Warnings - possible trigger for fears of heights, and falling, and mean hall monitors.
Summary - When fourteen year old Ruby Moore is chased down the hallway at school by a character out of one of her fever dreams, she gets thrown into a world of tales and myths that society has ruled out to be fake. Befriending a Pegasus that hates everyone, and gathering friends strong enough to be considered a small army, she has to embark on a journey that will change her life forever.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking; ‘wow, demigods are so cool! That must be so much fun! I bet they get lasers!’ Well, it’s not that fun; it actually gets old after like two days. I’m not trying to die every ten minutes. As for the lasers, unless they’re made by the senior counselor of the Hephaestus cabin Leo Valdez, they’re not going to be on your side.
My name is Ruby Moore, but I’m sure you’re more concerned with how I know all this. One word; experience. Example one of why the life of a demigod isn’t fun, ever witness your best friend and favorite teacher fight off Echidna in the middle of the hallway? Didn’t think so. Imagine my surprise when freshman Ruby was trying to run away from Echidna during fifth period and my best friend pulled out two daggers to fight the thing. That’s where this story starts, me sprinting down the hall while a character from one of my fever dreams slithers after me.
I twirled the hall pass around my index finger, leisurely strolling down the hall toward the bathroom. The hall monitor, Mrs. Johansson stopped me, her yellow eyes narrowed as she scrutinized me silently.
“Pass,” she demanded, holding out a hand for it. Now, Johansson sounds like a nice name; most people associate it with Scarlett Johansson from Iron Man, but Mrs. Johansson of Marbur Academy in Columbus, Ohio (In the schools presentation they say that they’re the best for your ADHD children, and let me just say; ehe, that is not correct.) is exactly the opposite. Take Sirus Snape from Harry Potter; genderbend him, add a few pounds at the hips then give him a lisp and the voice of Roz from Monsters Inc. That’s Mrs. Johansson.
I held up the pass for her to see, she studied it for a few minutes; looking between me and the pass. She always spent extra time looking at my passes since Jackson Ryans accused me of faking a pass to get out of class early (not that’d I’d so such a thing, wink wink, hint hint).
“You don’t look very great… no, definitely no threat here,” she murmured, handing me the pass back.
“I’m sorry? I-I feel fine,” I said, confused. Mrs. Johansson waved me off, I started to walk away when she hissed. Not like the weird girl from third grade that thought she was a cat, no, like a snake hissing in warning. I turned back towards her just in time to see her legs fuse together into a tail- no wait, the bottom half of a snake. Her eyes slit and a long snake tongue slipped in and out of her mouth.
“A-Actually… on second thought-” I took a few steps backwards, trying to put some space between the snake lady thing and I. She hissed again and looked down at me, sneering as our eyes met.
“Whatssss the matter? Ssscared?” The snake lady hissed, swiping a hand at me.
“Uh- Yeah…” I squeaked, taking off down the hallway. The snake lady yelled and slithered after me, throwing rocks and other various objects at me. How she got these items was beyond me.
My legs carried me faster than I’d ever run before, burning when I skidded around corners. I felt like I’d been running for forever when I finally came across Ayla Weber; my best friend, talking to her architecture 1 teacher Miss Chase. They noticed me sprinting down the hallway before I could call out, breaking the distance by jogging toward me. Ayla looked more worried than I’d ever seen her look before.
“Ruby, why are you running?” she asked, looking over her shoulder as I slumped over, trying to catch my breath.
“Mrs. Johansson… snake thing- chasing- me…” I panted as I sat down on the floor hard. Miss Chase knelt down next to me, her gray eyes filled with worry.
“Snake lady? Like Echidna?”
“Yeah, sure, whatever that is.” I mumbled, putting my arms over my head to open my airways. Just as I was about to lay down, the snake lady thing came barreling around the corner and down the hallway, yelling in another language. Although, I realized, I could understand her. This was definitely a fever dream.
Miss Chase and Ayla looked at each other and nodded. Ayla reached into her backpack and pulled out two eighteen inch long daggers, while Miss Chase pulled a shorter dagger out of a sheath under her shirt. Together they ran at the snake lady, cutting and slashing at it. The snake lady pulled out a sword to fend them off. Miss Chase got in behind the snake lady thing while Ayla distracted it from the front. She yelled in agony and flaked away, a dark dust that reminded me of coal. They turned back to me, assessing me I guess. I stared at them in awe, mouth hanging open, eyes wide.
“That was awesome!” I yelled, standing up so quickly my vision spotted, (stupid iron deficiency). “When and where did you learn to fight like that Ayla? You’ve been holding out on me girl!” I said, flailing my arms in exaggeration.
“We need to go, there’ll be more if we stay.” Miss Chase said, pocketing her phone and jogging to get her computer bag out of her classroom. Ayla put her daggers back in her backpack, perfectly hidden behind the straps.
