Nyctophilla {Percy Jackson}

τρία

"Fᴀᴍɪʟʏ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴏsᴇ ᴡᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛ ᴜɴᴛɪʟ ᴏᴜʀ ʟᴀsᴛ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜ."

After seeing Dr Thorn turn into a monster and plummet off the edge of a cliff with the girl named Annabeth, you'd think nothing else could shock me. I mean true, I had fought many monsters before but when this twelve-year-old girl told me she was a goddess named Artemis, I nearly whacked myself in the head.

Because obviously, if monsters are real, so are the gods and goddesses from Nico's game... Woo hoo. 

"Come again..." I said.

That was nothing compared to Grover. He gasped, then knelt hastily in the snow and started yammering, "Thank you, Lady Artemis! You're so...you're so...Wow!" 

"Get up, goat boy!" the shielded girl snapped. "We have other things to worry about. Annabeth is gone!" 

She turned to me. "I'm Thalia by the way," I nodded.

"Whoa," Bianca di Angelo said. "Hold up. Time out."

Everybody looked at her. She pointed her finger at all of the group in turn, like she was trying to connect the dots. "Who...who are you, people?" 

"I second that," I frowned moving slightly in front of the siblings protectively. 

Scratching the nap of my neck as I glanced around at everyone.

Artemis's expression softened. "It might be a better question, my dear girls, to ask who are you? Who are your parents?" 

Bianca glanced nervously at her brother and me, Nico was still staring in awe at Artemis. "Our parents are dead," Bianca said, gesturing to Nico. "We're orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school, but..."She faltered. 

As I glanced at the others, it looked as if they didn't believe her.  

"What?" she demanded. "I'm telling the truth." 

I nodded. "She is."

"You are a half-blood," Zoë Nightshade said. Her accent was hard to place. It sounded old-fashioned like she was reading from a really old book. It was rather pretty to listen to. "One of thy parents was mortal. The other was an Olympian." 

"An Olympian...athlete?" 

"No," Zoë said. "One of the gods." 

"Cool!" said Nico, forcing me to hold back a snort. 

"No!" Bianca's voice quavered. "This is not cool!" 

Nico danced around like he needed to use the restroom. "Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six hundred damage? Does he get extra movement points for—" 

"Nico, shut up!" Bianca put her hands to her face. "This is not your stupid Mythomagicgame, okay? There are no gods!" 

It almost hurt to hear the desperation in her voice, the anguish because of everything happening. I understood why she was getting upset at him, in all honesty, I did, she was the older sibling that had been forced to look at things realistically. Though, it hurt more to see Nico's pained eyes turn to the ground.