Bianca, her right arm curled around her protectively.
"You were saying something about the mist?" Bianca said hesitantly, unsure of how she should be taking all of this.
"Ah yes, the mist hides monsters and most supernatural things from the eyes of mortals, occasionally there are people who can see through it, but that doesn't really matter. The main thing that you two need to know is that oftentimes, gods get… bored of managing their domains, and decide to 'visit' the mortal world, most these visits are fairly mundane, but occasionally a mortal succeeds in catching a god's eye. Sometimes these unions result in a child, a demigod. That's what you two are. Demigods."
"That's so cool!" Nico shouted, "What's special about being a demigod? Are we super strong? Super fast? Immortal?"
"It depends…" Penny said, "Demigods, in general, tend to have ADHD and dyslexia, there was some reason for it but I can't remember right now. Some stronger cases could manifest portions of their parent's domains; controlling lightning, using magic, controlling plants are all examples of some abilities some demigods have."
"What powers will we have then?" Nico asked excitedly.
"No idea, unless you know who your godly parent is there isn't any way to tell other than doing it." Penelope thought for a moment, "I know there is a son of Poseidon around somewhere who can do stuff like breathe in, and control water."
"So whose kid are you then? If you know all of this you're a demigod right?" Nico continued, almost bouncing in his seat.
"Umm… sure..." Penny said cautiously, "I'll show you who my mythical parent is if you promise not to panic."
"Okay! How?" Nico questioned.
"Here, hand me your Mythomagic deck," Penny said, grabbing the deck when Nico offered it and searching through it, before pulling out a card and showing it to Nico.
"The Manti-"
Penny quickly clapped her hand over his mouth again, "Don't say its name!"
Bianca glanced at the card, 'The Manticore' it read, showing a ferocious beast with the body of a lion, the head of a man, and the tail of a scorpion.
"But Penny… this one isn't a god is it?" Bianca asked cautiously, tensing at Penny's side.
"Yeah… it isn't." Penny said softly.
"You aren't going to eat us or something right?" Nico asked cautiously.
Penny let out a barking laugh, before sighing softly. "Nico, if I wanted to eat you you'd be eaten. Besides…" She paused, looking Nico over before licking her lips, "We monsters like to fatten you demigods up first. Not enough meat on your bones yet."
Nico recoiled slightly, and Penny started to laugh at his panic-stricken face.
Bianca hit Penny on the shoulder, before rubbing her hand in slight pain. "Don't do that!" She ordered, calming down a little as Penny continued to laugh.
The three sat there in silence for a moment, before Bianca asked: "So why did you ask us to pack up?"
Penny sighed again before responding, "Demigods… well, they aren't safe in this world."
"Why not?" Nico asked, bouncing back from his earlier startling.
"Well… monsters kind of… like to eat you?" Penny hesitantly said, her grip on Bianca tightening a little.
"So you are going to eat us!" Nico declared wielding the bag with his stuff like a shield, "Back foul beast!"
"No Nico Penny isn't going to eat us," Bianca stated resolutely, before looking Penny in the eyes, "Right Penny?"
"Of course not! But most monsters… well, they find the taste of demigods to be a delicacy, most demigods don't make it to adulthood because of this." Penny revealed, the siblings' eyes widening at that.
"What are we supposed to do then? Wait to die?" Bianca asked rhetorically, a little annoyed that her life expectancy had been reduced by more than seventy-five percent.
"No, there's… a place in New York that protects demigods, trains them." Penny said, uncertain how she should describe 'Camp Half-Blood.'
"Is that where we are going?" Bianca demanded, "To some camp in New York?"
"Yeah… unless you have a better idea?" Penny said resolutely.
"What's the place called?" Nico asked, returning to his chipper state.
"Camp Half-Blood, I think it's on Long Island or something," Penny said, unsure of its exact location.
Bianca picked up on Penny's uncertainty, asking: "You haven't been there before?"
"No, why would I have?"
"Because it's safe?"
Penny laughed a little again, "Safe for demigods maybe, last I heard there's a barrier of some sort keeping monsters away."
"Then what are you going to do Penny?" Nico asked quickly.
