Heliophile - Apollo

The Story of Anastasia Griffin

In the pitch black of the night there stood a house that was completely black and quiet. The windows were dark and inside were two people one was Ava Griffin and the other in her own room was fourteen year old Anastasia. Anastasia or Ana as she preferred to be called was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair, full lips, and piercing blue eyes. She lay in her bed listening to music as it always seemed to calm her while she played with the rings on her hand. Both occupants were unaware of what was about to happen and the nightmare that lurked outside.

Just outside lurked the glowing eyes of a hellhound not just one but a pack of at least five. As if controlled all of the hellhounds moved forward sensing a demigod and a powerful one at that. They moved silently around the house looking for a way in and after less than a minute they found one. Soon enough, they were inside the house and hunting for the scent.

Ava who had recognized what they were as soon as she saw them slipped into her daughters room "Ana, we need to leave." Ana looked at her mother confused before hearing the growls as well looking at her mother nervous. The two scrambled and Ava closed the door before looking at her daughter "I should've sent you to camp years ago. I just hoped your father's protection would hold up longer."

The hellhounds bang on the door before Ava looks at her daughter "look in your closet. The loose floorboard." Ana looked confused before doing as her mother said, she looked under the loose floorboard in her closet and found a bracelet of gold with floral decorations in emerald and gold. Ana looked at her mother "your father left that for you so you would have a weapon put it on and rub it."  Ana did as her mother told her and gasped when she held a thin sword that seemed to be deciding between blue and brown.

The hilt of it was slim with black and gold and the blade length adjusted to fit her. She gasped at the beauty of it as Ava spoke again "it's made of adamantine, the strongest metal form on earth, tempered steel, and celestial bronze. It can't break, you can't lose the bracelet, and it can't be taken off by anyone but you. Just will it to turn back into a bracelet and it will appear back on your wrist." Ana nodded and thought about the bracelet being on her hand and there it was. Ana looked up at her mother who had tears streaming down her face "go Ana, out the window. Don't stop running and pray to your father for help. He'll help you but run Ana."

Ana hesitated for a minute but nodded and opened the window before slipping out of it into the night with her sword and backpack. She stopped at the tree line and looked back hearing the screams of her mother as the hellhounds tore her apart angry that they didn't get their prize. Ana ran while tears streamed down her face, she didn't know how long she'd been running but it felt like hours. She sat by a tree in the dark and just sat for a second.

Ana figured that if she was going to survive she needed help and her mother told her to ask her father for help. She took a breath "father, whoever you are if you can hear me please help." Next thing Ana knew a gold mist engulfed her and she appeared on a hill that smelled like strawberries and had a giant tree by it. She walked and without realizing it walked through the barrier to camp. She was in complete awe of what looked like a camp with strawberry fields.

She kept walking until she literally ran into a girl with blonde hair that couldn't have been older than twelve. The girl took one look at Ana and immediately grabbed her hand dragging her to the big house. The girl stopped Ana in front of two men. "Mr. D, Chiron this girl just showed up here."

Chiron looked at Ana who was still looking stunned "what's your name and how did you get here?"

Ana looked at him "Anastasia Griffin and I don't know how I got here. One second I was running from the black dogs that killed my mother then I prayed to my father for help and I suddenly appear on the hill."

Chiron and Mr D looked at each other "and who's your father?"

"I don't know." Ana was cut off by a blinding light above her head and suddenly her stuffed animal from home appeared and dropped in front of her. She heard gasps but paid no mind as it happened again and suddenly an iridescent dagger dropped in front of her. Somehow she knew that it was created of tempered steel and celestial bronze like her sword.

Ana looked up from the dagger that she knew she could not lose, and had turned into a gold bracelet to see Chiron and Mr. D in absolute shock as Mr. D spoke "it can't be."

Chiron nodded "it is determined all hail Anastasia Griffin, daughter of Phanes, God of Creation and King of the Universe." Ana now gasped herself, she was practically obsessed with greek mythology as a child and knew who Phanes was, she just couldn't believe he was her father but she didn't care as so far he was helping and proving to be a good father. 

Mr. D looked at the young girl "we don't have a cabin for Phanes here so you will be staying in the Hermes cabin." Ana nodded before being escorted by the same girl who dragged her to the house that she now knew as Annabeth. They walked until they reached a cabin that had a caduceus symbol on top and looked packed to the brim.

Ana and Annabeth both walked into the cabin meeting a bunch of kids one included a tall blonde with a scar down his cheek who looked at Anna "who's this?"

"A new camper," Annabeth spoke.

"Regular or Undetermined?"

"That's the difficult part," Annabeth spoke as Luke looked confused. "Her father is Phanes."

There were gasps as Luke looked stunned "Phanes? As in the Primordial?" Annabeth nodded before Luke hummed and turned to Ana "my name's Luke what's yours?"

Ana studied him for a minute, she had always been good at telling when people could be trusted. He looked no older than fifteen. She stared at him before "Anastasia Griffin but call me Ana." Luke nodded making her smile as she got settled. She wondered where she'd sleep and then a sleeping bag appeared in a flash of gold. Ana looked stunned before looking at the cabin and wondering.

She took a chance and thought about separate hallways for undetermined/minor gods children and one for Hermes kids with dorm rooms for 4 on each hallway. It took less than five minutes but it happened in flashes of gold as everyone looked around. She stopped thinking and felt faint nearly falling before Luke caught her and steadied her.

Ana nodded that she was alright before whispering thanks to Luke who chuckled "I should thank you." And that was the beginning of the friendship and partnership between Luke Castellan and Anastasia Griffin that would span centuries and could never be broken. Not by death, betrayal, or even Mother Earth as they would come to find out.