The Life of a Demigod

Chapter 3

As the complete strangers dragged me off, I felt alone and oddly free. My past life was behind me and I was headed to a better place. Or so I thought. Eventually after we got out of town we found a place away from other people and they pitched a tent. 

While they set about making camp, I thought to myself, wondering if this would be how life would be from now on. "Riley? How're you holding up?"

I looked up to see Kayla standing over me looking concerned. 

"Just thinking about some things." I paused to brace myself for any response she may have. "So who are you guys?" She looked puzzled, like the thought that I would need any more details never came to her. 

"I'm Kayla an-" 

I cut her off, "That's not what I meant. I know your names, but what happened back there? Monsters attacked me then you two show up and take me to wherever we are, and you don't tell me a thing. So, who are you and what is going on?"

Kayla sighed and sat down next to me. "I figured this was coming. Well, those things we fought, those were harpies. They're from Greek mythology, all of those myths, are real. We are children of the gods and have some of their power. My dad is Apollo and Alex is a child of Athena. You... I'm not so sure about, but I can sense your power. We are taking you to Camp Half-Blood where demigods can be safe from monsters and train to protect themselves."

Alex nodded as she went through her explanation and I found the whole thing hard to believe. "Wait, so Greek gods are our parents? Why Greek? Why not Roman or Egyptian? Or, heck, even Norse?" 

They shared another look and I figured I didn't want to hear what they were going to tell me. 

"Well.. Riley.. They all do exist. Just, your mom or dad just happens to be a Greek god. Trust me, we were all shocked to find out about the gods. And even more shocked to find out that there were more than just Greek gods. But they do exist. Without Percy I bet we wouldn't have known half of these gods exist."

"Percy? Percy who?" I was so confused. Why would they bring more people into their explanation. You'd think they'd try to make it easy.

"Oh right.. You don't know Percy. Well he came to camp a while ago and defeated a minotaur. He was the one who started to fulfill the great prophecy, he fought in the titan war on the front lines. He-" 

"Okay, wow, so I get that he's kind of a legend? But I won't have to do any of that, right?"

"No. He's a different case. It seems like expectations of the children of the big 3 are on an entirely different level. Maybe once you get to camp we can tell you the full story about Percy and all of his wild adventures. But for now I'll just tell you the basics. Percy Jackson is a child of Poseidon. His girlfriend is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena.  There was a war against the titans, Kronos being in charge of it. A few of our campers went to the wrong side. Luke... He was a good kid, honest. But Kronos possessed him and he died in the end..."

Kayla couldn't talk.. she started to cry after mentioning Luke, maybe they were close? I still wanted to know more about Percy, he sounded a bit scary, how skilled could he be? After all, these people are just kids. Kids just like me... Have they all been through as much as he has?

"Well, anyways, after the war Percy went missing for months and Annabeth was a complete mess trying to find him. A few new campers came and almost immediately took a quest to save Hera." Alex took on the role of story telling, I was a bit surprised that he was actually talking, he seemed like a shy guy. 

"They came back and built a ship, saying they knew where Percy was. So the new kids and Annabeth  went over to the Roman camp, and don't ask questions yet. They got there and Leo Valdez, son Hephaestus, shot at the Romans so they fled, taking Percy and a few Romans with them. I think it was, Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, and Frank Zhang, son of Mars. Am I forgetting anything?"

"Yeah..." Kayla wiped her tears and continued the story. "Jason Grace, the son of Jupiter, was in charge of the first quest to save Hera. He was a Roman that Hera brought to our camp after wiping his memories. Piper McLean is his girlfriend, daughter of Aphrodite and a user of charmspeak. Leo was on the quest with them and is the repair boy of Argo II. You might get to meet them at camp. Well... at the moment I think they're all busy.

"Anyways, they traveled across the world fulfilling another quest, and trying to stop Gaia from waking up. She woke up after getting the blood of two demigods on sacred grounds. They were in Greece, or was it Rome... Anyways, Zeus threw their ship across the world and they landed at camp. I also should give credit to Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano who is a daughter of Bellona and Coach Hedge. They delivered the Athena Parthenos back to the Greek and brought peace to the gods and camps. Anyways, these people are heroes and have fought in impossible battles. They stopped Gaia and stopped the two camps from being destroyed from a war."

"Wow.. I had no idea that any of this happened... How old are they?" 

"Percy was just 12 when he came to camp. But now he's about to go to college with Annabeth. Hazel is the youngest, right now she should be 14, 16 at the most." Kayla laughed a bit at my shock from hearing what Percy has gone through.

Alex said he was going to sleep, after all, they had to get up early and it was Kayla's turn to stay up and keep watch. She winced and looked at me with uncertain eyes. "Okay, so I know you don't know your parent, and haven't had training, but would you mind keeping watch for me? Just for an hour or two? Alex doesn't have to know."

"It's fine. I think I can handle a few squirrels that'll come this way."

She laughed and hugged me, "Thank you so much for this, I haven't been able to sleep for a few days and I'll totally take the next shift that you have." 

Before I could reply with anything she went into a different tent than Alex and soon I could hear both of them snoring. I wonder, how long have they been living like this, looking for me?

Before long I felt myself drifting off so I got up from the tree stump I was sitting on and splashed some water in my face, instantly feeling better and refreshed. I twisted my watch and felt my sword shift into my hand. I twirled it around a bit and then held it like I would before I would go into a fight. I ran at a nearby tree and slashed it from side to side, training myself to move faster and trying not to think about any monsters that could come at me while I was alone. 

Too late did I sense that there was something behind me. I turned around just as a fist made impact with my stomach and I was thrown back into the tree. The sharp pain flared like red hot coals as I fell to the ground and tried to get over it. I got up anyways and fought past the pain. Gripping my sword tighter, I slashed at the person who I now saw looked scarily like Medusa. 

She wore a bargain mart vest and couldn't stop talking about their amazing prices. As I sliced a snake on her head she howled in pain and threw a tray at me. I ducked a bit too late and it hit me full in the face. I held my bleeding nose and tried to stay conscious, after all, if I fell, who would warn Kayla and Alex?

This thought gave me a second wind as I let go of my nose and ran at the gorgon I now knew was called Stheno. I quickly sliced and parried everything she threw at me as I stayed on my toes and alert for any tricks she may pull. Seeing a sudden opening in her stance I flew at her and off came her head in a cloud of gold smoke. 

Suddenly I fell, the pain and exhaustion from the battle catching up with me now. I saw two vials and grabbed them, the last thing I did before passing out, no longer able to feel anything.