Light and Dark Chapter 1

Light and Dark

Chapter 1

Crash! Cassandra jumped, gripping her two sai tightly. This was it, this was the end. Those three stupid Cyclopes was going to end her life, and there was no stopping them. She had already locked and bolted all the doors and windows, but they had still managed to break through the front door.

Now they were running upstairs to find her, ready to eat her. But Cassandra wasn't going to go down without a fight, if she was going to die, at least she died fighting.

Ever since her mother passed away a few months ago, life hadn't been so easy. Monsters kept popping up trying to kill her: Furies, Cyclopes, Cannibals, Hellhounds, and Dracaenas. Cassandra had always thought these things were myths, but she knew they were real now.

Cassandra readied her sai, all her deadly weapons were on her. A sun-shaped hair clip that could turn into a bow and quiver full of arrows, a necklace with small plastic knives that turned into real knives, a plastic, ruby-engraved ring that turned into a bronze shield, and two bracelets with music notes that turned into her two sai.

Bam! Her bedroom door crashed down, and Cassandra flinched, raising her sai. Three huge Cyclopes sprinted into her room, all of them held hammers and prongs. The middle Cyclops raised her hammer.

"There you are, tasty half-blood! You can't hide from us now. You'll make a GREAT meal!" The Cyclops said, cackling gleefully. The other two Cyclopes grinned maliciously, as if to say "Yes! A great meal!"

Cassandra gulped, and hefted her sai. "I won't go down without a fight. Hiya!"

She threw her sai, and they impaled themselves into the other two Cyclopes' chests. The middle Cyclops howled. " My boys! You killed my boys! Nobody kills Ma Gasket's boys!"

Ma Gasket hurtled toward Cassandra, but before she got there, a bronze sword skewered her from behind. Cassandra blinked. Where had that sword come from?

Ma Gasket dissolved into gold dust, and in front of Cassandra stood two teenagers. A boy and a girl, they looked about 14.

The boy had wind blown black hair and sea-green eyes, the girl had blonde hair and stormy grey eyes.

"Impressive, taking down two Cyclopes at the same time, a great achievement for an untrained demigod." The blonde said, twirling a bronze knife.

Cassandra frowned, what did they just call her?

The boy seemed to notice her expression. "You're a demigod, which means your are part Greek God, part mortal." He explained, waiting for her reaction. 

Cassandra rolled her eyes, they were thinking she would buy this? 

The girl snorted. "Percy means that one of your parent is one of the 12 Olympian Gods. Who are your parents?"

Cassandra gulped, she had never been good with introductions. Being the shy and quiet girl, she had hardly spoken in class. "My mom is Catherine Black, she passed away a few months ago." Cassandra said softly, tears brimmed at the edges of her eyes.

Percy and the girl looked sympathetic, like they knew how it felt to lose a parent.

"And your father?" Percy asked gently, putting a hand on Cassandra's shoulder. She flinched away, and Percy blushed. "Sorry."

The girl snorted. "That's the best you got, Seaweed Brain?"

Cassandra cracked a smile, that was a funny name.

Percy scowled. "Shut up Annabeth."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, like she had this conversation before.

"I never knew my father, he died when I was born." Cassandra cut in, answering Percy's question. 

Annabeth shook her head, looking at Cassandra. "Your father's not dead, he's one of the Olympian Gods, that's why you're a demigod."

Cassandra looked flabbergasted, the Greek Gods were myths!

 

Percy seemed to know what she was thinking. "I know what you're going to say. The Greek Gods aren't myths, they're real. Did you think the monsters were myths?"

That seemed to be a fair question, a long time ago, Cassandra always thought Cyclopes were myths, but they weren't now.

"So they are all real, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, everyone."

 

Annabeth nodded, and continued. "And we're here to take you to Camp Half-Blood, a safe place where demigods train. It's not safe for us in the mortal world where monsters attack. So, you coming?"

Cassandra nodded, this was the only place she might be safe. "Count me in."

Percy and Annabeth helped her pack: some clothes, her weapons, night things, her savings plus her mother's money, makeup things, accessories, and a couple more things.

Once her huge duffle bag was full, they went out of her house. Cassandra locked the door, and took one last look at her wrecked home. This was the last time she would ever see it again, and she was determined to make it last long.

Percy whistled twice, and two huge shapes with wings flew towards them. It was two beautiful Pegasus, a pure black one, and a silver one.

