human
Celestine Feu was a 16 year old girl, normal in most aspects of life, for she liked to shop, she liked to get her hair and nails done, basically, she liked to be pretty. What made her unusual from most teenaged girls was the fact that most 16 year old girls didn't know how to throw blades and never miss their targets. Most 16 year old girls didn't know how to shoot a bow, and still never miss their target. Most 16 year old girls didn't know how to handle a blade, and win a sword fight. Hell, most 16 year old girls didn't know how to defend themselves using only their hands. But she did, she could do all of that, and more, since her Mother, a former Navy SEAL who also taught self defense classes, made her learn, warning her that a girl as pretty as her needed to learn how to protect her virtue, how to defend herself.
Her name translated to heavenly fire, and indeed, when she was angry, she looked like an avenging angel, sent down from heaven to wreak destruction on those who did wrong. One moment, her very angelic features, her unearthly beauty, could be very calming, very relaxing, like looking out on a peaceful ocean. But the next moment, her features could be ravaged with rage and hatred, which was very disconcerting, like looking out on an angry body of water that wished to drown whatever was on it.
She was 6 feet tall, just a few inches shorter than her Mother, Astrid Feu, and her Mother's name translated to Beautiful Goddess Fire. Celestine shared her Mother's body type, which was plenty curvy, but also hardened with muscles from years of training to be strong and powerful, and she also had a nice tan going, again, like her Mother, which both earned them the stares of men. She suspected her Mother had met her Father, whoever he was, on the beach, which was why they lived near a beach in Miami, Florida. Astrid had very few features that she did not share with her Mother, such as her hair, which was ink black instead of her Mother's silvery blonde. Her hair was also wavy while her Mother's hair was straight. Other features that she did share with her Mother was her heart shaped face and almond shaped eyes, but her eyes were a sea green instead of a sky blue.
The only thing Celestine could get out of her Mother about her Father was that her Father shared Celestine's eyes and hair, that he was quiet and powerful. She also managed to sneak a peak in her Mother's diary once, that she had loved two men, one who was brash and aggressive, the other being quiet and powerful. Little did Astrid know that the brash and aggressive man could have just as easily been her Father since he was equally as charming as the quiet and powerful man.
Lately, things had started to get downright weird. Last week, she had been on a class boating trip, to celebrate the last day of school, to celebrate the fact that they would be sophomores no more, but juniors, and the ocean had been so choppy and terrible, many feared the boat would capsize. But Celestine felt no fear, in fact, she felt like she was at home in the ocean. She just calmly prayed for the ocean to calm, and little did she know, the ocean had obeyed her command, and it calmed. And just a few days ago, she had gotten into a fight with the school bully, and she had won of course, having gotten an odd jolt of energy from somebody pouring ice water on her, which had been meant as a distraction, but instead gave her the extra juice to beat the bully.
And just yesterday, she had gotten into a knife fight with the same bully she had beaten, and had gotten a nasty wound on her right arm. Again, she had won the fight, but she didn't kill the bully, she had merely disarmed him. When she had gone to wash away the dirt and everything from the wound, the water healed her, closing up the wound, making it look like nothing ever happened. She nearly fainted from the shock, but she ran home right to her Mother, who had gone very pale when she told her what happened.
Her Mother then told her that she was in grave danger after she had told her all of the weird things that had been going on, that bad things would come for her now. She immediately called a strange number, and apparently, the folks on the other line told her that they would be sending people to pick her up. Her Mother immediately began to give her weapons, weapons that she had been practicing with her whole life, but these looked different. The arrows had bronze heads to them, instead of the steel ones she practiced with. The knives were the same way, bronze instead of steel. Even the sword she got, well, it looked like a ring, but Astrid showed her how to activate it, which was to take the ring off of her finger, and say the word 'foti' which was Greek for Fire. Indeed, when Astrid tried it out, it did indeed turn into a sword, bronze like everything else. Astrid turned it back into a ring, and put it back onto one of her daughter's fingers.
Her Mother then told her about the two men she had loved, that she had fallen in love with gods, that these gods had treated her like a Queen. The weapons were a gift from Ares, God of War, who knew that Astrid could see him for who he really was, a god rather than a mundane who got into bar fights, well, except for the ring, which had been a gift from Poseidon, God of the Sea, who wanted their little girl that they had together to be able to defend herself from the things that went bump in the night. Now, Celestine looked like she was ready for war, for a good fight, but Astrid had her with a backpack that was full of goodies for a demigod ready for a journey. Mundane money, clothes, food, and medical supplies.
gpt
"Chris, we need to move!"
