Huzzah! I have resurrected! Okay, so here's the deal. I type up all of my story chapters in advance, so that I have some leeway in case something goes wrong and I can't write, right? So on chapter ten, that was basically the end of part 1, and that's when my backup chapters had finally caught up to me. So I went on a break to write more in the meantime. Then NaNoWriMo came up and I wasn't really writing any fanfic for a few months, then I got SICK and then I was just LAZY and it was a big mess! But now, I've written a few chapters up (not as many as last time but I think I can manage) and I'm ready to go! So, I'm sorry to anybody who was waiting patiently for the next chapter the whole time! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you! I've actually gone back and edited a few things to neaten it up. Not a lot or anything that needs checking out, but for example, Chapter 1 now starts with PART I: CHASING THE LIT FUSE because that's now just what it's called. So THIS is part 2, all for your entertainment!

PART II: THE NOBLE SCAVENGER HUNT

CHAPTER 11: A TALE OF VAMPS AND BIKINIS (Ludmila's thoughts)

I was starting to wonder whether I just smelled good to sea creatures. This had to be something like the third time that I've fought off a giant sea serpent before, and the first time I've dealt with one that had multiple heads. Even though there were loads of other people on the beach who were showing off much juicier, delectable flesh in their bikinis and swim shorts (eww, remind me never to think of anyone as juicy or delectable again), this creature had decided to target me, and me alone. Oh yeah, you're probably pretty confused right now, and wondering how I ended up getting hunted by a freestyling monster. Well then, let me explain myself.

My name, is Ludmila Lockhart. I'm a twelve year old weirdo who's been expelled from three schools already. It's not my fault, I'm not a trouble maker or anything. I do my homework and don't get into fights. I just have really, really bad luck, and a tendency to see things that just about everybody misses. I think I kind of understand why now, but back then, I really didn't get it. You see, if you're a kid like me, you'll wish that you were paying more attention to your mythology back when you were in third grade. But also if you're like me, you probably didn't because it was boring, and your teacher was secretly a bloodsucking vampire who hated your guts and didn't teach you anything. Or they were boring too.

So, going back to before the hydra tried to eat my swimming costume, I'll take you to the last day of school, a couple of weeks ago.

Like all last days, the classroom was basically a war ground. Nobody wanted to sit still, nobody was paying attention, nobody wanted to do any work, and if you did, you were either a robot, or oblivious to the fact that the teachers didn't want to do any work either. I was sitting right at the front of the class (stupid seating arrangement) so trying to do anything other than pretend to read was a mission I wasn't equipped to handle. The history textbook in my hands was boring and had no pictures, not to mention that trying to read the words gave me a massive headache thanks to my dyslexia. Try to imagine reading a book where the letters decided to frequently shuffle themselves around like a deck of cards.

Our classroom was painted blue (because it's 'soothing') and had a thick timeline running all around it, starting at the stone age by the door, and looping all around the walls and around windows with different people's work stuck up and the least fun 'fun facts' imaginable until it reached the door again at the year 2000. It seemed to be missing fourteen years if it wanted to stop at the present.

"Alright class, listen up," the teacher said. Of course, nobody did listen up. I really didn't like her. She looked like one of those fresh out of college types who decided to become a teacher without thinking about the fact that she hates kids.

She had too many top buttons in her blouse undone, as if she was trying to impress some sleaze ball somewhere. Her skirt was too short, her hair too fake, her makeup too thick, and her smile too bright. And that's not mentioning the intoxicating stench of expensive perfumes that desperately clung to her. It was like looking at an abstract representation of a super model, and it made my skin crawl. Whenever a parent or more serious teacher was around, her voice turned so sweet it bordered diabetic. She was always giving the younger ones creepy winks and bewitching stares. And nobody seemed to catch onto her whole act, or want to do anything about it, except her class. At least we were together on our distrust of our history teacher, Miss Valentine.

I remembered that I was meant to be listening to her and started paying attention again.

"I've been talking with the PTA and the rest of the school staff, and they've given us the go ahead. We're all set for the summer beach trip!" Before the classroom could erupt into a mix of cheers and jeers, she silenced them with a devilish look and her upheld palm. "But remember, everything you do will reflect badly on me, so you little monsters better behave or you'll find yourself in summer school for the next six years! Understood?"