"What do you mean?"
"Well if you can't be at Camp Half-Blood with us, where are you going to go after you bring us there?"
"... The woods?" Penny said, not quite sure what Nico was asking.
"The woods?!" Bianca demanded, her loud voice causing Penny to flinch slightly, "Why wouldn't you stay there with us?"
Penny looked at Bianca drily, "'Cause I'm a monster." She stated, "I probably couldn't make it past the barrier. Besides," she continued, glancing towards the window as she finished, "It wouldn't be safe for me there."
"Why not? If it's safe for us why wouldn't it be for you?"
"I'm a monster Bianca, gods don't tend to want monsters near their children, and those children aren't any more likely to want me there either." She said assertively, "Besides, it's nice out in the wild, nobody knows about me so I tend to be rather safe."
"That's stupid," Nico declared, "Why don't we just stay with you?"
"That wouldn't be the best idea… I didn't really understand what a demigod scent was until I met you guys… let's just say that it wouldn't be safe for any of us."
"What do you mean by 'demigod scent?'" Bianca asked, using her fingers as quotation marks.
"Well, you guys smell… a lot. I hadn't met a demigod before today, but I was told that the more distinctive the scent, the more powerful the demigod, I'm honestly surprised that you two haven't encountered a monster yet." Penny finished thoughtfully.
"What do we smell like?" Nico asked, sniffing his armpit as he did so.
Penny blushed a little before breathing in deeply, almost tasting the scent on her tongue as she smelled Bianca.
"Like the ground right after it rains, like… metal? Maybe gold? And…" Penny paused hesitantly before continuing, "And Death."
"Death, what does death smell like?" Bianca asked, confused at Penny's description of her scent.
"It's hard to describe?" Penny replied. "It's just a feeling I get."
Penny looked outside quickly, paling at the slowly setting sun. "We should probably start moving, we can probably get to the city by nightfall if we move swiftly."
"Wait, if you're the daughter of the… Well the lion thing, what are your abilities?" Nico asked curiously.
"Well… it's less of an ability thing, and more of an appearance thing?" Penelope said cautiously.
"Really? But you look normal." Nico claimed.
"Yeah, I use the mist to hide the less human parts of me when I interact with people, you never know when you'll meet other monsters." She finished, shrugging.
"Why would that matter?" Nico asked, confused.
"Most monsters aren't exactly friendly, most are sentient to different degrees, but some like hellhounds attack just about anything they can. The ones that Hades controls are the worst."
"Why?"
"Hades basically gives monsters who work for him a deal, if they listen to his orders then he'll let them re-form faster. He controls an army of monsters, although apparently someone else is starting to build an army as well…" Penny trailed off, thinking about her last few talks with other monsters.
"Who?" Nico asked, "And why would they want an army of monsters?"
"Don't know, don't really care, as long as they leave me alone it's not my problem," Penny stated casually.
Bianca rejoined the conversation, exiting her thoughts and asking: "Could you show us what you really look like then?"
"I guess…" Penny said uncertainly, "Just… don't panic alright?"
Receiving a nod from the two, she stood, and walked to the other bed, stopping in front of it and undoing her illusion and hearing the gasp as she turned around, her cat-like eyes focusing on Bianca as Penny looked at her with unease.
Bianca stared into Penny's vibrant green eyes, the color so much sharper without the illusion. She stood there for a moment, and watched as Penny's eyes dilated slightly, in… fear? Bianca realized that Penny was afraid of her reaction and stepped closer to her, wrapping her friend in a hug to assure her.
Nico had much fewer reservations, immediately shooting off a chain of questions, moving around to Penny's back as he did so.
"That's so cool! Why are your eyes like that? How long are your claws? Can you shoot spines with your tail? How strong are you? How long is your tail?" He stopped for a moment, poking her scorpion-like tail as she thought.
"My eyes were something on my mom's side mixing with my dad's. My claws were about an inch long last I checked, but they might have grown. Yes, I can throw spines, not shoot them. I don't really know how strong I am, but I could pick you both up easily. I don't know how long my tail is, I can't check on my own." She finished thoughtfully, flexing her tail a little as she thought.
