HI! Here is another precious chapter of A Legend. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 3: To See The Unseen

It was late at night, too dark to see anything, too sleepy to notice anything. I was forced to wake up, the earth was shaking uncontrollably for some reason and I had an upset stomach from the nectar I had previously. I am going to be very sick, and this shaking ground is starting to reach a nerve of mine. Getting up, I left the cabin (the one where the new campers stay at); I wobbled towards the source of the ground vibrations, it was getting harder to walk the closer I got to the cause. I walked as far as the camp gate, where only a dozen meters or so away was the tree where Thalia and the rest of the camp were at, this afternoon. Just nearby that tree was the night guarding patrol, of which were doing less patrolling and a lot more of the "Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan" (SLEEP). How can they sleep through all this commotion?! Though when I looked around, everything really did seem fine and peaceful, undisturbed. But the entire world seemed to vibrate, to me, like that one time where I was on a really unstable auto rickshaw in India. I was very disturbed of the instability of the moving cart then and I am very disturbed of the instability I feel now. I won't be able to receive sleep at this rate… I am ultimately forced to do something about this. I kept walking, past the sleeping guards, past the campus barrier, and past the tree I habituated this morning. So in short, I walked quite a distance away from safety. All of a sudden, I heard a distant howl in the night. Similar to that of a werewolf on a full moon, menacing. Alert, I continued towards the noise. The closer I got, the more I heard strange noises; breaking twigs, random ruffling leaves, the sudden outcry of startled birds. That's when I saw something, two pairs of red eyes in the shadows that seemed to make red smoke in the air. Thank gods it's a full moon tonight! I aimed at a small patch of moonlight and made it bend towards the direction of the pair of red eyes. The light reflected off of the eyes and a face could be seen, or more like, a muzzle. It was an enormous black hound at the size of a bear. It snarled it's fang-like teeth at me and threatened me with its gaze. I stared at it, frozen in place. The strange thing was that I didn't feel scared; I was in awe. In fact, I actually believe the creature looked a bit feared of me. I strictly kept my gaze on it and took a slow step towards it. As soon as my foot landed forward, the beast dashed away, traveling fast.

"Wait!" I said, chasing after it. We ran deeper into the woods, the beast ahead of me, gaining a bit of speed each meter that we ran. Luckily for me, I was no pushover. I kept a quick pace behind the animal, making sure I didn't get to close, or too far. I can't keep this up for much long, I'm only half-human after all, and racing a stray beast is not part of my job-capabilities as a demigod. Is it? I lost my concentration and I tripped over a tree log. OWWW-ch. My body is refusing to get up. All I want to do is crumple myself into a paper ball and sleep till the whole world is awake, which is never! Despite all my inner objections, I still got up. I am giving so much effort for that beast; so I will no matter what, catch it in our game of tag.

"30 SECONDS IS ALL I NEED TO REACH YOU! COUNT YOUR MOMENTS!" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. START.

WHOOSH!

I grabbed the largest patch of moonlight that I could find and with all my will, I expanded the light, stretching it like bubble gum. I made it larger and larger, till the entire area was glowing in moonlight. When in a chase, darkness can prove to be either an ally or an enemy, which can be quite deceiving; might as well get rid of the darkness. 23 seconds… I ran through the forest, the halo of light above me the entire time, overpowering each shadow and silhouette in the radius of at least 10 meters. 18 seconds… I got through a marsh, careful of any moment, when suddenly, I heard a noise from my left about 7 meters away. Right under the shelter of swamp moss tree was a pair of two familiar red eyes. As soon as we locked gazes, it bolted again. I sighed and bolted after it. 12 seconds… We were back on our neck-to-neck race. The beast was getting slower, probably due to fatigue. I'm getting a bit tired as well, I have to end this quick. But I can't scare it by running faster and stopping it in its tracks, but I can't slow down either or else my hard work and effort would be in vain. There's only one thing to do, corner it. 7 seconds… With all my will, I sprinted forward for 100 meters, leaving the hound a bit behind; turning on my heel I planted my feet in a stubborn stance and waited. 5 seconds… The hound was plummeting towards me. 4 seconds… The hound dug its claws into the ground to stop from bashing into me. 3 seconds… The hound stopped moving and looked at me, ready to run for it again. 2 seconds… The hound tensed his feet and turned away from me, quickly.

