Thanks to those that have been reading. I'd love for you guys to give me feedback. Preferably constructive Criticism. Reminder, I don't own PJO, but I do own most of the characters (though not all of them). And, no one owns the stuff from the actual Greek Myths for those that are wondering.
I'm not sure how much more of this I'm going to post. I do have one more chapter done, but I've put a hold on this because I'm actually going to be using the characters for the most part for a novel.
Braxton: Hermione Starts the Cat Fight of the Century
Ms. Westbrook didn't give me much to work off of when she dropped me off at the train station just minutes before twilight. Two girls my age and a satyr in disguise. It's easy to pick out satyrs now after having spent a summer at Camp Half-Blood. They all walk funny and they all wear their hair big, often with large hats as well. It covers up their horns.
I had been found in sixth grade by Sasha. Sasha always got made fun of because of his name, and in the more hickish parts of America, I can understand why. The most frequent, other guys assumed that Sasha was either gay or actually a girl. I was the only one that gave the poor guy a break, as we were roommates. Eventually, the story was that if people picked on Sasha, they'd get beat up by me.
I was notorious among the students for teaching lessons in a less than conventional way. No one ever told because, usually, those that I actually hurt were about twice my size. It didn't make sense to me until my father came to pick me up at the end of the last school year, and sat me down, with Sasha, explaining what I was.
The thought was kind of cool at first, until I arrived at Camp Half-Blood and was shuffled into the Hermes cabin.
The Hermes cabin was where the 'unclaimed' campers went. There were also the children of Hermes in there. Most of the 'unclaimed' campers were under the age of thirteen, and they very often were claimed usually in pretty cool ways. I was claimed in the lamest way imaginable.
Apparently, a year earlier, Percy Jackson earned a request from the gods, and instead of requesting something cool, like to become a god himself, he asked that the gods be better parents or something along those lines. So, at the dining pavilion, there were some recently added tables for all the non-Olympian children. Those that were living in the Hermes cabin got to eat with the Hermes kids until they were claimed. One night, in the middle of the summer, a girl who sat all alone at the Eris table got up when I walked in and just hugged me. Being three years older than me, I assumed that she wasn't into me and over-enthusiastic.
"Hello, my little brother!" she said proudly, in front of everyone. It was a lame way of being claimed. I didn't even know who Eris was at the time and had to ask her in secret a few days later when I got a little more comfortable with her. Apparently, she had been told in a dream that we were siblings.
I went home for the school-year, as camp really slows down after summer. That, and I had never had problems with monsters until I went to camp. Children of the minor gods rarely have problems with monsters outside of camp. But, I guess something happened because I received an Iris-Message from my sister. She still lived at camp full time. She told me that tons of demigods, both of minor and major gods, were being attacked. Most were able to defend themselves, or are really close to others, but a few had been killed off, including one of my few friends. And then she gave me the worst news; Sasha had died too, saving the life of a daughter of Hebe.
My reaction was to throw something through the message after insisting I would never return to camp. I didn't last long. A couple of dracaena appeared as I was on my way to school (I no longer lived at school, but stayed with my dad a mile off campus). I was used to every once in a while seeing a monster because there is a lot of wilderness near me, but very few were the type to attack. But, suddenly, I was diving for my safety in a shrub. And then I ran.
Luckily, I guess, I ran along the railroad tracks. A train passed. And someone with a rather large duffle jumped from the train, shocking both me and the dracaena as she landed between us with just a bit of dirt on her from a roll to her feet. In her hand she had a short sword of celestial bronze.
She dusted the two dracaena in a few seconds before turning to me.
I immediately knew she was a child of Hermes from her elvish facial features, but she was the oldest demigod I had ever seen. It wasn't that she looked particularly old, but I knew she wasn't a teenager, that was for sure. I guessed mid-twenties, so I was shocked when she said she was thirty-three.
