TW: DEATH
Standing in front of us was a beautiful woman. Well she could be beautiful, if you would take away the flaming hair and the mismatched legs. She was wearing something you would expect rich kids to wear, crop tops and shorts that were a bit too short. However, underneath the short-short-shorts she had one donkey leg and one leg which seemed to be made out of bronze. Also not to forget, her hair was on fire. Or was the fire on her head meant to be "hair"? She smiled at Ryder and me and revealed two fangs. Great. We were fighting a vampire.
'Oh, I'm sorry,' She said, and her voice was low and seductive. 'I didn't mean to scare you.'
Ryder shook his head and said to the vampire: 'You're an empousa.' I raised an eyebrow.
'An empousa, How do you know that?' I asked. The so called "Empousa" Didn't even acknowledge my existence and kept her focus on Ryder.
'You're a smart little satyr aren't you, Ryder Montecello?' She said, blinking her eyelashes. Ryders eyes became glossy and visionless for a second, but snapped back to reality.
'What do you want?' He asked. 'And don't use charmspeak.' He added, right as the vampire opened her mouth. The empousa giggled.
'Can a woman not get her food?' she asked. 'I was just longing for a nice little goat sandwich.'
'But why are you here then?' I interrupted her. 'There are no goats here, why should there be?' I raised my arms and gestured around me. 'We're in New York lady, there are only skyscrapers.'
The empousa turned into my derection, her eyes were solid gold. 'So he never told you what he really is?' She asked me.
'If you are talking about his Vitiligo-'
'Ofcourse i'm not talking about his skin stupid little demigod.' There it was again. Demigod. It was one of the names the monsters kept calling her, along with Half Blood and "Godly Scum". 'Can anyone please tell me what "demigod" means?' I looked at Ryder and read something from his face again. "Run when I give you a sign, I need a plan". How do I know this? I know my best friend, and I've never seen him look so urgent before. We turned to the empousa again and she eyed Ryder with more hunger now.
'So you're telling me that my best friend is a goat?' I said, to keep her talking while Ryder came up with a plan to get rid of Edward Cullen.
'Honestly Lily Hopkins,' she said. 'I would want to kill you too, but I'm afraid my charmspeak doesn't work on girls. '
'Charmspeak?' I asked, glancing at Ryder, who was still drowned in thoughts.
The Empousa sighed. 'Gods I can't wait until I meet a halfblood who actually knows what they are doing.'
I raised my hands in defense 'I know what I'm doing, honest.' I lied. 'I've just never had the pleasure to be threatened to get killed by someone so beautiful as you!'
The empousa seemed to be taken aback by the sudden complement. 'Well you are correct,' She said, wiping a bit of flame-hair out of her face. 'I'm beautiful and fiesty, as you already acknowledged.' She added.
Ryder nodded enthusiastically. 'Lily is absolutely right,' he said, trying to keep his mind clear from the "charm speak". 'Your eyes, your hair. Just, Wow!' We exchanged a look and I knew that we would have to seize our chance soon.
'But those legs,' Ryder snorted. 'Those are not fashionable lady.' The empousa was even more taken aback by the sudden turn of events, and when she came back to senses, Ryder had already grabbed my hand and we sprinted away. We ran as fast as we could, but Ryder kept tripping over his own feet.
'Di Immortales!' He swore, and bent over to tighten his shoelaces.
'Ryder we need to go!' I called from a little further down the road. But Ryder took of his shoes and caught up with me in a split second.
'Why do you need to run on bare feet?' I asked, but I looked down, instead of feet: Ryder had hooves.
'Hooves?!' I bellowed, as we ran around the corner.
'I'll explain it later!' Ryder yelled back. 'We need to get to Long Island!'
We ran around the corner, I looked back, and saw the Empousa struggeling to get speed. Though somewhere, I knew that she was still way to much of a threat. I sprinted a bit faster to get next to Ryder, who was running a bit in front of me.
'Where did you say we needed to go?' I asked, sweat forming on my forehead.
'Long Island, there is a place there where you'll be safe.' He panted back.
'Why me? You're the one she's trying to seduce!' I exclaimed as we rounded the corner again, the empousa charging after us.
'You're a Half-Blood, you attract monsters all the time,' Ryder explained. 'She just followed your smell, and descided it was easier to wipe me out first.'
I looked back again, the empousa was getting closer every second, her eyes filled with rage. I looked at my bestfriend again. 'Promise me, that when we survive this you'll tell me what I really am?' Ryder smiled. 'I promise.'
~~~~
Ryder and I only had a few seconds before the Empousa would jump at us. Luckily, a few seconds was all we needed. We both stopped at turned around, I reached into the pocket of my vest and got out a tiny pebble. I always carry pebbles on me so I can defend myself a bit better. I threw the stone at the Empousa's face and she stumbled back from surprise. Ryder used that split second of surprise to his advantage and got a reed flute out of his pocket. He put the flute to his mouth and started playing a fast melody. The empousa growled and lashed out, but her feet were stuck. Vines started growing from the pavement ad were wrapping it around the empousa's legs. Soon enough she was covered in vines from her waist to her toes. She tried to claw our face of, but the vines wrapped around her arms aswell. Ryder stopped playing his flute, and reached into his backpack. He got out a bronze knife and wanted to give it to me, but I stepped back.
