Fighting Fate

Lukas's POV:



"Lemme get this straight," I said while rubbing my temples.
Fiona and Jake groaned.
"All of those old Greek myths are real. The gods and goddesses, monsters, demigods, they're all real. And you guys think I'm a demigod. A son of a god. Maybe a very powerful one."
"Close enough." Jake shrugged.
I leaned back into Jake's large leather couch, and let it almost swallow me up in it. The incident with my parents threatening to kill me seemed like a lifetime away, yet it had only been about half a day.
Fiona and Jake had just finished up with something called an "Iris-message" to a place that they claimed was safe for demigods-otherwise known as kids like me. I think they said the name of it was Camp Halfblood. At the moment, Jake, Fiona, and I were home alone. Mrs. Jensby had gotten a call from the hospital ,where she worked as a doctor, that they needed her for a surprise late-shift.
Jake had sighed with relief when she left, glad that she was gone because both of my friends were worried about monsters somehow finding us.
My brain was still swirling with questions.
"But-wait. None of this makes sense. If my parent is a god, then why have I been raised by-What do you call them? Fuzzies?"
A faint smile arouse on Fiona's face. "Furies, Luke. They're servants of Hades. That's the real question, though. Maybe if you were a son of Hades, then he would have them raise and protect you, but-"
"Yeah, right. Luke's a son of Hades. And I'm one of Apollo's sacred cows. None of this makes any sense." Jake interrupted. "Well, on that note, does anyone want some s'mores?"
A little bit later, after we had scrounged up the supplies from Jake's pantry and lit the fireplace without burning the house down, we sat cross-legged on the ground in front of the softly glowing fireplace.
I gingerly pulled the gooey marshmallow off the end of the sticks we were using, and jammed it between two pieces of graham cracker. I wasn't a big fan of chocolate.
"So, Apollo, who just happens to be Jake's dad, set up a massive shield thingy around this house to get rid of monsters." I summed up as I stuck the gooey glob of deliciousness in my mouth.
"Not get rid of. It just kinda deters them, like my house got sprayed with a massive amount of mosquito-repellent."
"Oh." The food in my stomach turned into a mass of unease. "That means if they really wanted to, they could get in the house." I guessed.
"Yep." Fiona answered.
"And these reinforcements you guys were talking about, when will they get here?"
"Soon. Cassie would do anything to rescue us." Jake claimed.
I swallowed yet another hunk of marshmallow, and felt the fire warm my body up when I scooted closer.
"This Cassie girl, it sounds like you guys know her pretty well." I assumed. The street lights outside had just flickered on, and the hazy Texan horizon was a massive mix of warm colors including blood-red and bright orange. Sloping mountains lined the horizon, and were ebony black from the setting sun's light.
Jake hesitated for a second. "Yeah. You could say that. She's thirteen, like us. Daughter of Zeus. Stubborn as a hungry Pegasus, but she's pretty awesome. You'd like her."
I nodded in response. Something about the way Luke had described Cassie made me suspicious. Like he was trying to...hide something. Fiona was tensed up, running her thumbs against each other like she always did when she was nervous. I decided to ignore this. At least for now.
"Hey," Fiona said to break the silence. "Some of us should get some sleep. Who knows how long it will take to get back to Camp when we hit the road. I volunteer for first watch."
"We're going to have watching shifts?" I asked.
"Yes, Mr. Wikipedia. Unless you would like the Minotaur to wake you up at three A.M with a massive double-sided axe in your face." Jake said sarcastically while he grabbed a pillow from the couch and stretched comfortably.
After we bickered a little longer, I dozed off.
The topic of strange dreams came up in our talk about demigods a while ago, but I hadn't told Jake and Fiona about my dreams that were centered around the kid with black hair and sea-green eyes. Something just didn't feel right about telling them.
So, when I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep, I found myself at a large outdoor patio-looking structure.
I was rooted to the seat of a painted picnic-table, and I was looking straight ahead at two people.
Two demigods. Something corrected me in the back of my head.
One of them was the kid I always dreamed about, while the other a blonde girl who seemed to be about his age. They were grinning and laughed occasionally.
I strained to listen to the conversation, but everything sounded watery and distant. The sounds from the other demigods didn't help, either. Some were swimming in a massive lake surrounded by a thick line of pine trees, while others were climbing a tall rock-wall that seeped lava and had multiple traps set up to fool halfbloods trying to climb it.
There's more. The same voice in the back of my head said. You'll find out soon enough. This is Camp Halfblood, little hero.
