Hello Everyone! So, I got inspiration to start this story, and so far I am quite enjoying writing it! I need help with a cover design and maybe a better title for the story, so if any readers think of anything, leave a comment below. This is only a first draft so there may be errors in grammar, spelling and the tense of the story (Meant to be in past tense such as looked, glanced, ran, leaped etc). This also won't be updated regularly as that takes the enjoyment out of it as well as the fact that I am at a very busy stage of my life, with year 11 and the homework and working a part time job and playing a lot of sport like all the time and then still finding time to relax and be myself while playing my video games or reading Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. Sorry in advance for the cliff hanger!

"Freak!"

"Weirdo!"

"Retard! No wonder you have no friends you piece of crap!"

"Your Mummy and Daddy leave you all alone? Must be because of your creepy eyes! No one would want to keep you as their kid!"

I closed my eyes, darkness enveloping my vision. I could still hear them picking on me, teasing me. I could feel their presence looming over me, the four of them, laughing at my suffering. I clutched my dark blue backpack to my chest, protecting the belongings inside.

"You mutant, no, you MONSTER," he laughed. I felt hands push against my shoulders and my back hit the wall as I crashed into it.

"Pathetic. You are such a freak, Odd Eyes," he snickered, his friends echoing the taunts.

I kept my eyes scrunched closed, refusing to let the world see them. I felt my bag being snatched out of my hands and I tightened my grip, refusing to let go.

I opened my eyes.

I yanked my bag back and ducked under the bullies outstretched arms. "Keep running you freak, I'll see you at lunch!" he taunted as his voice echoed down the hallway towards me. I ran into the girls bathroom and slammed the door shut behind me, dropping my bag into the ground and placing my hands on the rim of one of the basins. I turned on the tap and splashed cold water on my face, taking deep breaths. I glanced up into the mirror to see my eyes staring back at me, one bright blue, the other emerald green. I straightened the red beanie on my blonde hair and pulled my dark grey jacket tighter around me.

The bell rang and I quickly swept my bag off the ground and hurried to class, keeping my head down and avoiding attention. I reached my classroom and moved inside, walking toward my usual seat by the window. I sat down and took out my physics books, pen and ruler. I glanced out the window and stilled not believing my eyes. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands, thinking I'm seeing things. There is no way that, that, THING, was real. I look back at where it had been, but saw nothing except the empty grass in the middle of the school ground. I swung my gaze around looking for it. It had disappeared. I shook my head. I must have been hallucinating.

There is no way that the Hydra was real.

I gazed around and saw that pretty much everyone is sitting down quietly talking, waiting for the teacher to arrive. No one was looking out the window. I glanced back out, but still saw nothing out of the ordinary. I heard footsteps enter the classroom through the doorway, and I glanced up to see Ms Fishe walking over to her desk at the front of the classroom after closing the door behind her, binder of papers in her hands and glasses on her slim nose. Her dark hair was up in that 'I mean business' bun as usual. She placed the papers on the desk. "Good morning class. Turn to chapter 3.1 in your text book. Today, we will be discussing the process of how one object can transfer heat to another, therefore balancing out their temperatures and thus creating what is called Thermal Equilibrium." There was a knock on the classroom door, and Ms Fishe paused, frowning as the door opened and emitted a student, followed by the principal.

"Good day Ms Fishe. Sorry to interrupt, but this is Hunter's here's first day," he announced.

"Well then," Ms Fishe said sternly, "Find a seat so we can continue the class."

Hunter nodded, shrugging his bag further up his shoulder. At that moment, I realized that the only seats free in this class were in front and behind me. I closed my eyes and signed inwardly, looking down at my desk as I could hear his feet clopping closer. Wait, clopping? I glanced up enough to see his shoes, but instead I see hooves. My eyes widen fractionally and I glance up at him to see him watching my reaction intently as he walked closer. I noticed his brown hair was sticking up weirdly, but then I realized that it wasn't his hair that was weird, it was the fact that he had horns. Horns, hooves, what the heck is going on here? I was freaked out, and I quickly forced my gaze back onto my text book, trying to concentrate on the words that seemed to float around the page swimmingly.

I heard the seat behind me scrapping along the ground as the new mythical mutant kid sat down at the desk. "Jordyn," I glanced up as Ms Fishe said my name. "Are you alright?"

