"How long until we're at camp?" I asked the boys. Kacey was still asleep, it had only been about ten minutes.

"Once Kacey wakes up, we can start going again. We should be able to make it their by nightfall," River answered.

"That's if we don't get attacked," Cole added.

"I don't know. The times we've been attacked, it's made us go faster," I smiled.

The guys laughed. "True, it's made us run a lot faster," River agreed. I laughed along too.

"Do you know who your parent is?" River asked.

"Not a clue. I don't know about Kace, either," Cole said, shrugging. I smiled at his use of a nickname for the kid.

     "What about you, Electra?" The boy asked.

    "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. Do you know, River?"

    "No, I don't know who your parent is. I think Chiron knows, however," River answered.

      "What grade were you in? Before you left, I mean," I asked Cole.

   "I was a freshman. What about you?" Cole answered.

     "Freshman too, I'll turn fifteen in August."

     Cole smiled, as if the fact that we were in the same grade made him happy.

     Kacey woke up soon after that. She gave Cole back his sweatshirt. We all stood up and stretched.

    Then we were on the move again. We walked along, talking a little bit.

    Kacey now had an ample amount of energy. She bounced and jumped around us and giggled hysterically the whole time.

   "Kacey!" Cole reprimanded finally.

   "Yes?" Kacey asked, stopping her antics to listen to Cole.

   "Please, stop bouncing and spinning!" He said, obviously annoyed.

     "Okay," Kacey said. She did stop spinning and bouncing, but she promptly started skipping. At least she wasn't making any noise anymore.

     We had been walking along for half an hour, when something happened. There were four, they surrounded us.

Hell hounds. Again. They came from the sides. One in front, one on each side, and one behind us.

We jumped into action. One for each of us, I thought.

River and I still had our knives. Cole had a hammer, and Kacey had a plastic baseball bat.

I zoned in on the Hell hound next to me. It stared at me, with intensely mean eyes.

The beast lunged, taking a leap forward, right at me. I contained my scream, already getting better at this tough stuff.

   I slashed the beast in the neck, but that just made him, I think it's a him, mad. It growled ferociously and came at me again.

I stabbed it in its eye, when it got close enough. It whimpered and backed up, like a scared cat.

Then it shook out its head, like telling itself to shake it off, and sprang once again. This was a tough little beast.

Now there was blood dripping all over the poor creature. Well, I guess I shouldn't call it poor. It is a monster, and one that is trying to kill me.

It came at me too fast this time. It's claw scratched my lower arm. I let out a little scream, then drove the knife deep into its side. It stuck, and the beast fell over, dead.

I pulled my knife out of the hell hound and looked around to see how everyone else was doing. Cole had killed his, and was helping River.

I thought it was weird how he would help River before Kacey, but then I looked at Kacey. She had the situation under control, as she finished off her own monster.

Even though, it was way bigger than her, she stabbed and slashed at it, like she was a trained professional. A lethal eight year old.

   I didn't think an eight year old should be so good at killing. Eight year olds shouldn't have to even experience loss, never mind cause the loss of life, even if it was trying to kill said eight year old.

   If circumstances didn't make it imperative that I killed, I wouldn't think I was ready for that, either, and I was six years older than her.

   Though, it wasn't my place to say, as I barely knew Kacey. I didn't know what she was ready for or what would scar her forever, like Cole did. Maybe someday I would, but not that day.

   Anyways, Cole helped River finish their beast off. All four of them had exploded, the same way my first monster had.

   There was nothing left to show for our fight, except a few guts, blood, dirt, and sweat on us.

   "Everyone okay?" Cole asked, as the rest of us tried to catch our breath. Cole still looked as if he could have kept fighting for eons more.

   "I'm bleeding, but other than I'm perfect," I muttered, holding up my battle wound.

   It was a long, thin cut in my arm that was dripping out sheets of red blood.

   "We don't have any nectar or ambrosia. Do you?" Cole asked River. The Saturday sadly shook his head no.

    "Any bandages?" River asked Cole.

    "No, but I have an extra shirt." 

