Okay, this might require a bit of explaining. Cassia is a character that goes to camp half-blood, but she goes to a camp half-blood where Percy and the others don't exist. It's difficult to explain. Also, please note that I wrote this story a few sentences at a time before I went to bed every night so it might not be the best.
I blink and open my eyes. “Where am I?” I ask to no one. I look around. I am on a beach next to a meadow filled with small purple wild flowers.
“This is Concordia,” a sudden voice answers. I look up and see girl wearing an orange T-shirt and jeans. Her black hair waves in the breeze and her greenish blue eyes are piercing.
“Who are you?” I ask as I stand up.
“I’m Cassia Xylin, daughter of Zeus and second lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis.”
“Whoa! Wait, like in Percy Jackson?” I say with widened eyes.
“Who?”
“You know, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, goes to Camp Half-Blood.”
Cassia looks surprised. “I’ve never heard of him, but I do go to Camp Half-Blood.”
“Wow!”
“So, now you know who I am, but who are you?”
“I’m Emily.”
“Nice to meet you, where are you from?”
“Um, the United States.”
“Cool. Are you a demigod?”
“No.” I shake my head.
“Do you have any special powers?”
“No.”
“Are you a mortal then?”
“Yes, I guess.”
Cassia looks thoughtful, “Hmm, I wonder why the Cordalae sent you.”
“The who?”
“The Cordalae, They select heroes from different worlds and dimensions to go on quests and solve problems in their world. I’m not sure how it works, but it seems to happen during your sleep. You wake up once the mission is finished.”
“Whoa, and they chose us?”
“Yes apparently.”
“What’s our mission?”
“I don’t know yet, We have to find a scroll.”
“A scroll?”
“Yes, it will tell us what to do and it should be around here somewhere.” Cassia starts scanning the ground and so I do as well.
“Is that it?” I ask as I point to a bottle washed up on the shore. I thought I could see something rolled up inside of it, but I wasn’t sure.
“Possibly.” Is all Cassia says before walking up to the bottle and picking it up. Then she wordlessly uncorks it and pries a worn piece of paper from it. I walk over as she silently reads it.
“What does it say?” I ask, peering over her shoulder.
“It is our mission scroll, good job for finding it.”
“Cool. What’s our mission?”
“We need to head north west through the forest to the lair of the manticore and defeat it.”
I gulp. “Why?”
“The manticore is an evil being of destruction. It was banished to this island long ago, but it seems to have found a way to escape the island and rampage the villages. We’ve got to stop it.” Cassia rolls up the scroll.
I nod. “How long will it take us to find the manticore lair?”
“It’s on the other side of the island, so all day walking. Luckily we won’t have to walk.”
“We won’t?”
“Nope, I have a friend who came along with me.” Cassia looks up to the sky and whistles. I look around feeling confuzzled until I see a grayish white speck flying toward us.
“A Pegasus!” I say in wonder and amazement as it comes into clear sight.
“Yep, meet Hiemis.” Cassia says as Hiemis lands in the sand. She walks over to him and begins stroking his nose.
“Wow, you can bring things from your world?”
“As long as they are useful to the mission, and it isn’t really you who decides. The Cordalae make all the decisions.”
“Do you have any other pets or mystical creature friends?”
“Yes, an eagle named Celeritas and a goldfish named Aestas. Aestas would obviously be a hinderance to the mission, but Celeritas is flying around here somewhere.” Cassia starts to mount Hiemis.
“Whoa, cool.” I clumsily get on Hiemis behind Cassia.
Cassia nudges Hiemis into a canter and then he launches into the air. We fly up over the forest and at first I look down watching the tree tops, but then that makes me feel giddy, so I look to the horizon instead.
“Wow, the view is amazing from up here!” I exclaim with delight.
“Yes, but it won’t change much over the next hour, so you might get tired of it eventually.”
I shrug. “Maybe. Anyway, what will this manticore be like?”
“The scroll says that it is 10 ft. tall, has dragon wings, a scorpion tail and the body of a lion.”
I nod and she continues. “It also says that the manticore rampages during the day and returns to its caves at night. It will be almost impossible to fight the manticore it its caves, so we need to ambush it before it goes inside.”
I look up at the sky, “That doesn’t give us very long. It’s almost sunset.”
“I know.”
“How are we going to defeat it? Does the manticore have any weaknesses?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never fought a manticore before. I guess we can stick with the usual weapons and see how that goes. Do you have any weapons?” Cassia shifts to look at me.
“Um, no, I don’t.”
Cassia shakes her head. “Do you have any experience with weapons?”
“Well, I’ve done a little archery before, but I was never very good at it.”
Cassia looks thoughtful then pulls out a mechanical pencil from her pocket. “Here, This was a gift from my father, but I’ll let you use it for this mission. Use it if you ever get into danger. I know you have more experience with bows, but I feel it would be best for me to use my bow because it is my better weapon.” She hands me the mechanical pencil.
“Um . . .” Suddenly in dawns on me. “Whoa, is this like Percy’s pen? Like, will it turn into an awesome sword if I click the end?” I ask all excited.
Cassia looks at me with surprise. “I still don’t know who Percy is, but it will turn into a spear if you click the end. Don’t do it right now cause it might throw off Hiemis’s balance.”
I heed her warning and put it in my pocket. “What if I forget to give it back before I go home? What will happen? Will it come back with me?”
“No, things don’t work like that here. Once you wake up you will only have the things you brought with you. Even the sand on your clothes will stay here.”
“Oh, I suppose that’s handy, but if I have no evidence, then couldn’t I dismiss all this as a dream?”
“Yes, I did after my first mission, but now I’ve been doing quests for a year and I know better.”
“Wow, that’s a long time.”
