A Pawn For Time (Daughter of the Olympians #1)

(8) Things are Getting Weird

The school day went by pretty quick, I think so any way. I didn't have any homework (praise the Lord for that) and the drama somehow avoided me today. The day started to take a weird turn when I was walking home from school, though.

I was walking down the street of the foster home when something, or more like someone, smacked into me and sent me falling on my butt.

"Hey watch where you're going punk!" I shouted, getting up and brushing the dirt off my pants.

"Sorry," I heard a soft voice say. I looked down and saw the person who knocked me down.

The boy had white blond hair and blue eyes. He seemed to be around 9 or 10, but it was hard to tell because of his small frame and sickly appearance.

"It's fine," I told him as I helped him up, "What's your name? I'm Katherine."

I mentally slapped myself. Why did I tell him my name? He could be a cereal killer for all I know.

A 10 year old cereal killer. Yeah, that totally makes sense, The sarcastic voice in my head said.

All he said in reply was, "My name's Octavian. Sorry to bother you, I was just just..uh..." He trailed off. We stood there for what seemed like hours before we started to make conversation again.

"So, are you from around here?" I asked Octavian. He shook his head and told me was just passing through. He hesitated though, like he was scared to tell me something. I offered him a slightly smushed pear because he started to look green, but he denied it quickly.

I went to ask him if he wanted to walk with me back to the foster home when we heard a loud growl. Octavian stiffed up and reached into his knapsack. He pulled out a 5 inch gleaming gold dagger. Wait, what? That couldn't be right.

I looked a little bit closer and saw the dagger's form flickering revealing a gun. I blinked then it was dagger again.

"Get behind me," He said. I did, but I had second thoughts. Since when would I let a 10 year old protect me? I stepped in front of Octavian, and before he could yell "No!", something large pounced on me and I was on the ground again.

The creature ripped and clawed at me. I heard Octavian shout something, I think in maybe Latin, and he lunged forward to the beast. Suddenly, the creature dissolved and left a pile of golden dust on me. I moaned and Octavian helped me up.

"What was that?" I asked frantically, still a little dazed.

"A hellhound," Octavian explained, "but that doesn't matter now. I have to get you to camp. You're severely injured."

I tried to ask what he meant by that, but my head started to spin and my knees buckled. Octavian caught me and held me bridal style.

I got a better view of the injury like this. Across my chest was a huge gash, I guess from the hellhound.

"Come on we have to go," he said.

"Wait," I told him,"What about my foster parent? And the camp that you said? What are you?"

Octavian sighed and told me the less I knew the better. He at least told that the camp we were going to was called Camp Jupiter. I tried to ask Octavian how he knew all this but my vision turned yellow and I passed out.