A Girl Named Maya Hale- Based off of The Percy Jackson Series

Chapter 4- Nightmares, Sword fights, and Rock Walls

My mom, stepdad, and stepsisters were standing together in complete darkness. They were standing far away from me.

A monster was coming towards them. I didn't know what it was because I was too worried about my family to process anything else.

I tried screaming their names, but my voice didn't work. I tried to run towards them, but I was suddenly strapped with invisible binds, and no matter how hard I strained against them, I still couldn't break free. Tears started streaming down my face. This was my worst fear. I couldn't help my family when they were in trouble.

"Maya! Help us! Help us!" they all screamed and pleaded. I hated the screaming. I tried covering my ears, but the voices were inside my head, and I couldn't get them out.

The monster was only inches from my family. I was getting rub burns across my arms and legs trying to break free of the invisible bindings, but I couldn't.

The monster stomped its feet so loud that I felt myself shaking from the other side of the room.

"Maya! Maya! Maya!" the screams got louder.

"Maya!" Nicole said. "Maya wake up! You're having a nightmare!" She was kneeling besides me and shaking my shoulders.

I opened my eyes and took in a sharp breath. I was sweating, and my face was all wet and covered with tears.

"Are you okay?" Nicole asked.

"Y-yeah, I'll be fine," I replied.

"Okay," She said not looking convinced. "Let's get ready for breakfast."

***

I walked to my table just in time for breakfast. I got some pancakes with syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries, with some eggs and bacon on the side.

"Coffee," I said to the cup in front of me. Even though I slept a long time lat night, I still felt tired. I took a sip. I started gagging and coughing. Oh yeah, I forgot. I hate coffee.

Let's try this again. "Very berry hibiscus from Starbucks with a straw." That had a lot of sugar in it. It should wake me up.

I finished my breakfast quickly. I wanted to start actually doing stuff at camp. I was tired of doing nothing.

Chiron trotted over to me. Yes, I can now comfortably say that he trotted towards me without getting creeped out.

"Hello Maya, today we're going to find out your talents. It might help us figure out who your dad is," Chiron said.

"Okay."

I tried many things. Wrestling, which I liked, but wasn't very good at. All the Ares kids tackled me in a second. Archery, which again I liked, but I kept missing the target. The only thing I was pretty good at was running, which I was really happy about, but the nymphs ran so fast, I could only keep up with them for a couple of seconds.

So far, things looked hopeless for me. I wasn't good at anything. But, I was trying to stay positive. I still had one more thing to do; A sword fighting lesson.

I doubted I was even gonna be able to lift the sword but I had to tell myself to do this.

I went to the circular arena where a lot of other kids were waiting. I wiped my sweaty plans against my shorts. I didn't realize there would be people watching me.

I first went to a Hephaestus kid who taught me the basic parrying, slashing, stabbing, lunging and disarming, which to my surprise, found that I was pretty good at it. Despite the fact the Greek armor and sword was pretty heavy, I thought I was doing pretty well.