Penny picked them both up to demonstrate, one in each arm as she lifted them both, straining slightly. "Or not, I guess I overestimated myself."
She set them both down and she saw Nico preparing another flurry of questions. She looked outside again at the sun that was slowly approaching the horizon. "We need to start moving, you can ask more questions on the way." She decided, re-applying her mist illusion as she spoke.
Bianca felt a little disappointed when Penny's eyes changed back but quickly agreed, grabbing her bag and tossing Nico his.
"Let's go!" Nico cried, excited for the approaching journey.
Bianca led them through the door, and towards the school's main entrance when a sudden breeze seemed to pass through the hallway, Penny flinched a little bit and opened her mouth to speak when they heard a voice come from around the corner.
"Oh, but we're not visitors, sir," The girl said. "We go to school here. You remember: I'm Thalia. And this is Annabeth and Percy. We're in the eighth grade."
Penny pulled Bianca back, hissing quietly. "Stop! That girl is using the mist."
They listened as the man, Dr. Thorn and the teacher Ms. Gottschalk conversed a bit before another boy joined the conversation.
"That one," Penny hissed, "He's not human."
"Who? Dr. Thorn or Grover?" Bianca asked, recognizing the other boy as a recent transfer.
"Both." She said resolutely, "Thorn is something dangerous, powerful. The boy - Grover you said? He's something different. The others smell different too. I can't tell what any of them are! Their scents just kind of combine." Penny whispered desperately. "Gods why do they all have to be here now."
The conversation ended - Bianca wasn't paying them too much attention - but she heard something about punch? They heard footsteps approaching quickly, the newcomers talking about something as they approached their position.
"What should we do Penny?"
Penny shushed Bianca as the others came close enough for them to hear their conversation.
"Two half-bloods? Here?" The girl from before asked, amazed.
"A brother and a sister, they're ten and twelve. I don't know their parentage, but they're strong. We're running out of time, though. I need help." The boy said before stopping suddenly. "Wait, do you smell that?" He asked.
Bianca felt Penny tense beside her as she cursed lightly, "Di immortales! It's a satyr, that must mean that the others are demigods." She said, fear entering her tone.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Nico whispered back.
"Oh. Right." Penny replied sheepishly, calming down a little. "You guys are demigods too so it should be fine, let's go meet them I guess." She said, taking a few deep breaths as she led them around the corner.
Apparently, Bianca had missed something, because when the trio turned the corner they were met with a loud shout, "That one! The one in leather! She's a monster!" Bianca heard Grover - who Penny identified as a satyr shout, causing the demigods to leap into action, one - the girl pulling out a can of… mace? Which extended into a large spear, and another - the boy pulling out a pen from his pocket, before pulling the cap off and turning it into a sword. The last girl pulled a knife from… her sleeve? The two groups waited for a moment, Bianca, Nico and Penny in surprise, and the other group in… preparation, before they started running towards them, the sword boy leading a charge.
Bianca and Nico stepped back in fear, while Penny unfroze, her eyes darting across each of the combatants as she leaped into action.
Bianca watched amazed as Penny leaped into the air, crashing her claws into the stone bricks as she climbed, growling in pain at each impact before suddenly turning, the air behind her distorting as she started throwing spines, the spines appearing from behind her, where Bianca knew her tail to be.
She watched as the spines hit each of the armed demigods with unerring accuracy, each spine nailing the demigod it hit to the ground. The spines looked like narrow handle-less daggers, each sharp and coated in some kind of fluid. A pair hit the spear girl on her right arm, one hitting the shoulder and the other striking farther below, on her lower arm, forcing the girl to drop her spear as she let loose a shout of pain, her body now pinned to the ground. A third spine hit the sword boy in a similar location, pinning his arm to the stone floor as he let loose a shout. Curiously the knife girl was nowhere to be found, maybe she ran away?
Bianca watched as Penny cautiously scanned her surroundings before a bronze knife appeared out of thin air, thrown at Penny's chest.
