AMARANTHINE-ɪ, pjo/hp

AURORA AND HER FRIENDS GET MONSTER DONUTS WITH A FREE MONSTER

After a few hours of screaming, yelling. frightening Saffron's fake feet off (don't ask) and contemplating their whole life Aurora and Kayla finally accepted the fact that they were Greek demigods with Greek Gods as parents and oh yeah let's not forget the part where monsters from an eternal abyss called Tartarus liked to eat demigods like herself and Kayla for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Saffron explained how they smelled like tasty food to the monsters, and they would travel miles if it meant that they got to eat demigod chops. Saffron also told them that their scent was strong which meant more monsters. Hooray. 

On the brighter side, he told them about some camp called Camp Half-Blood which was specially designed for demigods like them to train, eat and stay alive. Saffron was apparently a satyr who was assigned to find demigods, protect them and lead them to Camp Half-Blood for a mostly safe life. Now the only problem was to get to Camp Half-Blood which was apparently on the north shore of Long Island. And they were in the heart of New Jersey. The best idea was to take the subway with a teensy-weensy problem. They had no money. Saffron had some golden coins which he called dramas or something (Aurora didn't keep track of that) but they definitely couldn't be used as money to buy tickets. And asking for money would get them a spanking of a lifetime. It also turned out that the daggers which had appeared in Aurora's hand while the vampire-ladies attacked her, and Kayla were gifts from her godly parent, and they transform to rings and back at her will. Kayla's bow and arrow would just disappear and appear whenever she neeeded them.

Saffron convinced them that it was too dangerous to stay at the orphanage now that they had faced their first monster. They would now have to be on the run, trying to avoid as many monsters as possible. That night Kayla, Rory (as Aurora had decided to call herself since Aurora was a mouthful) and Saffron grabbed the few belongings they had and fled under the cover of darkness (not very stealthily as they were positive that the caretakers had seen them run away) And over the span of a night, the two seven-year old's and one satyr who looked twelve were alone and homeless on the streets of New Jersey. It was unnaturally cold, and Saffron kept whimpering every now and then, mumbling how it smelled too much like underground and how underground smelled too much like monsters. Both Kayla and Rory decided to ignore him as they were too cold and hungry to give a damn. 

Suddenly, they saw a green box fallen on the ground. Kayla bent down to pick it up. Rory attempted to read the writing on it, but the words seemed all jumbled up thanks to her dyslexia. Kayla too faced the same problem. Saffron finally translated it to be Monster Donut. Both Kayla and Aurora glanced at each other, smirks growing on their f aces. Saffron seemed to understand. "No. Don't do that. I have a bad feeling about this," he yelped. "Shut up, goat boy. We need to survive tonight. Plus, who doesn't eat free donuts?" Kayla answered, rolling her eyes. She opened the box, revealing six donuts in perfect condition. Kayla and Aurora hungrily devoured two each ad gave one to Saffron who resisted at first but finally gave in to the temptation. The donuts were deliciously good and only one remained. Kayla was about to pick the last one when they heard a low growl from behind them. All three of them stiffened, Saffron whimpering again. 

They turned around slowly, and Aurora would never admit that it was her who let out the loud scream when she saw the hellhound. It was slightly smaller than a tank, but it had red eyes like devils (what was it with monsters and red eyes?) and its teeth were sharp enough to cut through steel. It bared its teeth at the three and growled. "He's telling us to enjoy our last few moments," Saffron whimpered out, looking close to cry. "You speak hellhound?" Aurora asked. "That's your first .... DUCK!" Kayla's statement became a cry when the hellhound jumped. Thankfully, Auora understood what she was trying to say and jumped out of the way. Her rings became daggers once more and she held them protectively in front of her. Kayla's bow was in her hand and as for Saffron, he had a couple of pipes? Aurora noticed all of that in a second. The hellhound pounced at her again and she rolled out of the way slashing at its underbelly. It howled but didn't disintegrate like the vampires from earlier. Kayla kept firing arrows at it and most of them hit the target though quite a few missed as well. The hellhound pounced at Saffron this time. The satyr played a quick tune on his red pipes (Aurora figured out what they were) and it stumbled. This time, Aurora took her knife and aimed it at the monster. It pierced it and it turned its attention back to Aurora.

It roared again and pounced on Aurora successfully knocking her to the ground. She was being crushed by its weight and her breaths became uneven. Just as it raised it paw to swipe at her, it stiffened. Then it disintegrated, becoming monster dust. Auora blinked, trying to get the haze out of her eyes. Her savior turned out to be Kayla who had taken Aurora's dagger and stabbed the hellhound, hard. She helped Aurora up and let her catch her breath. They were both sweating and terrified. Saffron looked as though he was going into cardiac arrest. "A hellhound. A real hellhound," he moaned, almost crying. "We need to get you'll to camp as fast as possible," he stated. However, the moment he noticed how cold and shaken up they were, he steeled himself. "We can sleep somewhere around here for now. We'll figure out how to get to Camp tomorrow morning. Pray to your parents. They might help you'll," he said. 

Though Aurora didn't know what to do, she closed her eyes, begging her godly parent to help her and her friends. All she hoped was that they heard her plea and decided to look after her. How was she to know that up on Olympus, her godly parent had been looking after her all along.