The summer beach trip was something that Valentine had been going on about since the start of the year. She wanted our whole class to have one big weekend long beach trip in the middle of the summer as a final goodbye before she went off to whatever new school she would terrorise. Apparently it was for 'bonding' and keeping in touch, but we all knew she just wanted to show off her new and just barely legal swimsuit. I'm surprised she even managed to get it past the rest of the PTA with the way it would destroy their budget and had no 'educational value'. Already I could hear the lurid gossip and outlandish theories being flung around the classroom about how it was approved. I tried not to listen to them.

She handed us a bunch of weird forms for our parents to sign and mail back to them that basically said if we died then they were totally okay with it, and then dismissed us. I tried not to make eye contact with my more energetic acquaintances and began heading straight home. Everybody was discussing summer plans, but I didn't really have anybody to talk about that stuff with here. Well, nobody except maybe Verde, who squeezed past the crowd and found his way to where I was.

Verde is a bit of a weird kid. Apart from looking a little older than everybody else, which already set him apart from them, he was strange and scrawny, with a big trucker cap that he tried to keep on at all times, and he walked funny. Apparently, he had some weird muscle problem in his legs which explained the limp in his step and excused him from all PE lessons. He seemed lonely so I tried sharing my apple with him when he first came. He ate the whole thing, apple core included. After that, he kind of grew attached to me and wouldn't leave me alone, though honestly, I was glad for the company.

"You going to that beach trip?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, I guess I will," I replied. "I don't want to be the only one who's not there."

"Yeah, but you know your track record with water," he said.

"Hey, that flooding incident wasn't my fault!" I yelled.

"Sure it wasn't," he said with heavy sarcasm. "It was a freak accident caused by a twelve foot long water snake. Totally believe you."

"You could at least try harder to pretend to believe me!"

"There's no way I'll entertain your weird imagination. But hey, keep trying and maybe you can use it to write a book or something!" I could never really tell if he was joking or if he just liked making fun of me. Even when he was complimenting me, it somehow turned into an insult. "Anyway, if you're going, then I might as well tag along, keep you out of trouble, the usual."

"I'm the one keeping you out of trouble, Vee!" He rolled his eyes as we made it to the front gate of the school.

"Want me to escort you back home?" he asked. "Streets are dangerous you know."

"No thanks, I'm good." He looked a little concerned, and for a second he dropped the mischievous half smile on his lips.

"Are you sure? I can watch your back you know. It's not like I've got anything better to do."

"Go do your homework or something, it will keep you occupied." His face scrunched up in distaste as he shook his head and walked off, utterly repulsed at the notion. And that left me to continue my journey back home alone. He was cool and all, but I didn't need him hobbling after me twenty – four seven.

I'd at least memorised the route by now, so even though my eyes were pointed at my sneakers, I knew exactly where I was going. I guess it was pretty weird since I still didn't know which way anything else was. I kind of have this guided sense about which way home is, like a built in GPS system or something that only has my house and the bus stops to get there marked on it.

Two bus rides later through a town I knew nothing about and I arrived in the suburbs, the great big sea of sameness as far as the eye could see. Perfectly straight roads with perfectly picketed fences sealing off perfectly mowed lawns in front of perfectly bland bungalows. We didn't used to live here. I know dad hates the place with a passion. We used to live in a much bigger house in a fancy neighbourhood in Hollywood for the rich and famous. My dad just barely got the rich bit down, but he was currently lacking in the famous department, and after falling out with half our old neighbours, moved to a place that was a bit easier to finance.

I found the door locked and guessed that dad was still at work, so probably left the spare key beneath the flowerpot. Actually, that wasn't really accurate. The key beneath the flowerpot was used to open the box held underneath the mailbox, which then unlocked the front door.

"Old habits die hard, huh dad?" I said to nobody in particular as I finally got the door open. The house looked like it needed some more spring cleaning, and the coat rack had been toppled over. The pots and pans from breakfast were still sitting in the kitchen sink, unwashed and waiting to be dealt with. Indistinct chatter could be heard coming from the television. I corrected the coat rack, and then took care of the dishes and was halfway through preparing lunch when I finally heard the door open and my dad's boots on the hardwood floor.

"Welcome home," I called out, not turning my eyes from the carrots lest I cut off my fingers while chopping them.

"Mila, you're here early," he replied. I heard him tossing his coat at the coat rack. He probably missed.

"Actually, you're late."

"Really? Huh. Who knew?" Nothing was really burning or anything so I turned away from the counter for a second and entered the living room. He had planted himself in the couch and was rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes. He looked like he needed to sleep for a day and take a shower. But he didn't look angry or anything so he was probably just tired. Perfect, he wouldn't have the energy to say no to anything.

