Megan Feddoner and the DemiOlympian

Megan Feddoner and the DemiOlympian is a Percy Jackson and The Olympians/Heroes of Olympus Fanfiction by LollipopAddict (aka StrawburryFluff_Girl on this site), originally written on Wattpad and the First Book in the Megan Feddoner Series. It is not yet Completed, and is mainly based around 3 original characters: Megan Feddoner, Ariadne Di Occultis and Diana Hadrew. It is set around a week after the events of The Lost Hero, and has some interaction from other characters from the actual series, such as Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez and Annabeth Chase.

Preceded By: None

Followed By: Megan Feddoner and The Hunters of Artemis

Megan Feddoner and the DemiOlympian
'I knew that the mortal world was dangerous for half-bloods, especially me. But we had to go, Ariadne was going and me and Diana were her best friends! I guess we should have waited, but I thought that even if I was new, they must know what they were doing. But I was wrong.'                                                                             Megan Feddoner believes that she is an ordinary Mortal girl- until a freak lightning storm, a fire, and a monster attack happen in the same day as she is taken to Camp Half-Blood by Ariadne De Occultis. Her life is turned upside down as the start of the second Giant war approaches, and soon she, Ariadne and their friend Diana have to leave Camp- but through their own choice...

1- I Destroy the school
I didn't know how the school was set on fire. Not until later anyway. But basically, it all started when Shannon Parker started picking on me. Again. Because, apparently, I'm a freak. Don't get angry. 15 schools in 9 years. Don't get angry. "Look who it is!" She crowed, a cruel smile creeping over her face "Megan the freaky camper!" She called me that all the time. Seriously though, just becuse I liked it outdoors, in the fresh air. Don't get angry. Don't get angry. Too late. "Ooh, isn't she high and mighty?" Shannon Crooned "Staring off into space, trying not to react? Well freak, guess what I know about you and your mum!?" Outside, the Thunder rumbled. Funny. It hadn't seemed like there would be a storm. I would have been excited if it had- loved storms. "You dare insult my mother-" I growled, narrowing my eyes. "You say one word..." "Well, guess what, Guys?!" She called, making 'Gather round' motions with her hand "Megan's mum is..." She looked at me. I looked at her, furious "Megan's Mum can't support her! She works in Tesco and Megan can only come here because of a Scholarship! They live in a One-Bedroom flat! And- Listen up- Megan's Mum doesn't even know who Megan's Dad is!" Everyone laughed. I was so angry. I mean, I swear I have never been that angry before or since. The storm outside was really heating up. Everyone but me and Shannon (Shanny to her friends) rushed to the window to see the action. Shannon smiled, a cruel, torturous smile. No-one had expected me to get into a good school- what with ADHD and Dyslexia, everyone was really surprised. I couldn't get kicked out of here. I tried to calm down, but I seemed to have this total battle-mode on. Then there was a deafening crash. Lightining zipped across the sky, reaching down like a flashlight onto the floor. Shannon Smiled again "Oh, maybe I know..." she said mysteriously. "What do you Mean?!" I shouted Lighting flashed again, but this time it wasn't in the distance. It was near, loud and deafening. "I mean, halfblood, that when they told me you were powerful I assumed you were a boy. we empousa don't really go for killing girls. But a Child of Lightning like yourself.... even I wouldn't mind killing you!" she smiled, scarily. There was a clattering sound as a girl came running down the corridor. She couldn't have been older than 13, she was so short. She had long, pale-blonde hair and pale eyes that seemed to be a pastel green. Her skin was pale and she seemed to give the impression of blending in to the background of the school. It seemed almost like she was hardly there, hardly real. Her face was almost pretty, but her face was contorted into a mask of horror. "Megan!" She gasped, skidding to a standstill "Megan. don't-" "How do you know-" I was cut off by Shannon "Oh, I wondered why the stink was so bad." She strutted round. "There's two of you here. Well, all the more to kill- and Ariadne? Of course they'd send you- unclaimed, not useful, obviously! Don't forget I'll be back soon.... Ah, I though I had her when I killed that stupid goat friend of hers, but obviously they'd send someone else!" "What's going on?!" I asked. Smoke was surrounding us, alarm bells ringng, but me and the other two stayed rooted to the spot. "Ah, Newbies!" Shannon laughed. "So Naive." Suddenly, her features contorted, and I could see flaming hair appearing from where her short brown hair was. She had Red eyes, white skin, one donkey leg and one bronze leg, and, most scarily, Fangs. "Shannon?" I asked, partly not beilieving what I saw. "My real name Saraphona, HalfBlood" she spat "And get ready for Asphodel!" "Asphodel?" I asked, the fear not yet kicking in "Isn't that the greek name for the thing in between Heaven and Hell?" Shannon -sorry, Saraphona (pronounced Sar-ah-phone-a)- advanced on me. "Megan!" The girl called "Megan, catch! She's an Empuosa!" She threw something at me. I saw with surprise as I caught it that was a bronze knife, almost like a sword. I caught it, assuming that it was some kind of weapons for killing these things. I slashed at her as she approached but she dodged, and I missed her completely, nearly hitting my own side. "Now, Megan..." She said slowly, and I turned to face her. Her voice was different somehow, almost alluring. "Put down that knife. You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?" Suddenly, I had the upmost desire to drop the knife. I knew I probably shouldn't, but I wanted to, so much... "Megan!" The transparent girl screamed "Don't drop the knife! It's charmspeak!" I didn't know what charmspeak was, but something told me that used like this, it was a bad thing. I didn't drop the knife. The girl spun into action, grabbing something out of her pocket that somehow grew into a spear. She grimaced, but stuck it into Saraphona's side. Saraphona screeched. I knew, somehow, what to do. Whilst the monster was distracted, I lunged at her and slit her neck with the knife. She spun to face me, and I suddenly saw the other girl's face once more. She had a gash about 5 centimetres long across her forehead. It was dripping blood and her face was even paler than before. She shook her head slowly, and I knew what that meant. She wasn't going to be able to fight any more. It was up to me. I looked at Saraphona and realised that she was not going to surender. I had to kill her. Kill her or die. Boy, was I gonna get in trouble for this. I lunged at her with the knife, my heart beating fast. I mean, seriously here. I had to kill a -what did the girl call her? Emprosa? Empousa. But Saraphona didn't seem worried. Even as I struck her chest, she looked at me with complete contempt.

"You may kill me now..." she snarled, as lunged again, this time only missing by a little. "But the Doors of Death are open, Thanatos is Chained, and I can be back by even tommorow!" She smiled, one last evil smile, as I slashed her neck, slicing ofher head. Saraphona dissolved into a pile of dust. I breathed in a sigh of relief, and walked over to the girl. I choked and coughed, realizing this was not yet over. "We have to get out of here." I coughed, helping her up. "I know." She replied, looking up "I'll get you to Camp, don't worry..." I blinked, mainly to get the dust out of my eyes, although also in surprise. "Camp?" "Don't worry, just get us out!" She said. The fire door was over by the nearest wall. It couldn't have been more than 4 foot away from us, but the flames were getting dangerously close. "Can you run?" I asked, worried "Oh, yes. I only got almost killed by an Empousa. Of course I can run." She said, sarcastically. "Sorry." I grabbed her arm, helping her lean on me as she limped towards the door. It was slow, but eventually we got outta there and on to the Fire escape stairs. We both breathed in heavily, huffing and puffing. But suddenly, the girl went limp in my arms. I shook her, trying to wake her up. "Girl... Umm... wake up..." I put my head by her mouth. No breathing. She was dead. I lifted my head. So now what did I do? I had no way to get to this 'Camp' she told me about. Suddenly, the girl gasped in her breath. I whipped round to see that her eyes were open. I gasped. "You're... You're..." "Alive? Yeah. Something is wrong with Hades, or the underworld or something. people can't die easily dfor the time being... didn't she say something about the doors of death? Thanatos? this isn't good..." "what are you on about?!" I practically shouted "All I've gotten from the last half an hour is, I'm apparently powerful, I've fought and won against an Empousa -Which is a Greek Vampire, If you don't know, and also the Greek/Roman God of death has been chained up and for somereason that means death no longer happens!" "You've hit the nail right on the head." The girl smiled. "My name's Ariadne, by the way. Don't laugh- my mum liked the Greek myths, and I guess It'sjust as well. It's just good she didn't call me June!" She laughed "What? June originally came from the Roman Goddess Juno... What do you have against Juno? Although I prefer her Greek Name- Hera." "You sure know a lot about Greek/Roman Mythology." "Well done, I guess you've never met someone like me before. I like Greek Mythology, don't judge." She seemed to find that funny. "I've met many people like you. And you've gotten it just right." "What do you mean?" I asked, exasperated "You're a fiesty one." She commented. "Maybe... Hephaestus? Athena?" "You're talking about the Greek Gods... and me? So you mean-" "I'm a DemiGod, Megan." She looked into my eyes solemnly "And unless I'm very much mistaken, you are too." I gasped. "You can't be serious? I mean..." "The Greek Gods aren't real? Well guess what. That mass storm in Manhatten last year? That was the Gods winning the war against Kronos." "That storm did seem unrealistic..." "And the death toll going down remarkably in these last few months? I think I already mentioned Death not working..." I grimaced. It couldn't be true. Could it? "I guess you're right... but what do I do now?" "We go to Camp. And quickly, too many monsters are gonna know now that you know..."