My dream shifted to an unfamiliar sight. A girl had her hands on her hips and was glaring at a boy that seemed a couple years older than she. She had blazing blue eyes that I swore crackled with light, and a certain aura of airiness and power seemed to trail behind her. A single blue highlight was in her hair. When she tipped her chin upwards, I saw a faint white line running from her chin to just above her cheekbone.
Cassadee Richardson. First-generation descendent of Zeus.
"Henry," she groaned as she stomped through a muddy puddle in the middle of a swampy-looking area,"Did it really have to be a swamp in the middle of Louisiana? Couldn't you of shadow traveled us to some nice tropical paradise in Florida?"
"Yeah," A younger kid piped up from a spot where I hadn't seen him. "A coconut smoothie with one of those cute little umbrellas sounds nice right about now."
"Gee, sorry. I know, shadow traveling across the country is such an easy task. Wonder why we ended up in a hellish, mosquito-filled place like this." The lanky kid with distrustful brown eyes and shaggy black hair stated.
Cassie ignored this comment, and instead pulled a bronze dagger about the length of my forearm out of her waistband.
She scrunched her eyebrows together in concentration, and the younger blonde kid said,"Any luck? Have you seen Jake or Fiona yet?"
"No," She sighed with frustration. "Your Mom was right, Evan. This stupid blade is impossible."
Just as she was about to sheath it again, her hand flew up to her mouth in shock. In a few moments I saw her face go pale, and she quickly pivoted around to face the other boy.
"Quick, Henry! Get us to Jake's house! We've gotta save them, there's a-"
The dream flickered for a second, then I was being shaken awake by Jake.
I wanted to cry out and ask the girl what was at Jake's house, or why that weird voice was whispering in the back of my head about her, or pretty much anything about this new crazy life that was now mine, but Jake grabbed me firmly by my shoulders and put a finger to his lips.
Fiona crouched by the kitchen window, a club lined with vines and flowers in her hand.
"Listen, something's on the roof. We don't know what, but it sounded pretty big. Cassie and the others aren't here yet, but we need to move. It isn't safe here anymore. Go grab my black backpack from my room. It has a harp on the front of it. That backpack is full of supplies, and if we're going to brave it outside, then we need it." He finished hastily, then pushed me to me feet.
"Got it." I whispered as I quietly bolted upstairs.
I'd been in Jake's loft a countless amount of times, but I struggled along the walls in pitch-black darkness. I guessed by the rising sun on the horizon outside the windows that it was about five A.M. A cold draft was blowing in from one of the room's open windows, but I didn't dare shut it because drawing attention to myself at this point would have been a bad idea.
I continued on, stumbling a few times through piles of dirty clothes in Jake's room. He somehow had a room that was dirtier than mine. Finally, when I had just about given up on the search, I spotted a pack that fitted Jake's description in the back corner of his room.
I grabbed it, threw it on my shoulders, and quickly made my way out of the room.
Just as I darted my way back into the loft, a bad feeling crept up and down my spine.
I leapt to the right as a dark figure charged at me from the shadows of Jake's hallway.
It hissed as it careened around to face me, and even though its features were elfish and pointy, I still knew who it was.
My step-dad.
I yelped as I struggled back, weighted down by the backpack.
The creature grabbed me around the neck and my right shoulder, squeezing so tightly I couldn't even speak.
"Ah, Lukas. What a pain you've been. So easy for the first few years. But you met that cursed halfblood and satyr. Then I had to be brought in to ensure you would never find out about the gods and goddesses until Master was ready." His voice sounded nothing like his raspy normal voice, but instead it sounded like a series of short hisses and snarls. It almost reminded me of a snake that had learned to talk. I tried to swing the backpack around to hit it in the face, but with no luck. "The Dark Lord said I was forbidden to kill you or your little friends. He didn't say anything about a few cuts here and there." His grip tightened, and I gasped for breath.
"W-Who is this Dark Lord? Why does he want me?" I struggled out as I tried to pry my fingers around his blood-crusted talons. I felt blood ooze from a deep cut on my lower shoulder.
He chuckled. "I'm afraid you'll just have to find out-"
Suddenly, a familiar figure flew through the window and tackled the Fury.
Her blonde hair whipped around as she struggled with him, and she planted a kick to his gut with a pleasured-looking grin. I fell to the floor, choking and gasping for breath while rubbing my now bruised throat. The girl pulled yet another blade out of its sheath, and began parrying the strikes of the monster's talons. She was quickly overcome, though. Her sword was knocked from her hand, and when I finally struggled back to my feet, she yanked the dagger that I saw her use to see Jake's house from another sheath.
"Hey kid! Catch!" She shouted. Time seemed to slow down. The light blade flew through the air, new morning light bouncing off of it like it was a golden sword. I leapt into mid-air, nabbed the dagger, and surged forward with the blade held in my right hand.
