CHAPTER THREE

Fiona's Bow

I cover my mouth with my hand and look around to see if anyone saw me. The sun has yet to rise but I get up and brush the leaves off my outfit. I walk until I reach the edge of the forest. I stop because I'm not on the streets from which I entered. I'm on a cliff that's fenced off. It's only about forty feet from the ground, and at the bottom is a highway. I turn around to go find a way back to the streets when puddles of black dust appear from the ground. Five black holes pop out from the ground and from them, five skeletal warriors rise from the puddles, armed with nothing but Trojan helmets with mohawks and swords. Not even skin protects them.

"Who sent you?" I yell.

"The Fates took us from the Underworld and promised us that if we find you, we can get a second chance at life." One says, looking at me as if I'm a T-bone steak in a famine.

"So we will be bringing your head back down with us, no matter what it takes." Another says.

I wipe the scared look off my face, put on a smirk, and pull out my blades.

The warriors charge at me all at once. I slice all five of them right through the middle with one slash, but the bones just form again.

"You can't kill what's already dead, foolish girl!" One says, laughing.

I rip his head off and throw it into the streets below me, and onto the highway.

The warriors all grab onto a part of my body and I grab onto the wire-fence.

"Whatever it takes!" They say feebly.

The skeletal warriors summon a puddle of black dust under them and suddenly they're sinking, and going back through their portal to the Underworld.

"We will bring you down with us, if it takes a trillion deaths!" They say.

When the warriors are low enough for me to kick their heads, I thrash around trying to escape their hold, clinging on to the fence for dear life. I moan in agony because it feels like my arms are going to pop off. Before they do, I step on the last hand emerging from the earth, and the last black hole contracts and disappears. I sit down to catch my breath. The ground starts to stir again and I run away because I know that the next flood of enemies will be much more powerful than the last.

I turn around and am underwhelmed when I see just one dog chasing after me. The dog jumps onto a branch, from tree to tree. It's movements so nimble and graceful, yet it's so fast and swift. When I recognize who it is, I sprint. It's Laelaps, the dog who always catches its prey. It's been used to chase down the most elusive of enemies, and now it's back from the Underworld, sent to chase me.

"Brilliant," I whisper to myself.

As I run, I try to think of how the story ended. Laelaps, the dog that always caught its target, was sent to hunt down the Teumessian Fox, the fox that could never be caught. Faced with this paradox, Zeus saw no other solution other than to turn both of them to stone.

I start sprinting to avoid this dog, but it seems like it knows all my moves. I have no doubt the dog can out-run me. For some reason, the Fates must want me alive. I make a quick turn when I arrive at the streets, and turn around for a millisecond to throw my blade at the dog. The blade injures the dog, giving me a chance to run. I keep running, and then I see the Plaka Hotel. A group of kids holding backpacks and luggage are boarding a double-decker bus in front of it. Those are the demigods from yesterday.

"Percy!" I scream.

I jump onto the back of the bus, and hang on from the railing. Right before it starts moving, and climb to the top.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" asks Percy. "I thought we weren't allowed to talk to you!"

I climb into a seat and turn around. The dog is chasing the bus.

"Give me a phone, or anything else I can use to communicate." I say, occupied with something else.

"Here," Annabeth says, secretly handing me her cellphone.

I text numbers with area codes from all over the world.

"As long as I'm in communication with people from different areas at the same time, the Fates won't know where to look." I say, returning Annabeth's phone.

"What happened?" She asks.

"I'm so sorry," I say. "You're right. I should not be here, but the Fates decided against waiting me out. They are sending the most vicious beasts after me. Laelaps is chasing me as we speak."

Annabeth and Percy are silent, and I assume it's to think about the story of Laelaps. Annabeth's eyes widen and before she can open her mouth, the dog jumps up onto the bus and right in front of me.

The few people that are on the top deck of the bus scream and I freeze. Laelaps jumps onto me and I try to fight him. He snarls, inches from my face, and before he can take a bite of my flesh, he's swept away, by something flying. I look to the side and a huge bird has him in its talons.

"It's an eagle," says Annabeth.

After a moment of silence, Percy is the first to speak up. "Why did you come back here? I thought you were just going to run."

"I was, but last night, I had a dream. The two of you, two others, and I were on a quest. We were in a throne room and we had just found a treasure when an army of warriors flooded in and attacked. Throughout my entire life, I've had visions of heroes, but never have I had a vision of which I was a part."

"Well after yesterday's fire, Chiron decided we won't be taking many more field trips. We've ended our trip early, and are heading back home to America." Annabeth says. "So I don't think we can participate in your quest."

"I still don't know the purpose and the goal of the quest, and until I find that information, I'm not going either, but in an effort to stay safe from my sisters, I am coming to America with you."

"But you don't have any money!" Percy says.

"I've lived long enough to collect a large sum of money. Hopefully, that money is still in my hands." I say.

"Well why don't you just continue to communicate with people from all over the world to stay under detection?" Annabeth asks.

"I can't hide for all of eternity. I need a game plan, but all I have right now is 'get away from here'," I say.

I pause when I realize there's a group of confused demigods that just saw me get attacked by a dog that just got picked up by an eagle.

"Who are you?" One boy asks.

Annabeth replies, "she's Annie, the-"

I stop Annabeth before she can say one more word. "Who am I? How dare you! I am Annie, I've been a camper at Camp-Half Blood for 10 years. Just lately I've started to make friends. For so long, I've been too afraid to talk to anyone, and now you've broken me spirit by telling me you don't even know who I am." I bury my head in Annabeth's lap and pretend to cry, but Annabeth's attempt to holding in a laugh makes it hard for me.

From the corner of my eye, I can see the campers moving to the bottom deck of the bus, and when the last one descends, I get up.

