Symphony - Camp Half Blood (1)

I Show Up With Hell On My Heels

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Run, Run, RUN!

I'm panting, legs aching.. tearing through the woods astride the road at breakneck speed, not caring at all what is in front of me. To be fair, I don't really care at all.. just that I make it to where I'm going alive.

"Come on, kid! Come on! We're almost there!" shouts the guy running alongside me, this tall dude with curly brown hair, brown eyes, small horns, a wispy beard, and hairy brown goat legs called Grover Underwood. He's a satyr apparently, because believe it or not, the world of the Greek - and Roman - gods is real. Then, given the fact that we literally have five hulking beasts that are eight-foot-tall giants with heavily tattooed arms and yellow pointed teeth called Laistrygonian Giants on our tail, plus a massive horde of black fur dogs called hellhounds also on our heels, all wanting to turn me into a soup, I'm not really stopping to ask questions right now.

Like seriously, even now, I can hear them stomping through the woods behind us, knocking down trees with their large feet, snapping tree roots like they are mere paper. "Come here, little demigod!" one of them shouts maliciously. "We won't drag your death out! We promise it will be swift!"

I don't want to die, I really don't want to die right now, so I just keep running, scared out of my mind. You're like wondering how the hell I even gotten myself into this mess, and believe me when I say.. I really do not wish to talk about it right now. Maybe some other time, but definitely not right now.

"How much further?" I whimper to Grover, because my legs are really aching right now. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep running. We've been running like crazy through the woods for two hours now.

"Just a little bit further, kid! Trust me!" Grover says, bringing his reed pipes up to his lips. "We're almost there!" He plays this weird sounding tune on them that sounds kind of frantic, as if he was sending a distress call. He then lowers them from his lips as we take a right up at this large tree, and the instance I turn the corner, I see a clearing.. 500 yards away.

Grover's mood brightens. "Just keep going, kid! Once we hit the clearing, just a short sprint up the hill and we're safe" he tells me. I groan in displeasure.

A hill? Seriously? Are you kidding me? I think to myself as the distance between us and the clearing gets smaller and smaller with every second now. The last thing we really needed was an uphill climb right now, because then with my aching legs, I was probably dead. I mean, I already had some burn marks on my arms from these guys right now, and they stung like a bitch. Apologies for the swear words.. learned a lot of them before I was even in Middle School.. will not tell you how though.

I'm panting like crazy, and I'm starting to finally slow down just as we burst out of the woods into the clearing. Grover's smile brightens even further as he looks up the hill, and turning my head to the left, I can clearly see why. Multiple kids older than me - carrying armor and weapons - are rushing over the crest and getting into position.

Grover simply shouts at us, "Cover us! And then get back inside the barrier! This horde is big!" Just then, they start shooting arrows at what's behind us as me and Grover climb up the slope, still running. My legs are just about to give out now, but I still keep going, the bright shimmering aura of what's ahead of me at the crest seemingly being my only hope of survival. The roars and shrieks behind me burst into the clearing and grow instantly louder, indicating to me that the bulk of the horde has arrived.

Just as we make inside the shimmering aura, my legs give out, and I face-plant into the ground, causing Grover to scream my name in horror.

"Relax, G-Man!" says a different voice. "You got him here. He's safe now inside the barrier."

"Indeed.." says a female voice, possibly the cutest I ever heard. "..you did great, Grover. Now let's get him to the infirmary. Tell Will I'm helping this one personally."

Is she calling my name or someone else's name?

I don't really know, and I lay there disoriented on my stomach, face down to the ground, I don't care. I pass out there not too long afterwards. As to what my real name is, just don't ask. There's a lot of stuff I'm not keen to share with strangers that read this.

Just for now, know this.

My name is Stonewall Titlow. I'm eleven years old, with a height of five foot one inches tall. I have short brunette hair, blue-green eyes, skin paler than most though not too pale, a scar on my left index finger due to an unfortunate bowling ball incident in third grade that required me to get stitches on the finger (yes.. it was that bad), and I come from Louisville, Kentucky.

I live with two moms for parents prior to having to leave them and come all the way here, due to being attacked by a monster at my middle school. But apparently, neither they or the idiot mortal guy that left my mom soon after I was born were my only parents. One of my parents was a member of the Greek (+ Roman) pantheon, meaning that I am also a demigod.

Suffice it to say, like most people who find this out the first time, words simply failed me completely.