'Why- Why do you have a knife?' I stuttered.
'I wanted to give it to you earlier,' He said. 'But we kept getting interrupted by the Hamiltons.'
The empousa screeched and Ryder pushed the knife into my hands. 'You do the honors.' He smiled.
'Why me?' I exclaimed, the shock of what had just happened only reached me now, and my knees were weak.
'You are a demigod, Half mortal, half god,' Ryder said. 'Your father is a god.'
Ryder paused for a moment. 'This entire time, you've been fighting monsters. you've killed them with your surroundings and instinct, now you have a real weapon. Use it.'
I was even more shocked at this, but I turned to the Empousa whose hair lit up even brighter.
'Don't you dare-' she started, but I thrusted the knife at her chest. At the slightest contact of the Bronze weapon, the Empousa turned to dust. The vines retreated into the cement and I started at the gold particles. Ryder put a hand on my shoulder.
'Good job,' he said. 'Let's get on the bus.'
~~~~
We took a bus to Long Island, and I finally felt my muscles relax. Ryder had given me a little bit of "Ambrosia", little squares that tasted like Oreos. When I bit a bit of the ambrosia, a warm feeling shot through my body, as if I had just chugged down a mug of hot chocolate. At once my bruises and cuts on my face and body started healing, after a little bit later, the bleeding had stopped and the bruises got better. I felt like I haven't in two years, clean.
He also told me what I really was. A Half-Blood. My dad was a Greek God, who fell in love with my mother. Half Bloods like me attract monsters, who were birthed from the depths of Tartarus: the lowest part of the Underworld. He also listed the possibilities of who my father could be.
'You have Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, the big three,' he started. 'And then the rest of the male Olympians: Ares, Apollo, Hepaestus, Hermes and Dionysus. And then there's the minor gods: Hypnos, Asclepius and Aristaeus and many more.'
I took it in for a moment. 'That's a lot of gods,' I murmured. 'Aristaeus... what is he the god of?'
'Cheese making and Bee keeping'
'They really have a god for everything, don't they?' I sighed.
Ryder chuckled, 'you could say that.'
'But,' I asked. 'Who's your godly parent?'
Ryder's expression faded. 'I don't have a godly parent.'
I waited for him to continue.
'Well, Satyrs are the creatures of Pan, god of the wild.' He said. 'But Pan passed away a years back.'
He looked hurt, but I was confused. 'Passed away?' I whispered. 'But I thought gods can't die?'
Ryder shrugged. 'Don't ask me.'
I was planning to ask somehing else, but Ryder sprung up from his seat out of the blue and yelled: 'Stop the bus!'227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7NjLi2ow7a
Ryder pulled me out of my seat, the knife dangeling from my belt. We got a few weird looks from the other passengers, but we ignored them. The bus driver asked if we were sure a couple of times, we were still two 14 year-olds without parental supervision. We nodded and descended from the bus. In front of us was a hill with a pine tree on it, with something gold dangeling from it. Wait a second, greek mythology... Was that the golden fleece?! I was about to ask Ryder when I noticed what was curled around the tree. A dragon looked up at us and snorted. My hand went towards the knife but Ryder stopped me.
'It's fine,' he said, stepping towards the dragon. 'Hello Peleus, good boy, good boy.' Ryder smiled and pointed at me. 'She's new here, can we come in?'
I held my breath as Peleus observed me, he could fry me easily. But then the dragon put his head down again, and continued his nap. Ryder smiled.
'Ladies first!' He said, bowing to me. I chuckled and walked past the pine tree. Before me lay a valley, which was beautiful to say the least. The setting sun shimmered over the water from the sea. Was that the Long Island Sound? The first thing I saw was a big blue house. It was a bit down te valley, but due to his size I could see it clearly. It had huge strawberry fields laying around it, a few teens were picking the berries and others were enjoying the weather. walking through the The "building" closest to me was a campfire in the middle of a amphitheatre. I also saw a volley- and basketball court, a fighting arena, an arcgery range, a forge and way to many buildings to take in. Ryder and I walked down from the hill and towards the most colorful buildings in the valley. I looked at Ryder, who had taken off his pants (after swearing he had goat legs under them) and looked happier than I've ever seen him.
'What is this place?' I asked Ryder, while glancing at the kids running around the cabins.
He smiled. 'Camp Half-Blood,' he said. 'Your new, hopefully, home.'
I once again got cut off by a sudden act of Ryder. As I opened my mouth to say something, Ryder jumped up, from excitement or fright? He clapped and grinned. I, however, raised my eyebrow.
'What?' I asked. But then realised he was looking at some thing above me. In a reflex, I pulled my knife and looked up. Over my head, a golden Lyre was glowing.
'He claimed you!' Ryder bleated. 'Your father claimed you!'
'What?' I exclaimed again. My father claimed me this early?
'Welcome to Camp Lily Hopkins, Daughter of Apollo!'
227Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtC4We3wObc
