THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

Prologue (Arriving at Camp)

When the bus pulled up we handed our tickets and took a seat near the back. Cyprian was nice enough to give me the window since it was the only part of the bus I liked. The bus drove through the night and I ended up falling asleep. 

When I woke up again we were in New Jersey. The bus route would take thirteen total hours to get to Long Island New York and we had only completed ten. 

To keep ourselves occupied on the bus Cyprian went over each Olympian with me and tried his best to inform me about everything that had been happening. 

"So a guy named Luke who is the son of Hermes betrayed the camp and tried to kill a kid named Percy who is the son of Poseidon even though the 'big three' aren't supposed to have kids, and is now resurrecting the Titan Kronos to destroy all of New York." I said paraphrasing what Cyprian was telling me. "And Olympus is the 600th floor of the empire state building." 

Cyprian smiled. "You're catching on quickly!" 

He then began to explain what had happened recently with the Labyrinth. By the time he had finished explaining we were only about an hour and half away from camp. I was starting to be excited about seeing this place but also very nervous. 

"Hey Cyprian," I said after he had gone silent. "You said you had a few guesses as to who my father is. Who do you think it is?" 

"Well, ever since I first met you I noticed qualities for three Olympians." He said, "Ares, Apollo, and possibly Hermes." 

"Ares? Why would I be the daughter of the god of war?" 

Cyprian shrugged. "You don't like to lose and you have a very strong punch, plus you're athletic. But I think it's more likely you're a daughter of Apollo."

"The god of archery and poetry?" I said not really agreeing with him. 

"I mean before you got kicked off the archery team you never missed a single target and you were really good at basketball just like the Apollo kids back at camp, not to mention you can play a bunch of instruments and you can sing really well." 

I gave him a look. I hated singing, especially in front of people, and I hated that I was so good at it. 

"Okay, what about Hermes?" 

Cyprian gave a sheepish smile. "Actually that one's just a hunch." 

Before I could respond the bus came to a sudden stop as it slammed on its brakes. 

"We can't be there yet." I said trying to look out the window. We were still in the middle of the highway. Why had we stopped? 

"Eliana.." Cyprian said standing up suddenly and turning pale. 

"What is it?" Cyprian reached over and grabbed my shirt and pulled me up quickly. 

"We've got to go." He said seriously. He grabbed my hand and started weaving through the crowd of people that had started to stand up. 

"Cyprian what's-" 

Before I could finish my sentence the bus shook violently and we were all thrown back. The bus skidded across the highway and rolled until it fell into a ditch on the side of the road. "Cyprian?" I said weakly coughing from the debris. 

"Cyprian I think the monster found me." I said looking around for my friend. I began to crawl trying to climb out of the window of the overturned bus. Anyone who was in their car had stopped and began running in the opposite direction we were going. 

Despite the pain in my body I forced myself to stand up. The bus was beaten and half of it was on fire. I looked down at my hands and saw deep burns and gashes. But something was wrong. As I blinked the burned skin seemed to repair itself and before I knew it, my skin had returned to normal.