My parents never told me how they met, just that they'd been on the opposite sides of a family feud. They'd met on a mission and fallen in love. That they promised me repeatedly that I would never have to suffer the way they did. That they would care for me and protect me.

From what? I hadn't a clue. All I knew was that they loved me. When I was diagnosed with dyslexia, they barely blinked an eye and instead worked day and night to teach me to read. They would bring out ancient Greek and Latin tomes- the only accurate description of those old and dusty books- and set out to teach me ancient Greek and Latin. For reasons unknown, I found it easier than English.

"It was that way for me too. The only thing I could read was Latin," my mother would smile and kiss me. "It just goes to show, you're our daughter."

"Ancient Greek was my forte," my dad would laugh. "It just goes to show how opposites attract. Now, don't you have some homework to get on?"

I would sigh and then get working, blowing both of my parents kisses.

At least, until I turned eight. I don't remember much of that year. Just that my mother died that year. They told me she died in a car accident. I just remember my father clutching me close as he talked to the man in the wheelchair.

"She died a hero," the man told my dad. "The life of a demigod is exceptionally dangerous. Are you sure you want to keep her? She'll be safe-"

"I can protect her," my father insisted.

"If she's a demigod like her parents…"

"I'll protect her, and I'll train her if it comes to it."

"Richard…" the man insisted.

"I'm sorry Chiron or Mr. Brunner or whatever you want to be called, I will give my life to protect my daughter before I hand her over to anyone else."

"They found you once-"

"I've taken efforts to make sure they can't. I've learned from it. They won't find us again."

"I hope for your sake you're right."

I had no idea what they were talking about. So, I did what any child did in that situation. I assumed my father was a spy and all those words were code words. It wasn't until years later that I realized just how wrong I'd been.

I should have known it was a mistake to open the window. In retrospect, it was idiotic. When a stranger knocks on your bedroom window asking to be let in because monsters are chasing her and she wants to use your room as shelter to rest, you should probably call for help. I didn't. I opened it and let her in. To be fair, she had a pull to her, like there was something mysterious about her that drew me in. Her face was covered in freckles. Her dark black hair curled and tossed in the wind. Her gold-tinged greenish-blue eyes managed to pierce right into me, though I have no clue how I knew the color in the dark. Either way, she was fascinating.

"Thanks," she grinned. "I'm Andromache, but you can call me Andy."

"E-Eleanor," I stammered. "But you can call me Nora."

"Nice to meet you, Nora. I would stay back if I were you. Do you have any weapons by the way?"

She looked around the room and grabbed the lamp in the corner. She twisted a few knobs on it and a metallic spear popped out.

"Hey, I was right," she grinned. "A demigod does live here!"

I just sort of stared at her, realizing that maybe just opening the window hadn't been the smartest idea. She clearly wasn't very stable, and she'd been talking about monsters… Besides the cooler summer leading to crisp fall air was streaming in. I shivered.

Of course, that was about the moment the monster decided to show its face. Most of it looked like a woman, but it had massive silver wings sticking out of its back as well as-were those talons?- snakes for hair.

"Get back here, Sea Spawn," it called.

I did the only logical thing at the moment. I panicked and fell backward onto my bed. Andromache, on the other hand, readied the spear as if she planned to fight the monstrosity.

"You ungrateful brat!" It cried. "After all me and Stheno did for you!"

"You threatened to eat me!" Andromache cried.

Her eyes glanced quickly between the creature hogging most of the view of my window and the open window itself.

"Have we ever tried to eat you, Kronia?"

"Yes, just last week."

"That was a misunderstanding. You can still come back. It'll be like nothing happened. You, me, and Auntie Stheno."

"How about no! I'm not about to unsee the living room."

Andromache took a careful step backward.

"Get back here!"

Andromache complied, leaping forwards, and stabbing the monster with her spear. There was a scream and the monster turned into a shower of golden dust.

"Good riddance, 'Mom'," Andromache called after the creature.

Mom?

"Hey, those look cool! Nora, stay here, I'll be right back!"

