Daughter of the Moon | Chapter One (Lighting Thief FanFic)

by Jupiter Says Hey in New York City

Chapter One

"Sel! Wait up!" Alex heaved his way to my side, panting as if he were never going to breathe again. He collapsed onto the dirt floor, right beside my feet, and with his skinny fingers, he clutched my ankles. "Please, Selena, don't make me walk anymore! Please!"
"Alex, you're such a wimp. We haven't even walked a mile." I said, helping him up and handing him my water bottle that was barely sipped; his water bottle had already been chugged down on the first few steps on the trail of New Jersey's national forest.
"We already walked seven! See, look," he unclipped a small device that were hooked onto his pants. "My Count-A-Walk says we walked seven point three miles already."
"Oh, okay. Count-A-Walk never lies." I grinned as we walked over to a picnic tale and began to empty out our lunches. After taking a bite of my peanut-butter jelly sandwhich, I said, "You now what's weird?"
"What?" he murmured with a mouth full of apple.
"I didn't even feel seven miles go by."
"Oh, but they did. We're ahead of the whole class!"
"Not really, here they come." I eyed the trail and watched as a flock of students hurried to grab a clean picnic table. I was about to tear my gaze away but then I caught a glimpse of dirty blonde hair and a hypnotizing laugh: Nathan.
Alex must've caught my stare.
"Ahh, so it's Nathan?" he raised his eyebrows and achieved a mischevious smile. I snapped out of my trance and stared wide eyed at him.
"What?" I began to laugh nervously and ended up snorting. "No. What are you talking about? I would never like Nathan. He's just so," Cute. Nice. Smart. "Himself."
"I hear he's got a crush on you."
My cheeks began to heat up, in utter humiliation, I let my jet black bangs fall in front of my dark azure eyes.
"No he doesn't." I murmured, poking at my sandwhich.
"Whatever, I'll prove you wrong one day. Anyway, can you believe that Greek Mythology project we have to do?"
"Oh, I know. It's the worst. As if it weren't bad enough that I had dyslexia already! And now I have to read over the gods of Olymputopia or whatever."
"Olympus." he corrected instantly. "Gods of Olympus. I can help you if you want. I know a lot about them. There's twelve, that's for sure. There's Zues, god of all gods, Poseidon, god of the sea, Hades, god of the underworld, Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, Athena, goddess of wisdom, war and crafts, Artemis--she does a lot I don't even want to name it--Apollo, her brother--"
"Wait," the name Artemis caught my attention. "Tell me what she does."
"Umm, okay then. Artemis is the goddess of the moon, nature, and the hunt. She's a maiden, a good hunter--duh, and her weapon is a bow. She's pretty cool I guess."
"Yeah..." I murmured, noticing how much I resemble her, except for the maiden part, hunter part, and the bow. I've never really tried hunting. But I do like nautre and the moon. I looked up from my sandwhich to find Alex staring at me with curious eyes.
"Oh gods. This isn't good." he mummbled under his breath, but I was still able to hear it. "I've got to get to Chiron... But what about Nathan...? Should I--"
"Attention class! You can now go explore yourselves! Remember stay only on the trails, and don't wander too far! If you get lost, just use your phone, or the walkie-talkies we gave you. We want you to go in pairs of three! No more, no less! C'mon! We don't have all day!" Mrs. Johnson, our supervisor, said into a bullhorn. Right after her words, Alex sprung onto his feet, losing his balance for a moment and then regaining it.
"Nathan!" He called over and as soon as Nathan noticed, he ran over.
"Yeah, man?" he asked, glancing at me, and smiling. Oh God. So cute.
"Do you want to be a part of our group?" What the heck was he thinking? I'm so going to kill him!
"Yeah, sure."

The walk was pure torture, but the kind of torture you enjoy. Make sense? Probably not. We walked in silence, with Alex murmuring to himself, his steps kept getting weirder and weirder, as if it pained him to walk. We ventured out pretty far on a lonsome trail, and when I insisted to go back, with Nathan supporting me, Alex objected, saying we should enjoy nature and all that crap. So unlike him. I concluded that something was seriously wrong when he said we should jump the rail that was keeping the forest and trail apart.
"You're crazy! We'll be killed by Mrs. Johnson if a bear doesn't kill us first." Nathan said.
"Suit yourself." and with that he jumped over the rail, and began to...trot. Kind of weird, but ignoring that, I jumped over and raced after him, with Nathan close behind.
"Alex, come back! It's not safe!" I cried, jumping over trunks and rocks, and dodging low branches. It was very easy, as if I already knew the way.
"I know...you don't...understand...but you will...soon!" he shouted in between deep breaths. It turned out to be a mouse-cat chase, the cats not succeding and the mouse getting away, finally we came out into an opening of a road with no cars passing by. Alex finally stopped. After catching our breaths, Alex looked at us, his brown eyes wide and scared.
"I'm so sorry, guys, but this is for your own good. I don't think I'm the right person to tell you, but if I don't then who else will?" he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, opened them and began. "The gods. The Greek gods. Their real. And your parents. Which one? I don't know, but one of them is. I've got a good idea of your parent, Nathan, and I think it's Athena. And Selena? I'm not sure. You're hard to crack. I have to get you two to Camp Half Blood, before any monster catches your scents. And I think they already did. I can kind of smell one. Plus your scent is pretty strong, "
"Alex, man, are you okay?" Nathan questioned, eyeing him curiously.
"Gods! I knew you guys wouldn't believe me! Please, just trust me. It's a matter of life-and-death."
"I think you've been out in the sun too much. And if you don't remember, my mom died while giving birth to me." it was something sad to say, but clearly he forgot.
"Selena, you're wrong. You're mom is alive. You're mom is a goddess. Believe me! Please! You could die!" Alex was nearly crying, his bottom lip quivering, and his hands shaking as he took out his cell phone.
"I believe you." Nathan unexpectedly said. "Take me to wherever that camp is."
"Nathan!" I hissed, smacking him in the gut.
"I'll call a cab." Alex whispered.
"Nathan, what are you thinking? We can't leave! What about our dads? What's going to happen to them?"
"I have a feeling they'll understand."
"What if they don't? They'll--"
"Die, mortals!" I was interrupted by a voice screeching out two words from my right, and once we turned to see, I was terrified. There was a...goblin-like creature in the middle of the street. Its gray-green skin outlined its bones, bat-like wings emerged from its hunched back, and savage teeth were bared. I held back the scream that clawed its way up my throat. "Demi-gods, come and die a painful death."
"Run!" Alex shrieked ducking for cover behind a tree. Nathan and I fled into the forest, watching from behind bushes as the creature came after us.
"What the hell is that thing?" Nathan whispered.
"Don't worry, the cab will be here any--" Alex began, but was cut off by my terrified stare behind him; he let out a strangled scream once the monster picked him up by the throat. Things didn't get any better since Nathan chucked a rock at it.
"Hey!" there goes another rock. "He's no demi-god! I am! Come and get me! I'm delicious!" Nathan mouthed one word to me as Alex was dropped to the ground: "Run."
"No... Don't do this Nathan! Don't do it!" Tears began to pool in my eyes, but he was already gone, through the trees, being chased by a goblin thing.
"Nathan... Is... Crazy." Alex managed to choke out. "I can't let him die!"
"Neither can I!" I sobbed, thinking so many things that I couldn't bare. Memories of the wild snuck into my mind, a crescent moon, wild animals, too many that made my head hurt. That's when I head Nathan's agonizing scream, and a variety of wild barks.