Since we were in England (yes, I am English),we had to go on a plane to America (Long Island) where camp was. Apparently the Gods moved to do with where te main culture of the world at that time- so America, for now. They'd moved to Rome when the Romans had taken over, and moved to America in the last couple of centuries. We'd gotten into the Taxi with three old ladies who had one eye. On the side was something that seems rot read 'chariot of damnation. Apparently, this was normal for Demigods, so I didn't mention anything, but it was kinda strange. Plus, I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. "Take us to Half-Blood Hill." Ariadne told them, and we set off. "IS this normal for Demigods or something? Coz it's kinda wierd." I whispered. "Don't worry." When they stopped, Ariadne grabbed my arm, and pulled me out of the Cab "Thanks." She said to the things in the front of the cab, and handed them a shiny golden coin. "What's that?" I asked her, wondering. I never really showed much interest in Greek Currency. "A Drachma." She replied, turning to the mound of grass in front of us. "This is Half-Blood Hill." "It doesn't look like there's any type of Camp here... there's no tents or anything..." "Stupid. We don't sleep in tents, we have Cabins. One for each God, so it houses the children of that God. And of course you can't see the camp, we have magical borders. You saw the monsters, you think it would be a safe place for Halfbloods if it didn't? We have Thalia's tree- long story- and the Golden fleece." I gaped " The Golden fleece?" "Yeah, the real Golden fleece... we have a lot of Greek artifacts lying around Camp. I mean, this new camper Piper got the actual Helen of Troy's Dagger." "Really? Woah." I though for a moment. "Wait, who's your Godly parent? You didn't say." She shuffled nervously "Well, um, I don't really know. My 13th Birthday is in a while... Sorry, I forgot you didn't know. Basically, you have to be claimed by your parent, and that was quite a problem. People who haven't been claimed stay in the Hermes cabin-" "God of Travellers." I stated "Makes sense." "Yes. But anyway, about... 6 months ago? After we won the war against Kronos, this guy Percy Jackson- Basically the Hero of the whole thing. Us winning? Well, that was basically down to him. Him and Annabeth Chase, that is. Anyway, after the war, he made them promise that every Demigod would be claimed by the time they were 13, or the moment they stepped over the border of Camp if they were over 13 by the time the promise was made or they come to camp for the first time. He disppeared about 2 months later, but that's irrelevant." "Oh... Wow. I'm guessing Athena and Artemis have no children then? Cause, they're like, Maiden Goddeses, right?" "You're right about Artemis, although she has the Hunters, but just because Athena is a Maiden Goddess doesn't mean no children. Her Children are born in the same way as she was- out of Athena's head.They're literally brain children- apparently they are meant to be a gift, a mix of their mother's wisdom and their individual fathers' knowledge. Some of the fathers obviously don't appreciate it though." I grimaced "Okay then... well, can we go in?" She nodded, and we walked up the hill together.

I knew the moment I set foot over the border of Camp. The whole scenery changed, and I realised I was looking down on the Camp. There was a tree to my right, with what looked like a dragon curled around the base, and some type of fleecy golden thing lying on it. I looked into the valley and saw the actual camp. There were many cabins in two rows, shaped like and Omega sign, facing each other; I assumed that it was one side for Goddesses, one side for Gods, and there were what looked like archery courts, a lava wall, a big house and a beach. I stared, gaping at the sight of this place, obviously a home for all Demigods. "Welcome." Ariadne said, quietly "To Camp Half-Blood."

We walked down the bit in between the Cabins. A few kids lounged in the sunlight (There was still a storm raging outside, but it seemed camp had it's own weather thing depending on the Gods' mood) But most were on the Lava climbing wall (I know, I thought it was kinda crazy too) or cleaning their Cabins. There was one girl, who had Blonde hair and Grey eyes, who was talking quietly and seemingly urgently to a satyr with a cap and ordinary T-shirt. I looked at the girl, and Ariadne, obviously seeing me staring, said "That's Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. They're still lookign for Percy Jackson." She sighed. "They've been looking for ages now... Though I shouldn't say anyhting else. They'll explain at the big house." We carried on walking through the camp. One girl, obviously around 16/17, stared out at me like she was just waiting to stuff my head down the loo or something. She was wearing an (Obviously Extra-large size) orange T-shirt with the words 'Camp Half-Blood' emblazoned on the front and a picture of a Pegasus underneath. "Ignore her." She whispered. "That's the Ares cabin." I nodded. It made sense. We continued walking. Eventually, we came to a stop outside the big house I mentioned earlier. Sitting on the Deck was a Centaur. "That's Chiron." She whispered to me. "Chiron?" I hissed back, my tone slightly higher than usual. "You have Chiron here?!" "Um yeah. Anyways, you have to meet Chiron. He'll like, show you around." "Um, Okay..." I walked up to the Deck where Chiron turned to me. "Um, Hi." I said, doing some random wavy thing with my right hand. "Chiron, this is Megan Feddoner, the new Camper." "Hello Megan." Chiron turned to Ariadne. "Were there any problem with Monsters?" "Um, yes. There was an Empousa. I fought her and gave Megan my Knife- Can I have that back, by the way?- but she got me and Megan got her to Tartarus. Plus... she mentioned something about the doors of death, and Thanatos..." I gave her back the knife. Chiron's smile faded " Ariadne, do not mention this to anyone. Everyone who needs to know this knows." He replaced his smile on his face "Well done, all the same. Did she show any traits that could be a trace of her parent?" "What?" I interrupted. "Oh, sorry." "No, don't worry. Let me explain. We try to identify possibilities of a Camper's Godly Parent before they are Claimed. Mainly people get claimed at mealtimes, but we try and guess. So, any?" He turned back to Ariadne. "No, not really. There was lightning but- No that's impossible. Not enough if a time gap between the end of the oath and.... Zeus was probably just angry. Although Saraphona did call her a Child of Lightning." "Okay. Well then Megan, I'm assuming you have nothing with you?" "No... I didn't get to grab anything before we had to go." "Well, go do what you like. Ariadne, show her around. If tonight you have not been claimed, we'll set you up in Hermes. Oh, and here you go." He handed me an orange T-shirt like the one the girl was wearing. "Thank you. Okay." "Wait, Megan?" Ariadne said "Yeah?" I turned back to face her. "How old are you?" "I'm 13." My birthday was the 11th of July. It was around November at this time, and as I later found out, a week after Jason Grace and his friends had gotten back from a quest to save Hera, queen of the gods and (Apparently) a real pain in the butt. "Ah, Chiron said "so you should get claimed tonight." "Oh, cool!" I stated, turning to Ariadne. "can you show me Around?"