She told me she'd escort me back to Camp Half-Blood, and wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. And then, a day later, she told me we'd be picking up a few more passengers.
I spotted the Satyr first, as he stood a little taller than the girls he was with. And then, the bright red hair I was supposed to be watching for caught my attention. But I didn't look at the other girl until I was close enough to quietly talk.
"Which of you is Dawn?" I asked.
Dawn looked at me, and smiled. She was quite the sight to behold. What caught me mostly were her eyes. And she had a bit of a quick tongue, a trait I admire.
"I can see why you would need some help to the camp," she said. "Not so good with a sword, are you?"
"And you're an expert?" I asked right back.
"I gotta be better than you," she said. I could see the top of her bow sticking out of her back pack. I noticed she also had a suitcase.
"Let's just go," the satyr said. He looked nervous. The red-head just looked confused.
I handed them three tickets Ms. Westbrook had bought and kept the final one for myself. Dawn's mother was already on the train. It was really quite annoying.
Not much happened on the train toward Chicago, where our transfer was. Dawn introduced me to Mary-Ann and Troy, whom I dubbed 'Red' and 'Satyr.' Ms. Westbrook simply laughed at that, and started to insist we call her something else... Mrs. Smith to be exact.
It wasn't a long ride, and we were soon in Chicago. I, however, was getting sick of trains. I'd taken a train from Montana to Minnesota, from Minnesota to Chicago, out to the suburbs, and then back to Chicago, and then, we'd take a train all the way to New York City.
"Couldn't we just jump on a plane at O'Hare or something?" I asked as we made sure we had all our bags.
"Technically, yes, we could," Ms. Westbrook said. "But I'd rather not be caught on video surveillance. Here, I know where all the camera's are, and I can manipulate the Mist for anyone that recognizes me while getting on the train."
"The Mist?" Mary-Ann asked. "What's that? You mentioned it earlier, but we were kind of yelling..." she looked at Dawn as she said this.
"Mist is a white fog that usually appears in the morning," I said. Dawn elbowed me. She apparently had no qualms about injuring people she just met.
"It's what keeps mortals, regular humans, from seeing monsters and stuff that seems really abnormal," Dawn said. "It's why you didn't realize Ms. Whisk was a Harpy, because she manipulated the Mist."
Troy continued, "It does affect demigods to some extent, but it really lessens once they know what they are."
"You had a teacher that was a Harpy?" I asked.
"And it attacked me," Mary-Ann said.
Suddenly, Ms. Westbrook grabbed my arm and pulled me to her other side. I looked at her strangely, but she just kept walking, pulling me with her. "Um, is there a reason that you're pulling me over there?"
"Blocking a camera," she said. "I don't want to be spotted by cameras at all if possible." She grabbed Troy and pushed him in front of her just a bit, so that he'd block her face from a camera I spotted ahead. She also, I noticed, had styled her hair in a new way so that it blocked the opposite side of her face from me.
"It's not the cameras I'd be worried about," Dawn said suddenly stopping in her tracks. We all stopped and looked where she was staring wide-eyed. All I saw were a few toddlers running around and a beautiful girl a few years older. And then I noticed her reflection in the window behind her, and saw that her hair was on fire. She, actually, was an Empousa, AKA, a really nasty monster. And a really powerful one too. The vampires of Greek mythology. I knew that I couldn't take her on, and from the look on Dawn's face, it seemed that either she couldn't take her on either, or she had no clue what kind of monster stood before us.
"Maybe it hasn't noticed us yet," Mary-Ann said, her voice shaking a bit as she saw either the monster's true form or the reflection like I had.
"No," Ms. Westbrook said. "She knows we're here. Four demigods and a Satyr. Even if she hasn't seen us, she's certainly smelled us." She suddenly spun Troy to face her. "What kind of Satyr are you, not noticing an Empousa's scent?"
"I, uh, see, my nose is actually, well, I have no sense of smell," Troy stuttered out. But, I hardly paid attention to that as the monster was coming our way.
