Ena Ellinikos Skantalo

I woke with a start. I couldn’t remember my dream, but I knew it was bad. I looked around the cottage to find I was alone. I got up and went to the kitchen area, hoping to find something for breakfast. The cabinets were bare except for one, which only had dishes and glasses. I grabbed a glass and went to the sink to fill it with water.

As I finished my glass I looked outside the window, trying to guess at what time it was. I heard Garrett outside talking to someone but when I looked his way, no one else was there. He came in a few minutes later with worry written across his face.

"We have a ride the rest of the way to our destination but we have to hike to a clearing to meet up with them." He informed me.

"Uhm. Okay." I replied. “What about breakfast?"

"There’s a berry patch along the way, but that’s all." He said. “Come on, we have to get moving."
I followed him outside into the swamp. I turned around to see what the cottage looked like but all that was there was a huge cluster of cyprus trees. I could barely make out where the door had been, much less see a window.

"How far do we have to go?" I asked. It was early but it was already hot. I knew that as the day progressed, it would only get hotter and more humid.

"About three miles north. There’s a clearing where they’ll be able to see us to drop down an pick us up." Garrett replied.

"Are we taking a helicopter?" I asked, it seemed like a logical question but Garrett just laughed.

"Not quite. You’ll see soon, come on." He replied as he begun to walk along a path that appeared from nowhere.

The path was rough with thorns, vines, and tree roots everywhere. If I had known we would be hiking I would have grabbed my sneakers. Though I guess I wouldn’t have really had time for that. About a mile into our hike we came across the berry patch. Wild blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries grew in abundance. I picked and ate a few handfuls of them before we started again.
The hike didn’t get easier. We soon came across a river with steep banks. There were remnants of a rope bridge above it; only about a third of the planks remained, not nearly enough to cross safely.

"Well that’s going to add to our time. We’re already running late too." Garrett said as he stood in front of the bridge. “I guess we’ll go around. This way."

He begun to walk along the bank to the west.

"No, that way just gets steeper. it doesn’t flatten out where we could cross for another mile and a half." I blurted. How did I know that? “If we go east it’s crossable in half a mile." Where is this coming from?

"Okay. East it is then." Garret said and we walked along the bank.

Sure enough half a mile later the river flattened out and became shallow enough for rocks to peek out, making a sort of path for us to walk across without getting wet.

"I was right!" I exclaimed in surprise.

Garrett looked at me puzzled, “Of course you were. Why wouldn’t you be?"

"I’ve never been here before. Never seen this river or walked this swamp. How could I possibly know?" I asked.

Garrett smiled at me as he stepped on the first rock. “It’s in your blood." And with that he started across the river.

We walked for about another hour through the swamp when finally, after getting lost a few times, Garrett perked up.

"This is it! We’re here!" He said as he sprinted ahead and around a bend in the trail.
I picked up the pace a bit myself and when I came around the bend I saw Garrett a little ways off in a clearing looking towards the sky. I walked towards him, hoping our ride would be here soon. I stepped on a branch and he turned around quickly. He had a huge smile on his face, which quickly turned to a look of pure horror. It unsettled me, but before I could move or speak I felt a warm breath on the back of my neck.

"Don’t. Move. A muscle." Garrett said sternly.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I had no idea what was behind me. I thought it was a bear, or maybe a panther out on a tree limb.

Garrett moved slowly towards his pack that he had set on the ground next to him and unsheathed a sword that I hadn’t noticed before. He glanced at the sky quickly and I saw a quick flash of relief on his face, but it quickly turned back to horror as whatever it was behind me, roared.
I would love to say that it was a simple roar that you would expect from a bear or a large cat. Fierce and terrifying. This roar however was obviously from something much, much larger. Terrifying didn’t begin to cover it.

"Run!" Garrett yelled.

I ran behind the nearest tree as he charged the creature that had been behind me. I peeked from behind my hiding spot to see what looked like a huge snake-dinosaur thing with 9 heads. I knew what it was from the Mythology chapter in my Greek book back home. It was a hydra. Garrett was fending it off with his sword and seemed to be doing well until it knocked him to the ground with it’s tail.

"Get to the clearing!" He yelled at me.

Without hesitating I ran to the clearing, grabbing his pack on the way. He weaved through the trees slowly making his way towards me and fending off the beast. He slashed one of the heads completely off and a shimmer of excitement coursed through me, thinking he may win this. That excitement was short lived however as I was immediately reminded that when a hydra looses one head, two more grow in place of it.