"Ha!" I yelped as I plunged the sword into the demon's back. It hissed, then tried to strike out at me.
Before it could get the chance, though, it exploded into a million particles of what appeared to be a golden dust.
Cassie sank back against the wall.
"Whew. That went surprisingly well. No one's dead yet. Thanks, kid. Having a Fury for a parent must've really sucked." She grinned at me.
I was speechless. A beautiful girl had just flown through a window on a second-story house, fought a demonic monster, thrown a deadly weapon at me, then calmly regarded me like we had just finished a surprise pop-quiz in class. This girl was the definition of weird.
A yelp called out from below. "Cassie? Luke? Some help would be greatly appreciated right about now!"
Cassie darted to the stairs, me by her side.
My shoulder throbbed, but I ignored it as I charged towards the staircase.
Cassie wrapped one arm around my stomach, then warned,"Heads-up! We're going for a ride!"
She lifted into the air with a quick jerk of speed, and we were soon dangling high above the floor below.
Before I knew it, she had touched down and I was left stumbling while she shoved me from behind.
I decided to ignore that odd occurrence as well as soon as I saw the scene unfolding in front of me. Another one of those Furies was hissing and snarling at Jake, Fiona, and the blonde kid from my dream, who were all backed into a corner of the kitchen. They stood in a defensive line, and Jake took a swing with a short cavalry sword at the monster that I barely recognized as my mother, but she was too fast. Jake's sword was knocked from his hands, and clattered across the floor. Fiona and the kid advanced to protect him, but not before Cassadee and I had charged in to protect our friends.
I swung wildly and without thought, but I eventually found a rhythm I stuck to.
Stab. Parry. Block. Duck. Repeat.
It seemed to work fairly well, because with a final blow from Fiona's club, the monster disintegrated like the other had.
"C'mon!" The daughter of Zeus shouted. "I don't know how long Henry can keep the portal open!"
We all darted outside onto the dewy grass that was just starting to come up in brief patches in Jake's backyard, while I shoved Fiona in front of me. She had obtained a nasty scratch from the talons of the Fury on her forehead, and still seemed slightly disorientated.
The other kid from my dream, Henry, was grimacing as he held open what seemed to be a sliver of pure shadows in the middle of day. There was a bead of sweat across his pale face, and I figured that whatever kind of demigod-magic he was doing was draining him.
And fast.
So, when Jake stumbled and fell, I quickly dragged him back to his feet.
His brown eyes went as wide as plates as his gaze came to rest back at his house. His freckles that splashed across his nose were more evident than normal, because his face had reached a whole new level of pale.
"Let's go, Jake! C'mon!" I encouraged, pushing him to move.
But he seemed frozen in place.
Finally, I turned back to see what was terrifying him so much. A massive serpent-like creature was slithering across his roof.
Its glistening scales were a vast variety of colors, it was almost like a rainbow had encircled itself around it. The Drakon of Medea, a voice echoed in my head. Someone's not very happy with you.
Eyes the size of doors blinked slowly, like it was thinking, Hmm? Yummy demigods? Dinner time!
They were massive and yellow, and I found myself frozen in place like Jake had been.
Despite not having legs, it moved incredibly fast. It glided through the air with scaly wings the size of a tennis court. I found my self snapping out of my confusion as the blonde kid I remembered to be called Evan said,"Luke! Snap out of it!" Something about his voice made me move again, and I felt an odd tug in my stomach as the monster neared.
It gnashed its pearly white teeth at me, and spat something on the ground that fizzled and bubbled like acid.
I found myself holding my hand up, and something I would never forget followed.
A fissure in the ground cracked open, and water shot out of it like a some kind of geyser. I encouraged it, making it grow in size until it was towering in the sky. It then semed to gain a mind of its own, and blasted the monster in the face.
After discovering I had feet again, I half-dragged Jake to the portal while he blubbered," But, but, that's impossible! Another son of Poseidon..."
Cassie pushed me forward, and I found myself falling into a massive pit where winds screamed past you and icy shivers ran up and down your back constantly.
My vision tunneled as I flew through the air, and I drifted away from consciousness as the exhaustion from doing whatever I had just done took over.

Notes

Hey guys! The great SeaWeedBrainAllTheWay is back once again! I know, I know, I've been gone for way too long. And honestly, I don't have an excuse for you all, I've just been an especially bad and lazy writer lately. Anyways, anyone have ideas on how I can make my writing better? Compliments, critiques, or even hate is accepted below! Oh, and I probably won't answer right away because it's pretty late where I live and I want to go to bed. So, talk to you all later! Peace.