I couldn't move even if I wanted to. I just obediently lay on my bed immobile as I'd been for the last 10 milliseconds and in complete shock.

Andromache on the other hand just calmly leaped out the window, right as my father burst through the door clutching a silvery dagger I'd never seen before. In a heartbeat, his gaze covered the open window and the lamp with a side swung open, then it shifted toward the golden dust- the only visible remains of the monster Andromache had just fought- scattered across the wooden floor and then finally to my frozen body on the bed, fear plain in his eyes.

"No! Nora," he cried, rushing over to me. It was weird seeing him so distraught. He'd always stayed calm even at the worst times, like when my mother had died in a car accident. He'd been horrified but in control. "I was supposed to protect you. You weren't supposed to have to deal with this!"

"With what?" Andromache called, now poking her head in through the window. "Oh, sorry about the mess Stheno left behind. I did MY best to keep it outside, but you know monsters, always trying to make our lives more difficult."

My father whirled around with his dagger and pointed it at her throat.

"Who and what are you? And what are you doing with my wife's spear?"

Andromache's story was one of the weirdest stories I have ever heard. Even after I got over the fact that both she and my father were acting and talking as if the gods were real. The Greek gods that is.

Andromache had discovered that about two months ago when she'd overheard her parents complain that they weren't being allowed to eat her. She'd peaked and upon discovering that they were actually Gorgons (which was what that thing had been in the window) had done the smart thing and had run away. She'd been on the road for months looking for her real family, barely staying ahead of her old "step-parents" until she'd bumped into a donkey who'd led her to our house.

"A donkey?"

"Yes, a donkey," Andromache sighed. "I figured I might as well follow it considering following a random donkey showing up in the middle of Brooklyn was no weirder than the rest of my life."

My father was silent. They'd both sat themselves down on the edge of my bed. My father had intentionally placed himself right next to me forcing Andromache to sit near the end. A position she'd happily plopped down on.

"Why would..." he muttered to himself.

Andromache turned towards me.

"Are you alright?" She asked. "You look a bit pale. I've got some ambrosia. If it doesn't burn you up it should heal you. Stole it from my uh… step-parents."

"I'm fine," I replied, trying to sound fine. First impressions are everything after all. "Just dealing with the whole the gods are real mental hurdle."

"Oh, I dealt with that issue by just not thinking about it."

"That doesn't sound healthy long-term," my father finally said. "I suppose you haven't been claimed yet?"

"Claimed?"

"It's what the gods might do if they decide you're worth calling their own," my father explained. "Some sort of glowing sign above your head tends to be typical."

"I dunno," Andromache shrugged. "Stheno always used to call me sea spawn when she was mad if that helps."

My father tensed for a second, considering, before replying. "No, that's doesn't… that's not exactly… I don't think that counts."

"Figures," Andromache shrugged. "Do you know who yours is?"

"Hecate," my father replied without missing a beat. "Goddess of crossroads, magic, the mist, necromancy, and crossroads. She sent me on a quest back in my teenage years to seek out a spellbook. That was how I met Nora's mother actually. She was a daughter of Apollo sent to seek out the Sibylline Books. I've still got a few of the fragments of the prophecies dow-"

"Fragments?" Andromache blurted at the same time I asked "Prophecies?"

"Never mind," my father suddenly looked nervous. "It's not important."

"Not to be rude, but at this point in my life, I'm kind of skeptical of people who start saying something and then say it's nothing."

That was about when I noticed the new visitor on my mother's chair in the corner of my room next to the lamp that Andy had opened. She was a beautiful teenage girl, a few years older than me. (I'm thirteen, my birthday was last January.) This one had long mousy brown hair and soft brown eyes. For reasons unknown, I trusted her and felt safe. She had a presence that was so familiar. No one else seemed to notice her. She smiled at me.

"You're also the person who brought monsters to my doorstep. You can stay the night, but then I'm driving you to Camp Half-Blood."

"Will I be safe there?" Andromache asked. "Do you think my family will be there?

"Safer than here," my dad shrugged. "And if there's anywhere to start your search, it would be there."

