Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

Kyra's POV

"And then you're going to center the clay just, like, this." I say, pressing the wet clay down on the wheel.

"Oh. Thanks for showing me again." one of my students, Kori, says.

"No problem. It takes time to get the basics down." I say, wiping my hands on my apron and standing up from the wheel.

Kori sits down and starts trying to center the clay again. I walk over to the table to check on the other three students wedging clay.

"How's it going?" I ask.

"Good, I suppose. This really hurts my arms though." Angelique says.

I chuckle and say, "It'll build up your muscles. By next week, you won't notice it."

"Well, that's good to hear." she says.

"Hey, I'm going outside for a few minutes. I need to make a phone call. If anyone needs me, just come knock on the window." I say, grabbing my phone and walking out the front door.

As I sit down in one of the patio chairs and unlock my phone, I hear a rustling in the bushes beside the studio. I stand up tentatively and slip my phone back into my pocket.

I sneak quietly into the garden and touch the sun pendant strung onto it's white-gold chain around my neck. I peek into the garden and see that the azalea bushes on the far side of the garden were quivering.

I notch an arrow and rush over to the bushes. A dark green snake head darts out from the top of the bush. I jump back quickly as it tries to strike me.

I let my arrow loose and it pierces the thing's head. I breathe a sigh of relief as it thuds to the ground.

As I'm walking out of the garden, I hear more rustling.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." I say under my breath.

I turn back around to see something around the size of a small black bear emerging from the bushes.

I had never encountered a creature like this, but then, there are several monsters in Greek mythology. It's pretty hard to know every single one and also to encounter every one.

It looked to be half baby Hydra and half coyote. The top half had several snake heads branching off of it, and the bottom half was the thick, red-brown hair of a coyote.

I bring out my bow again and notch an arrow. The thing had incredible speed. Right as I notched the arrow, it was on top of me, pushing me down.

I land painfully on my elbows, scraping them up in the process. Its heads start trying to strike my face. I could see in the bright sunlight that all the fangs were coated in a pinkish acid.

I drop my bow and punch one of the snakes away from my face. I quickly unsheathe one of my daggers and stab the thing in its side. Before I know it, it's dead, crumbling into dust at my feet.

I put my dagger up and start heading out of the garden, breathing heavily.

I make it to the patio chairs and practically collapse into one of them. I look down at my hands and see that they're shaking.

"What in the world..?" I say, looking at them curiously.

This had never happened after I had killed a monster before. Then I turn my arm over and see a long gash on my forearm. The blood seeping out of it seemed to be bubbling almost. It was changing colors too. From scarlet red to dark purple to blue, almost black.

I draw in a sharp breath and quickly stand up from the chair. I have to steady myself on the table though because my head had started to spin. I make my way back to the studio entrance as fast as I can.

I throw open the door, entering the small display area, and walk over to the desk where the cash register and my things where.

"Ms. Kyra? I need some help." someone calls from the studio.

"Uhm, just a second." I say, struggling for breath now.

I sit heavily on the bench behind the desk and grab my backpack. I rip it open and rifle through it, looking for some ambrosia squares.

I find the Ziploc and pull it out of the bag, ripping it open as I do.

I break one in half and shove it into my mouth. The dizziness instantly started leaving my head and I was able to breathe easily again. I give a sigh if relief and close the Ziploc up again, putting it back into my bag. I look at my forearm and see that the gash had already closed up, the scar fading fast.

I get up from the bench and go into the studio to help them. Gods, that had been a close one.

A/N:

Just a day in the life of Kyra. Yes, she owns and runs a pottery studio 'cause why not? Things are finally about to heat up. I hate how long it's taken for things to progress, but since I introduced new characters, you guys needed to get to know them a little before I just jumped into everything.

Well, my Tuesday has been wonderful so far...Not. I woke up this morning after having one of those goddamn anxiety dreams to have an absolutely awful guest review on The Adventure. I didn't allow it to be posted, but I'll just say that it ended with, "'I am utterly disgusted by your writing. Go to Hell.'"

Okay, first of all, I'm up for criticism. It helps me improve my writing and all. And I'm quite aware of the fact that The Adventure was my first story ever and it's not nearly as well written as my other stories because, again, it was my first story. I was very new in the world of writing and didn't quite know what the hell I was doing.

But really?! Telling me to go to fucking Hell just because they didn't like my story? That's taking it a bit too far. I mean, everyone on here is an actual person with actual feelings that can get really badly hurt. In my case, it makes me sorta hate myself, think I'm not good enough to be writing anything at all and I should just give up entirely.

But then I keep telling myself, "You've met some of the best people on here. One of your best friends that you talk to every fucking day and helps you get through pretty much everything you met on here, though your writing. These people love your writing and just because one stupid person didn't like it doesn't mean you should stop."

It bothered me greatly when I read that review this morning. Mostly it just made me really angry. I mean, as I said before, I'm up for criticism, but it pushed it a bit too far with that last piece. So if this person hadn't reviewed as a guest, I'd probably message them and tell them to fuck themselves.

So, word of advice, don't tell someone to go to Hell or kill themselves if you don't like something they created. Most likely, they spent an ass load of time on it and they're really proud of it. If you say something like that, it can hurt really bad. Remember, we're all people here, there is absolutely no need for hate whatsoever.

M/A:

Today's song is Amy by Green Day. I love this song so much. Mostly because it sounds so different from what GD usually puts out there, and it's just a really pretty song.

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25