Chapter2; Annakeyla
I looked up at my twin brother. If you want to get into the specifics, I was born first by ten minutes. He rolled his eyes at me when our dad spoke.
"Annakeyla." My dad Poseidon said.
No, my dad was not named after the sea god Poseidon. He was the sea god. My brother and I were his only demigod children.
Let me know how you take that.
"Yes. Dad?" I said , trying not to sound bored. I was always bored unless we were in Olympus. I loved to run off with the nine muses and Apollo and Hermes—or Athena and Artemis when they taught me awesome arrow shooting tricks or sword tricks. Athena taught me Greek and Latin; and was amazing at keeping me interested even with my restlessness of being connected to the sea. The sea was never resting, my dad always told me. Maybe that's why Athena didn't like him much. "I need you to go to Olympus—" my dad said.
--Thank the gods! I didn't enjoy being stuck in my dad's palace—
"—and train with Artemis. I will be giving you a….interesting quest when you return." He said. His curly light brown hair was shorter then it was when I'd visited last month. Every month I visited him. He'd described the quest he was giving to give me pretty weirdly but at the time I didn't think twice about it. I looked out at the sea and I thought about my mother—who was, yes one-hundred percent mortal but also one-hundred percent the nicest woman ever.
She died last year when Hades' bastard son was assigned a 'quest' to kill her.
He succeeded. Well, his friend did.
And 'til this day I hate anything that has to do with Hades, the underworld or tall and skinny kids with long and greasy black hair just like Hades' son Nicholas.
We tried to protect my mom—me and my brother, Poseidon, and even Zeus helped slightly too—but the bastard had a demigod of Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, and a demititan—which is really, really not good—on his side.
You know, why don't I just run you through the whole story?
It was April seventeenth; spring break had just started (if you don't count the weekend). Back then my mom, brother and I lived in West Hampton, Long Island, New York. We didn't have a humungous house—just a really nice condo right on the bay.
"Annakeyla!" Leo yelled, walking into my room. I looked up from my sketch of a replica of the Parthenon. Next to it laid my design for the inside of the building—all based on my heritage of Greek.
I wanted to design buildings. I wouldn't call it architecture because I wanted to do the inside too. I wanted to design the whole thing.
"What's up Leo?" I asked him when I saw the look on his face I got confused. He looked…scared.
"What happened?" I demanded.
"It's…Hades sent someone after mom. To…to…" He couldn't bring himself to say 'kill' but I got the gist.
I folded up my drawings and pulled out two duffel bags. Opening my drawers, I began to dump all of my favorite clothes in them.
"Get packed. Tell mom to get packed. We're taking a plane to the west coast; whatever's open. And we're going to Dad's. Grab your sword and shield. I have a feeling you're gonna need them." I said, throwing my bow and arrow across my shoulder. "Nikela!" I said and the bow and arrow was a lime green drawstring bag.
"Mom!" I shouted.
"I know, I know!" She said. "Don't worry about me though. We don't have to do this." She said hugging us.
She was kinder then kind, prettier then pretty and had a heart of gold to match her golden blonde hair. Her eyes were a chocolate brown color and her rosy cheeks always glowed. She was the perfect mom, the perfect marine biologist…amazing. Her only flaw was my former step dad who'd abused her. Glad she divorced him and kicked his ass.
That's all you're getting on him. Period.
"mom. We are not going to let psycho Hades demigod kill you. We're going to Poseidon's," Leo said.
She sighed. "I couldn't ask for better children. But I will not let you get hurt for me whatsoever. Just a quick plane ride, then dolphin ride and done. Fast as possible. Got it?" She asked us, clearly feeling guilty for putting us in danger.
"Ya, ma. Just hurry up, okay? We're freaking out," I choked. My head was spinning. I was terrified.
She hugged me and kissed my forehead.
"Everything's gonna be okay sweetie." She told me.
I wished that when she said that it'd become true.
