Okay, you see, it was just a normal day for me. I never intended on stumbling across a girl at the waterfall and ending up where I am now.

My name is Elijah Powell. I had been a Junior Park Ranger since I was ten and it was my third summer out in the forest. I was taking my usual rounds with my dog Lily when we happened to come across the waterfall.

We usually go past this waterfall everyday and Lily never goes berserk. Well, today she did. You see, I never keep Lily on a leash because I trust her enough to stay by my side. She’s been in my family since I was kid and she hasn’t done me wrong at all.

So, when she took off toward that waterfall, I wasn’t sure if I should run away or run after her. But being the Park Ranger I was, I took off after her and found her sitting by a bush. It was as if she was hiding and she knew what she was doing. So I walked up and sat beside her. I followed her gaze and saw a girl with blonde hair, a bright orange shirt, and a blue backpack.

It was definitely strange seeing a girl in the forest because girls usually don’t go into dirty places. But here she was, standing by misty end of the waterfall. She dug in her pockets and pulled out a coin and before saying something; she tossed it into the water.

I felt myself laugh quietly to myself and Lily let out a small growl. I reached over and petted her head, “Yeah girl, that is littering.”

Just as I was about to stand up and confront her, an image appeared in the water and I stayed down. How was this possible? Images of people can’t just appear from simply throwing a coin into the water. Lily’s ears perked up and she stood up. She took a couple steps forward and I grabbed her collar before she went further.

I stood up when the image disappeared and the girl began to walk away.

“Hey, how did you do that?” I said taking a few steps toward her. She looked my way and her eyes were big.

“You saw that?” She said pointing toward the waterfall.

“Yeah, and one that was littering and two that shouldn’t be possible,” I said getting close enough to see the grey color of her eyes.

“How could you see that? Most people can’t.”

“Well, I could. And you can’t just go around and throw coins into places,” I said.

“Ahh, Junior Park Ranger. What’s your name?”

“Junior Park Ranger Elijah Powell at your service,” I said giving her a small salute.

“Elijah Powell? Well, that explains how you could see what I just did,” She said with a small smile.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m Annabeth Chase. I’m from a place called Camp—“

“Half-Blood?” I finished.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I read your shirt,” I said and she looked down.

“You just read Latin,” She replied.

“No,” I shook my head, “It was in plain English.”

“Elijah, you’re a demigod,” she said.

“What?”

“You’re a demigod. It means that you are half god. Like, Greek god,” She explained.

“Like Zeus and Hades?” I asked.

“Exactly, but you’re more like Hercules,” She said.

“I’m Hercules?” I asked. She laughed.

“No, but you’re what he is. He is a demigod and you’re a demigod,” She said and I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

“So I have super strength like him?” I asked, thinking it would be cool to have big muscles like him. She laughed and shook her head.

“You know, you kind of remind me of my boyfriend. But, no. You have some kind of powers, but we won’t know until we get back to camp and find out who’s son you are,” She continued to explain.

“Get back to camp? I can’t leave. I’m doing my rounds. My dad will freak if I don’t get back,” I said taking a step back.

“Elijah, you’re meant to come to Camp Half-Blood because you are a demigod. You know how you have ADHD and dyslexia? Well those are your combat instincts. Without them, you wouldn’t survive. And I’m pretty impressed that you’ve survived this long without an attack,” She said adjusting the Yankee’s hat on her head.

“But, my dad,” I said thinking how weird it would be not going home. Not even to explain to him that I have to go to this Camp because I’m some demigod.

“He’ll understand. I left him a note at your house before I came to look for you. Your mother is the God part of you. She is one of the Greek Gods that we study about and we’ll figure out who when we get there. But, we have to leave now. Our scent has probably triggered more than a dozen monsters on our trail,” She said grabbing my hand and pulling me.

“Hang on,” I said before whistling. Lily came running toward us and stopped by my side. Annabeth looked at her and knelt to take a good look at her. Lily walked up to her and Annabeth rubbed her ears and laughed when Lily licked her.

“I can’t believe I actually get to meet this dog,” Annabeth said standing up and wiping her face.

“What do you mean?” I asked, interested.

“Your dog, Lily, is actually a mythical dog called Laelaps that was said to always catch what he is after. It’s also assumed that it was the dog that protected Zeus as a baby. He might get along with Thalia and Jason, but we’ll see,” She said before starting off.

“So how far is this Camp Half-Blood?” I asked as we walked through the forest.

“It’s all the way in New York,” She said jumping over a log and I followed.

