Rise of the Fallen (A PJO/HoO fanfic)

Chapter 1 - Talon

Talon

 

Less than a week ago, Talon had wished that something interesting would happen to him. Maybe his family would win the lottery, or his sister’s bullies would all decide to move away, or maybe he might finally make the school soccer team. Back then, he could come home from school to see his dad singing along to the radio. He would do his homework, talk to his sister, and eventually fall asleep in his bed after his dinner and chores. Now, he had none of that. His dad? Dead. House? Destroyed. Dinner? He hadn’t eaten one in days. The only good thing he still had from his old life was his sister. Well, twin sister to be exact.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched her sleeping form, always checking for the rising and falling of her chest to make sure that she was still alive. He had always been the overprotective big brother, but after everything that had happened to them, his greatest fear was losing her, too. Thankfully, she was still alive. The last monster attack had been one of the worst. He had managed to kill it, but not after it had attacked his sister. She had lost a lot of blood, and when she had passed out he had been worried that she was dead. However, his nerves were calmed when he saw she was just sleeping. Talon wished he could do the same.

Faint rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon in front of them. They needed to get moving, and for many reasons. The first reason was that some people were beginning to stare, and Talon knew that if anyone called the cops on two homeless kids, they could very well be separated and forced into foster care. The next reason was that monsters were able to find them easier if they stayed in one place too long. Lastly, they were on a mission. After the car had wrecked, they had found two backpacks with their names on them. Inside they found, among other things, clothes, weapons, and a directions to a place called Camp Half-Blood. Unfortunately, it was a long walk from Virginia to New York. That meant they had to start moving.

Talon knelt next to his sister and shook her gently, careful to not touch her bandaged arm. “Jordan, wake up. We need to start walking again.”

It took a moment, but she eventually opened her eyes. They were a deep blue, lighter than Talon’s, but not by much. She blinked a few times before focusing in on his face.

“Morning.” She yawned.

“How are you feeling?” He couldn’t stop the rush of questions that he wanted to ask her.

“Pretty crappy, to be honest.” Jordan smiled weakly at him. He rolled his eyes. He loved her, but she could get annoying at times. No doubt she probably thought the same of him. He watched as she dug through her backpack, eventually pulling out a tall blue canteen. Talon immediately recognized it as the bottle of nectar that they had each found in their respective packs. Their dad had explained it all to them before the wreck, and he knew better than to go gulping it all down, no matter how good it tasted.

He watched her smile as she sipped the godly drink. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t ever asked her what it tasted like… it would have to wait. They needed to start moving. He regretted having to tell her. “Jordan-“

“Don’t call me that, please.” She looked at him with clouded eyes. Talon was pretty sure he knew why. Their dad always called her that, and it must bring back bad memories for her, especially since he sounded so much like their father. He found that he didn’t have the same problem, but probably because his dad called him by his first name. After all, he was the fourth Talon in their family.

“What do you want to be called, then?”

She answered without hesitation. “Brooke.” Talon wasn’t surprised. They had recently found out that their mother was a river naiad, which was probably the reason for his sister’s middle name. His full name was James Talon Emery, and she was Jordan Brooke Emery.

“Brooke it is, then.” He said, flashing her a smile. “Now come on. We have a long ways to go today.”

-+-+-+-

They walked the rest of the day, and the sun was finally beginning to set. Talon’s hip hurt and his stomach growled like a whale with a fever, getting a few hushed giggles out of his twin.

Gurgle gurgle grroooowwl.

 

Brooke stared at him blankly before smiling and eventually bursting into a fit of laughter. Talon joined her with hearty chuckles of his own. Sure, the reason for their laughter was definitely not funny, but they both needed a laugh. And besides, his stomach whale had gone from having a fever to what was beginning to sound like a full blown hangover.

As for his hip, well they had been attacked yet again while buying a snack at a hotdog stand. It wasn’t bad enough to need ambrosia, but it still made it harder for him to walk. Brooke made sure to slow down so she could walk at his pace. It was odd, since he was normally the one who had to slow for her. Still, it was kind of her. Matter of fact, she was generally nice to people, even though she had no reason to be that way.

The girls at their school were downright cruel, and his sister had been bullied since the moment she had stepped foot inside. As for Talon, well he had tried to help as much as he could, but the school jocks usually had him coming home with a new bruise each day. After their mom died, they had been forced to turn to each other. Matter of fact, they had become so close that they had developed a sort of ‘sixth sense’. Talon could tell how she was feeling or sometimes even get an idea of where she was, all based on their ‘freaky twin powers’, as their father used to state.

“Hey, we’re almost out of town!” He was snapped out of thoughts by his sister’s exclamation, and sure enough, he could see the edge of the city only a mile or two away.

“We need to find a place to sleep for tonight. I checked a map earlier, and we won't find much shelter if we keep going. There’s nothing but forest for quite a few miles past here.” He thought for a moment before adding. “We also need to stay warm. The temperatures are going to drop pretty low tonight.”

Brooke frowned a little. “Well, we could always ask around and see if someone might let us stay in their basement or something. It’s not like we have very many choices, anyways.”

Talon nodded in agreement. Unfortunately, each person they asked flat out refused to let them spend even a couple of hours in their house. He was beginning to lose hope when they spotted one last house on the street that he was pretty sure hadn’t been there before. It was the only one with lights on for the whole block.

The house was old, that much was obvious. The wooden steps were rotting and the windows were dusty and covered in spider webs. He would have thought the place was abandoned if not for the lights on behind the curtains and the smoke spiraling out of the chimney. Talon hesitated. Something was wrong, but he didn’t know what. However, he had a bad feeling that he was about to find out.