"Hey, Dad," I began. He looked up to face me. Dad had well cared for, if not slightly aging blonde hair, almost silver in his age. Much different to my own chocolate brown hair. His eyes were a green that used to have a zest for life, but seemed to have fizzled out. Again, not like my boring black eyes. Well, brown, just really dark brown, like, too common and ordinary brown.

"What's up kiddo?" he asked, smiling with his whiter – than – white teeth.

"My class was planning this school trip thing later in the holiday, and they wanted to get a parent to sign it to say they were okay with it." I nervously handed him the slip. It's not like I really wanted to go, but I couldn't just abandon Vee to his fate.

He took the slip and examined it for a few moments.

"School in the holidays? Geez, that sucks…. Have they got you covered for transport?" I nodded my head. All we had to do was make it to school on time. Another miracle of Miss Valentine's supposed 'charm'. "Hmm…. Well, I guess It's been a while since you've been to the beach, right? Like, two years or something?"

"Six years ago Dad," I reminded him, "and you promised we would go every year since."

"Yeah, I did, huh?" Guilt tripping him was probably a little bit underhanded, but it got the job done when I saw him searching for a pen in his pocket. I came prepared, handing him one of my own. He signed it off with a flourish of a way too elaborate signature, and handed it back. He looked a little bit nervous for some reason, but otherwise, he was fine. "Make sure you don't forget anything, and always apply sunblock. You know, the usual."

So, after a few weeks and some rushed last minute preparations, I found myself on Miami Beach, as far away from the water as possible and trying to construct an elaborate sand castle while Valentine eyed me suspiciously from the other end of the beach. And that's when things started going wrong.

The rolling waves of the beach seemed too lazy to use any force, and just seemed to gently collapse into a frothy mess at the shore. The water was littered with people splashing and dunking each other underwater, and a few stray beach balls. A windsurfer could be seen further in the distance. I, on the other hand, was staying far away from the water, where nothing could try and eat me. Knowing my luck, sharks would be the least of my worries.

I was wearing a simple yellow one piece outfit, complete with a wide brimmed sunhat. A sharp contrast to Verde who basically just came in jeans and a tank top, complete with his green backpack, as if he wasn't at the beach. The rest of my class was goofing off over by the water with the exception of a small squad of sun tanners. Miss Valentine was sun tanning in a bikini that was more string than bikini, with those stupid sunglasses that are half the size of your head. As long as I stayed away from the ocean, I would be fine. Maybe I could build a sand castle?

"Did I ever mention that building sand castles is lame?" Verde asked.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" I asked him. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I didn't. I could just tell from the way you were staring at the sand."

"And how does that tell you that I wanted to make a sand castle?"

"You've not answered my question yet: do you acknowledge that sand castles are for losers?"

Before I could reply, I felt the force of the sun diminish as somebody cast their shadow over me. Miss Valentine was staring down at me with icy blue eyes, her sunglasses resting on top of her brown hair.

"Ludmila, darling, you can't seriously stay here all on your lonesome while everybody else is having fun, can you?"

"She's not on her own, I'm still here," Verde pointed out. Valentine gave him a vicious glare and he backed down.

"Uh, sorry Miss, I don't know how to swim," I said. I wasn't exactly lying, I always start to panic the second the water rose above my knees, and being submerged in the stuff is definitely not good for me. My chest tightens up, my breathing becomes rapid, my muscles go limp….

"Oh come on, don't be such a buzzkill!" she said, jerking me out of my beach recliner. Her nails were digging painfully into my arm, and I'm pretty sure if she gripped me any tighter, I would start bleeding. I looked back at Verde and mouthed the words help me, but Verde stayed put, munching on the seat cushions nervously.

I tried to resist, digging my heels into the sand, but all I got was sand in my slippers, and it didn't look like Valentine even noticed. For somebody who didn't seem to do much other than flirt with everybody, she was pretty strong.

After a pretty brief struggle, she made it to the water's edge, where nothing but the sound of gentle waves and a few seagulls in the distance could be heard. Verde seemed to have grown a spine and ran after me.

"Hey, Miss Valentine, I don't think that she should go in there," he said. "She gets sick really easily, and I don't think you want to deal with twenty sick kids on the bus ride back." She hesitated slightly, then carried on anyway, the water reaching up to our ankles now.