We spent the rest of the afternoon until Dinner looking around the camp. First she showed me the dining Pavillion. She walked around the tables. "Right... Here, we have this system of dividing people by who their Godly parent is. If you're undecided, you eat and sleep with the Hermes Cabin. they used to be overflowing, but you know about the agreement. Anyways, now most people are claimed on their first mealtime here, regardless of their age. If they are over 13 when they arrive, they'll often be claimed right away, or, depending on the God or Goddess, at their first mealtime here. It depends on wenether your parent likes the limelight or not." I nodded "That makes sense." "Let me show you the Cabins... especially the Hermes one." "Why?" "Because unless you're claimed, that's where you're sleeping tonight." The cabins were all, as I'd expected, very different. As far as I could see after peeking in the door, the Posiedon Cabin was very blue. We weren't technically meant to go in any cabin without permission, especially not the Big Three's (That's the name they had for Zeus, Poseidon and Hades together) but Ariadne said that 'This was different' and that it would be fun, so we looked. We got caught by some annoying kid who I later found out was a Hermes kid- The god of travellers, theives, and messaging. So his kids were good at being telltales. Next she showed me the Campfire with the big fire circle (Apparently the fire reflected the Campers' moods) and the banners to show where each Cabin should sit. The Hermes area was obviously well used (another sign of the old system where people could go years without being claimed) and some of them looked brand new. Then we went to the Weaponry shed. "Right, let's try se of these." She looked at me, as of sizing me up for something. "Gods, I'm bad at this." she groaned. "I have no idea which weapon would suit you at all!" "I did well with that knife," I offered. "You know what, let's just wait until tomorrow, then get an Athena kid or a Hephaestus kid to come help you or something." I nodded, wondering why this girl was on 'newbie duty' at all, but then the bell went for dinner. At Dinner, I sat at the Hermes table with Ariadne at the dining pavillion. The dryads brought barbecue beef and strawberries and fruit to us and filled our plates with food. Along with the others, I took my food up too one of the ' eternal fires' and pushed in my best piece of Beef. I assumed this was some kind of sacrafice, so I just thought  'For whichever God is my Dad.' and walked back to the table. At the end of the meal,we all went to the Campfire along with Chiron and the rest of the campers. I sat under the Hermes banner of a winged sandal. I noticed that there was one kid under the Lightning banner- obviously Zeus. That was strange. The Annabeth Chase girl looked kinda sadly at the empty space below the Trident banner- Poseidon's.. "Right, we now have some notices." Someone around the circle said "Percy Jackson." The fire turned deep purple. After the most part of 2 weeks looking, the camp was obviously not happy to know how little information they had about him. Annabeth stood up. "The Argo II is due to be ready on the solstice. Grover is still unable to contact Percy through the empathy link, but we think that Hera has disabled it... that's sorta all." Chiron stood up again as Annabeth sat down. "Thank you Annabeth. On other points, the Lava wall is currently Out Of Order due to someone throwing a block of wood at the chute supplying the lava and blocking it. The blocking has been removed but something has gone wrong with the mechanism and it simply sputes lava everywhere when you turn it on. Can the Hephaestus cabin members who are not helping in Bunker 9 please look into this tommorow morning. And can the person who did this please not do this again- I'm looking at you, Travis and Conner Stoll. Also, we have a new camper. Can we all please welcome Megan Feddoner." He held a hand in my direction, and everyone turned to look at me. But he'd just turned away from me when a gasp rippled through the camp. They all seemed to be looking at me. One girl pointed to just above my head.I looked up, and gasped as I saw the reason. A singular silver lightning bolt flickered above my head. "Ah," said Chiron. "Hail, Megan Feddoner- Daughter of Zeus, God of the Sky, Lord of the Heavens."

2- I Learn How to Fly
That evening, I slept in the Zeus Cabin. I'd thought I had no siblings, but it turned out I did sorta have one. (Well, two- Thalia Grace, my half-sister (Zeus, somehow there had been a Greek and a Roman child from the same mother), was a Hunter of Artemis, having given up camp after getting a personal invite from Artemis herself) Nobody had told me about Jason Grace. He'd been in Bunker 9 (The place that a guy named 'Leo Valdez' had Discovered and was building some kind of boat in. Basically they were going to find this Percy Jackson guy and save the world from Gaia- long story. Something to do with a prophecy) when I arrived, and Ariadne seemed to be that type of person that didn't talk about random things unless asked (unlike me). I swear that girl was the most ghost-like person I'd ever met. But basically, she explained that the deal with Jason was that he was from the other camp- Camp Jupiter, the Roman Demigod camp. Chiron had been the only one who knew about it but he had been forbidden from telling anyone since there had been a Civil war between Demigods at the time of the American Civil war. They'd only found out when Percy Jackson had gone missing and Jason had turned up- both having no recollection of their previous life. (At least, that's what they assumed for Percy. They had no actual contact with the Roman camp, so they had no consolidated idea) After the meal, Ariadne introduced me to him. "Megan, this is Jason." She said gesturing to him. "Hi." He said, and smiled. I realized exactly what Ariadne had meant by 'The eyes'. looking into my half-brother's eyes, I realized that they were an exact copy of mine- like the sky on a sunny day. "Hey... well, I guess I'm your sister!" I said, smiling. We couldn't be that different... could we? Just then, Annabeth Chase came running up. "Jason, Where's piper?." She asked, breathless "Leo wants you guys in bunker 9. I can look for Piper-" "She's probably in the Aphrodite Cabin." Jason cut her off "She said she was going to Charmspeak Drew into doing the cleaning." "-okay. you just go to Bunker 9, tell Leo me and Piper are coming." Jason nodded "Okay. Goodbye, Megan and Ariadne." I waved, and he walked off towards the woods, as Annabeth ran in the other direction. "So he's... My brother." I said. The words were strange to me. I'd never had any siblings. "Yeah." She looked towards the Hermes Cabin. Travis Stoll was running out of the door with what looked like a wad of paper, rolled up and tied with an elastic band. "Oh no!" She cried "No you don't! You may be head chancellor, but I'll still tell Chiron on you!" She ran towards him. "Come get them then." He taunted "You know you're not allowed to touch my photos!" She wailed, her face drooping. "I knew I shoudl hve used the-" She muttered. suddenly, she darted off towards Travis, unbelievably fast. Travis ran, dodging her running, seeing where she would go before she ran towards him and moving quickly away. Ariadne sighed. "I hate living in the Hermes Cabin." her shoulders slumped forward and she face fell. I wanted to do something; this girl was my only friend at the camp and Travis (who I knew liked pranks) was obviously taking this too far. Suddenly, Ariadne flickered. Like she was a hologram, not there in actuality. She was invisible for a moment, and then suddenly, she faded away into nothing. "Ariadne?!" I asked, shocked. People don't usually... turn invisible. You know. It's kinda strange. "What?" She said, sounding indifferent. "Um, you're kind of... invisible." I explained quickly. "Oh." It was strange, hearing a disembodied voice floating around. Suddenly, the photos in Travis' hands moved, jerked upwards. "Thank you." she said, and suddenly she was visible again. "That... was weird." Suddenly, Travis doubled over I. Laughter. "If-you-could-see-your-face-" He laughed. "Sorry about that Araidne- I just had to see her face when she saw that trick you do." He carried on laughing. She glared at him "Hmm. well, next time steal something that I don't love so much, Kay?" She walked over. "Yeah. Look, we should probably go sleep now... Breakfast is.... well, we have a gong. first gong is wake up. Second gong is breakfast. See ya."

I walked to Cabin 1 alone. Inside, it was like an old Greek Temple rather than a cabin. It didn't even seem to have a bathroom; there was simply two beds and two chests, one with a tattered purple T-shirt on top. I sat on the other bed, trying to block out the continuous thunder that was going on in the cabin and looking at the Cabin's interior. It had a huge statue of what looked like some kind of Hippie God guy with a grumpy expression and a black beard (Who I assumed was meant to be Zeus) that no matter where you went, you couldn't escape the sight of. I think it was designed like that; I don't really know. I tried to sleep that night, but I couldn't. I was vaugely aware of Jason sleeping in the bed on the other side of the room; That was awkward. I wished that Thalia, whoever she was, was still at Camp. I just had... so much information to process. I had the whole Demgiod thing, then the whole Shannon-being-Saraphona thing, and then the fact that I was actually the daughter of a three-millennia old immortal God, who just happened to be the most powerful in the universe. Yeah. It's enough to make your head hurt. Had my mum known? Had she known that Dad and the Immortal God Zeus were the same person? I rolled over and tried to sleep. Of course Mum couldn't have known. That was what the mist was for. I'd grown up on a semi-okay housing block of apartments with my mum and a complete asshole called Dave. My mum had met him (At the same time as her best friend Steph met her husband Neil, who's also the father of Alex, who's always been like a brother to me) at the cinema. He was serving popcorn and slipped his number into her tub. She rung him up (yeah, they really didn't have stranger danger in those days- if they had, Mum'd have been in a much better place) and they went on a date, blah, blah, blah. Mum was a small-time singer who didn't really have more than a few fans. If you ask me, she'd always deluded herself into thinking she had a much bigger fandom. Maybe that was what drew Zeus to her; She'd always told me that Dave was my father, but obviously she had some kind of... fling, 'cause... well, something must have happened because she was with Dave when she was pregnant with me. And I'm a demigod. And trust me, Dave is not a God. Honestly. Just don't even think about it because that will be time wasted. Life was changing.. and to be honest, I hated change. Change was bad. Let me explain. The first change I can every remember experiencing was when Dave moved out. I was three, and all I can remember was Dave and Mum shouting, a loud slapping sound and toddling into the lounge to see Mum crying. I never saw Dave again. I never called him Daddy, or Dad after that. I knew what had happened- Dave had hit Mum because they were fighting. That was the very first change I went through. My Mother's musical career would have been much more successfull if it wasn't for Dave. It was just taking off properly when he started saying that he didn't want her doing this. (By the way, can't rememeber this. Mum told me the story afterwards.) So yeah. Change has akways been bad for me. But this chnage seemed good. Surely a new home, a different father to the one I thought I had, was good? All of this had to be good. I smiled. Yes, this would be good. Very good. I mean, I was the daughter of the King Of The Gods! That was so awesome! And, did that mean that the lightning at the school was me? Or, like, that my dad was sticking up for me agains the whatever-it-was. Apparently names were important. Ariadne had told me not to say the names on the way to the campfire. Names could summon a monster, and the internet was dangerous too. One boy had apparently googled Gorgons- and gotten..... well, Gorgons. I wondered what this was going to be like. I was fairly optimistic- I thought this would be okay, if not good. I just hoped that nobody expected me to be amazing simply because of my father. Because trust me, I wasn't anything... amazing. I rolled over to face the wall, where I couldn't see the massive statue.