The black horse whinnied, and Percy sighed. "Yes, I'll buy you donuts when we get back to camp. Blackjack, stop fussing!"

"You speak to horses?" Cassandra asked. 

Percy nodded, "Me being the son of Poseidon and all, yeah, I speak with horses."

He and Annabeth mounted Blackjack, and Cassandra climbed onto the silver Pegasus' back. She patted its head, feeling its silky mane. "I'll call you Snowball, OK?" Snowball whinnied happily, and Percy laughed. "She agrees."

They rose into the sky, Snowball and Blackjack's wings flapping effortlessly.

"Who's your parent, Annabeth?" Cassandra yelled through the gust of wind. 

"Athena!" Annabeth shouted back, gripping Percy's waist for dear life.

"And we never caught your name!" Percy shouted, gripping Blackjack's mane like reins.

Cassandra smiled. "Cassandra. Cassandra Black. Call me Cass." 

Percy and Annabeth smiled. "Cass it is."

They flew for a few more minutes, before they landed beside the canoe lake of Camp Half-Blood.

As they dismounted, campers gathered around them, whispering. "Is that the new recruit?" "She looks weak." "Wonder how good is her fighting skills?"

A boy pushed through the crowd. He had curly hair, a wide grin, and hooves. Wait, hooves? No, the boy wasn't a boy, he was a satyr. He gave Percy and Annabeth a bear hug, or a goat hug.

"Percy! Annabeth! You're back! So is this her?"

Cassandra avoided everyone's gaze, she hated being the center of attention.

"Yeah. Everybody! This is Cassandra Black! Our newest camper!" Percy yelled, and everybody waved or grunted " Hello."

Cassandra smiled shyly, and continued examining her shoes.

A galloping sound approached them, and Cassandra looked up curiously. A centaur, a full grown centaur galloped toward them, a quiver and bow slung over his shoulder.

"Ah! Percy! Annabeth! Cassandra! I see you've returned unscathed?" 

Percy nodded, and scratched his neck nervously. "Yes Chiron."

Chiron turned his attention unto Cassandra, and Cassandra shifted her feet nervously. "Ah, Cassandra. I am sure Percy and Annabeth told you who you are?"

"Yes," Cassandra answered, and to be polite, "Sir."

Chiron looked thoughtful, as if something just crossed his mind. "Since you haven't been claimed yet, we shall put you in the Hermes cabin. Connor, Travis, give her a tour please."

Two kids stepped up to Cassandra, they looked like twins. "I'm Connor," said the left one, and held out his hand, which Cassandra shook.

"And I'm Travis," said the right one, flashing a wide grin. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood!" And then they started arguing about, "That's my line!" and "No it's mine!"

"Um... Boys? Should we go on?" Cassandra asked timidly.

 

Connor and Travis spun around, looking ashamed. "Yeah right, let's go." Connor said. 

"We can skip the tour, you know? I'm not in the mood anyway." Cassandra suggested.

They grinned. "Really? That's good, 'cause we were just going to prank one of our siblings." 

Cassandra looked curious. "What are you going to do?"

Connor and Travis grinned wickedly. "Put pink hair dye in her shampoo." 

Cassandra grinned, this might be fun. "You know, you can put glitter in there too." 

Travis and Connor looked thoughtful. "That's a good idea." "Yeah, let's do it!"

They raced to the Hermes cabin, Cassandra following them with ease.

"Just dump your things on that bunk." Connor ordered, and Cassandra dumped her duffle bag on the nearest bunk.

They ran to the cabinet that stored all the bath materials, and Connor opened it. "We tape our own names on our own shampoos and things, so it won't get mixed up." "Yeah, who wants to use some GIRLY strawberry shampoo?"

Cassandra laughed, and Travis started to search. "Tina, Tina, Tina, Tina, Tina, ah! Here!"

He pulled out a huge bottle of peach-scented shampoo, and on it was taped: TINA.

Connor uncapped the bottle, and Travis brought out two big cans of pink hair dye and glitter. He handed Cassandra the glitter, and they dumped all the contents into Tina's shampoo. Connor used a stick to stir it all together, and the glitter and hair dye sunk to the bottom of the gooey shampoo.

As Connor put Tina's shampoo back onto its shelf, a voice called out. "What do you think you're doing?"