Suddenly there was a roar from the sky. I looked up searching for what had made the noise. They were circling above, making a rapid decent towards me. I ran, away from Garrett an the hydra, to the other side of the clearing. I heard one land and looked behind me to see a dragon, fire bursting from it’s mouth toward Garrett and the hydra. A real live fire breathing dragon.
I turned back around intending to continue my sprint to what would hopefully be safety, only to be stopped by another dragon in my path. Only this dragon, had a rider. Another boy, about 18 at most. I was staring from one dragon to the next in awe when Garrett came out of nowhere and grabbed me. He pulled me to the unmanned dragon, which I now saw had a sort of saddle on it’s back, and made me get on. He followed and sat behind me grabbing the reins that were in front of me. The dragon took off. We left the hydra below us, roaring in the clearing.

We were soon above the clouds. We were flying at an incredible speed, yet the wind was barely a breeze. I looked below, watching the fields speed by. Next thing I knew I could see Orlando zooming below us. The ride was shockingly soothing.

"We’re going to make a quick stop in Tallahassee." Garrett said from behind me. “Get some food and prepare for the rest of the flight."

Our stop was very quick. We landed outside of a Cracker Barrel, moving swiftly inside. The boy who was with us disappeared to the hostess stand to get us food. Garrett handed me his pack.

"Your mom packed you some clothes. You’ll want to get bundled up, we’re headed north." He said.

I went into the ladies room to change. My shorts, tank too and gladiator sandals weren’t going to cut it where we were headed. I entered the large stall and opened up the pack. Mom had packed all my winter clothes. I put on jeans and a couple layers of shirts and sweaters. She even had my snow boots packed in there. How she managed to pack everything in the tiny pack was beyond me. But with how the past day has gone, I wasn’t questioning it. I pulled out a snow jacket, placing my discarded clothes back in the now much smaller pack and walked back into the store.

Garrett was standing by the door. He waved me over and we went outside to where the dragons were. I was surprised that no one around was freaking out, but again I wasn’t questioning anything. Garrett handed my a plastic plate with food in it. I ate in a hurry filling up on mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, and mac and cheese.

"We have more if you get hungry on the way. It will be a few hours until we reach our destination." Garrett informed me.

"Where exactly is our destination?" I asked between bites.

"North Dakota, and we better get going. there’s a blizzard coming through and we don’t want to get caught in that." said the other boy as he got onto his dragon. “Ready?"

"Let’s go," Garrett said as he placed the rest of our food in his pack.

We took off and soon were flying over the Mississippi River headed north. I watched the river for a time, counting the towns and cities we flew over. My eyes began to droop after about half an hour and I was soon sleeping soundly.

Sleeping on the back of a dragon flying hundreds of miles an hour was actually quite comfortable. I had leaned over the front of the saddle, hugging the dragons neck as I slept. A slap of cold air to the face is what had woken me up with a start. My hood, which had been keeping my face warm, had fallen back off of my head.

As I looked up I noticed we were slowly descending. We soon landed in a large snow covered field, a large hill before us. Up on the hill was a huge, 3 story farm house that seemed to have been built in the early 1800s. Garrett got off of our dragon before helping me down as well. The other boy grabbed the reins as he handed Garrett his pack.

"I’ll take them back to the caves. You better get to the house. They’ll be expecting you." He said, petting the dragons snout.

Garret nodded and motioned for me to follow him. We walked through the snow and up to the front door, but before we could knock, we heard a booming inside.

“-believe you sent one person to get her, a young boy none-the-less!” One man was yelling.

“I probably shouldn’t mention who it was should I?” another asked.

“No, but now he’s going to want to know.” a woman answered.

Before more could be said Garrett opened the door, revealing two men and a woman in front of a massive fireplace. I soon noticed that the one man was not actually a man, but a centaur. I had read about them, researched them, and done an A+ report on them for Greek History back in sophomore year. They fascinated me. So of course, I did what any normal person would do when they saw such a thing. I started asking tons of questions.

“Are you a centaur? I mean, like a real live centaur? And is it true that you can run like super-fast? Because my research said you could but my teacher disagreed like 100%. So can you? And also is it true-?” I was cut off by Garrett.