I woke up to the sound of thunder. ...But then again, it was always, always, thundering in Cabin 1. I realised that the other noise I'd heard was the first gong, the breakfast gong. I got dressed quickly noting that Jason had already left, obviously for breakfast. I wore my orange t-shirt that I was guessing was the camp shirt And my light blue jeans, and some blue trainers- someone had obviously been to the nearest primary ir something in the middle of the night, as I hadn't brought any of my possessions with me to camp. I went to breakfast, where I saw Ariadne sitting at the Hermes table and smiled. Breakfast passed quickly. the food was good and we literally did the same drill as the night before - giving some of our food to the gods and stuff. After breakfast Ariadne introduced me to Nyssa, a Hephaestus kid who liked making weapons. "Okay, Nyssa this is Megan. Megan, Nyssa." "Okay. Megan you kinda need a better weapon than other people as you're a daughter of Zeus- monsters find potentially powerful demigods- and that includes you now- more easily, especially if they know who they are. Right... you look like you'd do okay with most weapons, although maybe not a sword... too heavy. But maybe.. that's an idea. Okay, I'll get back to you on that." And with that she ran off. I turned to Ariadne, who nodded. "Well, let's go." "Where?" I asked. What exactly did they do at this camp? "The lava climbing wall. Chiron booked you a slot this morning. Also, the Hephaestus kids have fixed it, which is a plus." We walked to the lava wall slowly. When we got there, the Aphrodite cabin members were scaling the wall (Well, partly. Some members were k. The ground complaining that if they went on the wall the their makeup would get messed up, and somebody the girls who were on the wall were complaining about their hair.) Jason was at the bottom, watching one of the only non-makeuppy girls on the wall climb. I vaguely remembered her as Piper, and I realised that she must be a Daughter of Aphrodite (great logic, huh?) and quite obviously trying to get Jason to go out with her. The wall was obviously made of rock, and streaks of lava were running down it, sometimes covering handholds and footholds. I could see where there had been a circular block of wood I. The shoot at the top that shot lava into little rivets that divided it equally, so the lava didn't go straight down the middle and make it easy for the people on the sides and very, very, hard for the person in the middle. "Hey." Ariadne called up "Aphrodite kids? Yeah, get off the wall. It's the Zeus cabin's turn now." The girls in the wall (apart from a few ) looks relieved and came down slowly. The guys frowned slightly. And came down, and Piper rejoined Jason at the bottom. U noticed something else about the wall. "No safety ropes?" I asked Ariadne, pursing my lips slightly "won't people fall?" "Maybe." she said, shrugging her shoulders "It gets you motivated." "I bet it does." I walked up to the wall and looked around. Ariadne gave me a thumbs up and I started climbing. I looked down about three handholds up and saw lots of people watching. I looked back up and carried on climbing. the further up I got, the better I felt. I started going faster, swinging my hands up and narrowly missing lava. I heard shouts from below- stuff like 'call Diana' and 'medic!' I wondered what had happened. I was fine, so why were they calling 'Diana'? Maybe it was Jason. he was also on the wall... I was nearly at the top. Suddenly, a shot of lava went past and singed the end of my finger. My foot slipped, and suddenly I was falling. I was vaguely aware of a dark-olive skinned girl running towards the wall. She smiled at Ariadne, who scowled. I looked down, and realised that I was no longed falling. I was only about 9 feet from the ground, but I'd stopped. Ariadne smacked her palm against her forehead. "I forgot- Zeus thing. As daughter if The Lord if the sky, you can call on the winds to Stop your fall and carry you places, blah blah blah. Basically, you can fly." I looked down at my feet, hovering above the ground. "Cool! That's do awesome. So... can I do... This?" I shot upwards and laughed, before dropping slowly back to the ground. The pretty dark skinned girl who I assumed was Diana had a slightly annoyed expression on her face "I was in the infirmary." she said "I don't like being called for no reason." "Umm.. I have slightly burnt finger?" I offered, finally coming to a rest on the ground again. She laughed "Okay then. come with me and we'll... give you a band-aid. I dunno." I followed her to a room in the big house, Ariadne following behind me. She got a piece of what looked like honeycomb from a fridge and gave it too me, looking at the burn (It was charred and black, throbbing in pain. Not fun.) and cut some off. "What is th-" "Ambrosia. Food of the Gods. Literally. We can eat it in small amounts when we're ill or hurt, but otherwise it will burn us up." The honeycomb, which had looked delicious the moment before, now looked like a dangerous weapon. She laughed. "That's the right amount exactly, you shoud eat it. It wil heal that." She nodded towards my finger. I shrugged and ate it- my finger hurt really bad. The food tasted delicious, like strawberries and chocolate flavoured cream- a food me and Alex ate together all the time. Diana seemed satisfied with my expression. "it always tastes like comforting memories- it helps you mentally, not just physically." Later, all three of us left the infirmary for lunch.

Diana was our friend after that. Ariadne occasionally acted slightly hostile towards Diana, as if holding an old grudge, but there were no real problems. Diana was a daughter of Apollo, aged just over 13, and the best medic that Camp Half-Blood had see. In the last century. she had (frustratingly for the campers) been rescued by a satyr just after the end of the Titan War, which must have been annoying. I tried not to think about the fact that that made her my half-niece, technically, since Apollo was my half-brother. The days flew by. On my third day at camp, Chiron added a rule that you had to touch the Lava wall at least four times before you reached the top, otherwise there was no real point. That rule was really my rule, as I do t think Jason had ever cheated on the wall and I was the only other one who could fly at camp. I gradually got closer to Jason, although not very close, as we were so different- he was calm and assessed situations. I was bubbly and permanently hyper and I ran into things without thinking. We had a game of Capture-the-flag on that day; it was a friday and my first game. I sidled up to Jason at the beggining of the game, and asked him casually "Who does Zeus side with?" "Well, today it's Zeus, Athena, Apollo and all the other gods to do with music and healing, they usually play as a team, and Hepheastus, against Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite, Dionysis and all of the others are divided between the two- the list is too long." "Cool." I ran off to Ariadne. "So it seems we are enemies now, mwahahahaha!" I fake-evil laughed. "whatcha mean?" "Zeus sides with Athena. Hermes sides with Ares. Boom! War." "What? we always side with- Of course. Clarisse." She said the name like an answer. "Well, we may hae worked well against that vampire thing, but we're on different teams now! Beware the great Megan!" "Yeah, right!" she laughed

The game began with me on guard duty above the flag. Jason was with me, and no other campers could fly, so I decided to take the opportunity. "Jason, cover for me." "Megan, wait-" I dived at the ground, stopping as my feet hit the floor. I walked softly down by the river until I came to a place where the trees were thick and leaved, so I shot upwards into the sky. Just below leaf level, I flew along silently, coming to a stop near their flag. I saw Diana and Annabeth and soem other kids hiding around the clearing, who I assumed weer our team. I made a beeline for Annabeth. "Psst." She whipped round to face me, her eyes grey and calm. "What? Megan I think you're meant to be on surprise guard duty, right?" "Yeah, btu I have an idea." I told her the plan, and she nodded. "It's  an improvemwent on our current plan. They ahve it really well guarded today. I shot up into the skies. Five seconds later, the campers hidden in the trees burst out, and started fighting the enemy team, with so much gusto that they had no one protectign the flag. I waited until they wereall absorbed in the fight and swooped down, grabbing te flagpole, and flew it over the river, planting it in the ground. Chiron walked into the clearing and declared our victory, and the look on the Ares cabins faces was something I'd pay to see.

