Not Quite Sure Yet

Chapter 2

2. Crystal Donovan's Past

I think I've always seen these creatures. I played with them when I was a child. I even adopted a puppy, who I named Baxter. Baxter had black fur and red eyes and I loved him.

When I grew up, I thought of these creatures as my personal guardians. Only I can see them, they are here for me always, when I am sad, happy, angry, no matter how I'm feeling and no matter what I'm going through, they are there. When I was younger, I tried to draw them. I would show my drawings off to my parents, and they would be proud of me, even though they probably couldn't tell what it was supposed to be.

Later on, when I got older and could communicate what I was seeing, I would play with Baxter and talk to my guardians. My parents sometimes asked what I was doing or who I was talking to. I would try to explain the things I could see, but to no avail, they just got more confused. They thought it was all my imagination, thought I was making it up. When I was 9 and still drew and talked to Baxter and my other guardians, my parents grew worried for me and wanted me to see a doctor because they thought Baxter and the other guardians were not real.

When they told me this I ran to my room, got into bed, curled up with Baxter and cried my eyes out. Feeling betrayed, I thought, 'How could they think he wasn't real? He plays with them all the time! He is real and he is right here next to me!'

The only person who ever talked to them, besides me, was my great-grandma, whom I called Nona. She saw what I could see and told me who and what they were and showed me how to befriend them. She is actually how I met Baxter. Baxter was the first hellhound I was able to befriend on my own.

After telling me about some of the creatures that I kept seeing, Nona explained to me that I couldn't tell our family what the creatures were and that our family couldn't see the creatures. My favorite of the creatures that Nona told me about was the Spartus. A Spartus is an animal that was raised from the dead as a skeleton by burying the tooth of an ancient dead creature. I wondered how these creatures came to be, how they become resurrected from just the tooth of an ancient creature, is there some ritual, some spell or do you need certain items or ingredients like a recipe? I was utterly fascinated by these creatures.

Every weekend I would go to Nona's house to learn about more creatures. We would sometimes go out to the park or to a restaurant to meet the creature I learned about that weekend. The weekend that I learned about cyclops, we went to Washington Park to meet a cyclops named Tyson who was walking a hellhound he called Mrs. O'Leary. Tyson told me of his experiences growing up in the mortal world and told me of how his friend adopted Mrs. O'Leary from a guy named Quintus.

The weekend before I left for college, I went to my Nona's house one last time. One final creature. I wondered what the creature was, if i could meet one, and if it could answer some questions I might have. As it turned out, I most definitely could meet and talk to these creatures. Apparently there is such a thing as demigods and they go to a summer camp for protection. I also found out that my Nona was a demigod daughter of Tyche, the Greek Goddess of Fortune.