AN: Thank you my reviewers. I'd like to apologize for not putting the POV of each chapter before beginning it. I've already included it in the name of each chapter. In this chapter is last of the OC's in this story which actually be narrating. There might be a few other OC's but they're just minor characters. At least for now.

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Chapter 3. Alva: Search and Rescue; The Hard Way.

A band of street kids were warming their hands over a small fire in a dark alley way. I had been tracking them for a few miles now. Dropping to a half crouch, I hid in the dark shadows that surrounded them. I didn't want to do this but I had to. I'm a street kid after all; I always had been. We learnt a long time ago that the easiest way to survive was the best way. I had my eye on a whole pack of food they had stolen from a grocery store in the next town.

Watching the leader of their band warily, I inched closer to the fire. The whole lot of them at hard faces and stony gazes; like those kids who came from hard lives and ran away because it was easier than living with their abusive parents. I should know how that felt. I had been through it.

Pushing dark thoughts of my past away, I muttered a few words under my breath, careful to keep well away from the fire. Immediately, the fire flared up at least ten feet into the air. The kids let out yelps of surprise. When the fire didn't die down, they stood up and began shouting meaningless words. I egged the fire on and soon the kids backed away. Now for the final touch.

"επίθεση!" I hissed. The fire exploded, seemingly towards the kids who panicked and ran away, leaving their food behind, which was, of course what I wanted.

"Αρκετά,φωτιά" I muttered and immediately the ruby flames disappeared. Darkness settled around me and I slinked up to the gold mine those kids had left behind. My fingers shook as I grabbed a few loaves of bread and stuffed them into my pack. Apples, biscuits and chips. It wasn't much but it was the first meal I had in three days. I preferred to steal from thieves to avoid attracting attention. It was safer, as whenever I stole I risked alerting mortals to the presence of magic.

Once I had taken everything useful from the pile, I set of to the safety of a forest that was nearby. I was in the rural areas of Maine where no one ever ventured outdoors after darkness. The town was nothing more than a few clusters of houses and a school. Everything here looked so safe and cozy that it was hard to believe that there could be anything dangerous here. However, I knew too well that appearances can be deceiving. I looked over my shoulder constantly. It was quiet. Too quiet. Usually, it was at these places where monsters tracked down a demigod for dinner.

Nothing. An uneasy silence hung over the area. Every step I took sounded unnaturally loud and my heart was pounding so loud that I was sure a monster could track me down just by the sound of it. My sixth sense that I had come to rely on all these years was sending tendrils of fear down my spine. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

At the fringes of the forest, I paused. The silence of the night had a strange quality too. It felt like the calm before a storm. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard a loud bellow behind me. I wheeled around just in time to see a Minotaur rushing towards me at full speed. It bellowed again when it saw me. My eyes widened. The thing had come out of nowhere and I was rooted to the spot for a second. The bull rushed closer, and closer. Instinctively, I threw myself out of its way, pulling my silver sword out of its sheath. My mind churned out various possibilities, each wilder than the last, to discern where in the world had that monster came from. To my surprise, the Minotaur rushed past me, ignoring me completely. It barely even turned its head to look at me. At that precise moment, I heard a scream from somewhere within the heart of the forest. It was the direction the Minotaur had rushed off to.

Holding my sword carefully in my right hand, I ran after the Minotaur. Someone was in trouble. Possibly a demigod. Deeper and deeper I ran into the forest. Soon, even the thinnest rays of moonlight were swallowed up by the trees. I was running in absolute darkness. Thank the gods that the Minotaur had cleared a path for me.

Soon I emerged into a patch of moonlight that seemed unnaturally bright in the infinite darkness of the forest. I saw the Minotaur rear up above a girl that was covering before it on the forest floor. The girl screamed again, a sound identical to one I heard before. I saw something moving at the corner of my eye but paid it no heed. My mind went blank. All of my attention was trained on the damn bull and the girl below it.

Focusing, I cried out "Φως, τυφλή ότι ταύρος!" as loud as I could. A bright light flashed before the Minotaur and it bellowed again, blinded. Taking advantage of the moment, I took two steps back and ran towards the Minotaur at full speed. Vaulting over it, I thrust my sword into its weak point at the bottom of its chin. For a second, I saw the Minotaur glowing red eyes which were filled with a blind, all-consuming fury. Then it exploded into dust and silence fell again.

