Chap. 1

 First things first, have you ever believed in gods? Not the church, omnipotent, worth of entire faith ones. I mean ancient gods. The ones the Greeks and Romans believed in. In case you don’t, well, I’ll try to give the briefest explanation possible.



 Look. All those myths and legends about gods and goddesses and their super great powers and their children with humans… guess what my friend? They aren’t myths. All those things you might have once called junk are more real than your boring-harmless-non sense-almost typical life, which is saying a lot since there is nothing real in your boring-harmless-non sense-almost typical life. Maybe harmless is not the right word because if you analyze the strange things that may have…



 “For Athena’s sake! If you are recording that thing anyway, can you at least do it quickly?”



 Right, sorry. I’m getting out of context. Well, once we’ve accepted gods are real there’s another thing to accept: they still live in our days. Of course they live as they are immortal so here I have another wrong term. I don’t know why this happ…. Don’t give me that look Taba, I’m going as fast as I can, with all this pressure, do you think I concentra…ouch! Fine! However, gods are real and they live nowadays, which means they’re still doing things such as having children with humans. These children are called demigods or half-bloods. You know half-god half-human. Demigods are ADHD, so they find it hard to stay put and do nothing (like sitting in a classroom for instance). They are also dyslexic, as their brains are “programmed” to read ancient Greek, not English or any other language they make you read in school. We have natural battle reflexes, and some of us have special powers according to our godly parent.



 Wondering why I said we? Yes, I’m a demigod. My name is Dan. I’m a son of Apollo (Tabatha please, I’m about to start).



 Well, it all started one night. I was sleeping when I had a dream vision (which is very common for us by the way). I was standing in the middle of a beautiful garden. The grass was sparkly green. The flowers shimmered with lots of different colors, as if they’d been submerged in a rainbow. The sky was a mixture of pink and a light shade of red. The beginning of a beautiful sunset. Next to me I spotted a tree with golden light emanating from it. As I got closer I noticed the golden light was provided by round shapes that hung from the branches. Apples. But not any apples. Golden apples, I mean actually made of gold, of gold like the one…



 “They all know what gold is Dan.”



 Shh!! Who’s telling the story, huh? Anyway, as I was saying, they were golden apples. Just then I realized where I was. The Garden of the Hesperides.



<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> I was no expert at it. Actually, I’m no expert at anything that has to do with books or classes. Guess that even for demigod parameters, I’m way too ADHD. However, I’d heard something about the garden during a mythology class with Chiron. I didn’t remember much, only that it belonged to some daughters of Atlas, the titan dude who held the sky.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> But as I approached the tree, I also spotted a person, sat by the shade of the leaves. A girl in fact, dressed in a white Greek dress, (I don’t care if the word is chiton, Taba. Just let me go on, please). Well, a white dress. Her hair was silky black and she had caramel-skin. Her deep black eyes were staring at the horizon. I’m not denying it. She was really beautiful. But after years of being a demigod I’d learned that the most impressive beauty was also the most dangerous. I didn’t really know why I was walking towards her, but once I was also under the shade of the tree she spoke.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “About time, Danariel Sternikovsky.” Feel free to laugh, really. I hate my name too. Anyway, she spoke not even looking at me, so I needed a minute to realize she was talking to me.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “Time for what?” I asked.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “For you to appear, of course. Either I’m losing my power or you have a very tough mind” she said. Tough?

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “What do you mean?”   I insisted.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “Nonsense” she said and she turned to see me. My breath momentarily stopped as her black gaze fixed on me “The really important thing, the reason I’ve brought you here is to warn you”.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> I waited for her to continue. She got it and kept going.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “My warning is simple though. All I want you to know is that ‘Your blood is close’.”

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> I frowned. “Pretty simple warning.”

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> She gave me a slight smile. “It’s actually easier than you think. You just need to find the right person to interpret it.”

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “If it’s so easy, why I can’t interpret it myself?”

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “One step at a time, young hero, soon you’ll understand it.”

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “And what I’m supposed to understand? Why did you bring me here in the first place?” I asked gesturing to the garden. As I looked around I noticed something odd “Wait, wasn’t this tree supposed to be guarded by a dragon or something?”

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> Her face suddenly turned dark. Not the I’m-about-to-kill-you type but the stop-talking-about-the-matter type.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “Don’t seek what’s not to be found” she said. Something I hated badly about people was when they spoke in riddles. And my friend here was doing nothing but riddling-me.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “Look, I don’t get a single thing of what you are saying and I really don’t care. Can I go back to my dreamless sleep please?” as soon as I said it I knew I should’ve bitten my tongue. Chiron always said I was pretty insolent for a child of Apollo, but hey, my mom’s side also had to count, didn’t it?

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> The girl stood from the grass and looked defiantly at me with those intimidating eyes of hers.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> “Mind your words son of Apollo. In the path you’ve got ahead of you, I might be your only chance to survive” she snapped her fingers and suddenly I wasn’t in the garden anymore…