Equilibrium

Chapter 4: Luka's POV

When I woke up, I was in a long room lined with white duveted beds. Looking up, I realized I was in one of the beds near the door. I also noticed that my arm was bandaged. Suddenly all the events that had happened however long ago, I had no idea when, came back to my mind.

"Oh. My. God." I whispered out loud.

"It's actually Gods, with an 's' on the end," said the boy whose name I remembered as Frank, who had magically appeared in the room.

"What the hell happened? What is this place?? And what was that thing chasing me?" I had a billion questions but decided to just stick with those three.

"Well, you're at Camp Jupiter, a camp for all the kids of the Roman gods, and you were chased here by a Dracaena." That still didn't answer all my questions but I figured that I should maybe try to understand what all that meant before asking anything else. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and groaned, not quite understanding how someone's nails could cause me so much pain. "The Dracaena's talons injected poison into you. Here's some ambrosia... It's like the food of the gods, and we can eat a bit to partially heal our wounds." Frank said all of this so effortlessly, as if it was normal for a pretty girl to turn into a poisonous snake-like thing. "Do you think you can stand?" Frank asked me. I nodded my head and swung my legs off the bed. My Vans were lying near a chair a little ways away, and I was still wearing my blue jeans and long sleeved black shirt. I quickly slipped on my shoes and followed Frank out of the room. "What's your name by the way?" He asked me.

"Luka Del Rosso, nice to meet you." He shook my hand and we continued walking.

When we got outside I finally noticed how beautiful this place was. It was like a whole new city. There was no way we were still in San Francisco. The buildings were made of marble and had red tiled roofs, and there were statues of people who looked like gods (Roman gods, according to Frank, I guess). A little kid dashed past me, running away from his parents, but the bizzare thing about it was that the kid was holding a rather long sword that looked very much real. I thought that kids were supposed to stay away from dangerous stuff?

"Welcome to New Rome," said a slightly familiar voice behind me. I turned around and there was the girl that Hazel, Frank's girlfriend, I'm assuming, had called Reyna. She started walking and Frank followed her, "come along," she said firmly, "we have a lot to talk about." I could tell just by being next to Reyna that she held some sort of power and status in this place, whatever it was.

As we walked through the city that was Frank called 'New Rome', I noticed Mount Othrys looming in the distance. So we were still in San Francisco, but how did this place get here? Did it just magically appear? I decided it was best to not ask anymore questions yet. I mean this could all just be a hoax, right? As we were walking, another little kid came running up to us and I guess, since I was the closest to him, he chucked the ukulele he was holding at me. I caught it easily, children don't have much arm strength, I must say. Right behind him there was a little girl chasing him, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that I was the one holding the ukulele. She pointed after the little boy.

"He said he would play something for me but now he's being mean and running away." She crossed her little arms and pouted, eyebrows furrowed. Kids are cute.

"I can play something for you if you'd like," I said to her, smiling. The ukulele was another instrument that I could play, and since It was so close to the guitar, it came naturally. She grinned at me.

"Yes please!"

So I started playing. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was playing a song that my mom had taught me. It was our song. I had to suppress my tears. Suddenly, I heard a gasp, I turned around almost forgetting that I was with other people. Frank pointed at something right above my head, so I looked up. A golden sun with many rays made of arrows loomed right above me. Practically shoving the ukulele into the little girls arms, I tried swatting it away, but with no luck. Reyna suddenly started kneeling, and everyone who had gathered around me to see what was going on did too.

"All hail Luka Del Rosso, son of Apollo."