But we weren't fast enough. We made it through the airport just fine (though there was a lot of turbulence because Zeus didn't appreciate children of Poseidon, his rival brother—or his sort of wives), but not all the way out of San Francisco.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Annakeyla, the girl who killed my Chimera," a voice said as we got onto a private beach to jump on the dolphins.
Nicholas Acheres, son of Hades, was standing across the beach from us with two friends; one I'd recognized at the time to be Lucas Nemera, son of Nemesis. The other was Colin (Last name unknown), son of Kronos, the titan, lord of time. Every two-thousand years his spirit has… well you know…with a mortal girl and poof out comes a demititan.
"Ya, so sorry about that. Next time tell it to stop killing Kara, my best friend, daughter of Zeus," I snapped. "Leo, take mom and go," I whispered.
"Annakeyla, absolutely not!" My mom hissed.
"Mom, it's you they want, not me. I got this," I said, reassuring myself more then her.
"Anna…" Leo started.
"Go!" I hissed. "When I say go!"
"You got nerve, Annakeyla," Lucas said, "Give us your mom and we'll let you and your brother live."
"Oh, so we play peaceful now huh, vengeance boy? You actually spare people? Surprising," I said, sounding actually interested and surprised. "Go now!" I whispered to my brother. "Did your mom teach you that?" I asked Lucas.
"She's getting away!" Colin yelled as Lucas and Nicholas were looking at me weird.
"Di immortals!" I swore in Greek. My mom and brother were in the water. I did the smart thing and charged at the three of my enemies. I shot Lucas with a stunning arrow. He lay petrified on the sand.
"Not with me, Annie," Nicholas said, pulling out his black Onyx sword.
I screamed and lunged at him with a trident I formed out of the ocean water. Nicholas's sword and my trident kept clanging when they hit, but he pushed down on me with his block so hard one time I resorted to kicking him in his soft spot and then throwing him across the beach with a wave of water.
Colin wasn't as almost easy. He was running towards my mom by the time I turned around and Leo was fighting him with the sea and his sword. I aimed an arrow at Colin but he flicked his hand and I was suddenly moving like a slow motion movie.
He'd slowed down time for me. I fought myself. In my head I was screaming, "water help, father help, time just speed up!" When, finally, the sea saved me by dousing my feet with water. Time resorted itself and I lunged at Colin, who was too close to my mom for my liking. He caused himself to speed up and Leo to slow down, and then, right before I hit him he hit my brother with the hilt of his sword and froze me in time.
My brother's nose was bleeding and blood was coming out of his mouth. He lay paralyzed in the tie as frozen as I was.
I broke out of his time spell a moment too late and stabbed Colin with my trident. I remember saying "Don't ever try to hurt my family," to him as I stabbed.
He smiled grotesquely at me. "Too late," he said and he dissipated into gold dust when he died that fell in the sea. I looked over to see Colin's sword jutting out of my mother's chest.
I'd been too late.
"Anna." Leo said, pulling me back to the present time.
"Sorry, "I said, "Uh, what exactly does this quest—"
"I will tell you when you return, my daughter, I promise," Poseidon said with his crinkle eyed smile. His eyes looked sad though, the sea churned softly in them. "For now, Anna, sweetie, Hermes will take you to Mount Olympus. Good luck, my daughter," he said, actually hugging me. Now I was really afraid of this quest. Usually he did the one armed hug thing or pat on the back. He hugged me tightly right now. Whattheheck? He never did that.
When Hermes, my partner-in-crime number one (Apollo being number two) came for me, I was baffled and he even looked surprised.
"Did he just hug you?" Hermes asked as he held my arm flying me to Olympus.
"Um, ya," I said, "I'm scared about that quest he's giving me when I get back now. He was just acting really weird."
"That's probably not good, Anna. Not a good sign."
"I know, Hermes. It worries me."
"Me too, kid, me too," He said, his eyebrows furrowing.
Now I was as scared as ever.