Christian Bennett ducked, very nearly being disemboweled by a harpy who shrieked and hissed in frustration, flapping her leathery wings and rising up into the dark cloudy night sky. Christian didn't have time to shout a response to his companion as the harpy came hurtling back out of the inky sky down towards him, claws outstretched and razor-sharp teeth bared. The harpy smashed into the pavement where Christian would have been only seconds ago if he hadn't rolled out of the way, quickly getting back onto his feet and pulling out hisXihposfrom the sheath attached to his belt. His hazel eyes focused onto the harpy who was picking herself up from where she crashed into the ground, spitting and cursing. He readied his sword arm, feeling the muscles in his legs tense up as the Harpy flapped her wings, diving straight towards him once again.
Christian moved at the very last second, twisting his body out of the way while bring his sword down in a precise, smooth arc, the bronze blade making contact with the harpy who screeched in pain before exploding into vile yellow dust, some of which clung to his orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. He grimaced, quickly brushing the remains of the Harpy from his shirt as he turned to look back at his companion.
Oh fuck.Victor, his friend, was being scratched and clawed by two harpies, his orange t-shirt ripped and bloody as he tried to fend them off with his bronze-tipped spear. Christian sprinted towards him, ramming into one of the harpies with his broad shoulder and sending her sprawling onto the ground where he swiftly thrust his sword through her chest, making her dissolve into more of the horrid smelling yellow dust before turning to face the remaining harpy who was slashing at Victor who had collapsed onto the pavement, bleeding profusely from his wounds. Before Christian could reach his friend, the harpy turned to face him, a gruesome snarl on her twisted face.
Christian didn't hesitate, charging towards her, his sword whistling down at the monster who shrieked and started to flap her wings, trying to get airborne.
"Oh no you don't!"He growled, his right arm shooting out to grab the harpy by the ankle as she tried to take off into the sky, pulling her back down onto the ground, his sword slashing at her, shattering her into dust.
He looked around the deserted car park, making sure that the two of them were not going to be ambushed again before jogging over to Victor, kneeling down beside him. The blood oozing from Victors' multiple wounds quickly drenched Christian as he held him, helping him up into a sitting position.
"Vic.. You're hurt pretty bad, man. I need to get you to a hospital."
Victor coughed, his eyes straining to focus on Christians' face, "Y-Yeah, those fuckers got me good, huh?"He croaked, struggling to remain conscious."I can't go to a hospital, I'm supposed to make sure you get the girl back to Camp in once piece."
"Look, you've gotten me far enough. I'm going to get you to a hospital and then I'm going to make the rest of the trip to Miami by myself."
10 Hours Later ---
Christian was getting odd looks from the other passengers of the bus. He assumed it was because of the sheathed Xihpos on his lap. Of course, mortals wouldn't realize that it was a sword, the Mist probably made it look as if he had large stick or something along those lines resting on this lap. He had never really understood how the Mist worked. It was some sort of magic that stopped mortals from seeing things they weren't supposed to. They could walk past a Minotaur and not give it a second thought.
He tapped his foot impatiently against the dirty floor of the bus, turning his head to look out of the window. The glass was so filthy and coated with muck that all he could see was his own faint reflection. He stared at himself, taking in the large hazel eyes, the strong defined jawline and the unruly, wavy blonde hair.
Although he didn't like to admit it, Christian knew he looked good. A lifetime of physical exercises and sports had left him with a well toned, muscular physique, standing head and shoulders above most people at the height of 6'3. When he had first arrived at Camp Half-Blood at the age of 14, he had been the focus of attention for a lot of the girls as well as the Nymphs but he had quickly made it clear that he wasn't interested. He had spent most of his time honing his combat skills, determined to please his father, Ares, the God of War. Sadly, the only time he had ever even come close to getting the attention of his father was when he had single-handedly led his Cabin to victory in the weekly capture the flag game.
Now that he was older, with his 18 birthday coming up soon, he had completely abandoned all thoughts of making his Godly parent proud. Years of being ignored by his father had made him disillusioned and disdainful of Ares.
The bus came to a grinding halt, jolting Christian from his thoughts. He looked up and saw that it was his stop. Attaching his sheathed sword back onto his belt, he made his way out of the bus, stepping down onto the crosswalk.
Clean salty sea-breeze blew through his hair as he looked out towards the sprawling Miami beach in front of him. He dipped his hand into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper on which there was a hastily scribbled address.