I reached to my belt and held the hilt of my dagger, but Ms. Westbrook held me back. "I'll take care of her, Braxton."
"But, Mom," Dawn showed concern. Her eyes darted to the several cameras that she was hiding from. "There's no way you can fight her without being spotted by cameras.
"I'll just keep her distracted long enough for you guys to get on the train and for the train to leave. Once it's gone, I'm heading back out west."
"What's out west?" Troy asked. "If you don't mind me asking."
"I don't know," Ms. Westbrook said. "But, when I was young, I had a dream about heading west. It goes with my name, so I'm following my dream finally. After all, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have met up with Braxton."
Dawn was crying a bit, but nodded. "Send me an IM when you're safe." Her mother nodded and then hugged her, before pushing us all behind her, away from the Empousa.
"Excuse me," the monster said, she shifted to her true form, but just a moment, and Mary-Ann gasped. "I seem to be lost. Could you help me find where my train leaves from."
"It would be my pleasure," Ms. Westbrook said. As it seemed that Dawn wasn't in the mood to leave her mother behind, and the other two weren't about to take charge, I grabbed the girls by their wrists and started tugging them away. As we walked off, the Empousa kept her eyes on us.
When the Empousa turned, as if to follow us, Ms. Westbrook swung a hard kick to the monster's mid-section. It was sure a way to attract attention and draw a crowd. I pulled us through the crowd, as I knew that the monster wouldn't reveal herself to the mortals if she could avoid it. The two woman began duking it out, and I had to avoid looking so I wouldn't sit and watch what had to be the catfight of the century.
"Tickets, please," a man asked as we were boarding. Dawn handed him the tickets.
"There are five tickets here," the man said. "Where's your fifth party?"
"Oh, he couldn't make it," Dawn said smoothly. "Chicken pox."
The man rolled his eyes and tore the tickets for us and allowed us to enter.
Once we were seated, Dawn turned to look out at what was happening. The train began to move just as the police arrived, and the next thing I knew, Ms. Westbrook had disappeared into the crowd. The Empousa turned toward the train, but it was moving too fast for her to catch.
It was an overnight train all the way to New York. After a short while, Dawn went to the bathroom to wait for a message from her mother and Troy fell asleep.
"So, who's your god parent?" Mary-Ann asked me after about half an hour of silence between us.
I rolled my eyes. "Eris," I responded. "Goddess of-"
"Discord and chaos," she finished. "I know. That's cool."
"How is that cool?" I asked.
"She was the first tool in starting the Trojan war," Mary-Ann said. "She's the one that rolled the Golden Apple into the wedding."
"And that's cool?" I asked.
"Haven't you ever read The Iliad?"
"I don't read," I said. "Dyslexia."
"I have that too," Mary-Ann said. "It's kind of nice to know someone else with it."
"You're about to meet a lot more," I said. "I don't think I've met a Half-Blood that doesn't have it."
"Dawn doesn't," Mary-Ann said.
"Yeah, well, she's a special case," I responded. "So, do you know who your godly parent is?"
"No," Mary-Ann said.
"Have you had any signs?" I asked. "Visions, weird dreams, anything?"
"Well, there was this strange painting earlier today," she said.
"What happened?" I asked.
"We had to paint something that just came to our mind, and I... no, it's stupid."
"Go on," I said. "Maybe I can help."
"I painted a bottle of wine," she said. "with grape vines."
I lifted an eyebrow and laughed a bit. "Seriously?"
"Oh, great, now your just going to laugh at me," she snapped, annoyed.
"Well, it's Dionysus, I bet," I said, still laughing. "He's the camp director."
She didn't look all too thrilled. Troy snorted and mumbled something about banana peels. Dawn still wasn't back.
"Hey, at least you'll have an older brother, Pollux," I told her. "He's got a cabin to himself right now."
That didn't seem to make things better.