The fourth day, although she didn't advertise it, was Ariadne's 13th birthday. I realised that that was one of the reasons I was claimed so quickly- I was 13 when I came to camp. But although all day we were expecting a sign to appear above Ariadne's head, she wasn't claimed. And that was the problem.



3- Oh Yippee! More monsters to kill!
The next morning, Nyssa showed me my weapon. She'd been working from a design a little like 'Riptide'- the magical sword Percy Jackson carried that turned into a ballpoint pen. Because she couldn't make magical items, she'd simply made a dagger that had a retractable blade. Also, she'd added the fact that only I could press the thumb-print in the side, so the weapon would only work for me. It only reacted to my thumbprint. It was disguised as a mascara tube (they had already disguised it when I saw, protesting that I wasn't an Aphrodite kid) and when I pressed the thumbprint in the side, The top would slide off and it would grow into a dagger. Ariadne gave me a look when I left the Hephaestus forges. I knew she was uncomfortable at camp now that she was still unclaimed at 13. No one knew she was 13, of course. She'd told me the day before, excited that she could finally leave the Hermes cabin- or be accepted as one of their own. The problem was that we couldn't exactly go up to Olympus and tell them off for not claiming her- for one thing, all the gods had been recalled, and the gates of Olympus had been closed. The first interaction they'd has from my father for months was when he claimed me. This was quite scary in itself. I loved my new life at Camp- I missed my mother, her best friend Steph who may as well have been and aunt to me. I missed my old friends from the secondary school I'd gone to before my posh school- Penelope, Anna, Lisa. I missed Alex, Steph's son who'd always been like a brother to me, closer then even my mother. He'd been the only one who'd noticed that I was different... special. He could obviously see through the mist, I realised in that moment. I mean, when we were 5, I'd fallen over and cut my knee. Alex had mentioned that my blood shimmered slightly. I scoffed at the time- such a stupid suggestion couldn't possibly been true- but now I realise that he was right. My blood would shimmer slightly- it was half Ichor- the blood of the gods. I missed them all, but the fact that this camp could be in danger scared me. I loves my new life much more then my old life. I felt a pang of guilt at the fact that my mother and Alex must have been going livid their minds with worry, along with Steph and her husband Neil. but if I went back now, they would ask me about my life. Better for them to believe that I was dead. Safer to, as anyone who knew about my world was in danger to monsters

That night, I was about to go to bed after curfew when a voice came from a tree near the Zeus Cabin. "Pssst." I turned, not seeing anything. "Megan, I'm in the tree!" I turned back to the tree and suddenly Araidne was visible again. "Come on." she said, throwing me a backpack "Diana's waiting in the forest. I'll explain on the way." "Ariadne, I-" "SHH!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me through the forest. We came to a clearing, where Diana was standing looking annoyed and slightly confused. "Ariadne De Occultis, what the Hades are we doing here?" She said, with a scolding tone and a mock strict expression on her face. She, too, was holding a rucksack like mine in her hands. I looked at her, questioning, bt she shook her head. So Diana had no idea either "Okay, guys, here's the plan." Ariadne said, rematerializing under a particularly large oak tree, with a strange light in her eyes, a bit like a madman with a plan. "We're going to go and whip the Gods' podex's (I realised that that must have been anicent greek or latin for but) for not claiming me in time." I laughed "You can't be serious? We're going to fly to Greece, climb a mountain and shout at some gods? I'm in." Diana looked at me, a sarcastic expression on her face "Are you joking?" "What?" I asked "Mount Olympus is in Greece. Trust me, my mother took me there once." Ariadne gave Diana a look "Megan, I forgot you didn't know. Olympus is in the Empire State Building. The mountain is in Greece, but Olympus itself attaches itself to the tallest building in the cultural central if the modern world at that point. So Olympus is currently in New York. and that's why we're in Long Island Sound, and most demigods are American." I nodded. "So instead, we're getting a plane to New York and shouting at the gods. I'm still in." Diana looked at me sceptically. "Ariadne, you know how dangerous the mortal world is for us. maybe this isn't a good idea. plus, if we shout at the gods they would have every reason to try and kill us, which would be bad." She looked at me pointedly 'and certain powerful demigods get sniffed out by monsters from over 10 miles away. Also not a good thing." I knew that the mortal world was dangerous for half-bloods, especially me. But we had to go, Ariadne was going and me and Diana were her best friends! I guess we should have waited, but I thought that even if I was new, they must know what they were doing. But I was wrong. "And where would we go anyway? how would we get there? We're pretty much stranded on this island, and we have no mortal money." She stopped, and looked at us hopelessly, As if she'd run out of steam and knew that we were not convinced. I'd assumed that she would stop there, but she continued "Plus, Chiron would go crazy if he found out, you know he would Ariadne." she looked at Ariadne imploringly. Ariadne nodded slowly, but the light was still in her eyes. "I know all that, Diana. but I guess you don't understand... You, miss I-was-claimed-the-moment-I-got-to-camp-and-I'm-the-best-medic-at-camp... I guess you just don't get the feeling of abandonment. I was banking on being claimed yesterday, but I wasn't. I need to Know who my parent is. soon people are going to notice that I'm 13. and then... Diana, there can't be another war like the Titan war. you weren't there, you two. I fought in that war... so many people died... demigods against demigods. it can't happen again. Demigods defied their own parents and fought their own siblings with no thought of how wrong it all was. That's one of the reasons I'm worried about meeting this new camp. If we fight them, then Gaia would literally just have to throw in some monsters and no one would know who was fighting who. we would simultaneously destroy each other, and Gaia would just inherit the wreckage." Diana's voice was quiet and even "I know, Ariadne. I have some precognition. I saw in my sleep last night... I saw a battle." she sighed "There was us, in orange shirts and armour, going against the demigods in purple shirts who used gold weapons. I saw myself and my siblings, rushing to treat the wounded and finding too many. I saw-" her voice caught in a quiet sob "I saw my own death. I was kneeling to treat Katy Redina- you know, from the Demeter cabin?- and an Apollo kid, a Roman Apollo kid shot me through the heart." I stared at her. This image was one I such hopelessness that it was hardly believable. Diana looked at me like she had seen something that she didn't want to tell me. "Well, maybe..." I trailed off "we can go now and warn the gods as well as yelling them about Ariadne. we an stop that scene from becoming real. we can do this!" "Megan, the gods have gone silent." Ariadne said, staring at me "why do you think we were so worried? you need a god and a demigod to kill and giant, and all the gods have been recalled and forbidden from communicating with anyone outside olympus. I didn't want to tell you, but... we are on the brink of disaster. we need the gods, but what they don't like is that they need us. the only people who have been seen outside Olympus since November are Apollo, Artemis and Hera. The twins because of their daily and nightly duties, and Hera because she was captured and nearly devoured by the earth, about a week ago. your brother and His friends saved her, in fact. The first comunication we have had with the King of the Gods since November was when he claimed you." I stared at her. I'd known about the being recalled thing, but a disaster? "Well... maybe we can get in. we have to try. like you said, we can do this. Come on guys." Diana and Ariadne exchanged a look, maybe thinking about the visions they had each seen- Ariadne defending the Empire State Building from Kronos, Diana in her precognitive dreams. Ariadne sighed "Yeah. Let's go shout at some gods."

We started towards the edge if the island. The outside of camp borders edge, not the inside one. Camp Half Blood had its own beach, but we couldn't use that one as we would probably get noticed- only Ariadne could turn invisible and I had flaming red hair the colour of luminous, glow-in-the-dark carrots. Our spirits gradually rose as we got closer to New York. We were about to find our way to the Empire State Building when a light blue hided thing blocked our way. It had a fan of deep blue and it was like a dragon, but more sea-monster like, and it was growling at us angrily. "Dragon?" I asked uneasily, pushing my thumb into the thumbprint on my mascara tube. "Nope." Ariadne said "worse. Drakon." "Im guessing they're not friendly?" "No. They mainly live on a diet of-" "Demigods." I guessed. "Yup." Diana looked at us. "Did you bring your spear, Ariadne?" she questioned. I vaguely remembered her attacking the Empousa with a long bronze spear thing. She grimaced. "You know I'm bad with the spear, Diana. Chiron only gave me it because of my godly parent, which he wouldn't say who it was." "I know, I just wanted to borrow it. You can use your half-sword." She nodded, and gave Diana a long, bronze tube which Diana pressed a button in the side. From the bottom and the top, a pole apeared. At the top, a spearhead jabbed out. Diana looked at it, satisfied. "I don't have a weapon, you see." She told me "I mainly do medical work and they give us all knives in battle. So I borrow Ariadne's spear as she hates using it." I nodded "so do we attack it, or-" Suddenly, the monster charged, and pushed me sideways. I hacked at it with the knife, trying to use the tactics I'd learnt in sword fighting lessons at camp, but they were mainly for human-like person on human-like monster, not a huge Drakon. I realised that I had somehow ended up on the monster's back. There was a long gash on my cheek from the claw, and I looked down to see Diana fighting the legs, her eyes squeezed shut, so I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "What the-" She opened her eyes "Where are we, how the Hades did we get up here and wait a sec, let me fix that for you." She hummed to herself and the wound on my cheek closed up slowly. "How in Tartar-" "I can do this thing where if I sing a hymmn to my father, it heals the sick person nearest too me." "oh, okay then-" There was a lurch as the Drakon reared upwards. "Help me you idiots!" Ariadne yelled from below me. "I'm fighting a loosing battle here!" "Do the invisible thing!" "I can't control it!" I shoved my hand down at her. "Grab my hand, it's gonna fly off." I had gotten this interesting fact from he sight of it opening it's wings and beginning to flap them slowly. Ariadne grabbed my hand and I pulled her up, just before the bony part of it's wing came forard quickly, and I blacked out.