“But we’re in Minnesota, almost Canada. How are we supposed to get there?” I asked.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get there. I’ve had to go across the country almost walking a lot of the time,” She said.

“Yeah, but what about the monsters?” I asked talking a look behind me.

“We’ll be fine if we keep moving,” She said and I continued to follow her.

Well, we did keep moving. I don’t know how far we walked through the forest before we came to a stop. We might have been in Canada, we might have been in the States. I didn’t know, but Annabeth sure knew where she was going.

Anyways, we were going through yet another forest, I didn’t mind because I loved the forest, when we came across these huge footprints. It sure scared Annabeth because whatever it was was humongous. I didn’t get time to look at the print before she pulled me into the bushes and told me to be quiet. Lily, of course, sat in between us not knowing what was going on.

All of a sudden, the ground started shaking. It was like a dinosaur was walking around. Then whatever it was showed it’s ugly head. Well, heads.

“Hydra,” Annabeth said to me. I looked at her and she pulled out a small bronze dagger. She took her backpack off and pulled out a sword as quietly as she could and handed it to me.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I whispered before looking back at the nine-headed dragon.

“Remember the ADHD?” She asked, I nodded, “Well, that will come in handy right about now.”

“I don’t know how to use a sword!” I whispered again.

“It’ll come to you, you’ll be fine,” She said, “If we’re quiet enough, we might just be able to get by without it noticing us.”

“What?!” I said as she started to walk while still crouching. I followed, but Lily had a different idea. Once I passed her, she got up, walked out from behind the bush and began to bark at the dragon.

“Lily!” I whisper yelled at her. She continued to bark.

“Laelaps!” Annabeth tried, but she kept barking. One of the dragon’s heads turned and looked at her. It opened its mouth and I saw the ball of fire form before being shot at Lily. I shut my eyes because I figured it got her and she was gone. But I re-opened them once I heard her barking again.

“We were so close!” Annabeth said before jumping up and racing toward the dragon.

“Annabeth!” I yelled before standing up. I caught the eyes of one heads and they all simultaneously looked at me. I felt my legs tremble before I took off to the right to avoid a fireball. I saw Annabeth fighting with one of the heads and the others were looking for Lily and I.

I took in a deep breath and tightened the grip on the sword before charging into the battle. Surprisingly, the first swing I took helped me avoid one of the heads. I swung again and cut one of the eyes of one head and made a huge gash on another. I felt powerful, I could feel the adrenaline running through me.

I let out a grunt when I hit the ground after a head hit me. The breath was knocked out of me and I started to see double for a few seconds. I got up and saw something coming at me. I swung as hard as I could and felt something drop a few feet away from me. When I saw one of the heads sitting limp beside me I looked up at Annabeth.

“Hey! I did it!” I said as the dragon stumbled to regain its balance.

“No! When you cut one off, another grows back,” She yelled at me and I watched as another head grew in the other’s place. I sighed as all my energy left my body. Annabeth ran to my side quickly pulling out a canteen from the bag.

“Hurry drink this,” She said putting it to my lips. I took a gulp of the drink and instantly tasted the sweet taste of my dad’s homemade mint ice cream.

“Mint ice cream?” I asked surprised.

“It tastes different to every person, but when Hercules fought a hydra, every time he cut off a head he burnt where it was so it would close and another wouldn’t grow back,” She said as the hydra started to come back at us.

“So you want me to cut or burn?” I asked. My strength had come back and I was ready to get back to it.

“You have the sword, so I need you to cut. I’ll burn and we can get this done,” She said before running to where there was a burning tree. I jumped up and began to charge at the dragon again. I took in a deep breath before swinging my sword.

“Now!” Annabeth yelled running toward me with a burning branch. I swung as hard as I could again and sliced off one of the heads. She quickly pushed the branch to where the headless stump was and we watched as it sizzled. I swung again and another dropped and she pushed the branch again.

I was about to chop off another when the tail came up behind me and knocked me down. I thought I was toast until Lily ran up and grabbed my pants leg and pulled me out of the way of another blast of fire.

“Lily! Attack!” I yelled pointing at the dragon and she seemed to have process that and she ran toward it. She jumped up and with one swift movement, bit on one of the necks and pulled it off. Annabeth quickly ran to the stump and burned it.

Let’s just say it went like this for the next five heads. When the last one came, we watched as it tried to keep its balance.

“From my studies, no weapon can hurt or penetrate the last head. Hercules hit it with a huge club and then tore the head off and buried it,” She panted. I sucked in a deep breath.