“Where?”
Ayla pulled a necklace out from under her shirt. “To camp of course,” she said, I looked at them, her first bead had a painting of a tiny centaur in a dress, another was all black except for a turquoise trident in the middle of it.
Miss Chase -who told me to call her Annabeth- hurried us outside and across the parking lot to the football practice fields. As we got closer I noticed two chariots waiting for us. (I only knew that because of a mythology class I failed out of last semester). Each chariot had two Pegasi reined to it, waiting for takeoff. One of the Pegasi had its wings stretched out and it had to have had a twenty foot wingspan.
Ayla hopped into the closest chariot, pulling me in after her. We stood on either side of a semi scrawny kid with bright blond hair like mine, and a medical bag slung across his body. Annabeth hopped into the chariot in front of us, taking up position next to a really buff guy. The Pegasi unfolded their wings and with one flap we were in the sky.
“Brace yourselves.” the blond kid said. Ayla grabbed into the handles on either side of the chariot, blocking the path in case I fell. I grabbed the handle next to the scrawny kid as he whipped the reins. Our chariot lurched forwards, the wind pushing me back so hard I almost fell… again. It felt like how you would imagine going into hyperspeed in Star Wars, or how the Flash feels when he runs really fast. The wind was hitting my face so hard I couldn’t breathe, and I felt bad for Ayla; who was probably swallowing my hair. Suddenly, the blond kid tightened the reins and the Pegasi went straight up. He was smart enough to put a hand on my back. He whipped the reins again and the Pegasi nose dived, tucking their wings at their sides completely. Ayla slammed into my back, smashing me against the front of the chariot.
“Will! What in Hades!” Ayla gasped over the wind. He looked back over his shoulder, I followed his gaze to see two concentrated storms following us. Lightning flew at us, horizontal across the sky. The blond kid, whom I’m assuming to be Will; jerked the reins to the left, just barely dodging the lightning. It curved toward us, and Will kept trying to dodge it.
“Get on the Pegasi!” he yelled, shoving me over the edge of the chariot. I lost my balance and fell face first onto the back of the first Pegasus. Ayla came flying over to the second one, her shoes had sprouted wings. I was too confused to do or say anything.
“What about you?” I called back, turning to see him cutting the ropes attached to him and the Pegasi. He didn’t say anything and cut the final rope, the chariot fell at an angle. Going with the lost momentum of the Pegasi. Ayla and I looked at each other in horror as we watched him fall. The chariot gained more speed than he did.
“Dive!” I yelled, grabbing the broken rein and whipping it. I had no idea what I was doing but it felt right. The Pegasus folded its wings and we hurdled toward the ground. It took all the leg and stomach muscles I didn’t have to keep from falling over the front of the Pegasus. We’re not gonna make it, I thought. Blonde hair was whipping around in the wind so hard I thought it was going to rip right off my head while my mind went into overdrive as I tried to think of a way to speed up.
“Fly toward him!” I yelled over the wind, the Pegasus obeyed. Flapping its wings propelling us toward the Earth faster than I would like to. When I could make out Will’s facial expression I reached out my hand, snatching his flailing arm on a luck shot. With one hand, I tightened the rein like Will did. The Pegasus flattened its wings and we seemed to float for a moment before it pushed them down. Throwing us upward before all three of us crashed into the ground. With that momentum I pulled Will onto the back of the Pegasus.
“Well that didn’t go according to plan…” he murmured. Sitting upright as I tried to tell the Pegasus to straighten and fly forwards.
“What was your plan exactly?” I asked breathlessly, holding the reins tightly. Will slowly wrapped his arms around my waist, sending shivers down my legs. I wasn’t used to such close contact with a boy. Especially a boy that looked to be five years older than me.
“To grab the rope and pull myself up on Sandblast here, even though she would’ve hated it.” He said, patting the Pegasus’s back. I nodded, trying to keep my nerves from making me throw up. “But it seems like you’re a natural! Sandblast hates everyone except Butch.” he added, earning an annoyed whiny from Sandblast. She had an all white coat, except for blonde specs near her hooves and on her wings, which I guess is where the ‘sand’ part in her name comes from. I’d hate to find out where the ‘blast’ part came from.
We flew in silence other than Will giving me directions to wherever we were going. When we passed over a cluster of trees he told me how to land. Our landing was a little rough, but Sandblast didn’t break any bones and neither did Will or I so to me, it was a win. Ayla ran up to me and scooped me up in a hug, then examined me.
“Oh my gods you’re okay! That was so scary but also really cool how you dove after Will.” she said, using her hands for emphasis. A centaur and a pudgy man with a bottle of diet coke in his hand came walking over.