In my dream I was stood outside the window of my apartment which I shared with my mother. The lights were on, but the room had changed. The Phone was now in the centre of the room, and Steph, Alex and Neil were gathered around it with my mother. Oh, I hadn't realised how much I'd missed her! I wanted to run up and hug her, tell her about camp and stop that tired look on her face, destroy the tired lines on her forehead. Under her eyes were black shadows- bags, she always called them- and she was crying. The TV was turned to the 24-hour news channel, and there were pictures of me and news cuttings tacked to the wall. They were talkign quickly about soemthing, and my Mother looked away in despair. Alex got up ,and fr the first time I saw his face. he had tears runnign down his cheek and he held a picture in his hand. I craned to see it and realised that it was me and him, our arms round each other, the last saturday I was a mortal. we had just been to this milkshake place, and we'd met up with our mums in the park. they's taken the photo and we each had a copy... mine had been in my blazer; I'd moved it too my jeans. The ones I was wearing! I wanted to call out to them, but suddenly Alex spoke, but not in his voice. I didn't recognise thsi voice, until the scene changed. Standing in front of me was a guy with black hair and Bright blue eyes, like mine when Im happy. I knew who this was. "Father?" I asked, my voice doubtful. He opened his mouth to speak, but in that moment, the dream vanished and I woke up. "Megan!" Diana said, exasperated. "Finally. We're in France... and there are more monsters for us to kill."