Cassia shrugs. “Let’s land down for a break. We’re getting close to the manticore’s lair and we need to make a battle plan.”
“Okay.” I stretch as best as I can, I couldn’t wait to walk around a little. Cassia scans the forest for a place to land before steering Hiemis to a small clearing. I hold on tight as we come in for a landing.
After the initial thud, Hiemis canters to a stop. Cassia swings off with ease and I shakily follow. Cassia then sits on a nearby log and looks off into space with her head in her hands. I stumble slightly as I walk around on good solid earth.
Suddenly a piercing shriek sounds through the air and a bald eagle dives into the clearing. Cassia is startled out of her thoughts and raises her arm. The eagle lands on it.
“Meet Celeritas, which means swiftness in Latin.” Cassia strokes his beak. I come forward to pet him, but Cassia stops me with a swift command. “He has a very sharp beak and he isn’t very friendly to strangers.” I pull my fingers back and watch from a respectful distance.
Finally Cassia turns to me and Celeritas flies onto a tree branch. “We need to start planning.” Cassia says as she kneels on the ground and starts drawing in the dirt with a stick. I kneel next to her and she explains her plan.
“So, we’re here and the manticore lair is right around here.” She points with the stick. “There are plenty of trees to hide in for the ambush, but the manticore most likely has extremely good senses. We need something to make it ignore its usual procedure of scanning around its cave for danger.”
I nod as she continues, but a knot forms in my stomach as she explains further. I was to act as bait. I had to go near the manticore’s cave ad pretend to hide. Then as it came to attack me, it wouldn’t notice Cassia hiding in the trees and she could attack and kill it with her arrows. Cassia didn’t like the plan much either, but it was the best thing we could come up with.
As soon as everything is decided, we get back on Hiemis and continue flying because we had less than half an hour till the manticore reached the island.
Ten minutes later as we land on the ground, a terrible roar makes the ground tremble.
“Oh no! He’s come to soon!” Cassia Moans. “Quickly! Get into Position!”
I jump forward and hide behind a few boulders near the cave as the roaring gets louder and louder. Suddenly the ground shakes as the manticore thumps to the ground. I cringe, it would be upon me at any minute.
The manticore suddenly freezes and sniffs and snorts. Then he lets out a battle cry and charges . . . straight to the forest. I stare in bewilderment as it rampages toward Cassia’s hiding spot.
Szwoosh! She lets an arrow fly and it embeds itself on the manticore’s foreleg, unfortunately that doesn’t slow it down much. Cassia releases another arrow, but the manticore ducks and it misses him by a hair.
I watch, frozen in fear as Cassia tries to nudge Hiemis into the air, but he seems as frozen as I am. The manticore raises its stinger and I see Cassia’s look of terror and fright. Suddenly I hear the cry of an eagle and Celeritas swoops out of the sky. He flies around the manticores head, raking with his talons then darting out of reach as the manticore tries to swat him out of the air.
I see Cassia pull out a new arrow that looks different from the others. It looks more of a navy blue that the blackish brown of the regular arrows she had been using. Unfortunately before she can use it, the manticore turns it’s attention back to her and knocks her from the saddle with a swipe of his giant paws.
Hiemis neighs in alarm and Celeritas desperately tries to distract the manticore again. I watch in horror as the manticore raises its stinger again.
Suddenly a wild idea comes to me and I activate the spear Cassia gave me. Then without a second thought I charged from my hiding place with a war call. The manticore momentarily freezes in surprise before it turns to me. I continue my charge and drive the spear into its leg.
The manticore rears up with a roar of pain, tearing the spear from my grasp. My heart beats wildly as the manticore looks at me with murder in its eyes.
It raises its terrible paw and then stops, clenching in pain. I see the manticore’s fur stand on end and hear a crackle of electricity. Then the manticore falls sideways to the ground and I see the navy blue arrow sticking from its shoulder.
Ah, it must have been an electric arrow. I think. I look to Cassia who is standing behind the manticore, bow in hand.
She smiles at me. “Thanks.”
“For what?” I ask looking surprised.
“For rushing in and saving me. That was really brave, especially since you’ve never fought a monster before.”
“Oh, well, you’re welcome.” I shuffle my feet. “So, what happens now?”
“The Cordalae will come and take the manticore and we go home.”
“The Cordalae come! Do we get to see them?”
“No, they mostly come as a presence, but sometimes . . .”
A startling flash of lights interrupts her and when it is gone, the manticore has disappeared. A shining golden treasure chest is left in its place.
“Sometimes they leave something behind.” Cassia finishes.
“That’s amazing.” I walk over to the chest.
Cassia follows me and opens it. She pulls out a pink mechanical pencil and a vial of dark liquid. “Here, this is for you.” She hands me the mechanical pencil. I take it and click the end, it lengthens into a spear.
“Wow, just like yours. Oh! Speaking of yours, I never gave it back!” I look around for it.
“Don’t worry. It’s right here.” Cassia deactivates it and puts it in her pocket.
“What did the cordalae give you?”
“A vial of manticore venom. I’m not sure what I’ll use it for, but the Cordalae never do anything without a reason.”
I nod. “But, wait. I thought we couldn’t bring anything back to our worlds with us.”
“We can’t, but next time we go on a mission we’ll have these things with us.”
“Oh, okay.” I squint at Cassia, for a second she had started to look a little blurry.
“It looks like I’m about to wake up.” Cassia rubs her eyes.
“Oh no! Will I ever see you again?” I look alarmed as everything around me begins to blur.
“Maybe, if the Cordalae see fit, but even if we don’t I’ll never forget this adventure.
“Me neither.” The land around me blurs further. Suddenly my eyes fly open and I’m in my bed and sunlight is streaming through my bedroom window.
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