“So this is our new recruit?” the centaur asked, looking down at me. Now, I was average height-wise for a girl, but this centaur guy made me feel short. Will dusted himself off and nodded, lightly punching me in the arm.
“You should’ve seen her! She’s a natural Chiron, Sandblast listened to every command she gave with no pull back. And she actually knew Pegasi commands.” Will exclaimed, making me blush. The centaur looked at me, his expression shocked.
“Is that so?” he asked, as if I knew.
“In my defense, I was left alone in the sky. I panicked.” I said, hoping they’d look away from me. I hated being the center of attention. Annabeth laughed, and I saw Ayla grinning.
“I want to see this girl fly then.” the pudgy guy said, taking a swig of his coke and belching loudly. They all looked at me and I felt a hot breath on my head. I looked up to see a horse head. Sandblast towered over me, her eyes screamed pick me.
We walked to a clearing that overlooked a lake. Out over the lake there were more Pegasi flying around, some with riders and others that were just out for a joyride. I mounted Sandblast and looked to Will, who smiled at me and gave me a double thumbs up. I nodded to Chiron, who held out a hand as if to say the skies yours. With that, I slouched over, getting into what Will called my ‘riding position’.
I tugged on the rein once and Sandblast unfolded her wings, giant, ten foot long, white with blonde speckled beauties. She galloped a few times and right at the edge of the cliff she jumped, flapped her wings once and soared. We’d gotten over the middle of the lake when a water spout just about blasted Sandblast and I out of the sky. She whinnied and I yanked her reins to the right. Another spout, yanked to the left. Another spout up ahead of us this time, we went over it. One arching right at me, I moved the rein slightly again and Sandblast dove. We dodged water spout after water spout, only getting sprayed with the mist that came off them. She rolled over something that whizzed passed from the trees, I realized that there were people in the trees. Their clothes reflected white light and silvery glows followed them. A water blast that I didn’t even see knocked into me, throwing me off Sandblast. She kept flying for a moment then dove, but it was too late. I was falling toward the water too fast for her to catch me. I mean, sure, Pegasi are fast, but she’d have to get under me without diving into the water. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate, falling three hundred feet into water? Might as well just fall onto concrete. A warm feeling fell over me and I felt like I was being dipped into the water, like someone had grabbed me right before I smacked into the lake. I do not wish you the same fate as Icarus, a voice in my head said. It sounded vaguely familiar.
When I resurfaced, I saw Sandblast hovering in a circle above my impact point. I held my hands up to say c’mon man. She whinnied and flew off. A soft current grabbed me and pulled me toward the cliff. I braced myself -yet again- to ram right into the side of the cliff, but instead of face planting into solid rock, the water propelled me up and I landed face first on the grass. There was applause, and there were whispers. I looked up to see a crowd gathered, Ayla and Will leading the applause. A black haired kid stood next to Annabeth and Chiron, a slight smile on his face.
“That was some great flying.” he said when I walked over.
“There is something wrong with your lake. Normal lakes don’t try to kill people.” I said, wringing out my shirt. They laughed a little, then gasped. I looked at Annabeth who seemed to be glowing golden, no wait- something was illuminating her face. I slowly turned my head up and above me a golden Lyre- wait, how did that? Bigger question, why was a golden Lyre floating above my head? Will screeched and scooped me up into a hug, his face dangerously close to mine.
“We’re siblings!” he yelled as he swung me in a circle.
“We’re what!?” At this point, I figured that I had too many questions to ask. They wouldn’t be able to keep up. Will set me down but then took me by the arm and started leading me down the hill, Sandblast landed behind me and trotted happily close at my heels. “Wait- where are we going?” I asked, looking back to see the crowd snickering. Will just kept walking and rambling about who knew what.
Hayden's affection is very physical, they are always touching people, doesn't matter if it's in a romantic or platonic relationship, they will be all over you. Like even if you and they were just chilling on the couch, Hayden would probably be playing with your hair or stroking your arm, maybe even have you lie your legs across their lap.
They are also very good at flirting, whether or not they are good at following up that flirting depends person to person but yeah that might be over sharing.
This also gets them into a lot of trouble, obviously, when you blur the lines of romantic touching so much that it's bound to lead to a misunderstanding.
Ruby is the complete polar opposite, I have written her feelings on intimacy very clearly. That even if she is used to you, if you are in a physical or sexual relationship she can not stand being touched. I described it as like fire ants crawling up and down her skin, it physically hurts her.
But she shows her affection in other ways, the main way is that she keeps showing up for you. She'll grimace, complain and call you a loser but every time you need help or invite her to go out with she will drop what she's doing to go.
Oh you're up early and you're still tired, she's there with coffee. You're crying in the bathroom of a club, she'll listen, she pretend like she not but she is.
To her, there is no better way to show that you love someone than to just be there for them.