4- I decide to Torch another building
<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We got back in the cab and travelled for quite a while. The day progressed slowly; I fell asleep for part of it. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">At this point we'd been driving for roughly 7 hours; we were just crossing the line from France to Spain. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">As we crossed th line, I turned to Ariadne. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"We're in your country now, you stay awake, Imma sleep." Amd turned away, whilst Ariadne laughed.. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">It had now been... what, a day since we left camp? they had probably noticed. Jason probably knew that I hadn't come in last night. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I slept for maybe an hour, before I woke up. we were an hour away from Bilbao, the driver's Spanish City if choice. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"So." Ariadne poked me in the ribs. "What was your life like before Camp?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Diana was sleeping beside me. "Well, it was okay. I had friends, they just went to other schools. Uh, my best friend was this guy called Alex, he was my mother's best friend's son. we hung out all the time." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Was he cute?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I contemplated this for a second. I didn't know. Was Alex cute? He had brown hair that came just to his ears, blue eyes only just less blue then mine, a little like Diana's (Although not very much like Diana's) and he was kinda tall. Taller then me, at least. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"I dunno." I said, and pulled out the photo. "See for yourself." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She surveyed the photo, curious. "Urm... Kinda. Not my type, but cute all the same." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Yeah. Well, my Mum is a small-time guitarist/folk singer. She could have made it big, but..." I looked away, biting my lip. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"What? Did having you stop her career?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Oh, no! Zeus was probably only attracted to her because of her Career- you know, king of the gods and a famous pop star, the nearest thing to royalty you guys have these days. No, it wasn't me, it was.. Dave." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Who?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"My mum's Ex-husband. I believed he was my dad. He was the one to force her into not being famous. He didn't want people who were fans falling in love with her." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"So he stopped her from being famous." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Yeah. Simulataniously destroyed my mother's dreams and her physical health. He hit her a lot, when she did stuff he didn't want her too." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Wow." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"I know. Don't tell anyone this, okay?" I looked at her, pleading. "I've never told anyone this but Alex." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Wasn't planning on it." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Okay, I've spilled on my life, you spill on yours." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Um, so... I was born in Spain, I grew up speaking Spanish. I'm still fluent. At the age of 5, my half-American mother moved us to Washington D.C, so that we could escape her family. You see, her mother went kinda... mental. My Mom didn't want me and my half siblings, Julius and Persephone, to be involved with that. I was kinda normal- apart from the dyslexia and ADHD, until I was 9. I started having weird things happen- I would dream about defeating a monster, and wake up to find it's horn in my room, etc. I now realise that I wasn't dreaming; It was just the mist confusing me. Technically, I should be called Araidne DiHadrew- That's my mother's maiden name. But I believed I was Mark's daughter.  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Anyway, my teacher at this time was Mr BushBarrow. He turned out to be my friendly local Satyr and he took me to camp. I arrived at camp aged 10 1/2, just before the battle of the labyrinth."  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">The driver was Spanish, so he didn't understand a word she'd said; the drivers had switched at the service station, and this one didn't speak English. This meant that we could talk freely.  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Wow."  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">There was a sign saying something in Spanish that used the word 'Bilbao', so I assumed that we had entered the city.  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">The driver pressed a button on the keyboard, and the partition went down. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"¿dónde quieres ir? El aeropuerto de? O un hotel cercano?" He asked Ariadne, looking in the rearview mirror. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"what's he saying?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"He's asking us: Hotel or Airport?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Hotel. Do we even have to money for a plane?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"No, un hotel, por favor. Tenemos que descansar." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Whatcha tell him?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"We need to go the Hotel because we want to rest." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We drove on for what was roughly 30 minutes, and then we stopped in front of a Hotel. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Will we be able to get in?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"What do you mean?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"C'mon Amigo! You're meant to be smart! We're a group of three minors, Diana looks like she's drunk when she wakes up, and none of unot s have ID because we're only 13. They're  not<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;"> going to let us in a hotel." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Um.... One: Don't call me Amigo. Two: It's a motel. The taxi driver guy was not stupid, and Motels take everyone. Three: Diana, wake your lazy ass up and get out here!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I nodded "K' Amigo." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She gave me a death glare. I turned away and hit Diana in the head. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She opened her eyes, rubbing the side of her head, just above the ear, where I'd hit her. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Ouch!" she complained "What was that for?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"To wake you up." I said, turning back to Ariadne as we all scrambled out of the Cab. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"That was a bit harsh." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We walked in the Motel and asked for a room. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">The woman reluctantly gave us a key to a twin room, which was a bit rubbish but okay. I had thought we'd end up in worse places, so I was fine with this. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">There was a TV, which I assumed was okay for Demigods to watch, so I flicked it on and turned to the cabinet of books. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">If I needed something to do.... well, I hated reading. Audio books were cool, but they required no reading, so my dyslexia was okay, apart from the fact that if I sat around whilst listening, my ADHD kicked off. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I picked the only book in English off the shelf and read the title. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">'Pgsasue nad het lfaem'? I wondered, before distinguishing that what it actually said was probably 'Pegasus and the flame'. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I opened it and sat, struggling, through the first chapter for about half an hour, before Ariadne flicked the channel over to the 24-hour News channel. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">This was in spanish, like most of the programs of this tv, so I didn't pay any attention to it. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"... Y, en Inglaterra, una niña ha desaparecido después de un incendio en su escuela secundaria. Megan Feddoner fue declarado desaparecido hace una semana, cuando ella no estaba accunted para después del fuego se apagó.  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Los científicos han dicho que no hay ningún rastro de ADN humano en las cenizas, y que ella debe faltar." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Megan!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I snapped the book shut, instantly alert. That's what ADHD does to you- If you hear someone shout your name, you tend to overreact. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Did they just... say my name? On the TV?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">It had been in a spanish accent, but it  was<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;"> my name. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Yeah... let me translate..." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She stopped for a moment, processing it. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"She said... well, from the bit when we flipped over... 'And ... in England, a girl has disappeared after a fire at her high school. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Megan Feddoner was reported missing a week ago, when she was not accounted for after the fire was extinguished. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Scientists have said that there is no trace of human DNA in the ashes, and that she must be missing, probably dead.'" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I gasped "Wait, what? I'm dead?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne nodded "you've been pronounced missing for a week, there's a national search on... wow. You're like, the most popular person in Europe." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I sat down on the twin bed. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Let's make a plan." said Diana, grimacing. "You may be officially dead, but  actually<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;"> dead is different." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"I'd like to avoid that." I agreed "Being dead is not on my bucket list." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We looked at each other, before bursting out laughing. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"How can being dead be on someone's bucket list?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Anyway," Ariadne sat up straight "I say we hang out in Bilbao for a few days, work out his much money we've got and get enough for a plane back to America." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I nodded "I, for one, would like to use the slightly rubbish shower that comes standard with This room." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Diana put her had up like a 5-year-old asking a question in class "I'd like to use the snack bar." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"I'm starving." Ariadne agreed <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"I have a coffee addiction..." I said slightly sadly. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Let's find a clothes shop first?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"That seems like a good choice." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"So." I said, putting my hand down on mother table. "we go find a clothes store and buy clothes. The. We come back and have showers and change so we don't look like homeless people when we Go find some coffee shop and have coffee and food. then we count our money, If required Ariadne will do her thing, and we'll catch a plane to America. Everyone good with that?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne nodded, seeming to weigh it up in her head. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Diana looked at me "Seriously speaking here, you are the one person I'd most like to be in a plane with." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I laughed "Would that have anything to do with the fact that I could hold the plane up if it started to crash?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She patted my shoulder "you shall see, you shall see." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I laughed, slightly uncertainly "okay then." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne looked at me closely. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"What's up, Amigo?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Wait, what where you thinking about just then?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Isn't that a  Breaking Dawn<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;"> quote?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Oh, shut up. What were you thinking of?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Well, I was confused for a second because of what Diana said, and then-" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"There!" she said "you're confused,  <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">aren't you? go look in the mirror!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I turned and walked into the bathroom. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I looked in the mirror, staring at my face, until.... <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"My eyes are grey!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">My eyes were a blue-grey colour. They rapidly turned to a dark midnight-blue at my confusion. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Why are they changing colour?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I walked back into the room. "what didn't I notice this before? when I was younger?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Mist." Ariadne said shortly "blocks your view of the real world, makes you see things that mortals want to see- like normality. For example, when we defeated Kronos' army last year in the Battle of Manhattan, all the mortals saw it as a storm." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I nodded "I didn't know that the mist could fool demigods." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She nodded "some mortals are also born with the ability to see through the mist- Our oracle, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, can see through the mist,and both of her parents are mortal. She'd be the first to tell you that there's not a drop of mythological blood in her veins." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Diana looked at us. "Are you two done geeking out about the mist? It's quite obvious that Megan's eyes change colour according to her emotions, so what's the problem?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Of course! Emotions. I'm assuming that this isn't normal?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">she shook her head "Nope." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"So." Diana yelled, slapping her hands together once. "Let's go shopping!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne laughed. "Oh I forgot you were a shopping addict. Remember that time when you snuck out of Camp because there was a sale on at the biggest Shop in Manhattan? Chiron was  furious<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Yeah. Remeber how I bribed Drew not to tell on me by promising to bring her designer labels? Aphrodite kids are  so<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;"> predicatble." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Apart from Piper." I put in, as we walked out the Motel doors. "She seemed different." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">They laughed "You could say that. She challenged Drew Tanaka -The most selfish, arrogant, horrible person you'll ever meet, who happens to have  Charmspeak<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;"> of all things- to a duel over who got to be Head Chancellor. She's awesome. Oh, and she happened to rescue Hera from a giant along with your brother and Leo." Ariadne said. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Yeah, I heard about that. Why was she even captured? I mean, surely... You-know-whats can be in more then one place at a time? And they can't really get captured, surely?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She gave me a sideways look "I thought you were a Mythology Greek? sorry, Geek." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I thought for a second "Okay, so I forgot when my father was captured by my uncle. Oh and that time when a certain blacksmith we all know captured his wife having an affair with Clarisse's dad." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Yeah." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"You know everyone here speaks spanish, right?" Diana put in "You dont have to use these metaphors." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Tourists." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">She chewed her lip, something I'd noticed she did when she was stressed. "You're right." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne perked up "Spanish Primark, right over there." she pointed a building with the typical blue text and a word I assumed was 'Primark' (a brand name, the same in all languages), which looked to me like 'Pirmkra'. Dyslexia is annoying. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We walked towards the building. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Wait, don't we need euros?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Shhh-ugar." I said "Sugar. We need Spanish money in Spain." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne looked at me. "luckily, I come prepared." she drew a square of plastic out of her pocket "I have about 30€ on here. It should be enough for clothes and food." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"You are our saviour!" I said "We can buy clothes!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Okay then." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We walked over to a 'cajero automático'- cash machine (Which I read as 'cjaroe aoutiátcmo') and Ariadne pt the card in the slot, pressed the 30€ button and collected the two notes- A 20€ and a 10€. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">A message popped up on the screen. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">All three of us stood there for a second. "Uh, what's it say?" Diana asked "I can read Ancient Greek. Not Spanish." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Give me a second, I'm Dyslexic too." She half-snapped. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Sorry." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"So, it says... Usted ha sacado 30 €. El saldo de su cuenta es ahora 0,50 €. Which means... You have taken out 30 €. The balance of your account is now € 0.50." Ariadne translated, after a while. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Oh, good." I said, sarcastically. "Good that we have that much in reserve." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Just in case." Diana laughed <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"For an emergancy." Ariadne agreed. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We burst in laughter as we headed back towards the Primark. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Later, we headed to the Costa (A brand name, so it stayed the same in both English and Spanish.) after we were looking less like homeless people, had a little money left and were wearing new clothes. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I had gone round the Primark and bought a blue outfit; Blue jeans, blue loose T-shirt, a blue hoodie jacket with a zip and blue sneaker shoes. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne had bought a very dull outfit; She seemed to like blending into the background. She was wearing a pastel green t-shirt, white loosish leggings and light green pumps with a strap across the open part to stop them falling off; who knew when we'd have to run. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Diana was wearing a dark purple T-shirt with dark blue jeans, black trainers and her dark hair tied back into a ponytail. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We went to the counter and ordered; I got two black Americanos. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne got a smoothie. She'd been a year-rounder at Camp for ages, I remembered. She wasn't used to anyhtign other then fruit and vegetables really. Diana got a milkshake. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"So, who's the fourth drink for?" The teenager behind the counter crooned. I didn't think to wonder how she knew English. "Do you have a boyfriend?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"No, I have a coffee addiction." I retorted. I didn't like nosey people. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Really,  bird<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">? You need two Coffees?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Bird?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I asked. Partly, I wondered if she called everyone that. The more ADHD part of my brain was screaming ' Too close the home on the daughter of Zeus thing! Monster, kill her!' <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Oh ,sorry. That's my nickname for people." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I took the drinks and walked to a booth, the others following me without a word. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">After we'd finished, we went to go back to the Motel. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Oh, sorry,  Bird<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">, but I can't let you go just yet." The employee who had been behind the counter was in front fo me suddenly, baring her teeth. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Why not?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Because, you killed my trainee! Banished her to Tartarus just as she was getting good. That was her first field trip, and after she'd disposed of the real Shannon girl, she was doing well, until you got rid of her! And, as her Trainer, I have to take revenge!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I was ready this time. I grabbed my knife out of my pocket and jammed my finger into the dent in the side. The knife formed, and the Empousa looked at it. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Oh, a knife." She said. "But I'm afraid Celestial Bronze will only get you so far- You have to catch me first!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">Ariadne grabbed her sword out of her rucksack, and threw Diana her spear. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"How about long reach weapons?" She asked. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"It's on, Bird.<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I lunged with my Knife, managing to rip a gash in the Monster's arm. The mortals around us gasped. Whatever they were seeing right now, they probably didn't like me. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I gave Ariadne a look, and she dissolved into thin air, as Diana lunged with the spear, knocking her backwards. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"You see, I defeated Saraphona  alone<span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">," I told her "This time, I have two friends to help me. Watch your back, Donkey legs!" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I hoped Ariadne got the message. I looked Diana in the eyes, and we both charged. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I think it was Diana's spear that did it. I don't really know, as the next few minutes were hazy. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We pushed her back somehow, right backwards. She'd lost her balance when she fell- right onto Ariadne sword. It pierced her back, and along with the other wounds that had grey sand pouring out, she crumbled to dust. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">The mortals around us were staring, and I was about to run, when they all started to clap. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"muy buen juego! " one said. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Efectos especiales maravillosos! " another looked at us. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">we both looked at Ariadne. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"Care to translate?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"They think it was a multi-language play." Ariadne Muttered. "They're saying how good it was." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">I laughed. "They could think that it was a play? I love the mist." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">We walked back to the Motel room slowly. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">After we emptied the snack bar, Ariadne looked up at us. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"What?" I said, my mouth full of food. <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"The good news is... I think I can do something about this." She said slowly "The bad news is... We only have $20 and 5€ left." <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"We can't buy tickets?" Diana asked "We're stuck in Spain?" <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"No!" Ariadne said "I think I can do something about it..."