"Oh relax, the water's good for you!" she reassured, wrapping her arms around me and picking me up so I couldn't struggle. "Strengthens your core muscles. I mean really, don't you want to have a body like me?" I felt too uncomfortable to answer. Unfortunately, she took this as a yes, and crushed me even tighter as we got further into the deep end. Verde made this weird nervous cry, almost like a bleat, and tried to step forward to grab me, but froze in his tracks.

I was wondering if perhaps he was scared of water, until I looked up at Miss Valentine. Her icy eyes had turned ruby red, and her skin had turned ghostly white. She smiled at me, but she didn't seem to have realised that she had a set of fangs.

"V-v-vampire?" I stammered.

"Come on Mila, off you go now!" she said cheerfully. She held me above her head even as I was kicking and screaming, and tossed me far out into the ocean. I'm not sure where she got the strength from, and I was too busy reeling from the revelation that she was a vampire to think about it more. I hit the water like a rock, panicking as the water rushed in to greet me, dragging me beneath the chilly waves. I made the mistake of screaming more, air escaping my lungs and being replaced by water as I kicked and thrashed my way to the surface.

My head broke the water as I began coughing up big globs of seawater, trying to get the salty taste out of my mouth. It was only then that I really began to realise how wrong the whole picture was. Our side of the beach was empty. There wasn't a single person splashing in the water. The only hint I had that there was once activity was a solitary beach ball floating at the water's edge.

Valentine gave me an evil grin as she turned around back towards the shore. I was still trying to figure out why a bloodsucking vampire would simply chuck me into the water instead of drain me of my life, when I felt the water churning more violently around me.

I froze, before a throat full of water reminded me that I would drown if I didn't tread water. Sputtering and coughing, I turned around. Emerging from the water's surface was a gigantic snake like creature, but it decided to take a step up from giant water snake and had eight heads and necks instead of one.

Its scales were aquamarine and shone like pearls, and each of its yellow, reptilian eyes stared at me with hunger. Negotiating didn't look like an option. It roared at me, the volume of the scream threatening to make my ears burst. I could feel it vibrating through my entire body, shaking me down to my very core. Its breath was like the world's largest fish market if all the fish were rotting. It turns out that Miami is a great holiday destination for people and hydras alike.

Panicked, I turned around and started splashing towards the beach. It felt like the more I swam, the further I got from the shore, but the hydra wasn't going anywhere. It screeched at me again, the sound like a thousand nails on chalkboard, with some strange gurgling undertones beneath it all.

One of its heads went after me, snapping at the water just behind me. The force of its attack disrupted all the water around me, a large wave slamming into me, submerging me under the water.

I tried to reach towards the surface, clutching and pulling at the water in vain, when I felt something thick wrap around my body. The saltwater stung my eyes so I could barely see anything, and even if I could, the bubbles from the fray blocked everything, until I was pulled out of the water, still kicking and screaming.

The hydra's neck pulled me higher and higher away from the water, until I was looking down a two storey drop to the water. Everything below my neck was wrapped up by giant snake, and the other heads all hissed and spat at me, sometimes tangling themselves up as they tried to get a closer look.

I wasn't sure what would kill me first, the snake constricting me, or one of the other snakes chomping my head off. I struggled with it, trying to force my way out, but every time I thought I made a breakthrough, it just tightened again with twice the force. If my heart was pounding any faster, it would have broken through my rib cage and out of my chest. I wanted to run, scream, and cry all at the same time, and it wasn't letting me do any of those as it squeezed tighter, my breath leaving me. That's when I felt it happen. The power.

My body temperature suddenly jumped from downright hypothermic to boiling hot, and I could feel myself rapidly getting dry, as if the water was evaporating off of my skin. The creature hissed in pain, letting go of me as if I was a wasp that had just stung it. I hit the water with a painful smash, my muscles aching in pain. Everything went dark for a moment, colours flashing in and out of view as I blacked out just for a second, before I woke up again, rising to the surface. I looked around at the water. The water closest to me was bubbling and boiling. I wasn't entirely sure what I had done, but the sensation felt familiar. Something I didn't want to tap into again. This wasn't the first time, but now I could recognise it.

The hydra was still writhing in pain. Some of the heads were trying to tend to the one that grabbed me, licking at the burn marks, but it snapped back at them in rage. While they were bickering, I used the opportunity to swim back to shore, feeling lightheaded and dizzy.