I landed on the forest floor on my knees, panting. For a moment there was no other sound in the forest. Then the girl beside me groaned. I retreated to a safe distance and watched her. She didn't seem to be a threat. Quite the opposite in fact. She looked scared and vulnerable. Slowly, the girl opened her eyes. She took in her surrounding slowly. There was a frightened look on her face.

I got up from the tree I was hiding behind and approached her deliberately, like I would a spooked animal. I snapped a few twigs on purpose to alert her to my presence. The girl whirled around to face me and screamed. I winced. The sound was high pitched and surprisingly annoying. When she saw me, relief spread over her features. She smiled shyly, as though apologizing for the scream.

"Um, hello." She began awkwardly. I nodded back. "Did you see that thing? It was gonna kill me I think. It was some kind of half man, half bull. And that lady! She was –"The girl broke off suddenly. She was staring at her feet. To my surprise, she looked fearful again. "She was going to kill me." Her voice was hoarse.

Tears began rolling down her cheeks. They glittered like diamonds before landing on the forest floor. I was frozen in place. For the first time in my life I had no idea what to do. The girl when on crying, the shoulders shaking. Making a split second decision, I knelt beside her and began rubbing her back gently. I didn't know why but it seemed to be helping. Gradually, her sobs faded and she looked up at me again, her tear tracks shining in the moonlight.

"Sorry. You must think I'm crazy. First raving on about man-bulls and homicidal ladies and then crying. The name's Vanessa and I'm usually not this emotional. I think" Vanessa, I realized, spoke very quickly. She smiled and held out her hand to me. I shook it. There was an awkward pause when she waited for my name. When I remained silent, she dropped her hand, looking at my face strangely. I shrugged it off easily. My face, eyes and hair did tend to attract strange looks from demigods. I was used to it. I had freaky eyes and hair that changed colors; from blue to green to black and so on. It made me look like a walking chemistry experiment and made blending in impossible.

"Did you see it?" Vanessa asked suddenly. Seeing the questioning look on my face, she continued. "The man-bull I mean." I wondered why she kept calling it that.

'The Minotaur." I corrected. Vanessa looked surprised.

"Minotaur? Isn't that like-"Here she paused, trying to remember something. When she spoke again her tone had changed completely. "Greek mythology." She spoke the words softly and somehow joyfully. I couldn't take it anymore. This girl was too confusing. Closing my eyes, I stretched my mind and touched hers tentatively. Immediately, colors filled the darkness behind my lids. I learnt everything that I happened to this girl. I saw what she saw. I felt what she felt. When I tried to learn more about her past, I found that my way was blocked. There was a slippery barrier that hid all the memories of her past.

I opened my eyes again and met Vanessa's, which were a surprising blue-gray. Her voice trembled slightly when she spoke. "You were in my mind." It wasn't a question. I nodded. She scrambled away from me, her eyes wide with fear. "What are you?" She hurled the words at me.

I had just about enough of Vanessa's bizarre mood swings. Opening my palms to show her that I meant no harm, I met her gaze calmly. When I spoke, I used a low voice that would soothe even the wildest animal. "I'm no different from you."

"Yes, you are!" She screamed. So much for soothing. "I can't see what other people are thinking! I don't have-"I cut her off before she began describing all of the abnormalities I possessed.

"But you have powers. Things that make you different." I shot back. Her gaze dropped. She knew full well that I had been into her mind and denying it would be pointless.

Vanessa wrapped her arms around her knees. She looked so defenseless that it made my heart hurt. "What are we?" Her voice was no more than a husky whisper. I took the 'we' to be a sign that we were making progress. I had no doubt that this girl was a demigod, possibly a powerful one. For some reason, I felt like it was my duty to explain the facts to her.

"You're a demigod" I said simply. "A half blood. Half human, half Greek god. Or goddess. "I surprised to see no sign of resistance from her. It was almost like she felt the truth of my words. I decided it was time to introduce myself.

"I'm Alva, daughter of Hecate, goddess of magic" I said. I tried my best to keep the venom out of my voice. But judging from the startled look on Vanessa's face, I failed miserably.

"Magic?" She asked, disbelief coloring her voice. I decided it was time for a demonstration.