   Cole then stripped off his shirt, revealing a sexy six pack. He wrapped the shirt around my arm and tied it tight. I hurt a little when the shirt made contact, but at least I wasn't spewing blood everywhere. Cole got another shirt out of his bag and put it on himself.

   I thanked him. Cole quickly gave Kacey a once over. She was practically unharmed, so we kept moving.

   "We're getting close now. I can feel it!" River said.

    "Close to camp?" Kacey asked, having less energy than she had before, but still more than the rest of us had.

    "Yeah, Kace, we might actually make it," Cole said, sounding astonished.

     "Yay! We might not die today. We might live another day!" She squealed, just like a normal kid would say about getting a pony or a cupcake or something like that, but not about their life. Again, Kacey knew too much and had experienced too for her age.

    An hour later, we were so close. So so close. We almost made it perfectly unharmed, but you know this story. Of course that's not how it happened.

   We were just down the street from the camp border. Then more hell hounds came back. Twelve to be exact.

"What is it with these hell hounds? Why do they keep going. I've never had so many encounters with them in one trip. It's like they're attracted to us," River commented.

They surrounded us in seconds. We were so close, I could see the border of the camp.

Then the hounds attacked. For the next few seconds it was just a blur of beasts and weapons thrashing around. One got my stomach, pretty deep too. It slashed through my mid section, too fast to stop.

There were six attacking me at one time. Everyone else had two, but I had six. I didn't know why they all ganged up on me, but that's what happened.

After that first slash, they got my legs and even my neck. I tried to fight back, but it was hard with so many.

Cole finished off his two monsters, then rushed over to help with mine. I had only killed three of them, there was still three more.

Cole and I became an incredible fighting team. We slashed and stabbed and fought our way through the beasts.

One of the monsters still scratched my chest. "Ow, my boobs!" I screamed.

"There are too many! Just run, guys!" River yelled.

We all took off up the hill. We ran and ran, with the hounds nipping at our heels.

Kacey was too small, her legs too short, so River picker her up and ran faster.

A hound grabbed Cole's ankle, and he fell down hard, jarring his shoulder. "Cole!" I screamed.

I bent down and grabbed his hand, trying to help him up. "My ankle, I think it's broken," he said.

I dragged him to his feet, helping him run a little. It slowed us down immensely, but we were still just in front of the beasts. River and Kacey were now across the border. River left Kacey there, and ran back to help us.

"What about your shoulder?" I asked, worriedly.

"Dislocated, maybe. I don't know. It hurts bad," Cole answered.

We were only about three yards away. River reached us, and helped me help Cole up the hill. I felt the hell hounds breath and spit on my feet.

I picked up the pace, now we were practically carrying Cole.

"So close, so close!" River groaned.

"Is that a dragon?" I screamed, finally really looking up.

"Yes, that's Peleus. He protects the camp. He won't kill us, I mean probably," River answered.

We were so close to the boarder. Then I tripped. River kept going, dragging Cole along.

I rolled over and over, uncontrollably. I got so dizzy, but I couldn't stop myself. I smacked my head against the ground repetitively.

I felt a hound pounce on top of me, tearing at me, then arms grabbed me and dragged me across the border.

   There was pain all over the place. I could hardly think through it. The pain was all I could see, hear, think, feel, and taste, if that makes any sense at all.

   As I said, I had no idea what was going on, so the rest of this is from what people told me.

    River had grabbed me and dragged me over the borderline. We were finally safe, but, boy, were we harmed.

   Kacey had scratches and bruises. She was probable the least harmed.

   River had hell hound slashes on his arms. He was also covered in Cole's blood, from helping him up the hill.

  Cole had a dislocated shoulder, a broken ankle, lots of scratches and a black eye.

    I had horrible scratched on my chest, neck, back, arms, legs and stomach, so pretty much everywhere. The stomach was the worst, it was deep and long. I had bruises lining my legs. I also had a concussion, from rolling when I fell.

Cole and I had the worst injuries by far. River and Kacey were hardly hurt, compared to us.

Cole and I were out cold on the ground, when some other kids came with stretchers to get us.