I pulled myself onto the beach, steam coming off of my skin. My stomach felt like it was twisted into knots, and my limbs like they were burning. I felt like I was inside a giant microwave oven, baking from the inside out. I took a moment to catch my breath, still on all fours on the sand. I could feel myself starting to cool down now, but just moving was still a pain. I heard sinking footsteps on the sand, and saw an oddly mismatched pair of a furry, wet hoof, and a bronze foot. I followed them up to the rest of the body, but instead of seeing a horrifying metallic donkey amalgam, I was looking at Miss Valentine. Except with a different set of legs, and vampire fangs. She was smiling.

"Ah, so you were a half – blood!" she said. "I had a hunch, but I wasn't so sure until just now."

"A half – blood?" I asked. "W-what's that? Like, some kind of vampire target or something?" Valentine seemed to think I was telling some unfunny joke, and sauntered towards me. I scrambled backwards until I felt my palms touch the water. I'd rather take my chances with my demon history teacher than the snake.

"Before I kill you, let me set something straight," she said. "I'm not a vampire. Vampires are stupid and don't exist. I'm an empousa, much more threatening."

"And with a goat leg?" That seemed to have done it. Her expression became thunderous, and she clenched her fists so tight that blood began dripping from the palms. She lunged at me. I shut my eyes, holding up my arms in front of me. Instead of claws and fangs tearing into me though, I heard a clang, and then the sound of a body collapsing. I peered through my hands to see Verde standing over me holding a parasol. Valentine was on the floor, clutching the back of her head in agony.

"Come on, let's go before she wakes up!" Verde said, pulling me up by my upper arm. He yelped, letting go of me immediately. "Why are you so hot?"

"W-what?!" I yelped, my face going red.

"No! As in, you're literally hot!" I looked back at Valentine who was starting to get up.

"Can we talk about this later?" Verde nodded his head, and we both started sprinting away from the beach, heading towards the roads and beachside villas. The sand was seriously slowing us down, and I could tell that Valentine was right behind us.

Verde pulled out a tiny brown bag from his pocket. He pulled out a bunch of tiny red seeds, like grains of rice, and chucked them over his shoulder. I wasn't sure why until I heard a thud behind us. I looked over my shoulder to see that Valentine had fallen over, tripped by a set of khaki coloured vines that had somehow grown out of the sand and wrapped themselves around her ankles. They didn't look very tough though, because she began pulling and tearing them apart fairly quickly.

"Stop looking, keep running!" he gasped once we finally hit concrete and tarmac. I could now see the rest of my class and other vacationers at the other side of the beach. I'm not sure if they noticed the hydra and ran, or just seemed to aimlessly drift away from us in a group somehow. Either way, I didn't have time to think about it any longer as Verde grabbed my arm and headed for the road. I didn't know that he could move so fast, especially with his weird muscle condition. Actually, I started doubting the muscle thing when one of his shoes fell off. He cursed loudly, but kept running or trotting or whatever weird movements he was making, but instead of hearing the pat of soft feet on cement, I heard the clopping of a hoof. I screamed, pulling my hand away from him.

"You're a vampire thing too!" I screamed.

"What?" he looked down at his leg. "No! I'm a satyr, she's the vampire. I mean, empousa! You're going to die if you don't follow me, you know that?"

Miss Valentine was starting to catch up now, so I guess my little freak out ruined what little chance we had of escape. Verde swore loudly and pulled out another bag, this one green with a flower pattern on it. Inside were a bunch of strange looking green beans, and they were squirming and jumping about even as he tried reaching in for them. One of them nearly hopped out of the pouch. He pulled out two and hurled them at the ground between us and Valentine. As soon as they touched the concrete, they began sprouting, thick green vines digging into the pavement and cracking it while other vines rose upwards and around in a great green tangled mess. It took less than five seconds, but already there was a thick and thorny barricade between us and Valentine.

We turned on our heels and ran, not looking back once even as she screamed in rage.

"You… got a plan?" I asked between breaths.

"Improvising as I go." I spotted a taxi driving in the street, and in a split – second of stupidity, ran right in front of it, screaming for him to stop. He screeched to a halt, stopping just as it hit me slightly, sending me careening over the hood and to the tarmac road to its left. My body felt like it was going to fall to pieces, but I stood up again anyway, even as he was honking his horn and swearing angrily at me.

"Vee, cash!" I shouted. He fished out a few dollar bills from his pocket and we both leaped into the taxi.

"Hey, watch where you're going you stupid kids!" he yelled at us. "You could have been hurt, or even damaged my car!" Verde ignored him, handing him a wad of cash.