Standing up, I cupped my hands together and channeled all my power to the space between my hands. When I spoke, every word was clear and echoed in the woods. "Προστατεύστεαυτόν τον τομέα. Δώστε μαςτη ζεστασιά. Δώστε μαςτο φως. Δώστε μαςτην ειρήνη. "A spark appeared in my cupped hands. It expanded to fill the space around Vanessa and me. Immediately, the chilliness of the night disappeared. The space around us was suffused with light and now felt warm and cozy. There was a circle of sparks around us, around three feet in diameter. I knew now that no monster could see or track us although we had a clear view of the world outside.

I turned to look at Vanessa who was staring at the shield, as I liked calling it, with wonder. She reached out and touched one of the sparks. It glittered slightly but otherwise remained in place. I almost laughed out loud at the look of relief on Vanessa's face.

"You saw the monster back there?" I asked her. She nodded. "This will protect us from the rest of them." Vanessa's mouth flopped open and she stared at me, panic evident in her eyes.

"Hang on a second. The rest of them? But you killed that one. The Minotaur thing." She tacked out the 'thing' hastily like she was determined to sound casual. I let out a humorless laugh.

"There are thousands more like them out there, everywhere." Vanessa looked sick.

"What am I going to do?" She had that helpless look on her face again. For a second, I despised this girl. Between her helplessness and her mood swings, she was never going to survive. Then I reprimanded myself, remembering that she had just been introduced to this world the hard way. Who wouldn't panic?

"You are sticking with me till we get you to Camp." I blinked, surprised at my own words. Did I really want the responsibility of getting this girl to camp, where she could learn how not to get herself eaten? Yes, I decided. I did. Something about her reminded me of myself.

Vanessa looked even more confused than before. "Camp? What camp?" She sounded suspicious. Good. She was learning.

My voice was bitter when I explained. "Camp Half Blood is a safe place for all half-bloods" Except me. "That's where you'll learn to use your powers, if you have any, and fight monsters. All the children of the gods go there." Vanessa looked at me enquiringly. I knew what was coming and looked away.

"Why aren't you there?" Because my mother betrayed the gods. Because I don't want to be trapped. Because I'm a freak. Because I murdered a demigod. Take your pick.

"Long story" My voice was flat. Vanessa didn't look like she believed me. I didn't care. "Go to sleep. The sooner you get there, the better for everyone."

"You?" Vanessa asked. I shot her a 'duh' look and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. You." I turned away.

"What about you?" Gods, didn't this girl get it.

"I'll keep doing whatever I usually do." I faced her, my voice getting louder by the second. "This!" I gestured at the sparks all around me. "I'm sorry if it doesn't please you!" Vanessa looked scared.

"-I didn't mean that-"Her voice was shaky and apologetic.

"Yeah, whatever." Reaching into my pack, I took out my sleeping bag and tossed it towards her. She caught it in a deft move. "Sleep." Vanessa looked like she was about to ask what was I going to sleep on but she stopped herself.

"Uhh- I'm kinda hungry." She peeked at me from under my eyelids like she was scared I'll go pyscho again. I grunted and tossed her a loaf of bread and a few apples. Mentally, I composed a list of supplies I had to get. What I had now was barely enough for one, much less two people.

Although I sat facing away from her, I could feel Vanessa's gaze on me as she ate.

"It doesn't matter you know." I glanced at her. Will this kid ever stop surprising me?

"What?" I sounded as clueless as I felt.

"What happened to you. It doesn't matter anymore." Her eyes looked old and wise beyond her years. For the second time that day, I had no idea what to do. So I just grunted and turned away again. Soon sleep claimed me.

I dreamt of my mother came and took me away. I dreamt a black haired boy was walking towards Kronos, a ship loomed behind him. No matter how much I begged he wouldn't turn back. Finally I dreamt of a blue eyed boy with brown hair telling me it was going to be okay.

For some reason, I believed him.

AN: The next chapter will be Connor. Then it'll be back to Nico again. So, how was it?

Greek translations:

* επίθεση(Attack)

* Αρκετά,φωτιά(Enough fire)

* Φως, τυφλή ότι ταύρος (Light blind that bull)

*Προστατεύστεαυτόν τον τομέα. Δώστε μαςτη ζεστασιά. Δώστε μαςτο φως. Δώστε μαςτην ειρήνη.

(Protectthis area. Give usthe warmth. Give uslight.Give uspeace.)