"I..." I stutter, "I- I'm fine."

"Hmm.. okay then. Now as I was saying, when the electrons of an atom move extremely fast, it causes the atom to heat up. The opposite is true for when an atom is cold. This means that.." Ms Fishe continued.

I zoned out, staring out of the window and just wanting class to be over. And then realizing that maybe it'd be better to stay in class after all, because it meant staying away from the gods be damned bullies and bloody Julian, the leader of their little group from hell. But was it really better to stay in a class with someone like Hunter? With his horns and his hooves and who knows what other crazy animal combinations? He was weird, and that was that. But... I was weird too. I had two completely different coloured eyes. I was a freak. Like him. Maybe we weren't so different after all. Except no one could see or hear that he was different. That it seemed no one could see the horns on his head or the hooves instead of his feet.

The bell rung and startled me from my thoughts. I quickly shoved everything in my bag and swung it on my shoulder, speed walking to the door of the classroom, hoping I would be out and away before Julian and his lackeys managed to find their way here and corner me. People got up in front of me and slowly made their way down the isle, not caring to notice my need for speed. Finally, finally, I made it out of the classroom, only to see Julian walking towards me from one side of the hallway and two of his friends from the other. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, walking towards Julian calmly as he herded me in his direction. I reached him and instantly sped up, taking a large step to the left to try and run around him. He snatched at my bag and caught hold of the extra strap stopping me from getting away.

"Tsk, tsk, the freak is trying to leave," he smirked.

"Let me go,"I growled.

"Now why would I let you go Odd Eyes? You never gave me a chance to look in your backpack earlier." He held my backpack tighter, and pulled me closer to him by the strap of my bag. I unshouldered my bag and yanked on it, trying to get him to let go but to no avail. His friends were here now, and one shoved me away. I lost balance and fell onto the ground awkwardly. By this point he had undone the zipper of my bag and began dumping it's contents on the ground. My physics book, along with my maths and english book all fell out and onto the ground, papers flying everywhere.

"Stop it," I protested angrily, getting back up.

"What, this?" Julian said antagonisingly, reaching into my bag and taking out my pencil case. "Woops!"he said, laughing as he unzipped my pencil case and tipped it upside down, spilling pencils and pens all over the floor.

I angrily reached for my bag only to be stopped by one of Julian's friends. I tried to keep walking forward, but he held me back, stopping me from stopping Julian when he opens the front pocket of my bag and finds my phone there. "Oooooh, what is this?" smiles happy with his latest find. "It's locked, but I'm sure I can guess the password. Hmm, let me see, is it freak? No... What about abandoned? Not that either."

"Give me back my phone!" I yell at them.

"I'm keeping this," he remarked, putting it into the pocket of his jacket. He tossed my bag back to me, of which I caught, and left. I was seething with anger that I couldn't stop them from walking all over me like that. I couldn't believe he actually took my phone. I crouched down and collected up all my pencils and put them back in my pencil case angrily. I went to pick up my books when I saw someone crouch down and picked them up for me as I was getting up to do so. He stood up and held them out to me.

It was him. Hunter. I took a deep breath and took my books from him, mumbling a thank you. I quickly put my books in my backpack and swung my bag onto my back.

"Well, uh, thanks for the help. I uh, I gotta get going now," I say awkwardly, backing away and turning around to leave.

"Are you just going to let them take your phone?"

I froze, remembering I don't have it. "I... I'll get it back later." I kept walking. Walking away from the odd boy who had helped me, the only person to have done that here.

===============

I unlocked and opened the door to the small apartment on the third floor. I entered, closing the door behind me.

"Grandma! I'm home!" I called out as I slip off my runners and trudged to my small room. I tossed my bag on the single bed under the window and slipped off my jacket and placed it on my desk chair next to my bed. I left my room and headed into the kitchen to see Grandma cooking. I walked over and gave her a warm hug. "Those cookies smell delicious Gran!" I said as she opened the door to the oven to release the delicious aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. She took them out of the oven and sat them to rest on the bench.

I reached to grab one when Grandma hit the back of my hand lightly, playfully. "They'll be hot and you should know that! You saw me get them out of the oven!" she scowled, a slight smile gracing her face. I laughed and agreed. "So how was school?"

"It was fine Gran," I replied.