"Then this will make it up to you," he said. "Get us out of here. Anywhere but here!" He grabbed the money and counted it up quickly. I looked out the window to see Valentine still struggling with the giant vines, but she was cutting them down faster than they could grow. It wouldn't be too long before she'd torn through all of them and was after us again.

"Please hurry," I said. I guess the panic in my voice was a little too obvious because he turned around and gave me a mischievous grin.

"You'll have to pay extra for that little missy," he said with his palm upturned. Verde glared at him, then at me, before handing him a few more coins and a two dollar bill. He turned back to the wheel and floored it.

Rules of the road or not, this guy was tearing down the streets like a maniac. He skidded past a big black SUV, drifted around a corner and floored it until he hit a red light and saw a police car waiting at it. I'm not sure how he was evading the cops, but he was driving like a racer, stopping for next to nothing until finally he was far enough from the area that he could slow down. Unless Miss Valentine could fly, there was no way she was catching up.

"Vee, what's going on?" I asked.

"Well, that's a bit of a funny story you see," he said nervously. "Do you ever see weird stuff that nobody seems to notice for some reason? You know, like the supernatural? Ghosts and demons, that monster hiding in your closet…."

"What, like some kind of second sight thing?" I asked. "That sounds a little bit…."

"Okay, how about this. Do creepy monsters keep trying to attack you? Particularly giant ones?" I wasn't sure how much I wanted to say before Vee would start thinking that I was crazy. Then I remembered that he had a pair of goat legs. He probably had a high tolerance for weird.

"There was the giant snake that flooded my classroom in third grade," I said. "And there were those other fire breathing snake things I found outside of my house… and on a trip to Canada with my dad, I once saw this really tall giant thing, but nobody else could see it…. And then there was my new best aquatic friend there…."

"That was a hydra. Seemed to be on the small side, but that's what it was. Miss Valentine on the other hand is an empousa. The pattern here is that they're all mythical creatures, mainly from Greek myth."

"So I keep seeing fantasies?" I asked. The way he was saying this, it sounded like I was starting to lose it.

"Not fantasies, but realities. Those myths, they're real. Greek gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, all of that is real. And you're a part of them too."

"So you've lied to me this entire time!" I yelled. "I kept telling you about seeing this stuff and you didn't believe me!"

"I had to! The less aware you are, the less monsters attack you! I was doing you a favour!" It definitely didn't feel like it though. Suddenly, I thought back to my encounter with Miss Valentine earlier, about something she'd said.

"Miss Valentine called me a Half – Blood. So, does that mean I'm half human, half monster?" Vee shook his head. It didn't look like he really knew how to explain it.

"That's not likely. Half – monsters that look human… well, I've never heard of it happening before."

"So, what am I?" Vee stared at me until I began to feel uncomfortable.

"With powers like that, do you really need to ask?"

"Yes, I do. Why the heck would that tell me anything?!" Verde sighed in exasperation.

"Man, humans really don't know how to use their heads, do they? You're a demigod. Half human, half Greek god. Or at least I think you're Greek. It's hard to tell nowadays." I was stunned into silence, my mouth hanging slightly ajar. My pupils were probably dilated in shock, and I felt my muscles go lax. "Wow, you're taking this better than I thought!" Vee said cheerfully. I caught the taxi driver's expression in the rear view mirror, and he looked a little bit concerned, but he kept driving anyway.

"Anyway, stuff like this is normal for demigods," Vee continued. "Monsters and creeps are always trying to cut their lives short. So it's my job to make sure that kids like you don't bite the dust early, and escort you to the one place in this country where you can be safe. Well, relatively speaking."

"And where's that?" I asked, finally finding my voice again. It sounded soft and diminished when I said it out loud.

"Well, the only place that you can learn anything if you're a twelve year old. Summer camp!"

AN: So, that's the beginning of Part II! This actually took me a really long time to write (all of Part II has taken a long time but I think I've got my groove!) because it was tricky to get used to writing from Ludmila's perspective. Anyway, I'm just taking this time now to say thanks to all the favourites and follows I've received! I normally reply to all my reviews or leave a little shoutout in the next chapter if I don't, so I never really give any shoutout or thanks for favs and follows... I feel like it will be a bit awkward if I just make a huge list now though... So I'll do three at a time until I catch up then! Starting with follows! Shoutout to the first follower, Exodus of Chaos! Thanks for all the love! foraslanthelion too, thank you so much! And tsilver, my loyal bro who always spots my bad writing before I can allow it to flourish! Thanks for the support guys! Reviews make the world go round, but knowing that somebody liked it enough to have it publicly displayed as a fav is awesome!