After a few minutes of walking and asking people for directions, he found his way to a large beach house. Checking the address on the crumpled paper to make sure he was at the right place, he climbed up the short steps leading to the door and knocked, soft enough to be polite but still conveying urgency.
human
Celestine had an arrow knocked in her bow, while her Mother had a gun ready. Her Mother was the top of her class in weapons and combat training, so naturally, Ares was the first to take in interest on her Mother, appearing as a biker who was getting into a bar fight while Mother and her shipmates were on leave. Her Mother actually stopped a fight between Ares and her executive officer, and she quite literally threw him out of the bar, which really made him fall in love with her, because mundanes just didn't have the strength to fight a God. Ares had then visited her the next day on the ship, disguised not as a biker, but as a fellow SEAL in training. He meant for it to be a disguise, but Mother had the Sight, so she knew at once it was the same man from the previous night.
What made Poseidon fall in love with her Mother was when one of her buddies had been shoved off of the destroyer they were on, and he was drowning, sinking through the sea. Her Mother had the strength and courage to dive off after him. She swam fast, but she was smart, knowing much better than to swim too fast down, or arise too quickly, because they both knew that getting 'the bends' were a bitch. He fell in love with her swimming ability and her selflessness. Another time when her Mother had been on leave, she had met Poseidon, though the first time she saw him, he was disguised as a fisherman, though she saw that the fish he was reeling in were sea monsters, and not huge fish that the other mundanes saw him reeling in.
Her Mother slowly opened the door, and Celestine was met with a very, very handsome face, and she almost lowered her bow, but her Mother barked at her to keep it high, to not be disarmed by a person's appearance. She raised an eyebrow when she saw the sword, but she somehow knew this... Boy, or man, was a friendly, she saw the Camp Half Blood shirt, she saw the leather necklace with the beads on it. He was safe... Then her Mother pointed above her head, and Celestine looked up, and saw a spinning green trident, marking her as a daughter of Poseidon. Celestine had a hard look on her face, which contrasted a great deal with her features, her Mother hadn't been kidding about the fact that her Daddy was a God.
Celestine looked past Christian's shoulder, and she saw the sea, which had been very choppy, suddenly turn calm, like Poseidon sensed that somebody was going to safely escort his little girl to where she truly belonged. She spoke,"Are you the representative from Camp Half Blood?..." She had the beauty of a child of Aphrodite, and so did her Mother. For all they knew, they might as well be her legacies, children of demigods.
Her Mother spoke, her voice sounded choked, like she was coming to the terms with the fact it might well be a long time before she ever saw her daughter again,"You guys best be going, I can see monsters, Cyclopes, close. They are disguised as tourists, but I can see them. Daughter, they can smell you! You must leave now!" Celestine looked out the huge windows they had, and she almost choked on what she saw. These people... No, creatures, were extremely tall, but that's not what freaked her out so much... They only had one eye! And amongst them was the school bully she had beaten in fights recently...
Being a demigod, a daughter of the Sea God, no less, would explain why she was always in trouble, why she was always so restless, so miserable in school, despite her stellar grades and her being so popular. She was always getting into fights, and unsurprisingly, given her Mothers constant lessons on self defense, she always won them. She had always won in fights against humans, but amongst all of those fights, she wondered how many of them were monsters disguised as humans.
gpt
Christian wasn't sure what he was expecting, probably a whiny, obnoxious little girl who didn't know which end of a sword she was supposed to hold- What he was definitelynotexpecting was having a gun as well as a bow pointed at his face when the door to the house opened. His hand instinctively dropped down to his hip, reaching for his sword, his muscles tensing up in the oh-so-familiar way that they did just before he got into a fight. It took him a few seconds to realize that he wasn't facing monsters. He took a few steps backwards, carefully retreating from the open door, his fingers still clutching the hilt of his sword. His hazel eyes studied the two incredibly beautiful women, wondering for a moment whether they were Empousai in human form but quickly scrapping that thought because if theywereEmpousai, they would have torn him to shreds already. He was just about to speak when a shimmering green trident appeared over the younger girls' head, claiming her as a daughter of the God of the Seas, Poseidon.
Christian would have been completely perplexed by the floating green signal if he hadn't experienced being 'claimed' himself which had happened a few weeks after he arrived at Camp Half-Blood. During his second capture the flag game, he had been cornered by four members of the Athena Cabin whom he had fought off unaided. He was rewarded by being claimed by Ares, a luminescent spear, dripping with blood appearing over his head to mark him as a son of the God of War.