“Sounds easy enough,” I said exhaling and then I felt this power rise up within me. I can’t explain it to you, but it was pretty powerful. I closed my eyes and let it run through me and I put my arms out on either side of me. My eyes shot open and my arms flew in front of me. Kind of like a Hulk Smash thing and all these vines from the forest shot in front of me and wrapped around the dragon.

It let out a roar, like it did every time a head came off, and the vines started to pull it to the ground. I could see Annabeth staring at me from the right and Lily sat to my left. When the dragon was pulled all the way to the ground and a boulder came rolling from the forest, like it knew what to do and fell right on the dragon’s head.

I sighed and let my hands drop. All my energy was sucked from me and I fell to the ground.

“Elijah, that was amazing! Here drink some,” She said pouring a small amount of the liquid into my mouth and I could taste mint again.

“Demeter,” She said after I swallowed the gulp.

“What?” I said before Lily began to lick my face.

“Your mother. Demeter. She’s the goddess of agriculture. She loves nature. That would explain why you’re a Junior Park Ranger and why you’re so comfortable in the forest,” She said with a big grin on her face.

I sighed before replying, “You’re going to have to explain that to me.”

“Once you feel a little better we can get moving again. We don’t want to run into something worse,” She said.

“It’s almost five,” I said seeing the position of the sun.

“How do you know?” She asked.

“I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. They kind of teach you that kind of stuff,” I said sitting up and scratching Lily.

“You did great girl,” I said scratching behind her ears and kissing her long snout. She barked lightly and licked my face.

“You ready? I think it’s at least a few more days, but I want to get a little farther before we stop to make camp,” She said with a smile.

We did walk some more. We pitched camp a few miles out from a city. In the morning we washed up at a stream and went into the city. Annabeth made sure that she looked around us every few minutes. But we finally found a bus station. She bought two tickets to New York and we were on a bus within the hour.

“Why couldn’t we get on a bus before?” I asked quietly, “We could have avoided the dragon.”

“Because I don’t like being a moving target,” She said.

“Well, either way we would have been,” I mumbled.

“How old are you?” She asked.

“Thirteen,” I replied.

“It’s crazy we didn’t find you sooner,” She said resting her head on the seat.

With all that had happened, I couldn’t sleep. I kept my eyes open the whole bus ride. But soon enough, I could see the skyline of New York. Annabeth was awake and ready to get going when we entered the city. When we got off we immediately started walking. When we got out of city limits we went into the forest again.

I was getting tired of walking. We walked across the state, or whatever, and now we’re walking again. I felt like a wimp, but I didn’t mind all the nature. Soon I could smell the scent of strawberries, and Annabeth was walking a little bit faster. We came to a big hill and I dreaded walking up it. Annabeth started up it like it was nothing and I followed behind her.

I looked up past her and saw a big tree with something shimmering on it. When I looked closer I saw that it was like the skin off a sheep and it was gold. Under it and around the big tree sat a purple dragon. I stopped in my tracks and Annabeth turned to look at me.

“It’s ok. He’s harmless to us,” She said before continuing to walk up.

When we reached the top, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Down in the valley was a whole slew of things. There was a stadium, a lake, a field of strawberries, a U-shaped set of houses and more around it. I saw this big blue house that was at the bottom of the hill. We started down toward it and when we got there we were greeted by a guy with black hair and blue eyes.

“Welcome back!” He said to Annabeth before kissing her. I looked away and studied the house.

“Elijah, this is my boyfriend Percy. I think you two will get along,” She said.

“I’m sure we will,” He said sticking his hand out. I took it and shook it.

“Ah! Annabeth, you’ve come back with our new camp member,” I heard. When I looked to where the voice came from, I was surprised. Standing in front of me was a half man half horse.

“Hello Elijah, my name is Chiron and welcome to Camp Half-Blood,” He said in a stern voice.

“He’s a son of Demeter,” Annabeth said.

“How do you—“ Chiron started, but then they were all looking at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Look up,” Percy said to me and I looked up to see a torch glowing above my head.

“A torch?” I asked.

“Sign of Demeter. Looks like you’ll fit right in,” Chiron said with a grin.

“Percy, Annabeth, why don’t you show our new camper around?” Chiron said looking at them. They both nodded and pulled me past the blue house and out to the camp.

Oh, I was going to fit in here alright.

Notes

So, how did you like it?
I hope you liked it. Leave a comment. Maybe subscribe. I might just turn this whole thing into a story.
Thanks!

-Liz