"Oh no you don't!" 1 second… I clapped my hands together and sparks flew from between them. I spread my arms wide and showered fire out of my palms onto the ground, curving the direction of the spreading flames, I made a ring of fire around me and the hound was trapped inside it. Times up: Caught you. "You are a handful, I must say." I said, wiping a bead of sweat on my forehead. The beast growled at me and whimpered away, only to be forced forward by the flames. "Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. Trust me, I'm not a threat." I soothed. The beast looked skeptical and eyed at the fire. "Don't worry about that, it's just insurance." I joked, smiling a bit. Obviously I got a glare in return. "Anyways… let's get serious. You are a Hellhound. Why are you here? You are very far from home. Has Hades sent you as a welcome home present or something? Tell him that I am very honored with the gesture but a little less noise pollution would do a great deal of good to the world, especially me." I said warily. The Hellhound lay down on the grass and raised an eyebrow at me. "Wrong guess? Fine, but you truly are far from home. You must have family waiting for you. Go back. Do so without disturbing us and we will not disturb you. I understand that you may be tired at the moment so rest the night, enjoy a good breakfast and return home. Are we on fair terms?" The hound hung his head for a moment then looked up at me and nodded. "Good. Sweet dreams. And please, don't run anymore for tonight." It nodded again and I made my way through the trees again, at content finally. I made a "lowering" motion with my hand that quickly made the flames die down, till only flickers of sparks could be seen on the burnt grass. Apparently, while the chase was going on, our running tracks resulted in countless large circles; so technically, we weren't farther than 2 miles away from the camp. 100 meters past, I hear a noise; a very depict-able noise, like the clanging of cans and glass bottles. What in Apollo's song is that? I got a little closer to the sounds, making sure to conceal myself amongst the trees. Then I started hearing voices, sharp raspy whispers.

"Tyson! Drop the load!"

That's Annabeth, the girl with the braided hair. Tyson… the Cyclops? Percy's brother! A few quieter voices could be heard. It sounds like four people, maybe five, I could be wrong. I tiptoed a few more meters till I was 12 feet behind the people.

"Are you sure she went this way."

"YES. I could have sworn I saw her here just a minute ago!"

"Well she isn't here now, well is she?"

"UGH. Let's just go back to camp, she'll probably come back on her own."

"Let's wait a little longer, what if she were to get into trouble? Just a few more minutes."

"Fine, but if we all get pneumonia because of improper clothing, the blame is all-"

"What are you guys all doing here?" I called.

"AHHHHH!" They all screamed in surprise. The four people turned around and looked at me in shock, mouths gaping.

"Nice to see you too." I replied. They all looked at each other in a domino effect. Tyson to Percy, Percy to Grover, Grover to Annabeth.

"Hi." Squeaked Annabeth, with a wave of her hand.

"Let me guess, I happened to peak your interest, which is why you all followed me into the middle of the woods." I explained, not faltering on my raised eyebrow.

"Well you see we were having a midnight stroll/sleepwalk/snack/gametime and we thought what better thing to do than stalk/invite/choke/dream you-" They all said simultaneously, overlapping each other's words.

"I don't want to know. Let's just go back to camp and sleep please?" I pleaded, walking back towards camp.

"Good idea./Let's go./I'm so sorry./Sleep!"

And with that, my hectic night was over and I had a wonderful deep slumber later. Despite all the happened today, I felt a pure feeling of content that I haven't felt in a long while. I guess I should be grateful for that.

What about that?! Hope you enjoyed it, I'll keep in touch later. Bye PEEPS! -UniqueFAYS

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