"Uh.. W-what?"He muttered, his hazel eyes glued to Celestine, caught off-guard by how attractive and alluring she looked, especially with the glowing trident hovering above her head, showering her in an ethereal sea-green light, highlighting the color of her eyes. He quickly regained his composure, cursing himself inwardly for ogling at the girl so blatantly.
"Yeah, that would be me. Not what you expected?"He replied, raising one eyebrow while his hand subconsciously moved to touch the three painted beads attached to his leather necklace, each bead representing the end of one summer spent at Camp Half-Blood.
His left hand relaxed, moving away from the handle of his sword as he made his way back up the steps, trying not to make eye-contact with Celestine, not trusting himself to subdue the urge to stare at her again.
His confused thoughts came to an abrupt halt at the mention of Cyclops', his body tensing again as he promptly did a quick check of the surrounding area, spotting a group of tall, freakishly muscular tourists. They were not taking pictures or frolicking around on the beach like the other tourists, instead they were stood eerily still, all of them facing towards Christian and Celestine. Even the normal humans were giving them a wide berth, Mist or not, they didn't look like the type of people you wanted to bump into.
He couldn't help but be impressed by how easily Celestine's mother had been able to spot the Cyclops', she must have the Sight, which allowed her to cut through the Mist and see things as they really were.
"Oookay, those guys are not here to play. We need too move. Now."He ordered, shifting his body so that he was standing in front of the door, blocking the line of sight of the Cyclops', covering Celestine and her mother from view.
"Grab your stuff and say your good-byes, we don't have time to doddle around, we need to be in a taxi, ASAP."His tone was stern but not impolite as he looked over his shoulder to check on the group of Cyclops' again, dismayed to find that they were slowly edging forwards. He wasn't in the mood to brawl in full view of mortals, that kind of stuff was a no-no.
human
Astrid muttered,"Nowwould be a rather excellent time for Ares to show his face." Celestine boredly, but hurriedly spoke,"Well, you gave up your chance to bug him to deal with the nasty monsters when you slept with Poseidon instead of him." She was referring to the fact that her Mother had been romanced by not one god, but two gods. Then Astrid blushed hard, but spoke,"There is a back exit, and there is a bus stop and taxis frequent the area. If you take a taxi, go to the train station, the train master is a retired demigod, son of Hermes, he will help you both. I would have recommended that you lot take a plane, but Celestine cannot fly because she is one of Poseidon's children. He hates it when Hades's children or Poseidon's children are in airplanes."
Celestine spoke,"Well, I wasn't quite sure what one of you Camp Half Blood folk looked like, so what would I know?" She had the bloodthirsty look in her eyes, her eyes clearly spoke,"I will not let you live again, I will crush you, and raze and salt your remains." She was not a little girl who whined if her hair was ruined or if her nail was busted, even though broken nails did hurt quite a bit. Celestine spoke,"Mom, what about you? I don't know if those bullets are Celestial Bronze, or any of the other metals that kill monsters, and we don't exactly have machines that use the laws of physics to smash monsters." Astrid spoke,"These bullets are Celestial Bronze, a gift from Ares, since he warned me that Florida had a great concentration of monsters living here. All of these weapons that I have given you... And the reserves in the basement, were a gift from him."
Astrid yanked open the back door, and checked to see if the coast was clear, and she complained,"I canseethrough the Mist, but I cannot control it!" Truth be told, it would have been much more fun to slay the Cyclopes were they stood, and to use the Mist to disguise it as people shooting a movie. It would certainly save a great deal of legal trouble later on. Celestine had quite a few tattoos on her, none of them held any maning to Christian, but to Celestine, they were symbols from books she liked. Most of the ink was fromthe Mortal Instrumentsand a few were fromDivergent. Astrid quickly shoved Celestine out of the back door, and began to nudge Christian out, and she spoke,"Take care of her. She is too head strong for her own good, too willing to get into fights that have no worth, no meaning... Just make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."
Celestine's backpack had plenty of clothes, well, it had to be enchanted, or have something special about it, because there was no way it should have been able to fit all of the crap that was in there... Not unless you folded the stuff really good, but she doubted one could fold combat boots... Her Mother must have been planning this thing for years, there was at least a few days worth of clothes, a decently sized first aid kit, and quite a bit of food, and a great deal of money, though there was tape around it marked "DO NOT USE FOR SHOPPING FOR USELESS THINGS, USE ONLY FOR THE NECESSITIES". She was hailing a taxi, now she was hoping the driver was a mundane, not some creepy crawly.