"Did those bullies tease you again?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

"No, they left me alone today," I answered, walking around the bench to sit on the other side. "Anyway," I said, changing the subject, " there's a new kid in my class. He's kind of... I don't know, odd I guess?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah," I stopped speaking, wondering if I should tell her about the hooves and the horns.

"Why do you think he is odd?" Grandma asked.

"Well, uh... he's... his personality. His personality is odd."

"You talked to him?"

"I mean, I guess?"

"You conversed with another human being socially for a period of time?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that."

Grandma enveloped me in a hug squeezing the living daylights out of me. "My little baby girl is all grown up!" she cried out happily.

"Gran....ma.... can't.... breathe...."

Grandma ignored me and squeezed me tighter, finally letting go. She wiped away fake tears from her eyes as I sat down on the floor taking deep breaths.

I looked up at her, thinking. Why do I seem to be the only one able to see Hunter's quirks? There was a knock on the door. "I'll get it," I said, climbing to my feet smoothly. I walked forward and gripped the door handle. I froze, staring at the wood of the door. No...

"Aren't you going to open it?" Gran asked, moving towards the door. I unfroze and swung the door open.

"Hey there... Jordyn was it?"

"Yeah."

"Who is it Jord?" Grandma asked.

"Just someone from school Gran, don't worry about it."

"Can I come inside? I need to talk to you in private," Hunter asked.

"How do.. Okay sure, come into my room and we can talk." I stepped aside and Hunter entered the apartment, glancing around.

"Follow me," I said, walking quickly to my room not checking to see if he is following. I enter and move my jacket off the chair throw it on my bed. I sit down on the bed, and gesture for Hunter to sit in the chair. He closes the door behind him and sits on the desk chair.

"First question. How did you find where I lived?"

"I followed your scent when you walked home."

"Why do you have horns?"

He didn't look suprised. "Because I'm a faun, or a satyr."

"You're a faun."

"That is correct."

"A faun."

"Yes."

"From Roman mythology."

"I prefer to believe my anscesters were Greek, even if I do call myself a faun."

"Right. Okay, this is insane! I must be going mad," I said, "no one else can see that you are a faun?"

"Not that I am aware. You seem to be immune to the magic that changes all mythical creatures appearances, sometimes even making them pretty much invisible. Have you finished your questions?"

"For now."

"Then we better get a move on. It's not safe for us here." Hunter stood up and reached for my backpack. I knocked his arm away, asking "Why? What do you mean it isn't safe for us here?"

"If I could find you, then others can too, and not the type who you would want as an ally."

"Why would they want to find me?"

"Because you can see them! You must have some sort of ability there must be something with your genetics that allows you to see them. And they want to kill you for it."

Hunter picked up my backpack on held it out to me. "Pack some clothes and food, quickly. We need to leave."

"What about Gran?" I asked as I took the bag from him and hurried to my wardrobe, grabbing a few t-shirts, jeans, and a extra jacket. I squeezed a blanket on top and zipped up my bag.

"She'll be much safer when we get out of here," Hunter replied, glancing out the window. I ran to my desk and picked up a small box I had on it. Opening it, I pulled out a few 50 dollar notes, and shoved them in my pocket. I quickly put on my jacket that was on the bed and swung my backpack over my shoulder. "We better get going. We can by some food and another backpack when we get out of here" I said. Hunter left my bedroom first and I followed.

Grandma, upon seeing us both leave the room asked "going somewhere?"

"Yeah, just going down the street to get some supplies for a group project we are working on," I said swiftly.

"Alrighty then. Do you need me to lend you some money?"

"No, no, no need, we'll be fine. See you for dinner!" I call out as we leave the apartment.

"Honestly, I'm surprised nothing has found us yet," Hunter said.

"You're going to-" I began, only to be interrupted by a loud roar from outside. I ran to a window down the hall and looked down. There was a massive gaping hole in the roof of one of the houses down below. I could hear screaming as the biggest monster I'd ever seen (and I'd only seen a small hydra early that day) leaped out of the roof with a crash. I saw a small figure hurdle out the front door of the house and start sprinting down the street. They monster spotted it, moving into a position that made it look like it was about to pounce. And then it did. The small figure dived to one side at the last second, barely avoiding the massive paws of the beast.

"That must be why it hasn't found me yet. Come on! We have to help them!" I yelled. I snatched Hunter's hand and dragged him towards the stairs.