I looked back at the chair. There was no one there, but I swore I could sense a slight frown.

I awoke to the sound of my father and an unfamiliar woman's voice floating up the staircase.

"It's time she knows," the girl said.

"My Lady," My father replied. "How is telling her useful? Telling her will only scare her. It isn't like we need to worry about err... your father rising, do we? He's stuck in the giant pit in the ground, isn't he?"

A moment of silence.

"Gods," my father swore. "Couldn't he have waited like another two hundred years? Right!"

"My brothers haven't been very strict when it came to their vow," the woman's voice said.

"So, we've got a bunch of overpowered children running around the place? Why hasn't Hades done his job and gotten rid of them already, unless one of them is his own?"

"First of all, these are children! Imagine if someone wished for your daughter's death so that her prophecy couldn't be fulfilled? You know the one I'm thinking of."

Why would I have a prophecy about me? I thought while continuing to listen.

"Is it too much to ask for a quiet life?" My father sounded slightly exacerbated.

"Sometimes you need to yield. There is more at stake than your happiness."

"I'd just hoped that after all I'd done for the gods, they'd at least give me the comfort of a quiet life."

"That isn't what you chose when you married your wife. You know you were lucky to have gotten that long and yet you still agreed."

"I'd still hoped for longer."

"I'm sorry, but longer doesn't exist. You need to let go of your daughter and let her seek her own destiny. Even I can't change that. Remember, sometimes-"

"The bravest thing is to yield" they finished at the same time.

There was a moment of silence. My father was the one to finally break it.

"I still don't believe that it's time. She hasn't met the one she is supposed to."

"Really? Who exactly do you suppose the lost child of the sea refers to? A demigod child of my brother who wasn't raised by monsters?"

"You realize that means you're asking me to send my only child with a girl who everyone is going to try to kill?"

"I'll vouch for Andy. I think you'll find the partnership will keep your daughter protected better than most."

"Just that girl-"

"Ooh, are you talking about me?" Andromache's voice rang from down there. "Hey! Where is the person you were talking to?"

"I wasn't talking to anyone, you must have been dreaming," my father replied without missing a beat. "Do you like eggs?"

"I prefer blue pancakes, but sure."

I decided now was as good a time as ever to get up.

When I got downstairs, I found Andromache silently eating eggs across our circular wooden kitchen table from my father. I was surprised by their stormy expressions as my father's eggs tend to be so delicious you just can't help but savor them.

"Morning, Nora," they chorused.

"Your Dad hates me," Andromache added calmly.

I sat down on the only remaining chair at the table. I was never any good with confrontation and talking to my father about my- I'm gonna go with- guest was not anywhere near my repertoire of weapons. Asking about school was.

"So, school?"

"We're not doing that today," my father replied.

"What?"

"I'm dropping you off with her," he jutted his chin out at Andromache.

That was a sudden turnaround.

"You're both going to Camp Half-Blood," he explained. "I went there as a camper. Your mother went… elsewhere.

"If it weren't for certain recent… coincidences, I would keep you here. Needless to say, I need you to promise me something if you go."

I nodded though I was really confused.

"Under no circumstance are you to look for danger or agree to join a quest. I have a letter for you to give to Chiron- you'll know him when you meet him." He cut off my comment. "This letter will explain everything to him.

"I've already packed you a bag, Nora. You'll be fine. I love you. I'm going to load the car." With that, my father got up and cleared up his plate. "I guess I'll meet both of you by the car."

Andromache and I exchanged glances.

"A word of caution, Andromache," my father turned his head around the corner. "Don't tell anyone who your father is. Not any suspicions or any clues. Not if you prize your life. There are many people who would see that as an excuse to kill you."

Then he was gone.

"As I said, he hates me," Andromache raised an eyebrow.

I looked down at my own plate of eggs, not feeling particularly hungry.

"Considering I don't know where our next meal is coming, I'm gonna recommend you actually eat your breakfast," Andromache advised me.

I ate my eggs.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think! Comments, concerns, and conjectures of what's to come are all welcome!