Chapter 3: Percy's POV

"So the Greek mythical gods are real. And one of them is one of my parents. Right?" Kora asks after our slow and careful explanation for why she was here.

"Yes," Annabeth said. Kora just stared down at her hands.

"And the man who followed you was a god too," I say.

"I broke a god's nose?" She asks, standing up. Annabeth looked incredulously at me. I just shrugged. You'd have to be pretty good to break a god's nose.

"He was holding his nose when I ran into him on the street..." I say, "But that's nothing to worry about. We have to worry about where you are going to go. And in fact, you dropped in at a very convenient time, seeing that we're going to camp tomorrow."

She just stared incredulously at us. I looked at Annabeth. She was staring at the girl, Kora, with a weird intensity...

"So some fricken god-dude-person runs me into a pole and brings me here so you can bring me to a type of Girl-Scout Camp for 'special' people-" She made the air-quotes, "So I can just be attacked again, and again, and again?" Kora ended the question in a yell, walking over to the window and looking outside. I saw something like a shadow flicker on her face. Nico... I knew Annabeth saw the shadow too because she straightened in her seat. She gave me a hesitant look, but I just continued the conversation as if nothing happened.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to. It is voluntary, but you will learn about why you're special, and you'll meet other special people. We are all like you at Camp Half-Blood. Both Annabeth and I are Demigods too," I reasoned with her," And nothing gets inside the camp."

Annabeth looked sympathetically at the girl. She looked pretty ragged. I could tell she had been on the streets a long time. Enough to have experienced plenty of her own monsters and to learn to fight. She looked kind of like Piper, about the same age, with the same skin tone and ragged hairstyle, and she was pretty, but that is where the similarities ended. This girl had stormy blue eyes, and her face, clothes, and body were caked in so much dirt, blood, and grime, you couldn't really see what she looked like underneath. Not to mention the smell reaked, and her clothes were all torn and dirty.

I remember that Annabeth went through the same things Kora has been through. Annabeth asks," Do you have a family?"

Kora turns around from the windows to look at us, a sad expression on her face. "No," She answered.

Annabeth asked, gently pushing for answers, "Do you remember your mom or your dad?"

Kora, still looking at us with a solemn expression, hung her head, looking at the ground, "No."

Annabeth sighed. So we don't have a lead on who her godly parent is, but once we get her to camp she'll realize she belongs. I remember my first time there. I call it home now. She'll grow to do the same. But why did Hermes himself keep track of her on the streets?

Then, a whole lot of things happened at one time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Glass shot inward along with a creature that landed on Kora, first-strike. Annabeth yelled. I drew out Riptide. Kora was struggling underneath it, the beast's claws impended in her right shoulder, her thrashing out underneath it to keep its long fangs from getting a bite of her. It was a hell hound. Not Ms. O' Leary, but an unfriendly creature of the underworld. It was smaller than Ms. O'Leary, so it fit in the living room to where it would have been small enough to turn around in circles, unlike Ms. O'Leary. I ran towards it, calling for a particular flying friend in my mind, while impaling it's thick hide with Riptide. I only remember the battle at Olympus where I slaughtered many Hell hounds with the curse of Achilles, and made the same, almost deadly arc with Riptide. Somehow, this one's hide was way tougher and thicker than any Hell hound I had ever fought. Annabeth had drawn her dagger, trying to protect Kora, still underneath the giant dog. My mom had come in, seeing that we were fighting, ran to get Paul in their bedroom to leave the apartment.

I repeatedly stabbed the back of the hell hound's neck, feeling it shudder underneath me with every blow. Finally, it threw me off towards the wall where I landed on my gluteus maximus, where I watched the hell hound back off, it's claws coming out bloody when it yanked it'self around, and jumped back outside the window, leaving me on my butt, Annabeth with her knife in her hand looking down to watch the hell hound run away, and eventually turn into smoke.

We both turned back to find Kora lying in a large pool of her own blood. The claws went deep, but we'll have to get her to camp so the Apollo kids can get to her.I kept calling for Blackjack in my mind while Annabeth assessed how we should handle Kora's wound. Kora was sputtering, her eyes wide, trying to reach for the wounds in her shoulder, but Annabeth kept pushing her hand away, trying to keep her still.

"If you keep moving, you'll lose more blood!" Annabeth yelled at Kora. I took Riptide and knocked out the rest of the glass in the window to allow Blackjack to be able to get his fat horse rump inside the living room. I went over to Kora, kneeling on the left side of her, opposite Annabeth. She was really pale, and blood was gushing out of the three wounds from each claw in her shoulder.

When talking about Hell hounds, they are about as big a tanks, weigh just about the same, and their paws is like having a car run over you. Their claws, let alone, are as thick as small traffic cones. If one of these things claws you, you're not likely to survive. Ambrosia. I remember the supply of the godly food kept in a cabinet under the sink. I ran to go get it, fumbling in the cabinet to get a hold on the bag full of the stuff. I can hear Kora's groans from in here. I fumble around a little more, and finally grab the right bag.

I run back over to Kora who is nearly passed out, and shove a handful in her mouth. Annabeth was busy putting the pressure on Kora's wound to pay any attention.

"Eat it! It will heal you,"I tell her, but she is losing strength. But she obediently chews the godly food and swallows it down. That's when I see a familiar shadow coming towards the apartment. Blackjack lands a short landing seeing as my small living room isn't exactly a runway, and neighs at me.

Yo Boss, whacha- oh, you need to get to camp boss, she looks like she's already passed out... Annabeth and I both look down to see that, yes, Kora had passed out. Annabeth started slapping Kora, trying to get her to stay with us. Once Kora opened her eyes into slits, still in a daze, I picked her up from her own pool of blood, limp, and put her on Blackjack. Annabeth then got on, then I got on last.

Whoa, heavy load boss! Three people? You know what you're going to have to do for this-

Yes, Blackjack, I know I will have to give you a sponge bath and infinite mints, just GO!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's note:

Did you like that? If you did please criticize and reveiw! :)