6- The String of Ariad- Oh, sorry, It's actually a key
<p style="margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:20px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">"What?" I asked her, jumping up "What can you do?" "Well..." she sighed and grabbed the second necklace I'd noticed she always wore, as well as the Canp necklace Bearing two beads (one showing a maze- the labyrinth, I assumed- and one showing the Empire State Building with lightning around it, surrounded by names. A few I'd been able to decipher were 'Silena Beauregard' and 'Jessie McCormick') The other necklace was a thin gold chain. "Look, there's a lot about me I don't tell people-" "Tell me about it." Diana muttered. Ariadne glared at her, and I made a note of the fact that that rift was not completely healed. "What?! Not even Chiron knew you had any siblings until a few months ago!" Ariadne looked like she was about to retort, but I stood up. "Woah, woah guys. calm down. Ariadne is opening up to us and Diana has a point. neither of you ate in the wrong completely. Carry on, Ariadne." She glared pointedly at Diana, muttered something abut not knowing about trust, but continued. "But my mother always knew I wasn't Mark's daughter. This-" she drew the chain out from under her T-shirt "is the only clue I have to my father. It opens any door, window or safe. it's literally a magic key." Hanging on the chain was a -you've guessed it- small, delicate looking golden key. it was intricately patterned, with curls and twists and vortex swirls all framing an average sized, gold encrusted diamond, but Due to the smallness of the key the Diamond had the impression of looking huge in the key's design. I breathed out "It's.." "It's beautiful." Diana sighed. "But how can help us?" I asked "you gonna rob a bank?" "Well-" "What?!" I yelled "No!" "Being an accomplice to a crime is so not on my bucket list!" Diana shouted "Shh," I scolded her "you think the mortals can't hear you? 'Cause that's called shouting hon. People tend to hear you through thin, rubbish hotel walls when you shout, and on the off-chance there is an English mortal or something nearby... We don't want them hearing us. there's only so much the mist can do for you." She looked sheepish "Oops? anyways Ariadne, you can't rob a bank. Oh, and Megan? Don't call people hon. it makes me think of Drew." She shivered "I swear that girl is in secret contact with our friend the earth and is gonna kill the entire camp whilst we sleep- or just keep us alive so she can torture us with Charmspeak and the Shoes of Shame. But anyways, no crimes unless desperate. Or we see a cute outfit that we can't afford. Can that be a rule?" Ariadne was just staring at us blankly, as if we were crazy, before she spoke "Okay, guys. That was a joke. You know? Like, what you say to make people laugh, usually not meaning the words you say. A joke. Okay?" I looked at her "Okay then... one: what can you do then? Oh, and two: have you been reading dictionaries?" "Um, my elementary school rule was that if you didn't do the reading homework you had to study dictionaries with the 'S' section torn out until you read perfectly before they realised I was dyslexic. I skipped half of it." Diana laughed, and I looked round blankly. "What's elementary school?" They looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Elementary school is the first school you go to- Elementary school, I had Middle school -although some don't- and then High School. So... yeah. Not counting kindergarten." Ariadne explained "...Okay, so liek Primary school?" "Whatever floats your boat, English girl." She said, absently. "Whatever 'Floats my Boat?'" I asked patronisingly "I'mma daughter of Zeus, invisible girl. Boats are not my thing." "Whatever... flies you plane, then." She replied, sticking her tounge out. "Anyway, may plan is... Well, I can sell the key. I need to know who my father is more than I need some key." "But it's the one sign you have! I mean, maybe you weren't claimed because your father isn't allowed to give the gift of invisibility to someone. Maybe he's in trouble for it and that might kick-start him claiming you. You need that key!" She looked at the floor "But at the moment we need money more." Diana looked at us both and chewed her lip. "Megan, it's her key. We need to get back to America otherwise there's no point in keeping the key." "I suppose so." I rubbed my forehead. "But hwo long will it take to set up an auction date? I mean, the longer we stay here, the bigger our chance of destroying most of Spain. Oh, and becoming Hobos. And getting killed. Take your pick." "I get to choose?" "No, it's an expression." She laughed "I knew that, airhead." "Airhead?" I asked, surprised "that's new. I thought it was English girl?" She stuck her tongue out "It didn't seem to have affect, so I changed it." "Airhead doesn't seem to affect her much either." Diana observed "So, when can we sell this thing?" "Well, they have antique fairs every so often." Ariadne offered "I saw a poster for one when we got coffee. It's in a week's time, but it's that or find another one." I frowned and rubbed my forehead like I always did when I was stressed. I caught my eye in the mirror, and it was a blue-grey. So, established... Blue-grey- stressed, worried. Dark blue- confused Paleish Sky blue - neutral Bright sky blue- happy. The last too were guesses. I assumed that the ordinary colour was neutral, and that bright blue was happy- I'd noticed at camp that my eyes were brighter then usual. "I guess a week isn't as long as it could be." I summarised "If we don't get enough, Ariadne could do her thing." Diana offered "Her thing?" "I was persecuted for shoplifting a few years back." she confessed "before I got my invisibility. I won the trial, though. And no, I don't have a criminal record, just a blank space saying I might've." "Okay then." I paused "Well, what shall we do?" Diana asked "During the week, I mean. I'm kinda bored." "Um.... we could try to annoy people by being typical American Tourists?" "Being a typical American tourist annoys people?" I smirked "Well, it always works where I come from." Diana laughed, and Ariadne mock-glared at me. "Okay, so Megan's idea is not an option." Diana said, still laughing. I crossed my arms and pouted like a three-year-old. "Why not?" "Because it's a stupid idea." Ariadne said, looking at me. "We could try to work out why we brought Megan?" "No, it would probably take longer than a weekto come to a rational answer to that question." I gasped, pretending to be hurt, and punched Diana in the arm. "Come on guys! I'm usefull!" I protested, smiling. "Spoken like a non-useful person." Diana observed, nodding her head in an overly serious way. "Well," I said, blatantly ignoring her "we could just hang out here and try not to get killed." "That's always an option." Ariadne agreed I yawned "I'm kinda tired. Imma sleep now..."

<p style="margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:20px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Trebuchet,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;text-align:justify;">The other two went to sit by the TV. it was kinda awkward for a while, because I was trying to sleep and all that, but then I fell asleep, and forgot instantly. In my dream, I was standing somewhere dark. Really dark. Like, so dark it could be the definition of dark all by itself. "When will you strike, mother?" a chilling voice whispered. I shivered. I didn't know what was happening, but that voice was creepy. It seemed to convince me that everything was doomed, that it was hopeless, that the world's destiny was death. Hell. "Hush brother!" another voice practically screeched "You fool! She is waiting for the rise of that Foolish Earth-Woman to reach it's inevitable end, an then she shall take over from the... Darkness that follows." I somehow knew that the voice, that was vaugely female, was smiling cruelly. "Or," Another voice echoe around the vast cave I realised I was in. This voice made me feel... old. Crippled. "She may be waiting for the Earth-Woman to rise, so she can take her on!" "Or ask for her help." Another voice said. This one was different. It made me feel like everything wrong with the world was my fault, blamed on me. "Why would she?" another voice moaned, sobbing as it spoke. It made me feel pain as it spoke, distress and woe. It flashed images through my eyes- My mother, dying in front of me. All my friends being shot- Alex, Ariadne, Diana... Everyone I'd left behind at home and Jason. "Be quiet, Oizys." The first voice scolded. Oizys.... if they shared the same mother, they would be siblings. I knew the names. Oiyzs. Geras. Momus. Moros. Pain, Old Age, Blame and Doom. But who was their mother? The name never came to my mind. Whoever this person was, they weren't good. A force so bad they believed they could take over from Gaia..... I wanted to try and think it out, but a voice cut through my thoughts. "The Lightning Girl is here!" A voice screeched. The old one. I fell to my knees on the unseen floor. The darkness seemed to take on form, and swallowed me.