Daughter of Hera

Ohio Tries to Kill Us

"So you're a big fan of Percy, huh?" I said as we all got back in the car.
          "Definitely! I've heard of everything he's done because his best friend Grover is one of my bosses, and he talks about him a lot."
          "Um, how young is your boss because I got the impression that Percy's not that much older than we are, or am I doing the math wrong for your weird half-goat aging thing?"
          "Percy is 18 but like you said, satyrs age twice as fast as humans do, so Grover is about 36. He's still pretty young.
          "Jeez."
          "Yeah," Marco said. "It's hard not to like Percy when Grover is talking about him. He gets so exited!"
          "You said bosses. Who's your other boss?" I asked.
          "Lord Dionysus."
          "The god Dionysus?!"
          "No, the nymph. Yes the god!"
"He's the wine dude right?
Marco looked at me and screamed "NEVER CALL HIM THE WINE DUDE! EVER! Unless you want to be turned into a dolphin or a bottle of merlot!"
"Okay, okay! Wow. I won't." I said somewhat terrified.
"Good decision."
"He's also the god of parties right?"
"Someone knows their Greek mythology."
          "So... can I call him the party dude?"
          "No!"
          "Why not?"
          "You do not call gods "dude."" Marco said like this was the most obvious thing in the world.
          "Fine, I won't call any gods dude."
          "Thank you."
          "Not to their face at least."
Marco sighed. "They can still hear you."
          "Well then they need to loosen up."
          "I have a feeling the gods won't be too loose about your arrival if they don't already know about you."
          "Why?"
          "Like I said you're special; and special half bloods usually mean trouble."
          "Sounds fun." I said sarcastically.
         "Tons." Marco deadpanned.
Oh I'll show you just how fun it can get! Zeus thought up on Mt. Olympus while maniacally rubbing his hands together like some old-timey movie villain.
          "Holy Hera!" Marco screamed. "What the heck is that?!"
What looked like a giant six-armed man made of mud wearing a loincloth jumped out of the nearby trees and into the road. Marco swerved the car trying to avoid it, but he hit one of the creature's outstretched arms instead knocking it off, and we swerved into a ditch on the side of the road. We all tried to get out of the car, but mud closed in on all sides trapping us. Suddenly a giant rock stabbed through the top of the car cutting my dad's arm. The rock was pulled out and replaced by the head of the mud man from the road. It reached over, ripped my seat belt away then pulled me out of the car. Screaming I tried to kick free of its grip, but it was strong for wet dirt.
"Emma!" I heard my dad scream.
Marco had grabbed my sword from where I left it in the passenger seat and had climbed out of the car, my dad following him. I stopped struggling for a minute and looked around. Our car was buried in mud that definitely wasn't there before. Marco had given the sword to my dad who was staring down the mud man like he wanted to shred it into tiny pieces the size of the dirt it was made from, and Marco himself was holding a huge tree branch. I've heard of fight fire with fire but not fight earth with earth.
"Attack!" Marco shouted as he and my dad raced toward me and my captor. They went to opposite sides and attempted to cut off the mud man's legs, but it picked up two clumps of dirt, turned them to rock, and proceeded to throw one each at Marco and my dad. They swerved to the side, and the monster kept its legs.
"What can I do to help?!" I shouted.
"Not die!" Marco shouted back amongst the chaos.
Mud man was now creating and throwing rocks one after the other and Marco and my dad were struggling to dodge them. My dad was slicing them with his sword, and getting many new scratches. Marco was more agile and was swiftly avoiding the rocks and slicing at the mud man, only being able to make shallow cuts.
"Can't you control it with your earthy satyr magic?!" I screamed frantically, still trying to kick free.
"If I could, don't you think I would have by now?!" He replied while cutting up the monster's leg. It finally gave way, and the mud man melted. No longer suspended in the air, I fell to the ground caked in mud. My dad ran over to me and gave me a huge hug.
"Thanks dad, sorry about the mess. Can I have the sword?"
"Any logical dad would say no, but these are special circumstances." He handed me the sword and I prepped for battle. Three more mud men had been created while we were fighting off the first one. My dad, now weaponless, ran back to the car to grab the trusty softball bat while Marco and I held off the mud men.
          "Do you want the one on the left or the right?" Marco asked.
          "Neither." I said, right before I charged the mud man in the middle with my sword in the lead.
The mud man in the middle picked up another chunk of dirt, hardened it into a large rock, and threw it straight at me. They wouldn't make bad pitchers if they were human and less murderous. Then again, I'm a pitcher who's not human and whose killed multiple living things today. I dodged the rock and continued running towards the mud man. Once I got within range, I tried to slice off at least one of the mud man's many arms, but only succeeded in cutting off a singular hand. Sadly, this didn't seem to have too much impact on it. I heard a loud scream that sounded like it came from Marco and whipped my head to the left. He was lying on the ground holding his arm and I saw blood starting to soak his sleeve. With a new fury, I dodged the new rock flying at me and succeeded in cutting off the mud man's arm this time. Already weakened, I stabbed the mud man in the chest, and it melted. I ran over to where the mud man on the left was towering over the bleeding Marco poised to drop a large rock on his head. Before I could even make it to Marco, the mud man all of a sudden dropped the rock to the side of my friend leaving not him unharmed. Seconds later it melted. I could now see that my dad had successfully grabbed my softball bat from the car and had dismembered the monster enough to make it melt. That left only one more mud man who had almost closed the distance between it and our group.
"Juts keep holding your hand over the wound and make sure no mud gets in." I instructed Marco. "We'll take care of this last mud man and then take care of you."
"Thanks Em- LOOK OUT!" Marco shouted.
I turned just in time to catch a rock in the chest and go soaring backwards, dropping my sword. I landed hard on the ground, and the wind had been knocked out of me. I heard my dad screaming my name in the distance, and then a loud battle cry as he charged toward the monster that had had the nerve to hurt his daughter. The sound of mud melting was the last thing I heard before I blacked out.

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I'm back from the dead! I have no excuse for not updating, and I can't say I'll be updating more regularly because I just started my first year in high school, so I'm gonna be a tad busy. (And by a tad I mean supremely because I was stupid and decided to take a bunch of hard classes that I may or may not be prepared for😅) Just think of this as a lesson in patience! Anyway, I hope you love the story so far and please keep reading even if I don't update consistently! Comment, vote, etc.
-R
DISCLAIMER: I did NOT come up with the Earthborn! (Mud men) That was a monster featured in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan! All credit goes to him! Please don't sue me!