"Penny! Watch out!" Bianca cried quickly, but as it turned out her warning was unneeded, Penny caught the knife. She caught a knife, out of mid-air. Bianca was very impressed, the confrontation had ended in less than a minute, and Penny didn't even look tired.
"Nice job Penny!" Nico shouted as Penny jumped to the ground, raising his hand for a high-five.
"All in a day's work." She claimed, meeting Nico's hand with her own, and offering him the dagger, "You want a souvenir?"
Bianca quickly reached out, "I think not! Nico's too young to be handling weapons like that!" She said, punching Penny lightly on the shoulder, "And you too! Reckless! We could have just talked it out, but now you just crippled those poor demigods for life! We have to get them to the hospital fast!"
"Nah, I've been told demigods are made of sterner stuff, this dracaena I met once claimed that she fought a demigod who lost all of his limbs in a battle, and claimed that 'It's just a flesh wound.'" Penny finished, air quoting the last bit.
"But still, they'll have to get it treated won't they?" Bianca asked, appeased slightly but still worried.
"It'll be okay Bianca," Penny said, pulling her in for a hug. "There's this… I guess magic food of some sort that demigods like to use, I think it's called ambrosia? It helps a lot with healing, even with my poison I'm pretty sure they'll be right as rain in an hour tops."
"Poison?!" Bianca asked suddenly, pushing away from Penny's warm hug, "What poison?"
"Ya know, my tail? It looks like a scorpion's tail for a reason, silly." Penny teased, before turning back towards the demigod's group.
"Hey satyr!" She called, the satyr's panic-filled eyes meeting her own, "You got some ambrosia?"
The satyr nodded numbly, before walking forward and pulling some slightly squashed golden squares out of his pocket. He approached the demigods who were standing up, having pulled the spines that anchored them to the ground, out. He offered each of them a piece and they ate it gratefully, taking it with their left hands, their right still disabled.
"So we cool? Or will I have to finish the job?" Penny asked, growling slightly as her eyes flared.
"No, no we're cool, we're cool." The satyr said quickly, raising his arms in surrender.
"Then do you mind telling invisi-girl to become visible again, unless I have to send a couple of spines into her too." Penny threatened, her eyes darting around as she watched for any movement.
"No!" Sword-boy cried, "Annabeth, it looks like we're not going to fight, you can take the hat off."
Bianca wondered what that meant before she heard a scoff from somewhere in front of her, a blonde-haired girl appeared and was putting a NY Yankees baseball cap into her pocket.
"Give me my knife." The blonde girl demanded, her grey eyes shining in anger as she looked at Nico.
"What's the magic word?" Nico sang lightly, teasing the blonde-haired girl.
"Give me my knife, now." The blond declared, before stepping back as Penny glared.
"I don't know, Penny said it was a souvenir." He stated.
"It's my knife."
"No, you gave it to Penny."
"I threw it at Penny, idiot."
"How was I supposed to know that, it was so slow that Penny caught it after all," Nico said sarcastically, causing the sword-boy and spear-girl to crack up a little.
"I'll show you slow you little-"
"Nico," Bianca cut in, "Just give her the knife."
"Bianca! How could you betray me like this!" Nico cried dramatically.
"I just want to get this over with, do you know how to use a knife?"
"No, but if blondie here uses it how hard could it be?"
"Shut up you brat!" 'Blondie' cut in.
"Don't call my brother a brat!" Bianca said sharply, glaring daggers at the blonde girl. "Nico, give the girl her knife so that we can get moving."
"But Biancaaaa-"
"No Nico! I'm sure that we can get you a sword or something at the camp, does that sound good?" Bianca asked, sighing in relief as Nico tossed the knife towards the blonde girl, who scooped down to pick it up.
"Now I don't have a souvenir!" Nico said, pouting at this predicament before a spine shot down right next to him.
"Here Nico, you can have one of my spines, just make sure none of that clear stuff gets in your eyes or mouth 'kay," Penny said, as Nico pulled it out from where it sunk into the stone.
"There!" Nico exclaimed as he worked it out of the floor. "I dub thee Excalibur!" He said, putting 'Excalibur' in one of his pockets.