"Good job," says Percy.

I wipe my eyes of my fake tears and collect myself. "Most people would get hostile if they found out I'm running away from the Fates. The Fates have even been bribing the dead to get them to hunt me down. I can't have any more people fighting against me, which is why no one can find out who I am." I say.

XXX

After a half-hour long bus ride, we arrive at the airport. I hop out the back of the bus and make my way through the airport inconspicuously.

"See you at the gate!" I say to Percy and Annabeth, as I walk to my gate.

After an hour of waiting, we finally begin boarding the plane. After Percy and his class board, I walk up to the doors when a police officer stops me. "I'm sorry ma'am, you cannot board."

"What? Why?" I reply.

"We have deemed you as a suspicious passenger, please follow me to the inspection room," she says.

"That's crazy! Why not just inspect me while I was sitting down waiting for an hour? I'm not missing my flight!" I yell, accidentally attracting attention.

I expect the guard to take me by force but she pulls out a gun. I roll to the side before she can pull the trigger.

"You were going to kill me!" I shout. "I have done nothing wrong!"

The guard says nothing and continues to shoot bullets that I continue to dodge. I look around and see no one doing anything. They're not even looking up. It must be the Mist obscuring them, meaning this woman is a monster.

I pull out my blades and slash at her, but she jumps back and wings come out of her back, ripping off all her clothes. Where I expect to see her privates, I see just skin. Her skin tone turns into a dark purple, and contracts, showing her ribcage. Two other bat-looking women fly to me, giving me two more enemies.

"You're the Furies," I say, brushing my bands to the side, preparing for a fight.

"In the flesh!" They say, with an old, broken voice.

I slash at them, but they're too agile. I can't hit them with a blade. They attack with quick swipes from the air.

"Percy!" I yell.

"Nobody's coming to help you!" They say.

Suddenly, a Fury falls out of mid-air and bursts in a cloud of golden dust. The two others stop and land to look around, looking for the one who killed their sister. I take the chance to drive a blade into one of them, turning them into dust. The third is taken down, and this time, I see it's by an arrow. I get up and collect myself. I turn around and see a skinny, red-headed girl holding a bow and arrow. She's standing beside a tall, muscular guy with spiky hair. The girl lowers her weapon and gives it to the boy, who puts it in his bag.

"Was that you who shot down the Furies? Thank you," I say, walking up to her.

"You're welcome." She says, looking straight through me. I get a close look at her and see her eyes don't have pupils. They are just white. She's blind.

"My name is Fiona Swanson. This is my brother Fillip," she says.

"I'm Annie," I say.

I put my hands on Fiona's forehead and the vision begins. She's only a child of around five years old in this scene. She has dirty brown hair like her brother. She's walking around and running into walls, while her brother of around seven years old is running around with a blanket tied to his neck. He's waving a toilet paper roll around like a sword. The scene changes and now she's in a classroom with other handicapped kids. She looks about ten years old in this scene. She walks around the classroom and makes a clicking sound with her tongue. She navigates around the room as if she had perfect vision. At the front of the room, two adults are talking.

"She's not handicapped at all! Look at her navigate the room!" Says one lady. I'm assuming it's Fiona's mother.

"It's the law! I don't care if she has a sixth sense that let's her see. She needs to be in this school." The teacher says.

The scene changes and now Fiona looks fourteen. She's in her bathroom with her mother and her mother's dying Fiona's hair bright red.

"You look so beautiful. If only your father could see you." Her mother says, smiling at Fiona's new hair.

Now Fiona's a teenager. She's standing in a big room with four other people, and where I expect to see an altar with a chest, I see a panel of twelve thrones. Each one is empty, except for the one in the middle. Before I can make out the face, the vision fades.

When I come back to reality, Fillip shouts, "What did you do to my sister?"

Before he can hit me, I put my fingers on his forehead.

He's looks about seven in this scene. He's looking at himself in the mirror, wearing the cape and holding the sword I saw before. He takes off the cape and drops the sword and sits on his bed, sighing. He picks up a picture frame on his drawer. From the black and white, I can tell it's an old picture. Before I can distinguish the face in the picture, the scene shifts and now he's around twelve. He's in school and he's getting yelled at by his teacher. The teacher is at his desk and ripping up the work he did. Fillip gets up and shouts back. The teacher points to the door and Fillip runs out in tears. Now Fillip's in his present age, which im guessing is around nineteen. He's holding a real sword now, and putting it down on the ground, and kneeling, but I can't see to whom he's kneeling.

I come back to reality and before Fillip can hit me, I hold his fists and look at him like he's a poor, homeless man.

"I'm so sorry. Please, let me explain." I say.

When I spill my entire case, Fillip apologizes for trying to hit me. I stare at them and ask myself if they're trustworthy. It seems to me like Fillip and Fiona are just two siblings trying to fight the world together, but I don't understand why they wouldn't just live with their parents back at home. Part of me doesn't want to ask.

"You-You're blind, aren't you?" I ask Fiona.

"No, pretending to be blind is just a phase of mine."

"During her pregnancies, our mother did a lot of drugs. It blinded Fiona and it gave me ADHD and dyslexia."

"I never would have guessed," I say sympathetically. "If you are blind, then how did you shoot down the Furies?"

"She has exceptional hearing," says Fillip. "She uses it, and eckolation to get around, and see her surroundings."

"Echolocation," Fiona enunciates.

In amazement, I tilt my head. "Are you taking this flight to America?" I ask.

"Yeah," Fillip says. "It looks like we'll have a lot to talk about."

A/N: Hey if you've read this chapter and all the previous once do you wanna leave a review so I know I'm not wasting my time? Please, just tell me what you think and how I can improve.