We were met at the airport by a gang of teenagers, each sitting on the back of a colorful horse. I blinked and looked again. To my surprise, they weren't horses. Wings folded down along their backs, which, to my definition, made them Pegasus.

One girl, who seemed to be the leader, jumped off her horse as soon as she saw us come through the sliding doors and ran to embrace Gabby. I was left standing in front of 3 kids, probably in their late teens.

There was a guy with scars, bruises, and scratches all over his body and face. His hair was dark brown and his face was sharp, his eyes staring down at me like a hawk. He must've got into a lot fights, and by the looks of him started most of them.

The other two seemed friendly enough, one girl and one boy. The girl had light brown hair, a couple inches past shoulder-length. In a way it looked like mine, just a lot less tangled and a bit longer. Freckles splashed across her face and she wore a t-shirt and athletic shorts. She smiled at me, which lit up her brown eyes.

The boy had auburn hair and bright green eyes. He grinned at me and waggled his eyebrows, as if to say 'Get ready, 'cause I'm about to show you something amazing.'

Then he brought his Pegasus back a ways and revealed a small, white horse, speckled with brown. Its mane was light brown and its wings creamy white. "All yours," the boy said.

I gazed up at him and raised my eyebrows, wondering if it was a tradition to prank new campers. "Aw, come on. I know about this Greek stuff being real and all that, but there's no way you're just giving away Pegasus to, you know, newbies."

He and the girl exchanged an uncomfortable look. "Well, this is a special circumstance," the girl explained. "You may have to leave soon after you've been claimed, so Chiron thought it necessary to start teaching you how to ride early on."

She dismounted and walked over to me. "His name is Ray." She reached over and petted him, then gestured for me to do the same. The name seemed to fit him well. His eyes were bright and shone with intelligence.

I admired him for a while, until the girl broke my thoughts. "My name is Amber, by the way. And this is Gilan." The boy, his name was Gilan I guess, waved at me.

I nodded. "I'm Arden."

Amber suddenly jumped back onto her horse and he flew straight up into the air, then spiraled back down so that he was hovering just a few feet off the ground. I gasped. It had all happened so quickly.

It wasn't long before I realized that Amber and Gilan expected me to mount Ray. I gulped and looked over at Gabby. She and the other girl were sitting on a bench, chatting. I guess they had a lot of catching up to do.

I was nervous. I had never been good with horses. In fact, I was awful with them. My family had been on a couple trail rides, and I hated every second of them. Either the horses wouldn't listen to me and would refuse to move or they would buck and canter off into the woods. It wasn't good.

But it was getting embarrassing just standing there and not knowing what to do, so I decided to try my luck. It took some struggle to actually get on her back- even though she was way tinier than the others.

But once I was on, it was so easy. Ray responding to all my calls smoothly. It was almost like she understood me. 'Maybe she does,' I thought, remembering the intelligence I had seen in her eyes.

Gilan whistled and Ray went soaring into the air, hundreds of feet above the ground. I yelped and grabbed on to her neck for dear life. My eyes were squeezed shut until I realized that we weren't zooming up anymore, nor were we falling down.

I slowly opened my eyes and then let go with both hands. We were whizzing above the city, looking down on all the traffic and buildings. We were higher than the tops of any skyscraper, almost close enough to touch the clouds. We were flying!

Amber and Gilan came up on both sides of me, beaming. Gabby and her friend circled below us. "How do you like it?" called out Gilan, his voice barely heard over the roaring wind.

I let out a deep sigh of pleasure. "It's…" I wasn't quite sure what to say. It was thrilling and exhilarating up here. It was also scary. But most of all, it was beautiful. I thought hard about my answer before replying.

"It's the most amazing thing that I have ever done!" I called back and watched as his grin grew wider.

I turned back into the wind and enjoyed the feeling of it playing with my hair.