Here is Chapter 2. Please read and review

The summer sun lit up the hillside

The air was filled with songs of sparrows

Lovers danced and sang with pride

As their little babe shot golden arrows

But onto an arrow the baby fell

The parents rushed to their daughter's aid

The gash was deep, but they tended her

And she recovered, there in the shade

"Do you want some tea?" asked Helen as she busied around the kitchen.

The little kitchen was just next to the family's bright and cheerful living room. It overlooked their garden full of purple flowers, and the little pig pen, with a lavender couch by the window. Lucy was sitting looking out the window, while Helen bustled round the small cosy kitchen, and Alex sat staring into space, leaning on the coffee table.

"Yes please!" Lucy chirped enthusiastically.

"Alex?" Helen asked. Alex wasn't listening, she was thinking about her dreams. She had always had strange dreams, but lately she was having more and more that she was sure meant something. Her fiery red hair was tied back in a pony tail, exposing the scar on her neck. She had always wondered about that scar.

Helen made her tea anyway, and sat down with the cups of tea and a plate of biscuits. Lucy dug in immediately.

Just then their dad came in, followed by their mum.

"Ooh biscuits!" said Tom, sitting down beside Lucy and grabbing a digestive.

"Do we have any bourbons?" asked Lucy cheerfully. Her mum went into the kitchen and handed her one.

They were quiet for a minute while everyone sipped their tea.

"Why was that lion outside school?" Alex asked suddenly. "And why did everyone say it was a dog?"

"I don't know, but Mrs Smithton sorted it out." Helen assured her quickly. "You should probably go now – your foster mum will be wondering where you are." Alex noticed how she immediately changed the subject.

"Yes," agreed her mum. "She'll be worrying. You'd better get going." She knelt by the fireplace and tended the fire. Alex noticed how her eyes were a warm red colour, steady as they stared into the fire.

Reluctantly Alex walked home, pondering what had happened at Helen's house. When she got home she told Julie her foster mum that she had a head ache, and went straight up to her room to think things through.

All she knew about her parentage is that her mother died in a car crash, and that her father just disappeared after that. Alex didn't even know if she had any siblings, or what her parents' names were.

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The next day, Alex made her way slowly to school. She arrived late, and slipped into her Science lesson as quietly as possible.

"You must be Alex," said the man standing at the front of the class. "Erm... come and sit next to Nathan." Unfortunately she didn't know anyone in that class, so she just sat with her head on the table for most of the lesson, not really taking in any of what her teacher was saying about food chains and animal habitats.

"Alex? Are you with us Alex?" asked the teacher. She looked up in surprise. "I asked you a question!" The lesson didn't go so well after that.

At break time, Alex went and found Helen. She was sitting with her sister, talking while Lucy wrote in an orange exercise book.

"Hi," she said as she sat down next to them.

"Hi," Lucy replied. "Helen's helping me with my homework. I forgot about it and its due in next lesson!" She continued writing in her book, while Helen and Alex sat in silence.

"Can't you just tell me what's going on?" Alex muttered angrily after a minute. "You just constantly ignore me!" Lucy looked shocked.

"Er... I'm sorry," she apologised. "I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm a bit grumpy at the moment!" Alex tried to laugh, but she felt terrible. The previous night she had dreamt she was in a forest in the middle of a storm, and there was a voice screaming for help, but she couldn't find the person screaming, and suddenly the shrieks stopped. She could see the shadow of something behind her, moving towards her, but then she woke up, shaking. It was around one in the morning, but Alex didn't get back to sleep.

Smiling weakly, Helen answered, "Don't worry about it, everyone has faults. Anyway, let's go inside - it's starting to rain and it's almost the end of break." They made their way across the emptying playground, starting to run as the rain got heavier and heavier.

"Why is it raining, it's June!" moaned Lucy, holding her school bag over her head. They rushed into the dry. Helen showed Alex to their Geography classroom, and they found some seats at the back.

"We're early," Helen commented. Alex nodded non-committally. The rest of the class piled in noisily, chatting nonchalantly about various things as they found their books and sat down. Mrs Smithton, the teacher that had led the lion away from the bus stop, was sitting at the desk at the front of the classroom.

"I wonder where Mr Chambers is," Helen whispered. Alex of course had no idea who Mr Chambers was.

"Quiet!" squawked Mrs Smithton nervously. She was trembling slightly, and looked rather worried, but she had to get on with the lesson.

She issued Alex a new book as it was her first Geography lesson at St Marks, and returned to her desk. Alex noticed her hands were shaking.

Helen and Alex were working together answering a page of Geography questions, when suddenly the window behind them exploded. That's what it seemed like. They rushed up from the table and saw that the lion from the bus stop had jumped through the window, smashing the glass.

Someone screamed.

Mrs Smithton told the class to get to reception, and then turned to see the lion facing her. She screeched.

Next the lion seemed to go straight to Helen and Alex, crashing through the classroom. They ducked under the table and ran towards the door, but the lion was too quick, colliding with the ceiling as he leapt in front of them. Alex was scared. The dusty scent of broken plaster and torn wall paper clogged the air, and fragments of glass were everywhere.

Suddenly there was a creak, and the door was pushed open by the hand of Helen's mum. She looked small and fragile in front of the intimidating lion, but all the same she stood before him holding a rose-coloured blade.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…….." growled the lion, baring its teeth. Helen's mum jumped at him, knife outstretched. Picking up a chair in its paws, the lion threw it at her.

"We've got to help her," Helen whispered to Alex. Alex looked horrified. They screamed as they ran at the lion, pencils, rulers, chairs and whatever they could lay their hands on, ready to attack with.

With a roar the lion brushed away the chairs and things they had thrown at him, and grabbed Alex by an arm.

"Put me down!!!!" she shrieked, kicking and hitting him. Hestia thrust her knife at him. The creature howled, but kept on fighting. "Who are you?" she shouted at Helen's mum in disbelief.

"My name is Hestia," she replied softly, not at all out of breath. She feinted at the lion; then stabbed him in the underbelly. It was a skilled manoeuvre you would not expect from someone that looked like Hestia, but the creature only growled.

"Strangle him!" Hestia called, throwing a tie that had been left on someone's desk at Alex.

"What?" she asked as she caught it, but there was no reply. She attempted to get it round his neck, but he was jumping and bucking. Hestia stabbed the lion again in his stomach, and at the same time Alex pulled the tie around his neck as hard as she could. The lion started to roar, but it was cut short as Alex squeezed his neck tight. With an inhuman shriek, it disappeared. Alex dropped to the ground, tufts of the lion's mane still in her hands.

"What was that?" cried Alex, rubbing her arm where she had landed on the floor.

"That," Helen gasped, "was a Nemean lion."

So... Do you like it? Don't you? Please tell me!