The demigod trio and Grover had grouped up, whispering to each other, occasionally stealing glances at Penny and the di Angelo siblings.
Bianca heard something about a camp, and someone named 'Tyson' before cutting in. "So are you going to take us to this camp of yours or what?"
The demigods looked a little startled by her sudden input before Grover asked: "You know about camp already? How?"
Bianca pointed her thumb at Penny, who smiled and waved, causing Grover to flinch slightly, which in turn caused Penny's smile to grow wider. "This one here already explained this stuff to us, we were about to make our ways there when we ran into you."
"A monster? Explained to you guys what you were, and where the camp was?" Grover blurted, before putting a hand over his mouth.
"Wow, I heard it was bad, but seeing it in person is even worse!" Penny said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention.
"What?" Sword-boy asked, clearly confused.
"Your blatant racism. I'd been told by some empousa that demigods were the most violently racist group in the mythological world, and they were right!" Penny claimed, tossing her hands in the air dramatically.
"What?! We're not racist!" Sword-boy protested.
"Yes you are, you attacked me before I could get a word out! I even look normal, you were only judging me by my scent!" Penny wailed, her voice echoing through the hall.
Bianca started laughing a little at their expressions; sword-boy's panicked expression, blonde and spear-girls' looks of amusement, and Grover's appalled glance at Penny.
Penny turned back to face her, smirking slightly. "What's so funny Bianca?" She said growling teasingly, "Am I going to have to deal with another racist demigod?" She continued, tensing slightly as Bianca started to pale.
"No, stay back foul beast!" Bianca cried, backing away quickly, but not fast enough as Penny leaped towards her, grabbing her by the waist and hoisting her up, each failing to notice the demigods tense behind her.
"Stop it, Penny! Put me down!" Bianca yelped, laughing as Penny spun her around before complying.
Bianca looked into Penny's vibrant green eyes, blushing slightly under Penny's joyful gaze.
"So… are you guys just going to stand there?" Nico asked drily, glancing over back towards the other group who had started to approach them.
Penny glanced back at the demigods, tensing slightly at their sudden proximity before relaxing again, turning to face the demigods and satyr.
"So… You guys are here for Bianca and Nico right?" Penny asked casually, stretching a little as she spoke.
"Yep," Sword-boy said, popping the 'p,' "Why are you here?"
"I was just kind of… around." Penny said vaguely.
"Around? What is that supposed to mean? And What are you anyway?" The blonde girl asked rudely, glaring at Penny.
"I wasn't aware that I was obliged to answer your questions." Penny stated sarcastically before bowing deep, "Forgive me my lady for my transgressions."
The blonde girl growled a little and was about to speak when the spear-girl cut her off.
"Hey, I'm Thalia, that's Percy-" Sword-boy waved, "And you're currently mocking Annabeth," she continued gesturing towards the blonde girl. "We are here to bring Bianca and Nico to camp."
"Really! That's neat! Penny said that she was going to take us there, but now we can all go together!" Nico said excitedly.
"We're not going to take a monster to camp!" Annabeth declared, glaring at Nico.
"Why not? She seems friendly enough." Percy said, flinching slightly as Annabeth's glare turned towards him.
"She's a monster! She's probably only acting nice to make us lower our guards! The moment she gets into camp she'll probably start slaughtering demigods left and right!" Annabeth raged, "We should just kill her and be done with it!"
"Because that worked out so well the first time." Thalia drawled, meeting Annabeth's eyes. "If she wanted to kill us we'd be dead Annie."
"And besides, I don't want to go to your camp in the first place." Penny declared from her place next to the siblings, "I'm pretty sure I can't even enter it because of that tree-barrier-thing right? Talico's tree or something?"
"Thalia's tree," Percy corrected, smirking slightly as he continued, "And here's tree girl right now!" He said, gesturing towards Thalia.
Penny squinted at Thalia for a moment before declaring, "It looks like you got better, did Zeus un-tree you or something?"
"Something like that," Thalia responded drily. "So are we going to get going or what? I'd prefer not to stay in this school any longer than we have to."
"Yeah," Grover piped up, "And Dr. Thorn is still around too, so keep an eye out for him."
