Thanks for all the reviews, guys! There's really nothing I can add to that...

So have another chapter! :)

Disclaimer: *sigh* I wished on a star... But my wish hasn't come true yet. I own nothing but the plot. (At least for now... ;)

Her rescue:

Katie didn't see Travis fall. She only heard him shout, "Katie! Behind you!" She followed his advice and turned around, just in time to see the ax coming down towards her. She rolled out of the way, hopped behind the giant-thing, and stabbed him in the back before he had time to react. He went poof.

"Thanks for the save, Travis," she smiled, turning back to where he'd been. It confused her when he wasn't there. "Travis?" Then she saw him, on the ground, monsters crowding around him with all sorts of dangerous-looking weapons. "Oh gods…" she whispered. "Travis…what happened?"

"So this is the cannonball thief!" a brute of a Laistrygonian bellowed, sauntering up to the circle and shoving his way through. "I said I'd get him, and I did! And now he will pay!" He grabbed the nearest monster's weapon – a hammer – and brought it down on Travis before Katie had time to blink. Was it her imagination, or did she hear a crack? She didn't have a moment to think about it. The Laistrygonian was about to hit Travis again. So Katie did the first thing she could think of to keep him safe.

"He didn't steal your cannonballs!" she yelled. "I did!"

Immediately, the Canadian monster turned and glared at her. "You…?" he said incredulously. "But you're… you're just a girl!"

"For your information, I'm not 'just a girl'," Katie shot back, offended. "I'm a daughter of Hermes." She'd never lied like this before… In her family, lying was probably the very worst thing you could do. But if she was lying to save Travis's life, she figured it wasn't so bad. He'd saved her. Now it was time to return the favor. "I'm sure even a thick-skulled idiot like yourself knows what that means? I could steal anything. I could take that hammer out of your hand without your even noticing," she boasted, hoping he couldn't notice how hard she was shaking inside. Come on, Travis, she thought desperately. Get up and run, now, while they're distracted. Come on, you can do this. Get up, you idiot Stoll! Oh gods, please be okay. Get up!

"Out of my hand, you say?" the Laistrygonian snorted. "I don't think so. But here. I'll give it to you!" He leaned back and threw the monstrous hammer straight towards her head.

But Katie was quick. She ducked and returned the throw, hurling her knife towards him in a perfect arc. He was too brutish to avoid it like she had. It hit his heart… and he burst into glittering golden dust.

Unfortunately, to Katie's astonishment, he instantly started reforming, the dust clumping together once more. Before he could totally come back to life, however, she ran forward and kicked the tornado of dust, letting the particles fly in all different directions so that they couldn't swirl together properly. When he had been properly dispersed, she picked up her knife and turned to the rest of the monsters that surrounded her. "Who else wants to try me? Huh? Who else wants to stand in the way of a daughter of Demeter?"

"I thought you were a daughter of Hermes!" a Cyclops, the one whose hammer had been grabbed by the Laistrygonian, growled. "Which are you?"

Katie thought fast. "Both," she said loudly. "I'm both."

"But that meanssssss…" a dracaena said in astonishment.

"Yes, I'm a god," she yelled out defiantly. Please don't destroy me, gods everywhere. Please don't destroy me, she prayed silently at the same time. I'm just trying to save Travis. "Yeah, I'm a god! You can't kill me. So who wants to try?"

Apparently, no one did. They watched her silently as she dragged Travis to his feet, held onto him tightly, refusing to let him fall, and pointed her knife at them, acting the part of slightly crazy god as well as she could. "No. One. Follows. Me. Have you got that through your pea-sized brains? No one."

"Yes, ma'am, goddess, ma'am," a few monsters promised obediently. She almost could've laughed. Who would've thought that an army of monsters would ever mistake her for a god? It was terrific! But she wasn't free yet. She hoisted Travis up once more and started forward, deliberately proud and slow, hoping she looked godly. Every once in a while, she would look over her shoulder and shoot godly death glares at the flabbergasted monster army, daring any of them to go after her. She played the part so well that none of them even tried. She reached the road without incident and walked a few miles away so that she was out of sight, finding strength she didn't know she had to carry Travis along with her. Finally, she deemed herself far enough away from everything. She laid Travis down in the tall grass beside the road, where no cars could see them, and sat down next to him, pulling off his backpack to see what he'd taken with him. And slowly, ever so slowly, she let out a sigh of relief. They were free. They were safe. At least, as safe as demigods ever got.

Any thoughts?