Look, I didn't ask to be the parent of a half-blood.

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: read this book right now. Without this, you won't know what to do with your demigod child.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. Being the parent of one is, too. It's scary. Most of the time your child will get killed in painful, nasty ways. That's why this was made; to learn how to keep your child safe.

If you have a normal kid, and are reading this because you thinks it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that these things aren't happening.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

•

My name is Claudia Bright.

I'm thirty-seven years old.

But we aren't going to start my story here; we're going back thirteen years - back to when I was young, single, and beautiful.

And I'm not going to lie: back to when my life was almost normal.

It wasn't a place you'd expect to meet a god. Though, I suppose there aren't any places you'd actually expect to meet an immortal being.

It was a Starbucks, in the vast city of New York, in the summer. The sun was shining, the sidewalks were full, the commuters were yelling profanities - a regular day in NYC.

I had just payed for my coffee, and I turned to leave, when a man blocked my way. At first, I was nervous. He was taller than me, stronger than me, and...really handsome. A warm smile crept towards his face and I relaxed.

"You dropped this," he held out my wallet, and I felt my pocket briefly to confirm it's absence.

"Oh," I replied, taking it. Most people would have stolen my wallet if they found it on the floor. In fact, most people would've taken it from my pocket. So I smiled. "Thank you, sir."

I turned to leave again, the man already forgotten, but he seemed to have other plans.

He followed me outside, and struck up a conversation.

"Have you ever wondered about the siren on the logo?"

"Hmm?" I glanced at my cup, the Starbucks logo. "Siren?"

"You know," he said. "From mythology. Sirens at sea, they lure men into their waters and drown them?"

The truth was, I didn't know. I didn't know anything about mythology, let alone drowning sea-spirits.

"Are you trying to imply that Starbucks is luring sailors to their deaths?" I questioned playfully. He chuckled.

"No. It's just - Starbucks gets all the attention, right? Like, most teenagers and half the adults will pick this place over a Tim Hortons. I'm just saying...maybe the shops are run by magical beings from mythology who lure us to their stores to pay for overpriced coffee."

I turned, and for the first time since we left the Starbucks, I got a good look at him.

He was slim, but athletic-looking. His skin was tan, and his hair was bleach blonde. He wore a blue t-shirt and kaki-shorts, and flip flops on his feet. Those clothes may be acceptable to wear to a beach, but on the busy streets of New York he looked out of place.

"I didn't catch your name." I told him, curious now. He was either a weirdo, or an unexpectedly great guy.

"Well, Claudia, my name is Arnold."

I furrowed my brows as a man walked right between us on the sidewalk. When he had disappeared, I pulled Arnold into the nearest shop to get away from the crowds and asked him, "How do you know my name."

A normal person might've ran. Me? I was an avid book reader - I craved adventure (though, if this guy was a stalker you can bet I'd be running away).

He nodded towards my hand. "It says so, right there."

As I looked at my cup of coffee, I saw my name sprawled across it. Well, there you go. Not a stalker.

We fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"Alright, Arnold. Well, thank you for giving my wallet back. Have a nice day."

"Hey, wait." Arnold frowned. "Will I ever get to see you again? I dunno, like, maybe if you didn't have any plans for tomorrow night...we could do dinner?"

I was taken aback. Someone I'd just met was asking me out on a date. Someone who didn't know me found me attractive enough to give me their phone and ask for my number. Someone new in my life promised he'd call with the details, and then swaggered away into the crowds of New Yorkers outside of the store.

I smiled to myself. What a morning.

~

The date went smoothly. Arnold brought me to a fancy restaurant, where he then proceeded to teach me about mythology.

I know, it sounds boring. But Arnold had been an English teacher teaching that subject, and he had an interesting way of describing the stories.

"Most people forget that the Golden Fleece is actually a skinned hide and not a tapestry. Though, I suppose you wouldn't know the myth surrounding the Golden Fleece..."

He spoke so passionately about the myths that I couldn't help but listen and try to retain as much of the information as possible. I jumped in a few times, asking him questions.

"Who's your favourite Greek god, Arnold?"

"Apollo, definitely. He's the god of a lot of things - and I happen to think the idea of a sun chariot is really cool."

If only I'd known then that he was giving me clues as to who he really was.

~

One thing led to another, and two weeks later I was telling him I was pregnant.

I don't suppose the god/goddess you hooked up with stayed with you for three weeks. I later found that other gods usually had brief meetings with their selected mortals - actually, that's a terrible name for us. They usually had brief meetings with their images of beauty in the mortal world, got them pregnant or got pregnant themselves, then hiked up and left.

But Arnold was a different case. As soon as he heard the news, he was excited. He didn't leave me in the dark about it, he told me exactly what I was expecting.

Arnold was actually the Greek God Apollo. My baby would be a demigod. Demigods got in trouble with monsters. There's a camp where our child can go to be safe.

He laid down guide rules, gave me things to help with the baby (things like a crib that was designed like his throne on Olympus, without the shiny-shiny, that was carved with intricate designs about the different talents of Apollo; some toys; drachmas...), and a few days later, he apologized and went back to Olympus.

It had been scary. I was only in my young twenties, and I was expecting a child that was half-Greek-god. My parents were neither elated nor disappointed at the news. They said they'd help take care of my baby. I didn't tell them who the father was.

But I'm sure we all have stories along this line when it comes to actually realizing that we're pregnant, or our immortal hook-up is, that it's scary, but exciting.

I gave birth to a healthy baby girl, nine months later. She had blonde hair like her Dad, and brown eyes like me. At first I wasn't sure what to name her, but I had a dream that Apollo was giving me ideas. So there became Elsie Bright.

When Elsie turned two, the first thing I did was call the camp Apollo had told me about. I requested a satyr to protect her so that she could live a normal life for as long as possible. They sent over a young goat-man - so that he could age with Elsie and they could become good friends.

The camp director, Chiron the Centaur, explained a lot more to me than Apollo had, and I knew that my girl was in safe hands.

She went to school with her satyr, a boy named Sam Greenwood, and had a normal enough life.

Until a few months ago.

I had known what was going on the morning the school called me and said she had gone missing when a freak fire started in the office. I knew she'd been attacked by something - which resulted in the fire. And I knew that Sam was there bringing her to camp. I haven't seen her since, but Chiron has informed me that she is safe at camp (after taking a detour to a few places and finding out who her father was through a series of quests).

~

I understand what it's like having a demigod as a child. There will be danger, and unexplainable events, and maybe mass confusion if your god forgot to mention that he/she was, in fact, a god. But that's why I made this guide.

If you are confused, or need a little guidance in raising your child, then I encourage you to read on. Chiron has approved this book, and agrees that it will guarantee your child's safety for the most part.

So please, follow these tips and tricks as best as you can, and keep your child safe, even if that means sending them away to boarding schools and Camp Half-Blood. But don't try and deny the fact that they are who they are, because that will only put them at risk.