Hi, everyone! I was really glad you all liked this story so much! This'll be a short chapter - sorry! - but an essential one.

It also might be a while before I update again - you have no idea how insane school is right now. But I promise to hurry up and finish my assignments, because let's face it, Fanfiction is way more important. Remember to review!

I ran.

There was a stitch in my side, a throbbing pain in both my legs, and I could barely breath, but I kept running. That giant black thing at my back would catch me if I stopped.

I cast my gaze around, looking for any sign of a large pine tree surrounded by a golden aura. That was the marker the dude with the beard had shown me in my dream. He said if I could get there, I'd be safe.

"And to keep you safe along the way -" He reached into his long, super old-fashioned white robes and took out a long, bronze-coloured chain, " - you have this."

The man reached out and slid the chain gently over my head. It felt smooth and light against the skin of my collarbone, but there was one fairly obvious problem here. "How is this going to protect me?" I asked. My voice echoed, although I couldn't understand why. As near as I could figure, we were standing in a cloud bank, because all I could see was fog.

Without answering, the man reached over and snapped the chain from my neck. It broke easily, but instead of falling from his hand, the broken ends twisted to form an odd shape, then connected again. As I watched, the necklace grew to form a long, gleaming bronze sword.

"Sweet Mother of -" I jumped back as the point swerved dangerously close to my shoulder. "What -?"

The man shook his head. "Do not ask me for an explanation. That would take time you no longer have." He touched the point of the bronze sword lightly to my collarbone. I flinched, but the sword shrank back into a necklace the moment it touched my skin and linked itself around my neck.

"Its name is Levanter," the man explained. "And that is all I can tell you until you get to Camp Half-Blood."

"Wait a minute!" I said. "What's Camp Half-Blood?"

But the bearded dude's form was fading. The last thing he said to me was, "Run now, my hero."

And then I woke up to my mother screaming that there was a giant dog trying to break down our door.

I was wearing the necklace. I didn't take it off the whole way to New York state, except if you count the times I used it to destroy the things that tried to kill me.

A growl coming from somewhere in the darkness jolted my thoughts back into focus. I ran harder, tasting blood in my mouth as I bit down on my lip.

The growl came again, but closer this time. I yanked on my necklace, and Levanter grew in my hand. I braced myself for a fight. The giant dog that had followed me ever since I left home was gaining fast.

Then, a giant pine tree appeared in my line of sight, on top of a huge hill. Hope leaped in my chest. This was it! Maybe I could make it!

But, right at the top of the hill, only metres from the tree, I learned how wrong I was. The dog jumped right over me, coming to a stop just in front of the tree. The giant stupid monster was the only thing standing in between me and safety.

I squared my shoulders and raised Levanter. "You want some, mutt? Then keep coming."

The dog kept growling. Obviously, I hadn't scared it at all. That was not encouraging.

After one more moment of silence, the dog bunched its muscles and sprang at me. I let loose a very heroic yell of surprise and rolled out of the way, just in time to see an enormous black paw sweeping out of the air and connecting with my side. And believe me, it was incredibly painful.

I flew through the air and collided with another tree, then fell to the ground and hit my head on something hard. Levanter was flung away on impact and landed a few feet from where I lay, immobile, on the ground.

The giant black dog - and when I say giant, I mean the size of a large elephant giant - loomed over me. I could swear it was grinning, and not in the cute way that dogs do. In the way that said I'm going to eat you and then chew on your bones.

My fingers searched the ground wildly.

The dog opened its jaws wide - and my fingers closed on my sword.

I swung Levanter upwards and slashed the giant thing across the maw. It reared back, roaring, then dropped to the ground and dissolved into dust.

There was silence for a few moments. I was struggling to stay conscious when I realized that there were people shouting in the distance.

But I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to see who'd been shouting. The pain in my head intensified, and everything went black.