She pushes against tree branches that get caught on her hair, and snag in her clothes. Her hands are covered in scratches, and she almost drops the horn several times from how much they are shaking. From the cold? She's not sure.
She killed him.
She shakes off the voice, it was her or him! One of them was going to have to go, and she quite prefers being alive, thank you very much.
Murderer.
Of course the voice doesn't shut up.
The horn is still clutched tightly to her chest, her only reminder that it wasn't all just some hallucination, and the pain stinging her hands tells her it's not just a bad dream. Although she desperately hopes it is.
Killer.
She moves faster, almost desperate to get away from the clearing. No, not almost desperate. She is desperate. Get away from the clearing where she almost died. Get away from the car where she watched a man's head get eaten. Get away from the beautiful golden dust that replaced bodies of dead people. Get away from Larissa, who'd disappeared on the phone. Get away from the police, who were most definitely coming to investigate. Get away, get away, get AWAY.
A low growl through the air stops her in her tracks. Did she actually hear that? Or was it just thunder? No, here comes another. Rolling deep and low through the trees, a gravelling rumble that freezes her bones and ignites her blood. Two eyes of fire gleam out at her from the darkness. Another growl rips through her fear, startling her into a mad dash as the beast pounces towards her.
It looks like a large dog. If dogs were some unholy combination of fire and death. Slobber drooling, eyes rolling, and bits of partially chewed meat hanging from its jaws. Definitely pat-able. Not.
She would scream, but honestly, by this point she's got no more screams left in her, and all she can do is run. The creature chasing her is fast, faster than her, and more agile too. Jumping around trees, over boulders, getting in front of her, and forcing her to change directions. Herding her.
Herding her towards what? She's not all that keen on finding out.
"This way!" a male voice calls out, and she catches a glimpse of a shirtless teenager bounding through the trees beside her, gesturing frantically off to their right. She follows the boy as he leads the way.
"Hurry up! We just have to get to the barrier!" He calls back over his shoulder. What barrier? And can't he tell she's running as fast as she can? She's dying here! She's never run this much in her life!
A glance over her shoulder tells her the beast is gaining on them once more, and she almost stumbles as she turns back and trips on a small rock, but the boy's hand reaches out, grabbing her by the arm and hauling her to her feet as they continue to run.
"What's your name?" she yells at him. "What?" "Your name?" "Are you serious right now?"
"Yes, what's your name?" you can hardly make out her words over all the puffing.
"Grover. You?"
"Percy."
"Well, nice to meet you Percy,"
"Wish it could have been under better conditions!" she jokes as they split around a tree and start heading up a hill.
He shakes his head, but puts on an extra burst of speed which she matches. Well, she tries to at least. "Come on! The top of the hill! We'll be safe there! Past the pine tree." The boy doesn't make any sense.
"What's a pine tree gonna do? Lob some pine cones at its head? Give it a concussion?" She's laughing, crying, and panting all at once. "There's a barrier, it can't go past it." "Well I sure hope you're right!"
They burst out of the treeline, the creature right behind them, and Percy can see the Pine tree Grover was talking about. It is a magnificent tree. But it doesn't look any different from the hundreds of other pine trees. "Get to the tree!" Grover yells again. "Shut up about your stupid tree!" She snaps back.
She's still running, they both are, sprinting towards that dumb tree even as their feet slide in the mud and the rain streams down their faces.
And then her foot slips.
She crashes down to the ground, and this time Grover is too far ahead to grab her. The beast pounces, clawing across her face, ripping through her skin and sending a searing heat into her left eye, distorting her vision. The other claw tears into her shoulder, even as large teeth bite down on her arm. Her other hand holding the horn is free, so she desperately jabs in the direction of the creature's face, hoping to hit hard enough for it to release her.
It does, and she swings the horn around again blindly, feeling it make harsh contact with something before the resistance disappears and she falls to the ground once more.
With her good eye, she can see the same golden dust, floating softly to the ground. It's disturbingly peaceful after the last few minutes, but she takes the moment to breathe before hauling herself to her feet.
"Percy!" it's Grover, rushing to her side, and grabbing one arm as he half drags her the rest of the way up the hill.
"Relax G-man, it's dead now," she slurs tiredly.
"There could be more out there, Hellhounds tend to hunt in packs." He tells her anxiously, but she's barely registering a word he says.
"G-man, I think you need to go to the doctor. I know guys tend to have hairy legs, but I don't think they're supposed to be that hairy! And where your clothes at dude? You look like you're part Donkey."
"Excuse you! I'm half goat thank you very much." He snaps at her, "I'm a Satyr! Donkey? Really?" he mutters to himself as they reach the tree.
"You know, for that comment alone, I'm inclined to just leave you here on the border. But Chiron would have my head, so come on, hurry up."
And then he drops her arm as they crest the hill. Looking out over a valley, filled with fields and small cabin-like buildings, with a large blue farmhouse presiding over it all at the bottom of the hill.
When they get closer, they can see two figures sitting at a table on the porch, playing a game of cards as the storm rages on around them.
One of the men is dressed in bright leopard print that hurts Percy's eyes, and the other is dressed half in what looks like old greek armor. His other half is sat neatly in his wheelchair with a blanket thrown over his legs.
"Sir! I got her!" Grover calls out to the two men. "She killed a Hellhound just beyond the border." The man in armor nods, and calls over a blonde girl Percy hadn't noticed before, saying something to her quietly, before the girl gives a short bow of the head and leaves in the direction of the cabins.
Then their attention is solely on her.
"Your name child?" the armored man asks kindly, "Percy." "A good name, I knew a Percy once, he was a great hero, and an even greater man. But that was a long time ago now."
Then he stands up. Except, his legs don't move. And the blanket seems to be attached to his chest and just keeps growing. Until two front hooves appear, then a long white back, and then two back legs and a tail.
And standing before her is a fully fledged Centaur.
"Yeah nope."
Her eyes roll back and she welcomes the not-crazy darkness.