"Right. Dr. Thorn." Penny said, frowning at the thought of the tall man, "Best we keep away from him."
"Why?" Percy asked suddenly, "Do you know what he is?"
"Nope, no idea." Penny replied, "Just that he's old and powerful, which is good enough reason in my book."
"So what kind of monster are you?" Percy asked, trying to fill the silence.
"Well I'm half-monster, so I guess that makes me a half-blood too," Penny said casually, starting to walk towards the exit.
"Half monster?" Percy asked, "I didn't know those existed!"
"Yeah, well monsters get horny too, we're just a lot rarer 'cause most beings try to kill us… and there are only a couple of monsters with humanoid forms." Penny said, surprisingly chipper as she led the way through the halls.
"What? Why?" Bianca asked, cutting off what Percy was going to say.
"Well, mortals don't like us 'cause while they can't see our monster-y bits, they can still sense our 'freakishness.'" Penny said bitterly, "Demigods can generally tell we're monsters if we don't use the mist, and they generally kill us, I was lucky enough that there weren't many demigods where I grew up. I'm actually pretty sure you're the first demigod I ever met Bianca, and now I've met what? Five of them?" She asked rhetorically, "Monsters can smell the human part of us, some don't care - like empousa or dracaenae, they just kind of let me be, but hellhounds try to kill me, along with a variety of other monsters that I've encountered."
"Your life kind of sucks." Percy summarized, "Then who's you godl- I guess monster parent?"
"Hmm, Nico, you've got that card still, right? Would you mind showing it to Percy?" Penny asked, opening the door and strolling through.
"The Manticore?!" Percy exclaimed, quickly followed by a meaty *thwack* as Penny was sent flying forward.
"Yes, I was equally as surprised Perseus Jackson," A voice came from the other side of the door, the french accent clipped as the man walked to Penny, picking her up. "Imagine it, finding my daughter in Maine of all places, when she's supposed to be safe in England?" Thorn continued, hoisting Penny onto his shoulder and dispelling her illusions as he spoke, Penny's tail and claws shimmering into view. "I suppose I should count it lucky, I didn't think I would be seeing my daughter for another couple of years! I expected that her family would raise and care for her, but clearly, I was wrong." He said, frowning slightly before shrugging. "Ah, well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. She's still young, and I have plenty of time left to care for her myself." He finished, nodding a little as he gestured towards us. "Demigods! We have an appointment to make, and this has taken slightly longer than expected, let us hurry."
"We're not going to go anywhere with you!" Percy declared before he was struck by a longer spine, this time in his left shoulder. Percy was staggered slightly, his body wracked with pain as he yanked the spine out.
"Unless you desire another, placed directly in your skull, we will start moving. My employers will not be kept waiting!" Thorn said, gesturing towards the woods.
Bianca watched as the demigods whispered to each other, before starting to walk into the woods, she hurried to follow, pulling Nico along from where he was glaring at Dr. Thorn.
"Come on, I'm sure Penny will be okay, she's his daughter after all," Bianca said, trying to reassure Nico even as she worried.
'I hope Penny will be okay.'
Greetings Readers, and welcome to the A/N You may have noticed the lack of them so far, and that's because this is literally how far I've written this story so far, you may have noticed that my other story Greener Pastures hasn't had any updates recently, that's because one of my dearest siblings decided it would be funny to do some 'cleaning' and deleted my 'personals' folder of my google drive, then deleted all the stuff in my trash, nice and thorough. Yeah. I was... a little pissed, at the very least my papers and writings for college were left untouched, (in such a case I would then be writing from prison) but my fanfiction, poetry, and notes that I use for my stories were all lost, leaving me rather... annoyed. I have since re-written my notes for the HP series, and am about halfway through for the for Percy Jackson, but decided I needed to post something. So here it is, a story idea heavily inspired by Mensch23's Hunter and Prey, which in turn was a response to Whitetigerwolf's MONSTEROUS challenge. I WILL finish this story, and will finish Greener Pastures, probably later when I have time to play through Mass Effect: Andromeda, as while I could write out the chapters based on my memory, my memory sucks.