When Fates's Too Cruel

Chapter One - I Mess Up My Hero Entry

Lightning crackled, as a dark figure roared in anger, a storm of lightning and ferocious winds whipped around the figure as a lone, silver, glowing dot tried and failed to gain a foothold to withstand the storm. The dot was in the eye of the storm which wrapped around the dark figure. The person seemed to be roaring in rage at an unmoving body that was miraculously untouched by the biting fast winds. If you looked closely, the dot was a woman in a silver parka. Her features were blurred by the debris flying around her but, if a person were able to get close enough, then they would be able to feel the anger that was coursing through her. The name of the woman was Artemis. And she was a goddess

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Percy

A crash resonated around me as the car skidded on the road and smashed into something. I felt like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down at the same time. I twitched a little and moaned as I lifted my face off the side view window. Not noticing the foggy circle my cheek had left behind I called for my mom. But I couldn't hear an answer. I began to panic. I shouted for her a few more times before a sound made me jump out of my seat and back down, courtesy of the metal roof inc., as I noticed my best friend leaning- no- collapsed onto the window.

I pushed against the door and it burst open, literally. The sheet of metal that was once a door for a relic of a '78 Camaro flew off its hinges and skidded and sparked onto the road. I looked behind and sure enough, there was a silhouette of a person slowly but surely moving toward us.

I scrambled out of the car and pulled Grover too out of the car. Then I froze. A little distance away, a figure was lying on the ground. Mom! Before I could even move a crack opened up and swallowed her. I tried to jump after her but the crack closed immediately.

Then a lot of things happened at once. Suddenly, a roar shook the earth as a streak flew through the sky like lightning and crashed onto the car. The car was vaporized instantly and mud flew around me and a limp Grover as a person crawled out of the crater. The raindrops were turning to water vapor the moment they touched his skin and it was almost as if he was radiating energy. He grunted in pain as he pulled himself out of the crater, still smoking. I had almost forgotten about the figure that had been following us until a snort brought my attention back to it.

Shock paralyzed me as the silhouette became visible under the glowing energy of the person. The figure wasn't holding a blanket over his head! It WAS his head. Fear and panic clasped onto my lungs as I identified the being. It was seven feet tall and had two razor-sharp, spear-like horns and coarse brown hair. The being was only wearing underwear. His muscles throbbed with barely restrained strength. He looked far from human as his face came into view. It was of a bull!

With a nose ring and a pair of earrings. But not any human, the other half of his body was human legs. Well as human as a bull could get. It lumbered over to the crater, and just as he was about to lean down to pick up the person, who was still recovering, the person sent a massive blow that hit one of his horns breaking it off and sending it careening towards me. It was only then I realized that I was unarmed. I reached down and grabbed the horn, that had skidded to a halt in front of me, holding it like a dagger. I looked up and saw the minotaur flying 7 feet away and crashing into the fence. It went crashing through the super sharp barbed wire as if it was a particularly annoying cobweb.

How on earth did that even happen? Dumbfounded, I looked up to see the person panting, on his knees and looking directly at me. He was almost as old as me and well-built. With a sharp nose and a black tunic that was peppered with holes. Like a black hole, he had the most mesmerizing eyes, infinite, absurd, and all-consuming. He seemed to be deciding whether I was a threat or not. I had to get Grover the goat boy to this place Mom mentioned before the over-inflated Ferdinand had recovered from the blow.

I made my decision, I would let this weird boy help me get Grover to the camp. I had to get Mom from where ever she had fallen to and to do that, first I would need help. Grover was lighter than I thought, but I knew I couldn't get far without help. So I gestured to the boy to help me. He too had seemed to have come to a similar decision.

He nodded and staggered over to me and put one of Grover's arms over his shoulders and I did the same. We dragged Grover to the pine tree until we heard a snort behind us. I snapped around to see the minotaur racing toward us. Without warning the boy pushed me and Grover to one side and himself to another. The demon smashed into the pine tree as I wiped the muck off my face and rubbed my eyes. The monster was now struggling to get his horn out of the tree. I glanced towards the other boy as he stealthily sprinted to the hellspawn and shot out his hand. I thought a hammer was going to fly out of nowhere but to my nonexistent surprise, nothing came. Suddenly the son of Pasiphae stopped struggling and let out a roar, but not before he was flung like a rag doll twenty feet away. I looked at the tree and saw a splotch of red with a bit of substance jutting out of the tree. I realized it was the minotaur's other horn and looked at the boy who was now on the ground, panting from over-exertion.

I was shocked out of my wits. The boy had done nothing but hold out his hand, and then the bull guy was flung more than twenty feet away. My legs swayed under my feet while my brain was still recovering from that. I didn't hear the minotaur behind me until it was too late. Then the boy, who was on the ground on all fours, looked up and his eyes went wide, he once again shot out his hand and this caused me to look back, horn at the ready. There it was, the minotaur, now looking more normal without his horns was 2 feet away from me and he seemed to be stopped mid-rampage, the Minotaur seemed to but struggling against a wall. The other boy was stopping him. But I knew he wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. So I jumped aside just before the Minotaur barreled past like a freight train. Having him pass this close to me hit a nerve. My temple throbbed and the storm got worse. My temper grew as I remembered what he did to my mom. He sent her into a pit. How dare he! She had done nothing to him!

I felt my blood boil as the rain refreshed me and energized me like a bottle of high-sugar and caffeine coca cola. I charged at him with a battle cry, which sounded more like a strangled yelp, and struck him with his own horn at his back. My momentum carried me forward for a while until the horn hit a rib inside the Minotaur's body. The Minotaur howled and started shaking. My hands were screaming to let go but I held on. As he shook himself, he caused only more pain and damage to his already broken body. He was his own downfall. I lunged back as the overgrown Karen made one last attempt at my throat. Then it collapsed and started fading like glitter in a hair blower. I looked at the hill and spotted a cabin. Now that I was alone, it felt strangely serene, as the water crashed down on the tarmac, and raging winds battled the trees. I saw the horn of the Minotaur and I reached out and grabbed it. I had earned it, the hard way. Now that I had the time to process what had happened, I felt a sense of overwhelming grief take over me, as memories of my mother, sitting down beside me and soothing me from the anger I held over Gabe. I looked over to the crater. The car was no more. Literally. The metal had melted and had been vaporized. The glass had turned to sand and was indistinguishable from the earth and the place where the car had been itself was a crater. Not a scratch Gabe had said. Oops, I guess.

I limped over to Grover and dragged him to the boy that had collapsed. Only then did I notice a green crystal-like object that was hanging from a cord on the strange boy's neck. I figured it was a necklace. I dragged them for a while feeling strangely hyperactive. Then all the energy left me as I entered the shade of the trees. It felt like someone had just removed 3 litres of blood from my system. I had barely walked 3 meters in the shade with the two unconscious people before everything became a blur and I blacked out.