“Sorry Gulfers, she is a curious one,” he told the centaur. “My Lady, my Lord. I’m glad you came to see her safe arrival and assure you that she was not harmed on the journey,” he said to the man and woman, making me even more confused.

“Yes Garrett, thank you very much for bringing her safely here,” the woman answered. “I do believe we should all go down to dinner now. The others will want to know what is going on.”

I opened my mouth to ask who she and the man were but Garrett gave me a look that silenced me.
We walked out a back door of the house and onto a perfectly cut lawn, the sun was sinking in the west over a crystal lake with mountains on the horizon. There was no snow, and I was about to ask how this was possible when Garrett quietly answered my question.

“They can control the weather to go around the territory, it never snows or gets cold unless we want it to, comes in handy when there are blizzards.”

We soon reached a solid marble pavilion with rows of tables and chairs full of other kids, and a head table at the far end. The entire thing overlooked the lake and it was quite a picturesque sight. I followed Garrett through the pavilion. As we walked, everyone got very quiet. He and stopped at a table which held the boy who had come to get us and two other girls. I was going to stop with him but he just shook his head and nodded towards the head table, so I continued to follow the man, woman, and centaur. We made it to the head table and the trio turned towards me. I stopped dead in my tracks. The woman made a motion for me to turn around as well, so I did. I soon discovered that I was being stared at by about 200 kids, ranging in age 10 to 19, with a few older faces dispersed through the crowd.

“Good evening, Camp Olympian! I hope you all have had a wonderful day!” the centaur, Gulfers I believe Garrett called him, began. “As you can see we have Garrett back from his journey, so give him a warm welcome back.” He paused as the kids all cheered. “Also, as you can see, he brought another of our own back with him, and here to introduce her, we have two very important gods. I believe I will let them introduce themselves to those of you who do not already know them.”

I was in complete shock. Two gods, here to introduce me, as if I was important or something. I didn’t even believe the gods actually existed less than twenty four hours ago.

"Hello everyone," The woman said from directly behind me. “I am Athena, Goddess of Wisdom."

“And I. Am Poseidon, God of the Ocean.” The man next to her said.

“Now, I know this will come as a shock to many of you but, Poseidon and I don’t always hate each other.” Athena said.

“I think that’s quite clear seeing as this young girl here, Alexandria Rio Lexington, is in fact,” Poseidon hesitated, and they finished together, “our daughter.”

There were gasps across the pavilion, including my own. Poseidon. And. Athena. MY parents? NO WAY! I mean really, they’ve never been known to like each other much. The only time they’ve really worked together was the whole chariot and horse thing. But here. Now. Me? Their daughter?! I didn’t I believe it. But then in front of me hovering, glowing, a trident with an owl perched on top. It moved closer to me until it touched my body. a tingling sensation went down my right arm. I followed it with my eyes, all the way to my forearm, where the symbol dimmed to simple black lines, almost like a tattoo. Well I guess that made it official.

After much applause and cheers Gulfers trotted up next to me.

"Let the feast, begin!" he bellowed over the crowd.

“You will be staying in the cabin with Garrett and our other demigods,” the centaur said, now looking at me. “You may go and sit with them now. They will help you get settled after dinner.”

I nodded and walked back to the table Garrett had stopped at earlier. As I went to sit down, one of the younger children walked up with an envelope in his hand.

"Thanks Hal," Garrett said as he took the message from the small boy. “Now go eat before your food gets cold."

The boy smiled and nodded, rushing back through the tables as Garrett read the message.

"Looks like we’ll be eating at the cabin tonight. Our parents want to meet with us." He said, pushing his plate away and standing up.

He and the two girls began walking to the lake as I sat there, thoroughly confused. The dragon boy was sitting with me still. It took me a moment to notice he was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Hello, anybody home?" he said trying to get my attention.

"Sorry, I’m just a bit-" I paused, looking for the right word.

"Overwhelmed," the boy asked. “I understand. There’s a lot to take in, but right now we have to go. Can’t keep the gods waiting."

"Right," I said finally standing.

The boy started to walk towards the lake and I followed. He slowed his pace a bit so I could catch up. Soon we were walking side by side.

"This place is quite magnificent, I’ll give you the grand tour after breakfast tomorrow," He said with a smile. “I’m Cailyn by the way. Son of Hephaestus and Hecate. You can call me Cail though."
"Alexandria," I said. “Apparently the daughter of Poseidon and Athena. You can call me Alex."