CH 7 SAGE

Sage was standing away from the other campers watching the Greeks walk off their flying boat. Sage was always treated differently at camp, mainly because she was different. People were scared of her for good reasons. When Sage was nine, she vaporized a camper on the spot during the war games. When she was ten she got mad at a Bachus camper and she sent a wave of darkness to block the sun. It took a week for Reyna to convince her to let the sun back. Then last year when she was eleven she turned a camper into a guinea pig and squeezed the camper with darkness, nearly killing the kid.

Sage was a daughter of Nyx, the goddess of night, and the only goddess Zeus was ever afraid of. She also was trained to be a sorceress by Circe ever for age three to nine. She was so powerful; her eyes would turn as bright as a star when she was mad. She also never slept, for night she was most powerful and felt free.

Sage was watching the Greeks walk onto Roman soil when one of the campers caught her eye. Not the camper himself, but his backpack. She could have sworn the bag was moving as if… someone was inside.

RIDER

Finally nighttime fell and all the campers went to sleep. Rider screened the area to see if anyone was outside, so he could change into his true form. Darnit, though Rider when he saw a couple walking by the pond holding hands. He recognized one to be Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. The other must have been Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon. Rider heard the stories of Percy and he had always admired him. But now was not the time for an autograph. Rider passed Annabeth and Percy and continued to walk along the Little Tiber. There he decided was a good place to reform. He took his arm and this time pointed it at himself and concentrated. Finally a golden light erupted from out of his chest and into the palm of his hand. With one last bit of energy he forced the ball of light back out into the sky, creating a new star. Or maybe just returning it to were it once was.

Rider collapsed on the sand and started to grow. When the pain subsided, Rider stood up, relieved to be at his normal height. Suddenly, Rider heard a rustling noise somewhere in the bushes.

How could I forget to arm myself! There was nowhere to go, whatever this monster was it, wasn't going to let him go freely. Then it pounced out of the bushes. The monster was giant, at least six feet tall and 200 lbs. It had sleek red fur and seemed to be a giant sort of fox. It snarled at Rider and experimentally jabbed at Rider with his paw. Rider sidestepped it backed up to the edge of the river. Rider looked around for a weapon and found a sharp rick sitting next to the river. Rider picked it up and slashed at the fox's snout.

The fox avoided the blow and pounced on Rider. He tried to stab the fox's belly but he was far to slow. He was knocked over, the breath knocked out of him. Help me Uranus! The fox raised its paw, claws out, but it hesitated. It turned around and tried to charge whatever it saw but it exploded into dust. The fox didn't even appear to have been struck by any sort of weapon. Rider heard footsteps and then saw a girl standing over him. She had jet-black hair and her eyes were as bright as stars. She offered him her hand. Rider took it, her hand was freezing cold.

"Who-" Rider asked, still trying to regain his breath.

"I am Sage, the daughter of Nyx, goddess of the night. And what were you thinking about coming here?"

SAGE

She was standing in front of the boy demanding answers from him, but he just was staring at her eyes.

"What is your name boy?" Sage asked, the boy didn't reply. "Boy what is your name?"

"R-Rider." He managed.

"Why are you here?" sage demanded.

"Uh…" Sage couldn't take any more of this. She stared the boy named Rider in the eye, and a few seconds later; Rider had been turned into a hamster.

"Now, Rider. If you don't cooperate, I can do much worse things than turn you into a hamster, do you understand." Rider squeaked something in hamster and then Sage turned him back into a boy. "Now, boy, why are you here?"

Rider stood up, but he appeared angry. Sage was growing impatient.

"I said why are you-" suddenly a huge white mist flew at Sage and pushed her back twenty feet, where she slammed the back of her head on a tree. Sage's vision was foggy. She was still marveling at the mist the boy conjured when he walked over to her.

"And if you don't cooperate with ME, I can do much worse things to you. Got it?" Then he offered Sage his hand. This shocked Sage; nobody had ever stood up to, or offered their hand to help her up. Slowly she reached out for his hand and stood up.

"Now we're equal," Rider said. Suddenly Rider gasped.

"What is it?" Sage asked.

"Y-you, it's you." Rider gasped. Rider closed his eyes and started moving his lips as if talking to someone inside his head. "You, you must go with me to free Uranus!"

"Excuse me, but Uranus was destroyed many millennia ago, I can not free him," said Sage.

"You must! Anyways he's much more powerful than you might think, he gave me some of his powers through this." Rider held out a golden coin that was resting on his neck.

"Rider… we can't just leave. We need to get a quest first."

"Do you want Gaea to take over the world or not?" Sage hesitated, if Rider was serious, and he really did have the powers of Uranus, than it was most definatley the only way to prevent the rise of Gaea.

"Fine, it's a deal Rider."