It never failed to astound Kally how much fate intervened in people's lives.
For her, meeting Clarisse and Chris three years ago had been fate. It had given her hope that maybe all the monsters that came for her were real, and she wasn't going crazy. It meant there might be people like her. It meant there might be a place she could go to that would be safe and would be her home.
As time went on, however, it seemed less and less likely that Clarisse would come back for her. Every day that passed without a glimpse of that warrior girl took her further away from this fantastical place in her mind. Eventually, it had just become a memory, her last image of the strange pair became one of them disappearing in a New York taxi.
But now she was doing the same thing, sitting in a cab on the plastic coated seats, heading towards the unknown destination; Camp Half-Blood.
Grover and Nico sat to her right as she stared out the window at the passing city. They had started to babble about monsters and gods and Furies and god only knew what else, but Kally had told them to be quiet. She needed to piece things together for herself.
After half an hour's silence, she slowly turned to face the strange boys. She took a calming breath and began.
'So first of all, everything is real.' She started. 'All the Greek myths, the gods, they're all real.'
She turned to Grover. 'You're a satyr. Which is some sort of goat-human hybrid that protects demigods,' she said. Grover nodded, and she turned to Nico. 'Which is what you are.'
Nico nodded his head gradually. 'Half mortal, half god.'
Kally shot him a look, reminding him that he wasn't meant to say anything yet.
'Your father is Hades, god of the Underworld, and Meg is a Fury that does his bidding.' She continued in a slow drawl. Her head still spun from all the new information. 'You're now taking me to a camp full of people like you, demigods or whatever, because you think I'm one too.'
She gave the boys a nervous look that told them they were allowed to speak now. Nico spoke first.
'Yes.'
That was it. No I know it's hard to believe or this must be so difficult for you to wrap your head around. Just one word that confirmed all of Kally's suspicions.
She wrapped her arms protectively around her chest like she was hoping it would make her feel safer and less confused. She drew a ragged breath.
'Well, you're wrong,' she told them. 'I'm not half-god or whatever.'
'How do you know?' Grover asked. 'Have you ever met your mom? Or your dad? Whichever you live without.'
'I never said I lived without a parent.' Kally stiffened, sitting up suspiciously.
'All demigods only have one parent,' Grover said. 'I mean, it's not like the gods live with their kids. They'd have to be in a lot of places at once to keep up with every single kid of theirs, let me tell you.'
Kally sat motionless on the seat. She held back an amused smile. The thought that her bookish, quiet father could be a god made her want to laugh. The thought of her self-absorbed mother being a goddess just made her want to weep for the other supposed Greek gods.
'Well let me tell you something,' Kally said. 'I lived with both my mom and my dad. And let me assure you, they are very mortal.'
Grover and Nico looked at each other, perplexed. The smug smile that had almost been on Nico's lips twitched and faded. Obviously they hadn't counted on this.
The trio spent the rest of the taxi ride in silence. The boys simply stared at each other, trying to have a silent conversation about what it all meant. Kally preferred to lean her head against the window and watch New York disappear behind her.
She'd never thought that leaving it behind would be so hard. But as the last of the buildings disappeared and never-ending woods took its place, a tear made its way from the corner of her eye and down her cheek. It spilled onto her leg, creating a dark spot on her jeans. She stared at it curiously, touching her hand to her wet cheek in surprise. Never since the first night she left home had she cried, not in three years.
Kally had never left New York, except to go to parties that her mom had been forced to drag her to. Penelope's agent, a young, stern woman by the name of Tess Saunders, was always on her back about getting the "family angle" in the press. All she remembered from the parties – they all blurred together after a while – was smiling for the cameras and tolerating her mother's forged affection for the evening. Tess had wanted to include Colton, Kally's younger brother, in the publicity as well, but Kally had refused to have him subjected to the paparazzi.
Kally had always been an over-protective big sister of Colton. She never let anyone pick on him or try to hurt him. People were afraid of her, so it made it easy to be intimidating to the boys that would try and tease him at school. All it would take was a word from Colton and somebody would wind up in a trash can or hanging by their undies from a locker. This gave people enough of a reason to keep away from the both of them.
On the negative side, she scared away all his friends too. So they both went through school being friendless losers and outcasts. Colton never truly forgave her for keeping everybody away.
Her thoughts travelled to Colton himself. He would be at home now, with their mom and dad. He'd be eating dinner, or freaking out to their parents about starting his sophomore year after the summer.
She missed her brother. For thirteen years of her life, she'd been there to clear the way for him. How would he be coping without her for three years? Had he cast her off? Did he miss her like she missed him? As bad as she felt about leaving her dad behind, she felt far worse about leaving Colton.
The taxi slammed on the brakes. Kally's head hit the driver's headrest and then crashed back into her own. She turned her head tenderly to face Nico and Grover, who were similarly injured.
'What happened?' Kally questioned.
'We're here,' Nico responded, rubbing the back of his neck.
They exited the cab and Grover paid the driver. The man seemed unsure about leaving three kids alone on the edge of a deserted wood alone, but he perked up a bit when Grover handed him a rather large tip. He sped off into the distance, unhappy that one of the bills had a few bite marks on the corners.
The group stood at the base of a hill. A magnificent pine tree stood at the top, tall and proud. Something shone bright gold in the moonlight hanging from a low branch on the tree. What seemed to be a massive pile of electric chords wrapped around the base of it like a scarf.
'So where is it?' Kally asked, breaking the silence of the night.
Grover turned to her. 'Over the hill, just past the pine tree there.'
They began to walk up the steep incline. By the time they reached the top, Kally was nearly out of breath. She stood next to the pine tree trying to breathe properly. She sat down by the coiled chords and leaned on them.
When they started shifting, she jumped into the air and let out a shrill yelp. She moved back to Grover's side and clutched at his arm.
'Those just moved.'
'Those?' he repeated. 'That's the dragon that guards the fleece.'
'Fleece? What fl- wait what do you mean that's a dragon?' Kally shrieked.
Suddenly the creature stood up on its hind legs. It wasn't overly large, for a dragon. Maybe twelve feet tall. His teeth were sharp like daggers and his nostrils had wisps of smoke pouring from them, like they could catch fire any second. Kally suspected this was exactly the case.
She stood in awed silence for a moment. 'That's a dragon.'
'Yeah, and a real softie at that,' Nico interjected, stepping forward. He told the beast to lie back down and he obeyed lazily, thumping back to the ground for a nap. 'Easy. Let's keep going.'
'Keep going? Keep going where?' Kally demanded. Over the hill she saw nothing but a vast expanse of hills. She made up her mind right there that if Nico was proposing more hiking then she would walk all the way back to New York herself.
'To Camp,' Grover replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 'It's just here.'
'I don't see it.'
Nico stepped towards Kally and said gently, 'Take a few steps forward, to the other side of the tree.'
Kally did as she was told, and stepped forward once, twice, a third time. And then her eyes were filled with a wondrous sight in a completely new setting.
She was undoubtedly looking at Long Island Sound, where just a moment ago had been nothing but mountains. Open fields full of orchards of some kind that she couldn't make out from her viewpoint covered a vast expanse of the area. A country farm house stood nearby the fields, lights on in a few of the downstairs windows.
She saw a glistening lake in the pale moonlight, and buildings that looked like they had been plucked right from ancient Greece were nestled into the sides of the hills. One in particular was lit up brightly, and even from here she could see it full of young people laughing and talking merrily. A strange assortment of mismatching buildings was off to the side in the shape of an omega.
Grover smiled contentedly. 'Welcome home Kally.'